hedgehog print

A few months back I passed a little art and design shop called WOS, that sold wonderful, original animal art pieces and prints. I didn't have the time to stop by then, but I promised myself to do so in a not too distant future.

Then a few weeks back, as birthday gift, I got this lovely print with hedgehogs, from my dear friend and fellow happy muse. She had simply remembered - and really, nothing simple about it since so many people do not remember things like this... - that I had posted a picture of the cute shop on Instagram earlier. And of course, I adore hedgehogs. And pink and green. Such a well-thought through gift! Heart a lot.

Today I finally framed it and I think it looks lovely. I have it in my office, in front of my desk. It makes me smile and is a sweet reminder of both the cuteness of hedgehogs and the darlingness of good friends.

caturday meet cute

Met this terribly friendly li'l chap when we stocked up on organic food items at Saltå Kvarn today. He made my day. Like cats and meet cute tend to do.



Excitement, blurriness and shaking of hands and paws (well more like me carefully trying to remove his needlesharp claws from legs and tights without harming either).



Lotsa cuddles and sweet kitty kisses too, before he had to return to his awfully impawtant tasks of the day.

serendipity friday

spending my friday evening watching one of my favourite movies which happens to share its name with one of my favourite words. and notion. serendipity. heart.

wishing you a wonderful november weekend, 

may it be filled with sweet treats, 

serendipity and sprinkles of magic ~

what entitled cats do

Every day, the examples of cats sense of entitlement are seemingly endless. Regular ways and new ways.

Example of a regular way - this particular one grabs MY corner in the sofa and claims it to be HER corner every time I get up to do something. 'If I turn upside down and show a very dotty tummy of course it's obvious I'm the proprietor of this corner.' Believe it or not, I have no problems with lifting her up and putting her in the other sofa corner. She's a baby I have no issues with putting in a corner, just not my corner.



Example of a new way - a redhead cake thief! Seriously. And yes, she's very much a blend of her mother's (above) and father's ways. Thus she's everywhere all the time, purring and taking interest in EVERYTHING.

No use in sighing too much over it, like cat like owner...

same same but different

/greetings, the atheist

hurraw lip balm

Wee Calvin picked this up for me the other day. Hurraw! chocolate lip balm. I He chose between chocolate or cherry - of course he picked chocolate.

Turned out it smells more of coffee than chocolate, but still absolutely awesome on lips. I will promptly go and get myself a cherry one too.

Because despite my intention to perhaps use more red lipstick I always end up with a bit of gloss or lip balm only. It's so much more convenient and care-free.

But I do enjoy a lovely (not overpowering) scent with most everything I use, so lip balm with a scent I something I treasure. And one which is organic, raw and vegan, what's not to adore?

What's your favourite chapstick or lip balm?

artifical sunlight

For every year it's getting harder to cope with long, dark, glum winter days - I've never seen myself as a person depending this much on sunlight as I've grown to do these past few years. For every sunny day I feel lighter and brighter, inspired and more in a pleased mood than on grey days. Alas one can't fuel up as much sunlight as one think for a rainy day.

As this past week has been pretty bad regarding dark, heavy skies and it has felt like it's 5 pm already when it's only 1 pm, I've also felt a bit blue and perhaps not as active and productive as I would have been otherwise. Today we had sun and everything suddenly felt great on a whole other level (that crap and unexpected things happened during the day, well I'm sure I would have felt so much worse about them if they skies had been depressingly grey and heavy).

And it got me thinking about adding certain vitamins to the winter diet probably is a good idea, no matter how good you are at eating a varied diet of fruit and veggies perhaps a sunlight supplement is a good thing.

Possibly visiting places with artificial sunlight regularly can help chasing the Nordic winter blues away too. Though granted, when I found myself in such a place some weeks ago, by chance when we had lunch, it was mostly just annoying with such stark white light. Not the least bit relaxing or uplifting actually. Not at all as exhilarating as real sunshine (mostly) is. Alas.

Fingers crossed for a speedy winter, please, and more regular glimpses of sun. Snuggling up in sofa with tea, candles, a good book or a decent movie can't always help chase the dark winter blues away.

How about you, how do you cope with really dark winter days?
Food supplements, a special diet?
Perhaps visiting artificial sun rooms?
Do you feel it helps in a significant way?

the tiny mother

Stumbled over these tiny gnomes (yes, Christmas decorations already...) at a department store the other day.

Yes they are really cute - even if this type of small clay gnomes with oversized hats have been around in Sweden for about 20 years now. And originally they were carefully handmade by crafters and artisans in small-scale productions. Quite the opposite of this...

But most of all they're the spitting image of my mother (apart from the size). Really. (But just like me she loathes having her picture taken so I don't have any as comparison. You have to take my word for it. And visualize.) A whole table filled with tiny Pia-mothers. And that made me laugh.

And a good laugh is always welcome. In any shape or size.

new breakfast habits

I've officially become my grandparents. In breakfast habits at least. I've always been a night owl. I've never been a morning person. I've never been breakfast person. Until recently.

I'm actually tired in the evenings. I actually usually wake up all by myself without an alarm clock early in the morning. Without feeling tired and grumpy. Not sure if that means I'm a boring grown up or not.

My breakfast habits have become more regular. And very much like my grandparents - although I'm fine with not having the same stuff whenever I eat breakfast out or travel, they didn't, they brought along their own food so they could have the same breakfast all.the.time... - you start with a bowl of sour milk (filmjölk) or yoghurt with fruit and seeds. And then continue with a cup of tea and a rye bread sandwich. They did. And I usually do too these days.



As I don't do dairy products I've become addicted to the Alpro soyghurt instead - after trying several other brands of plant based yoghurt which weren't pleasant in flavour and not good for my stomach (just like the dairy products) I found this one and I love it! It is so tasty and so good for my stomach. Not to mention the environment, animals, health and conscience - so I have to have a bowl of it every morning at home.

I thaw frozen raspberries, add the soyghurt (it comes in four flavours, natural, rhubarb-strawberry, vanilla and blueberry, my favourite is rhubarb-strawberry) and sprinkle a generous amount of psyllium seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds on top (which I of course have done for many years already whenever I have a bowl yoghurt or a homemade smoothie). It's a lovely way to start off the day! (The psyllium seeds are rather hellish when it comes to sticking in between the teeth though, a toothbrush isn't always enough to get rid of those tiny brown seeds...).



My stomach feels so much better these days, usually. Granted it might have something to do with the happy place thing and worrying less, but I definitely think a change of eating habits is part of the equation too.

Sure I like to have a good fika, a cake, pastry, bun or dessert now and then. But I never have cravings for chocolate or sweets these days. Even if I've never had major sugar cravings I've still had them on and off (the sugar conspiracy thing...). Now I don't. It's a good feeling, for body, mind and wallet. As I swear on the linseed oil capsules for much of my positive changes I think they've covered this bit too, the unnecessary sugar thing. Liberating somehow.

Are you a morning or night person?
How's your breakfast habits?
What's your favourite breakfast?

happy november!

trying to grasp the ungraspable fact that november is already here. seems like only last week i was melting in budapest. this year had really flown by. and what an amazing year at that!

thus i have every confidence november will be filled with awesomeness too, great and small - expectancy is such a lovely feeling, no matter age or time in life.

happy november one and all!