Sunset at Rødtangen

Is Spring here yet?

I am sure I heard on the radio that this weekend marks the beginning of spring, with that thought in mind I was imaging a beautiful weekend with plenty of sunshine and warm weather. Not quiet like that, so I'm turning to these beautiful spring coloured photos for inspiration, has spring arrived for you?

I was also tagged by the lovely n a t s u m i, who has the sweetest drawings. Some rules: step 1: Respond & rework-answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own. step 2: Tag-eight other un-tagged people. Now onto the questions:

What are you wearing now? navy jumper, black skinny jeans

How often do you blog? Everyday, spending around 2-5 hrs each day!

Who was the last person you hugged? My friend

Which item from your closet are you wearing most lately?My purple shirt/t-shirt top

What's for dinner? I just had pizza, yum!

What was the last thing you bought? well apart from food, a heart shaped red framed sunglasses

What are you listening to right now? nothing but I'm watching QI on BBC

If you could have any super power, what would it be?
To be Luphia! Luphia is actually the name of a fictional character of my favorite computer game since I was 10 (did I mention I'm a geek? :), a heroine and a goddess, more about her later...

What is your favorite weather, and why?
Early summer, when it's sunny and not so hot, around 25C.

What time do you usually get up? 8:10 am and running late most mornings for my 9am lectures

What is your most challenging goal right now? Trying to setup my little business! (nearly there...)

Say something to the person who tagged you: Her drawings are the cutest!

If you could have a house-totally paid for, fully furnished-anywhere in the world, where you want it to be?
That's a hard question! Unrealistically Paris or Venice! Realistically London or Bath.

Favorite vacation spot? Europe and China

Name the things you cannot live without:
So many! Family, friends, my laptop, internet, clothes shops!

What movies can you watch over and over?
All my fav movies are dramas hence a bit too sad to watch often but I do love Big Fish.

What is your favorite tea flavor? Earl Gray

and I am tagging: Being High Maintenance, not Bitchy ; Cafe Fashionista ; captivateme ; CHIC Sensibility ; Design Dig ; Dolce Chic ; GOSSIP STYLE VINTAGE official blog ; on dressing up ;

and the important news! The winner of the Paul & Joe makeup giveaway, drum roll please... ps: please turn your computer volumn down as somehow the background music (and seagull noises) became quite squeaky !

Congratulations Shini! I will contact you shortly for deliver address.

Don't be too disappointed, as there will be more giveaways this month, stay tuned! :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend my dearest readers, xx

(images 1st by toriginal others by Rebecca Thuss )

Filtvedt fyr - Filtvedt Lighthouse

Hooked on: Vintage Linen Pillows

{Ludwigas Linen}

I have always loved all things vintage, whether it's vintage clothes, vintage typewriters or my current love vintage linen. Their simple yet elegant designs speaks to my heart, and it is also eco-chic!

{Beyond France}

How about these beauties made from old grain sacks? I just adore the design!

{top left: Ernst and Thistle bottom right: Vintage Weave others: MFV53}

What do you all think my dearest readers, do these lovely pillows have a place in your home? :) Oh, I've also joined the Hooked on Friday party, check out what others are hooked on here.

Happy Friday! I will be back tomorrow for a post of the new series {Styling Luphia}, so if you get bored, you can always come and visit me in blogland? ;)

I wish I am in Paris, care to join me? Just look at the photos and imagine... xx

(fashion photos by Thomas Klementsson)

Sky watch friday # 47

A couple of night photos from Drammen taken with a tripod and long shutter speeds.

17mm - f/8 - Iso 200 - 30 sec

28mm - f/8 - Iso 200 - 13 sec

For more Sky Watch photos, visit the Sky watch site - Sky watch was Dots idea, now hosted by Sandy, Wren, Klaus, Fishing Guy and Ivar.

Parabolic Sky Watch

Some are watching the sky without really knowing it.

PS Please visit Sky Watch Friday's own site for more.

Post of the Day to my Father-in Law

My Father-in-law celebrated yesterday his 90th birthday with more than 40 guests and all the trimmings. Today he received another accolade: My greeting to him in yesterday's post received a Post of the Day from the well-known Australian journalist and super-blogger David McMahon. You may have given it to me, but it was for my father-in law.

Thank you, David!

From a Different Point of View

Shall we get straight to the point? Ok, here it is. I am old fashioned and I LOVE carpets, especially in the bedroom. They may not be the most trendy flooring option, but they're warm, soft and let's face it, UK is not a warm country so we need all the heat & dryness we can get!

I was recently introduced to this great new website Fun on the Floor, which has lots of inspiring ideas for carpet flooring, covering a wide range of looks in their lookbook, whether it's a boudoir or a minimalist style you love.

An idea or DIY your old chest of draws? How yummy is that shade of yellow!

Are you thinking about taking an office carbinet home? ;)

I love how these images focus on the floor so you can get a feel how different colours would work

there's plenty of inspiration for decoration ideas too, what a great idea to use an antique chest as a coffe table! Now I just need to find that $5 chest from a flee market, any suggestions? ;)

I don't usually post kids related things but how fun is this room!

This is my favorite room, I just love the vintage feel and books on the floor? I do that already :)

So what's your view on carpet? Just in the bedroom, living room or none at all? I'd love to hear what you think :) xx

(images Fun on the Floor)

Some photos in black and white captured on a gray day.

Fire and Ice - and an award

Well, what can I say, blogging is sporadic and infrequent - and is likely to become more so as the creative juices start to flow... Yep, I think I am finally finding my way clear to start working on a huge rewrite of my Young Adult paranormal novel. I still have a lot of research that I want to do - instead of being "original" like everyone insists, I want to revert to the classic mythology and then move forward from there. So please do bear with me if I become even more absent than usual.


It's strange actually because February is always the month when ideas really start to flow for me - something to do with harvesting perhaps, it being the end of summer... Who knows.

But even if I am a little absent in the blogosphere there will always be words, because words are what I do - I can't seem to help myself. So here's a little something I scribbled the other morning, after stepping outside... Just words...

Fire and Ice

There’s an uncharacteristic chill in the hazy February air, as though autumn and its wispy mists have arrived early. But it seems unlikely. An unearthly yellow-orange glow filters the sunlight, washing the trees and the grass with an artist’s pale watercolours. Is it indeed fog, I wonder? Or is it smoke? I can’t smell fire.

Yet as the morning unfolds and the sinister orange glow refuses to pass and the vapours shrouding the mountains don’t lift, I’m made to wonder again.

I want to try and capture the eerie light, though I hardly feel I’m able; I’m not an impressionist behind a camera lens. I venture outside, stunned at the way the light filters through the leaves of the grapevine.

And then I smell it. The unmistakable smell of burning bush. The smoke lingers high in the sky. It swathes the mountains in gauzy arms, blocking them from view. You shall not see what I am doing here.

The scrub has been tinder dry all summer.

I had said when the season began that we should expect fires. You could feel it in the air, in the tremors of breath beneath the earth, in the sap that surged through the trunks of trees. There was a restlessness on the mountain slopes that slunk down into the suburbs and jostled with dreams to be noticed.

Of course, I was being fanciful, wasn’t I…

But as the acrid bite of burning scrub tickles the edges of my nostril, I am reminded of what I sensed, of what I knew.

Fire.

Just as gazing on the Australian cherry trees I know it’s going to be a bitter winter. Three successions of blooming in one season. More cherries than I have ever seen. Oh it will snow this year.

Icily.



And then, and then... there was an award - from both Lakeviewer of at Sixtyfivewhatnow and Angela at Letters from Usedom. Thank you so much for this very special award.

The Best Blog Thinker Award

In the words of the person who created it:
"This award acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write. Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It`s a way to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web."

And of course, in time honoured tradition, I must pass it on.

And so this award goes to... (applause, please ladies and gentlemen!)

Debi Alper who is currently reliving her experiences of the Grenadian revolution on her blog. Debi is an author and reading about her experiences is both riveting and eye-opening.

Kim at Mouse Medicine, who always has something wise and insightful to say.

To Sue Guiney who takes us with her on her journey of creative expression and writing with tremendous insight.

To Steph of The Biopsy Report who has written tirelessly and courageously about illness and the Irish health system.

To Renee of Graulhet Bonjour who gives us a unique insight into life in a small French town and so broadens our horizons - and of course, one must not forget her intrepid hound, the sleuth writer, Ms Cybele Christie - this award goes to her too!

And finally to Ernest of Rub2Neurons who claims to abhor awards and all the sycophantic behaviour that goes with them. He thinks, he postulates and he is insightful, outspoken and decidedly witty - see what I mean by visiting his other blog... The God Diaries.

To put the award on your blog, this in case you are technically challenged... Right click on the blog award image above and select "save as" - save it to the file of your choice on your pc and from there, in the usual manner of posting images to you blog, well, post it!

Dreaming of a Studio like this

This little studio would be my perfect creative space, it would be located at an old factory converted building, with white floors and white painted brick walls,

filled with vintage finds and pretty objects

with a chaise longue for relaxing time while catching up on my favorite magazines, and the wall as the inspiration board, two vintage red phones sit on the table, one for business use, one for personal use, of course ;)

as for the guests? a wide selection of comfy sitting choices to choose from

If this were my creative studio, I think I'll never get out of here! :)

(image by Janne Peters)

F is for Father-in-law and Fireman in ABC Wednesday

This Wednesday my Father-in-law turns 90, and is there a better F than that? He was born one year after WW1 and grew up during the post-war struggles for survival, the depression and all the problems that ensued. He managed to become a journeyman painter in the 30s, but jobs were scarce and far between. Then came WW2 and the Nazi-occupation of Norway. Painters and all sorts of skilled labour were drafted by the new authorities, but my father-in-law managed to escape from this by joining - The Fire Squad.

You might call that going from the ashes into the fire, and in many ways it was. Bergen was one of the Norwegian cities most hit by allied bombing (had a large Nazi-submarine base), but the worst happening was the explosion of a commandeered Dutch vessel loaded with explosives that lay in the harbour in the middle of the city. It destroyed a large part of the centre. The ship's anchor was later found on top of a 500m high mountain east of the city.

But he survived. When peace came he was decommissioned together with a large part of the Fire Squad, started for himself as Master Painter and married my future mother-in-law. From this marriage came 3 children (one of them obviously my wife), 11 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren (so far). One might say that he has done his part to maintain the number of the Norwegian populace.

He has now been a widower for 20 years after my mother-in-law died, but he is still going strong - The much beloved "Moffen" for our own four children, a wonderful Father for my wife and the best Father-in-law I could have had.

PS Did I mention that he also trained as a painter in oils? Below is a copy of one picture that hangs in our living-room.



PS For obvious reasons I may have some difficulties doing "the rounds" right now - but I'll try to do it bit by bit later on!



Today's post is an entry in the fourth round of ABC Wednesday, the meme initiated by Denise Nesbitt.

For more, you can log on via a Mr Linky enabled site

{Beauty Tuesday}: Paul & Joe Review & Giveaway!

Hello dearest readers, I'm afraid there will be no Beauty Interview today, you're stuck with me instead but I do have a giveaway to make it up to you ;)

I am a huge fan of Paul & Joe Beauty products, not only do they have the most wonderful vintage packaging, the quality of the products doesn't disappoint either. This is an example where judging a "book" by its cover actually paid off for me! :)

Now onto the products review, I have only used a few of their products as they're not the cheapest and I have to get them from London or online. But whenever I want to treat myself I know just the brand that would do the trick.

1. Creamy Power Compact Foundation - this is more of a foundation than a pressed power as it is more mosied and gives better coverage, the power itself is really fine, on a similar level as a Dior or Chanel power foundation. The colours are flattering too.
2. Nail Enamel - lovely colours, long lasting (I always wear nail colours with base & top coats, it really makes it last much longer), and of course beautiful packaging!
3. Lip Gloss - I love the brush applicator in these lip glosses, the texture is also light as I don't really like heavy lip gloss.
4. Eye Colour - gorgeous colours, long lasting, I especially like the little mirror in each eye shadow case.

Overall, pushing the packaging aside, the Compact Foundation and Lip Gloss is better than the Nail Enamel & Eye Colour in comparision with other products I feel, but it is so hard not to fall for the sweet packaging... Ok, I'll stop talking about it ;)

Also you can get some really pretty computer wallpapers on their site, like this!

Now for the most exciting part - the Giveaway !

What's up for grabs? Two gorgeous Eye Colour in 18 (smokey grey) and 84 (grape), plus one Nail Colour in a gold/beige shimmer shade, total worth more than £35/$55! They'll all come with their pretty boxes too, i.e. all brand new but the grey shadow has been tested once by me as I was going to keep this for myself, but it turns out the colour is too similar to another eye colour I already have so I'm putting this in the giveaway too.

How to enter? Just leave a comment below stating your current favorite blog {apart from Luphia loves, just to make the choice harder for you ;) }.

I am also giving a little extra advantage to my lovely followers, if you left a comment below & also follows Luphia loves, you will get two entries in the prize draw, hence doubling your chances! So if you're not following Luphia loves yet, now maybe a good time? ;) The deadline is Friday 10pm GMT. Good luck!

{giveaway courtesy of a little business I'm currently working on, will reveal soon}

(images from Paul & Joe Beauté)

My world - Drammen Norway

Drammen today

Welcome to My World Tuesday. A new meme hosted by Klaus and rest of the Sky Watch Team. For more posts and rules please visit My World Tuesday .

Gossip Girl Style

The title is a little misleading I suppose, this won't be on "the best outfits of Gossip Girl" since plenty of amazing bloggers have done this already, instead I'm presenting you a series of stunning photo shoots that resemble the Gossip Style, hope you won't be too disappointed ;)

If staying in education means going to a grand school built in the 19th century, wearing fabulous clothes and amazing heels, I think I may stay as a student forever! :)

Now on to a litte discussion about the Oscars red carpet, I have to say I was a little disappointed overall, sure there were lots of big fabulous gowns as always but I usually fall for the more colourful and chic dresses.

My favorite this year is Natalie Portman, I adore this girl to bits anyway so maybe a little biased, to me she's the perfect package as a young woman, beautiful (inside & out), intelligent, down to earth, stylish and care about important issues in this world. Evan Rachel Wood also looks very elegant in the Saab nude gown. Miley Cyrus's dress is a litte too much for me on the red carpet but if I was 5 again that mermaid dress would definitely be my fav! ;)

As mentioned yesterday I received three blog awards last week from these fantastic blogs: Captivate Me , Under Lock and Key and Pearls, Peonies, and Ponderings. Now it's the time to pass them on! See I'm doing a mini "Blog Oscars" myself ;) , I have way too many favorites so this time I'm going to concentrate mostly on some new fabulous blogs that I discovered recently!

Your Blog is Fabulous! goes to *Felinofelice , camilla at home , la couturier & Mademoisselle Chic

I {heart} your blog goes to Creme de la Mode , D!RTY LAUNDRY , Daisy Pink Cupcake , FRENCH ESSENCE , Hooked on Houses , january & Make Room for Living

Proximidade award goes to The Drifter and the Gypsy , :: Lime in the Coconut :: , Design Dig , Diamondcanopy , essenceanddesire , Fashionably Early , GOSSIP STYLE VINTAGE , two ellie , Eyes of Me & A Wedding Cabaret

Forgot to say earlier, who's on your best dressed list from the Oscars?

(photo shoots by Baldovino Barani, red capet images from oscar.com)