An inspiring weekend in Bergen
I’ve just spent a fabulous weekend in Bergen.
I had a cold, I only had one full day to enjoy it, (whereof my friend, Lise was working half the day), I could only hear with one ear (and that one partially), it was cold, slushy, and I had no long winter underwear. Despite all this, it turned out to be a fantastic weekend full of arts, crafts, and tasty winter treats.
We drank glögg (a kind of Scandinavian mulled wine), ate rice porridge with cinnamon, gingerbread cookies and ginger cookies, went to the Christmas market, and held a little Christmas workshop.
Lise’s mother took me a quilting shop, where I bought materials for a present for someone. It was such a beautiful shop! Every shelf and box was arranged meticulously in all the colors of the rainbow and then some. Others were sorted into themes, so there were boxes of Christmas-themed fabrics, vehicle-themed fabrics with tractors and planes and trains, and so much more. If I had been feeling a bit richer and had unlimited space in my suitcase, I would have come out of there with a proper stash.
Lise’s boyfriend patiently showed me around the shops in Bergen. While we waited for Lise to get off work. He took me to buy such essentials as “Boller”, wooly long johns, and postcards. Then, when Lise arrived, we went to even more interesting places.
The first was a café/bar, where a nude painting of the owner lounging in a sofa decorated one of the colorful walls. The ceilings were decorated with toys, and the walls were studded with LP’s, paintings, and stencils. It was a pretty special place. But the best thing was the super-tasty (non-alcoholic) spicy apple cider served with what I think was red pepper. It warmed me right up.
We also hit the Design & Arts crafts Christmas market, which was located in Bryggen. The atmosphere was very inspiring. The decoration was Christmas-themed, but not in a supertacky “Ho-Ho-Ho” animated robotic hell kind of way - instead it was all quiet, sparkling white Christmas lights and traditional Scandinavian decorations. I picked up a few business cards from my favorite vendors. Here are a few:
Leirbrent: Especially cool textured swimming cap cups.
made in bergen had a very spiffy stand, featuring clothes, cards, bags and all kinds of other designer products.
I loved Gunvor’s illustrations. Visit her blog for more coolness. My favorite was a matchbox, much in the style of the images above, featuring the text “Mein hertz brennt”, which is a Rammstein song. :)
Maren Sofie Strømme displayed and sold her amazing fish-skin bracelets. I have no idea how you can make something so soft, and unique out of fish skin.
Anyway, after we finished touring the Christmas market, we went to the book shop (yay!) and hobby shop (yaaay!), and finally returned home for some more arts and crafts (super-yay!), glögg, and rice porridge.
I got to try something new. Guided and aided by both Lise’s mother and herself, I almost finished an entire Christmas present in two sittings! I am very pleased with it, and hope the recipient will enjoy it too. I’ll have to make a few more of these now that I know how to do it. :) I will post a photo and link to the tutorial after Christmas.
I had a cold, I only had one full day to enjoy it, (whereof my friend, Lise was working half the day), I could only hear with one ear (and that one partially), it was cold, slushy, and I had no long winter underwear. Despite all this, it turned out to be a fantastic weekend full of arts, crafts, and tasty winter treats.
We drank glögg (a kind of Scandinavian mulled wine), ate rice porridge with cinnamon, gingerbread cookies and ginger cookies, went to the Christmas market, and held a little Christmas workshop.
Lise’s mother took me a quilting shop, where I bought materials for a present for someone. It was such a beautiful shop! Every shelf and box was arranged meticulously in all the colors of the rainbow and then some. Others were sorted into themes, so there were boxes of Christmas-themed fabrics, vehicle-themed fabrics with tractors and planes and trains, and so much more. If I had been feeling a bit richer and had unlimited space in my suitcase, I would have come out of there with a proper stash.
Lise’s boyfriend patiently showed me around the shops in Bergen. While we waited for Lise to get off work. He took me to buy such essentials as “Boller”, wooly long johns, and postcards. Then, when Lise arrived, we went to even more interesting places.
The first was a café/bar, where a nude painting of the owner lounging in a sofa decorated one of the colorful walls. The ceilings were decorated with toys, and the walls were studded with LP’s, paintings, and stencils. It was a pretty special place. But the best thing was the super-tasty (non-alcoholic) spicy apple cider served with what I think was red pepper. It warmed me right up.
Leirbrent: Especially cool textured swimming cap cups.
Anyway, after we finished touring the Christmas market, we went to the book shop (yay!) and hobby shop (yaaay!), and finally returned home for some more arts and crafts (super-yay!), glögg, and rice porridge.
I got to try something new. Guided and aided by both Lise’s mother and herself, I almost finished an entire Christmas present in two sittings! I am very pleased with it, and hope the recipient will enjoy it too. I’ll have to make a few more of these now that I know how to do it. :) I will post a photo and link to the tutorial after Christmas.
Comments
Post a Comment