buy one, get two for free

Since winter is showing no sign whatsoever to leave, quite the opposite in fact, I thought it was only fair to treat myself to a new cardigan. I found this adorable, light mint green, 50's looking angora cardy at H&M for 299 kronor, and I simply couldn't resist it. So I didn't.



I love the details, especially on the elbows. Unfortunately I don't see that wearing it, but you can't get everything I guess. It feels good to know it's there all the same.



The same day as I discovered Lina Bodén as an awesome illustrator, I suddenly spotted this little tin box in the grocery store. Imagine my happiness to find out you got it for free, buying a packet of sanitary pads. So now I can carry Lina Bodén's art around in my purse. Thank you very much!



Going to Lindex to buy some hairpins yesterday, I got stuck in a line for a very long time and started browsing whatever was close to the register. Very last minute I decided to let this cute owl ring come home with me, after all it only cost 50 kronor. Turns out I got if for free. I didn't realise this until I got home, when I checked the receipt, because I was in a hurry. Normally I'm an honest person, I would let them know they're making a mistake. Not this time though, I'm keeping the owl, for free. It was meant to be.

Okay, enough of the lame rhyming, I must save some for Valentine's tomorrow.

i heart lina bodén

Yesterday I fell in love with an artist's work. This particular artist is Swedish, she is amazing, and her name is Lina Bodén. As we're just experiencing yet another snow storm here in Stockholm, I very much feel the need to stay indoors and finding inspiration elsewhere. Especially floral inspiration like Lina Bodén's paintings. I mean just look at these pictures, they're simply fantastic.





This is from a coming book cover of a new classic series being published in Sweden later this spring, Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster.



And in the same series this is for one of my childhood's absolute favorite books, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I just loved that book to bits. Well, I still do actually, some things just don't change that much.



Cover for Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.



And finally a cover for Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I am definitely getting my hands on these books when they're coming out. Not only for the beautiful covers, but also because I don't own them, I've just read library copies.



More Alice in Wonderland.















Seahorse! Giant blueberries! Chandeliers! Okay, enough with the exclamation marks. Just go to Lina Bodén's website and check everything else out. I will keep my eyes on her work from now on, rest assured I will.

darling buds of mine

Bleak is the winter light 'tis season. Very pale pink roses with just a hint of green edges are my favorites, so I got a plant with some for myself yesterday. So pretty!



I'm gonna try real hard to keep it alive until spring is here. Today it was raining. It means it's not as cold, but completely miserable and dangerously slippery while the snow is melting. I want the streets to be bare again, so I can go out for proper walks. I even bought myself a pair of bright red sneakers the other day on the final sale, and I want to start using them as soon as possible. Maybe you didn't see me as a sneakers kind of gal, and I'm not really, but obviously one has to make the ocassional sensible decision sometimes. My new thing for wedge heels is hardly ideal for long walks along the water, which is what I love taking (but don't do as often as I should). I had a pair of lovely Campers sneakers, but they are so worn out now the soles just about got holes. Then I got another pair that are completely impossible to break in, and give me horrible bleeding heel chafing. These new ones seems soft enough though, and I hope we'll get along.



On the budding theme I hereby present another couple of beautiful jewellery pieces that has been handed down to me from my grandmother. These silver earrings I think are from the 50's or 60's, and I love the oxidation on them. It gives them such lovely character. They're screw on's, and a bit painful to wear because I'm also scared of losing them and usually screw them on too hard.



I don't know if this bracelet originally came with the earrings, or if they just happen to match each other. Either way this is definitely one of my favorite pieces, it's simply gorgeous, don't you think?

dreamy dresses

I'm in love. Seriously. Just look at this amazing piece of clothing! I love love love it! It's a Bettie Page Clothing dress and I truly believe it was made for me. The colours, the cut, the collar, the buttons. Thank you very much. The only downside is that they didn't just give it to me, and I don't pay this much for a single piece, as a principle. Maybe it's a silly principle, I don't know, cos it's not that I couldn't afford it if I really wanted to. I just don't like paying a lot for anything, I like bargains and getting many things rather than just the one item. I've always been like that, and can't just change. In case you're wondering what I won't pay for the perfect dress, it's $137.



While on the subject of lovely new dresses, I also found this dreamy thing at Sivletto. It's from Fever and costs £74.99. I do love the cut and the colour and the pattern a lot, but mostly I love that it's called Calligraphy dress, even though I don't know why. As far as I can see it's got a rose pattern, and roses are not calligraphic. But I find that intruiging, has it by any chance got a calligraphic lining that doesn't show in the picture? Will my calligraphic skills improve when I wear it? Did a calligrapher design it? Either way I love roses almost as much as calligraphy, but this is also above my principle price so I guess I'll just keep dreaming of finding it in a vintage store eventually, when some crazy girl with my size has gotten bored with it. It could happen you know!

floral interlude

I'm fortunate enough to have a very talented hobby gardener as a neighbour, and thanks to him we have the most amazing and beautiful flowers in front of our house in the whole of Stockholm. Mostly alcea rosea (or hollyhock) in an array of colours, but also regular roses and clematis climbing the walls. They're suffering a bit from the heat at the moment, as am I, but I hope they'll make it a few more weeks at least. Let's take a closer look at these beauties.





























I decide on a new favourite colour every day, cos how could I ever choose one when there are so many lovely? Today it's this pretty in pink that I can't take my eyes off.

pimped dresses and buttons undone

I decided to make a tenee tiny puff sleeve for the cute cotton dress I got last week. And with the new slip underneath I felt quite pretty wearing it for the first time last Thursday. When it turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer, the first of many actually, I almost regretted it though, especially the slip felt too hot. Luckily I had the day off, and could change into a somewhat cooler dress. But when it's as hot as it is now, there's no escaping, except in the supermarket's cooler room, while eating icecream.



The red dress definitely looks better with the white buttons, in my opinion. I also added a little black and white ribbon on the pockets, to make them stand out just a little bit more. I really like this dress too, it feels very casual while being pretty and special at the same time. The only flaw is that it gets so wrinkly, as you can see. And I really hate ironing!



When it comes to the black and white gingham dress I'm having a hard time deciding on which buttons to choose. The plain red ones, that I like cos they look modest in a way, make the dress look more everyday-like, which is good cos I've got a lot of dressy-dresses already. On the other hand the pink rose buttons are so incredibly cute, and make the dress look completely different, which is just as appealing. What to do, what to do? Maybe choose the pink ones for a month, and then change for the reds?

kitschy colours will make my day

Today Stockholm reminded me of a lot of things I had forgotten. Mainly how incredibly beautiful parts of it are, and that some of those parts are just a five minute walk from my house. I've got a plan, or a project, not only for my apartment, but also for me this summer. Most of that plan involves long walks along the water, sucking out the essence of the short warm season we've got up here. This morning I took the first long walk, and it was quite inspirational.



I saw a lot of flowers, and trees, and plants. And bumblebees. Very idyllic indeed. The idyll was interrupted on a regular basis though, when people with way too little, or just the wrong clothes were jogging past. Why can't people just get clothes that look normal and fit them, in general, but particularly when they're out running? All the more reason for me to look at the surroundings. Picture above is a detail from a small Indian poster my brother gave me a few years ago. I was on a rose hunt in my apartment earlier, inspired of all the nature I saw outside.



Here's a close-up on a very cute apron from Coctail, one of my all time favorite stores in Stockholm, on Skånegatan. There was a time when it was one of few things that had a real therapeutic effect on me. Just going into the store, being immediately surrounded by fairylights, plastic roses, mexican candy skulls, rubber neon lizards, handpainted enamel plates, and other wonderfully tacky and equally beautiful kitsch in mostly very strong colours, well it just lifted my spirit from whatever hole it had sunk into. We've all got our comfort zones, mine is kitsch heaven. I guess that's why I surround myself with a lot of it in my home, cos they help to keep me in a good mood.



After quite a few years of adding up to a fair amount of colourful kitschy items carefully placed around my place (soon to be our place as soon as my husband gets here of course), I've actually reached a point when enough's enough. A point I don't really see being reached when it comes to my vintage dress collection. Anyway, this is a tote bag a friend of mine got me after having admired hers so much. I just love it!



Especially in the morning it's important to wake up properly, and pretty red and pink plastic placemats can help a little bit. These are from Åhléns. I get new placemats quite regularly, it's such an easy and rather cheap way of giving your kitchen a mini-make-over.



I gave my kitchen a more complete make-over maybe 6 years ago, except that it didn't involve any painting. It started with me buying two extra chairs at IKEA, cos I only had two, and they were turquoise. Back then most of my kitchen was green, and not the kind of green that really went well with turquoise, so I started to exchange most things during a period of time. The two chairs I had from the start, were given to me from a friend of a friend who was moving, and I wanted to change the seats. So once again I went to Coctail and found this lovely Chinese rose and peonese fabric for the chairs.



Some time later Indiska had this supercute pillow case, and needless to say I just had to have it. I've said it before, and I'll repeat myself: I've got a serious thing for the combination of red, pink and turquoise, especially when it involves roses and peoneses.



If I remember correctly, this lovely vintage rose tin was a find from my hometown some summers ago. There's a flea market down in the harbour sometimes, and I found this and an amazing book I need to look for in the basement and share here. It's really quite incredible, you have to believe me until you can see for yourselves.



More Chinese roses and peoneses on a little box that I keep old photographs in. I've been meaning to sort them out for ages now, both picking out the good ones and putting them in albums, and throwing out the bad ones, and there are quite a lot of them. It would also be fun to scan a bunch of them, now that everything must be so digital all the time. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course. But for now the photos will stay safe in the box for a while longer.



Finally another buy from Indiska, a plastic tray that I've mounted on the wall. It's a bit weird that a lot of the Chinese looking things I've got come from Indiska (meaning Indian in Swedish), don't you think? Well I don't mind where they come from really, as long as they make me smile around my house, giving me injections of very much needed colour and kitschy therapy.