I made a new cardigan!

I finally finished my latest sewing project, which consisted of making a warm cardigan. The design wasn't all that difficult, but getting the pattern on the fabric correspond with the sleeves and everything wasn't as easy as I had hoped. Fortunately I'm taking sewing classes, so my teacher was able to help me out there. I must say I'm quite happy with the result - the cardigan is extremely warm, comfortable to wear, it has a special crinkle at the back which accentuates the waist (not well visible in the picture unfortunately) and I love the grey color that gradually fades into black. There are a few negative points as well, which I guess was to be expected from a relative newbie: the sleeves are a bit too wide (the other girls at sewing class thought they would be too small for me and advised me to make them bigger, so I adapted them...it turned out to be wrong :( ) and at some places the ribbon that I used to finish the edges of the garment has started to fray, which I should have prevented. A good lesson for next time!

Cool new collection

The Dutch clothing company 'SPS' has some fabulous new items in its new Spring collection! I love the femininity of this brand, which often uses lots of lace and luxurious fabrics such as velvet and silk. Usually I only buy clothes here during sales, because it's quite expensive. Even though I can't buy anything there at all this year, I love looking at the pictures... Sometimes the best romantic clothes with a dark twist can be found in the places where you least expect it. One doesn't always have to search for the well-known brands in alternative (online) stores; if you know where to look, 'ordinary' shops can provide wonderful special items just as well. I even found a fabulous corset top once at the H&M!
The current SPS collection uses a lot of black and white:

Things I must resist

It turned out to be a lot harder to confine myself to the necessary items that I planned to buy during the sales. The silly thing is, I bought only one of them; new pants, at H&M. But then I continued to buy some things I didn't really need, like a very lovely lace tunic at a store called SPS (Superstar), which had a 70% discount. I did search for the other items on my wish list, but just couldn't find them for a reasonable price. Oh well, I'll survive without them. I also received an order that I had placed a couple of weeks ago at a postorder company called Large. Both tops are pretty basic (just what I needed!), yet lovely:

The hardest part of my challange has only just begun...resisting to buy any new clothing at all for an entire year! Since I've run out of budget for January, I have decided to already start the challange. Despite the sales, I managed to stay away from clothing stores during this first week and I'm starting to think it might not be as hard as it seems. I did find out that two of my favorite brands have the first items of their new collection in store though...and of course they're all so pretty, argh!

These are some of the clothes I will need to resist buying:

- Black/yellow dress by Pussy Deluxe. A really cool item for summer! It's black, but quite sunny as well because of the daring yellow stripes.

-  A longtop by Queen of Darkness. Speaks for itself.

 - A litte black dress by Queen of Darkness. I love the doll-like quality it has!

 - A really nice v-neck top by Queen of Darkness:

 - Flower dress in fifties style by King Louie:

Either I'll have to keep on dreaming or find a way to to make similar clothes myself.... I wish I had more time to do the latter!

Changes

 Happy New Year to all of you!!!

As you can see, I’ve decided to continue writing this blog in English. I guess it will attract more readers and I had my doubts about writing in Dutch from the start anyway. Since this blog is also about long hair (despite no entries about the subject yet, but I promise they’ll come!), long hair lovers from different nationalities can now read my blog as well.

During the holidays I’ve done a lot of reflecting on 2010, which I guess is what most people (are forced to) do…:) Since I still have very little money to spend, not having a job just yet and still working on finishing my studies at university, it’s really not a good idea for me to reward myself with new clothes from time to time. I’d better focus on my sewing projects instead and on finding cheap solutions for any purchases, whether it’s food, hair products or other things I really enjoy buying. I don’t think it’s going to make this blog boring now, but rather more interesting! So stay with me and read about my creative solutions, I’d say…:) In order to stick to my promise to stop spending money on things I already have aplenty, I’ve made a decision; I’m not going to buy any new clothes for a whole year! I’m starting my personal challenge in February, so I can still profit a little from the January sales and buy some things that I’m really lacking. But after that it’s going to be tough…I’m really curious to find out how I’m going to react to this. Will it be extremely difficult, or not as hard as I’m expecting? I’m hoping it will not only help me cut down my expenses but also avoid the kind of consumer-oriented behaviour that I rather dislike when I really take the time to think about it. I have a closet full of pretty clothes and really don’t need anything more. Perhaps I will also be forced to become more creative with clothes and accessories and that is a very nice and entertaining prospect. I will not include lingerie, shoes and accessories in this challenge by the way…but I’ll try to limit buying those things as much as I can as well. Wish me luck!

On my wishlist for the January sales are mainly practical things:

-         longsleeves

(I have a shortage of them and wear them a lot underneath sweaters and t-shirts)

-         pants!

(I have only 2 wearable pants. I do wear a lot of skirts, but they’re not always comfortable or warm enough. I don’t like skinny jeans much, so I’m hoping to find some pants or jeans in bootcut-style…unfortunately this is very hard with the current fashion.)

- a long, comfortable skirt

( to wear during my future trip to Morocco, since short skirts are not always appreciated there)

-         a red top

(I love red, but I have very few items in this color...maybe I’ll come across something nice)

Last week I’ve already looked around a bit and I saw the discount is about 50% now. Besides looking for clothes, I’ve also paid a visit to The Bodyshop since they always have major sales there! This is what I took home with me:

Two very large versions of the regular shower gel bottles (now 9 euros a piece); 'olive' and 'moringa'! I’ve never seen these so large before, so I guess it’s a new addition. Then a normal sized almond shower gel (now 4 euros) and a 'wild cherry' body butter that I got for free (for sale for 10 euros) with my ‘Love your Body’ card. Including the 10% discount with the customer card, I ended up paying only 20 euros for all this. Since I already have three other body butters, I’m not going to buy any shower gel or body butter from The Body Shop for another year as well. We’ll see if my stash lasts that long, but I’m also using a lovely Lush shower gel that I got from my friend Joyce and it seems to be very long lasting. So I’m positive that I’ll be provided for a whole year!