memory game

i loved playing memory as a child. somehow i think i would be awesome at this particular memory game these days. now high on my wish list, of things i didn't know i needed until i saw them.

burning beauty

spent a day at fotografiska (photografical) museum looking at the large (spread over three storeys) photo exhibition 'burning beauty' by david lachapelle. thoughtprovoking, awesome, provoking, more provoking and then some, colourful, impressive and quite a bit disheartening due to the ways of the world and mankind cleverly and disturbingly depicted.



bobbaloos, as the gentle souls they are, only got to see the photo bits that were deemed (by undersigned) bobbaloo-safe.

the exhibit didn't move me to tears of despair like the nick brandt one the other year, of course, but still, lots of thoughts and impressions to process. which is always a good thing.

exhibition ends march 3, in case you're in stockholm and haven't been yet.

going bananas

finally, totally inspired by an innocent snap on instagram many months ago, i got myself a happy bunch of bananas.

as mentioned before, bananas is probably one of my least enjoyed fruits (due to their icky consistency), but they're obviously great for smoothies etc. so now i usually have a few available at home always.

organic and fairtrade of course, to buy any other kind is simply environmentally criminal.

pip met the happy sextuplets today. yellow meet. so much joy. though i'm afraid six will soon turn into five, then four, three, two, one, farewell sextuplets, it was fun while it lasted.

bliss in a pedicure

a few times per year i enjoy a decent pedicure at a pedicure school. medical pedicure they call it, ie no fuss with nailpolish and such, but all the good stuff, peeling, polish and a lovely foot massage with natural oils.

everyone should do it regularly, the feet carry a lot of weight and should last for oh so many years, they deserve a special and regular treat.

i usually take good care of my feet - and not only with my love of good shoes - but really, to let a professional (student) do it now and then, worth its weight in gold. or foot salt.

lesson i took with me today - moisture your feet with a good lotion regularly, preferably every single day. go over them with a foot file once per week.

happy feet makes for a happy soul. well, at least it plays a decent part in it.

two green scarves

Well technically one of the scarves are blue and green - made to order for someone who enjoys blue and green I was very happy to find the perfect blend in lovely, thick wool for a chunky, warming scarf - and the other one is sort of green, brown, yellow. But green is the common denominator, so green they are. For now, in this post.



The knitted scarf made to order was speedily made during a week in October. Buyer/wearer seems very pleased with her purchase I'm happy to report.



The one I crocheted for myself - with yarn bought in 2011 - I began making in September and finished sometime in November. I used up all the yarn for it, crocheted it in a similar style to the heather hued shawl the other year, but made it into a cowl of sorts instead. It's about 460 centimeters long. Oh dear. It was a very good, "endless" kind of project to have in front of the TV, while travelling or riding the car.



So, this bird in her new scarf would love to now,
how are your yarn projects this season coming along?

little miss bookcrossing helper

i was pretty good at leaving bookcrossing books here and there during all of 2012, in helsinki, gdansk and budapest too.

but for this last month, when i've been rubbish at it, all out of registered/labelled books. not too keen on that bit. though i do have a big bag of second hand books that need just that, when that's done (asap) i'm sure 2013 will be a nice bookcrossing year too.

how can it not be, with such a little miss bookcrossing helper with a paw?

edit - noticed that there wasn't a single comment to my first bookcrossing post two years ago, thus i still would love to know your views on it, like i did then;

are you a member of bookcrossing?
for how long? 
do you enjoy it? 
do you just leave books or do you pick some up too, to read?
have you found a travelling bookcrossing book? 
was it a good read? 

the queen of stockholm

"Well hallo there, it's been far too long since last!"

For a few weeks in the beginning of Yelp in Stockholm I held the distinguished title of the Queen of Stockholm. About ten months later I got a very happy surprise today when all my iPhone check-ins and Stockholm dukedoms finally earned me this again. I dethroned the king, who was, granted, very gracious about it.

Oh, its a blend of silliness, astute planning, fun, rather a bit of work and quite a bit of luck I'd say. All and all  really rather nice way to start the weekend.

I hope you'll have a lovely one!

Yours truly,
The Queen

red smoothie, sunny soup

Second smoothie of the week was a perky red one, lots of greens in it but add raspberry and everything turns red. It was lovely and I adore using up stuff in the freezer, so that adds to the satisfaction here.

One banana, two kiwis, a teaspoon of wheat grass, a handful of cranberries, dito with grapes and raspberries, add a splosh of soy milk. And a sprinkle of sunflower seeds for a few spoonfuls of crunch.

As I'm enjoying this so very much I must make sure to keep it up, at least 2-3 different smoothies per week. I do not make or believe in New Year's resolutions, but if I did, this would be a good one I think.

Lunch and dinner both enter the sunny soup (using up loads of pumpkin in the freezer, yay!).

All and all, a very good food day. I wish all days were good food days. For every being. Kind food days. Colourful days.

little loaf in a colder climate

i am so relieved, happy and pleased that the vet called with good news today, the little fella with the cutest tongue in the whole wide world (if he may say so himself) will be alright. touch wood. the tumour removed from his mouth last week turned out to be benign.

insert giant sigh of relief here.

though since it was such a big, nasty thing and it was impossible to remove it all, it may start growing again. if that happens we have to deal with it. again.

but for now. serenity. quiet joy. and lots of cuddles. for the little fella in a woolly winter outfit. little loaf in a colder climate. heart.

green smoothie

once upon a time (ten years ago or so) i promised to make and have a smoothie most days of the week.

it was a promise (to the self) that was sadly unkept. my life contains too few smoothies. today i was reminded of that when i had this one.

a delightful simple blend of one banana, one kiwi, a handful of baby spinach and a splash of orange juice. tomorrow i'll try something a bit different.

do you have any favourite smoothie blends you'd care to share?

django unchained

a bit cool, a bit fun, a bit witty, quite a bit sad, a bit ridiculous, a whole lot of splatter violence and way too long. pretty much a typical quentin tarantino movie i suppose. rarely my cup of cineastic tea.

with few exceptions i do not enjoy the violence and humour mix, the trivialization of violence in that way is mostly just very disturbing in my opinion.

as i've mentioned before, movies at home are to be preferred over at the cinema. i didn't always think that, but ticket prices, the time consuming thing to get to and from cinemas, the fact that you have to spend 2 plus hours in a room full of strangers, possibly very uncomfortable chairs and bad air condition, you can't pause the movie for a pee break or to make a cup of tea, you can't knit or cuddle a cat, as if one of these reasons isn't enough you have to endure them all at a movie theatre. i so prefer a dvd.

the only reason for going to the cinema four times in a short period of time was the fact that we had to use up movie gift vouchers.

quite enjoyed 'skyfall', 'the angels' share' and the french endearing drama 'the intouchables' based on a true story. but i can think of many better ways to spend three hours than watching 'django unchained'.

have you seen any good (or bad) movies recently you'd like to recommend (or not)? preferably available on dvd given the above obviously.

sunday cuteheart

little loaf tongue, possibly the cutest tongue in the whole wide world. at least according to little loaf himself.

baby it's could outside

woke up to a gorgeous, sunny and very cold, crisp day. the kind of nippy day that really makes one feel alive. -18•C.

pretty, pretty but cold, cold.

sweet disposition

different constellations of sweetness greet when exiting bedroom in the mornings. this was it today. heart. double heart.

have a sweet weekend, hug your loved ones ~

three things raspberry and matching matters

i always spy things that match. right now i see things raspberry with my little eye.

three new-ish things and their matching little friends.

~ body shop raspberry body butter - i used to not enjoy body butters because i felt they left a sticky surface on skin instead of replenish with moisture. nowadays i'm quite fond of them, especially the classic ones from body shop. with heavenly and long lasting scents. currently i'm using delicious pink grapefruit one, the fabulous raspberry one is next in line.

~ christmas money and sales, well, the obvious answer to that is shoes. i got me a pair of pink/winered, quirky pair. no i do not exactly need another pair of shoes, but for some reason there's always a shoe colour hole to be filled.

~ knitting another cap (i think caps might be my new socks or scarves, there'll be lots of them...), from a special, adorable pattern. i hope it'll be as nice irl as in picture. raspberry pink obviously.

what's the main colour in your life at the moment?

first tulips and other short stories

~ Getting the season's first tulips is pretty magical, wouldn't you agree? Like last year my favourite ones are of course the locally grown, climate compensated ones.

~ The experience of having your long-term blood pressure taken is definitely one of the most stressful things I've been through. It hurt immensely and after 13+ hours I was just a shivering, crying mess and had to get rid of it. My arm is still itching and very sore. Needless to say blood pressure was higher than ever before. 

What I've learnt from these past fours months with a doctor that does nothing to figure out the after-ten-months-still-runny-nose infection thing but makes a fuss about blood pressure (which of course is good in a way, but a total nuisance in another) is that I stress out much easier than I ever thought or felt. That this is something that has been building up over a period of ten years and that when you are smack in the middle of the stress of all stresses you don't have any obvious symptoms, but when you're beginning to get back on track, feeling happy and relieved then it all come crashing down. This too shall pass.

After an extensive and quite uncomfortable ultra-sound session my heart got a nice clean bill of health today.

I still do not like of feel comfortable around doctors, for all sorts of reasons (of which I could probably write an essay). But I have to say that all the health and un-health things I've been through especially these past four months have been both enlightening, thoughtprovoking and comforting in different ways. Perhaps the Swedish health care system isn't as good as it has been, with tax-cuts and the recent years offensive privatisation of our health service, but I've been through so many tests and examinations, specialists and nurses now, being taken seriously and overall basically treated with respect.

Just too bad I'm as clueless as to what's causing all this as I was ten months ago...

~ In quiet celebration of these stressful sessions above being over I enjoyed another beautiful winter day in Stockholm, not only one but two great soy lattes and treated myself to an adorable chiffon blouse at the winter sales. After the stressful morning - I truly loath rush hour commuting - or well, stressful days really, it was just so very nice to spend a couple of hours in the company of myself only. Clearing and cleansing the mind somehow.

~ Getting home to a little loaf who greeted me with almost his usual boundless enthusiasm. No stranger to chasing the odd cat and making a fuss about them occupying *his* floor cushions. I'm sure his mouth is still sore and of course the outcome and test-results of tumour is still hidden, but it's good to see he's after all is doing okey, more than okey. For now...

~ Laughing about Zigne and Ztina insisting on venturing out into garden, despite feeling very less than happy about the white, cold stuff everywhere. The "if I sitt really still or don't look the dog in the eye he might not see me at all"-behaviour is priceless.

All and all I'm really grateful that a truly dreaded day in the end turned out more than alright. And with tulips. Pink tulips.

tuesday notes

~ it was a lovely day in stockholm weatherwise, big soft snowflakes slowly falling and pleasant temperatures

~ more unpleasant doctor stuff

~ but also a much needed hairdresser appointment and sprucing of hair, pampering and a good chat

~ concidering the circumstances i believe little loaf is doing alright, for now

in other words, a winter day of ups and downs.

little loaf's monday

thank you for kind thoughts and best wishes. little loaf (the dog kind) went through surgery and is doing well (touch wood). but it's still quite quite worrisome since the reason for surgery was a fast growing tumour in his mouth (it really breaks my heart seeing this in writing...) and the vet-surgeon says they're likely to be malign. we will know more in two weeks.

since little loaf is and has been his usual happy, terrier-self all this time, we didn't notice something was wrong until he started bleeding from his mouth two weeks ago and we discovered the growth. i feel lousy for not having discovered it earlier, but if it's a bad growth it wouldn't have made a difference.

poor sweet loafie. such an awful way to start 2013, oh how i'm already seriously beginning to question this year...

things unbearable

today may be the last day of life as is. tomorrow a significant part of it might change. i've spent these past couple of weeks worrying about a certain, unexpected matter, tomorrow is the day someone small and dear is undergoing surgery for a scary thing. i dread it in the worst of ways, i'm sure i would even if i wasn't the worrying kind.

some things seems quite, quite unbearable, but of course you cope just because you have to. but still, noone goes through life without the little pieces of a broken heart never to be found again.

i just dearly hope tomorrow won't be such a day for us. unbearable.

i'm not sure if i should write and post this, but as i don't know where to put my feelings and worries right now, i put it here, i share it, hopefully not jinx it. just sharing the possibility of something unbearable. life as we know it.

all the pretty plates

my fondness for odd pieces of plates and bowls are well-known to some, now to more than just some. it's not that one needs umpteenth different plates and bowls to eat from, i just adore them as photo props. the right plate, or bowl, makes wonder for the food, the mood on a photo.

today i met a wonderful, small plate when we had lunch. purple, flowers, birds, adorable. from one of our swedish chain-stores, which often sells lovely china. i have never seen this particular plate and it's likely to be from an earlier season. it was a meet cute though.

and the raw chocolate treat served on prett plate was a sweetie too.

three shades of white

a couple of wonderful 'cable knitted' candles - don't think i've seen such candle design until recently, wonder why since it's such an awesome idea - little snow white nelly and yes, snow, snow and more snow.

wishing you a wonderful weekend. hug your loved ones. take care.

thursday thought

if a new year begins with really bad news, is that a sign of a continuosly bad year?

and if those bad news are really sad, and unexpected, does that mean that it'll be a sorrowful kind of year?

i wish it was a reverse question to life and universe, if a new year begins with great, unexpected and joyous news... - alas it isn't.

we all have our trials and sorrows, sometimes i just wish there was enough time in between them to heal some more, instead of old, bleeding wounds being easily opened again.

in red with a touch of green

tried another pair of the socks i got recently (fabulous tartan in 85% recycled cotton, if only more products were made that way...),

teamed them rather spiffily (if i may say so myself) with a pair of red shoes, dreamt of spring amidst the snow.

finished the red beanie (the blue socks too).

immediately begun knitting a green one, applegreen, because (as is the case with most things colourful and handmade) you can't have too many caps.

and a pair of red socks.

it's nice to keep different yarn projects going simultaneously, change colour views and patterns.

right now, for various reasons, the knitting and the yarn are what keep my head above water. the comfort of yarn. when life hands you lemons, you knit.