Merry Christmas to one and all!

Sorry for the silence, it’s just been too lovely to be on vacation with no musts other than seeing family and friends and eating lots of delicious food most of the time! Sometimes I guess you don’t even realize how much you need this downtime until you experience it for real, and it’s been a while since the last time. Not that browsing blogs and updating here ever feels stressful, but it’s still pretty nice not doing it for a while. I also love being back in Durban! It’s been a bit too hot the last few days, but today was just perfect with cloudy skies and slightly cooler winds. So this is just a quick post to say “howzit”, and also to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS! I’ll be back next year, if not sooner, but can’t promise anything ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In just a few hours we are on our way south again! Even though I am not too good with the heat that awaits us, I will sure be very happy to get more daylight and see lush greens and flowers everywhere. And it will obviously be amazing with a five week holiday together, meeting up with family and friends and getting to cuddle with our three cats and one dog! Yes, it will be very nice indeed. I am not sure when we will be online again, but I guess that would be a normal part of a holiday, to stay offline? Eventually I will be back for sure, and in the meantime, if you don’t hear from me before then: have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year!

christmas is in the tiny details

 

Today I ate my christmas food for this year, and it was quite delicious. Being a vegetarian, or pescetarian actually (I just don’t like that word really) the traditional Swedish christmas spread doesn’t really excite me if I don’t get to cook myself. Although I love all the different kinds of pickled herrings and smoked or cured salmons, having this food once a year is quite enough for me. Now I’m gonna enjoy our small christmas decorations one last weekend, while we pack and sort out everything at home for some guests that will stay here while we are away.

Check out my tiny little santas, aren’t they the cutest? The little doily is from my grandmother.

 

This pretty little table cloth is a thrift store find I made a few years ago, and the perfectly matching candle holder we find at the tiniest flea market I’ve ever been to a few weekends ago. It only cost 10 kronor (about 10 rand)!

Here you can see the candle holder a bit better, very 60’s indeed. We’re doing the advent lighting with the candles, that’s why one candle has been lit.

Without a christmas tree one must take what one’s got if one wants to hang up some tiny decorations, so that’s what I did!

behind the scenes

Last Thursday I got to take part of a photo shoot for a book that’s coming out next year. It was very exciting, even though I was mostly just admiring everything, like all these incredibly beautiful things mostly from the 1920’s. I wanted to secretly smuggle most of this into my bag, and silently leave the set ... I didn’t stay for the whole shoot, because we wanted the rather young model to feel as comfortable as possible in front of the camera, with no strangers around. So I don’t know what got used in the end, but I will show the end result later on.

Pretty pretty shoes! Too narrow for the model though, but they might have been used in the setting.

Lovely hairbands with feathers. Oh, I truly love the 1920’s, it’s the best kind of glamour I know.

Hat pins that could actually be used as murder weapons, which led to them being forbidden. Shame on such pretties! But I guess good too, and since I never wear a hat, what would I do with them?

This mask is not vintage, but very handsome and fancy still.

This was just for props, a vintage camera from the 1920’s, so incredibly beautiful! What a handcraft. Supposedly it still works, but the photographer had no film for it. She used another gorgeous one from the 50’s though, apart from a modern digital one. The book is mainly set in the 1920’s, and the final picture will be hand coloured to really look the part. I can’t wait to see the end result.

This is what the camera looks like folded out, just look at the mechanics! Amazing, I say. Nowadays no tech stuff seems to last more than a couple of years, this beauty is almost 100 years old and still working.

early christmas gifts

I have a very good friend who shares my passion for vintage, amongst other things. Not surprisingly we like gifting each other thrift store finds, and since me and the husband are spending the holidays in Durban we did the christmas gift exchange early this year. I got a big thing and a small thing, and the big thing very perfectly fit in to my little christmas decoration in the kitchen window.

It’s a beautiful wooden box for treasures and keepsakes, with the prettiest handpainted flowers.

And hidden inside was this darling treasure! A small, intricately decorated golden cat pin. I love it!

Being from the cold part of the world, I find it difficult to get into the same kind of christmas spirit when we’re in Durban, so I’m trying to suck the most out of it now. Of course the best thing about the holidays is to not be working and getting to spend quality time with the family, which we will do plenty of with my husbands family that it’s been way too long since we saw last. I am very much looking forward to that for sure!

Christoffer Pettersson

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to get to work with this brilliant illustrator for a work project, and I just wanted to share some of his latest updates. His name is Christoffer Pettersson and I think he is one of the best ones out there right now.

All pictures belong to Christoffer Pettersson.

cushion covers to covet

A bunch of awesome cushion covers from webstore Envelop, too many to choose from! I have decided to wait a bit before I get some anyway, maybe I will find the perfect ones in Durban? In just one week we’re on our way south and I cannot wait! There are so many things and so many people I have missed in my second hometown, it will be great to see everything and everyone again. Not to mention how great it will be with a 5 week vacation ... Unbelievable.

book cover of the day

I don’t know how much I would actually cook from a book like this, seeing that I have a hard time following recipes and I can’t say I’m that into American food to begin with. That feels like a risky statement to make though, and I guess it’s mostly based on prejudices I have about American food in general, that is what makes it to my part of the world too. I much prefer other cuisines to American. Anyway, this post isn’t at all about the food really, it’s about the wonderful graphic design of this book cover. It is designed by Mucca Design and published by Rizzoli International, and I still want it just to feel the weight of it, and look at the equally well designed inside pages and pictures.

Dreamy dresses from StutterinMama’s

I am slowly getting in the mood of heading south in about a week and a half, when we’re going down to Durban for a long, well deserved vacation with my husband’s family and all our friends there. Although this autumn has been unusually mild, and still is, it will obviously be a big difference from 5-10 degrees to 30-35 degrees. I like being able to wear tights and cardigans and coats with my dresses and skirts, but it will be nice to just throw a cotton dress on, slip my feet into sandals, and be ready for the day. Here are some beautiful 50’s summer dresses from StutterinMama’s Etsy shop I wouldn’t mind packing. Floral print in turquoise and purple.

I love this colour combination like mad! Green and turquoise striped cotton dress.

And predictably there’s a red and white gingham dress in this mix.

This somewhat tropical leaf print dress in green is just lovely.

Finally an adorable white cotton dress with heartshaped flowers and a nice corset waist.