All the homes of my childhood had white walls which wasn’t because we were too lazy to paint or couldn’t agree on a colour; white walls are a common, wanted thing in Scandinavia like coffee at 10PM. White reflects light and makes everything seem brighter which is a plus for the long, dark days that winter brings. It also shows off artwork and food the best - and Danes area always about design and presentation.

I was in-love with white walls until my mid-teens when I began to experiment with wall colour. Both my mum and I went through some strange phase where she painted the dining room a two-toned jewel colour that scared everyone but us and my room had a dramatic burgundy shade with border. Then, later on, I was all about floral wall paper because when I lived in England the home had this all over with matching curtains and chaise. It was incredible (if you see the movie Atonement, you’ll understand exactly).

Being a vagabond and drifting from place to place I gave up on caring about white walls or painted, wallpaper or plain. I wasn’t living for decor, I was just living out of a suitcase! When I immigrated to America a few years ago, Seattle caught me off guard with it’s very cold, uncosy type days. I began to really think about home because I ended up spending so much time inside (and even more once I began to work for myself). So paint came out and every room received colour (a striking red, a cosy orange, a calming grey, a rich green).

However, when I moved to the beach town of Santa Monica California - home of Rachel Ashwell and her first Shabby Chic store - the rich, dark colours of the Pacific Northwest didn’t seem appropriate with the cool, easy going town. So I kept the white walls, got more white furniture, and loved the bright, breezy rooms I was creating.

It wasn’t until my current flat when my mum came to visit did she remark how Scandinavian it was. I was thinking it was very French Country meets Shabby Chic meets LA. But then I saw the white walls, the artwork and books and realised I’d come full circle.

I’m taking on a cottage in a seaside town for January and am in-love with the space and the view. What I’m not in-love with is the colour of the walls - that “safe” taupey beige everyone tells you to paint a home for it to be the most appealing.

It doesn’t appeal to me and in fact, makes some of the rooms seem darker than they are instead of the light, ocean cottage style in which they sit.

So yes, I am going to paint my walls white. This would have seemed ridiculous to me awhile ago but now I just can’t imagine not having white walls (and when I look at Holly’s White Collection on Flickr, I want them even more).

But what white? I know it has to be eco-friendly paint (low VOC) but the colour, flat, glossy, that I don’t know.

If you do, I’d love some help!

My mum’s Advent Krans in progress. Taken by my mum.

In Danish homes, Advent is celebrated with the arrival of the season’s first decoration-a beautiful Advent wreath of evergreen boughs that holds four tall, white or red candles. The wreath is hung above or set on the dining room table. On the first Sunday before Christmas, one candle is lit, and the most festive and celebrated season of the year begins. On the second Sunday of Advent, the first candle on the wreath and one more candle are lit. The ritual continues Sunday after Sunday until on the last Sunday before Christmas all four candles are lit together.

My mum, like most Danes, has always made the Advent Krans (she goes on walks for all the greenery and hand makes the candles) before the first Sunday of December. It was always hung above our coffee tables as that’s where everyone gathered (Sunday is a huge visiting day for Danes - even more so during the Holidays) and lit every Sunday until Christmas to celebrate each other and the countdown to Christmas.

The photo above is my mother’s Advent Krans in progress which she’ll have done by tonight* so she can begin her countdown. I must confess to being a little envious of my mum being snowed in, with access to trees and making her Advent Krans. Having literally just flown in a few hours ago and having been gone every weekend for the past month, I haven’t put mine together in time for tonight.

But despite an upcoming move I’m going to try to make one (more like Liselotte’s with a tray and votive) so that each Sunday I can lit mine, relax, and enjoy the simple beauty of this tradition. Because being in Los Angeles I often feel so removed from the Holidays so this photo is a reminder that participating in them doesn’t have to be hard.

Growing up, Easter was the second biggest holiday after Christmas; it was the most days off school, we had the largest dinner and friends always gathered at our house. For our family, it had less to do with religeon and more to do with celeberating family/friends and the arrival of Spring. It was always a fun holiday, filled with creativity, good food and games.

In the Danish national church version, the various Easter festivals are marked by the choice of readings and not, as for instance in Catholic countries, by imitating and dramatising the Gospel stories in the liturgy. The festivals celebrated are Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

The last residue of the old holiday legislation, which prohibited any kind of event that might disturb the service on church festivals, was removed in 1991. That is why various kinds of public entertainment are now permitted, just as certain shops may open. Easter allows five consecutive holidays and as a number of schools also give the children the remaining three days in Holy Week off, it can amount to ten consecutive holidays. That is why most Danes regard Easter as a holiday. A national survey in 2000 showed that 48% of the Danes attached particular importance to the family spending time together during Easter and 37% regarded it as a holiday; only 10% mentioned ‘attending Church’ and ‘the Christian message’ as the main feature of Easter.

For many, myself included, Easter is a symbol of the end of Winter and they therefore use their Easter holidays to begin Spring and Summer by opening up their holiday home, gardening, planting window boxes, etc. Easter symbolosies a new beginning, just like Spring. We all get a little hopeful at this time of year.

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I must confess that most of my Danish sayings are gammel dansk or old Danish. I grew up saying farvel for good-bye (it translates as “farewell”). There is something a little sad, I think, in this word just as there is with “Good-Bye” - those words sound so final. As though you are saying, “this is the end.”

So I was happy to discover that in Denmark there is a new way of saying goodbye - hej, hej or quite simply, hi, hi. It is said in a very quick, high, charming, sing-song way no matter who says it. This word has taken over and replaced the old farvel which is good for me. Because in a few short hours I leave Copenhagen and I so don’t want it to be fare well. I want it to be, hi hi.

Doors, doors and more doors - this is what you will notice in Denmark’s oldest city. It’s a great town to visit and I would recommend two days if possible; I had just an overnight and a morning which I think was too rushed.

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It seems everywhere I turn in Copenhagen there are candles burning. Little ones, big ones, white ones, pink ones. Never scented, always plain and always, always going; in shops, restaurants, and on streets for no particular reason, like the little candle above.

The past two days I’ve been staying in Nyhavn; a trendy part of town that was once not so trendy (when my grandmother heard I was staying here, she said, “not in the bad part of town!” It used to be where the fisherman worked and ladies “entertained them”). But now, a walk at night is beautiful as candles seem to line all the cobblestone streets; the city literally glows at night.

Inside it’s just as lovely as in the restaurants you eat with a huge candelabra on your table and no overhead lighting. Needless to say, everyone looks lovely! But even during the day the candles burn, which surprised me a little though I confess to wanting to do this again when I return home. The candles just somehow make everything cosy and inviting no matter what their size (though I am loving the 3-foot white pillars I see everywhere! Even just standing alone outside doors).

Danes began the tradition of constantly burning candles after being liberated on May 5, 1945 after a year of German occupancy. When the BBS broadcast the liberation, Danes spontaneously placed lit candles in their window - a tradition that doesn’t seem to be stopping.

I’ve found that in America most people don’t regularly burn candles, and if they do, they are those overly scented candles that distract instead of invite (this is really the case at the dinner table when the scent of the candle conflicts with the scent of the food). I’ve found myself burning candles less and less over the years for many reasons; laziness, fear of them falling, not being able to find simple candles or candle holders or just not living slow enough to leave them burn.

But seeing them here has changed that for me. There is nothing so cosy, so charming or inviting as a candle burning - day or night. So I will take a que from here and perhaps start slowly with a candle lit at breakfast - just as my mother does. Taking the time in the morning when I never think I have any might be a good way to set pace for the rest of the day. And then at night? Well, I think I will take to having my home glow a little more like the cobble streets of Copenhagen.