the highs and lows of february update

Dear potential clients and companies, please do not get in touch asking about my availability and fees and think I'll be so happy to be asked I'll work for free. The right approach would be to actually a) know your own budget and b) do research the market fees. And by all means never ever get back and say things like "unfortunately we have a very limited budget and we've talked this through and we feel this is something a student can do." That is just utterly offensive, disrespectful and unprofessional.

Freelancing business owners and consultants actually do their jobs as a their living. Free-lancing doesn't mean we work for free, I'm sorry that you've misunderstood that. We have more or less experience within our fields, but we're all professionals and that's what you pay for. So go ahead and let a student do it, and you'll get the result you pay (or not) for. And you know, that besides me never wanting to work with you, that I'll never ever recommend you as a client to someone else, right?

And after all these years, no, firmly no, I am a not a serf just because I decided to go my own way and offering my experience and services via my own business instead of being employed.



Now, that's the most annoying thing that happened last week out of the way - and forever available in writing on the internetz. Here's a close-up glimpse of the gorgeous sheep dress I mentioned in the last post, from Palava. It makes me happy.



Zigne has reluctantly paw approved it, but she still thinks it's such weirdness of all weirdnesses that amongst all the animal prints they've designed there are still no cats visible anywhere. She has even let Palava know about that blatant disrespect for the best animal in the whole wide world.



I'm also happy to report that I managed to make the cold a reasonably short one, with all that ginger, citrus and spices, and it was gone within less than a week. Grateful I am.

I've had the new Marimekko coat out for s spin a few times, and I'm doing my very best to look past its lint-and-cat-hair-magnetic-properties. Apart from that annoying trait it's both practical and cute, and a source for compliments apparently. Which is always nice.



On the subject of compliments. I bought some fragrant necesseties at the Body Shop outlet last week - the Moringa body butter is one of my favourite skincare products ever, sad to hear they'll discontinue the extra large jars - and when I had to give my personal number to the cashier she just exclaimed "I must say you really don't look your age!". Upon which I answered, well thank you so much, it must be for all the fabulous skincare products I use.

Which obviously isn't the whole truth. Thank you genes too. And even if noone can stay completely away from heartache, sorrow and pain in life - and noone should, since it's through them we grow into better, more compassionate people - but most of us can at least take care of ourselves, inside out, eat well and stay away from harmful, toxic substances (and situations) that we are aware of.

Swedes usually make a big deal of having to show their identity card at the Systembolaget, to prove they're over 20 years old. As I never shop at Systembolaget - ie I rarely drink alcohol - that has never happened to me. But really, I'd much rather get a skincare professional in a beauty shop saying I look much younger than my age than a cashier selling alcohol.



I also went to the optician last week, and decided on a couple of new glasses so I could finally have sunglass clip-ons. Unfortunately the pair I tried on a while back was sold out at the moment - and here's I thinking I'm so unique, when half of Stockholm apparently chose the same frames, bah - so I chose others. But hopefully these frames will be back in stock soon.

After finding my beloved dotty glasses in 2011 I've never looked back at contact lenses again. I've sadly never found anything similar in frames as those, but I have enjoyed most of my glasses a lot anyway. It's difficult to imagine myself without glasses, they're so much me, a style statement I suppose.

But when the optician asked if I wanted to try on lenses to make it easier to chose frames I said yes. It was such a weird situation, to be able to see so well and not having to watch the world through spectacles. Unfortunately, despite what the Body Shop cashier said, the age apparently show when I wear lenses, I get long-sighted and can't read and write properly close up. Photos and photo editing is just a blur. Thus I'd need reading glasses to have contact lenses. Which was a bit of a shocker actually. Who knew it would be so much easier to just wear glasses?

Still thinking of having a box of lenses available anyway, to wear with all my old sunglasses I never can wear these days (since I'm blind as a bat without my glasses/prescription sunglasses).



Have also had my first lovely semla of the year - from Bagar'n Hornstull, a bakery that have a lot of vegan buns and pastries. The funny thing is that the bakery, situated close to the underground station Hornstull, was around even before I was born. My family lived in that neighbourhood when I was a kid and I remember we shopped breads and buns there even then. 



And I got to meet the army of cuteness and kindness. Pug Baron and labrador Mynta. We could all sleep safely if that was the only army around.





Was reminded that today was the day we were forced to say the final farewell to beloved Little Loaf. An exceptional little character. And since my every attempt so far to welcome a new doggie to this house have been unsuccessful, perhaps he was the one and only woof for me. Well, what's meant to be will be, but you can't help but wonder...



As you might have noticed by the pictures already, the snow and ice have basically melted already and very quickly. Spring is very much in the air, which is quite scary on these latitudes. Much too soon, as in 1-2 months too soon. As much as one usually looks forward to spring and the absence of dark evenings, ice and snow, after last year's horrific hot and exhausting, and all the wild fires, summer I'm seriously afraid of how things will look this year. Climate change moves faster than ever, and the growth is exponential.

And with that in mind everyone should be afraid, seriously worried, demand change and not least change themselves. Yet, so little is done - apart from the amazing school strikes #fridaysforfuture started by the inspirational, smart Greta of course - it is truly heartbreaking.



Then clever copywriting and advertising like this makes me happy. "Have the balls to make the world a better place" by Swedish Stockholm-based vegan family company Vegme - that makes excellent plantbased protein for the present and the future.



A pun is never wrong, in my opinion. And even better when it's actually a tasty pun that can save many innocent lives.



Talking about tasty food that saves lives, I finally attended a much talked about vegan brunch yesterday at the Radisson Blu Royal Park Hotel in Stockholm, suburb Solna. It was great, with a few kinks, and I was really impressed about all that was offered, the inventiveness and ambition of the weekly plantbased event.

I'll share more views and photos of the food in a post of its own - which it certainly deserves! - later this week. For now - a post-vegan-brunch-coma-wefie, with my friend aka Sporty Spice in animal rights garment "Always on the side of the animals" and me in Marimekko, but no less on the side of the animals.



And, February dearie, more goody goody goodness my way, m'kay?
A plethora of gratitude in advance.

love goals

This post will not be about vegan food. Nor about colourful outfits. It was after all not a promise, just a suggestion. And there's always time for it in another post. Human behaviour is much more interesting to contemplate, wouldn't you agree? Thus this post will be a reflection on love. In general.

Have you seen the TV-commercial with a football player scoring a goal and then suddenly getting mezmerised by a cheering man in the audience, so mesmerized he paves his way through the crowd up on to the stand and there passionately kisses him? I think it's an ad for a Swedish pay-TV company but Google has not been my friend here so I can't alas find a link to it. Anyway, I find the ad amazing and heartwarming. Because the storytelling so cleverly incorporates

a) The kind of passionate, unexpected kiss most of us humans (who have watched too many romantic movies) secretly (or not so secretly) wish for.
b) It's breaking the norms in a grand way. It wouldn't have been nearly as good if it had been a (stereotypically beautiful) man and woman involved.
c) Showing love and kindness instead of the violence and hate we've seen too much of at football games this last decade.

I would go as far as to say it's my new favourite commercial after the wind turbines one.

EDIT: I found it! "We gather all kinds of passion at Canal Digital."

You know the "I want someone to look at me like..." memes? My number one favourite is still Joe Biden looking at Barack Obama. In fact I've put that on my list of life goals. And until that happens I will continue to be a not so crazy cat lady. (Well, I will always be a not so crazy cat lady, because the company of cats rock, but you get the drift.)

There's been a lovely interview series on Swedish television recently called "En kärlekshistoria" (A lovestory) about famous Swedish creative couples who both live and work together. They've been together for 7-30 years (so their ages range from 35 to 80) and the interviews obviously revolve around how they've made their relationships work so well.

I didn't think I would enjoy the series as much as I did, and surely none of the other episodes after the first one (Camilla Thulin is my kindred spirit) would be nearly as good? But you know what, they've all been great in their very own way. I've loved the stories, the ups and downs most couples have shared. And not least the wisdom. Heartwarming. And all the oneliners, eye-openers that make you think, a fine thing indeed. The series is still available on SVT Play (in Swedish, in Sweden of course) so if you haven't had the time to watch it yet I recommend you do.

As far as myself go I did have a really good talk over dinner with that trusted friend the other day. And it was again both heartwarming and reaffirming of the conclusion I'd come to myself, the obvious way to act (or non-act) when things are complicated and not as straight forward as pink, vegan meringues. Which is keeping it simple, trust the gut and the process. Not forcing things, what is meant to be will be. That now embraced notion has served me well all this year, I'm done with being impatient. - Although I still believe impatience is what drives change and growth. Still, a time and place for everything... And I gave myself a promise last year which I'm not about to break. It's a simple question of pride.

Then we laughed a lot too - about that list of what we look for in an ideal partner we've all had at some point or other (and if you say you haven't I say you're a liar). The list that doesn't mean a thing (or at least not very much, your basic values are still the same) when the right one appears. (In fact you might even get moments of realising, why on earth didn't I know this was just what I needed and wanted?) And about the importance of intellectual challenge, humour and laughter. Friends like that are worth their weight in gold.

Later that evening my mother said
- Can I say something without you getting angry?
- Sure.
- *Insert a sentence that turned me into 50 shades of red*

She is clearly so much more insightful than I give her credit for sometimes - yes we should start a YouTube channel pod... Darling little mum.

Today she said something else that made me think a lot about my own behaviour of just being strong and comfortable in myself. I know she's right. And as unfortunate as it might be in some aspects it's also not something that I'm the least bit interested in changing at this reputable age reached. And most of all, if I tried to I wouldn't be true to myself. Which is so very important. And I'd much rather be myself than a unicorn actually. And it isn't a bad thing at all, but it's really interesting that it took all these years to get it. Hello, Eureka moment, I've been a bit clueless. For a very long time.

And after all these love related ramblings I'll leave you with a really sweet movie tip "What if?" - hipster alert high but also with a very clever dialogue, humour and lots of cuteness. Watched it again last weekend. This weekend I've heard it's going to rain lots and lots, so I think a caturday well spent would be watching and laughing at "Bridget Jones's Diary" for the umpteenth time. Accompanied by many cups of tea, snacks and cats. And possibly reminiscing on how close I was to that praiseworthy wet shirt of Mr Darcy a few months ago. As one does now and then.

homage to the wind and the heart

Whilst the original grief recovery process ended last week, we've decided to work with another unfinished relationship to get into a different mindshift, which will be so useful in life from here on. Admittedly I struggled to find one important enough to process, the only one which I apparently isn't as over as I thought - given my reaction to something on my Instagram feed some weeks ago - is my crushed professional long lasting dream of innocent.

But even if one can grief process that as such it felt a bit awkward and silly - though I have promised myself to never ever feel so passionate about a brand again that I allow it to actually crush my heart a bit - so I settled for a friendship that ended abruptly some years ago. In a hurtful, unexpected way but still not something I really dwell over since people are weird sometimes. And why they say and act in certain ways has nothing to do with you, but them and their experiences.

I think we all felt much much calmer today after saying farewell to so much pain last week. It was much more a matter of fact to read and share today. We were all grounded and empowered.

And for some reason - not only because it was a distinct autumny feeling in the air alas - I decided to wear this organic cotton sweater I got some years ago which never really has felt appropriate to wear - and not only because it's beige, analyze that if you will... - with a quote that resonated so much in me when I saw it back then. And still does.

The heart is a compass. And so is the gut feeling. (Also, today was a great hair day, despite the dreaded greys...)

It was so lovely to hear how much we could relate to eachother today, the way we look at relationships and the importance of communication. Again, I'm so very grateful to have met these women. One of life's little miracles. You are not alone.

Which brings me to the wind homage of this post. We're in it together.

These days most commercials leave me either completely uninterested or really annoyed, angry even. Very, very few make me happy, touch me or leave me in awe. But there are some precious exceptions to that rule of indifference and annoyance. And this is one. The Swedish energy company E.on produced a brilliant TV commercial this spring with ingredients that actually brought me to tears.

For you who have read this blog for some time, you know about my love for wind turbines. Fields of wind turbines, wind farms, row upon row of them on hills, in the sea, they are mesmerizingly beautiful to me.

In fact, tall, strong, confident and environmental friendly, one of these gentle giants would make the perfect partner in my book of ideals. Well, at least if it weren't for the not so minor details that the conversations would be very onesided as would the meals, plus zero cuddles to be expected. Oh, I digress.

The ingredients in this commercial that blew me away - no pun intended, really - were;

- the beautiful filming and storytelling
- that they managed to make such a beautiful, melancholic version of a really cheesy, awful Eurovision song contest winner (Fångad av en stormvind/Caught by a heavy gale) that captured both the mood and the energy source perfectly. (The artist that sings is actually the woman in the commercial.)
- the fact that you can apparently go up in the turbines and stand there on top of the world of gentle giants. Yes I know it's for installing, repairing and maintenance, but still I would absolutely love to do it. It went straight onto my dreamy bucket list of things to experience.




You can see the making of the commercial and other clips on YouTube, which will paint a fuller, not so glamourous, picture of it. And needless to say, "Fångad av en stormvind" with El perro del mar is currently one of my absolute favourites on Spotify since a few months.

Thank you heart. Thank you wind. Much love.

happy friday ~

Again and again I've said that one of many good things with running your own business is that you can usually decide when to work and when to have a day off all by yourself. No need to be chained to the desk 9-5 Monday to Friday. Every day is like any day, I work Saturdays or Sundays, sometimes half the day and sometimes I even take a day off in the middle of the week etc etc and so forth. So I don't really look forward to weekends, because any day can be a day off for me. Or on days.

That said, this week has been quite a full one. Both good and bad. So I'm really rather looking forward to the weekend this time. Outings, gardens, flowers, castles and fika are planned for. And the mundane task of vacuuming.

I've also decided, for now, that I won't try to grasp people's strange behaviours. I prefer watching pandas playing on a slide. Which is, believe it or not, rather addictive to watch.

And if you've missed this brilliant IKEA commercial about the powerful bookBook - go watch right away.

You might also enjoy listening to George Ezra's Budapest or Leaving it up to you - what an amazing voice he has...

Don't forget you grow and learn by saying yes to new, unexpected and sometimes awkward things - I love the notion of being a surprisologist! You get lots of good advice how to become one in the article. Why not take the opportunity to try someof the things this weekend? I'm sure that would bring more awesome into your life.

Happiest of weekend one and all!

the silly littering season

Also known as election in Sweden-time. Gosh, I truly loath election campaign posters - above one not included in that hate though, it's the Animal Party's poster, it's darling and a much needed party in politics obviously. For all the innocent voices that can't make themselves heard.

But for the rest, here's my reasons for loath



a) the ridiculous amount of money (millions) spent on them could have gone to something decent and world improving. It's about high time politicians and public sector employees in charge treated public finances as if it were there their own personal money. This devil-may-care attitude with vast amounts of money is both maddening and scary.

b) you will not get anyone to change an opinion or vote for your party due to campaign posters. For that they will have to be extremly clever and unique. Which brings us to the next point... >

c) the slogans and copy is most often of embarrassingly low quality. Someone has gotten paid for coming up with all this stupidity. Someone has approved it. Facepalm.

d) not only a complete waste of money, it's also a waste of paper AND littering of a blatant, appalling kind. Every election the same thing happen - apparently campaign workers who eagerly put the rubbish up haven't got the energy or inclination to take them down and put them in a recycle bin.

e) this year (especially from the right wing parties) there's a spiteful and predjudical tendency of playing the blame game with atrocity propaganda. Also on said posters.

Ridiculous and laughable, there are indeed reasons for disgust of politicians. Hey stupid, I'm not the least bit interested in what you think the other phalanx MIGHT do, I'm only interested in what YOU can do better. Newsflash: There's a vast difference between mindless mudthrowing and the meeting of arguments with facts in a debate. Yes, the foolishness of politicians can indeed be ungraspable...

If possible I would vote for the party that doesn't have any campaign posters. As if.

Can't wait for the election to be over (September 14).
Can't wait for a new government to step in after 8 years of abusive leadership which has most effectively dismantled the welfare society turning Sweden into a cold, harsh, uncaring society to live in. Can't wait for a more environmental and gender equality progressive, animal and human friendly government to be installed.
Because that's desperately needed.
Whilst campaign posters are not.

to be overwhelmed with dog joy and other important snippets

From the daily weather cat, to the strawberry cake weather report to the daily weather hedgehog, slowly, slowly slightly cooler weather. What can I say, it's easy to be a bit obsessive with weather when you never seem to get a proper night's sleep due to the heat...


:: Today I'm contemplating the fact that a year ago today I was part of a really lovely event revolving around something I'm very passionate about. Truly madly deeply I worked wished wanted for that to evolve into something substantial, long-term, beneficial and profitable for everyone involved. Still waiting for that to happen.


:: This might be one of the the most endearing articles and movie clips I've seen in a long long time - Dog faints being overwhelmed with joy after being reunited with her owner. Tissues close at hand because you will both cry and laugh seeing this (and you might need earplugs too, because the excited dog's whimpering is loud).


:: I love these sort of projects, like the London Wildlife Trust. Sadly not something you see in Sweden/Stockholm, where (city) life seems to be about building more roads to accomodate even more cars and tearing down the old to build something new but far from always something better. Rarely do we hear something about preservation, eco-friendliness and caring for the city co-dwellers. As usual every other being should only co-exist if it can do so without inconvenience for the human specie. So many humans seem so utterly silly and ungraspably stupid, like from another planet of pure selfishness and ignorance.


:: Also cats can wait and long to be reunited with their humans, but they mostly do so in a moer dignified way - 30 melancholic cats wait for their humans to return


:: I may not be a fan of IKEA, but this collaboration with animal shelters in order to get people to adopt rescue dogs is so so so much awesome! I hope it'll spread to more stores all over the world.


:: Feed the vending machine with plastic bottles for recycling, feed stray dogs - another great initiative for dogs. Although, just like in Athens, my heart aches for those dogs without a home. All because of humans irresponsible behaviour. Again.


:: This is certainly a powerful campaign by the WWF regarding the heartbreaking rising numbers of poaching of endangered species - Stop one, stop them all. In 2014 the world really is still full of heartless and stupid people.


:: And while we're at the subject great campaigns that make you think, take a look at these brilliant ads that actually have something important to say.




Some days, for a brief moment, it's actually possible for two hedgehogs to share one food bowl. One might then think that humans, with a much larger brain that's said to be able to grasp much more complex questions and reasonings, would be able to live a more peaceful, compassionate, kind and insightful life. Most days I thoroughly question that capability.

express pedi

Taking good care of your feet is essential, but to be honest, the scrubbing and foot filing isn't the most fun of things to do. And even if it's lovely to go have a pedicure at a salon regularly the taking care of feet business is something you need to do at home too.

So when I saw the TV campaign for this electric hard skin remover from Scholl it was admittedly one of very few commercials that enticed me to buy. And finally I did so today.

Haven't used it yet. I'm still contemplating whether I'll have any feet left to walk on after using it. Perhaps I get so excited I will just continue to buzz it over the feet and hey presto the bone will be visible and I bet that will take ages to grow back into walk mode.

Or not. I'm sure it'll be fine. I will update this post after usage. Feet or no feet.

Have you used this device?
Is it a good gadget?
Pros and cons?

abba cat tram-spotting

Oh the excitement I felt when I first spotted this awesome tram last week... Admittedly, I did scream with delight. I loved these cat dresses of Agnetha and Frida when I was a kid, I still do. I do, I do, I do, I do, I do.



Today I spent 45 minutes trying to get some decent pictures of it (one of a kind-tram apparently). Such a great, simple (sort of) and effective (seemingly, because surely I can't be the only one feeling such excitement seeing it?) campaign for the ABBA-museum. I definitely prompts me to (finally) go visit the place. And it's such a happiness instigating design.





Cats really are very effective in campaigns, on- or offline both. Obviously.





Of course this would be an awesome advertising spot for any brand really. Trams, my favourite type of public transportation, are obviously not only great to travel in. You can also use their exterior showing off fab things in most creative ways.

stockholm ad campaigns

Maybe I see things differently these days, but I distinctly feel there are more fun, inspiring, cute, witty and pretty ad campaigns in Stockholm right now than ever before. I may not be the least bit interested in the product as such, but I can still enjoy a lovely picture, great design, snappy copywriting or smile about some silly wittiness.

So here are a few recent ad spottings that I've smiled about, for various reasons -



Creamy potato salad for easy summer living - fun picture, but I can definitely do without the product. Personally I shy away from semi-cooked food like this and I can't help but thinking of the TEDx talk last week about food additives and adulterated food...



Love the graphic designs in this campaign for the care-guide (Vårdguiden)! The place where you call if you're worried about some seemingly minor injury or condition but you're not sure if you can care for it yourself or need to see a doctor. The girl above is from the same campaign.



A bit of magic in this pretty ad for Tom Tit's Experiment - a popular museum/science centre for all ages some miles south of Stockholm. More great photos at their website.



Obviously something LEGO-ish, but since I'm not really a LEGO-ish person I'm not sure for exactly what. But it looks cool.



I love me a good pun and this is a silly simple Swenglish one, yoghurt sauces for barbecues "Think Hink!" means Think Bucket due to the sauces being sold in plastic jars.

Although nothing is as super adorable as the bunny campaign of course...

lager than life, bunny's juice and other campaigns

Four marketing campaigns that have caught my eye lately, in a good way - though as usual, good advertising doesn't mean the companies/products are enjoyable.

First one is quite probably the cutest one I've seen in a long, long time. Even if cats rule everything (including the internetz) you can get a long, long way with using a poster bunny. It's a campaign for organic juices containing carrots and beetroots. Being a carrot lover and second to that a beetroot head I had to try them of course.



But sadly
a) they're made from concentrates - and when you either can buy fruit juices that are actually made from pure fruit which taste lovely or use your fab juicer there's no reason whatsoever to buy this stuff.
b) they don't taste very good at all.

Conclusion: a cute bunny campaign will only get you so far, when your product doesn't deliver in quality and taste not even the bunny will save you. Nor will the "organic" stamp.





Second one is a great one, with a simple message that make you think. And for a good cause. Instead of all these endless diet campaigns for loosing weight - when we all know that eat healthy and well, do a spot of exercising and consume less calories than you use is a pretty basic and sound way of doing it, should you want to - this one says "Gain weight and stay there!" and "Natural weight gain!". "The Oxfam-method, now in 94 countries". A simple and effective way to get an important message out there. I like it a lot. I hope lots of others do to.



Third one. I adore a good pun. And if it's in Swenglish it might be even better. Although granted I know it's not everyone's cup of tea - and there is a vast difference between clever Swenglish and ridiculous. Unfortunately a lot of Swedish commercials fall into the annoyingly ridiculous Swenglish category these days - contrary to popular belief, not every Swede understands English and appreciate mixed messages (pun intended).

But I, I do appreciate this goofy one, for a low cost petrol station chain - "Billig and proud" = "Cheap och stolt". Corny and fun. Not that it would entice me to fill my car (if I had one) at their stations, but I can enjoy a simple silly copy-thing anyway. And good colours.

Fourth one. It's a music video for a discount chain for home electronics, warehouse style, called NetOnNet. When I need something electronicky (like a red vacuum or replacing a stolen iPhone) I often get it there, no need to pay for fancy storage or staff when you can pick what you want from a warehouse shelf.

Their latest campaign is called "Lager than life", lager = warehouse in Swedish, so this video is all about a clever pun. And of course it's a paraphrase of the Backstreet Boys' old tune "Larger than life". I chuckled a lot over it initially, "how silly, five guys imitating Backstreet Boys, but in a rather entertaining way..." - before I realised it was indeed the Backstreet Boys themselves singing and dancing dressed as warehouse workers. Now I can't stop watching the video and chuckle even more about it.

Because
a) did they get a ridiculous sum of money for doing it? or
b) are they so out of musical fashion they need to do this kind of stuff to pay the bills?
If it's a) I do hope they gave the money to charitable causes.

Now go watch it and chuckle. Nb the hilariously absurd choreography details of the background "dancers". Pretty sure they must have had great fun recording the whole thing. Because I'm totally entertained in a flabbergasted kind of way.

the such financial very buy campaign

Remember the informative and fun stickers campaign on the Stockholm commuter trains? Of course the highs and lows of commuting continues, but one thing that has definitely gotten better is the information you get in their campaigns.

Like this current and quite awesome one for the summer season ticket (you get four months May - August but only pay for three months), which apparently is Such financial Very buy Many summer So travel Wow Much cheap and enjoyed by dogs. Hilarious and smile/giggle inducing. I wish more campaigns in general could be like this, informative, fun, clever, simple and unpretentious. What a wonderful world it would be...

cat, pony and pug ad

If my new internet provider wasn't already 3 Three I'd seriously consider switching to them after seeing these silly, hilariously adorable ads (very few commercials can instigate such urges in me...). I especially can't stop looking at the dancing pony one. Go watch, it will cheer up any kind of day!

Sing It Kitty

Dance Pony Dance

Pug one

Pug two

laughing matters

I think the articles worth reading posts are a pretty great and unpretentious way to share good readings, thoughts and inspiration. But I have been saving up a whole lot of those since last August and don't feel very inclined to look through them and sort the really special ones into a post.

Thus I will only share a few reads/photos which all either, in their own crazy ways, made me laugh until I cried or made me go all soft and mushy due to sweetness galore. Ie they're not thoughtprovoking or enlightening as such, they are simply hilarious or very endearing. And all of us need a regular dose of hilarious and/or heartwarming in our lives.

A really good laugh makes an already great day even better and gives a blue one a silver lining of light. So does sweetness. Enjoy!

~ Dog shaming - hilarious

~ Cat shaming - since cats are generally more well-behaved than dogs (well...) you might not cry just as much of laughter over this one, still great fun though

~ Big bag of gummy bears customer reviews - overdosing on sugar free candy does have a laxative effect, in case you didn't know...

~ Men and cats in similar poses - something for everyone here

~ Grandma and her odd eyed cat - precious

~ Child animal whisperers photos - magical

the woman and her dog ad

I adore this photo! Possibly because I can relate to it on so many levels. It's a German ad for Philips TV - I have only a very vague idea what the text says, but if a photo alone could sell a product to me this would certainly be one of those rare occasions.

It would be fun to try and recreate the picture if it weren't for these reasons;

- there's no little loaf around to pose anymore
- the cats would never ever pose like this (I can hear them laugh at the notion alone)
- I never dress this stylish at home (and I doubt a fleece housecoat that looks like a horrific English flower pattern broadloom would create the same snappy impact)
- I hate having my picture taken

Do you have a favourite photo in an advertisment?

stickers on the commuter train

adore these happy stickers on the stockholm commuter train. i'm guessing they're a part of a refresh the train (better late than never) campaign.

1. the little guy on the door shows that you should push the button in order to open the door (to save energy and air condition).

2. 'kontaktsökande?' looking for a contact? a few (too few) seats have a charge for your mobile/computer.

3. 'psst' - put larger bags here

4. in this wagon all seats have new covers. a part of refreshing the commuter  trains 30000 seats.

5. head in the clouds, feet on the ground (ie not on the seats)

6. little happy rainbow guy (possibly a sticker for the recent stockholm pride week).

smiley happy people!