Chez Larsson

To Berlin and Back

 

So I've been to Berlin. I pre-published the two previous posts so you wouldn't miss me too much :)

 

Viktor & Rolf Display

I left early on Wednesday and returned late last night so it was really a quick trip to gather some Easter inspiration for next years Easter campaigns at work.

 

I have to say it's not my favorite city so far but I'm sure it's partly because the weather was pretty bad most of the time. In this shot the sun shines, and maybe that's one of the reasons I really liked Sophienstrasse.

 

Not so many shops that interest me in Berlin as I had hoped. Quite a lot of clothing, not so much interiors but an abundance of coffee shops, bakeries and bars. 

 

I covered quite a large portion of the the city in two days, visited Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Mitte and Charlottenburg where I stayed.

 

The guy outside this shop had the unfortunate task of replacing the large sequins that passers-by had pryed off the night before.

 

I had to check out Checkpoint Charlie of course. This was one of the few places in town that was somewhat crowded. It was kind of weird being in such a big city and to see so few people out and about. Hey, 4 million people live there and I felt on my own on Kurfürstendamm. I guess Wednesdays and Thursdays are slow.

 

Trabant for sale. 3750 Euros and it can be yours! Or if you feel that's to pricey you can go on a Trabi safari for about 25.

 

I stayed at the Bleibtreu Hotel in Bleibtreu Strasse just off Kurfürstendamm. Nice hotel, friendly staff and some nice design features.

 

My travel souvenirs include cute sugar "cubes" and polka dot paper napkins. It's nice to be back home.

Thanks so much to those of you who gave me Berlin travel advice a while back, it was great and I visited quite a few of the places you mentioned. My advice for anyone going there would be to visit in the summer time. I think it would be very different from a couple of cold and rainy days in March.

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Did you notice my new banner? I felt it was time for a change. Thanks Martin for helping me! Hope you guys like it.

Also you may have noticed that the comment section looks different. I saw the new Typepad Connect feature over at Ali's blog and liked it so here it is. You can communicate more directly with other commenters now by clicking on the reply link under each comment.

Happy weekend!!!

Rain

 

This is so funny. There seems to be a rainy theme going on in my house. One more rainy item and I have a collection. You know that three equals collection, right?

 

Hold on. Wait a minute. All I need to do is to wait for the real thing. It's bound to start raining as soon as the colder temperatures are over. My collection will be complete!

Rainy art by Matteart Matte Stephens and Cosas Mínimas Blanca Gomez.

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Are any of you familiar with Berlin, Germany ?(Apparently there's a Berlin, USA too!) I'm going there for the first time in March and have two days to gather Easter inspiration for work. I'd love some tips on fun shops that I might not find if I just wander around the main shopping streets. Thanks in advance!

Egyptian Temple

And now to something completely different.

When Wille turned nine, almost six years ago, we went to Egypt, partly to celebrate his birthday. He was really into all things Egyptian at the time and we thought it would be fun and educational to see some of the sights IRL.

Before leaving to go there we made a pact not to bring home a zillion little souvenir trinkets because no matter how cool they look in the shop they are mostly just clutter when you get home. Wille was a bit of a shopaholic when it come to "cool stuff" at the time (no longer so) so I could sort of see all things Egyptian invading our home on returning.

The deal we made was that Martin and Wille would build an Egyptian temple after we got back and only artefacts worthy of being in the temple could be bought. It was great fun being in those little shops and discussing whether or not an item was temple worthy.

 

After we returned home Anubis, Horus and the rest of the gang soon found their home in this MDF replica of a Valley of the Kings temple and have lived there happily ever after. The End.

Gingerbread NYC

   

After digging out the gingerbread house photo last week we decided we had to make a gingerbread building of some sort this year. We were really inspired by our trips to New York and after some debate we decided to go for the Statue of Liberty and the Chrysler building.

 

Wille found an illustration online of the statue which he enlarged, printed, cut out and used as a template.

 

For the Chrysler Building Martin drew the pieces and Wille cut them out in as many parts as needed.

 

The pieces went into the oven. Slightly longer than usual as we made them a bit thicker than normal for added stability. Oh, and we buy the dough... If you want to make some you can find a recipe here along with other Swedish recipes.

 

After the pieces come out of the oven they have usually lost their shape a bit so I trimmed the edges with a serrated knife. In case you are wondering what else I contributed to the project, I was in charge of kneading, rolling and washing up. All the exciting bits. I also helped messing up the statue's facial features. After I was done she looked more than anything like Frankenstein which is why there's no close-up.

 

Wille was on Chrysler frosting duty. His frosting muscles were sore after all those windows. Or port holes rather. Artistic freedom, you know.

 

Slightly crooked but that's kind of the feeling you get from these sky scrapers in real life too whether you're up there looking down or down there looking up so it's accurate enough for us. And besides, it is a cookie after all.

New York Paper Pleasures

I'm back home again! Slightly jet-lagged but ok. Although New York City was great, it's always nice to be back home.

 

I'm envious of people living in New York City for several reasons. One being all the wonderful stationary and craft shops. Check out these cool envelopes made out of real maps!

Sometimes I wish I didn't make my own Christmas cards because it would just be so much fun to pick out the cards over there. I didn't get any cards, but some fun craft notions, glittered letters and gift labels instead.

Here are some of the paper/craft shops I love

• Jam Paper & Envelope

• Lee's Art Shop

• Sam Flax

• Kate's Paperie

• Paper Presentation

• Printicon

Other faves which are not paper/craft stores include

• Sur la Table

• Fishs Eddy

• Pearl River Mart

• Moma Store