The new 2009 IKEA catalog is out (yippee!). In case you don't get one delivered to your mailbox, catalogs are going to the highest bidders on ebay.
I left on maternity leave before any of the pictures had been taken, so it's the first time I've seen everything. Looks great, I think. But I'm biased. :)
Lewis and I have been together for 13 years, and we just bought our first kitchen table. Or as the Swedes say... a matplats. Growing up I always had one. It's where we had our everyday meals. The dining room was for special occasions.
For 13 years we've eaten dinner in front of the TV. Breakfast and lunch have usually been eaten on stools at the kitchen counter. But now we'll be eating our meals with Sophie at the table. We've been trying this solid food thing for a month now and had a big breakthrough last week. It was Sophie's first time sitting in her highchair at the table, and she actually opened her mouth and leaned into the spoon. Lewis and I were jumping up and down, and ran for the camera. It's hysterical that such a small thing makes major news around here.
(The table we got is the IKEA NORDEN table in beech. The chairs are SNILLE office chairs – super comfy and a great deal at $19.99 a pop.)
For the first time since the last IKEA party – way back in December – I put on a pretty little dress and went out on the town. Errr... in this case forest. The ICOM summer party was Thursday night out in the woods about 20 minutes from here.
I fed Sophie and put her to bed, and then my job as mom ended for the night. It felt very strange. But it was great to get away for a bit and hang out with my friends from work. The party was quintessentially Swedish, everyone said. It started with a midsummer feast under tents with lots of singing and drinking snaps (not me... I was driving). Then the dancing started on the other side of a little bridge. There was this random open-air dance hall out in the middle of nowhere. They had a band playing music like "La Bamba" and the music from Happy Days. Oh and there was a horse in the middle of the dance floor. Too bad my camera phone didn't get some better shots.
As I was driving home at the early hour of 11 p.m., I was thinking how lucky I am to be out here experiencing this... even after almost 3 years living here.
Yup, I bought that tent-doohicky from IKEA, and Sophie and I hit the coast yesterday for some r&r. I was in heaven, and Sophie seemed to really like it too. She was mesmerized by the ocean and never fussed the whole time we were there. The tent thing worked out well. She was shaded, and it gave me some privacy when I had to feed her. Not that I really needed it. Here's the view to our right and our left.
And my favorite view of all...
The thermometer has been cracking the 10-degree-celsius mark lately and I'm already dreaming of the days I can take Sophie to the beach. Our IKEA News brochure arrived this morning with a cool beach umbrella-type contraption that will be perfect at keeping the sun (and wind) away from the girl. I think we just might have to do a little shopping today. :)
And hello 4 a.m. to midnight...
Yesterday was my last day of work, and today starts my 1-year maternity leave. A few people said they were really jealous that I won't have to work for a year. Though I expect the work I'll be doing is actually quite a bit harder than the work I've been doing. Of course, the reward will be huge.
I thought that I would be more sad to leave the office yesterday. But I think I am so excited about the things that are about to happen that I am completely distracted.
The only thing that bums me out about leaving work is not being able to see my friends every day. I work with an amazing group of people, and they are a big reason why I love my job so much. After 2+ years of working there, I feel like I really belong. And that's hard to give up. Even if it's only temporary. The good thing is that I live right across from the office, so I know that I will see everyone really often once the baby and I are able to get out of the house. I'm looking forward to making trips over to the studio to see the kitchens and dining rooms I worked on get built.
It isn't common in Sweden to have a baby shower. I think they see it as bad luck and prefer to give gifts after the baby is born. Which sort of defeats the purpose of the shower in my opinion, because once the baby is born you usually have everything you need. A very unpractical choice for such practical people.
Anyway, my American copywriter friends gave me a really sweet send-off. A fika baby shower. Complete with a really yummy chocolate cake and ice cream. (I am totally getting in all the chocolate I can now before the baby comes because chocolate causes colic in babies when breastfeeding. The sacrifices we moms make!) They also gave me an adorable Danish-designed onesie from Småfolk, and a relaxation candle made of figs!
My sister and mom also threw me an across-the-pond shower. So I have been completely overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. Because of all the gifts we've received, we've been able to get everything we need for the baby's arrival. All the cloth diapering stuff... clothes... bouncy seat... car seat... health items... sling... and completely furnish the baby's room (see it all in an upcoming post). At this point all we need is the baby.
10 days to go, but I hope he or she makes an early escape!
I don't think I have ever written about the princess cake. It's a Swedish specialty and is known for its green marzipan exterior. Inside is a sponge cake with whipped cream layers. It's common to serve for birthdays and other special occasions.
This week I've been all about the princess cake. I feasted on one Wednesday afternoon at a holiday copywriter meeting. And then I had another when my team wished a coworker a happy 40th birthday. I saw another being served today and steered clear.
But there were more goodies to be had this afternoon at our annual Christmas gathering with IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad. All employees flocked to the distribution center -- a gigantic warehouse -- where we listened to Christmas carols, ate pepparkakor (gingerbread), julgröt (christmas porridge) and glögg (mulled wine), and heard IKEA's leaders speak about the business. The highlight of the event was collecting our Christmas gift and then shaking Ingvar's hand. I thought I would work up the nerve this year to say something more than merry christmas. But I froze up. I couldn't even get a decent picture of him (it's the blurry pic at the bottom).
IKEA really is a special company. I can't think of any other that would have an event like this. Where the founder of the company personally thanks each and every person. It's so uncorporate. It has the intimacy of a really small family business yet it's one of the biggest companies in the world.
Then my coworkers and I hugged each other before heading home, where I passed out cold on the couch for a few hours. Like any exhausted 8-month-pregnant princess would.
It's official! I finished my first quilt. All with IKEA fabrics. It's a bit poofy because I used a summer-weight IKEA synthetic quilt as the "batting." This presented quite a problem this morning when I went to quilt the three layers together. I did one row and it looked terrible. I spent like 30 minutes ripping out the seam.
That meant I needed to initiate plan B... tying knots of yarn at the intersections to hold the layers in place. This required working up the courage to step inside the little sewing shop in Älmhult. The shop looks like it's designed for die-hard sewers, so a beginner like me was a bit intimidated. Especially with the language barrier.
I brought my canvas shopping bag thinking I was only buying yarn and some polyfill for a nursing pillow I'm making. HA! I walked home with the yarn and polyfill PLUS 4 different jersey cotton fabrics to make swaddling blankets and little hats PLUS some real quilt batting for quilt #2.
The woman in the store spoke perfect English, and I even chatted with another woman who was planning to make baby blankets to get some ideas. (Mom, we are totally hitting this store when you come visit!!!)
I feel like such a geek, but I am just totally giddy about this new-found craftyness.
(Update Sunday night: So much for being a diva! I just noticed I messed up one of the squares. Oh well. Even divas started somewhere...)
Tilly is now sitting pretty, thanks to my new sewing machine. Yes, I am becoming domestic. It took 37 years, but I finally get why my mom used to pull out her sewing machine on an almost daily basis to make things for us.
It took moving to Sweden to inspire this newfound hobby. Tilly's dog bed has been developing a hole for weeks. And, well, there isn't exactly a PetsMart, Petco or Target within thousands of miles. IKEA sells a sewing machine for about $75, and I have been lusting after it since the summer. This week, one of our interior designers told me that he had just bought one himself and that he really liked it (even preferred it over his other more heavy-duty sewing machine).
So we picked up our little beauty on Friday night, and I made this new cover for Tilly's bed my first project. (Using IKEA fabric of course. This one's called Elisabet.) That was after Lewis had me practice on all his shirts with ripped seams that needed repair. Hemming his pants is next. I think he's already starting to add up all the ways we can make that 75 bucks back. :)
Seriously, though, I'm not sure I ever would have tried sewing if we didn't live here. Back in the States, my instinct would have been to order a new dog bed from L.L. Bean. Instead, we paid about $7 in fabric, and a few bucks for Velcro®. (I thought a zipper would be way beyond me.) The whole project took about 2 hours from start to finish.
So, yeah, I think I'm definitely becoming mom material... (just 11 weeks to go!)
If this doesn't say "proud pappa to be" I don't know what does...
(You can get your own huge, super-soft elephant at my favorite swedish store near you.)
I think this is a record. Three posts in one week. Actually, my real M.O. is to try and bury that belly picture I posted. What was I thinking?! Must have been the hormones.
While I anxiously wait for my belly to get with the pregnancy program, I've started planning out the baby's room. And, of course, it's going to look like it came straight out of the IKEA catalog. We already bought the crib and changing table (for a grand total of like $80), and now I'm trying to figure out how to decorate the room. I've never been a huge fan of overly cutesy baby rooms. But I want it to be colorful and happy. These new IKEA BARNSLIG baby textiles seem like the perfect way to inject some fun energy into the room.
I'm going to use at least two of them in a baby quilt I'm attempting to make by hand. And then maybe the red hippo one as a window covering. I'm also going to use the animal print one as inspiration for my own paintings for the room. Poor kid... his or her first view of art is going to be pretty disappointing. But, hey, I had to save a few bucks for that stylie pram (which Lewis bought me for my birthday last week! It's the red set at the bottom.)
The 2008 IKEA catalog is now available in the U.S! I worked on a bunch of stuff scattered throughout but my favorite projects were writing all the chapter start-ups and some of the "mad" product stories. Another copywriter and I teamed up and split the stories. The real challenge was coming up with this mad-scientist-meets-designer tone of voice. We spent a lot of time just trying to develop that.
You can read all the stories here. The ones that I wrote are GULLHOLMEN (funky banana leaf chair), ELLAN (chair that fits together without screws), VÅLLÖ (watering can), FÖRSIKTIG (children's stool), JONSBERG (vase), PS vase/candlestick and LILLBERG (rocking chair).
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.)
Ok, Ok, so a lot of you have been wondering exactly WHAT I have been doing out here since last November. Well, here's the proof ... the new 2007 IKEA catalog. Didn't write all the copy ... guess about 1/4. I didn't do the intro/"reclaim" pages. If you find some stuff you like, I probably wrote it. If you think it sucks, well, some freelancer probably worked on it. That's my story anyhow. :)
Click on the photo to go to the online catalog.
Also, Lewis just took some before and after shots of the house. (Link here to his blog.) It's not done, but it's where it's at today. I think he did an amazing job ... he did most of the work after all. (Yes, I'm one lucky kvinna.)
P.S. We got our first Swedish telemarketing call this week. Man, it's amazing how fast you can get those people off the phone when you can't speak their language. When we DO learn Swedish, I think we've just found a new use for it when we get back to the states.
A little more than 4 months into employment, I was finally able to take part in the English version of the IKEA tour called Älmhultsdagarna. After 2 days of visiting every department in IKEA and seeing vintage IKEA furniture, I remembered why I am such an IKEA freak. This company is awesome, and I feel really lucky to work here. The highlights for me were visiting the IKEA museum, where you could see how IKEA's style changed through the decades, and IKEA of Sweden, where one of the actual designers showed us how she came up with 3-4 different product designs. For one of them, she was shown the box that the floor lamp had to fit into, then told to design something creative. The engineers had already calculated transportation costs based on that size flat-pack box. And the product she had to design was a floor lamp with an uplight as well as a reading light. Really two different lamps in one. I've always heard about how IKEA designs the price tag first. Now I actually got to see it in action. For other products, she had more freedom, but of course it still had to have a low price.
Other places we visited included Swedwood, where they make many of the kitchen cabinet doors, wardrobe doors, etc., MODUL, where they bag up all the screws and wood dowels you need to assemble your furniture. It's all completely automated with robots, and each bag is weighed twice to make sure the right pieces are inside. So, if you buy IKEA furniture and are missing a screw, it's rare.
Oh yeah, we also got a tour of the distribution center in Älmhult. It's where all the flat-packs get shipped out to your nearest store. Actually, they don't get shipped to the U.S. from here, but throughout Scandinavia, Iceland and Greece. It was MASSIVE. And, again, everything is automated. I have some pictures of the distribution center (didn't bring my camera Day 1, so I don't have pics of the museum.) There are two pictures [pic 1][pic 2] of the huge yellow robotic cranes that place and retrieve pallets in a huge warehouse. It's ALL automated. No humans. A little creepy, like what if the robots from MODUL and the distribution center team up and turn on us? Anyway, it's hard to explain what's happening in those photos, but they basically fly down this track (with no lights because they don't have eyes. Really, they don't!) and put/retrieve flat-packs from the right spot.
OK, so what else have we been up to?
1. We got our Swedish license plate and passed Bilprovningen (Swedish inspection). It was quite a relief. As we sat there watching all their tests, Lewis said he doubted 50% of U.S. cars would pass. The other thing was that our Volvo was made for the U.S. market and has MPH on the speedometer and possibly different turn signals. I had been told to get my MPH blacked out and change out the lights. I didn't do anything and was fine. I did fail one thing, though. Everyone in Sweden has to have an orange road triangle in their car in case they break down. I totally forgot. We were let off with a warning and bought the triangle right away.
2. We made an offer on a house here in Älmhult!!!!! And they accepted. (Pictured here) The only thing 
that needs to be worked out is our move-in date. They want until July 1. We want May 1. So we'll see. All of our belongings, including spring clothes, bikes, etc, are sitting in Jönköping waiting for us to find a place to move into. And Lewis is just anxious to redo the kitchens and bathrooms. I think he visits IKEA every day. :)
3. Just to tie this whole entry back to the "box" theme. We found some boxed wine at the systembolaget (Swedish liquor store) in a nearby town. They had all sorts of varieties from France. I decided drinking red wine from a box just didn't feel right, so I picked a white wine to test. I love the idea of hauling cardboard boxes instead of glass bottles in my bike basket.
OK, that's all for now. We are really psyched about the house. More details on that soon ...
Hej då!
Apparently, being an IKEA freak is BIG news in Sweden. Ha ha!
Yes, I am now famous in a very small region of southern Sweden. :) In case you can't read Swedish, the article is about how Jenny (my Australian coworker) and I left our home countries to work for IKEA.
Yeah, so you all aren't the only ones to think I'm crazy for loving IKEA so much!!
A full week in Sweden has come and gone, and now reality is setting in ... this place is dang cold. Many of you know that we have land in Gunnison and have wanted to settle there. Well, I think Gunnison will feel warm after this experience.
When I woke up yesterday, it was 18 degrees F. I have one of those weather stations that I brought along so I can see how cold it is outside in Fahrenheit instead of having to do the math all the time to convert from Celsius. Today it's been hovering around 33 degrees, so a nice little warmup.
Yesterday afternoon/evening I met up with a girl named Donna (pictured above). She moved here from south China the same day I did. We met while registering for our "personalnumber," a number you need to do everything from setting up a bank account to getting a mobile phone. It's kind of like a social security number, I guess. Anyway, we hit it off and made dinner together last night. She showed me how to make authentic Chinese fried rice, and I showed her how to make Pho, though it wasn't nearly as good as Lou's. She seemed curious about the Indian food I make, so maybe I'll try that next time.
One thing that was really interesting about hanging out with Donna was her perception of Americans. We got on the topic of politics, and I mentioned that I don't like Bush. You should have seen the relief on her face. She said people in China don't like Bush either and don't understand why he has killed so many people. She said when she told her friends in China that she had met me, she had to add, "Yeah but she's not that kind of American." Because of Bush, and the fact that we voted him into a second term, their view of Americans in general is not very favorable. They think of the typical American as arrogant, privileged and superficial.
With IKEA being such an international company, I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll hear things like that. In my department, 99 percent of the employees are Swedes. Five of us are not. Peter is a copywriter from Great Britain, Patrick is a copywriter from Ireland, Mike is a project leader from Great Britain and Jenny is an art director from Australia. Jenny and I work on the same team and sit next to each other, which is really great since everyone else speaks Swedish around us. I've also gotten to know a girl named Jit from Singapore, who is my assigned "buddy" to help me get acclimated. Jenny and Jit are work pals, and the two of them have invited me to lunch a few times this week, which is really nice. Jit has also offered to teach me Swedish swear words! :)
I owe it all to our uncomfortable porch chairs.
On a Friday night in June, I decided to see what wicker chairs I could find to replace the lame bistro chairs that started hurting my butt after an hour. I scanned the websites of the usual suspects: pottery barn, crate & barrel and Pier 1. Then, I thought, maybe IKEA has something.
They didn't, but when I looked at the job postings, there was something even more enticing ... a copywriter position at their Swedish headquarters.
Most of you know what an IKEA freak I am, so you can imagine my excitement. Since then, it's been a series of phone interviews, emails, a trip to Älmhult and Swedish work permit bureacracy.
Now we are cleared for takeoff, and my start date is scheduled for Nov. 15. Stay tuned as we eat our first dish of pickled herring, find our way around the Swedish version of Home Depot and teach Tilly to fetch, come and sit ... all in Swedish.
