Monies and Mandelas

Bargain knit top, cheap skirt, new reasonably priced coat, all M&S!

This is what I wore Thursday morning. An otherwise plain knit top with cute sleeves, a pencil skirt with a pretty flower print, both M&S, and my tall boots from last year. No jewellery. Why not wear a necklace with that top? Because I needed the right “frame” for my task that morning.

The top makes a good background for necklaces!

See the cute sleeves?

Choosing the right gems at the Monies jewellery sale

Like having an extra Christmas, my BFF and I bought ourselves some very fine presents at the eagerly awaited sale this past Thursday at Monies. JOY!

We saved more money than we spent…. And brought home timeless beauties to adorn ourselves with, along with the memory of the fantastic sights of the other customers who are probably the most stylish women in Denmark.

As always, I arrived early to stand first in line. The weather caused dramatic clouds, but behaved nicely otherwise. During waiting in line I had nice chats with “the usual suspects” as well as one of my lovely neighbours. All part of the fun.

The sky over Copenhagen harbour Thursday morning

Since my BFF was running a bit late I entered the shop first, and on my own. I quickly grabbed a couple of handfuls of possibilities. As there was long lines to use the mirrors I tried to take selfies…

Kaffesoester trying on necklaces at Monies

All but one of the coral necklaces were returned. And then I found this:

Can it get more shiny than this?

Isn’t it just perfect? As soon as I saw it around my neck I knew it was a hit. The length is great with every v-neck top and dress that I have, and the shine… It’s like wearing a ray of sunlight! 

In the beginning I felt it was a bit tight. A sales assistant heard that and immediately arranged that a colleague sewed up an extender, a small leather thing, that will add another inch to the length. It may not be necessary on this one after all, but I will probably use it on one of the other necklaces from Monies. How lucky is that?

The new coral necklace

After deciding on the gold necklace and the long coral one, I imagined how I would wear the necklaces, and had the idea that the coral would work nicely with an equally long Sodalite and wood necklace from earlier, especially if I could find a third one to go with them. 

None of the clear Quartz crystals were that appealing to me. So I searched the shelves again, and found what appeared to be Smokey Quartz but really was a man made pendant on a leather cord. This would be brilliant with the other two, so into the basket that went!

The three necklaces that made the cut

Now my BFF was on her first sale at Monies. Dare I say that she went berserk?

BFF trying her first Monies necklace

So many pieces were great on her as she isn’t as voluptuous as me. There’s just room for more “decor”! Not only did she get some fantastic necklaces, she also got three incredible bracelets. The colours were lovely, and they came with a very neat magnetic lock. I can’t wait to see her styling outfits with these finds.

The loot - the "small" necklace in mammoth tooth and gold rutilated quartz

Of course one doesn’t just rush in and pick the items one wants, there’s finding a selection of pieces, trying them on, debating with the other customers (we all help each other), looking at prices and total cost, discussing with oneself (does this even work with anything in my closet), revisiting the shelves to see if anything has been overlooked, trying again, boiling it down to the absolute minimum. 

It takes hours. Three hours this time. It may sound like hard work, but it isn’t - it’s HYGGE! Just look at the beautiful shop interior. Add a nice glass of wine to that and you never want to leave!

Lots of delicious jewellery to choose from

A couple of hours into the sale it gets less crowded

After the best shopping experience in a year we were starving. We wanted a sea view with our lunch so started looking for appropriate restaurants (not too expensive after our shopping spree). We ended up at a sailing club in a not-so-fashionable part of the city and had these lovely plates:

A classic Danish lunch course - hamburgertype beef on butter toasted bread with pickles, raw egg yolk and horseradish

My friends lunch - a selection of little fish dishes

We had coffee afterwards to end a wonderful day that proved very fruitful. Our closet will not be the same after these buys. Every necklace we got can change an outfit completely. Well worth the money in my book!

Dinner with my Mother’s group

It’s about 18 years ago since we first met. We were 6 women at the first meeting, but one was a lot younger than the rest and quickly decided to find another group. The rest of us just hit it off immediately. We’ve been good friends ever since, and it’s just getting better and better. This Saturday night we had dinner and cocktails - lots of cocktails!

Gold is a great colour for a cocktail dress, right?

The dress has nice draping, just hard to see here!

Our favourite cocktail is the Mandela, a beer-cocktail, by the incredible cocktailbar Mikropolis in Copenhagen. One of the girls found the recipe online and tested it several times to reach perfection Saturday night - and we all appreciated that (I lost count after number four).

Creamy and sweet taste of coffee though strong and powerful!

At our last “meeting” I had told the girls about a new gold dress that I got for nearly nothing. Of course they wanted to see it, so I took the opportunity to show off both the gold dress and my new boots. I know these boots are just a current trend, but the brocade fabric make them such a perfect addition to my wardrobe. 

The elements of Saturday's outfit

The dress is by Biba at House of Fraser, and cost me £10 only! The EEE-width boots are from Evans at £46, and there’s still a few in smaller sizes left. The kimono is from New Look, April or May this year. The Chrysoprase necklace is of course an old favourite from Monies!

As Black Friday isn't that big here in Denmark (yet) I don't mind having blown my money on jewellery and so staying at home, but for the rest of you, I hope you find some great bargains. Good hunting!

Love Kaffesoester

One necklace, three outfits...

This is my hand in the photo. Isn't this Peony the most magnificent flower ever? I just had to show you right away :-)

The pictures were taken on Sunday when I visited a garden fair in Copenhagen. Before the weekend I had time to show off my new necklace on a number of occasions. First I went for drinks with my neighbours (happens often!) at some other neighbour's - in a rare trouser outfit:

The photo quality is lousy. An unmotivated teenage photographer and an iPhone...
I've had the shirt for two years, but I have doubts about the colour. Is it too warm?

Friday wasn't too warm, it was perfect!

Finally - time for sandals!!! Friday my neighbours and my family went to the anniversary celebration of one neighbour's work place.

I got to wear sandals :-D  If I could I would have worn some neon coloured shoes, inspired by Sacramento of Mis Papelicos. Instead I took this fun clutch. The photographer here is my lovely husband Michael. He took the shoes and the semi close up below as well :-)

With the unpredictable Danish weather it could be a while before I get to wear sandals again, so better enjoy it with this close up!

The very bright sun light changes the colour of my nail polish, it's really a very dramatic dark cherry.

I really enjoyed wearing my new necklace again. It's certainly a conversation piece! The dress is an old CC (also seen here and here), the sandals are by Rieker and unworn (bought on sale at the end of summer last year), very old jacket and new clutch both by H&M.

The necklace is of course by Monies!

Not only did the company get the Danish top pastry baker Mette Blomsterberg to give a crash course on Chocolate mousse, they also had a free bar :-D and absolutely divine little canapés. They're about half an inch in size - little master pieces! This is just a fraction of the whole spread. Next day I had to wear something very loose fitting!!!

Saturday I went to a friends birthday party. Top and skirt are both jersey...

It's the third day in a row that I'm wearing this necklace - is it getting boring?

These sandals are also by Rieker, and just as comfortable as the grey pair.

The skirt has been hanging in my closet for more than a year. I've tried building outfits around it many times, but given up. Every time it just turns out wrong, until now. I think this works.

And now to Sunday! Again a sunny day - but not at all warm! The forecast said warmer temperatures and blue skies. So I dressed in a lovely summer dress, ballet flats that allowed me to be on me feet all day, and a few bangles. No jacket...

Again a CC dress, my Clarks ballet flats and an assortment of bangles. I carried my bag across body to have both hands free for all the lovely free food samples :-D  which meant No Necklace!

Even though I'm not a flower pattern girl, I do like the fit of these dresses so much that I'm compromising. I've worn this particular one with white jeans in winter (here) which I actually prefer. As it turned out, that's also what I should have done on Sunday!

Here's a close up shot of my bangles:

The large cream coloured is by Kenneth Jay Lane, it only comes on/off with baby oil! The rest is a mix of second hand and cheap finds on holidays down South (Spain!). Like my feet I have size issues, and need at least 68 millimetres in diameter (2,75 inches) to squeeze my hand through.

As it turned out, sunday was very windy, got cloudy too, so very cold in the end. I had to cut the visit short and hurry home, with hands and feet turning blue from the low temperature :-(

Before I left I took lots of photos, the essence (apart from the peony up top) is brought to you here, by Picmonkey:

The watering cans in the lower right corner are leather covered! In the mid left, an art installation is inspired by later years flooding problems - I guess!

Monday morning I had an appointment with my optician. The wind had died down, so I went out in sandals again :-)  this time wisely carrying a jacket. I look quite ready for the jungle here, Khaki and animal print...

Yet another CC dress (also seen here and here), the red Rieker sandals, old jacket, and horn necklace from a holiday on Mallorca, three years back.

The fit really is perfect on my body. I've considered taking it up an inch or two. However, it looks great with winter boots in this length, so keeping it as it is.

This has turned out to be another marathon post - and the next one may very well turn out the same, sorry! My schedule is completely out of control these days. I have so many social events lined up this month, I can hardly breathe :-) The main problem is What to Wear! And how to manage everything on time.

On Friday I'm visiting Torvehallerne again, hunting down stuff for Saturday's dinner with our gourmet club - G2712. I'm already dreaming of what delicacies I'm going to eat on both days!

As a huge summer holiday bonus, my daughter's God Mother is coming "home" from Australia to stay with us for some time. Her son Marcus is coming too :-) It's so exciting since we haven't seen her for years - not since Marcus was a toddler.

I hope I can talk them into appearing on the blog :-)

I wish you all a great week and weekend!

Love Kaffesoester

The lemonade approach

This is going to be a very short update, just to show I'm still alive. And meeting life's challenges with the most positive attitude.

Late last summer a neighbour and I got a small allotment.  Small is a round shape measuring 10 meter across (33 feet?). The previous, and unexperienced owner had started lots of projects, which we had to deal with first.

As you can see, we have a lot of bare soil - that's where we had to cover holes, made by the previous owner. In front we've made a bed for herbs, and hopefully pumpkins. In the raised bed we have lots of strawberries,

 and along the edge we have other berries and to small tomato plants.

When I say we, it's me and my pregnant neighbour. We're all very happy for her! Unfortunately she's run into trouble, the worst being pelvis instability. Some days she can't walk or stand up, and under no circumstances can she do gardening...

After nearly two weeks of gardening morning to afternoon my body hurts everywhere! I'm 50 and not used to manual labour (really unfit). How very convenient then that life forces me to do open air fitness training for absolutely nothing!

As the saying goes: When life serves you lemons, make lemonade :-)

I wish I could give you close ups of some lovely flowers or fruits, but it's still very early days up here.

Instead I have this pretty flower for you:

And another one here:

Can you guess who it is?

Now you know what I've been up to. I have lots of photos from my shoe shopping experience last week, but that's going to have to wait for now. Tonight I'm going to dream of bracelets, necklaces and earrings because...

tomorrow is M-day - sale at Monies, my favourite jewellery artist! 

I have a limited budget, but I'm sure I'll come home with something - and you'll be the first to see :-)

Stay tuned - love 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