around the world

I have been dreaming about a trip to a foreign country in a while and hopefully in November or December P and I will be traveling for a week. Our idea is to stay in Tulum, Mexico and from there take a couple of day trips, to Chichen Itza for example. This trip has been on our mind for a while and I cannot wait to start planning. Until then I will tide myself over with some virtual trips and map inspired clothing and accessories. The print on the dress is a map of Paris, Erin you might like to know Carven made a whole line with the same fabric ranging from shoes, to tees and a Blazer. You can also sleep in Manhattan even though you might be somewhere else with the duvet cover from H&M, seriously we need to get the Home Collection from H&M in the US soon.

Are you planning any fun trips soon? And if you have ever been to Tulum or anywhere else in the Yucatan region I would be more than happy to hear about it.

1. paris map print dress 2. home is wherever i'm with you poster 

3.around the world letter

4. map triptych 5. duvet cover 5. custom necklace

week thirty

The past workweek was pretty uneventful, except for Tuesday were I needed to get some forms for the office signed by a city agency. When I got there first thing in the morning I was second in line and hoped to be in an out. When it was my turn the lady at the counter told me I needed to get another signature before she would sign and seal it and I would have to get it from an agency in the Bronx. So I hopped on the subway and trekked from the southern tip of Manhattan to the Bronx. I had to get off right at Yankee Stadium, an area I have never been before, so it was a little bit like sightseeing. In the end I got all my paperwork in order and made it to the office at around 2pm. My weekend was a slow and relaxing one, on Saturday we met friends for lunch at a new Mexican restaurant and the rest of the weekend was spent in a mixture of being lazy and working on the door. I stripped both sides of the door for a second time and one side now is mostly raw wood but the other side still has layers of paint on it. The layers of old paint look actually pretty good and I am thinking we might leave it like that and honestly I don't feel like stripping that door any more. So far I am pretty happy with the outcome of the door project but next step would be sanding the side that I stripped down to raw wood. Not my favorite part of the project because of the inset panels. Hope to be able to work on it some more next weekend. I want to be finished with this project when my parents visit in September and I have another project on my list that I want to finish by then. Sometimes I need the pressure to get things crossed of my list, especially when they are not really fun projects. What were you guys up to last week?

Have a great week 31!

estate sale finds - dresser with a surprise

Of course I could not stop going to estate sales, even during my blog absence, and this dresser is my latest find. Originally I wanted to go to that sale because they had some mid-century modern pieces but I went there on the last day pretty much in the last hour. Obviously all the goodies I had admired online were sold already. Instead this dresser caught my eye because I think it is a great piece for a mini makeover project. The idea is to paint the dresser and swap out the hardware. Not sure what color I should paint it. Something more neutral like gray or go bold, maybe even try an ombre effect? I still have time to mull it over because I want to finish my door project first and that might take a while. After a little negotiation I was able to buy the dresser for $20 and when it was time to carry it out we noticed one side was heavier than the other. Upon further inspection I realized one drawer was filled with sewing accessories. P told me to just leave it but I thought the items might be useful in one way or another. Once we got home I needed to investigate what extra goodies I had purchased with the dresser and found out I was now owning two button hole feet for Singer sewing machines, an assortment of needles and snap buttons and an egg shaped thingy that is very heavy. Does anybody know what this might be? But the biggest surprise of the day was yet to happen. When I opened the pink box, which contains a sewing machine foot and flipped through the manual, a gold bracelet fell out. The bracelet is marked 14k gold and of course I had to google how much it might be worth. I put the bracelet on my kitchen scale and with the help of an online calculator determined the gold is worth about $170. Have you every watched Storage Wars? I pretty much felt like the Storage Wars crew when they find a treasure in their lockers.

Next step is to figure out what color(s) to paint the dresser. I might want to use my vintage white porcelain cabinet pulls (similar) on this piece that I bought at an estate sale a while back. If you have any suggestions please feel free to share and also if you have any ideas what this egg shaped thingy could be let me know.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend everybody! Do you have any plans? My plan is to keep the door project moving, which means cleaning off the stripper residue and start sanding.

cos - collection of style

After writing about one of my favorite Swedes on Friday I want to introduce you to another one of my favorite imports from Sweden: COS, short for Collection of Style. I do not really write about clothes and fashion on this blog but this does not mean I do not have any interest in fashion, but I do not consider myself very fashionable. Unfortunately COS has not crossed the pond yet but that is hopefully going to change, although no date has been set yet. COS is a brand owned by H&M and they promise high end design and good quality at affordable prices. I really like their simplistic and minimalistic style but sometimes you really need to try on their clothes because on the hanger it just looks like a sack. So far everything I own from them has been great quality and some items have lasted for years without looking worn or faded. Every time I visited my parents in the last years I had to make a trip to the COS store in Hamburg, my hometown, preferably after Christmas, when they start their sale. Talking about sale, they have a great one going on now and of course I could not resist. I ordered 1, 3, 5 & 6 plus another dress, as well as a black merino wool sweater with batwing sleeves. Unfortunately they had to delete dress 3 from my order because it was sold out. Since I had to sent my order to my parent's house I still have to wait until September to see my goodies, which is ok as it is too hot right now to wear most of the clothes I ordered anyways. My sister tried on all the clothes and she and my mom think everything will fit and I will be happy with it too. There is just one dress that I might have to sent back because of the fit and my mom has an eye on the batwing sweater, as it might be a little big on me. We shall see...

What is your favorite clothing store? And are you such a sucker for a good sale, like me, as well?

1. melange boat-neck top 2. textured pencil skirt 3. leather and wool dress 

4. panelled jersey dress 5. wool and silk shirt 6. sleeve detail top

week twenty nine

Week twenty nine flew by in an instant. I guess I had too much fun. Started the week with a picnic in Central Park, listening to the NY Philharmonic play. Wednesday night P and I saw OMD in concert. On Friday I had to rush home after work because we met with our architect, who is finalizing the drawings for the backyard. Yay, I cannot wait for the backyard project to get started. After we finished the meeting we visited a friend, who helped me to recover my SD card, which I stupidly stuck into my CD drive. Funny enough when I googled my predicament I saw that I wasn't the only one who would do such a stupid thing. After the crazy busy week I needed a mellow weekend and what better way to relax than to snuggle and nap on the couch with the dog visiting you. This was my past week in short...How was your week/weekend?

waiting for the new ikea catalog

My mailbox is longing for the newest IKEA catalog to come out. The time is finally here and I am counting the days until I will hold it in my hands until then you can already check out the online version.  I do not know why I keep waiting for this day every year but it has been like this for quite a while, I even kept a lot of my catalogs over the years. Since 2007 I have kept all of them, not that I really have browsed through them in the past years but I always feel giddy flipping through the new catalog for the first time and I will immediately pick my favorite pieces and dream about redecorating the house. Of course I will not buy many items but a girl can dream, right? This year the walnut veneer pieces from the Stockholm 2013 (available in the US in August) collection really speak to me or the yellow nightstand, you all know that I cannot resist yellow. And what about the green velvet sofa? It looks comfortable and might age well. Are you waiting with me for the new catalog to come out? 

Enjoy your weekend! Stay cool!

mini makeover V - yellow letters

It is time for another mini makeover, this time it really does the name justice and is a quick project that took not even half an hour of my time, not including drying time though. I had been lusting for a mishmash of vintage letters to write fun things on our walls and checked on Etsy on and off but in the end I thought I could make some fun letters myself. The paper mache letters I used I bought at a local craft store, they might be the exact same ones like these from Jo Ann. I still had some leftover yellow spray paint in the basement from a previous project and used it because yellow makes me happy. All letters got three or four coats of paint and after they were fully dried I stuck them to the wall with picture hanging strips, this way when I take them down I will not be left with any marks, at least that is the plan. I thought the area above the opening leading from the kitchen to our dining room is a good spot for the word eat because it will tell you what you can expect in the next room...Looking at all the vintage goodies on Etsy I might still have to get some more vintage letters. What would you write on your walls?

PS. I do not know why my images are so dark today. They look fine in photoshop but get messed up when I upload them to the blog. Tried different solutions but nothing works...

week twenty eight

Good morning week 29! Can you believe we passed the halfway mark of this year already? Didn't this year just start and I had all these dreams of finishing projects around the house or refinishing my street and estate sale finds? Oh well life happened and things did not necessarily turn out the way I hoped but there are still 24 weeks left to work on said projects. Actually I already started one of the projects on Sunday on a whim and immediately started to regret my decision. Originally we had planned to have the door stripped by somebody else and I would be refinishing it myself but yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to do it myself. Argh, it is not fun to scrape off old paint goo that has the consistency of a roasted marshmallow but I am sure that the effort will be worth it once the door is finished. Unfortunately it will take a while because I haven't even finished stripping one side if the door. On Saturday I had a pretty relaxed day, first hanging out with a friend in Dumbo and then taking the ferry up the East River to meet with P and another friend in Williamsburg, were we walked around but mostly hung out at the Spritzenhaus to play some Jenga and drink a beer. Hope you had a great weekend. Was your weekend more like my relaxed Saturday or work filled like my Sunday? Or something in between?

beat the heat

Phew, this week was all about beating the heat. As I mentioned on Tuesday the A/C in my office broke on Monday and we have been working without A/C or decent ventilation. In the morning I was fine but by mid afternoon my brain would strike, I have the feeling that the heat and the lack of oxygen makes me dumb. Of course my feet would swell and by the end of the day I was left with beautiful cancles. But I am not a complainer so I kept dreaming about all things that could keep me cool on a hot summer day. Who wouldn't like a kiddie pool under their office desk to stick your feet in? Squirt gun fight in the office? Sign me up. Usually those long infomercials on TV bore me and I never want to buy the product, not so with the chillow. I want one!

During the summer months I love to end my days with a glass of refreshing Summer Shandy or Radler, or as the people from my hometown would call it a glass of Alster(wasser), which translates into Alster water. The Alster is a river in Hamburg and it is believed that people think the mixture between beer and lemon soda/lemonade looks like the water of the river. Not true because then nobody would drink it, at least I wouldn't. In order to mix your own Radler just fill about half a glass with your soda or lemonade of choice, my favorite is 7up and fill the rest with your beer of choice, I prefer lager. If you want to forgo the alcohol it also tastes great with non alcoholic beer. Cheers!

Have a great weekend and stay cool my friends!

1. umbrella with spf 2. chillow 3. kiddie pool 4. squirt guns 

5. reusable ice cubes 6. summer shandy

week twenty seven

Hope you all had a great long holiday weekend! How did you guys spend it? Mine started off pretty busy on Thursday when P and I cleaned the house and then went to a BBQ at a friends place. We tried to see the fireworks on the Hudson from our friends roof. Unfortunately the view was blocked by some high rise buildings but the view was pretty nice as is. Friday I had to work, planned was a short day but I ended up working until 7:30pm because we had to meet a deadline. On Saturday we tried to escape the heat with a trip to the beach, which was nice but didn't bring the relief we had hoped for. In the afternoon we had to cool off in a nearby mall. Of course we didn't leave empty handed. The heat usually does not bother me so much, this year it makes me feel like a zombie. Because we do not have air conditioners in the whole house, only in our bedroom, we escaped to the movies on Sunday and watched Monsters University in 3D. So much fun, I can highly recommend it. Sulley looks even fuzzier in 3D and he already looked pretty fuzzy in the first movie. Speaking of no air conditioners, the ac at my office broke yesterday and they might not be able to fix it before Wednesday or Thursday. On my way home I couldn't even cool down on the bus home because the ac was not working either. Argh! If this week continues like that I might not have to go to a sauna ever again ;) How do you guys stay cool when it gets hot outside?

week twenty six

Goodbye week twenty six, hello short holiday week! We spent the last weekend in Connecticut in an area with no cell phone reception, at least my phone could not pick up any signal. It is unnerving but on the other hand it was great to not be cellphone free for two days, although I used the WiFi at the hotel. The reason for a weekend in CT was the wedding of two great friends. They married in the garden of her family, beautiful setting. I will have to upload some photos to Instagram soon. When roaming around the grounds I found this red shed with a pitchfork leaning against it, recognizing its potential for a photo op. We tried to recreate American Gothic but because I always confuse left and right I am standing on the wrong side. Oh, well you get the idea...Hope you had a great weekend too! What was your weekend like?