Hello, hello, hello!
I didn't mean to be away from this blog for this long, I promise!
But we moved, and I got a new computer, and it took forever for me to get all the photos and programs that I needed, and yeeeeeaaaah, time- TIME HAPPENED!
So I thought before we (hopefully) get back to normal, I might update you on what's been going on since I last talked to you. Okay?

The last week we lived in Burbank we took a lot of evening walks, as if to really see the neighborhood so we could remember it better.
And what better way to remember than by taking creepy photos at the back of CVS pharmacy...?

I ordered this awesome t-shirt from Stay Home Club. I have been drooling after it for a couple of years, and now (when I've sort of become an expert on being bored) I thought it would be perfect for me to finally have it!
I knew I wanted to take some cool photos of me in it, so when it came I went out in search of the best spot. I took a million pics that day and probably found every single back alley in the neighborhood. Here's two of my favorites:

I like how badass I look infront of this huge Agave plant. BORING is BEST!

I found that if I stood in the doorway to our tiny house there was great light for selfies!
One day I took some photos that made me look very Film Noir. It really made me want to be in a movie like that.

I walked the back alleys of Burbank a lot and sometimes I photographed my outfits.

And then we moved!
To a super cute little apartment in a house in Hollywood Hills. After two weeks here I still have new things to discover in the neighborhood. It's so beautiful!

Evening light from our deck. (I want that old and abandoned building that looks a little bit like a factory...)

One day I found a hidden staircase that took me to this lovely view.
That's one of the fun things with living here, it's like one of those super detailed paintings where you keep finding new things that you've missed before. If you look quickly you might miss them. Or like in Sonic the hedgehog where there's secret pathways in the hills that you only discover by walking right into it. I really look forward to finding all the hidden spots!

I have been trying to find the good selfie spots. So far this Front gate/Agave area seems to be in the lead.

As I mentioned in this post I love to revel in the feeling of not knowing how things are going to be before they happen. Like when we were to move here and I imagined how my everyday routines would look like when we've lived here for a while. I thought I would hang out in the kitchen a lot because the light is really nice there. But the first two weeks here have been really really hot and the kitchen has been way too warm.
Plus, the wifi doesn't work in there.
But out on the stairs it works fine, and when the shadow covers the area it's the perfect place to sit and drink coffee, look at hummingbirds and work on my computer.
We have a deck, as you can see above me in the photo, and we sit there and eat a lot but during the day it's usually too hot up there.
Maybe when it cools off a little my routines will change, but I really love sitting in the stairs. It feels relaxed and gives me a lot of great creative ideas.

When it was 38 Celsius degrees outside and the only good thing about the heat was that my newly washed bras dried in record time.
I burned my right ass cheek on the hot stairs while taking this photo.
The things you do for art, right?

Some beautiful roots close to where we live. Love me some good and weird roots!

I have been starting to take lessons with a speech coach to reduce my Swedish accent (this photo was taken right after my first lesson). It's been so great!
I hope to feel more relaxed in my English because I've realized it's super hard to act in another language than your own. It feels a little bit like I'm starting all over again. The words aren't feeling like they're mine yet, so I'm working on that.
I'm also starting improv classes today and OMG I'm so excited! It's going to be so wonderful to act like that again. I have been missing it so much.

I made a really great lunch with catfish, fresh ginger, garlic and cilantro among other things. I love creating recipes like this. Especially when they turn out awesome!

The phone reception is beyond crappy where we live now. My phone says No Service most of the time, so when I want to call home to Sweden I have to walk for about fifteen minutes to find some steady reception.
Last week I sat for almost two hours outside a café with a view over the Scientology Celebrity Center and talked to a great friend in Sweden while sipping on an iced chai.
That house is a fancy castle for crazy people.

On friday I met up with three Swedes visiting LA. I took them for a long walk over the steep hills to Griffith Park and the observatory there. It was such a great day and it felt so good to spend a day with Swedish friends!
I "forced" them to be a part of my self timer photos and we pretended to be in a band. I think we look very cool.

Yes, that was all for this time. I have a couple of posts coming up this week and hopefully I will get into a good blogging rhythm again. I've missed it.

Hope you enjoyed this little peek, and talk to you soon!

/Lotta

Hej!
A while back I was using my Google-fu to try to find some interesting and weird places to explore in the Los Angeles area.
One of the places I happened upon was the Murphy Ranch Nazi Camp, described as a World War II-era enigma hidden in a forest outside of Santa Monica.
The pictures and text I could find about the place made me itch to go there as soon as possible. Yesterday I convinced David we needed a sunday adventure at the Murhy Ranch.

On the site Atlas Obscura they describe it like this Now property of Los Angeles City parks, Murphy Ranch was originally developed to be a self-sustaining compound in the 1930s. It was originally purchased in 1933 by Jessie Murphy -- a person never seen nor documented elsewhere. Despite the phantom owner, the property was developed by Winona and Norman Stephens and a German national by the name of Herr Schmidt. The design implemented was an installation of several buildings, fuel tanks, and multiple massive cisterns. The entire complex, according the plans of Herr Schmidt, was to be self-sustaining even if it suffered years of isolation from the outside society. Schmidt's motivations, however, remain the focus of the lore.

Apparently Herr Schmidt wanted to create a Nazi holdout in America, but in 1941 the ranch is said to have been raided by United States Federal Agents that had kept an eye on Herr Schmidt and his work. The place has been abandoned ever since, with the exception of a few years in the 60's and 70's when artists took over the ranch.

The backstory piqued my interest, but what really made me want to go there was the fact that the only way to reach the ranch was by descending a 500 steps concrete staircase straight down the mountainside.
The pictures I found showed a hidden and secret place, and I was so excited to see it for myself!
We arrived at the start of the hike around 5.30 in the afternoon. It's been so hot in Los Angeles lately so we had to wait until it was starting to cool off a bit, but not too late because we didn't want to get stuck out in the wilderness in the dark.

The light was just perfect and I was already happy that we had came there, even if we weren't to find the stairs.
We met a few people going back down the trail who told us to keep going and the stairs would appear quite clearly maybe a mile ahead.

And there it was. In front of the most beautiful mountain view.

After walking down the stairs for a while David asked "Are we going to be doing this forever, Lotta?" The stairs just kept on going.

It felt like we were explorers in a forgotten world!

I even decided it was worth it to go up and down the stairs a little bit extra for some self timer photos. I didn't know what I was in for later, apparently...

Like a fairytale! Or an adventure movie!

And then we reached the end of the stairs and found the goal of our hike!

I like that among all the usual graffitied penises and swear words someone had written Fuck Hitler (can't be seen in the photo though, if you were trying to find it). To keep the vandalism topical, I guess.
We didn't have time to look around any more than this house, because the light was rapidly getting weaker and we needed to head back to the car before dark.
I plan to return soon though, and bring my real camera! The weather will just have to cool off a bit before though, because I want time to explore this amazing location!

After just a few steps we realized just how exhausting the way up would be. I was breathing so heavy and tried to find a good breathing rhythm to keep me going. Sweat was pouring and we kept chanting about the ice-cream we had decided to buy when we finished the hike.

We had to stop and breathe a couple of times.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE STAIRS BEHIND ME! So sweaty and shaky. Our legs started to feel like spaghetti after a while.

When we finally reached the top the sky looked this wonderful! Like a painting!

Speaking of paintings, isn't this mountain side so beautiful?!
I love the texture and colours.

And another one (I have at least ten more photos like these in my phone).

And over there is Santa Monica in evening light.

Such an awesome adventure! I absolutely love to find places like this and I have already started to search for the next location to explore.
Also, I'm sure that the muscle soreness I'm feeling today is going to remind me of this excursion for at least a couple of days.

That was all for today, I hope you liked to tag along on our hike.
Talk to you soon!

/Lotta

Hej hej!

Today Swedish radio station P3 aired an interview with me for their segment about Swedes abroad (Svensken i Världen, Verkligheten i P3). I talked about the amazing journey it has been, and still is, after Lights Out went viral but I also mentioned the not so great experience of having my looks reviewed by men on the internet.
If you know Swedish you can listen to it here.
It was so much fun to be interviewed about this whole experience and I think it went really well.

And let's take a look at some photos from the two days filming my scenes in Lights Out the other week.

I had a trailer to relax in, just like "real stars". And obviously I had to take silly self portraits to show off my new found Diva status.

Looks familiar?

Being pampered between takes by Hair, Makeup and Wardrobe.

I had a blast filming and really hope this is just the beginning for me. I was quite nervous before shooting because this was the first time I acted in English. It's scary to act in another language than your own, but I think it went well.

This week it's been 38 celsius degrees outside, and that is just way too many celsius degrees for me! On friday we're going to Palm Springs over the weekend (because on monday next week we celebrate our two year wedding anniversary!) and it's supposed to be around 42 celsius degrees there. I'm terrified.
I will be staying in the pool the entire weekend, that's for sure!

Talk to you soon, dear friends and readers.

/Lotta

Hej hej!
I'm back!
On tuesday and wednesday last week I was filming my scenes for Lights Out and it was AWESOME! I had so much fun and I loved every second of it. I might show you some pictures in a while, if I can be bothered.
Today though I'm going to share a million photos of sunsets over mountains. Among other things.

When Lights Out was wrapped David and I had the rest of the week off and we were in dire need of some serious relaxation.
So we rented a big cabin in the mountains, at Lake Arrowhead, and spent thursday to sunday there.
And it was heaven.
We both got a cold, because our bodies could relax for the first day in weeks, but it was still the best weekend ever!
We got a glimpse of what our retired lives might look like when we're old and grey. Amazing, is the word.
Let's take a look, shall we?
These are mostly shot with my Nikon D7000 but I'm sneaking some iPhone photos into the mix as well.

When we checked out the cabin we realised the balcony on the middle floor would be our hangout for the entire stay. Because this was the view.
It was about to rain and the clouds and sun we're making weird shapes in the distance.

You see what I mean about Retired life? We will find ourselves a cabin somewhere with a nice view and sit there in our recline chairs for ever. I have no doubt.

An hour later it looked like this. *cue the angel choir*

Houses on the opposite mountain.

And then this. (This is an iPhone photo by the way. Mind blown.)
So soft and fluffy and soooooooft.

Just so beautiful!
(Are you tired of mountain views yet? Sorry, there's more...)

The morning after we both woke up with a cold. David talked with his family and friends back home in Sweden. Infront of the mountains.

Because THIS.

In the afternoon we went out on a tiny adventure to see more of the mountain roads.

And I took some iPhone self portraits.

This was close to a shooting ranch and signs said it was a No Parking zone. But we're rascals...

After a while we got hungry. So we drove to Sky Forest and had sandwiches at the Hungry Bear.
Don't you just love the names? Sky Forest must be the prettiest village name ever.

That's a Hungry Bear.
The guy taking our order asked us if we were "Locals? Veterans? Or just Cool People?" because he wanted to give us a discount. We agreed to the cool people. We also got free cake pops. And the guy had the best eyebrows I've ever seen.

They sure love their Cabin Chic style...

We drove randomly and stopped at a place called the Rim of the World.

The view was spectacular.

Took a Panorama with my iPhone to get all of the view into one photo.

And we were cute, if a bit tired.

Back at the cabin in the trees.

In time for another beautiful sunset.

I went out to catch the golden light with my iPhone and gorillapod.

I had a perfect view of David drawing and the mountain sunset from my seat.

I like the trees on top of the mountain. They look so cute, and almost painted there.

When it got dark we played Jenga.

And then, close to midnight, we went out on the deck and sat in the hot tub under the starlit sky, and it was magical with the sounds of the forest all around us and the clearest stars I've ever seen above us. No photos of that because it was completely dark outside.

On saturday I could really feel my cold. I sat under a blanket reading for a couple of hours (looking white as a sheet in the face).

We did nothing all day and then in the early evening we went to Stone Creek Bistro and ate a great meal as a sort of "End of the weekend away dinner".

When we got back to the house the sunset was coming. This is the view from the top floor/loft. That window wall was so amazing!

I decided to take some self portraits with the Nikon camera for a change. I got a new fixed lens for the camera (This one if you're curious) and I wanted to try it out with the self timer.

This place makes you feel tiny.

Doing some dancing.

And then one with the iPhone, for instagram.

Look at that smokey blue in the distance!

The gas stove was perfect for toasting marshmallows.

Uh Oh!

Then on sunday it was time to leave. I went out to get a photo of one of the HUGE pine cones there. I kinda wanted to bring one with me, but this one was lying in someones garden so I didn't dare to take it. Pineapple sized pine cones! Size 9.5 foot for reference.

Post card view before leaving for LA.

And I'll leave you with this cute as hell photo of David and me on our way to the cabin. The gorillapod is sitting on the car door, if you're wondering.
I love the 70's feel of this photo. And I love that man. So very much.

Hope you liked this glimpse into our weekend away and that you didn't get too tired of all the mountain photos, haha!

Talk to you soon!

/Lotta