I'm sold...

So, it's no big secret that I am a sucker for Scandinavian design. Throw in some clean lines, classic colors, good pricing, practicality and meatballs and you'll find me there. So, it was with eager anticipation that I looked forward to Portland's newest outlet of Northern European yum, with the opening of H&M last Thursday.

Less than two blocks from my office downtown, the lines for H&M stretched around the whole street and around the block. At first I thought people had staked out places on the sidewalk for a Veterans Day Parade (since it was on the same day) but no... it was just a lot of rabid shoppers waiting to be the first in the door. For those of you not familiar with H&M, I'll give you a brief description. Fashionable, affordable and from Sweden. Basically, it's kinda like the IKEA of clothes, but with less meatballs. Actually, H&M (Hennes und Mauritz) was originally founded in 1947 as a womens store (hennes means hers) in Sweden. However, over the years they have expanded their lines to include mens, kids, and juniors and their locations can be found all over any major european city. In the past decade though, they expanded to the US and placed stores all over New York City. (They are actually as ubiquitous in NYC as Starbucks are; however, it's a good idea to visit at least two or three of the stores since they all have "slightly" different stuff.) In recent years, stores have also popped up in Chicago and Seattle and now finally.... Portland.

So, I was looking forward to the opening since anytime I travel to Europe or NYC, I always make a point to stop into a store and try to find something I can't live without. And, because the new store was so close... is actually a pretty dangerous thing. I stupidly thought I might be able to "swing by" during opening day, but all throughout the afternoon, the line just to get into the store still reached around the block. Even on the following day I imagined the crowds to be quite long... so, I waited.

And I waited.

And finally Monday evening after work I decided to make my way over.

And well... it was pretty much what I expected. Standard items of button downs, sweatshirts, jeans, pants, and accessories. If you were looking for a basic item for your work wardrobe you could find it. If you were looking for a new hoodie you could find it. If you were looking for a casual shirt to wear to your friends bbq you could find it. And well, if you ever go out to the clubs you may have even found something that worked. Overall, I wasn't really wowed. I mean, I wasn't expecting much and some of what I saw was pretty much the same thing that was on the shelves in Sweden this summer, but for standard basic items it was pretty good. And yeah, most tops were in that $15-30 range which is pretty affordable for a basic new shirt. I think if you wanted a new coat you could have really made out as they did have some really nice options. As well, I did like their mens selections. I don't often buy in the men's department because the clothes are huge on me, but I love looking. And well, as I strolled through the mens wear I saw a couple of other ladies doing the same. Regardless though, I didn't see anything that jumped out and said "BUY ME JENN, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" And well, the things I saw that I liked, I realized I already had. For example, I did not need another long sleeve t-shirt, another t-shirt, a pea coat, a button down black shirt, a plaid shirt, or a knit cap... so I walked away empty handed. Satisfied, but empty handed.

What I thought was the coolest thing about the new H&M was obviously, not what they had on the shelves, but the photos they had in their display windows. These, really impressed me. In fact, I was so taken by them that that is the whole reason I decided to write this post... was so that I could share them with you. So, for that I'll give them two thumbs up. Yeah for the gay H&M! I mean, maybe it's just a clever marketing ploy (the gay, you know, is so trendy these days) and maybe these folks aren't really gay... shit... it really doesn't matter. It's implied and well, if you know... you know. ;)

damn... I'm sold.

color me bright

Part two of a photo blog regarding my recent trip to Scandinavia. Part one can be seen here.

One thing that has always amazed me about our Nordic neighbors, is how brightly all their buildings seem to be painted. I don't know if it's a reprieve from those dark long winter nights or a uniform housing code... but regardless if you're in the country or in the city, if it's an old barn or a new house... so many structures are wearing a beautiful bright coat of color.

In Sweden especially, most of the buildings are painted a deep red with stark white trim. I learned that this color of red is called Falu red, and it came as a by product from the abundance of local copper. Not only was falu red cheap and accessible, but it was great at preserving wood. If a building was not painted red, then it usually was a creamy golden or white hue. Back in the day, people painted their buildings those colors because that was what they had... but even these days, when pretty much everyone has access to every color of paint in the rainbow (and beyond), people still chose to paint their buildings in the classic historical colors. I personally love that. I love that when driving through the countryside there is just this uniform look to things. I mean, granted it might be a little hard to give directions if you say "my house is the cute red one on the left"... but I'm sure even if you find the wrong house, you'll find some wonderful people inside.

Really, from the three times I've been to Scandinavia (and Sweden especially), it really does feel as if you walked into a giant IKEA. Everything is well designed, there is no trash, the kids are all rosy cheeked, beautiful healthy people are eating meatballs, and no matter how hard you try - you just can't figure out how to take it all home with you.

at the farm, Sweden

at the farm, Sweden

the new guest house at the farm

Uppsala, Sweden

summer cottage in Norrtälje, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Gamla stan, Stockholm, Sweden

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Reykjavik, Iceland

bike menagerie

Hello friends!

Guess what, as you can probably tell by this post I am back from my travels abroad and as much as I love traveling and adventure, I do love coming home. Especially when there are friendly faces and warm greetings to welcome you. Anyways, the highlight of every trip for me is always taking photos. In fact, I think I had well over a 1,000 images from this 12 day trip (probably even more if my camera wouldn't have died 3/4th of the way through)... but anyways. Instead of one massive blog about my trip, I think I'll just share a few select themes here and there and post related photos.

So, this post is about the bikes I saw on some of my travels.

Outside of Portland Oregon (and Minneapolis perhaps) almost in no other place will you see more bikes for everyday use than you'll find in Scandinavia. I thought it was interesting to look at the bikes people seemed to use for everyday use and compare them what we have here. So... this is a little photo blog about bikes. Enjoy!

SWEDEN:

All over Sweden, the type of bike I saw the most were the typical "city bike" style. Heavy, clunky, slow but an upright riding style which makes it easy to go everywhere in your everyday work clothes. I only saw two people riding anything different. Those two people were also the only people I saw on "road bikes" and they were also the only two other people I found wearing spandex (and team kits).

very green: it's got an interesting tube out to the side under the back cargo rack - which I'm not sure what you'd use that for.

a bicycle built for two...

Paul Frank single speed cruiser

This was the first fixed gear bike I saw on my travels. Fixies (or track bikes) are very popular here in the states, are very popular in urban areas... but surprisingly enough... I hardly saw any in Europe. As well... any fixie I did happen to see, had flat handlebars as opposed to the ones with drops that'd we see here. I thought that was interesting.

Stockholm's bike sharing program.

DENMARK:

The Danes are crazy about their bikes. CRAZY! So crazy in fact that they completely shun calling themselves cyclists. It's similar in the fact that many of us walk... but yet, we don't identify as "walkers" or "pedestrians". We don't subscribe to "walking magazine" or start buying tickets to all events where people can be found walking... just because we happen to walk as well. Basically, walking isn't an activity, it's just how we get from point A to point B. Riding bikes in Copenhagen is much like that. It's every day. It's nothing special. It's nothing new. But, to the outside eye... Copenhagen's bike culture (or lack of) is pretty friggin amazing. Personally, I loved seeing an encyclopedia's worth of various bike styles pass me on the street. There were trikes, bakefits, bullitts, city bikes, christiania bikes, fixed gears, road bikes, cruisers, mountain bikes, hybrids, commuters, etc. And... on top of that, all the people are stylishly dressed. Wearing their finest attire, pressed suits and ties and high heels. I loved it! Not once did I see someone wearing a neon vest or have a little hemet mirror dangling off the side of their head. Bikes are as much of a part of someone's outfit as their coat. In fact, some people I saw even took their accessorizing of their bikes and outfits a little too far.

Bullitt bike

christiania bike

The rental bikes even had handy permanent maps on them.

The only folks I saw on "road bikes" or wearing spandex

fashionable lads with matching coats and bikes and skinny jeans

cargo bike (notice the smaller front wheel)

interesting seat and frame design

this bike had a smart elastic band system installed to protect clothes fro getting caught in the spokes.

heavy duty kid and cargo carrying (i love the face paint job on the kid)

Nice blue accents

white bike

Who says you can't bike in wing-tips and a scarf?

now, that's what I call accessorizing!

Aside from the racers dressed in their team kits, bike messengers in Denmark were the only other people I saw wearing spandex. Which I found all sorts of amusing.

ICELAND:

Sadly, my camera broke right before I went to Iceland, so I have minimal bike photos from there. However, when it came to the style of bikes... most of the bikes seemed to be wal-mart huffy style commuter/mt. bikes. I'm not quite sure if it's due to the general isolation of the country or the cost to get bikes there or the fact that so few people live there, but... there was defiantly a shortage of bike diversity. However, everywhere you went in the urban areas you saw people, young and old on their bikes. Going to and from work and school etc. My hotel even had bikes for rent. So, they like bikes there... they just don't have all the types of bikes that we have here in the states or they have in Denmark. However, given the landscape of the country, not only is "by bike" one of the best ways to travel and see the sights in Iceland, but I'm pretty sure they could host some amazing mountain bike races.

I took more photos of hot dogs in Iceland than I did bikes.

confession #3

Anyone who knows me really well... knows that I have a small crush on Scandinavia. Not only do I love Norway, Denmark and Sweden (Finland too!), but I love their cities, their people, their design sensibility, their food, their drinks, their shoes, their toys, their textiles, how their flags all look alike, their bikes, their health care and education plans - I mean, I really could go on and on and on. Maybe I'm just gushing about the Oregon Manifest Lecture tomorrow night when some Danish dudes are coming into to discuss how Portland can market cycling to the average citizen, maybe I'm looking forward to attending a wedding in Sweden next summer, maybe it's just with this colder weather we've been having I've moved from flip flops to my favorite danish shoes, maybe its year in and year out they top all the lists for being some of the happiest people with the best quality of living... regardless, this blog.... Scandinavia, is for you.

My favorite shoes, a pair of Danish Duck Boots I picked up in Copenhagen back in 2001. They've since been resoled once, but they are my go to shoes for the colder months. It's funny because a friend of mine from college told me upon my first visit to Denmark, "when you go there... I tell you two things... everything looks perfect like legos and they make they best shoes. Buy shoes there." And so, I did.

Havarti cheese is great by itself or in a sandwich. Rainy day? Have this with some good bread and a few slices of tomatoes and I swear it's the best grilled cheese sandwich you've ever eaten. Where's my cheese plainer?

I love pickled herring in mustard sauce. In fact, whenever I go to IKEA, I mainly go to pick up some of this and some more meatballs. True story.

Can you think of a cuter royal couple, I can't. These Norwegian Royals take the cake:

Nothing is more sleek and sexy than modern style Scandinavian furniture. From bottom barrel Ikea to top of the line I would gladly sell my first born child to own that, I love the clean lines, the attention to form and function and how it's probably one of the most uncomfortable chairs you've ever sat in. Doesn't matter.... it screams sexy!

Carlsberg and Tuborg beer? YUM!

And, I need a whole other blog to describe my brother and I's fascination with Legos growing up and even to this day. If I could count the amount of time we spent playing with these well designed building blocks... I would be counting years, not months or days. In fact, a little dream of mine came to fruition when I visited Billund, Denmark... the home of Legos. In all honesty, I think one reason my brother and I picked the careers we did, adds up to the creativity legos garnished us with. Also, my Spanish friend was right... every little community in Denmark seemed as if it was made of Legos. It was magical. really, it was.

Swedish soccer and swedish soccer fans:

When it comes to textiles, I love Marimekko designs:

They were fucking vikings!!! RWAAAAR!

Their love for cycling as transportation. Good luck finding your bike here:

When it comes to flag design, you might as well keep it simple.

Did I mention their food yet?

Bodum makes some of the best designed french presses and table ware you're ever going to come across, affordable too!

Danish money has holes in it:

I love my vintage Norwegian ski guide parka I just replaced a few weeks ago:

Oprah loves them!!!! In fact, I don't really watch Oprah... but I did notice that she went to Copenhagen Denmark this month to film some segments for her show. In this little video, she tours a cute little stylish apartment that simply and cleanly holds a family of five. Wow! And here, is just a little run down on her visit which explains a few key facts on why Denmark differs so from the US when it comes to happiness.

As well, even though those Northern European climates get ample amounts of daylight in the summer, they also get ample amounts of darkness in the winter - which I think is why they are more creative in nature. Which is also why brightly painted homes and barns help!

They gave us the Little Mermaid, Pippi Longstocking, trolls, and Isben.

The Lillehammer Olympics in 1994 were the best winter olympics ever. Need I remind you?

Lastly... they gave us Abba. (click on link for an amazing video)