Balloons, who doesn’t love them?

Day thirtyeight of 365

It just rains here in Stockholm all the time … This picture is from Fagersta in the summer when it didn’t rain, though it rained there too mostly. Preparing now for the 2 year olds mumin birthday party which has been moved to Sunday due to weather.

Day thirtyseven of 365

This perfectly shows why I’m embarassed to be a vegetarian who eats fish. Though this burnt böckling I did not eat.

Day thirtysix of 365

Here’s another one of those röllakan carpets I was talking about, the Swedish woolen woven ones that repell dirt and last for ages and look really classy in my opinion. I don’t know what the camera is doing upside down …

Day thirtyfive of 365

At the store cauliflower may same like a nutricious thing to put in your basket, but then at home you don’t exactly know what to do with it? Bake it in the oven with cheese covered spaghetti! (Boil pasta and vegetable broken into bit and then mix with the cheese & mustard, top with tomatoes). Yummy!

Day thirtyfour of 365

 

 

At this rate it’ll take me a few years to cover 365 days … But I’ve been feeling nauseous again lately, week 28 now and apparently it’s not uncommon to get worse again towards the end. Eating zofran, since I’m diagnosed with hyperemises. Which they’re not that great at treating here since it’s fairly new and unknown to them (!?) though it’s been proven ages ago exists. Well anyway …

Good news is I’ve managed to buy a light bulb. Now that sounds like I’ve very low expectations of my own level of achievement, but really – they’ve stopped selling and outlawed “normal” lightbulbs in Sweden according to a new EU regulation. I’m not kidding. It’s to save energy/environment. So the new kinds are LED, Halogen or low-energi. And the old regular 60w are gone. After a bit of research in a lamp store I figured out that halogen 55w is the closest in appearance to the old 60w. They have the same colour of light and the halogen comes on immediately when you press the button. Which the low-energi does not.

This sign says OLD BULBS and then under the picture of the desired object, the name of the store in the remote area of Bromma, Stockholm. Bromma is a suburb, and this sign is spotted down town. Ha ha … But they do make awesome gifts these days.

I saw this sign at Odenplan, that’s not even close to Bromma. They expect people to travel across town to score old bulbs. It’s tough out there for those with old-bulb-addictions …

 

 

Day thirtythree of 365

These are the scissors I was talking about the other day, that come apart at the hinge. They’re meant to I guess cause they’re easy to put back together – not broken. But it’s irritating because it happens constantly. At least they’re all plastic and ok for 2 year olds.

 

 

 

Day thirtytwo of 365

How to impress your two-year-old:

Make a ball. Role it under the palm of your hand. Role the worm – or just stop there if you don’t feel like making this too complicated. A worm is good. Be content with yourself. Parenting is no easy job and you’ve done your best. Or go on, role the worm up into a coil, leaving a bit out for the head of the snail. Bend the head up and divide the antennas using your nail. Form slightly after artistic feel – this part will be done best by those of you having a BA in Fine Art but the rest should be content they at least are better than the worm parents.

Well done! That’s all for planned parenting for today.

(Play-doh please contact me for bank details).

Day thirtyone of 365

Baby is at the table, well he’s two but I call him baby. We gave him scissors the other day, not as child abuse but as in a pair of plastic ones from the toy store. From age three. If you try to cut things that are too thick with them they come apart at the hinge in the midle. Baby’s new game is throwing the scissors on the floor or hitting in on something so the hinge comes apart and then crying MAMA til I come and fix it.

Reality now in our home: MAMA

So I have to go. This is life at 7:17 in Stockholm this autumn morning.

Three minutes later he’s played with the xylophone, drawn, played with clay, and is now eating musli. I’m reading Camilla and the Horse, a novel by Danish author Christina Hesselholdt. Like a collection of interwoven short stories. Something to inspire my own short story writing. I sent in my latest to the Umeå short story contest, it’s annual and the largest in Sweden since 2008.

Day thirty of 365

So this is making my own pesto. When you find lots of fresh basil on sale next time you know what to do. Mix it with any cheese – I don’t buy parmesan just for pesto, I take what’s in the fridge – and any nuts (well edible), I used almonds cause I had some at home. And olive oil. And voila. Tastes much better than the ready made ones you get in a jar. To be itten with pasta. Much simple. Prego. I know nuthing.