oslo, 22.07.2011

things like this only happen elsewhere.

suddenly everything seems unreal.

the silence after the blow is uncanny. eerie.

i'm ok, i think.

back from paris

last saturday we came back from paris. we rented a wonderful tiny apartment (found here via nano) close to the gare du nord, and enjoyed our time there tremendously, despite the weather being mostly cloudy and rainy.



in no particular order or preference, we did indulge in the following:

we...
* ate (and bought) lots of good cheese
* drank lots of cheap wine (we found a fantastic wine bar in montmartre)
* took a trip up the eiffel tower and felt seasick 300m up in the air
* drank tea and bought macarons at ladurée
* took a tour on the canal (which was mostly nice, but rather longish due to dubble-locks and other obstacles such as unlifted bridges taking lots of time)
* ate lots of croissants for breakfast
* drank more wine
* bought perfume, a green beret and kusmi tea as souvenirs



* visited the louvre and stared at the masses staring at mona lisa (however, i was amazed by the raft of the medusa. it really was as awe-inspiring as i thought it would be.)
* visited notre dame and sacre coeur
* got engaged on our 5th anniversary in a little park on montmartre
* ate lots of fantastic french food (there were two amazing restaurants just around the corner from where we stayed, called Chez Michel and Chez Casimir - i heartily recommend both of them!)
* saw the kubrick exhibition at the cinematheque francaise (best exhibition i saw in a long time)

june afternoon

on the first june weekend, my favourite person and i went on a walk to explore the neighbourhood. there are lots of lovely old buildings, with ornaments and greenery on the facade. since oslo consists of more than just a few mountains, quite a number of those houses are built into steep hillsides, with staircases in between. when walking up one of those flights of stairs, we found this hidden side-entrance:







we also came across a couple of really old lilac trees, and i couldn't resist climbing one of them.





skirt and socks: h&m
t-shirt: monki
bag: vintage
shoes: dinsko

off to paris

when you read this we're off to paris, to celebrate our 5th anniversary.



in no particular order or preference, we thought we would indulge in the following:

eat lots of good cheese
drink lots of cheap wine
see the eiffel tower
eat lots of macarons
take a tour on the canal
eat lots of croissants
drink more wine
sniff some perfume
visit the louvre
sit in nice parks
eat lots of baguette
see the kubrick exhibition at the cinematheque francaise
buy kusmi tea

i'm sure it's going to be a splendid trip!

pina

a movie i long to see.

PINA - Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost - International Trailer from neueroadmovies on Vimeo.

an evening at the theatre

on saturday we went to the national theatre to see fanny and alexander, which had its last performance that night. the play was intense and engaging, it had humour and tension, depth and darkness. and wonderful costumes! we sat in the first row, so i was able to see all those detailed pieces of clothing almost in close-up - a great experience.



even though i have seen a lot of ingmar bergman's films, i am ashamed to admit that i still haven't seen fanny and alexander (we had planned to see it on dvd before we would see it at the theatre, but somehow that didn't happen). have you seen any films by ingmar bergman? maybe fanny and alexander? what did you think?



i used the opportunity of a long evening at the theatre to dress up, and chose to wear one of my best vintage dresses. it is a cotton maxidress by the finnish designer brand Kaisu Heikkilä, with a typical 70s flower pattern and fantastic cape-detail at the shoulders, instead of sleeves. i love it!



dress: vintage, kaisu heikkilä
shoes: dna
bag: daisy

easter outfit

over easter we went to visit my boyfriend's family in sweden. the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the sun and company. on top of that, we took an outfit-shot and i got to enjoy some terrific thriftshopping =)



t-shirt, jacket: h&m
shorts: zara
boots: dr.martens
bag: daisy

details

i thought i'd share a few details from the new living room - the rest of the apartment still looks like it came right out of a moving van, and we've had a minor dishwasher incident which needs to get fixed in the kitchen before i can start showing it to the world...



to get one of those ikea expedit shelves was one of the best ideas we've had - we can hide a.'s workstation behind it and it has lots of space for thrift-finds (for example, it fits our brother de luxe typewriter perfectly), books and dvds.



old picture frames waiting for pictures, and next to it a flower i gave to my favourite person in the world on our first day together. he framed it, which is such a wonderful thing to do.



i found this set in uppsala in march, when i visited a friend and went on a couple of thrifting trips. the creamer doesn't belong to the set but i think it fits perfectly into the family.



a souvenir from the norwegian opera and ballet!



i got myself those roses for my birthday, but alas, they wouldn't survive very long. i'm glad i took this picture before they died (and really, i don't know what i did wrong.. do such miniature roses need lots of water or only very little? much sunshine or not?). i bought both the flower pot and the vase at a fleamarket this spring, and the creamer was a thrift find as well. my mother gave the candle holder to me as a present when i was 16 or 17. i remember that she got it at an arts and crafts market in nürnberg - our family had gone there together and she had a hard time distracting me from the stand with those candle holders so that she could buy one for me. i don't know how she managed but it really was a total surprise when i unwrapped the small parcel a few weeks later.

three finds

this spring has been really lucky for me when it comes to fleamarkets and thrifting opportunities. maybe it's because i became more interested in actually researching the when and where and what i'd like to spend on which kinds of items, which led to reading more blogs about vintage furniture and interior design and things like this. which in turn led to me being more informed and more specific about what i want and what i am willing to pay.



i found an old beat up trumpet perfect for decorating the living room - for 100kr it was mine and i think that was a fair price.



in norway, traditionally most fleamarkets take place in schools and are organized by the school band. everyone can donate old stuff and on one weekend in spring and one in autumn you can come back and buy everything for random prices (at least they seem random and depend largely on when you buy and with whom you pay - some parents really don't have a clue and others know very well the worth of the items they are selling). the trumpet above was reasonably priced, but the man selling it to me could have just as well said 50 or 500kr - you just never know before asking.










fee was very happy about finding her pretty yellow olympia typewriter for 4eur at the fleamarket - i think my dove blue brother de luxe for 50kr is just as perfect. i guess it comes from the 1950s, and since it is norwegian it has all the fancy strange letters, but no exclamation mark!





last but not least, i found a really cool lamp to use as a reading light in the evening. those fleamarkets are very well organized, so i could try it out to see how it works before i bought it. isn't the colour brilliant?

these were three of my of my larger finds this spring, and i think they fit just fine into our new apartment...

a sunday outfit

i finally got around taking an outfit picture in the new apartment last sunday. it took me a while to find a spot that has ok lighting and is not too crowded by boxes and stuff. in the background you can see our wonderful new-to-us ikea expedit. it showcases our books and dvds and some of my fleamarket finds, while at the same time hiding the computer/workspace my favourite person in the world wanted to have for himself. which is really ok with me - i prefer to sit at the table on the other side of the room.



skirt: only
white top and blazer: h&m
tights: lindex
boots: don't remember (i bought them in a fancy shoestore in lüneburg a couple of years ago)

breakfastparty

it was my birthday last saturday, and i invited some friends over for breakfast. having a breakfastparty is something i really love doing - no trouble with neighbours, it's easy to prepare and always appreciated by the guests who get a fancy meal before heading for work or whatever else they have planned for the day...



i got lots of flowers and other nice presents - a pressure cooker from my parents (practical!), some kusmi tea (anastasia, delicious!) and best of all, a boat trip to copenhagen in the beginning of may!!!



by the way, this is not the breakfast from saturday, but the leftovers on sunday morning =) we had carrot cake, rhubarb muffins and fruitsallad (one kiwi was all that was left from that..). and tea and orange juice.

fjällräven - a green mountain fox

i'm not usually a person wearing a backpack. i have a large one for travelling, but other than that i'm quite happy with my regular handbags. however, i make one exception, and i've talked about getting one of those particular pieces of swedish design-history for more than a year now. the fjällräven kånken.



shotgun-jenna asked, on behalf of online-shop weare, if anyone was interested in reviewing the fjällräven kånken and i jumped at this chance to get one for free. so i gladly say thank you very much, and tell you all that, if you live in austria or my homecountry germany, you can order your very own kånken backpack here (if you live anywhere else, you can do a quick search on the internets to find any alternative sellers for your country). i'll do a wild guess and say that weare probably has the most diverse collection of colours available, at least it seems like it.



i was allowed to pick one of six colours, which wasn't an easy task (especially since my absolute favourites, ox red and brick, were not amongst them) - bright yellow or traditional military green? in the end i picked moss, a light apple green which is probably one of the few colours i don't have in my wardrobe. it will make for interesting outfits, and it surely is another case of instant spring!



the fjällräven kånken really is perfect for such everyday activities as picknicks and thrifting tours - which i have already tested meticulously on an extensive thrifting weekend. you can easily fit a bottle of something, some sandwiches, two glasses and some fruit and a camera in the main compartment. alternatively a couple of books, vintage skirts and a flower pot. the design is classic outdoorsy, with it's boxy form and the round red fox logo on the front. also, very smart, the back padding doubles as a small mat to sit on when you're out and about in the woods and need a little spontanious rest. actually, the only thing i'm missing with this backpack is shoulder padding. i have seen other kånkens with padded shoulder straps, so i'm not sure why this model doesn't feature them.

anyhow. i'm very happy with my kånken and will use it extensively this coming summer. and who knows, i might just go along and get a second one. in some shade of red and with shoulder padding.

new home

we moved. now we have a larger apartment with a real kitchen (as opposed to mini-kitchenette) in a more quiet part of the city. we also have this on the ceiling:



isn't it wonderful? now we'll need to find a lamp worthy of hanging there.

i also got the news today that i will start as an intern at "Film fra Sør", a filmfestival for films from africa, south america and asia. fine things are happening!

paris

we are going to paris this june!



picture from here

since i've never been there, i'm naturally very excited - both to see the city and to see if my rusty french will stand the test of reality...

do you have any suggestions of what to do and what to see and where to eat and what to avoid? please share! the internet offers such an overwhelming amount of possibilities and tips and whatnot that i have become positively confused and would prefer to hear some personal best of paris tips..

märta

ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce: my thrift find of the year! can you guess what this is? i can tell you that she is called "märta", and she is swiss made.





the story behind märta is as follows. i visited a friend in sweden last week, and on the first evening of my visit she showed me this thing and asked me to guess what it was. of course i didn't have a clue and after some unsuccessful guessing she told me. it's such a smart thing to have! she also told me she had found it at a thriftstore and had never seen another one like it since.



a few days later i went thrifting on my own and guess what i found! but, the inner part was missing. so i searched around for at least ten minutes when i suddenly saw the inner part on one of the shelves - guess how happy i was (jumping up and down trying not to show too much excitement for fear of the shopowner raising the humble price of 25 kronor...)! and of course the first thing i did was sending an sms to my friend, asking her to guess what i just then had found =)

edit: cara came quite close. it's a juice press for lemons and oranges and lime! you know how lime can be a little difficult to squeeze and you never get all the juice out of it? well, märta takes care of that now...

spring on a brooch

svenja held a give-away with selfmade bow-brooches, and i won one of them. i was allowed to pick the pattern myself and chose this one with pink flowers and light brown stripes:



it fits perfectly with my bright yellow cardigan.. another case of instant spring, this time on a brooch! thank you so much svenja!

sunshine in small doses

when i think about spring i get really homesick.. i hear it is 15°C in germany, with sunshine and snowdrops and crocuses and ice-cream!





so, until the sun finally decides to come out and melt all the snow away we have to make do with sunshine in the form of colourful sunny tulips...



instant spring for little money!

new old things

this last year i've tried not to buy too many new things for the kitchen/apartment/livingroom, because we were supposedly to move away soon enough and i wouldn't want to pack it all into boxes to haul it to the other end of the world. also, norway is really expensive, even when you go thrifting and buy secondhand. however, here are a few things i bought a couple of weeks ago:





matching sugar bowl and creamer, to be used as candle holders (the costa boda "snowball" was a guest present form my swedish exchange partner back in 1998). i also got the table cloth quite recently at a thrift store - i love the print!



salt shaker and toothpick holder, in a wonderful art deco inspired stand. the pepper caster is missing, but that's nothing to be worried about since i prefer fresh ground pepper. now i'm looking for a nice vintage pepper mill...

slow sunday

i have a little cold, so i take a slow sunday and don't do that much. apart from reading blogs, getting lots of ideas for our new apartment (we'll be moving in two weeks), drinking tea and packing my bags for a short trip to sweden. i'll visit friends and since we'll invade the local thrift stores and fleamarkets i pack very lightly - my luggage will probably be a lot heavier on my way back.. this is todays outfit:



a comfortable dress with pockets, warm tights and a nice belt.

dress: zara
belt: vintage

rabbit ring

as you might know, i kind of started to collect rings. it wasn't really intentional, but i love wearing them, at least two or three at a time, and i love variety. so, i thought i'd give it a try and show my little collection here on the blog. not necessarily on a weekly basis, but a piece every now and then.



i have admired bjørg jewellery for a long time, and at one point last year i decided to buy one of the pieces that struck me the most: the rabbit ring. it has tiny ears and small crystal eyes, but looks really like grown up rabbit who might just start talking to you, telling you stories of all his wild adventures...



i ordered it online but was a bit unsure about the sizing, so the ring turned out to be a tiny bit too small. that means, i can only wear it on cooler days when my fingers don't swell up - nothing for a hot summer day. well, we don't get too many of those here in norway.. however, it is also a piece that one could easily wear with a chain, as a necklace. do you have any rings that you keep even though they don't really fit?

dirndl

just as svenja and dotti, i love a pretty vintage dirndl.



i bought this one last summer during our trip to helsinki. i had to take it in a little and shortened it, and since then it has been well worth the 4 euro i spent on it.



it has a lovely print with small austrian ladies and gentlemen (mark the gun!).





yesterday, i wore it quite traditionally, with a white cotton blouse with ruffles and lace trim, and with a necklace i won a while back at vintage, a love story.

dirndl: vintage
blouse: mango
necklace: carnosa
tights: c&a
boots: goertz via ebay