We took a trip

Ryan and I took a lovely long weekend to San Diego over President's Day. We had beautiful weather the entire time and had a wonderful time relaxing, sightseeing, and eating some fun food!

One of the highlights was going to the San Diego Maritime Museum on the water. It consists of 6 different historic ships you can tour, each with their own exhibits. If you've already toured the Midway in San Diego (and enjoyed it), then I'd definitely recommend the Maritime Museum.

Other highlights included eating fresh seafood, going to the outlet mall, seeing the San Diego Museum of Art, and walking and relaxing at the beach. It was glorious! We're considering this our babymoon, part 1. Over Ryan's spring break at the end of March, we're planning on taking the 2nd part to our babymoon over in Santa Barbara and Solvang. I can't wait!

It's hard to believe little baby Sterrenberg will be here in just 3 short months. This pregnancy has flown by! We still have a lot to do to get ready for Baby Sterrenberg (or SterrenSpawn as Ryan likes to refer to him/her), but next weekend we have plans to start tackling the baby room. If my memory allows it, I'll try to post some before and after shots of the nursery. I can't wait to meet our little nugget! 

IKEA is the best

You may have already seen this genius IKEA commercial about their new catalog. But if you haven't, I implore you to watch it right now!

Those Swedes are pretty funny.

Aquavit Station

So maybe it's because Ryan and I have been watching too much Mad Men recently, but I had the sudden urge to make a little bar in our dining room. I knew it couldn't be just any bar, though. It would have to be an Aquavit bar.

What is aquavit you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked. Aquavit is a Scandinavian liquor which tastes of anise and various other spices. The name "aquavit" is derived from the Latin word which means "water of life."  And I couldn't agree more. [just kidding, mom!]

If you too would like your very own aquavit bar but don't know where to purchase it - look no further! Bev Mo sells it apparently. Who knew?! I'm also in the process of attempting to make my own! Not distilling my own, but essentially just infusing vodka to get a similar taste. I'll be sure to post about how it compares to the real deal when it's finished.

Skål!

Chicago Trip!

A couple weekends ago, Ryan and I ventured to Chicago for a quick trip for our friend's wedding [which was just beautiful!]. And while we were there, we got to stay with my sweet little sister and see my Dad for a day too!

After we arrived from our red-eye flight, we went straight to Andersonville once my Dad arrived and we got our fika.

 Naturally, we went to the Swedish American Bakery there for our fika. Back when I lived in Chicago, I lived in Andersonville, in walking distance to this bakery...dangerous!

 We got a marzipan frog, chocolate eclair, and some delicious almond tarts that I forgot to take a picture of.

 After our delicious fika, we walked around Andersonville for a while then went to Giordano's for lunch. We had to eat some Chicago pizza while we were there!

This crazy guy was very excited to try Giordano's.

 

And these crazy kids are getting married in less than two weeks!?!?! How is that possible?! My baby sister is all grown up. So excited to celebrate with them!

 And that was our weekend in a nutshell. Great times!

The Motherland!

You guys, it's happening...we're going to the Motherland! Ryan and I will join his parents in celebrating 40 years of marriage (woo!) by taking a Scandinavian jaunt this Summer. I cannot wait!!!

If you know me at all, you know that I'm already making my shopping lists and thinking about all the yummy fika treats to eat!

My top three fika treats I'm excited to eat are [in no particular order, because really, how can you decide?!]:

Chokladbollar

[source]

Vaniljhjärtar

[source]

Prinsesstårta 

[source]

I'm probably most excited for the vaniljhjärtar (vanilla hearts) because they are the one thing that I haven't had since I was last in Sweden. I make chokladbollar every now and then, and you can buy prinsesstårta from bakeries. You need specific pans to make the hearts, which I don't have, but very well may buy while in Sweden so I can make my own when we come home.

So be prepared. I will come back from this trip with tons of pictures, goodies, and stories to share!

New Camera and a trip

 As you probably already know, I have been wanting to get a big-girl camera for quite some time now. And now, it's finally happened! I've been saving up my profits from the craft fairs from last year, and when the camera I had my eye on went on sale at Best Buy last week, I decided to pull the trigger. I'm the proud new owner of the Canon Rebel T3i! 

Being as I'm no professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I thought it would be best to test out the new camera on a subject that is pretty hard to take a bad photo of. Thankfully, living in Southern California has its perks, one of which is beautiful beaches. So Ryan and I spent the afternoon in Malibu exploring some beaches and eating at the beach-side seafood restaurant where we had our first date. It was lots of fun and I'm getting the hang of the new camera. I still need to take a class or something, but I'm excited to learn! Feel free to offer any pointers you may have. :)

And then there's always this guy to make a picture look good.

This was his "a man and the sea" pose:

That's all for now. Hope you have a great week!

An oldie but a goodie...

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

If you're looking for a free, fun Valentine's Day craft, try out the homemade paper heart tutorial!

Ryan and I celebrated the ol' holiday by going to the Walt Disney Concert Hall here in downtown LA to see the LA Philharmonic perform, live with a Swedish singer, Camilla Tilling! It was wonderful. Plus, there was a dessert buffet afterwards. Those are two words I always love to hear, especially when combined: dessert + buffet. It was delicious.

I am very thankful for this guy this Valentine's Day.

I hope you all have a very lovely weekend!

2014

Happy New Year, everyone!!! 2014 is going to be a grand year! 

Christmas was a blast! We got a good taste of the snowy coldness of Michigan: 

Drank plenty of glögg and ate delicious, homemade pickled herring.

Watched Christmas Vacation and had some eggnog in a moose cup.

Got to hang out with my bestie and finally got to meet this cutie pie!

And I was able to finish the sheep baby blanket I've been working on forever for this little dude! (sorry for the terrible photo)

All in all, we had a raging good time. We had quite a good 2013 and I'm excited for what 2014 has in store!

Scandinavian Christmas: Day 1

The first day of Scandinavian Christmas is here! If you're new to the series, welcome! Every year, from December 13 - 25, I invite other Scandinavian bloggers and guests to share a favorite Scandinavian Christmas tradition, craft, or recipe. This year, there are some pretty creative posts and I'm so excited to share each one! Spread the word and come back everyday to check out the  new posts!

To kickoff the series, I'm going to share a tutorial for how to make some Swedish-themed magnets! I think they would make some cute stocking stuffers. :-)

You will need:

Mod Podge
Glass discs (I got mine on etsy)
Magnets for the back
1" hole punch (optional)
Printout of words and/or designs

First, printout some fun Swedish words in different fonts, leaving ample space between them so you can cut clean circles out. Some of the Swedish words I used were: God Jul (Merry Christmas), köttbullar (meatballs), fika (coffee break), kaffe (coffee), glögg (Swedish mulled wine), and Skål (cheers). 

Cut words out with scissors, or your 1" hole punch.

 Place a dab of Mod Podge on the paper, word side UP. Stick the the flat side of the glass disc. Smooth out any bubbles and trim any excess paper. Wait until dry and superglue a magnet to the back.

You can change it up too! Try adding pictures or different Scandinavian designs! Here are some Scandinavian map magnets:

And you can even package them if you feel so inclined:

A Swedish drink set!
[cheers, beer, Aquavit, wine]

And that's it! Hang your lovely magnets on your fridge and enjoy!

Glad Sankta Lucia Dag!

Thanks for checking out Day 1 of the series! Be sure to come back tomorrow to hear from Rachel!

Sister Crafting, continued

So, remember way back in January when Caryn (my sister) and I had great hopes to meet once a month in order to finish our homemade advent calendars for this Christmas? Well, good thing we started in January, because we still have quite a ways to go before they're complete, and time is running out!

However, I must say, we made tremendous progress on Saturday...Caryn even tried her hand at the sewing machine for the first time!!! She is a natural...even though her signature move was the "free willy": taking your hands completely off the sewing machine while pushing the peddle. [see below for a free willy action shot]

After her first pocket she exclaimed, "This is such a rush!". 

 I also overheard her giving herself little pep talks while sewing some of the pockets. My favorite was probably, "Minor setbacks happen....you didn't lose any fingers." Overall, Caryn picked up sewing right away and I think I've created a monster. 

Here is a progress shot of our advent calendars. We actually completed more pockets than shown above and we're now halfway there...meaning 25 pockets finished for one of the calendars and 25 more to go! We're going to stencil with red fabric paint, "God Jul", ("Merry Christmas" in both Swedish and Danish) across the top. They're coming together and I'm so excited to see the finished products!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Fika Friday

FRIDAY!!!!

 

 

 

Another throwback fika week, folks! This pic taken back on our honeymoon over two years ago, my how time flies! We had a grand ol' time in St. John, sipping coffee, going to the beach, and exploring the local eateries. Good times.

 

Can you guys believe that it's already September?! I am so excited for the Fall but also can't believe that summer flew by so quickly. I'm ready for pumpkin bread and spiced cider. And definitely ready for colder temperatures...it's been in the 100s here all week, bleh!

 

I started working on some crafty prototypes for the Lucia fair last night [starting earlier...lesson learned from last year's fair] and am excited about making new stuff this year. We're going to do two Lucia fairs, a month a part, so I need lots of inventory ready to go! I want to make more Lucia-themed items this year...any ideas?? I'm doing more ornaments than last year...trying out some new styles so we'll see how those look. Stay tuned!

 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!



Antique Finds

Last weekend, Ryan and I ventured over to Orange, California. It is a super cute little town just over an hour south of Los Angeles. It has antique stores galore!!

We found this lovely gem to add to our china collection, a Shelley plate (I love the square shape!):

The real find of the day was this $8 Orrefors crystal bowl! It was marked at $40, but the booth was going out of business and having a 75% off sale. Score!! I visited the Orrefors factory when I was studying in Sweden and it's fun to find such a good deal.

We also found this vintage candy shop where Ryan was overjoyed to see so much candy all in one place.

All in all, a fantastic trip! I love weekend getaways. 

Happy almost Friday! SO CLOSE!

Five dollar fun

After a little trip to IKEA this past weekend, I re-ignited my childhood love of fuse beads. I loved these things as a kid...and know I know why: they're awesome.

What's not to love? Tiny plastic beads on a spiked board, then ironed together?! Fun designs are bound to be born:

This is my fuse bead rendition of Fika:

It's easy for me to get caught up in only making crafts that I will use or that are "cool". But there's something just delightful about creating something you won't use (at least I won't...), just for crafting's sake. Just to create something. Sometimes I forget that creativity doesn't always have to produce something practical, or even cute. It's fun just to create.

I'm so glad I bought the fuse beads at IKEA on a whim, they didn't disappoint. 

Happy Tuesday!