2 friends in a double parka

Friday- My day off with Alexis. She was very excited and we had a big day planned. In the morning we had signed up for a morning archipelago tour, we had to be there by 10:30. All was well and good with that until I turned my phone on and had gotten a message from Camilla that we needed to pick up fabric downtown, the problem was that I had to get over to Camilla’s studio to get a sample of it. Alexis wasn’t ready, so I left early and went over to the studio and then met Alexis at the subway with some pastries I picked up at the grocery store. We got on the subway and made it to the boat by 10:15, cutting it pretty close.

(getting our morning tea and coffee)

We spent 3 hours on the boat looking at the beautiful archipelago. It really was amazing. It was so nice to really get out of the city. There were so many trees, and water.

It was all very Swedish looking. There were so many small little islands with only a few houses on them, it all seemed so serene, I now know why everyone has their country houses. After the relaxing boat ride we were ready for some lunch, we walked around looking for a place, we wanted some Swedish meatballs but it proved difficult and we just needed to eat some food. We walked past a place where a guy was eating some meat and potatoes and it looked good. So we went there. After eating we went the fabric store for Camilla. We had a terrible time finding the fabrics, it look forever and then I had 7 meters of fabrics to carry around, instead of carrying it, I decided that we should take it Central Station and put it in a locker while we enjoyed the rest of the day. After dropping it off in the locker we walked around shopping. I bought a skirt that Ive been walking past and wanting for weeks. I haven’t really shopped since Ive been here, so it was really fun. We shopped down the main shopping street for a few hours and then I convinced Alexis that we should go to the Icebar.

She was hesitant but we did it and it was awesome! The best part is that we were the last people in our timeslot to go in and they had run out of the coats, they only had double ones left, so Alexis and I were like a double-headed monster in the Icebar. It made it difficult to maneuver around and to take pictures but it was also very entertaining. I was happy that we went.

But it really made me want to go to the Icehotel. Maybe someday. The Icebar made us want to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful summer weather, so we went to a coffee place near the water and relaxed with our tea and coffee.

(Alexis loves Sweden)

Then we headed home to eat dinner and change before meeting Jennifer, Chris, Elin and Jimmy for the night. We made ourselves pasta, changed and talked about fashion for senior collection, then met them at a rock n roll pool hall.

We played pool for hours. After we had had enough pool we moved to a bar and danced the night away. We got home pretty late, and had to get up pretty early for Alexis to get to the airport, which led to around 3-4 hours of sleep with a full day of work ahead.

Alexis Visit

Monday- Worked all day, till 8pm and Alexis came over at 2pm after hanging out with Jennifer for the summer and she came with me to get a kebab for lunch. Then she stayed and helped me cut out a few tops. She met me at Camilla’s again at 7pm to go to dinner, but we didn’t end up leaving until 8pm. The plan was to hop on a boat to an island in the archipelago for dinner, but when we got to the boat it had just left. So we decided to walk around Gamla Stan for the next hour until the next boat. While walking through the old town, Alexis hears her name called, she turns around and it’s her aunt. Apparently they are here on a Scandinavian adventure for 2 weeks and were supposed to be in Norway now but due to the tragedy there they decided to stay in Stockholm longer. We followed her back to the restaurant they were eating at, all of them, like 12 Asplundh’s, cousins, aunts, and uncles. It was crazy. But also lucky because since Ill be working all week it will be nice for her to hang out people during the day. After running in to them, we wanted some ice cream. Then it was time to head back to the dock to catch the boat, turns out you need cash for the boat and there wasn’t an atm close by. By this point it was also almost 10pm and we decided to just give up on the island thing and just head back into old town for dinner. We went to a yummy Italian place and enjoyed a nice dinner and then walked home.

Tuesday- I made Alexis come to work with me, Camilla gave us 6 muslins to do along with a few patterns to change. So we sewed like mad women all day.

Happy Alexis was there to help. J For lunch we got some food to go and then went to the lunch spot that over looks the city. After working all day we went to hang out with Chris at a pool hall, we played a few rounds of pool and then went to a tapas bar for dinner.

The tapas were great, real Spanish tapas. We ate tortilla Espanola, croquetas, patatas bravas, queso manchego, sooo good.

A great night after a long day. After dinner I went home to work on some homework and Alexis and Chris went to a bar and got a beer and hung out.

Wednesday- I went to work alone today. Alexis enjoyed a relaxing morning in my apartment and then met me for lunch. But everything was closed. We found an Indian place where we got curry chicken and some really amazing bread. It was quite good; I was surprised, the place looked a little sketchy. After lunch Alexis came back and helped me copy a pattern while I sewed so that hopefully I could leave a little early. I ended up leaving around 6:30 so not all that early, and we met Jennifer and their friend Tanya from Bryn Athen, who is nannying for Alexis aunt on the trip (I think).

We went to dinner at a nice Danish place, for dessert I got an all you can eat ice cream bar. It was great. After a long dinner we walked to the Kungsgarden to go get a drink. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful night.

Thursday- Today I worked all day and Alexis got up early (6:30 am) to meet her family at the spa at their hotel and then get breakfast with them, then spend the day doing whatever they were doing. I sewed all day and made a beautiful dress. I want it for myself. And Camilla thanked me for the first time for my work, guess she really loves the dress, and maybe it means I’m getting to be a better sewer, that’s what I’m hoping. Alexis met me at the studio around 5pm and helped me to hand sew a part of the dress and we left around 5:30pm and came back to my apartment to relax for a bit before dinner. Our dinner plans were to meet Sofia and Elin at Langholmen for a picnic. We met them at the subway and went to the grocery store to buy something to take the park with us. We got some potato salad, chicken and watermelon. After getting food we walked over to the park/island.

Found a beautiful place to sit overlooking the water and the city.

It was so nice to just sit and enjoy the city and the weather and some great people. We spent a few hours there and then Alexis and I came back home to relax a little. Do some homework. Talk fashion.

Spending Sunday with my best friend in Stockholm (Try saying that 5 times fast)

Woke up in the morning made peanut butter and bananas sandwiches, drank some tea. Got ready and headed to the Nordiska Musset for the 300 Years of Fashion Exhibit with Alexis. The exhibit was cool, we took lots of pictures for research for Senior 1 homework, but the other exhibits were more inspiring. There was a textile library with rows and rows of drawers with textiles in them.

It was so amazing. There were also tons of wood work and doors on display which were great for me since that is my inspiration for my collection, along with a ton of Swedish folk art which is so interesting. So much wood and such beautiful colors, I love the colors they use bright but also kind of dull and stingy. I love them.

The whole experience at the museum was very inspiring and great research. After the museum we walked toward Skeppholmen the island where we would be meeting for our bike ride. On our way we stopped for lunch at a café, I got a super yummy avacado and chicken bagel. We sat and ate outside and enjoyed a nice little lunch. Then we stopped in a few stores on the way to the bike ride. We got to the bike ride a little early so we wandered around the island a bit. We ran into an art school, which is such a beautiful setting right next to the water, and a few modern art sculptures. We got back to the meeting spot and waited for our guide, the ride was supposed to start at 3pm and we didn’t leave until 3:30 pm.

The bike ride included biking around Djurgarden, next to the Vasamusett, Grona Lund, along the water of the island, next to large houses, a canal, a national park with cows and sheep, next to the embassys.

A national park with cows in it, in the middle of Stockholm.. Weird but also pretty nice.

The US Embassy. Looks a little like a jail... all the others were beautiful buildings... ours is a grey jail. Oh boy.

It was a great way to see parts of the city that I would have never seen otherwise. A nice way to spend our Sunday afternoon. The ride was 2 hours long and afterwards were we ready for a fika (coffee break). We went to the Kingsgarden and got coffee for Alexis, tea for me and sat there talking for a while. Then we decided to come home and make dinner for ourselves. We had to get some ingredients for dinner and Alexis wanted a SIM card for her phone so that we could talk while she was here since Ill be working every day. We made ourselves fajitas and guacamole for dinner. Then we watched Bridget Jones Diary while Alexis finished some CMPA homework due on Monday morning. Now its time for bed. Work in the morning. And Alexis is spending the day with Jennifer.

Alexis Comes!!!!!!

I woke up in the morning and fixed breakfast for my first couchsurfers. Then went to work, but before I went to work I showed them the beautiful view of Stockholm that is near my work.

Jason and Lisle

The one I always talk about. Then I sent them on their way to IKEA. I went to work, and sewed up a pair of pants. I left work at 3pm and met Jennifer and Frida at Subway for lunch, then we went back to Fridas to hang out until it was time to get Alexis. Jennifer wanted to go buy some magazines so we went to Central Station and bought some magazines and candy (Fish--- Swedish Fish). Yummy. Then we headed to the airport to pick up Alexis!!!!!!! Woo! So excited! When we got there the board said Alexis’ plane was late. So while we waited we got a smoothie and sat there waiting. We watched people get picked up, one mom went to pick up her soon and brought flowers and a red blanket that she put on the floor when he came out, like a red carpet. So cute. When Alexis came out, after us waiting for what seemed like hours but really was like 45 minutes, I screamed. Ha ha.

So nice to see a friend from the US. We got in Jennifers car and headed back to my place. Once we got there we dropped Alexis stuff off waited for my couchsrufers, Lisle and Jason, to come get their bags and then met Jennifer and Frida for dinner. We went to Vapiano, it’s a restaurant where you go up and order your food at the counter and they cook it in front of you then you sit down.

The lines for the food were long and took a while but the food was so good, worth the wait. When you go to pay, they have gummy bears for you. Lovely. After dinner we headed to Grona Lund, to go ride some rides and play some games.

Alexis, Jennifer and I on the way to Grona Lund.

However you have to pay for entrance to the park and then pay to ride the rides and play the games, and the rides are quite expensive. We carefully chose one ride we would go on, we went on a rollercoaster with an amazing view of Stockholm. After the ride we played some lottery game where you can win giant things of candy. We played 2 times and didn’t win, then I saw a peanut M&M one and had to play once more. I chose the numbers 86- 90, and I won!!!!!!!!

Jennifer says its because all of us where born within those years. It was 90 and I won 2 Kilos of Peanut M&M’s! I cant believe it! Ah!!! So fun to win! After winning we decided to leave on a good note and walk home, a nice walk along the water back home. Once home we booked our bike tour for tomorrow and went to bed. Ready for a full day in the morning.

A week of work mixed with a few good stories

These weekly posts are getting bad. I need to get better at this blogging recently. But as before the week was pretty similar at work. As it gets closer and closer to Fashion Week, it’s gotten busier and busier. Which has meant a lot of sewing, some patterning and sewing up lots of new styles in muslins to test them out. The spring collection is looking like it will be really cool, I’m excited for it. I’m working on lots of jersey pieces right now, which is something, I haven’t worked with much but its fun to work with.

(Summer= time for watermellon at work)

Some funny things happened this week, first of all on Tuesday night I was cooking and my stove was not working at all for like 30 minutes and I’m not sure why it wasn’t. I turned it off and walked away then turned it back on and it seemed as though it still wasn’t working so I put my finger in the water, it wasn’t hot, so stupid stupid me I touch the stove. Turns out, it was hot… definitely burnt my finger! Now I have a pretty big blister on my finger, luckily I only touched it with one finger.

Then on Thursday night I was doing some much needed laundry. Really bad. Hadnt done laundry in weeks and I was running out of clothes. So I did laundry and the first few times down to the room I had Florian with me, but the last time I was down there I was alone, and I took the keys with me. I thought the keys also had the keys for our building, not just the laundry room. I got all my clothes and folded them and then headed inside or so I thought. But the key I had didn’t work. Not good. Because I had also left my phone in my room. So yes its true I was stuck outside of my apartment building at 11pm with no way of contacting anyone or getting inside. I ran around from front to back, tried yelling to Florian from the ground hoping he would hear. He didn’t. At this point I was freaking out… thinking about how I may have to sleep outside because no one was coming and it had been 30 minutes, and even if I saw someone with a phone that I could borrow I didn’t know anyones number. Just about the point when I was freaking out the most a girl walks up, and I was like are you going in here and she was! I got in and was so happy! So those are my stories for the week.

(I also made peanut butter cookies! Yum!)

Friday night I went to my first movie in Stockholm, at the cinema. We went to see Bridesmaids, it was the opening night (funny since it came out in the US months ago). We went right after work, it was a great way to relax after a tough week and such a great movie. I laughed the whole time. I got home that night after the movie and made myself dinner. Then got a text from Lisle, a girl who I had met earlier in the studio, she was meeting up with the sister of the designer we share the studio with. She was visiting Stockholm and didn’t have a place to stay and so I offered for her to stay with me. She was meeting a friend here and they both stayed with me for the night. I picked them up from the subway and we came back to my place and talked till 1 am, then went to bed because I had to work in the morning. I was really not happy to be working because I was planning on going to the beach and Alexis was coming, but that’s the fashion industry with fashion week so soon we needed to work.

(Leaves falling in July... its fall already here I guess)

The week in review.

I haven’t blogged all week. I apologize. As before my work week wasn’t all that interesting. We have been sewing up the samples, Camilla says normally she has dress makers that do it but due to bad circumstanses they weren’t able to help with this collection. Which is a little worry some considering these samples we are sewing will be in a photoshoot, on the runway (in Stockholm and New York) and be shown to all the buyers. So they have to be perfect and it’s a little stressful. Especially when we have such little time to get it all done with almost 2 weeks to sew a whole collection. We will see what we can do. On Wednesday night, Izabelle and I came back to my place after work to bake a cake for David, who’s 21^st birthday was on Thursday. He was really upset about turning 21 and I thought it was such a funny concept because in the States that’s like the biggest birthday. But it didn’t seem like he would be getting a cake so we wanted to bake him one. My friend, Frida also wanted to hang out that night so she joined us the baking. The cake we made was one layer of chocolate cake with bananas and chocolate icing and cream in the middle, with vanilla cake on top with vanilla crème and strawberrys in the middle. It was so yummy looking, but on Wednesday night we only make the cake parts, we also made lassanga and ate that for dinner, along with some peach iced tea!

Im a little obsessed with that now. Ha ha. After dinner and the cakes, Izabelle had to go home and Frida and I decided to go on a walk. We walked for a while, on the path with the view of the city, through Galma Stan, Drottingatan, down a nice little river path, past City Hall and along the water back to Sodermalm.

It was about an hour or so walk and it was just lovely to get out and around Stockholm while the sun was setting. On Thursday it was David’s birthday so we left work early because we had to meet his friends at the bus stop at 4pm. But we had to finish our cake and all the icing and fruit to the cake. So we left work at 3pm to go to my place and fix up our cakes, and let me tell you they looked pretty yummy. Then we went to the grocery store to get food to bring over to Davids for dinner since he lives in the country side. When we got the bus stop its was 4:30pm and David and his friends had left so we had to get on the bus ourselves. We took it for 30 minutes and we got to the country. I mean really the country I cant believe that there is country like that so close. On the way we passed beautiful views of the islands of the archipilago. Which I hear I need to take a tour of, maybe Ill do it with Alexis when she comes next weekend. When we got to Davids him and his 4 friends were waiting for us at the stop. We walked 10 minutes to get to his house, which was this tiny little house out in the country with a huge yard, the area was beautiful. It was really cool to get outside of the city. We took blankets outside and just sat around eating cake, and enjoying the beautiful Swedish weather.

I enjoyed the open space and started doing cartwheels (which one of Davids friends accidently called a wheelchair- so cute when Swedish people mess up their English, roundoffs, backbends. We also played cube ( I think that’s the name) it’s a yard game where you try to throw a stick at pegs and hit them over. I was pretty good but they said I was cheating,

I don’t know if I was, I don’t know the rules. Anyway Izabelle and Diana left around 8:30 and I was planning on going with them so that I knew my way back.

But I figured I would stay, I was having fun talking to Davids friends and didn’t have anything else to do that night and the last bus was at 11pm so I wouldn’t get home super late. We hung out for a while more, dancing, model posing, talking. At 10:30pm I was like I should start walking to the bus and the others were like wait for us we will join you. But they were going so slow, we walked toward the bus and as we got the road we saw the bus pull away. The sign said there was another bus coming in 30 minutes but David said that was the last one. We decided to wait and see, because if it was the last bus we were stuck there. Luckily Davids dad drove to the bus stop and I thought offered to drive us home, actually he meant drive us to another stop where the bus comes more often. The bus came around 11:45ish and we had a 30 minute ride back to town, then I had a 15 minute walk. I was really nervous I was going to be stuck there, and was about to call a cab, so Im happy that the bus did come. I got home around 12:30 pm and I was exhausted and had to be at work early the next morning because I had left early the day before. We had a meeting at 10am and we found out the info about NY fashion week, we will be showing with 3 other designers, and spring and fall collections, so all the work we have been doing will be shown in fashion week in New York!!!! How cool is that! So we have 2 more weeks for crazy, before its time to start preparing for Stockholm Fashion Week, which will be a lot of fittings, and rehearsals and such! Woo! So exciting! Also yesterday was my one month anniversary in Stockholm! I worked till 8pm and then came home and made myself a yummy burrito and just relaxed at home for a while before going to bed. I have to work today also because I was working so slow this week, man I feel like I work all the time but its good for me. Today I went to work and got to make my first pattern, for a cardigan. I was so happy, I love pattern making, we worked till 2pm then took a break and went to a coffee shop, then worked for another hour or so and Camilla told us to go home and enjoy our Saturday. I think tonight I am going to go to sports bar with Sofia and watch the Sweden vs France womens soccer game and then go out. We will see what happens.

Last day in Paris

So today was our last day in Paris. And almost Maggie’s last day in Europe. It’s so sad. I will miss her. In the morning we took our money from our 2 American friends on the train and went to the Museum d’Orrsay. The museum wouldn’t let you take any pictures which was sad because there was some amazing art there from Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Rodin, Degas, tons of famous works. It was totally worth going to.

(I snuck a picture of the inside because it was a converted train station which I thought was really cool, I do go to SCAD after all, we love preserving old buildings)

We were there for 2 hours admiring all the work and then we moved on. We went to look for the center of Paris that was supposedly near Notre Dame but couldn’t find it, instead we walked along the river Seine and looked at all the little stands set up.

Some of them selling vintage Vogue magazines, which I wanted to buy so bad but I didn’t have any cash on me. Next time. After walking around a bit we headed to the Opera because we heard there was an opera costume exhibition from the 2 french ladies at our restaurant last night. We got to the Opera and decided we needed to eat lunch, so we had our last meal in Paris. We sat and people watched for a bit, enjoying the city and by this time realized we may not have time for both the Opera and Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. So the opera was out, and we made our way back to our hotel where we walked past Moulin Rouge to Montmartre, a very artsy trendy part of town. Also a giant hill that leads to Sacre Coeur. With the cute small streets, it seemed like a quaint area of town, until we got to the top of the hill where there was an explosion of people.

I looked to the right and I saw why. It was a gorgeous view of all of Paris right in front on you.

People had been talking about it all week, but you until you see it you don’t know how great it really is. And atop this hill is Sacre Coeur, a cathedral that over looks it all.

We went inside and then up to the dome, which offers an even better view.

Interior

View from the top

We sat up there and drank the rest of Maggie’s wine (from water bottles, I might add). The view really was breathtaking and a great end to our trip. After going down from the dome, we walked around some more. I bought a scarf, the one thing I bought for myself in Paris, its amazing I didn’t buy more.

Maggie bought some souvenirs. And I got one last macaroon before we headed back to our hotel to catch the shuttle to the airport. This was by far the craziest part of the whole trip. First of all I should start by saying that when we booked this, the guy at our hotel who spoke very little English and thought I was Russian, told us that we could pay the driver with a credit card and that it would take 30 minutes to get to the airport. In which case we booked the shuttle for 5:30, with our flight leaving at 8. Seems like enough time, or so we thought. We were the first ones picked up, and then we preceded to pick up 7 more people, and there were only 8 seats. A Chinese woman who had her 2 kids with her was asked to put one of the kids on her lap and was furious because she had paid for 3 seats. Which I completely understand, I wont go in to detail but there was lots of yelling between her and the driver, which caused us to pull over for a few minutes, at this time it was almost 7pm and we hadn’t left the center of Paris yet, so me and Maggie were worried. I then said, I hate to be rude but we need to get to the airport now, so we got back on the road. Unfortunately once we got to the airport this woman’s stop was before ours and she wanted him to give her her money back. They were arguing a ton, and we didn’t have cash to pay the driver, so I ran inside the terminal to get some, came out and they were still yelling. I was mad, and told her that she was being incredibly insensitive to the fact that we had to catch a flight but she wouldn’t leave the van. So I got out and decided to run to our terminal and get us checked in and told Maggie to just meet me there. Bad news was that I didn’t know how to get there, so after running around for 5 minutes I went back to the van and Maggie wasn’t there. So I asked the guy to drive me to the terminal and he said she had taken the underground passage. Once I got the terminal I checked in but couldn’t find Maggie anywhere. I was getting really worried, I ran up and down the terminal 5 or 6 times, and didn’t see her. I went to the information office and asked them to page her and they said they couldn’t. Ran around more. No sign of her. Went back to information, they paged her, told me to go to the gate, went to gate, through security and I see Maggie sitting at our gate. Guess we had just missed each other. Minutes later our flight started boarding. I sat next to a nice Swedish Cinematographer and we talked a bit. Made it back to Stockholm safe and Maggie checked her bag at the baggage drop, then we got on the Arlanda Express to the city. Once we got off I showed Maggie the ice bar, but we didn’t go in. Instead we took the train back to my place, made some more of the Meringue Swish sine I told Maggie all about it, while we downloaded pictures and then went to bed. In the morning I took Maggie for a quick tour of Stockholm. We went from my place to the view over the city that is near my place then walked down to Gamla Stan, saw the castle and the old town, then down the main shopping street and to Central Station where she boarded the Arlanda Express once again back to the airport.

Now I’m all alone in Europe, with no St. Louis buddies near by. It was so great to travel with my best friend in Europe. I loved it. Hopefully we can do it again. I went home and downloaded my pictures, unpacked, wrote my blog and caught up on some work. I also got to 3 way skype with Alexis, and Adam (Adam is in London for a graphic design internship). It was a 3-country skype!

I love you guys!

Very fun. In which this quote came up, “lets just not be famous designers, and be friends instead” and I loved it. A lazy Sunday, it was much needed though.