Åhléns: move over Ikea

Throughout the history of this blog, I have intimated several times that I am a fan of Scandinavian design.  If you share my predilection for the minimalist, simple, look imbued in all things Scandinavia.  This post, my friends, will be particularly exciting- it was for me!

This morning, while skimming the Freshly Pressed posts on WordPress, I decided to click on one post that caught my eye by Another House Blog. There was a segment on Another House related to the blogger’s travel in Trondheim, Norway and, wait for it, a post about Åhléns, the most magical, wonderful, exciting, interior design department store I have ever seen (Heal’s, in London, is a close second, followed by Muji!).  Hailing from Toronto, I have never heard of Åhléns before but now that I have discovered it, it is one more reason why I have to get myself to Sweden + Norway.

The Åhléns low-down is as follows for those of you who to know a bit about the history of this design shopping mecca:  This is a full department store, that got its start in Sweden in 1899 as a mail-order company which eventually evolved to a brick and mortar operation.  They carry everything from fashion and beauty to home furnishings and their stores in Norway are interiors only.  Åhléns states on its website that the company’s goal is “to be a woman’s favourite and first on her shopping list.”  Talk about a clear brand position and identity.  I love this company’s home line.  It has such cute, colourful, simple stuff that would look amazing in any home and what I have shown below is only scratching the surface.  Happy Wednesday.

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saunas, wellness centres and loyly

I am researching wellness centres and spas today for an upcoming driving trip to Croatia and wanted to write a post about saunas, wellness centres and a fabulous looking space called, Loyly in Portland.

While I am not a neophyte when it comes to spas and spa treatments, I have discovered that spas in Europe are on a whole different level of “spa-ness” than my previous knowledge prior to moving to Prague.  To give you a breakdown, there are your typical city-retail spas and hotel spas and then there are wellness centres.  Wellness centres, from what I gather, are typcially situated on large (like football field-large) , well manicured properties, in picturesque settings, housed across numerous, beautiful, modern buildings offering multi-floor activities for the spa goer or spa entourage such as 5-10 different pools, scented saunas both dry and wet, restaurants, fitness centres, and treatment rooms. You can purchase day passes or a pass for a couple of hours.  It is really quite an experience, if you have never been.

My first experience at Therme Wien, an urban wellness centre in Vienna, Austria, was relaxing, rejuvenating and a bit shocking.  Let it be stated, (and I did not know this before going in), it is 100% normal, to go naked in a spa.  After reading-up on spa etiquette, nudity requirements vary from country to country, but co-ed naked change rooms and saunas are not unusual.  I was a bit startled and entirely unprepared for a situation when I was asked to leave (read: EXIT) a sauna room at Therme Wien, if I didn’t agree to check my bathing suit outside.

After I was through with Therme Wien, I frantically Googled in search for some sort of explanation or justification as to why I was not allowed to sit in a sauna in a bikini and towel.  All the signs in Therme Wien were in German and I could not decipher the instructions, rules and regulations of the spa.  Ooops!  Beginner’s mistake.  These four articles set me straight and gave me a good laugh here, here, here and here.  Etiquette and joking aside, wellness centres are beautifully designed spaces and I was impressed to read about Loyly in Portland, Oregon.  Loyly is a public sauna, that opened just outside Portland, by owner, Jessica Kelso who was inspired by Scandinavian bath houses.  Along with architect, Brendon Farrell, Jessica successfully created a tranquil space for visitors to relax and destress outside the city.  Brilliantly, attached to Loyly is Steam’s after sauna, bar, so you can sweat, unwind and then have a drink and unwind again.

Portland Mercury

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Halloween

Happy Halloween from Prague. Belive it or not, Halloween is celebrated here, however not to the North American standard and extreme with crazy decorations and trick or treating.    I had a great weekend visiting a local farmer’s market, shopping around several grocery stores in search of baking supplies and baking up a storm for a Halloween party.  As I was researching what to bake for the Halloween party, I stumbled a cross a couple great recipes that I would like to go back and try such as Chef Dennis Pumpkin Crunch Cake and Sweetapolita Autumn Delight Cake.  Both of these cakes look sumptuous.

I ended up baking two items from classic New York bakeries: Magnolia Bakery Vanilla cupcakes with a lemon butter cream (from cookbook: More from Magnolia) and decorated them with chocolate sprinkles and colourful gummy worms. I also made a batch of Fat Witch Bakery chocolate pumpkin brownies covered in a chocolate icing (from cookbook: Fat Witch Brownies) and my own scary mix of crushed vanilla wafers and fall coloured chocolate covered pumpkin seeds.

Halloween marked my first baking endeavour in Prague and boy did I learn something about the availability of baking ingredients fast.  Apparently, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find food colouring in Prague, hence why no orange frosting on my cupcakes.  It is also IMPOSSIBLE to find vanilla.  Instead I found some gross smelling vanilla extract in 15ml bottle (the size of your pinky finger) and vanilla sugar, which I am familiar with from European cooking shows but I was not about to attempt to introduce a new ingredient to my repertoire last-minute and risk having to throw out two batches of baked goods.  The other thing I found perplexing was the brown sugar situation.  Brown sugar comes in crystal form, not the rich, soft type you can buy in North America.  How am I supposed to make chocolate chip cookies with brown sugar crystals….  I hope someone who is reading this post will have some insight. Anyway, the baked goods turned out great.  The process was good fun and a good adventure. Happy Halloween.

flower arranging: Jeff Leatham

This morning I woke up and was motivated to make a cauliflower fennel soup before going to my afternoon Czech class. While chopping up my soup veggies,  I had the Discovery Channel’s Travel & Living playing in the background where a show titled, Chic City was on air.  Today’s show was profiling Paris and the city’s most creative and talented people.

While casually tuning in and out to what the announcer was saying, one person, in particular caught my attention:  Jeff Leatham, Artistic Director for the Four Season’s Hotel George V in Paris.  I think it was the statistics of how many flowers the hotel uses in a given month that first made me look up from cutting cauliflower.   Don’t quote me on the statistics exactly but I recall that Jeff changes over the hotel’s floral arrangements every four weeks and goes through something like 17,000 blooms  (from Amsterdam) and has a budget of $1m for the year.  Whatever the gargantuan number of flowers the hotel uses in its displays, Jeff is the luckiest guy I know.  He gets to work with a magnificent backdrop and dream up ways to inject more life, energy, drama and mood into the atmosphere via his flowers. He now has a show called Flowers Uncut on TLC if you are interested in seeing more about him and his work.

Jeff’s work is breathtaking, especially because of its volume and density.  Everywhere you look, the George V is bursting with colour, texture, glass all positioned at varying heights and angles.  Preston Bailey (whose work I also adore), you have competition across the Atlantic ocean!

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wall decorating

This weekend was dedicated to organization.  We’ve been in our new apartment in Prague for just under one month and we have a list of small tasks that needed to be taken care of to make our house a home.  The biggest and most tedious task is of course, hanging pictures.  Believe it or not, finding a new home for a print is harder than you think.  I think we spent at least an hour walking around carrying pictures from one room to another, lifting things up against a wall while one of us stands back and contemplates the position, the height, the angle etc.

In my apartment in particular, there are also several walls which I prefer to keep blank, due to architectural interest leaving me with fewer options for picture and shelf hanging than I had in Toronto.   Last night, we hung five pieces and still have a long way to go but at least for now, our place looks a bit more homey.

I was reminded of a brand I stumbled upon while in Berlin that I wished I had with me last night to add some colour and interest to our office.  German design firm, Pulpo, makes fantastic and colourful hooks, hangers in addition to furniture and other accessories.  I am particularly fond of their Mosaic line, some of which you can see below.  While I love my Ikea magazine rack and baskets, sometimes you prefer to a piece that is a bit smaller and less bulky on the wall.  We will continue our wall decorating project next month after we get a couple of items re-framed and get our last room set up.

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