Artist Date with cozy autumn vibes

We went on a little excursion and since I felt infused with inspiration afterwards, I’m gonna call it my artist date of the season! It was nothing fancy or life changing, but the cozy autumn vibe followed me around all day and made me glow all week after we came home. Sometimes the thing you do is not important, it’s the person you’re with and sometimes also the atmosphere of a new place. It can infuse you with joyful hope once again. That’s what happened here. I was infused.

As soon as we hit the highway I regretted not bringing my Big Girl Camera, because the way the sun came through the yellow autumn trees made me so happy and I know that the memory will fade away all too soon. But ephemeral as it was, it was beautiful. Harvested fields, autumn colors everywhere, clear road ahead.

Mom needed her embroidery machine fixed, and skilled people who know how to do that are rare around here. So we packed it into the car and drove a couple of miles out to a small town to a cute little Haberdashery. The husband of the shop keeper knew this kind of computerized sewing machines and could clean it and fix it up in a couple of hours. While we waited we had a look around. We found two fun thrift shops and then had lunch and fika at a place called Fotografens Cafe & Bistro. My new favorite place I think.

I just loved everything about that place, from the yummy coffee to the courtyard entryway. Someone with a keen eye for retro interior design and thrift finds had decorated the place. So I went around and snapped photos with my phone (what did we do when that gadget wasn’t around?), to document and remember the little details.

My favorite, after the lunch crowd had left and we ordered a second cup of coffee, was this big window and the still green curtain on the outside:

If I lived here I’d go there every week. Buy a coffee and journal by that window, watching the leaves on the yard blow in the wind, romanticizing life as best I could.

The swallow mirror is amazing. I’ve never seen anything similar before, but I love its form and the lack of function except being pretty and reflecting the light from the windows. It reminds me of a typewriter tin that I thrifted once, with the silhouette of the bird in gold against a turquoise background. My photo of that tin got a lot of views back in the day (2006) as it was chosen for its “Interestingness” on Flickr when I uploaded it. I didn’t take credit though, because the tin just has that vintage charm so many of us love, and an excellent design. If you want to have a look at the swallow tin it’s at the bottom of the blog post Book of Dreams for some reason.

Anyway, the bistro is called “the photographer” but I think they left for a long vacation because the frames were turned away, no photos to be seen.

When we left I got a second look at the courtyard and this vibe had me thinking of a Tim Burton movie:

It wasn’t very spooky, just so beautiful. My photos looks almost staged though, like they came from a movie set I think. If you ever see this mural decorated entryway, walk in and have a coffee:

Back to pick up the embroidery machine, and maybe some goodies from the shop?

This is my small but delightful haul:

In the thrift shop mom noticed some retro looking coffee pots. She said that my grandmother had one just like that when she was younger, an orange coffee pot. I snapped a few photos to remember the remark but also, the pattern is an excellent inspiration to fill a page or two in my doodle book. I’ll go do that now.

Thanks for visiting and letting me share my small but cozy adventure with you. By the way, an Artist Date is author Julia Cameron’s term for going out into the world and deliberately searching for inspiration. She calls it “filling the well” I think. I feel I do this way too seldom because I’m such a homebody – but this day did the job for me and I wanted to document that here. I brought home a skein of new sock yarn. I had the loveliest of times. I spent time in the sun, saw new things, found some great photo ops, and had a yummy lunch with my mom – all in one day.

Win win.

This post is part of NaBloPoMo where I write 30 blog posts in November. Thanks for reading and leaving me a comment, that will help me finish this challenge. To follow along subscribe to blog posts via email or RSS. I also have a sweet Substack Newsletter about art, craft and creativity that you might want to sign up for so that we can keep in tough in the future. I’d love that. On instagram I’m @ihannas and on YouTube Studio iHanna. Take care and stay creative friends.

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