NEW SITE 10 Jun 2014 12:05 PM (11 years ago)

I am very excited about finally having a KARIKJOSNES.COM where you can find my blog as well as other projects I am working on.

This blog with all its posts will still be available online, but from now on I will be posting at karikjosnes.com. I’ve chosen to do this because, as you might have noticed, after I moved back to NORWAY it’s been hard to keep up the high posting frequency I had before. The lack of TIME ..and LIGHT has forced me into a different way of working. I loved posting the way I did before, but change can also be good and I hope now to post maybe not as often, but spend more time on the things I do post. These PROJECTS will appear under the different categories you will find in the head bar on my site. I will also ..hopefully.. be posting more frequently little ‘notes and postcards’ on my blog from my everyday life. It's a little bit sad leaving this blog that has been my second home for over 4 years now.

I hope you all find your way to my new home at karikjosnes.com. It will not be the same without you!

K

THE BEST WEATHER ..OF COURSE ON THE DAY WE HAD TO LEAVE 25 May 2014 2:18 AM (11 years ago)

17TH OF MAY IN BEAUTIFUL LUSTER 24 May 2014 10:39 AM (11 years ago)

ONE WEEK AGO; 16TH OF MAY BBQ IN SOGN 23 May 2014 5:50 AM (11 years ago)

Last weekend we celebrated our CONSTITUTION DAY, the 17th of MAY, here in NORWAY. Ever since I was a child I have LOVED this holiday and the way it is celebrated, but these last years I've been abroad and therefore haven't celebrated it in a traditional way. It turned out that I would not this year either, even though I have moved back to BERGEN ..BUT I still feel that it was celebrated in a very traditional spirit. My sister and FRODE invited ERLEND and me to join them at FRODE's family's cabin in LUSTER in SOGN. I have not been there before, and it turned out that it is the most beautiful ..and NATIONAL ROMANTIC place with steep mountains with snow on them, beautiful fjords and fruit trees in BLOOM. Even though the weather was really gloomy with low clouds the day we arrived (something that apparently is quit common in this area) I thought it was perfect. And the next day when the SUN came out it was perfect in a new way, I will show you how tomorrow:)

HURRA FOR 17. MAI :) 16 May 2014 11:00 PM (11 years ago)

A BERGEN NEIGHBORHOOD 15 May 2014 11:17 AM (11 years ago)

Last week I was out photographing for ParkDrift here in BERGEN. Their job is to maintain different public green areas, private gardens ..and like in this case; the hedges and trees of a neighborhood. It was my first assignment for them, but I think it will be fun working for them since I love flowers and trees. I also thought this neighborhood had such a nice feel to it that I wanted to share it with you too! I think hedges like these are sooo beautiful:)

KRISTIN, CAROLINE & JANNIKE 1 May 2014 10:11 AM (11 years ago)

As I mentioned in a post earlier, I have been working as the manager of a clothing store since we moved back to BERGEN. The store is called EMIL ..and it is kind of an institution here in BERGEN. When I first moved back I thought they only had one store, but it turned out they had 7 ..so I now work in one of those. When I first applied for the job ..and got it .. I have to admit I was a little SCEPTIC. Not of the workplace itself, but of the clothing I was going to sell. Coming from Bergen I associated the store with my mother.. or maybe even more so with GRANDMOTHERS. It turns out that I am not the only one with this association ..BUT it also turns out that I was wrong ..or at least partly.

A lot of the customers in my store are in fact SENIORS, seniors between 70 and 96 years old. We also have younger customers, but the seniors are without a doubt our most faithful customers. Many of them have been shopping in our stores forever.. and many of them buy almost all their clothes there. This is partly because there are not that many stores left that sell clothes that women their age want to wear ..or actually CAN wear.. skinny jeans and miniskirts, low necklines and see through fabrics are not for everyone. But after working there for a while I realized that their FAITHFULNESS most likely also has to do with the service, which is almost old fashioned, but the good kind of old fashioned. With all the online shopping I think good service is the future of 'in store' shopping.

Anyway, so now to the things I was wrong about; THE CLOTHES. Our stores still sell clothes that older women like; the classics .. and jeans that are high waist and do not cling to your ankles. BUT we also have a lot of nice brands and clothes for women my age ..and younger. A lot of the girls working at our store are in their TWENTIES and they have been pointing out this last season how they really like a lot of the clothes that we have in store right now. This knowledge together with all the answers I get every week from women in their 40's when I address them; 'no I do not need any help, I am just looking for something for my mother' made me suggest to my boss that we should do a PHOTO SHOOT, or a few, to show people that our clothes are for a broader and younger base than the ones we are currently selling to. And I, of course, had an idea of how we should to do it..

In the photos I wanted to focus on the fact that we are a local company ... and I wanted to work with the girls working in our stores, partly because they work here.. but also because they are such beautiful girls ..and I love working with ordinary people in a laidback setting.. And I also wanted them to pick out outfits they felt that they could actually wear, and mix it with their own clothes to make it authentic.

SO these pictures are the result a one great SUNDAY hanging out in the sun with the sweetest colleagues one can have. Thank you Kristin, Caroline and Jannike!

WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED 29 Apr 2014 11:53 AM (11 years ago)

A FLUFFY YELLOW CLOUD 26 Apr 2014 11:35 AM (11 years ago)

PAINTING EASTER EGGS 19 Apr 2014 8:06 AM (11 years ago)

MASTERCHEF DANMARKSPLASS 15 Apr 2014 11:12 AM (11 years ago)

This Friday I had three CHEFS all to myself. Each of them made their own dishes and contributed with different foods and drinks. I contributed with ATMOSPHERE and ENTHUSIASM. What was thought to be a 5 course meal turned into something more like an ALL NIGHTER filled with several meals spread out. Everything tasted so so good. We started off with a CEVICHE inspired by a dish E and I had at HERBSAINT in NEW ORLEANS. Following it was ALISA's delicious potato and salmon salad, You can find the recipe on Alisa's BLOG, both the blog and the dish are highly recommended. Later we had E's kidney dish with mushrooms and espelette pepper. As a small break we had a GROG cocktail and then, about six hours after the ceviche, ARNE's homemade BUNS with PULLED PORK and coleslaw. And finally for dessert; MADELEINES. We had a friend buy the pan for New Years and after that E has been making them quite a lot. I am normally not a big fan of cookies,but these are so delicious, especially when served WARM. For the observant ones; yes, the table was originally set for five, but we got a last minute cancellation. After watching the pictures I'm guessing she must be sorry, at least I would have been. It was a feast.

LAST WEEKEND, IF IT ONLY COULD HAVE LASTED A LITTLE LONGER 6 Apr 2014 6:15 AM (11 years ago)

SAME BALCONY, SAME WEEKEND, SAME SWEATER, DIFFERENT SISTER 30 Mar 2014 9:09 AM (11 years ago)

WHILE WE ARE WAITING FOR BETTER WEATHER 20 Mar 2014 8:12 AM (11 years ago)

I MADE A CAKE 13 Mar 2014 3:54 AM (11 years ago)

It's not a secret that E does almost all the COOKING in this house. I used to like to cook, but after getting used to E's food I kind of don't want to go back to the kind of food that I used to make when I was a student.. I was really happy about the food that I made and ate back then ..but food has been taken to a NEW LEVEL, and I was not the one who took it there ..so now if I am going to cook I just feel that E is a much better cook than me and that kind of demotivates me. BUT, as mentioned, I like to cook, so I have decided that baking and desserts will be my thing, not bread because E already owns that, but the sweet world of desserts and cakes. I started off really simple with a flourless chocolate cake with a twist. I used a NIGELLA LAWSON RECIPE for a flouerless chocolate cake with LIME ..and I used CHILI chocolate instead of ordinary dark chocolate. I did not make the margarita cream she suggests with it, because I made the cake kind of spontaneously and the cream required two sorts of LIQUOR I did not have in the house.. but I definitely will make it with the cream next time ...for fun (the cream has tequila in it)! The cake by the way turned out great ..if I may say so myself. I normally like to have something FRESH with my chocolate cake, like berries, but with the lime in the cake I got everything I wanted from the cake itself. So if someone is looking to bake a chocolate cake with a twist ..I can definitely recommend making it with chili and lime:)

EARLY SPRING 6 Mar 2014 12:38 AM (11 years ago)

When my sister and I were KIDS our parents used to bring us here for Sunday walks ..to ARBORETET at MILDE. Maybe it's because it's really beautiful there, or maybe because even though you go there to walk ..it's kind of casual walking, I never stopped liking this place ..not even when I was a stubborn teenager. The area is situated outside the city center close to the OCEAN.. and has beaches and forests as well as botanical gardens ..and there are many nice walking paths. My mom, sister and I went there this Saturday to fully enjoy the beautiful day. After a very dark and wet winter I felt that this weekend kind of brought me back to LIFE with its light and sunshine ..that my sister visited from Trondheim probably didn't hurt either.

SHRIMP TACOS AND FINO 3 Mar 2014 10:28 AM (11 years ago)

MEET INGVILD 1 Mar 2014 12:41 AM (11 years ago)

I met INGVILD ØSTGÅRD about 12 years ago. We were both students at KIB, an art school in BERGEN. We didn't really hang out that much, but as in all art schools ..or at least the way I imagine it to be, you get to know your fellow students pretty well. We were also both friends with TONE, another classmate of ours, and it was kind of through her we all ended up moving into an apartment at GRUNERLØKKA in OSLO years later. My years in that apartment turned out to be some of the BEST years of my life, much due to the fact that I could not have asked for better ROOMMATES. Through the years I have known INGVILD she has not only grown into a beautiful woman, but also a talented graphic designer and musician. These pictures were taken at Ingvild's old studio in OSLO (she now lives in Trondheim) a beautiful Oslo summer day. You should visit I MADE IT if you want to see more of her graphic work .. or THIS LINK to check out her music.

BLOOD 23 Feb 2014 4:03 AM (11 years ago)

This is not one breakfast...but two (I eat a lot for breakfast, but not that much). They were both DELICIOUS and they both contained one of my new favorite things; freshly squeezed orange juice ( it's so good ..and nutritious ..and perfect since we can never finish a carton of juice because we only drink juice during weekends, and then only one glass). In both cases the juice was made with BLOOD ORANGES ..or red oranges that they seem to be calling them these days. I don't get it, or I kind of get it; I guess store owners are afraid that people might be GROSSED out by the word BLOOD ..but I still don't agree ..because I think that the name Blood orange is way cooler, more exciting and even more descriptive than just red orange.. since the orange itself isn't really red when you see it in the store.. it's more the juice that is red.. which is kind of the blood of the orange.. so I really think people should stick to the old name.

Writing of blood and food made me think of this other thing. I consider myself fairly relaxed around the word blood ..also when it comes to cooking. Still my relaxedness was challenged some weeks ago when I went to SOLHEIM KJØTT, our local butcher, with Erlend. It was not exactly EARLY in the morning, but it was before lunch ..and I could still feel the taste of tooth paste in my mouth. I knew why we were there, but I was still kind of thrown when E placed his order ..out loud, to the man behind the counter:

-Two liters of pigs blood (adding the question; It's fresh right? The butcher confirmed with a nod.)

-2 kilos of speck (which is fat)

-and five meters of intestines ('tarmer' for my norwegian readers)

Some of you might think, why would someone buy this? For me.. a long time fan of BUFFY the Vampire Slayer, the answer 'because your husband is a modern vampire' would seem fair. BUT, to more RUSTIC food lovers, older people ..and the butcher ..I think it was pretty clear; my husband was there to buy the ingredients for blood sausage..or as the french call it BOUDIN NOIR. Even though I like boudin noir (it was one of the specials at our favorite restaurant in BERLIN; CHEZ MAURICE) ..and I NEW that we were at the butchers to buy blood I was thrown when he said the ingredients out loud.. I think the fresh part... and the the word intestines just became a little too much. I can eat almost everything, but I have realized ..and come to terms with.. the fact that if I want to continue to enjoy certain kinds of foods... I can not be present ..or participate when those things are being made/ prepared. I can also not eat it when I am way too hungry and have low blood sugar ..but that story I will save for later.

IN 2013 I 17 Feb 2014 11:12 AM (11 years ago)

_______Spent the first month of the year in New York_______

_________Went Ice skating in Central Park_______

________Said goodbye to NYC and our friends there_______

________Ate a lot of delicious food while visiting my sister and Frode in Trondheim______

_______Loved spending time in their apartment_______

______..as well as the view from their window_______

_______Appreciated the Norwegian winter, partly because I hardly had any________

________Photographed CRUBA by Mira Becker AW 13 lookbook in Berlin______

__________Spent almost all of February in Andalucia_________

_______..where I fell in love with orange trees_______

______..and sherry wines, especially the ones from Fernando de Castilla______

________Ate delicious homemade tapas on our balcony in Seville__________

_______Spent time with some of my favorite people while home in Bergen_______

______Tasted sfogliatelle for the first time (really good)_______

______Spent two weeks at Lipari, one of them in this house______

_______Watched my husband have his morning coffee on the porch______

_________Went on beautiful hikes around Lipari_______

____________Ate a lot of delicious local food_________

_______Picked my own lemons_______

__________Was charmed by this blue little truck_________

_________Met these two while out on a walk_______

_________Had the ocean, Etna and Vulcano as my rooftop view for one week_______

____________Watched the sun set from the same rooftop_________

________Got to see how the beach cities of Sicily can look like when it's way out of season______

_____Ate a delicious 15 course 'straight out of the ocean' seafood meal at Sakalleo ..where 7 of the dishes were raw ________

_______Visited Occhipinti________

_______ ..as well as COS______

_________Was stunned by this amazing temple in Agrigento__________

_______Experienced Danish spring on our drive from Våler to Berlin_______

_______Spent most of May in Berlin ...loving the green, the canal and the sunsets______

_________Lived in Lars' cool Berlin studio_______

___________...and Lina's beautiful apartment ________

_________Got to hang out with old friends and meet new ones_________

__________ Just made it to Berlin to see the cherry trees blossom_________

________Had my photos used in the exciting app magazine The innovation Effect ______

________Photographed the Ninetimesthree box_______

________Watched sunsets through my side view window_______

________Visited the Venice biennial_______

_________Made a short stop at Cascina Collina, our favorite vacation spot these last years_________

_________Loved this cherry tree_______

________Spent almost all of July in my parents house at Bønes______

________Realized the cruel reality of Bergen summer_______

________Had one really great Bergen summer night________

_______Spent beautiful summer days at our family cabin______

________.. where I ate shrimps and drank white wine_____

_______...walked to Ilogen to have a swim ..in all kinds of weather_____

________..ate self caught fish________

________..drank rhubarb cocktails on a 30 year old sun bed__________

________and made this flower crown ..loved it, but it gave me allergies_________

_________Photographed this amazing couple's Oslo wedding_______

_______Missed living in Oslo, like really really ..for the first time since I moved________

_________Met this cute little guy______

_______Moved back to Bergen, and into an apartment that I love________

______Ate the best homemade burger .. ever________

__________Experienced the beginning of fall in Trondheim_________

__________Celebrated our two year wedding anniversary________

_________Explored my new neighborhood________

__________Wished that I had more lunches at Kranen_________

_____Photographed the outdoor area around DNB Nor Solheimsviken by Svein Basson AS_______

________Enjoyed lazy Sundays_______

________Had a nice weekend at our cabin in the mountains________

________..where I also took this picture of Erlend hitting a branch of snow with a snowball_________

_________Photographed Ninetimesthree's annual scarf__________

_________Ate a lot of delicious home cooked meals made by my fantastic husband_______

_______ Treasured every ray of sun Bergen gave me________

_________Found a perfect Christmas tree_______

_______Ended the year with a five course home cooked meal, champagne, good friends and fireworks______

I go for better late than never this year. I have always LOVED making these posts and this year was no exception.. it was just slightly delayed due to a lot of different things, I guess also called normal EVERY DAY LIFE, something that I kind of have not had since I started this blog. E and I moved back to BERGEN the last week of August, or I came back that week, E was still in OSLO ..but then within that first week we found an amazing apartment ..and then we suddenly needed money ..fast. When I came to Bergen that week I had kind of IMAGINED a month or two of looking for apartments and a job to pay the rent, staying part time at my parents house, part time at our cabin. But then boom we had an apartment and suddenly I also had a job working in a clothing store. And like that, I suddenly had moved to Bergen and gotten myself a completely NEW LIFE, a very different one than the one I have had for these last couple of years. It has its ups and downs. I think I'm still getting used to it.. but as I do get more used to it I will try to find a way to make this life fit into this blog.. or the other way around..

It's strange for me to look at this post, realizing all the different things that have happened this last year, but that is also why I do it. Time travels so fast and it's truly amazing to have pictures to remind you of all the beautiful things that have happened. Hope you enjoy it too!

MY BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST 4 Jan 2014 1:01 AM (11 years ago)

My BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST this year was an attempt to recreate last year's birthday brunch at BALTHAZAR in NEW YORK; EGGS NORWEGIAN and MIMOSA. Even though the great people I had the brunch with last year could not be there ..and well, our living room does not have the same atmosphere as Balthazar.. E made a phenomenal effort to make the food just as great. Homemade english muffin, hollandaise, poached eggs and smoked salmon ..with panfried potatoes and onions ..,accompanied by mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice. Yes, I was very full afterwards, and very happy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS GOD JUL 27 Dec 2013 8:02 AM (11 years ago)

I have spent almost all of this Christmas in BED ..with a really bad COLD. BUT before this happened I managed to get our apartment ready for Christmas ...and enjoy it for a couple of days too:) It felt really nice to unwrap the Christmas decorations we used in Berlin ..and put them up in our new home. We also continued the tradition from previous years of making GINGER BREAD cookies and a ginger bread house ..while drinking CHAMPAGNE. This year we also hosted a Christmas party the day the SUN TURNED ...and are hoping to make that a new Bergen Christmas tradition. This cold on the other hand ..I hope will be a one year thing. Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a happy New Year!

A LOVE AFFAIR 13 Dec 2013 9:08 AM (11 years ago)

I'm having a love affair with these flowers. As stated before; I love flowers. As I CHILD one of my dreams was to be a flower decorator. I didn't pick flowers like most kids do, I ARRANGED them. I picked them deliberately in different lengths and placed them together carefully. Not long ago E and I saw something on television where some kids had made statements/wishes about what every child should be able to do/have the right to do ..in a PERFECT world. After we saw it E looked at me and said; I bet when you were a child, you would have WRITTEN; 'Every child should have the right/opportunity to pick as many FLOWERS as they like'. I think he was onto something.. As a child I spent a beautiful month (I remember it more like half a year) in COPENHAGEN with my mom, dad and little sister. My dad was working there and my mom took me and my sister out of kindergarden for a month to come stay with him. I have a lot of beautiful MEMORIES from that stay, among them are the TULIPS. Flowers were ..and are still, much cheaper in Copenhagen than in Norway. My mother, also a big FAN of flowers, took advantage of this and bought a lot of flowers during our stay there ...and I remember those flowers so well ..I remember picking them up at the store, carrying them home and I remember how they looked placed in big VASES around the apartment. I also remember how E said when we had been together for only a short while that he had noticed that I got this particular expression on my face when I was carrying home fresh flowers. I can imagine it's a very happy, almost PROUD kind of expression. One of the things I really loved about BERLIN was it's affordable flowers. Of course I loved everything that was affordable there ..the food, the rent, the wine, the beer, the eating out... But still, maybe especially the flowers, because buying freshly cut flower feels like such a LUXURY. Ok, maybe I miss the eating and drinking out even more ..but anyway. Moving back to Norway I have had to cut down on a lot of my BERLIN HABITS, the pleasure is therefore even bigger when I do ... for instance ...buy flowers. .and then I of course like to SPLURGE.

When I bought these flowers I had a conversation with the florist about different countries flower habits/culture. Like for instance in Berlin they always liked to make bouquets, they always want to put a lot of green in them ...and combine a lot of different flowers. I can still enjoy a batch of roses, but my years in Berlin ...probably combined with my EARLY SPRUNG LOVE for arranging flowers have made me really love arranged bouquets .. so one of my favorite things is to spend a lot of time when I am in a flower shop ..talking to the florist coming up with fun combinations. Like with this one. That I love.

PERFECT WINTER SATURDAY 8 Dec 2013 3:58 AM (11 years ago)

Yesterday the citizens of BERGEN got to experience this year's first real DAY of WINTER ..and it felt amazing. After days and weeks with rain and wind the WEATHER GODS finally offered us a BREAK. And I'm sure glad they did. I realized earlier this week that the dark, rainy weather was starting to get to me. My solution was to invite Christmas into our home ..as well as spending a lot of money on candles. It definitely worked.. still, no matter how cosy you make your home during winter, nothing beats glittering white snow and sunbeams. Thank you for yesterday!

WINTER WONDERLAND 21 Nov 2013 11:57 AM (11 years ago)

Just shipped these two beauties off to VÅLER. E's mom asked me a while back if I could make some pillows for her local Christmas bazaar ...with Christmas motives ... and taken her location the choice naturally fell on some PICTURES that I took this February at ALBY, not far from VÅLER. Looking at these pictures I can't believe it's been under a year since I took them.. feels like forever. Anyway, I really enjoyed having the pillows in my living room for a couple of days before I sent them off ..so I hope their new owner will like them too:)

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