The children were happy about our choice of dinner today: tortillas and tacos. It's something about being able to put together whatever you want that seems to appeal to them. Well, yes... and to us adults too, I suppose. :)

The dinner had a wonderful ending as well. Our dessert was ice cream... Häagen Dazs Strawberry Cream. Mmmmmm!

I've grown tired of my old lamps from IKEA and I decided to do something about it. The design is not complicated, as you can see, and I do like the lamp foot, but the paper lamp shade has been slightly problematic from day one. It breaks.

Today I found a really nice fabric, "Lomma" designed by Gunilla Gunnarsson for Almedahls, and decided to use that to make new lamp shades (using the old metal frame). It shouldn't be too complicated, but there are two lamps of the smaller size and one floor lamp, so it might take an hour or two. Let's see if I have something to show you by tomorrow evening...

And an important one it is: my son's. He didn't get this particular cake, but a chocolate one, anyway, with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

Otherwise it has been a really nice, sunny and warm day. I'm pleased to see a few promising signs concerning my work situation and I've also made progress at home. The kitchen feels more and more "done," our bedroom too, the living room is half done, as is my oldest son's room. The areas where there is still a lot to do is my youngest son's room and the storage facilities.

Now it's evening, the children are watching tv and I'm waiting for my partner to arrive. It has been five days since I saw him and I've missed him. A lot.

I've had a lot to do at work lately and I've also been travelling, which means that I've had little time or energy to decorate the new apartment. Today was probably the first day in weeks when I've felt like doing anything to it, so I took advantage of that and drilled holes in the walls to put up the newspaper rack for magazines (as seen to the right in the photo) I had planned to put up for ages. I also emptied a few more boxes and put up a few hooks in the kitchen for oven mittens and other things. It's beginning to look a bit better, but I'm definitely not ready to show the entire apartment yet. I promise I will... sooner or later. :)

Daniel Kessler's poster "Celebrating Diversity" can be found to the left of the newspaper rack, the two framed photos (there is a third further to the right) are my own that my partner framed for me, the fruit dish I bought at Ellos ages ago, and the beautiful smoke-coloured candle holders from Holmegaard were a gift from my partner's uncle the Christmas before last.

Yes, I know. I should have read this one years ago. But I didn't. I'm actually reading it on my iPod right now, which means that the image above is slightly misleading, but it didn't look as interesting on the e-book cover as this book cover does.

Images from Panda.org and Amazon.com.

Before the traditional fasting period of the old days, you were supposed to eat really fattening food and the thing you ate right before was a "semla," a wheat bun filled with marzipan and whipped cream.

I didn't get hold of a beauty like the one above today, but I did eat this year's first semla. A bit too much usually, since they tend to be a bit too big for me, but it's still nice and now I don't think I want one for yet another year.

Image from Brödhuset.com.

...is to spend time and energy on holding up a shield, on "protecting myself." I just want to be... I want to be in a context where I'm allowed to just be; where I can focus on studying, exploring and learning more, on interacting without fear. I don't like, and I don't have surplus energy, for contexts in which people just take whatever they can lay their hands on out of fear of not getting anything... where they have failed to understand that it is by giving that you also receive. It's just a matter of attitude. And I'm tired.

Close your eyes! Imagine a soft breeze, the sun on your face and the sound and smell of the ocean nearby.

I guess I'm desperate to see some progress weather-wise at the moment. The grey-brown branches of the trees outside my bedroom window, the dirty snow on the ground, and the cloudy, white winter sky are not as appealing anymore. Luckily I received a box filled with new clothes yesterday, quite a few necessary items for my children but also the brown summer dress/tunic and the matching bathing suit I found on sale at Bon'A Parte. (I'm sure T. laughs when he reads this. He always teases me about the brown clothes I tend to prefer.) However, I know they will be perfect when summer finally arrives.

When I get back from a journey, I love buying fresh flowers. It makes me feel comfortable in my own home again, especially when I'm travelling between the two homes we have at the moment. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something that catches my eye when I pass by... something that makes me happy. Today I bought some beautiful white ranuncula and two small pots of tiny bright yellow daffodils.

Of course we had a dinner for grandma as well: green cabbage mash, two versions of potatoes, both boiled and fried meat, and very meaty sausages. To top it all off we had lemon fromage for dessert. It goes without saying that we didn't exactly go to bed hungry that evening. Everything was exellently prepared by my father-in-law.

I'll begin by apologizing for the poor image quality (it was taken with my mobile phone camera, and it's not a good one), but I just wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate my "grandmother-in-law" who turned 84 in January but postponed her birthday party until now, providing us with a splendid opportunity to get together again. The cake was really tasty too! :)

The other day we decide to drive around a bit. The weather wasn't that good. It was extremely foggy and quite cold, but the subdued colours outside the car window were beautiful and I took lots of pictures. We took the opportunity to check out some small countryside shops we haven't had the opportunity to explore before and, I have to say, the cheese shop was amazing. We tasted — and bought — three types of local Gouda — a chili, a nettles and a sundried tomato and garlic version — and a Blualp, a German mild, very creamy blue cheese, all of which we intended to share with the rest of my partner's family when we arrived at his parent's house yesterday. Together with red wine and crackers, these cheeses provided the perfect ending to a wonderful minced meat beef, potatoes and parsley sauce dinner cooked by my father-in-law last night.

I'm happy to say that my Margrethe bowl set in anthracite is complete now. I found the mixing jug at misshome.se and I've ordered it together with a small Aalto bowl (suitable for nuts or candy) and tea light holder in the brand new colour apple green. Celebrating Spring!

Today the first H&M Home collection was released and so many bloggers have acknowledged the event. Most of them don't seen to be too enthusiastic, but I actually do like quite a few of the items. Most things I simply don't need, but I do need new kitchen towels, fell in love with the black ones and just ordered six of them. Additionally, I ordered a pair of oven mittens of the same type.

I'm looking forward to using them, perhaps while baking this "oriental" peach cake... and yes, I will be using my Margrethe bowls as well.

Images from H&M and Allt om mat.

I learned that my anthracite-coloured bowls from Rosti Mepal were actually the last ones in that colour and if I want something similar I could go for the black ones instead. The idea didn't make me thrilled. I did, however, decide to order the two smaller bowls I had seen at hpnielsen.dk and right now I'm just hoping they will arrive. Another thing that cheered me up was the fact that I, on the Rosti Mepal website, found a mixing jug in "luna graphite." I really do like them in anthracite, but luna graphite seems to be something similar.

To my great joy, my mother managed to get hold of four anthracite Margrethe bowls (1.5 ltr, 2 ltr, 3 ltr and 4 ltr) from Rosti that I received as a housewarming present when we moved to the new apartment and I really enjoy using them. Since then I've been looking for the other sizes (0.5, 0.75 and the 1 ltr whisking jug) in the same colour. The two first are available at hpnielsen.dk. I have not yet had any success to speak of in locating the jug, however, but I haven't given up. I try to remember to put all these items on my wishlist when the time comes.

Other things I really like are the new Filippa K pattern "Splash" on the mugs from Rörstrand, the practical door hanger for bathrobes or bath towels from Zack, found at formodesign.com, the small white eco-friendly bamboo bowls from Ekobo and the sturdy steel thermometer from Bengt Ek (both available at Cosas).

A few minutes ago, Christine Schürrer was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for murdering almost 4-year-old Max Jangestig and his not yet 2-year-old sister Saga by Svea Hovrätt. I think most people in Sweden react with a collective sigh of relief.

It has been a difficult case with a large amount of circumstantial, but no hard, evidence. Apart from the long list of weird "coincidences" addressed by the prosecutor, I think the main reason for Schürrer's conviction has indeed been her own actions before the murders, her failure to account for her reasons for being in Arboga and her failure to produce "friends" who could verify her stories. Furthermore, she has shown no compassion for Max and Saga's mother (whom she almost succeeded in killing as well) or the children's father. She has whispered with her lawyers and laughed repeatedly during the trial and, although she has not been defined as mentally ill, her defence (which she decided to conduct on her own) has been regarded less than lucid, if not outright irrelevant. This is what probably has condemned her the most in the eyes of the public.

The sentencing of Schürrer does not make Max and Saga come back, but I still hope it brings some kind of closure for their parents and loved ones. They will be remembered...

Images from here and here (Expressen Västerås).

Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day and although I never celebrate it, I have to say that it still resonates with me today. I've just got back from a very exhausting work-related two-day meeting, in which our extremely dysfunctional work group was forced to sit down and talk about the problems we face.

Formed in a culture of strong leaders, our group has now been without such a leader for a few years, which has lead to people coming and going, rumours, imbalances and "decisions" taken by a small group behind the backs of co-workers to reach often rather egotistical goals (promotion, platforms to push their own agendas et cetera). It has been very difficult to address these issues, primarily because nothing has been out in the open. All of us have felt what was going on, but few of us had real evidence. Another reason has been that the leader we now have is very new and has not realised what has been happening.

When this meeting was announced, many of us seemed to realise that this might be our chance to do something about it, and there were several of us who approached our leader trying to explain as well as we could what our situation was like. Of course we did not know what it would result in, but today when everything came out in the open and the attitude of the small group (that they, according to them, were the only ones who were "fit" to decide on strategies for all of us, and that the rest of us were irrelevant in the process) became evident, our leader made it clear that transparency and openness was to become top priority from now on. As of now, we are going to have monthly information meetings for everyone and additional strategy meetings for those who are permanently employed (something which doubles the number of people thinking about strategic decisions). I'm hoping for some change now. I'm still not sure whether I would like to stay here, but at least this is a step in the right direction for our group. I really don't like wheeling and dealing, and I definitely try to stay away from people who are attempting to use me and others for their own purposes. It creates a culture I simply don't want to be a part of. Let's hope this is a first step towards a work situation where people actually care about and are happy for each other.

Image found at Cardiophile.com.

I'm extremely tired right now and should probably go to bed rather than writing, but I thought I'd just share something I saw. In the online version of a Swedish interior design magazine, Hus & Hem there is one particular newbuilt home that just spoke to me. Situated in a fishing village in the far south of Sweden, overlooking Öresund and Copenhagen, a couple and their two children have built their beautiful home in a surprisingly economic way, putting money into the most important features. She is an architect and has also, together with her father, helped build the house. There are 17 photos of their home and they all look very inspiring. W-a-n-t-t-o-l-i-v-e-l-i-k-e-t-h-a-t! Now... time for bed!

Well, I have to admit that it indeed *is* work, but it's quite pleasurable at the same time. I am reading the novel written by Arthur C. Clarke at the moment and I am about to draw parallells between it and the movie directed by Stanley Kubrick. The story is, in itself, an interesting discussion about the relationship between humans and the technology they rely on and have become used to.

Image: The actor Keir Dullea playing Bowman, found at the Teegarden/Nash collection.

I noticed the brand new Reader's Nest from wis design (but available at David Design) and liked it very much. Looking at the wis design website, I realise that I'd love to have several things designed by them. The electric candles, Orgel, are available at By Rydéns and the wallpaper can be found at Decor Maison. All the images from the above places.

A lovely music video! Thanks to Ellmania for pointing me to it!

A colleague pointed me to Canadian photographer Edith Maybin's website and I don't seem to be able to stop watching her photos. The ones of her and her daughter are especially evocative, but this single one of the horse above caught my attention as well. Go there! Her work is definitely worth checking out.

Image from Edith Maybin.

Outside my window I can see a mix of rain and snow coming down from a grey sky and I'm not exactly thrilled by the idea of going out even though I know I have to. Images like the one above are therefore particularily seductive. I'm sure I'd like to have one or two of the garments in the new Spring collection from H&M at some point, but right now I'm probably more into the images themselves — the light and the colours. Aaaah... well...

Image from H&M.

I guess it's my body telling me it's time to take it a bit easy. Today I woke up with an sore throat and it sounded as if I was competing with my oldest son, who was sneezing as much as I. Well, well...

I have a dinner meeting this evening and I need to be okay enough for that, so I'll try to relax as much as I can until then.

Image from Ya Flamin' Gala.

I've had an absolutely horrible day and I hope the above image relays how my head feels. I can just hope tomorrow will be better.

Perhaps I shouldn't be too unfair... At least the plumber was here to get my dishwasher going. Hurray for him!

Image from Format Magazine.

As usual when moving I tend to try to use my old furniture in new ways. A chair that was in the hallway has now been moved into our bedroom. A table that was in my son's room now stands in the living room. Some things are moved to the storage room because they don't fit the current layout of the apartment, but I'm sure we'll use them again in some other context. At the same time there are thoughts of how to mix my partner's furniture with my own when we move in together, which hopefully will happen within a not too distant time frame. I'm sure we'll find a larger apartment or house sooner or later as well.

There are a few things, however, that would work nicely with what we already have and above are a few examples. I would love to have the wall lamp, "Dots," from Färg & Form in our rather dark hallway. I found it at Stickspåret. The tin jar from Marimekko can be found in the same webshop and it would be perfect in the kitchen. I fell in love with the white MagBag from Maze International the first time I saw it (sorry T., I know it's rather expensive), and I found the beautiful (but perhaps not necessary as such) minimalist book Minimum from Phaidon at Urban Living. The bread basket and the heart tag are both available at Mixin.se and I think they are both really cute. The beautiful plaid can be found at Cosas. All the images are taken from these places.

...happen to be my favourites (and of course my partner knows that). Not only did he buy me twenty white tulips, but he also bought me ten white roses. (Whatever did I do to deserve this?) Now I have brand new tulips in the two vases in our bedroom window, tulips on the dinner table in the living room and roses in a white vase on the kitchen table. It looked wonderful when we decked the table for Sunday dinner (which was a really good lasagne - my youngest son ate and ate and ate - and warm chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icecream for dessert). I'm enjoying every second at the moment...