ten things for 2013

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but of course there are things I would like to accomplish this new year of 2013, and other things I am particularly looking forward to. So without further ado I would like to present a selection of that, in no particular order.

1. I plan to sort out the hopeless wardrobe situation in our small flat, where I literally have clothes in every room except the kitchen. This neat organisation is very inspirational, and seems perfectly possible to accomplish, with some help.

2. I so wanna watch this movie as soon as possible, it opened here in Sweden on Friday and got raving reviews. I don’t really think movies are better in the cinema, but this one I wanna see on the big screen, sooner rather than later.

3. Shamefully I still haven’t read the first book Wildwood, but I shall, SOON, as I have now also got the equally beautiful sequel as seen above just waiting to be read.

4. I bought a perfect piece of fabric the other week, and I think it’s just enough to make a simple 1940’s summer dress. If only I could sew ... But I have some plans on how to make this happen anyway!

5. I definitely want to eat more Korean food, and plan to get a good cook book and some basic supplies and just get started! I love kimchi so much, and after having tasted Korean soy sauce I don’t want to have anything else with my tofu.

6. Very much looking forward to the release of Swedish Hasbeens new collection, even though I don’t buy that much because of the prices, I still love looking at them and dreaming of owning them.

7. This summer I would really like to rent a little cottage in the countryside, or preferably close to the sea, even if just for a short week. Sometime in the future the dream is to have our own place like this, but meanwhile renting would be just as nice just to get out of the city a bit more.

8. I have just watched the first 4 episodes of the absolutely AMAZING French tv series Les Revenants, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the first season, and just hope there will be many, many more to come in the future. This is one of the best things I have seen; beautiful and haunting and scary and heart breaking and interesting and disturbing and addictive and with a perfect soundtrack by Mogwai. Don’t miss it!

9. I have decided to attempt to make a tiny quilt, just to try it out, and because I had such lovely small pieces of different fabrics just lying around. Not at all sure how I am gonna do it, but will try it none the less, and won’t expect any miracles. If I just manage to pull it off at all I will be content, no matter how it looks!

10. I have also watched the first 8 episodes of The Walking Dead, season 3, and it is still awesome! It picks up again in February, and there are so many things going on I am kind of glad there’s a break now, it almost got too intense.

All in all I am pretty sure 2013 is gonna be a great year!

Andrew Wyeth and The Walking Dead

Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) is one of the great American realist painters, whose work I will surely never grow tired of looking at. Looking at some of his paintings online this morning, it suddenly hit me how much they remind me of The Walking Dead. That might obviously sound bizarre, especially if you haven’t watched this zombie tv show, but it turns out I’m not the only one having made that comparison. As you can read here, writer, director and producer Frank Darabont, has given it some thought. There is something threatening, yet serene, abandoned, yet haunted about Wyeth’s depicted scenes, and even if they are mere painted moments it’s as if time stands still – literally – in them. That is also the exact same feelings I get when watching The Walking Dead, which we did a few weeks ago. It has such a slow narrative, that really creeps under your skin, and you know the most horrible thing imaginable might happen at any second. I wasn’t at all prepared to get as into it as I did, especially since I generally don’t like post apocalyptic stories, but now I feel obsessed and cannot wait for October when season 3 starts. Eventually I will have to read the comics too, but for now I dare not spoil the continuation of the next season ...

All pictures belong to Andrew Wyeth.

Lena Dunham’s Girls

With no time to make a real blog post I thought I would just throw something up here real quick, and one of the things that has made me the happiest lately has been watching the first season of Girls. I find it refreshing in so many ways and on so many different levels, and I am so impressed by Lena Dunham who writes and directs and acts like nobody’s business. And it’s hilarious! Watch it now.

mad men about dresses

I've been treating myself to season 3 of Mad Men during the weekend, enjoying every second of it as usual. I've got the last two episodes left, and in a way I wanna save them, cos I know the long anxious wait for season 4 will start as soon as they're over. Some critics may claim that nothing much happens in this tv-show, or rather that the same thing happens over and over again: ad meetings, drinking and smoking excessively, adultery, suburb vs. manhattan, married life vs. single life, men vs. women. But to me that's part of the appeal, cos seriously: how exciting is every day life for most people? Of course I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the main reason why I love Mad Men so madly is the impeccable recreation of the 60's in clothing and interior design. Not so much the gender games, even though that can be interesting too, and often infuriating. Anyway, in one episode Peggy was wearing a very cute dress that reminded me of this one above. I got it at Judit's some 4 or 5 years ago, and I think it was about 200 kronor. It's polyester again, with a silk lining giving it a little bit better fit, and my guess is that it's from the 60's, especially after seeing Peggy's dress yesterday. I might have mentioned before that I really like the combination of geometrical patterns and more organic flowers or shapes.



Here's a little cute sailor dress that I cannot remember where I got it from, or what it cost. It's from Stockholm though, I'm almost sure about that, and I'm positive I like it a lot. It was also the perfect outfit when I went to the Maritime Museum in Stockholm in July 2007, to see the ongoing Tintin exhibition. Although I don't remember it that well cos of the exhibition, even though it was very nice indeed, I remember it that well cos of the company I had. Today we're married.



I wanted to include a final dress in green, a perfect find from the 'sale chest' outside of Emmaus in Götgatsbacken, Stockholm (the "trend" one in the middle), where everything costs 50 kronor. I'm not really sure about the material, it reminds me of polyester but is not as stretchy and smooth, it's got a bit of structure to it. It's as warm as polyester warm, if not even warmer, which makes it a perfect winter dress paired with some white wool tights and a cardigan. I've been told I look both like a 60's air hostess and a school girl wearing it, which is completely fine by me. I don't mind one bit, I love that putting on a dress can make you look like someone else. Or rather like me being something else, I guess. Although, I would argue as well, just for the sake of it, I'm every dress I've ever worn, and then some for the future. Just try and pin me down.