january / 2019

kai: a boy, his bass and his cat 

stockholm weekend pics, out and about on södermalm

out and about on another relaxing weekend, strolling around södermalm running errands, making impromptu purchases for myself (sales still going strong), and getting ready for my flight this week to toronto (with a stop over in new york!). oh, i had a huge salad and the best chai latte at lilla caféet på söder. that's it and it was lovely.

stefan and kai, however, got out of the house to skate! i will need to surprise them with skates of their very own so they can just hop onto one of the lakes near us. but really, hellåsgarden is not far and it's one of our favourite spots (take a peek at last weekend here).

lake mälaren, which connects to the baltic sea (pictured here) is frozen over! it's picturesque with city hall and the gamla stan (old town) on one side and södermalm on the other. the lake is a big one so other islands also have the benefit of skating on it (and swimming in it during the summer months). i was surprised to learn, when moving here, that this lake provides most of stockholm's drinking water. isn't that incredible?

my old neighbourhood

i want to take pottery classes here

flowers and pastries

hope you had a lovely weekend too :)

stockholm weekend pics, - 9 degrees at hellasgarden

mid-january settled into quiet days, relaxed weekends puttering about the house, cozy evenings watching netflix.

finally something shifted, we needed to get out. 20 minutes after getting on a bus, we were at hellasgarden with the hope of skating on the lake.

no skating (rentals are pre-ordered now) so we walked and slid around the lake instead. still, much joy walking under the sun and blue sky. who cares that it was -9 degrees out. kai certainly didn't. 

he climbed the hills, ran (carefully) back down them, slid and fell on purpose and there was a game of kicking the ice 'ball' away from each other too.

then, when we were sufficiently cold, we sat in the cafe for an always good meal.

the plan is to return next week, we pre-ordered the skates!

hope you had a lovely sunny weekend too, albeit one that wasn't as cold as ours.

a film: a christmas package!

what a lovely surprise! we received a box of goodies from lovely melanie.

our feet our warm while we drink tea - bengali spice for me, licorice tea for my boys - and we devour the yummy candy cane kisses (so good!) while we watch the last of lord of the rings trilogy. 

it was fun putting together this mini film... thank you mel!

travelogue: antwerp, belgium

while visiting my in-laws over the winter break, stefan and i took a weekend away, just us. so that means i have a smattering of loveliness to share with you about antwerp.

1. maison nationale, in the sint-andries area, is a townhouse with only 8 rooms run by a lovely couple. the rooms are spacious and bright and to die for huge bathrooms. the location is perfectly close to everything. but then, antwerp is a small city with everything reachable by foot.

2. known as a fashion city, there are tons of amazing and interesting fashion shops meir, steenhouwersvest and nationalestraat. of note, wouters & hendrix jewellery store, anine bing, damoy, dries van noten are each a multi brand store... all near the mode museum.

3. interior shopping along kloosterstraat and adjacent streets is incredible; shops are lined up one after the other, vintage and new. i wanted to take everything home with me.

4. visit graanmarkt 13's shop (ceramics, glassware and fashion too) and restaurant... it's a gorgeous spot... cool concrete surfaces, pale ashen walls.

5. the coffee, according to my hubby, is really good. normo is a roaster and cafe that takes its beans seriously.

6. breakfast at cafematic will be exactly what you want; stefan loved that they served a dutch breakfast... bread and cheese. eat at bourla, we had a most lovely dinner here. and the sardines at toneelhuis reminded me of the ones in croatia, perfectly yum! the fries at frites atelier were reeeeeally good; it was dinner one night! i topped mine with belgium mayo while stefan opted for peanut sauce. 

7. stefan was swooning at all the chocolate and biscuit shops (proof in the photos below). we particularly liked maison dandoy.

8. do visit the mode museum. it is home to designers such as dries van noten and dirk bikkembers, who both formed part of the 'antwerp six', redefined fashion back in the 1980s. while we were there, the museum was under renovation but we visited their exhibition 'soft? tactile textures' at the maurice verbaet center.

9. while shopping, get yourself a waffle on the go from the smallest waffle shop. and end your evenings at dogma cocktails, in the old city, with jazz music, worn leather sofas (think a 1920s sitting room) and the friendliest mixologists.

kai was so happy to be left behind with his oma and opa. likely, he did not miss us as much as we missed him ;) despite my longing for kai (is it normal?) i will always say yes to a weekend away with my hubby.