Fingers crossed

Right now I don't have balcony let alone garden. I don't think I'll have a garden in the next decade but by next summer I might have a balcony again. Spring should officially start tomorrow so it's high time to start planning these things. Of course it has been snowing here for almost a week now but that's not going to stop me.

These pictures from Domino are so adorable. I would love to be able to invite people over and serve dinner on the balcony. I quess coffee for two is more realistic in the near future... But that's lovely as well. The second picture reminds me of my family's summer cottage. It's such a shame that I don't have a good picture from there right now.

Domino


Domino

One of the most important things about a balcony is of course the view. This is the view from the balcony of our last apartment in Finland. The picture was taken on the last day before we moved to Sweden. The water in it is the Baltic Sea. A litle gloomy but at the same time so wonderful.

I love these cute floverpots by Tina Hellman from Sturehofs Krukmakeri. They would look perfect in my future balcony. I'm going to be in so much trouble when I have to move my stuff back to Finland but I might buy one or two of these anyway. As souvenirs.

Sturehofs Krukmakeri

Exam week is getting closer

I've been so busy with seminars, essays and all sorts of studying that I have been forced to neglected this blog. But the library at the KTH is such a cool space that I don't mind spending time there. The offices, computer rooms, group work spaces and reading rooms are located in an old laboratory building of the university. The cool part is that the space between the two wings of the building has been covered with a roof and transformed into a book hall and a cafeteria. The space is so light and airy, it is almost like being outdoors. The design furniture is a nice addition. I took this photo last Oktober.

Fettisdag

I quess in English this time of year is called Shrovetide but here the name for today can be directly translated as the Fat Tuesday. I know it has something to do with starting the fast that's supposed to go on until Easter but I'm too tired to remember or find out what. To me the meaning of this day has always been the pastrys and occasionally sledding.

The traditional swedish pastry for this holiday is the "semla" which is a bun filled with marzipan and whipped cream. We eat those in Finland as well but there we call them "laskiaispulla". The Swedish-speaking people in Finland call it "fastlagsbulle" which is the direct translation from Finnish. If you ask for a "semla" in Finland you get a bread roll and if you ask for a "fastlagsbulle" here in Sweden you get looked at as if you were an idiot. Asking for just a "bulle" would get you a plain bun. Except in southern parts of Sweden where it would mean a bread roll. Confused yet? I know I am.

"Kanelbulle" on the other hand means a cinnamon bun both in Finland and the whole Sweden. But it is also another name for @-sign. Swedes even have a special day for cinnamon buns, "kanelbulledag", but I don't remember when it is.

Looks from Helsinki

My boyfriend found such a cool web site today. It's called HEL LOOKS and it has tons of pictures of originally dressed Finnish people. Pics have been taken all over Helsinki and I'm actually little home sick after looking at them.


There are of course pictures of entire persons on the page but I only borrowed their feet here...




There are just so many inspiring and disturbing looks in there. I love it.

Dreaming of a bedroom...

For the first time in my life my I have my bedroom, livingroom, kitchen, diningroom, library and homeoffice in the same room. I calculated that the bed takes about 30% of the floorspace of the room. When we first moved in I couldn't believe that there simply wasn't enough space in the whole "apartment" to spread my yoga mat. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the compactness. I think it is great that if I should stumble anywhere in my home (except shower I quess) I would always land softly on the bed.

Still, I'm begining to dream of a time in future when I will probably have an actual bedroom. Here are two pictures of bedrooms that are currently my favourites. First one is from Dana's Sunny Logan Square Apartment. I found it among AT Chicago's home tours a few weeks ago. Of course I'm only kidding my self thinking that my next apartment would have big windows and wooden floors. But I love the colours and the peacful atmosphere. I had never thought that you could have a couch in a bedroom but it's actually quite a nice idea. Bedrooms in Finland tend to be small so I probably have to forget about it.

The second room is Carrie's bedroom from Sex and the City. I found the picture from HBO's Sex and the City interiors -page. I love the color of the paint in this room as well. (Walls of my next aparment will ofcourse be bitterly white.) I like mixing different styles of furniture and textiles and I'm not one of those people who believe that all wooden things in one home has to be the exactly the same colour.

My biggest obsession right now is to find the perfect chandelier for my future bedroom. I can't say when it started or why it seems so essential for me. I've been manically surfing the web pages of finnish antique shops and mailing the owners about the sizes and prices and such. It's funny how it's impossible to tell the size from a photo and then they turn out to be one and a half meter high. Then I have to write them back and explain how I'm looking for something slightly smaller...

Things I didn't know about Ikea

I have been exposed to a little too much Ikea lately. It seems that in Sweden every student room, hostel and most of the public spaces are full of Ikea furniture. Then last week when I had to pick a subject related to Sweden for the talk that I'm going to hold in my Swedish class tomorrow. So I panicked and picked Ikea.



Here are covers of Ikea catalogues from 1958 and 1962. Pretty retro! There are many more to find at the catalogue cover archive.


Here are some new things I've learned:

• Ikea was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad who was at the time 17 years old.
• The name IKEA comes from the founder's initials and the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up.
• IKEA originally sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings.
• Last year there were pressed 175 million Ikea catalogs in 27 languages and 458 million people visited Ikea.
  
• Ingvar Kamprad is estimated to be among 4 richest people in the world. He is also said to have raised funds for a pro-Nazi group in Sweden during the World War II.
  
• Before 2006 the worl's biggest Ikea was one of the stores in Stockholm but now it is the one opened in Bejing, China.
  
• World's northernmost Ikea (65.50 N) is in Haparanda, Sweden.

Start Up

I'm currently living in Stockholm, Sweden in a 23 m2 studio that I'm sharing with my boyfriend. The student accomodation office has kindly furnished the room with some of the cheapest furniture Ikea has to offer but there are also many things that I love about living in Stockholm. Still I can't wait to move back to Helsinki, Finland in the summer.

Our last apartment was the first that we shared and it was exactly what you get when you just throw all the posessions of two people together. It was too cramped and cluttered and since we knew we were going to live in it only about 10 months we didn't really put that much thought into it. My hope is that we will find a slightly bigger apartment and I allready have a million ideas for decorating it. So to spare my boyfriend from my constant babbling on the subject I'm going to be recording my thought's in here instead. At least some part of them.

And propably there will be talk about studies, travelling, living in the Scandinavia and a few other subjects as well.