Vill du bajsa?

So here is the deal… the weather here in the summer is more than just rain! I’m so happy that it does, I was starting to worry. But there was much work to be done so I was inside mostly. I did wear shorts though. So on Tuesday I worked by myself all day sewing and sewing away like normal. Camilla and I got coffee and sat at the park for a bit. She got some exciting news while we were there and got extremely happy. Turns out Camilla Wellton will show in New York Fashion Week! How cool is that! Woo! After work, I came home and went grocery shopping, I needed to desperately. I bought a lot of yummy food and made myself a good dinner, while I watched So You Think You Can Dance!

Oh and I almost forgot... I bought candy! Swedish fish, although they have different flavors and colors here, they are still tasty though!

Today the studio was full, David, Diana, Izabelle and I were all working. Camilla assigned them to help me since I have so much to do. So we cut out coats and sewed. We got a lot done with all of us working. And I feel so much better about the work load. We took our lunch up to the spot overlooking the city and sat in the sun, it was so nice.

(Our lunch spot)

It was also great to have other people in the studio. They are all so fun and its just a better environment. We went and took a break later and got slushes and sat in the park, where the girls taught me how to say “do you want to dance” in Swedish, vill du bajsa, which actually means “do you want to poop”… they had a great laugh and now I will never forget how to say do you want to poop. Haha .

(Izabelle, Me, Diana)

To make a good day even better I talked to Camilla about feeling as though the whole collection rested on my shoulders and so I spend 12 hours a day there working, and I feel overwhelmed. And that I wanted more time to enjoy Stockholm. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great experience but I don’t feel like its fair to have me be the only one having to sew and then feeling all the pressure. Anyway she told me at about 5pm that I can go on my full trip!!!!!!!!! J J J J I cant stop smiling I am so happy, and I feel so much better in general now that I talked to her. I was feeling very stressed and guilty but now I feel great. Im so happy. What a wonderful day.

Good? Bad?

Today was beautiful. The weather was amazing!!! I wore shorts for the first time here in Stockholm! It was pretty great... although I had to sit inside all day and sew. Luckily Diana was there with me today, so we worked on cutting out more coats. When lunch time came we took our lunch up to a nice little picnic spot over looking the city. It was lovely outside, we didn't want to go back to the studio but we interns had work to do. We got back to cutting and sewing. Then I had to go to the grocery store to buy some ice cream! I had been craving it for days... days I tell you. It was glorious, although my luck started to change when I realized that the freezer was frozen shut. My ice cream didn't fare so well.

My day took a change when I talked to Camilla and the trip Maggie and I had planned for Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris had to be cut short due to all the work that needs to be done by the 11th for a photo shoot. Camilla said that I could still go but that I could only go for a shortened amount of time. At first I was really upset because I feel like I have worked really hard so far, 12 hour days almost all last week and non stop work almost everyday, barely having time for lunch. But its all an experience as my mom says and Im learning a lot. So I need to just suck it up and be happy I can go at all. Unfortunately the timing is just bad, because of the photoshoot. Diana offered to help me sew so that I could go on the trip. She also helped to cheer me up by playing in a little dress up at the studio...

Midsummer at Skansen!

(Just a warning…there are lots of pictures in this post!)

Today I decided to go to Skansen for their Midsummer Celebration! And it was so great. It turned out to be a beautiful day athough it rained occasionally but only for a few minutes at a time.

(Alexis this one is for you... Swedenborg's summer home)

I walked around and looked at all the houses and fell in love with all the awesome wood work, and patterned wall coverings. I’m thinking that the woodwork may be something I try to put in my senior collection.

(One of the many doors that had amazing wood carving. I wont show you them all or you would get super bored)

(I loved these wall paintings)

(I just love this picture)

At 1pm they had a dance around the may pole for Midsummer, we all held hands and did little dances around the pole while a band played Swedish songs. Unfortunately it was raining during this part so it got a little muddy but I can say I officially celebrated Swedish Midsummer! Woo! Go me!

(The may pole... A midsummer tradition)

(Jess, Ali and I have a picture of the 3 of us in this spot when we visited Stockholm before. This is for you guys! I love you and I miss you. Wish you were in this spot with me again)

(A nice little nook, I sat here and wrote postcards)

I walked around some more and saw pretty much all of Skansen and at 4pm they had a folk dance show so I watched that and then left.

I thought that instead of taking the ferry back I would walk back, so I walked all through the city, it look me an hour to walk home but it was sunny and beautiful! On my way home I walked past the Nordiska Musett and their exhibition right now is 300 Years of Fashion, but it closed at 5pm, so I wasn’t able to go today, but I will definitely go back.

Working on a Saturday…

Because I decided to go to this Midsummer party, I needed to go in to work on Saturday. Which was okay because it was rainy today, unlike yesterday which was a beautiful day. Still wouldn’t exactly call it summer weather but it was still nice. So I spent the day in the studio sewing a new coat. It looks really good. I just love the way Camilla designs.

(I had some pictures of the coats but Im not sure Im allowed to show them since they aren't out to the public yet, but we have a photo shoot coming up soon so you can see it all then- thats reminds me, Roy the guy who had the Midsummer party just recently did a photoshoot with Camilla, small world)

The fabrics are pretty thick which makes them a little difficult to work with, especially the collar of the coat I sewed today, which had 3 pieces, each with 2 layers of fabrics, 2 layers of interfacing and all overlapping. I also had to finish off the first coat, with just a little hand sewing. Almost done with 2 coats. Woo! Now I sit here typing this after coming home and finding Sex and the City movie on tv and painting my nails bright pink. And I am ready for bed. Turns out not going to bed until 5am and waking up at 10am and then working all day makes you kinda tired.

(I live in Sweden!!!!!!! This picture is just because I got really excited that Im living here for the summer on my way home from work and wanted to take a picture :) )

Good night everyone!

Midsummer!!!!

So here in Sweden they celebrate Midsummer, which I believe is the summer soltice. It is the only remaining Pagen holiday celebrated in Sweden. It traditional involves eating a lot, drinking a lot and dancing around a may pole. I got invited by Chris to his friends Midsummer Party. The party started at 2 pm with a lot of food. We sat around and ate, it seemed like never ending amounts of food. Including sill (I think that’s the name, its made with herring and there are many different types, I tried a mustard based one… it was not very good), fresh potatoes, Swedish meatballs, sausages, deviled eggs, salad.

(The first of many many courses)

Apparently this is what you do, just sit around and eat for a long time. And every 15 minutes randomly break into song about Midsummer, something about the moon being full, and full in Swedish means drunk, so then you sing the song and all drink to the sun/ moon gods or something of that nature. We ate for a few hours, then went to play Frisbee in the park, then came back and ate desert.

(Jennifer made a beautiful Midsummer flower crown, and Elin is just trying to look as cool as Jennifer)

(Then I stole it because I wanted to look Midsummer-y)

The rest of the night was just a party. I talked politics, fashion, photography, listened and danced to American music mixed with a few Swedish songs, ate some yummy quiche, watched a hilarious commercial made by IKEA about midsummer. It was a lot of fun. Everyone at the party was so nice, and really included me. It was so nice to spend the holiday with Swedes. J It was a great time. The party went on late into the night.

(The only 2 dancing at the time, doing the macarena)

(This picture is mostly just to show how awesome Roy's apartment is, although the picture is a little dark)

On my way home, there were 2 fights on my subway. Girls who had been drinking too much and were punching each other, police had to get on our train and we had to sit on the train stopped for 20 minutes or so. Here in Stockholm, its so so safe. I think mostly because it stays light here forever, but since Midsummer is the biggest drinking holiday here in Sweden I guess it gets crazy! Ha ha. Needless to say it was a great night but after a day of partying I was ready to get to bed!

Whats been happenin...

So its been a few days since I’ve written in my blog and its been a busy few days but not with anything too interesting. Ha ha. Mostly just with internship stuff. J So where did I leave off.

I guess I’ll start with Monday. I worked on the sponsor kit on Sunday and had come up with 2 versions and was feeling pretty good about the work I had done. When I met with the 2 other interns, Diana and Izabelle they loved it as well, so we fixed a few things and decided to meet with Camilla early to have her approve it so they could start looking for sponsors for the show. Things with Camilla did not go so well, she thought it was too artsy basically and wanted it more business like. Which involved me changing the whole thing, she had a lot of things she wanted me to change and she wanted me to research other sponsor kits and model ours after theirs. Basically I had to start from scratch, so I spent the whole evening working on fixing it and sent it to her, she said she liked it.

Then on Tuesday morning she called me to meet her at a coffee shop where she told me to change pretty much everything once again. So my whole Tuesday was spent fixing all the little things she wanted different. I hung out in the studio with Diana and Izabelle while working, so that was fun, but they were waiting for the sponsor kit to be done before they could do any work, so all work was kind of at a standstill. Anyway it took me until 5 or so to finish the sponsor kit perfectly. It was a lot of work, and kind of frustrating to spend so much time on the little details. But it as Florian pointed out to me, it was good experience. It was an exercise in patience and really listening to what Camilla wanted and doing it with a smile on my face. I hope I had a smile on my face. After the sponsor kit was done, I still needed to cut out the first jacket. I wanted to cut it out before I left for the night. But that evening I was meeting 2 people from Couch Surfing for dinner/ coffee. We met at the subway station near my place and walked around for a while, and it started to rain once again, for some reason meeting people from couch surfing and rain are synonymous. Ha ha. We went to a coffee place and got some coffee and I got a quiche. It was nice, one of them was a girl from France studying medicine here for the summer, another a guy who studied in Sweden and now lives here and works. After talking for a while I went back home and went to bed.

(This is the studio)

Wednesday was a long long day. I went into the studio at 9am to finish cutting and sew the coat, trying to sew a whole coat in a day= nearly impossible. I spent nearly all day alone in the studio sewing, I kept thinking I was close but it ended up taking such a long time.

(What I was working on)

Ellen, another designer, who we are sharing her studio with, came around 5pm and we working side by side for a while, at around 8:30pm, I poked myself with a pin and started bleeding and got blood on the jacket!!! Ellen was like that’s a sign that you need to go home, after almost 12 hours in the studio I went home, still not done with coat, but very close only had to sew the zipper in. When I got home at 9pm Florian told me it was laundry day, apparently we have to sign up for a time to do laundry. Odd. He showed me how to use the laundry machine and then I watched The King’s Speech before going to bed to relax after my long day.

(My apartment building-- ps this picture was taken at 9pm-- it stays light here almost all night)

(This is the little board where you sign up for a laundry time-- funny right?)

Today, Thursday I got up and it as raining like crazy. I really should have brought an umbrella it seems. I walked to work and I got so wet that taking a shower that morning seemed pointless. Ha ha.

(The little kids from the day care walking in front of me, they just looked so cute I had to take a picture of them, I wish I had one of those rain outfits)

I went to go sew the zipper into the coat, and Camilla looked it what I had done so far and wanted a lot changed, which basically meant me ripping out a bunch of seams and redoing a lot of what I had already done. The changes ended up taking me all day. Earlier in the day Chris had text me and told me that if I wanted to drink anything at the Midsummer party I should go to the liquor store early because Sweden is weird about their alcohol sales. Apparently there is a monopoly on alcohol, so there is only one store that can sell it, and it has pretty odd hours. Since Midsummer is a national holiday it is closed tomorrow. Anyway I decided to go check it out since I needed a break anyway, the line was crazy! I couldn’t believe it! There was a security guard who had to let everyone in, one by one. I wish I had my camera so there was a picture of this craziness, inside there were 3 lines that took up basically the whole store. It was such an interesting experience. After that I went back to the studio to finish the coat, and start cutting the next one. I finished that around 9pm, again. Ha ha.

(Final touch on the coat!)

Anyway that’s how my life has been for the past few days, it’s been long, and stressful but who ever said internships were easy. J

Söndag

More rain! I woke up and got dressed thinking it would only rain lightly and that I wouldn’t need a rain jacket. My plan for the day was to meet up with two people I met from the couch surfing website and walk around Stockholm and explore. We met up at 10 am and it was raining quite hard. But we decided to venture out anyway.

We walked around for 3 hours in the rain, saw really nice views of Stockholm, learned where the main shopping streets are, went to the City Hall but didn’t go in.

By this point we were so wet that our clothes we soaked through.

(Here you can see how wet I was! Soaking)

So we went to Maxs, kind of like a Swedish McDonalds, but it actually tastes good. I liked it. I didn’t get very dry though. By this time it was 1pm and I was so cold that I needed to go home and change. I also had work I needed to do for Camilla. I got home, but on some dry clothes, made myself some tea, and started to work on putting together the sponsor kit for the marketing interns to take with them when they talk to people about giving us food, beverage and shoes for the fashion show. I made 2 versions, one that was similar to other books she had made, and one that was a little more interesting. I meet with the other interns tomorrow to go over it and make sure its what we want, and then we will present it to Camilla at 5pm. I also worked on writing a script for the girls for when they call people to ask about sponsorship, but they will have to adapt it to what they want. Now I am making Swedish meatballs and rice for dinner! Later I may go over to Chris, Jenifer’s brothers apartment to meet him and hang out. We will see. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Oh and I almost forgot! Happy Fathers Day to the best dad in the world! I miss you so much! I hope you have a great fathers day!

I love you!

Lördag!! (That means saturday in Swedish!)

First weekend here and I had to go in to work. Apparently one of the girls who was going to be working with us, was also a designer, and she just got a job styling for a reality tv show, so she will not have time to help Camilla. So Camilla wanted me to come in to discuss what we would be doing for the summer. I had to go in to the studio around 3 which gave me some time to just explore in the morning. I walked to the water front and found a nice place to sit and draw. I drew for an hour or so and it was so peaceful.

(My quick little sketch)

(This coffee shop on the right side of the picture had little tables that fit over the steps so that their seating could be all up and down the steps outside. It was funny).

Then I went for a little bit more of a walk. I then went to the studio. We moved some patterns and fabric to another studio space so that I can cut and sew while she does some more designing. She wants to have the samples for the fall collection done in 2 weeks, and there are 7 more coats to make. So that will be my job along with helping to create the sponsor kit for the fashion show. Afterwards I decided to continue my walk to Langholmen, an island used mostly for camping, with a large park in it.

It was about a 30 minute walk but it was so worth it. I walked to the top of the island and sat on rocks with a stunning view of Stockholm city! There were people laying in the sun all over, and I drew some more and just relaxed in the sun.

I walked home, and attempted to rent a movie from the movie rental store near my apartment. But apparently you need to be a Swedish citizen to do that, which made sad.

Good night!

Internship with Camilla Wellton: Day 1

Today I woke up to rain! No fun at all. I was hoping for it to be a nice sunny day. Needless to say I didn’t really want to be outside today. So all I did was hang around the apartment in the morning, and around noon I went to find an art supply store to buy a sketchbook. I found one and it was right next to a smoothie place so I bought one of those as well. Then I walked to Camilla’s office, which is really close, like 10 minutes away. We had a group meeting; turns out there will be about 7 of us working together. 5 of us were there for this meeting; two others are on their way here from London. We will be working on putting on a fashion show for Stockholm fashion week, as well as finishing up the clothes that will be shown, which is spring 2011, and working on fall 2011 which will be going to stores. For the next week or so I will be working on sewing up some samples for the fall collection, while Camilla continues to design. I will also be helping 2 other girls, Diana and Izabel to make a sponsor kit for them to hand out when they start looking for sponsors for food, drink and shoes for the fashion show. After the meeting we went to look at where the show will be held on August 12^th. It seems as though there is a lot of work, but also seems very exciting! We will see how it all goes. The company seems to really be expanding and growing so it’s a great time to be working there. Camilla also gave me one of her old phones and a SIM card, so all I needed to do was go put money on the phone. So far I only have like 6 numbers on it, but it’s a start. At around 7pm I left to go meet Elin and Sofia, they went to Arkansas State with Lyndsey and are from Stockholm.

Anyway I had to ride the subway for the first time in Stockholm! The man at the counter was pretty confusing and sent me to a machine that only spoke Swedish, which was not very helpful. But I somehow managed to buy the right ticket and all was well. Once I got off the train that was another story. I had written down directions to the restaurant but I got up to street level and had no idea where I was. I called Sofia and we had no idea where I was, so I started walking, asked for directions, she pointed me in the wrong direction, turns out I was right the whole time. We ate at a place called Rice, with one of her American friends who was in town playing soccer for the summer but is leaving to go home on Sunday. It was a lot of fun; the group sitting next to us was actually a school group from KU, what a small world! Felt nice to laugh and sit and eat with friends here in Stockholm! Then they helped me get the right pass for the subway and we went our separate ways. I went to meet Jennifer and a few of her friends back in Sodermalm, we hung out at Frida’s apartment for a bit and then went to a club to go dancing! I had a great time, and all the girls were so sweet. I wasn’t wearing the right thing to be dancing all night though, since I had dressed for the cold rainy day and hadn’t changed to go out that night. Good night blog!

Steph

First day in my new home!

So I woke up in Stockholm in my new bed to the sun shining, as it always seems to be. When I went to bed it was still light out as well. Good thing I can sleep in the light. I woke up, made myself some tea, ate some breakfast, got dressed in my long pants, and sweater, odd to be putting that stuff on in the summer, but its cold here. And all the Swedes think its warm… they should come to Georgia. I met Jenifer at the subway and we walked around Old Town and in to downtown Stockholm.

(Here I am! In Stockholm!)

I bought some other stuff I needed and she told me a lot about Sweden and things to do while I am here. Then we got some lunch, and since she had woken up with a fever she went home and I figured I should enjoy the rest of my day. So I went back to the Old Town part of Stockholm and bought a ticket for the Royal Palace.

There was so much to see and stupidly I had worn new shoes to try to break them in. I now have blisters on my heels and my toes. Not so good. But anyway I went into the palace to the royal apartments and just my luck a guided tour in English was leaving in 20 minutes so I just waited for that. Oh man is the palace amazing. I had totally forgotten what it looked like since I had last been here. The palace was modeled after Versailles and the history of it was so interesting.

The tour guide talked about how the rooms we were looking at were just for show and there were other less decadent rooms behind these rooms where the king and queen actually lived, such as the bedroom. The king would sleep in another room then move into the “show” room and lay in bed for a few minutes until people came in to help him with the dressing ceremony. Each of the rooms was a different color, which was quite beautiful but my favorite part by far were these panels near the inset windows that had silhouettes on them, of a woman and child, they were black and gold and I enjoyed looking at them all, they added a quirky element.

(Hard to see, but those are the pannels I was talking about, they are fun aren't they?)

I also loved the floors, which were often like wooden puzzles, which lead to a unique design.

(A fun example of repeat pattern on the ceiling, the crowns are the symbols of Sweden)

( A really random modern room in the palace, a gift to the royal family)

After looking through the Royal Apartments, Guest Apartments and a few other rooms in the palace, I went down to the treasury where I got to see all the breathtakingly jeweled and intractably decorated crowns of Sweden. I wish I had been able to take pictures there, there was one crown that when you looked close at it had very small sculptures of people and animals on it. Really stunning. My feet hurt by this point so I found a nearby sculpture with steps that I sat on and just watched and looked at Stockholm and thought my new home and all that I will see and learn from this experience. My blisters prevented me from doing much else but I still decided to take the long way home, to walk down the main street of Sodermalm, and I’m happy I did because I saw a band from Berlin that just happened to be playing in the street and had gathered a crowd. They were called Old Fish Jazz Band, they all played different brass instruments and sang and were overall a lot of fun to watch, I stayed there for a while and then decided I should probably try to find my way back to my apartment.

(Old Fish Jazz Band, the guy in the hat behind them is just a random guy from the street who had a trumpet with him and they asked him to join them)

It was surprisingly easy to find, and along the way there was a bookstore where I picked up a Swedish/ English dictionary. Tomorrow I think I will try to pick up a book on learning to speak Swedish, just to try. We will see how that goes. I spent the rest of the night in my apartment, watching a movie with Florian, talking and catching up on email and blogs. J I start my internship tomorrow! Woo!