


When I first told my son (soon to be 3 years old) that I was going away for a few days, I asked if there was anything in particular he wanted me to bring back for him. The reply came instantly: a yellow horse. This was a bit surprising as I hadn't heard him express any wishes for a yellow (or any other colored) horse until then. But if he wanted a yellow horse, he should damn well get a yellow horse. This brought me to visit the Dala horse museum in Gamla Stan. (Dala horses are traditional wooden, hand-crafted and hand-painted toys in Sweden. Now used mostly for decoration.) The museum shop did have a yellow one but is was over 700 kroner (about $100 US) which I wasn't prepared to pay. In a moment of creativeness, I asked them if they perhaps sold unpainted ones, and for 180 SEK I had myself a little craft project. I was home at 11 pm Friday night, and quickly gave the wooden horse a yellow make-over (of acrylic paint) so that it was ready to be presented when my boy got up in the morning. Now, kids have a tendency to change their mind about things, so just to make sure, I put the same question to him in the morning.'What was it you wanted me to bring back from Stockholm?' Luckily he gave the same answer as earlier, and I'm happy to report that the horse hasn't left his hands for very long at any one time since. I call that a success.

Seeing as I have a thing for yellow details at the moment anyway, I'm rather pleased with that little horse. The bright velvet fabric in the picture was picked up in the sales at Marimekko, and I'm thinking cushions again. Possibly for the kid’s room.

3 comments:
Very cool on the yellow horse – good thinking! ;) I love Dala horses - they're so pretty :)
i love all these goodies, sounds like a great trip.
Hi Janne,
hope you're well! I found this little post about a ramshackle dollhouse, and I thought you might like it too:
http://finelittleday.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html
xx Juddie
Post a Comment