mostly about me getting
Just a quick reflection: the sun is rising outside, and the sky looks gorgeaus, striped in pink and blue. One of the perks of winter - I don´t have to bee up very early to see the sunrise, or very late to see the sunset.
Ok, it´s been a week since last, it´s been Christmas, and I´m back to work. First things first. On the 23rd, I went to Stockholm with my sister Linda, I can´t remember the last time I did as serious shopping! Some of the things were more expensive than I usually spend, but anyway - I did spend a lot of money. And since I very rarely have that much to spend, it was fun! I finally got a camera and a mp3 player, but I managed to spill tea on it the first evening, so I returned it yesterday. I think it´s a sign - I wanted a green one, but they didn´t have that anywhere, so I settled for a pink, so this is what happen when you settle for second best - it gets broken. The mp3 is a joy, though - I have loaded lots of music, and there´s still room for three times more. My old one only had room for 17 songs, s that´s a huge difference.
I also got some of this and that - two bags for me, a small bag for Kellie (we´re doing a swap in a couple of months), a couple of manga books, some make up (a bit of advice, especially in the makeup counter - when they ask if it´s a present, say yes! They make the prettiest presents, and you deserve a pretty present!), some lavender/mint bathroom cleaner, Pee & Poo stationary (the first great Swedish stationary I´ve found - ever!), a beautiful flowery mug I´ve been coveting for a while, and I know there had to be more things, because I couldn´t have spent so much on so little.
And then came Christmas Eve, and I got presents and I gave presents: every year I give my niece and nephews a new bauble for the tree, hoping they´ll keep it when they have children of thir own, and remember the Christmasses when they were growing up, I know I wish I had something left from my childhood. My sister got a luxury breakfast bag (fancy marmalade and honey, odd raisins and dried mulberrys, and some chocolate covered crisp bread), my best friend got some tea, a tealight holder and ginger bread lollipops, and then there are some presents who haven´t reached their recipients yet: a build-a-mammoth-skeleton in wood for my nephew, matching socks and hats for my parents (knit by me), pretty glasses for my sister, Moomin mug for my other sister (she gets one every bday/Christmas) and for my sister´s bday a hula pinup makeupbag, and some goth lipgloss, I hope it´s right down her alley.
And I did get some presents (besides the ones I got for myself...)! Shoes with red and blue roses from my sister (I told her to buy them for me - she thinks they are horrible, I love them!), homemeade candy from my other sister´s family, a kitten calendar and a Christmas table cloth from my parents, very 50s housewives soaps and soy containers (for sushi) from my best friend, a green "pashmina" scarf from my employers, and then i will get a present from my sister when I go home to visit next time.
Yesterday me and my sister with family went to Farsta, to return my camera and to do some christmas sale shopping. I decided to return, not exchange my broken camera, and get the green one when they are in the store here in Nynäshamn instead. Then I got some wrapping paper (green with white polkadots and aqua with pink roses - very pretty!), fancy yarn for my swap with Iris in a month, and some earrings with cherries.
And now I´m so out of money!
trolltyg i tomteskogen, for those of you who miss it on tv
"Trolltyg i tomteskogen"
del 1, del 2, del 3, del 4 och del 5.
Enjoy!
your poor realtion comes up from the country for the day
Send a car to the station, and tell her she can have the use of it all morning for shopping, unaccompanied by yourself.
LUNCHEON
Provide her with a cocktail, but for goodness sake make it very weak.
Arrange the table decoration in the newest way you know - such as imitation witch-balls in a black bowl - or sea-shells floating in a green bowl. (Make it something she can copy inexpensivly when she gets home).
MENU
Crayfish à l´Americaine
Hazel Hen with Grapefruit Salad
Banana en Flamme
Coffee
Take her to a really charming play at the Haymarket, and send her back to the staion in the car.
N:B: It sounds a lot of trouble but it´s really worth it.
it´s about time for this:
beautiful stationary!
talking films
I love my DVD player (even if it´s getting about time to buy a new one), and I have a rather big film collection, a very eclectic one, I might add. But lately I haven´t bought much new films, and I´ve had a hard time finding something to watch. Imagine my delight, when ve found several films I love for decent prices, the only problem is when I will get time to see them all. First, I got a new Advent calendar, "Sune´s Jul" (Sune´s Christmas), which wasn´t as good as I had remembered it. Then I got the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" (aaargh, matey!), I bought a magazine to get my hands on "The Black Dahlia" (which I haven´t finished yet, it´s beautifully made, but slow), yesterday I got Disney´s "Alice in Wonderland" (it´s so good!), and any day now "Cry-Baby" and "Beetlejuice" will drop down my mail slot as well (definately oldies but goldies). A while ago I got "Tales of Beatrix Pottern", the animal ballet of her fairytales, which used to air every Christmas, but not anymore - it´s a good thing I have a copy of my own now! All I´m waiting for now is a good offer from the DVD-shop, so I can buy the latest "Harry Potter" and "Shrek", I´m too cheap to pay full price... And the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" - it may be a while before that one´s out on DVD, but I will actually get it when it´s out, even at full price!
A little different, but a little bit the same: When I was little they showed "Solstollarna" och "Toffelhjältarna" on tv in the mornings (I sew they have released them on DVD, I´ll try to find it! Update ten minutes later: I found them and ordered them - yay!), and in the last one, there was a little ghost girl who wanted to be a real girl, and she sang this song in every episode - you Swedes born in the 70s should remember it fondly!
a pantry party!
I did this one before I even knew it was one of the BrocanteHome Puttery Treats:
Now I know this might seem a teeny bit anal, but emptying out your pantry and doing a stock take will make you
feel dementedly organised and the likelihood of you doubling up on stock cubes will simmer down to nil...
I have a rather big pantry, and the story could´ve ended there. But - it is deep, and it only has two shelves, and one of them houses my microwave oven, which means everything else was crammed onto that one shelf. Finding what I was looking for required me to take out everything, and then putting it back. Fast forward: I went to visit my family back home, where my sister finally had moved to a flat of her own. it was small, but very much her, and what stuck the most was the memory of her pantry: she had used one of her top cupboards (she didn´t have much choice - her kitchen´s tiny!) to store her dry foods, and it was so easy to see everything, and it was so neat. So when I got home, I got to work. I emptied my china cupboard (fortunately I don´t have that many plates!) and away went food past the expiration date, in went everything that was left, neatly organized. The difference, I tell you! Later, I have refined even further, and have bought beautiful glass jars, which now hold things like sugar and cocoa - it´s become a thing of beauty. I can see all my food just by opening the doors, I don´t have to rummage, I know when I´m out of something. And all of this, thanks to my wonderful, clever sister!
Oh, I found another Puttery Treat to combine my pretty pantry with:
Get out your pinking shears and line your pantry shelves with pretty oilcloth offcuts.
I actully do have a dream to hang pretty lace, or oilcloth edges along my shelves, both in the pantry, but also in my other cupboard - I love how darling vintage it looks!
On request, pics of my pantry here and here!
aunt jane visits the dentist
Let us suppose you have kindly ofered to put up Aunte Jane for the night after her visit to the Dentist.
A daintily arranged tray should be sent to her room.
Cream of Chicken Soup
Mousse of Sole
Asparagus, when in season
Orange Fool or Jelly flavoured with sherry
P.S. She will appreciate a glass of champagne if funds will run to it. Most wine-merchants sell half-pint bottles of champagne for (I imagine) occasions like this.
my favourite movies
are often movies made by Tim Burton. I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands" (even though that one ends so sad, I can´t bare to watch it), just to mention a few. Imagine my delight, when I heard that he was doing "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter again) and (oh joy!) "Alice in Wonderland"! I can´t wait!
I love Alice in Wonderland!
do you want to make something less vintage, you say?
Well how about trying something from "Fuldesign" ("ugly design"), who has free patterns:
Cross-stiching (I love the poodle and the balloon girls!) and make your own ugly monster.
fabulous cleaning and oil- and camera decisions
I did some pre-shopping at home as well, you know, when you window shop and ask around and make decisions, so that the next time you go, all you have to do is pull up the purse and you´re done. I found a store that sells essential oils and Dr Bach´s Rescue Remedy, so I will do some shopping there on Sunday (the next time I don´t work when the shops are open), I want some eucalyptus oil, and orange, and maybe lavender to begin with. I also found a digital camera I´m going to buy. There are pink cameras (very pretty pale pink ones), but somehow I´m lusting after green cameras, and the one I found is the most darling green colour, it´s fairly priced, and simple and takes good pics, so I´m getting that one.
delicious colours!
My favourite colour combination in the world is aqua, red and white, so I thought I´d treat you to some beautiful pictures. As always - click the pics, and you find the source!
Isn´t that a perfect colour combo? Another favourite is pink/white/aqua:
And what about pink and brown?
And don´t get me started on polkadots... I actually blame Jody for getting me hooked on polkadots, I hadn´t noticed them much, until I began looking for polkadots for her - now I love them!
Ok, I take that back - I can´t narrow it down to only one favourite combination. Let´s just say I love the ones above!
miss moppytop (aged four) hangs up her christmas stocking
A tangerine wrapped in silver paper
A walnut wrapped in gold paper
An enormous Pencil
A tiny Fan
A Doll´s Black Gingham Umbrella
Some tiny Crackers
A Doll´s Dinner Set
A tiny Pack of Cards
Biscuits in the shapes of animals
A Red Skipping-rope
A Tape-measure that springs out of an apple
or a nigger´s head
(little note from me: This is from a book from the 30s, they used the n-word, I have nothing to do with that)
done, finished, finito!
balm-oholic
One of each, berry, plum and vanilla-mint.
The green one, apple scented. I love this brand!
Peppermint and rosemary - isn´t the deer too cute? As you can see, I´m a sucker for cute packaging, and I love th little metal boxes with slide off lids. I save them, my plan is to sometimes make my own lip balm, and use the old boxes for it.
What I really hate though, is the bad lip balms that´s out there, you ever tried any of those? Those who could be used as paste for example, some of them so hard and sticky, you can´t even get them to stick to your lips. With my luck, I wouldn´t be surprised if all of the ones mentioned above suck... No, positive thoughts - they will all be amazingly wonderful!
packages o´hoy!
And then, my sister brought my Christmas presents from my parents, so there were lots of presents and packages in one day!
pretty shopping!
Big disappointment though (ok, not that big, I´m rather over my Christmas mood) - I couldn´t find any nice Christmas decorations anywhere, only boring stuff everywhere. Which is very good for my purse!,
breakfast for poets!
wipe your hands pretty!
Embroider your teatowels with the days of the week.
A treat that is perfect to combine with
Sew yourself some new teatowels. Choose any cotton, linen or linen union fabric and if you don't have a sewing machine, handstitch the edges et voila! instant freshness for your kitchen
This is a BrocanteHome Puttery Treat I can relate to! I have a huge crush on pretty tea towels, and I have managed to gather a pile I can show off with pride. I don´t want modern tea towels, no clever ones either, say minimalist and I run the other way screaming, no give me pastels, polkadots, lovely flowers (mmm, roses!), vintage, and I´m a happy camper. Swedish baking show, "Leila bakar", has the most darling tea towels you could imagine, and certainly didn´t do much to help curb my towel obsession - Cath Kidston and Greengate can both bee seen, and both is virtual tea towel temples. Which somehow leads me to the puttery treat of this post. Can you imagine my delight, when I found PatternBee, and her amazing vintage embroidery transfers. I immediately threw myself over the kitty task-a-day transfers, thinking they would make the most gorgeaus, vintage-looking tea towels, especially if I use pastel coloured floss for the embroidery. Guess what? I was right! I´m on my third towel, and they turn out so pretty - how can I possibly bare to wipe dirty hands on them? And the best thing? When I´m done with the whole set, there´s many more patterns, so I can make many more embroidered vintage tea towels! How´s that for a treat?!
This is the very pretty Leila, who bakes on TV. You can see some of her addictive tea towels in the back, and as you can see - all of her props are to die for!
by the looks of it, I´m a terribly old-fashioned person!
When I think about it, you could easily take me for a 75-year-old granny! No, not how I look, people usually guess that I´m 8-10 years younger than I actually am. But my wardrobe contains several rather granny-ish skirts, my home is full of granny-things (crocheted throws, pressed glass, rose patterns, lavender scent...), and most of the things I like, most grannies like too - knitting, embroidery, music from the 40s and 50s, the odd cup of tea (very modern cup, though - I only drink rooibos and yogi tea), old movies (I love Swedish "pilsnerfilmer" (literally "beer movies") from the 40s)... If it wasn´t for my face, and the occasional kawaii spree, you´d swear i was 75!
cath kidston
I got the Cath Kidston Christmas catalogue in the mail yesterday (you can order it from the site, free of charge), I knew there were some fabulous fabric, but there are so many more wonderful things! And if you order/shop for more than £90, you get an apron for free. I could with no difficulties shop for twice that amount! But, as seen in my last post, I´ve already shopped up all of my money. But I can drool, and want and make wishes to Santa!
Have you seen - when you look at her fabric, there´s the possibility to order a swatch of the fabric, for free. I ordered a whole bunch, does anyone know how big the swatches are? I´m planning on using them in my quilt, and it would be lovely if one swatch would make more than one square.
some presents for a sick child
A compass, tracing paper and drawing paper.
A magnet. (Very popular).
An empty scrap-book, a heap of old magazines to cut out and some paste.
A pair of blunt-ended scissors.
Box of chalks, and Lear´s Book of Nonsense.
A little tea-set that can be really used.
An old stocking to make into a golliwog.
Plasticinte.
A small pot of flowers that can be watered daily.
An acorn in a glass.
A snowstorm in a glass paper-weight. (Very popular).
she´s on the loose, and she´s shopping!
I shouldn´t be allowed to run loose with access to both money and the Internet - I shop recklessly! I almost don´t even dare to talk about it! Well, ok, I will. Yesterday I picked up some packages at the postoffice, a couple of sweaters (which fit ok now, and will fit even better with a few kilos less), a big bag (black and beige with medallions - almost like an old couch - nice, though), a housekeeping box, rose scented linen water, a blue tea towel with white polkadots. Then the kawaii stationary and deco tapes arrived in my mail slot, very, very nice they were! And three of the tapes were cram cream I didn´t have (at least I think one of them were cram cream), so I kept them for myself, the other ones (plus three from my collection, which makes them 16) are to be given away. One of the tapes was a pink one with a dog, so cute, and I´ve never seen it before, so that´s a catch! And finally, one of the Puppini Sisters CD´s had arrived, so for the last 24 hours, it´s been on repeat in my CD player.
Then, let me talk about what´s to arrive: my 50s glasses, a vintage tin (for my cold-tin), a new (white, very pretty!) CD player, a poo-pad and tooth stickers from Mo0fin, stationary and post-its from Ilovekawaii, pinup makeup bags, cram cream pouch (happiness frog), several lip balms (among other things) from Miss Smith, and it looks like I´m winning an auction on some hankies, lace gloves and a veil, all vintage (anyone getting married who needs it?). I think that´s it, but someone please cut off my fingers, so I can´t shop anymore online! I was going to save up some money, and to go to the dentist and get tattoos and pay some bills, not shop it all up. And I thought I was so over kawaii for a while - that stuff is lethal! Forget about crack-cocain, kawaii stationary gets you hooked much faster, and holds you in the jaws of life.
Oh, and I forgot - I´ve got some books on their way as well: "The Anti-Craft", "The Great Big Glorious Book for Girls", "The perfect Christmas" and "Rita´s Tips for Domestic Bliss". A lovely lot it is - something for all of the many facettes of my personality!
I love it when I get compliments on my clothes! The skirt I´m wearing now (pink and lacy) often get positive attention, and I´ve got a blue one who gets compiments, but as often I get remarks on my funny outfits. I think that´s what you get when you don´t look like the rest of the crowd. When I begin to fit into those 50s style clothes, I hope there´s more compliments than remarks!
thrifted!
I´ve been online shopping again, some kawaii stationary at Ilovekawaii and some birthday presents at Miss Smith (and a few things for me...). It´s quite dangerous, having all-day access to internet...
so very pretty tattoos!
allsorted coasters
doesn´t it make you want a cold - right now?!
Press your collection of vintage hankies. Then put them in a tin lined with eucalyptus scented paper.
Add a little pot of Vicks and some vitamin C drops. Just in case...
This is one of the BrocanteHome´s puttery treats that is more in the planning stage than anything, but I love the thought of a little tin to make you feel better at a time when you usually feel very small and miserable. But I haven´t come far in realising it - I have some throat caramels waiting to be put in a tin. I am on the lookout for both a tin (which needs to be both pretty and of the right size) and some vintage hankies (I didn´t discover until very recently that a vintage hanky collection is something I must have in my life). I don´t know where I can find essential oils to scent some paper with eucalyptus, and do they even sell Vicks pots anymore? I have an ancient pot, but it´s more for smelling than actually using. But vitamin C shouldn´t be impossible to find, I guess that the easy part on my quest for a cold tin. I´ll keep you posted on how the hunt goes!
little comforts for the guest room
Bisquits.
Matches and cigarette ash-tray.
Pincushion with with plenty of different kinds of pins.
Needles threaded with black and white cotton.
Aspirins.
Gas or electric fire, with kettle and small saucepan.
Plenty of coat-hangers.
Mushrooms for hats.
Some spare trees for shoes.
All writing material, and a board in case she likes writing in bed.
Reading lamp.
A wide choice of books.
Her favourite magazines.
(from The Perfect Hostess - Rose Henniker-Heaton)
new and very domestic books!
The Perfect Hostess - Rose Henniker-HeatonThis book was first published in 1931, and contains advice on what to do when you´ve got gusts for lunch, what to serve different gusts for brakfast, little comforts for every room - everything you need to be a perfect hostess à la 1931. It is utterly charming, and since I can´t bare the thought of keeping it all to myself, I will post under a new category the best of "The Perfect Hostess". I can´t wait for her Christmas book to come, I hope to get it before Christmas!
The Gentle Art of Domesticity - Jane BrocketA lovely, thick book with beautiful pictures, all about the treats that is domesticity. Sewing, baking, knitting, reading, gardening... The writer muses and delights us in short chapters about everything that makes life worth living, this is a book to take in slowly, thoroughly enjoying every word. Did I like it? Do you have to ask?
Two great buys, that was! And even though they are very different from eachother, both are really pretty, and I know I will enjoy them for a long time!
yikes!
One thing that´s quite a big scare, is when you get home from work, and realise that you´ve had a candle buring the entire night, and then the whole day when you´ve been away at work. As I did yesterday. And the candle was still burning (definately a good buy!)! I coul´ve lost everything, my things, my cats, if a fire had started when I was sleeping, I could´ve even have gotten killed! Very scary! One of my biggest fears, is coming home, and finding the house on fire, my cats trapped in the flames, and everything I own gone. Next time I light a candle, I´ll definately make sure I´ve put it out before I go to sleep!
I´m practically a friggin´genious!
I don´t do much kawaii lately...
I love food with faces, and the girly ones were too cute to pass by. The one with the icecream is very similar to another one I have, so I had to have that one.
I got all of these deco tapes too:
I will probably keep the red one with the bear in the top left pic, but the rest are presents.
clean house!
You may have noticed my new-found fondness of housekeeping. With it comes a new-found interest in cleaning products, not your average Ajax or Jif (or what they are called in your country), even though they might do it for me if they are pink. No, I want special products, pretty packageing, natural ingredients, special scents, scrumptiously old fashioned ones... Usually, this means hard to come by and/or ludicrously expensive. I guess that´s the thrill of it - if you could simply go to the supermarket and pick up a bottle - no, where´s the fun in that?
I´ve found some irresistable cleaning products:
From Danish company Isabella Smith:
(it´s Christmas scented!) (apple scented washing- ( lavender-mint scented
up liquid) air-freshener)
From Danish company House Doctor:
(lavender-mint scented (lavender scented uni- (mint-lemon scented toilet
bathroom cleaner) versal cleaner) cleaner
Doesn´t ironing sound like such a treat when you use lovely scented linen water? You could make it yourself (mix 10-20 drops of your favourite essential oil with 1 teaspoon vodka in a spray bottle (the vodka makes the water and oil mix better), and fill it up with water), or you could buy some ready made. 
(lavender) (lavender) (apple and rose)
And if none of these wonderful products makes you want to do the job yourself, maybe you should get someone to do it for you?
babysteps!
I´m a winner!
Another lovely generous thing, Karla over at the Brocante Forum had a spare copy of Sarah Ban Breathnacht´s book "Something more", and she´s giving it to me! I have to think of something nice for her, as a thank you.
aprons, pinnys, pinafores, call them what you want...
So, this is what I want you to do: First, look in your linen closet, there may be one left from your mother or grandmother. Or go to the source itself - ask you mum, or (more likely to strike gold) your granny. If they threw their pinnys out in the 70s, you could 2) go out and buy one. Over at Tie one on, there´s lots of links to pinny-makers. Or if your the crafty kind, you should absolutely make one yourself. The simplest kind is just a fabric square with a waistband. Or you could go out and look for some inspiration:
The Apron Book: Making, Wearing, and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort
Free apron patterns fron Tie one on here and here.
Barbecue apron.
Vintage apron (40s).
9 vintage aprons. (Love the gingham girl!)
What do you think, is that enough to start you off? Otherwise, just google "free apron pattern", and you´ll get lots of hits!
