All by myself

It has been a great year for Karl Edo. But with the success of Spook House, he found his shop too small to meet the increasing demand -- and he wasn't very happy with the location either. Not that he didn't like his neighbours in the building, like Osvald Halving in Gjengangere, Bart Ender Barton in the pub and Glenn Closenough and Sean Kommer'u in the adjacent assembly rooms. But the style of all of these businesses are a bit old fashioned if truth be told, and Karl Edo had for some time thought about building a real Spook House, and when it was opened to build on a ground nearby he went for it. His friend Arne Vaa wasn't hard to ask and designed a new Spook House for him in a jiffy.

After a busy spring, here is a proud Karl Edo in front of the newly finished building. And instead of a party, he's inviting you in to celebrate the opening with an Asian themed display, with some of his favourite design furniture, all in the Spook House signature colours red and white.

Credits: In this last year, I have received so many wonderful gifts from blog friends all around the world. I haven't had the time to blog about them so far, because of a very hectic spring at work, but I thank you all and have gathered some of the fabulous gifts in this post, and more will come in the fall. Tomorrow we're going to the UK on holiday and we will be away until the end of this month.

Arne Jacobsen seven chairs from Minimii. Super ellipse table is a selfmade gift from Cocco.

Shelving made of lego. I was inspired to make this after seeing this fabulous desk Carol (Pepper) at MitchyMooMiniatures made for me after I was so lucky to win her give-away! The drawers even open! Thank you so much, Pepper's husband (Salt?), for the draw!

The doll in kimono is a gift from Cocco. The lamp is an altered Re-ment lamp. The laptop is also by Re-ment. Seven chair from Minimii. Tiny Hello Kitty in a Japanese costume is a cell phone ornament. Selfmade George Nelson ball clock.

On the counter is another Hello Kitty ornament.
Inside there's a Re-ment plate and some moon lamps designed by Cocco.

Heart chair by Reac, a gift from Sans, I love it, thank you so much! The Piero Fornasetti plates on the wall are made using a photo from the Collectors magazine, a give-away I won from the fabulous Shopping Sherpa who was interviewed in the magazine and featured in the TV show as well! Sadly I didn't manage to make them as neat as she did hers. Shelf by Re-ment. Vases by Elisabeth Causeret and Re-ment. If anyone knows the artist who made the painting I would be grateful, I just found it on the Net. The facade of Spook House is (of course) made of lego.

I wish you all a very nice summer!
United Kingdom Come!

Total Ellipse or Easter in Spook House

If any of you are wondering what I'm up to these days, I'm in the prosess of tidying up my entire house! It really had to be done, after years of neglect, the clutter had piled up everywhere! But getting a new dollshouse room (which still isn't quite finished, but the last pieces of furniture for it are being assembled as we speak -- that's my husband you can hear swearing in the background) with a new wall-fitted bookshelf, inspired me to reorganize all my books and go through all the stuff in shelves, boxes and drawers and get rid of as much as possible. Usually I'm better at organizing clutter than actually getting rid of it, but now I have really enjoyed doing it, to the extent that I have scarcely been on the net this last month, because I just couldn't stop tidying!

But even though I haven't spent much time on blogging lately, Karl Edo has been busy and would like you to invite you all to the Spook House Easter exhibition. Can you tell he's been inspired by the Easter eggs?... And he's also very proud of his newest addition, the super-elliptical table by Piet Hein/Arne Jacobsen/Bruno Mathsson.

A close up of the new Lundby shelf with lights.

The colours are mainly in the range from blue to yellow, which I thought was appropriate since we're going to Stockholm, Sweden early tomorrow, (check the flag) and we will spend the entire Easter Holiday there. Yeah!

Happy Easter everyone!

Credits: The fantastic super-elliptical table is a selfmade gift from Cocco who never fails to amaze me with her talents and generosity! The other furniture is Arne Jacobsen chairs from Minimii, shelf with lights from Lundby (came with a bed) and counter from re-ment.The wallpaper is scaled down scrapbook paper. Accessories are mainly re-ment, Easter decorations and Bodo Hennig.

Cold bottom, hot seats

It's a dark and stormy night. Polly Line (still in one piece if you wondered) wants some new chairs for her livingroom and goes to Spook House and her good friend Karl Edo to see if he has something for her. His style's usually too glamorous for her, so she don't really expect to find anything, but on the other hand she's very pleased with the sofa from Annina she bought from him last year. Shivering, she hurries inside.



Karl Edo has actually just received a package of Arne Jacobsen furniture from the Danish company Minimii, and is happy to see Polly Line.



Polly Line already has a purple Arne Jacobsen egg chair, but is thrilled to see a lime green swan chair in the shop. She has to try it out at once!





While sitting in the swan chair she spots some seven chairs she really likes too.
But she doesn't like the price just as much, they're quite expensive.
Being the salesman he is, Karl Edo flips one chair to show her how well these chairs are made and explains that they'll last much longer than cheaper copies.





More photos of the Spook House interior.



Credits: The lip picture on the wall is a postcard from callsmall. The lip sofa is made by me in polymer clay. The large lamp, the ballclock and the lego table underneath it are also made by me. Arne Jacobsen swan and seven chairs by Minimii. Accessories are mostly re-ment and Elisabeth Causeret. Moon lamp, Karl Edo's sweater and mini mini seven chair by Cocco.

SIMPle misunderstanding

When Karl Edo attended SIMP* he found that he had been mistaken. He had expected it to be an exhibition of modern furniture, but it proved to be mostly a large antiques fair. There was a lot of really beautiful and exquisite old furniture for sale, but hardly anything that would fit in Spook House.

The furniture in antique style in these photos are from the stand of Patricia Herbillon.



Furniture by Sylvain Grandserre

One of the few exceptions was the work of Patrizia Santi.

Her furniture had just the right clean contemporary look he preferred. But he found her stand just at end of the day, so most of her furniture and accessories had already been sold out. But he found a very nice low storage shelf.

He also bought two handstitched cushions in a cool retro design made by the famous cushion designer Rosanna Rolla.

His favourites were the white vases made of the artist Elisabeth Causeret from Sailly.

* Salon International de la Maison de Poupée.

Karl Edo Spook loves Jonathan Adler (and Christmas)

ENG: Many of you have also seen the Spook House Christmas window in the wiki calendar, but on Saturday Karl Edo got this bowl in the Lundby calendar, and he wanted to show you all how great it looked with his new Jonathan Adler vases! (And sorry Nicola, Karl Edo is such an aesthetic, he wouldn't disturb the pictures with his presence.)

NOR: Mange av dere har også sett juleutstillingen til Spook House i wikikalenderen, men på lørdag fikk Karl Edo denne skåla i Lundbykalenderen og brant etter å vise fram hvor godt den sto til de nye Jonathan Adler vasene hans!

Credits: Jonathan Adler vases from the Barbie loves Jonathan Adler set. The Christmas tree is an ornament from Holmegaard. The silver star ornament I've had for years. Selfmade lego table, shelves and exterior. Selfmade Ballclock, Bocca Lip sofa and glass table. Deer head and striped bowl in red and white from Re-ment. All chairs and counter from Re-ment. Hanging lamp made by Cocco.

A Bocca Lips Now

Karl Edo Spook hopes you're not tired of his shop yet, because he just had to show you his new Bocca lip sofa! It has been on his want-list for ages, and finally he got hold of one. Karl Edo's friend Arne Vaa was happy to be the first to try it.

Update: I came up with a better headline, and my husband convinced me to change it.
If I hadn't, the waisted pun would have tormented him for ages :-)

Credits: Lip Sofa made by me, in polymer clay. Lego table and shelf. Ball clock on the wall made by me. "Pastil chair" and clocks in the shelf are by re-ment. Vases are beads, but the red vase is bought in Venice.

Seven heaven

ENG: Karl Edo loves his furniture and feels sad everytime a piece is taken away from him.
So the new seven miniature chair on the counter is not for sale!

NOR: Karl Edo elsker hvert eneste møbel i butikken og har vansker med å skilles fra dem.
Nå har han fått en ny syverstolminiatyr til å ha på disken og den er ikke til salgs!

Credits: The Arne Jacobsen seven chair is made by Cocco! Most of the furniture is credited before, as the Lundby chairs, the lego shelves and the re-ment counter and lamp. The white chairs are by Barton, the white tabletop is a broken re-ment table top on a knob. Accessories are by re-ment and Cocco and bead vases.

The Stavanger trade show - and the show is on!

ENG: Karl Edo had a sudden businesscall and had to go to Paris, so he sent Polly Line to the Stavanger trade show and Nora went too to keep her company and to do some shopping. They travelled directly from Skien with Vildanden (The wild duck) airlines. In Stavanger when the two rooms for the Spook House stand was well in order they went visiting the other stands there.

Here are some pictures taken during the day:

NOR: Karl Edo måtte til Paris pga presserende forretninger, så han sendte i stedet Polly Line til Stavangermessen og Nora dro også, både for å holde henne med selskap og for å få handlet litt. De reiste direkte fra Skien med flyselskapet Vildanden. Etter å ha sjekket at utstillingsrommene for Spook House var i orden hadde de tid til å gå rundt og se på de andre utstillingene og salgsbodene på messen.

Her er bilder tatt i løpet av dagen:

ENG: The girls are admiring Tove's Christmas window and also found some very nice things in her shop.
NOR: Jentene beundrer Tove's julevindu og fikk også kjøpt en del nydelige ting i butikken hennes.

ENG: Here they are at one of her other beautiful displays.
NOR: Her er de ved en annen av Toves vakre utstillinger.

ENG: Nora was looking for a new sewing table at Kristín from Iceland's shop for exquisite handmade furniture and found a really nice round table there which she bought.
The girls also visited Rita's lovely quilt shop.
NOR: Nora så etter et nytt sybord i Kristíns butikk med eksklusive håndlagde møbler og fant et vakkert rundt bord der som hun kjøpte. Jentene besøkte også Ritas nydelige Quiltestue.

ENG: A must-see was the food market of Christel Jensen, a worldknown supplier and maker of gourmet food. Because of the flight home Nora just bought some jars with pickles and other goodies, and some of Christel's famous bread, even though she wanted to buy almost everything she saw there.
NOR: Polly Line og Nora besøkte selvfølgelig også markedet til Christel Jensen, verdensberømt gourmetmat-leverandør. På grunn av flyturen hjem kjøpte Nora bare noen glass med pickles og annet godt og noen av Christels berømte brød, selv om hun hadde lyst til å kjøpe omtrent alt som var der.

ENG: After all the shopping the girls were tired and took a break in one of the Spook House rooms..
NOR: I mellom slagene slappet Nora og Polly Line av i Spook House utstillingen..



ENG: ..before they kept on looking at more exhibitions, as this cosy mountain cabin and this display in blue and white with more classic styled furniture.
NOR: ..før de fortsatte runden blant utstillingene, som denne koselige fjellhytten og dette rommet i blått og hvitt med møblement i mer klassisk stil.




ENG: Some miniatures were also exhibited at the trade show.
Nora and Polly Line were amazed by all the small details and surely would liked one of them for themselves!
And they both thought the giant doll with miniature houses inside was a very funny idea!
NOR: Det var også utstilt miniatyrer på messen.
Nora og Polly Line beundret de bittesmå detaljene og ville nok veldig gjerne hatt en av dem selv.
Og de syntes begge at kjempedukken med miniatyrhus inni var en utrolig morsom idé!

ENG: The Spook House stand from a distance.
The house you see in the background is "The Orchid House"
NOR: Spook House-utstillingen med omgivelser.
Huset du ser i bakgrunnen er "The Orchid house".

Credits: Mountain cabin, roomboxes and doll with houses inside by Tove Jonsgar - Tove's dukkehus, miniature houses by Solveig Marie Gulbrandsen. The Orchid House by Toril.