the ghost and mrs pumpkin head

This is a pair that probably will live a long and hopefully happy post-Halloween life until they are well dried up. I can't bear eating cute marzipan fellas (not really enjoying marzipan just a minor detail here) and in case M doesn't make a sneak attack when I'm not around they are safe here.

Want to watch a lovely little movie with a ghost and another kind of Mrs I wholeheartedly recommend "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" for some delightful movie-hours.

punch chocolate creams

One childhood favourite Saturday candy was the very Swedish "punschpralin". A small chewy chocolate cream flavoured with the Swedish liqueur punch - yes, such a small amount that it's still suitable for children to enjoy. If one gets sick it'll most probably be because of the sugar and not the liqueur - covered in sprinkles.

In those days the "punschpralin" came in boxes, these days they can only be found in the pick'n mix candy section in super markets and candy stores. Sadly their texture and flavour long since changed from the loveliness it used to be, thus I haven't had them in years.

But suddenly my Saturday-candy-sweet-tooth (you clearly know what I'm saying here, right?) screamed for "punschpralin" and we bought us a little bag (sadly not in that once treasured box). My palate's verdict is that they may certainly me a nice candy experience for someone who hasn't had them before. But too sickly sugary to be as perfection yum as they were with the original recipe. Ah, those good ol' "punschpralin" days...

halloween cheese

Not my kind of cheese, but I like the idea. A bit of scary cheese for Halloween. This is a Swedish kind of cheese called Grevé (Count) and this is the Halloween version, Grevé Dracula. Extra ripe, extra sharp. For fang people.

Cheese or not, Happy Halloween!

clever cat thursday ~ the yarn guardians

Unfortunately I seem to have contracted some kind of inflammation in my right hand, especially the thumb area which is really sore. Thus making it impossible to crochet, knit, as well as spend the usual amount of time with camera and computer. Or lift things.

I did have, but that was many years ago, a serious, very painful case of mouse-arm which I've since managed to keep at bay (touch wood). I'm hoping (as I really can't keep my fingers crossed right now) this won't develop into something like that again. I'm trying to rest the hand. Being kind to it. Which is very difficult. Such a nuisance this. And a great birthday gift...

When one can't work the yarns it's good to rely on the guardians of the yarn bags. It seems they even try to make some stuff themselves.

Or have I been completely fooled by their purring grovelling? Still not sure.

iphone pillow stand

In the realm of "didn't know I needed one but wow is it nifty and useful really" I've purchased a gift to the iPhone. (Yeah, I'm crazy like that.) It's red, pink, dotty and made from sturdy fabric and filled with grains.

Finally I've got something that's made for helping the phoney thing stand upright - which the lack of surprisingly often have been a nuisance - and not only a book or pillow or something that didn't work that well.

Good for the iPod too. And I'm guessing any small device/phone. (There are pillows for larger devices also.)

I got mine at Dog Named Banjo shop on Etsy. She has lots of lovely fabrics. I oohed over the elephant fabric, but went for the, not surprisingly, pink and red one in the end.

one car less

I like this. The idea and the "number plate".
Just another piece of excellent Danish design.

(Found in the Christiania area of Copenhagen past summer.)

it's that b-day again

Another year has passed.

Granted I have had some fantastic experiences, some brilliant meets, some wonderful days this past year that I am truly grateful for.

But overall, the year, the life have not brought the positive changes I had my eyes and mind set on, worked for, strived to. And for that I am the opposite of grateful. To say the least.

So life, can we shake hands on some great, much awaited, anticipated, deserved changes for this year to come? Yes we can. Promise. Just so we're clear, you know I'm going to hold you to that promise, life?

Who needs New Year's for promises of change when one has birthdays.

united nations day ~

Ever since my starry-eyed childhood dream was to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations -

I guess that's out of the question now. And I'm honestly pretty sure I don't miss that particular dream that got away. I may have a certain skill for diplomacy and negotiation but I really can't stand people who are ignorant (by their own choosing) or stupid. Self-obsessed people who obviously only care about their own agenda and can't see the big picture, uncaring, evil, power hungry, greedy, lacking compassion, not taking responsability for their own actions (or non-actions)... oh the list is long when it comes to human flaws I can't stand. And working in that arena would most certainly mean dealing with a vast amount of just such persons.

I'm more than tired of having had dealt with more than a fair share of the lesser flattering human features in my previous life. Lawyer life. I don't want to go back there. And if I feel that about only a small fraction of human stupidity (but still important and with great ramifications for those persons involved of course) I'm certain high politics so isn't for me. However fascinating. And important.

- I've had a fondness for the organisation. With all its flaws - the veto power still being one, if not THE, major one - the idea and the people doing good deeds for others, for the world truly speaks to my hope (in vain...) for a better world. For justice, equality, peace and every other good human quality the opposite of the above mentioned ones.

It may not be high politics, but every, however seemingly small, good deed counts. Give a little extra thought to how you act towards fellow beings. Today is a fine day to start making an effort, do give someone a silver lining to this United Nations Day, October 24.

Have a lovely day all!

a granny circle victory

Eureka, I've finally figured out how to make granny circles - as opposed to all the squares - this may be such a teenie weenie step for humankind, a pretty large one for me. One of those quite significant but seemingly small everyday victories on a personal level.

I had a go with my favourite colour combo, pink-green. Add a dash of red and beige (every little ball thrifted charity wool yarn or old left-overs from previous projects). And now I can't seem to stop crocheting these. Because guess how many combinations you can produce from eight different colours... Since last evening I have made a reasonably impressive amount of granny circles. I even fear I may have a budding crochet shoulder/upper arm. Darn.

I'm thinking these circles (can we call them magic circles? Because squares seem predictable and rather boring compared to the magic of circles. So yes, magic there is) will be put together as a perky winter pillow. Or a wee blanket. Or, who knows, I'll continue crocheting until there's an impressive pile of them and then figure out the rest. Because now is the time of roundness, magic and me.

PS Yes, I will finish some of last year's projects pretty soon, I will. Looking forward to actually showing something that's completely finished an not only in my head or in process DS

PPS And yes, as you can see, the lawn is once again green. Big sigh of relief heard. I actually don't want to see that white thing again until mid November at the earliest. Touch wood, fingers crossed, sincere birthday wish DS

the day snow came to town

Which for 2010 is October 22. Too too soon for my liking.

Even more so given the recent clematis bloom... As well as other flowers which aren't ready to say bye for this year yet. November. Decemberish. That's alright. But October, oh no. This is AUTUMN, the season of crisp air, blue skies, sun glistening through orange-red-yellow foliage. And now and then the odd gloomy rainy day. Not snow.

It will probably (touch wood) only be a short visit of white. But still, just the sudden sight of a new landscape this morning made my heart sink (even more). And that not only for the nasty electrical bills to come. Just the other day we had fika outdoors. Just the other week I began wearing socks. Barely a month since it was Autumnal equinox. Add a month and it was barelegged summer. Lamentations, too soon, too soon.

Loaf dog seems reasonably pleased though. The white stuff is fun. In moderate quantities. And with a door-opener that acts on the slightest attention-seeking loaf whine of it being too cold, too, white, too wet, too lonely.

charity rags

I've been meaning to start crocheting rugs and such with old cotton rags for ages. But I just can't seem to find the time, energy or fabric to tear for that kind of projects.

Looking at these bundle of rags balls it's rather needless to say that I got over the moon excited when I saw that my favourite charity shop/thrift store had begun selling them already torn, by the kilo... And the balls were already so nicely colour matched in their respective bag.

Each bag (1 kilogram) cost the whopping equivalent sum of... 3$. Which is way less than I would be prepared to pay for it. Just the turning fabrics into rags is such hard and time consuming work...

When I have finished some ongoing and left-over yarn projects I think I will start making some rugs of these kilos. Nice to work with new material (even if it's much trickier to crochet with fabric than manageable yarny yarn) for a change.

when the circus has left town

Close to "the place where I spend my days" is a vast field. Which I have found quite delightful in middle of a Stockholm suburb with architecture, style and vibe I find incredibly suffocating and uninspiring. The wild flowers and long grass swaying, the bumble bees and butterflies playing tag, yes it has been a summer sight for sore eyes.

Until one day. Then the circus had arrived, the cheap, tatty looking kind of circus with horrific looking amusement rides and shabby tents. And they had brutally cut down all the grass, all the wild flowers. Suddenly it was just a grey, scrubby field in the middle of that suburb in such desperate need of every little thing bright and beautiful. It made me sad.

Some days later the bedraggled circus that had turned the beautiful, viable meadow into a mess left the scene of crime against nature. Leaving behind not only a dismal field, but an odd shoe.

Meet the shoe that never left with the circus. The shoe that most probably never will make an appearance at Shoe per Diem. The shoe that was honoured to meet a pair of shoes, socks and feet of a person that did care about that lovely grassy wild field, whose these days not so high spirits were lifted by that once upon a time green sight.

The shoe which will forever remain in that sad, destroyed meadow. Come rain, sun, mud, snow, storm, ice. While the person in the other shoes with feet in will move, on, forward, up.

clematis silliness

I had just given up hope for this wall side clematis to bloom at all this season 2010. It should bloom in July/August, it didn't. No bud signs. No real growth at all. It made me sad, but as I'm infamous for my lack of green fingers it was not that much of a surprise I suppose. In a way.

When I turned around the other day, after having duly documented the wine red beauties I suddenly saw that there was a whole lot of bloom going on, and green, and buds and prettiness on the wall.

More than a tad late to be discovering this on October 17. In Sweden.

But I'm pleased to see it's delicate purple abundance on the wall once again. I hope the weather won't be too harsh for some time yet. And I hope and pray to the garden deities - who can possibly override my lack of greenfingery - that it will blossom much earlier next year. Oh, and for many years to come of course.

false cheesecake

Swedish cheesecake "ostkaka" is quite different from the American (?) version. Traditionally it's made by adding rennet to milk and letting it coagulate, then stir in cream, egg, almonds and bitter almonds. Serve with jam and whipped cream.

The consistency is rather loose, like rice pudding and it tastes really lovely, as a dessert or a naughty meal. Though I haven't had it for years since it's sadly not vegetarian. I'm sure you can recreate it as a vegetarian version, but I've never had a real inclination to try.

When I found a recipe for "falsk ostkaka" = false cheesecake at lovely Växplats Nybyn, I was very eager to try it out though. And so I did today. It turned out lovely. I tweaked the recipe - as I'm no fan of bitter almond, the other almond kind where nowhere to be found in cupboard and I always try to use oats milk in cooking and baking instead of regular milk - and this is what went into the false Swedish cheesecake -

serves 4-6

2 organic free range eggs
0,5 dl caster sugar
2 tbsp white flour
2,5 dl oats milk
500-550 g mashed fruit pulp
(like apple, banana, pumpkin, melon, kiwi, but there's really no limit but your imagination)
0,5-1 dl sunflower seeds

Whisk eggs and sugar. Stir in flour, milk and fruit mash. Add sunflower seeds. Pour in tin and bake in oven at 200C for ca 45 minutes.

Serve with raspberry/strawberry jam and whipped soy cream.

Apparently Sweden celebrates "Ostkakans dag" (Cheesecake day) on November 14. That I didn't now until now, but from here on, there'll be false cheesecake on the table that day.

thank goodness for sunday shoes

It's been a rather hellish week, for several reasons -

same major issue as always, the in vain searching for a decent source of income, yes, such old, sad, annoying, crappeti crap not even news but constantly being the major pain and nuisance in the life of mine. I'm so tired beyond words (which says a lot...) to write, tell, plain, rant, put my wrath to blog, so I'll just leave it at that -

thus when Sunday came I wasn't all that eagerly looking forward to another round of a week of same situation to start, again. But it turned out to be a rather sweet round off to that hellish kind of week.

Because the sun shone, we were able to enjoy what possibly will be the very last outdoor fika - the Swedish coffee break-y thing - saw some enjoyable things, met some nice humans and non-humans, wore a pair of stripey socks and... as a tad pre-birthday treat I got a pair of lovely *surprise* shoes. (As a gift, mind you, so yes there may actually be touch of reason to my bitsie-witsie of shoe-madness, ha to that).

As I do love my Oxfords for autumn I was delighted when I spotted the fine El Naturalista Tesela model as just that. Even more so when they were actually available in shop, in Stockholm, in my size, in the wine-red hue I coveted (I don't drink wine, but this kind of Rioja I adore). And that also being the only one pair of that model, colour, size available in Stockholm it was quite obviously written in my birthday-stars they should be mine, right? Right.

Yes, I'm very much still blue, wilting and in despair -

which I obviously try and keep out of blog as much as possible, because this place I like to have as a sanctuary from those tiresome, wretched parts of my life. A place of good things, good thoughts, an outlet for ideas. Because such things are what make all the others seem reasonably bearable -

some days, some weeks more than others. On those days a new pair of shoes, superficial as it is/seems, helps an awful lot to see things in another light. To count one's blessings, when other matters look bleak, to take yet another step forward (wearing perky shoes).

An then, a hearty, healthy, simple chickpea soup and a good movie to round off weekend do a world of good too.

cheese is party

Admittedly I'm no great fan of cheese (if not halloumi of course), too few vegetarian such ones around (at least in Sweden) and that aside I'm not big on eating the more stinky kind of food. But I think this is one great little (once upon a time cheese filled) crate. "Ost är fest" = Cheese is party.

Gift from M. Found at favourite charity shop Erikshjälpen past summer. About 2$ he paid for it. Now it serves as a tea strainer holder. Holding a fine place on my (from same charity shop) red kitchen buffet. Tea is party.

mooncake, no mooncake

I was very much looking forward to trying the traditional Chinese moon cake - served at the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival - that M brought home from a business trip to China recently.

Alas I was sorely disappointed. They smelled quite non-vegetarian. The table of contents was illegible. And apparently lard is often used instead of vegetable oil. Thus, no moon cake for me. The winter birds will be very happy though, getting moon cake pieces.

And me, I got a pretty (although very kitsch and not really my cup of design/style tea per se) tin.

With a "Beauty Knife And Fork" plastic set. Just what I always wanted.

clever cat thursday ~ william wallace

photo: kongro.no

One fantastic thing about british shorthair cats is granted they look like little irresistable plush teddies while kittens, but with age they just get more and more beautiful and teddybearish.

Which this photo of liquorice Waldemar's red tabby agouti brother, William Wallace, is quite the stylish example of. Getting pictures like this certainly makes a breeder's heart sing while posture's beaming with pride. Waldemar is a sweetie, but William obviously plays in another league of british shorthair splendour. He has a befitting name, he was meant for greatness.

Unlike any of his brothers William has fathered some litters and conquered the GIC-title (Grand International Champion). From two weeks old - to six weeks - to seven weeks - to one year to now three, the grand development of a brit never seize to amaze me.

Beaming. Proud. That's me.

the winners of 5th blogoversary giveaway

It's about high time to reveal the winners of the blogoversary give-away, don't you think?

If I could I would send something to everyone that left a comment on that post, because there are some truly sweet and oh so heartwarming comments (which can be appreciated any time, any day, but even more so on a blue day). Thank you lots and lots and lots!

Now to the drawing. For which I got eager help from on Buttcrack Character (yup really) named Mr Ola, blessed with a fancy moustache and a hat jauntily askew - thank you Sandra Juto, see, he has already begun earning his keep -

he likes to spend time in autumnal garden and climbing trees. Thus there is where the draw took place.

Mr Ola came in a bag that was almost too perfect for becoming the actual draw-bag, Glück und Liebe (Luck/Happiness and Love). But we do like too-good-to-be-true in this residence so all the tickets went down in bag (sorry 'bout that Scottish tin) and the exciting draw began.

With a little paw of help from Mr Muddy Loaf

When five names had been drawn, Mr Ola thought it would be nice to give a little show-off in tree. 'Look at me, look at me. And my five winners'

Who are ~

Felis

Kea

heidikins

Erica

mangocheeks

If you'd like to email me the address to which I can send the give-away (my email address can be found at my profile page) and also let me know what your favourite colour/pattern might be (for wee surprise), there will be something heading your way, over land, over sea, as soon as possible. And by that I mean not next week, perhaps not even next month, but certainly before 2010 turns 2011...

And again, thank you so much
for all the dear comments,
Glück und Liebe to all ~

the digs of mr muddy loaf

The garden ornaments have now been safely tucked away in shed due to frost arriving - and really, this only a couple of months after the summer of all heat waves - but the garden is still perfectly good for digging pits, doing the loafy business and such important matters. (And apparently some flowers are very very late in bloom.)

I'm thinking this very clever looking loaf fella is up for a shave sometime soon. I'm sure he'll disagree on the appropriateness of that. A tad of mud and shrub has never done any harm. Quite the opposite even. At least from a rather clever loaf dog's point of view.

Happy Mud Loaf Tuesday!

home

From the first glimpse I was hypnotized by the documentary "HOME" by awe-inspiring photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. After a while I began bawling, now my body aches and I feel sick and exhausted. It's a horrific, amazing, painfully beautiful in every frame movie about how we, the despicable human race, are destroying the cycle of life that we have been given on this earth.

And no matter what one feels about the accuracy of reasons for global warming it's quite undeniable that the human breed is the one and only living being behind toxic industrial emissions, the constantly ongoing use and abuse of other species for our own twisted pleasures, the devastation of rain forests and natural habitats and so forth in an endless, sickening way.

To watch this documentary should be a mandatory eye-opener for EVERY HUMAN on this ONE PLANET.

The whole HOME movie can be watched at YouTube, but I completely recommend it to be watched on a big screen. More reading can be done at the website goodplanet.org

red vacuum

I may have a certain fondness for a certain kind of shoes. And possibly other trick and treats. But there are some things in life I'm not the least bit interested in spending money on, like new furniture. And household appliances in general. And vacuum cleaners in particular.

I've always had hand-me-downs vacuums. As I really detest the cheap massproduced throwaway mentality of our modern not so enlightened as we like to think society, I'm more than happy with getting second hand stuff like this.

I think I've gone through three vacuums since I moved to my own place once upon time. They have all worked perfectly well for a reasonably amount of time. This last one apparently turned 27 years old this year, I've had it for three-ish years. It suffered from two mini-fires during the past few months, so it felt time to say a final goodbye.

When it was time to actually buy a vacuum, there were three criteria high on my list; good quality for a reasonable price and the colour. Red. As the pieces of fluff in residence corners had started to take the unmistakable shape of quite possible new species I'm glad I didn't have to search for too long for those three criteria to meet in one vacuum cleaner.

So the one big thing on my long-to-do-weekend-list I actually managed to get done was - get a red vacuum. I am now the first time owner of a brand new vacuum. A very snazzy red one. It's chubby, it's light, it's cute, it's fast. The vacuum cleaners' equivalent to a flash sportscar. (Yes, so zingy it even made an appearance on shoe per diem.)

I took it for a first spin around the house today. Its suction power being great, its sound being not so. Actually kind of jetplane-landing-in-living- room deafening. One wouldn't expect that much noise from such a small and neat appliance. But deafening it is. Though it sucks good, it's flexible, it's made in Germany and it is red. And there are earplugs.