goodbye april, hello may

I know, I still haven't written that a year in 12 pictures post for 2014, and somehow it seems doubtful I ever will. Although I think it's a lovely thing to do, a way to keep track of progress, ups and downs, happiness and sorrow. And it's nice to sum up each month in one picture only. Plus a few sentences.

But I'll do a short summary of this past month of April instead, since it's been a rather full and fun month. And surprising.

:: I started a new longterm assignment. Which so far has been a blend of exciting, fun, interesting with a not unsubstantial part confusing and babel of tongues. I've used my knowledge and I've learnt new stuff. Including how very different Swedish corporate structures and hierarchies are compared to other countries. A how uncomplicated and smooth things could be if other countries and corporate structures were more like the Swedish. That's certainly an interesting firsthand insight. Things will of course improve and communication run smoother the better we get to know eachother. But after a month, the first month or many more, this is my impression.

:: I've discovered a fabulous grapefruit body butter, lemon and thyme bread plus a vanilla bun to swoon over (to be written about later).

:: I've baked some amazing pineapple pies. Droolworthy. Really.

:: I've had a wonderful pedicure. I think it has been at least 10 months since the last, my feet needed that. Because there's only so much an express pedi gadget can do.

:: I helped a poor butterfly with broken wings to a peaceful last few hours. It was the obvious and right thing to do. Perhaps there was good karma.

:: I discovered colouring books for grown ups and pencils, oh pencils...

:: I made an adorable (if I may say so) amigurumi donut.

:: And then I and the donut attended a lovely sustainability conference with such a nice and isnpiring ambiance and loads of good, likeminded people from mainly the travel, hotel and tourism-industry. Made great new contacts, some of which I hope to collaborate with in the future.

:: There have been two birthdays celebrated (M and my mum's) and I had such fun preparing their respective gifts.

:: I got more happy lights. Because you can't have too many of those.

:: There have been plenty of gorgeous cherry blossoms - although sadly I never got the chance to experience the Kungsträdgården ones when they were in full bloom. I'm quite disappointed that things turned out that unfortunate way.

:: I attended a big healing and seance. Yes really. Thanks to a quirky and inspiring friend of mine. Overall it was a huge disappointment, the thoughts on healing was interesting and I don't doubt this medium and others have certain features and abilities of communication that set them apart from most of us. But seriously, this is something that shouldn't take place in a large setting like that but on a more personal and intimate level with only a few attendees. This setting is clearly more hawking than caring. I'm also fascinated and surprised that there were obviously so many adoring hangarounds who attend this guy's every event. My friend knows his work well and has all his books, me I hadn't heard of him. And after that evening I'm admittedly not interested to learn more.

:: I bought a fantastic new zebra scarf.

:: I had great meetings, on both a personal and professional level.

:: The pug named Malte will make an international paw print.

:: Spring has most certainly arrived. There has been lots of sunshine, budding and blooming flowers. Chilly winds and warmer days. And on one of those warmer days I tried my first rice icecream and it was heavenly.

:: I gave you the chance to sign up for a lovely novella subscription with a decent discount - use it before May 10!

:: I said bye to a former favourite photo app and rekindled with an old one.

:: I'm now preparing for and putting the finishing touches to a fun inspirational breakfast talk on social media marketing for creative sole traders I'm doing on Wednesday. Such fun that will be I'm sure!

I'm looking forward to May, 
there's excitement in the air, 
possibilities unknown and 
there will be the lilacs time of the year ~

the amigurumi donut

and it's finished! complete with frosting, sprinkles and snoopervisors.

i'm pretty pleased about the end result, hopefully the conference speaker who'll be on the receiving end on friday will be too. it's a quirky wink at the research she does so it'll certainly be a different gift i'm sure.

i love my job.

through the eye of the amigurumi donut to be

currently i have such a lovely array of assignments. each creative in different ways.

and yes, one involves the crocheting of amigurumi donuts. now, how fun is that?!

almost finished, just the assembling and decoration left. snoopervised by the seemingly omnipresent little miss blueeyes.

i'm such a lucky, lucky gal. for all sorts of reasons.

knitting by rota

If you can read by rota you can certainly knit and crochet by it. Like I also do, but just like with the reading less structured. And well, it's difficult to be structured about it since it's not very easy to "chapterize" the knitting and crocheting. But like with the reading I keep different projects going for different situations Things easy to knit or crochet watching TV or movies and more complicated projects while being able to focus on the project only.

So old assembling-only projects aside - and seriously I'm not the only one who's notoriously bad at completely finishing yarn projects am I? - these are my four major projects right now.



From one purrfect quality inspector to another - the sweet sweater is finished! I'm now in the process of figuring out how exactly to assemble it correctly. And that is certainly no mean feat. It has been quite a process understanding the pattern, which turned out to be bit faulty, and now the actual assembling is more difficult than one would expect. The sweater is made in two parts only, back and front and the back is both back, part of the front as well as sleeves. Yes really. It would be very nice to be able to grasp the assembling instructions and just finish it and being able to wear it asap. Hopefully that will be a reality soon.



Since I took this picture of my amigurumi owls to be I have crocheted 12 of them, stuffed their bodies, crocheted 12 tiny beaks and 24 tiny eyes. I'm now in the process of embroidering those 24 tiny eyes. After that I'll have to sew 36 tiny pieces on 12 owl bodies and then I will attach them to a mobile. It's not complicated work just very time consuming and pretty hard on the hands.



And this, this is a glimpse of a pretty awesome pair of mittens to be. From a lovely pattern inspired by a classic Swedish pastry. Care to guess which one? I'm very excited to finish this project because the adorableness of the finished product knows no boundaries. I've been wanting to knit this for well over a year, but I only finally got the yarn and pattern before Christmas. And now I'm well on my way to one mitten being finished, hooray!

And then there's the top picture of a pretty amazing yarn. What will that become then? The correct answer is: a verrry furry vest. I saw the vest in a yarn shop in Sigtuna before Christmas, found it amazing and now I've finally bought the yarn to make it myself. The vest in the shop was winter white but that yarn colour was discontinued so I went for greyish instead. The pattern is very simple, but in size small only, obviously that needs tweaking and I will make it a proper open vest instead of the slipover that was in the shop.

And that's my knitting/crocheting rota for now. How about yours?

randy the pig

This is a story of a little pet pig who wants to go home, but isn't allowed to due to a case of a bad bad animal shelter behaviour. Instead of me writing about the sad case of little Randy and his unfortunate current situation I will just implore you to read his story at this link (where you will also find additional information and a petition to sign).

I believe the story to be true, but you of course have to decide for yourself after reading his story from people who know him. From my own experience as a breeder of British Shorthair cats I know I'd be heartbroken if this happened to any of the kittens I'd sold. And a wee pig is most likely a more delicate creature than an often more resourceful cat.

So if you too want to bring Randy the pig home, you can also view his Facebook page and tweet about him with the hashtag #bringrandythepighome

happy new year 2015 ~

Even if 2014 has been an overall good year too, I am not able to write such an upbeat and happy New Year's post like last year. Simply because I've felt that 2014 has been a more uphill kind of year. Great in learning, growing, meetings and experiences but sadly not at all as serendipitous and beautiful as 2013. On the other hand I've been quite absorbed with work all autumn, it's been a more serious year and it has perhaps left me less open to the magic that surrounds us.

My deepest, truest, maddest wish for me, myself and Prosit in 2015 is that there will be a plethora of work, play and love. That there will finally be the right time, favourable stars aligned, for new freelance projects, inspiring collaborations with likeminded people, creative assignments with me in a new, professional role in a place that makes my heart sing and makes the world a better place for many.

And for the world I deeply wish for a more compassionate, kinder, peaceful, intelligent, unselfish, greener and happier year.

May you have a fantastic, joyous, vegan food filled, colourful and inspiring 2015 and may your dreams come true -

Happy New Year, one and all!

the christmas yarn projects

Oh the delightfulness of all the yarny projects now! A blend of treats for myself and gifts to me and to be.

The above wool yarn is called Heaven's Hand and the skeins are to become Prinsesstårtevantar (Princess cake mittens, the classic Swedish cream cake turned into mittens. I've done amigurumi ones before, knitting mittens is quite exciting actually) and owl wristwarmers.

This wool yarn will become adorable Tomtebovantar (fly agaric mittens inspired by the classic fairytale by Swedish author Elsa Beskow), a Christmas gift for my mum.

Organic Alba cotton yarn for cute amigurumi owls in different shapes. Isn't the logo of the yarn shop Litet Nystan (Tiny Hank), sweet?

And a quick little wool/alpaca project - a beanie. Because you can't have too many handmade caps in happy colours.

Happy winter knitting and crocheting everybuddy!

happy carrot day!

Despite carrots being my favourite vegetable and me *suffering* from the carrot defect I didn't know April 4th is Carrot Day! I will from now on treasure April 4th even more.

Sadly I haven't had the opportunity to feast on carrots galore, but I've had a couple of glasses with freshly made juice - carrots, pears and oranges.

And I have an awesome carrot soap.

Hope your Carrot Day has been lovely
and filled with carrot delight!

strawberries in snow

Not to worry, it's not as strange and unwanted as wild strawberries growing outdoors in December, it's just me very much enjoying the light we've had since the snow fell the other day. Yesterday it was Ms Strawberry with friends, today it's a rekindle with amigurumi. It's been a while.

I made a few more strawberries and before two of them move to their new home tomorrow I thought it would be nice to let them play outdoors, enjoy the snow a bit. Not sure they enjoyed it though, but they looked nice.

Next time I feel the urge to make a few more strawberries I think I'll go a bit mad - more than usual that is - and make them in psychedelic combos, like the mushrooms, the weirdness of strawberries, or 'genetically modified strawberries' might be a better name for them.

Imagine, 'only' four-five months and there'll be real edible, locally cultivated strawberries. Oh the delight!

2011 in 12 pictures

Time to look back at 2011 - one photo per month. Though looking back at 2011 it will be very difficult picking just one photo a month, it was an eventful year, quite a bad one, crap galore even, but when I see it in a distance like this I'm grateful for all the fun and good times that managed to sneak in there regularly too.

I'm afraid there won't be any short, witty underline - I have to say I kind of liked what I did with this last year, but today I'm not feeling very inspired or witty, well, one can't be every day, that would be quite exhausting, photos please ~

January - was a very, very crafty month, I finished many little projects (two of them were the extralong magical socks in top picture) and I discovered the art and beauty of amigurumi. One might say I got hooked on it, addicted even. But also painfully aware about amigurumi crocheting being quite hard on the hands... Before that revelation I did finish many a Swedish princess cake - and loved it.

February - on Valentine's day I began a new phase in my life, one I had such high hopes would lead to a job that I loved. After week one I had mixed feelings, but tried to keep a positive mind about it. The next six months were hard and pretty awful, I saw a part of Swedish labour market politics I'm very ashamed of - and I'm not even in any way responsible for it - and completely, utterly and wholeheartedly hate. It's degrading, patronizing and abusive (and still very much a reality for many thousands of unfortunate people in Sweden). On day one I discovered this precious painting always visible on a wall nearby my desk. It was heartwarming, thus quite the opposite of what the next six months spent at that place would be.

In February I also got my first two bobbaloos, Kismet and Jojo. They have since been followed by many, many, many... And they've brought much joy and giggles into my life.

And my first pair of transformer goggles.

March - The World According to Pia was named a Google Blog of Note, needless to say it was quite a wonderful thing. I got a load of new, lovely readers and I'm still quite happy and proud about it all. With it also came rather a bit of (self-imposed) demands of being inventive, witty, new, shiny and fabulous every.single.day. When the first rush (on many levels) petered out it was rather a relief and it gave me food for thought about blogging and why I do it...

I wrote a few Q&A posts on Sweden - one, two, three and I still have one to go, questions unanswered, life got in between, sorry...

There were three little pigs, I bought my first shoes that year and last but not least, had my first root-filling ever (thanks to the phase in my life that begun in February, see above). That would be followed by several more throughout the year, causing pain on many levels.

April - finally spring came! It had been a tough winter, almost six months of heavy snow covered grounds. And there was the curious incident with the cat (and bobbaloos) in the daytime. There was Easter weekend - my favourite holiday! - the second pair of shoes that year entered my life, and what a wonderful pair it was. And Chubs with friends arrived.

And then there was sorrow, unexpectedly and suddenly the curious cat above, Knut, passed away. I haven't written about this before, partly because I felt ashamed, being in a vortex of crap at that time I didn't pay attention to him not being well, for real. It had been such a hard winter for us all, we were all a bit worn and weary after that. I just didn't realise, I'm so sorry.

When summer had come and gone his demise would be followed by both his sister - the apple of my eye - and his mother (old age). I didn't know that at the time of course. But sorrow has a strange tendency to come in three. I hope you are all well and safe in another world, 2012 will be a lesser year without you.

May - despite it being the prettiest time of the year, after Easter I got a nasty cold and most of May I spent with a sore throat and feeling tired to the bone (as in the picture above). But then I went to see my Dr Feist and only seeing her make things alright somehow.

I was pleased about the lotsa pocket dress - that in that cotton way shrunk in laundry I sadly discoevred later that year - I discovered the stem gem, the Pippi pattern and my life continued to be a conundrum.

June - began with a long, glorious weekend and fantastic weather, there was a lovely afternoon tea, a strawberry shirt, a new garden, dotty glasses, the bobbaloos first midsummer, I took part in an art exhibition - the photo of it above will be the symbol of June -  we planned for Berlin again, there was the season's first hedgehog and I picked up the pink splint (which was a great jaw tension relief at first, but I'm so happy I haven't had any use for it for months now *touch would*). Looking through old blogposts, I think that overall it was a decent month with great weather.

July - we had another fantastic trip to Berlin, one highlight was the climbing of Siegessäule, one small step for mankind, one great victory for me. Bobbaloos came along for the journey and we had an awesome time together.

Back home there were several sweet hedgehogs in garden, one of them three-legged. And human tragedy stroke in Norway.

August - vacation time over and for a day I thought I had found a rather neat job. The feeling lasted a day and then one of the worst months in my life followed. And I lost Eulalia. It was a month of many tears.

At the end of the month, the concert with Bryan Ferry was magical. And we picked flowers saying goodbye to summer.

September - I realised there was such a thing as a bobbaloo gaggle effect and that they can take the shape of a magical bouquet. I crocheted perky pot holders, celebrated the 6th blogoversary, drank many cups of wonderful tea, met a big yellow bunny and wore tofu socks. It was a month of many hours of soul searching and finally I saw a light.

And it was a month that was rounded off with my first published book. Which promptly got to be a Staff picks on the front page. I was.so.happy.

October - was and is my month. I got me a new cap, went to see the Nick Brandt exhibition at Fotografiska - and cried my eyes out - found the T-sac, finished a good book, went on a birthday trip - which included seeing many castles - and felt more in balance than I'd been in a long, long time. It was a good month - even if, granted, I unfortunately got to rekindle with a bad calcaneal spur when on birthday trip and have been dealing with it ever since.

November - the temperatures continued to be alarmingly strange and mild for the season, had my last root filling, prepared for my new life. I met two new friends, had many more cups of wonderful tea and great talks, did some fine food shopping, made raw vegan ice cream - that tasted fabulous - finished and embroidered two pairs of rather fine socks, continued to cry about mankind's neverending cruelty towards other species, baked lots of different cookies, finished the Luddkolt's new website, made many week-lists to keep me on track. It was a busy and good month.

December - continued to be unseasonably warm, much anticipated kittens arrived - unfortunately not without worries and sleeplessness - I won three months in the annual calendar photo competition and the kittens were alright, Ztina and Zigne.

Goodbye 2011, your brought lots of worries, heartache and sorrow. But thank you for the sunshine and good times in between.

the strawberry stem gem and other delights

For all the good-looking but pretty useless kitchen gadgets one now and then find a gem. As this nifty li'l thing to remove the stems from strawberries, called "Stem Gem" from Chef'n. I once upon a time confessed to one of my food pet peeves being that little nasty, hard white snuff inside strawberries (apparently they're called stems...) so you can just imagine my very close to teary delight when I realised it actually did. work. as. promised. Oh, where have you been all these years, strawberry stem gem darling??

The gem made the first bowl of strawberries this season even more wonderful than usual. And I love its chubby strawberryish design. I stumbled over it in one favourite kitchen utensils shop in Åland (ah, Åland, the home of so many pleasing things and then some).

Behold my little collection of strawberry loveliness, the first bowl full of them sweeties, the stem gem, the strawberryish bobbaloos Scarlet and Chubs and yes, my first attempt at making amigurumi strawberries. I'm rather pleased with the result. Not suitable for stem gem use, but at least a little feast for the eyes. And some days, that can be as important as what you eat.

the little mushroom inspectors

Meet Calvin, meet Phalpha, the perky mushroom inspectors diligently doing their inspecting.
Myself I'm checking in at the bobbaloo rehab centre this weekend (and hopefully cure my cold at the same time), but you people without such addictions,

you go ahead and have a grand and joyous weekend!

But really, what's not to love here...? Ah, such a precious addiction if there was any...

the winners of the perky mushroom giveaway

Time has come to announce the three winners of one perky psychedelic mushroom each - I was really touched by the sweet comments left in that post and in an ideal world everyone should have their own perky psychedelic mushroom, but until that's a true thing, here are the winners chosen by three trustworthy bobbaloos, Jojo, Scarlet and Rodney.

Exciting stuff...

And the winners are ~ 

Julianna, The Curious Pebble Project
Becky, Growing up "Gramma"
- oh, I will get you to stop eating pepperoni, sure I will...
Elephant's Child

If you three (hopefully lucky) winners could email me your address (my email address can be found at the "about me" page) I will have the mushrooms on their way asap.

Plus if you could tell be if you'd like the mushroom as is or in a mascot keychain.

And, last but not least, if you like, chose the colour group from the three I've made (or if you prefer it to be a *surprise*);

Colour group A - pink, orange, applegreen

Colour group B - yellow, purple, violet

Colour group C - magenta, teal, red