Stuff hangover

Long time, no see! I feel a little bad for not posting in such a long time, but well, everyone knows what holidays are like. My holidays lasted for three days, of which two were spent with relatives (yay!) and one with cleaning products and laundry (nay!).

I know this is terribly typical to say after Christmas and towards the beginning of the year, but I am starting to suffer from stuff overdose. I don't know whether it is (was) Christmas and now the sales, and seeing huge piles of random stuff in stores or at home: Christmas wrappings, -50% clothes that no one wants, turkey leftovers and such... well, whatever it is, there is just too much useless stuff everywhere.

I usually see clothes as potential style statements, but lately they (especially the ones in clothing stores) are starting to look like clutter. I went to some of my favourite stores yesterday after work to check out the sales, and came home empty handed. There were plenty of things I liked, but nothing that I wanted. Perhaps this is good, because my shopping habits have been out of control this year. I just counted that over the past year I have bought at least 20 pairs of shoes, three trench coats, three pairs of jeans, two overcoats, and I am too scared to even think about skirts, dresses and blouses, not to mention scarfs and random accessories.

I am considering going on shopping strike.

I wore the outfit above on Christmas day. The one below is an oldie that I forgot to post a week or so ago - I was planning on writing about mixing prints but I forgot all about it.

Can't think of a title for this randomness

I am enjoying my first day off in eight days. I decided to experiment with my new American Apparel tube dress. It seems to work beautifully as a high-waisted skirt as well.

This is what I am wearing today:

There are times when I get inspired by catwalk images. I just bought myself the latest Vogue Collections. A lot of nonsense there might be, but I really like Burberry Prorsum S/S09!

edit: oops, the catwalk images in this and the previous post are from style.com!

In with the new (again)

I noticed today that the sales have started. Well, there have been mid-season sales and all sorts of special bargains for the past couple of months in almost all major stores, so perhaps I was just a little slow (or tired, because I have been at work for the past 8 days, non-stop) to notice that right now the reduction percentages are already as low as they usually are come January.

Well, what is a girl to do when one realises something like this? Hold onto her (little) money, because the economic downfall is upon us? Naaah. I don't think so.

I got a couple of blouses, and a pair of shorts (the jeans ones in the third picture are old but I thought they looked fun with the new white blouse). I have usually been against wearing shorts with tights, but oh well, once I have started wearing leggings with tunics, I might just go wild altogether. Pairing shorts with lacy blouses made me realise again how much I love the Givenchy F/W08 collection. (Not that Givenchy came up with shorts like mine, but I just like the mix of frilly and masculine.)

I also snapped this shirt dress at Vero Moda.

Contrasts

I can't resist bringing the recent developments of my personal life into yet another post: after having struggled for more than a decade with a handful of boyfriends that didn't "get" me, I was often having to rely on the age-old mantra, "opposites attract".

As I have recently discovered, there are times when there is true comfort in simplicity and similarity, and unlike we are often told, it does not equal boredom. When it comes to style though, I find that there is always a need for something to break the pattern.

It can be materials that clash, or it can be colours that pop out unexpectedly, or accessories that don't quite seem to belong. I often envy people whose outfits seem (and are) impeccable, but more often than not, I realise that I crave for something to rebel against matchy-matchy.

Happy birthday, Finland

How can it possibly be so hard to take outfit pictures these days..? There is no light, none whatsoever, and it will get worse for another two weeks before it starts to get better! At 1.30 pm my usual spot for taking a picture of my outfit was so dark that I had to huddle right next to the window. Anyway, happy independence day to all Finns and/or the Finn-minded!