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

Hey!
Last weekend David and I were invited to Savannah Film Festival to take part in a panel after a screening of Lights Out. We came to Savannah very late on Friday and stayed until Monday so we had the entire weekend to experience the town. We were both very excited to be there!
I brought my camera and took so many photos of this beautiful place. I kinda fell in love with Savannah and want to live there now...
Anyways! Let's take a look at our Saturday and the start of Sunday, shall we?

Because of the time difference we missed the hotel breakfast due to sleeping. No problem! Savannah had so many awesome breakfast places that we wanted to try out so we set out for one of them, located just a couple minutes walk from the hotel.

Goose Feathers! Here you can see David looking confused as a waiter came and gestured to me that he wanted to take my camera. He wanted to take a photo of us, but David for some reason thought he wanted to steal my camera and asked nicely first.

The photos strangers take with your camera, ey? Out of focus, and the strangest compositions. It's like he couldn't fit anything in the frame. I think it's perfect anyways!
He also told us the story of how he was on his way to live in LA, 20 years ago, but he stopped in Savannah to visit an uncle and then he fell in love with the town and never made it to LA. He still hasn't been there. Love stories like that! And I TOTALLY get him. Savannah is so beautiful!

Hej!

We saw dressed up dogs everywhere, and after maybe the seventh dog in costume walked by us we figured this might be more than a coincidence. A sign informed us that it was "Wagoween" in Savannah and all the shops gave out treats for dressed up dogs. Doggie Halloween!!! SO much awesomeness!

A fireman and a pilot!

An astronaut!

Supergirl and Superman!

And then David met the strangest dog. A pig! You can see his photo here.

I was in Dream House Heaven. I think I said "I want this house" for every other building we walked by.

I mean. This might be my favorite.

Or THIS!! Look at that light!
The weather was just perfect. A bit crisp, but still fairly warm. Fresh air and beautiful slanted sun rays through trees. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

After walking around a couple of hours we went to Leopold´s for ice cream. The girl behind the counter was a fan of ours, and said she and her mother was going to the Lights Out screening on Sunday. It makes us so happy and surprised when people recognize us.

We took our ice-cream and walked to one of Savannah´s 22 squares, and sat down on a bench for some people watching.

With the ice-cream long gone, we continued our exploring of Savannah.

Most magical street crossing I've ever seen.

Spanish moss. Love Spanish moss.

Creates the most moody atmosphere.

Always a fan of rough back alley aesthetics.

Then we found the Forsyth Park.

Very grand.

After this we walked back to our hotel room to rest for an hour or so.

And then evening came! And we had made reservations at a restaurant. So we walked there (oh, how lovely it is to be able to walk places in a town! Stupid LA with all the traffic and crazy distances).

David was handsome.

I had a glass of wine.

After a delicious dinner at B Matthew´s Eatery we took the route down to the river on our way back to the hotel.

We stayed at the beautiful Marshall House.

And then it was a new day! We were on our way to a waffle café that I had read about online.

Love this clump of buildings and angles.

Walked through parks with huge trees above our heads....

Passed many cute houses and streets...

...and picturesque horse carriages.

Before we reached...

The Mirabelle Suites and Cafe.

Such a cute little place!

We both took the Peach Cobbler Waffle. So tasty!

Hej hej!

Husband looking all handsome and cute.

And then we took an Uber to the Bonaventure Cemetery. But that's for another post.
Prepare for photo bonanza.

/Lotta

I don’t drive. So I use Uber every time I need to go somewhere I can’t walk.
If you’re not familiar with Uber it’s like taxi but all the drivers are regular people driving their own car. You send for a car through an app, you can rate the drivers (and they also rate you) and Uber keeps an eye on everything through the app and gps.
Since the drivers aren’t professional chauffeurs working for a company, I end up meeting a whole ray of (more or less) interesting people every week.

The other day I was going to my accent class in West Hollywood and my driver was an older Asian gentleman. I can’t call him anything but Gentleman, because he really was dressed to impress.
He wore a crisp white button up shirt, with a grey pullover vest on top. A white golf cap, and he had white gloves on his hands. Yes. Gloves. Like the ones snobby people in open sports cars wear. One of the fingers on the right hand glove was cut off so he could swipe on his phone that was functioning as a gps, and he had built a cardboard box around the phone so he could see the screen even if the sun was too bright.
The car was immaculately clean, with protective cushions on each seat.
This is clearly a man who takes his job very seriously. Like he’s had dreams of becoming a chauffeur ever since he was a little boy. Every morning he gets up, puts on his working persona, and drives people around town with the utmost pride.
”Good morning, we will be there in approximately 20 minutes.”
And then classical chamber music filled the car that by then had turned from a mediocre compact car into a glistening limousine, and I smiled the entire way there.

This is probably maybe perhaps turning into a series. We'll see. It all depends on the Uber drivers I meet.
If I get many interesting ones I will collect them all!

/Lotta