Stockholm purchases

There is so much great design in Stockholm that it's impossible not to bring any of it home. Apart from the Lagerhaus items, this is what I bought this time around:
A yellow Ballograf bank pen. Now I will never again have to look all over the house for that one ballpoint pen that writes black and that someone 'just borrowed'.

'Thank you for tidying up so nicely'. What better incentive for wiping the kitchen tops? The yellow one is from Lagerhaus and the red horse is from the Dala horse museum.

My only vintage pottery purchase from this trip! A german cup and saucer from Stadsmissionen.

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.

And talking about kid’s room – I was unable to resist buying two vintage miniature 'Syveren' chairs by Arne Jacobsen when I found a whole stack of them at Gamla Lampor. I already had a red A.J. stool in the kitchen of my dollhouse, so these go really well.