Think XXXL

I've been walking the streets of Copenhagen and Malmö these last few days, and have seen a lot of holiday decorations in the public spaces and in all the shop windows. I have some absolute favorites, and as I was checking them out in my camera roll, I saw that they have something in common: they use some little ordinary thing, and just blow it up to XXXL!

Check the paper loops in Cph dress maker Stasia's shop - they are just brilliant, I think! Paper loops are like a low ranking Christmas tinsel variety: any kid can do them (and does). I still think they are kind of cute, and in giant size and gold foil, they just look plain glamorous.

After the loops: Enormous baubles (the big ones are crazy big - like almost a meter in diameter!) outside Cph department store Magasin. The one insanely big lamp, that sits in the middle of Malmö's small square every Christmas - and in the last photo: giant, gleaming nylon stars filled with air, in Malmö's Central Station. Beautiful.

Easter came and went

painting eggs  /  eating an awful lot of lunches  /  growing chilies and tomatoes  /  visiting Malmö and getting off the train at the beautiful Triangeln train station  /  those easter feathers everywhere  /  my sister in seasonal yellow  /  'fika' in the sun  /  lots of fudge  /  back in the garden with a vengeance  /  fritillaria are the cutest, weirdest flowers and tulips are always okay

Malmö

The usual christmas shopping expedition to Malmö - always a bit special, even though I go there several times every year. It is a lovely place for strolling, windowshopping and fika (= relaxing with a cosy coffee break). Fika is of the utmost importance, if you ask me.

This is one of my favourite fika spots in Malmö, Konditori Hollandia, smack in the middle of the central walking street. I happen to know of several people who regularly take an outing to Malmö and have never been there, because it looks a bit too old-ladies-with-hats-and-furcoats like, but that is possibly what I love about the place. Today I had something slightly perverse to go with my lussekatt - a saffron truffle petit four. Yum! Konditori Hollandia is warmly recommended.

The tree

Well, okay, not that tree. But one of my favourite seasonal ones. It is on Gustav Adolfs Torg in Malmö,
where I spent most of the day, and this particular light installation has adorned it in december for some
years. I love it, and I wish I had come up with the idea. You see so many clever ways of using light and
color this time of year, but I think this one is particularly charming.

Malmö

A couple of days ago, I went to Malmö to do a bit of sightseeing and some, mainly selfish, shopping,
with my sister and my friend. And - as many of you know - Malmö is a bit of a shopping haven.

We had a very fine day, and ate a lot of memorable snacks, but just I couldn't get the shopping off
the ground. I ended up with three pairs of very utilitarian black woolly socks for myself.  
And the MUJI gift wrap with the little trees on, okay (the teeny tiny MUJI in the Malmö Åhléns,
is a great way for us MUJI-ites in Copenhagen, to have a little bit of the real thing, without having
to fly to London, Paris - or Tokyo).

For my son and my husband I found several nice things, of course. Sigh.

The heart of the day will be posted in a little while - have patience....