Hey hey!
So I'm here to show you the last blog post with photos from our trip to the States.
A few days in pictures. Here we go!

Before we went to USA I googled a lot to find good fleamarkets in the LA area. One of them was the weekly event Melrose Trading Post. So on our last sunday David and I went there.

We were early.

But the place was soon a thriving market place with lots of stuff!

Why, hello there lady!

David found some camera lenses and we tried them out on my camera. It was not a perfect fit but I kind of like the effect. They were good for David's camera though so he bought them. I might have to borrow them sometime in the future...

Putting Josh Ritter in place.

(Can you spot us?)

Sneaky view of the Hollywood sign behind dumpsters, houses and wires. We lived right behind these houses.
When we went to LA I told myself that I wasn't going to take the "typical Hollywood sign tourist photo". This photo and the one under this one is more my style. Sneaking up in the backround, sort of.

Cactus in between houses.

Wires and palm trees against the sky.

And lowering my camera to look straight ahead. Hollywood is all things crammed together.

Our street.

On our last day in LA we found Souplantation. Why oh why didn't we know about this place earlier?! I would have eaten there at least two more times. This place has a gigantic sallad buffet and lots of different soups, breads, cookies and frozen yoghurt. Buffet style. I almost died.
I WANT THIS IN SWEDEN! BRING IT HERE NOW!

(And they gave us free cookies that I ate on the plane home.)

In the evening we walked past The Scientology Celebrity Centre. LA sure loves their Scientologists. They're everywhere. And they got a large castle.

This was our destination. The theatre Upright Citizens brigade. On tuesdays they tape the podcast Doug Loves Movies that David is a big fan of. I listen to it sometimes too and we actually went there the week before too and it was so funny we had to go the last day as well. I think I laughed non stop for an hour.

But first we stood in line for about an hour. Lotta standing in line with a camera. Pointing it everywhere around her shooting pictures. Yeah.
So of course there was a photo of David's hand.

After the podcast taping we went to the sushi place next door. I believe this is some kind of sushi chain but we really really loved it. We ate there three times during the week in LA and it was so tasty and also very affordable.
And Mena Suvari was hanging out there one evening. I was only a bit star struck.

So, back to Sweden again. I'm working all weekend and tomorrow we're going to a large fleamarket with my job so that's great. Might bring my camera.
See you soon again!

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.

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.

A week ago I was at my parent's summer house in the south of Sweden, a part called Österlen. One of the many (MANY) great things about Österlen is that they have loads of fleamarkets there during the summer season. Some are more organized than others, some are indoors and some are outside. I always bring a lot of new (to me) stuff home and this time was no exception. I'll show you!

Loppis is the swedish word for fleamarket. Loppa means flea so it actually comes from the same idea. Everywhere on Österlen people have their own fleamarkets so when you're out driving you have to pay attention so you don't miss a sign like this one.

In the little village of Gladsax they have an amazing place called Karosserigården. It's very big and SUPER ORGANIZED. The stuff is even arranged by colours! This place is a bit expensive but I love it so much I always have to buy something from there. This time I found a large tea cup, a red hat/fascinator thing and an old postcard.

They have drawers for everything (even odd jigsaw pieces)! And the things that don't really go with anything is in the Pillimojs drawer. Pillimojs is not a real word but it means something like miscellaneous but in a more a childish way.

The drawer for old glass decanter stoppers is one of my personal favourites.

Gammalt och Nytt. Old and New.

Every saturday there's a big outdoors fleamarket in a parkway in the town Simrishamn. When we were there they even had it on a thursday! I can't believe my thrifting luck sometimes!

And to add to my luck I saw that the man with all the old jewelry was there! He inherited an old lady's jewelry shop once and has been selling off all the jewelry that comes from the 1950's and forward. I have been buying from him for a few years but last year he said he had no jewelry boxes left in his storage room. But this day he burst out Oh! You are one lucky girl today! I found some more boxes! I stood behind his table and dug through his boxes and oooh'd and aaaah'd all the time when I found a new gorgeous necklace that I wanted to buy. Because I know him by now he always gives me a nice price and I skip away happily with a plastic bag filled with necklaces for me to take apart and make new ones of.

Look at all the pretty beads I bought!

And then I found this bag. I love it so much!

On saturday it was raining. A lot. It didn't keep people away from thrifting though. It was raincoats everywhere!

It looks so sad, all the wet stuff on the ground.

Some people came prepared, with plastic sheets to cover their things but mostly it was all wet so I really didn't feel like buying anything. I was just taking photos of the wetness.

I'm guessing the electroinic hair equipment didn't do as well as the wine glasses...

Today is a sunny day in Gothenburg and we're walking to the movie theatre to finally see Moonrise Kingdom. I have been looking forward to seeing that for such a long time.

Tjingeling!
/Lotta