A Piece of Lisa

Wedding Update!

2012-02-09T12:19:00.002Z

Things are starting to come together for mine and James' wedding, so exciting!

We have now booked our photographer, registrar and a make-up/hair stylist for me. The stylist has worked for Sweden's biggest modelling agency for 20 years, and she also does Swedish celebs, I'm so looking forward to being made up by her! I have never been styled by a pro before so that's going to feel very luxorious! Now I have to put together a board of inspirational images of the style I want for her.

I also have my idea ready for the invitations, I'm going to design them next month. They will be romantic, modern and fun (I'm hoping) in my signature illustration style!

Put the Chocolate on the Moose

2012-02-07T18:36:00.005Z

Today I have been editing photos for my third article about cake photography. I'm actually beyond happy with how the photos came out, I think my photography skills are improving which feels great!

This chocolate mousse cake will be in an article about different camera lenses, I photographed it in Sweden at the same time as the princess cake. I think these table cloths that my mum arranged work so nicely with the cake.

Ps. The headline is from my favourite sketch with the Swedish Chef in the Muppets, if you haven't seen it you have to click here.

Cocktails, Shopping and Snow

2012-02-05T18:38:00.003Z

This weekend it has been freezing in London! But my friend Nina was here with her friend Jessika so I've had lots of fun. On Friday night we went to the Ice Bar, sounds crazy when it's so cold outside but we didn't actually go into the ice bar, it's in a special room, so the rest is a normal bar and restaurant where Nina used to work when she lived in London.

We had the best cocktail ever for when it's cold outside: a hot chocolatini!

Complete with marshmallows and everything, so yummy!

Nina and me.

James had an expresso martini which was also very good, and very stylish!

The next day we went to an outlet village outside of London called Bicester Village. I bought an adorable Cath Kidston apron that I'll show you another time. At about 5pm it started snowing and didn't stop! Today when I woke up it looked like this outside, for London it's a lot of snow because the English can't handle it :)

Design Goodies From Sweden

2012-02-03T16:41:00.006Z

Hey everyone and happy Friday!

What are your weekend plans? I'm very excited to see my good friend Nina who's coming over from Sweden, we're going to have dinner and drinks tonight and go shopping tomorrow, fun!

Today I received a package with some super lovely products from a Swedish designer called Emma Sjödin, hooray! I saw her booth at the Formex design fair and loved her stuff, she's so talented.

Emma applies her paintings and drawings onto her products, these are cloths and coasters.

The coasters are like mini paintings...

This one with the leaves andd bug is my favourite, so beautiful.

Ps. If you 'like' Emma's facebook page this week you can win a pretty kitchen tray with one of her designs. I so wanna win!

Me and My Sweets

2012-02-01T21:22:00.005Z

Today it is a new month (the month of the semla!) and I would like to introduce to you my new sponsor: Johanna from Me and My Sweets!

Johanna is a new Swedish food blogger that loves baking but also enjoys travelling and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Her blog is full of recipes for tasty Swedish treats, I may be biased but they are the best! I would love it if you'd check out her blog and say hi, cheers sweeties!

Website Preview

2012-01-31T13:40:00.002Z

I'm nearly there with my new website! Below is a preview of my navigation buttons and logo, I'm trying to keep the style quite minimalistic yet colourful. What do you think so far?

Sunday Tip

2012-01-29T17:35:00.006Z

Sundays are perfect for snuggling up in bed reading your favourite magazine or blog. Today I found a new favourite blog - Lemon Fire Brigade by Sarah Bolla. If you like food and beautiful photographs you have to check it out. I was drooling as I read her recipe for Mango Sabayon Pie!

All photographs by Sarah Bolla

I'm Nominated For a Blogscar!

2012-01-26T21:20:00.005Z

Today I found out I'm nominated for a Blogscar - hosted by Janette the Jongleur - in the category "Best Foreign Blog" (Non-US Resident Blogger). Yay, I'm so thrilled! And what a fun initiative, thank you Janette!

If you'd like to vote for me, hop over to Janette's blog here or vote in my right sidebar. Please guys, I've always dreamt of this honour! :) Voting ends on the 20th of February and the winners will be announced on the 26th.

UPDATE: It seems like the vote box for my category doesn't always show up on Janette's page, so here's an embedded one that you can also use to vote... Cheers!

FOREIGN BLOG//NON-US RESIDENT BLOG/BLOGGER » make online polls
Tags : blog

Cake Photography in Sweden

2012-01-26T15:12:00.006Z

Another thing I did in Sweden was a cake photoshoot for Sugar Ed Productions. I got my parents involved; we set up a "studio" in their living room and they acted as my assistants!

My mum was the Art Director and dad was the Lighting Technician :) It was perfect because my mum has a lot of nice things that she dug out to use as props: lovely table linen, pretty crockery and cake stands.

This beautiful cake was made by a patisserie called Eclair in Stockholm, they were so helpful and their cakes are wonderful!

The reward for our hard work!

Formex Favourites

2012-01-24T17:32:00.005Z

I'm back in London after an intense but very good visit to Sweden. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I went to a design fair in Stockholm with my mum. The fair is called Formex and is the largest one in Scandinavia for interior and surface design. It was so inspiring and interesting to see all the new design products and talk to the designers and exhibitors. I especially liked the section with young Swedish designers.

Here are my favourites from Formex:

KD Konstig Design by Emma Sjödin was my favourite of the fair. Emma makes beautiful home products from her art; drawings and watercolour paintings inspired by her childhood on the Swedish West Coast island Tjörn.

I love these pillows with a print inspired by the shape of a seashell, and I also adore the green coasters with the three leaves.

Emma was incredibly nice, me and mum talked to her for ages and mum even put in an order for some of her products!

Emmas product range includes tea towels, trays, coasters and textiles, you can buy them in her web shop or check out stockists here.

Another memorable exhibitor was Jenny von Döbeln with her design company Mini Empire. Jenny is a graphic designer/illustrator who studied and worked in Barcelona for five years before moving back to Sweden and starting Mini Empire.

Jenny's owl wallpaper really caught my eye, and the more I look at it the more I like it! I find her illustration style so charming, I love when designers incorporate a bit of humour in their work! To see more of Jenny's illustrations, click here.

These amazing ceramic chandeliers are made by Créme de la Créme.

They also showed lovely cake stands made from odd pieces of vintage crockery.

I also like the summery glassware and jars by Lisbeth Dahl...

And these lovely lamps and pretty paper products by Danish design company Rie Elise Larsen.

Graphic Design company Format presented a very cool wall sticker, it's a tree that you can change depending on the season. Would be a fun thing to do with your kids!

Puzzled by Art was another interesting young designer, behind the products is oil painter and illustrator Lisa Ling.

This stand was so cool, I love the funky wallpaper! The company is called Isak, they had lots of cute products.

There were also a section of bathroom products, these bath melts from Bomb Cosmetics looked good enough to eat!

Sthål is a company consisting of Susanna Theander and Helena Åkesson-Liedberg, two graphic designers who has created a collection of beautiful ceramic dinnerware.

Arabesque is Sthål's first collection and will be launched in May this year.

Lastly, I love these mugs and carafe from Maria Liliegren, fresh and retro at the same time!

Mauritius...

2012-01-21T09:00:00.001Z

Is the honeymoon destination we´re looking at! It looks beautiful and my friend who's half Mauritian cooks the best food, so we really want to go there!

But right now I'm in Sweden, at a huge design expo called Formex. It's great, there's a variety of big companies showing new products, as well as small independent designers with really unique ideas. I'm enjoying meeting lots of young, cool designers, but I'm also looking around for companies that might want to buy my own designs. Full report coming soon!

Photo: Maria Soxbo/Husligheter in Elle

Moon of Honey

2012-01-19T05:52:00.003Z

This week James and I have been looking at honeymoon destinations, and realised there are so many amazingly beautiful places in the world, we want to visit all of them!

But we think we might have found the one... can you guess where from the picture above?

Image sources: 1, 2, 3

Website Makeover

2012-01-16T09:43:00.000Z

Hey everyone and Happy Monday!

This week I'm giving my portfolio website a complete makeover, it feels good, like a spring cleaning! Since I've mostly showed my pattern designs here on the blog I thought it could be fun to show you some of my illustrations and graphic design projects that will be on my website.

These are spreads from a children's book I illustrated and wrote in College, it's called "Isabella and the Mystery of the Chinese Locket"

I've worked quite a lot with graphic design for packaging, this was my favourite project; a coffee pack design for Swedish company Löfbergs Lila.

These illustrations of singer Robyn were part of a cd-cover in the style of a comic book.

In university I created this ad campaign for a charity called Shelter, they work to help homeless people in the UK.

Lastly, some mixed pieces of illustrations.

Our Save the Date Card!

2012-01-13T14:13:00.008Z

James and I have sent out our "Save the Date" cards, hooray!

We wanted them to be like fun postcards, so we photographed ourselves and I designed the layout, what do you think?

Then we had them printed with details of the wedding and lines for the recipient's address on the back. We had so much fun taking the photos, and our friends and family loved them!

The Tastiest Job in the World

2012-01-12T09:31:00.004Z

Today I am photographing these cupcakes for a freelance job, I have been asked to create a series of photography tutorials for a website about cake making and decoration. I'm so happy I got this job, really looking forward to writing these articles. The only problem is I will probably end up eating all the cakes afterwards...

Pomegranate Pattern

2012-01-09T21:02:00.004Z

Do you remember this pomegranate pattern mood board? The pattern design is now finished, and here's the result!

This design was inspired by the intricate shapes and vivid colours of the pomegranate. I think it will be suitable for textiles and home products.

This pattern is available for licensing now. Contact me on lisaedoff [at] gmail [dot] com if you are interested in purchasing this pattern.

I Have Ordered My Wedding Dress!

2012-01-05T16:58:00.004Z

It is not this one, but equally beautiful!

I am so excited, I wish I could show you what it looks like but I want it to be a surprise. Besides, I won't actually get it until April, and then I will have a fitting with the right shoes and accessories. I can give you some small clues as to what it looks like; it's more white than cream, it has got a train and my favoruite detail - lace. But most importantly: it's my dream dress!

Photo by Tamara Lichtenstein

New Year's Eve in Stockholm 2011

2012-01-04T18:58:00.004Z

James and I celebrated New Year's Eve in Stockholm with friends, and we had a smashing time! I hope 2012 will be as good as the end of 2011. Here's our New Year's in photos...

We kicked off the evening with a Cosmo at my friends Ulrica and Jimmy's flat.

Then we headed to "Le Rouge", a very fancy French restaurant owned by Swedish celebrity chef Melker Andersson.

The interior was inspired by "Moulin Rouge" it was beautiful.

Sofia checking out the menu. We all had a special 5-course New Year's menu.

The first course was a lobster a shrimp dish that was just heavenly!

Jimmy and Ulrica

I forgot to take a proper photo of my dress, but if anyone was curious it was no 10 of these dresses.

The main course was the best beef I've ever had! It just melted in your mouth.

Johan and Daniel

The dessert was another winner, chocolate fondant, vanilla ice cream and red berries, mmm!

For the New Year's countdown we went across the street to Skeppsbron which overlooks the water, and looked at the fireworks.

After that we went back to Ulrica's for some more drinks...

But eventually I switched to tea, party animal as I am! The next day Ulrica and Jimmy spoiled us with an amazing breakfast, a perfect ending to a fabulous evening!

The Big {A Piece of Lisa} Year Review - 2011

2011-12-31T12:51:00.020Z

Today is the last day of 2011... It was a very exciting and important year for me - and this blog - in many ways. Let's take a look at the best highlights throughout the year!

January started off with a new design for A Piece of Lisa, I made these illustrated navigation buttons and a new layout for the blog.

February brought a little adorable new life, James' niece rachel was born!

I also posted this extremely yummy recipe: Chocolate and Cheesecake Muffins.

March was all about food, James and I explored Borough Market, the largest food market in London...

And I showed you how to make Swedish Semla.

April was a fun month, I got a photography assignment...

And made Easter Fortune Eggs.

But the most important month of the whole year was definitely May, because on May the 20th James asked me to marry him!

In June I showed you my new pattern design "Sailor Bird"...

Celebrated Swedish Midsummer in Hyde Park...

And our engagement of course!

In July I started to look at some wedding inspiration blogs, I showed you a few favourites from my wedding board on Pinterest.

I also went with my whole family and James to the South of France.

August was exciting because James and I went to Sweden to look at wedding venues.

I also created the most viewed post on A Piece of Lisa to date; a Photoshop tutorial that teaches you basic photo editing. This page has been viewed over 40.000 times!

In September I looked at wedding dresses...

And showed you how to sharpen your photos in another Photoshop tutorial.

October was when I went to Sweden for a design meeting with a big department store. I showed them my pattern designs, one of them was this Bullfinch Pattern.

I also shared my best tips on how to attract more visitors to your blog.

In November my friend Lauren had a great night out at a fashion party, and then we went to the best pasta place in London.

I showed you how to add a dreamy bokeh effect to your photos...

I also presented this new autumn-inspired pattern "Peacock and Figs"

Talking about figs... December brought you this recipe on Fig and Parmesan Nibbles...

My Christmas Sumo Pattern...

And a lot of Christmas hats!

That was my 2011, it was an amazing year! I am even more excited about what adventures 2012 will bring, and I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and thank you for reading A Piece of Lisa!

The Answer is Pavlova!

2011-12-31T11:37:00.003Z

The dessert I made for last night's dinner was a winter fruit pavlova, it turned out really good! Pavlova is a meringue that is chewy inside, topped with whipped cream and fruit. I used blueberries, physalis, kiwi and passionfruit.

We had such a lovely time with our friends, here's Sofia and Tove...

and Jonas who is making the starter.

Sofia and Arman.

We were three couples, and each couple made a course. The starter made by Tove and Jonas was delicious, hash browns with creme fraiche, onion, dill and red caviar.

Then there was lemon chicken by Sofia and Arman, with potato wedges and youghurt sauce and pumkpin seeds. So good!

And finally mine and James' dessert which also went done really well judging by everyone's empty plates!

Meringues and Physalis

2011-12-30T13:53:00.004Z

Tonight we have been invited to dinner at Sofia and Arman's place. I'm bringing dessert, meringues and fruit are two of the ingredients. Can you guess what I'm making?

A Few Days in Sweden

2011-12-28T11:13:00.004Z

We've had a lovely and relaxing time here in Sweden since Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we had a yummy turkey dinner with my family, we read books and watched movies.

On Boxing Day we went to a cute little town called Mariefred.

In Mariefred there is a beautiful old castle called Gripsholms Slott.

Yesterday my friend Sofia came over with some home made truffles, which I have yet to taste since my parents are saving them for a special occasion!

In the evening we went to see "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. I thought it was brilliant, Rooney Mara was superb in the role of Lisbeth Salander. But I would recommend reading the "Millenium Trilogy" books by Stieg Larsson first, they are amazing!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T18:37:00.006Z

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas at my parents' house, there was lots of good food, pressies and family fun!

I decorated our tree, how cool is this dinosaur decoration?

In our family, we have a tradition of wearing silly christmas hats, the collection keeps growing each year!

In Sweden it's tradition to eat roast ham on Christmas Eve...

As well as smoked and "gravad" salmon.

James was very excited about the food!

Then of course we have lots of different types of amazing herrings...

My sweet cousin Julia.

I made more mintkisses...

As always, it was wonderful to come home and spend time with my family, that's the most important thing about Christmas after all!

Merry Christmas from A Piece of Lisa!

2011-12-24T22:26:00.002Z

God Jul and Merry Christmas dear friends! I hope you all have a wonderful time with your loved ones!

Sponsor A Piece of Lisa in 2012

2011-12-22T20:08:00.003Z

I am now accepting sponsors for 2012!

A Piece of Lisa keeps on growing, we now have over 25.000 page views per month! Recent exposure on sites such as Poppytalk, Craftgawker and Pinterest has resulted in over 900 subscribers and a record visit of 1261 in one day.

Email me at lisaedoff [at] gmail [dot] com for rates or check out my sponsorship info here.

Thank you for your interest in sponsoring A Piece of Lisa!