My husband is back from Paris and he was so inspired I felt it was a good choice to stay at home and let him experience the big city on his own. He was lucky to stay in a lovely apartment in Bastille and the owners made him feel so welcome he felt at home at once. I fell in love with the apartment the moment I saw the first picture! For those of you planning a trip to Paris anytime soon, check out Tanguy´s place on airbnb.com. The owners are New Yorker Tanguy and Parisian Lou and they´ll greet you as if you were their own friend. Their home is warm and cosy and mirrors their extensive travels, a successful mixture of American humor and French refinement. Take a look and see what you think! We´re planning a trip there in spring and guess where we´ll stay?!;-)
Author: ghetran
Pretty things
Today I´ve been mostly at home since I´m down with a cold. I´ve been doing some accountancy, read the Sunday paper and bought some filler for my ugly walls that definitely need a makeover. The plan is to start with the hallway and we´ll do that on Saturday!<3 I´ll definitely post some pictures when done! The thing is that our house is never tidy enough to take pictures of!;-)
In the meantime I´ll show you some nice stuff I´ve come across lately!
Those Ferm Living houses are just super cute! So are the sculptural vases and the colorful candlesticks. For a Scandinavian look, hold yourself to soft colors.
Crocodile Dundy
Berlin
This year we haven´t travelled as much as we use to, but there´s one short trip I won´t deny myself: a conference in Berlin- “Mapping the Field of Community Interpreting”. It´s in November and the city might not show itself from its best angle, but nothing will ever stop me from loving Berlin. You´ll probably think it´s a cliché, but that city is alive! We´ve been there twice already, once for Easter in April 2010 and the second time in September 2011 and both times we fell in love with Berlin. I have to admit I had my doubts. I´m all about old and sumptuous and I knew much of old Berlin had been bombed during the war. But boy was I wrong to be doubting! The city is a gem! Incredibly big and lots of fun. There are Sunday markets to be visited, long walks along the river where it´s mandatory to stop for a beer in one of the lounge chairs with a pretty view, as you´ll see me doing below. Vietnamese and Korean dinner is a must and so is the Jewish Museum. Start your day in Hackescher markt with some shopping, head to Prezlauer Berg to see and be seen by the cool, have a bite at a falafel joint, find the river and take a stroll along its banks where you can admire the Government building and all the modern museums´ architecture. For dinner, try Monsieur Vuong in Hackescher markt, the food is fabulous and the prices are wallet-friendly. We´re restless people, so museums are not always the recipe for a fun day. However we try to go to at least one museum per holiday and make it worthwhile. If I had to settle for one experience from Berlin, I´d choose the Jewish museum. It was really something. The light, the solemnity, the architecture, the exhibits. I cried for three hours non-stop and had to take a break for lunch to pull myself together. It´s our history though, we don´t have to embrace it, but we should at least know about it. I hope you enjoy my gallery and book your tickets now. I hear Berlin is magnificent for Christmas, too!
Gorgeous house in Oslo
This house blew me away! It´s located in a residential area in Oslo, in the “right part of the town” as they say. I like the way the beams and all the white complements the modern details like the concrete bathroom shelves. I can see myself picking apples from the garden, making an apple pie in the beautiful kitchen and then eating it in front of the fire place. Enjoy!
Industrial feel apartment
One thing you have to give the Dutch is the know-how. They´re just super cool and I mean it. I was surprised how much I liked Amsterdam. Not only did I like it, they way you do with some cities and then can´t wait to go home, I really enjoyed being there, too. We need to go back soon ´cause it had all the ingredients of a super cool town. Those being said, If I ever had the possibility to convert an old factory into a family apartment, this is pretty much how I would do it. I hope you´ll find this Amsterdam apartment as charming as I do.
Art
I´m very much into photography and graphics. I won´t pretend to know a lot about art, but that´s besides the point, as long as it awakens any sort of tremble within me, it´s art enough.
I seldom have epiphanies on account of an art work and the few times I do, the pieces are usually so over my means that I have to swallow my pride and leave. Nevertheless, I won´t ever forget Kana Otofuji´s exhibition in Bygdøy allé, 10 years ago. I had just started dating my husband and we wore broke as never before and never since, walking around purposely, happy just to be together. We entered this gallery and I was stricken with awe when seeing her pictures on aluminum. They presented me with such an ethereal beauty I was just blown away. I remember having thought that if I had the money, I wouldn´t have hesitated, even though it would have been the equivalent of three months´rent. I´m still waiting to “grow up” so I can afford a couple of her paintings.
Birthday girl
Yesterday was my birthday and I felt grand. Ever since I was a little girl, birthday has been the best day of the year, the one day I could get away with almost anything and on top of it receive gifts, too. Yesterday was no exception. Although I had to work long hours, it was one of those perfect days- sunny, managed to keep all my appointments (meaning that train, subway and taxi decided to work with me instead of against me), my husband booked us a table at Baltazar, a fancy Italian restaurant and I got some lovely gifts. If in Oslo, check out Baltazar! Cooking art to perfection. And the best gift from Paris is of course, macarons. 😉 Take a look!
Apartment in Paris
I fell in love with this French apartment at first sight. There´s something about all things French, I´m a sucker for them all! So much refinement and elegance, or maybe it´s this ” joie de vivre” to blame. Take a close look at the stylish simplicity, the materials carefully chosen, the colors. I could move right in, but by tomorrow it´d be cluttered already!
Sam the samoyed
A friend of mine asked me to write an entry on Sam, the sweetest dog in the whole world, who came into our lives in February this year. I already showed you a couple of pictures with the biggest white fluff ever, but I guess he deserves a whole bunch more.
I grew up with cats at my grandma´s, so I´ve always been a cat person. When I moved to a house with my parents in ´97 we got Jackie, a German Shepard puppy. He was adorable, he couldn´t even hold his ears straight when my dad brought him home. We were great buddies for a couple of years, but somehow he stopped liking me when I moved away. The first chance he got, I was home for a weekend, he bit me in the face. No permanent damage done, it was probably just a warning. And I still like dogs, I just have difficulties trusting big ones.
For a while- 9 years- we had two cats, but last year we had to put one of them to sleep due to kidney failure. It was awfully sad, both for us and for the other cat. Little by little, I started yearning for a puppy. We´d been talking about it for at least a couple of years, but we were always afraid we´re not sporty or disciplined enough. We agreed we should get a puppy when I´d be back from an extensive trial in Bergen and one day before the trial I was told it was off. So we started searching for puppies on the internet. We were interested in samoyed, chow chow or akita. Then we found Sam and it was love at first sight! He looked like a seal puppy, not at all like a dog, but he was the cutest thing we´d ever seen in our lives! And he´s been such a blessing. I´ve never met a more gentle being. He´s playful and sweet, friends with the cat and with everyone he meets. Introducing you to Sam the samoyed, aka Samululu!
life in a bubble 