One week randomness.

I finally got to uploading the contents of my camera and according to it my life is rather strange. Chaotic, but pleasant. The above sign is from the door of the downstairs bathroom at the cafe/restaurant Babalú. You want to visit the place - you do! If not for their amazing downstairs bathroom then for the excellent coffee and paninis. :3

But really, visiting the place just to see the bathroom is also a legitimate reason. I would not judge you for it.

I admit the interior makes peeing difficult because all your concentration is roaming the surroundings and then suddenly you notice you've been sitting on the loo for who knows how long, not peeing.

A cake that I found on the large fridge downstairs. It says either "Live slow whenever" or possibly "Live slow die whenever", all depending on the smudged part in the middle. I did not make this cake and I assume Snu's mother didn't either but finding it really made my day!

I began a kimono scavenger hunt but then I realized that there's no way I'll ever have the time to complete it. This one was "dress up in kimono blindfolded and take a photo of the results". :D

Of course there was some lolying as well. 

A sign of either me being a total hack in survival skills or that I overdo fun things. Like knitting. Seriously, I have never heard of anyone knitting blisters to their fingers asjdalfjalsjfaljsfhaæ.

My only excuse is that I seriously do love knitting and that it even took me a long while to notice something was amiss. Spiderman band aids for the win though.

Ice cream dress to go eat Valdis ice cream!

First of all a shameless advertising: Valdis ice cream parlour in the harbour downtown sells amazing, self made ice cream. In self made waffle cones. The deliciousness is level crazy - on my first time there we had over 50 people in front of us in the queue and it was a Tuesday night at eleven o'clock...

It's well worth waiting for though, I must say. I can already recommend their pistachio, melon sherbet, mint, chocolate, almond cake and caramel with salted peanuts flavours (I've only gone there twice but I always beg for tasties from friends, so I know this from personal experience oh yeah!)(or you can just ask the staff, they'll let you try the flavours if you're not sure which one you want). Today when we went the queue was less crazy, less than ten people in front of us, but be prepared and don't go there if you're in a hurry.

To find the place, let's imagine you're standing in front of Harpa. You should walk towards Kolaportið and past it, past the library, straight ahead until you begin to see ships. Continue ahead past the sea museum (at this point you might see pastel colour lines painted onto the street, follow them) and when you arrive to a row of shops and restaurants, turn right. You'll see Valdis almost right away.

Ice cream JSK it was for a situation like this, oh yeah. In fact that's a strangely burando outfit for me, let's see:

JSK: EmilyTemple Cute

Shirt: Miho Matsuda

Socks: Innocent World

Shoes: Dinsko

Hairpieces: selfmade

What people search to find my blog.

One of my favourite tools is the one that shows which search words have directed people to my blog. The results go from no-brainers such as "lolita" to absolute wtf HOW AND WHY, so naturally I wanted to share.

Let's begin with the searches done during a week:

wa lolita: Well, I'm flattered but alas this blog may not be your best source. Here's some links to people smarter than me:

Lolita Fashion Wiki for the basics.

Make Lovely's article on the style covers it nicely and has a good list of advice on what to do vs. what NOT to do.

Sugar Bomb's Taking the ita out of wa-lolita.

tumblr.com pillory: Uh... I went to the tag but as you'd guess it it's full of porn. Sorry Sir/M'am cannot help you with this one!

breidholt-kaino.blogspot.com: why yes hello I really am me, it's absolutely delightful to see you, would you like some tea? Coffee?

gunne sax mekko: English: "gunne sax dress". This one maybe?

is lolita fashion cultural appropriation: It is not. No one's culture has been taken away and bastardized there. Lolita fashion leans on historical fashion styles and it's a street style, not an important piece of anyone's culture I'm sorry to say. Nothing in the influence of lolita fashion or the fashion itself is something that you'd have to earn before you can wear it either. So no, and don't go and claim it is CA unless you really are trying to cheapen the meaning of "cultural appropriation".

loli zone: wut

traditional viking garb: I can think of only one entry here that would somewhat fit this search. A more handy place to look for this info is here.

wa lolita hairstyles: the reason there isn't an entry for this here is that there is no "wa lolita hairstyle" other than any hairstyle that would go with lolita in general.

wa lolita top pattern: perhaps the garment that wa lolita takes the most of its influence from is a yukata, here's an excellent, detailed DIY guide with patterns etc. that you can use. Just shorten the pattern to your liking, add width and so forth if necessary.

Moving on, the next searches are all done within a month.

wa lolita: there's also a tag on the side.

obi site:blogspot.com: alas you seem to have arrived to a useless blog for that. :S I'd try to help you onward but I've no idea what, exactly, you were looking for - kitsuke? Different obis explained? Obis for sale?

ss pylsur: go here for your SS sausage.

don't wear wa lolita unless your - uuuuuuuuh I do hope that the next word was just cut because it didn't fit in the field. You searched for this a couple of times too didn't you? I'm sure you mean well but for future reference don't use that short J-word, it's pretty horrible.

tumblr.com pillory: you know what, FINE.

ADMIT IT THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO FIND

anesan musubi obi: instructions on how to make the basic anesan musubi here! 

bisque doll kainoliero: ??????

breidholt-kaino.blogspot.com: ya halo still correct.

bubble tea pancake in iceland: you are looking for this cafe. It's on Laugavegur downtown, walk towards Hlemmur and you won't fail to find it!

These were all more or less understandable, right? Well then let's move on to the searches done the whole time this blog has been in existence. Buckle up!

 patrick woodroffe: yes I've blogged about his work a lot, namely because he's my favourite artist evereverever. You might still find more of the good stuff here on his homepage though.

obi site:blogspot.com: the thing I just don't understand is how can I have that amount of hits in this search?!?

pamela anderson: WAT NO SERIOUSLY NOW

WHY

IT'S ON TRIPLE DIGITS EVEN

WHY

breidholt-kaino.blogspot.com: I'M NOT PAMELA I DON'T EVEN HAVE BOOBS

patrick woodroffe art: check the homepage!

cthulhu mittens: yes I have some. If you want some too go here, or here if you'd rather go for Kraken.

90's make up: FOR THE LAST TIME I. AM. NOT. PAMELA.

puffin knitting pattern: here, have fun with it!

breiðholt kaino: yes that is me. Not Pamela. There is no Pamela go away.

Happy now?

Lolitas are out!

So the aforementioned loli meet-up happened! This being Iceland the community is small, so it's more like friends hanging out at a cafe than a real meet-up meet-up but nevertheless I'm always eagerly awaiting for them. This time we went to a new bubble tea cafe on Laugarvegur (called Bubble tea and Pancakes Cafe) and the photo above is why you should definitely try it. The interior may look a little bit unfinished but trust me, the pancakes and the bubble teas are well worth it! 

Mine's a coconut+banana with tutti frutti jelly. K ordered a coffee one with coffee jelly - oh my Bob I'll have that the next time, it was so delicious! My pancake's just strawberries + chocolate sauce, a simple one but so good.

K's outfit of the day! I was too taken away by chatting and forgot to take a photo of her which made me sad. This photo is therefore lifted from her FB (with permission).

I did not, however, forget to take a photo of F! Always picture perfect.

Plus I love her shoes...

Next I will post two photos that will explain how I felt about yesterday:

That's a new hoodie by the way! Finished it just for the day and for once I have a lolita item that has handy pockets. :D

Outfit rundown:

Shirt+shoes: vintage

JSK+skirt+hoodie+accessories (the kanzashi flower): selfmade

As an additional photo have a look at our garden this morning. Tomorrow's supposed to be the first day of summer, according to the old calendar, we'll have to wait and see if Iceland can do a summer on schedule.

Happy bday to me one day early!

It's not quite my birthday yet but regardless me & boyfriend went to celebrate it a little! To me celebrating equals eating yummy stuffs so not surprisingly we headed for Bakarí Sandholt downtown.

Notice the almost identical pose. I'm good at replicating my own poses.

I have more or less given up trying to make my hair look tidy. It's just not worth the trouble and it always fails. Instead I've opted for a messy look to begin with as illustrated above, because no matter what the wind tries to do to it it'll still look messy.

Outfit rundown:

Dress: Lady Sloth

Skirt: selfmade

Shirts + necklace: vintage

Coat: Emily Temple Cute

Socks: Innocent World

Headdress: from a gift swap

Shoes + scarf + gloves: offbrand

But let's get to the main thing, CAKE. This is what I ate:

Chocolate cake with sour cherries. Oh my!

Coffee - black although it doesn't look that way, but the pale colour is actually due to foam on top of the coffee. Pistachio macaron, a HUGE one.

Chocolates and even more coffee!

And then some more things I would have gladly eaten if I had only had room for them after all the above:

I don't even know what these are but yes please.

Mmmmmmmmmmm cake pops (with leaf gold)...

I was visiting home and then I came back home.

Oh my, it feels like I was away for a long time! That might be because I actually was away, and that two weeks does count as a long time on the internets. Therefore it's only proper that I should now flood you with photos from Finland, yes. Beginning with a 4 a.m. view of Tampere because Tampere is a beautiful city in the summer and at its loveliest on those early morning hours when everything's quiet, except for the occasional car driving past.

More proof.

After Tampere we headed up north towards Ruovesi. On the way we stopped at a once upon a time travellers' home (they're called "kievari" in Finnish but alas, I've no clue how to translate that) named Kallenautio.

It now serves as a joint museum, art gallery and a cafe/restaurant. It also offers information on the cultural sights and festivals in the area.

This one was my favourite room.

Look at that wallpaper and furniture and that light and those colours and and and and and and

I used to have a bed like that, btw. I inherited it from my great gran and had it until I was too tall to sleep in it any longer. The construction is such that you can pull the ends further and further apart or fold the whole bed into a smaller, compact one for the day. 

However, mine was constantly pulled open and quite at its limits - a girl born in -79 was far better fed than a girl born in the beginning of the century, and grew therefore much taller. One night I woke up to a loud noise and a huge slam and realized that a) I was in a sitting position b) on the floor and c) had a vague idea that I had just kicked the end of the bed in my sleep and had successfully thrown it off its last few centimeters of hold. Soon after that a friend of mine sat through the bed in a similar manner and I got a new bed, sadly nowhere near as beautiful as the old one had been.

This house was used as both a museum and an art exhibition.

The main house where the cafe is. 

Ruovesi church.

I love that shade of blue!

I love church architecture. The older churches are not actually my favourites (all the ones I like best tend to be built sometime in the early to mid 1900's) but this one's so beautiful that I'm making an exception of it.

Cafe Kakkugalleria, Helsinki.

Kakkugalleria had been recommended to me countless of times by various people so naturally I had to go and try it. A quick look at their web pages tells me they now have at least four cafes around Helsinki, but the one I went to is on Fredrikinkatu 41. 

As you can see, I had quite awesome company on the wall. :D

By interior Kakkugalleria is an extremely Finnish cafe. Very plain, simplified to the maxx, complete with linen items and decorated with some random creative ideas. It's design makes it an ideal place for large groups of people.

Here's what's so special about the place: they sell their cakes in half slices. That is, when you buy a slice you can either have only one type of cake, or two. They also have an eat-all-you-can buffet!

I had lemon meringue pie and strawberry tartelette. Om nom.

Look at them. Just LOOK at them! This is what I desperately miss from my home country, the cakes. Apologies Iceland, I'll change my mind when I find a cake serving place even close to the level of Kakkugalleria.

The selection of tea is also noteworthy!

I duly sampled it too.

Another photo of the interior. Yup, very plain. Be prepared for this in Finland (nnnngh I just got a bit homesick)! :D