The Super Comfy Party Girl.

Black knitted tube scarf, "Yin", and black pants with double side pockets, Monki. Striped tank top, Weekday. Beige cardigan, Forever 21. Black patent boots, Vagabond.

(Photos by me.)

After reading my post about the perfect haircut, lots of you were kind enough to tell me about the clip-on fringe (or "winge", as they call it) that is sold at Asos - someone even suggested the model might be wearing one in the photos. I really don't think she is, since I've seen tons of photos of her and her bangs look way too natural to be clip-ons - and the reason I know this, is that I own one myself. I bought it from Asos a year ago, to help me decide if I should cut mine or not. I fell in love with it (even though it does not look real), went to the hairdresser's and told them to cut my bangs "just like these fake ones!" - and was thoroughly disappointed. Turns out my hair simply can't look that good. Well, I can still wear my clip-on fringe - and in these photos, I am. (So, just to be clear: I did not get a haircut. The bangs are fake.)

I wear these pants far too often, though usually only around the house, since they're basically... sweatpants. (Which obviously makes them insanely comfortable.) But last night, I was tired and couldn't muster up the energy to get dressed up, and I thought "come on, I'm just going to our friends' house for dinner, it will be Ronnie and his best friend Peter, Peter's girlfriend and myself - who am I trying to impress?". So, I got in the car, I drove to Stockholm and rang the doorbell - in my sweatpants - only to be greeted by a ton of people I'd never met before. Turns out there was quite the party going on in there! "Ooops, did we forget to tell you?" Oh well. There's no law against wearing sweatpants to a party, sure, and I was definitely the most comfy guest there. But still... In hindsight, I wish I'd at least put on a skirt. I mean, I dress up more than this when I'm going to sit all alone in my office all day!

But you know what? I realized just now that this is very much like me. Back at University, the people in our class thought my best friend Fanny and I were nuts - we would get all dolled up for school, in dresses and high heels and make up, and then go out at night (hey, we were students, we always went out) wearing jeans, t-shirts and Converse sneakers. We figured it was nothing but logical: we loved fashion and saw school as a great opportunity to dress up, but when we went out to clubs or concerts, we wanted to dance dance dance! Then we needed to be as comfortable as possible, because seriously, how do people dance in high heels?! I'm no Beyoncé, that's for sure - I need my flats if I'm going to jump up and down for three hours straight.

I didn't wear the fake bangs to the dinner/party, but my usual side-swept bangs - and I must say, I felt prettier that way than in these photos! So maybe I can live without cutting them, after all. Though... I love the red shade my hair got when I edited the photos, maybe that's what I should be doing to get a little bit of change? Go to the hair salon and ask for a bit of a chestnut color?

Okay, I should go to sleep now. I want to be all fresh and sharp for my first day in London tomorrow! I can't believe I haven't been there since I lived over at Hyde Park Corner back in 2003. Can't wait!

Welcome to my humble abode.

On Thursday, these two lovely ladies drove all the way out here for a day of complete countryside chillin' with yours truly and da katz.

We started out by taking a walk around the neighbourhood - I needed to go pick up one of our cars that was being serviced down at the auto shop - and apparently both Malin and Annsofie found the walk quite hilarious. In both of these photos, Annsofie is getting ready to throw chestnuts for me to catch. Like little kids! That's awesome. I happen to love kids.

Then we went home and made dinner. Malin was making her dad's "famous" beef something - turned out it would have deserved being famous, it was ridiculously tasty - and I was in charge of the appetizers.

Malin thought it was a good idea to try and feed raw onions to Biianka. Luckily, my baby girl knows better. She and her brother got their favorite smelly chicken-ish cat food instead.

I am not very much into cooking, but I do make a mean goat cheese toast - and why change a winning concept? It is one of the most delicious dishes ever!

We were all working on Friday, so we toasted in non-alcoholic cider and felt like insanely responsible adults. Which I suppose we sort of are.

Responsible Adult # 1.

Responsible Adult # 2.

Sleepy kitty # 1.

The cats finished their food in about three and a half seconds, but Baryshnik decided to stay and hang out by the dinner table. Such a gentleman.

After dinner, we slumped on the couches, drank coffee and ate candy and talked about boys and work and boys and work and eternal love - you know, the important things.

I'm always really nervous before friends visit our house for the first time; for some reason I keep obsessing over if they'll think it's nice and clean and charming or not. Which is obviously a complete waste of time, since if someone didn't like it, they would most likely be polite enough not to let me know. I'm not sure why it's so important to me that others think we have a great home, but probably it has something to do with the fact that people generally think Ronnie and I are a bit nuts for leaving Stockholm for a house - a life - in the middle of nowhere. So if they come out here and think it's idyllic and peaceful and beautiful out here, it's like I've somehow redeemed myself in their eyes. That they might understand why I've chosen this life for myself. But gosh, it's all so stupid. I know it doesn't matter, not even a little bit - all that matters is that I LOVE IT HERE. I really, really, really do. This is my sacred place, be it nice and clean or not. This is my life now, and I've never regretted it. Not for a split second.

The photo shoot yesterday went beyond my expectations, I'm so happy with the result! Now I just hope that Tove - the amazing lady I photographed - will be as satisfied with the photos as I am...

I've been working for a few hours and now I'll have to get ready, since I'm driving into Stockholm for the second day in a row; Ronnie and I are going to have dinner with friends before driving back home tonight. I'm absolutely not used to all of these activities - even if they're really great and fun ones - and I just hope I'll be able to enjoy myself and not get too tired and worn out in the days to come. Because on Monday, I'm going to London, baby!

Fretalian Friday.

Cobalt blue dress and mustard beret, Monki. Snakeskin print belt, Asos. White lace socks, Lindex. Black suede wedges, Steve Madden.

(Photos by me.)

My favorite clothing store in the whole world, Monki, now has a webshop. This is both fantastic - since I rarely have enough time or energy to drive for hours to get to one of their stores - and very, very dangerous. How am I supposed to refrain from indulging in all that awesomeness when it's right there, only a few clicks away?

I decided that the best way was to go through all the different categories and order the five items I, ehmmm, "couldn't live without" (yeah right) - oh, and maybe I should mention that this is an incredibly affordable brand - and now I have begun a complete no-shopping-regimen. The somewhat disturbing reality is that I own tons and tons of clothes and shoes that I haven't even worn yet - ergo, no use whatsoever for more shopping.

This mustard beret and cobalt blue sheer chiffon dress were two of the "can't live without" pieces, and I love the way the colors compliment each other. I wore this on Friday when we had friends visiting - Ronnie made the most delicious Italian dinner, which I didn't match that well, fashion-wise, since I was going for more of a French touch. Whatever, we'll just call it European Fusion! Or maybe... Fretalian?

Our friends were, as you can see, absolutely thrilled to get to spend their weekend in our lovely house. Sure, it could be that they're just crazy about eachother, but I prefer to think that they were blown away by our company.

Biianka, who is usually not too excited about having new people in the house, turned out to be quite the friendly little darling all night. Here: one cute kitty butt. 

Ronnie has an awful lot of amazing qualities, and cooking is definitely one of them!

I was in charge of the Saturday morning breakfast, and I took my task quite seriously - I baked not only one loaf of bread, but two! A dark bread with lingonberries, raisins, cranberries and pumpkin- and sunflower seeds. I had one of my sandwiches with brie, parma ham, tomatoe and basil and the other with brie and apricot marmalade.

All in all, it's been quite the pleasant weekend - I hope you've had a good one, too!

In focus on Bond Street.

Grey satin top and nude layered tulle skirt, Monki. Black leather belt, Gina Tricot. White lace trim socks, Lindex. Black army boots, Vagabond. Brown leather satchel, Vero Moda. Lipstick, "Red Revolution" by Maybelline.

Let's start by giving a big hand to my darling stand-in photographer slash boyfriend, who's totally starting to master my camera's auto focus! Yay Ronnie!

Hmm. I just now realized that I might not have told you the reason why I'm in New York City. (Have I? Can't remember. Sorry if I'm repeating myself!)

I'm here because my boyfriend (the cutie in the scarf above - my scarf, to be exact), who's a writer and wants to be a film director, is studying at The Edit Center for the summer. He's going to make his second short film soon and he got a scholarship to study a six week course here in NYC - I guess he believes having a greater understanding for the editing process will help him out a lot while directing, and that sounds pretty reasonable to me. And it's not like I'd pass up a chance to spend a summer in the city of my dreams, so here I am!

I can't stay all summer, though - we could only find a nice home for our cats for three weeks, but that's okay: I couldn't stand being away from them longer than that anyway. They're living with a really sweet and caring family way out in the woods (yes, we know this family) and can run around outside all day long, just like they usually do. We get constant updates on their whereabouts, so we know they're okay, but I'm so not used to life without them! Luckily, New York is a pretty awesome place to be when you want to get distracted.

On to the outfit. Not a lot of variety, as you can see if you follow this blog - I didn't bring a lot of clothes and most of all, I can't wear half of what I brought. It's way too hot. (Everyone told me that even the nights are really warm here, but I suppose I didn't listen, haha!) I only brought one bag, the leather satchel I'm wearing in every single post, since I knew I'd never use a bag I can't stuff my camera, a couple of books and my computer into. So it's a good thing the satchel goes with practically any outfit.

I bought the lipstick, "#630 Red Revolution" by Maybelline, my first night here and I've been using it every day since. I always thought I hated Maybelline (their mascara is a disaster for my lashes), but it turns out their lipsticks are actually terrific. When I say that, I basically mean that they smell really nice - that's usually what I base my lipstick opinions on! I generally dislike the "long lasting" lipsticks, they're much too dry for my lips, so I don't expect the color to stay put for very long. I figure, whatever, it's not like it's such a hassle to put on a new coat now and then.

The outfit photos were taken on Bond Street last night when we went down to NoHo to have dinner. We ended up at a place called "Jones", a very laid back chili restaurant on Great Jones Street.

I had the chili of the day. It was spicy and delicious and everything chili is supposed to be.

Ronnie wanted the chili too, but I ordered first and he has this thing about not wanting to order the same as me (or anyone else at the table if we're a group of people). I think he sees it as unoriginal. Well, his loss! But he got the Louisiana Jambalaya with corn bread and seemed perfectly happy with it.

Coconut cream pie for dessert. Ronnie loves coconut, I used to think it's okay, but now I use a shampoo with real coconut flakes in it and when I had the pie, I couldn't stop thinking that it was like eating hair products.

Then we went on to have a beer at Kings Cross on Bowery - a basement bar where they happened to play all of our favorite songs! Even a lot of Swedish bands, which made us very proud and patriotic, haha.

Now I'm going to meet Ronnie in Central Park - can you believe I've been here almost a week and I haven't been to Central Park yet? Time to change that!