Hej hej!
I'm home from Scotland! I actually arrived in Sweden on friday but I've been working the entire weekend (one 12 and one 21 hour shift, phew) and came off work yesterday morning so it feels like I went directly from Scotland to work and only came up over the surface somewhere around noon yesterday.
My camera was (of course) filled with photos from my trip so I thought I would show you some of them. I had planned to make one large blog post from my entire trip but earlier today I realised it needed to be two, and thirty minutes ago I decided three is much better. So get ready for the first of three photo filled Scotland posts!

I arrived in Glasgow on late monday afternoon. I went straight to my friend Jennie's studio where she was preparing for her sewing class. Her students dropped in shortly after I did and I spent the time eating cookies, drinking coffee, and taking photos of the amazing house where Jennie's studio is located.

I want a window like this!

Interior detail from Jennie's apartment.
A bit fuzzy, but I just couldn't resist this one. I mean, all the things you need: a blow dryer, hairspray and a bum.

On tuesday we had breakfast at The Brooklyn Café next to where Jennie and her boyfriend lives. Here is Jennie.

And here is Jennie in a gif.

After that we walked to her studio again. Passed three blue doors.
The reason for my trip to Scotland is that Jennie is the one who's going to make my wedding dress. She is so very talented! Since it's not going to be a traditional wedding dress at all I knew Jennie was the girl to do it. She is one busy girl with lots of sewing classes and I was happy to tag along and be a part of her daily life.

No parking.

Scotland was amazingly green. I mean. Yeah. SO green.

Inside Jennie's studio.

Jennie surveying her student's work.

On our way into town we walked past many houses like this one. So pretty.

This is one wobbly fence.

We went to the subway because Jennie told me it's the world's most silly subway system and I needed to see it. It's tiny and goes in a small circle. One train goes one way, the other one goes the other. And everything is in lovely brown and orange colours that only ever existed in the 1970's.

In the evening Jennie had another sewing class across town and I decided to hang out at a café instead. Drank lots of coffee, used the wireless internet, spoke with David on skype and rested my feet.

We met up afterwards and went to the Glad Café and drank cider and planned the rest of my time in Scotland before we went home after a long day.

On Wednesday I had the day to myself. Jennie had a funeral to attend and she equipped me with a map (that she printed from Google maps and taped together in an awesome way).
I was on my way to a place close to Jennie's apartment...

...Pollok Park!
I took most of the photos from my entire trip in this park. It was just lovely.
I walked around for two and a half hours and I will show you all of that tomorrow. Prepare yourself for the most amazing lush green you've ever seen. EVER.
Okay, I won't over hype you but make sure to pop by again tomorrow.
I'm on my way out the door soon for an evening walk/run. More walking than running, but I'm getting there!
See you tomorrow!

Yesterday David and I got to visit a place we've been dying to see for several years now.
The old Papyrus factory in Mölndal, just outside of Gothenburg.
The place has been abandoned for a long time and it's a dream come true for people who are into things like urban exploring.
David is going to make a shortfilm soon and this was the first place that came to our minds when we talked about possible locations for a couple of the film's scenes. We had to have permission to enter the old factory and a man who showed us around, it could be quite dangerous to walk around there alone. I've been dreaming of having a photoshoot with a model and my jewelry there, so I was happy to come along and see the place beforehand.
It was such an amazing adventure!
This is exactly the kind of places I love. It's rugged, rusty, scary and beautiful all at the same time.
We found that it is the perfect spot for both David's shortfilm and my jewelry photoshoot so we will definitely be back there soon.
I took A LOT of photos and it was really hard to cut down the amount of pictures to post here so beware: this is one large blog post.
So, lets have a look then. I hope you get a little bit of the feeling we had walking around this fantastic setting.

Waiting for our guide to arrive.

And we went inside...

The old escalators have been still for many years.

The light was amazing everywhere here!

White fabric was blowing in the wind.
My heart rate was beating all over the place, I was just so excited!

Spooky.

Light seeping in from the outside.
Click on the photo for beautiful wide screen effect.

Looked out the door in the previous picture.

Ha!
I stopped abruptly when I saw this in the corner of my eye.

Hello there, creepy large baby!

Looking through one of the large factory buildings.

The graffiti on the board says Snopp (Penis) which of course is a perfectly reasonable thing to write in an abandoned factory building.

Then we found this large room. It was breathtaking. I mean, yeah. Truly breathtaking.

The large windows and high ceiling made this room so light and beautiful.

Light coming through the ceiling like drapes over the cement.

We came out of the buildings and said goodbye to our guide who told us we were free to walk around on the outside as much as we wanted.
Here is the large cement pool.

I love how the graffiti and the trees turn these grey buildings into something colourful!

"Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink"

This was another really great place. So cool with the two floors, the graffiti and the plants growing everywhere. Yeah, I love this so much!

Skum. Translates to both Weird and Foam. Sometimes swedish really is a weird language (Or a foam language?).

David behind my phone camera.

We walked back to the car with a happy bounce in our steps. Can't wait to return for the real thing.
I love how a place like this can exist in the middle of a city. Apparenly they want to tear it down and build new buildings sometime in the future. I can understand that it's a really unsecure place and the people working in the surrounding buildings must be very tired of people running around unauthorised, and destroying the place even more, but, but, but IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!
Isn't it beautiful!?

Yesterday was such a lovely spring day. David and I walked into town and took the way past blooming cherry and magnolia trees. It felt like ages ago we did that, walked that specific path to town and just strolled around. We had some errands to do but mostly it was just really nice to be out in the lovely weather.

The fort Skansen Lejonet pops up between two bridges.

We took the path through the cemetery Stampen. I love this place all year round but spring time is extra pretty (well, autumn might be equally lovely) because of all the green leaves and blossoming flower trees everywhere.

An oasis in the middle of the city.

The cherry blossoms called our names. I want to just live there, among the branches filled with flowers.

David looks sceptical, but I assure you he was just thinking very hard about a movie idea. That's what he looks like then.

I was not thinking about anything other than living among cherry blossoms.

Swinging my bag adorably.
The skirt is from Thailand where I had it made. It turned out more fancy than I had planned so I don't use it that often but yesterday it was "Fancy skirt weather" so it was perfect. The jacket is several years old, from a stall on Camden market in London, and the bag is one of my favourites, from Frank and Gertrude.
And of course I wore matching socks.

I love cemeteries. They are a more dramatic kind of park. I'm not religious so I have no connection to that part of churchyards but I just really appreciate the calm seriousness of it all. It's pretty at the same time as it's sad because people have loved ones there and they go there to remember, mourn, feel. I think it's beautiful.

A meeting by the bench.

Found a magnolia tree as well. Magnolia is my favourite flower and tree all in one. When I grow up (not gonna happen in a while, probably) I'm going to have AT LEAST five different magnolia trees in my garden. Maybe ten.

Gothenburg!

Trädgårdsföreningen hiding behind the trees.

We went to Antikhallarna to look around in search for a special thing. We found it! Tell you more some time...
They have a café there and it's such a lovely place I'm sure I will be there all the time this spring and summer.

We sat out in the sun and I ate a cake with a tongue on it...
It was a super tasty cardemom cake.

David looking fondly at that thing we found that I wont tell you about...

Hello!

Then we went to buy a new diary for me. I write every evening as you might know (22 years and counting, every single day).

On our way home we walked past this sign. Love how rusty it is and how it, sort of, blends into the brick wall. It says Bicycle parking forbidden.

Close to where we live there's a tiny park in front of an apartment building and for some reason I just really love it. It's sweet, has lots of trees and this, kind of sad looking, playground. Nothing fancy, it's just something nice about it.

And they have a really big cherry tree.
I had to stop for a while. Stop to sniff, to dream, to long for a garden filled with ten, no, FIFTEEN magnolia trees and five cherry trees.

Hey everybody!
As you probably know I really love to buy old photos and postcards and I found some lovely ones in USA when we were there.
Here's three photographs I found in two different vintage/antique shops.
I'm so curious about these people. I wonder who they were and what kind of things they loved, hated, dreamt of.

This couple is very intersting to me. At first I thought it was two boys but I'm not so sure anymore. They look sort of scared and like they don't know what's happening. They probably weren't too used to having their photo taken but it seems to be something more, don't you think?
I don't think they are related because their faces look so different. Maybe they are friends, but the way they link their arms is so unpersonal and stiff it feels like they've been told to stand like that.
I can't stop looking at them. I wish there was a way to know more but on the other hand that's what makes it such a lovely mystery.
They will be living with me now and I'll make up a story for them, little by little until I have their whole life stories clear in my mind.

Look at this beautiful woman! She's so graceful and pretty. She looks a bit asian, don't you think? I love how she's posing with one hand behind her back, looking so serious. Her face is almost doll like.
I think it's interesting that she's wearing glasses as well. I just realised I don't think I've seen many photos of women with glasses from this time period. By the look of the house I'm guessing she was fairly rich and that might explain the glasses.
She makes me want to write a book based only of this photo.

And the last photo. Such a serious couple. On the back of this photo it says GRANGER AND YOUNG Photographers, 84 Owego street, Ithaca, N.Y.
The dress the woman's wearing looks so heavy! And the man looks really angry and like he's about to say something. His lips are slightly parted and he seems to be looking away, unlike the woman who's looking straight into the camera. See how she's pressing her teeth together. So focused and stiff!
The more I look at them I feel like the woman was a really sweet person but I'm not so sure about the man. Maybe he's just confused about something, haha.

The golden light is filling my apartment right now. Soon the light will be so bright I won't be able to see the computer screen unless I turn the blinds.
I have been cleaning and decluttering these last two days. It must be the spring, making me want to clean so badly. It's still a lot to do because it was so long overdue.
It feels really nice to be able to see the rooms again and not just the clutter.
I long for tulips on the kitchen table, open balcony doors (we have two) and the smells and sounds of spring time.
It won't be long now.