farewell october

you have been a month of both highs and lows, but i sure wish you had offered solutions to conundrums and health issues.

first snowfall on my birthday, not appreciated.

your main colour was orange, that i loved.

bye for now october,
sleep well,
see you in a year ~

on the last october tuesday

:: i woke up crazy early only to go have my renal artery checked. quite a surreal experience. as far as i could tell they could find nothing wrong. which is of course good, but i'm nowhere closer to get an answer to the annoying health status (seven months and counting).

:: i'm forever grateful i do not have to commute during morning rush hours every day.

:: got a soy latte - because i'm worth it.

:: another round of blood samples - they had to try three places before they got it this time. i guess that's better than the previous time's six places.

:: ice-cold winds and merciless rain may make stockholm look very pretty and romantic, but it sure is a nasty weather combo.

:: the lunch café was really nice, even if the food wasn't completely satisfying.

:: despite the nasty weather there were lots of dog spotting today. and cat cuddling on the home turf.

:: i missed the birthday-shoes delivery. but oh my am i excited about it taking place tomorrow instead.

:: it was a day perfect for "my day in frames" thus the irony of being too tired for it...

:: what happened to october? how can it be almost november already??

a day in the world, the book

remember may 15, when everyone all around the world was invited to take and upload their view of their world to the aday.org site?

- if i wasn't writing this in the blogger app i'd include lots of neat links in this post, that will have to wait until i'm at the computer done! -

now photos from all over the world have been chosen to be part of the book, a day in the world. one of my photos is a part of the book. probably the photo i'd least expected would be chosen, thus my pride is mixed with giggles, ah the silliness.

for now the book is published in nine countries; australia, canada, finland, ireland, norway, spain, sweden, united kingdom and usa. - again sorry for the not linking right now, but google is your friend or so i've heard. fixed!

over 100 000 photos submitted, 1000 have been chosen for the book by an international jury.

i'm sure it's a spectacular and thoughtprovoking book, with or without my participation.

books and cats

still on the involuntary reading hiatus - over two years now, but i'm doing better, i've finished a few these past few months - thus i basically do not but any new books. but who can resist 'old' ones? thrifting for the win!

i think there are many gems in these heaps. the one i'm most happy about is of course the nuala o'faolain's self biography, it has been on my wishlist for years. imagine to just stumble over it at a charity shop in sweden!



and finally, one of those universal thruths of life 'man kann im leben auf vieles verzichten, aber nicht auf katzen und literatur!' -

happy reading, 
happy week to come!

pastry day

realised there had been no proper birthday cake the other day. pastry was called for! felt like a budapest roll (befittingly given the december destination) - i've not completely given up dairy, but my intake is quite small these days even when it, surprisingly enough, comes to whipped cream. a budapest roll can be a really tasty, nutty, meringuey, mandarine (or raspberry as i did myself) filled with whipped cream pastry when well-made. but it can also be quite blah, it takes a certain pastry baking, making skill to get it right.

(contrary to what one might think budapest roll is supposedly a swedish pastry, not hungarian, invented in the 1920ies).

today's roll was however lovely. picture, needless to say, happens to include other, more long lasting, lovely matters in my life.

hope your weekend is treating you well. pastry wise and all.

knitting with leftover yarn

this gorgeous knitting and crocheting book i got for my birthday - in fact just the cover photo spoke loads to me when i saw it at the bookstore many months ago, for obvious reasons, and my mum bought it 'you'll get it when you get it'. i had kind of forgotten about it so it was a brilliant parcel to open yesterday.

brimming with new and old ideas with a twist, fabulously creative and with gorgeous photos. i basically want to make everything in it. with leftover yarns. love it!

skirt on cover photo is a must. and those yellow shoes... le sigh.

~ luxurious afternoon tea
~ sunshine
~ a pair of boots/shoes in a fantastic new colour (they'll arrive next week)
~ nailpolish
~ contemplating bobbaloos
~ small sweet things
~ a december trip to budapest (excitement!)

yes, i think it was an overall lovely birthday this year too (although, getting older isn't nearly as fun as getting wiser...).

now, let the scrap yarn projects begin!

happy birthday to me ~

having luxury afternoon tea at grand hôtel. resting a bit in the sofa before i'll tackle the rest of the cake trolley.

may it be a fabulous new year in the life of me,
wisdom, joy and prosperity for prosit
are all high on my wishlist ~



Edit - first snow fell this evening. 
Not a pleasant way to end the day,
not at all.

the girl in the cafe

one might think i was going to write about myself, but no, this will actually just be a short post about a few great, thoughtprovoking movies and tv-series (without links for blogger app reason, but you can easily look them up on imdb), well-played, political, heartbreaking and with glimmer of hope.

~ the girl in the cafe - with bill nighy, awesome as always.

~ burnt by the sun - russian, one of my favourite movies ever.

~ burn up - british tv-series about the ruthlessness of the oil industry.

~ criminal justice, season one - tv-series with brilliant, stunning acting with fantastic ben whishaw.

~ the lives of others - set in east berlin 1984, it captures the times and human nature eeringly well.

my october tuesday

When one haven't seen the sun for over a week it's pure joy to finally rekindle. During the day I did try and soak up a lot of it. A pity you can't bottle it and save for a glum day.

Everything become prettier in the sun, most things, Stockholm and its suburbs for sure.



Hairdressing on the agenda. Colour, sprucing, pampering, good talks on life, living, choices, getting older. It was lovely.

And there were red shoes and awesome socks.



Sourdough bread, great fika and cat cuddles.

Tiredness. Sleeping.

But most of all, sun, glorious sun. I wish you could come visit much more often.

three things orange

The predominant colour in my life right now continues to be orange. Since it's a fabulos kind of colour I don't complain. From sweethearts - Zigne, and her sister not quite as orange (red), is ten months now, it feels like it was only last month they were this tiny... -



to the first pair of magical wristwarmers 2012 edition to



the tree colours in my neighbourhood.

Three kinds of pretty. Three kinds of orange.

What's the predominant colour in your life right now?

instawalk in stockholm

the weekend was rounded off with an instawalk - a walk 'in group' snapping photos with the instagram app on a given route from start to destination - hosted by the fotografiska (photographical) museum in stockholm.

in general i don't do the group thing, but sometimes it's good to challenge yourself to do uncomfortable things and sometimes, just sometimes, they turn out more than alright. like today.

glum weather but fantastic colours and crisp light made for good photos. met a few tweeps (fellow twitter users) i hadn't met before, it wasn't awkward at all, only nice and comfortable. the walk from start down to the museum was lovely. at the museum they had a slideshow of some of the pictures taken (some plus hundred took the walk, snapping about 4000 pictures tagged with #instawalkfotografiska2 and #instawalkfotografiska - follow the tag on instagram and you can see them all. plus on gramfeed). not sure if the photos will be part of an exhibition in the future, but i hope so, there were some grand ones and most of them  very creative and personal.

what i regret most - and i don't think i'll ever be forgiven for it - is the sad fact that the bobbaloos that tagged along never got to pose on any of the actual instawalk photos... the fika afterwards most certainly did not make up for it.

i've put all my photos from the walk - and a few before and after the walk, since i wanted to fill the frames completely - in frames. a little autumn stockholm diary in snaps.

what do you think?
have you been to any instawalks?
did you enjoy, will you go again?

rhapsody in orange

when weather is glum colours get more important than ever. today was such a day. pouring rain, dark, grey, merciless skies. all things yellow, orange, red helped.

so did genius socks and good food.

friday i'm in love

it's just been a very pleasant day, that's the love bit. drizzling rain, cloudy, warm, humid, fantastic autumn colours weather.

some follow up thoughts and comments to yesterday's post - but right now i'm too tired for that kind of writing.

had a fab vegetarian brunch (in my case) lunch (her case) with a fine friend.

good talks, good walk, tofu socks, new socks, good fika.

cute overload dog sighting, mischiveous cats, slightly less annoying loaf, knitting, reading, being.

as illustrated by frames.
happy weekend, kind one and all ~

i blog therefore i am

Cats, kittens, bobbaloos and shoes aside, I can't help but thinking about the plummeting of blog visitors/readers. No new followers. Not to mention comments. The latter two isn't a big deal, I've never really understood the follower thing and many blog readers are lurkers most of the time (including myself), but the fact that the regular visitor numbers have have halved (I kid you not) since winter/spring this year, THAT gets me thinking. About the reasons and why I blog and keep on blogging (seven years later).

I wrote a few words about it back in January. When a popular blogger complained about the lack of comments in her blog lately, which to be honest sounded both whiny and self-absorbed. I don't want to be whiny and self-absorbed like that, at least not when it comes to things like blogging. That's just plain ridiculous. Or is it?

I blog because I have to. There are so many words that need to come out of this head of mine. It's a good way to share, to practise, evolve your writing compared to scribbling your words and thoughts down in an old fashioned journal. A portfolio in a way.

But I'm also fully aware that I don't blog like I used to, I promise to write about this and that and then some but I never got around to it. And if I don't write about it within a week or so, inspiration fades and it all seem very uninteresting and old newsish.

I don't write long posts and reviews like I used to - and yes admittedly I'm guilty of thinking "why should I, with less and less readers anyway". Silly me - I lack the mojo. It may partly be a health thing, but partly I'm just uninspired (which, granted, may stem from the health thing). And as with most things in life, when feedback is missing, that in itself is a lack in motivation.

It may also be I kind of feel I lack time, but I guess in reality I just do other stuff, not necessarily more important or fulfilling stuff, I just chose differently than I used to.

I'm also fully aware that I very much do not read other blogs anymore, or very rarely. My feed reader is brimming with unread posts, which is more than a tad bit guilt inducing. Silly. Or is it? The idea of reciprocating comments just for the sake of it has always been outlandish to me. But when I read a good blog post that speaks to me (or my eyes) don't want to be a mere lurker. Though, in order to leave comments one must read blogs, and that, that I just don't do anymore. Or at least not right now. I may have to cleanse that reader, because feeling guilty for not reading blogs, that's not what it should be about. Life.

And perhaps, with plummeting visitor numbers and my own blog behaviour it's a universal thing, maybe  our blogging/reading habits have changed. Are we bored of the media (unless it's blogs about specific topics/interests) in general? Are lifestyle blogs, personal blogs uninteresting, uninspirational, out of fashion, are we moving on to something else?

I certainly know I tweet a lot, I say I prefer reading blogs, but to be honest, these days I so prefer Twitter. And Instagram. It's quick, unpretentious, to follow or unfollow isn't a big deal, loads of interesting information, links, clever people just a click away and you don't have to read lots and lots. I like to think I'm a fan of the Slow Movement, but I can't help but being seduced by the instant gratification that is information society. Instant information and feedback. I blame the smartphones for this. Partly great, partly they're just too absorbing, ridiculously so, in a way people have become more stupid than ever. They're just not present. They're absorbed by their smartphones. And I'm guilty of that too. Perhaps not as much as some, but too much to be quite comfortable about it.

Who'd known blogging could be considered slow movement? But I think in many ways it is, in a good way, at least the kind of blogging I like, longer posts, fabulous photos, thoughts, ideas, inspiration, glimpses into people's lifes, living, laughing, crying, sharing. I want my blogging mojo back!

Have you thought about this, the blogging, reading, commenting?
Has your habits changed?
Have your blogosphere's habits changed?

the day in frames

a good meeting. many ideas swirling. glimpses of sun. tiredness. yarn. nutty fika. reading. furry cuddles. orange was the predominant colour of the day.

multitasking in yarn

finished a lovely woolly blue green scarf on order. to be shipped later this week. hopefully reciever will be pleased.

one pair of magical wristwarmers down, one to go. then it's time to begin a pair of yellow lovikka mittens for same customer. since it's too soon for such mittens yet, touch wood i'm in no hurry with those. but i'm pleased i whipped together those wristwarmers in a very reasonable amount of time. hopefully reciever next week will be too.

now my knitting muscles are pretty sore though. thus i stick with continuing to crochet that looong scarf for a rather well-deserving self.

multitasking in yarn. while trying to supress the thoughts of all half-finished projects in yarn. which is a whole other story. in yarn.

what's your yarny business this autumn?
anything especially exciting?

against the wind

pottering around i found this old tape, with soundtrack from one of my favourite tv-series as a child; against the wind.

very moving, but most of all wonderful music, songs and soundtrack (by and with jon english). one of the first pieces i learnt when i began playing the guitar. six ribbons.

do you remember this australian/british series?

sunday lazy

knitting. crocheting.
eating chocolate. drinking tea.
laughing and marvelling over the half face photo app. and thanking higher powers for inventing photo editing.
thoroughly enjoying new sofa (now yellow sofa with pink cover). overcrowded sofa. wish it was less popular.
trying to collect my thoughts and deeds that need to be done for the week to come.

the yellow sofa

stumbled over a *new* sofa at my favourite charity shop. finally. it's been thoroughly paw inspected. and getting paws up.

it will get a protective cover asap, paw protection.

painting pink door. second coat.

crocheting. vacuuming. watching tv.

drinking tea, new and old. munching on shortbread and whiskyfudge (that m brought back from his recent trip to islay and jura. not envious, not envious at all. not) and dreaming of scotland.

a rather slow and nice saturday in other words. yellow sofa saturday.

october friday

a doctor's appointment that gave absolutely no answer at all to current health status. tests so far showed nothing abnormal. good in one way, crap in other.



crisp, cold, pretty weather in a pretty stockholm.



a crazy good vegetarian lunch - and crazily enough it was my first visit to said establishment (small unpretentious vegetarian place that's been around for ages). generous portions, good value, fresh, exquisite textures and flavours. new favourite!

walking. sleeping.

good fika.



happy socks and applegreen shoes. (the dull black/grey/navy/beige dress code of professional rush hour stockholm is simply pathetic and depressing. colours, folks, colours!!).

a supersized apple in stockholm.



ten shades of pink.

still fuming over the madness of the nobel peace prize laureate. it's pure and utter disgrace.

that said, hope you had a wonderful day and that the weekend will be even better!

ten teas

one thing i can honestly say i love about autumn is the there's always tea time feeling. myself i'm working my way through some of the teas i've bought the last six months. most of them in helsinki.

some truly delightful, others not nice at all plus some just dull.

from top left to right;

~ wij garden (which one day will have a blog post of its own) rose garden tea. haven't tried this yet. sure a good rose tea is lovely, but to be honest i'm rarely in the mood for it.

~ kobbs rabarberkalas (rhubarb party). this is heavenly! subtle yet pleasing rhubarb. heart.

~ forsman toffee tea. same brand as the wonderful liquorice tea, but this is far from as good. smells nice, lacks flavour.

~ äppelfabriken's äppelfröjd (apple joy). rooibos tea, which i'm generally not a fan of, with apple vanilla cardamom flavour. just like its name it's a joy to drink. new favourite!

~ five o'clock herbata gdanska. sweet and spicy tea with hints of chocolate from (surprise) gdansk. lovely.

~ nordqvist moomin tea little my. lemon flavour. non memorable but sweet package of course.

~ nordqvist summer fruits. smells heavenly but for my palate it's a non pleasing, bitter herb tea. good thing m loves it.

~ stockmann fruit tea. from posh helsinki department store stockmann, bought it as a souvenir - i prefer edible and/or useful ones - but it's quite bland and uninteresting.

~ ekberg tea toom tea. tea from a classic helsinki café - swedish name/last name meaning 'oak mountain' - just tea, no flavour and therefore not very interesting. i'd take yorkshire tea anyday over this.

~ nordqvist moomin tea "kämpa på!" (plug away!). blueberry muffin flavour, rather nice though one has to be supercareful not to let it brew too long then it gets a tang.


so, what will be your tea favourites this autumn?
any new blends?

october wednesday

grey skies.

using-up-vegetables-in-fridge-warm-potato-salad-with-halloumi. delicious.

vegan icecream. thumbs and paws up.

cats. loaf. bobbaloos.

knitting.

admiring shoes.

thinking.

painting door. first coat.

swearing over broken dishwasher.

how was your day?

october tuesday

fika and a good talk with a friend i see far too seldom.

colourful leaves.

furry cuddles.

the scarf i knitted the other day is finished. will hopefully be around the neck of a happy customer soon. now i've moved on to magic wristwarmers for someone else. mixed with the greenish crocheted cowl for myself.

good thoughts.

hope your tuesday has been kind.

every evening moment

since little loaf began demanding to be lifted up in the sofa -

which i so planned to get rid off when the kittens moved, but so far haven't since there never seem to be the 'perfect' one at the charity shop (i would of course never ever buy a new one, i can think of a gazillion better ways to spend money). what was once a decent sofa is now simply a very crappy sofa, but loved by cats and dog... -

(it all began when he had his health scare back in march - may, and probably felt it was comforting for poor plastic funnel loaf to share the warm sofa)

and especially these last couple of months, this is the most common view in da house. snuggly buddies. one definitely happier than the other. but still, one way or the other, this is how they end up every evening.

heart.

october sunday

knitting on an order in blue and green.

baking banana bread.

bobbaloos riding the löv train, löv train.

cuddling clever cats.

and that was my weekend.

october saturday

october being my month and all that i've made the promise to blog every day. small achievements are also motivating for greater goals.

thus glimpses from a so far excellent weekend. i do hope you're having a lovely one too!