merry everything and happy always 2022 ~

 

I hope your holidays are lovely, kind and plantbased. 

Wishing you a merry everything and a happy always (or rather as often so you still appreciate and cherish those happy times without complacency or taking it for granted).

I made this lovely vegan dessert - frozen dairyfree cheesecake with silken tofu, orange, ginger snaps and dark chocolate. I know I’ve said it a gazillion times, will share later, but this I definitely will. Promise.

This little blue-eyed light of mine turned 11 years old a couple of weeks ago, I miss her sister so much, the Prosit sister duo is no more, but I’m so grateful I still have Ztina in my life. ❤️

And little sister Ågot of course. 💙

Let there be light, be the light and share it. Happy Christmas or whatever way you chose to celebrate the winter holidays!

happy new 2020, happy new decade

I have so many wishes and hoped for this shiny, brand new year. But most of all, may it be infinitely kinder, more compassionate, loving, caring, colourful and joyous than this past year (and decades before that). That is, until the human-induced climate emergency devours us all naturally. But before that, let's be kind. Go vegan. Spread love.

I mentioned a recap of 2019 last week. Well that ain't happening today. But I enjoy recaps of another year of growth, so someday soon it will.

My plans for New Year's Eve - binge watching my new favourite TV-series "a million little things" until I'm going to bed with a good book well before midnight. Bliss.

And for my personal hopes-and-wish-top-list for 2020 (apart from good health and happiness for myself and the people and furries I love as always) are still

1. Finding my true purpose.
2. (Which also holds) finding my meaningful new dream job (clock is ticking, time is too short to settle for less).



3. Finding my tribe, my kind of people.
4. Have more faith, worry less.
5. Have more energy, get more meaningful things done.
6. Feel more joy, less sadness.



Also, let 2020 be a year of more vegans rainbow-soaps for all! (More of these amazing handmade soaps in another post.)

May your new year treat you with kindness and joy, and may you treat the world with more of that too. Welcome 2020, let's be so very kind together!

welcome 2019

For the first post of 2019 I planned-ish to be a new, focused I - write about a specific topic only. And it was going to be worklife, since it's the area I will focus on this year. But then a lot of other things nestled themselves in as write-worthy. And as I am I, and proud of it, here goes.

The first thing I did when 2018 turned 2019 was to light the wonderful vegan candle (from thehappywhale.se, she has a sale on them until Sunday btw), which I'd saved for the occasion, with hopes its amazing sentiment and scent would send its whiffs of sweet kindness and compassion over the whole year (and years to come naturally).



The first thing I did for the cats was to give them this plush bed. I would never buy anything this fancy for them myself, but someone gave it away so yes, please. It's so soft, fluffy and pretty I wouldn't say no to getting one for myself to hide and hibernate in actually.

As it would be very nice that they didn't destroy it quickly in their usual manner, I've tucked it away high up in a book shelf. (I'm sneaky like that.) I knew Pelle would love it, and indeed, it took him about 5 seconds before he realised what I was doing. I swear he didn't leave the bed for at least 24 hours. Snoring, purring, cleaning himself, being your average king of the household from high above the rest. He makes his usual inspection tours now, but he always return up there, to his cosy nook.



On New Year's Eve I got a proposition for a possibly new, interesting gig. Yesterday I got my first job interview booked for next week. Even if neither of these potential jobs pan out, that we're not a great match, it's still a good feeling that things are moving in the forward direction. The momentum is on, bring it 2019!

The last job meeting I had in 2018 interesting enough neatly tied in with the very first back in January then. To be honest it was kind of a dream gig, with so much potential and amazing visions. But it all went... well, internally turbulent and nothing I could do but watch and wait. Did I say 2018 was a mad mad year... I'm very very cautiously optimistic about this project now. Which obviously is the huge lesson from last year - I've lowered my expectations on the world and people considerably.

Maybe that will bring more burst of happy surprises than last year's string of misery?



The day my cast was removed, November 1, I stumbled over the fact that one of my favourite writer, Marie Hermanson, had a new book out in pocket. It will forever be the day I removed the plaster/World Vegan Day-book. I'm half way through it, but I obviously consider it the last book of 2018.

The book heap above is what I will start my new year with. And among them are the two latest in the beloved Sunday Philosophy Club-series, by Alexander McCall Smith. Aptly named "The Novel Habits of Happiness" - obviously the book I chose to start the year with!

The first thing I cooked in the new year was this brilliant plantbased tarte flambee (basically a fancy pizza), adapted from the Årstiderna organic vegan food-box recipe. That something as simple as nutritional yeast mixed with oat cream or unsweetened soy cream, add garlic, salt and peppar, can create such a delicious cheesy base spread for dairy-free pizza is nothing short than magic I'd say.

One of my best food discoveries of 2018.

The last thing I bought in 2018 was a practical coat suitable for future dog walks, since my 10 year old anorak is pretty shabby and full of holes. When it arrived it turned out to be a *bit* more fancy than intended for dog walks. Somehow it's difficult to imagine it full of potential muddy dog paws. Still, pretty, practical and durable. The old anorak has to be creatively mended.

The first thing I've bought in 2019 is this lighweight, fluffy vegan handbag. Because with the ex-broken arm it's sadly really difficult and painful to use the Re-Kånken backpack as it's intended. And as I've been forced to use and burden my right arm more than usually since the left arm isn't fully functional (yet, hopefully) I've developed a painful right elbow and muscles. Thus I wanted a lighter handbag to carry things in than my usual messenger bags that are pretty heavy for the shoulders too.

Hopefully this will do the trick. And no it really isn't another perfect catbed, little mister.

The average Swede buy 50 pieces of new clothes every year. And most of it obviously isn't organic or sustainably produced. We desperately need to do better. Me included. Last year I got 25 new pieces for the wardrobe, including two pair of shoes. This year I will be much better at walking away. 

First thing I ate out this year was a lovely vegan breakfast at favourite place Mahalo Sthlm, oat latte, the perfect avocado sandwich with pesto and sundried tomato, plus an overnight oats with mango, passionfruit and raspberries that was saved with the Swedish no food waste app Karma.

That was also a new first for the year, the first time I used the app, since I don't live in the inner city and since the vegan options are few and far apart it's basically zero opportunities for me to use it. But still, a brilliant way to fight food waste if you're able to.



The first thing that arrived in the mail, but ordered a month ago (thank you, Swedish postal *service*), were these wonderful Pitbull FlowerPower calendars by Sophie Gamand. Too cute, and for a good cause of course. I do believe they're so sweet that Zigne approves of them, despite depicting the inferior species called dogs. Read about her work and get yours here.



I've been contemplating a new haircut. Haven't been to the hairdresser for two years now. It's easier than you might think to do a reasonable straight cut yourself, however it's nice to get it professionally done.

Should I get a shoulder length straight cut or not. But I know I always end up feeling a bit lost and not I when I get shorter haircuts. On the other hand, the days of looking like a steel wool hair-ball are slightly more than I'm comfortable with.

No matter good intentions and fabric qualities I always end up looking wrinkly and dishevelled after a day out and about, the same goes for my hair, it has a life of its very own, no matter intentions and great products it always end up looking wild and unruly, never sleek and professional. And I have no patience for products and hair tools that involve a lot of work and time on a regular basis.

I'm grateful that I do have decent hair on my head, and this is obviously a luxuary problem in the big scheme of things. But even those can take up a lot of contemplating time. And a symbolic cut of out with the old, in with the new might be well-needed. The thinking continues I guess...



First photo I captured of Stockholm 2019 was a morning with a rather magical light, a golden light full of promise of new beginnings and amazing things to come.

Hope your new year has gotten off on a promising, golden, joyous start too. Let's make this a happy year, we can do it!

it's beginning to look a lot like sustainable christmas

Despite never having been a fan of Christmas - which basically has become a holiday that celebrates consumerism and gluttony in dead animals and alcohol. - I do enjoy the lights, indoor snuggles, endless cups of tea, time for quiet reflection, doing kind deeds and giving thoughtful gifts. So in this post I'll give some tips on that. I know, it's to late to order something to get in time for Christmas, but a gift is a gift and giving/getting it as a New Year's is just as fun in my book.



Talking about books, that's always a great gift. I quite enjoyed "The woman in the window" by AJ Finn. Similar to "The girl on the train". A well written suspense story, partly predictable, partly not. Don't forget, there are plenty of great (many newly published) books to be find in thrift stores too!



By the way, The Christmas Gift of the Year 2018 in Sweden is the recycled garment. Which is heartwarming of course, but more a trendy sign of the times naming than something that will have a real impact unfortunately.

And no, I'm not giving away the perfect blingy Christmas sweater for the ultimate not so crazy cat lady. We have spent a lot of time together one month per year, for four years now, and hopefully will for many more.



Of course you can adopt an orangutang, plant a tree or many, give to a good cause, volunteer at the local shelter, adopt a cat or dog or someone else in need of a loving home or give something handmade or homebaked. But that doesn't have to exclude giving a kind, bought gift to someone you care for.



Vegan, palmoil free handcreams Xmas edition from Body Shop. Even if one says Candy Cane, the smell is nothing like the amazing seasonal candy cane scent from Bath & Body Works though (lucky you who has it available in your country...). I'm sure they'll go on sale after Xmas. Good stuff and great for the handbag. Might stock up on them myself...



Cute christmassy earrings from Clay My Day (I got mine at the vegan Christmas fair, but she does other things too). But hey, lussebulle earrings, a must!



I've finally landed in some sort of skincare regime that suits my dry and sensitive skin, mostly Dermalogica products, which are pricey but great, cruelty free and long-lasting. Got the Dr Botanical Moroccan rose superfood facial oil from a friend last year and I was sceptical (as sceptical as I am about serums in general). But it does not only smells absolutely amazing, it does something great with the skin. On the very pricey side but also very long lasting.



I've now tried a couple of cruelty free products from The Inkey List, as a comparison, that people seem to rave about. Good quality budget brand. But I'm not impressed at all with the acclaimed Rosehip facial oil, a cheap bottle with no pimpette thus really difficult to dose a tiny amount of. Plus it leaves the skin surface oily.

The Turmeric facial cream on the other hand is quite lovely. Smells a lot of turmeric - which a real superfood plant - and leaves skin supple and rehydrated. As the bottle is 66,66% smaller than the Dermalogica I use, the price is pretty similar to it.



The wonderful, handmade vegan candles and scented candles with a message are from thehappywhale.se, them I bought at the fair too. They burn bright, steady, slowly and don't drip at all. And the pink grapefruit sent is wonderful. The future is vegan.



The delightful vegan pralines in many flavours, from vegandelights.se, which I wrote about in the previous post.



These El Naturalista red boots aren't vegan, thus I wouldn't buy them today but some other from their vegan range - so far less colourful alas, but they do have the Iggdrasil model too and I'm very happy with my new vegan oxfords - but this is their 9th winter season and they are still going strong. How amazing is that? The soles are from recycled rubber and the leather vegetably tanned. This is simply great quality to last. And if I didn't say no to new animal leather products and were in need of great, comfortable, durable boots I'd get a pair or two asap. (Yes you can gift things to yourself too.)

Their made to last for many years, and that's reflected in the price, but nothing good will come from buying cheap, That will only be costly for your wallet, comfort and the environment in the long run. Buy less but buy better. Buy more good quality.



These fluffy socks are from Thought Clothing. A sustainable brand which has some lovely bamboo socks I adore. Browsing their website for those these came up when I searched bamboo socks, so I ordered a couple for those cold cold winter nights, without looking carefully at the description. (Stupid me.)



Unfortunately it turned out they were not made from bamboo, but from a plastic bottle turned into yarn. Ie fleece. And fleece isn't a sustainable material since it when washed the microfibers sheds and enters the waste water and thus seriously pollutes the environment.

The socks are really fluffy, cosy and warming on cold winter nights, but truly sustainable they are far from. It surprises me that a company such as Thought make them. Buy their fantastic bamboo socks instead!

Or if you like the idea of recycled plastic bottles, a Fjällräven Re-Kånken backpack which you don't have to wash.



Last (and least) on my list of kind gifts is this bottle of organic vegan nail oil from meanima.se. I met her at the Christmas fair and she has oils for face, hair, body, baby and tattoo care too. Handmade and aromatherapeutic.

The wonderful ceramic Christmas ornaments with vegan quotes are from Kinga Kremer, the fantastic ceramic artist who made my silver Vegan ring.



A subscription on tea or coffee, gift card for the movies, massage, pedicure, season tickets to a concert hall or museums, plantbased cooking classes (or why not an organic vegan food box?) are other great gifts.

Happy Giving 2018!

on advent fourth 2015

I always find it curious that advent fourth sometimes take place well before Christmas, but here it is.

And with a heartbreakingly ominous climate change temperature - +14 degrees C in December, on these latitudes. That's simply not right, not right at all. Poor planet and atmosphere, the human kind has not treated you well. 

This year's fourth candle is for you planet, you can most certainly thrive without humans, we can't without you.

happy lucia 2015

It has been a simple, lovely little Lucia. And third Advent. With the usual Ms Candle Snoopervisor.

The very unusual meet cute with Kalle Kamel (Charlie Camel) at the neighbourhood Christmas fair - I've been so excited to finally meet him, he lives with a camel friend in the vicinity and makes appearances at local fairs - and he was such a gorgeous, fluffy fella. Star of the day.

And the day was rounded off with one of my favourite home-cooked meals: a perfect vegan, fajitas dinner. Very fresh and moreish.

Hope your Lucia has been full of sweetness to ~

happy second advent 2015

The snoopervisor named Zigne has always been (too) fascinated by candles, from Drac-ulla to countless of close encounters of the unhealthy lighted candles kind. Always supervised by humans of course, but still, i would be nice if one could just enjoy the candles without that nose and whiskers so close by...

And true to form she really HAS to, again and again, inspect the advent candles. Which have been, since it has been an incredibly dark and gloomy week, lit quite a lot.

Hope you're having a
wonderful second advent Sunday!

voluspa saijo persimmon

Many years ago I bought the Voluspa Saijo Persimmon room scent spray and infusion. Simply adore the scent - some scents have the power to make me go all weak in the knees, giddy and relaxed at the same time somehow. This is such a scent - and the spray was really lovely, the infusion was not. I never enjoy infusions, I had just hoped that one would prove to be an exception to the not nice rule.

I love their scented candles, but I haven't gotten the Saijo Persimmon until now. A big lovely tin filled with many many hours of heavenly scent. Pure luxuary. And just the thing to have on my office desk. Serving me with whiffs of giddiness, inspiration and relaxation.

In other words, a really perfect first buy for the month of February.

What's your favourite scent (in candles, perfumes, soaps and such)?
And what's your favourite scented candle?

on consumerism

I know, I know, I do buy new stuff, less than I used to, but most likely more than I should. Although, as usual, I shy away from cheap, massproduced things and I do thrift a lot too. And of course create a lot myself. But I could do better, much better. Less shopping, less consumerism for most of us on this planet would be beneficial. And more inspiration and encourage to create ourselves, like with the peace scarf.

We live in a world with finite recources, it's about high darn time we take personal responsability for our choices, whether it be eating habits or shopping. If we are completely honest, we all know that, right? Right.

Doing a spot of shopping to soothe a troubled mind or treat oneself, it's so easy, I know too well. "Because I'm worth it." On the other hand I know both money and time could be much better spent, most of the time. Thrifting and charity shops are great in that way, they don't tear and wear on the planet's resources and the money spent go to good causes. And you always know where to leave the things you have no use for anymore, someone else might find use and joy in them. For an affordable price. Such a simply thing really, that can make such a great impact on so many levels.

So when I headed to the department store to get one of those button stools - to sit on in the hall while putting boots on, I usually do that on the toilet seat, but that moo toilet seat from less than a year ago has slowly broken in to smaller pieces and is now beyond repair. Which makes a perfect example of massproduced, cute, cheap, too cheap = bad quality of course. My old toilet seat, which also could be recycled in to the system, didn't broke until after 20 years. Higher price, cheaper in the long run and better for the planet. - I saw these colourful candlesticks.

Very cute idea, massproduced with really bad quality, finish and wobbly. For that they wanted 169 sek (~26 usd). I'm constantly amazed that there are people who buy stuff like this and that noone along the production line say no. Which of course is down to the world we've built, where money, the holy financial growth, the paycheck, the threadmill, work as we know it is opium for the people.

It's just so heartbreaking that the specie with the brain who can think, create, feel and make so many fantastic things has so little compassion, so little grasp of everything being connected, makes so many mad choices, is so very stupid and has bought in to so many crazy notions and ideas.

My Weltschmerz is constant, my soul is forever misanthrophic, I'm glad I can still find joy and inspiration in some humans. But overall, I just do not get humans. More often than not, it feels like socializing with beings from a whole other planet, we do not speak the same language. I smile, nod, move on, because when I speak my heart most people don't seem to get it. I'm that tiresome one who always take things so seriously, who is uncomfortable to hang with when life should be simple like "I enjoy meat I eat meat, I want to shop til' I drop, wear and tear, cheap rules, f--ck organic and fairtrade, compassion and slow living".

Someone gave me the advice to stop watching and reading the news and newspapers, I actually have and even if Weltschmerz is my companion I feel more than a tad bit calmer. And try and live my life, on my terms, do good things, even if they're seemingly small they're so much better than no kind deeds at all.

I'm in no need of a new candlestick, but if you are, I think the above ones, if nothing else, at least hold a great DIY idea; if you have old, boring ones or find some at the thrift shop, spruce them up with a splash of new colour/pattern. So much better, on so many levels.

This kind of blog post certainly is a good way to remind myself I still need to scrutinize my own shopping patterns. I should make a BIG mental not in reading it before I get myself another pair of shoes. Which reminds me, just last week I just had to, since it was a big sale on models going out of stock... See, sometimes (quite often actually) I just don't get myself either.

And of course, instead of getting a button stool, I could have gone to the charity shop and looked for something. That constant battle of being kind to oneself, treat oneself and making good choices in a greater scheme of things.

What do you do to step off the threadmill, 
battle against consumerism, 
fight the good fight for a kinder planet?
I would love to get new, kind ideas!

miss december

In 2009 I was Miss August, in 2010 I was spoilt with being both Miss January, Miss July and Cover Girl. This year the photos I had entered with to the municipal environmental calendar competition were of a better quality (if I may say so). They showed the varying landscape, architecture and nature of the municipality and I did feel they were really spot on for some of the months. Even if one can never anticipate the competition or take anything for granted (which I never do), but one can have hopes.

So when I got the calendar the other week I was struck by four things;

:: the quality of the chosen photos this year was higher (I adore the October picture with frozen apples on the ground)
:: 7 photos of 13 show water
:: 9 photos of 13 show motifs that could be taken anywhere and can not be specifically identified as taken within this municipality
:: the picture I won a month with this year is really not one of my proudest. It was simply the best one I could find for the month of December (you're allowed to send in 12 photos max and I try to find a decent one for each month so not to compete with myself.). And it's of my neighbourhood. Actually my street. Even a part of my house. Only reason for taking the picture was that it would be nice to see how it looked here amidst all snow in December 2009. Little did one know that December of 2010 would be even snowier...

But at least I won a month. Which is nice. Even if I would have thought it would have been February or May who made it to the calendar. But yes, nice.

What made it even nicer though was the discovery of what this year's prize was. One I'm really, really, really happy about. Spot on. When I opened the box and discovered four candles and the label "Design House Stockholm" I so hoped it would be that candlestick I'd been coveting but which definitely wasn't on any top-to-get-list in a house full of candlesticks and candle holders...

And it was! Hooray!! It's a wooden candle holder which is really versatile and can be folded together or open up in 4 (or 7) arms. Available in black, grey, red or white. Designed by Jonas Grundell and befittingly called Nordic Light. I would have loved to have one in red of course, but when I thought about it I felt black (of which I'm no fan, ya' know) would go better anytime of the year whilst a red candle holder is pretty Christmassy. So pleased am I indeed.

Though minus for the fact that label on bottom says "made in Thailand", since a piece in wood and steel, designed in Sweden, local production would of course be the obvious and decent thing from an eco point of view...

by winter candlelight

Despite snow (in constant on-off mode) the days are glum, dark and dreary (and no this is not just an within thing). Just today I saw that in a month there'll be Winter solstice and from then on everything will get lighter and brighter by the day (of course). So just some weeks to go now.

But there's one pleasant thing to be much enjoyed (amongst other pleasantries) this time of the year. The doing things by candlelight (the cat-safe way). Or just the being by candlelight. It's sadly now been many years since the last time we did the dipping of our own candles (I mostly use tea-candles these days. And of course scented candles). It was so much fun, so satisfying, and the smell of stearine, mmm... But now I do feel an distinct urge to try and make than happen again. Soon. Apart from the satisfying fun, the quality and burn time were much more pleasing too.

Do you make your own candles?

after the lilacs

Sadly the lilacs are now withering on these latitudes. June has arrived, proper summer and no more lilacs for us this year. At least not in its natural form. From now on I will have to rely on the spring-early summer feel of the scent of lilacs in the shape of handmade Shea butter soap and scented candle with lilac scent from Swedish Klockargården. They do smell promisingly lovely so far. Even if, of course, nothing is like the real thing...

mother's day

Today is Mother's Day in Sweden. One of those hyped, highly commercialized days I can't stand in general. If your mother is of the sweet and truly well meaning kind, then of course she should be treasured every day, all year round. I usually never get my mother gifts on Mother's Day. Since I prefer to treat her nicely and give her gifts any other day than that. Because any other day I want to and not because there's some commercial hullabaloo surrounding one particular day a year.

This year she will however get something from the daughter that think she's the best (most days), just because I happened to stumble over something wee perfect recently and just because she deserves it, for a whole lot of reasons. The wee gift is a set with a lovely Swedish handmade soap and a matching scented candle from one of my favourite brands for just that, soaps and scented candles, Klockargården.

Mammas Egen Tvål = Mother's Own Soap, with angel scent and the scented candle Mammas Kök = Mother's Kitchen. And yes, some herbal tea, rosehip and cranberry from Clipper. I think she'll appreciate the thought and the treat, as any day is mother's day.