The Golden Egg

Just in case you were curious about how the chairs turned out, 

and what they look like with the table... 

What's that you say? You want to see what that is on the table? 

Well, ok then...

These lovely paper flowers that will forever be fresh and beautiful, were a leaving gift to me from a lovely friend. I will forever be on the hunt for the perfect little vase, or a new way to display these. 

Check out the website of the Dutch designer Jurianne Matter. 

Don't even bother to figure out how to change it in to English, I think the Dutch language looks like hilarious fun!

(She has a pretty schweet blog too!)

For those in New Zealand, I do believe you can find these at Small Acorns. And, if you haven't been inside their new shop opposite New World Chaffers, do it! 

If are ever in need of a bit of colour therapy such as the mad combinations of Designers Guild or Orla Keily, it really can only make you happy to visit this lovely store.

I bet you're wondering by now what the golden egg is all about? 

Take a look in that window behind the table... 

Last week's second hand score was a wonderfully weird, but totally cool golden metallic window lamp.  I had to get a special tiny bulb to fit, but I love how the pinholes of light have exactly that effect, projecting the shape of the glowing coil in the bulb.

I thought it would be just right to hang in the window now with easter around the corner! 

Here's a close up with the other find from last week, (the slightly Christmas inspired candelabra) which I thought could keep my dear little deer picture company until next Christmas... 

Or at least until I find the right sized candles. 

That's all for now.

Take a seat... and some spray paint!

Hello friends of blog land!

I hope you've all had a nice weekend, did the moon make you do weird things?

I think it did something weird to Zebe because she was on a climbing rampage all over the apartment last night, and we are now doomed because she has discovered that she is still able to jump high enough to land directly on the kitchen bench...

Apart from that, we had a fairly relaxed weekend starting with having some close friends over for dinner, the food was amazing and the wine was even better!

It was perfect really especially since my man did all the cooking ;)

The reason we were finally able to invite some people over, is that now I've found some chairs to go with our table!

There are four matching and are a lot more curvy and interesting than they appear from the front on image...


Well I couldn't cope with any more clashing types of wood, so I got some glossy white spray paint and went to it!

The country-wountry nanna fabric had to go, luckily the seat cushions lift off and I was able to reuse the upholstery nails to put some new fabric on.


And this is the result so far:

I am officially halfway through two of them. (I got a bit gung-ho on the first one, it turns out they need lots of fine layers of paint, not lots of paint in one go... so I need to sand back a little bit)
But hey, it's all in the process of learning!


And in the process of learning and researching and getting inspiration for revamping furniture I came across this amazing blog of gorgeousness!!

Oh my god oh my godohmygodhmygod...

The colours, the beauties, the inspriations. Holy moly this stuff gets me excited!!!

So I know what I'll be doing this week, and if you guessed that I'll be scouring the second hand stores for more things to spruce up, then you'd be right!

New week, new discoveries, new inspirations :) 

Easy peasy fresh and breezy!

It seems the trick to a proper Scandinavian room, is to find the whitest white paint you can and slap it on the walls, ceiling and floor if your landlord will let you.

Luckily our landlord did let us, and even paid for the paint, but I don't think the (totally boring) lino floor would take being painted too well, so a large white rug will do for now.

There is a reason for all this white, and it's not only very good at brightening up a dark place on a dull day, but it is also very easy to change the look whenever the mood takes you! 

Just now with the first hints of actual proper spring (check it out, my little potted daffodil friend finally popped out to say hello!) - I felt like embracing this new found thing called sunlight...

So, this week we have the "other" duvet cover which Mr Man picked out before I arrived, as he left the opening of my gorgeous Orla Kiely set for me to do when I finally arrived here in Sweden.
Check out the sweet box it came in even!! (The one sitting on the bed end - which really is a coffee table)



The mirror, I picked up at our local second hand store, which came with a matching little wall shelf that I've put in our itty bitty hallway for keys and tram cards and the likes...
They came in this bright red and I really can't decide if I like that colour or what I should change it to.  

The windows have very deep sills in this room, that's a normal-ish sized suitcase sitting up there!

I think the nicest thing about this room is the linen curtains which I've hung as high as possible to the ceiling while still letting them slouch a little bit on the floor - I think they look more glamorous that way.

We have white, light blocking, roll down blinds for the summer time, as this room faces west so it gets afternoon and evening sun.

I've seen lots of inspiring ideas lately of painting directly on to these blinds. I'll dig out some images next time...

I'm also thinking of paiting a bedhead type thing on to the wall, or do I put a collection of photos and frames up there, or this?! Oh how I love this print, Iso Satakieli from Marimekko...

Anyway, it's time to go to bed, and dream about that print... you can see it above the bed can't you!

Not much of a Sunday, but it was a Funday!

At the beginning of March in Gothenburg, it can often look like this outside your window:

As soon as the falling slush has subsided and, woah check it out, it's a whole 8 degrees!! It's time to go outside for a wander... 

Make your self some good coffe and get out there!

There's lots of good window shopping to be done, and second hand stores to scope out. It's much cheaper to go shopping when nothing is open anyway.

Further down the road, it was probably a good thing this shop wasn't open because I don't know how I could have resisted the temptation to buy this one for somebody... kidding. Well actually I know a couple of people who might think this is actually pretty awesome. This is Gothenburg after all!

 We came across a very silly church:

"Did you hear about the dyslexic Satanist?
He sold his soul to Santa!!"

Dreaming

So it's been a while since my last blogness...

The recent events in Christchurch, where my mum grew up and where we went every easter to visit my nana and great-grandad when I was growing up, have left me some-what lost for words.

It seems unreal to think that the cathedral that I complained at the time about having to walk up all those stairs to the top of the steeple has now come crashing to the ground, along with many other iconic landmarks.

What happened on that Tuesday has changed Christchurch in the most dramatic way, and left hundreds of families homeless and unfortunately taken the lives of many people who will be sorely missed.

Watching the news from the other side of the world, of all that's going on at a time like this in your home country is a very surreal feeling. Is this really not just a bad dream?

If Christchurch can take the brunt of a 7.5 earthquake when it is Wellington who has been expecting "The big one", then how big will the big one be when it does decide to shake it up in my home city!? 

The most overwhelming thing I've felt though, is the togetherness of New Zealanders throughout the country and all over the world. It's feeling like a bit of a cliche to say it, but it really feels like we're in this together.
All the amazing stories of people helping complete strangers in any way possible, opening up their homes to anyone needing to get away from Chch and generally sending their love has had me welling up with pride to be a kiwi at a time like this.

I can only imagine that it must be such a relief to the families staying with the generous people offering free accomodation in a house with running water, electricity and a flushing toilet on stable ground. But I can also imagine that it must be frustrating for those who have no home to go back to, when others seem to have it so good.

This is one of the reasons that I have not felt right about writing about my physical possessions when so many people suddenly have nothing.