my cosmo geek week, part II

As a creative I need to replenish inspiration, energy and joy regularly to feel and perform as best as possible. Luckily I'm pretty easily inspired by little things around me - as well as unfortunately easily caught by the Weltschmerz notion, given the world situation in general and people's ungraspable and un-compassionate behaviours. Though always grateful for my "grounded in happiness" personality - but sometimes you need something with extra oomph.

Such as a museum visit, a great conversation or a long walk in pretty surroundings. Given the icy streets these past couple of months (!) there hasn't been a lot of walking alas, but museums are great. Especially when you get to experience so many lovely, inspired works of art that your heart kind of overflows by awness.

Granted I rarely get a lot of that when visiting the annual spring art salon (since 1921) at museum Liljevalchs. I just find the level of quality and originality of the chosen art pieces to be crazy varied, more than half of them seems like silly nursery style jokes. Also this year the quality level varied a lot, but I saw more lovely pieces than I'd ever done before.

As I wrote in my part I post, my number one favourite was, which I obviously can relate to on a very profound level, "Kerstin shall save all the animals" by Kristina Nilsdotter (her mother is the model). But some other favourites were these -


German philosophers with cats by Gabriel Jonsson


Rabbit with carrot by Simon Fergin - crocheted with recycled T-shirts


The bulldog Rolf by Mari Juslin - partly made with old nylon stockings


Explorers by Olof Astrup Hällqvist


Breath in - breath out, a year with yoga by Stefan Bennedahl - 365 clay figures in yoga positions


Parts of them by Therese Isabelle Olsson


The Introvert House by Sofia Runarsdotter (photography)


Snow leopard, ghost of the mountain by Emelie Bäcklin - sculpture in faux fur


The Pig mother by Mathias Lyngman


Academy member by Monika Eriksson - I think its the spitting image of Allyce Beasley, but it's suppose to be Sara Danius, the permament secretary of the Swedish Academy.

 
Fir tree by Leif Engström


Sculptures by Mari Pårup


I wish I was beautiful as a swan, could fly and wear red high heels by Vanja Jonebring Arnell


Station 9 (paper babies) by Bea Szenfeld (Swedish fashion designer who is also vegan)


A cherry kissing herself by Kristina Brandeus Kirkkopelto



All this creativity and quirkiness, such happiness!

:: Which brings me to another cause of happiness of mine. Namely these little tykes, Sonny Angels. Inspired by the American Kewpie doll this Japanese collector's doll is a wee cherub, an angel boy - with all his little bits on full cheeky display for some reason. I wonder why it isn't a gender neutral doll or at least half of them boys half girls - with quirky headgear and sometimes upper body clothes (like Donald Duck). It is said to bring good luck, comfort, protection and happiness. I can certainly vouch for the latter at least.

Just like the darling bobbaloos they are lovely little photo props. Though since they're made of not wool but plastic - which is a material I usually shy away from as an environmentalist, but... - they can jump into liquids and food and be easily cleaned afterwards. Plus they don't need to travel in a special hard case, but a soft pouch will do. 

The last time I welcomed new arrivals to the Scandinavian bobbaloo settlement I alas had to pay a hefty postal and customs fee, which granted was really unfortunate after all these years of uncomplicated delight. Many of my bobs have been through a lot of adventures over the years and are *a bit* shabby, so they have been retired from most commitments. And the talented maker Kit doesn't seem to be making new bobs anymore. Thus obsession of fondness for little happy, colourful beings have been shifted to these angelic guys.

I got my first one about four years ago, a carrot headgear (of course). Followed by cherry blossom (naturally) and morning glory. Then I won an Instagram competion (like I do, now and then) a year ago. And I suppose that was the start of my obsession of fondness for them. A perfect treat for yourself when you've accomplished something great. Or need a comfort treat for that matter.

Sonny Angels come in 9 regular series, with 12 dolls in each. 4 animal series, 1 vegetable series, 1 fruit, 1 marine, 1 flower and the latest one, sweets. Plus they have different special series now and then, like chocolate, Ladurée, Happy birthday, Easter, Halloween, Valentine, Christmas. In every series there are additional secret Sonnys that are more 'valuable' and very hard to find. The angels are supposed to be bought in blindpack in every series. Which means you never know what you pay for ie can get the exact same one again and again and again... 

I've been lucky enough to find and bought most of mine as display figures, which is great. I have some series full and have been even more lucky to get my hands on a few secret Sonnys. I still can't believe I found the very illusive secret unicorn. Still waiting for my smashing good luck and fortunate events to come knocking big time though.

Until that happens I enjoy the company of these wee angels, the inspiration and simple everyday joy they bring. Which help keep me healthily silly, young at heart and in mind.



:: Refilling my travel card last week I ended up doing that with a very chatty ticket collector. Who exclaimed "What a funky jacket you have! Where is it from? My wife would love it! She shops a lot at Gudrun Sjödén." I really hope one wouldn't mistake my fabulous happy Marimekko Pienipioni coat for a Sjödén coat. As grateful and happy as I am for my Schwarzwald trip, I obviously do enjoy the odd garment from her now and then, I also have issues with the brand concerning a lot of other things. Not least her recent appalling views on women's financial status in society, lack of insight in power structures and feminism, link to article in Swedish.

Still, grateful for the unexpected, kind compliment, as always.



:: Three years ago I got a second set of the irresistable Happy lights. It took until last week for me to assemble it. Oh, procrastination. I was so pleased to finally get it done. Tured out though that alas a) the colours of the pretty balls, in colours I had so carefully chosen, weren't at all the same colours lit up as unlit. Too red and warm for my liking, b) the danger of them becoming irresistable kitty toys is imminent. Have survived one night, I sincerely hope that is how it will stay.



:: It took 2 years until I got a buddy match via the Kompis Sverige integration project. And then it took us a couple of months to have our first meetup. But now we've had one, my new friend and I. A long vegan lunch and fika accompanied by a lot of talking. At one of my favourite cafes, Älskade Traditioner. My new friend is a vegetarian teacher from China. Our conversation involved many of my favourite topics, like vegan food, religion vs kindness, philosophy, culture, education, love, books and languages. 

Looking forward to meeting her again, think it'll be a museum visit on the agenda next time. If the weather hasn't picked up, allowing outdoors activities. It'll be great to follow her progress in Swedish too, given we only talk in English for now, easier that way.

:: Rounding off part II of my cosmo geek week post with being immensely grateful that all my latest proteges in my coaching gig have now started their respective internship at different companies. All that hard work put in + companies genuinly interested in helping = the warm and fuzzy feeling again. I'm sure they will have great 12 weeks internships, looking forward to meeting them all again in early June. 

Having finished the major part of this gig I am now open for new gigs and jobs again. As I said I will be braver this year and open to other opportunities than I've concider before, without losing the importance of being true to myself, I've actually applied for some interesting full-time jobs too. Hopefully and fingers crossed I'll at least get a couple of interviews from that. It's about high time I find my kind of people now too. Really.

I also firmly believe that there are a lot of companies out there in dire need of a Chief Happiness Officer who also take introverts' needs seriously. Do get in touch, I'm here to help!

do you want to sign up for a novella subscription?

My friends at Novellix publishing company - which I wrote about on World Book Day - got in touch with a fun offer for my friends - and that of course includes you, dear lurking blog readers -

If you sign up for a novella subscription before May 10, 2015 and use the code "prosit" when you check out you will get 50 SEK discount! All books are written in Swedish, a subscription costs 99 SEK for 3 months (and you only have to subscribe for as long as you want) - and you will get new short stories written by Hans Gunnarsson, Ann Heberlein, Jonas Karlsson och Khashayar Naderehvandi.

Free P&P within Sweden, 59 SEK for the rest of Europe. You will find more details (in Swedish) at the Novellix website.

I really recommend these novellas, for all the reasons I previously mentioned. I'm also thinking they would be great little reads for anyone who's studying Swedish. And who knows, maybe you'll find your new favourite writer in the subscription?

PS. The subscription packaging is simple, unpretentious, just like a little paper bag full of sweets for grown ups! DS

how well do you know your swedish?

Remember the English test? 

Yesterday the actual Swedish scholastic aptitude test took place at universities in Sweden. And this was/is the comprehension part. Like with the English test it isn't rocket science, getting 20/20 isn't such an achievement for a native Swede. Still flaunt it if you're good (without the help of Google of course). And oh the shame if I hadn't had 100%... 

If it had been math I would most likely have had a rubbish result. Not flaunted.

Had an online discussion with someone about the result, that she doubted "as much" as 19% had all correct answers given the rather depressing result in general when it comes to Swedes comprehension and reading these days. That many of the 100% probably had cheated with Google.

Speaking for myself only I would not see the least bit point of doing that, if I'm not great at comprehension (or any other part) I wouldn't bother with showing the result. But then again I'm not a person who lie about my achievements or in my CV. What's the point? Most of us are good at something and less good at other stuff. Flaunt the good stuff and skip the rest. But then again (again), there is such a thing as inferiority complex and people who just have to show good results always, cheating is just a part of an imaginary game.

Which simply is a sad sad thing.

10 things to refill your happiness account

I don't watch the Eurovision Song Contest (not my cup of tea for a gazillion reasons), but if it was like this always I might reconsider. Watch the viral success of the Swedish sign language interpreter doing his fabulous thing during the show last Saturday here - if you haven't done so already. It will put you in an instant happy mode. Promise. It's most likely the peak of Swedish public service television.

When people talk to brands on Twitter. Oh the stupidity. Oh the cleverness.

I bet you don't love your banana as much as this rescued fruit bat - I know I don't.

Cats as kittens, cats now. Adorable always.

Oh why do I never find a koala trying to drive my car?!
Because a) I don't have a car and b) I live in a sadly void of koalas country.

Fill your office with cats and improve health and productivity - it's such a obvious thing, crazy that noone (except us with home offices) have figured that out before!

Men and their cats - so much awesomeness in these pictures. And loving your cat/s or any other animal has never been crazy, just totally cool, lovable and right.

Tourism posters being improved by Yelp reviews - because honestly, sometimes the must-sees aren't all that fun to see or visit.

A beautiful dog and owl friendship.

More people should include their (rescued) pets in their official portraits.

how good is your english?

the swedish morning paper dagens nyheter (the daily news) recently published an english test consisting of 12 varied questions, spelling, grammar and comprehension. partly taken from the actual annual scholastic aptitude test, partly new questions. i couldn't resist taking it when i saw that only 3% had gotten 100%. with more than 50000 swedes having done so, it had to be difficult, right?

it wasn't rocket science. in fact it was nowhere near so. i'm gobsmacked only (now counting me) 4% got 12/12 right. obviously we aren't as good in english like we pride ourselves to be. if the test is anything to go by.

oh the shame, the humiliation if i hadn't been one of the 4% ones...

the yelp queen of smultronställen on instagram

I was touched to be asked to reign the Yelp Stockholm Instagram account - @yelpstockholm - for this week (July 7 - 13), of course I said yes! In my role as the Yelp queen of smultronställen (and a Yelp Elite) I'm showing glimpses of my Stockholm there, my smultronställen (plur). *As if she doesn't do that quite enough from her own Instagram account...* I have to say that the trickiest thing is to be selective and boil down lots of great moments and captures to one snap a day... oh dear.

Today was the hottest day in a long long time - the temperature moaning in June seems awfully far away... - and one of my fine moments of the day was having ice-cream at 18 smaker (18 flavours), my favourite ice-cream spot in Stockholm. Organic and always at least two vegan flavours to chose from. Today my choices were dark chocolate sorbet and liquorice soy, both awesome. And the snap of the day was this two-in-one -



Organic, colourful, Stockholm, bobbaloo, something sweet and vegan options. Pretty pleased with my choice for the first day. And so were the bobbaloos.



PS One and a half year ago I became the Yelp Queen of Stockholm, and I've hold on to the crown since. Rather impressive if I may say so myself. Last week I lost it though, I don't check in and I don't write as many reviews as I used to so I'm fine with that. Rather relaxing in fact. The queen has abdicated, long live the queen DS

fredagsmys with my hedgehog bästis

I couldn't resist going a bit Swenglish, because there's really no way to translate "fredagsmys" into English with quite the same corny ring to it - but basically it means tgif, let's have a cosy time with snacks in front of the telly as coined by a Swedish chips-company many years ago. And "bästis" means chum.

And today I did have a bit of fredagsmys with my chum, Hedgehog 2014 - aka the alternate board member who enters and crash - s/he with cat crunchies, me with strawberries, vegan vanilla icecream and a rather fabulous miniature version of coconut tops.





To be honest I was probably the one enjoying the company the most. S/he had an expression of 'it would be rather nice to be able to eat uninterrupted for once'.



And then s/he fell asleep in the food bowl. Eating can apparently be an exhausting business. Just as board meetings.



Enter hedgehog numero two - there are at least three of them, but they usually take turns or visit different food corners at the Hedgehog DropInn - and there was a bit of a prickly beef. Because of course you can't eat from different bowls.



And one went upside down, like someone always do, and I had a serious awwwness moment. Look at that nose, those paws, those tiny claws and all the furry bits...



Luckily the hedgehog cat patrol was nearby, always at service, and things were soon sorted.

All and all a pretty eventful evening in chez Prosit. And sweet.
Just as I hope your weekend will be,
have a great one!

6 articles to kick your week in the right direction

"To be honest I prefer to concentrate on outdoors grass binge and indoors purge, but apparently I'm suppose to present this as a blog post with interesting articles and such - go forth and read!"

:: If you can pronounce this (long) poem correctly you're supposedly better at speaking English than 90 % of the native English speakers in the world. Not sure about that - especially as most of us don't have a stickler of native English speaker listening to us reading it out loud - but it was indeed rather fun AND laboursome to read through.

:: A study that show smaller buildings are better for the city and its inhabitants - read more here. No surprise really, charming, walkable quarters with a blend of old and new are always more interesting, pleasing to the eye and buzz with creativity in general. Just wish more politicians and builders could grasp that...

:: Three words you shouldn't say about yourself - ah, modesty is a rather fine feature you know...

:: On the subject clever marketing I think this is a really great way to combine marketing with a hands on experience with possible long term benefits for people/customers and the environment - El Naturalista offered free walking coach sessions in Madrid while wearing El Naturalista shoes. In order to reconnect with nature as a therapeutic resource for city folks who may have developed a Nature Deficit Disorder. An overall awesome way to get a message out there, wouldn't you agree?

:: The book "Change Marketers" (not published as a paper book yet unfortunately) by José Carlos Leon talks about how brands should be agents of change and that the marketing department ought to be the engine in businesses to lead social changes. Action speaks louder than words, this is why some brands tick a lot of lovely boxes for me. I am so getting a copy of this book!

:: Animals always tick a lot of lovely boxes for me too. And how fabulastic and brilliant is this - What if animals took selfies? My cats may be a clever bunch, but I don't see them doing anything like this any time soon. Which probably is a good thing really...

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...

height is the new size and other lessons learnt in budapest

Here follow some interesting things I learnt in Budapest;



1. That it's apparently important to (some) men to be a few centimetres taller, that one can become that in a "very discreet and natural way" (with special shoes) and that one in doing that can get the attention of a dumb looking posing, pouting model. Height is the new size.

I have to say that a) spending time with a dumb looking posing, pouting model sounds utterly boring and unsatisfactory imho, but I guess someone who would actually pay to get ridiculous heightening shoes like that doesn't have much in ways of a brilliant brain anyway.

b) as a tall woman I have to admit that yes height is rather important (shallow as it may seem), but that, as most always, a great mind, a lovely personality and brilliant conversations trumps pretty much everything.



2. Rosewater lemonade is surprisingly lovely, refreshing and somewhat enchanting to drink.



3. Too many (semi)naked humans can be overwhelming and scary for small sized woollies (also known as bobbaloos). To be honest, I'm very much inclined to concur with the bobbaloos on this. (That said it was a grand bath and wonderful architecture, got some great pictures of the outdoors baths and its guests in Budapest I will share later.)



4. To spell the name "Pia" is apparently super difficult for staff at Starbuck's, but to pronounce it is easy peasy. Also noticable is that to drink soy latte regularly (like once a day on holiday) can cause unwanted wind related issues.



5. Important messages to all men can be written in a very pleasant way.



6. The scariest of statues on the eeriest (but beautiful) of cemeteries is much less scary in the summertime. Though albeit doable still far from easy breezy and pleasant. (However this grand cemetery, of which I will write and show more later, is such an absolute must visit when in Budapest though!)



7. There's nothing quite like snatching a pretzel in the morning. At least not when you are very small and totally adorable.



8. Hungarian really offers a plethora of unfortunate brand names from a Swedish point of view. And with that a lot of giggles and laughs. (You have to google this one.)



9. When sore feet are in desperate need for blister relief you can always rely on Swedish plasters. And that aloe vera is THE thing for most everything. And that the number with three sixes can hold good things too.



10. Last but not least; icecream and sorbets should never be served in any other way than the rose way. Really.