Bronze rocking horse

I'll definitely have to try and make a trip into central London to see this bronze sculpture that was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square this morning. Designed by Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset, the sculpture portrays a young boy on his rocking horse and celebrates future and the heroism of growing up.

Dala horse babygro

A very cute outfit given to Lily by a good friend - a Dala horse print babygro by Rosie Wonders. She didn't realise how much I LOVE horses (and all my attempts at persuading my baby to love them too, even at 6 months old!) and it fits in perfectly with the wooden ones I picked up in Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Baby meets Pony

Learning to play and grasp and giggle.

Mesmerising patterns, colours and textures.

14 weeks old.

Swedish kitsch

So I still have more stories from Sweden, I realise that it was a much more inspiring trip than I first thought! I fell in love with the crazy and kitsch ceramic figurines at the Story Hotel where I was staying - the way they presented them was so modern and cool, and then I started to see them everywhere!

On the Saturday we visited a fantastic little bric-a-brac in Varbeg metro station where I picked up some gorgeous ceramics - a milk jug with stylised geometric trim, decorative tile of a girl with flower-encrusted hair and the most beautiful little horse I have ever seen.

Stamps

Inspired by a recent post on one of my favourite blogs Ungtblod, here are a few stamps that I have picked up on my travels or torn from found envelopes.....I love the horse one so much!

Göteborg: day 2

Walked along the canal to the Feskekorka, or 'Fish Church', Gothenburg's oldest food market full of freshly caught seafood - much more sophisticated than you'd expect but I guess the chaos happens around 5am!

Spent the rest of the morning in Haga, the city's oldest working-class suburb with lots of cafes, antique shops, galleries and clothes (fell in love with Twist&Tango). The constant drizzly rain was a bit depressing and the prices were too high - I could only bring back a photograph of my favourite ceramic bowl with hand-painted stylised vegetables.

Quirky shop signs, mini greenhouses, handmade leather clogs, sun-bleached linen curtains, cobbled streets ending in lush tree-lined hills, fruit in rubber baskets, peering into the window of an amazing jumble of bric-a-brac that is only open when the shopkeeper can be bothered (so said the guy next door!).

Hiding from the rain in museums all afternoon - the Röhsska Museum with its beautiful hand-painted ceiling of swirly textile patterns, and the Stadsmuseum, housed in the old offices and auction house of the Swedish East India Company. 

Fegen, Sweden

Horse heads part2

Forgot to add in this new sculpture at Marble Arch that suddenly appeared just before I went on my holiday. I was on my daily commute to work and happened to look out of the bus window and had to frantically search in my bag for my camera! Its a 27ft statue by artist Nic Fiddian-Green and looks pretty spectacular.

Horse heads

The past couple of weeks I have had some strange encounters with horses (my favourite animal since I learnt to ride when I was young).

First I went to see War Horse at the New London Theatre for a birthday treat, which featured amazing puppets that looked and behaved like real animals - even down to their breathing and moving ears. The following evening I went to see the shaman-artist Marcus Coates perform at A Ritual for Elephant & Castle, and rather than his usual badger or deer taxidermy accessories, he came out on stage with a huge horse's head - which was both fascinating and a bit alarming!

The other day, I came across an image from the recent Venice Biennale of a horse attached to the wall, minus a head - what is going on?!! All these images remind me of the gorgeous little fabric horse head on a frame I picked up in Tokyo last year that is hanging up in my flat.

A new trend???!!!......