cold and cloudy with a hint of summer

So I'm back in Stockholm now, slowly easing back into my life here. It's been pretty cold and rainy, but with a few hints of sunny summer, like today when I luckily was carrying my camera and took a few shots in my neighbourhood. The lilacs are still in bloom, but unfortunately the chestnut trees are not. Well, you can't get it all I guess.



A pretty rose hip flower just outside the little church that I live next to. It's weird to come home, to my other home, after three months, and sort of expecting things to have changed while at the same time assuming everything's the same. Cos I am. For now the big difference I'm noticing is the overall royal wedding frenzy, which I hope will cool down after the actual wedding next weekend. Not that it's more frantic than the world cup craze I've just left behind, but that I can understand better, even though I'm not a football fan.



It's a bit surreal to have a small meadow next doors, and I really live in the middle of the city, but there you have it. There are still things to unpack, shelves to fill, clothes to iron, friends to pick up with where you left off, picnics to enjoy in the parks, work to get done, new music to listen to, magazines to catch up on reading, and of course: lots and lots of vintage dresses just waiting for me in the shops.



But I'll try and behave, at least until I've unpacked all of my clothes, and hopefully realised how many dresses I've already got. The nice thing about getting back to this cold weather is that it gives me room to wear some of my favorite polyester dresses, and tights. I like tights. I also think it's pretty funny to watch the ever optimistic Swedes in summertime, wearing jeans, long sleeved shirts, jackets, scarves – and naked feet in sandals. When I'm cold, the first thing I cover up is my feet.



The long bright nights are very nice to get back to as well, even though I'm still slightly tired from my long journey, and being thrown back into social life not leaving that much time for resting. Which I didn't need that much, but as most Sunday nights go, I suddenly feel the weekend was too short and tomorrow morning I'm going back to the office for the first time in three months. Not that I haven't been working during this time, but it'll still be different. Luckily we've got a very beautiful backyard at work, where it's really nice to have coffee, so I'm very much looking forward to getting back to that. I guess the rest will follow.

so this is goodbye, for now, dear durban

I'm about to head north again, back to ole Sweden and the island city of Stockholm. From the Indian Ocean to the Baltic Sea, from palm trees to birches, from bunnies to tunnbrödsrullar, from one home to my other, from one part of my family to the rest of them. I'll miss everything dearly, and will surely be back many times again. And again. The thing about being a couple from two countries is that you have to say goodbye a lot, but you also get to feel that bittersweet longing while you're apart, and get the butterflies every time you're waiting or arriving at the airport.



And you get to see so many things you might not have seen before, and when you get back to each place you get to see old places with new eyes. A lot of things stay the same, but a lot of things changes, and so it should be. I wouldn't want to be the same person I was 4 years ago. Not that there was anything wrong with me back then, but I like what's become of me since. I've become somewhat of a globetrotter, I guess you could say. And a wife. Who would've known? Not me, that's for sure. But there you have it.

So, for the time being, goodbye dear Durban, don't forget about me. I'll think of you often. And Stockholm, please put on your prettiest summer outfit, and I'll do the same.

essenwood essentials

Yesterday we were supposed to visit the I Heart Market, but since it had temporarily moved we decided to go to Essenwood Market instead, which was my first time there. It was a nice market, and it carried a lot of the same things that my three fave stores in the city (NSA Gallery, African Arts Centre, and Euphoria), alongside with lots of other different this and that's. I really didn't intend to buy anything, since my packing is nearly done and I don't have a lot of leftover space for more stuff, but of course I couldn't walk away from this adorable tiny Audrey Hepburn jewellery box. 30 rand it cost me, and I did get the smallest size, which should fit a small corner in my suitcase.



At first I walked away from the table that sold Hruki t-shirts, cos all of them have such good designs and I just couldn't decide which one I liked the most. But after we had a late breakfast at La Bella just next to the market, I went back and got this one, cos that was the one my mind went back to while I sipped my cappuccino. I also got another piece as a gift for someone, and I think, and hope, it will be much appreciated. The thing is, I'm not really a t-shirt person, but every now and then I'll make an exception, especially when I find a design as good as this one.



I love trees, in general, and the colours of the these particular trees are just great, and the small details, of which you can only see parts of here, just brings it all together. Check out the website for all the other great designs.

There were two highlights during the visit, but it didn't seem polite to take pictures, so I didn't. One was this quite eccentric older woman sitting by her table smoking, looking completely bored and pretty grumpy too, and guess what she was selling? Handmade Barbie clothes. The other thing that made us laugh our way all the way from the market to the car, was a sign that said "I'll draw your favorite pet for R50". Nothing funny about that really, except that the sign also had an example picture of a cat, and it looked so ridiculously funny! Not like a caricature, just a very bad drawing. I know, I know, it's very mean to laugh at someone's misfortunate un-talent, I usually don't, but this time there was just no stopping it. In fact, I'm chuckling even now, just thinking about it. You'd laugh too if you saw it, I promise.



So after admitting to being a rather mean person, I'll balance it with ending on a good note about support. I bought this cute bracelet at Nando's a few weeks back, and today I bought three more to give away. They cost 25 rand, and 1 dollar of that goes to the fight to end malaria in Africa, another part of the profit goes to the unemployed women who are making them, many of them HIV/AIDS survivors, and finally: it's a very pretty bracelet. So go to a Nando's, or get one from here, and do a good deed while getting yourself something nice. Nothing wrong with that combination.

As for Essenwood Market, I definitely think I'll go back next time I'm here, if for nothing else maybe by then I'll have decided on another Hruki t-shirt, and to get a bigger Audrey Hepburn box that I'll keep here, and not having to worry about packing it down.

assorted eyecandy

Since I didn't have any cake to put on the cake stand, I put some tasty looking jewellery there instead. Hair flower from H&M in Sweden. Turquoise bead necklace from NSA Gallery here in Durbs. Pretty pink pearls from a really weird shop we stumbled upon during our South Coast trip last year, apart from a small selection of nice jewellery they sold sport and hunting equipment. Green beaded necklace with red rose beads from a market in Stockholm many years ago.



Doesn't it simply look delicious?



Necklace with swallow, butterfly and hearts by Daniela Sigurd, who's a friend of a friend and makes beautiful things that I've got quite a lot of. Golden flower brooch from a charity shop in Stockholm. Red rose hair pins from Åhléns in Stockholm.



These earrings I bought the material for at Panduro, and my talented friend Linda put them together as she saw fit, and I just love the end result. The green and turquoise bead bracelet is from NSA Gallery.



The silver tree earrings were a birthday gift from my husband last year, I picked them out at the nice jewellery shop next to Mooi that I've mentioned before, Lapis Lazulis. The other earrings are from Indiska, in Stockholm, and indeed look indian.



Black antique art deco brooch from NSA Gallery again, unfortunately I dropped it and broke the pin, but I'll get it fixed cos I just adore this brooch. I really like art deco pieces, but they're usually quite expensive. Being found at NSA though, it was reasonably priced. Black teardrop earrings from Woolworths, matches the brooch perfectly. Finally the gold bracelet is from my husbands family, I wore it at our temple wedding. It's gorgeous.

So there you have it, an assortment of goodies that will make any outfit look tastier.

when winter, come summer, with dresses

When I left Stockholm in March it looked like this. I know this looks like the countryside, but it's not really, it's a 20 minute walk away from where one of my brothers live. Fittingly enough it's called Winter's Bay (Vinterviken), and even though I do think it's kinda pretty looking in winter too (especially in pictures when you don't have to feel the cold) I much prefer Winter's Bay in summer. I'll show you why in another post, I just need to get there first, camera in hand.



This kind of ice actually kills people. But I'm told all the snow has melted a long time ago, and no death threats are luring from above at the time being. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is coming too late to see and smell the blossoming Bird Cherry (hägg), which is possibly one of the most intoxicating scents you can imagine. I love it. I also love the lilacs (syren) and honeysuckle (kaprifol), but they should still be in bloom this time of the year.



Come to think of it, there's a lot of Swedish nature I love very much, and am intensely looking forward to get back to, especially since I wasn't there last summer. As much as I also love Durban's almost all-year-round summer, it's still something special about the smells and colours of your childhood's summers. I can still feel the pain of falling from my bike, with bare feet and knees, ouch! And yet it was so lovely biking around everywhere, picking from lots of different lakes or the sea to go swimming. That was pretty much the countryside, where I grew up, but even in the middle of Stockholm you can take a swim in lots of pretty places. That's one thing Stockholm and Durban share.



Came to think about these two pretty and quite similar dresses I've got. This white one with little red flowers is from Stadsmissionen by Nytorget in Stockholm, I think I paid 120 kronor for it 4-5 years ago. I haven't worn it that much, even though I like it a lot, but it's quite see through, and polyester, which means I need to wear something underneath, which means it gets quite warm. Don't know which era this is, maybe 70's? The collar looks a bit Victorian though, don't you think? Except they probably didn't have that many polyester dresses back in the days.



I really like the details on the front, and the sleeves are just perfect. I must definitely wear this more often, it shouldn't waste away in my closet. It would actually be pretty perfect for that cake party I'm planning, with a little red apron and some roses in my hair. Hmmm, it seems I'm getting more romantic with each post here, what's going on?! I better return to my goth roots in the next update ... Although if I just dyed this dress black, it would be a perfect goth dress.



This cute creation was one of the five finds in the basement vintage store run by the french guy on Götgatan in Stockholm, and as the rest of them cost only 150 kronor. It fits me perfectly, and actually comes with a lining, so no need to worry about it being see through (I think). Didn't have a chance to wear it before I left for Durban, and thought it would be a little too warm for this climate, so one slightly chilly Swedish summer night, I'll premiere it for sure.



As you can see it's got a similar collar and sleeve as the other dress, and combines my favorite turquoise with my favorite red in a bit of an unusual flower pattern. Indeed this might become a summer favorite, depending on whether we get a typical unpredictical Swedish summer with chilly and rainy days, as well as nice warm ones, or we get the heatwaves. After this unusually hard winter we suffered, I do think we deserve quite a lot of warmth. Even though I cheated by leaving for sunny South Africa towards the end of it ... Oh, well. Come summer, whatever weather, I've got a dress for anything.

fine flowers make me smile

I wasn't always into flowers as a decorative pattern, and too much of them in a home is still not my thing, and probably never will be. I really like a few here and there though, and particularly flowery patterns that are or look Chinese, surprise surprise. Sometimes I fall in love with more British looking flowers too, like this cake stand that was a wedding gift. Of course peonese is one of my favorite flowers, and the combination of pink and turquiose just does something to me, I don't know what it is. It's just too pretty not to like.



Unfortunately I don't really have that many cake parties, and I even forgot I had this in a cupboard up until a week ago. When I found it I just had to put it together, so that I at least can just look at it this last week I'm here this time around. I inherited a beautiful cake stand earlier this year, will post about that one later. I think I might use that for jewellery, it shouldn't just sit in a cupboard waiting for me to arrange a cake party, which I should do too one day.



Here are two lovely bowls I bought for 5 and 7 rand respectively last year, in a Chinese shop we found by chance out here in Chatsworth, when we stopped for bunny chows after having had a meeting with the very nice little old lady who was going to help me dress and do my hair piece for the first day of our wedding. After a meeting mainly about what flowers I wanted it seemed fitting to buy these, even though I decided on red roses and baby's breath, not pink and yellow ones.



The old lady also wanted me to wear a crown, and even though it was beautiful it seemed a bit much so I said thanks, but no thanks. She was worried about my hair being so short, but unfortunately I couldn't do that much about it in two weeks. It was what it was, and she said she'd figure something out. When she arrived early in the morning to start working on me, she had still brought the crown and said I could at least try it on, she knew it would make my mother-in-law very happy if I wore it. My mother-in-law hadn't mentioned it at all, but I thought I'd do it just to make this little ole lady happy, at least try it on.



After she put it on, and started to add some rosebuds and baby's breath, my mum came and looked at it, and said I looked like a princess, so I figured I might as well go with it, cos which girl doesn't want to look and feel like a princess on their wedding day? I was most happy with having so many red roses in my hair though, and once everything was ready I hardly dared to turn my head in case anything would fall down.



Nothing fell down fortunately, and everything was beautiful and a little bit weird, as I suppose is the case when you don't really understand what's going on in a ceremony, except that you're getting married to the one person you love the most. That's pretty much the only thing you need to understand, in my humble opinion.



The second day of the wedding I made a little hair piece myself, with some left over roses, baby's breath and an aliceband I wrapped in red silk ribbon. It looked pretty nice, and I could still move my head around as much as I liked. The third day I got new roses, and a friend of our's helped me do a stunning hairdo, which is what you can see a piece of on my profile photo.



If it wouldn't make me very self concious, and very much like I was trying to show off or something, I'd like to wear fresh roses in my hair a bit more often. As it is now I rarely even wear fake flowers in my hair, unless I'm going to a private party or just wear it at home. I should really do something about that, why would I care about what anybody thinks if I decided to wear a rose hairpin, there are so many other things I don't care about what they think of.



Life's really too short to worry about what other people think about you, cos what does it matter anyway? That's their problem, not really mine. So I guess it's decided then, as of now I'm gonna start wearing flowers in my hair more often. Done deal.

surrounding myself with chinese silk pt. 1

This is some of the Chinese silk I surround myself with in my southern home, not nearly as much as my northern home's got, but enough to make me feel comfortable. The pillow cases are from Indiska in Stockholm, the pretty jewellery box was a gift.



This is a gorgeous top that's way too big for me, but I bought it anyway thinking that I'd adjust it. It's not as easy adjusting Chinese silk as for example polyester though, so I think a professional needs to help me, and I haven't gotten around to that yet. I still like looking at it. It's from a shop in Copenhagen.



Detail of multicoloured cherry blossoms from the pink top.



These purses I've bought for next to nothing in sets of 5 in different sizes, and used so much. The teal one is also from Indiska, the red I got at a market in Stockholm. The smallest one is ideal for coins and keys, the size after that perfect for my camera, the biggest one is just big enough for the few washing up things you need for a sleepover.



Closeup on the petrol purse with it's assortment of cute flowers.






Closeup on another pillowcase from Indiska, pretty peoneses.



Dragon on the black pillowcase, in good company with phoenixes as well, two beautiful animals I've always wanted to add to my own skin with ink. In fact I wouldn't mind having skin like Chinese silk, preferably one that I could change colour and theme of, since there are so many lovely ones. One problem would be combining it with all my vintage dresses though ... It might get a bit busy with it all. So I better keep it like it is, except for maybe adding another tattoo eventually, seeing that I oddly enough still don't have a Chinese one.