Double sin with 2 x horizontal stripes on plus-size body!

Every style bible, fashion blogger and and image consultant will tell you that horizontal stripes are a no go if you're plus size, and want to look slimmer. Well, have a look at my outfit!

The dress which has appeared several times  (here, here and here) on the blog, is a favourite. It never  makes me feel looking larger than I am. Quite the opposite in fact. You could argue that it's due to the small stripes...

...but that's not the case with the rain coat! Those stripes are anything but small :-)

Somehow there seems to be more rules for plus size people than regular sized - is that true? Or do I have a touch of paranoia?

With legs like tree trunks I shouldn't be wearing coloured and patterned tights either, and preferably discrete shoes that blend with the tights. Another two rules are broken here!!!

So, the stripe rule is not to be obeyed at all costs. Like in every other aspect in life, open your eyes and judge for yourself! Do you see any problems with my shiny shoes and eye-catching tights?

This outfit was what I went to visit customers in, on a very wet day! My hair looks very strange, like it always does after rain.

The dress is by British brand CC, the bag is Danish, by Adax, and I'm wearing an old ring from Evans which is about the only place where I can buy ready made rings that fit me.

On my way home, I got a bored waiting for the bus... And remembered I hadn't taken photos of my lovely (old) tights. They're not wet or dirty, just printed in a marble-pattern. No, I don't smoke! The gum wasn't me either.

Successfully breaking two style rules in one outfit was pleasing :-)  Breaking an additional two was a right triumph!

By chance I've managed to dress according to the theme on Spy Girl's 52 pick-me-up, so heading right over to link up!

Hope you all have a nice Thursday, with only one tiny Friday to go before the weekend :-D

See you soon!

Kaffesoester

The Singapore Gin Sling cocktail outfit & Copenhagen shots

Remember my last post? I had taken dresses and accessories to make three possible outfits to choose from, for Saturday's cocktail party.

When the day came it was cold (10 degrees C./below 50 degrees F), windy and rainy - and so cloudy I would need to use a flash with my camera, outside. All three outfits just felt too cold.

So I was looking for something warmer, and ended up with this pile of old and seen before items! Notice the wet ground. At least the sky finally cleared. The dress has appeared here and here before, and the jacket here and here.

Upon arrival we were handed our first cocktail - a Singapore Gin Sling, which happened to match my outfit to perfection! I felt a success right from the beginning, and that only improved as the evening progressed, with lots of flattering comments on my outfit :-)

My hair does look strange, but my family reassured me that it was fine once inside!

The new bra worked wonderfully - and with my most comfortable heels, the whole outfit gave me such a relaxed feeling that I haven't experienced in years! It was a great night :-D

Ahead of the party I had agreed to bring Petit Four - and Friday I went shopping for ingredients.

I went to Torvehallerne, Copenhagen's fine food market. As a bit of a food-fanatic this is just heaven! I made a couple of small collages of the delicatessen on offer.

The cakes:

The vegetables (notice the edible flowers in the large photo!):

The relaxed seating:

The place is quite large, with two buildings housing numerous smaller stalls inside, and more outside between the buildings. It's so big I'll have to cover it in another post.

Since Friday was sunny I thought it would be nice and warm as well, so off I went in my little tunic and sandals:

I did wear a coat too, luckily. The temperature was around the same 10/50 degrees. I'm seriously considering learning Spanish and force my family to emigrate!

The colours were warmer than the wind! The sandals by Rieker, are very easy to walk in. There's a chock absorbing sole and elasticated straps to make them fit almost anyone.

The necklace is by Monies, and possibly my favourite piece. I like how the individual pieces resemble my curls.

Sunday I was supposed to try my new herbal wonder, but I was tired... There was a few leftover cakes from the party (I made more than 150 pieces) - here's how they looked:

The white chocolate mousse I originally planned to use didn't work, it was too runny, even with more than double the gelatine in, relative to the recipe. Imagine the panic I went through! Instead I made a whipped cream with vanilla and lemon zest. The bottom is an almond sponge.

Monday was work day, and I thought I was going to the printers in Copenhagen, and then delivering goods to a client. I dressed in corporate grey (again) and a comfortable, long cardigan:

The dress is a cheap version of the Phase Eight dress I wore last week. And it's too short! However a thinner knit is better under a cardigan, so I'm keeping it for now.

The jewellery of the day consists of a few of the usual bangles, the green Mother of pearl by Monies, the other horn, both matching the necklace:

The necklace of the day is also by Monies, a 50th. birthday gift from my friends :-)

It's a unique piece, made from horn, Mother of pearl and ceramic.

As it's such a rare occasion that we get to wear sunglasses in Denmark, I have another photo, showing these Missoni beauties!

For several reasons the visit to the printer and the client was postponed for 24 hours - so staying in the sun for a bit longer - dreaming of Spain :-)

May the sun shine on all of you - and have a lovely week!

Love Kaffeseoster

My attempt at a masculine outfit with a full bodied figure

Since Patti at Not Dead Yet Style recommended the book "Parisian Style" by Ines de la Fressange, I've been fascinated by the masculine/feminine outfits. It can look so elegant.

With my somewhat Barbapapa-like body shape, it's a bit of a challenge not to loose all my curves in boxy clothes.

Here's how it turned out:

In all natural daylight - unusual in the dark Danish winter!

The masculine parts are the trousers and the shoes. The jacket is fitted and in velvet, so it's not that masculine. But that's how it has to be with a voluptuous body.

Although the trousers are a drapey jersey, the pinstripe pattern add a certain masculine feeling.

Under the (vintage) jacket I'm wearing a ruched, gray, sleeveless top, that help disguise my stomach
The shoes are from Irregular Choice.

Irregular Choice black leather shoes

Around the neck I added my favourite necklace these days, from Monies:

Made of darkened brass and Chrysocolla, by Monies

I'm quite pleased with the result - and plan to wear it in spring. It' still too cold to leave the house in a jacket like this so I changed into a nice warm knit:

Same trousers and necklace, old knit and bag

The sweater has a great shape for me. The v-neck takes focus away from my double chin, and show off my waistline. It's a viscose blend which is perfect for me since I can't wear any type or amount of wool.

I use this bag a lot, it's roomy, it's thick leather and it's gold!

The bag is by a Danish brand, Merete Fonnesberg, and bought second hand. As gold goes with everything - I use it whenever I don't have to drag my laptop along!

A closer look

The rings are the same old rings I've worn for years! Although I don't particularly like the sight of my behind, I'm just quickly going to show you how it looked:

Odd bumps are appearing with age - not fair!

As you can see I'm suffering from a severe case of bibliophilia, so not only did I order the Parisian Chic book (which I haven't received yet, but sneak peeked in on Amazon.com), that Patti recommended. I also got Style Clinic by Paula Reed and The Style Mentors by Elyssa Dimant.

Style Clinic and Parisian Chic are both about classic style dressing and creating a capsule that forms a basis for your wardrobe in a reasonably economical way. I have high expectations from Parisian Chic. The little I've seen has already had an impact on me. I've totally underestimated these masculine elements in feminine dressing. At job interviews I have to make an impression. And it has to be powerful too, which is easier with a bit of masculinity.

The Style Mentors is a bit like Trinny and Susannah's Who Do You Want To Be Today? T&S work with 12 different types and Elyssa Dimant have 8. There is some similarity between the types they describe. Besides that Dimant includes a lot of fashion theory that I really like.

Now some people might think that I'm well off, buying all these books. But I'm not. I buy used, and one of them (don't remember which) only cost 0,10 £! The rest was a few pounds more but still VERY cheap indeed.

Now last week I had a few meetings - and here's how I dressed:

Wednesday evening meeting on the Marketing committee

The colours are awful, but I was in a rush so a quick shot in the hallway with my mobile was all I had time for. The dress is an old CC, the cardigan is another old thing - silk knit from H&M. The boots are from last year, and fur lined! The warmest and most comfortable boots I've ever owned.

Thursday evening meeting with the Structural Committee

The trousers are the same striped pair as above, the black bracelet is made of horn and bought in Barcelona this summer. The brass one is old, and the cream one is Kenneth Jay Lane. It's the largest size I could find, and I need baby oil on my hand to get it on/off!

The work on these committees is part of the democratic process where I live, and it's voluntary. It gives me great pleasure though, to be able to help improve living conditions for my neighbors.

Now, I was going to write all this yesterday. At the same time I was going to prepare dinner (multi tasking...). But I cut my ring finger on my right hand - the tip, while I was chopping onion!!! As soon as I could I rushed to the sink to put it under cold water. Stressful as I were I opened the hot water tap! I jumped up and down, screaming with pain. And no one else was home to hear it, which only made it worse! I felt really sorry for myself, so no writing last night.

Let this story be a warning - keep cooking out of blogging!

Finally I'm linking up with Patti, that inspires me so, for Visible Monday on her Not Dead Yet Style blog. Feel free to check it out, or better yet: Join!

Love to you all from Kaffesoester

The (senior) graduate

Last week turned out to be insanely busy!

Tuesday was Graduation - and my lovely photographer husband was there with his camera...

Another CC dress - and Monies necklace and bangle

I'm probably the oldest graduate from Copenhagen Business Academy, ever! But I had such a great time there and never felt my age being an issue. And I don't feel one bit like Mrs. Robinson although I'd love to look like her!

On Friday a friend and I went shopping for Saturday's dinner party. On the way we passed one of the many charming inner courtyards of Copenhagen

Bamboo, herbs and Helleborus (Click the photo to enlarge it)

Bamboo is one of my favourite plants, and I'm going to try planting again this summer. I've killed a few on our old balcony, but I think the new place is more protected from wind and sun. So maybe they'll survive this time

Later on our tour through the city we just "happened" to visit a jewellery workshop - a true gem :-)

Jack Sparrow would just love an earring from Lene Vibe!

Lene Vibe's pieces can be bought from a couple of shops in the US - but you'll have to see her website about that.

As we were admiring and trying on a few things we were offered a glass of port, in beautiful vintage glasses - and I had to take pictures to prove it!

Just the place to get the creative juices flowing

My favourite was a two strand necklace of Tahitian pearls, worn on my shoulders and joined on the front and the back with a gold ring and a large drop shaped pearl

It's going to take time to save up for this one!

Luckily my own ring (from another jeweller) was ready to pick up. That was the proper consolation for having to leave this incredible necklace

My hands are actually blue from Danish winter weather!

I have been collecting stones for this ring for a couple of years, when I visit the annual jewellery fair in Copenhagen.

The largest stone is a Gold Rutilated quartz, the orange one is a Cognac Citrine and the smallest one is an Ethiopian Opal, surrounded by gold dots made from and old ring I inherited from my Grandmother, who passed away recently.

As you can see I have extremely large hands with short thick fingers. With the large stone placed this way, it gives the impression of slightly longer fingers. A great trick from my jeweller Trine Starup

On Saturday we had this serious dinner party - with the "Gourmet Club", in the evening. But first we went for a birthday lunch with my cousin and her husband. I didn't have time for pictures of my lunch outfit, but I managed to get a quick one of the evenings outfit.

Apart from my new ring I built an outfit around the usual recipe these days: Dress and jeggings. This time in winter white:

Yet another CC dress, pearls and the RING

The shoes are soft suede ballet flats from British Clarks bought on a trip to London in June 2014.

I'm always very careful about how I wear pearls. They seem to age me very easily. But with the jeggings the whole outfit is dressed down which tones down the ageing effect.

The shoes were a bit of a life saver with all the running around that a gourmet dinner demands!

This week is going to be quite busy as well with lots of meetings and job hunting. I hope I'll find time (and light!) for more photos of each outfit, some close ups too, maybe? Anyway, the Scandinavian winter is upon us with snow and freezing cold wind, so I'll be demonstrating my layering skills.

Stay warm everybody and have a great week!

Pink power on International Women's Day!

A pink dress is the most appropriate outfit for the International Women's Day. And thoughened up with lace up leather boots, I'm ready to fight for justice!

A bit of sparkle never hurts!

Did you know that the date - 8th. of March was decided on the meeting in Copenhagen 1910? We also had the first female minister (for Education) in the world.

Isn't this a knock out dress to fight for justice in?

I personally feel very liberated and equal to men, but that's not at all the case in the rest of the world! There's a lot to change, recently proved by the horrible murders of young women in India and South Africa.

Not the usual brand!

Apart from donating money to various charity organizations, the best thing to do is to use your vote, on politicians that actually make a difference. Too many people in the Western world don't vote!

Matching watch and tights

Even within the developed countries of the Western world do we have different levels of equality between the sexes.

I'm so fortunate to live in a country where children's daycare is affordable to everyone, giving all women the opportunity to have a career.

We even have paternity leave! That's not the case everywhere, but a precondition for true equality. Most parents now share the time off after having had children.

Sleeve length - perfect!

Thinking of those less fortunate women in poor countries I recently suggested to H&M that they give their customers the choice to donate the money on voucher you get at the end of the year.

I was informed that I could just have the money paid to me at any shop, and then donate it. In this digital era it's so easy to set up a button to click, making donation very easy.

I've seen it done at other web shops, so why not H&M? Well, they say they care, but obviously only to a certain extend!

Lots of love from the Pink Worrier!

Fun with scarves and girls

 Val Sparkle has nominated me for the Liebster Award! Thank you very much Val, that's so sweet of you. I'll get back to the award in my next post.

The badge

Although my daughter is 13 years old now, I'm still seeing my old mother's group. We've all been great friends since the day we met.

 For our 10-year anniversary we all went to Barcelona for a week, just the mothers! Yesterday we met up at Bente's, and I wore a new, gorgeous CC dress, and a scarf that was the challenge of the day in the FABruary Style Challenge.

Too matchy?

The fit of this dress is just incredible! I'm becoming addicted to these dresses - good thing they're on sale! The scarf is maybe matching too well, it's hardly noticeable at all!

We all had a great time with lots of laughs and too much fantastic food! I'm so thankful for these girls and the network we've created amongst us.

The others are a bit camera shy, so you only get to see me!

Earlier this week the challenges of FABruary Style Challenge were: Lace on Thursday and coloured shoes on Friday. First the lace-outfit.

Don't I look tired?

On Thursday I got up at 4:50 am as usual. I went to work (which takes me 1,5 to 2 hours!), got picked up by my husband and daughter at 4 pm, went to Ikea and got back home at 9 in the evening.
 

A bit of PicMonkey fun

With a nice layer of snow outside the coloured shoes challenge needed to be twisted into coloured boots. So I got our my dusty purple boots:

Bye bye boots

On the way out of the door I felt something strange in the left boots - like the in-built gel cushion had collapsed - but I ignored it since I was i a hurry. In the evening it turned out I was right. So, bye bye boots!

Purple scarf

In my closet there's only a few purple items, and no warm knits. The scarf is doing a nice job though, matching the boots, and the cream jumper doesn't get as much wear as it deserves.

The jeans are my magic jeans - those that make my legs look way longer than they are!

This photo was taken before work!

I'm also linking up with Visible Monday at the Not Dead Yet Style blog where so many gorgeous ladies are showing off their creativity in dressing for visibility.

Hopefully I'll make it round to all the fantastic blogs I'm following, to leave comments, but if not - please know that it's not lack of will!


Have a great week everyone & take care!

Too much blue!

As I've mentioned quite a few times lately, I'm participating in the FABruary Style Challenge at the Inside Out Style blog, where today's challenge was to be blue.

This is how I interpreted that:

Favorite dress, boots and bangles

Things started out alright this morning. I'm wearing a new (small!) knitted bolero, my pearls with spinel stones necklace, and shell bangle which match the pearls perfectly.

Then just before lunch my computer gave me a blue screen - not once or twice, but six times - way too blue for me!

I don't know exactly what's wrong, but it's bad! So on top of being too busy to blog the way I'd like to, I may have further challenges ahead, and we're not talking clothes here!

Computer problems is something you can't turn your back on

The new knitted bolero is from the brand Linea. I haven't tried Linea before. The size seems much smaller compared to other brands, a bit disappointing. But it looks great with blue, right?

The pearls

The bangles

So I guess you can say I took today's challenge too far. I'm very happy that I'm able to blog tonight, fearing it might not be the case tomorrow - we'll see.

Yesterday's theme was layering - which is a life necessity up here these days. My pink maxi kept my legs fairly warm, with the thermal underwear underneath, see!

Same bangles and boots as above

This bolero style cardigan is the same type as today's black, only bigger. This one is in fact a little too big - it's just not easy you know!

Office appropriate?

I think maxi dresses are a genius invention! The length make them very feminine and fun in summer, and warm and comfortable in winter. I have to have some more!

See how happy I was in this yesterday?

Enjoying my maxi dress

I don't look unhappy in today's outfit - but I can assure you I wasn't in the best of moods. Blogging does help though - so Thank You Blog!

The bolero cardigan thing will be back on Saturday...

Good luck with your computer everyone - hope to see you soon!