Recent thrifts

On Thursday I found something amazing in a nearby thriftstore. A very sweet lady runs it, and I've found several great pieces there. She had spent a few hours unpacking new stock, and had put this out in the shop 3 minutes before I walked in the door and snatched it! That's what I call timing:-) It's a large Digsmed Lazy Suzan, made around 1960 by Digsmed, Denmark. Digsmed and Dansk pieces very rarely appear in thrifts here, I suspect a lot of them emigrated to the US or stayed in the motherland.

It's large, a whopping 40 cm across, in massive fine grained teak and has a rich delicious color. It has two turntables and 8 smoke colored glass bowls. They're all intact and the teak is in excellent condition. The price was REALLY reasonable, I saw a similar one on the web that was 5 times what I paid... The storeowner has reserved something for me that has been on my wishlist for a long time, they just need to be unpacked from her heap of boxes. Nothing spectacular or rare, just something I've been lusting for and want to start collecting. I'll reveal what it is soon, I hope:-)

      

I recently found these Stelton place mats on sale. I hope it's not because they will be discontinued, but I suspect it is... They're in a 5 mm thick felt, and have this great cutout pattern in the middle. Too bad a plate will cover it, but you still have that richly textured, wonderfully shaped mat. I love black with teak, that's why I decided on a joint photoshoot:-)

And what do you know- a new kid on the block, or handsome German,  I guess we like to call them:-) Can you spot the newcomer? It's the red- belted brown Scheurich to the left!

Waking up the garden

We did some much needed gardening last weekend. This year's winter has been hard on the garden, and I can't remember the last time spring arrived this late. After doing some removal of plants that didn't make it, and some general tidying up, I picked up this beautiful little japanese maple at the local nursery. I love maples, the leaves are so incredibly elegant an the colors are just breathtaking. I have a lot of winter greens in my garden as a kind of "base", and like to add plants that really change with the seasons. I adore autumn colors and maples are true autumn beauties. This specimen  actually has autumn colors now, what could be more perfect?

The ivy is green year around. Here, they're mingling with a creper that I don't know the english name for. I'm not big on flowers, I do, however, love to mix the solid greens with plants that have other colors to create variations. This picture actually looks lik fall, but it's taken now, promise...

These are called "villvin" in Norwegian, after googleing I think "Virginia creepers" must be the name in English. I bought the as really small plants and they grow rapidly and now cover a tall stone wall. They get leaves quite late, in the early summer, but they're at their most spectacular in the fall, when they turn into every shade of red you can imagine.

This is how my cherry tree looks like right now. It's right outside my kitchen window. Pretty soon it will be in full bloom.

These little anemones (Hvitveis in Norwegian) are a sure sign of spring in Scandinavia. They're not from my garden, but grow pretty much eveywhere right now, especially in areas a bit shaded by trees. Every Scandinavian mom get little bouquets of these, picked by our kids on their way from school. It's always such a great joy!

   

"Retro & Vintage Inspired Corner of My Home" link up

Today I'm joining in the Retro & Vintage Inspired Corner of My Home link-up with the Kylie of Lucy Violet Vintage and Donna of Hung up on Retro! I highly recommend their amazing blogs. What a great initiative, I already see there's a lot of great homes to drool over, I can't wait to see it all!

Ok, here goes. What to show you? If you read my blog occasionally, and have a feeling you've seen these pics before, well, you have... This  turned out to be our "waking up the garden and putting away the winter clothes weekend", and the living room is full of stuff to be sorted. Not a great photoshoot weekend in other words... I kinda wish I'd saved my last post for this! I don't have any great freshly styled spots, so I thought I'd dig through my files and give you a tour along the "teak and pottery trail":-) Apologies to those of you who've seen the pictures before, I hope I at least manage to put them together differently and show you the red...or rather brown, thread!

Starting in the kitchen. The cabinets are the results of a looong search through just about everything on the market, but finally I found a small company, Tingbø (tingbo.no), that makes the most beautiful handmade kitchens, using great wood surfaces. I was gonna settle for walnut, until they told me they could make me one in teak!!! That gave me the opportunity to make a closer connection between the kitchen and the next door living room. It's the only teak kitchen they've made!

My favorite features in the kitchen are the amazing wood surfaces and the minimal handle- and knob-less drawers and doors. I'm also really pleased about the choice of black accents, I really had to persuade the electrician, he thought I was mad for choosing black switches and power points (you can see those in one of the links below) on white walls...

  

  

  

I love to fill my kitchen with thrift finds and heirlooms from the stretch of coast where where I grew up, Stavangerflint, Figgjo and Egersunds Fayance, as well as Danish, Finnish, Swedish and German favorites:-)

If you wanna see more kitchen pics, have a look here and here!

 

Thrifted Søholm spice jars, they were a steal at less than 2 USD a piece!

 

Figgjo Tor Viking teamed up with modern Iittala Ego cups. The creamer and sugar bowl belonged to my mom.

 
Scheurich planters
 

"Alkemuggen"(Razorbill pitcher/ jug), named after the north Atlantic sea bird. It was designed in 1910 by Jakob Sømme, and was in production until 1973. It's is considered one of the factory's most iconic pieces. see the beautiful art nouveau influence? 

Imagine such modern and clean lines already in 1977! Designed by Erik Magnussen.

My Egersund Korulen and the Arabia Ruska are great favorites and in almost daily use.

 

Moving on to the adjacent dining area. My favorite here is the teak credenza that my parents found in Stavanger. They're my eyes and ears in the market back home:-) On it, there's a thrifted Søholm lamp and some German, Norwegian, Danish and even Icelandic pottery. And plants. You gotta have plants, right?

Søholm lamp, designed by Einar Johansen

Scheurich bowl, Ekeby vase

 

  

Just found these Stelton place mats on sale, I fell for the cutout pattern, and love black with teak. 

My husband's grandparent's old Radionette with WG pottery. The lamp is a mystery piece.

End destination- the spot where we slouch about in the afternoons and evenings. I got the Eames LCW for my 40th birthday. It's got such beautiful sculptural qualities, I adore how even the legs are made of wood. I have some furniture here with great sentimental value, the table was my grandparents, the Westnofa Siesta and the Ekornes Combina daybeds are the exact same we had when I grew up, even tha same colors. You can read more about them in my last post. The String shelving is a relatively new acquisition and I love it to bits! It's such a great display space for books, lamps, pottery, you name it. And it looks so light, just like those other great shelving systems from that same glorious era. The thick wool blanket and pillows are "CD" by Rørostweed, an old Norwegian company that has renewed their profile with really great designs. The narrow pillows I made from Ikea fabric.

 

 

That's my retro and vintage, folks, now I'm heading over to Kylie's and Donna's to do some serious drooling!