TRL is on holidays!

Hello everyone,
Just dropping a line to tell you that I will be on holidays until September, when I will resume posting. Meanwhile, I will try to enjoy Copenhagen's weather (not an easy task), and maybe go on holidays for some days in August.
Hugs to all,
Caroline

News

Hello again, dear readers!
It's been now a year and a half since I wrote to you about taking a break from the blog. It has been an extremely busy year, learning Danish intensively (over 20 hours a week!), but I have been very happy, and the tiredness and the stress of the former period (moving to Sweden, then to France, then to Denmark), has slowly melted away.
I'm in love with Copenhagen, biking everywhere and even enjoying the rain (not the darkness and grey month of November, that is just not possible). I expect Denmark to be my adopted country, to settle down here, develop as a person and grow roots.
Lately I have felt my creativity coming back, together with fashion inspiration and the love for all things related to style. I have felt like writing again. That, and the sense from readers that the blog was useful and informative, have decided me to start posting for TRL again.
I am going to post once a week for a period, while I get a sense of the direction I want to take with the blog in the medium run*. I will not be offering colour counselling, but I will try to make the posts about seasons better and clearer, so you do not need it ;).
That means you can still expect some Style DOs and DONTs, HOW TOs, and the like, but probably much more of my Scandi-findings which, believe me, are many, and style posts related to the my new life, which includes being stylish but practical while on a bike, wearing a helmet, and being prepared for the wind and the rain. I hope my readers still find this new phase fun and informative.
Last but not least, I want to thank the readers that have reached out and wished me well, they are an important reason for being back.

Love to all,

Caroline

*At this moment, TRL is a bit in disarray, as I have reverted some things to draft and some links may not work for some time. Bear with me while I try to fix it.

So long dear readers

Dear readers,
I have decided to drop you all a line to communicate that I am going to stop writing this blog for at least a while.
We are moving again at the end of the month, this time to Copenhagen. I have lived in four different countries in the last three years and although it probably sounds very glamorous, the truth is that it is exhausting. Life in Paris has been quite stressful (read also "very expensive indeed") and French bureaucracy Kafkaesque. The city is indeed lovely beyond description, but not a sane place to live.
I have endeavoured to write the blog in an informative and rigorous way, keeping it as far as possible from the overwhelming majority of the messages aimed at women nowadays. I have been fortunate enough to come in contact with some lovely ladies whose comments and communication I have enjoyed immensely.
When things have quieted down I would like very much to return to writing for the blog, but I have no idea about when that will be.

Love to all,
Caroline

Women, Girls and the Media

The Age issue: We need more women like us out here

I'm watching Project Runway: All Stars, rather against my best instincts. I have been a fan of Project Runway since the beginning - although once Michael Kors left, things have never been the same- but All Stars, unfortunately, not only lacks Heidi Klum, Nina García and Tim Gunn (Mr. Gunn is a personality on his own right), but it is also weighed down by a rather ill at ease hostess, Alyssa Milano. The advertising is rather heavy-handedly delivered, even for this type of show's standards. In conclusion, it's such a bore that I'm thinking of just stopping mid-season, even watching it as I do while preparing a meal or doing the laundry.
Well, they have recently aired (December 19th) #Nina's Trending an episode in which they invited bloggers "from all over the world" (as far as I can tell, only from Toronto, New Jersey, London, and Los Angeles... that's just three countries!). All but one looked like celebrities from reality shows, unfortunately and, all in all, they were the perfect fashion victims (or maybe "the victims of fashion" would be more appropriate), as younger women so often are. Also, they were all around 25. Tops.
I was angry, let me tell you.

Fashion versus style

All designers but one had absolutely no idea about what silhouettes would suit their clients best. Two of the bloggers were very petite and ended up being swallowed up by their garments. Another was a clear athletic body type C, so the least she needed was a huge V on her torso making her hips even straighter...
The designers' perception of colour (again, except one) were not much better in regards to colour. Finally, their silhouettes were cut up in different ways: the line of the shoes, the length and cut of the outfits...

Episode 8 at Project Runway All Stars: #Nina's Trending by Caroline Grant. The most galling part of the episode was, for me, that the main product advertised was an enterprise of Ms. García, who would have never been caught dead wearing any of these outfits, not even when she was in her twenties, according to her book The Little Black Book of Style (HarperCollins, 2007). She comes from a privileged Colombian family for whom travelling yearly to France, the US, Italy or Japan was just the most normal thing to do. [Photos courtesy of Lifetime]

Happy New Year 2014!

I hope you enjoy happiness with your loved ones and that your sorrows, if any, may grow less with them.

Everybody, I wish you all the very best in 2014!!

Tea versus Coffee

Coffee for all in Scandinavia...

Statistics say that Swedes drink more coffee than most Western countries., except neighbours Finland, Norway, and Denmark. As soon as you arrive in Sweden, you realize how much and how strong, the natives drink their coffee, even before going to sleep! Fika is here a strong tradition of socializing around a mug of coffee with something to eat, usually sweet.
I've come to know many of them after living here a year and a half, and I have to say that my favourite is, to my surprise, Prinsessbakelse or Prinsesstårta. Usually covered in a bright green marzipan layer (which i had to get over before trying it), it contains layers of sponge, jam, and vanilla custard, topped with thick whipped cream. When I realized it was the Swedish version of a Victoria cake, I was lost!

Swedes punctuate the year with festivities that have their own particular sweet associated: the third week in September is officially prinsesstårta week! The photo is from an all-things-Swedish blog. The specific post explains everything there is to know about the cake and how to make it, even at altitude! [Photo source: http://semiswede.com].

But tea for me!

I persevere with tea (Irish Breakfast always for me, with milk and sugar) in spite of the overwhelming presence of coffee in Sweden, but only at home, as in patisseriets they expect you to use just hot water! (not boiling, sacrilege!). Sometimes the even give you hot water in a teacup and then you have to go and look for the teabag. The result is disgusting, let me tell you.
I like going out to the balcony at midday whenever it's sunny (spring arrived here, in the form of temperatures above 10°C, just two weeks ago), and have lunch with a nice tablecloth and use my tea set. It's one of those simple things that makes me happy.
I'm crazy about tea sets and tea, and I smuggled this one some months after moving to Lund from Madrid. With this I mean that I asked a friend to bring it, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap, in his hand luggage, even when it had been agreed that, as we were going to stay here only two years, it was not worth our while to transport it. I guess that's what my better half announced and I just kept quite. Hence "smuggle".

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago, when this delightful lilac flowers first appeared, signaling, as every year, the arrival of spring. I stopped my bike and collected some by the side of the road because I love having nice flowers with my tea... This is my vintage tea set, Johnson Brothers, Mason's "Brown Velvet", from the 1970s. I was looking for an ironstone tea set (the best thing to keep tea really hot for a long time) on eBay and found first "Blue Mandalay" and bought a small jug, but we preferred this one best. I acquired most of the pieces in one go, for 4 people (cheaper for international transport), and then have added additional ones in groups of 2 and 4, as it is really heavy.

Sources:
According to ICO (International Coffee Organization),  consumption in 2011 in the 4 biggest consumer countries was (per capita, in Kg.):

1. Finland 12.17 
2. Norway 9.51
3. Denmark  8.21
4. Sweden 7.14

In contrast, a country you would immediately associate with coffee, Italy, consumes only 5.62!
For its origin, you can visit: 10 things to know about Sweden's food culture, by Lola Akinmade Åkerström.

Blog update: Contact Caroline

Brand new page at the top of the blog!