THE KITCHEN SHELF

I've been so busy with practically everything during the past year and also concentrating on the fix-ups in the country house so much I tend to forget my actual home in the city is pretty damn nice too. (At least under the mess of papers and clothing that is covering most of it...)

Here I spend most time in the kitchen, with Dag, and -apart from that mint green thing you know- I am most happy with the 50's styled cabinet shelf we had made by a carpenter. I just made a drawing with so-so measurements and he built the piece based on that, then we painted it ourselves with linseed paint.

It's easy to think anyting custom made is much more expensive than store-ordered but that is not always the case;  I was inspired by the similar cabinet shelf from Kvänum but that would have been two or three times as expensive as this turned out... Pretty much everything we are doing in the farm house is being built on place too. Which we will get back to later.

PAPER, LACE AND ROKOKO

It's been a while sice I posted any animations here; as some may recall I love stop animations.

Les Trois Inventeurs -The Three Inventors- is a cake paper, lace- and paper cut  (you know I love aper cuts too, like the works of Rob Ryan for example!) stop motion animation by Michel Ocelot from three decades back. It's incredibly detailed and beautiful and also the kind of work that makes me anxious trying to imagine myself doing it. So I try my best not to :)

You can watch the little sad story here:

London Fashion Week

So much for me blogging every Friday huh!I need to get into a blogging routine properly. This week has been pretty hectic hence the lack of blogging. My freelance deadline was on Friday so I was rushing to make last minute alterations to my designs. Since then I have been frantically reworking my entire portfolio for two interviews which I had in London on Friday(one for a design assistant job with a clothing supplier and one for a 4 week internship with Mary Katrantzou). On the bright side it wasn't a wasted trip as I got the internship and I was also asked to do a project and come back for a second interview for the job. Fingers crossed my project is good enough to land me the position!

Anyway enough excuses for my blogging incapabilities!

As everyone even remotely interested in fashion and textiles knows Friday-Tuesday was London Fashion Week where designers showcased their AW13 collections. Spring/Summer collections were a monochromatic shock and the designers' Autumn/Winter collections have been a continuation of this featuring in Meadham Kirchoff, Fyodar Golan, Jean Pierre Braganza and Sass&Bide. Vibrant red was injected into a large proportion of the catwalk collections, although this colour combination creates an oriental feel in some design,s these three colours(red,white and black) have strong associations with both communism and fascism causing the collections to become quite emotive.

Black and white trend.

Black,white and red trend.

Left: Russian Communist propaganda poster from the 1920's, Right: Fascist Nazi swastika from the 1940's.

Despite this predominantly being a Print blog I feel I should give a nod to some of the other catwalk trends; chunky knitwear being a particular favourite of mine, I can't wait to get my hands on a sister by sibling style thick scarf. Thick knitwear also featured in the collections of Rohmir, Bora Aksu, Apu Jan, Jale Hurdogan and Mulberry. Another Autumn/Winter 13 knitwear trend that is set to be extremely popular, judging by the amount of designers who included it in their collection, is the polo neck. The 1970's neckline is making a huge comeback- Sister by Sibling, Daks, Eudon Choi, Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Mulberry and Pringle all championed the return of the polo neck in their collections.

Chunky knitwear trend.

Polo neck knitwear trend.

On the opposite end of the neckline spectrum is the emergence of deep v-neck dresses. Although they look extremely sophisticated on the catwalk models it will be interesting to see how this trend filters down to the high street, deep v-necks are extremely hard to wear #braproblems and without the bra there is always the fear that one might pop out inappropriately. Despite this designers such as; Peter Pilotto, Emilio De La Morena, Julien Macdonald and David Koma all included v-necks in their designs. The V-neck trend also filtered into the seasons' knitwear with Sass&Bide and Jonathan Saunders introducing v-neck knitted sweaters.

Deep v-neck trend.

One trend I was extremely happy to see in the AW13 collections was the presence of art deco imagery. My most recent freelance brief was to create a collection of designs using black and white decorative imagery in which I chose to use art deco shapes as the inspiration, I can't explain how happy I am to see it in other designer's collections, it means I may have a hope of selling some designs.

With films like 'The Great Gatsby' set to hit our screens this year it is no wonder that fashion has turned to the past for inspiration. The glamour of this 'golden era' is something the designers have imitated throughout their collections. Holly fulton uses art deco geometric imagery as a staple in her print designs and her AW13 collection had some fine examples of this. I was surprised to see that Temperley London had also looked to the deco designs of the 1920's for inspiration, the mirrored layout of the prints mimic typical art deco style and the dropped waist "flapper"dress also makes an appearance in the Temperley collection. 

Temperley London's collection- art deco style bodycon dress, drop waisted "flapper" dress and print close ups.

L'Wren Scott is another designer who's AW13 collection drew direct inspiration from "The Golden Era" with art nouveau designs*and obvious references to the paintings of Gustav Klimt.
*NB: art nouveau was the art movement that pre-dated art deco it comprised of decorative imagery, natural colours and curved lines, art deco was a direct reaction to the end of this movement and it caused geometric shapes and bold flat graphics to become popular.

L'Wren Scott AW13 and Gustav Klimt comparisons.

One final print trend, which doesn't come as too much of a surprise for the Autumn/Winter season, is animal prints. I've never been a huge love of animal prints but I do love the black and white animal prints shown by Preen(leopard print) and Burberry(giraffe print) and the pointillist style of Holly Fulton's tiger print.

Animal print trend.

So there are the trends I've picked up on from London Fashion week, when I get the chance, hopefully at some point this week, I will also blog about New York and Milan. 
Bye for now x 

LET THERE BE LIGHT

We finally have ceiling lamps in the new countryside kitchen!

After browsing all kinds of lamps in all price ranges from lots and I mean lots of different places for months, we decided on something similar to the one we have in our city apartment; the vintage one I found left behind in one of the rental flats I lived in over a decade ago. Which in the end quite easily could be picked up from best store in the world, ikea*, with the idea to paint it white. (The lamp is actually in a steel colored shade.)

Otherwise,  the kitchen is in use, but everything is not ready yet. Obviously anything made in an old house takes a lot longer to do than anything you want done in an apartment, old or new. I had ha-ha thought the kitchen would be ready by Christmas. Once we were at it we also started fixing up the hall in front of the kitchen and turning the space behind it into a bathroom. So everything is still in a renovation-sort-of-mode. And then when all that is done there will be PICTURES!

*) along with Clas Ohlson and Tiger. Applies to most situations in life. Sort of.

SUAVE

I wish all guys would look like they had stepped out of a Hackett brochure...

THE TWICE FORGOTTEN SKIRT

I am - apparently, as I have noticed one too many times - the kind of person who simply cannot store anything in a place that needs more effort than to open one door, max, to be remembered. Anything I put in the basement kind of goes there to die. This means it gets pretty crowded at home. Or that I have too much stuff, but then again we all have. (First world club meeting again, gather up in line!)

Well the point here being that if I tuck away clothes somewhere to wait for their right season to come I most likely will never see them again. Unless I stumble upon them by chance. And so I did with this pleated wool skirt, which I had put in a storage coffin sometime last summer or when I was pregnant. It is the second time I discover it already; as it as part of a suit that I had forgotten I had (which jacket I use all the time during the other seasons) and discovered a couple of years back... Good for me, this was put into action instantly.

The skirt is vintage; my grandmother's old, the rest is old stuff, high street.

SHOES & EARRINGS

 An easy party-shoe DIY is to bling up your heels with some jewelry.

 

I have been sparkling up a pair of dance shoes for an upcoming burlesque number, and as always with burlesque more is more is more -there can never be too much bling and sparkle- so also in this case. Instead of gluing hundreds of crystals one by one I cut apart a couple of earrings and a bracelet. And added some swarowskis and pearls string too, once I was at it.  (You may recall me saying I don't like crafting all that much as it is messy and the result not always perfect but sometimes I just don't have a choice. And glittery stuff like this can almost be fun.)

For a more subtle result, that does not look like a unicorn arrived and puked up a bucket of glitter or so, you can get a new fancy smanshy shoe by just attaching one earring, or parts of it, on the side, heel or toe. The best is to choose a light piece that looks more blingy than it is. I got some earrlings on sale from H&M. I use a special embellishment glue called Jewel It which is still elastic after it has hardened and also washable-proof.

EGGSHELL BLUE, RETRO RED, CAT BLACK

Lulu in the corner, on the fridge, countryhouse.

PINAFORE SKIRT VOL 2.0

You may remember my pinafore skirt from Vivien of Holloway?

 It's a piece of clothing I love; it's comfy and sits well, but I haven't really gotten around wearing it that much. And I know the reason: it is too red, which makes it hard to wear together with most other stuff you need to wear over here the biggest part of the year.

Instead of letting it go I decided to color it - a risk, especially if the label says hand wash, but if the result turns out good (which is kind of 50/50) it can save the item. I decided to go for dark brown which should work on red (as in opposite of blue for example, resulting in violet, etc). And brown goes well with everything, even better than black! Dark brown even goes better with black than black goes with brown, sort of.

Well it didn't exactly turn out that dark brown. Or brown at all.

The fabric is 100% cotton which should take on color real well, but I take it that the thread is coated somewhow. So now it's kind of a "woven" dark red.

Which is not all that bad actually.

(Dag wanted to be in the pic. Hello!)

The fabric took on a sort of vintage texture which looks very nice. And it did turn out more wearable!

Then I noticed  suspenders like this are not the most practical in mom-baby world, easily grabbable and pullable and so on, but that's another story.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: FEBRUARY 14

Had a late breakfast; a blueberry smoothie, some red orange, home made hazelnut-date bars and the morning paper.

Dag was enjoying a breakfast of his own with his kind of reading. (That particular book was part of a great gift from Katja and her boy Pieter, who is one day younger than Dag. Thank you :)

It's a terrible mess here at home, a mix of toys, unpacked burlesque bags and piles of paper that will hopefully turn in to my company's tax declaration. Gnah.

And let's not forget what day it is! Time for my annual heartly greeting:
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!
(We had two hearts to start with but Dag drooled and ate and choked upon his. Of course.)

JUST A WHILE AGO, JUST A LITTLE TIME AWAY

There's so much snow and white everywhere.  Everywhere. And at this point it always feels like it will never ever end.

But -no more than a mere three months and the apple trees will be in bloom again, with summer around the corner!

Here's Eddi and I biking round that familiar bend at the farm on a warm day last summer.
(Screenshot from Yle today.)

SUNDAY SNAPSHOT

Sunday. Dag sleeping, a bread in the oven, the whole internet in front of me, a cup of tea and whatever's on the radio.

RAW FOOD IS GREAT BUT BREAD, BREAD IS TRULY AWESOME

How much I do and how much I like to do in the kitchen varies - enthusiasm comes and goes.  I have always been the kind of person to go between having all my meals preferably out, or aiming for the title of domestic godess. Or going experimental vegan home chef. Either way and nonetheless, I love food. Man, food is great! Not to mention carbs! (Here's where I'd add a bit heart emoticon if I'd be into that and they'd be easily available here in blogger. Carbs! Pasta and bread and cakes! Plus wine. Once we're at it with the I heart-stuff.)

Since Dag was born I have been home in a different manner than before; I have been spending more time at the house (uuumm yes, duh!), as in opposite from  working strange shifts. Or well, strange shifts away from home, away from the kitchen. The "working hours" with a small baby at home being rather strange too.  But this means I have been cooking more again. Partly because I have been at home, partly because I have been able to concentrate on what I eat, and partly because it is not only more sustainable but also more affordable with more home cooking. 

Home made bread has always been a special luxury for me, and it is one of the things I rather seldom put myself up to. But as I discovered the un-kneaded pot baked version I have been making weekly batches! It is so amazingly easy to make and turns out super pro! Win-win-win all the way!

You just mix all you need (about two parts flour and one part water with salt and yeast plus whatever you may want to flavor your bread with) together the night before and leave the dough to set, then bake it in anything with a lid the day after. You can be a total fuck up in the kitchen and get away with this for sure.

There are may recipies out there, this one HERE is a good one for example. Just remember that if you like me bake with other flours (as in not with wheat)  you might need a little more water for the dough, and let it set long enough.

The bread I've baked here is on rye and spelt with linen seeds from the farm, and dried cranberries.