Let me tell you about Fred Harris, because this is unique. He's a Cath Kidston fan, a hoarder, a cushion freak and does a mean camping trip. He mailed me a couple of weeks ago regarding my site and included the most fantastic camping pictures I've ever seen. He went out camping with his wife and did it the shabby chic way. This makes camping appealing. Although I'm still not one for sharing a shower with 200 people.

Please visit his site because you'll instantly love him. I'm so happy to have found another man in my life who's not afraid to show his compassion for cushions and Cath Kidston. Speaking of CK, summer sale started over there!!

In other news, yvestown is the blog of the week over at Decor8. I'm so delighted and excited Holly picked me.

Have a lovely weekend!!

We finally found a replacement for the HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP. The Norm 03 by Normann Copenhagen won me over after the Bo convinced me he would put the lamp together (it's a bit of a job) I went for it and I love it. I do miss my HORRIBLE IKEA LAMP just because of the whole conversation it brought with it. The constant bickering in the house about a lamp is actually quite funny to me and all the hilarious comments left on that one post cracked me up. It's so interesting how we can look at one piece of furniture so differently.

As I never really showed all the corners of the bedroom before, it's always a little corner or the view from the bedroom door, I decided to make a little bedroom photo set over at Flickr for you to have a peek.

Thanks for the fun feedback and comments on my previous post. It made me laugh and I feel a little bit better about my addiction. Addictions are things that make you go hmmmm ... with magazines I want to get that one picture, or that one article that makes me go hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm!!

The key question is; "where do you keep your magazines?".

A year ago I started to file them. I file both Country Livings, Country Homes & Interiors, Elle wonen and Domino in here

and I also started to file the renewed 101 Woonideeën. As for the other mags, I keep them around the house and recycle them when I get to that point I can part with them or I give them to my neighbor to read.

Than there's the ever growing "to go through" pile on the chair in the dining room.

I keep my Mac Book there for quick resource. I like to go to a website that comes with an article immediately, so I read and browse at the same time - oh dear, I think I'm giving too much info here. Oh and on top of the Mac is a new Jeu de Paumes book, Stockholm's Garden - I love, love, love it!!

Next we are off to the best place to read and that's the loo. I keep this little GreenGate basket up there and it holds our "Loo Literature" as we call it aka The NG and the Quest.

I recycle those and stock up each month. That way we keep in track with new curtain linings, placebos and the world changing climate.

Next month I'm going to swap magazines with Charlotte in New Zealand and Sara in Australia. And, as you can imagine, I'm dying here. I've never swapped that far away before. I'm also going to be in a magazine next month. It might ruin the whole experience for me though ... flipping through a magazine and see my own house "hey I know that kitchen, where have I seen that before?".

There's no secret to that I'm an interior magazine junky. I have a subscription on Domino magazine, Country Living UK, Country Homes & Interiors UK, Ariadne at Home, Elle Wonen, Elle Eten and the 101 Woonideeën. I also frequently buy the VT Wonen, The English Home, Real Simple and Country Living USA. I occasionally get send Martha Stewart Living, Blueprint and BoligLiv. And I still try to search between the magazines in the newspaper stand to get more. I'm really embarrassed about this but it's my thing - we all have a thing don't we?

I think I'm the worst nightmare for most magazine editors because I'll read or flip through everything. Even if it's in Hebrew I'll have it. Being said so, they can't get away with publishing the same stuff at the same time because I'll know and I'll find out.

This month I was shocked in utter believe. Four of my favorite magazines run the same stuff but put it in different context.

First off is the Country Homes & Interiors (July 2007 issue) with this picture of a beautiful kitchen - very well styled, I love it

but in the Country Living UK a month before (June 2007 issue) there's the exact same kitchen, just differently styled

I nearly fell off my chair when Kristina sent me the BoligLiv (May/June issue) all the way from Denmark

to find out that the VT Wonen - a Dutch magazine - (June 2007 issue) are using the exact same pictures but just made a complete different story

I thought I lost it, they can't fool magazine junkies like me. I might as well bought one really fat magazine with all these pictures in it, just styled differently. "Look! this is what we can do with kitchen A and this is what we can do with outdoor shower B".

May this be a wise lesson, do never become a magazine junky because you'll end up looking at the same stuff just as my mother tells me all the time - arrrgghhh I hate she's right!

I've done something today that I never do ... I sat in the sun!! Yes people, I sat in the sun for an hour flipping magazines. I sat in the sun for an hour flipping magazines with my feet in a bucket of water, I sat in the sun for an hour flipping magazines with my feet in a bucket of water in my UNDERWEAR!!!

Mind me but it wasn't really a lovely little sun with a nice summer's breeze, it was a sweltering heat wave kind of "I'm going to get toasted" sun. And I sat in it ... I still can't believe it.

Boo tried to copy me but couldn't stand the heat with so much fur and fat. The temperature read 37 °C (98 F) in the shade - IN THE SHADE!! It's just crazy and I sat in the sun!!

This is an achievement and I think I need to be awarded. I who hates sun, who hates sitting down doing nothing for an hour, who hates sitting in underwear, who hates ... well I actually loved the feet in the bucket of water and the flipping magazines.

Something else I like to share (because I got tagged twice and have been trying to ignore it - hehe) 8 random bits about me:

1. I'm super emotional and well up at very odd moments. Like when a marching band starts to play music or when people applaud for a save landing or when one of the teachers from my old Au Pair child celebrated her last day at the nursery. It's super embarrassing sometimes and utterly inconvenient.
2. I'm attracted to imperfect people.
3. I've been a big Oprah fan for a long time until she said "eat whole grain" as if it was a revelation. That made me not believe her anymore.
4. I still have movie star crushes.
5. I do not believe in heaven or hell but I do want to go to a place full of kittens, free shopping and fat free yummy food when I'm dead.
6. I like celebrity gossip and know everything there's to know about Brad and Angelina.
7. I shower every day and clean my bedding every other day.
8. I do not like summers and I actually think I suffer from summer depressions. When the leaves start to fall from the trees I get happy and energetic. I do believe in a struggle and I feel you have to struggle harder in autumn and winter.

Recently I've been experimenting with my own embroidery patterns and I came up with these 3 little flowers. I saw something like it over at Rice but I just don't want to spend the money on something I can easily whip up myself.

I also turned them into a PDF file available for download. I do ask a little cash for it because ... well we have to support the art don't we? There's a green banner on top, you can click, pay $ 1.50 and download. Hope you like it!

Click on the image for a more detailed larger image.