My mom got home safe and sound today and the “kids” were happy with their gifts and the funny stories from the big “abroad”. The white bunny and the pink body went straight home with my niece, but the fur collar beat them all. I decided to give up wearing fur, unless it´s sheep skin, it makes me uncomfortable and my husband embarrassed. It doesn´t make things better by giving it away, but I can´t undo the purchase and at least they won´t risk getting sprayed on in Romania. Enough about that.
Living abroad means seeing less of the ones we love. I meet with my family 1-3 times a year. This year I was in Romania for a week in February (when my father was mostly in the hospital for a minor intervention) and 2 days in June (we were in Belgrade for a friend´s wedding ), when I didn´t get to see my brother since he was working and we didn’t have time to travel all the way to Bucharest.
A couple of weeks ago I started feeling seriously homesick. I´m in the middle of a trial now and I´ll need a couple of weeks after that to do my accountancy and put my affairs in order, so it wasn´t the best time to travel. Besides, I didn´t feel like leaving V alone with Sammy for a week since the dog needs his walks and he´s a full-time job if you have him alone. Thus I decided to ask mom if she wanted to come visit. After persuading pops that he would make a wonderful nanny for my niece for a couple of days, I bought the tickets and started counting days. 😉 You see, mom is babysitting my two-year old niece while my brother and his wife are at work; you have to be three in order to be accepted at a regular kindergarten in Romania.
Friday was my day off so I woke up early with V in order to tidy up a bit and prepare the apartment for my mother´s arrival. 😉 I then worked for an hour, bought a nice bouquet of flowers and went to the airport to pick her up. She hasn´t travelled a lot on her own, my father usually leads on, so I didn´t want her to find this journey any more stressful than necessary. 😉 We found each other and, overwhelmed with joy, took the train back to Oslo, going straight home to unpack and unwind. She brought us wine, smoked ham and cheese (cascaval), baked eggplants (ready to turn into a salad by adding mayo and stuff), pretzels (my fave!) and some pufuleti (snacks made out of maize flour). I was so happy I started dancing the moment I put Aretha Franklin on the turntable. 😉
The most important thing for me while decorating an apartment is taking my time. This is our 4th apartment in 11 years and the second one we bought. (In Norway you buy, reside a while, improve/renovate and sell. Then you buy bigger, nicer, and so on, until you hopefully land the property of your dreams, at least within your financial range.) I studied for a long time and now it´s my husband turn to break through as a designer, meaning we´ve been living on a tight or semi-tight budget for many years. At the same time, both of us have a strong need to surround ourselves with beautiful things, so we don´t want to compromise too much when it comes to quality. We bought too many crappy Ikea things that broke and ended up in the trash, so now it´s either design, vintage or inherited stuff. My recipe for an original interior is as such: you need a couple of beautiful and sturdy pieces of furniture, like a leather recliner, a dining table and chairs, a coffee table and a sideboard, a couple of artsy pictures and lots of fond memories (shells and sand or small candle holders and figurines). Throw in a beautiful kelim rug and a couple of gracious pets! Voilà!;-)
The rest you can get along the way, from flea markets, discount stores or second hand designer shops. 😉 We haven´t been able to keep the same couch since the cats have scratched it or it has turned soggy, but next year´s treat is a big, comfy designer couch from Andreas Engesvik!
What do you think?
Yesterday I had a day off and it worked wonders for a tired soul.;-) I did some laundry, uncluttered my wardrobe (for the 5th time this year!) and bought some ingredients for today´s party. We had lunch in town and dinner out-of-town, all in all it was a pretty amazing day. I also had some time to sneak fall into our apartment, meaning I picked some chestnuts from the ground, bought a new blanket and some candles. This is what our living room looks like now.
Living in Norway has been good to my fall wardrobe. Since the temperature is usually somewhere between 10 and 20 degrees with the exception of a short summer and an occasionally freezing winter, wool, cashmere and silk blends are perfect to combine. This fall I have lengthier trials which call for an impeccable outfit. What better way to managed that than by investing in some classic key pieces that´ll hopefully never go out of fashion! Choose a wool jacket (black, grey or navy), a sweater dress or a chic wool dress, a couple of heels and some cosy sweaters and you´re good to go!;-)
My favorite brand of all time is Max Mara, but I can only afford stuff from them a couple of times a year- when I buy things that last like a camel hair coat, an office bag and some killer heels. Otherwise Fillipa K and Acne have a nice selection of Scandinavian wear and the prices are more in my street. I´ll show you some of my favorite fashion pieces this fall. (PS. There´s a fair chance they´ll be rather similar to last year´s since I tend to like the same type of clothes. ;-))
Yesterday I paid a visit to the local organic marked at Stortorvet and couldn´t resist buying some fresh corn, apples and chanterelles. I don´t know about you, but I love me some chanterelles in the fall! Although I´ve only made this stew the last 2-3 years, it´s one of my classics by now! Not only pretty and yummy, but very easy to put together, too. I usually serve it with pan-fried chicken and rice.
Yesterday was great. The sun was shining yet again and our friend, Hege, celebrated her birthday with a picnic trip in the woods. We took the subway and met the crew at Frognerseteren, a venerable restaurant on the top of the hill. After enjoying a coffee or a glass of wine in the sun, we started walking towards Songsvann, our final destination for the picnic. We were 6 adults, a child and a dog. Sammy was happy to explore the surroundings, he jumped up and down, drinking water from small creeks, engaging us in his silly schemes and sniffing every dog we couldn´t prevent him from meeting.;-) On the way I picked some blueberries and served them to the others from Sam´s drinking cup. 😉 They were sweet and tasted like summer. When we finally arrived to a table in a sun, everybody started unpacking the goodies. Food never tasted that good, I tell you!;-) We had bean salad, cheese and bacon pie, cheese and fig jam, chocolate cake, banana bread, chips and drops. Yummy! After filling our tummies, we tok the subway back to the city. We were tired and our feet had started aching when we realized we´d been outside for 6 hours! Now that´s what I call a Sunday trip!
Today was another fun day in the quaint city of Trondheim! Ok, maybe city is a big word, but what a pretty town it is! I totally fell in love with it! I´ll tell you this, I´ll take the first chance I get to go back! Although it was raining this morning, it didn´t last, so I grasped the chance to explore it after hours.
Once in a while I get to travel in my work and this time the trip went to Trondheim. Although I´d been here before, last time was a brief weekend visit two years ago and before that I was a student mainly concerned with shopping and partying, so I can´t say I´d seen the city properly before. This time Vuong came along to keep me company and check out shops to place his products in, so I was in luck! Otherwise I would have most probably eaten i my hotel room and spent most of my afternoon napping. 😉 Remember I´m a napper?
I always think in terms of an expat, I wonder how come I didn´t write about this topic earlier. I was inspired by a friend of mine, Lavinia, whose blog I get to read every once in a while. She lives in England and mentioned a couple of things she had to change since she´d moved there. So I thought I should explore the topic myself, since Romania and Norway are two very different countries, indeed.
First thing that stroke me here was the weather. I´m sure that´s no news to the ones of you who have been reading my blog for a while now. 😉 You see, I´m from Southern Romania where we get temperatures close to 40 degrees C in summer. It seldom rains (or I chose not to remember rainy days) and I´ve always felt like staying inside when it does. In Norway, rain is just an everyday phenomenon and even though Oslo is much drier than the West Coast, it´s still too much rain for this cutie! After 13 years here, I went and bought myself a pair of rubber boots and a rain coat last year, to be able to walk my Sammy without swearing and fussing about. Yesterday it poured though and I ordered a cab. I just couldn´t bring myself to get an umbrella and risk getting wet.
Another thing I didn´t managed to change entirely is my way of dressing. I don´t wear as much makeup any more and my clothes are definitely simpler (I adore Scandinavian wear!), but I´m still overdressed for most occasions. Haha!;-) I stopped caring long time ago though, instead I just enjoy every opportunity to shine. 😉 haha!
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