dear pia *this is a recruitment scam*

 

” Dear Pia,

I hope this message finds you well. 

We have been following your work closely and are very impressed with your success in leveraging Meta tools to drive business growth. Your experience and skills are exactly what we are looking for in a X X X for the European Market at *insert a well known tech company*.

In this role, you will lead innovative social media strategies, expand our brand's presence, 

and enhance user engagement. YY is committed to fostering a dynamic work environment that encourages creativity and innovation, where you 

can develop and shape the future of digital communications.

If this opportunity excites you, please respond to this email so we can discuss the role in more detail. Our HR team is ready to guide you through the next steps of the recruitment process.

We look forward to the possibility of working with you and welcoming you to the YY team.

Best regards,

YY HR Team”

This is how a very elaborate and personal attempt to recruitment fraud started with an email.

If every email or LinkedIn message from recruiters over the years, would lead to an actual job or gig offer I would be a very rich gal. 

It rarely does. And I’m not.

I also find the ’we have been following your work closely…” quite creepy and somewhat… disturbing. Rather than the ’insipid flattering’ it was probably meant to be. 

Maybe that just the company’s TOV and friendly approach (that can be easily misconstrued…), who am I to say 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also the  ’…very impressed with your success in leveraging Meta tools to drive business growth.’ is a bit fishy. Unless the company had access to if not all but at least a fair portion of my previous clients data and statistics there were no way of having any insights in this. 

So my calm and cautious reply was ’Sounds interesting. Do tell me more’. 

to which I got this reply.

”Thank you for your prompt response and for expressing interest in the X X X position for the European market at YY . We are excited about the potential of you joining our team.

To provide you with a comprehensive overview of the role, including key responsibilities, working hours, and compensation, we would like to schedule a call at your convenience. During this call, we can discuss the specifics of the position and address any questions you may have.

*Insert Link to follow to schedule call*”

Neither the email address, mail design nor the link were obviously fraudulent. 

It was only when I tried to schedule the call that I became really suspicious. You could only schedule the call by logging in to your Facebook account (and thereby giving the YY company access to your password).

Being vigilant and better safe than sorry I then told them just that and getting a friendly reply like this:

”Thank you for expressing your concerns. We understand your caution, given the prevalence of scams.

I would like to assure you that this is a legitimate opportunity with YY. We are genuinely interested in discussing the X X X position for Europe with you.

We use Facebook for scheduling to leverage its secure and user-friendly platform. It ensures the privacy and security of both parties involved and allows for seamless integration with our communication tools.

If you prefer, we can arrange the call using an alternative method. Please let us know a convenient time for you, and we will accommodate your preferences.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. We are looking forward to speaking with you and exploring this exciting opportunity further.”

I gave them some times that worked for me to just give me a call.

Never got a reply to that.

All through the process I have searched in vain for similar recruitment scams. I even asked an American friend if she thought it was legit or an attempted fraud (thank you Amy!), she didn’t find any recruiter scams like this in her search either. 

As the well known tech company in question doesn’t have a customer relations phone number or email to ask them if this was an actual, legit job opportunity, there was no way for me to get a quick reply to that.

The attempted fraud (which I suppose was an attempt to scam me off my FB and IG accounts) did not tick any of the usual boxes when it comes to recruitment frauds. 

It was a personalized email.

It was very well written. (AI?)

The potential position was intriguing, fun and well suited to what I do (communication and social media) but also interesting enough to give a new and international perspective with a lot of growth possibilities.

To be able to ✅ all this it must mean that the Fraudster Someone had to have studied me online and painted a fairly accurate picture from its findings in to what might wet my appetite.

And all that effort just to get my FB password.

Which seems utterly crazy to me.

And quite quite creepy.

What I learnt from this elegant, elevated, elaborate  recruitment scam is that

A) I am more open to possible job offers than I thought, that doesn’t really fit my future plans. Just make them interesting and plausible enough, I’ll concider them.

B) I’m grateful that I am suspicious and vigilant by nature. And I will continue to be so.

C) Thank goodness for the two-factor authentication on FB (or any other platform log in).

The day when a very intriguing (and possibly unexpected) job offer (that is not a scam) comes my way will come.

It just didn’t happen in July 2024.

Be vigilant out there, the fraudsters have elevated their game, don’t fall for it!

bye july, welcome august 2024

 

About high time for a blog post, new month and all, wouldn’t you agree?

It has been another summer with commuter train chaos and replacement buses - 

this has been an recurrent nightmare for +15 years now, and the only way to stay reasonably sane is to just stay at home and don’t even think about enjoying your summer Stockholm city. It’s just too much of a time consuming, stressful hassle -

so I’ve mostly spent my summer days reading and watching TV-series and movies -

Netflix stopped working on my old Apple TV on July 30, so I’ve cancelled the subscription. Watching on the computer or phone is just worthless compared to a decent flatscreen TV. And spending money on a new Apple TV is currently not a high priority. 

It was great while it lasted, now it’s time to prioritize other things. -

Haven’t been sleeping very well at night lately, naps have been my solution to that. I’m quite tired now, so an early night it is for me on the first night of August. And I’ll finish writing this tomorrow instead. At least I got some photos from the month that was uploaded. They will get their explanations tomorrow!

~

The perky necklace that obviously screamed my name (in top photo) is from Australian company Ruby Olive. It’s an extremely rare thing for me nowadays, to order things from overseas, even if it’s actually not the transport has a huge environmental impact, the VAT most always gets a bit steep.

But I made an exception for this beautiful coconut shell necklace. And yeah, the VAT process was ridiculous. And I still haven’t made time to make the complaint to our Swedish postal ”service”, but I really should.

Below is a plate of vegan blueberry buns from bakery Bröd & Salt. No way near as fanastic as the vegan cinnamon buns they used to make alas. But sometimes it’s amazing enough to find a bakery that actually sell buns I can enjoy. That treat alone is a rare rare thing.

And the thought of baking yourself isn’t always enticing.

Picked these buns up when I accompanied little mum to an eye doctor’s appointment in the city. 

In Sweden senior or special needs citizens have the opportunity to get a so call ’health transport’ (sjukresa) for hospital, doctor, dentist and alike appointments. Which means getting a taxi at a very reduced price. 

Sometimes you get to share taxi with others, which is a bit of a hassle, but mostly we’ve had the smooth transport for ourselves.  It’s very convenient. And when she’s talking to the doctor I can run some city errands and possibly have a coffee all by my glorious self for a change. The simple joy of that.

It’s difficult to grasp they’re getting old now, the kitties, Ågot turned 12 in April. And mostly spend her days sleeping, eating, cuddling. Haven’t dared to let her out in the garden again, after they moved back home again (after the 2021 ordeal), since she had a propensity to climb up in the ornament tree and walk over to the neighbour’s garden shed. 

She never went any further, she just laid there enjoying a different view. But given the hell I went through wandered off from the garden and got sick, and all the nastiness that followed, I don’t want anything like that to ever happen again. 

She enjoyed her garden time back when life was simpler, but she doesn’t seem to miss it.

As I wrote, spent a lot of time with books in July. Managed to finish 9,5 of them. Which is a pretty great score for 31 days of reading I think. I usually read 2-4/month.

The quality of the books varied A LOT though. After having enjoyed Bridgerton season 1-3 on Netflix very much, I thought I’d give the books a go. Surely an adaption that colourful, entertaining and enthralling must be based on pretty awesome books, right?

I was wrong.

It was a painful read. I got a distinct impression of a badly written tale by a randy teenager having read too many harlequin novels and wanting to make a go at it her/himself. That it is written my a grown up woman is astonishing (and not in a good way). That Shonda & co. could turn it into such a delightful TV-series, well that is even more astonishing.

Since it’ll be a long time before Bridgerton season 4 will get on Netflix, I thought the novels would be entertaining enough in the meantime. They will not be. And after finishing the awful book 1 I will definitely stay away from the rest. 

It’s really difficult to understand how so many people can enjoy reading them. But clearly tastes differ. A lot.

The ’Ursäkta mig!’ (Excuse me!) I got for the university course in rhetoric & climate transition I was going to take this summer. I later changed my mind for various reasons, one of them being that I find it just incredible that anyone claiming to be a climate activist or just actively working on lessing their own climate foot print and not being vegan is just ridiculous. 

And I wasn’t interested hanging with that kind of stupidity for the summer.

This little book is co-written by the professor teaching the course. In a light hearted popular science easy read kind of way. Even if it wasn’t obligatory course literature I wanted to read it anyway. 

It was certainly written for people who still haven’t fully grasped the climate emergency or taken proper steps to change their personal climate foot prints, so it didn’t give me the new insights I had hoped for. But there was a decent literature list at the end of the book that I’ll look further into.

The John Ajvide Lindqvist (you know ’the Swedish Stephen King’ that wrote ’Let the right one in’?) ’Sommaren 1985’ (Summer of 1985) was a very good read. One of my favourite writers, he never disappoints!

And the fresh bed sheets of July was of course the wonderful Marimekko strawberry one. 

The garden hasn’t disappoint this summer either. 2024 has turned out to be hottest year so far. And most certainly the coolest compared to what will come.

So even if everything went in to bloom much sooner than it normally should’ve (but the new normal is here ie nothing is normal nor predictable anymore), I’m trying to enjoy the beauty the short and fleeting time it graces us with its precence.

Currently the clematis in glorious bloom is almost over. It used to last well into October. Now it’s over in the beginning of August. That’s sad.

2024 has also been the year of A LOT of clover everywhere. Not sure what that means, weatherwise, but it has been pretty.

The temperatures have been too high to be enjoyable though. And it’s difficult to grasp how uncomfortable +25-28C can be percieved these days. I guess it’s an age thing perhaps.

There have also been a lot of rain falling, often quite suddenly and harshly. Heavy rains with thunder and lightning, which have been rather scary in their relentlessness.

The very last book in July was very much enjoyed, ”The last devil to due” in the Thursday murder club-series. I’m very much looking forward to the movie adaption, such great casting.

And talking about getting older. 

I have been lucky to not having experienced any dreaded menopausal symptoms. No hot flashes and such things. Sure some weird weight gains, but that I blamed the pandemic change of life style for. As well as the constant tiredness, depression light and brain fog, that appeared after my bad flu/possibly covid in April 2020. 

Every blame was put on these circumstances.

The way I felt was also any eery reminder of how I felt in 2012-13, that constant exhaustion (which later turned out to be vitamin deficiency. Not discovered by me seeing doctors and having a gazillion tests back then with zero answers, but me reading up on what could be wrong and how may my food choices help…)

The doctor I saw in early spring 2021 did nothing to help. The blood samples I took showed nothing wrong. So I just basically tried to treat myself kindly, be patient, make better choices and wait it out.

After the horrendeous flu/possible covid last October, followed by the urinary tract infection (which I’ve only have had once in my life prior to this, in my 20ies) in December, I’ve been feeling both low and more brain foggy than before. Not to mention the sleeplessness.

And when I recently started to see more information about brain fog and sleep depravation (and weight gain) actually being menopausal symptoms I started to think that the way I felt was possibly caused by that. Or at least partly. All the other possible causes and life circumstances didn’t help of course.

As I have always strived to not add more medicine and antibiotics to my body than necessary I was intrigued when I found these vegan, with mostly organic ingredients, capsules that naturally rebalance hormones and reduce peri-menipausal symtoms. First saw them on Instagram of all places. Overall great reviews. Worth trying, even if I remained my usual sceptical.

Started taking them on July 4 and only a few days later my brain begun feeling slightly less foggy. It has improved even more since. A weird side effect is that I have lost any cravings for sweets. Not that I had massive ones prior, but I could definitely enjoy some plantbased candy regularly before. 

It feels quite strange not to, but there you are. 

I’m still waiting for my sleep patterns to improve, but just the brain fog being lifted has improved my life immensely. So after the result from less than 30 days usage of the capsules I’ve decided to continue with a subscription for them. And hope for more improvements to show up.

The capsules/supplements are fairly big and I personally find them somewhat hard to swallow, easier if you stand up doing it and the glass of water has to be very large. Other than that, 3 capsules every morning is my new routine.

Hormones & Me (shouldn’t that be ’I’??) is made by Swedish company Källa, that offers other supplements too. And no I have most certainly not been sponsored saying this (alas), it’s only my personal experience and I’m happy everytime I find natural solutions to any health issue. 

Plus sharing is caring. Surely I’m not the only (obviously) fairly clueless woman of a certain age that don’t have any of the obvious menopausal symtoms but still feel quite undefinably blah?

I also did an DIY hair cut again in July. As nice as it was to see a hairdresser again last year, as nice it was to save money and still get a refreshing style change for summer.

When July turned to August I decided to add a Pink Pop colour refresher hair masque to that cut. So now I sport pink hair again for some weeks. Yay.

Contrary to her sister Ågot, Ztina stays on the ground in the garden. She wanders around a bit, eat grass and then spends time in this ol’ crate (looking grumpy as always). 

Unfortunately the climate change has also brought more ticks to these latitudes, and she gets them now and then. Even if we are fully vaccinated against TBE there’s still the danger of borrelia, so it’s I’m not super-comfortable letting her out in the garden, but at the same time I don’t want to deprive an old cat (13 in December) some of the summer joys in life.

A rare visit to Stockholm city always means buying decent sourdough bread. And here are my two favourites from bakery chain Fabrique. The sesame seeds toast is only sold on Fri-Sat.

A nice stroll with lovely Stockholm views is always a treat too. Especially when the streets are fairly void of people.

Also baked a vegan rhubarb pie, so far the only pie this summer, it was a lovely sweet-sour crunchy experience.

A few litres of strawberries have been consumed. I wish they were more, but the quality and increased price made them less appealing alas.

But I have fully enjoyed this years cherries, they have been brilliant, sweet and flavourful, plus much more affordable. The season is over now, I will miss them a lot. They have been addictive and such lovely treats.

I also think I have finally, after all these years, found my skincare match this summer. Swedish company Skinome makes fresh skincare products without preservatives.

The cleanser (vegan) I’ve used before, and enjoyed. The moisturiser I’ve been meaning to finally try for a long time (just waiting for my old bottles to be finished). Unfortunately the product that matches with my skin (sensitive, dry, rosacea) isn’t vegan (milk protein), but given how greatly it has improved my skin since I began using it in mid May I will continue with it. 

Maybe my skin will improve so much in time that I can change to one of their vegan moisturisers, or they will change their ingredients list for the better.

As I felt that my skin was still missing a piece of the skin health puzzle I added the vegan probiotic concentrate a few weeks back. And love it.

You only need a very little dollop of each product, so even if they’re on the expensive side of skincare products they last longer. And when you subscribe you get 20% off. 

A subscription is definitely next on my list.

And again, sharing is caring and not sponsored. Because I know there are many fellow dry skin sufferers of rosacea out there. (Incidently dry skin is apparently also a menopausal symptom…)

It’s summer holidays time, so I didn’t expect anything exciting happening regarding my quest for a purposeful dream job being fruitful at this time of the year.

So mind my surprise when I got a surprising email about a rather exciting job possibility a few weeks ago. I’m forever grateful I stay sceptical and vigilant though, because it turned out to be a very personalised and much elevated attempt of a recruitment fraud.

Have searched in vain for people having similar experiences, which makes it even more crazy. 

I will give the experience another blog post all of its own soon. And most likely a LinkedIn post too.

For now I will thank July for your assortment of experiences, high and low. I’m grateful for everything you taught me.

Hello August, can you please, pretty please be benevolent and generous, that purposeful dream job would be greatly appreciated but I would also be grateful for a decent new income source. It doesn’t have to be dreamy, decent would do too. 

Many giddy wishes and hopeful thanks in advance, dear August. ❤️

hello midsummer 2024

 

I hope your Midsummer will be lovely, however you chose to spend it!

I enjoyed this splendid vegan cream pastry at favourite bakery/cafe Bageri Passion yesterday. 

Got some sourdough bread, vegan buns.

 Then groceries. 

Picked up a book parcel.

 Sent  off a couple of sold Tradera sold garments.

Then finally got help with getting that ol’ nasty armchair to the recycling station (where it ideally should’ve been dropped a couple of years ago). So much gratitude.

In my book that counted as an excellent day.

Today I had planned to bake and make both a vegan summer cream cake and bagels, for a lovely delicious Midsummer spread.

Realised I haven’t enough flour at home.

Creamy pasta with smoked tofu will be the back up plan.

And plenty of strawberries and cherries,

That’s quite alright for Midsummer too, as far as I’m concerned.

🍓🇸🇪🌸☀️🌺🦋🍒

on the quest to find my next challenge...

Last month I posted this job search quest on LinkedIn.

—- ✨ Attention network! ✨

I am on a quest to find my next challenge and could use your help. 

I am currently seeking a senior communications position within a sustainability dedicated, change-making company/organization. 

My ideal roles include Head of Communications, Communications Manager, Director of Communications, CCO, or similar. 

However, I am open to exploring other opportunities that align with my values and expertise. 

As a proud generalist, modern renaissance woman, and lifelong learner, I am excited to bring my communication skills, legal background, and passion for kindness and sustainability to make a positive impact on the world. 

I value active listening, free thinking, curiosity, creativity, structure, strategy, and collaboration. If you share these values and are interested in connecting, let's talk! 

I am particularly interested in opportunities within the plant-based/vegan food sphere, where I believe I can make the most impact. 

While I am based in Stockholm, Sweden, I am also open to remote/hybrid positions and have extensive experience working as a fully remote resource. 

If you know of any company/organization that would benefit from my skills, please get in touch or leave a comment below. 

Your support in spreading the word (and this post) is greatly appreciated. 🙏🏻💚

Let's make the world a better place together! 

🌱🌍

—-

Despite a lot of support, cheering on, some leads, some suggestions, and kindness shown, I am still no step closer to my goal.

It is somewhat draining. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I may be naïve (no I am not) but I really thought April that was would offer real and positive change.

It did not. 

However I felt more positive and excited than I had for a long time, so I suppose all my efforts at least created that (limited) change.

Hoping that I at least planted some seeds for change with ’putting this out there’ (although what works and what is not on LinkedIn remains a mystery still, after all these years…).

I also got a really ridiculous, unsolicited advice (from a woman, which kind of makes it even worse) to change my profile photo to a ’professional’ one, which in her narrow-minded, limited world meant a button up shirt and suit jacket.

Jeez. It is 2024, the world doesn’t look like that anymore. And companies/organisations/people that have that view on professionalism, well it most certainly isn’t my kind of place.

I will leave this here now. And maybe the Universe that has my back will pick it up and offer that desperately seeked positive change.

Gratitude.

Also, do not forget to vote in the EU-election! 

The planet also desperately need positive change, do not waste your voice, vote for the planet, the animals, nature, vote for a green future.

🌱💚🌱

thoughts on the summer 2024 dress and its friends

If you’ve been a rare long-term reader of this blog you know that I was a reasonably keen shopper of pretty things when I first started blogging.

And that I had that period (and quite a different financial status) with a fondness for expensive handbags. Oh the shame I feel with how ill spent that money was. And that the bags were leather bags, newly produced leather bags. I was simply a selfish idiot.

And even if I was slowly recovering from a very rough time in my professional life, and felt I was in my every right to ’treat myself’, I could have treated myself in so many better ways, given more to charity and saved more.

I’ve planned to sell most of those expensive preloved handbags (in excellent condition) for a long time now. Just haven’t gotten around to actually do it. Just do it.

But I will. 

Of course I’m not the same person now as I was when I began writing this blog. It will turn 19 years this September 2024. Which means I will soon be 19 (!!!!!) years older. How. did. that. happen?

Suffice to say, I have grown into a better, more insightful human being. In a world crazier than ever I connect the dots in a saner way than I used to.

And such a human being does not buy ridiculously expensive leather handbags. Or lots of colourful leather shoes/boots. Or too many new produced made to last garments. 

Even if it’s better than bad quality fast fashion, the only truly sustainable slow fashion is the one that is never made. But second hand, or repurposed from fashion that already exists, but no-one wants.

I try to be mindful with my shopping. And I wish I could only find perfect second hand clothes (like the ”prettiest 55 year old” dress). I try to go thrifting in my own wardrobe.

But yes, sometimes I do buy a dress or two. I do. And I know I will love and hopefully use it for many years to come. (Although the livable planet may change or seize to exist before that, as things look now…)

So I go for it. It’s vegan, it’s slowfashion. It’s pretty, it’s (most usually) colourful and it makes me happy to look at and wear. So I do it, a few times per year. I do. 

But I’m working to getting it down to less than that. I’ve come far in these close to 19 years, but I can definitely do better. I can. And I will.

Of course I had to give a context to the S/S dress of 2024 and its friends I recently gifted myself. And now it’s time I introduce them.

I remember writing about the Swedish tax refund years ago, and how I often used at least a portion (big, small or all) of it to get new clothes or shoes. These past few years I’ve mostly used the refund to pay bills. Most everything is more expensive these days, so however nice the tax refund is, bills are obviously a priority and the treats smaller.

This year I had a very rare opportunity to actually splash a bit and treat myself to a mindful wardrobe trio, that makes me very happy with their long-lasting quality, design and colours.

Every piece is made of organic cotton. Which is a huge plus obviously. The dress is made of my favourite crisp cotton poplin. Adorned with my favourite pattern, the Unikko (poppy) flower (which turns 60 this year!). 

I’ve been wanting a maxi dress for many years now, but not finding the perfect model for me and my body shape. This a-line shirt dress has pockets and even if it’s not quite down to my feet I still think it falls into the category maxi dress, right?

I absolutely love the vibrant colour combination of pink and orange. Isn’t it gorgeous?! 🧡🌸🩷

I inaugurated it last week, wore it with orange/peach coloured tights from Snagtights, my +10 years old Adidas sneakers (accidently vegan?) and the subdued Marimekko anorak I got in 2020 (?) with its matching Unikko print.

Turned out it was an unseasonally warm (but global warming normal) day with +18 C temperature. So it was a bit too sticky warm with tights and coat. But still loved the combo.

And I’m eagerly waiting for the next day to wear it. But without tights and summer shoes/sandals.

In autumn 2016 I bought myself a Levi’s denim skirt. It has probably been my most used piece of clothing ever since. As I haven’t used jeans for about 15-20 years now 

- I can’t be bothered to find a model that actually suits my body. And I’ve prefered skirts over trousers for the past 25 years anyway. As I find them more comfortable and liberating than I have ever felt jeans or other trousers to be -

but I would have loved to have a denim skirt instead.

It was impossible to find the perfect model (a-line) until then. And I’m sorry I didn’t get two of them when I finally found the model. As it has been discontinued since.

As I’ve been wearing it all year round, and it’s the only really neutral, versatile (with pockets) skirt I have in my wardrobe, I’ve been on the look out for a block colour, more neutral, skirt, that will also work all year round for a few years (and which I can switch the Levi’s skirt with, it needs some well deserved rest). In vain. Until now.

I’m very hopeful this navy-ish blue Marimekko (no not sponsored, but I do love the design, colours, quality and inclusive sizing) will do the job.

As you know I shy away from black and dark colours, as they don’t go well with cat hair and they’re just terribly dull, drab, depressing and void of personality, joy and sazz.

But I think this is a neutral but quite nice blue. I just hope it will be able to avoid attracting to much cat hair and lint.

As I only have one knitted cotton sweater in my wardrobe, lack a V-neck, and this one looked so lovely with that skirt on the website I went for it.

I know there’s a ’rule’ that you should always make sure you have several pieces that works well with already existing pieces in your wardrobe, before you commit to buying it. I haven’t been bery good at following that ’rule’, I have to admit.

Probably because I love colors and patterns so/too much, and single pieces can scream my name. Rarely a full outfit.

That’s why I’ve embraced the granny toddler style so much. Which is fun and joyful, but not always what I want. 

In 2019 (I think it was) I wrote something about focusing on more block colours, not more patterns. Apart from a couple of white T-shirts I don’t think I’ve been good at that personal mini mission.

But I hope I will be better from here on, and that this skirt will be a first new step in that direction. I have lots of patterned tops I want to wear it with and that will be so much fun!

And obviously I’m very excited to do this full sweater/skirt outfit above some day soon. 

Some days you just need to rest and reset your brain with little nonsense like outfits, mindful shopping, colours and other little pockets of joy. With the world being a more violent, scary and seemingly hopeless place than probably ever before, I need that. And probably you to. 

Kindness, compassion and peace.

And pretty dresses.

march, easter, april 2024

This will be a quick, short Easter post (or maybe I’ll continue to add to it later, haven’t decided yet).

March hasn’t been very eventful, but with the return of light (despite some snowy days) there’s hope of life after a long, dark, cold and awful winter. And that alone is cause of a little celebration I’d say. It finally feels easier to breath somehow. And for that I’m very grateful for your days, March of 2024!

Easter, which has always been my favourite holiday/long weekend (without reservation until M passed away on Easter week Wednesday in 2016, now I’ve come to appreciate it again, but it’s also a slightly bittersweet weekend for me…)

This year it has mostly been spent watching movies and TV-series (the weather hasn’t been great), drinking a lot of tea, finishing a couple of books (Easter weekend is for reading crime fiction - tradition imported from Norway ’påskekrim’ - so that’s what I’ve mainly been doing.

My goal was also to finally finish that fluffy strawberry sweater I joyfully began knitting a year ago. I ran out of the pink colour when I was about to finish the second arm last year. 

Had to come up with a creative solution, as it would be costly to send for a couple of pink skeins from Norway (the only seller) just for that. 

Then the summer heat came, no time for knitting wolly things. And then the cold autumn/winter made it impossible to use knitting needles in a comfortable way. 

So here we are. And I still haven’t picked up the needles yet. But there’s still one day left of Easter weekend…! 🍓

March also brought one last vegan semla moment of the best kind. Which made the total this year to five, consumed over three months.

With snow/ice free streets a plenty, I also had one day of wearing high heels. Which is a very rare thing after the pandemic, when sneakers (to my great surprise) truly stepped up as my new reliable shoe-friends. So wearing high heels, or medium for that matter, have become rather awkward. 

But I’m also thinking it’s a good way to use different muscles. No long walks in these obviously, but it felt like an accomplishment to do some errands in these just before the weekend. And then some extra stretching.

Long term readers might remember that these boots was a birthday gift (El Naturalista) many years ago. I still love the style, comfortable design, the pink colour, I just don’t wear them as much.

Have been toying with the idea of selling off some rarely used shoes/boots (and I already have with some, without feeling sad and nostalgic), but these and a few others are still attached to memories I’m not ready to part with. And as the shoes still fits…

The tights are Snagtights fabulous ones (I never wear any other tights than these ones, anymore), in one of my favourite colours Raspberry. Very perky and joyous it is! 🩷

Just like the plantbased Easter candies from Swedish candy maker Bubs. Surrounded by the old bunch of Easter sonny angels - and as the slogan goes ’he may bring you happiness’ 💛

The best meal this Easter weekend, that’s nearly over alas, was the plantbased cream tea with scones we had on Easter Sunday. Not sponsored (alas) by Marimekko (or any other brand obviously) but as you know by now, the love for the colourful and bold dessign in long lasting quality runs deep in me.

So the Easter table is set with a mix of old, second hand pieces and a few new ones that I will continue to enjoy for many many years. 💛🤍💜

I recall mentioning I was going to do a Maria Nila vegan colour hair pak to welcome March in style, in my last post? The colour Bright Red turned out great, and a few washes later it’s still quite visible (even if it’s slowly fading back to grey, via pink). 

With the hope of life-feeling that March brought, I do continue to be true to myself and hopeful that April 2024 will finally bring that hard worked for positive changes and new (plantbased communicative) opportunities. Surely it’s time to shine and change now? 

Many, grateful thanks in advance, April, your predecessor did well, now it’s up to you to carry that torch to greatness, mkay? Welcome happiest of Aprils!

🌱❤️🌱❤️🌱❤️🌱❤️🌱

thank you february, welcome march 2024

A month later life continues. Without nothing really exciting, promising, hopeful or joyful happening on a personal level.

And the world craziness with wars, violence, genocide still exist. 

Not to mention how little is done to battle climate disaster, loss of biodiversity, the tipping points. The focus is solely on weapons and mayhem.

It’s rough to be a human who believes in kindness, compassion, peaceful co-existence and animal rights in times like these. 

That said, my little pockets of joy this past month have been something like follows (Blogger/Google doesn’t allow photos to be uploaded as easy as it has been, so I made some collages instead. 

February was a very capricious and rather terrifying month weatherwise. The temperatures dropped way below zero degrees Celcius one day and went up to +7 ish the day after. Rain, melting snow, a lot of ice (and broken limbs) that made it scary to go outside (even with Icebugs). I have continued to do a lot of reading.

There have also been regularly heavy snowfalls in between the rain and ice. So in the image below you can see the change basically from a day to another during a week. It wasn’t very nice. At all.

I tried to make some hearty attempts around Valentine’s Day which basically coincided with Fat Tuesday (semla!). And we went for the best (vegan) semla in town at Bageri Passion when the weather permitted. It was amazing as usual (pictures further below not in a collage).

I had looked forward to finally make something 🩷❤️💜 fun out of those Snagtights I got a year ago. So even if the weather didn’t allow a change of footgear, I combined the tights with that vintage Marimekko dress I snatched up past autumn and a Marimekko Unikko cardi. Felt very granny toddler stylish.

And talking about Marimekko, did you know that their iconic Unikko (poppy) pattern turns 60 this year? My number one favourite pattern (obviously) and it’s celebrated with special pieces for the jubilee. I treated myself to this lovely fabric bag with the Unikko poppy looking like a pentecost lily. It looks amazing I think.

The bag of Semla tea from Tehuset Java was really great too. Not much left now alas. But I hope to have the opportunity to enjoy one more of those Best Ever-semlas before he Swedish semla-season is over this year…

The rest of the food the photos here are of the vegan meals and some fika we’ve enjoyed in February.

The only really disappointment was that plantbased Red Velvet semla I opted for at Espresso House when I waited for my mum’s dentist appointment to finish. Instead of the expected almond paste they’d put raspberry jam in the semla-bun. Which was rather yuk. I should have asked/read the sign of ingredients… 

The last treat of the month (as I’m feeling very much like the garden goyle in the picture) was a scalp massage brush, a jar of Bright Red vegan colour refresher from Maria Nila. Ideally I wanted Cherry Red but apparently that colour has been discontinued alas. From the pictures I took when I last used Bright Red (2019?) it looked alright, so I chose that. REF is a vegan styling paste that the hairdresser used and I quite liked. It’s really difficult to style the hair the way I like it. I don’t expect any miracles with this, but it should be reasonably okay.

I also enjoy the fact that all three products are of the similar size, shape and make for a very nice colour trio. The brush is just lovely. I’m doing the colouring next time I wash my hair this week. Hopefully perkier times are coming! Soon.

Just a slow fashion ootd I chose on my name day on February 22, the other week  - it was the first day this year I could actually choose some other shoes that the Icebugs boots, these vegan sneakers are also from the Icebug brand but just really great, sustainable sneakers. That alone was cause for celebrating I’d say. 

The duo tights are also from Snagtights (I really placed a large order a year ago, and I haven’t inaugurated half of them yet. It’s nice to be able to feel a little joy over the idea of chosing a new pair of tights, a new colour, without having to actually buy more of them…). They’re fun!

Unfortunately I got stuck in that horrible train barrier that day (because my mum moved to slowly) and it struck really hard on my left hand (the bruise is visible on my left hand in the first image). That bruise is still there two weeks later, and the hand is sore. 

That was definitely something I could’ve done without on my Name Day… I didn’t even find any organic tulips to get for myself. All I got was this bruise. And that awful Red Velvet semla.

Anyway, a few days in to March, which is concidered the first month of spring in Sweden, but winter can still come back with a vengeance, life feels a bit lighter. And the days are somewhat brighter. We’ve even had glorious sunshine for a few days this past week.

I’m still really tired, and naps are plenty. It has been a rough winter. A rough couple of years, and before that a couple of rough covid years. And before that my whole life changed when M passed away, I had to reinvent and find myself again. (And I’m not fully found yet 🤷🏻‍♀️) So I suppose this fatigue of sorts isn’t in any way surprising. Just exhausting.

With March arriving my plan is to get back to the morning walks, which haven’t really been a regulat thing since I got sick back in October. Hopefully that will help with the depleted energy levels too.

I’m still waiting for my dream project/client/job to appear. 2024, it is high time now! I hope you’ll show me the prosperous, kind way, March. 💚

Thank you February, you didn’t offer much fun or exciting change, but I did finish that UX-writing course, I had time to read a lot, to think, to dream, to plan meals and to take naps. Sometimes that will have to be good enough. So thank you for that, February 2024. 🩷