A Fig in Sweden Portland

filed under 'oh my god'

The bestest, funnest, cutest Swedish baby clothes shop has arrived in the U.S! This is great news for when we move back to the States. I was wondering how I was going to satisfy my PO.P fix.

duktig means clever, and here's the proof

We went to the antikloppis (antique flea market) in Moheda for the last time before it closes for the season. Unfortunately we came home with an empty car. We came close to buying a wooden cradle for Sophie's future brother or sister, especially after I peered in and saw this at the bottom.

But we did manage to add a few Swedish home furnishings to the place over the weekend... an ensemble of IKEA play furniture for the small play area at the end of the dining room. I have been eyeing the new DUKTIG kitchen ever since it came out. Some of you may remember that I had grand plans to make Sophie a play kitchen. Ha! Thanks, IKEA, for giving me a good reason to be a slacker.

good egg(cups)

There's a guy about 10 kilometers up the road who opens his garage/shed once a year for an antikloppis ("antique flea market"). Last year I found these cool green chairs. Here's what I came home with this year.

For a mere $1.40, I am the proud owner of these egg cups, used to hold hard-boiled eggs. Yes, apparently the ole bang-the-egg-on-the-plate-or-table technique isn't quite civilized enough on this side of the pond. Swedes place the egg in an egg cup, tap the shell, peel it about halfway down, and spoon out the inside. All while sitting nicely in the cup.

Did we really need a pair of egg cups? Nah. But they made me and Sophie smile.

and it makes me shine

Sophie is raising a fist to girl power with her new pink hip-hop hat. I am loving the BIG blue sky and Sophie's new blue spring coat. We actually went to Lindex on a mission to find her a waterproof coat for our upcoming trip to London. Instead, I bought a super cute one with little blue apples all over it that will be fairly ineffective in the rain.

But why worry about rain... it was 67 and sunny today! All of our cheeks are a little pinker after enjoying fika with Amy, Erik and 8-week-old Sigrid at a garden cafe in Malmö.

Sun and warmth are amazing things when you live in a climate that's pretty much non-stop grey for 7 months. The whole country is coming back to life right now. It's the best time of year to be in Sweden.

P.S. That's our house behind Lewis.

what's swedish for "stride rite"?

Friday's shoe shopping trip was canceled due to the aforementioned toy shopping trip. Plus, dang, do you know how expensive baby shoes are? Like $50.  With every little body part rapidly growing, I thought it was best to delay the purchase as long as possible.

As with most baby milestones, I feel completely in the dark about how to go about this in Sweden. I stopped by the little shoe store in town a few weeks ago to scope out the selection. I think they had about 7 or 8 to choose from. My favorites were from a brand called KAVAT, apparently a Swedish institution in the children's shoe industry. They were also the most expensive. But they had that "we know what we're doing so you won't screw up your child's feet" look. I liked them!

I am now scouring Tradera (like eBay) for some good deals on some gently used ones. Saw this endearing pair – unused from the 1970s! They even have a little Swedish flag on them. Maybe that mustard yellow won't match much today, but they would look pretty cute sitting on a shelf for a bit of a nostalgic look in a nursery. But I should probably stick to searching for ones Sophie would wear on her feet! :)

Recommendations welcome!

i'm a sucker for swedish toys

I went to BRIO headquarters today (20km down the road in Osby) to pick up something for a birthday fika we're going to this weekend. I came home with these little guys for Sophie – a stacking owl and rolling hedgehog. It took tons of will power to stop at two things (but I've made a mental list of things to get on the next visit!).

I find wooden toys so much more creative than plastic stuff. And I know this is going to sound a little sappy, but when I look at them I get a glimpse of Sophie pulling them out of a storage bin 30 years from now and giving them to her own kids. The toys she had when she was a little girl growing up in Sweden...

some moooi for my meeting

Had an all-day meeting today in Helsingborg at the most interesting meeting space: the SHIP building. And, yes, I actually sat in the spider-looking chair pictured below for most of the day. The lamp on the full-size horse (by Dutch design company, Moooi) is supposed to work but was having some technical difficulties when we tried to turn it on.

It was very tough to be away from my girl for 11 hours. At least I had some fun things to look at. (The meeting went well too.)

falling for swedish baby clothes

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.

38 candles, 2 green chairs

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...

safe sex sells

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!

german-designed fun

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

Sigikid pony comforter

Haba Flori – which was my ultimate find at a secondhand shop for just 2 euros!

pogy

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.

mom mob

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...

fig duds!

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.

good wood

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!

fig kids

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...

food for thought

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.

fearless baby-clothes shopping

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!

baby got threads

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!!

speaking of cheap stuff

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.