Move out!

When summer is here and the Norwegian days are sunny, and the nights long and bright, I spend as much time as possible out in the open. Furnitures that has its place inside during the dark Norwegian winter months, gets a new place under the trees and in the sun during the summer.
Use your imagnation and creativity, and create and indoor feeling outside. Why not bring a desk and chair and read, write, blog or paint (whatever you prefer!) amongst trees and birds, OR if you live in the city, in the back yard or on the balcony. If you have one that is...

Photography: Trine Thorsen
Model: Frida H.A/ Pholk

Yard sale!

On this coming weekend I will be having another yard sale. Still have a bunch of things to get rid of :-).

 If you are in Norway and in the area, I hope you have a chance to stop by, and if you are a collector of Norwegian antiques, I might have something for you...

 

Check it out on Facebook here.

PS! My house is only five minutes by car from beautiful Villa Malla. A great place to eat lunch! 

As we know lunch and shopping goes hand in hand ;-).

Hope to see you there!

 

Image found on Google. Photographer unknown :-(

Colorful Christmas!

 We never get enough of great decoration- and gift wrapping ideas, and this year EVERY magazine have their own Christmas issue filled with exactly that. We se more and more colors and recycled paper, and gifts decorated with tape, stickers and colorful ribbons. Gone are Santas, red apples and white angels. Don´t know what you think about this new trend, but even though I am not the most colorful person there is, I like it a lot! I am strongly considering adding some color to the decorations this year- if I dear...

This are a few images from a Christmas workshop feature I did for Kamille´s Christmas issue earlier this fall. Hope they´ll inspire!

Styling: Line Dammen, Bente Helstrøm and Tara Ballantyne

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Eye exercise...

Great eye exercise on a Sunday morning :-)

Have a lovely day!

Lovely posters from Keep Calm Gallery

Design by Hayley & Lucas

Apple dumplings

In addition to making the delicious juice from the apples I´m about to pick this coming weekend, I have to save some of them to make these wonderful apple dumplings. The recipe is one out of seven we photographed for a feature in the Norwegian magazine, Maison Mat og Vin, which is to be found in the stores now.

Apple dumplings with spiced sauce

You need:

350 g (1 1/2 cups) of sugar

4.75 dl (2 cups) water

 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided

 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, divided 

50 g (1/4 cup) butter 

150 g (2/3 cup) sugar 

8 medium apples, peeled and cored

 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into cubes

You do:

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring 350 g (1 1/2 cups) sugar, water, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. 

Remove saucepan from heat, and stir in butter. Set aside

.
Combine 150 g (2/3 cup) sugar, remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Roll pie crust into 8, 8-inch circles. Place 1 apple in center of each circle. Sprinkle each evenly with sugar mixture and dot with 3 tablespoons butter.

Fold dough over apples, pinching to seal. Place in a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish and drizzle with syrup. Bake at 190 degrees C (375°F) for 40 to 45 minutes. 

*makes 8 dumplings

*Cooks tip: Serve with ice cream or softly whipped cream!

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Food and styling: Tara Ballantyne

Fall

Even though I was only gone for a few days there´s was a lot of changes when we returned back home. The colors on the trees had gone from green to orange, and most of the apples in the orchard outside the house had fallen off. If I want homemade applejuice from Eplegården this winter, I better hurry and pick what´s left. Guess my weekend plans are already set...

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Wicked Valencia!

At this very moment I am in Valencia, Spain, taking a few days off from work. I have heard so many wonderful things about this city, so I had to go and see for myself. Can´t say I am disappointed, the city is so so beautiful. Today we will cross the streets from where we stay and visit the wonderful City of Arts and Sciences, with its amazing architecture and exciting things to explore. There´s a local food fair going on there now, so I can´t wait to taste various delicious local food and wine. In the sun... ;-)

Images by hanneorla found on flickr!

New workshop!

I have now set a new date for a workshop in digital photography for beginners, focusing on very basic interior and lifestyle photography. The course will be held this Octobre 15th. and 16th. in my hometown, Tofte, app. one hour drive from Oslo. At the old and charming Bikuben, we will learn, practice, eat and sleep from Saturday morning until Sunday evening. If you don´t have the chance to join both days, I have made it possible to do a one day workshop.

Sounds fun?

You can contact me here for more information and price.

Hope to see you there!

Image by Cuba Gallery on Flickr!

Friday treat!

Friday is a good night to treat yourself to something special. Tonight, I am going to treat myself to this wonderful popcorn I tasted for the first time on a photoshoot for Kamille this summer.  It is easy to make and terribly addictive, but the good part is that it is healthier than any other snack out there, which make it easy not to get the quilty feeling us women tend to get when we "sin". 

The best popcorn ever...

You need:

A big pan

A big baking bowl

3 tbsp coconut oil 

1 dl popcorn kernels

5o gr.unsalted butter

1 dl maplesyrup or agave syrup

2 tbsp chopped rosemary leaves

1-2 tsp Maldon salt (or other sea salt flakes)

1/4 tsp baking soda

You do:

 Preheat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit). On medium to high temperature, add the coconut oil and the popcorn kernels to a big pan. Put a lid on, and start to shake the pan. It will soon start to pop and when it is about 3 sec between each popping, remove the pan away from the heat. Pour the popcorn into a big bowl.

Melt the butter and the maple syrup (agave syrup) while stirring. If you have a sugar thermometer use this and heat until approxomately 105 degrees Celsius (221 degrees Fahrenheit), or if not, until the mixture has a brown, caramel colour.

Remove the pan from the heat and add salt, rosemary and bakingpowder while stirring. Pour the mixture over the popcorn and stirr well. Then pour the popcorn onto a bakingtray (covered with baking paper). Bake in the oven for app. 45 minutes, or until they are completely dry. 

Cool off and break the popcorn into small pieces.

The popcorn can be stored in airtight containers up to three days. 

 If you manage to keep your hands off them that long ;-)

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Food & styling: Hanne Buxrud

Another yardsale!

My last yard sale was quite a success and many people stopped by. The sun was shining, people were happy and so was I. It was so much fun that I have decided to do it again (still have a lot left!). This time together with a sweet neighbour I got to know that day + my good friend, Purpur´s Krista :-). She will be selling of leftovers from her wonderful shop that closed down last Friday.

The sale will be held in my garden in Bispeveien 8, this coming Saturday, July 2.nd from 12.00-18.00.

PS! It´s a big market (Toftedagen) downtown Tofte the same day, so why not take a family outing to Tofte with a stopover at wonderful Villa Malla on the way home? :-)

Oliver Gustav once again!

In May last year, stylist Christine and I spent a week in Copenhagen for inspiration and work, and came home with this gorgeous feature (well, we think so...) shot in Oliver Gustav´s fantastic flowershop and studio in Kongens Nytorv. Unfortunately no one has shown an interest in the feature yet, but since I have now waited a whole year to share some of the images with you, I can no longer hold back. His taste in plants and interior is outstanding (and quite morbid), and visiting his place was a huge treat and great inspiration for us. A wonderful, wonderful day!

If you are going to Copenhagen, I recommend that you pay him a visit too!

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Styling: Christine Hærra

Let´s dance!

Think I need to spend the weekend practicing new moves for Elle´s upcoming summer party :-)

Spring cleaning!

This weekend spring cleaning has been on the "to do list", and I must say I´m happy and exhausted (I looove getting the garden and the veranda ready for summer, especially after...). In lots of sunshine and with help from my wonderful mother, the lawn have been raked, the hedge trimmed and flowers planted. I´ve even had some time to gather a whole bunch of stuff from the loft and the basement to sell on my yard sale next weekend.

On Saturday May 7th. from 11.00- 17.00 and Sunday May 8th. from 11.00- 17.00, I will be selling off a bunch of stuff I have collected for a while. New stuff, old stuff, antiques, clothes, furnitures, pictures (photographs) and a whole lot more...

For those of you who lives nearby (or is thinking of taking a trip to the countryside), please stop by! Freshly brewed coffee and homemade cake will be awaiting :-).

Pressing pause...

It has been years since I was able to just sit down and do nothing. To tell you the truth, I am not really good at it...My work, the house and blogging, three wonderful things that takes time- indivdually and together. I wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day, and I guess I am not the only one... There´s sooo many things I would love to photograph, blogposts I want to write and friends I would like to meet. Not to talk about the house I should have finished! So, with so many projects going on, it is obvious that the days are too short. Right now work is what´s taking most of my time which I really can´t complain about... There has been a couple of "silent" years so thank god it´s moving the right way!

This afternoon I´ll put work aside and practice "pressing pause". I am heading into blogland and staying here for a while. Maybe I need to be tied up, but I think not. I am sure the wonderful world of blogs out there will mesmerize me and keep me still...;-))

Want to learn photography?

I´ve been contacted by several people who are interested in learning photography, and have now been able to set a date for a workshop. The workshop will be held (in Norwegian only) on April 30th.and May 1st. (this year) at the beautiful Holmsbu Spa and Resort. There will be two fun days of learning and practicing photography, good food and socializing. If this could of your interest, please contact me at trine@trinethorsen.com, and I will send some more information about the program and the price.

Hope to see you there!

Image borrowed from Cuba Gallery´s photostream on Flickr.

Photography workshop

The last two days, my house has been filled the sweet girls from Norwegian Elle Interior (soon to be named Elle Decoration!). The reason for their visit has been a two days course in digital photography for beginners. Yesterday, after a day with lots of theoretic blabber about the difference between shutters and f-stops, we continued the evening with logs in the fireplace, a few glasses of chablis and a lovely vietnamese dinner (recipes to come!). Nice! Exhausted by all the numbers and new expressions, we all went down early, to wake up rested and ready for a new day of learning and teaching.

They headed back home this afternoon tired, but happy and with lots of new knowledge to bring in to their new discovered world of photography. We´ll hopefully see some great results on their blog after this!

PS! I am thinking about holding a course in photography for bloggers (In Norway only, I´m afraid),

so if you´re interested, please let me know and I´ll try to set one up.

Image by Sunny Papico found on Flickr!

Out at last!

I dag våknet jeg og var ganske frustrert. Hvorfor? Ikke bare hadde den vonde ryggen min ødelagt for en veldig etterlengtet ferie, men også fra å gjøre noe som helst (bortsett fra å ligge) i de neste to-tre ukene. Bortsett fra en og annen liten gåtur rundt omkring huset, har tiden blitt tilbrakt i sengen totalt avhengig av hjelp fra min kjære. For en aktiv person som meg, med en "to do" liste så lang som jeg vet ikke hva, og maaange ting å følge opp etter en to ukers ferie, har dette vært drepen! I dag måtte jeg ha luft. MYE luft! Trosset smertene, tok meg med kameraet og tok meg en tur til et sted jeg har villet dele med dere lenge...

PS! Tror jeg må dra dit i morgen også for da serverer de ferske, hjemmelagede kanelsnurrer. 

Me like alot! :-)

 

Eplegården ligger i Hurum (ca. 50 minutters kjøring fra Oslo), og er en kjempefin dagsutflukt for hele familien. Her kan man kjøpe økologiske epler i løsvekt, ferdig eplemost på flasker (au naturel!) eller kartong, syltetøy, chutneys og masse mer. Har du epler fra egen hage kan du få presset din egen most med selvdesignede etiketter. 

When I woke up today I was really frustrated. Why? Not only had my bad back spoiled my very needed vacation, but also stopped me from not being able to do nothing but laying in bed the next two-three weeks. Except from a small walk around the house the days have been spent in bed. Not a perfect situation for a person with a veeery long "to do" list and lots of work and clients to follow up after being on vacation for two weeks.  Today I really needed to leave my bed and the house and breathe in some nice, fresh air. Lots of it! I neclected the pain, took my camera with me and went to a place I have wanted to share with you for a while...

The applefarm (Eplegården) is situated on the Hurum peninsula, about a 50 minutes drive from Oslo. It´s a perfect place for an outing for the whole family. Here you can buy different brands organic apples, freshly made applejuices, jams, chutneys and a whole lot more. If you have your own orchard, they can make the juice for you and bottle it with your own personal labels.

Photography: Trine Thorsen

Time to say goodbye...

Etter mange år med loppemarked besøk har det blitt mange gode kjøp, og endel kjøp jeg trodde var gode der og da, som endte opp med å ikke være så gode alikevel. Vel, kjøpene var vel både gode og billige på en måte, men tingene var ikke helt meg... Disse tingene har vel vært tiltenkt et sommerhus eller jeg vet ikke hva, men slik det ser ut nå, blir det ikke det på en lang, lang stund... I de neste par ukene skal jeg være flink. Jeg skal gå igjennom alt som jeg vet aldri vil bli brukt her i huset og prøve å finne noen som liker dem mer en meg. Det sitter ganske langt inne (tingene er jo både fine og gamle!), men jeg skal klare det! Hvem vet, kanskje det blir lagt ut noe her som kan falle i din smak?

:-)

After years of visiting fleamarkets there has been some good buys, and some buys I thought where good there and then, but ended up not being so good after all. Well, the buys were both good and cheap in a way, but when you end up just storing them, I guess they weren´t that great after all... In the next couple of weeks I will be a good girl and go through everything that isn´t me and find someone that will love them more than I do. It will be hard to separate, but I will manage! Who knows, maybe there will put things out for sale here that will suit your taste?

:-)

Images by Orchidella on Flickr