The first snow... It began yesterday evening and left a thin layer of snow on the ground this morning. It's just below zero right now but it feels pretty okay.

Today was the first day I decided to switch on the Advent stars in the windows as well. It has felt as if it has been too early before, but, since we won't be home over the weekend, I really wanted to have that Christmas feel before we're leaving.

The snow ornaments above have been designed by Malin Lindahl for Orrefors. They can be found at ArtGlassVista.

During our week on the island the sea kept changing. At some points the tide was extremely high, making it almost impossible to drive on the beach, at other points the waves were so far out that we could hardly see them. Sometimes the wind was strong and the waves were roaring, sometimes the sea was calm and swept in fog. We enjoyed watching all these changes.

I would love to live by the sea some day...

The first one of the traditional winter parties takes place already next weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. I do like thinking about what to wear and what can be seen above is perhaps more suitable at a New Year's party, but I think if works well on most occasions.

The dress from Esprit is a favourite already in my possession. The Claudia lingerie from La Senza, the cream clutch bag from J by Jasper Conran, and the Trudy high heels from redherring's special edition can all be found at Debenhams. The velvet shawl can be found at Fashion Scarves and Shawls, the pearl necklace was found at Isla Jewellery, the Eau Perfumee au Thé Blanc from Bvlgari at Perfume Emporium, and the bronze hair clip at Forntida Smycken.

I've sold my car today, a car I've had for almost five years. It simply became too small for us — all the long-legged men in my family — and on Saturday I put it out for sale. Since then quite a few people have called or e-mailed. Some of them have seemed genuinely interested, some have seemed less so, but yesterday evening a woman called, who was on the lookout for a new car for her mother, and she seemed slightly more interested than the rest. I agreed to meet her mother before lunch today and she arrived together with her husband and her son-in-law. They checked out my car, were happy with what they saw and decided to buy it. The payment they offered was fair and I agreed... and so it happened that I had to take the train back home today.

I'm a bit nostalgic at the moment, but I hope the new owners will be happy with it.

T. and I mainly found "tourist amber" as we were searching on the beach last week, i.e. only small pieces of amber, but it's really fun to look for it. Sometimes there are heaps of them in the midst of the debree that has been washed ashore, and then it's simply difficult to stop looking. At other times there might not be any amber at all. It depends on the winds and the currents. Nevertheless, we managed to gather somewhere between 400 and 500 small pieces of amber between the two of us.

Our holiday has been great and we interpreted the sunset when we arrived to the island as a very warm welcome. We spent many hours on the beach, looking for pieces of amber, feeling the wind and the changing weather, and watching the waves and the tides. And yes, I worked as well, but it was great just to relax too.