Sweden 2

Here's the rest of our lovely trip to Sweden...

On the Saturday we went out with our friends Sofia, Tove, Jonas and Arman. This photo cracks me up, notice how Jonas' (in the back) feet are not touching the ground! :)

First we had some drinks at a bar called Snaps, it was so nice to sit outside drinking rosé.

Tove and Arman.

Then we went to have dinner at a Lebanese restaurant, so yummy, I love meze!

The next day we met up with my cousin Frida, her boyfriend Stefan and their little daughter Edith whom I had never met before, it was so nice to see them!

Edith is probably the happiest baby in the world, so precious!

Lemon Bread

When I was in Sweden I made this fabulous lemon bread. We had it with our dinner; salmon cerviche and bulgur, it was perfect! The recipe comes from my favourite Swedish baking blog "Söta Saker", you can find the recipe here. I think you can translate it with Google translate. If it doesn't work and you really want the recipe, shoot me a comment and I'll translate it for you!

Ps. Tonight we are organizing a Eurovision Song Contest evening, yay! We're gonna have lots of snacks; veggies with dips, cold meats, olives, tortilla chips & James' guacamole, taramasalata and cocktail sausages, yum! I like England's song by Blue but we are rooting for Sweden so please vote for Eric Saade everyone! :)

Sweden 1

Back in London again after 5 wonderful days in Sweden. The weather was amazing and we had so much fun. Stockholm is so beautiful in the spring/summer. Here's the first part of what we were up to...

We hang out in my mum's cozy kitchen...

James bought an iPad just before we left so this is what he looked like for most of the holiday! :)

Food and wine is always good at my parents...

For example this amazing cake that we had for dessert the first evening.

After dinner we went to a bar and met up with our friends Ulrica, Laurina and Jimmy.

My good friend Ricardo came by as well.

James bought some crazy strawberry daquiris...

They were like sorbet and took around an hour to finish!

DIY - How To Create Stamps From Erasers

This tutorial shows you how to design and cut your own stamps from erasers. Of course you can use them for anything, but I show how to make them for invitation cards + envelopes.

Materials needed: scalpel, water based paint, sponge, standard erasers, plain cards and envelopes.

Draw out your designs on the eraser with a ballpoint pen, I'm making a flower and a label tag. Then carefully cut away everything that is "outside" of your design.

First cut along the drawn lines, then cut from the side of the eraser to remove the unwanted bits. Erasers are quite soft and easy to cut, but be careful and use a cutting mat to protect your table.

When you have your finished stamp it's time to add some colour, I used acrylics that I mixed with a little water. Dab the stamp with a sponge to create an even layer.

Now you can stamp away!

It's really fun to experiment with different colours and you can create beautiful gradients and textures. I also like to stamp on different kinds of paper: old wallpaper scraps, magazine pages or anything you can think of.

Flirting With: Animal Prints

1. Poodle print tunic, Asos.com

2. Bird print cardigans, H&M

3. Cat print dress, Zara

4. Giraffe print scarf, Anthropologie

5. Cat print blouse, Topshop

I'm Off To Sweden!

I'm going to Sweden today, hooray! I'm so looking forward to see my family and friends, especially my brother and dad whom I haven't seen since Christmas, too long!

While I'm on a plane reading on my Kindle, you could check out a little photography feature with me on a super cute blog called Janette The Jongleur. I think it will be up later today... Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

The Winner of the CocoRose Shoes Is...

Comment no. 79 - Clare! Congratulations Clare! I'll email you shortly so have a think about which style of ballet pumps you would like!

For everyone else...

I have organized a 20% discount off all CocoRose's shoes for all of you! In their web shop, enter discount code springtime on the first page of the shopping cart, then click "apply coupon" for your discount.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered, I wish I could give a pair of pumps to all of you! :) But stay tuned for more fun giveaways soon!

Design Notebook: Julia Pott

I am very interested in animation and moving image, and my favourite animation of all time is "My First Crush" by Julia Pott, you just have to watch it! Julia is an English illustrator and animator. Her illustrations are also fantastic but this animation really moved me. The story, animation style and voice overs all come together to make a brilliant short film. Check out Julia's youtube channel for more of her work.

Just Monkeying Around

Yesterday James and I went to his friend Scott's wedding. They had a brilliant thing for the guestbook, a photo both where the guests could take funny photos to put in the book! I love how you can see which photos were taken in the beginning of the evening! In the photos are: James, me, Dan, Lauren and Jamie. It was a really fun wedding with lots of nice food, Jewish dancing and yummy cocktails!