I took a little vacation. From the blog, from answering the phone, from being available 24/7. But now I'm back! full throttle. Next weekend I'm going to Gothenburg to showcase my Pre-Collection Jewelry 09 to retailers there. I'm meeting a fellow blogger and friend, Maya who is in the business down there for some guidance through the nightlife and word about town.

I found some pictures from the lunch and seminar about transboundary fashion at Arkitekturmuseet in Stockholm, which you can read about here.

If you've never been to the café or restaurant at Arkitekturmuseet in Stockholm, go there! The food and view is wonderful!

Fröken Rhodin

Lunch at the courtyard café in The Achitect Museum (Arkitekturmuseet)

Today is a sales day. Which means I do storechecking. I go around town to stores that interest me and see if they have the right image and concept for my brand. I'm only half through and I have yet SoFo to cover. But it's been a fun day. I love doing this, getting feedback on my work, meeting all the interesting storeowners and see all the new interiordesign in the boutiques.

Want to sneakpeak on the A/W 09 Pre-Collection? Here is a closeup on one of the oversized necklaces:

Like it? This and the rest of the collection will be available in stores all over stockholm in two weeks! I will release the new homepage (clean, simple and classy!) and selling agents where you can buy both the organic cocktaildresses, the obi-belts and jewelry!

Designed and Made in Sweden.

-------------------------------------------------------------

This week I've decided to let friends and family stand for the social invites. In other words, as long as no one invites me to do something, I will concentrate on work, getting some excersise done and catching up on reading I've longed for. Just because you are used to doing all at once doesn't mean you always have to!

It's a way to concentrate that can make you very calm. Leaving things up to others sometimes is something one should practice, especially if you and everyone else are used to you taking charge.

Think, are you one to take charge or one to always follow? Do the opposite for a week or two.

If you're one not to take charge:

• arrange a dinner for 6-12 people at home
• make a cocktail-date with friends
• call an old friend
• write 5 emails to people you miss
• send a spontaneous postcard to a friend.
• Invite friends for some pottering like scrapbooking, making a travelphotoalbum, making jewelry, make dreamboards together
• play games: wether it's boardgames, cards or something outdoor

If you're one to always take charge:

• make a list of things you want to do that doesn't involve others. like exercising, reading, cleaning up, organizing your home, go to an exhibition
• let others know that you won't be taking charge for social events and planning this weeks, but that you gladly can attend theirs
• take out the books you want to read
• rent a movie you wouldn't watch with anyone else
• organize your work and try to stick to a plan with someting rewarding for yourself each night.
• only answer the cellphone if you want to!

The weekend has been busy for me. But mostly in a nice, non-workrelated way. I've been celebrating Midsummer, the swedish summerfestival together with friends and loved ones in a rainy, rainy stockholm.

Me and my James Dean even managed to squeeze in a lovley dinner-and-a-movie night out. Starting with dinner at Raw, a asian grill- and sushirestaurant, and then continued with a swedish film based on the books of Stieg Larsson.

Today I'm planning a trip to Gothenburg (Göteborg) to meet a friend of mine for dinners and nightlife but also to do some research while down there for my designerbrand, Xue Mei Rhodin. But ofcourse, I've got a million other things to do, like bying supplies and writing budgets and eventplans.

Yesteday I had a great workflow. You know, those days when everything you have to sesearch magically appears on you MacBook without any visible effort. And the really good ideas come popping up every other minute. Unfortunatley, my designerassistant wasn't so locky. Excel kept on messing with her. I  got to do almost everything I needed and even had time to run around downtown confirming appointments and buying some supplies. I felt a bit like a crazy cartooncharacter for some reason...

Tomorrow me and my sales manager have an important meeting with a possible cooperation partner and somewhere I'm supposed to have time celebrating my best friends birthday and a friends little sister.

I finally found a good ecological wholesales representative. For what? I won't tell yet!

My best tip is to see to that you read about 20-30 minutes per day. Buy a couple of books in the beginning of the month, preferebly in pocket-format, so you can read on the subway or bus or while waiting for you pasta to cook.

• Take 15 minutes to make a list of interests or things your want to learn, achieve or do. 
• Take out the top four. Preferebly two personal and two proffessional goals.
• Google books on these subject and buy two the first month and two more the next.
• Pick out two novels to read every month as well. Take something that will inspire you, read about characters which have the kind of life you want, dream and be inspired!
• Now you'll have a mix of two educational and two inspirational books. read them one at a time or mixed, how ever you feel like, but see to that you read, best before you go to bed, 30 minutes per day! It's not alot of time in a day but it'll give you so much more back!

I bumped into an old friend at noon when going to my favorite color-analyst at Åhlens City (a swedish mall downtown) during lunchhour. We sat down for a quick soylatte at our old place and everything was just the same. Only, I'm a designer och company owner with multiple educations and she's been both to L.A. and Sidney and got a degree in eventplanning! It's amazing how fast time goes by.

But here is my tip: get together with old friends from high school or you collegefriends. who knows what they are doing now, no matter if it was a year ago or ten you graduated. People change directions and get so much more serious in just a couple of months after graduation. You can really have some great experiences and contacts to share! Don't make a big fuzz of it, just invite everyone to come for drinks or coffee somewhere. No matter what you thought of them then, have an open mind and be kind and interested. see it as a mutual exchange! It's a great way to spread the word too about you new position, company or degree.

Something I've always strived for, even as a little kid, is elegance. I loved feeling well-dressed early on, starting a dress-obsession around the year I turned four. But also to have good manners and what i remember mostly, eating in a pleasant way. I just decided, I don't want to eat like sloppy children. And with time living in asia and a strong fondness for genuine asian food I learned how to manage chopsticks, or hashi, as they are called in japanese, early on. Why am I bringing this up?

Well, I think now a days, with chance of sounding like and old demented upper eastside-lady, people don't strive much for anything in the area of elegance. And elegance is so much more than dresses and tablemanners. As Chanel so visely says (see quote in blogpost below), elegance is something that you achieve and most young people now adays strive to be sexy, cool and look just above fifteen... That is not being elegant. When it comes to manners, fashion, hosting abilities, education, style and linguistic proficiency, it all fits in the mansion of elegance.

In my opinion elegance is also apologizing when appropriate, caring for ones friends and loved ones in an open manner and making that phonecall someone needs. It's also being socially aware of whats going on around you, how much time and energy others put in for you and acknowledge others strength and kindness.

But, I don't agree with Coco Chanel when it comes to one thing, although one must achieve elegance, I don't think it's put aside to women and men of Thirtysomething. I think Twentysomethings also can be elegant, it's just a matter of commitment.

That's what I believe elegance is and it's something I strive for every day. In the end, it's worth the trouble, don't you think?