Good Ol' Times

Picture from National Geographic 1973

For the modern tea ceremony

I confess - I already have too many tea pots. And here is another I'd love to add to my collection. Maybe not quite right for the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, but very useful for a quick fix: simply drag the silicone string to stop the tea from brewing. Clever.  

This new glass tea kettle is designed by Norm for Danish Menu - another example of great, affordable Scandinavian design. 

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Give away - vinn en häftig kudde!


Nu har bloggen Me & Alice utlottning av en jättevacker kudde av by Nord och nätbutiken Blacknwhite (vinstvärde: ca 720 kr). Utlottningen pågår fram till 1 maj, och den lyckliga vinnaren meddelas på bloggen Me and Alice följande dag - den 2 maj.
För att vara med i utlottningen GÖR DU SÅ HÄR:
* Länkar till tävlingen med bild (om du har blogg) och lämna dessutom en kommentar på bloggen Me and Alice (oavsett om du har blogg eller inte för att tala om att du deltar i utlottningen.)
* Anmäler dig till Blacknwhites nyhetsbrev.
* Följer Blacknwhite på facebook.

Lycka till!!!


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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

Sunday Garden - update

Garden update: Sunny Easter weekend. Potatoes, garlic and the first summer flowers planted - check. Material  for the new terrass sorted - check. 

Amazingly enough - the so-so outdoor furnitures (sofa and chair) that came with the house, are still OK, even though I mistreat them, leaving them out all winter. 

The wooden bucket is an old 19C water bucket from one of Göteborg's wells, Qvillebäcken, before pipes were down and distributing drinking water to all citizens.  There -  bit of history for you all ;-)

Enjoy your Easter wekend. Glad Påsk. 

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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

Urban Zen by Donna Karan

I never thought I'd write a blog post on Donna Karan, but here it is! Her Urban Zen Collection, including furniture, home decorations, clothes and jewelry. First some candles (candleholders?) and other decorations for your Zen home.

From the Urban Zen website:
THE NEW LUXURY IS THE COMFORT OF BEING. It is the indulgence of being at home, of being calm, of experiencing what is meaningful. It is about our health and quality of life. It is our time. Our time with family, our time with friends, our time to reflect.

IT IS ABOUT ARTISANS. It is about the soul that goes into a garment, the craftsmanship that makes something an object of desire. It is about products that soothe your mind, body and spirit. Products that activate your senses.


Donna Karan's Urban Zen Home Collection includes armchairs, beds, sofas, benches and tables.

The Urban Zen brand promotes quality of life and artistry while ensuring sustainability.





... and finally, some of DK's Urban Zen Collection jewelry.
I like. Do you?
All pics from the Urban Zen site
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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

Almost 2 dimensional

Love this almost two dimensional lamp by Korean designers dmo.
Clever. Like a sculpture. I'd love to have one. Just as eye candy. Wouldn't you?

Pictures: dmo house

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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.
Translation (well, sort of...)Love this almost two dimenstional

Vad är tidstypiskt hemma?

Vad är tidstypiskt, undrar man på Fabriken idag. På den frågan finns lika många svar som tidsepoker och kultursfärer.

Bor du i ett gammalt hus, och undrar vad som är tidstypiskt, kan du kolla vad som gäller i den alldeles utomordentliga boken Så byggdes villan, nominerad till Augustpriset 2009. I denna bok hittar du (nästan) allt du behöver veta om ditt hus och vilka kulturhistoriska värden det besitter.

I bildcollaget har jag valt ut exempel på tidstypiska 1900-talets detaljer och inredningar, som ofta körts till tippen under senare års moderniseringar, men som nu säljs på nytt, som nytillverkade kopior, till alla som ångrat sig...




DIY Easter Centerpiece

Real simple - a quick fix, for your Easter dinner table or Buffet. 

Take one high glass bowl. Make a birds nest of birch branches, and place in bowl. Add birds eggs and feathers in different shades of brown, beige and spring green. Enjoy your dinner. 


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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

DIY Easter Decorations - PåskPyssel


Today is a busy day. But before I'm off to the Garden Center, here are some more Easter inspiration for you. This time from Ikea Hemma. Today they have asked talented Minna Merche Schmidt, to make an arrangement with eggs, feathers and spring flowers. Beautiful! If you haven't visited Minna's blogg Blomsterverkstad yet, hurry over.  Now I am off to get some bags of eco soil and cow dung for my garden! Enjoy your day.  Pic: Minna/Ikea

DIY Easter eggs

Getting into Easter spirit. A few eggs made of left over materials from other projects: bits of wallpaper, feathers, silk flowers, christmas decorations. (No kidding. )


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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

Sunday garden...

Sunny sunday. My garden is holding its breath - waiting for projects to finish and others to start. Today: a few snapshots of garden items of iron and terracotta. 

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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

Traditional Paper Design for the Future

As an occasional paper artist, show me some new paper design, and I fall for it with a bang. Like these items by the three designers Jovana Chris Lei, presented at the Milan Furniture Fair 2011. 

The collection is inspired by 2000 years of Chinese umbrella paper craft. The material choice may seem, well...  delicate , but the paper chairs are built to be durable. 

I guess the paper is treated to withstand humidity and heat? What do you think? 

From their website: 
CHAIR: Gluing layers of paper is the way how to make a traditional paper umbrella. Our Paper Seat is using the same craft. The paper layers are combined until the chair is strong enough to sit on, but is still keeping its flexibility. Hand made paper is rich of natural fibers that give strength to carry a person and is therefore our choice for this comfortable chair.

WASTE BASKET: The form as well as the mechanism of the foldable waste basket is based and inspired by the traditional Chinese umbrella. It is made of tear proof synthetic paper and obtains its durability and stability through the way of folding.




And last, but not least: two beautiful pendants. This one is made of paper, the bottom one  of bamboo. Well done! 



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Milano 2011: Olby Design

Also at the Milan Furniture Fair this spring is Olby Design.

Designer/owner Kerstin Olby is a former student - and now professor - at the prestigious Carl Malmsten Centre for Wood Technology & Design. Olby started her company in the 1980′s and has won many prestigious awards. Her timeless furniture are all hand made in Sweden with local, natural materials. I use to listen to her lecture, when she visited my previous work at Chalmers University in Göteborg. I've always loved her work, and if I had the money, I'd love to invest in the beautiful chest of drawers at bottom left... Which one is your favorite?



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Stairway to Heaven?

London based Hogarth Architects  have redesigned a listed London apartment in South Kensington. Love the stairway. More picture of this project on their website. 


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Höganäs design on my Table

Swedish designer Lovisa Wattman, has designed most of my tableware from Höganäs Keramik. I love the simple, elegant yet modern design of these stoneware plates and bowls. Just the other day I added the black (milk) pitcher (top left) to my collection. A majority of these items are out of production now, but I have not grown tired of them.

Most of my round dinner and salad plates are egg shell white or charcoal black, mixed with the odd grey, celadon green/blue and yellow for fun. But when it comes to the triangular breakfast bowls, I've gone wild and added a few greens and dark blues, - all colors that match my finnish cups and bowls, Arabia's Paratiisi perfectly.


The new pitcher made me remember when I, some years ago, styled three different table setting, using my Höganäs stoneware. I set a colorful party table for 12, a romantic, late dinner for two, and an early morning breakfast table for one, on a small balcony. For fun I sent the pictures of these table settings to Höganäs, who at that time had a contest going on. I won, and was invited to the factory to check out their work and new designs. (The pictures of my 3 table settings are lost - most of these pics are from the Höganäs site).


The Höganäs trip turned out to be different from what I had expected. Less Höganäs Ceramics and more garden design.

I had asked my garden expert friend to join me, and we decided to drive the 200+ kilometers down to Höganäs in my car (that kept acting up all through the ride). We got to the Höganäs factory before lunch, rather hungry, since we had not had time to stop for coffee on the way. My hopes for some refreshments soon died, as we quickly were introduced to the kind man who was going to show us around, and off we went.

It was a great tour of the factory, seeing all the different phases of the production and talking to the designers. Wish we had not been so hungry, though.

I got no Höganäs item as a winning prize, but had time to spend an hour at the factory outlet, before heading west to claim the winning prize: an over night stay and fancy dinner at Mölle by the Sea. Absolutely lovely, though we were there off season, and had to dust the room, wipe off the bathroom and shake the bed spreads, before settling in. Unusual....

The following day we focused on art and garden design, and had a fantastic drive cross the country side, before heading home - fingers crossed the car would last all the way. It did.
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Dusty Dimonds at Milan 2011


Swedish award winning designer Anna Elzer Oscarson's Dusty Diamonds collection is currently on display at the Milan Furniture Fair. The stunning collection consist of high vases, plates and round boxes.




Anna Elzer OscarsonThe reliefs were my point of departure. The whole concept involved integrating patterns and the three-dimensional shape. The result was facetted pieces with several dimensions. Pieces that draw you in and make you want to touch them. Which should give the products a long life. Being granted the opportunity to work alongside some of Sweden’s most skilled craftsmen  at Porslinsfabriken in Lidköping, a factory once used by the fine porcelain manufacturers Rörstrand,  made realizing these pieces possible and the process had the extra benefit of passing on traditions and know-how.  Pics from her website

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Trendy Beeswax and Greys

This spring's trendy yellow is, according to Pantone, BEESWAX. This soft yellow goes brilliantly with different shades of greys: all the way from crisp white to charcoal black. Just perfect if you want to bring a bit of warmth and color to your otherwise toned down Wabi Sabi interiors.
The funny this is that I've never really liked yellow. Not in the garden. Not at home. But this soft shade, I could live with. I just love it with greys. So..... what's your relationship to yellow?





Pics?
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Snapshot from my garden

Söndagsbild på en måndag, Ibland är man riktigt sen... Varför? Var alltför upptagen med att tvätta och städa för att hinna med. Och du? Hinner du med allt du vill inför påsken? 

White sheets in the spring breeze. 

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Milanorapport 2011: Muuto

Danska Muuto (betyder nya perspektiv på finska!) har en hel radda starka designers knutna till sig. I Milano visar de i veckan ett urval av sina senaste produkter. Mycket enkelt, klassiskt, skandinaviskt. Passar in i de flesta hem. Kanske i ditt?




Nytt på möbelmässan i Milano 2011


På tisdag öppnar portarna till Milanos stora möbelmässa. Främst riktad till fackfolk, men allmänheten är välkommen på avslutningsdagen - nästa söndag. Inbjudningarna har strömmat in (se ovan), men jag är kvar i vårvarma Sverige och jobbar. Medan inredningsfolket festar runt på de olika pressmottagningarna, tänkte jag bjuda jag på lite bilder på sådant som jag tycker verkar vara särskilt spännande på årets milanomässa.

Först ut är  den NyZeländske formgivaren David Trubridge, (vars spännande lampor vi känner igen sedan tidigare) som visar upp sin Dream Space Dome, en liten nätt trädgårdspaviljong för kontemplation i avskildhet eller samtal på tu man hand (hela paviljongen får i hopfällt skick plats i en väska!):

New Zealand designer David Trubridge describes his Dream Space, currently on display in at the Milan Furniture Week,  as an internal ‘break-out’ space for quiet contemplation, an external gazebo as a garden sanctuary, or a light-weight frame for an attractive shelter, Dream Space has a range of functions. But here in Milan we can enjoy this structure simply for its beautiful flow of lines and patterns, and for the way in which it focuses energy into its still calm centre. This is the first time that we have applied to architecture our process of building complex structures with minimal material use. The wood is only 5mm thick, and the entire set would fit inside a suitcase, yet it produces a remarkably strong and stable structure, once the pieces are curved and under tension. To reduce our environmental impact this dome was assembled entirely on site. (Pictures from David Trubridge's website



Est - a New Interior Mag Online

Have you seen the new online magazine Est? It is a quarterly magazine, focusing on global design with an Australian twist. The Australian twist is a reference to Australian style: relaxed, not taking itself too seriously, contemporary, fresh, with a love of natural light.
You can easily subscribe to, and read the mag online here. I have and I really love the relaxed yet trendy approach to interior style and design, mixing bohemian chic with classic and contemporary design. I like. Do you?

Nu slipper du högarna med tidskrifter som har en tendens att ligga och skräpa i vardagsrummet eller sängkammaren. Sedan några dagar finns Est online, ett australiensiskt inredningsmagasin, som bjuder på en härlig blandning av högt och lågt, trendigt och bohemiskt. Kolla in första färska numret här, och säg vad du tycker.




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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.

DIY Sliding Door - Smart skjutdörr i sovrummet

Vem älskar inte smarta lösningar. Särskilt dom som är gratis. I princip. Låt dig inspireras av Danas nya sovrumsdörr. I sin blogg berättar hon hur hon och hennes man förvandlat en gammal grånad ladugårdsdörr till en kycklinggul skjutdörr i sovrummet. Visst är den gamla dörren vacker som den är? Men med tanke på rummets övriga färgsättning och material, förstår jag att paret lockades att måla dörren och förvandla den till en färgklick. Vad hade du valt? Omålad eller ommålad?

Dana is a creative "homebody" who loves to tweak her "boring house" into a modern home. I just love what she's done with the bedroom. Including the newest addition - the sliding door. You will find more great tweakings here.

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Check out my other blog Creative Living here.