september sweethearts

on the last day of september, simply a few recent pictures of the furry herd that will make you go awww...

to potter with pottery

i'm going to spend my weekend with doing just that, trying to vamp the lids of a bit of pottery - them bobs are eager to get started, i'm sure they'll be a great help -

and also with twitterjunta.

thus i'm hoping for a relaxingly creative weekend. for me, for you, for one and all!

zebra crossing

negative - crazy early mornings. rush hours. fasting. rain and grey skies. more close encounters with needles, blood samples, doctor's appointments. little sleep. tiredness. nasty people. etc etc.

positive - colours. good fika. soy latte. great photo exhibitions and museum visits. walks without feeling exhausted afterwards. cat and loaf cuddles. winter duvet. exchanging of good thoughts. new shoes. shoe sale. irresistable. green shoes. etc etc.

my week so far.

green nails - again

I keep telling myself that my favourite colour is pink, then orange and red but to be honest in the end, when I can chose I most often go for green things (on quite a few levels and in many ways obviously).

Thus when it was time for doing the nails - and remove the stripey ones - I didn't go for the deep pink/deep red I had planned but green. Again.

- Although after this week, that will be a week of more tests and close encounters with needles and such,  I will treat myself to a new bottle of nailpolish. I'm thinking I would love to have a deep raspberry redish/pinkish one. Or possible a chocolate colour. Do you have any favourite bottles in these colours you want to recommend? -

In subdued semi-circus style one might say. From left it's Essie Navigate her, Essie Sew psyched, Opi My address is Hollywood.

The ring adds pink to it. Bought it in Venice in 2003, don't wear it much but it is indeed a perky little thing and I love the handicraft of it.

Hope your week will be a nice one, needle-free but with good nails.

the kånken backpack

The classic Swedish rucksack Kånken (which would translate something like The Lug) from company Fjällräven (The Arctic Fox) has been around since 1978 and came about due to the fact that (apparently) back problems had begun to appear in increasingly younger age groups in Sweden at that time. It's a simple, durable and very practical no-fuss design and it soon became a common sight at pre-schools and schools. 

I never had a Kånken when I was a child, I've never been much of a backpack-person nor have I had issues with my back. My mother is very much a backpack person though - thus it's a perfect gift to look for whenever we're travelling - and she has gone through several Kånken over the years.

Kånken is still a very popular rucksack model in Sweden and the other Nordic countries, extremely so  amongst the environmental movement people I'd say. Kånken does signal, rightly or wrongly, a certain type of person. Or at least it has. These days it's visible in all kinds of contexts and groups of people. A rather endearing sight I think. Almost 35 years old design and still going strong, in all age groups. These days it comes in many different sizes and lots of colours (not only the classic blue one), it's rather tricky to chose just one if you're about to get one.

As I did a couple of weeks ago. Yes, finally I'm also an owner of a Kånken. One reason being that it is after all quite practical to fit lots of stuff into a backpack (camera, lenses and computer) instead of jamming it all down a big handbag. And even if I mostly wear messenger bags with the strap across the chest it does take its toll on the shoulders and neck...

I and Prosit planned to get the classic large size Kånken, but ended up with the laptop "17 one. Even if I won't always carry the laptop with me of course it's a terribly practical way to carry it when you have to. Still good for business meetings, with or without computer.

Colour-loving me would have loved to have a green or blue Kånken, but I chose a practical colour instead - plus the "17 size one doesn't offer a lot of choices, which perhaps might be good. I bought the Forrest green one at first, but when I realized the dark colour might bleed on all my light coloured garments and stuff I exchanged it for the Sand coloured one. Still a practical colour, tad boring, but it won't look dirty as lighter, brighter colours might and it goes with everything. All year around.

With its cute, somehow huggable, design it gets the bobbaloo thumbs up. Although they thinks it's a perfect bag for ALL bobbaloos to tag along on outings and fika excursions instead of having to be confined to a small sized travel cabin. I do not agree. The Bobbaloo Travel Cabin has not been upgraded yet.

How's your relationship with backpacks, love or hate, indifferent?
Do you know Kånken, perhaps you even have one (or more) yourself?

autumnal equinox

i know, every year i try to embrace autumn and what the weather brings with this season in scandinavia and yes over the years i've come to accept and enjoy its gorgeous colours, crisp air, unpretentiousness and promise of new beginnings more and more. but still, despite being an autumn child (only a month plus away now) wistfullness is the predominant feeling i have this time of the year. (maybe more so this year, thanks to a mix of weltschmerz and my current state of, in lack for a precise word, blah.)

but it is the season of fine socks, good boots, lots and lots of cups of tea, candlelight and snuggle ups in sofa. etc etc. (and since it's saturday you can have a bowl of candy. and carrots. the more carrots you have, the more sweets you can have, right? right.)

what's your favourite thing/s about autumn?

world peace day

was to celebrate the fine world peace day (september 21) in yelp stockholm style, but am too tired after a very early morning (chilly and crisp, perhaps autumn has arrived?), yet another doctor's appointment etc. thus i've crashed in sofa and will have an early night.

i hope you've had, having, will have a sweet, kind and peaceful day. and may they be followed by many more.

have a grand weekend too!

september thursday

feel free to guess what the top left plastic cans, pink bowl and pinocchio were used for... i bet he never thought that would be a part of his destiny.

apart from that bit - come on guess the bit! - it was s sunny day. crisp air (alas). inauguration of red shoes (nice). good good vegetarian lunch. furry cuddles and naps.

how was your day?

first woolly autumn project

i know, i know, several half finished or need tweaking yarn projects lying around. i will, i will finish them too. but there's just something irresistable with beginning something new, fresh yarn, fresh beginnings.

it's the same yarn brand as i used for my mother's heather coloured shawl, i went with greenish in this scarf for myself.

have you begun knitting/crocheting anything new yet?

geek girl meetup on a shoestring

Remember the event I was at in May? If not it was a so called Geek Girl Meetup un-conference, where the nametag cord was a nifty shoe lace. I forgot to get myself a second shoe lace, and I was only there the first day. But I did get a friend to pick a pair up, they have arrived and now I can actually sport the GGM shoestring on a pair of shoes. How quirky is that?!

Unfortunately the laces are a bit bulky for my favourite pair of oxfords, but I'm sure I will make good use of them in some other shoes, or in some other way.

How do you like your shoestrings? Unobtrusive or contrasting, perhaps depending on the occasion?

pretty packaging

i do appreciate a good packaging, no fuss, simple, nice font, pretty colours and practical design. plus, needless to say, easy to recycle of course.

- fruits and veggies in no packaging at all but straight into the shopping bag is of course another way of perfect packaging... -

these scrubs, soaps and nail polish remover (no palm oil involved) from sephora are the latest ones i appreciate. pretty much inside out.

and yes, a pretty packaging goes a long way in getting me interested enough to buy something.

what's your view on packaging? any examples of packaging you enjoy?

the september weekend that was thoughts

:: the planned (on kind of a whim) longer road trip was cancelled, for various reasons. unfortunate, but i think a proper little trip with train and spend a few days at the intended destination instead will be much more pleasing. hopefully before the end of this year.

:: we did take the last toy car outing of the season on today though. indian summer day, but with a streak of chill in the air. wistful in many ways.


:: it's now been a full year since i stopped being very good at uploading photos to flickr regularly and cronologically (plus write a few words of where and when, tag them). i use flickr as one of my safety back-ups for photos, for blogging, for MOO, a simple portfolio etc. that's still my aim, sadly when you have a full year of photos to go through and chose from you feel kind of... put off my the whole thing. i'm better at uploading iphone snaps. but i'm still crap at the write a few words and tag them-thing.

i also need to remove and rearrange the photos on my computer's hard-drive, because guess what, the photos take up too much space now... things you should do - in an ideal life where unexpected stuff never happens - regularly. not sure how i'll get this done. maybe just some little thing each day will get me up to date. or possibly put in a whole day (at least) for it.



:: the weekend has held some good food and decent, more than decent cakes. ågot has continued to show her deep appreciation and love for little loaf. he has continued to find her an utter nuisance. i've painted striped nails, with an okey result for a first time thing i think. (opi ducle de leche and essie in stitches).





:: like someone pointed out, the frame apps makes one look very busy. but really, in the case of me, it's more a way to keep my companion weltschmerz at bay and concentrate on the colourful, tasty and good things here and now.



:: i've worn perky green shoes, surrounded myself with a lot of green today actually. including spotted the largest cricket i've ever seen. my twitter account reached a 1000 followers (after three plus years, quality not quantity everytime and i'm not interested in the follow back-thing or follow thousands upon thousands of accounts, i have no idea how tweeps manage that and keep up a connection and conversation with a reasonable amount of people. well, of course the answer is; they don't). we had mushroom stew on sourdough bread topped with chanterelles for dinner today.


:: i have not written nearly as much as i would have liked (but the only one who will suffer from it is me i suppose). i have not sewn anything on the bird skirt. but there's always tomorrow. (hopefully). followed by a long week.

happy weekend ~

Myself I'm going to spend it with a road trip and some much needed writing, possibly finishing the bird skirt. So far it's looking like it's going to be a weekend well and lovely spent - much much better than the last one... (touch wood)

I hope you will have a wonderful, recuperating or exciting, relaxing or funfilled weekend. Whatever works best for you.

Cheerio for now!

my thursday in frames

i admit to having become *quite* fond of frame apps. such a neat way to recap a day, an event and so forth.

even better when your energy levels aren't what they should be. but you still feel like blogging. for now, in blogger app quality only, my thursday. including much needed sprucing of hair. and vegan pizza (sadly not impressed).

indian summer stockholm day three.

my wednesday

another indian summer day. dentist appointment (went with the local general denistry, will probably not continue doing so.), luckily no holes!

long, slow walk home. loaf met some friends. pug berra (bertil) seven months old was adorable.

tired to the bone. made a fab dinner (one of my favourite meals; spicy lentil and vegetable stew with halloumi). cuddled some cats. bedtime.

how was your day?

my tuesday

i sure will be pleased when life will be back on the right track again. when prosit gets all the energy and focusing it deserves.

when i won't be a human pin cushion no more and will get back to writing better blog posts. photo editing and flickr editing. and reading blogs again.

when current pills, tests and never ending doctor appointments will be a mere memory (touch wood). when life and living feel more inspirational in general again and not only glimpses of.

for now. glimpses of my day. stockholm. blue skies. indian summer. good food. pretty things (non of which came home with me).

colour of monday

just a few of my favourite snaps of today. of a few of my favourite things in life.

what was the colour of your monday?

flower picking sunday

yes i was discharged yesterday, just in time to get to a much awaited author talk - more about later - it was lovely to eat and sleep at home.

alas i have not gotten a clean bill of health, so i need to go through lots of more tests and examinations. sigh. double sigh. while the noticeble symptoms, for me, are still 'only' the runny nose (one nostril) and tiredness. ah well.

today we finally got around to pickung flowers (växplats nybyn of course). i got a lovely bunch. the bobbaloos were great helpers. and the flowers were duly inspected upon arrival home.

hope your sunday has been a fine one!

blogoversary number seven

seven years ago i apparently thought it was a good idea to start blogging. seven years later i'm still at it. with some things i am indeed perseverant.

i would love to write something witty and have a little giveaway of some sorts. but after a rather sleepless night at hospital (see yesterday's post of course) and still waiting for more tests and see the doctor i'm pretty much out of wit. so that will be another day.

but i hope you've had some fun with me over these seven years and that you (and i) will continue to for many years to come.

happy blogoversary, go have some cake and celebrate!

hospital friday

the day took a very very unexpected turn - the doctor was *a bit stressed* about some of my test results plus rising and unexpectedly high blood pressure. she thought it was hormones acting up, but sent me immediately to the hospital. where they're also concerned thus i'm here over night for more tests and examinations.

i'm dumbstrucked, and basically feel 'like i have been for the past six months'. possibly a bit perkier actually. but of course it's good to be taken seriously. and they have so far been lovely, the staff.

my bed us in a geriatric unit, so well, my room-mates are a bit... special. and apparently snoring. ah well, not much to do about it. and the carrot steaks i got for dinner were actually really nice. and i got a bed with a view.

alas no shoes in blog today. bummer.

~ shoes for sale

well, why not actually for sure make this week, the first september one, a shoe week.

today two of the pairs that are looking for new homes. for reasons like not my perfect size (felt okey when bought, but not now) and really not my style. i guess which of those reasons these pairs fall under...

the brown el naturalista rana tharu sandals are size 40. these days my feet prefer 41. a really comfortable model (these have only been worn once), but alas this pair not great for me. and you know how much i adore el naturalista shoes...

the white brogue oxfords are just a crazy pair of leningrad cowboys-kind of shoes bought in germany many years ago. not sure why. never worn. but they do look kind of snazzy in photo. size 40.

not that i expect them to get new homes via blog, but it's 'shoe-week' and them bobs are always keen on shoe posing. but if you are interested, give me a shout!

the regular price for a new pair of el naturalista in this model is 148€.

the oxfords (probably not leather) was/is considerably lower.