slow work

Even though it's raining and it doesn't feel much like summer, it definitely feels like my head is on vacation. Most people at my office are gone fishing or what ever, and it's hard to focus on work. Yesterday I did a lot of planning and today I'm updating my work website.

Some of you might remember that I was in Moscow for work last year. If you didn't get hold of the international issue of no magazine, don't worry, you can read my Moscow story here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and download the pdf - it's in English!

I don't know why, but I didn't take so many photos in Moscow. Maybe because I only brought my small Olympus mju point and shoot (with film). The two photos above are my favorites. See all the Moscow photos here.

Speaking of travels, as the rain continues to pour down, I long to go back to this place and have meals like this and this. I also wonder were we should go for our honeymoon. Any suggestions?

freelance life

I really enjoy being a freelancer. As long as I don't have any appointments, I can do what ever I want. Sleep in, read magazines all day and call it "research", go thrift store shopping with my friend M, bake cakes and eat them too - also "research". It's summer and I don't have a lot of deadlines at the moment. In fact, this whole week I have done a lot of "research" (= I didn't plan to take the day off, it just happened). Also, I can take the day off (on purpose) and drive home to my parents one day before planned to have dinner and talk about our wedding. That's what I did yesterday.

Today I'm home alone in my childhood home while my parents are at work. I should work too. Although I don't have a lot of deadlines these days, I have one on Monday. Time to write the article about the local artist I interviewed a little while ago. I have had the whole week to write this article, but the big procrastination bug bite me... So, today I slept in, had breakfast while Flickring, photographed around the house, talked to my maid of honour for about an hour on the phone, and read blogs.

The blog reading is the reason I wanted to write this in the first place. I have come across a couple of Norwegian blogs about freelancing. I know of a few similar English blogs, but the Norwegian blogs are just so much more familiar to my work situation. When I started freelancing in 2003 (oh! it's already been almost five years!) I had NO idea what I was doing. I wish these freelance blogs existed back then. Even now, with a few years of freelance experience, these blogs are really inspiring reads.

Frilansliv - Frilansjournalisten - Frilansinfo

organic cool

I like this pillow from Danish Mow Living. I'm not a big fan of yellow, but it works so well here. The bonus is that it is made of 100 % organic cotton.

wedding preparations

Today our wedding is 1 month and 2 days away. We are getting more and more ready, but there are still preparations to be done - like getting Sølve an outfit. Since our garden wedding is in my mother-in-law's childhood home (photos here), we have to do things like prepare the garden (it is big!), paint the flag pole (it hasn't been done in 30 years, so the wedding is a good excuse to do it), and clean the house (we might have to go inside during the party). Some of the projects have been going on for a while, and some of them we started this weekend. I spent some hours high up in a ladder painting the flag pole in the sizzling heat. At least I got a slight tan.

One preparation we did this weekend, that I especially enjoyed, was the hike to Stalheim. It was our first time there, and it was truly amazing! Most of our wedding guests are coming the day before the wedding, since none of them live at Voss. We want to have a fun, informal meet up before the big day, so we plan to take them on this hike to Stalheim, and have a traditional meal at the Sivle gard (Sivle farm) on the way back.

See the photos from our Stalheim hike here.

PS: Click on the image above to view it bigger (and better).

great style, part II

Here is another home style I love, also found in Rom 123 (like this). It's the home of the Norwegian photographer Trine Thorsen.

great style

These are some photos from the home of the Norwegian stylist Margrethe Gilboe. It was featured a little while ago in the Norwegian interior design magazine Rom 123. I love her style!

happy minimalism

Ann Sophie Stærk has been one of my favorite artists for a long time. Her work is often called happy minimalism and neo pop art. I would love to have one of her painting on my livingroom wall. Ann Sophie's boyfriend is Leonardo Annecca, he is an Italian designer and architect. Take a look at his inspiring work here.

the table

I love that table.
(Via the style files)

PS: I updated the blog header some days ago. June is the month when summer officially starts. Doesn't feel like summer today though. It's so wet and grey outside...

Montana

Recently I told you what kind of bookshelves I like. The Danish Montana shelving system is another one I like a lot.

for the love of light

I just ordered my copy of the book. Did you?

Get it here.

a travel story

Let me take you to Greece. I have uploaded all my photos from my recent travel to Halkidiki, Greece. See them all in this set. The photo above is from the last day, when I packed my backpack to leave.

String

Bookshelves filled with books, magazines and other inspiring things are great furniture. They add so much personality to a room. I must admit I always seek a peak in people's bookshelves when I'm visiting. Do you?

I prefer simple (white) bookshelves. If I were to change our white IKEA Billy shelves for something else, String would be a very good option. A Swedish design classic.

PS: I love the wishbone chair to the right in this photo. But I already told you that.

Everyday Holy

...is the name of this cool cup from Muuto. This is how the designer, Ilkka Suppanen, describes it:

I wanted to create something different from the iconic coffee mug with handle found in office cubicles around the world. Modern people don't just have coffee; They have lattés, cappuccino, espresso, tea or Chai. So I wanted a mug which would look and work equally well no matter the content. On a more emotional level I was thinking that the time we share over a cup of tea or coffee is often a sacred break from our hectic everyday lives. Among other things this inspired me to work with the iconic Holy Grail in the shaping of the mug.

I have mentioned Muuto before, here and here.

traveling

I'm so glad the airport strike is over so we can get to Berlin this weekend.

Here are some Flickr favorites that in one way or another fit the theme "traveling": 1. viv love... (and love this cross-processed expired kodak ektachrome 320T too..), 2. Perfect lighting., 3. lost highway. this way., 4. Untitled, 5. west, 6. 31, 7. Untitled, 8. ug, 9. Untitled

Speaking of traveling, here is an article (in Norwegian) I enjoyed about American motels. If you don't read Norwegian, at least take a look at the photos, by Sune Eriksen. They look much better in the magazine.

beautiful bowls

I love the shape of these bowls from Höganäs Keramik.

the vase

I'm not much into interior decoration knick knacks. For example, I love cut flowers yet I only have one "real" vase - the one to the right in the photo above. It's beautiful. So simple yet elegant and timeless. Normally I put flowers in carafes or old Norgesglass, but I think I might want to expand my collection of real vases. Of course it has do be from Iittala's Alvar Aalto collection. I'm a big fan of this Finnish designer and architect. I'll show you more of his design later.

al fresco

Don't you just love al fresco dining? I'm planning to have outdoor meals this weekend.

1. Untitled, 2. film 14, 3. The first breakfast of this summer, 4. Untitled, 5. enchanted evening, 6. iced coffee tuesday, 7. 8/20/05, 8. film8, 9. Real or fake?

bed light

I think I want a couple of Seed lamps by our bed. This is what Northern Lighting writes about the lamp and the designer in the catalogue:

Seed is a wall-mounted night lamp. Seed creates a unique reading environment through its filtered light source from a low watt energy saving LED. The focused yet soft beam emitted from the diodes makes it possible to read in bed while your partner sleeps. The ‘revolving arm of light’ can point in a variety of different directions and can be easily fixed to the wall in any desired position. The front-end light switch makes it easy to turn the light on and off and since the lamp does not emit heat Seed is safe to touch, even by children.

Seed is available with four different colours of fabric. The package also includes patterns, tips and suggestions of how to create your own personalised cover. The lamp is inspired by a seed - rising and growing into a plant.

Designer: Hedda H. Braathen
Hedda Heyerdahl Braathen is head designer in Accendo, an Oslo based industrial design office. She and her team have won several awards for their designs. Accendo works with a variety of design projects, mainly related to lighting, furniture design and consumer good packaging.

“With the Seed lamp I wanted to create an arm of light which lets your partner sleep while you read, nurse or knit. I also wanted to challenge users of the lamp to create their own design element by changing the cover according to their mood, the season, fashion trends or simply a change of the bed covers”.

You might remember that I have mentioned Northern Lighting before.

dinner time

I've been away from this space for too long. Time to do something about it.

I'm cooking dinner and waiting for Sølve to come home from work. I'm making the same thing we had yesterday, which turned out to be super yummy. This is it:

- green asparagus
- snow peas
- fresh fillets of salmon with salt, pepper and olive oil
- spring onion
- little gem lettuce
- lemon juice
- feta cheese

The ingredients are listed in the same order as I put them in the frying pan. The asparagus needs more time to cook than the little gem lettuce. Keep the temperature on medium, and make sure you don't over cook the vegetables. I prefer vegetables to be "al dente". The heat will make the feta melt a little, and with the lemon juice (from half a lemon) it makes a nice kind of sauce. Quick and healthy dinner - which is now served!

everyday stories

I had a photoblog called stories, which for a while I found hard to define. What kind of photos will I have here? I already show my photos on Flickr. I started a few projects, which are now (some of favorite) sets on my Flickr - traveling and lights. lamps. But I wasn't really happy with it.

Then 2008 came, and I found out that I wanted to do a "a photo a day" project. The stories blog became the place where I shared my daily photos - the ones that I didn't upload to Flickr. My rule was, and is still, that I have to take and post a photo each day. Even if it's a crappy photo.

But then I needed change again. So I decided to delete the stories blog and start a new Flickr account instead, called everyday stories. This is my new place where I share my daily diptychs. One of the photos is uploaded to my Astrid. photostream, and can be found here, the other one is new. Please visit if you are interested. By the way, the photos can be viewed bigger if you click “all sizes” above the photo.

Everyday stories is inspired by a few lovely ladies, which you might know: 3191 and mebetweenyou. It is also inspired by my own fondness of everyday life – the group that I started some time back in 2005. I also wrote a little about everyday life photography here.

I must say, I really like this kind of photo journaling. How about you?

nice

I like this photo. Found at Boligmagasinet.

old becomes new

Fretex is the Salvation Army's secondhand outlet in Norway. Fretex has now made petty little dresses in a cute, nostalgic 40s style out of old curtains and table cloths. The dresses are sold in a few chosen shops in Oslo, and I nearly bought one when I was there this weekend. They are really pretty. What put me back was the price - 1400 kr, which is about €177/£142/$280. I love the concept though.

Read the article (in Norwegian) here. The photos above are from this article.

Also, take a look at this (make sure you have the sound on). "Se din kjole" means "look at your dress" and it refers to a children's song called "Se min kjole" meaning "look at my dress". The song is about all the colors of my dress.

The model in Se din kjole is Hege Golf. Read more about her here.

In other news, I bought the shoes for my wedding dress when I was in Oslo this weekend. They are flat silver sandals, and they were much cheaper than the ones I found at NET-A-PORTER. I'm happy! Also I decided to continue using my IKEA dinner plates. Thanks for the great argument, Emma!

new dinner plates?

I think I want new dinner plates. I'm not sure. The ones we have now are from IKEA. I wonder if I want something more fancy (and more expensive?), yet I like dinnerware to be simple. White. Preferably round. That's it. The food plays the main role, not the plates. Oh, and I want it to be Norwegian design. Here are a few pieces I like from Porsgrund.

The top photo are designs by the very talented guys in Norway Says, mentioned here. The bottom photo are products designed by Tias Eckhoff, which I have also mentioned before, here. Click on the images to view them bigger.

The photos are from Porsgrund catalogues, that can be downloaded from the website.

the shoes? part II

I'm still thinking about shoes for my wedding dress. I think I have decided that I want flat sandals, either gold or silver. Flats because I'm taller than Sølve, sandals because it's a summer garden wedding. Now I need to choose a budget...

From the top: Jimmy Choo, Juicy Couture, Miu Miu and Pedro García. All images are from NET-A-PORTER.

By the way, I already bought the dress. It's from a Norwegian designer, and I'm going to Oslo to try it again this weekend. Yay!

the shoes?

I wonder if these are the perfect shoes for my wedding dress...

St Tropez sandal from YvesSaintLaurent

Norwegian handicraft

I'm working on some texts for a firm that sells beautiful traditional Norwegian handicraft, including works from the brand called Oleana. It's not the kind of clothing I would wear myself (yet), but I still find it very beautiful. The Norwegian Design Council has awarded the brand with the Award for Design Excellence, mention here, and the graphic design is done by Haltenbanken mentioned in the same post.

Hope you have fun plans for the weekend. We are celebrating a friend's 30th birthday tomorrow. And tonight I plan to drink red wine while watching a movie. But first I need to finish these handicraft texts. Ciao!

Imperfection and contrasts

I love clean-cut, minimal interiors. There is something with it that I’m instantly attracted to. It pleases my eyes as I flip through the pages of glossy interior design magazines and coffee table books. On the one hand the interiors are elegant in a glamorous, high class, expensive way. There are shiny objects, fluffy fur and champagne galore. On the other hand these interiors can be elegant in an understated, subtle, back to nature way. Large white surfaces add a backdrop to wood textures, woollen blankets and an otherwise muted colour scheme.

As much as I love the look of these clean-cut, minimal interiors I could never live like that. Mind you, I’m an organized, tidy, champagne loving girl, so it’s not that I would make a complete chaos with my presence. But I think that just me being in a scene like that, would make me feel like I ruined the perfect picture. Like being underdressed for a fancy cocktail party, if you understand what I mean.

I love homes where you never feel underdressed. Unpretentious yet style conscious homes where you can sip cocktails in your sweat pants. Well, no, hang on. That is taking it too far. Sweat pants is never ok unless you actually work out. Hanging around the house wearing sweat pants is just too cosy comfortable and so darn unsexy. There are other loose-fitting, comfortable alternatives available, like cotton dresses, linen pants or even a silk bathrobe.

Let’s get back to the cocktails. I’m not taking about the multicoloured, super sweet cocktails with little umbrellas in them. I guess they are ok if you have an itching sweet tooth and a love for kitschy food and drinks accessories. Think classic, timeless cocktails a la Dry Martini, Margarita, Mojito and Manhattan. I prefer a Cosmopolitan, with an extra dash of cranberry juice. Most of all I prefer champagne, but that is a whole different story.

The best place to enjoy the Cosmopolitan is sometimes dressed up at a fancy cocktail party and sometimes in a crowded big city bar, but most times it is best enjoyed on a Friday night in front of the fireplace in my second hand orange sofa, that was bought for 450 kr at Fretex, while resting my feet on the wooden, stained stool, that was rescued from an abandoned mountain cabin. I listen to anything from the Magnetic Fields and Zero 7 to Detroit Kobras and Violent Femmes, while I catch up on international lifestyle magazines with light coming from candles, IKEA and Artmide lamps.

I like to think that an unpretentious yet style conscious home is a place you can enjoy Cosmopolitans, champagne, beer, wine and other juices. It is the home of someone who has great interest in anything visually good, like arts, design, architecture, film, and also music and literature. This home is an eclectic yet elegant contrast of styles; old design classics, prototypes from up and coming design students, vintage grandma-like nick nack, walls filled with big print photographs and book shelves brimmed with films – classics and blockbusters. The CD collection is a nice mix of contemporary pop music, underground hip hop, experimental jazz, violin concertos and old school rock and RnB.

Pierre Bourdieu would have loved to do a field study in this imperfect mix of high culture and popular culture. Ugly stuff meets pretty stuff, and we love it.


This is a little something I wrote recently, for a new international magazine that unfortunately didn't hit the shelves after all.

all week monday-itis

The procrastination I mentioned yesterday, continues. I realise it is not just procrastination, it is also a case of all week Monday-itis. Instead of fueling up on a healthy meal to get energy to continue "working", I just stuffed myself full of marzipan. I am on a serious sugar high and I have a deadline tomorrow. All I want to do is repeat last night; The Devil Wears Prada on my big screen and a (big) glass of Cointreau on ice. (The photo above is from the movie, found on imdb.com.)

Anyone know what I am talking about?

I think I have mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again. So beautiful.

Also, I played a little with Picnik today. Finally I can easily do fun and good looking stuff with my images, other than auto contrast and auto levels in Photoshop Elements 2.0.

life after vacation

I am hit by a terrible case of procrastination. It is very inconvenient since I have too many deadlines coming up. It is so hard to get back in real work mode after the 9 fantastic days in the mountains. Adele's song "Chasing Pavements" is spinning in my head and I have love and celebration on my mind. Yesterday I booked the hotel for our wedding night. Yay!

Photos for my state of mind: 1. my favorite, 2. cutting the cake, 3. Lovers dream., 4. 67366

I added a few more photos to the Svalbard set. Soon I will start posting photos from the amazing trip I had to Finnmark in the beginning of March. But before that there will be photos from the Easter vacation. So, there will still be a lot of Norway and nature in my Flickr stream.

I am going home soon to cook something nice, pasta maybe, and watch a movie on the huge screen.

By the way, have you seen this and this? Love!

cabin life

I am off again. Not for work this time. We are spending the Easter holiday in the mountain cabin seen in the photo above (photos taken by Sølve during Easter last year). Here are some more photos from the cabin. I am really looking forward to more than a week of cross country skiing, good food and wine, and playing board games with our friends.

Enjoy the holidays friends!

skål

Yesterday the Norwegian Design Council handed out the annual Award for Design Excellence.

The Award for Design Excellence is the leading award for design in Norway. It's purpose is to stimulate the industry to use design as an important tool in product development and market communication. The Award for Design Excellence is a recognition for design quality and a visible proof that companies and designers jointly have developed a good product. Good products are distinguished by the consideration of it's functional, technical, economical and esthetical aspects, in addition to marketing and environmental considerations.

One of the magazines I write for, no, was given the Award for Design Excellence in the category visual communication. Read what the jury says (in Norwegian). Halvor Bodin and Claudia C. Sandor are the magazine's designers.

Another company that I work for as a copywriter, Haltenbanken (mentioned in this post), was also given the Award for Design Excellence in the same category, for the visual profile for the accountant firm Vassdal & Eriksen. Who would have thought an accountant firm could look this fresh and cool? It might explain something that the firm was established by a guy who loves skating, snowboarding and music, and that the firm's customers are mostly in the music, film, design and architecture business. Read what the jury says (in Norwegian).

Congratulations and cheers to no and Haltenbanken!

break

This post by mav today made me order three magazine subscriptions; Bon Appétit (I too want to read more of Molly's great work), Gourmet (as a foodie and food writer how can I not want a regular portion of this mag?) and finally Vogue (I need a regular dose of great fashion too). Happy days for the magazine addict. Good thing that the dollar exchange rate is really good now compared to Norwegian kroner. Thanks for the inspiration mav, and also congrats on your new blog.

My recent travels to the north have been very inspiring, and I have a lot of photos that I will share with you in my Flickr photostream. The photo above is from my second day at Svalbard. We had just started the day's snowmobile trip, and took a break just to see the sun rising over the mountain. Our guide told us because of the polar night it was the second time he saw the sun for the last four months.

winter and spring

March is officially spring, so I have changed the blog header to get in a bit of spring mood. Although my mind is still very much set on winter. I had a truly amazing weekend at Svalbard. I have never before experienced an Arctic winter so far north. It is so exotic and unique. It really took my breath away. I am going north again for the weekend. On Thursday I fly to Finnmark, close to the North Cape.
The Svalbard set will be filled with more photos when I get the time to sort through them. And I will of course bring home lots of photos from Finnmark.

Here are a few projects I am really excited about. Be sure to check them out if you don't know them: Lines & Shapes - before and after - 44 times two

I also want to welcome Nicole back to blogland. Welcome Nicole! And finally, check out this. A lovely meeting between two people I admire; Jenifer of Nectar & Light and Matt of MattBites.

I'll be back in this space next week with new bits of inspiration.