We went on a cruise to Stockholm with Eddi and his two children.
I took the boys up to the bridge to look at all the buttons and screens there and to see how they steer a big ship. The other boys on board don't get to see that.
Many buttons, many switches.
(This one here is just about my hair.)
I took some pictures of other ships trough the binoculars on the bridge. Lomo effect!
The next day in Stockholm felt pretty cold as it was 37 degrees C (!) at home in Finland (!!!) and "only" a mere 20-something in Sweden. I wore long sleeves for the first time in ages!
We went to Gröna Lund.
I am clearly becoming old as I prefer the small flying elephants to any other attraction with more action than that. They just spin too much.
In the afternoon we took the small ferry back to town and our ship and it was windy as hell. (I hate it when it's windy. But at least it's a little funnier with a big skirt on since it goes "flufff!" all the time.)
Parmesan-walnut-lemon pasta helping us recover from the wedding last night. Should've made more...
Finally got the closet emptied of stuff (my grandfather's books and a whole lot more undefined stuff), washed and painted to be ready to filled with my stuff! Burlesque stuff mostly. Our living room is grateful to stop serving as a storage room.
My pelargoniums are dying. I don't know why. They are in a sunny place and get enough water. Any hints how to recover them anyone?
Last but not least, Miss Fortuna drew a winner of the Tyra Therman mermaid brooch and the lucky one is Paula!
I've spent some great days. in the city lately. One of them went like this:
After Eddi got his hair cut at Rody's we met up with Ina and H (or also known as Julien, well, only by me :) for a few cans of Sangria and a lot of tapas.
See what hat Ina is wearing? She got it for her birthday!
Oh, food!
Ladi dadi da. (Ina wore a sixties dress and I a fifties skirt, and a Vivien of Hollowayhairflower. Check the shoes! Oh yes I got them - comfy ad coloured like bubble gum ♥)
I continued on to Bar Moskva (going to Helsinki? Go there.) to celebrate Tinker's last night (well, almost, close enough) as an unmarried girl with a lot of champage and lovely ladies. And later on also a bunch of great guys and a very happy groom.
I love designer's resort collections because you can actually wear them. I know that fashion designers, journalists and magazines claim that the new designer "must haves" are "so wearable" all the time (usually when referring to something that my Dad would incessantly take the piss out of me wearing- always a bad sign with clothing) but the resort collections really are just that.
So I always eagerly await my Style.com resort fix to see the gorgeous clothes that mere mortals (aka not supermodels, socialites or any kind of supposed super human celebrity) can actually wear. Hurrah for clothes that normal people can wear down the high street and not the catwalk!
1. In at first place- Marc by Marc Jacobs. Inspired by dancers in rehearsals this collection was utter pared down perfection. If I had the money to buy the whole collection (or who am I kidding? Just one piece from the collection would make me so happy) I would. And I'd wear it non-stop all summer long. My favourite collection by miles.
2. Second place goes to YSL for the colours that just screamed "summer." I love the use of colour blocking for day and all black looks for night, all the while with high-waisted shorts to make the outfits even more chic and practical. One both for the tomboys and the girlie girls.
3. Last but not least- Erdem. You can always count on this label to deliver on the prints front and this collection was no exception. The cool digital prints infused with marine blues are gorgeous. And so wearable. Well, what did I tell you?
And last but not least- -a 1958 Blaupunkt radio Cabinet! It also has a built-in but removable record player, but we haven't fixed the electricity chords to see if it works yet.
It serves as a kitsch-y liquor cabinet as well!
We found this at an antique store out of town; Fasaani.We went there only looking for "something small and absolutely no bigger furniture as it will soon get crowded at home". Now this piece was not exactly small, but we just couldn't leave it there.
Even though the piece has a few decades of tobacco smoke impregnated into it Lulu does no seem to mind. I have had to clean it quite a bit though.
My favourite adverts on television are the Miss Dior Cherie ones. The flowers, the Eiffel tower, the bicycle and the balloons all contribute to give 3 minutes of pure unashamedly girly fantasy and the ultimate dreamy escapism.
When I found out that Sofia Coppola directed this- a name I had heard many times- I knew I had to find out more about her. With her dad being the famous directer Francis Ford Coppola and her mum being Eleanor Coppola, a set designer, film really is in her family’s blood as a quick Wikipedia search revealed.
So I invited my film loving friend around and we rented out the DVDs for Marie Antoinette and Lost in Translation to see why people admire her so much.
Marie Antoinette
Having seen countless beautiful stills from Marie Antoinette (I would be prepared to say that 99% of teenage girls' Tumblr blogs contain at least one from it) I had high expectations. Gowns! Puppies! Cake (especially Macaroons) Champagne! Shoes! French Interiors! Literally all of my favourite things!
But that is all that it turned out to be.
Superficiality with no depth. There are only so many establishing shots of Versailles and scenes of the 'Skins' parties of the 16th century I can see before I long for a more complex narrative, complete with actual dialogue- it felt like the characters hardly spoke.
The audience gets no real sense of Marie Antoinette as a person. We all know how the film is going to end so we want to feel some kind of sympathy for her; being sent away from home to get married at 14 and then getting executed at 38. But it's hard to feel sympathy for a lady who spent ludicrous amounts of money lavish parties whilst the French people were starving (not that the film was that critical of the Dauphine)
So when the inevitable ending came, with the symbolic last shot being the Queen's private room in ruins, complete with chandelier on the floor and curtains in tatters, me and my friend were disappointed that we felt no sympathy for her.
What I loved however was the soundtrack which featured The Strokes (one of my favourite bands) At first it was odd to have a period drama with this type of music for the backing track but it actually went perfectly with Marie Antoinette's Rock'n'Roll lifestyle.
The mix of modern and classical music was just right but what didn't work so well was one shot with a pair of lilac converse amongst all her other satin heels. Now I'm no historian but I reckon I’m correct in thinking that Chuck All Stars were not around in the 1750's. Very odd.
A classic example of style over substance I grew desperate for the storyline to push on and *GASP* less puppies, macaroons, gowns and shoes. Nope I never thought I'd ever say that in my life either.
Visually stunning and every single frame worthy of a teenage girls Tumblr "reblog" it was beautiful to watch but I expected more from this celebrated film about one of the most famous Queens in history.
Lost in Translation
In comparison to Marie Antoinette you can actually empathise with the relatable ‘lost souls’ in ‘Lost in Translation.’ Bill Murray plays Bob, an aging actor unwillingly agreeing to star in a commercial in Tokyo and its here where he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) who is here because of her photographer husband. This chance meeting of two strangers out of their depth in this huge city sparks a friendship between the pair.
Sofia Coppola wrote the screen play as well as directed it and it is obvious how she won Best Original Screenplay for it with amazing lines such as: "I tried taking pictures, but they were so mediocre. I guess every girl goes through a photography phase. You know, horses... taking pictures of your feet."
I mean hasn't everyone done that cliché? I know I have and that's just one example of how you can really engage with the characters and enter their mindsets of loneliness which link to the smart tag line of the film which is "Everyone wants to be found."
This is a funny and sweet film with touching performances from Murray and Johansson who really put life and soul into Sofia's script.
So now I need to see Sofia Coppola's first film called ‘Virgin Suicides’ which on IMDB has the user recommendation "Sopfia Coppola is a genius" and then her new film ‘Somewhere’ which is out later this year and from the looks of the trailer is going to be a good one (and it has The Strokes again! What a bonus) Just looking at these two trailers shows her versatility and talent as she can switch between different genres, whilst always giving them her own unique spin.
She is definitely a force to be reckoned with.
Beth Ruby xoxo ps) I have just got home from seeing Inception. MY MIND IS BLOWN. If you haven't already then go and see it now!
After last week’s trip to London I am even more in love with my country's capital city than ever.
The shopping trip was a late birthday/end of exams treat and me and my friends loved it. We shopped till we dropped. Starbucks breakfast on the train there. Lunch at Westfields shopping centre. Tube to Oxford Street to check out Urban Outfitters and the 4 storey beast of a Topshop. Then a red double decker bus to dinner at Carluccio's Italian restaurant in St Pancras station before getting the train from Kings Cross (unfortunately there was no Platform 9 and ¾ though because it was under construction and being the Harry Potter nerd that I am I was devastated) back to Newcastle which seemed so drab and quiet when we got back at 1am in comparison to the vibrancy of London.
The must have Percy Pigs- vital for every train journey. Many thanks to Emma for supplying these bad boys!
The predictable cup of Starbucks for the train as well. Mine was a Caramel Macciato, in case you were wondering.
My beautiful best friends Xanthe (left) and Emma (right)
WESTFIELDS! The biggest shopping centre in Europe! With everything from Accessorize to Miu Miu, it was insane. We even got lost it was so big haha.
The really cute little ice cream parlour in Westfields. Me and Emma were very tempted to steal the pretend motor bike seats in our favourite colours.
Me looking very happy with all my shopping bags. It was a very productive shopping day with buys from: MAC, Pandora, Zara, Topshop and Urban Outfitters.
The beautiful St Pancras station. I can't wait to go back and people watch! There are so many interesting people in London, from all over the world, making it such an exciting place to be.
And for the record people in London have AMAZING fashion sense. I had so many style crushes by the end of the day.
So as you can see from our cheesey grins, we had an incredible trip. I can't wait to go back later on in the summer holidays (fingers crossed!) and do my usual touristy photos down the Southbank and get my lovely cousins who live there to take me to my ever growing list of galleries and exhibitions.
Hope you are all having a lovely summer like me, dearies!
We went on a cruise to Stockholm with Eddi and his two children.
I took the boys up to the bridge to look at all the buttons and screens there and to see how they steer a big ship. The other boys on board don't get to see that.
Many buttons, many switches.
(This one here is just about my hair.)
I took some pictures of other ships trough the binoculars on the bridge. Lomo effect!
The next day in Stockholm felt pretty cold as it was 37 degrees C (!) at home in Finland (!!!) and "only" a mere 20-something in Sweden. I wore long sleeves for the first time in ages!
We went to Gröna Lund.
I am clearly becoming old as I prefer the small flying elephants to any other attraction with more action than that. They just spin too much.
In the afternoon we took the small ferry back to town and our ship and it was windy as hell. (I hate it when it's windy. But at least it's a little funnier with a big skirt on since it goes "flufff!" all the time.)
A swedish mermaid.
Sunset at sea, on the way home.
