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I wish you all a fabulous summer holiday.

... pause ...

I wish you all a fabulous summer holiday.

Summer Nails

I've collected my summer nails for you in this post, but we start with my Easter nails, which I didn't like that much:

The light yellow is Sally Hansen's Go Bananas, which I have stamped with my new Bundle Monster Holiday Collection stamping plates. I just don't think it looks much like Easter egs, and my tape-chicken is not very good either - ough. Well, the good thing is that it is easy to remove. ;)

I am playing with stereotypes, that is styles many loves but which I never wear myself, e.g. flowers, red and pink. Here I have stamped roses on top of Misa's Fleeting Hibiscus:

It was not bad at all.

Back to my favourite colour, green - here R de L's Precious Metal:

The polish is a gift from a dear colleague, which I have dotted flowers onto, very easy.

I had bought some new tape which I wanted to try. I made this holographic texture manicure:

The holographic polish is my favourite from MakeupStore named Siw and the texture is IsaDora's Ocean Crush. I have added a matching rhinestone on each nail.

Summer calls for holo polishes, because they are so beautiful in the sunshine:

An old orange polish from Gosh Funky Orange:

I'm not especially fond of orange, but this one looks so lovely in the sunshine. I've made a simple dotted pattern with red on top of it.

Here I've done my nails at my summer cottage and painted them with the only polish I have there, a really boring light pink shimmer polish. I spiced it up with turquoise checks when I came home:

The turquoise is Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away.

Another stereotype, pink nails, which I never wear anymore:

But I did love these. The polish is L'Oreals Shocking Pink, which I would never have called it. I have dotted simple flowers at the tips. I think I will make these again one day.

And the last stereotype for now - butterfly nails:

I love the mint green colour, which is from Oriflame named Mint Pear, but the butterflies do not impress me. The one at my ring finger is good, but the others are just annoying.

ALT for Damerne, No. 27, 1955

Well, is that a summery cover page or what? Wow, I love that bathing suit. I've scanned from ALT for Damerne (Everything for the Ladies), number 27, 1955 for you. It is the first magazine published in July 1955. Remember that all scans can be clicked into larger formats. Although it is a Danish magazine, I hope my foreign readers will have fun reading my small recaps and get inspiration from the photos.

In the Binocular is a lovely mix of this and that. This time there is advice on stewed fruit and how to make your own necklace of shells:

Bettina wonders - this time she writes about the weather:

The weather is something we Danes always talk about, perhaps because it is so changing and unpredictable.

Does Kinsey forget love? Perhaps, because it is not just all about sex:

And the article features a photo of my idol, Marilyn Monroe:

How many not so fortunately equipped girls might have envied her? I think back then like now, we admired the stars for their big breasts, lovely curled hair or long legs.

The last part of the article:

Let's move on to fashion , because now it is 25C degrees in the shadow:

I want the check patterned in the middle.

And Pattern on Fabric offered a model for the Mrs and Miss:

You could also send in a coupon to buy these three lovely patterns:

Again the check patterned is my favourit. I really need a check patterned dress in my collection.

Needlework of the week is a pillow with a Chinese man:

I think it will look nice at your summer cottage or in the garden swing.

Within four walls, here you are presented to lovely arrangements if you only had one room:

Here is a colourful and festive collection of recipes for a summer buffet - The Party for the Little New One:

The buffet might of course be great for at lot of other parties than a Christening party.

On to the ads - I have as always scanned a different mix. We have seen Dandy before, but I thought this one with the vaccinated boy was charming:

Here are two ads about how to stay fresh at each end, so to speak:

Don't waste 5 years of your life - use Tampax! And below is Odol mouth water, which I don't think is still available. I think it is funny how much the bottle and the name reminds me of toilet cleaner.

Smelling fresh ... with Sno-Mist powder:

I wonder if a powder deodorant really worked?

A holiday tip:

OB for internal use, to rescue your holiday. OB was also back then the greatest compitor to Tampax.

I love Tosca's ads, they are so stylish and beautiful:

I wish I could still buy the creams. I used them as a teenager and remember them as being really lovely.

Delicious as summer food, OTA's corn flakes:

And here Oxford has conjured ALT for Damernes logo into their own ad, which was all over the last page of the magazine:

 

I wish you all a fabulous summer.

Cottage Feeling

Well, our second vacation week was spent in my nice old cottage at the Isle of Moen, Ulfshale:

It is the greatest gift of my life, you can read about it here if you want to.

My cottage is from 1956 and has been my grandparents. Right beside it is my sister's house, which has been our parents', so we have a garden gate between our gardens, since we have been used to visit each other since we were children:

I have kept much of the fifties style, surprise, I know. ;) This is the kitchen:

The photo is dark, because we were so blessed with sunshine all week and my small camera is not that advanced when taking photos in backlight. I didn't want to bring my big reflex camera with me.

This is a glass with salt and my beloved granny's handwriting, I miss her every day:

The brush pot is practical and matches the colour of the tiles:

I remember this pair since I was very little, now there's hardly any paint left:

But they still love each other.

And tea and coffee pots and a tiny candlestick made og old copper coins, I love such things:

I have bought this sixties coffee set on a flea market, since my granny had 117 different cups without saucers, and this suited the style of the house so good and cost almost nothing. I also love that for once it is not roses but carnations that decorates the cups:

I knitted a lot:

My granny loved Maja, the Spanish scent, and always had Maja soaps, a tradition I have continued:

When I was about five years old I chose the tiles in the background, that's the tale today. They were chosen because they were so "nice and light". Yes I know, time changes, but it was a great luxury to have a bathroom in a cottage in 1972. Before that we had a shared loo standing in the middle of the two gardens, which my dad dig into the garden when it was full. We didn't have running water or electricity either.

Well, let's go outside:

This was my grandpa's vegetable bed, now it is a cosy patio where we eat and relax in the shadow. My dream is that one day my skilled gardener son re-lays it all with red flags.

Sister has made café latte:

We add a little Kahlua, then it tastes like dessert.

Summery Danish lunch served on my lovely plates from the fifties:

I only have four in four different colours and would love to have more, but I never find them at flea markets, so if you have some and want to sell them, please let me know.

We eat together and take turns to prepare all meals, here sister has made us Italian dinner with "curry cake", super delicious:

Sister's terrace where I cadged some internet and relaxed with my iPad:

We also worked a bit, here DH is renovating the kitchen window:

At the country there are small booths everywhere selling different things like fruit and vegetables, and books (50 pence each) and free magazines:

And even ladybugs and angels!:

They were simply too cute! I will put a pair on my parents advent calendar, sister got a pair and the rest goes on my Christmas tree. Believe me, Christmas will be here before you know it. ;)

I hope you've all had a lovely summer holiday, because I did. :)

Harzen 2.0

Well, we went to Harzen, Germany, again this year. I wanted to go to Vienna, Austria, but we had sold the "number 1", that is the car that should be the best in our private collection of cars, but which had become old, and DH didn't want to drive all the way to Vienna in my winter car without AirCon and speed-pilot - men! Well, fortunately Harzen is a large area so we just went to the opposite end this year. But we were so extremely lucky to get our brand new and shiny luxury limo the day before our holiday:

Yes, he looks happy - and he should, because he has got exactly the car he wanted most!

We lived at Hotel Victor's right at the eastern side of the old borderline:

Before the hotel a nice old convent were built on the ground, but Stasi tore it down, since refugees hid in it hoping to flee over the border at night. Yes, they really did such things. The hotel is now built in the same style as the convent.

At the hotel there were a huge spa, pool and wellness area - here is our bathing clothes drying:

When driving around you often meet signs like this telling us that Germany was divided into East and West until the end of 1989:

Here is the borderline, this is no man's land, where the flagstones were the patrol path. Here Stasi walked up and down in sharp uniforms and loaded machine guns:

Our city, Düderstadt, was nice and cosy and we found time for a café latte:

A statue reminding us how Germany was previously divided:

Many families were split for many years.

We visited Rammelsberg, which is the largest mine in Germany:

The mine workers' clothes and personal belongings are hanging up under the ceiling. The dark cloths are meant to hang their clean clothes in:

And here is the shared bath:

The red tubs are very large soap dishes.

You could go on different tours and since we had never tried an authentic trip with a real mine train before, it became our choice:

The wagons were meant for 12 persons, but we were only eight and we were sitting tight.

There was a museum with very large machines and engines:

 I love engines.

Opposite our hotel was the Borderline Museum:

This English text described how the world was back then and up to 1989:

I have used a telex machine like this when I was an apprentice:

It was the only way my company could communicate with African countries.

And here is a photo of one of the watch towers, they are still standing every where in Germany:

We visited an alternative bear park, which was fantastic. It was alternative in the way that the bears had lots of space and they really looked like they was having a good time:

I have not used zoom, we were really so close to him, quite scary.

Sleeping teddies:

My own bear:

Very frightening! 

And we also took a trip with the vintage train, called the narrow-gauge line:

Very expensive, but also very cosy.

Here they shovel coal for the next trip:

And I bought a few nail polishes for my collection: