The Fluffy Coat – A souvenir from Shanghai

It all started when I was visiting a dear friend of mine in Shanghai last August. I´ve been to Shanghai several times before, but it´s still about eight years since my last visit. And  a  l o t has changed since then. So, I started digging into my drawers and travel diaries, checking some old business cards and pictures, going through mails and contacting a few people, all with the intention to find my favourite places that I haven’t visited in so long.

Luckily it didn´t take long until I found the address to one of my old gems, the textile market on Dongmen Road. For me, as a creative textile freak and designer, it´s heaven. And here you bargain. I mean, really bargain. I love it, really gets me going :).

At the market you can find almost anything related to clothing. They have all kinds of fabrics; silk, cotton, jeans, jersey, wool, wool mix and so on, as well as sewing accessories as zippers, buttons, threads or anything you´ll need. I bought a bunch of fabrics, all of them really nice and some of them very cheap. That of course depends on the bargaining skills. You never know what you run into and this turned out to be my lucky day. I found a lovely fluffy fabric I have been longing for. I immediately knew I ran into my future favourite coat.

Here they are, The-Fluff-Coat-to-be-fabrics. The fluff and the silk lining.

Later at home, I started drawing and do some sketches and different designs. I also prepared a few inspiration boards to get me going, just to get the taste of the style I was looking for:

Design Inspiration

Design Inspiration

Design Inspiration

Design Inspiration

Design Inspiration

Design Inspiration

As always, the idea developes during the process, but pretty soon I had my final design all figured out:

The very first drawing

Including the fabrics. Here also a sneak peak of the colourful silk fabric I bought for the lining

Modelling the jacket, so this is what it will look like wearing it.

As I had my design ready the next steps would be pattern making, cutting and then sewing. Here we go!

The sleeve. I drew a new pattern as I did not find any ready made for this style as it is my own design.

Placing the patterns on the fabric, figuring out how much fabric is needed

Starts looking like a coat?

All eager to se some results I took me about four nights to make this beauty. It was a really fun project to work on. The only challenge was the fluffy-fabric, it turned out to be very slippery and almost to thick when working on it. But I have to say, the jacket is supernice, I just love it! And wherever I go I get tons of compliments and people asking where to buy one.  And here it is – my Fluffy Coat! 🙂

I love wearing it with sneakers ❤

The Fluff Coat

Not used to take selfies but I am sure I will manage…

Here it is the jacket, varm and fluffy.

 

Close up of silk lining

Here it is, finally there.

First time live out on the street.

Thank you Shanghai for providing me with the nicest fabrics ever! I´ll be back soon ❤

I was lucky to catch foggy Shangai on a clear day! View from the Bund.

This use to be one of my favourite street, before the sky scrapers….

Only in China, always a pleasure seeing different kinds of replicas 🙂

 

A sweet and white weekend in Lapland, Finland

The best therapy this time of the year includes either sun or snow – or both ;). I was lucky enough to experience some serious light and snow therapy last weekend in Levi, Finland. I would say Levi is the best ski resort in Finland. This is also where the annual alpine Levi World Cup is held every November. Levi Ski Resort is situated not far from Kittilä and through Finnair you can find direct flights from Helsinki at least once a day. In an hour and a half you’re in Kittilä and in another 20 minutes with taxi you arrive to the center of Levi.

Boarding in Helsinki, Balis first flight ever, looking a bit nervous…:)

Usually we stay in a cottage because it is so cosy, but this time we checked in at a hotel in the heart of Levi, Sokos Break Hotel Levi. The staff was super friendly and they also welcomed our special little traveler Bali with a travel pack full of goodies at arrival. Quite a nice surprise. Our room was quite nice, basic but that was compensated with the best view towards the shopping street and the piste, can’t complain:

The front slope is to be seen further away between the buildings.

There´s plenty to do in Levi but as I am a true skier I´m always just focused on hitting the slopes and that white sweet stuff as soon as I get there. I spent two fantastic days in the slopes, the days are short so you really want to utilise the few hours of light there is. I did both sunrise skiing at 11.12 am and sunset skiing about two hours later, at 13.16 :). On the second day we got a lot of new fresh snow, it was perfect! The pistes were in perfect condition and barely any skiers anywhere… What else can you wish for?

Opening of the ski season!

Sunday sunrise skiing at 11.12 am

A snow wall, pure and white.

Levi World Cup Piste aka Levi Black

All these colors, so unreal. But it´s not. It´s for real.

Jumping into the untouched white

Nice and smooth, no one bothering 🙂

Sun is setting over the slopes

Not so crowded in the bar either.

Hey, there´s a skier!!

Bali went bananas, she just loved the snow!

All covered in ice and snow. Pure quite beautiful nature.

Like in a fairy tale

 

And finally, a picture from my last visit. This is how sweet Levi can look on a cloudy day. No filter needed.

Pretty good for a cloudy day or what?

All pictures taken with iPhone 6S. Next time I´ll bring my camera.

My top three Chennai temples

If you have a day in Chennai and looking for something to do, I can strongly recommend visiting a few temples. Here´s my top three list of the temples of Chennai and surrounding.

Top One – Kapaleeshwar Temple

The Kapaleeshwar Temple is one of the most active and famous temples around the area as well as the #1 of 286 things to do in Chennai, according to Tripadvisor. It was also my favourite Chennai temple and definitely worth a visit. If you are short of time and have to pick only one sight I would go for this one.

The Kapaleeshwar Temple is said to be the temple of Shiva, the destroyer, one of the main deities of Hinduism. Already the impressive rainbow coloured beautifully sculptured gateway promises something extraordinary. It is a calm place full of colours and decorations – a perfect getaway from the busy streets and traffic jams. I visited the temple on a weekday early in the morning, which was ideal as it was not that crowded. You need to take off your shoes before entering and there are also some certain parts of the temple you cannot enter as a non-Hindu. And of course, as in many of the Hindu temples, there are also cows in the temple.

Top two – San Thome Basilica

I was actually not planning to visit the San Thome Basilica but I´m happy my driver brought me as this place is very unique. The building itself looks beautiful, all shining white in the sunlight, but the reason it is interesting is that it is one of three Churches in the world that is build over the tomb of an Apostle of Jesus Christ. Apostle St. Thomas came to India in A.D.52, martyred in A.D.72 and is said to be buried here. He is the one that brought Christianity to India and is considered to be the Father of Indian Christianity. Santiago de Compostela in Spain (built over the tomb of St. James) and St. Peters Basilica in Rome are the other two churches. San Thome Basilica has an underground tomb chapel in a separate building next to the church. The tomb is in the basement and you see people pray in front of the sepulchre of St. Thomas. Visiting this church really gave me a unique feeling. People from around the world come to visit this pilgrimage site and the tomb entrance displays pictures of His Holiness Pope John Paul II who visited the church and prayed here in 1986. It was very interesting and educational, and good for history lovers as well.

 

Top three – Mahapalipuram Shore Temple

This sandstone shore temple is situated around 60 km south from Chennai. It is a quite unique location as it overlooks the Bay of Bengal, even though the sea view was partly hidden by trees and bushes. I guess the view from the sea would be quite nice if you would walk along the beach to the other side. We arrived by noon and it was freaking hot, temperatures rising up to 42 degrees Celsius on a sunny day. It did not ruin our visit in any way but if you can, try get there early or make sure to cover your shoulders, head and nose 🙂

Once again I got a bit frustrated by the entrance fee. The fee was 10 rupees for Indians and 250 rupees for the rest of us. Quite a gap in the pricing. As usual I tried to buy two Indian tickets from the guy behind the counter, but of course ended up paying 250 to get in.

Well worth the 250 rupees the Mahapalipuram Temple is said to be one of the oldest temples in South India. It is a twin temple dedicated both to Vishnu and Shiva with thousands of sculptures to the glory of the deities. The area has a group of beautiful sanctuaries, which was carved out of rock in the 7th and 8th centuries. The group of monuments at Mahapalipuram has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984. This place was well worth a visit even though you need to arrange for a driver to get there.