Exploring Stockholm: Textile Arts at Nordiska Museet

I love moving to a new city, exploring and trying to find a way to "fit in" to my new surroundings. Having spent the past 5 years in Gothenburg with only sporadic visits to the capital, the move has really prompted me to explore more of Stockholm than I ever have before. There's so much to see!

Keith's family came up to Stockholm for a visit a few weeks ago, and one of the things we did was visit Nordiska Museet, a great museum housed in this beautiful building:


The museum showcases Swedish cultural artifacts from the 16th century to the present day. And of course, my favorite part of the visit was the textiles gallery. Embroidery, weaving, tatting, beading... I love to look at traditional handicraft, it's so impressive how well these (mostly) everyday objects have held up for centuries!



This is an example of traditional Scandinavian wool embroidery, dated 1791. I love these colors! You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the photos though - the textiles were all housed in glass cases, and of course flash photography was not allowed.


I hope that you can at least get an idea of how colorful and vibrant these pieces are. Real works of art, often using patterns and stitches unique to different regions of Sweden.

Of course, the textiles were not the only thing in the museum. Keith and the others got bored with the textiles after a while and dragged me off to look at this statue of Gustav Vasa, the first king of Sweden.


All in all, this was a great day trip and if you are ever in Stockholm, I'd definitely recommend a visit!


A good time was had by all!

Baby girl power

One of the first things I wanted to show you since I've been back are the neat little onesies I made for a friend's new baby girl. I've never done freezer paper stencils before, but it was so easy and fun! I even printed up some fabric for myself at the same time - that's the flower fabric in the middle of the photo. It has since become a fabric grocery bag.


Both of baby's parents are hard-core feminists, so the choice of stencil wasn't difficult. They went over very well! Here's little Liv modelling her new gear:


How cool is that vintage stroller by the way? Straight from the 70's!

Catching up!

So, really, how do you summarize six months in one post? There has been way too much going on for me to write about it all, but I thought I'd show some snapshots of what I've been up to - enjoy!


I finally managed to finish my thesis, and in June I officially got my MSc in Political Science. I am beyond thrilled! I'll miss all the friends I've made though - some of whom I may never meet again as they will go back to their home countries far away from Sweden. Here is one of the last shots of my graduating class:


Keith also got his MSc (in computer science though) this spring, and one of the lovely things we did to celebrate was attend this graduation ball at a swanky ballroom in Gothenburg.


Yup, that's us. Looking way more grown up (and dressed up) than usual... The next thing we did, only weeks after me finishing my thesis, is pack up our apartment and move from Gothenburg to Stockholm. We managed to find a gorgeous sublet in Gamla Stan, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Stockholm. The building is 18th century - a bit drafty perhaps, but we love it!


So now that we have a new place to decorate and shop for, you may be seeing some more of that on this blog... Can you believe we have lived in the new place for four months and we still have several boxes yet to be unpacked! Our new apartment is much bigger than the last, and we just don't have enough furniture yet!


Anyway, I'm really enjoying Stockholm so far, and hopefully 2012 will be a good year for us with new things to see and do, people to meet and fun to be had!