JUST A PRETTY PICTURE...

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LIVING IN ARGENTINA

As you probably guessed from my Thursday post, I'm in a bit of an Argentine tango mood this weekend. A few days ago, Rachel from Dwellings and Décor did a guest post at Mochatini that I really loved. It was about the book "Living in Argentina" from Taschen. I spent some time leafing through the entire book online, and I wanted to share some of my favourites!


Peeling paint can be so beautiful:












The next photo makes me want to start collecting various tiles for a mix-and-match wall in a future dream bathroom...




The below photos show a more contemporary side of the book:



(what do you make of the minuscule Apple computer?)


I love this kitchen:



Most Norwegian post-war kitchens had cupboards like these. They're fantastic because the slanting construction allows us to store large items in the upper part while the lower part allows space to move. Unfortunately, people are throwing out these kitchen cupboards nowadays - it really is a shame...


There are 200 leaf-through pages waiting for you here!

LARGER-THAN-LIFE KNITTING: CHRISTIEN MEINDERTSMA

What do you make of this knitting project??





This is Christien Meindertsma's project for The Nature Concervancy.


Christien's Urchin poufs are pretty gorgeous, too.




- or what about a rug?



We have a long-standing knitting tradition here in Norway, but I've never seen anything like this.

Found via French blog Les Carnets du Design.

MAYALEE'S TULIP CUP

Tonight, I get to meet my BF again -he's coming home for the Pentecost weekend. We've signed up for some Argentine tango*) activities and will most likely be dancing the weekend away.

Feeling slightly romantic, I thought I'd celebrate by sharing one of the most gorgeous flower photo I've seen...

This photo is by Swedish photographer MayaLee. She's got a blog and an Etsy shop (where this photo is for sale) - both are well worth a visit!

Found via Room & Serve.


*) If you'd like to see a really beautiful Argentine tango waltz, click here.

I've prepared a couple of posts for the weekend, so stay tuned!

LOFTY

Suddenly, I got a craving for a loft... Never mind that I'm afraid of heights and get dizzy if I'm more than three storeys up!

Beside the fact that I can't actually afford a loft, there's only one problem. I can't decide whether I want

- one with colourful details:







- or a sleek, minimalistic one:

- or a rustic, artistic one:

Wait a minute - the last photo sort of answers the question for me.

Which one would you like?

HAPPY MONDAY: DONE & DUSTED!

My tax report is done and dusted, yay! Finally life can go back to normal. Speaking of dusting: I spent yesterday cleaning the apartment, something I don't find very entertaining. Maybe it would be more fun if I had some of this:

These fun bottles from BEE contain environmentally friendly detergents.

Found here at Norwegian design blog crj design.

HARMONY ON SUNDAY: WALL STICKERS BY HARMONIE INTERIEURE

Today, I got this nice email from Fabien at wall decals company Harmonie Interieure, which Fabien runs together with his wife Frédérique. I had already bookmarked their site because I think is a bit different from other wall decals sites I've seen.

First of all: the photos are very nicely presented in the old Polaroid look:




I also find that these photos provide some great inspiration for using wall stickers. I'm not sure whether it's just the Polaroid effect, but it looks like the walls have been given a decor paint treatment before the stickers are applied.

Either way, I think this is a good idea because decor painting softens the look and makes the wall a lot more interesting than if the stickers were applied to an ordinary painted wall.

Just look:








New York based Norwegian stylist Paul Løwe used Harmonie Interieure's stickers for a feature in the September 2008 issue of Country Living:



More at Paul's blog Sweet Paul: here and here.


Harmonie Interieure also has a Flickr page, where I found some absolutely gorgeous photos from Frédérique & Fabien's home:


(click picture for large version)

These photos make me want to move to France right now!

Have any of you readers used wall decals at some point?

HAPPINESS IN LITTLE THINGS - A MATCH!

Don't you just love it when the ice cream matches the napkins?

Or is it just me?

(photo from 17. May celebration at my mom's)

WORKSPACE VIEW

When I've not been at work; this has basically been my main view the last days:



Due to my tax report work, I look as bleary-eyed as the little guys in the Poul Pava card! Hopefully, I'll finish this weekend.



I love the set of pencils that my BF bought for me at Il Papiro in Rome last summer.

Now I have to run to the library to pick up the Oscar Peterson music for one of my piano students. No rest for the wicked...

NO TIME FOR BLOGGING TODAY...

...just this!

Found here on Shannon Fricke's blog.

A QUIET DAY

It's Ascension Day, and my town is very quiet. I'm going to work a bit - I'll leave you with a few beautiful, calm photos. The Tumblr blogs I've linked to below have lots of lovely photos and very little text. Sometimes we need that, too...



Found here on nom-nom-nom.



Found here on First Home.



Found here on BrocanteHome. This photo is by a favourite of mine; Daniel Farmer/Sarah Kaye Representation.

A TINY STILL LIFE

Just a detail from my living room shelf today...



These are the colours I live with at the moment. They make me happy every time I enter the main room of my little apartment.

I hope you're having a great week so far!

HAPPY MONDAY: COLOURFUL MID-CENTURY MODERN

This almost became a Happy Tuesday instead of a Happy Monday post, as it's nearly midnight here. I'm a bit behind with everything, but I couldn't resist blogging a couple of happy photos:

Even Madonna looks happy!

Found here via a tip from Holly at Decor8.

HIPP HIPP HURRA FOR 17. MAI!

Pardon my Norwegian... Today is the national day of Norway, and the header says what children all over the country will be saying (or rather, shouting) today. I guess you understand what the header means!

Norway is a young nation. We got our constitution on 17. May 1814 after having been involuntarily united with Denmark for 400 years. After getting our own constitution, we still had to be in union with Sweden until 1905.




This is Swedish king Karl Johan's authorization of the Norwegian flag anno 1821 (found here).


I thought I would celebrate our national day by showing a contemporary Norwegian home featured in Bonytt, Norway's oldest interior decoration magazine. My mom says that she used to read Bonytt to collect inspiration when my parents built their house in 1960, so it's been around for a while.


The reason why I've chosen this particular Norwegian home: it's red, white and blue, like our flag!

The house is prefabricated, which is the most environmentally friendly way of building a new house. It's all wood, but it's built without any nails or glue. The floors are made from bamboo, which is a sustainable building material.

The wooden bowl on the table looks like it's a traditional Norwegian baking tray.

It's a bit too early for Norwegian strawberries yet...

...but these homeowners have opted for a strawberry red kitchen!

The floor and countertop are bamboo.

It looks expensive, doesn't it? Actually, it's IKEA... Looks like we're still sort of united with Sweden!

This is the main bedroom:

-and the bathroom:

All photos by Nils Petter Dale for Bonytt.

Bonytt's website is down for maintenance, but you can find this home plus other interiors featured in this magazine on the Norwegian site Klikk.no.


If you have Norwegian ancestors and would like to read more about Norwegian history, check out these links at www.norway.org, which is the official Norwegian site in America.

I'm celebrating May 17. at my mom's this year.

Have a lovely Sunday wherever you are in the world!

A MIDSUMMER DAY'S DREAM...

Summer is on its way, and I wish I had a small cottage by the beach...



If I did, this weekend would be a great time to open it after the winter.

I'll start with opening all the windows. Then I'll do a bit of cleaning, airing and tidying up (but not too much, obviously, plenty of time for a thorough cleaning later).




I'll arrange my belongings in a nice way and pick fresh flowers for the kitchen table...




Now all is set for my fun friends to come and stay. You're also invited, of course!




You all need to rest when away from the city's hustle and bustle, so I've prepared some lovely sleeping spaces.




After a long night's sleep, you'll probably want to grab a towel and a sun hat...




...and go for an early morning bath in the sea.




After the swim, I'll prepare a simple breakfast of homemade bread, jam, coffee and tea. We've got a lot of catching up to do, so we sit talking around the table for ages.




When breakfast is over, it's time to do the dishes. But my kitchen is so lovely that everybody fights to be allowed do it!




Then it's time to visit the local village for a bit of shopping and exploring.




When we return, everybody joins in the kitchen to prepare lots of delicious food.




Then we go down to the beach again to set up a table...




...and we spend the rest of the day eating, swimming and talking some more -



- all through the night!

I hope you all want to come!


All images from UK based company Toast's lovely online catalogue.

(you can read about Toast's ethical policy here)


I'll be back tomorrow with a red, white and blue post to celebrate Norway's national day!

EVENING IN MY APARTMENT - NORWEGIAN MAY LIGHT

This week has been totally crazy. But yesterday evening, I managed to relax a bit, and it was then I suddenly noticed how lovely the light has become. Norway is far north, so we've got almost daylight during the night in summer. So I grabbed my camera and tried to capture the soft evening light in my apartment.



My giant orchid, which is three times the size of an ordinary phalaenopsis -



A recent Salvation Army shop find has got the main space on the wall -



Light through my curtains -



Glass vase filled with decoration sand, and a tiny glass globe -



Light playing on the tiebacks -

Have a beautiful day - and remember to look around you!

(all images by me)

TINY TOUR: S's MAIN ROOM

Today, I'd like to share some pictures from the apartment of my friend S. She used to be a student until recently, so the place she's living in is really tiny. At the moment, she's in the process of moving, but I managed to take some photos of her main room just in time!

S has been really clever, incorporating both a sitting/tv area, a dining area and a sleeping area in a room that's approximately 15 square meters and in addition has got slanting roofs. Strange thing is that there's still plenty of floor space.


Let's start the tiny tour with the sitting area:

It's a cozy, inviting space with a throw for cold Norwegian nights...

...and lots of lovely, squashy pillows.

The mirror above the couch is from India.

The ottoman is a great multi-function piece - both as a way of expanding the couch, as extra seating for guests, or just as a footrest when watching Sex & the City DVDs...

Less is more: detail from the side table.


The dining area is situated in a nook by the window:

The pebbles and the piece of bottle green glass are from the beach.

S is the happy owner of two mid-century modern dining chairs by Danish designer Kai Kristiansen.


The shelves above the dining table are filled with thriving plants and beautiful, simple things.

(no, the shelf is not bent - it's my camera that's playing games with me...)

The other shelf: clean, simple lines with a feminine twist!

Below the shelf: small pieces of art bought on the street in Buenos Aires.

The bed is cleverly hidden behind this curtain, so we hardly remember it's there.

Decorating with clothes must be the ultimate storage-cum-decoration solution. As you can see from this photo, S is a really glamorous girl!


It's S's birthday today, by the way. In addition to being an overall great friend, she's actually the person who's responsible for me starting this blog. Happy birthday m'dear, and thank you so much for letting me loose with a camera in your apartment!

(all images by me)

HAPPINESS IN LITTLE THINGS: PINK DAISY

My Monday just got a bit happier! When I was walking home from work tonight, I found a daisy on the pavement. It's really strange; I found it almost exactly on the same spot where I found the yellow tulip a few weeks ago (click here to read the story).

I like how the hot pink clashes a bit with the red tablecloth. I've always loved daisies, the colours are so pretty and they're really photogenic despite the size. Apparently, they can float as well, because there is almost nothing left of the stem on this one.

Now I just have to find out whether to put the daisy on my little doily (Salvation Army shop find)...

...or on the matching napkin!

Either way: the beauty lies in the flower itself ---

--- doesn't it?

(all images by me)

HAPPY MONDAY: REVAMPED FLEA MARKET FINDS

This makes me happy today: Pink, white & green!

Spring is clearly here! These revamped flea market finds are from Sköna Hem.

Have a lovely Monday everyone!

WEEKEND BEAUTY

After a long and stressful week at work, it's good to finally get to do whatever you want! I've indulged in a bit of therapeutic baking, temporarily making a mess of my kitchen...

My mess is not so stylish as this mess though!

(by prop stylist Jaimi Holker)

I'm having a lesson in Argentine tango a bit later today. If you want to see a short, but sweet animated tango film, click picture below!




I highly recommend it; it's beautifully done and very romantic...

Via This Makes My Day.

What are you doing today?

DOMINO TABLESCAPES ON AUTOMATISM

Ps. One of my favourite blogs, Automatism, has a lovely post on tablescapes from Domino today. Check it out here and be inspired!

Happy Friday!

INSPIRATION: MARIANA LEUNG

Some time ago, I bought a book about basic embroidery. I'll never be anywhere near the talent of Mariana Leung though...

Mariana's work has been used by designers like Vera Wang, Oscar de la Renta and Giorgio Armani.

It's easy to understand why, isn't it?

Now. I wonder where that book has gotten to.

IN THE OFFICE

Today's post was going to be a quick one too. Since I'm in an office mood these days, the plan was to blog this NYC advertising recruiting firm office that I've bookmarked some time ago. Naturally, I couldn't find the bookmark, so I spent half an hour searching... Oh well. The best laid schemes o' mice an' men*... Anyway, here it is! It's designed by Inside Interior Design Inc.




It's all chocolate and candy!

* (according to Wikipedia, this is the original quote)

VIA DESIRE TO INSPIRE: SCOTT WESTON

I'm going to be a bit more busy than usual in the near future because I have to do a bit of work on my tax report each day now to make sure I finish on time. So today's post is a quickie, featuring a striking dining room I found on one of my favourite blogs, Desire to Inspire, today.



The room design is by architect Scott Weston.



The table seats 16 persons!





This is probably a high-end project, but I think it's possible to recreate this room's colours on a budget. Paint your old dining room table glossy red and give your old chairs a couple of coats of white or pale gray. Find some floral fabric for upholstering the seats - if you're lucky, you might be able to find fabric on sale. I always recommend looking in curtain shops; they sometimes sell their curtain samples for almost nothing!

The real luxury of this room is actually the light!

You can view more of Scott Weston's work at Desire to Inspire's post.

GUEST BLOGGING AT MY INTERNAL DESIGN

Today, I'm guest blogging again with this post for Sue over at My Internal Design. Sue and I are both getting the "second hand-itch" (Sue's words) so my guest post is going to be about three homes that are different, but have one thing in common: They're all decorated with vintage/flea market finds!

Here's an example of what you can find in My Internal Design's blogs section:



Lovely, isn't it? Sue found the image here. It's originally from LivingEtc.

My Internal Design is a cool blog where you also can participate by sending in your own photos or joining discussions in the blog's forums.

Links: My Internal Design home page
My guest post

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday, BF!

(photo by me)

COLOURS ON SUNDAY: SARAH KAYE REPRESENTATIONS

It's that time of the year again... I have to spend some of my spare time in May to do my tax report (don't know what the exact term is in English, but you get the gist). I'm starting today.

I hope you've got time for a lovely cup of tea -



- and to enjoy the colour feast I've put together to cheer myself up a bit before starting my tedious work!


























I hope you found some inspiration in these photos! I have to get started on my work...



Have a lovely Sunday!

Photo credits:

Adrian Briscoe (3,9)
Tim Evan-Cook (4,8)
Chris Everhard (7,11)
Anders Gramer (14)
Richard Powers (10)
Polly Wreford (1,2,5,6,12,13)

All images from Sarah Kaye Representation.

CALMNESS ON SUNDAY

You'll find more calmness on photographer Mari Eriksson's website.

ETHICAL DILEMMA

Hello guys! Hope you had a great day yesterday! My day was quite interesting. I visited a friend of mine who's got this tiny, cool apartment that I've wanted to show you. Photos are coming up later!

I also got yelled at through a comment on this post (click link to read the post and the comment!). Basically, the (anonymous) commenter told me that I was a bad person because I've decided to keep my small oriental rug even though there's a chance that it might be made using child labour. I bought this rug long before I knew about the problems in the Asian rug industry - otherwise I'd never have purchased it - and I've stated this quite clearly in the post. But this person obviously thought that the only right thing to do would be to throw the rug away.

Now, I haven't got much patience with people who have to revert to yelling to get their point through. So initially, I was going to discard the comment without publishing it. But then I thought: Ok, this actually is quite an interesting ethical dilemma! So I've published the comment and written an answer on the post.

My opinion is that if we were to follow this person's advice, we'd have to throw away everything we owned that we suspected was made through child labour or by underpaid adult workers. If we were to be consistent in our principles, we might also have to consider getting rid of everything we owned that's not eco friendly. All this would ironically enough create unbelievable amounts of garbage.

This is where you guys come in! I'd like to hear what you think about this issue, so I hope you'll take the time to read the blog post plus the comments and post your opinion there.

I have two requests for those of you who want to join the discussion:

1) Please keep a cool brain and post proper arguments.
2) If you choose to post as "Anonymous", please sign with a name or an initial so it's possible to tell the difference between the Anonymous-es...


I think principles are great - I've got a few of them myself - but I think they need to be applied to our future actions. It's a matter of balancing principles and practicality, isn't it? We must learn from our past, then change our future.

Thank you for reading!

INTERNATIONAL WORKER'S DAY

Happy International Worker's Day!


(image by me)

There is still much work left before everybody in the world has achieved good, or even reasonable, working conditions. I'm not really into politics as such, I just have a strong belief in the power of the consumer and the fact that how we spend our money has an impact on other people's lives. I'd like to use this opportunity to say that we all have the power to do a little to help the people who make the things we love. They deserve it! Ask for fairtrade products, email companies that don't say anything about their ethics, promote the ones who do...

I wish you all a great day!