first tulips 2016

Behold, my first tulip purchase of 2016. Stockholm produced, climate compensated. A sweet little way to round off the dreary month of January.

Complete with bobs and Little Miss Lenslouse aka Zigne. And Waldemar, who is far too interested in eating them.

Have you bought your first tulips yet?

hello apple tv

I've always prefered watching movies and TV-series on a big TV-screen and I absolutely loath watching them on the computer or iPad - the experience with a tiny screen is poor plus it's crap for the eyes. I so prefer the HD-recorder before every play-app or online experience available.

Since I most certainly don't belong to the Apple cult (but enjoy the iPhone very much and the iPad reasonably so) I've never been very interested in all their other gadgets. To be honest I am a bit of a not-so-closet technology antagonist in general, even though obviously I can be smitten by its vast opportunities and potentials too.

That said, apparently the Apple TV is a nifty li'l thing that changes all that. It's actually more useful that I imagined. And the resolution is vastly superior to the TV and HD. Suddenly watching movies and series via the different channels online-services is so much easier and satisfying.

I haven't explored the possibilities a lot yet, but apart from a few missed series easily catched up on without having recorded them, I think it's great fun that you can enjoy a screening of your own pictures both via the iPhone but also via Flickr on the TV now.

The more technical savvy bobbaloos think it's a fab gadget. In fact they toppled over in excitement.

a little piece of original art

It's not every day you get a little piece of original art in the mail. With a delightful message on the back. 

My friend the potter has - the one I had a bit of collaboration with a few years back - moved on from ceramics and found/rekindled with new ways to express her creativity. 

And I'm happy to be on the receiving end of that.

the return of the x files

The X Files is definitely one of my favourite TV-series ever - and not only because I once upon a time found David Duchovny very... drool-worthy. Some of those old episodes haunt me still.

So needless to say I was really excited over the return of the series with new episodes. Today was the day the first two ones aired in Sweden. To be honest I'm not sure what I think of them. While it was great to rekindle with Mulder and Scully I felt the start could be better carved. Or perhaps I could have used a rekindle with the last old episodes before I watched these ones. Or maybe I was just a bit too tired to grasp the story.

Still, looking forward to next week's episode.

And in the meantime - here's a fantastic book tip (which I was certain I'd already blogged about, but apparently not) by the above once upon a time drool-worthy David Duchovny - Holy Cow. It's a fantastic eye-opening book about animal rights and the food industry told from the mouth of the cow Elsie and her animal friends who travel around the world to find a good place to live in peace. It's an irresistable blend of humour, tears and quirky world-play. It's a weird little book, but also very very read-worthy.

one tooth to go

My dentist saga was to continue next week, but yesterday I was offered a cancellation-time for today. And since the upper jaw tooth with its deep cavity was quite a nuisance I thought it was a good idea to get it done as soon as possible. 

Now it's done. And it was not a nice hour spent upside down in that dentist chair. In fact I haven't felt as dissy and nauseous after a dental appointment as I did today. I think it must have been a reaction to the anaesthesia, I rarely use any kind of medication so my system was probably a bit in shock. Plus the upside-down position (really, when did dentists begin with that awful practice?) and the unexpected pain. 

Yes, the pain. Because even if we hopefully managed (finger crossed!) to get to the cavity before it reached the dental pulp there was sharp shots of pain during the end of the procedure. I'm so glad it's over and I just truly, madly, deeply hope the tooth will be fine now, with no root canal in sight, please.

In a couple of weeks we'll take on the lower jaw tooth and hopefully it will work to create a new tooth instead of having to remove it or root filled. Even if it doesn't bother me painwise it is a nuisance to have a crumbled, old tooth that doesn't work properly from a chewing point of view.

Ah well, after the dental trials and tribulations it's at least good to know that there's a decent cafe for lunch and treats nearby. Today we enjoyed a heart mushroom soup and a delightful bobbaloo sized semla. Just what a dizzy head and a poor tooth needed.

the power of body language

I stumbled over this TED talk a while back and while there are a a lot of great talks out there I just don't have the time to listen to many of them. But once in a while I click on the play-button and sometimes it's a really worth while-listen. For felines and humans alike.

This one is with social psychologist Amy Cuddy and how we can 'fake it 'til we become it' by using the right body language. And it's not faking your knowledge or skills but about how you can boost your confidence and even success rate by power posing. Which can apparently affect the testosterone and cortisol levels in your brain.

It's an interesting and multi-layered talk that makes you think. And learn.

Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

new vegan and vegetarian menu at max hamburgers

Fast-food from your average greasy burger place isn't really my thing. But when Swedish fast food corporation Max Hamburgers - founded in 1968 and well-known for their sustainability work (although if you ask me, a company which very business idea is to provide people with fast food in the shape of dead animals isn't very sustainable as such...) - launched two new vegan/vegetarian burgers the other week, alongside their old one plus three different halloumi salads, everyone talked about it and I kind of felt I should try it. The vegan one. The other two you can get vegan instead of vegetarian too, but they're more like a classic bean-burger and not nearly as interesting.

The vegan one BBQ Sandwich is made of Pulled Oumph - Oumph is another vegan Swedish brand, like Anamma, just very hipster, rather expensive and in my opinion rather overrated if you compare to other brands less hipster... - with barbecue sauce and eggfree mayo. It was hot hot hot, because for some odd reason they had decided to add fresh jalapeno. Plus that barbecue sauce was really to sickly sweet for my taste. M loved it and so it seems do a lot of other people, vegans or not (the texture is very meat-like).

Which I suppose is a good thing in the big scheme of things, more vegan options and options that appeal to die hard animal flesh eaters.

But if you're like me and don't appreciate sweet barbecue sauce, or a too meaty protein consistency, you will absolutely not love this one.

marimekko unikko pencils

My boss (me, myself and I) is a firm follower of the indisputable fact that you get better work done with happiness instigating office supplies. 

She thought this fine set of Marimekko Unikko pens were the perfect way to kick off the new Prosit working year in the right way.

I'm still waiting for the Unikko computer mouse, mouse pad and ball pen to come into production... But these will do fine, very fine for now.

welcome to a very special photo exhibition in stockholm 2016

A few years ago some friends and I talked about having a photo exhibition together in Stockholm. Our approaches to photography and styles are quite different, one is a professional photographer, one a technically skilled and gifted amateur photographer and then there's me who's... well, me.

For various reasons that exhibition never happened. But this year it will! With two of us involved at least. It's rather exciting. I have yet to completely decide which photographs I'll show, but I'm strongly leaning towards elements you can see in the picture above. 

We had our first proper meeting to talk about this today and it felt quite productive. I think we compliment eachother well with the practical arrangement aspects. And while he'll show beautiful black and white city captures I will do pretty much the opposite. 

The venue is decided and the date will be March 19 in Stockholm.

Watch this space for more information to come!

gulddraken 2016

The largest Swedish newspaper, based in Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter (The Daily News) have since 2001 selected the best restaurants (fine dining, medium priced, budget, bar, cafe) in Stockholm. The award is called Gulddraken (The Golden dragon) and there are 5 nominees in each category. Today the nominees were revealed and in the budget category is one of my favourite places for food in Stockholm: Falafelbaren. Where everything is vegetarian and most things vegan. And the falafel is amazing. And the cauliflower is heavenly.

I haven't visited any of the other nominees in this category, but I totally root for Falafelbaren! On Monday the winners will be revealed.

Here are all the nominees (only in Swedish) : Gulddraken 2016

three reds in winter

Red 1 - these boots have been with me for six winters now and are still going strong. Thank you El Naturalista for making quality products. 

Red 2 - little miss Redhead have been with me for four winters now. Still going strong, but obviously not in the 'made for walking in snow' kind of way.

Red 3 - better late than never - amaryllis in bloom. And it has 10 flowers. Amazeballs, I'm redstrucked.

hello again, doctor dentist

Be warned, dear reader, this will be a rambling post about dentistry. And life lessons.

Remember the long and costly story about my stress-related root canal some years back (before I got to be a happy business owner of course)? 

And then a few months later I lost an old filling, but instead of going back to my old, reliable dentist who is situated on the other side of the city which takes me 1,5-2 hours one way trip, I decided to try the nearby general denistry? 

Which turned out to be a bad decision because she turned out to be quite a bit of a cipher who didn't do a good job. And was pretty unfriendly while doing it.

A few months later that darn new filling, given the crap dentistry, fell out and last summer most of the tooth with every bit of old filling finally crumbled. So I knew I had to make a new dentist appointment, at my old, reliable dentist. And then last autumn I felt there must be a non-visible cavity in a tooth in my upper jaw (just above the root canal-tooh of 2011), because on and off I could feel a bit of pain there.

Admittedly I have been putting this making a dentist appointment call off, for various reasons. And when I finally called I couldn't get an appointment until now.

But it felt good to come back to a friendly professional face. I haven't been to a dentist in couple of years now - I've always gone once a year for a check up - so who knew how bad it could be, even if I'm really careful with my dental hygiene? The good news are that the only two things he noticed were the two things I've already figured out. The rest of the dental status looked fine.

The bad news are that they BOTH possibly need root canals. Ah life. 

The dentist said I must have had a tooth ache in that lost filling-tooth at some time, which I firmly denied. Looking back at my old blog post now I realise I actually did, back in August 2012. But as that was the infamous blah, snivel nose and health year of conundrum I must have forgotten all about it. And the tooth hasn't been acting up since. It still isn't, but it's of course a nuisance that it's not much of a tooth left there. And I do use up a lot of dental floss. 

Hopefully he will be able to recreate a tooth on top of the old one instead. Given that the root isn't too bad. Fingers crossed.

Same thing with the upper jaw tooth cavity, if the hole isn't as deep as he suspects and the dental pulp isn't in danger of becoming infected - fingers crossed again add touch wood - he can fix it without root canal. And really, having to go through that procedure in the upper jaw too doesn't exactly fill me with ecstatic feelings of joy.

I got my next (slightly dreaded) appointment on Februaty 1st, great way to kick-off a new month, right? Right.

So what lessons have I learnt from this?

A) Always visit a dentist (or other health professional for that matter) you know and trust.

B) Do visit the dentist for a check-up each year, that way you will usually be able to prevent things from becoming full-blown nastiness.

vegorätt, what a fail

Today it was finally premiere for the the first Swedish all vegetarian (ie vegan) cooking-show on TV, Vegorätt (rätt = right or dish in Swedish). And a lot of us were of course super-excited by this. 'Now all the deal-animal-eaters will finally see how easy, good and right it is to eat green!'

What happened was instead something incredibly embarrassing, parodical, soppy and far from inspiring, professional and playfully educational. We got *treated* with 30 minutes of a filmed Instagram-account (filter, backlight, coolness), hipsters doing yoga on a field with flags and eating acai-smoothies sitting on top of a haybale, adorning eachother with kale and berries in the hair, constantly emphazasing how HEALTHY and NUTRITIOUS everything was, giggle giggle etc etc etc.

I'm sure the two hosts/chefs - two Swedish food bloggers I've never heard of - are great and well-meaning gals, but seriously do they know how awful this is for the much needed vegetarian/vegan movement? Talk about backlash. 30 minutes of mockery that cemented every little, ridiculous prejudice dead-animal-eaters could possibly have about vegetarians. One could easily see such a show being sponsored by the meat lobby.

The funniest thing about this awful excuse of a vegetarian cooking show - which turned out to be a health nut, yoga show for people who looove raw-food - was the Twitter-feed with hashtag #vegorätt. People are angry. And rightly so.

Because after being subjected to the dead-animal-eating norm on and off TV for decades a really good and inspiring vegetarian/vegan cooking show was badly needed. Instead we got *treated* with prejudicial mockery and parody by Swedish public television Sveriges Television.

To fritter away such a golden, much awaited, opportunity about an important issue, for the planet, the health and not least the animals - shameful.

Not a happy bunny. Or happy bunnies.

You can watch the show on SVT-Play here

the prosit winter hq

Despite its loveliness, the Prosit pink office is too cold for comfort with these current freezing temperatures below zero C. So in order to save energy (electric bills) I've temporarily moved it to the kitchen. Needless to say I get a lot of helping paws from board member and employees. But so far I've been able to keep them in reasonable order. And I can always close the doors to the temporary home office.

Sure, it isn't as marked off from the rest of the home as the regular office, but it's actually quite cosy. And the kettle is even closer at hand for a tea refill. Which in an ideal world would obviously be something my so called helpers would keep filled for me, right?

the innocent orange juice

Yes, I may have *some* views on innocent's recruitment procedures, but that aside I still love their juicy smooth products. Apart from the smoothies I love their apple juice, but surprisingly (since I've never concidered myself to be an orange juice kind of person) it's been the orange juice I've been gulping down the most with breakfast this past year. 

Because it really is THAT superior to any other orange juice on the Swedish market. I think Swedes have become so used to and jaded by all the nasty concentrates and frozen juices, which have either put us off orange juice (if we don't make freshly squeezed one ourselves) or disturbed our palates.

This is always fresh and so full of flavour and delicious. Now I've stumbled over a family sized bottle too, which is much kinder to the wallet. Let the juice fest continue!

Which is your favourite breakfast juice?

facial peel-off cucumber mask and other winter hydrators

I've always been fascinated by peel-off face masks, but I rarely use them. But this one I picked up in Budapest. 2013. And just used for the first time - thank you personal bonus goals of 2016 - it has a nice fresh scent and makes skin feels pretty good too. I've only used it once so far, every other week I use Kiehl's ultra facial overnight hydrating masque. My skin feels softer, which granted also might have something to do with the fact that I only use Dermalogica face cream and serum these days.

The Freeman products are very affordable stuff, cruelty-free and as far as I can decipher with okey ingredients. Probably not the type of products I would rely on in the long run, but it's nice to pick up something different to try when travelling. 

Haven't begun using the Dermalogica recovery masque yet, but I will asap. I'm curious about their charcoal masque too. 

Have you tried it? 

Or do you have any other favourite facial masks
(for dry skin) perfect for winter?

meet cute of paws and feet

When the cats are not out to play apparently the birds (blackbirds most likely, since they are the most frequent visitors to be fed) are strutting their stuff on the snow covered terrace when noone is looking.

The cats who love birdwatching would be terribly disappointed if they knew. And I will not tell.

first semla 2016

Had the first semla of the season today. From bakery Bananza. It was nice of course, but to be honest (and surprised) I feel I've gone off semlor (plur). At least classic semlor like this. And not only because I shy away from dairy products. The feeling of "was this all there is?"feeling caught me by surprise.

But from now on there'll be only home-baked and home-made semlor. And not only because the home-made almond paste way surpass the bakery-bought one.

all set for freezing winter days

The weather report threatens with as low as -20 degrees C by the end of the week. Which is pretty cold. So I've been trying to dig out my best protection against being too cold when I venture outdoors. And this old - actually something like 15 years old! And from H&M of all places - set of fake fur mittens plus lumberjack cap is something I can always rely on when it comes to both freezing temperature AND possibly harsh winds from the north.

The mittens I've been wearing ever since snow first fell, but the cap I took out for a test run today when the wind was very harsh. I think I need to add snap button because I feel that the earflaps doesn't cover as much as the should when you tie the cords.

Other than that, good reliable stuff. Even for a terribly pale and tired northerner who would rather hibernate this time of the year.

What's your most reliable winter gear?

delicious vegan breakfast

Say hi to my new favourite breakfast! Or possibly lunch or dinner. Because to be honest it's such a quick and satisfying fix for when you're not very keen on cooking. 

I have been enoying the vegan Alpro Mild & Creamy soygurt since 2013, but this pomegranate flavour is pretty new and it's delicious.

The organic granola is from Swedish organic brand Kung Markatta (= King Long-tailed monkey), it was launched in three different flavours only last autumn and I discovered it just before Christmas when another granola I was looking for wasn't available. The three different flavours are Apple-Almond-Cinnamon, Strawberry-Raspberry (haven't tried yet) and Blueberry-Coconut. My favourite is definitely the above one! Light, crunchy and it's lightly sweetened with coconut-sugar which isn't very sweet and basically only enhances the natural flavours so its not so sickly sweet as some granolas are.

And it plays oh so well with the pomegranate soygurt. So despite it being a very cold dish and I do prefer warm food in the winter, I still can't seem to get enough of it. Morning, noon and evening.

cool cats wear green houndstooth

One of my personal goals for 2016 (on the plus-list) was to (cleanse cupboards, wardrobes and) give at least one big bag to charity (which by the way is a word I loathe, help is a much better) per month. 

So far I've done 10 bags and 1 big box. I'm on a roll! And obviously I'm doing a much needed wardrobe cleansing. So much stuff (clothes) I've kept for sentimental reasons. Partly stuff that's really not my cup of wear tea anymore, partly things that unfortunately don't fit anymore. 

So (high) time to make room, and not for more but for air and change. To be even more mindful of what I decide to buy.

A gazillion (slightly exaggeration) have left the building. And these two delightful wearables have moved in. The houndstooth sweater is a quirky, comfortable piece in organic cotton. Its companion, the green kimono, is made of viscose. I've never thought of a kimono as an interesting and useful garment, but really it's rather flattering and uncomplicated to wear over a long sleeved t-shirt or a dress instead of a jacket. Which is a garment I don't find very comfortable and useful anymore.

Looking forward to pair the two of them with existing pieces.

And fill more bags with things that don't fit into my life anymore. But will most likely make other people happy.

Both pieces from on of my favourite shops Bric-a-Brac Stockholm, on sale. You know, the place were I won the Instagram-competition a while back.

soft snowflakes falling

It has been a gorgeous snowy day in Stockholm today. With mild winter temperatures, but lots of fluffy snow. The best of both worlds. Not counting that despite all the whiteness it has been pretty dark due to heavy clouds. And such heaviness in weather makes me tired, my head fuzzy and my mind sad - once again I really really do wish humans could go into hibernation too...



All that despite excellent oat latte, go figure.

In the InstaWeather app I found an adorable effect that created a lovely snowfall. Published on Instagram, but apparently it is far from that easy to import and publish said little film on other sites. So I'll leave you with the "movie" turned picture here and with the words "imagine big, soft, snowflakes slowly falling in a very quiet world". I hope you can see it...

Or, you can click the picture below and see the wee movie on Flickr.

feline tips on how to keep warm in winter

With all the white stuff outdoors it's really tricky to keep properly warm, even if you're naturally clad in fur. So once the paws of a pampered family member have touched that ungraspable cold, white thing

you really have to find the best and quickest ways to get your body heat back. Here are a few useful tips according to felines:

First: don't do this.

Instead: do this. When the humans think it's to cold to only rely on the heat pump they turn on the radiators, you must the immediately claim your place on the windowsill just above said radiators. Be quick, there will be a queue, and preferably do not leave your post as others will snatch it quicker than you can regurgitate a furball.

Second: do not try this either.

Instead: do this. If you get tired of your initial radiator posing, just lie on your back and streeetch as much as possible to occupy as much windowsill area as possible. Because obviously, less room for others, more heat for you.

Third: again, please do not do this.

But if you are an information challenged feline and still do that, you can always sit beside human of choice and look adorable, cold and sad and you will son find yourself in this position. And warm.

yelp review of the day

Yesterday my Yelp-review of lovely cafe Älskade Traditioner ( = Beloved Traditions) - which I blogged about here - became ROTD ie Review of the Day. 

I've had a few of them before but what made it extra fun this time was that the cafe was thrilled when they saw a glimpse of it on Yelp's Instagram and copied my whole review and published it on their own Instagram account. So it got a bit of extra buzz.

It really is such a perfect kind of cafe, so fun all around. And waffles.

stockholm winter wonderland

When snow finally came the cold came promptly shortly after and we've *enjoyed* around -15C the first week of 2016. Of course it's appropriate weather for these latitudes this time of the year, but darn this is cold! 

To be honest I think that with the global warming we've become weaklings who get all whiny when temperatures drop below zero. I never complained about cold and snow when I was a kid, we relished being out for hours playing in the snow. Coming inside all wet and frozen but so happy.

Whilst now I can obviously fully enjoy the beauty and crispy air of a winter wonderland, though I'm quite grateful to get inside to snuggle.

But indeed, Stockholm and its selected suburbs are pretty gorgeous right now, wouldn't you agree?