How do you start your day?

Listening to a friend talking about her trip to Japan and the morning ordeal of having rice or sushi instead of the ritual cup of coffee and how different her body reacted to that, got me thinking.

We are so used to our small morning breakfast rituals - be it with coffee, green tea or that big glass of orange juice. Yogurts, bread, cereals...or even rice. Some of us still prefer that good old morning cigarette.

While sipping on my own coffee and researching different peoples habits and looking for products to sell in vonblum, I wonder how many of us actually take the time for it?

get inspired

One thing that i love about vonblum are the projects and people that are or will be involved in it.

( Bruna you are right its great to come back from holidays with such a project to look forward to )

Even tough we are heading for winter these inpiring spring pictures from my very talented aunt - one of the people I will be lucky to work with - will also be in the shop as..... hmmmm, surprises are another of vonblum's specialty so you will have to come and see for yourself when we open in November!

Stockholm

I hired a bike in Stockholm yesterday and went to check the city using emma`s guide

Thanks Emma!

Södermalm is a lovely neighbourhood with many interesting shops, but the one that really caught my attention was S. in Gamla Stan.

I drifted in and was lucky enough to have Sara's mum show me the whole newly refurbished space.
The gallery downstairs, a lovely workspace and of course the shop and the so nicely presented things. Sara opened up the doors of her shop three days ago, she is a children's book illustrator and you can feel that this space will have the same Ludic charm of her illustrations.

One of my aims with vonblum, is to create a connection with other creative people and stores. So I guess that meeting Sara was a great first step towards that!

Looking forward to exchanging experiences and ideas.

P.S Whenever in Stockholm make sure to pass by there and say hello
S. @ österlanggatan 37, 1131 Stockholm

maneki neko

Yesterday night I passed by a shop full of these Japanese lucky cats.
It has become quite normal to see them standing not only in japanese reaturants but also next to cashiers of shops around Europe

vonblum will not only be a space where you will come and relax for breakfast or simply browse through the lovely things. The stories and the origins of the products will add to our story. So, as any worthy shop should have a maneki neko, we also decided to add them in our cyberspace - with it's story :) ENJOY

"There was once an old and lonely man who owned a small shop.
The man had no family and consequently relied solely on his shop for income. Business was very bad and the old man was running out of food and had no money to buy more. The day came that he cooked his last bowl of rice. Just as he sat to eat his last meal a small and hungry kitten came to him and rubbed against his leg mewing and purring pleadingly. After a time the old man thought that while he had nothing left to live for, the cat was still young and had a full life ahead of it, and so he gave the last of his food to the little cat. The next day the old man awoke and as he made preparations to die there came a steady stream of customers through his doors. At the end of a very busy day, the old man, wondering at this turn of events, searched for the cause and found the small cat sitting upright by his front door beckoning to all who passed by."

its when YOU least expect

I am now starting to understand that all of this is real.

In a few months from now there will really be a space where breakfast will be fresh and not make our days feel too hurried. A space where it feels like you have been given drops of eye candy. A space where people can interact naturally and through the internet. And best of all a space I can call my own.

These holidays I have been discussing vonblum (this project) with some friends - mainly about how it happened so spontaneously - then one of them reminded me of a minor detail.

It has always been something I wished to do. I had sketchbooks overflowing with ideas of this "space", collected links to designers works I liked and wrote concrete visuals of how I imagined it all to feel like.

She told me something that I am thinking about a lot since our last talk - do things really happen if you make visual and realistic images of them in your head? I like the idea of it being like that.

Now, I would like to invite you to join me on the process of building up vonblum.

Through posts and things that inspire me, new designers I find or find us, through the refurbishment of the space and finally to the life in vonblum.

see you soon