Warmer times

Have I been Trumpified?

Regular readers will know that I have many issues with my hair, and with hairdressers. My last haircut was a disaster! I had brought an old photo showing how I wanted it. Apparently no help at all!

What I wanted on the left and what I got on the right

The photos also reveal that my skin colour has changed. Since last summer I’ve become addicted to sweet potatoes. The result is an orange tinge to my skin.

After months of hair horror I went the extra mile, or two, to see my old hairdresser. Fantastic! She cut and coloured my hair, so it’s no longer gray and white, but a slightly golden blonde. Adding the facts and you get Trumpification!!! 

Luckily I have more hair and less wrinkles!

Although the weather is really awful it's not quite as bad as the above!!!

With my new and warmer look came warmer weather too, and new outfits. In early April I had an appointment on a sunny Monday morning. I decided to celebrate with sunny colours that have always looked awful with my old, cooler skin colour. 

Enjoying warmer weather and colours

In all the colour and style books that I have, skin only goes cooler with age. Imagine the chok when I realised mine had gone warmer. Liver failure and bad kidneys were my initial thoughts! With so many other health issues it only seemed too believable. 

The coat is from Next, the trousers Evans and the scarf is from East

Fortunately the newspaper had a small article on the benefits of a diet containing lots of vegetables. It said that a healthy and sexy skin colour was one of the benefits! 

Taking advantage of good/not so bad health

With both liver and kidneys in great condition I saw no reason not to go to the cocktail bar (Mikropolis) with the mothers. Somehow I got dressed up to match the cocktail perfectly! The cocktail is called Pink Slip and is based on raspberry.

Now with matching cocktail!

The bar may not look the most glamorous, but the cocktails are out of this world! The necklace is by Monies, from November 2016. I have quite a collection now. With another sale coming up at the end of May, it’s likely to grow. 

The trousers are new from Asos, the knit is old from Bonmarche!

Collector's corner

To enjoy my necklaces on a daily basis I have organised my collection in plain view. The shorter necklaces are presented on professional displays like in a jewellery store, next to my shoes. 

The shoes are my entire collection, including those sadly worn out

All the long pieces are hung on a tie hanger (the two necklaces to the right are not Monies). Only two very heavy Monies necklaces are stored flat, in containers. 

Cheap hanger from IKEA

With the current arrangement I have easy access as well as a lovely view of everything. Plus, as you see: There’s room for that extra hanger that I keep in my closet!

Sunshine yellow

Due to illness I haven’t been out a lot, but managed to go to Louisiana this past Sunday. 

Same Evans trousers as above, New Look kimono from 2017 and H&M t-shirt

Louisiana is our top Danish museum for modern art. There’s an exhibition of Picassos ceramics on - and it was fantastic!

Sorry for the poor photography - and rather casual arrangement of the photos!

Lousiana also has a few pieces by Per Kirkeby, probably our most talented painter in my time, who sadly passed away last week. As I was so incredibly dressed to match (by coincidence) I had to have a photo!

The necklace is of course Monies and the bag a Mango from 2017

Since I'm no great model, here's a chance to really see what I'm wearing, except for the very simple red and pink outfit:

My first ever outfit with yellow and orange

Finally a chance to air my platforms from Yours Clothing, size 6EEE!

Now, if any Monies fans get to visit Copenhagen in late May, the sale is on May 31st. from 10:00! As always I will be first in line, from around 09:00!

See you there?

Pick-me-up-socks

Brocade and more brocade plus shimmer and shine - makes me feel good!

Sunday the whole family celebrated Mum’s 73rd birthday. No-one can tell from her lifestyle how old she is. She’s always active, has plans and places to go and people to see. It’s a joy to watch, and the kind of old-age I wish for everyone! 

Mum doesn't like to have her picture taken, but loves to photobomb!

Had she not been widowed five years ago, everything had been perfect. But she’s found a way to enjoy herself, both with her family and on her own. All thanks to her fighting spirit. I hope all her grand children have inherited just a bit of it - it’s the best inheritance one could hope for.

We started at her home with coffee and traditional candy-decorated cake in the shape of a girl, made of Danish pastry. After a couple of hours of Hygge we went to a nice family restaurant and had dinner.

Mum's traditional Danish birthday cake

The week until Sunday was pretty rotten. Needles and knives had a go at me again - I’m not sure what they found this time, but I’m scared stiff waiting for the results. It does take all my energy, so no comments or visits to other blogs. I’m sure this week will be better. How couldn’t it be with these incredible boots and matching glitter socks?

I think purple is the new pink!

With fingers crossed for good news on my health - have a great week everyone

Love  Kaffesoester

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

A whole new wardrobe

Sounds fun, right? Well, not always. Here's why: 

First of all there’s the reason. In my case I had gone up one size due to illness. In fact I was so ill that I first had to buy a lot of loungewear because I was still either in bed or on the sofa with a blanket. 

Going up one size also meant I had to say goodbye to all the lovely things I had collected over the years. At the same time age didn’t place the added kilos quite to my satisfaction! Another annoying experience. 

Then when I did have to leave the house, for appointments with doctors and specialists mostly, I often had to wear clothes that was too small, or some very unflattering panic bought loungewear. That lead to more panic buys. With reduced income in the family due to my illness, my clothes budget was limited, so panic buys that proved an error, felt very expensive. Good thing we learn from our mistakes, right?

What did I find?

Well, even loungewear is important. It’s not uplifting to anyone seeing a bag of potatoes walking past the mirror, not even a pink one! In sheer panic I had bought 6 t-shirts from Evans, that were totally shapeless! They looked alright on the model, but in real life they were a slight A-shape. An absolute disaster on my hourglass figure!

A purple version of the t-shirts from Evans

To be comfortable I bought lose fitting, wide-legged jersey trousers, not Evans this time though. However, not all jersey is a nice, soft cotton or viscose. Some is polyester, and some is a blend. Some of the materials I got were thin and clingy. Thin cotton shows everything, polyester gets static electric and clings. Some materials just don’t last very long. 

There's no telling from the photo how thin the material is

With my top of the body hidden in a pink bubble and every lump and bump showing on my thighs and legs I felt such a failure, spending good money on really bad clothing!

Was I ever going to wear anything nice again? Would I ever be able to go out of the door and not be ashamed of my dressing? 

The solutions

With my illness I also got extremely sensitive skin. It now becomes very irritated with heavier, rigid fabrics like denim and twill as well as fabric that contains wool or linen. Even cotton can be a problem unless it’s a high quality, and light weight. 

It seems the best trousers are ponte knit or heavier jersey in some blend of either viscose, cotton or polyester. With warmer weather I can do a tapered ankle grazing trouser that is everywhere at the moment. For colder months I do need full length. But no slim leg or skinny anything!

The very trousers I wore in my previous post (H&M)

For tops there’s really only a choice of t-shirts and knits. Shell tops rarely fit me properly, but more on that later. A lot of the t-shirts I bought were in 100% cotton, which my skin doesn’t respond that well to. Others were in 100% polyester. That proved to be fine with my skin, however the cheaper ones didn’t last very long and so weren’t worth the money. Viscose knits were like heaven on my skin, but too warm for summer, even this one - the coldest and wettest in 38 years or so!

Anyway, no matter the fabric, any t-shirt and other type of top, needs to be fitted! This is so important because I’ll be visually adding several pounds in a loose or relaxed fit. 

Colourful Viscose knit from Biba, £ 20 on sale

As it turned out the panic buys did teach me something, and so weren’t all waisted. But it did cost - money and tears!

Finally, a shot from May 2017. The joggers, t-shirt and kimono combo has now become my uniform

H&M joggers, M&S t-shirt, New Look kimono and Monies pendant

In the next few posts I'll show you the contents of my new wardrobe, and explain my strategy.

The very best weekend to all of you!

How to style a yellow jacket that you shouldn't wear!

The FABruary Style Challenge has resulted in many new outfits, but the most surprising one was yesterday's - Something old Something New.

I immediately knew I wanted to wear my Great Grandmother's necklace, but I hadn't decided what new item to wear.

In my closet I had this jacket that I bought on sale last summer, and never worn... I took some courage you see!

Very bright and very yellow!

This is by far the brightest and most colourful outfit I've ever worn, and I can't wait to wear this mad jacket again!

Even though yellow isn't my best colour I think it works with the navy dress because the colour is next to my face.

 Another possibility was wearing a colourful scarf in a "good" colour around my neck.

How else would you style this jacket?

The sleeves have permanent gatherings that makes it hell to iron it - I may remove them, although I like the effect on my arms (leaving a fair amount of space for an arm party!).

The party

The jacket isn't really that fitted, so I'm considering taking it to the tailor and see what he if he can change that  (and possibly deal with the sleeves as well).

You haven't seen the last of this jacket!

Earrings were Monday's challenge. You've never seen me wear earrings! I do have a few. However I always think my face becomes "crowded" when I'm wearing glasses too...

The crowded face

Maybe it's just me, but I came up with another solution just the same!

Now crowded neckline

They're cute as little brooches, an idea that I'll try to remember. Best with clip on style! Do you think this is cheating?  Or did I wear earrings?

The rest of the outfit:

Just a plain jeans outfit

And a close up of the "jewels":

Next time earrings on shoes?

On Wednesday it was my husband's birthday, and the challenge of the day was Boots. I wear boots every day all winter - the real challenge here is to still like your boots afterwards!

The temperature was well below freezing (it still is!) so I wore my warmer ones, along with a festive summer dress and white skinny jeans!

Clingy dress

Because of the temperature the dress became static electric and kept clinging to the jeans, which in turn became more and more loose so I had to pull them up all the time.

Multi tasking

My mother called while I was taking my photos, and with dinner preparations waiting I didn't have time to call her later. I guess you can say she has appeared on the blog too!

Bali Moonstone

The pendant is a large Moonstone, and it usually gives beautiful blue flashes, but that's so hard to catch on camera. Maybe next time?


Finally here's today's outfit - which is my answer to the Animal Print challenge:

Just trying to stay warm!

Apart from the dress I'm also wearing a knitted cardigan, grey jeggings, a heavy scarf, boots - and outdoors, my magenta wool coat and lined leather gloves.

With -6 degrees Celsius (low 20's Fahrenheit) and a bit of wind it's so hard to stay warm. I didn't add thermal underwear today, which I should have!

My brain has most likely frozen, all I can think of is spring, sunshine and Spain! That's why I'm wearing those same bangles again today!

A neutral outfit, who would have thought?

This is such a long post, but there just wasn't time during the week. Tomorrow my daughter and I have arranged a surprise party for my husband - just the closest family. Hopefully we'll get some good shots of the table.

On Sunday I also plan to do a post about the Liebster Award - so stay tuned!

Will this dress ever see tights again?

And on that bombshell I'm wishing you all a lovely weekend! (Too much Top Gear)