We have been here for almost three months now and I haven't felt the time pass.
It wasn't until I saw a friend post a picture of a blooming lilac bush on Facebook that I realised it's summer in Sweden now. It's not march or april, it's not even spring; it's summer.

In this town there's no seasons, not really. It's sunny, warm and dry almost every day. My body can feel some changes, the past week was not good for my head, it was sticky in the air and the grey skies lay heavy on my head and shoulders and hurt my eyes with a weird bright light that pierces through even the darkest of sunglasses.
But it's still just a variation of warm and sunny. And it's still summer.
So in my mind, in my body, time hasn't moved since we came here in march when the trees in Sweden had just started to get tiny leaves, and buds ready to burst the moment we left the country.
There's other things creating this strange time and space confusion in me.
I left a lot of things in Sweden and I haven't really replaced them with anything here. I'm not talking about stuff, those kinds of things are easily replaced or forgotten, but things that kept my mind busy and growing. You know- my job, my shop and all the work I did creatively, my friends.
I've been thinking a lot about this while we've been here. David is working long days and I have so many hours to fill. I was prepared, sort of; I knew I would have to keep myself busy until my part of this trip would start for real (because it will). But it's so very hard to create new things from nothing.
This is one thing I feel a purpose in- Writing. Another is Self Portraits. A third is working on evolving my creative work (jewelry, photos; art). But there isn't really any goals to work for, just the ones I'm making up for myself, and those can so easily be changed in a second if I don't feel them anymore. It's a sort of work/vacation vacuum, where nothing is familiar and all your fallbacks are in another country.
I see this part of my life as an experiment in Having nothing to do and What happens when your brain isn't challenged.
It's interesting. And quite frustrating.
And I think I will learn things about myself that I wouldn't otherwise.
So I try my hardest to fill my days and my brain with things in this weird time/space confusion I happen to exist in at the moment.
And I will share what discoveries this experiment leads to, if and when, I find them.


Also: this whole "I'm not going to blog iPhone photos anymore" thing is obviously not working out for me. My camera is way too heavy to carry around on my everyday adventures and my iPhone has proven to be a great companion in all of this, so without repeating everything I do on instagram, there will definitely be iPhone photos on this blog.
I actually have an idea; let's see if it will make me blog more. This post is a first try.

Until next time:
Tjingeling!
/Lotta

A staircase this beautiful shouln't be hidden away in a run-down office building, but I'm kinda happy it is, because that made the discovery of it such a pleasure for me.
Just look at this place. A true inspiration inducer!

I love finding places like this!
I ran up and down the stairs so many times, the sweat was pouring down my face and neck, but that's the way it should be when stumbling upon inspiration. No stopping until absolutely exhausted!

/Lotta

Hi!
As you probably know by now, I like to take self portraits wherever I go. I've stumbled upon a problem here in LA though. I see great spots everywhere but nowhere to put my phone so it won't fall.So yesterday I bought one of those gorillapod tripods for my iPhone and today I went out on Gorillapod Self Portrait Adventures!

It's a learning curve, obviously, to get my entire head into the photo...

Hey! I found a pool!

Super laid back while a UPS guy walks buy and says "how you doin'?" in the perfect Joey (in Friends) way.

Just stretching a little while floating in air...

Bonus picture: Some sort of desert succulent that looks like a beautiful cluster of roses.

Los Angeles has way too many cars and people for my liking. I'm still a little bit self concious while taking self portraits in public, and I want to make sure nobody is around and can snatch my phone while I'm posing for the camera. I'm sure I'll get very good use of this gorillapod in many different environments though!

Have a nice weekend everybody!
And take more self portraits! It's fun!

/Lotta

Hej!
On friday afternoon we left LA right in time for rush hour.
It took us about two hours just to get out of Los Angeles, and we had 6 more hours of driving ahead of us...
We were on our way to the Santa Cruz mountains to visit our friends Jillian and Tijn, and we very much looked forward to that! Traffic be damned!

We arrived at their beautiful mountain house at two in the morning. So extremely tired. We said hi to Jillian and Tijn and then we fell asleep. We had big plans for the day after!

Because on saturday morning we headed to Point Lobos State Reserve!
Jillian had texted me some days prior to tell us about what they had planned for our visit. "I think you will really like it. There is some easy hiking and beautiful rocky beaches with wild cool trees" She sure knows what makes me happy!
The walk to the beach was so beautiful. All green and fairytale looking!

Tijn carried the picnic basket.

Oh, how I love a good old Rotvälta (uprooted tree in Swedish)!

And this was where we were headed.

Aaaaah... *happy sigh*

Steep stairs down to the beach.
The light was absolutely perfect for taking photos so prepare yourself for a lot of them. There are forty photos in this post, I just couldn't slim it down anymore (I had 87 photos after the first sorting out...).

The sky was overcast but the light was still super bright.
Look at that white sand! I love how big the grains of sand were too, easy to swipe off and they looked like crystals. Beautiful!

Jillian was happy!

She had found a pretty feather!

David was posing for the camera like there was no tomorrow, and Tijn had a bright smile on his face. We were all just a happy bunch at the beach!

The picnic basket was unveiled. David is eyeing the content yearningly.

So many wonderful things!

After we had eaten Tijn went to check out the rocks (It's almost difficult to spot him here).
I was eager to go beach combing, searching for treasures.

The kelp bubbles in America are crazy large! This one was the size of a tennis ball.

And this one had tiny fingers and arms reaching up my palm.

We were all looking for treasures. Here David had spotted something that he wanted me to see. Haha, look at him pointing!

Jillian found a large piece of some kind of purple kelp that felt like rubber or latex. So weird and wonderful!

Look at this happy gal with her hands filled with treasures of the sea!

Tijn was building something...

Something large.

A dinosaur nest! Of course!

Look at the dinosaur eggs!

Oh, wow! A baby dinosaur!

We took a lot of photos of the sea.

And all around us, because in every direction there were beautiful scenery.

David and a spooky tree.

Filming the waves. And falling on the butt while doing so.

After a couple of hours we went up the stairs again to see more of this beautiful place.
Look at that house on the hill. And the fog! And the blue water. And the rocks. I'm a little bit in love with this photo.

Caves and rocks everywhere! Oh, and tiny people on the other side.

Hiiii, tiny people!

So. Incredibly. Beautiful.

Tijn dared to go close to the edge.

The colours and light were just magificent that day!

Oh, gosh! Nature at its finest!

We started our hike back to the car. Jillian and Tijn are such cuties!

Then we spotted a whole bunch of seals!
Signs said this was their birthing place. It seemed like people were normally allowed down there but it was closed off now to give the seals some privacy. Awesome to have an entire beach for your seal families and friends when giving birth. A birth party!

And into the forest we went again. Love the moss hanging from the trees, it creates such a moody atmosphere!

When we got back to Jillian and Tijn's house we were all very tired, so we slept for a couple of hours.

And then we went to the docks to go eat at a fish restaurant there. I was very fascinted by this twinkly factory thing and forgot to take photos of the pretty boats. Typical me.

Phil's Fish Market and Eatery. Ate really delicious food and had a wonderful evening.
It was such a great day with our wonderful friends!
I hope we can go back soon again (but leave way before friday afternoon LA rush hour...).

I hope you liked this photo filled post and if you find yourself in the area around Point Lobos State Reserve I definitely recommend a visit there.
I'm sure you've noticed from all these forty photos that I loved it very much.

/Lotta