Roxy made me do it!

Inspired by the great tip about an artist that Roxy put on her blog My Cup of Te, I just went right ahead and got one of those lovely prints from Janet Hill Studio's shop on Etsy. I intend to frame it in white, and put it up above my bed.

Fell in love immediately with this row of dancers' shoes. Also think the colors will be super with the rest of the room. What do you think of it?

(Image from the artist's webshop on Etsy)

PS. Dear mum. I did not break the bank by buying the painting at USD 1500. Only a print which cost USD 44. :)

Christmas snaps

Wow! One whole week down south with my family went by so fast I really can't believe it's already over. But here I am - the Christmas tourist is back home again, having much enjoyed a wonderful time with family and friends - and my sister's terrific cooking.

Just a few images to hold on to that festive holiday feeling:

My brother in law had made ice candle holders:

Taken at dusk on Christmas Eve:

The front of the house. A little unsharp due to the lack of a tripod, but at least one can get an idea of how nice it looked:

The Christmas tree - no fugly pink here - my sis is a minimalist, decorations wise:

No minimalist tendencies when it comes to the number of presents, though. But, after all, we were 6 adults, 3 kids and a dog. ;)

I hope everybody had a lovely time celebrating Christmas!

Merry Fugmas!

Lovely, no? Just had to show you this image which I took on a daytrip to Sweden last week. Neon pink plastic. I dare you to find something uglier! (Taken by cell phone camera, apologies about the lack of sharpness).

Anyway, I've been around to all the blogs I follow to say hello to everyone. That's a lot of blogs, so I hope I didn't miss anyone. But just to make certain, I wish you all a Merry- and beautiful - Christmas! ;)

Sneaking in a touch of colour

Outside my flat there's a little entrance that I share with my next door neighbour. It used to be all white, which I found rather dull after seeing it every day for seven years. Now, technically, this room is part of the public areas in my building as it's an emergency exit through the loft, from one main entrance to another. However, on a daily basis my neighbour and I are the only ones who use it. So I asked her if she was ok with my adding a touch of color to it. As she had no problem with that, I just decided to go ahead and paint it without bothering to ask the board for permission. Since they're never here anyway, I'm pretty sure they're never gonna notice something has changed....;)

Previously:

 

Now: One wall is painted in a greyish blue called Gustavian Blue. At least it matches the rather ugly vinyl on the floor. (Why didn't they use some nice tiles instead? Surely it can't be that expensive for this tiny room?)

And since it's Christmas, I added a few ornaments to the usually empty jar that I've put out there just because there's no space for it inside the flat:

A bit more welcoming than just plain white, no?

Getting organized

One of the reasons for the lack of updates on my blog lately is that I've been getting organized. It sure takes a long time to sort out all the stuff one's been collecting over the years! But however slowly, at least I'm on my way to a less messy life. And it feels wonderful!

While most of the time has been spent tidying up, I've also managed to finally get some lamps for my bedroom. But so far no pictures for the wall. Well, usually there's a sale after Christmas, right? ;)

Refurbished bedroom: Closet heaven

So I finally did what I have dreamt of for a number of years. I tore down the old wall between the bedroom and the entrance hallway, and had it built up again further out, making the bedroom bigger and the hallway smaller. I also had a sliding door put up between the rooms. That gave me enough room to put in not just one, but two, sliding door closets. In my little flat, that's the maximum storage space I can possibly get!

This is what the old room looked like:

 All white

 Door from the hallway going into the room, taking up valuable space

 Very little room to store clothes and stuff

And the new: The walls are painted with a color called White linen (a greyish light brown), and the closet doors are whitewashed wood, with the wood showing through in a color that matches the wall paint. (The wall is all one color, the light stripe is just reflection from the mirror.)

 Sliding door closets to the left...

...and the right. I left a tiny little part of the old wall, where the fuse box is located. That way I didn't have to pay huge amounts to an electrician to move it - and I also got a little room for the necessary stuff that one really don't want to put on display:

A curtain that matches the paint was used to hide the content:

Details:

 A cool sheep pillow that I bought from a local artist in Trondheim when visiting my mum last weekend...

...and a cute little orchid in a light blue pot:

The window is mirrored in one of the closet doors, making the most of the daylight:

And in the window hangs a little guardian angel that my mum bought from a local artist on a visit she made to Sweden - watching over my new heaven...;)

 

What's left is finding some white frames for hanging pictures above the bed, and a couple of lamps for the bed tables with shades that fits with the rest of the room. But that I think I'll have to leave for after Christmas. Next up...the hallway.

Plentynine something

29....++++ ;)

So it's my birthday today...I guess I should make a little note of it here on my blog. While some people dread getting older, in my situation with two rounds of cancer I happily look forward to every new birthday I get to celebrate. Hurrah!

With that said I havent' been around here much lately. The refurbishing of my flat has taken so much longer than expected (isn't it always so?) and been so energy consuming that I simply haven't had the time. But I promise you soon there will be before and after pictures coming up when everything is ready, hopefully next week already.

A life too crowded

HOLY COW!

So I'm refurbishing my flat, and as I was moving things out of my bedroom and hallway to leave room for the carpenters, I got a real shock! How on earth did I ever manage to stuff my tiny 1-bedroom apartment with all of this? I don't know. Seriously, I don't. And more importantly, do I really need it all? Really?

The answer is a definite no! I found things I never even knew I owned! Unused clothes, shoes and jewellery, along with cds I'm never gonna listen to, make-up I'm never gonna use (honestly, who needs 4 shades of blue nail polish when you never wear blue nail polish?) and - judging by their dusty covers - books I haven't even considered reading.

One thing's for certain - when the bedroom and hallway are done, I'll be more than a little particular when I put my stuff back in its place. I'm figuring I can easily get rid of nearly half of it and never miss a thing.

What I really, really need is to stop convincing myself that every time I see something nice on sale or something new and exciting in the store that I just have to have it! If you have a similar habit and have no intention of changing your ways anytime soon - look out for some very pretty, slightly preowned or  NWT items coming up for sale on this site shortly! ;)

FUGG!

My love affair with Jimmy Choo isn't exactly the world's best kept secret. But as with most relationships, this one too has it's ups and downs. These models from the Fall/Winter 10 collection even raised the non-existent hair on my back. Leopard spots, zebra stripes and studs? I'm sure they're comfy and all, but seriously?

Verdict: F-UGG-LY!

 

 

 (All photos by Jimmy Choo.com)

Pinktober

 

Hot accessory tip for October: A Pink Ribbon.

At the Farmer's Market 2010

Matstreif !

YUM! That's what I thought when I saw the ad for the yearly fall food festival in Oslo. The idea of being able to sample delicious products from Norwegian farmers and sea food producers, for free, made my taste-buds immediately enter a state of high alert with excitement. Instantly, I called a few of my girlfriends - did they want to join me for a little appetizing experience? Oh, sure they did!

So downtown we went, to try out everything from homemade jam and cakes made from the farmers' own products, to the finest and most exclusive meat and fish Norwegian producers have to offer.

Having sampled our way through about one third of the more than a hundred stalls as an entrée, we eventually managed to settle for our main course among the innumerable dishes on offer. Not an easy task, really. I mean, if you just feel like a hamburger, wouldn't you have trouble too, having to choose between a beef burger, a reindeer burger, a veal burger, a deer burger or a moose burger (elgburger in local parlance)?:

For the occasion, yours truly decided to sport her newest addition to her evergrowing wardrobe - a pair of spotty jeans from HM's trend line Divided:

Judging from the photo, which was taken before we entered the festival area, I was obvioulsy looking forward to it. I was not disappointed. Let's just say there's a fairly good chance I'll be joining the lines at next year's event, too. :)

Drive in restaurant - Southern Norwegian style

Just park your vehicle right here...

....and walk straight in:

Visiting my sis and family in my hometown Arendal, on the southern coast of Norway, July 2010. Clockwise from left: My sister's friend, my sis, sister's friend's hubby, my BIL, my youngest nephew and me.

Obviously, none of us had any complaints about the walking distance from the boat! :)

The September Issue...

...of this particular blog is a little belated, I'm afraid. Bloggers everywhere are long past this month's fashion magazine issues and busy commenting on NY Fashion week, already looking forward to next summer's trends. I, on the other hand, am left here wondering whether there'll be a next summer for me at all.

Turns out my new doctors no longer think I've got a completely new and curable type of cancer, but rather that I was misdiagnosed back in 2007, and in fact had a way more aggressive and rare type of cancer than I was treated for.  A cancer that now has recurred and spread. While it's been more than a month since I had the last surgery, the tests aren't finished just yet. Apparently, it takes a while for them to be able to conclude with certainity.

In the meantime I've just been so exhausted from everything hospital wise, I needed a blogcation. From the comments on previous posts I see there are awards, challenges and other things that needed replies from me. A response I just lacked the energy to give. I'm sure I've missed out on a lot of interesting or important events going on in your lives that you have been blogging about, and it's going to take me a while to be able to catch up. I'll give it a try, though.

Now, here in Oslo fall has definitely arrived. My summer wardrobe is on it's way back into winter storage, and my fall wardrobe has gradually taken over my closet. All seasons have their charm, this one too. However, I can't seem to shake the feeling of melancholy when I see my summer flowers hanging on for dear life, blooming one last time before it's all gone.

I'm going to miss summer.

The Croatian holiday, Part two (Hvar and Split)

Part one of my Croatian holiday, about Dubrovnik and Korcula, can be found here. This post starts with our arrival in the island of Hvar. However, I've already covered the beautiful city beach in Hvar here, my tongue in cheek take at Hvar street style here and an extraordinay evening in Split here. So, now for the rest:

From top of the Hvar city centre, looking up at the old fortress

Hvar Harbour

Korcula was a quiet, litte island seemingly full of backpackers, sailors and a handful of other tourists. Hvar, in comparison, while being nowhere near as commercialized as some of the other Mediterranean hot spots, clearly held an attraction with a larger number of tourists, some of them of the very affluent kind. The vessels moored in the harbour sometimes gave the impression that this island is the millionaires' playground, as witnessed by some of the yachts:

Huge, some of them even with their own uniformed security staff

"Mine is bigger than yours....ha ha"

Sailing boats for charter

The hill in the backgound of the harour is where we rented an apartment

There were more shops here, larger hotels and the nightlife more action filled. Apparently, Hvar is supposed to be the Croatian island with the highest number of sun days. Also, it only takes an hour to get here by catamaran from the city of Split, which with it's international airport and huge ferry terminal serves as a feeding point for a large number of visitors to Croatia's attractions.

As soon as we had found a place to stay, we started out by doing what we did in the other places, namely finding the closest beach:

B. with the everpresent floating mattress

The huge hotel situated above the public beach. They had their own pools, so the beach wasn't crowded...

...there was more than enough space for me to happily float about

Every afternoon when returning from the beach, we would sit down in the piazza in the middle of the city centre, having our traditional "after beach"  small beers while engaging in some people watching as they walked along the harbour, across the busy piazza, or were just running their errands or "walking" their dogs...

.

...while just enjoying our surroundings...

At times we also made it into some of the small charming stores or stalls in the narrow streets:

I didn't really buy a lot, but one little souvenir was too cute to pass by:

After several days at the beach, I felt the need for some action. So two of us left Hvar and the hill that we stayed on behind for the day...

 and booked a sailing trip to the island of Vis and the blue (or was it green?) grotto with a company called Hvar Adventures:

The skipper talking to some of our fellow sailors

B. enjoying the elements - only the sound of the wind and the waves

While I enjoyed chatting to the skipper...

...and the view of the grotto:

Afterwards it was time for lunch and a swim:

Whaaaat? No floating mattresses on board? I actually have to do the work myself? Scandalous!

On our last night in Hvar, we all went out for a "farewell" dinner. The others chose to stay behind for the rest of the holiday, and only B. and I would be going to Split. We also had some beer:

One metre, to be exact! (No, I did not drink it all by myself even if I look pretty happy)

The morning after, we had to leave at around 7 AM to catch the catamaran onwards. The normally busy piazza was like a totally different world at that hour:

Ah...here's our (space) ship coming to take us away on new adventures

Split

Coming up later...