Stockholm #4: Where & what to eat

BREAKFAST:

Claretti Tastesheriff and myself, we arrived very early in Stockholm on Friday morning, so the first thing we wanted to do, was to have breakfast. We went to the lovely bakery Vete-Katten (wheat-cat) and had a coffee and a lovely Swedish cake.

The bakeries were full with Semla, when we were there, a traditional Swedish pastry, made out of a wheat flour bun seasoned with cardamom, filled with almond paste and whipped cream. You can find a recipe on the gorgeous Swedish food blog Call me cupcake!

Vete-Katter Kungsgatan 55, Stockholm

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 07:30 to 19:30 Saturday 9:30 to 17:00 Sunday & Holiday 12:00 to 17:00

LUNCH:

On the last day of our trip, we visited the Nytorget Urban Deli for lunch with Ricarda 23qm still Clara Tastesheriff, Kathrin Happy home blog and Judith Joelix. Urban Deli, is a beautiful little restaurant located in an organic supermarket and beautifully decorated with bare light bulbs and yellow tolix high-chairs. The place is located in the trendy area of Södermalm and you can also go there for breakfast and dinner.

Nytorget Urban Deli Nytorget 4, Stockholm Opening hours: Sunday to Tuesday 08:00 to 23:00 Wednesday to Thursday 08-24:00 Friday - Saturday 08:00 to 01:00

DINNER:

We had three evenings in Stockholm, so three opportunities to try nice restaurants. Stockholm is not exactly cheap, but we had good food and always extraordinary bread to go with it. Here are the addresses of this three places, that I can all recommend, because of the food quality, ambiance, decoration and service. If you want to go to one of those great place, it is always wise to book in advance.

Cloud nine is a strange combination of French food and Sim Sum bistro Torsgatan 1, Stockholm

Boqueria is an excellent tapas place, which was recommended by our hotel, the decoration is lovely. Galleria Mood Jacobsbergsgatan 17, Stockholm

Scandic Grand Central - Restaurand Teaterbrasseriet - The restaurant attached to the Scandic Hotel is really fantastic. You can also eat some Köttbullar, the traditional Swedish meat balls. Kungsgatan 70, Stockholm

OTHER FOOD RELATED PLACE:

if you go to Stockholm, you should definitely pay a visit to the Östermalms Saluhall - It's a beautiful covered market, where you can find all sorts of food.

I hope you got a little inspired by this post and not too hungry! Speak to you soon xxx

Elodie

Stockholm #3: Meet the blogger

Hello everyone, I posted about Stockholm last week in drips and drabs, but now the time has come to tell you the real reason why I went to Stockholm. I attended the blogging conference "Meet the blogger" at the beginning of February. The conference gave me the occasion to meet new bloggers from all over Europe (mainly from Scandinavian countries), to network and to be inspired. The conference is an international event for homedesign and lifestyle bloggers and a lot of creative and interesting people gathered in Stockholm that week-end. The reason why I bought my tickets the day they went online is because Will from the blog Bright.Bazaar was giving a keynote lecture - and I must say he didn't disappoint me at all! His talk about building a successful blogging brand was great! He gave us some tips such as Transport your readers into your world, Believe in your voice, or Give your readers a reason to return to your blog. For me the most precious tip that Will gave us was: Be a creator not just a curator! After the talk, he gave us brilliant infographics that he kindly allowed me to post on my blog for you today. So here you go:

Designed by Amanda Jane Jones for Bright.bazaar

By the way, another great and very informative talk that day was held by Kirsten Jassies about the rise of visual content; and infographics was presented as one of the big trends in this context. Another great talk was given by my German friends Thea and Toni from the beautiful sister-mag about their creative process, giving us a lot of useful tools for blogging. The girls convinced us once again how much they believe in digital and mobile publications and promised that sister-mag will never ever exist as a printed version. For me, they really are pioneers and visionaries in that field.

So, as you see, it was a very interesting and rich week-end and, above all, I enjoyed spending time with my friends Clara, Ricarda, Kathrin, Toni and Thea and also meeting new blogging friends such as Judith (you have to visit her blog! I love it and she lives in my home region in France: Picardie), Gudy and Iris.

I will be posting a last post about Stockholm this week, before heading to some new adventures.

Have a lovely week!

xxx Elodie

2 flower girls #2 - by glomerylane & madame love

Hello there, Here comes the second edition of my flower column 2 flower girls with the sweet Inga from the blog glomerylane.

For those who are discovering the concept today, the idea is that we buy the same flowers in the same colours on the same day and style them our own way. For today's arrangements, we decided to use pink and white tulips. This time it was Inga's turn to pick the flowers, and I was very happy about her choice, as I don't buy tulips very often. It made me step out of my comfort zone a bit, which sometimes allows you to be more creative.

I will first show you the flowers unarranged:

I decided to present my flowers in a very colourful vase/cup from the Danish label Greengate that I bought a couple of years ago in Berlin and a single flower in a glass vase I brought back from Stockholm last week, which comes from the great interior shop of Lotta Agaton. Inga displayed her tulips in an antique teapot with a tulip pattern. I love the way she puts a single flower in the spout of the teapot.

Inga and I have so much fun every month playing around with the same flowers and styling them in a very different way that we thought that you would maybe like to play with us next time. We will be announcing the flowers we want to style a couple of days before on my facebook fanpage and on Inga's. We would be so happy if readers from all around the world would like to decorate their home with the same flowers on the same day. If you want to communicate about the action on Instagram or Twitter, you can just use the hashtag #2flowergirls.

We will keep you posted anyway. I wish you a very nice day and don't forget to buy flowers and visit glomerylane today to see what Inga wrote about 2 flower girls!

Elodie

images: madame love & glomerylane

Stockholm #2: Where to shop

Hello there, today I would like to give you a couple of shopping tips in Stockholm and show a couple of pictures I took in a very stylish shop called Snickarbacken 7 . A shop and a café are located in this building from the the 16th Century that used to be the stable of a Catholic girl's scholl. The shop is not very big, but displays a lot of nice pieces and has a very swedish flair with a lot of black and white.

Madame Love little Stockholm's shopping guide:

Snickarbacken 7 Website Snickarbacken 7, Stockholm

Lotta Agaton shop of the interior stylist Lotta Agaton The shop is only open on Thursdays but definitely worth a visit. Website Rådmansgatan 7, Stockholm

Granit A very cool swedish design chain with a lot of black and white Website For example: Götgatan 31, Stockholm but they have many shops around the city

Speak to you soon!

xxx

Elodie

Stockholm #1 - First day in the city

Hello everyone,I spent the first days of February in Stockholm this year. You might find it a strange idea, as the meteorological conditions are not the best for visiting a city but I had an excuse. I was attending the "Meet the blogger" conference - An international event for home design and lifestyle bloggers. The conference took place on Saturday and Sunday, but I will talk a little more about what I learned and who I met in Stockholm in another blogpost. I arrived to Stockholm very early on the Friday morning with Clara, and we had a few hours to discover the city before the sun came down - and believe it or not, it was a very sunny day!

It was a charming first day in Stockholm with a lot of walking around. I will be posting more Stockholm in the next few days - So stay tuned. What about you? Have a visited Stockholm? Do you like the city? Talk to you soon

xxx

Elodie

Antwerp #4 – Where to sleep

Hello everyone, I think nobody likes Mondays ... I think the best cure is to plan your next holiday and think back to your last holiday. While doing it, I realised I still wanted to give a last tip about Antwerp, where I spent a fabulous break last October. After telling you what to do in Antwerp by day and showing you the city by night, where to eat in Antwerp and where to shop, here comes my ultimate tip: where to sleep in Antwerp - and the answer is a beautiful Bed & Breakfast called Home @ FEEK. It is one of the most fantastic places I have stayed at in my life - it was the night of my birthday and it was definitely special!

It is located in the old house of the harbour master and five minutes walk from the MAS (Museum aan de Stroom).

The place is run by product designer Frederik van Heereveld. Frederik is known worldwide for his collection with FEEK and new materials, which he integrates into his interior designs. All the furniture in the rooms can be bought. Even the lift is really funky.

The changing colour lamp in the bedroom was also a highlight.

Hone @ Feek Website: www.http://home.feek.be Oude Leeuwenrui 23, Antwerpen

#1.2 – 2 flower girls by Glomerylane & madame love

Hello everyone,Maybe you couldn’t wait to see Inga’s flowers yesterday and had a look at the Glomerylane blog already. Today I will be presenting her flowers on madame love as well. It is stunning to see how you can achieve a very different styling with the same flowers.

First I am in love with the sweet owl vase, I think that using animals in decoration is just charming.

I also love the dark background, and the texture of the fabric on some of the photos. I think it gives the composition a very strong atmosphere that contrasts beautifully with the cuteness of the owl. I found this first edition of “2 flower girls” very exciting and stimulating. What do think? I am really curious to hear about your reaction. To be continued in February.

xxx

Elodie

PS: you can find the pretty owl at Lys Vintage.

Photos by Inga from Glomerylane.

#1.1 - 2 flower girls by Glomerylane & madame love

A the end of 2012, I met Inga and visited her beautiful flower blog Glomerylane online. We have been talking a lot over skype and e-mail since.  I live in Hamburg (in the north of Germany) and Inga lives in Stuttgart (down South) and we will finaly meet in real life in March at a blogger meet-up in Munich. We decided to start a project together in 2013, as we share the same passion for flowers, and flower styling. Once a month, Glomerylane and madame love will be writing a column together  called “2 flower girls”. The idea is that we buy the same flowers in the same colours on the same day and style them our own way. We would like to give you some styling tips and maybe inspire you to do it yourself at home.

Here are my styling tips to achieve the same result at home:

1- If you use a wide and relatively low vase, don’t be afraid to cut the stems. The flowers have to fall nicely in the vase. 2- Think about the structure of your vase: if you use a vase made of glass, you should try to use the transparency and think about how your stems look through the glass. For this bouquet, I decided to bind the flowers with some organza ribbon. It think it looks gorgeous floating in the water. Try also giving the bunch a nice twist when binding it. 3- Get rid of the leaves – or get rid of most of the leaves. You can keep a couple of them, but if you keep them all, the green will become very dominant in your bouquet. It is true for hyacinths and I think it is also very true with tulips.

Voila! Tomorrow I will be posting Inga’s bouquet on my blog, so stay tuned! If you can’t wait, you can have a look today on her blogpost, at Glomerylane. Have a lovely day, speak to you tomorrow and don’t forget to buy some flowers this week!

xxx

Elodie

A white bouquet for Jodi

Hello everyone,here comes a little flowery post in white. For this flower composition I made for my friend Jodi, who invited me for New Year's Eve, I mixed hyacinth, buttercups and Christmas roses. I hope you will enjoy them, and I hope that Jodi will forgive me for taking some pictures of the flowers, before bringing them to her place. Have a nice day and don't forget to buy some flowers this week! Speak to you soon xxx Elodie

Milchmädchen - or where to find the softest blanket in the world!

Hello everyone,

Happy new year! Here comes my first blogpost of 2013 and it's about a very nice shop in Hamburg, which has a very good online shop too. So not only for Hamburgers this time! Just before Christmas I took the time to pay a visit to one of my favorite decoration shops called "Milchmädchen" (milkmaid). I have been wanting to do it for ages. It is a very charming place with a lot of not so well-known designers from all over the world and delicate hand-made products. I really recommend this shop to people who like to do things themselves, as you can find a lot of pretty supplies such as Japanese washi tape (If you want ideas about what to do with washi tape, you can check out my Pinterest board Lovely washi tape),  colourful wrapping-paper and stamps.

You can also find some very pretty jewellery and candles. It's the ideal place to find a nice present for a friend.

My favorite items at Milchmädchen are the ceramic pears (from S to XXL) and I am lucky enough to have two of them at home, a big white one and a small one in copper. They are made by the Brasilian artist Selma Calheira and Milchmädchen is one of the few places in Europe to distribute them. But the highlight for me at Milchmädchen is definitely the blankets. I fell in love with them a long time ago, and was so happy when Mr. Love gave me a golden and grey one for my birthday this year. They come from Spain and the brand is called Hijos de Cecilio Valgañón and they are made out of mohair. You can either buy one that is already in the shop or order one from the catalogue and have it made for you with exactly the size and colour or colour combination you wish. It is the warmest, softest and most beautiful blanket I have ever had, and it's perfect for anyone who is cold-sensitive like me. It is now my best companion for watching TV on the sofa.

I hope you will visit the shop soon. If so, say hello to the lovely Irina for me and leave a note to tell what you found there. Have a very  nice day! xxx Elodie

Milchmädchen Website Online Shop

Lehmweg 47 20251 Hamburg

Mo. – Fr. : 11:00 – 19:00 Sat.            : 11:00 – 16:00

Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful Christmas! Speak to you in 2013!

Elodie

Metropolitain in Hamburg

Hello everyone, There is a new place in Hamburg I would like to share with you today. It is very French and I am so happy I can reach it within five minutes the next time I am feeling homesick. Metropolitain is the long name given to the French Metro. This place is not an interior shop, it's a café/pâtisserie/wine shop/champagne lounge. The concept is really well thought through. You have three rooms:

1.  The first one is black and white, with a completely black counter, white tiles (the same as in the Parisian metro) and black bistro chairs. The area is designed to be like the entrance of a metro station. 2.  The second room is completely black, with sofas, and is the champagne lounge. It is conceived to be like when you are travelling in the metro and going through a tunnel. 3. The third room is completely white and reflects the interior of the metro trains.

It is a very atmospheric place with fantastic food, only organic French wines and a lot of attention given to details and corporate design. One of the owners is French and used to work in advertising, and you really feel that a lot of attention has been put into the concept, the choice of colours, etc. The green tone used in the logo is, for instance, exactly the green used in the Paris metro.

The products that are sold and the decoration at Metropolitain are so typically French that I decided to give you a little basic French course via the pictures.

A little French course:

Speak to you soon. xxx Elodie

Metropolitain Hegestraße 28 20249 Hamburg Tu. – Su. : 10:00 – 18:00 Closed Mondays

12 aus 12 by madame love

Dear readers,

My German blogger friend Ricarda, from the blog 23qm stil had this great idea to review your 2012 via 12 pictures. As I started searching my photo archive from 2012, there were far too many photos and great memories to only post 12 photos, so I decided to make 12 photo collages for the 12 topics that influenced me the most this year and which tell my story the best. The birth of my blog (on July 15th) was definitely my highlight and all the great projects I realised through the blog, the workshop and conferences I attended and the many more to come in 2013, and most of all, the brilliant people I met through blogging.

1- My year in flowers:

Flowers have been my main source of inspiration for my blog this year, they made me improve my photographic skills and transform my flat into a photo studio. I love working with flowers and will continue to do so in 2013. I love picking the right vase, waiting for the perfect light, before work or on Saturday morning and playing with colours and textures.

2- My year in shops:

My blog made me visit a lot of beautiful interior shops in Hamburg.  Each photo belongs to one shop: here are the links to the blogposts (from left to right and from top to bottom) Akiko, Palais 13, Küchenblume, Johanna Schultz, Lieblingsstück, Nordlys, Lieblingszimmer, my perfect Sunday, Manoir/Palazzo, Morgenthau,das 7te Zimmer,Richard, Eden Living, Lys Vintage, Human Empire, SmuukeStore.

3- My culinary year:

Even if food is not the main focus of my blog, this year I took part three times in the project Post aus meiner Küche (with the strawberry lollipops, the speculoos stars, and the mini-madeleines. I also took part in the food-blogger event France Bon Appétit. Here are some impressions:

4- My creative year:

I started sewing a lot at the beginning of 2012. I was seriously thinking about creating my own little label: L.O.D. Love On Delivery, and open my own Etsy store. In the end, I used my spare time for my blog and not pursuing my first project. I took part in the designer market -  Kleine Dachladen organised by my friend Merret in May, though, and I really liked it. What do you think, should I open my Etsy store in 2013?

5- My year in Hamburg:

Hamburg treated me much better in 2012 than in 2011. Especially because I found a job I like at DDB Tribal and my friendships grew deeper. Thanks Hamburg - you almost made me forget Berlin (but not my dear Berlin friends).

6- LOVEly white dinner

In August, I shared a beautiful white dinner with my dear friends from Girl Gone International.

7- LOVEly cruise

In May, just before starting my new job at DDB, I went on a cruise with Mr. Love. Venice, Dubrovnik and Corfu. Needless to say, it was lovely! 8- LOVEly Antwerp:

To celebrate my birthday, Mr. Love and I spent a couple of days in Antwerp, and as expected, I really enjoyed the city, its architecture and interior shops.

9- LOVEly Amsterdam:

On the way back to Hamburg, after leaving Antwerp, we stopped in Amsterdam to visit friends and I loved the city very much too. As another friend of mine just moved there, I will be visiting again soon. My blogpost about Amsterdam is coming up soon as well...

10- My star obsession:

Another thing I noticed while browsing through my pictures, is that I have been using a lot of stars this year in my sewing and DIY projects, as well as in my food projects.... 11- My year in red & pink:

...and that I have been using a lot of red and pink in everything I did.

12- My year with Cheddy

My cat Cheddar loves being the centre of attention, and while searching for photos, I found a least one picture of him in each album. So here comes a little collage - *cat content*

So I am ready! 2013 can come. I hope you enjoyed my little review. If you want to read what other bloggers think about 2012, here is a link to Ricarda's blog.

Only 7 days to go before Christmas!

xxx

Elodie

Mimosa - lighting up the winter like in the south of France

Dear readers, I hope you had a nice Sunday. It's all christmassy around us -  but today, I want to bring a little sun into the middle of the winter with the beautiful mimosa I found in a flower shop yesterday. I combined them with some beautiful dark blue anemones. The colour combination is my mum's favorite and I also love it. Mimosa is a neon yellow flower that you find at this time of the year in the south of France and reminds me of the wonderful time I had living in Aix-en-Provence. Apart from being so beautiful and delicate, this is a very scented flower. It is a shame I can't do a scented post yet. I decided to do a musical post instead with a song from the French singer Barbara, talking about the death of her mum and wishing that she rests in peace in heaven with the scent of a mimosa flower.

I wish a nice penultimate week of 2012! xxx Elodie

Que vos étés se fleurissent Dans votre pays, là-bas Aux senteurs odorantes D'une fleur de mimosa, Que votre hiver se réchauffe Au coin d'une cheminée, Que les saisons vous soient douces. Vous avez tant mérité.

Rémusat (Barbara)

City Life

Hello everyone,I fell in love with a book two weeks ago. It is called "Still life photography" by Kevin Best. I read it on my kindle and when I finished it, the first thing I did was to write an e-mail to Kevin, asking me if I could interview him for my blog and he said yes straight away. I am so excited - it will be my first interview ever! In the meantime, here are a couple of shots of a modern interpretation of a still life called "City Life" in which I tried to apply the advice from Kevin. I hope you will like them! You can see more pictures of the shooting on madame love's Facebook Page.

Talk to you soon.

xxx

Elodie

My fake christmas tree

Hello everyone, This year my family are coming to Hamburg to celebrate Christmas and we are going to buy a proper Christmas tree on 24th December. In the meantime, I made myself my own fake Christmas tree, with some white branches and home-made ornaments.I used some German polymer clay called Fimo, with some organza ribbons. To personalise them, I used a Love stamp from the German designer bastisRIKE and the letters are from Muji. I decided to have a Christmas decoration all in black & white this year. It's very much like Coco Chanel!

Next week I am on holiday and I am so looking forward to it! I will take some time to prepare the celebration with my family and spend more time on the blog, working on future projects for 2013. So there you go, here are a couple of pictures of my fake, temporary Christmas tree. You can see more photos on my Facebook page. Next week I will be doing some more ornaments, but this time in black.

What about you? Which colours are you using for your christmas decoration? Have you got a proper tree?

Speak to to you soon. xxx Elodie

a christmassy still life

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely week-end. We had dreadful weather in Hamburg today - we had a lot of snow and it has been raining on the snow, so it's all slushy now. Whatever! It is a good opportunity to finish my small Christmas decoration at home. This year I decided to use my little home-made table (made out of an old bathroom mirror) to display a little christmassy, wintery landscape and I am pretty happy about the result. I love the fact that the table reflects the scene, especially when the lantern is lit up.

I wish you a fantastic week. Only 15 days to go till Christmas! xxx Elodie

• The centre of this still life is a metallic candle holder in the shape of an old Dutch house that I bought in one of my favorite flower shops: Blumenküche.
• On the left, I made a little star bouquet using old bottles from the lovely interior shop Lieblingszimmer.
• The stars are hand-made glitter stars from the shop Nordlys and the paper ornament is from House Doctor. Around the neck of the bottle is an home-made star I made using the German polymer clay called Fimo. I stamped my name on it, with a lovely stamp from the German designer bastisRIKE.
• The plastic animal under the cloche is from a local toy store and I love the contrast with the big porcelain mushroom.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the still life.

Blue still life

Hello everyone,
I just finished reading a very interesting book about still life photography. I will talk soon in details about this book and its author who agreed today to do an interview with me for the blog.  I am so excited!
Today, I would like to show you the first results of what I have learned in this book. I first decided to try with  flower photography, with some still life elements in the picture.
I am so looking forward to your feedback!
Have a nice week-end!
xxx
Elodie

Emery & Cie - incredible decoration store in Belgium

Hello everyone,I have been wanting to post this for a little while. When I was in Antwerp in October, I discovered as I was walking in the city centre, the beautiful showroom of Emery & Cie. This is the decoration shop of the great Belgian architect Agnes Emery. You can find some incredible Moroccan inspired tiles, some fabulous lighting, tableware, paint and wallpaper. I was very lucky to be able to take pictures in this enchanting showroom. If I had to renovate a bath or a kitchen, I know where I would by my tiles. I am completely in love with the cement tiles. Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea of this very atmospheric shop:

Website: Emery & Cie Shop in Antwerp: Reynders Straat, 202000 Antwerp Shop in Brussels: 78 Quai des Charbonnages, 1080 Brussels

the Speculoos stars - Post aus meiner Küche

Good morning dear readers, This week I took part for the third time in the German food swapping project, Post aus meiner Küche (mail from my kitchen) initiated by my fellow bloggers Clara, Jeanny and Rike. The theme this time was Christmas, and I must say it was a bit tricky for me. The concept of Post aus meiner Küche is that you cook or bake something in your kitchen, and send it by mail to your randomly picked swapping-partner.

In France, we don't have this tradition of baking small biscuits (Plätzchen) before Christmas, so I hope my wonderful partner in crime, the lovely Sabine from the blog azurweiss will forgive me for having only sent some simple home-made speculoos. I received on Wednesday an incredible delivery from the south of Germany: what was in the box can be seen here. I hope the star-shaped biscuits tasted good. I had the idea of making them after our trip to Belgium in October. They don't really look the same as the ones you find in France and Belgium because you have to use "Vergeoise" which is a very dark brown sugar that you find in the north of France and in Belgium, and it gives the biscuits a very dark golden colour.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Receipe for the Speculoos dough:

for 40 to 50 pieces - preparation : 10 minutes

500g flour 180 g salted butter 300 g brown sugar (Vergoise) 1 egg 1 teaspoon yeast 2 g of salt 8 cl milk 2 soup spoons of speculoos spices

Preparation:

Mix the flour, brown sugar, spices, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the egg and the (not cold) butter cut into small pieces. Mix the ingredients together gently. Start to add, bit by bit, the milk and continue mixing until a consistent dough is formed. Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for at least two hours.

Remove the dough from the fridge and leave for one hour. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Flour the work surface. Use a rolling pin to achieve flat dough around 3-4 mm in height. Cut into shapes using your form of choice. Place on baking paper on a baking tray and place in the preheated oven for around 15 minutes. Ensure that the speculoos are golden before taking out of the oven.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

I wish you a nice Sunday afternoon.

xxx

Elodie

cone pine candle-light holder from the shop Nordlys in Hamburg (I don't remember the brand) wooden candle-light holder - Frau Sieben (soon available in the online shop), black plate - Habitat, little vase from Miss étoile, from the shop Rubios in Hamburg