Just do it (yourself)

As we are moving into our new house on Monday I mentally decorated it a long time ago.
One thing I love about the house is that it has a WALK IN CLOSET, heaven – now all I need is a shoe wall in it.
Let’s be honest – we are not all married to an architect who can build the shoe closet of our dreams, my guy is in finance and would rather swallow a racer blade than build me a grandiose shoe wall, so I have to get crafty myself:

I found these IKEA bookshelves – If I hang them side by side, I think it could look like this: 

Picture source: thecoveteur

The people at Lacoste has officially lost their minds

Oh, how I adore silly ads, where do I even start? OK, I think this is what happened:

The people at Lacoste are trying to out-crazy Lady Gaga in order to appear like a high-fashion label - so they placed this cringe-worthy ad in Elle UK.

To make things even more awkward it is launched under the slogan “unconventional chic” – yes ladies, they used the word chic...

I am not sure the Lacoste marketing folks actually live on this planet, and really I’m ok with that. It’s for the best if the universe keeps them away from the rest of us, lest we catch whatever virus it is that makes them think that whats going on on the pictures above is chic…

If you caught the virus and feel like going to the opera in floor length sequins and a polo, please let me know in the comments and I will do my best to talk you out of it!

Want it Wednesday

I recently learned that Parisian designer Alexis Mabille (listed as a favorite among the French party elite – so that explains why I never heard his name before) launched his first ready to wear collection here in February. A fact I would have cared little about, had it not been for the tights you see in the pics below…. Swooon – officially added to my wish list!

It is rare that tights overpower an outfit, but these won’t even give the rest of your clothes the chance to get a word in.

Picture source: Style.com

William's new room

A week from now we will be in our new house! I can’t wait... Our stuff is currently in customs at Oslo harbor – so any day now our container will arrive and in it – is the main contain of Williams first room. We got him a miniature couch (I will show you when it arrives) and naturally a couch needs pillows J

Ugly Dolls makes cute little pillows, I mixed them with a fun “monster pillow” – when browsing through Etsy – you can get so many cute handmade pillows (handmade stuff not actually made by your own hand – the best kind!)

Style crush: Taylor Tomasi

Picture source: streetfsn

On my wrist today – mixed metals

This is my wrist today. I like to mix metals and today I carry everything from steel to rose gold.
I love when jewelry means something – the Rolex Datejust was a “birth gift “when I had my son, so it goes without saying that it means a lot to me.

My Pandora bracelet holds the initial letters in the names of the two men in my life (son & husband), a small pug, a heart to mark my wedding day among other things. I want to expand the bracelet with something to symbolize my parents, siblings and a dear friend (I need to find a frog since that is her nickname) – just waiting to find the right ones.

The rose gold bracelet is a Cartier “Love bracelet”, the circles symbolizes eternal love - so again I get to think of my family when looking down on all that metal...

Have a good weekend!

Really, Alexander Wang..!?

All the fashion blogs was buzzing with praise of Alexander Wang’s fall 2011 collection a couple of days back. When looking at the runway photos I could only focus on one thing – THE FUR SUNGLASSES!?

Major hipster points to anyone who can pull these off, but I think I'll pass..

Picture source: Another

Want it Wednesday

Thankfully the crazy pill I found on my way to the computer yesterday morning is wearing off – so no more rambling about liquid Satan at the likes J

Back to the important stuff – my never ending, ever expanding, always updated wish-list:

I want the entire Spring 2011 Prada shoe collection. I would alphabetize them by color in my shoe closet – starting with A for "Amazing gold, black, orange pump".

Picture source: TheCut

Packaged Evil

…Please bear with me today – I am in “preacher” mode  – what brought this on was that my girfriend took a package of the chemical shitstorm also known  as "Sweet n Low" sweetner to our table at a cafe this Saturday. I have been holding in this speach ever since so here it comes:

If I where a PR agent I would offer a free can of ZEVIA soda to everyone on the planet. Since no one can resist free stuff the whole world would soon enough be hooked on this orange wonder.

This is healty crack, but still crack. I washed down 6 cans a day of this stuff while I was pregnant –I gave William a small taste of the soda when he was around 4 months and he went crazy and I litterally had to wrestle him to get back my glass – I kid you not. So why would I give a baby soda?  Well this is good soda, no nasty stuff in this one:

 What is great about this soda (besides the taste) is that it holds no calories and is still 100% naturel – all because it is a “Stevia soda”.

OK – let’s start at the beginning: I told you about the book “Skinny bitch” right? Well, that book has a chapter called - "Sugar is the Devil", it reads:

“We all know how difficult it is to stay away from sugar. But if you don’t exorcise this demon from your diet, you will never be a Skinny Bitch….” - or a healthy one for that matter.

…OK….A very good way to do this is by replaceing your refined sugar intake with Stevia or other natural sweeteners. The book holds a ton of scientific reasons and empirical evidence as to why we should eliminate artificial sweeteners all together, so no more diet coke (liquid satan) folks.I use Stevia sweetner for hot coco, smoothies, sodastream sodas and pretty much everything else that needs to be sweet.

Stevia is quite new to Europe, but avaiable online and in some heathstores (Life if you live in norway).

There - it's out of my system...phewww

Did no one hit on you over the weekend?

Happy Monday! If no one hit on you over the weekend (and you are single and care), it might be that you are too trendy.

The awesome manrepeller show how that can happen. She starts out with one trend – the nude dress (the man-getter) and pile on trends until she is a true manrepeller, so my question to you – did you wear socks and sandals this Saturday?

The man-getter:

…for the man-repeller look just add:

1. A waist belt
2. A summer knit
3. Socks and sandals
4. A statement necklace
5. Birth control glasses

..... and voila! A bonafide manrepeller emerges!

Too funny! Thankfully I am happily married so I can repel away!

All pictures are from themanrepeller

My realistic valentine...

To warm up to a realistic valentine weekend my dogs shredded the trashbag while I was out. Thankfully we are just about to move out of our temporary furnished apartment, so I won't have to worry about William crawling around in trash fibers - we all know at least those will be left after my halfass spring cleaning ... Nothing says Happy Valentine like yesterdays dinner leftovers in your bed…

Have a good weekend and Happy Valentine! I’ll be back on the blog Monday – my best bestie BFF is coming to visit over the weekend - hurrrahh

Runway look for less

I can’t help it – I like nice stuff. I love the unique and inventive design of high end brands – not that I necessarily want the brand on display (LV crowd I'm looking at you), but I like the quality fabrics, the trailed cuts, the colors that don’t wash out and the seam that don’t floss. Not that a high end brand is a guaranty of that – but roll with me here..

Summer knits are all the rage this year – and so is the color red. This Isabel Marant sweater is in other words right on trend – and I really really want it:

Since this is one of the key items of her collection – it might not be easy to get my paws on one though. We all know how the story goes – upon launch it’s gone before you can pull out your credit card. I can’t tell you how many times I put a big black X in my calendar for some amazing item to launch at NetAPorter, just to find that it is sold out before I even rise from my bed, let alone get enough sanity to turn on my computer.

In other words – I need a backup plan in case this happens yet again. By backup is this Mango double ganger from ASOS. At EUR 40 it is too good of a bargain to pass on!

Want it Wednesday

As we near the one-year anniversary of Alexander McQueen’s tragic passing, I’ve been thinking about how much I really loved pretty much everything he ever designed. Seeing this Alexander McQueen Jacquard Dress from new creative director Sarah Burton makes me feel like his inheritance is safe and that we are all going to be OK after all.

The dress is from the spring collection and is unfortunately
 sold out everywhere…

SHOPBOP SALE NOW ON!

Get it girls! J Check out Shopbop for good bargains –the sale just started!

William's new room

Quite soon William will have his very own Norwegian room in our new house (we just need to get the house first - but details, details). I bought a bunch of stuff before we left the US- I’ll show you when it arrives and I get to start decorating!

I have a really hard time not buying my son everything under the moon. I buy toys based on 3 basic thoughts:

1. Something that bring back my own childhood memories
2. Something I REALLY wanted as a child myself
3. Something I imagine will come to represent a childhood memory for him

… So that pretty much covers every toy in every store.

Oslo might just have the world’s best toy store Riktige Leker - most toys in the store are none-plastic and the store itself is just one big pile of amazingness.
Yesterday I managed to get out of there with only 2 things:

A Petit Price jewelry for for all the jewelry he doesn’t have (yet):

And robot boxes for organizing:

And with store windows like this - I would buy toys here even if I didn’t have a kid!

Runway look for less

I really like the leopard/floral combo for spring/summer – such a fun and very fashionable look that works well for both day and night.

Get the high-end version via SAKS (yes, they ship internationally)

.....or the high street version via HM (floral dress) and Zara (leopard bootie)

I would show you my own version of this combo – but 99% of my clothes are on its way in a container across the Atlantic and while I not-so-patiently wait for it to arrive - I will make do with wearing all sorts of amazing couture in my mind and try not to look at any reflective surfaces in the meantime..

Are you ready for the pointy toe pump?

Not that many moons ago the pointy toe was reserved for two kinds of ladies: 1. the fashion editors – the ones sporting the newest and upcoming stuff and 2. the “stuck in the 80ies crowd” –the forty something secretaries - not knowing how ahead of the fashion curve their footwear actually was, and certainly not caring either.

This season it is kind of a mass trend and hard to turn a blind eye too, since almost every designer has a pointy toe somewhere in the mix.

I am reluctant about the trend for one very clear reason: I have big feet. Not huge, mind you, but big enough to not throw too much love after this particular shoe style. I don’t need extra inches on the end of my toes, and anyone who has ever looked down on Paris Hilton’s feet knows exactly why that is not a good look.

Turband

A turband is a nice change from a hat or a headband and is a cool choice for both winter and summer. Check out the awesome blog that is themanrepeller to see how to tie your own!

Have a good weekend y’all - I will be back on the blog Monday

Picture source: style.com

Because I am addicted…

I used to stroll down to my local Starbucks every morning to get my single shot soy latte (hot if winter, iced if summer), turkey bacon breakfast sandwich and a RAW seed bar (to make me feel better about myself). My local barista would tell me news of the city and pad my son on his little head.

I love Oslo – but NO STARBUCKS  and NOK 35 for a “not Starbucks coffee” – ekkkkkk... That is like a down payment on a house in the US J - and it does not even come with pad on the head.
Yes Mum – I did try to make my own in our espresso machine once – but the taste is just, - not there, not the same…sigh...

When strolling in Oslo yesterday a nice girl gave me this little puppy:

A new iced Starbucks latte, available in almost all grocery stores! Hurrah!!! Tomorrow I will venture out and fill the stroller with these cuties (yes that’s my agenda for the day in my very busy, jammed packed tight scheduled maternity leave life)

Do it yourself - cheap and tres chic

With a curb link brachelet, embroidery thread, two bobby pins and a pair of scissors you can make this pretty pretty boho brachelet yourself.

I am thinking this could be done with leather cords or even a silk ribbon for a more sophiscated look, but I really like the gold/bright color combo that is so on trend for spring as well.

You can get a gold pleated curb bracelet really cheap via Ebay, like from this seller who ships worldwide.

Check out the full tutorial here

Pictures: honestlywtf

Want it Wednesday

Spring and this Helmut Lang outfit....

 

Spotted: Chuck Bass's slippers!

OK... so Chuck Bass never actually wore the slippers in a Gossip Girl episode, but if a “slipper scene” is ever to be – you know he would be wearing these:

I got myself a pair of the lovely Stubbs & Wootton “wear out of the house” slippers a month back.

I truly LOVE these slippers and even if I don’t have an empire to run, I will never turn my back on some good aristocratic footwear.

This particular pair is featured on the front page of True Prep by Lisa Birnbach, a book I also happen to love.

Rumor has that Hugh Hefner owns several pairs of this particular slipper also – but let’s never speak of that again.

Random Fact...

Did you know that Paul Newman have a pasta sauce brand in the US? It am not sure if that is utterly ridicules or really really awesome!