thank you february, welcome march 2024

A month later life continues. Without nothing really exciting, promising, hopeful or joyful happening on a personal level.

And the world craziness with wars, violence, genocide still exist. 

Not to mention how little is done to battle climate disaster, loss of biodiversity, the tipping points. The focus is solely on weapons and mayhem.

It’s rough to be a human who believes in kindness, compassion, peaceful co-existence and animal rights in times like these. 

That said, my little pockets of joy this past month have been something like follows (Blogger/Google doesn’t allow photos to be uploaded as easy as it has been, so I made some collages instead. 

February was a very capricious and rather terrifying month weatherwise. The temperatures dropped way below zero degrees Celcius one day and went up to +7 ish the day after. Rain, melting snow, a lot of ice (and broken limbs) that made it scary to go outside (even with Icebugs). I have continued to do a lot of reading.

There have also been regularly heavy snowfalls in between the rain and ice. So in the image below you can see the change basically from a day to another during a week. It wasn’t very nice. At all.

I tried to make some hearty attempts around Valentine’s Day which basically coincided with Fat Tuesday (semla!). And we went for the best (vegan) semla in town at Bageri Passion when the weather permitted. It was amazing as usual (pictures further below not in a collage).

I had looked forward to finally make something 🩷❤️💜 fun out of those Snagtights I got a year ago. So even if the weather didn’t allow a change of footgear, I combined the tights with that vintage Marimekko dress I snatched up past autumn and a Marimekko Unikko cardi. Felt very granny toddler stylish.

And talking about Marimekko, did you know that their iconic Unikko (poppy) pattern turns 60 this year? My number one favourite pattern (obviously) and it’s celebrated with special pieces for the jubilee. I treated myself to this lovely fabric bag with the Unikko poppy looking like a pentecost lily. It looks amazing I think.

The bag of Semla tea from Tehuset Java was really great too. Not much left now alas. But I hope to have the opportunity to enjoy one more of those Best Ever-semlas before he Swedish semla-season is over this year…

The rest of the food the photos here are of the vegan meals and some fika we’ve enjoyed in February.

The only really disappointment was that plantbased Red Velvet semla I opted for at Espresso House when I waited for my mum’s dentist appointment to finish. Instead of the expected almond paste they’d put raspberry jam in the semla-bun. Which was rather yuk. I should have asked/read the sign of ingredients… 

The last treat of the month (as I’m feeling very much like the garden goyle in the picture) was a scalp massage brush, a jar of Bright Red vegan colour refresher from Maria Nila. Ideally I wanted Cherry Red but apparently that colour has been discontinued alas. From the pictures I took when I last used Bright Red (2019?) it looked alright, so I chose that. REF is a vegan styling paste that the hairdresser used and I quite liked. It’s really difficult to style the hair the way I like it. I don’t expect any miracles with this, but it should be reasonably okay.

I also enjoy the fact that all three products are of the similar size, shape and make for a very nice colour trio. The brush is just lovely. I’m doing the colouring next time I wash my hair this week. Hopefully perkier times are coming! Soon.

Just a slow fashion ootd I chose on my name day on February 22, the other week  - it was the first day this year I could actually choose some other shoes that the Icebugs boots, these vegan sneakers are also from the Icebug brand but just really great, sustainable sneakers. That alone was cause for celebrating I’d say. 

The duo tights are also from Snagtights (I really placed a large order a year ago, and I haven’t inaugurated half of them yet. It’s nice to be able to feel a little joy over the idea of chosing a new pair of tights, a new colour, without having to actually buy more of them…). They’re fun!

Unfortunately I got stuck in that horrible train barrier that day (because my mum moved to slowly) and it struck really hard on my left hand (the bruise is visible on my left hand in the first image). That bruise is still there two weeks later, and the hand is sore. 

That was definitely something I could’ve done without on my Name Day… I didn’t even find any organic tulips to get for myself. All I got was this bruise. And that awful Red Velvet semla.

Anyway, a few days in to March, which is concidered the first month of spring in Sweden, but winter can still come back with a vengeance, life feels a bit lighter. And the days are somewhat brighter. We’ve even had glorious sunshine for a few days this past week.

I’m still really tired, and naps are plenty. It has been a rough winter. A rough couple of years, and before that a couple of rough covid years. And before that my whole life changed when M passed away, I had to reinvent and find myself again. (And I’m not fully found yet 🤷🏻‍♀️) So I suppose this fatigue of sorts isn’t in any way surprising. Just exhausting.

With March arriving my plan is to get back to the morning walks, which haven’t really been a regulat thing since I got sick back in October. Hopefully that will help with the depleted energy levels too.

I’m still waiting for my dream project/client/job to appear. 2024, it is high time now! I hope you’ll show me the prosperous, kind way, March. 💚

Thank you February, you didn’t offer much fun or exciting change, but I did finish that UX-writing course, I had time to read a lot, to think, to dream, to plan meals and to take naps. Sometimes that will have to be good enough. So thank you for that, February 2024. 🩷