Woke up to a grey and misty morning, jumped into my clothes, ignored the gigantic tear in my stockings, swept some make up on my face, made my hair into a pretty bun on the top of my head, tied a ribbon underneath, chose some matching pair of earrings, hung the camera around my neck and flew down the stairs only 20 minutes after I've woken up. I'm just cool that way. A ninja with the super power of making myself dolled up in less than half an hour. Aw Yeaaah!

The reason for my morning eagerness? I was having a flea market date with my dear friend Becka, and my purse was filled with coins from the christmas fair that I re-discovered like a long forgotten treasure in a tin box the other day giving me the feeling of being all rich.

First stop was the flea market of Finska Pingstkyrkan (Finnish Pentecostal Church). It is a strange place. Mostly really ugly things but sometimes you'll find great stuff there super cheap.
It always smells horrible there because they serve boiled eggs and herring in the café there every saturday and apparently they're not fans of open windows or air condition...

Hej Kompis! (Hi buddy!)

Here you can see a blurry Becka inspecting a questionable bag while I hide among the coats.
I found a lovely lavender blue dress in a 60's style that I think was made by the previous owner. I love to find hand made stuff when I'm thrifting! It makes the clothes even more special in my opinion.
Becka found three gorgeous teacups that made me super jealous. Not that I need any more teacups, but still...

Next stop was Ungdomshjälpen (Youth help). Every time I walk in there I think that I'm going to buy lots of neat stuff but I NEVER find anything. Don't know why I bother coming back, really. I guess part of the reason is that it's really close to where I live. And the hope that I some day will find something amazing there.

After our little thrifting walk we walked past an impromptu christmas tree cemetery. And Babys legs. Apparently.

Found a cozy corner at the french coffee place.

Becka splitting a salmon sandwitch in two.

Half a salmon sandwitch and half a semla makes for a truly amazing fika .

Becka trying to pour coffee gracefully...

...but ending up giggling adorably half a second later.

We sat at the café for almost two hours talking about life, love, work and creativity and didn't say goodbye until we had marked a new date in our calenders.
Such a good way to spend a free saturday morning.

Hello hello!

So, I'm battling my second cold this year complete with brain emptying sneezes and a constant feeling of having cotton wool pressing up behind my eyes.
But still super sexy, I promise. Ahem.

One day last week I got the sudden urge to look through my bulging wardrobe to see if I could find the coral beret I bought on a flea market a couple of years ago. I didn't find it.
Instead I found this raspberry red beret that I've had since I was about 9 or 10 years old.
It's actually the second one I had because the first one got snatched from my head by some older boys on the school yard. I remember telling a teacher and pointing to the the boys where they were laughing and playing with my beret, like some evil Disney villains. The teacher just shrugged and kept on walking.
So I went home and cried to my parents and then got a new beret in the exact same colour a couple of days later.
When I was a kid it might have been a bit too big and now it's definitely on the smaller side, but I don't care. It looks nice and I love that it's somewhat a part of my history. What makes me who I am.
Well, I'm maybe not so scared of older boys and stupid teachers anymore, but it's a memory of my childhood and the beret is kind of a capsule for that part of me.
A time capsule in deep raspberry red.

The other day I couldn't bare to see the mess in my window sill anymore.
As long time readers of this blog are well aware of, I collect pretty things and arrange them into even prettier still life displays in my work room's window sill. It's a hobby, a way to be creative, a drug (yeah, it's basically hoarding, I know).
Lately there haven't been any of the usual lovely well organized clusters of stuff, but a complete disarray of dusty things cluttering the space.
One thing I really love about dusting off and re-organizing my knick knacks is that I get to really look at them, remember where I found/bought/got the items and what they mean to me.

All cleaned and waiting to be re-organized.
See more of the teeny tiny dictionary here.

Dusty but pretty. I bought the brown brooch on Portobello road a year ago.

I found the beautiful pocket watch on a flea market in Nice and for a month it didn't work but then suddenly, on midsummer's eve, it started all by itself!
I wrote about that in this post.

The little brush is actually a Moustache brush in silver. My grandfather gave it to me for fun when I was a little girl. It has the words Minne af E.E (translates to In memory of E.E) engraved on top of it. I think E.E was an old relative of mine but I'm not sure.
Kind of interesting that people used to engrave a brush made to groom your moustache. Today's plastic grooming products just aren't the same...

I made the metal tin in school when I was 13, I think. It's where I put coins from the different countries I visit.

I love old cigarette cases in silver. As I don't smoke I use them as business card cases instead. Or just to look at. Here's a post from when I found these ones
The little aluminium pill tin is another gift from my grandfather. The aluminium creates dots on the pills if you use it for what it's actually for, so I use it for nothing instead. It's pretty, though.

Treasures from South Africa. I love seed pods so so so much!!
And the key is for the desk I'm sitting infront of right now. It keeps falling to the ground all the time so now I have included it in my window sill installation instead.

This is how to use an ashtray. There's no better way really.

And of course it needs to have boobs.

I love that little brooch with the sad and grim looking lady. I found her on a flea market and wrote a bit about her in this post.

I could have written about each and every item here but it would have gone on forever and ever so if there is something you're interested in knowing the story behind, just write in the comments and I will answer there.

And just so you know. I will collect knick knacks for as long as I live and I will most definitely blog about my finds for an equally long time so prepare for more posts like this in the future.

Yesterday evening when the sun was about to set, David and I went for a walk. I had brought my camera with me to take some photos along the way. We were heading towards the cemetery first and then we were going to get something to eat at another part of town.
This is what I saw that captured my eye.

Two naked guys having a fist and stone throwing fight over which one of them could have the sled. We didn't stay to see who won.

When we arrived at the cemetery the sun was setting behind the tombstones.

PEACE.

The sky was all sorts of beautiful and made you want to stretch your arms towards it in joy.

You know that hazy kind of light that comes around that time of the evening, I love that.

Some dead people apparently needed sphinxes guarding them.

Oh my, this is the place for scary movies.

Peekaboo sun behind the church tower.

After this we left the cemetery and went to get some food.

We passed over the bridge and waved to the lion on the fort Skansen Lejonet.

Walked through some not so pretty, but still very interesting, parts of Gothenburg to get to the libanese grill where we picked up our food before we went home again.

The air smelled a lot like spring and I'll keep that in my nose until this winter has passed. Today seems to be all wintery and cold again and if yesterday was all the spring we'll get for a few weeks I still know it's out there waiting. And that's good enough for now.