Nerd Girl wishes you a happy new year

Resolutions for 2010:

Read more:

Poetry.  For some reason I tend to forget the amazing pleasure poetry can give you. I read novels and magazines, but the intensity and simplicity just isn’t there.  So 2010 will be a year of intense feelings and short sentences. So far on the shelf for 2010: Naja Maria Aidt: 'Alting blinker'. 

Wear more:

High heels.  Sneakers are still my preferred type of footwear, which is a shame as I love girls in heels and actually own quite a few lovely pairs of high heeled shoes. So Nerd Girl will do her best to walk and talk in heels in 2010.

Eat more:

Cake. Of course! You can never eat too much of really well-made, delicious cake. Small patisseries are popping up all over Copenhagen at the moment and I think 2010 is the year to visit them all.

See you in 2010!

Lets eat the tree

I love Christmas cookies and I love to bake them. This year I got some new cutters to add to my rather modest and very old collection of Christmas cookie cutters. The cookies I’ve baked this year are simple Danish butter cookies and I’ve baked them both for eating and to use on my Christmas tree as decorations.

I inherited my glass Christmas ornaments from my grand mothers. And I really love them and take extreme care that nothing happens to them. They are my most cherished items, I guess because they are so fragile, old and rare.

It is an old Danish tradition to put Danish flags on the Christmas tree - I think that there are paintings of some of the earliest Danish Christmas trees in about the1850s with Danish flags on and I have no idea why. – From my point of view there is absolutely no patriotism or nationalism involved. I guess it's the same with the way we use our flag for birthdays and other celebrations.

Hopenhagen: the place to be this December

Copenhagen is a crazy place to live at the moment. The trafic is totally changed and a lot of the large roads are blocked. All because of - of course - COP15. One of the most special places in the city right now is the City Hall Square where a whole new city has emerged for the climate summit. It's 'Hopenhagen live' a city within the city where the peoples climate activities are taking place. Lots of things are going on - concerts, small special events and you can read all

about it all here: Hopenhagen live.

In all the small green houses there are all sorts of things going on for example environmentally friendly x-mas decorations and you can buy the special Henrik Vibskov 'climate-fashion' scarf and hat to keep you warm in this cold winter.

Advent: to stay and to go

Christmas is my favorite time of year, especially because of the traditions and the candles. Advent is the four Sundays before the 24^th and the Advent wreath with four candles are very popular here as a way of counting down the dark days until the light returns to the sky. Originally it might have been a Christian thing, but for me it mostly a was of have some candles and light to fight the darkness.

This Sunday is the third Sunday before Christmas and so there are two candles lit. My Advent wreath is very old. It used to belong to my Grandmother and I guess it's from the 1940s or 50s. It is made of iron and has room for clementines decorated with cloves. It always makes my apartment smell like Christmas.

This year I found another type of Advent wreath. - A more modern version than mine. This is a ‘take-away’ Advent wreath in a handy little box, so you can put it in your purse and take it to your friends when you go visit.

So while your candles are burning and you're enjoying some delicious Christmas cake and tea what better time than to send your friends and family a vintage design Christmas card. I found these beautiful ones at End of the Day Crafting on Etsy.

Nerd Girl keeps warm

Winter is coming and even though the climate changes are making sure that the temperature doesn’t really creep below zero, the wind still sends us chilly greetings of cold weather. So just at the right time the cool Swedish designers of Cheap Monday decided to open a shop here in Copenhagen this past week.

And the Cheap Monday A/W 09 is just the way for a Nerd Girl to keep warm. Of course the Cheap Monday jeans are famous, but I also think their dresses and knits are really cool. I look forward to dropping in and checking out the shop in the future.

Mormors makes November easier

It’s always been one of my least favorite months of the year, November. In Denmark and I guess in most other northern countries as well November is the month where it starts to get really dark. The days just become gray, windy and rainy. Some days it seems like the sunlight never really gets through the clouds and you walk around in a constant feeling of late afternoon. The whole day looks and feels like afternoon. Needless to say it really influences your mood and energy. Most of us stay inside in our sofas, light candles and crawl up with a book or watch TV. But sometimes you need to get up from the sofa and feel the city - even though it's dark. So therefor I go to Mormors.

Place of the month in November is Mormors a really cosy cafe just a few minutes from Kongen Nytorv. 'Mormors' means grand mother's in Danish and the whole concept of this place is inspired by the loving warmth of our grand mothers.

Whether it be the delicious cakes and cookies she used to bake or the warm feeling sitting in her living room - this is what you can find at Mormors and it is the perfect remedy for sad November with rain and darkness. They sell vintage decor and all sorts of delicious sweets. You can sit in the window and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate just like at your our own grand mother's house.

National Treasure - Georg Jensen

I'm getting kind of design sentimental these days. I found an old book about the faces of Copenhagen in the 1890s and amongst those amazing people of the past was Georg Jensen – designer of silver wear and jewellery, and I guess also known as one of the fathers of ‘Danish Design’ - and what a face he has... He lived from 1866-1935 and started selling his now world famous silver wear in a shop at Bredgade in the heart of Copenhagen in 1904.
For many Danes Georg Jensen’s designs have become a household name and most of us own something made by the Georg Jensen company whether it be jewellery, house ware or more industrial design objects. I own two modest pieces of Georg Jensen jewellery and they were given to me by my parents and grandparents as special gifts when I was younger. As I became older these items sort of grew out of my style, but lately I’ve rediscovered some of the original jewellery designed by the man himself and they are beautiful.The pieces designed by Georg himself from brooches to necklaces are from around 1910s -1930s. Some of them are still sold, but others only survive as antiques. I really like the Art Nouveau style jewellery with silver flowers or plants elegantly surrounding a stone - often an amber or moon stone.Recently the George Jensen company has launched a collection called 'Moonlight' of jewellery with George's old designs. The pieces are lovely and classic, but still with more modern coloured moon stones instead of the darker reds of amber and deep green malachite that are found in the antiques.

Happy birthday miss Kitty

Hello Kitty - my childhood hero - turns 35 this year. It kind of made me think about how she has evolved over the years. This iconic cat that reeks cuteness and fluffiness has after 35 years really become a woman with a lot of odd things made in her name.

As a young girl I wanted all the Hello Kitty merchandise I could get my

hands on. Of course back then I didn't know it was called 'merchandise' and never considered the huge organisation's advertising schemes was targeted especially at little girls like me with a love of all things pink and a soft spot for cute cats.

Many years have passed since I cherished a Hello Kitty toothbrush and the merchandise has equally developed. For some reason it feels a bit like Hello Kitty and I have grown up together since I've always been just the right age to appreciate the newest Kitty-items, such as the Hello Kitty-MAC make up a few years back. So in connection with her 35^th birthday I started to really explore what else this lovely Kitty has her face on - and as it turns out our favorite cat has been pretty busy over the years.

As a 35 year old the cute cat is no longer only about small girls. The pleasures of Kitty have crossed over to a very adult world. In fact the life style of a grown up Hello Kitty now includes sex, alcohol and rock'n'roll - but still all in pink of course...

Dyrehaven in autumn colours

I like nature as much as the next person and sure the colours of autumn leaves can be breathtaking. One popular place for Copenhageners to go and enjoy the loveliness of the trees this season is Dyrehaven, a large wood just north of the city. It is a great place to go and get away from the city and breathe in some clean air.

However when the autumn weather really shows its worst side, which is the case at the moment, I prefer to enjoy the light brown colours of coffee, tea or beer sitting inside. Therefore I go to a different Dyrehave – the really cosy cafe at Vesterbro and place of the month in October.

At Dyrehaven the interior from the old school 1970s bodega is almost intact, set in orange and wooden colours you can enjoy a traditional Danish lunch of smørrebrød and other Danish dishes. This place is so down to earth, warm and friendly that you could easily stay there all afternoon, while the rain hits the window and the darkness slowly creeps in.

Find yourself in my blood stream

A new Danish band recently caught my attention. It is the group Giana Factory who recently supported Glasvegas on their European tour and also played this year’s Roskilde festival.

On Saturday they played a release gig at Vega here in Copenhagen to promote their debut EP ‘Bloody Game’ and must admit I was smitten.

The light female vocals and the electronic backdrop in the songs totally got under my skin. The three girls looked so cool on stage, and even though I know they have a male drummer, they just made me think of a modern version of a 1960s girl group – totally in control and really enjoying what they were doing. Nerd girl will definately keep her eyes on them in the future.

Inspiration - at last

I apologise for the lack of posting here lately. To be honest I’ve been short of inspiration both in fashion and art. I guess sometimes you just need a little time to really feel a new boost again. And oh do I feel it now!

I found Victor & Rolf’s SS10 collection online and I must say that this really gave me a rush of blood to the head. So far the works of Victor & Rolf haven’t really hit me as something striking, but with this collection Nerd Girl comes out of the shadows and is deeply impressed.
I guess it’s the whole fairytale imagery with the huge tulle dresses mixed with a sharp edge well worth of Edward Scissorhands that’s really tickles my fancy.
But I also really like the boudoir and Japanese kimono style. It seems like such a fresh and really optimistic approach to summer style. How this ends up being delicate and punk at the same time is beyond me, but it does and I want it in my closet!

You can see all of the amasing dresses here

Sweat and saliva – Shakespeare at his best: on stage

Last night I witnessed an amazing performance of Richard III at the Royal Danish Theatre. It really convinced me that Shakesperare belongs on stage. Here we can smell the sweat and almost taste the bitter tears as the drama unfold in front of us.

The setting is minimal: the walls are made out of giant blackboards, and chairs are lined up along them. The stage basically looks like a classroom waiting for a lesson to start and like bunch of young students the actors enter the stage singing and settling down in the chairs. On the blackboards written in white chalk with elegant letters are the names of all the characters in Shakespeare’s Richard III. They are organised neatly in family trees to give an idea of the different clans and family ties within the English royal blood line.

But one by one the names are crossed out as Richard kills off each rival on the way to the throne. In the center of the stage strangulation becomes an art form. Every killing is performed with the bare hands, just flesh on flesh. No blood or firearms, but pure human muscle.

Richard is played by Søren Sætter Lassen, one of my favourite actors. He can look small and insignificant, ridiculous even, and then suddenly the lines in his face changes and a schizophrenic power monster reveals itself. In general the story is played out with extreme intimacy. It becomes a raw and naked experience as every actor gives their sweat, spit and tears in this gruesome story.