This arrived in the mail this week from KappAhl.
Along with a 25% off coupon.
So you can guess what happened next...
Proof that direct mail and coupons work! And, while we were in Växjö, we stopped by our favorite shop for affordable baby couture: Lindex. Here are a few of my favorites for the season that are now hanging in Sophie's closet.
Because every girl needs a pair of squirrel-patterned moccasins.
Yesterday was a grey, rainy Sunday. It was also my birthday. But, never fear, the Swedes have the "antikloppis" – part flea market, part antique shop. And Sunday is where the action's at when it comes to finding cool old Swedish stuff. Like these green chairs, which were $4 each. Turns out they are very typical traditional chairs for this region – a scandinavian version of the Windsor chair. According to wikipedia, you can find these chairs in "almost any Swedish home." And now you can find them in ours...
Anyone know German? We couldn't help but notice all the ads showing vegetables wrapped in condoms around Wiesbaden. It looks like it's AIDS-related. Definitely attention-grabbing!
Our 10-hour drive to Wiesbaden, Germany, turned into a 15-hour adventure after we hit major traffic on the autobahn. Yeah, 15 hours for Sophie to sit in "the bucket" as we call it. Poor thing. She started to lose it at the 14-hour mark. Luckily all it took was a quick feeding, and we were back on the road and finally made it.
We're having a great time with Grandma and Poppy. And we've found some adorable German toys for Sophie that we're setting aside for Christmas and her birthday. The Selecta duck on a push stick pictured above has these leather feet that make it waddle. Cracks us up every time it moves. Here's what else we found:
Die Lieben Sieben ball
Haba Flori – which was my ultimate find at a secondhand shop for just 2 euros!
Sophie has slept in 6 different places so far on this journey. And she has slept very well thanks to her little Pogy travel bed. It's a German-designed gadget that's available online at Target. It even comes with insect netting you can put over the top for naps in the park.
Every mom in Älmhult was at the new Lindex store opening on Friday at 11 a.m. Seriously, people left work for this. This is big news for our little town. Lindex has the cutest stuff for kids at great prices. And stuff for moms, too. Dads are out of luck.
This is probably not a good thing for our budget. I am such a sucker for little dresses. Since Sophie now has plenty of clothes to get her through the summer, I am shopping for next year. And for my nieces and nephews. :)
I like the graphical stuff best...
Sophie is now the hippest girl on Knutsgatan. She's wearing FIG, the cool eco-label I mentioned a few weeks ago. Thanks mom and dad for this adorable super-soft sleeper!!
I like the copy on the label: Let's face it, kids would rather be naked. Nude is fun, but it leaves no room for style.
My friend Karin, who was the HR person responsible for hiring me, came by the house today for a little fika and brought Sophie her first Swedish toy: this classic from BRIO. I was JUST saying that I want to find nice wooden toys for our girl, so I was so excited about this great gift!
I've heard of BRIO – they make the wooden train sets popular in the U.S. What I didn't know is that the company's roots are right here... like a 15-minute car ride away! A guy named Ivar (not to be confused with IKEA's Ingvar) started the company in 1884.
I found a bunch of things that I want to buy, like this cute pull-along dog and push cart. Turns out their main office also has an outlet shop, so Sophie and I will definitely be paying it a visit sometime soon!
Sophie isn't the only fig kid out there. Turns out there's a whole bunch of fig kids thanks to a Canadian Fig... Fig organic kids fashion. Now that's a label Sophie can wear with pride!
My friend Mary Jo tipped me off to this cool eco-company based in Whistler, British Columbia. I emailed them a few months ago to spread some fig cheer, and it turns out they had a little fig kid of their own about a week ago. A little fig girl, too! Too bad she and Sophie are on opposite sides of the world. I can just see them heading to the slopes on a powder day in their little snowsuits. (Speaking of which, how early can we teach Sophie to snowboard?) :)
Anyway, co-owner Michael Ziff and I have been emailing back and forth about our little figkids. He's a great guy trying to help "Spaceship Earth" one certified organic cotton thread at a time. I, for one, can't wait to support the cause... and Sophie's eco-wardrobe.
Julia Roberts' daughter Hazel already does...
This is the kind of question that is starting to keep me up at night. :) Luckily some creative Swedes at boob® have figured it all out.
I stole Lewis' train pass yesterday and spent the day shopping in Lund. The weather was gorgeous... low 60s and sunny. The excursion totally recharged my batteries.
Now I knew I would be facing the wrath of my penny-pinching husband if I went too wild with baby purchases. In the end, I came home with two well-priced outfits plus this adorable Danish-designed (read: way overpriced!) doll, Fearless Fred. I knew the price tag would kill Lewis, but I love the bold contrasts for infant brain stimulation, and Fred's pegleg just cracks me up. Well worth the big bucks in my opinion!
Check out the whole line of Roomie Dolls here.
I was also daring enough to venture into Polarn O. Pyret, the Swedish baby clothes shop I mentioned a few weeks ago. If we knew we were having a girl, this penguin dress would have definitely been smuggled into the house!
Since this blog is supposed to be about our life in Sweden, I thought I would add a short post about Sweden's version of Baby Gap: Polarn O. Pyret.
As you can see, the stuff is fun.
Henry and Alisa came back from Stockholm with a super cute outfit for the baby from Polarn O. Pyret. I think the only way I can buy more is if I smuggle it into the house. My budget-conscious husband does not believe in designer clothes for the little one. He even thinks Baby Gap is too ridiculous. I agree that we shouldn't spend much money on clothes, but I'm a total sucker for those little outfits.
Lewis thinks it has something to do with a maternal instinct. I don't know. As a young girl, I really could have cared less about dolls and dressing them up. Going to a friend's house to play Barbie made absolutely no sense to me. I was a tomboy from raggedy head to dirty toe.
But I've actually found the urge in the last few years to be more feminine. In the way I dress. In my hobbies (I'm finally going to take up sewing and knitting... my mom must be wondering what took me so long!). And in getting ready for this little peanut. Could this newfound femininity have something to do with the fact that after 5 years of trying to get pregnant, it finally (miraculously) happened?
Interesting food for thought.
In the meantime, I am going to continue to scour the baby racks at H&M for outfits that are adorable and affordable. Picked up a cute polar bear sleepy recently that will keep the little muffin warm when he or she is so rudely welcomed into this world in the middle of the Swedish winter!!
I've never really been into antique shops and flea markets. I don't think I have the eye for it. But I've been inspired recently by the sfgirlbybay design blog. So Lewis and I set out to find little treasures at the nearby Östregårds flea market in Moheda (near Alvesta and Växjö). We didn't know we needed a little wooden man until we saw him.
One thing I've failed to mention before is that the area of Sweden we live in, Småland, is known for its thrifty, cheapskate nature. Think Ingvar Kamprad, who founded IKEA and grew up here. Smålanders are known for their hard-working mentality and for doing more with less. They love a good value.
That means a flea market in Småland has about the cheapest prices you'll find. We loved it, and plan to go back often. It's open every Sunday through the summer. There's even a little cafe there for fika.
The latest issue of Sköna Hem, a great Swedish interior design magazine, shows why we have started to fall in love with Scandinavian white walls. This is the home of IKEA photographer Per Gunnarsson. I love the simplicity of the style. Almost nothing on the walls, but it doesn't seem to need anything. In the U.S., white walls say "I haven't had time to paint yet." But most Swedes I know don't really use color on walls. Unless it's for contrast, like a red or black wall. Lewis has been resistant to this, but today he said he's itching to paint our kitchen and living room walls white. Right now they are a very pale yellow.
On that note... while we were out for a walk today, Lewis was saying that he couldn't think of anything to write in his blog (his last entry was in January.) "I guess we're pretty acclimated now," he said. Yup, I guess we are.
As an IKEA freak who now works for IKEA, you can imagine just how much flat-pack furniture we have in our house now. And you would think that living with the blue-and-yellow store in view out our back window would mean that shopping there would be, well, a bit mundane now. But, actually, I still love it. Especially when we come home with two of these cool-looking (and surprisingly comfortable) rockers made from banana leaves.
Just the remedy for the chilly Sunday blues... buy one for yourself at IKEA. Oh yeah, almost forgot to say that I saw the designer who created this funky chair speak at a small dinner event this past week. I was almost as psyched as when I saw Duran Duran in the 8th grade. So, yes, I am still a freak.
Tilly is a freak, too... a heat/sun freak, just like her mother. (I don't think she has any opinion of IKEA yet, though. Not until they start selling pig ears.)
