Danish Red Cross has opened a webshop where you can buy one of a kind vintage clothing, handmade toys and designer gifts. Only for Danes though but great idea for raising money for charity.
The doll called Liv (life) knitted by volunteers buy it online here.
My new kawaii-bear logo
Fun with Polaroid app for iPhone
Sometimes my son does the funniest things like this: he places his stuffed animals in corners, behind doors and like here in our closet, and then he goes hunting with his toy gun…
In 2009 Mette Helena, the owner of the fabulous vintage wallpaper shop Retro Villa, went to England to buy a roll or two of vintage wallpaper for her apartment and came back with 60 rolls instead! She found them in an Indian hardware store where the owner had not been able to sell the old wallpaper. Soon after, Mette Helena returned to England to buy the rest of the vintage wallpaper treasure and sold them through a shop i Denmark. In 2010 she was able to open her very own store in Copenhagen with Scandinavia´s largest selection of original vintage wallpapers. The store is called Retro Villa (Villa is the name of her daughter).
I got to know Mette Helena during an internship at her shop for a short period. I have wanted to write a post about her for a long time but it is difficult to write about someone you know. Mette Helena is very energetic, creative, spontaneous and so much more, and has a way of inspiring people around her to start their own creative projects (for instance my neon lamp DIY project). There is a bit of the author Astrid Lindgrens “Pipi Longstocking” character about her, and there is some”Villa Villa Kulla” – energy in the shop environment as well.
Compositions like these are everywhere in the shop and Mette Helena has a great eye for creating such tableaus and also works as an interior decorator for magazines. She is an artist and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Her creative projects with sowing patchwork blankets and pillows and selling wallpaper began as a hobby to support her studies and has now developed into a business.
Also very cute in person : Mette Helena in her store, wearing a vintage dress.
Painting by Mette Helena called “Watch it happen” from 2006
Painting “Puberty” by Mette Helena from 2008
“Untitled” from 2008 by Mette Helena
See more of her art at Mettehelena.dk.
“Rød grød med fløde” -the first thing you learn to say when visiting Denmark, and to everyone´s amusement. It means red porridge with cream and is a traditional dessert. Here it is, rhubarb porridge with whipped cream, home-made of course at my grandparent´s house. Since blogging has entered my life, some peculiar situations arise when I take pictures for the blog. Like when I arranged the porridge next to the flowers and my grandmother gave me a slightly worried look and I assured her that it is quite normal for my generation to document everything they do on camera.
So I took pictures in their basement of homemade fruit juices, jam, jelly etc. My grandmother Edith still looked worried but a bit amused at this point..
This is what the rhubarb porridge is made from, fresh from the garden.
These toys are from when my mother was a child and my son really loved playing with them, even my old dollhouse was a hit.
Hand embroidered pillows are everywhere in my grandparent´s house, even the toilet has hand crocheted towels for the guests.
My grandmother gave me this pretty vintage flower dress from the 70s. Thank you Edith.
I hope you enjoyed my family story. My grandparents mean so much to me, when I was a child I used to stay with them in the summer and since I am partially brought up abroad, they have been a stable part of my life. They really understand how to value the simple things in life and my cousins and I loved to stay there, play and eat fresh beans, potatoes and strawberries from the garden.
My grandparents are in their 80s and still very active. My grandfather-engineer and inventor- invented the first solar energy storage system for heating in Denmark, during the energy crisis in the 70s, called Sunwell, I am so proud. My grandmother works as a volunteer at a 2nd hand shop. These volunteers care for every garment, and clean and prepare the clothes for sale, and nothing is wasted but all goes to charity. These pretty porcelain teacups are from the shop -and very cheap too.
Graphics for Bloesem Kids Wear Neon by Marjon Hoogervorst
Bloesem (consists of both Bloesem Living and Bloesem Kids) has been a favourite blog of mine for some time and I am happy to find out that they have launched a kids wear jewellery collection.
All the images are from their website.
Photographs by An Van Daele
You can buy them online here. The materials they used are: Swarovski crystals, neon threads of elastic and cotton and for the closing they have used 9.25 sterling silver.
They are definitely on my summer wishlist ♥
Tivoli Copenhagen yesterday…Chinese style window decor.
The Tivoli garden peacock was trying to impress the female bird. He chased her around and posed nicely for the camera. In the background is restaurant Nimb from 1909.
Tadaa
The Pantomime Theatre from 1874 is Tivoli´s oldest building
Pjerrot and Columbine and glittering Harlequinsuits at the Patomime Theatre
Tivoli has its own mailtruck -very cute
The flying trunk ride showing H.C. Andersen´s fairytale Thumbelina
Burlesque style street
Facade from the Central Station side of michelin restaurant Herman Nimb, this facade is designed by architect Matteo Thun in 2006, the original building is from around 1909 ( Tivoli opened in 1843) and the Nimb building has been restorated several times since then.
Poster for electronic music at the Pantomime Theatre every Friday at seven…I love the graphics from the Tivoli drawing studio.
Old Childrens´ book from Disney
Happy Easter! I will be back next week with many -hopefully- sunny pictures from a tiny Danish island called Samsø..
The winner of the Kawaiicph Giveaway is first of all Chisa.congratulations, I will send the star necklace to you as soon as I have your address ^_^ I have chosen this winner because I love stars too and would love to contribute to your star collection. If you take a picture of your collection I will feature it on my blog. I will have more Giveaways again soon..
It was a tie between Chisa and Maria and that is why I have picked you both as winners. To Maria: I feel sorry that you lost your special ring, I will send you the flower ring and hope it brightens up your day. – And great idea with the drawing-giveaway on your blog!
I am so happy to have readers from all around the world, and would like to know from which countries, does anyone know how I can see this on WordPress?
Window decoration at Royal Copenhagen
Couldn´t resist showing these Easter window decorations from Copenhagen to you:
Window decoration Illums Bolighus Copenhagen
These wooden animals are designed by Kay Bojesen and manufactured by Rosendahl . I have written about Kay Bojesen before here.
Window decoration Illums Bolighus Copenhagen
A tribute from Kay Bojesen to the Danish magazine Bo Bedre
The popular wooden animals have been given a new brand identity by the firm Make they also made this 50 year anniversary ad for the Danish interior magazine Bo Bedre.
Fresh shrimps and white wine..
I am not the best cook so I am a big fan of the simple foods, like this: fresh shrimps to peel and dip in sour cream and lemon juice.
Kinder surprise, paper toy
Do you remember those annoying German tv-commercials with the 3 suprises from chocolate Kinder-Eggs? – well my son loves them, and I gave in to buying them and was really surprised. Instead of a tiny plastic thing, the egg revealed an inflatable paper toy! It is so cute, you blow it up and use it as a ball and when it is flat you blow it up again. I love it! Way to go Kinder…
Inflatable paper cat by Kinder
Getting ready for new spring paper projects, paper from Tiger and Søstrene Grene…This post has pictures from the week with rain, sunshine and a birthday..
Making presents…soon I will be launching my new website kawaiicph.dk..
Can never get enough balloons…
My son´s latest DIY project is a cardboard robot.
Spring flowers from my garden.
All this spring rain is a perfect excuse for wearing my favourite raincoat with little red mermaids from Danish Danefae.
Tulips from my garden.
DIY magic..
The Royal Cafe in the heart of Copenhagen is an enchanting place filled with fairytale atmosphere. When you meet this woodcutted sign you already feel that this is a cafe that allows experimental design that mixes old and new.
The interior is very detailed and feels very free and not clean cut and minimalistic like many other cafes you can find i Copenhagen. The cafe describes its style as “Funky Baroque – design confusion and humourous and chic”, wich pretty much sums it up. Arne Jacobsen´s Ant chair produced by Fritz Hansen has been resized for the cafe in a higher cafe-version. Holmegaard Glass have created the chandeliers for the cafe. The ceiling has shiny silver wallpaper with leaves.
You enter the cafe from a typical Danish city-courtyard.
Cut roses in still water outside.
Carefully arranged flowers at the counter top.
The cake is as good as it looks. My son had warm chocolate which of course actually was heated chocolate the food is delicious and made with the same care and attention to details as the interior. The porcelain is, of course, from Royal Copenhagen.
A love seat by the window sill. Many designers have their art on display or for sale in the cafe such as Swedish Kosta Boda.
A miniature kitchen made from recycled material.
Very inspiring mobile decoration with silk ribbons hanging from the ceiling.
The murals show different Danish features like the wooden monkey made in 1951 by Kay Bojesen and floral decorations from Royal Copenhagen porcelain.
This Tripp Trapp childrens chair you find in almost every Danish home, and in the cafe they have one in gold.
More flower murals
I will definitely be back ♥
Vintage wallpaper from Retro Villa
kawaiicph 
