And then I’m off. See you in Italy!

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M.H.:

How come you haven’t created a facebook group for your blog?

I don’t really see a point to it, bloglovin’ tells people whenever I have updated the blog and I have my twitter account if I want to share things that are too short for a blog post. If someone wants to make a fan page for me, I will take that as a great compliment, but I do not currently have any plans of making one myself.

***

Karina:

What budget/average priced + quality digital camera would you recommend ?

I am in love with my Canon G11 (might not seem like I am at times when I complain about not owning a SLR), but I am not sure what price range one would consider average. The G11 cost around 3500 NOK. Can also recommend Canon s90, which is compact but very good. I am a Canon girl, always have been, so I actually do not know that much about the other brands. But I am a big fan of sending emails to the support center at Canon to ask for advice on which camera to buy.

Miriam:

How tall are you?

Somewhere around 1.73 cm. According to Helene I am 1.70, but we don’t trust her so.. My passport says that I am 1.73 cm.

Where do you live?

Oslo, Norway. Cold place, polar bears roam through the streets and everything. The Japanese tourist believe that anywho.

Favorite food?

Like everyone else I am an avid fan and consumer of sushi, but my dad’s home made Italian-styled pizzas are a favorite as well. The caesar salad (without dressing) my sister makes with home-made whole wheat croutons taste delicious, but nothing in the world really beats the taste of sea scallops.

Favorite blogs?

I have discovered a lot of  new blogs the last few m0nths, but my two absolute favorite blogs are the blogs of Columbine Smille and Emma Elwin. It’s fun to see how they are getting more and more attention lately, and I think it is absolutely well-deserved, both girls have a sense of style that I can only envy them. Have a lot of other favorites as well, and you can find most of them right H E R E.

The Western Wall, Old City of Jerusalem.

Adriana:

How many countries have you visited?

Hehe. I know I suggested this question myself, but it was actually a difficult one to answer. Decided to make a list, so here goes: Sweden, Denmark, England, France, Monaco, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, French Polynesia, various islands in the Caribbean, USA and the Maldives. Which is 20.

What is your favourite fruit?

Mango.

Which book made you cry lately?

I don’t recall having been moved to tears by a book since I finished the last Harry Potter book. I might have, but I can’t remember it. The 3 last Harry Potter books made me an emotional wreck, first Sirius, then Dumbledore and in the last book just about everyone (Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody, Dobby, Snape, Tonks, Lupin, Fred ++). Even now I can’t really identify what makes JK Rowling’s books that amazing, but there’s something about them that makes me re-read them at least once a year.

What is your favorite place on earth?

I don’t really have a favorite place, I have too many different sides of my personality to settle with one place in particular. One moment I would say that I love sitting alone on the pier watching the water, then the next moment I would want nothing else in the world than roam the streets of Istanbul or Paris with a bunch of friends.

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee. Black. No sugar, no milk, nothing but a simple black coffee.

Why did you start to blog?

Because I had so much I wanted to say, and write, and share with others, and not enough people to share it with. Started my first blog in 2003, but that was more of a home page thing where I could work on and develop my web design skills, then I started my first real blog in 2004-2005, in the style of a school diary. Embarrassing to read it a few years later, so it’s all deleted now.

Edona:

What is your favorite chocolate?

Festkaramell. Or just plain milk chocolate.

How does it feel to live alone so far away from your family?

Great. I love living alone, and I have never been the kind of person who gets home sick. As long as I can call them whenever I want or need to, I see them often enough to be content with that. :)

***

Vibeke:

Can you show us some pictures of your apartment?

I have some old pictures here, and I have a plan involving new pictures, but I need to clean up before I can take any pictures, you don’t want to see the mess that is my place right now.

Do you have a boyfriend?

Eternally single.

***

Tatiana:

Can you recommend any good restaurants or cafees in Oslo?

Have made a guide to Oslo right H E R E.

***

Tone Bø:

Do you regret moving to Oslo?

Not at all, best decision I ever made. I think it is very important to move away from your hometown, to experience living on your own, getting to know a new place and new people.

metallicatrollet:

What inspires you?

People who dare to do whatever they can to reach their goals. Even if all odds are against them.

What magazines do you read?

I don’t really read that many magazines, but when I do I love the Danish magazines COVER and Eurowoman, as well as i-D, Numéro, Italian Vogue, Vixen Magazine, Costume and Interview. Especially Numéro (every version of it) , who have the best editorials.

What are the pros and cons of having such a well-known blog?

I don’t really feel that my blog is that well-known, so everything that I am invited to and given is really just a little unreal to me still. It’s fun, albeit a little embarrassing when I get recognized on the street. So far I have yet to experience any downsides to it, or at least not any major issues. I have had issues with people I’ve known earlier that seem to be offended somehow by the fact that I blog, and make fun of me for it behind my back, but as I can’t really see why it should be something to make fun of anyone about I don’t really care.

Ida & me – Eiffel Tower – Paris – April 2010.

Stephanie:

What sort of (summer) jobs have you had in the past?

I have not really had that many summer jobs, but spent one summer driving around in a boat selling sørlands chips. I prefer to have a real summer vacation doing absolutely nothing at our cabin. And I don’t need any money to do nothing at all ;) My first year in Oslo I worked in a book store, but I decided to quit when I started to study political science in addition to English literature, because I’d rather focus on school now (we’ve all got to work a lot eventually, so let’s not rush it).

Do you live alone in your flat (at the moment)?

Yes.

Your skin glows, what products do you use?

I’m so bad when it comes to my skin, but luckily for me I don’t use too much make-up (mineral foundation and mascara mostly). The only skin care I use is L’Oreal Perfect Clean Scrub, mostly because it smells delicious and the little scrubbing-thing that comes with it feels fantastic on your skin. :P

If you didn’t live in Norway, where would you like to live?

London or Paris. Or maybe New York. Awfully cliché, I know, but there’s a reason why these cities are the cities everyone wants to go to.

Which place are you planning on visiting next?

Italy tomorrow. I am trying to convince my Mum and Dad that China or Singapore should be our next destination, but I’m not sure I’m getting through to them. Would also love to visit Lebanon and Nicaragua. And go skiing in Canada. And see the pyramids in Egypt. And visit the big cities in Russia, Eastern Europe is a region that I am more and more fascinated about. I wish I had all the money in the world, or the guts to travel without any money at all. There’s just so many places I want to see.

And that concludes part 1. NOW I need to pack.

DRESS+HAT h&m CARDIGAN gina tricot BOOTS acne

For some reason none of you readers discovered (or commented on) the new addition to my apartment in the last outfit-picture. The old IKEA clock has been replaced by this new version, also from the glorious IKEA. And this one actually works (unlike the old one, which have been permanently set on 11:55 the last 2 years). Do you approve?

In other news, I am starting to think about what I am supposed to pack for Italy, the weather channels are talking about up to 30 degrees (celsius) by the beginning of next week, so I might just pack a bikini and nothing else. Well maybe sunglasses and some sandals.

Have any of you been to Rome or Puglia before? I have been to Italy six times before, but never to Rome nor Puglia, so I am in need of shopping guides, food guides, sight-seeing guides and what-not-to-do guides. Please feel free to help me :)

HAT h&m TSHIRT 5preview

Cock your hat – angles are attitudes.
Frank Sinatra

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Well, still not finished with these essays, so I though we could do something fun while I’m reading and writing myself to an early death. Yes, you guessed it: a Q&A round. I loooove talking about myself, I just need a question to get started.  So if you’re up for it, then let’s do it. Don’t know what to ask me about, well, something in the lines of:  How many countries have you visited? What is your favourite fruit? Which book made you cry lately?  What is your favorite place on earth? Coffee or Tea? Why did you start to blog? +++

So, ASK AWAY.

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Got some of the photos from the MNY launch in the mail yesterday. Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I have a bad habit of making some kind of face whenever someone points a camera in my general direction. You might have noticed..

Anyways, MNY make-up has now arrived in various CUBUS stores all over the country, so I thought I might remind you of the fact. Since I attended the launch of the brand I have been trying to play around with color a little bit more, I have periods of nail polish obsession and now I’ve started to venture out into the vast land of colored eye shadow. Being a firm believer in all tones of brown and black whenever I put on eye shadow (with a hint of white, or gold ones in awhile to spice up the browns), this sort of a revolution for my part. A fun one at that. The make-up is easy to apply and work with, even an amateur like me can do it. Especially the nail polish is God’s gift to me. Easy to apply, perfect result. And of course, it costs next to nothing (29kr for a nail polish I think).

I might sound like some brain-washed (or well paid-off) person, but in reality I am just very happy with these products.

Have any of you tried it yet, and if so, what do you think?

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Went to visit Lindex Street Stories in Markveien yesterday.

And, when bribed with well-brewed espresso and chocolate, I had no trouble enjoying myself immensely.

Johnny and Marie were there, showing some bloglovin’ towards everyone who stepped by the shop.

Alex was there too, sporting his new hair do. He looks so evil. In a good way of course. We chatted until I spotted…

… the glass jar filled with chocolates. Now you guys know how much I love chocolate.

My preciousss.

Marie thought I was acting childish…

..so I had to step outside and collect myself, as well as pose for Johnny’s camera.

Then I got tired of posing and we ran up to have a look at whatever Fretex Unica had to offer…

… which turned out to be nothing at all. Not even this hat. Did manage to buy somethingsomething later. Which I will show you when my camera and I have rekindled our friendship. He is still a little grumpy about how much I want a new camera.

How has your weekend been so far, ladies (and fellas) ?

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TRENCH COAT vintage from Tonica Vintage BOOTS acne BAG koma vintage TURTLENECK h&m

Autumn arrived today, cold and rainy. Would have thought it would help my essay writing, but I ended up leaving to visit Marie and Johnny at the Lindex Street Stories hide-out at Grünerløkka (Markveien 61). Seeing this photo I realize how much I miss my SLR camera. While G11 is a good camera, it lacks the softness and attention to details that you get with the more advanced cameras.

After a long day of essay writing, chit-chatting, chocolate consumption and rain trying to make me depressed, I am ready to take the rest of the evening off and get my mind off school for a couple of hours. I hope you’re enjoying a nice Friday evening, either at home with candles and something good to eat or out partying like rock stars despite the weather. I’ll be doing the last. ;)

[photo_Nadia from Lindex Street Stories]

You wait for a silence, I wait for a word
Lying next to your frame, girl unobserved
You change your position, you’re changing me
Casting these shadows, where they shouldn’t be

Sat on your sofa, it’s all broken springs
This isn’t the place for those violin strings
I try out a smile, and I aim it at you
You must have missed it, you always do

Ellie Goulding – The Writer

SHORTS zara BOOTS bianco SWEATER weekday NECKLACE vintage BAG marc by marc jacobs

Last night Flippa K opened their new flagship store in Oslo (right next to the new Acne store in Øvre Slottsgate) with champagne, macaroons (can’t remember the last time I went to a fashion event that didn’t serve macaroons) and LOADS of people. Nearly 300 or so I was told. In other words the store was quite crowded, but from the little I got to see it looks quite neat. The classic look of Filippa K was reflected by a simple and classic design. Slightly dehydrated I gave up after an hour of mingling and ran home to watch The Mentalist. Well not home, I crashed on the sofa at my second-home at Grünerløkka with chips, chocolate and pizza.

Sometime nothing really beats the couch, friends and something good on TV. So underestimated.

T-SHIRT 5preview SKIRT+SCARF h&m BOOTS acne KNITTED JACKET primark

In my Fiction & Film class we’re studying different novels and the filmic adaption of said novels. The last 3 weeks we’ve been focusing on Jane Austen’s Emma, watching the 1996-version with Kate Beckinsale as Emma, as well as the BBC series from 2009. AND (to my great bliss, cheerfulness, happiness, excitement and other words that express joy) Clueless. I used to love the movie (and tv-series) about Cher and Dionne when I was a child, but I remember them as quite simple and void of all meaning, so I was surprised when I saw it on the curriculum list. Watching Clueless with Emma in the back of my mind added a new layer to the movie, and although the big thematic lines of the novel is lost in translation, the added layer of recognition in form of scenes, characters and quotes from the book made it a new movie for my part.

I would recommend you to do the same, not just with Clueless&Emma, but with other movies like Cast Away (inspired by Robinson Crusoe) and The Hours (inspired by Mrs Dalloway). And of course Bridget Jones’ Diary, which is inspired by Pride & Prejudice (at least to some extent), most notably with Hugh Grant Colin Firth reappearing in his role of Mr. Darcy, only this time he is Mark Darcy instead of Fitzwilliam.

Do you find me talking so much about my school subjects any fun, or should I drop it? I realize that it might seem a bit boring if you’re not as devoted to it as I am at the moment… ;)

And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,
And maidens call it Love-in-idleness.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare.

Topic for today’s 8am lecture was Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I am falling in love with the prose and metrics. Shakespeare had a way with words which never cease to astound me. Beautiful and funny. I have always loved Romeo & Juliet (I could recite entire balcony scene at one point) and Hamlet, but through this course I have discovered that I am starting to feel a certain fondness for both Antony and Cleopatra, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Henry V on the other hand is just to much word and too little that actually makes sense for my taste, the language gets too cryptic for my part.

But especially Antony & Cleopatra has surprised and captured me. This is a strange love story of the 40 year old Antony in some sort of marital/middle age crisis, a married man who flees to Egypt and take Cleopatra as a mistress. Is the relationship between them love or lust, are they the traditional tragic lovers or are they just pathetic? I haven’t decided yet in any case.

NOW, I’m late for my lecture in Fiction&Film.
LATER, official opening of the new Filippa K flagship store.

Found this wonderful thing at an alternative shop on Grünerløkka yesterday.  Feel like belly-dancing and learning all about those intricate hand movements in Indian dance. And reading White Tiger and Life of Pi all over again. But school has top priority (that and the new episodes of Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries…), so I’ll just have to wait until the Christmas holidays or my next life.

Anywho, one of you asked if I could print out the list of my current playlist for those of you who haven’t got spotify, and I am happy to oblige:

Miike Snow – Animal
Peter Yorn and Scarlett Johanson – Blackie’s Dead
Peter Yorn and Scarlett Johanson – Relator
Red – Breath Into Me
The Whitest Boy Alive – Burning
Rihanna – Cold Case Love
Crookers ft Yelle – Cooler Coleur
Florence + The Machines – Dog Days Are Over
B.O.B – Fame
B.O.B – Magic
The Doors – Soul Kitchen
The Doors – People Are Strange
MGMT – Flash Delirium
30 Seconds To Mars – Hurricane
30 Seconds To Mars – Kings & Queens
Kakkmaddafakka – Is She
Kakkmaddafakka – Cool
Peter Bjorn And John – I’m Losing My Mind
Paramore – Ignorance
Davy Jones’ Locker – Return To Zero
Ellie Goulding – The Writer

PANTS gestuz BOOTS zara SWEATER weekday PURSE vintage WRISTBAND lindex

Spent the day at Grünerløkka, treasure hunting through various markets, thrift stores and secondhand boutiques. Bought a ring, hand jewelery and some coffee and got a nice walk in the sun enjoying the day and all those gorgeous people who magically appear on Grünerløkka on Sundays (where do they hide the rest of the week?).

When we got home the boys made us watch Zeitgeist, talking about “the amazing theories that were presented in the movie, which of course had to be true (at least many of them).. just look at the sources they have listed.” Well, my dear lads, just because they can list up many sources doesn’t mean that those sources are necessarily true, they present things completely out of their given context and draw lines where no lines exist. The whole movie was just cheesy and if you believe blindly whatever they present as facts, you are just as naive and dumb as they believe society is when we believe what the government and the media tells us. Blah. I recent conspiracy theories with a passion. They rarely have their facts correct, and I am a big fan of facts.

Have any of you seen it, and if so, what do you think?

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Two days this week I have woke up at 5:45 to eat breakfast, brush my teeth and drag my tired self all the way to my aunt’s to follow my cousin to school. She’s a first grader, and still overly enthusiastic about school (obviously, I loved school until I became “cool” at age 13-14). Fuzzing over home work books and lunch boxes I realized that I miss school. I miss having the routine of going to school, meeting friends, dreaming about recess and then when the bell rang and school was finished for the day, you could do whatever you wanted.

These days school and free time is mixed together, and I never really take the time to relax. I answer emails and make arrangements with friends during the lectures and read curriculum in the weekends and when I am on vacation. And even though I love most of the subjects I am taking this year, it is tearing on me. You might have noticed that it is affecting my blogging, and I must apologize for that. I will try to get better, but right now my focus is well… all over the place.

In less than two weeks I am trading in this life for ten days of sun and relaxation in Rome and then Puglia in Southern Italy, and I think it might be just what I need.

How about you, is school and work and free time all jumbled together, or are you good at sorting and keeping your life in order?