Stillestund

Childhood

2012-02-13T12:42:00.001+01:00

This weekend we celebrated Jakob's mothers 60th birthday, we had a great time. I always get new stories about his childhood, and this time his aunts and uncles were at the party and told a lot about growing up in the Danish country side, which was amazing. I also found this "knife" of wood he made with his dad when he was four. The sign says "watch out, the knife is sharp. Jakob 4 years old".

Back

2012-02-08T15:51:00.003+01:00

Ok, so it didn't take long for me to get bored with the other design, I realized that one of the things I like about blogging is messing around with the design, and the other one just didn't give me enough options. So now I'm back at this one, more me, but it still needs some work. I deleted some old posts I didn't think fit in anymore.

If anyone know how to get the background solid, and not the "ombre -ish" effect that it has now, I would love to hear. In the meantime my friend Henriette has started a new blog about Aarhus, it's in Danish -check it out.

2012-01-12T16:09:00.002+01:00

Happy new year! This is my first post in 2012 and the first one on a kind of new blog. I left a few of my old posts, so that I could see how the new dynamic view is working. The pictures are from a year ago, when we had an actual winter.

A long time

2011-10-14T21:08:00.000+02:00

A lot has happened since last time I blogged. We've said goodbye to Jakob's wonderful dad, whom I also considered to be my family, even though we are not married, I have known him for seven years, both through the many visits and Jakob's stories. We are still grieving, but the daily life has begun and we are trying to find a way to deal with the loss in the midst of work and busy life. There is a big empty space now and the holidays to come will be very hard to go through.

(picture of Jakob's dad on one of our walks)

My new lens

2011-08-24T07:19:00.000+02:00

I don't play a lot with my camera these days, but when we went to the forest, there was a great opportunity to do so. I tried my new lens (50 mm 1.8f Canon). I find it a bit difficult to use due to the shallow depth of field a low f stop combined with other factors that I'm studying :-) But I also like the dreamy feel it sometimes give.

Signs of autumn

2011-08-21T13:35:00.000+02:00

This summer has been short in terms of hours of sun and warmth... Denmark is usually amazing in the summer, but this one has been different, a lot of rain and not temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius... and in the forest yesterday there where plenty of signs of autumn. I love autumn, but I feel a little cheated for not getting a "real" summer.

Reboot

2011-08-20T19:27:00.000+02:00

Today we cleared our thoughts.. or tried to, at the beach and in the forest behind the beach. It is my favorite recreational place nearby, and I have loved it since I moved to Aarhus nearly 7 years ago. It is also on my way to school, so I get to see it a lot, but it is nice to have time to really take it in. Where do you go when you need a time out?

Museum

2011-08-03T08:23:00.000+02:00

Saturday we went to "Vejen Museum" which is close to where Jakob's parents live. It was a lovely museum with a great variety of art.

Fleamarket

2011-08-02T15:22:00.000+02:00

Friday we went to my new favorite fleamarket.

Tintin on a market, meta :-)

Hygge

2011-07-31T16:02:00.000+02:00

This sums up the summer version og the Danish word "hygge" for me

latest fleamarket finds and a gift

2011-07-20T12:25:00.000+02:00

These are my treasures from my last Copenhagen visit, I got the big leather suitcase for 250 kr, the pretty three box for 40 kr and the Bjørn Wiinblad can is a gift from my mother, who has had it for years.

Smells

2011-06-19T11:12:00.000+02:00

Right now these rosehip flowers are sitting on my desk and spreading a gorgeous fragrance and just being pretty :-)

Smells are the strongest trigger of memories I'm often told, and I agree. For me the smell that contains the most memories are the smell that are produced in the fall in my home town, from the production of sugar from sugarbeats. It's a very special smell that you either hate or love, and I love it. Since I moved from the town when I was 15, and I don't visit very often, it seems like a much stronger trigger, and it's like it contains every fall memory from my childhood, sad and good ones. Do you know of any smells that trigger memories in you?

Flowers from my love

2011-06-17T13:03:00.000+02:00

These days I'm playing housewife and enjoying it :-) So my working guy brought me home these flowers, I could get used to this, maybe I just needed a bit more space not to go crazy, and a garden and some animals, but for now I'm satisfied with my staycation in our small apartment.

Long Summer

2011-06-13T23:18:00.000+02:00

My long Summer has begun. After handing in my paper my mom came to visit from Copenhagen the next day. It was a great day, we walked through the city, I got a new pair of shoes, yay :-) sodas and flowers.

Unfortunately my camera is broken, or I think it is the kit lens, which after research I found out was "destined" to break after a year or two... so now I have to buy new lenses, hopefully not a new camera. Do you have any recommendations for a great lens compatible with Canon (I'm getting the 50mm 1.8, but need a good all round one as well). Hope you are enjoying the summer :-)

Rainbow

2011-06-06T09:37:00.001+02:00

A few days ago a great piece of art was opened to the public at Aros here in Aarhus. It is the Danish/Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson who made it, and I can't wait to see it - from inside. I've followed the process of its making form the outside. I love the way it looks and the colored shadows it casts on the city. This picture was taken while it was under construction, when I went for a walk with Henriette, to take pictures for my guest post over at Sometimes Sweet.

Little creatures

2011-06-02T14:46:00.000+02:00

They will grow into beautiful butterflies :-)

Fleamarket

2011-05-22T09:54:00.001+02:00

This weekend was great, we visited Jakob's parents from Thursday and went home Saturday. As usual it was fantastic stress free weekend, filled with lots of outdoor hours and opportunity to dig in the garden and eat delicious food. On Saturday we went to a huge flea market in a town near to their home. There was everything there, and I really mean everything. A hairdresser, cows, chiromantic, dogs, furniture, flowers, fishing equipment and all the old funny things you expect to find such a place.

There was old keys as well, but they were very expensive, if he got the price he demanded that box full of keys would be worth thousands.

This is an old military bag with the phonetic alphabet on. Beautiful.

And then there was this amazing cash register, I would have bought it if I had a shop or something to justify it...

I've always had a soft spot for old radios as well, they are not really that expensive, so I think I will get one when we have room for it, in a couple of years :-)

If you are Danish you probably know those plastic boxes filled with first aid stuff you can get from FALCK. This is the very old version of that. It had a logo and all on the front, and a note inside of the content, the plasters were long gone, and now it held a casting mold for marzipan pigs (not included ). Unfortunately it was a bit too expensive as most of what I saw.

I can't wait to the next opportunity I get to go back :-)

Have you been up to anything fun this weekend?

My road

2011-05-05T18:14:00.000+02:00

Today was a beautiful day and I was going to a lecture at my university, or that will say - not on campus, since anthropology is located way out in the woods, in an old mansion. So since the weather was great I took my bike for the 45 minutes ride out there, and I had some time to take stops and photograph the beautiful road, it was pure magic riding through the forest right next to the ocean, over small wooden bridges over creeks while the sun shined through the leaves. I feel privileged that the road to get there is so beautiful, and it almost make up for the fact that it is not a place suited for a university education... but only almost :-) The photos are taking with my mobile, hence the bad quality, but I hope you can get an idea of my road to school.

More Copenhagen

2011-04-28T07:50:00.000+02:00

The break also gave me an opportunity to dust of my camera and finally take some pictures, when the sun decided to shine it was a great bonus since I as an amateur often find it hard to take good pictures when the whether is grey and dull.

Spring and the weekend

2011-03-24T18:49:00.000+01:00

It's already Thursday, and it's already almost the end of March, I can't believe how fast this month has past. I'm writing my exam paper the next two weeks, so maybe I can't post as often, but here is a another little piece of my fantastic weekend.

We took a great walk and found signs of spring, both critters and little green plants coming up :-) The old three is filled with ants, if you can't see it.

We had a fire and roasted a chicken on it, while sipping red wine and enjoying the spring feeling. The chicken was so delicious!

I can't wait for the next chance to cook over fire, I love it!

Weekend from toycam perspective

2011-03-22T12:09:00.000+01:00

Just a little collage of snapshots from my toy cam vignette phone app.

New studio

2011-03-08T13:05:00.001+01:00

Jakob has been working hard too these last months, and yesterday he went to the (almost finished) new studio and took some shots, that I processed so they could upload them. I love the old vintage machines they have and the look of the ones they've build themselves.

Photosafari

2011-03-07T05:24:00.009+01:00

A thing I love to do with my camera is to go on a photo safari around Aarhus with my friend Henriett e. On Saturday the sun was shining like it was spring and we had a nice time discovering new things. We found this cute all new tiny Chinese food place, which had great dumplings. Good Chinese food is very hard to find in Aarhus, so this made us happy :-)

Another new thing we discovered was "Yrsas garage" which was an antique like shop, very messy but with a lot of cool stuff. It was hard to take pictures because it was dark and crammed, but i got a few shots.

Friday and Flødeboller

2011-02-04T09:17:00.001+01:00

Happy Friday!

No this is not a food blog, but the last two Fridays I've been in the mood to share some sweet treats for the weekend. the other day I made "Flødeboller", which I have no idea whether they exist outside of Denmark, where it is very popular. It is basically a meringue on a biscuit covered in chocolate, but it can have variations such as a marzipan base, coffee or strawberry taste. I used a classic recipe - from here, ( click on "more" and get the recipe in English), but I would have loved to have made this from Summerbird, which is a great chocolate company, but I didn't have glucose, which it required. It was not a very easy thing to make, but very fun and messy :-)

click for more pictures and the recipe

Recipe

I used for approximately 12: 4,5 pasteurized egg whites, 225 g of sugar, 3 teaspoons of vanilla, 12 small fairly neutral sweet biscuits and about 400 g of dark chocolate

The ingredients are mixed in a bowl and put over a pot with boiling water, mix with an electrical mixer for 7 minutes until the whites are fairly stiff. Take it out of the pot and mix for about 5 minutes until the mix is very stiff.

I used a plastic bag, but if you have a special tool for it, I guess that is better. But make "tops" on the biscuits with the meringue. And let it sit for about an hour or more. You should lick the bowl :-)

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over boiling water. You can place the "flødeboller" on a grate, with a piece of baking paper under and cover them one by one with the chocolate using a spoon, and then reuse the chocolate on the baking paper. I chose the messy way, partly because of our very small kitchen....

You can also add coconut flakes, which is very common.
Let them "dry" and enjoy :-)

Friday and Fastelavnsboller

2011-01-28T17:36:00.001+01:00

Happy Friday everyone!

Since I have had a vacation the last couple of weeks, weekend is not the usual break after a hard week of work, but this one is the last days until I start again on Monday. I wanted to make "fastelavnsboller" which is a traditional Danish creme bun eaten at what used to be lent and had a lot of traditions connected to it. Nowadays children dress up in various costumes, and have a small party usually at school where they also hit a barrel filled with candy until it breaks (kind of a piñada). It is not until a couple of weeks though, but they already sell the buns in the stores, and I had a craving for some. I used this recipe and covered some of the buns in chocolate. Wish you a happy weekend. Click on "more" for the recipe translated into English

the recipe:
for 8 - 16 buns

Batter for the bun
1 dl milk
50 g yeast
125 g butter
1 egg
4 table spoons of sugar
375 g flour (ca. 6¼ dl)
The creme filling
1 pasteurized egg
2 tablespoons og sugar
2 dl milk
1½ tablespoons of flour
half a vanilla pod
How to-The batterMelt the butter and add the milk, dissolve the yeast within this and add the sugar and other ingredients for the batter. Let it rest for about an hour. - The cremeMix together all the ingredients in a pot, boil while stirring for about 5 min.Let it cool down - Making the bunsRoll out the batter and try to make about 16 squares, put about a tablespoon of creme on each and fold them tight together to make the buns. You can leave them for another 40 min. Bake for about 10 min,at 225 C.

Switzerland vol 1, The mountains (image heavy)

2011-01-18T13:22:00.001+01:00

Gudbjörg and Stefan were the best hosts ever. They arranged a trip to the Alpes to see the mountains. We took the train about 3 hours away, since the weather was better there. One of the things I like most about travelling is when nature, the scenery and maybe even animal life is completely different than what you have at home, and mountains is not something we got in Denmark, I didn't see mountains until I was maybe 13, on a skiing vacation to Italy. They are fascinating, raw nature! Click to read more below-->

We had some sun, but there was extremely foggy some of the trip as well.

There was a very cute an cartoon like village in the mountains, were we walked around waiting for the bus to take us down again. It was a catholic area, and in general I'm very impressed by the vast number of churches they have.

An important side note here is that the trip to the mountain wasn't all calm, not being born in a country with mountains makes you uneasy about hights (althoug Gudbjörg - the Icelandic viking also thought these were a bit scary). I held on very tight and rambled the whole way up to make myself believe it was ok.

This picture is just to show you how long a trip it was - The white stripe almost in the center of the photo is the "lift" and the "start" was right behind the house.... it was a long way up.

Quick DIY share - jewelery display

2010-12-13T13:27:00.002+01:00

I made this the other day, from a box I bought with dried fruits in the supermarket, I had some pretty paper and red thread lying around, and I made some holes in the box and took the thread through.

Brunkager - brown cookies

2010-12-02T07:41:00.014+01:00

Hello! Today I want to share this amazing recipe for "brunkager" - directly translated "brown cookies", they are very old traditionally Danish Christmas cookies, that have a wonderful taste of spices and caramel. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law, and I don't know where she got it, here goes:

125 g butter
125 g sugar
0,5 deciliter syrup
1 teaspoon powdered clove
1 teaspoon powdered coriander
4 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon
zest from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons candied peel
2 tablespoons candied orange zest (pommerand skal)
50 g chopped almonds
1 teaspoon potash
250 g flour

The butter, syrup and sugar is heated in a pot while stirred. When it's mixed and melted you take the pot of the heat and add the spices, potash, almonds and stir. After a bit you add the flour and mix. It needs a bit of cooling, and when you can, you make a roll and put it in the fridge until the next day. You should taste the dough - it's safe and it tastes amazing :-)
You cut with a sharp knife or maybe a cheese slicer very thin slices (1-2 mm thick) and put them in the oven 5-7 min by 200 C -have your eyes on them!. Enjoy.

DIY garland

2010-12-01T12:11:00.003+01:00

Got inspired by this post at Creature Domfort and wanted to make a garland, I used a embroiderer thread and some small felt balls I had, I just put them on the thread and had a garland, I know it is not that Christmas-like, but you can add sequins or beads or something else :-)