Childhood flashbacks

One of the things I'm enjoying by being a mum, is revisiting things from my own childhood. Only this time I get to see things from an adult's perspective too. Great fun! At the moment I'm really admiring the illustrations in The Mole cartoons from the 70's (above), I enjoy reading Barbapapa books and eating my son's lovely kiddie biscuits, like these Muumi ones... :-)

Check out YouTube for The Mole and Barbapapa cartoons.

MUUTO

A particularly sweet friend of mine tipped me about this site: Muuto.com. Muuto is Finnish and means 'fresh perspective'. That is what the company's goal is with their collection of products by young Nordic design talents.

The items above are some of my personal favorites from Muuto: Vitamin Container Bowl (in faience) by Ole Jensen, Four Flower Vase (glass) by Matti Klenell and The More The Merrier Candlestick by Louise Campbell (in technical rubber and steel).

Also check out Danish Edge - Your Official Guide to new Danish Designs, Crafts and Architecture.

Orla paper

When I saw these over at Decor8 today, I almost flipped. I'm a huge Orla Kiely fan, and so excited to see that she'll be launching a paper goods collection! It had to happen, when you think about it... All those fantastic prints now also available on notebooks, address books, notepads, journals and stickers. Heaven!

Chirpy cushion

You might have noticed Design*Sponge's post yesterday of 'Under $100: decorating essentials'. Well, I just fell instantly in love with this cushion from Jonathan Adler, and hey presto, it's on its way to my sofa!

What's blogging my view in the papers

My good pal Paul of Sweet Paul was asked by a Norwegian press office to recommend some Norwegian interior blogs for them to write about. So they called me! Journalist Kjersti Busterud and photographer Carl Martin Nordy (above) came to visit yesterday, and I am very happy with the result so far. Can't wait to see the full story in the papers!

50's colours

Here are more photos from our walk today. The pastelly colours of the boats and the petrolium blue contrasted with the bright red reminded me of some colour pallette from the 1950's. I like.

Easter bliss

It's been a great Easter weekend. Yesterday I went to see the Grete Prytz Kittelsen exhibition in Oslo (finally), and it was very inspiring. Today we had a family outing to my favorite local café at Hellviktangen. Luckily I remembered to bring my camera. We had a sudden heavy snowfall a couple of days ago, and it all turned very wintery again, but today the sunshine was fantastic and we couldn't have wished for more perfect Easter weather.

Leaves, leaves and more leaves

There is certainly no TV blogging my view tonight (is it possible to show any more boring stuff on a Friday night? I blame the Easter holidays). So I thought I might as well post something nice for you to look at :-)

These are my latest leafy pottery pieces found at my local thrift shop. I don't know anything about the cup with blue motif, but I have a nagging feeling I've seen it before, I just can't place it (grrr). I guess it could be Swedish, but I don't know. The dish that it's sitting in is actually not pottery, but melamine. The maker, Gustavsberg, named the series ornamin, as it was ornamented melamine. It's designed by Stig Lindberg in 1968 and the name is Blues. There is also an orange pattern called Balett. (My mum has a full set of it and I keep hinting for her to pass it down).

The cup in the second photo is English, from Biltons. That's all I know about it. Other than that it's my favorite coffee cup at the moment. The dish underneath is by Egersund and could be as old as the late 40s/early 50s.

Veggen (The Wall)

This is 'Veggen' - a modular shelving system designed for Bruksbo back in the early 50's. It is still in production today. A truely classic piece of Norwegian furniture design.

When we bought our house 6 years ago, this cabinet/shelf was sitting there in the living room. (I know...!) There was another unit elsewhere in the house - a bookshelf that covers a whole wall. Needless to say, we kept them both. The system is very practical - you can add or remove parts as you like. I added the small shelf to the unit in this picture. I can't decide whether it looks too cluttered with my glass and pottery collections up there. I used to have framed family photos on the small shelf, but it wasn't working for me, somehow.

Orange lounge

My new Ikea sofa arrived on Friday. So bright! And big. It's a huge difference to the sober brownish green thing we used to have in that space. It consists of a 3 seater (sleeping) sofa, a one-seat chair and an ottoman. The brilliant thing with this modular sofa solution is that the chair and ottoman are detachable and can easily be moved about. It accomodates two people to stretch out on a chaise-longe part each, for instance. Great for those movie nights.

If you're wondering about the fab cushion over to the right, it's an etsy find by Katrina Kaye. And the little plush bird up there is by my good blogger friend Dawn Ramerman, and it's called Berta the Robin (Berta is into watching quiz shows on TV).

More vintage fabric cushions for the sofa are on their way...

A blogging coffeebreak

It's mid-morning and I'm still in my pyjamas, enjoying fresh coffee and some biscuits. Easter vacation is great!

The vintage bowl is one of my absolute favorites by Stavangerflint. The mug is (of course) by Orla Kiely.

Oh - and the biscuits are Maryland cookies.
:-D

Happy Easter!

My little 18 months old (artist) son came home from kindergarten with these three minimalist painted eggs for Easter. Being his mum, I think they're wonderful of course...

The 'lava' vase was thrifted recently. It caused a little debate when I came home with it. I will not use his exact words here, but my better half wasn't very impressed by the decor, put it that way.

H is for Home

What a lot of great stuff to buy at brand new web shop H is for Home.
The Lancashire-based team behind H is for Home, Adelle and Justin, are selling hand-made items as well as vintage goods - unique and quirky things. The range is huge! They told me that this isn't even all of it - they have more in store... And best of all - the prices are reasonable. Check out their nice blog too.

Bruksbo Furniture

I'm rather pleased with my latest bargain - a mid-century smoked glass top coffee table. It's designed by Norwegian Torbjørn Afdal for Bruksbo Tegnekontor. When I researched it, I found some other fantastic pieces of furniture labelled Bruksbo, most of them by Afdal (see pics). I already owned a design piece of his - the long rosewood bench. Unfortunately I don't have the flower box that sits on top, but it's nice regardless. This bench came with different 'accessories' in its time - I have seen it with a seat cushion, with a box of drawers and also with boxes for LPs. I got my Bruksbo pieces for a song. Lucky me! :-)

Shopping Swedish

I went Ikea yesterday. Ordered our new sofa... It's orange. Exciting stuff. I was hoping to buy some yards of their great new fabrics too, but of course they were out of stock. However, I got some of previous season's which I also like a lot. (The one to the right). I went Åhléns on my way home and found these other two fabrics in their remnants lot. The one with the leaves is my favorite. It's so very Swedish. Makes me think of Svenskt Tenn, Josef Frank, Stig Lindberg etc. I feel some new cushions coming on today :-)

Ikea has already started selling their garden collection, and amongst their 'Sommar' series I found this huge tote bag and paper napkins in the same pattern/colour scheme. Love, love, love. (Just such a shame their napkins are so wrinkled...)

Thrifted pottery patterns

I've been thrift shopping again... These are some of my latest pottery pattern samples. From top left: Figgjoflint mug, unknown polish dish, 'August' cup + saucer by Figgjoflint
Middle row: 'Astrid' saucer by Turi-design for Figgjoflint, 'Morocco' cup by Turi-design for Figgjoflint, 'Nora' plate, Rolf design for Stavangerflint.
Bottom row: Delamere Staffordshire suger bowl + creamer, 'Glory' plate by Inger Waage for Stavangerflint, unknown jug (Polish?).