what to do in sweden besides fika

going to sweden soon to visit my mormor who broke her femur and elbow. i hadn't planned to go to sweden this year and was saving up vacation days. but now that i am going, i can't wait. i need to see my mormor and i need to get out of SF!

possible things to do while there, besides just being a lot with mormor (probably will only have time for a few of the below):

*take lots of pictures
*visit and fika with camilla and morran!
*draw mormor, mom, others
*keep a journal with drawings
*get that poster at moderna museet that i've been thinking about since last july when i was there (i'll show you it once i get it!)
*go to used plate store pa kungsholmen
*go to myrorna and other thrift stores to look for cool fabrics
*go to marimekko store and fabric stores
*go to art museums, waldermarsudde
*visit with my friend amelie
*skargard (archipelago) day trip
*do something queer-related (i have yet to find a queer scene in stockholm. it's very illusive, if it even exists at all. and yes, i've looked pa soder.)
*eat fil, hart brod, svensk ost, svenska potatis, kex choklad, cocosbollar, chokladbollar, princess tarta och dricka saft
*fika fika fika (for non swedish speakers, i found a good description of fika on some physics forum. it was posted by someone who goes by vaxan. "for example - in swedish: ska vi ta en fika? or even: ska vi fika? has no english equivalent, the nearest english analogue would be.. fancy a cuppa? or in the american language: would you like to join me for a cozy cup of tea or coffee and sweets or sandwiches, and most likely at a café or someone's home? - the phrase 'ska vi fika?' evokes an instant feeling of coziness in swedes, in english speakers it makes more intellectual demands (more synaptic operations)" i love the part about how it evokes an instant feeling of coziness. indeed!


a garage door in bernal heights, sf (where i walked around this weekend) somewhat reminiscent of swedish house colors


the red garage was right by the bernal bricks, a small portion of winfield street that is brick. i love the bricks.

feria report

(see more detailed mecozy display here)

the feria fair was a bit of a bust. not many sales. mostly my sweet friends bought things (thank you!). below is erica modelling a scarf she bought, and jen and christina holding a packaged up bear.



see how cheery they are?! it's the mecozy goods i tell you. hehe.


here is armani selling her beautiful harmani jewelry. (website coming soon.)


and here i am looking much more relaxed than i felt! (pic taken by christina)

and when i get my act together i'll put the bears up for sale on www.mecozy.com.

bring your friends' pet to blog: CUTE!

(note cute paw placement)

today i'm bringing the shiniest dog ever to my blog. this is Vegas!, the shiniest dog ever. she lives (as seen here) with jen and christina.

i had the honor of being present when Vegas! (then known as Jojo) wiggled her way into my friends' (and my!) hearts at a milo mobile adoption about a year ago. we had gone to the mobile adoption for jen and christina to look for a puppy, but they weren't 100 % sure about really getting one that day. none of the dogs made them feel sure, so we left after a while to peruse the nearby sporting goods store.

we decided to walk by the dogs again on the way back to see if our friend corrie and her dog were still there. they weren't, but Vegas! was! she was little and sweet and black. a milo volunteer said all of her (was it 6?) siblings had been adopted out, and she was the last left because she wasn't a looker (black animals being the hardest to adopt out). we took Vegas! around the block (actually i think jen carried her around the block), and jen and christina both had this muted, excited energy. like they both really wanted her but weren't sure whether to influence the other with their excitement. we sat down on a stoop and jen and christina actually made me listen to their thoughts separately in order to come to a decision. they each told me how sure out of 100% they were (meanwhile the muted excited energy feeling was getting more and more intense!) i forget what their percentages were, but basically they both really wanted Vegas! and the small missing percent was just their still not wanting to pressure the other person. (i of course was 100% sure, very much wanting to be a doggie auntie. hehe) anyhow, they adopted Vegas! and since then she has gone to puppy school and agility, has about 25 toys, multiple collars, gets a huge assortment of treats, gets lots of good walks, is showered with love and has numerous adoring aunties and uncles. she is the most spoiled puppy i know! and the shiniest.


(licks)

what a happy family!
more of this cutiepie later i'm sure. cuz you can't really see her cutest features here (besides the shiniest of fur) - ears, snoot (the family word for snout) and eyes. and tail. damn she has a lot of cute features.

scrapy cards

cards i am making for the fair i'm going to be at this weekend. how much should i sell these for? i have no idea. 3 dollars?

for any SF folks, the fair is Feria Urbana. it's this Saturday from 12-5 at the Canvas Gallery on 9th Ave., near Lincoln.

more red and green

farmers' market organic heirloom tomatoes yum



jen choosing her tomatoes carefully

complimentary color bears

fronts

backsides (one on right is fabric from an esprit dress i didn't wear once. i used to buy dresses mostly for their patterns, but i rarely wore/wear the dresses. can't seem to part with them either though, so some are becoming bears.)

bring your pet to blog/meet lollipop lu!

it's been hard for me to wait to post pics of the fabulous lollipop lu until today. lolli arrived on saturday all the way from alison's in australia. she came with all sorts of goodies (great stationary, tea in a cool bag, stickers and candy). i took this pic of lolli and pinky when they first met and they just looked too funny together with their suprised eyes. and i thought it was perfect for take your pet to blog thursday, so had to wait until today to post (i'm not patient about these sorts of things.)



here is lollipop lu making friends with hank the cat. they've been very polite and still have not licked their way through this pop!

another PL with lolli pic. lolli wears a beautiful scarf (pattern from Loop D Loop).

thank you alison! definitely the cutest prize i've ever won! and a thank you gift IS on its way to you soon...

self portrait tuesday: bedtime toes

bedtime toes



more bedtime toes



bedtime corner

took these last night while listening to sigur ros and thinking of this poem by may swenson:

The Process

Lie down upon your side
and fold your knees
Bend your hands at the wrist
against your chest
as a cat or dog does in repose

Close your eyes and feel
your brow smooth out like a small
cloth in the wind
or a brook slipping
to gentle waterfall

Now wait for what will happen
Something will

Beneath this hill of breathing hair
a steep mine
Within this ear
oracles of echoes seep
Wide and clear the eyelid's dome
a galaxy where suns collide
and planets spin and moons begin

Words are birds perceived
in a secret forest
Fed by nerve and vein they hop
from twig to twig and up
an ivory ladder to the top
where it is light and they remain
and are believed

i felt very calm and folded last night (one can feel folded, really).

having my mom here this past weekend reminded me of where i got my worrywart-ness. she worries about just about anything. though i love her, the worrying drives me a bit crazy. worry seems to be a way to try to control one's life and it distracts oneself from the present. i wish we could just decide not to worry, which i guess is possible to some extent, but is easier said than done.

on a silly note, is anybody watching "so you think you can dance?" it's the american idol for dance show. i saw one episode and hope to see this wednesday's. my former hip hop teacher is on there! folks who know me (and don't already know about this) will find it hard to believe that i took hip hop for almost a year, but i did, and one of the 2 teachers i took it with was Allan, who's in the top 24. i have to say though, Nick's performance got me teary eyed, so I am rooting for him at the moment.

Svenskar: Undrar om nagon kanner nagon som vill ha hus/djurvakt (o jag kan betala hyra ochsa) 1-3 veckor i September (efter den 13:e) i Stockholm. Helst pa Soder. Min mormor har brutit benet och armbagen och jag vill halsa pa henne. Hon bor pa ett alderdoms hem o jag vill garna ha ett stalle att bo separat fran hemmet.

mostly fabrics and finnish

had to buy this apron from lovejoy's tea room this weekend. almost had to buy another one too, but i restrained myself. are these ice cream sundays or martinis or what?





and here are my favorite scraps from the scrap swap. thanks everybody who participated! will have to think of something fun to make with these. i'm inspired by kath's fabric cards (her aug 12 entry).

also inspired by those finns lately! finnish links from camilla and wee wonderfuls: Napa Books and Ivana Helsinki. and i found some marimekko fabrics i haven't seen and some other finnish design.

lubbesmeyer fiber studio

my mom and i visited the American Craft Council's big craft show at Fort Mason this weekend. my favorite artists there were the Lubbesmeyer twin sisters. the pictures on their website of their art don't do the artwork justice. but the above is one that i like a lot.
check them out!

bring your pet to blog

couldn't choose so here are two:



one owl



one peeking into the new housemate's room. dot of orange.

i ran into the charming and warm mati today. she lives around the corner. so fun to finally meet! of course i was awkward, as i am when i first meet people (ay - sorry mati). but i'm glad we're finally going to meet on purpose.

have a good weekend people. (my mom is visiting, so i probably won't be blogging much.)

self portrait tuesday: två kerstin

i look so sad in the pic below, so had to post a different pic of the two kerstins, my mormor and myself, from a couple years ago. i see some cheek resemblance!



this painting is of my mormor and was painted when she was a girl.
for my 25th birthday, mormor said i could choose a painting from her collection and i chose this one. i love the painting itself and that it is of my mormor. she fills my heart with love. (sounds corny, but is true.)
(too bad the painting is a bit fuzzy in this pic.)

make bears not war

three more little "wallpaper" bears for fairs. i've noticed that, among the kinds of fabric i like, one kind seems to be fabric that looks like wallpaper. bears all together on flickr. the summertime creatures postcard swap is finally also on flickr.

make sure to check out kim's post on the peace memorial park/nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. a powerful letter from the major of hiroshima to george bush.
and her post on artist lynn dennison.

idiosyncrasy tagging

idiosycrasy - a structural or behavioural characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.

i was tagged by port2port to write about 5 idiosyncracies of mine, and i better just get it over with or i'll think about it too much!! (i both love and hate things like this, but i'm glad mav tagged me.)

1. i prefer to sit on the floor rather than on a chair.
2. i cry in about 95 % of the movies i see.
3. (and here's where they start getting a bit weirder) i have a fascination with people's hair. i especially like wild hair. i also like when older women have long, shiny white or silver hair, like metal. i often stare at people's hair when they sit in front of me on the bus. public transportation has great hairwatching.
4. this is an idiosyncracy of both the flat i live in and myself: there is a closet in my flat that occasionally (i think it must depend on weather - i need to start tracking this) smells like the summer house my mormor and morfar had in Sweden. i often open the closet to check for the smell (and i worry i'm letting it out). on the days it does smell like Vallsta, you might find me hanging out for a bit in the closet.
5. i hate mushrooms (back to innocuous idiosyncracies). well i hate their texture and taste. i do like looking for them in the forest though.

i tag (if you haven't already been tagged) - camilla, kim, mati, stephanie and joleen

bring your pet to blog

just another one of those aren't i terribly cute pictures today of mr. pinky leon.



and here is rolf (i like that name! like rolf the piano-playing dog on the muppets.), my parents new, obviously very goofy and smiling dog. sadly, they had to put their other dog (who i wrote about a couple thursdays ago) to sleep. i think rolf may be channeling a bit of reggie's fun-loving spirit though.

self portrait tuesday: faking it

a fuzzy picture of me feigning sleep. an unispired self portrait tuesday, i must admit. i do like photos of people sleeping though. not sure why. maybe because they're in that mysterious dream place. really this pic is just an excuse to show off the new sky blue ikea sheets though. i really wanted some orange sheets. had found some on the fancy, high thread count garnet hill site on sale for cheap and i got so excited. but they turned out to be sold out. fooey.

check out camilla's new shop with art prints. she has a very sweet self portrait tuesday post too.