Skiing in Norway

It's lovely skiing in Norway, and it's so different from my college day ski trips in Japan where I had to wake up at 6am to enjoy a tolerably crowded ski resort. Here, you wake up after a few snoozes at 8:30am and then have a very nice breakfast. Even at 9:30am the ski resort is empty. Then you ski until 3:30pm when the ski slopes shut down for the day, having a nice hot chocolate and waffles in between for lunch :) Then you have an after ski drink, after which you can go out night skiing again, but we just enjoyed ourselves having a slow dinner.

Can you believe that it's almost new years!

Winter waterfront

We visited Hovenäset and Smögen again, which looked really deserted compared with this summer but equally pretty... But I was definitely not going out into the water.

Obsessing over the fire place

This winter, I learned that I am obsessed with making fire. I think I've spent at least 15% of the day making fire, moving around the fire woods for best effect in the fire place, and sitting in front of it to admire my work of fire...



No matter how small the fire place.



Have you all watched the movie of the first sequel of the girl who played with fire?

A Ruin somewhere near Gothenburg

In between the Christmas and family gatherings, we went to a really nice ruin near Gothenburg called Ragnhild's Holme. As with everything else up north, it is one of the historical monuments of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark invading each other. The surrounding greens were incredibly beautiful and the sun shining against every natural object was breathtaking...

Christmas eve

In Sweden, Christmas eve is the main event for everyone. The family starts the day by eating cinnamon porridge for breakfast. Then there is the main lunch with cold and warm food, and then finally a dinner when it feels like past midnight but it's only 6 or 7pm. I helped mainly with the warm food, including meatballs, sausages, bread and a chocolate cake. Sausage making was the highlight... crazy fun(ny). Merry Christmas!

Shopping in Södermalm

Walking in the shopping district, I couldn't help picking up knits after knits. I stopped by a few places where they have a good collection of the usual Whyred, Filipa K, ACNE, DAGMAR, etc etc. What adds to the experience is the friendly shopkeeper and how good they look. In between shopping, we stopped by nice cafes and bakeries.

What awaited me in Stockholm

The fact is, it's not too bad that it gets dark between 3 and 4pm in Stockholm. On the contrary, it's really nice that you still have hours to relax and enjoy your evening after you rush home, thinking that you have to prepare for bed but it's not even 6pm!

Once home, you can do all the nice stuff you see in the movies, like making a fire, baking your own bread, having a warm soup, and reading forever...



Christmas is around the corner.

Transferring in Norway

I'm now sitting in the airport lounge in super civil Norway. The lounge is so cute and sooooo quiet. Such a stark difference from my rough trip in China last week, and such a temperature and air pollution drop from Asia.

I saw a smile on everyone's face as we saw snow outside when we got off the airplane. I also smiled as I saw the super well designed airport (even the toilette door!). The world should let Scandinavians design infrastructure.

Anyway, this snow and crisp air is a great start for my winter vacation!

How to make a shirt

One weekend ago, I went to China's Gaomin to check out a textile factory for fun. It was set up as an MIT event, by an MIT alum who now manages a company of 50,000 people and produces clothing for BOSS, Abercrombie, etc. (funny how even MIT people go into commercial business if they are from this money town called HK!)

We walked through the process of starting with raw cotton (mixture of organic and non organic), turning that into thread (this was a really long process), to making the pattern of the fabric, then weaving, quality controlling, then changing the texture of the fabric, cutting and sewing, to finally the end product of an ironed cotton shirt! Pfew.

It is amazing to see the entire process. And being China, this is done at a scale unimaginable. After the experience, I couldn't imagine how they could possibly sell anything for below $100. It's so much work! Now I would really consider buying more expensive clothing and not expending anything.

Sacai knitts

I encountered this label at Lane Crawford yesterday. The shop person told me that their main line is sweater and indeed the texture was amazing, plus the backside of the knit was handmade and super soft. I want to buy one for myself soonest.

The designer is Chitose Abe, and she started the line in 1999 after she worked for Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe. The 2011 collection in the photo does remind of their shape and style, but definitely more wearable.

After having a child she sat at home and knitted 5 kinds of sweater. Since then, she expanded her fan base through the fashion industry people, but never showed in Paris or had her own store until the first shop in Aoyama opened this year. She so pursues quality that she would exchange all sweaters that she learns after selling, to have worn out quickly.

She has recently also become a designer for Moncler S as the wife of Moncler's Chairman was already a fan of the Sacai knit, which I think nicely matches her theme of warm sweater combined with premium down. Perhaps I check them out before my trip to the north, to Sweden and Norway!

Photo credit: Fashionsnap

Airport pickup

I am so happy I can access my blog from Beijing! I flew in on Sunday, with quite an exhausted brain. What kept me going was finding a really nice bag at the HK airport. It's a red, light, soft leather bag from Longchamp. I never bought a nice bag within 1 minute, and I am really thrilled about how modest it looks.

HK art festival, Tarts

The best of Hong Kong made into an art piece by Chi Mi Luing. Look at the brim of the baking pan. These two pieces were actually my favorite in the show, and made me buy egg tarts on the way home.

HK art festival, recycled lamps

Tim Gunn may call some of these student work at DETOUR 2011. But I liked the lamps made out of garbage, and some of them looked expensive, particularly the silver dish washing sponge that was used in the first piece here.

I also wanted this chair although it exudes uncomfort. It looks like either it will stick into your butt, or will shatter into small pieces once you sit on it.

HK art festival, DETOUR 2011

There's a HK art event going on from November 25-December 11 at Aberdeen Street / Hollywood Road. It's a rare moment to see HK's artistic crowd gather, and I was really happy to see lots of art students from this city that I never easily see (where are they hiding!).

There were 40 or 50 different rooms, each with different installations. The first photo is the first that you see when you enter. It's called the Weaving Forest, done by a Shanghainese design studio. Visitors were weaving the wooden dears as they like, to create a "forest."



I believe the general theme of this event was recycling and making use of garbage. The top of the taxi, apparently is a product of 170 years of technology (!) from a small town in China, and it is hard to find usage after they finish their life on top of a taxi. But I personally think there has to be better usage than being turned into a lamp?



My favorite were these old post boxes. But then I realized they were not part of the show but just adding color. This event is held at an abandoned police building, and they have everything left behind, which is very lovely.