I went shopping with the intention of getting a couple of pairs of jeans, something I really need as I have only two I wear on a regular basis. Before I got that far my bank account was empty and I had purchased everything but jeans…

A pair of buckle boots.

A full sailor girl uniform, with gauchos as the bottom part. I am really excited about this one as we´re planning on a nice boat trip this summer to Træna, the island I lived the first years of my life. It´s far far out in the sea and has only 450 inhabitants. I´m keeping my fingers crossed that my dad will buy that new boat he´s talking about.

A mohair sweater with pearls and rhinestones. It´s a little oversized and I´m planning on wearing it tucked into a leather skirt.

A Marimekko-esque maxi skirt. I´m starting to get quite a collection of maxi skirts and dresses. If only the sun would shine soon. I don´t really feel like wearing long skirts when it´s raining…

A gold and black batwing super 80´s sweater. It´s really ugly, has got huge shoulder pads, but oh so fun!

The weather was OK when I stepped outside the door this morning to go to the local flea market. All of a sudden it was pouring. By the time I got there people were frantically trying to save their things away from the water which wasn´t an easy task with the wind. I only took a quick look around and when I was about to rush back home I spotted these red leather boots. I didn´t intend to try them on and the seller obviously just wanted to get away from there and offered them to me for almost nothing. It all went really fast and suddenly I had purchased them.

Once I got home and tried them on I realized that they fit perfectly and were in mint condition. It was then I started thinking about when I am actually going to wear them. The color red seem to scare me a little. I got a gorgeous red coat last fall, but haven´t worn it once. I got it secondhand, it´s oversized but can be tied at the waist, and it looks very expensive compared to what I paid for it. But I don´t seem to know what to do with the color, it´s like it eats up everything else. It was probably not a bad idea getting them anyway, I just need to use it as an opportunity to learn how to think differently about colors and step away from all my personal hangups and dos and donts.

Almost every Saturday over the last few years have involved thrift shopping in one way or another. It´s one of my absolute favorite things to do. I love searching through piles and piles of crap for those few gems, and I love to find things I never would have thought of wearing otherwise. Today I got a pair of pants. I have two pairs of jeans that I wear, no pants. I mean, I have them, I just don´t wear them. When I spotted these on a sale rack for $2 I figured it was about time to give them a go. They were too short and had an awkward cut to them. I lengthened them, made them skinnier and folded up the hems. I realize this may take some time getting used to and I might end up altering them even more before I am satisfied, but I am still pleased to have found something that is so completely different from everything else I own.

I also got a few more bow ties to wear in my hair or on my wrist.

An odd necklace. Update: Due to help from a kind reader I have discovered that the necklace is from the Finnish designer Pentti Sarpaneva and is actually quite valuable!

And a chain belt with tassels. I might turn this into something else as I rarely wear belts like that.

I am a busy bee right now so all I am leaving you with today is a couple of snapshots of a bag I got secondhand a while ago. At the same time as I think it´s really ugly I am madly in love with it.

I´ve never been a flats girl. Somehow, even though I am quite tall, they make me feel stumpy. But lately, as I´ve purchased a maxi dress as well as a long skirt, I´ve been playing with the idea of getting a pair of flats to wear with them. Today I came across these leather gladiator sandals at a thrift shop at $10 and I figured that was a price I was willing to pay to test it out.

The butterfly necklace is another thing I thrifted with spring in mind. I love that it´s so big.

At last I got a scarf and a set of gold bracelets.

I intended to stay far away from shops this week. Oh, well…

I got an ugly prom dress secondhand today as I liked the color and the ruffles at the bottom. I thought I could use it to make a skirt. An elderly lady in the shop obviously didn´t think it was as ugly as I did as she shoutet at me “Oh, you got that dress? I´m so happy! I looked at it and thought that I would have gotten it if I was young!”.

Then I got home and cut it to pieces. I am extremely impatient when it comes to these things. I hate using pins and measuring stuff, so I just took a plunge and hoped for the best. The sewing machine was giving me a hard time and the fabric was hell sewing, so I got really annoyed. My husband came over and asked “How´s it going my little flower?”. Now I was the one shouting “Shut up! Please go away!”.

Silly me forgot to take before shots of the dress, but the skirt didn´t turn out at all too bad in the end. A little ruffle for the ruffle crazy.

The dress was originally so big it kept falling down despite the sleeves. It had a drop waist ruffle hem. I cut the skirt off, hoisted it up, ruched it together in the back and added a zipper.

I woke up this morning with a lot lighter mood and planned on wearing my new dress along with a vintage fur coat. I jumped in the shower and got ready. Then I looked out the window - it was pouring. The day didn´t at all end up as planned, just much better. We started with breakfast at Hotel Havana. They have the best sandwiches in the world, no doubt. Then we took the tram over to the west side of the city and went to Tonica. The women there for some reason love my husband. They keep finding him stuff and giving him crazy discounts. He bought an Yves Saint Laurent blazer that he got dirt cheap. I felt a little left out as I didn´t find anything at all. I had my eye on a feather collar, but it was Tonica´s personal belonging.

Then we continued shopping other places and I got some things intended for DIY projects, as well as another pair of shoes at Zara. Now I can forget about the ones I was waiting so patiently for, but it´s no biggie.

We took the tram over to the east side of the city where I got some more craft supplies. Yellow taffata that I am going to use for a D&G inspired dress and some other things. After that it was dinner at Punjab Tandoori. Lamb Karhai and a beer for a few dollars. Yummy. I was so stuffed afterwards it felt like I rolled my way home.

This evening, unless I hear of some fun party, I´m going to spend working on my DIY projects.

Since I was a kid I was pretty good at money. I never spent money on more than what I really needed or wanted, and the rest was put in the piggy bank. And I had quite a few tricks up my sleeve to hustle my little sisters for their savings. I´ve always been in control, never really broke. Lately things seem to be changing. I think getting a job has put me into a different mindset, like I can´t really spend too much, like there will always come in more. For some reason that is impossible for me to understand, just a few days after receiving my paycheck, I´m already nearly out. I am still reasonable enough to put aside money for food, rent and all of that, so it´s no crisis, I just don´t get why I´m not in control like I used to be. Anyway, I was quite pleased with the fact that it´s Easter and all the shops are closed over here. It would put a stop on my spending. But then there´s today, the only day when shops are open, at least for a little while. I deliberately only went to secondhand shops, and picked up…

…a men´s vest. I wanted an oversized since the fall of 2006, but never really got to it.

I also got what must be a fake Dior umbrella. It´s very old which speaks against it being fake, but I assume authentic Dior umbrellas are of better quality, even though this one does have a nice wooden handle. It was only $2, so I didn´t even bother to consider the fact that when it is raining, I am too lazy to carry an umbrella anyway.

At last there was this floral shirt. I have a hard time finding floral garments I like and I´ve wanted a shirt like this to wear with shorts, so I just couldn´t leave it behind. It looks like it was home made, no tags and the seams are far from perfect.

However, the point of this post is that there´s still eBay. All the shops are closed but I have of course placed a bid on a pair of ridiculously expensive boots on eBay. Today´s purchases may not have cost much but if I win those shoes I am in trouble. I am going to Stockholm in April, to Copenhagen in May, to Berlin and Paris in August, I really need to save some money. In a weak moment though, I figured that if I should be too broke to be able to do any shopping in Stockholm, at least I could walk around in a pair of fabulous boots. Who knows, I might lose the auction, I´ll leave that one up to faith.

I seem to be on a roll with this vintage lingerie hunt of mine. Two more pieces made it to my collection today, although they weren´t nearly as cheap as those I got this weekend. They seem to be in perfect condition though. I got them at a little shop called Et Dukkehjem (as in A Dolls House, by Henrik Ibsen). They have a lot of great stuff like this there and I have bought vintage lingerie from them before. The only problem is that the shop is such a mess, piles of clothes and bags with clothes in them, filling up all the floor and wall space. You really have to set aside some time to go through things or you´d just turn at the door. There should be a discount for doing half the job yourself, but the old ladies that run the shop are so sweet. They sit there gossiping all day.

You know I´ve been on the lookout for vintage (or vintage looking) lingerie, something that sadly seems to be either quite difficult to get a hold of, or quite expensive. Today I got a few things for only a couple of dollars each: A garter (my favorite), a strapless bra and a shit load of seamed stockings. It was funny to discover that these stocking came three in a pack, not three pairs, but an extra stocking just in case you´d rip one of them. Smart thinking!

What better day to receive these boots than on my birthday? (I am 26 today!) I´ve been mad about fringes for a while now and a pair of leather boots with fringes is one of the things I´ve been craving. Weeks of searching through eBay with no luck made me beleive I would never find them. But one day I suddenly found the perfect pair from the seller Totalmodness (which seems to be a seller with an eye for vintage goodies by the way) and I ordered them immediately. I can happily declare that they fit perfectly and look even better in person. They don´t even seem to ever have been worn!

Fringed boots as seen in the shows of Anna Sui and Gucci.

I´m spending the evening browsing theURBANcollection for new vintage goodies. They´ve been updating all day and every now and then designer pieces are added as well. My heart was set on the color block dress to the left but sadly it is too small. Maybe one of you will fit into it? They do have some unique pieces though, also for those of us who aren´t a size 0!

It´s been a while since I wrote about online secondhand shops so it´s about time I do, cause new ones keep popping up here and there. I love shopping from vintage shops like these rather than eBay which I often turn to, cause I don´t have to stress out about the bidding. It´s always a bummer when something you like disappears right in front of your eyes. While here, if you spot it first, it´s yours. It´s always a good idea to sign up for the shop´s newsletter to get the first dibs on new items.

Vintage Hunters is a new vintage shop located in Poland. Isn´t it fun that you can buy things from all over the world without even leaving your bed? They do of course ship their carefully selected items worldwide. I especially noticed a couple of sweet leather skirts and a fringe leather handbag in stock, all reasonably priced. I settled on a strapless floral dress that will be perfect for summer, or even winter with black tights and some heels. Strangely enough I am seeing a lot of florals in the fall/winter collections. But first comes spring, and while we wait nothing is better than shopping for the perfect wardrobe.

The only wearable items I found while thrift shopping today were these real snakeskin bangles. I wear a lot of bangles these days so I was thrilled, and even better that they were just a couple of dollars for the lot.

I stopped by the most amazing vintage shop in Oslo today. Tonica Vintage Corner. I´ve always known about it and went there a couple of times while a was a student, but then it was a bit too expensive for me. Since it´s on the other side of town, I haven´t ended up going there after I started earning money, but today I did. It´s run by the sweetest old ladies. They look really posh and one of them has one of those tiny dogs with the name Chanel. When it´s quiet they sit in a corner talking about love and life. The shop itself is in an old apartment, with kitchen, bathroom and everything. What´s so great about this shop is that they have a lot of designer pieces, and they don´t rip you off selling them. I intended to bring a camera, but since I have no pictures, I´ll tell you more about the shop on another occasion.

I first found this Ann Demeulemeester fur collar. Very reasonably priced and the fur is similar to what I´ve seen a lot of in the fall runway shows. It looks like something in between feathers, sheep fur and human hair. I have no idea what kind of animal it is. It´s hard to capture it on a photo like this, but is really beautiful.

When I was about to pay for this along with an Etro skirt, also very reasonably priced, and an old slip, they told me they had two more Ann Demeulemeester pieces. One was a top with fringes for arms. I plan on wearing it tonight so I´ll show you pictures then. The other was a blazer. On first look it looks like any other blazer, pin striped, dark colors. Nothing too special.

But once you look a little closer you see that there are no buttons, no collar, the hem is uneven… There are so many details that pop up once you study it a little bit.

Sadly it was a bit big. It looked cool on, but this was the most expensive of the items, and I wasn´t prepared to spend that much if it didn´t fit right. They suggested my husband tried it on, and on him it was perfect. So we decided to split the bill between us, so I ended up with the blazer as well.

Every time you buy something at this shop you get lottery tickets, how many depends on how much you buy, and every second month they draw gift certificates. I keep my fingers crossed I win, cause I´d like to get my hands on a lot more from this shop!