In the mood for christmas

 

Candlelights, building snowmen, decorating with little angels and baking lots of yummy treats. Recently I made a batch of delicious saffron biscottis. Here´s how to make them.

150 g almonds

75g butter

3 dl sugar

3 eggs

0,5 g saffron

7 dl plain white flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a dash of pure vanilla

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Chop the almonds coarsely. Blend butter, sugar and saffron. Add the eggs, one at a time while beating. Mix flour, baking powder, vanilla and the almonds seperately, then blend gently with the dough. Shape the dough into two logs, the same length as the baking plate. Cover the plate with a bakingsheet and bake in the lower half of the oven for 30 min. Remove from the oven and let the logs cool slightly, reduce oven temperature to 120 degrees C. Cut into diagonal slices. Put them back into the oven with the cut side down,let them dry for about 30 min or more if needed.

winter essentials

• warm winter parka 
• shetland fairisle sweater
• wintersports
• cable knit sweater
• diptyque feu de bois
• the blanket I started knitting this summer, now wrapped around me
• yogi tea; cinnamon spice
• winter boots; sorels
• rewatching old classic movies; Harold & Maude, Love story, À bout de souffle, En kärlekshistoria (A love story), 3 women, Hitchcock...

image: united bamboo calendar 2011

Beautiful things

 

 A ring, it belonged to my mother, now I wear it.

Summer souvenirs...To bake a little cake

When I want to taste a bit of summer, I make these little lavender dreams, using the lavender scented sugar I made this summer. Lavender, sugar and a jar is all you need to make your own  Since I have lavender growing in my garden I simply pick some buds, just before the flowers open and use them frresh. I mix the lavender and sugar and let it sit for a month, shaking the jar now and then. Here´s how to make dream cookies,

100g butter

1dl sugar

2 dl lavender sugar

1dl rape seed oil

1 teaspoon ammonium carbonate

4dl plain white flour

Mix butter and sugar, add oil, little at a time. Mix the ammonium carbonate with the flour seperately and blend all the ingredients together. Shape the dough into small cookies, put them on a baking paper sheet and bake for 20 minutes, 150 degrees C.

Lina Scheynius and Chloé and Polaroid

“We didn't want to make a traditional perfume image, but something more real and raw. I have done loads of self-portraits in the past – it's very much part of my work and how I started out. AnOther asked if I would be interested in doing a self-portrait for the scent and I loved that idea. So I found a nice five star hotel, checked in there on my own with only my cameras and a load of film and a couple of Chloé outfits, and spent the evening playing around. I shot the images on Polaroid film. I love how it is instant so that I at least have some idea of where I am heading when I can't look through the lens and I love the vintage feeling of them."

Lina Scheynius is favorite photographer of mine, her work is personal and intimate. Using her camera she captures everyday moments in a way that is pure poetry. Her photos are raw and pure and full of emotion, they make me wanna get lost in her pale colored world. Above are the images she took for the campaign for Another Magazine´s first fragrance Another 13.

Clothes and fashion

Every season I used to go through the shows at style.com, from the runways of New York to Paris, well that was some years ago. My interest has faded, mind you I never really cared about the big trends and I´m not in the fashion business either so that may have something to do with it. Nowadays I might summon up some interest only for the Paris shows. Yes , yes I´m smitten with Hannah McGibbons work at Chloé and Phoebe Philo for Céline. One thing I do like to follow though are the streetstyle bloggers like Maya Villiger and Tommy Ton,I find inspiration by looking at the style of the people they catch through their lenz much more than I do looking at the clothes on the runways.

Now that´s all good, but what I really wanted to write about was how I´m more interested in style and in clothes than in fashion.I find inspiration in films, music, litterature, photography and in people. But for me, style is foremost about being comfortable in your own skin, I want it to be me who wears the clothes and not the other way around.I know what I like and I know what I want to wear. I want beautiful clothes that are well made, where there is extra attention paid to the details. Clothes in natural fibers as they feel the softest against your skin. Classic, simple pieces that are made to last a lifetime, to be worn and torn until they fall apart. Perhaps that seems boring, but I like this utilitarian approach.

Summer souvenirs

When I´m at the beach I always pick something, putting it in my pocket and taking it with me home. Seashells, seaglass and stones that have been tumbled and smoothed by the water, wind and sand.