Sun and sea

I am now in Oslo, enjoying a couple of days here living in my sister's apartment before I tomorrow take a flight to my good friend Amalie's wedding near Trondheim. I am so much looking forward to it as I'll surely be such a wonderful wedding and also because I will get to see my friends again (we're sharing a cabin together for the weekend). So far in Oslo, I've just been walking and looking around, shopping a little and pondering the purchase of an SLR camera.
I had planned on blogging more while I'm here, but my sister's internet connection is down and right now I'm blogging from a library. I am not sure whether I'll be able to blog before Sunday, when I'll be back in Tromsø - it all depends on whether the cabin I'll be staying at for the wedding has a wireless network. We'll see.




Anyway, over to today's post. These pictures (and video) are from last weekend when we stopped by at the beach in Tel Aviv. We were frolicking about in the waves (I really regretted not having taken my bathing suit as the sea looked so inviting) and taking pictures. I had also taken my Diana camera that I had just received and I am longing to see how the pictures will come out!






Dress by Dahlia, hair bow bought in Sweden, sunglasses from H&M and Diana camera

flowers, flowers, flowers.

On Friday I wore this Zara dress that I bought in the sale a couple of weeks ago, and it is actually the same dress as this one that I bought in April. I felt a little silly buying the same dress, but I decided that I really like the shape of it and since it was discounted I told myself that it was okay.
I'm pretty busy at the moment as I am flying to Norway for a holiday on Tuesday (which I am beyond excited about: cool weather here I come!), and won't you believe it, I still haven't started packing. Tomorrow I'm going to have a little packing marathon between everything else that needs to be done (giving English lessons, babysitting, making purchases for the travel).








Dress from Zara, socks from H&M and shoes from Chie Mihara.

Pea and potato curry.

I promised some of you to post a recipe of the pea and potato curry that I made nearly two weeks ago, and here it is finally.

1. Start by cutting about 750 grams of potatoes in rather big cubes, and chopping two onions into rings.



2. In a large saucepan, put two teaspoons of mustard (the recipe originally calls for mustard seeds which is probably better to use, but we didn't have any so I thought I would just go for the second best option.) and heat until it starts bubbling (if using mustard seeds, until they start popping).


3. Chop three to four cloves of garlic and grind two teaspoons of fresh ginger.


4. Add the onion rings, garlic, ginger and two spoons of ghi or oil to the pan and stir at medium heat until the onion is soft.


5. Add 1/2 teaspoon of chili spice, 1 teaspoon of turmeric (silly me for misspelling it on the label of the spice), 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of garam masala, and some salt and pepper. Also, add the potatoes. Stir until the potatoes are evenly covered in spice.



6. Add 1 1/2 dl of water and let everything boil at very low heat for 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are slightly tender with a lid on the saucepan.


7. Almost finished. Add 100 grams of peas. It's best to use frozen peas rather than canned since the taste is fresher. Boil at very low heat for another 3-5 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed.


8. Stir in a little bit of chopped fresh mint.


9. Ready to eat! Serve with rice.

Lace playsuit

I've been wearing my new playsuit (that almost looks like a short dress at first glance!) nearly every other day since I got it around a week ago and on Saturday when my boyfriend and I went for a little walk I had him take some pictures of me wearing it. As you can see, I've also had my hair cut. I'm not sure if I like it yet since the hairdresser I went to cut it about five cm shorter than what I asked for (something that has never happened to me before - I always find myself needing to tell my hairdresser to cut my hair a little more) and I'm a little annoyed with that. I had wanted my hair to be cut in the same length as it was last year at this time of the year, but there is nothing to do about it now. In a few months it'll be a bit longer and by then I'll beyond doubt be used to it.
Now I'm off to make myself a cup of tea for the umpteenth time today. I've caught an unpleasant cold that my boyfriend had last week. I don't mild colds so much, but when one has to cope with one in sticky hot weather it is near torture.


Playsuit from Dahlia, horse shoe shoes from Topshop.

I love Dahlia...

Ever since I stumbled across the Dahlia shop in Carnaby street in London two years ago, Dahlia's been one of my favorite brands and every summer (I think their summer collections are the prettiest) I've bought a couple of pieces from them. This summer has proven to be no different as I couldn't help myself from ordering these two items a few weeks ago: a delicate lace 50s inspired playsuit and a stripy dress with pretty sailor buttons.




I'm going to try taking some pictures wearing the playsuit on the weekend.



I really like the new website Dahlia recently launched which is so cute and so easy to navigate through. One of my favorite things about it is that each piece of clothing is accompanied by sweet description and styling advice! And also, as a nice change from the previous website, now there are pictures from every angle of each item.

Gosh, there are so many darling clothes and accessories that I would like to get on top of those I've already bought...

Nine pictures from Saturday.

My Saturday more or less. Woke up much too late, got dressed and did my make up, went for a walk with Tassus, ate a delicious and oh so filling bagel that my boyfriend made, biked to and from a private German lesson I gave, cooked potato and pea curry. Quite an ordinary and relaxing Saturday.

Sorting out my wardrobe.

my improved wardrobe

I guess it's actually much too late to start sorting out my summer wardrobe in July, but I've never had the need to do any seasonal wardrobe cleanses before, and I didn't imagine that this summer would be any different. I've always been able to wear all my clothes (aside from heavy winter coats, mittens, scarves and such) at any time throughout the year just by putting them together a little differently: switching thicker tights for thin ones, and occasionally not wearing tights at all, or wearing thin cardigans over blouses or dresses instead of thick wool cardigans or sweaters (that's Norwegian weather for you).

These past weeks I've come to the realization that putting away my thicker and darker skirts, dresses and cardigans would give me a better overview of my dressing choices, and there is really no point letting clothes that will be too warm to wear in Israel for the next few months take up valuable closet space, is there?

I tidied these away:


Half a dozen skirts, half a dozen dresses and some tops and cardigans that are too warm for this weather.

To make more space for:

Floaty, lightweight dresses and some colorful ones


summery skirts, blouses and tops.

I feel more inspired looking at my closet after this little clean-up, and hopefully this feeling will stay on even if I still think colder weather allows more dressing choices.

I want to thank all of you who commented in my last post for all your encouraging words and suggestions. I'm going to try and go ahead with the ideas that I first have in mind for my post and blog more frequently even if it seems like quite a challenge at times.