the diy book chair

One of the cutest, most brilliant armchairs I've ever seen! Spotted in a bookstore and such a great inspiration for a DIY, wouldn't you agree?

Discarded and thrifted books, and wood, together they get a new life as a chair, table or some other furniture. And if you haven't decided on the perfect Christmas gift yet, well it's high time to get building!

the kränku tea advent calendar 2015

Last year I bought a bunch of lovely Christmassy teas from Swedish tea and coffee merchant Kränku and I would have loved to have their annual tea advent calendar, but like other years before I missed it because it's pretty much immediately snapped up by tea lovers.

This year I signed up on a reminder-list and was emailed before release date (November 1st) so I didn't miss out. Contains 24 different teas of theirs for 48 cups. Smells wonderful, but I won't open it until December 1st - it'll be such a lovely daily procedure until Christmas Eve!

And I'm thinking it's such a great DIY idea - if you buy 24 different teas of choice you can make quite a few tea advent calenders to give away to tea-loving friends and family for December.

diy foot or bath salt

Seven years ago (!) I attended a December event at Rosendal's Garden to learn about how to make your own natural skincare products. It was lovely, but admittedly I have not practised a lot of the things we learnt. Apart from a few foot and bath salts I've given as gifts.

It had been a long long time since I last made one when I suddenly realised I had every ingredient home already to make a jar of it - it's basically, as I remembered it, the same ingredients in both foot and bath salt depending on what you want them to achieve and which herbs and essential oils you use.

I gave this jar as a little homemade, sweet-scented birthday gift to my friend over our brunch and this is what ingredients I used:

:: sea salt
:: dried mint
:: dried rose petals
:: drops of organic essential oils - orange, ginger, cardamom

Mix in a pleasing to the eye way in a clear jar (glass or plastic) with a secure lid. It smells wonderful, and with these essential oils very Christmassy. 

Happy pottering!

a wall of diy mosaic

In the toilet at the pizzeria Dammstugan The Pond Cottage), situated at Wenngarn castle (where we picked sunflowers and met adorable pigs), they have a pretty fabulous wall. 

A mosaic wall made of old, crushed plates and porcelain items. Happy and inspirational, a great way to upcycle old pottery. And of course even if the impact is greater with a large wall this will be a fine kind of DIY on smaller objects too.

when a rag rug meets a sunlounger

Spotted this in a shop window display recently and I have to say I think it's pretty brilliant in all it's simplicity.

Many of us who have inherited old rag rugs and even if they are beautiful not all of us are inclined to cover our floors in rugs. Luckily there are many good ways to use them and this is one.

Sunlounger + rag rug = true.

lunch at lotus lounge in berlin

Such  lovely looking and neat idea for a garden diy

Not only did we use the Happy Cow-guide for recommended vegan and vegetarian places in Berlin this time, Yelp is there to help now too. And this is a place that got great reviews on Yelp, the Lotus Lounge. It's apparently part of a Tibetan buddist centre and it was for that reason a bit tricky to find from the street. But finally we did and happily so.



It was a perfect day to sit in the peaceful and colourful outdoors seating in the garden. As so often found in Berlin, a peaceful haven just a stone's throw from a highly trafficed (in this case 6 laned) road. A little fountain trinkling, birds chirping, children's laughters from a nearby daycare.





Beautiful food, wouldn't you agree?



M chose a spicy vegan curry, lots of flavour and a pretty salad. While I chose a fresh beetroots and fried polenta dish with an equally pretty and tasty salad. For dessert (one of sadly few desserts in Berlin actually, the food was too filling to give room for desserts alas) we shared a nice brownie.





The all vegetarian menu (with vegan options) was quite extensive and their cakes looked delicious. The staff was friendly and the place had a really nice ambiance. Highly recommend a visit if you happen to be in Berlin.

colouring books for grown-ups

Ever since I read about the phenomena of colouring books for adults I've wanted one. Because it's all about COLOURS and imagination and you don't have to be good at drawing to create the finishing touches to something magical. Seems like a perfect combination of relaxation and inspiration. And simple joy.

There are many different ones out there these days but I really wanted the "Enchanted forest" or "Secret garden" by Joanna Basford. Unfortunately they seem to be sold out wherever I've looked for them. But today I just happened to stumble over them. And "Enchanted forest" came home with me. Plus a batch of 24 gorgeous colouring pencils. Although it's highly likely I will be scouting for even more hues some time soon.

Can't wait to have the time to get started with the colouring!

Have you tried it? 
Did you like it?

diy bird feeder

Spotted this pretty darn fabulous diy birdfeeder at Alsta gardens last weekend. What a great way to use old pottery, ceramics, whatever beads you have lying around etc. Only your imagination is the limit to what can be created. I see bird feeders or bird baths, but I'm sure the creations can be used as hanging "baskets" for fruit, bathroom stuff or holders for all sorts of trinkets and treasures. Very inspirational, wouldn't you agree?



I do believe I need to raid the nearest thrift store for old plates and bowls asap. And I have lots of glass beads since my jewellery making days that I won't use for jewellery again - when I get my jewellery making mojo back, I'm thinking it might have gone on an extended holiday in company with my reading mojo - which would be lovely to use for these creations instead of chunky wooden ones.



A selection of previous birdfeeders in my garden are

~ the apple hook - a disappointment
~ the dotty one - pretty to look at
~ the red moomin house - bird success!
~ the white moomin house - success too!

cute as a button

seems like button and button-shapes are everywhere these days. the button stool (which i'm still very pleased over having.)

and now button fridge magnets and a peace pendant. both the latter are in fact great diy projects! something to spend some time potter with during this long, glorious easter weekend perhaps?

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!

peace scarf

Quite quite smitten by this peace scarf I saw in a shop recently. With a price not for my wallet right now. But inspirational and easy to recreate something similiar yourself. I think I'll go looking for some organic muslin cotton - and I would so prefer it in some pastel colour than white anyway -, sew a scarf and stamp some potato print peace signs on it. Sounds like a fun project to me!