positive, purposeful new beginnings, please, part III

First of all, finally got a reply from the founder of the recycling/circular economy company today! Not that it was an exciting response but at least it was friendly and helpful. And at this point in life friendly and helpful is definitely good enough. So keep sending good energy for the next step of the journey, please!

Something I enjoy doing a few times per year (since the pandemic) is ordering a large home delivery from my favourite grocery store. Sometimes they have conciderably lower prices on some of my favourite vegan staple goods. 

And as I prefer to stock up on things and not having to lug heavy stuff home from the store I enjoy getting someone else do it. Free of charge over a certain sum. 

This time it was my favourite vegan cheese from Violife, Oddlygood/Planti soygurt and organic cornflakes. 

The breakfast sandwiches are sorted for some months.

It was eons since I made chia puddings, something I used to love both eating out and making myself. I finally found chia seeds again so I got two bags of organic seeds. 

It was such a delight having chia puddings again! Nothing fancy or Instagram friendly, but delicious and filling. Ideally I would like to have one per day, but realistically I’d settle for 2-3/week.

So far I’ve had four since Saturday. Made with oat milk, frozen raspberries and frozen blueberries, organic raisins, dito banana, a splosh of organic agave. Topped with almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, organic peanut butter, apple slices and organic orange plus dito shredded coconut. 

Need to vary the ingredients more to avoid getting bored.

I have loved using the vegan nuud deo since 2019. A dollop reliably lasts 3-4 days. However, since 2020 I have every other year have had an unpleasant fungal infection in the armpits happening during really hot summer days.

As I have never had fungal infections anywhere prior to this. And even if I luckily didn’t have to see a doctor for this, only get a prescription free balm at the pharmacy. So it’s obviously not something I can 100% blame nuud for causing. I asked the pharmacist if she think the ingredients list look off, she didn’t see any red flags. 

Nevertheless, when it happened again during summer 2022 and then 2024. However when it happened again in November I decided I would part ways with nuud alas. Would look for other vegan deos with refills, w/out aluminium of course.

So here are one old and two new with refills I’m using now instead. The  Swedish brand indy beauty I have used now and then during the issues above, just to let the armpit rest from nuud. It has a faint but very pleasant scent.

HAAN was a recent purchase, looked at another scent first, but opted for morning glory after some positive reviews. However the scent is so discreet that you almost don’t notice it. Which is somewhat disappointing. If I was to buy a refill it most likely would be with another scent.

I do like and prefer liquid deos though, so that’s a plus.

The Wild deo is a creamy stick, which is a minus, what’s a great plus though is a fantastic scent - clean cotton & sea salt. Which funny enough I wasn’t really keen on, but I prefer this blue case over other colours. And it’ll be fun to try other scents when it’s time to refill.

Apart from it’s a creamy deo it ticks every other box. Vegan, refillable, lovely scent. And of course it works as it’s suppose to as a deo. Even if not 3-4 days w/out re-applying. I just need to adjust my expectations.

 

Currently taking part in a great sustainable project that aims to make people using the washing machine less and instead use a textile mist to clean and refresh their clothes between washes. 

It’s an EU-funded project collaboration between Wargön Innovation and Pure Effect Sweden. The earlier in the process you use the mist with microorganisms (the real cleaners on the planet) the better the conditions are for circularity and long lastingness of garments.

The project period is ongoing in February. And one week in I’ve tried the mist on a few shirts, none very dirty, so it was more of a little refreshing thing than a go at really cleaning.

And being great at airing garments instead of washing and never routinely putting clothes in the laundry basket after one use if not obviously dirty or smelly. I never work out and sweat a lot, so no icky gym outfits to try this on either.

So I suppose I am far from the ideal test subject really. But I really like the idea of getting people to wash clothes less, cut down on water and electricity usage. And the mists smell so nice and refreshing (I chose the Green leaves & cucumber and White clover scents. They smell quite similar). 

You can refresh your shoes and boots with the mist also. It’s not exactly hot weather sticky feet season, so I’ll probably save the small bottle for this summer months.

Since the Swedish television network switched from analogue to digital a few years back, older (or rather not that old but still not supporting the new set-up) TVs can only be used with an added digital box.

I’ve been fine with my old Apple TV. Even if most channels one by one stopped supporting the old Apple model, there was always SVT and Netflix, which is what I mostly watch anyway.

Last year Netflix stopped supporting this version. And a few weeks ago so did SVT. It is the opposite of enjoyable to watch TV and movies on the phone, as well as really bad for the eyes.

My ”old” TV works very well still and I love the big screen. So very high on my wishlist is a new casting device (which may or may not be an Apple TV.)

But other things definitely have priority right now. So we moved 👵🏻 old TV (but clearly younger than my big screen one) with a small screen out to the living room. It looks awkward I know. But this solution will have to do for now. And it didn’t cost a thing,

So: More channels available. But no Play function.

So can’t chose to watch TV when I want/have the time. I have to schedule TV time and watch irl. Or don’t watch at all.

Have lived without commercial breaks for some years now. Which have been relaxing and natural. Having access to more channels, not only the state channel, means I’m forced to deal with all these ridiculous commercial breaks. Had forgotten how much I truly hate them. 

So access to this much crap means I’m watching conciderably less TV than I used to with only SVT available. I miss having access to quality series, documentaries and news when I want. 

But I suppose watching less TV can only be concidered a good thing. There’s so much more rewarding matters to spend time with. As the world is not so slowly fallin apart…

And perhaps this solution might make me reconcider my plans to get a new casting device. Even if I miss Netflix, I lived a great life prior to it. It was a subscription choice I made during the covid-years and I have no urge getting other streaming channels.

I have gotten good use of the pre-loved Marimekko faux fur I snatched up in September/October. It’s lovely and very oversized, can’t be used with a thick woolly sweater or seriously layered outfits, because that is just to warm. 

And I probably look like the Michelin-man (in blue) wearing it. Still, it’s a lovely coat for cold non rainy winter days. Great purchase. 💙

Now, I will concider this post finally finished. And please let the fantastic vibes for a positive outcome in the sustainability work process keep flowing freely. 

And again: Take care, stay strong, be kind, resist. 🩷

2025 have certainly had a shocking rocky start. I hope you are listening, Universe - we all need it to continue into purposeful, compassionate new beginnings for us all!

With gratitude and kindness, thank you in advance. 

positive, purposeful new beginnings, please, part II

Woke up to this. The forecast did not mention the risk of snow right here right now. Pre-climate emergency we could expect winter to last 2 months more on these latitudes. 

Now the weather is rapidly changing from day to day even. This winter have been crazier than ever. With heavy snowfall one day followed by heavy rain the next, effectively washing all that snow away.

And with these rapid temperature changes comes icy streets and roads. My trusty Icebug boots are made for walking on proper snow and ice covered ground. Not a paper thin sheet of ice, as there is nothing for the studs to grab on to. 

The amount of people that fall and need medical attention has risen a lot this year. And the fact that Swedish society (or rather politicians and public authorities) think it’s a great idea to save money on snow removals does not help. 

The cost of medical care and then the price the individual has to pay, not only financially, is definitely higher than a decent snow removal in the first place. Misspent public money, another prime example of it.

The last few weeks the garden has looked like this - yes I know, the clematis is up for some serious pruning when the weather gets warmer -

and on January 20 I even discovered snowdrops in the lilacs hedge. They have now been squashed by snow. 

Which feels like a metaphor for the current world affairs one might say.

To snuggle indoors when possible, and as much as possible is very much on my current agenda. I can’t snooze away without a care in the world, that’s a feline feature, but I meditate, read books of various sort, and of course enjoy vegan cooking when the spot prices go down. Then I can at least keep my worries at bay. For a while.

Behold a few plantbased meals I have enjoyed lately.

From top to bottom. First one of my simple favourites - a vegan full English breakfast (sans mushrooms and sausage) with scrambled tofu.

2. Toast Skagen. Didn’t make the Skagen myself, store bought for Xmas but then we got the flu so even the modest preparation felt overwhelming. And the I lost my taste, as I always do at the end of my colds and flus. 

It’s really simple to whip one together all by oneself though. 

3. Rice porridge aka Christmas porridge as it’s usually referred to in Sweden. The only reason I (rather my mum, she’s not able to cook much because of her bad eyes, but this is still her territory, the rice porridge) make it so rarely (despite loving it) is the time consuming stirring for up to 1 hour… 

It is possible to just let the oven take care of the work, but I didn’t think it tasted equally good when I made it in the oven. So that was a one time thing for me.

Chickpea stew with peanuts, banana and shredded coconut. It was a nice idea, but the recipe turned out called for too much sambal oelek to make it a pleasant experience. If I will make it again, possibly using tofu instead of chickpeas, I will omit most of it as super spicy food and I do not vibe.

4. On top of a hummus covered plate I put cold boiled potatoes (left over from previous day), steamed cauliflower, grated carrots and smoked tofu. A dollop of garlic sauce leftover and hoisin sauce. Plus sprinkles of sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds.

5. First proper cooking in February was this lovely creamy fish-like soup with saffron, potato, carrot, tofu and dill. Last time I made it was for New Year’s a couple of years ago. The recipe calls for dry white wine, but that’s not something I have at home regularly. Or ever really. So water and lemon had to do. Still a wonderful soup. And I think it’s amazing how dill makes the impression of a fish dish.

Behold My top 9 on Instagram, or rather an educated guess on my behalf as I’ve hid likes since that feature became available. Sometimes I look at the statistics though, and it’s just depressing. The decrease in likes this past year is mindboggling Not to mention new followers that are real people. 

And truly astonishing compared to 5ish years ago. The algorithms are rubbish. And so is the reach these days. As I’m not the least bit interested in ’playing the game’ for better reach and more likes, it is what it is. Not much fun.

Gosh, I am so very tired of social media for a gazilion reasons. I obviously closed my former Twitter-account a few months back (and loosing all my followers from 2009), opened a Bluesky account but I really can’t be bothered about my activity there. 

Twitter was so lovely in the beginning. And so was Instagram. I have always loathed Facebook and remain pretty inactive there. Have enjoyed LinkedIn a lot because of interesting content and articles, but like on IG I’m really not interested in adjusting myself to fit any ridiculous mold for better reach so my precense there doesn’t feel as rewarding as it once did either. 

I’m seriously contemplating closing most of my social media accounts. They don’t give me the inspiration and joy they once did. Most are just a waste of precious time to be honest. And given I have actively decided not to have any account on several of the popular platforms it won’t feel overwhelming to actually just remove myself.

I’m in a desperate need of inspiration, mood boosts and colour after this rough winter. My hair feels more grey by the day, and I would love to do one of my hair colour boosts. The thing is it has become so tricky to dabble with now that there’s no bathtub. It’s just such an effort to make, so until the weather gets warmer and lighter I settle for the look of tired and grey.

I have also come to the stage that I can’t be bothered with neither lipstick nor cover powder or eye pencils, which have been my three must haves for so many years now.

It is not that I’ve made a decision to skip makeup, or follow any natural look-trends (I have never ever followed trends, that’s only for people with a sheep-mentality). But trying to skip powder cover seemed like an interesting thing to try when my skin improved after a year of fresh skincare products. 

My cheeks still look flushed and the redness caused by rosacea isn’t gone, but at least the skin looks and feels conciderably healthier. And that’s certainly something to be truly grateful for.

The lack of eye pencil and lipstick is more down to forgetting since my make-up routine used to be short but predictable. When I stopped using the mineral powder I forget the other stuff.

Since this photo I have chopped of a conciderably chunk of my hair. It’s fascinating how that always make things feel lighter and real change possible. And if it’s a DIY it doesn’t cost a thing. 

And on the subject real change. Let’s get back to where I finished the post before. My ”mentor” stumbling over a job ad on Facebook and forwarding it to me.

As she herself used to be a sales executive and running her own business the listed sales job obviously felt very reasonable. But for me with basically zero background in sales (never mind I have had to sell my services as a freelancer) the ad did not speak to me.

- All those years with M who was an experienced sales manager, and clashing more than once over the sales subject, I have shyed away from sales related jobs. Not to mention all the bad to very bad sellers you have met in various situations over the years… Ugh. -

What did however speak to me was the fact that the company looking for sellers is a smallish company within circularity, recycling and sustainability. And the fact that it’s located in my suburb within a short bus ride (and biking for those who have bikes that work of course) makes it ticking a lot of boxes for me and what I have been searching for for years now.

The website and its content vibes with me in a way I haven’t felt for eons. It’s just such an incredible match! So I promptly emailed the founder and suggested we had a chat about a cooperation. As a non-salesperson I would not apply for the seller job though.

It may be naïve of me, but given my background, my dedication to sustainability and the fact that I live nearby, I actually thought he’d jump at the chance to have chat over coffee. 

A week went by. 

I regretted I hadn’t enclosed my CV to the email. And I had also thought about the sales job. As I ticked some of their wishlist boxes and the fact that I would be very proud to work for them I had slowly changed my mind and decided to apply for it. 

I then did a follow up email with CV to the founder and said I would try calling this week (have I mentioned how much I hate making these kind of calls?). I then went on to apply for the listed sales job. 

I’m still waiting to hear something. Surely given their location and lack of general visibility emails like mine must be extremely rare. I may find the non-existing answer strategy both disappointing and rude, but I also have zero insights in what their priorities are or what current circumstances look like.

I just know I would be an amazing multipotentialite resource for the company. Surely someone MUST pick up on that?!

If nothing happens prior I guess I will have to pick up the phone by the end of the week.

Please send good vibes. 

🩷❤️🩷

positive, purposeful new beginnings, please, part I

This post will be all about random photos and events from January. In other words pretty much like any post in this blog.

As usual I will write and publish parts of the post, and the add on stuff for a while, so it’s worth returning and check that out (if you enjoyed what you read, that is).

Let’s face it, I am rubbish at blogging regularly, often or daily. No matter what I say, those days are long gone. Do not trust me when I have those rare flashes of inspiration and semi-promise something like that. It won’t happen. 

Currently trying to upload a bunch of photos, but Blogger doesn’t cooperate. So maybe it’ll end up being only a couple or so of them.

First of all, the situation with the orange menace, with a five year old’s mental capacity and vocabulary, and his minions is truly sickening. It isn’t surprising I suppose, but never the less shocking and infuriating, as that amount of incompetence and pure self-serving evil will affect us all sooner or later.

How it’s even possible that a convicted felon and sxxual predator is even legally allowed to stand in an election over the pond is truly mindboggling.

The dismantling of every department and authority that make up the fragile web of democracy, letting a non-elected nasty right wing billionaire playing a major part in this. I can’t even begin to comprehend how it must be for a decent, sustainability dedicated US citizen at this time. It is scary enough to watch this unfolding from a distance.

Stay strong, be kind, resist the madness. ❤️

The literally orange in photo is quite the opposite to the menace and his minions. It’s a box of organic citrus fruit I won from Årstiderna’s Instagram competition prior to Christmas, which didn’t arrive until yesterday. Which in fact turned out to be much nicer than if I had gotten the delivery earlier. Right now anything uplifting is very much needed.

Have only enjoyed an orange yet, but looking forward to devour the content of that box! I hope my favourite citrus is hiding in it, blood grapefruit.

Took the top photo of little mum when we had done some grocery shopping and were returning home. It was one of those typical, bleak and depressing Scandinavian winter days. And it encapsulated the mood du jour so perfectly. Everything feels heavy, meaningless and worrying.

Compared to the LA wildfires that were raging at the time I took this photo, complaining about how depressing the weather was/is at this time of the year, felt rather spoilt. 

Yet it was/is, and there is so much to worry about. Globally as well as on a personal level. That day was just a perfect ’poster day’ for all the feels.

Second photo I captured in my hoods, my street even. I may not fully enjoy living this close to a fairly well-used pedestrian street with people walking to and from the bus station. 

My kitchen windows blinds overlooking that street are always down because I value my privacy and loath the fact that keeping them up would give full view to not only the kitchen but also part of the living room not to mention you always ”need” to remember to keep things and yourself presentable when on public display like that.

One would think I should have thought about that when moving here + 20 years ago, right? Well, both life and I were very different back then. 

Still it looks like a pretty, quaint and colourful neighbourhood in the winter snow. And all things concidered I think it’s a decent neighbourhood to live in. (That doesn’t mean I’m 100% pleased with things and the people that happen and live here. But all and all, it’s good.)

Too early for spring signs like snowdrops on these latitudes of course. Nevertheless found these in garden a couple of weeks ago already. Climate emergency isn’t an opinion, it’s a fact.

Can’t remember when I last fully looked forward to spring and summer. Was probably before hell summer of 2018. Ever since then I dread what is coming this year. The relentless heat and sleepless nights or the rain pouring down (and the consequenses for my poor roof in need of a new coat). 

And now also the ticks, almost ever present with the rising temperatures, making spending time in the garden very much less pleasant. And the mosquitos have become so aggressive too. 

Energy prices going crazy. And spot prices I find deceiving. Trying to keep the costs down is definitely trickier than it should be.

Keeping washing, dishwashing, showering to weird hours in order to save energy. Stopped baking after I realised the lussekatter buns I made in December really showed on the electrical bills. Try and cook when the spot prices are lower. But I’m still evaluating if that will make any visible difference.

Hopefully the prices will change for the better again when the weather gets warmer. For now it’s a bit of a roller-coster with one day of -4 C and the next day up to +6 C. The snow that fell in the beginning of January rained away shortly after.

Prior to this looming climate emergency snow fell and mostly stayed November - March, now anything can happen.

I try not to give my ever present financial angst energy. I try to keep my focus on ”this will find a solution”, the Universe has my back, ’this too shall pass”.

Which is far from easy to focus and be convinced about. But I keep on trying.

Things like this serendipitous meeting depicted above are what keep keeps me moving on and remain hopeful. 

A few weeks back I asked my ”mentor” - who still doesn’t fully get the assignment… But I basically put that down to the age gap, and how drastically things have changed on the labour market since her days, I mean it has radically changed only these last few post-covid years, I too have a hard time keeping up with the changes. - 

if we could have a good chat about how I could move forward and create the change I so  d e s p e r a t e l y  need. I thought meeting in a neutral setting like the library would be a good idea. I opted for Wednesday, which would suit us both.

I was certain we could find a quiet corner to talk and brainstorm. But for some reason I felt inclined to ask about meeting rooms. Unfortunately every room was already booked that day so we ended up going upstairs to the children’s library to look for a nook. 

On that floor one of the librarians had just finished a meeting, so we were welcome to sit in that room for our chat. We started to discuss solutions, which mainly were making me quite annoyed, as they most certainly didn’t align with my neither my values nor how the labour market works. 

Ie very unrealistic and somewhat ridiculous to be honest. She then began telling life stories to lighten things up. At that time a young woman came into the room preparing for a book club meeting, to which she invited us.

She then overheard my mentor taking about a man, that turned out to be her step-dad - what are the odds?? - and came over to talk. It then turned out that the book club was about sustainability and nature. And when she then added she was vegan I reacted by crying. Yup. 

All the tensions I’m experiencing bring out the tears quite often. I usually manage to keep them back in the company of strangers. But the relief of meeting a kindred spirit like that, by fluke, was just kathartic of sorts.

The book club (first meeting) was opened to anyone interested in nature and sustainability. But it turned out that everyone who turned up were either local green politicians or active withing the Swedish Greens Party (Miljöpartiet) - which is the only party anyone sane and caring can vote for these days. 

You may not agree on every single issue, but it is the ONLY party seriously invested in nature and sustainability and actively work for viable solutions.

That made me even happier. And the fact that a third vegan entered to room. And two almost vegans. We had a really pleasant gathering. Unfortunately the first book chosen for the club (I was definitely not keen on it) turned out to be rather horrid, especially if you are vegan. 

So I will most likely opt out from our next meeting. I think the book was a mix of nasty and boring. I’m just angry and disgusted, and have zero interest in discussing it. I want to feel inspired and/or feel I have gained valuable insights in a sustainability related area I had little or no knowledge of. 

This was just a waste of time and left me sad and annoyed.

That said, it was really uplifting to unexpectedly find myself in the company of likeminded strangers on a random January evening at the local library. 

Something I have been looking for in vain for so long now. So even if that first book turned out rubbish, the company were delightful.

Had I chose another day for our ”mentor” chat or another place or another date, this heart warming meeting would not have happened. How wonderful is that?!

After this experience my ”mentor” stumbled over a local job ad on Facebook (of all places). And you won’t believe what happened next…

I have decided to continue my reflections of 2025 in another post. Not keep adding to this.

So until next time (which I hope will be soon) stay strong, be kind, fight for decency and compassion. 🩷