We escaped to the mountains for the weekend. It's our wedding anniversary, and it's become quite the tradition for us to come up here for a weekend in august. We love the fresh air and the pine trees: they remind us of Sweden.
We're renting an airbnb with an amazing view of rocks and boulders that we decided we should climb. So yesterday we made sandwiches (rice cakes for me since I'm on the world's most boring diet due to stomach issues where nothing tasty is allowed (I'm exaggerating) and gluten free bread tastes like dusty crap (I'm not exaggerating)) poured some wine into a plastic bottle, packed a blanket, and then we walked and climbed and slid our way to the other side of the ravine.
There we ate our sandwiches in front of the beautiful view while the sun set behind the forest. It was quite magical.
Wanna see?

Don't drop the sandwiches, David!

David told me something interesting that I've forgotten about now.

The moment a bat flew by in that wobbly, kinda cute, way.

When we walked back across the ravine it was colored in pink.

A successful Dinner with a View!

/Lotta

Hej!
Remember back in May when I showed you our Slow Interior Decorating? It was fun, right?!
We are still not finished with this place, and I continue to document everything because it's just so exciting to decorate a place completely from scratch and see it evolve.

Anywhooo. This is today. Let's back up until June, shall we?

We didn't yet have a lot of furniture so I filled the place with fresh tulips instead.

And made pretty still life arrangements here and there.

The living room was empty except for this old stool and a couple of plants and trinkets. My plan was (and still is) to turn this room into a jungle. Here we were just getting started.

Found a pedestal for the Monstera at one of LA's flea markets.

Eucalyptus and tulips everywhere.

Even the kitchen got some flower action.

And then we found an old dentist cabinet at a flea market. I scrubbed it clean (it was beyond dirty) and placed it here for the time being. I thought I would move it later but when the rest of the furniture found their spots it felt like it was perfect where it was. It just needed a few friends around before it could feel completely at home. Aww.

We were still rocking the cardboard box table in search for the perfect bench. It had to be taller than regular benches for the plants to reach the window. And it had to be long. Those are not the easiest requirements...

It could still be really beautiful though. Cardboard box and all.

I was using the empty spaces for yoga and dancing freely without risking bumping into furniture corners. I am the master of that, by the way. Every damn table corner will meet my hip and give it bruises. That's just the way I am.

I went to a lot of estate sales this spring. One time I bought a bunch of scarfs that looked pretty hanging to dry in our bathroom.

Tired of tulip photos yet?

I'M NOT!

Watermelon Peperomia says "I'll carry you, my dear Tulip Petal".

A friend of ours sent us a text message one day. "Do you want this old hall tree?"
YES PLEASE! She bought it a few years ago when Warner Bros sold out a whole bunch of stuff from their prop house and now she didn't have any place for it anymore. Isn't it cool?! It has a space for umbrellas but since it almost never rains in LA we just store our shoes in there.

And then! Then we found our bench! Well, we had it made. One of the sellers at a flea market we go to makes tables and benches using re-purposed wood and pipes, so we asked them if they could make one that fit our space perfectly. And they did! Look how happy my plants are!

We also found the three little mid century side tables at an estate sale.

And we bought a coffee table! That we kinda regret buying because everything just falls between the slots.

Kitchen window still life.

And then BAM! Everything happened all at once it seems!

This was a fun time. Boxes upon boxes upon boxes.

A pretty Japanese vase that I found at an estate sale.

The living room started to look like a real room. Like a home. We bought a huge Palm tree that lives in the corner, as you can see.
Try to ignore the cords. I know it's hard. But try.

We bought a vintage school chart that I've been drooling after for years, and it makes me so happy. Chestnut trees are a favorite of mine.

Look! A flowers that isn't a tulip!

Over the faux fireplace we wanted something big. So we ordered this one from my Society6 shop. It's a photo I took somewhere between LA and Santa Cruz mountains when David and I were here in November 2014. We were on our way to visit some friends, but had to stop because David had a conference call with what would end up being the producers of Lights Out. We found a random side road in the middle of nowhere where we could park, and then I wandered around taking photos for an hour. So this picture feels like the start of this entire Hollywood adventure we're on.
Also: It's pretty. And the colors are perfect for our living room.

This window is a constant source for photos.

Table Jungle!

This lamp. This. Lamp.
I LOVE this lamp.
We had seen a few like it on flea markets but they were always crazy expensive. Like 450 dollars expensive. And then I found this at an estate sale. I was a little bit scared to ask for the price but I figured I couldn't leave without asking. He said 85 dollar. 85!!!! I was standing there staring at it trying to decide on the best way to get it onto an uber without damaging it, when the man seemed to think I thought it was expensive. So he said 65. 65!!!! I would have bought it for 85 but OKAY! 65 it is!
I love it so much and it adds just the right amount of strange to the room. You need something strange to make a place interesting. Remember that.

Oh, and we got an area rug too. It's called Celery. I like food names on non food items.

And this is today. A bit messy but still perfect. The cat balloon was a birthday gift to me from David. It meows the Happy Birthday song.

So that was all from this episode of Slow Interior Decorating with Lotta and David.
We still have the bedroom and hallway to finish so I'm sure there will be more blog posts like this one.
Hope you liked the tour!

/Lotta

Hej!
Okay, are you ready? Let's get this blog post rolling!

I love cemeteries. LOVE them.
In Gothenburg we lived right next to a huge old cemetery that I used to visit a few times every week; to run, go for a walk, make a shortcut through it on my way somewhere. We even filmed a few scenes for a movie there (didn't turn into something though). Cemeteries are moody and dramatic, and they contain SO many aspects of life. Yes, death too, but to me it's more about life. All the people that were once living and breathing, all their friends and family visiting them and remembering them alive. All the beautiful gravestones that were made by amazing artists (that might even be buried on that very cemetery by now). All the people keeping the graves in shape for people alive to see.
There's so much life in a place for death!
Anyways, when we found out that we were going to Savannah the first thing I did was to google if there were any cool cemeteries there that we could visit. I found the Bonaventure Cemetery and it looked AWESOME on the photos.
On Sunday we took an Uber there, armed with my camera and the tripod for my iphone. I was imagining all the spooky photos and self portraits I was going to take.
And then when we got there it was closed.

But, "how did you get these photos then?" you might ask.
Weeellllll....
Two girls were standing outside the fence looking equally disappointed about the Closed Signs that we were. They said it was closed because of the fallen trees and mess after Hurricane Matthew. They also said that they had seen the guard sleeping in her car at the front. And that they had seen some people sneaking inside.
David was looking around and all of a sudden he was inside. He had found a hole in the fence. "Just a little peek?"
Okay.
So we went in there, and quite a few people followed.
It was so beautiful! And because it was closed it was quiet and calm and even more of an adventure!

We could see the remnants of Hurricane Matthew everywhere. It made the place so spooky.

We walked around looking at all the names on the grave stones.

Some were big and intricate.

Some were just plain sad.

Some were funny. Lang and Lange sounds like an awesome detective business.

A little family cluster.

And then we saw this monument from afar and it was like my heart started pitter patter super fast.

The trees, the light, the structures, the hanging moss, EVERYTHING!

I took a bunch of self portraits here. You can see all of them on my instagram, but here's the one I took at this exact spot.

Let's just walk around in silence for a bit, shall we?

This environment reminded me of a forgotten land, like Atlantis, or a level in a Sonic the Hedgehog game.

It seems like we're never getting away from Hollywood.

And then we found my name on it...

And here's little Gracie. Alone in a fenced in garden. That made me the most sad. She died so early and then they put her here, locked inside, like she was doomed to be forever lonely, parted from the rest of the world. I don't even believe in any afterlife, but it still seems sad to me.

Only 6 years old.

And here's Ida. Born in Sweden.

Such rich jewel tones everywhere. I was walking around there with constant heart eyes.

Gray and David.

Then we met the two girls from earlier. They said they had seen the guard driving by, and that she had thrown out a couple of people, but they hadn't been seen yet.
We thanked them for the heads up and made our way quickly to the hole in the fence. We did not want to get caught in there!
Hearts beating, eyes scanning everywhere, ears listening for sounds of a car.
We got out. And then, just a breath later, we saw the guard and a police car driving by inside the cemetery at the exact place we were walking just moments earlier.
We sent a thought of Thank You to the two girls for warning us, but then we realized: they were still in there. We wished we could have warned them somehow but there was no way.

We were walking down the road ten minutes later when the girls drove by us. They looked solemn. We waved.

And that was that adventure. It was fantastic! I wish we could have stayed in there forever. Maybe some day we can go back, and walk in the front entrance like normal people. But I would not change this day in any way, because it really was the most beautiful experience.

But wait! We're not done yet!
Sunday evening we had the panel after Lights Out screened and it went great. The audience was lovely and we met so many wonderful people afterwards. Every time we do something like this we want it to go on for longer. When they say "we have time for one more question from the audience" it makes both of us think "Oh no! We want more questions!" Haha. It's just so much fun.
I didn't bring my camera for that, but on Monday morning it was back around my neck for the hours before we had to leave for the airport. Let's take a look at that.

We were on our way to eat breakfast. Walked through the square with the guy and his umbrella (yeah, yeah, it's a flag. But it would be cuter if it was an umbrella, right?)

And here we were! At the Gryphon Tea Room!

So. Incredibly. Beautiful.

We ordered the Afternoon Tea even if it was not afternoon yet.

And fancy lemonade! Look how happy I was!

The bill came in an old book. This place used to be an apothecary back in the day. And then it was a book store.

And now it's a tea room.

After that delicious breakfast we went to get some coffee. We passed a pumpkin display.

And then we found a bench to sit on for a couple of hours. People watching, talking about everything we've seen and done during the weekend, and imagining what it would be like if we lived in Savannah.

I would love to live there if it weren't for the extremely warm and humid summers. Savannah reminded me of the town Lund in Sweden where I used to live between 2003 and 2007. A cute, small student town, with lots of history and interesting spots.
Yeah, I hope I get to see more of Savannah in the future.

And that was all from our weekend in Savannah, Georgia.

/Lotta

Hej, friends!
This has been a very quiet space lately and I have been thinking that maybe I should blog but, nah, not today, and then time did its thing and now here we are.
Anywhoooo. A while ago, almost two months or so, David and I went to the mountains to relax after shooting Annabelle 2. Plus, we celebrated 3 years as married around that time too so we thought it would be a perfect reason to just go away for a few days.
The drive there was supposed to take 2 hours but a huge fire started at the same time we left LA so we were stuck in traffic for a loooong time. It took us 6 hours to get there and we were very tired and hungry when we arrived at the cabin.

We were a bit scared though, because we could see the fire clearly from the balcony. What if we came here and had to evacuate in the middle of the night because the fire spread to us? We sat outside, wrapped in blankets, eating sandwiches, watching the flames, and checking all the news sites hoping we were safe.

In the morning the white smoke covered the mountains like cotton. It seemed like the fire weren't coming towards us but it was still going strong. We had breakfast infront of the view and decided to not do anything substantial all day. It was perfect.

I spent most hours of the day looking at the view. I shared a glass of wine with the evening sun.

And then when the sun was setting it became clear that the fire had not gone away.

This mirror was luring me all weekend. I have SO many photos of that mirror.

We went to the mountains last year too, after shooting Lights Out, and it feels like this is going to turn into a tradition. The fresh air and pine trees make us so happy. I think it's because it reminds us about Sweden a little bit.
Anyways, look at this view. Just look at it. And breathe.

So scary. Yet so beautiful.

New day. David called his family and friends and picked bark off of a tree as he was talking. The things you do when you talk on the phone, right? Some people doodle, some strip a tree from its clothing.

I was taking photos of this strip of road surrounded by trees. I took at least four photos a day of this exact view. With my Nikon, with my phone AND with our polaroid. It's just something with the smooth shape and the colors.

David had been extremely busy for more than a month, so he had a lot to talk about with people back home.

One day we went on a mini adventure. I had read about a heart shaped rock that was supposed to be worth seeing. We didn't really care about the rock but thought it would be nice to see at least one of the local sites, get some fresh air and a walk.

David climbed a tree.

I was in Spooky Root Heaven.

I mean. Look at this!

So cool.

Nice of nature to create a step for us humans wanting to hike without killing ourselves.

And there it was! A heart shaped rock!

A couple was climbing around there and I tried to take sneaky photo of them to show the size of the heart. I didn't do a very good job, but you can at least see the top of the heart in the bottom of the photo.

We also found a beautiful glade that looked like it came straight out of Jurassic Park or something.

Right outside our cabin we had this beauty. Love how the roots seem to hold onto the rock like their life depended on it.

To come "home" to this view was something special. The cabin was situated in the tree tops.

We found a bunch of board games one evening and played backgammon. This is David's thinking pose.

New day again! This was our last whole day in the mountains.

That mirror again.

We had one last thing we wanted to during our stay in the mountains, and that was to have a sort of Anniversary Picnic with a view. When we first came to LA last year we didn't have any money so our favorite thing to do was to drive somewhere with a nice view and eat sandwiches. We call it Dinner with a view and it is lovely.
So, this day we packed some sandwiches and drove to a spot we had seen from the car the day before. We hoped we would be able to get to the view without trespassing or something, and we were in luck! We found a cliff that we climbed and right on the edge, on the very top of the rock, we sat down to have our Dinner with a view.

The view was spectacular!

All around us, breathtaking nature.

We had to sit close to not fall down the very steep mountain wall infront of us.

Dangling my feet.

It was so wonderful. And a bit scary, because we were really high up.

Look at this handsome devil!

One more, because Look At Him!

When the sun had set and it was starting to get dark we climbed down from the rock on the mountain and drove back to our cabin in the trees.

And then it was a new day again and we headed back to LA. But first I had to take a photo of some spooky roots.

I know this was a while ago now, but better late than never right?
My computer died (because I happened to get an entire glass of iced coffee in it...) and then the admin page for my blog went bananas, but now! MAYBE! I can get back to blogging once in a while.

Tjingeling!
/Lotta