swedish ceramics, shirts, pippi and kerstin

just finished listening to designsponge's podcast with karin eriksson and it made me cry a little. i think it was the combination of hearing the sweet swedish accent (reminds me of my relatives and swedish friends when they speak english), thinking about sweden and being inspired by karin's career switch, success, beautiful ceramic work and what she had to say about design. i just found it lovely. listen.


i know enough with the roses already.


here is a shirt i bought from H & M that i'm liking. i am a BIG sucker for dots. and aren't these cute ones? i like the styles out now with all the ruffles, buttons, pleats and other girliness. so much more interesting with all the extra stuff. (it must be a pain in the ass for the sweatshop workers though. i try to only buy sweatshop free or used clothing, but sometimes i am weak and i go to H & M.) i also like the style of throwing everything together, lots of layers of not necessarily matching colors, patterns, clothes. sorta pippi longstocking-esque (while we're on the topic of swedish ceramicists and clothing stores, we might as well mention swedish fictional strongest girl in the world, the fabulous pippi långstrump. it's funny cuz when i was little i wanted to be annika so that i could be pippi's friend. didn't want to be pippi. that must be why i now fall for rock star girls and the like.)

for the SPT introductions i'll tell you a story someone told me, about me. early in our friendship, christina told me about driving in the car listening to music and creating movies in her head. (since she told me this, i've learned that apparently lots of people create their own movies/scenes to music they hear. news to me.) anyway, she heard some rock 'n roll tune (i should remember which, but do not) and thought up this movie called pronounced shashtin (my name is spelled kerstin but pronounced shashtin and i am pretty much eternally explaining this. it's in my work email signature even.) in pronounced shashtin the movie, i wear some tight black dress and i kick ass. i won't tell you the graphic details, but suffice it to say i am, let's say, romantically assertive in the movie. anyway this is all very funny because i'm pretty quiet in general (although i do have my pronounced shashtin moments).

i guess i'm thinking of this story because as i'm going to be making some changes soon in my life, i feel i need to tap into that pippi strength and into pronounced shashtin kerstin more. i'm inspired by mati's recent blog entries where she talks about letting go of some of her self labeling and being more who she wants to be. (she writes it beautifully.) read.

oh, and on all these swedish notes, here is my cousin karin's new blog (a different karin). she writes in english, swedish and french - take your pick.