goodbye august, you brought red shoes

to be honest you have been a dull and uninspiring month, with few exceptions.

on the last of your days the rain poured down, i learnt that i apparently have a salt level deficiency - no i haven't run a marathon, sweat a lot or had a bad tummy day, rather the opposite after i gave up dairy - which needs to be looked into (all tests and now my weird condition still a mystery...).

in the last of you days, august, i also welcomed a pair of shoes. red. again. (the sad fact of the faulty purple pair, the refund turned into a red on sale find). i'm happy to say they really are even lovelier irl than in picture. spring/summer/autumn perfectness.

i hope the first weekend of september will bring only sweetness ~ have a lovely one!

the loaf and the kitten

it's a tough life in this household for the loaf. the cats, especially one kitten, the littlest one, really do not understand the meaning of private space or 'no sharing of sleeping arrangements with loaf'.

arts, crafts and leafs with bobbaloos

stockholm offered fabulous summer weather.

met a friend i hadn't seen for ages.

went to see an arts and crafts exhibition at museum liljevalchs - it was lovely, inspirational and aweinspiring. if only humanity could spend more time creating fine and fun things like this instead of doing their best of destroying this one planet. rhen life wouldn't be so bad.

took lots of pictures, most still need editing. thus will show more later (have you heard that one before...)

but the 2000 giant leafs - so disappointed i missed the opportunity to participate myself - impressed both me and bobbaloos.

after the exhibition end on sunday sept 2nd they will all be sold for a good cause; planting trees in africa-project. bit disappointed the one leaf i wanted to make a bid for was already sold. ah well...

overall a lovely day.

it's a forest out there

even if you're a small being in a big world you might be a colourful, bouncy, inspirational and quirky small such being. but somedays the big world is a bit daunting. it's a seemingly impenetrable.

other days the sunrays lead the way, even for small beings in a big world.

malte the dog, i tweet therefor i am

Or rather, as that username was already taken, @thedogmalte - this little scruffy and smart (yes it is apparently possible to be both at the same time, at least when your name is Malte, the loaf dog extraordinaire), is now on Twitter. With his very own account.

Not sure if he's convinced about the awesomeness that is Twitter - I know it took me a while... - since tweeps rarely seem to write about the really impawtant things in life like squeaker toys, green chewing bones, carrots, more food, smallsized people, walking and cat herding.

Feel free to head over there and give him all paws up and encouragement to continue his tweeting. Malte, the loaf dog extraordinaire, a well-rounded guy in the prime of his life, a grumpy ol' doggie, pick your epithet and tag along.

weather changes

saturday offered one of the nicest days so far weatherwise this summer.

today we had planned for the annual end of summer picking of flowers. alas it was a day of incredible weather changes, heavy downpour, thunder and lightning of the scary kind (which made for a tornado in the neighbouring suburb).

for the first time, properly, this year, this summer, the extreme weather, the sudden changes, scare me. recently reading several articles about less than 10 years left of this planet as we know it doesn't help.

and yet so many, too many, people refuse to grasp, acknowledge, change their lifestyles. that scares me too. how about you?

friday guys

little did these tourist guys waiting for the bus realise that the swedish gal at the café wasn't trying to capture them but three small sized woollies and their soy lattes. it was a fun and awkward moment. like moments spent in the company of small sized woollies always are.

happy weekend one and all!

yelp elite icecream testing - 18 smaker

18 smaker - 18 flavours - is my favourite place for icecream in stockholm. i'm not an icecream gal in general - especially not now when i shy away from dairy products - but this is really lovely, fresh, organic, no additives and not too sweet. plus they have plenty of sorbets and vegan icecreams too.

it's a hole-in-the-wall kind of place and they always serve 18 flavours, which change all the time so you can't be sure if your favourites are there when you pop by. but you'll always find a new one. or two. one of my top favourites is saffron icecream. fantastic flavour, perky and fresh.

this evening a few of us stockholm yelp elites and friends had a really nice icecream testing. a spoonful of 18 flavours, my five favourites where; blueberry cheesecake, soy chocolate, polka, banana and green apple sorbet.

least enjoy where yoghurt icecream with mint and lime, champagne sorbet and pecan maple syrup (too sweet).

when the broadband see fit to work again i'll complete the yelp review. and tweak this post. but for now, in english, this is a place you really shouldn't miss! and yes, i was surprised and happy about the delishness of the vegan icecreams. do try!

rainbow eaters

~ i wish i didn't feel this lack of energy. still. i do hope all these blood tests i took last week will finally show something 'easily fixable'.

~ i wish my broadband could work properly. it is such an inconvenience - especially when you work from home... hopefully the latest complaints will make a difference.

~ i wish i could write proper long, witty, thoughtful, inspirational, fun blogposts. there's a fountain of subjects and photos to write about. yet i feel strangely uninspired. perhaps it'll be easier when the broadband works again and i can sort through the pictures and flickr properly.

~ i wish for many good things to appear, to happen soon. this state of blah really isn't much fun.

not nearly as fun and sweet as rainbow eaters. heart.

shoe stash

not sure why, but the latest shoes used always end up on the toilet and not in their closet.

they're always diligently inspected. not sure why.

lost and found

have had one of the slowest, most unexcited weekends ever. with one exception. and since i have been desperately searching for it for eight (8) months it was kind of a glorious exception. i found, we found, the only sewing machine that works for real. yayness!

with clearing out the now pink office etc, before christmas, things ended up in boxes and put here, there and everywhere. none of the other two sewing machines available within the family have worked (one due to the close encounter with puppy teeth 8,5 years ago...).

i've been meaning to sew at least two skirts this summer. so far that hasn't happen. but now, hooray, sewing machine found, fabrics washed. soon.

it called for the second to last bottle of berliner weisse waldmeister to celebrate. which again reminded me how much i miss berlin alas.

have you had a good weekend?

weekend wishes

i hope you will have a weekend with blue skies, icecream and cat cuddles. make the most of all the precious, little moments, they are what makes it possible to cope with the rest.

thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful comments to yesterday's sorrowful post. thank you so so much.

goodbye agnes

This was Agnes in the prime of her life. She was such a big and gorgeous british shorthair girl.



Her father came from my breeding and I was so happy to buy her. She did well at cat-shows, she was meant to have kittens but she got two stillborn and couldn't care less about that. Later she got an uterus inflammation and was emergency neutered. She really didn't care about that either. After all, kittens are such a nuisance, they take up time and space and energy.



She was a solitaire. Herself enough. Eating, sleeping, cuddling - with humans only of course - was her main interests in life. Other cats were mainly a bother, who tended to come between her and her main interests in life.





She wasn't too fond of Malte either, he was tolerated, but mainly a bother also. But his food was nice. He never dared make a fuss about that, or chase her, keep her in Malte-order - like he tends to do with most of the others, when they don't comply to his set of rules - she always ignored or slapped him if he tried.



She hasn't been herself, really, since January last year. But it wasn't anything obviously noticable in a veterinary examination, the blood samples showed nothing, her weight was the same. Earlier this year she slowly began loosing weight, but she continued to be her-past-year-self. I promised myself once - after a heartbreaking ordeal with a beloved cat in 2002 - to never to let an older cat go through painful examinations, surgery and so forth since, through experience, the prognosis for recovery most always is mirthless. Let them enjoy the time left, keep a close eye on them and be brave when they day come to say goodbye.

Today was that day for Agnes. She was only nine years old, too soon for this, I was reluctant, even though I knew it was the right thing to do. Her condition had rapidly declined. By the looks of her the veterinarian assured me it was the right thing to do, quite likely it was a tumour that caused this. Another one to say the last goodbye to. She peacefully feel asleep in my arms.

Agnes, I'm sure the grass is even greener on the other side, the food glorious and the other cats no bother at all, it has been a pleasure to have you in the family, to know you. Solitaire.

apple season

seems early to me, but apparently it's apple season in sweden already.

what's your favourite apple dish?
any favourite recipe you'd care to share?

cats on a tuesday

I know, Tuesdays are for the smart dog, Thursday are for clever cats. But today the loaf has been outsmarted by the cats (which happens more often than he would ever agree on, really). Plus, it's been a while since they appeared, the little sister trio. They have been and are a delight, mischiveous, cuddly, sweet, each with their own quirks. And everywhere. All the time. Because things happen everywhere, all the time. According to them.

Without further ado, the sisters ~



inspecting, like only they can - ågot, four months, ztina, eight months old



sleeping heart, zigne, eight months old, and ågot



granny sigrid, ågot and ztina - i love how snuggly well they get along



sharing is caring, ågot with her granny, 9,5 years apart in age



that this pink garden chair is one of this summer's best buys, upon that we can all agree. 



ever since that day, they've been the best of friends these two. and just because ztina is older doesn't mean she's the one in charge. oh noes, not even when she's the one seemingly being captured and held...

remember when ztina and zigne were this tiny and chubby...?

remember the fun times with ågot and her brothers...?

sodas with a view

not a fan of fizzy drinks in general, but this summer i've found a few really nice ones - even though my beverage of choice mostly is plain tap water. or tea of course - latest ones being these sodas.

blueberry and wild strawberry, from swedish brand nygårda (since 1954). love the tin bottle design too.

have you found something nice and new to drink this summer?

and there was sunday

Admittedly I have not spent all weekend in this position, with this view, alas. But the hour or so I did was quite lovely. And cafés that offer position and views like this, then things like the cakes they have are far better looking than they taste doesn't matter all that much (surprisingly so).

And overall it has been quite a decent kind of weekend; great Saturday lunch, book thrifting - I really need to do some more Bookcrossing again -, charity shopping (not only of a fab yabba-dabba-doo skirt), decent soy latte, writing, photo editing and uploading to Flickr - soon there will be posts about Gdansk, Sopot and all that - writing, cat cuddles, new nailpolish, sleeping and planning the upcoming week.

I hope you've had a refreshing August weekend too ~

the yabba-dabba-doo skirt

the stockholm city mission run several successful charity projects, including a bakery, cafes and quite a few second hand shops.

one of those shops is a special gem, situated in the big cultural center (the ugly building where the swedish parliament was housed a while during the seventies) in stockholm city - it's a smallish, fresh and inviting shop that only sells cleverly upcycled second hand stuff and new fairtrade items. they make simply awesome dresses, tunics, skirts, hats, bags and superadorable children/baby garments from old clothes and fabrics people have given to charity. it's so lovely and inspiring it'll actually make you weep (if you're a softie).

for very reasonable prices they sell the remade things under the label REMAKE.

myself i've been drooling over a fabulous summer tunic for months, sadly it didn't fit over my shoulders. would still love to have it but it feels silly to having to redo it the first thing i do... it was still for sale there today... i can't believe noone has snatched it a long time ago!

what i did find there and HAD TO try on today though was this happyhappyhappy skirt - i didn't know i needed one until i saw it, seriously, everyone needs one!! behold, a yabba-dabba-doo skirt.

recycled material, handmade, clever and unique, the money goes to charity - shopping at its best!

have a yabbadabbadooastic weekend one and all ~

little helper and ol' grumpy

someone very enthusiastic helped the swedish handball team to the semi-finals the other day (despite her half-sister doing her best disturbing).

myself i couldn't care less about sports or the olympic games - finding it quite heartbreaking really thinking about all that money, time, energy and enthusiasm poured into it. which could have been spent in a much wiser way. like helping this world of ours finding a better, greener, sustainable path. for example.

wistful wednesday thoughts

i had planned to write this on the computer, but as most always when there's heavy raining the broadband acts up - and still, after almost 11 years in this house, the phone/internet provider claims 'we can't see any issues with the line'... - thus app it is.

okey, but far from perfect, for blogging. i will not be a happy bunny if it doesn't work tomorrow when i need it for working...

the nuisance if this wasn't at all what this post was suppose to be about though, but the fact that this was m' officially last day of summer vacation. and i feel wistful by proxy. oh so wistful.

but i'm glad he did what i always recommend; and end your vacation in the middle of the week, it's so much easier on body and mind.

we spent the day strolling a special garden - incl four hours driving to get there/back - the weather was most enjoyable, the surroundings too, the food alright, the bobbaloos happy, the ambiance soul soothing.

the app allows no smooth links or pretty uploading of pictures, so i will just have to continue with that another day. but i think that this one picture i chose to symbolize this say speaks volumes...

how about you, are your summer vacation over? are you alright with that? do you return happy and content to your work or do you want new beginnings?

are you, like me, feeling extra wistful during the month of august? when summer is still here, but not quite, she's already looking for new dwellings...

the august weekend that was

The weekend started with a whole lot of grump - which I'd be lying if I'd say the weekend had completely sorted, but at least, the tooth ache bit is now doable, perhaps partly due to the pink splint being used again. I will hopefully, fingers crossed, not have to call the dentist this week... -



but due to overall lovely weather, toy car outings,



cafe stops, the always eager, friendly company of bobbaloos



roosters, chocolate buns,



a new set of circus nails and



kitten cuddles galore it has changed my mood into a happier place to be. I do hope it will semi-blissfully remain there for a while now. Because I find that no matter how much you try to refill on sun and good stuff when possible, it never really is enough for a longer period of time. It's a fragile thing, easily scraped off.

For the week to come I hope to have energy for lots of writing, reading a bit of cleaning and the laundry. That shouldn't be too much to ask for, right? Right. As I'm writing this the rain has begun to pour down, if that will be the week's weather at least the sun won't tempt.

I hope your weekend was a good one too,
that you managed to refill on the good stuff and
that your week will hold only fine things.