I WISH

as mentioned before, my birthday is coming up. we will celebrate it the same way as we have done the last couple of years: movie night with the boys first and cognac toasting, just Knut and me, after dark. i really have everything i need and more at the moment and don't wish for much. a decadent cake and a bouquet of colorful flowers will make me very happy though. besides, these beautiful objects from my pinterest will also be appreciated.

patchwork pillow from Ace & Jig

scented candles from Skandinavisk

coffee maker from The Coffee Registry 

second hand wooden cloth rack (source unknown)

   OUT WALKING

Evald and me want a doggie. unfortunatly the rest of our household doesn't. but! luckily we have the sweetest neighbour who helps us forget our longing from time to time. his name is Håkki. he is a ten months old french bulldog and the funniest of all our four legged friends. a walk in the park has changed completly after he became our companion. now we're hoping that tons of visits from this adorable pup will soften the hearts of Knut and Mikkel. we need more pets! and we need them right now! while we are waiting i'm dreaming about farm life over at Zoo Payne's.

    A STAR WAS BORN ( BUT WHEN?)

with so many people to love and care for in our lives, keeping track of all those birthdays can be a challenge. so i decided that we are in need of a birthday calendar. i've landed on this one. isn't it pretty? you can get it at Greer Chicago.

   STAYING IN

the first normal weekend for a while, and what are we up to? nothing at all, really. the kids are busy with their friends. and we (as in Knut and me) are reading the papers, sipping on coffee and talking. it's freezing outside, but in here it just couldn't be better. we have baked a batch of no knead buns and a couple of sourdough breads for the week to come, and our home smells warm and cozy. we might be adventurers at heart, but right now a couple of months of quiet family life is our only plans. i hope you all have a lovely sunday as well.

my birthday is coming up soon and this is what i wish for.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

i've been waiting for this year to come. it will be a good one, i can feel it. we celebrated in Sóller, a small town in the northern part of Mallorca, where we stayed at a beautiful hotel and had lot's of food, wine and champagne. at midnight we ate the traditional twelve grapes and toasted with Mikkel at the town plaza while Evald was sleeping safely upstairs in white hotel sheets. today, after omelettes and freshly squeezed orange juice, we drove through the beautiful coastline of this island, walked around in paradise like surrondings,  staring out on breath taking views of the sea. back in our temporary home we digged into spanish goods from the market. sandwiches made from bread, serrano ham, cheese, beef tomatoes and aioli is the new family favorite, and actually i will make one right now. with a glass of cold rosé to flush it down with i might even be able to ignore the everyday life knocking on the front door for the rest of this special day. i wish you all a wonderful new year, and am so much looking forward to share new experiences and moments with you.

i just realized that i need a new calendar!

  FEELING INSPIRED

this last day of christmas we are cleaning and tidying. i have an overload of thoughts about my life, both workwise and familywise, running through my head at the moment. there are so many things i want to do! write, build a new kitchen, start a working routine in my studio space, make healthy and tasty dinners, read, hike with the kids through norway's beautiful nature scenaries, spend time with my mother, invite everyone we know over for sunday brunches, start running again, go to bed early and eat breakfast every day. i don't aim to be a perfect version of myself, but to fill my days with meaning. 2014 has been a crazy year in many ways, and now i'm looking forward to the new start that tomorrow brings. i will dedicate 2015 to creativity of all kinds. creativity and love...

top photo to the left: these ornaments from Pi Bjørg Ceramics had to come with us to Mallorca.

top photo to the right: homemade gifts make me all warm and fuzzy on the inside. my talented friend Sisse has knitted these potholders for us. aren't they just perfect with their thin, green leather loops?

in the middle: Knut gave me the Fine Little Day Book for christmas and it is amazing! i love Elisabeth Dunker's approach to creating designs and have been following her blog since she started it many years ago.

  LEAVE ALL YOUR TROUBLES BEHIND

i don't really care for the whole mindfulness practice. i'm terrible at meditating, staying in the moment, being present and all that. but right here, on a winter closed resort, watching the sunset with my family, i finally did it. i was there, i thought of nothing else and it was wonderful. i guess i should be spending my money on travels instead of breathing classes. one of my new year's resolutions is to start doing yoga though. so much for being consequent.

   MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

celebrating the holidays in spain is of course very different from what we are  used to. for starters is the climate much warmer than up north. and besides that the quiet time which means christmas in scandinavia doesn't really exist here, as the streets and plazas filles up with people chatting and kids playing ball when work and school is off. we love showing the kids how life can be in other places, but our main reason for bringing three suitcases stuffed with gifts and travel far away from our home is that we needed some time alone just the four of us. Mikkel, who is a teenager for real these days, doesn't often have time to spend with the rest of us in our everyday life, but being here brings us closer and so far we already had a couple of relaxed days together. besides a short trip to Puerto Portals we have been staying in our studio apartment, but tomorrow i think it's time for some exploring. we hope that all of you have a wonderful time and that santa has brought you what you wished for.

   VALLDEMOSSA

way back (1838) George Sand spent a winter in valldemossa together with her two children and her lover (Chopin). but this small village is also famous for it's pretty mountain location as well as being the birth place of santa catalina, mallorca's only catolic saint. the other day we took some much needed time off to drive along the coast from andratx where we are staying to the north where the monastery from back then now is a museum. the nature here on mallorca is wild and beautiful. we had to get out of the car again and again only to stare out on the horizon or up at the rocky hills. when we finally made it to our goal we rewarded ourselves with thick hot chocolate and coca de patatas. all of valldemossa's inhabitants had funny enough decided to do exactly the same, but the sweet taste of the baked goods was so worth waiting in line for. this might have been the loveliest drive i have ever experienced and when my better half and the boys get here i will show them everything that we saw. 

  MALLORCA

i have arrived at our residency, and me and heidi-anett has settled down in our studio space. during the daytime i forget it's december with christmas around the corner, but in the dark evenings i get reminded as all of the streets are decorated with the prettiest lights. we have a stray cat living with us, and now we are trying to figure out what to do with her when our month here is over. she will be taken care of, one way or another.

in the middle: on our first night here we took a walk on the property of CCA in which we are staying. we picked lemons, oranges and clementines. and as the sun settled and colored the sky and everything underneath it golden, we realised that this is paradise. as George Sand claims in her book, mallorca is one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

  CALENDAR

last year we gave the kids book calendars, with a new book or cartoon every day counting down to the 24th. this year we brought their old stockings up from the basement and every morning a small gift is waiting for them. we mix things they want with things they need, and some of the days the gifts are edible (cookies or raw chocolate). we also have calendar candles to help us keep track of the time and today there is 18 days left until christmas.

bottom pic: my friend sisse's mother made the melancholic little santa. 

  DECEMBER

the small projects we're together on through this extremly cozy month bring us closer as a family. our evenings are spent wrapping gifts at the moment, and there is no doubt that all of us enjoy every second. it's dark and cold outside, but inside candles and the sweet smell of cookies from the stove keeps us warm. i could only wish there was more weeks like this to look forward to. but unfortunately, for me the christmas preparations end tonight. i'm going to spain, you see. to make art and to wait. wait and wait and wait and wait. two whole weeks will pass before my boys get on that plane. we have never celebrated christmas outside scandinavia before, but there's a first for everything. and of all the places my art work has taken me, i didn't see this one coming. i love learning about new places though. and mallorca, it will be great getting to know you better. what i will be reading, and what we will be eating this holiday season.

top photo: i'm not sure if the advent orange is common in other contries as well, but i must say i adore this kind of modesty.

  BRUNCHING IN BRUXELLES
 

among bruxelles many art deco bistros the bright café Yeti stands out with it's organic menu and eco looks. we spent an afternoon there together with ingunn's brother plus family, who also had come for a weekend visit. we started out drinking coffee and munching on egg benedicts, and switched to mimosas and pancakes covered in chocolate sauce a couple of hours later. the staff was kind enough to keep smiling at our new requests and didn't even comment on our messy table which dominated the whole room. this afternoon actually became the highlight of our trip. it's not often we can spend a whole day lingering around a table just because we feel like it. well, we couldn't have found a better place for this purpose. and though we never really wanted to leave, eventually they had to close. by that time the kids had started playing a running game that might not have been as popular as all our orders was. so we continued out to the misty streets to buy truffles and souvenirs. 

if you need some more suggestions on where to go when in brussels the blog Brussel's Kitchen is a way better guide than any book on the subject i've seen. just a tip.

  NESTING

last summer knut's best friend and an artist i know from my days at the academy fell hard - in love with each other. we like to think that we're the ones responsible, as it was us who introduced them, and when they annonced a two month trip to bruxelles - we knew it was our duty as cupid's helpers to check in on them. so we spent the last christmas free weekend of this year in belgium's capital, strolling through the streets of saint catherine, eating tartar and chatting with our lovebirds. they have found themselves a beautiful temporary home trough airbnb, and took on the role as hosts like they had years of marrige on their backs. actually watching them, hand in hand, laughing and kissing took us straight down memorylane to the summer when knut and i first met. romance is important. even when the busy everyday life takes over. i'll keep this in mind during the next couple of hectic weeks preparing for the holiday season. thank you for a wonderful time vegard and ingunn.

mieke willems is blogging from antwerpen and next time we will make sure to visit her hometown as well.

  

if we were to buy a cabin up in the woods somewhere, this is the closest to perfect i can imagine. it's even located close enough to our home for us to go there in weekends. celebrating christmas here would be like in the old norwegian movies. and the summers, oh they would be dream-like. dear santa (if you do exist), i can assure you i've been good this year. i have even been too busy with all of my duties to blog about the things i have managed to pull through. how but that, huh? if only i had a beautiful place to go for recreation, i could be just as good next year. and the year after that. and so on. pretty please?

i'll just leave a link to the prospect here for you, santa.

located in the surbubs of copenhagen, in the middle of a wonderful park called Dyrehaven, you can find a small tivoli called Bakken (the world's oldest existing amusement park). not many tourists find their way out here, which means the queues are more friendly. this one might not be as classy as the more famous attraction in the city centre. but it isn't as expensive either. we started our visit by taking a horse carriage ride through the woods, and hours of fun rides later, we ended up in a cozy tavern, stuffing ourselves with classic danish courses as herring and tartar of course in company with snaps and small beers. the kids absolutely loved it, and us grown ups was pretty amused too. i'm not a big fan of theme parks and such, as primary color overload has a quite negative effect on me. but this time it was the perfect destination. perfect weather, perfect children, perfect surprise quality to it, and a perfect summer tip to pass on to you guys. so whenever in the big city with some time on your hands, take the train a bit further north and be part of the danish way for a day. as a bonus tip i can recommend this cafe on vesterbro, where you can have your daily slice of rye bread. 

usually when in copenhagen we stay at Auntie Sisse's place in vesterbro, but as we had invited my nieces and their parents to join us this time, we needed more space. the apartment we ended up renting is located in nørrebro with the playground in the Nørrebro Park and the old cemetery Assistens as the closest neighbors. we spent as much time as possible outside, giving the little ones time to explore. a lot of young families are living in this area, which can be described as both child friendly and cool. a combination we appreciate. 

after a week in the most beautiful home i know (thank you Anne and Thomas), we're leaving denmark for now. our guests has already left for the airport, but we still have some cleaning (and shopping) to do before it's our turn to hit the road (sky). 

fourth pic: macarons (chocolate, rasberry and liquorize) from Meyers Bakery. yum!