On sunday David and I drove forty minutes from San José and ended up in a little beach town called Capitola. We were going to meet up with Jillian, a friend of mine who I've met through Etsy. She lives close by and she had told us the day before that she knew a nice breakfast place we needed to visit.

This was the place. Zelda's!

I had coffee. Of sorts.
Also ate some lovely breakfast food but was way too hungry to have the time to photograph it.

The beach view through the window and through the big mirror covering one wall.

After we ate we went for a stroll down the beach.

Surfers were laying low in the glistening water. Not many waves to be seen.

Turned around and walked back towards the town.

I call this one "Little girl with blue bucket and seagull".

I really really REALLY want one of these colourful houses. Any one of them will do. But especially the aqua blue one. Or the peach colured. Or the bright yellow. Or any of them really.

Bay and bridge behind a bridge.
I told Jillian that we don't really have wooden bridges like this in Sweden but since we grow up with american movies we've seen lots of them on films. Kind of weird that we know so much about american culture without ever having experienced it first hand that when we're finally here it's like "Yeah, I know about that restaurant" and "Yes, I've seen this place before. On film."

So pretty! I could definitely see myself living here. Yep.

Cute house!
Another thing that's really different from Sweden is the size of the streets. Even in a small town like Capitola the streets are so much wider than they are in Sweden. To us it sort of looks like a miniature town with tiny toy houses along the large streets. Like the entire place is just a pretty movie set.
Americans should come and see the teeny tiny streets in some villages in Österlen, Skåne. Their big cars wouldn't even be able to squeeze in.

Like sand castles for humans!

We walked under the wooden bridge. Such a cool structure.

Isn't Blue Gum Avenue the best name for a street!?!

We found an antique shop!

It was a lovely shop with millions of things everywhere. The lady who owned the place talked non stop about old customers from all over the world, about the history of different items and the reasons people have for collecting things. She was really nice and she let me take photographs in there because I asked nicely before. Usually she doesn't allow it.

Then we had to walk back to the car and say goodbye to Jillian. It was a really great day and it's so sad that Capitola is such a long way from Sweden because I would have loved to have breakfast with Jillian at Zelda's every sunday.

The other day I couldn't bare to see the mess in my window sill anymore.
As long time readers of this blog are well aware of, I collect pretty things and arrange them into even prettier still life displays in my work room's window sill. It's a hobby, a way to be creative, a drug (yeah, it's basically hoarding, I know).
Lately there haven't been any of the usual lovely well organized clusters of stuff, but a complete disarray of dusty things cluttering the space.
One thing I really love about dusting off and re-organizing my knick knacks is that I get to really look at them, remember where I found/bought/got the items and what they mean to me.

All cleaned and waiting to be re-organized.
See more of the teeny tiny dictionary here.

Dusty but pretty. I bought the brown brooch on Portobello road a year ago.

I found the beautiful pocket watch on a flea market in Nice and for a month it didn't work but then suddenly, on midsummer's eve, it started all by itself!
I wrote about that in this post.

The little brush is actually a Moustache brush in silver. My grandfather gave it to me for fun when I was a little girl. It has the words Minne af E.E (translates to In memory of E.E) engraved on top of it. I think E.E was an old relative of mine but I'm not sure.
Kind of interesting that people used to engrave a brush made to groom your moustache. Today's plastic grooming products just aren't the same...

I made the metal tin in school when I was 13, I think. It's where I put coins from the different countries I visit.

I love old cigarette cases in silver. As I don't smoke I use them as business card cases instead. Or just to look at. Here's a post from when I found these ones
The little aluminium pill tin is another gift from my grandfather. The aluminium creates dots on the pills if you use it for what it's actually for, so I use it for nothing instead. It's pretty, though.

Treasures from South Africa. I love seed pods so so so much!!
And the key is for the desk I'm sitting infront of right now. It keeps falling to the ground all the time so now I have included it in my window sill installation instead.

This is how to use an ashtray. There's no better way really.

And of course it needs to have boobs.

I love that little brooch with the sad and grim looking lady. I found her on a flea market and wrote a bit about her in this post.

I could have written about each and every item here but it would have gone on forever and ever so if there is something you're interested in knowing the story behind, just write in the comments and I will answer there.

And just so you know. I will collect knick knacks for as long as I live and I will most definitely blog about my finds for an equally long time so prepare for more posts like this in the future.

Yesterday evening when the sun was about to set, David and I went for a walk. I had brought my camera with me to take some photos along the way. We were heading towards the cemetery first and then we were going to get something to eat at another part of town.
This is what I saw that captured my eye.

Two naked guys having a fist and stone throwing fight over which one of them could have the sled. We didn't stay to see who won.

When we arrived at the cemetery the sun was setting behind the tombstones.

PEACE.

The sky was all sorts of beautiful and made you want to stretch your arms towards it in joy.

You know that hazy kind of light that comes around that time of the evening, I love that.

Some dead people apparently needed sphinxes guarding them.

Oh my, this is the place for scary movies.

Peekaboo sun behind the church tower.

After this we left the cemetery and went to get some food.

We passed over the bridge and waved to the lion on the fort Skansen Lejonet.

Walked through some not so pretty, but still very interesting, parts of Gothenburg to get to the libanese grill where we picked up our food before we went home again.

The air smelled a lot like spring and I'll keep that in my nose until this winter has passed. Today seems to be all wintery and cold again and if yesterday was all the spring we'll get for a few weeks I still know it's out there waiting. And that's good enough for now.

Today we went to the beach right before sunset to take some photos. I've been longing to see the ocean all wintery and cold. Love how different it looks from summer time.
It really was freezing today and we walked along the beach for quite some time. I was taking lots of photos of the beautiful surroundings and saying things like Ooooh, look! and Aaaah, the colours are amazing!

The rest of the evening will be spent writing stuff, drinking tea and getting warm under some blankets.
Certainly one of my favourite kind of evenings.