lusse

We made some typical Swedish buns today. I should really have had some saffron but of course in my usual excellent planning I had run out. I added cardamon instead and they turned out delicious. I am glad that this year I managed to get the advent candle holder out in time to light one candle for each advent Sunday. The Christmas traditions are becoming more important to me. I think it comes with having children and wanting Alvar to experience the magic of this season. I love lighting candles, decorating oranges with cloves, hanging home made hearts in the window, baking and making 'knäck' - swedish christmas toffee. If I have time I might try and make him a stocking and a little Santa hat but from what seemed weeks until Christmas it's now only a few days. Next year, I will start sooner! I write this down so I can look back and remind myself.

Cool kitchen

when the kitchen doors nearly fall off, drawers don't come out without force and Alvar for the millionths time nearly poked his eye out on the sharp corners of the drawers i can't help but feel that a new kitchen would complete my life. Really that simple. This found at apartment theraphy

recycling

this is how Yuken Teruya reuse toilet rolls. An alternative way to putting them in the compost. Making a forest out of them.

japanese sewing books and christmas markets

my crafty friend Sandy went to Japan and got me this gorgeous sewing book. It's all in Japanese so I doubt I will ever use them but I love just looking at the pictures and getting inspired. It's hard to see in these pictures but I love Japanese sewing books for their genious simplicity.

We had a lovely day today. Alvar has a bad cold and cough so he woke up early and came into bed with us for a early morning snooze. It was a cold, sunny winters day and it was quite fitting that we had planned to go to the annual Swedish Christmas market in the Swedish Church. It was heaving with people buying very expensive Swedish cheese and herring (including me). I always feel sentimental and a bit displaced when I go, but that's just part of it. After that we went around Borough Market to take in all the smells and have coffee at Monmouth coffee company. Now we are all tucked up warm and cosy at home and I think we are having butternut squash risotto for dinner!

apple season

On Monday, it was such a gorgeous day so after having finished all the boring house tasks it was still only 2pm. So we got in the car and went to Hewitt´s farm in Kent to pick some apples. The air was so cool and crisp and the smell of apples so sweet. Alvar sitting like a little king on a throne, chomped his way through several varieties with gusto. Now our freezer and fridge is stocked up with apple sauce until next year. As the Swedish song goes...abundance in August, enjoy it in November. Or something like that. This is the point where we wish we had a larder (one with frilly things at the end of the shelves!) where we could store it alongside with our strawberry jam and tomato chutney. I am starting to view my parents cool cellar in a new light!

autumn

a few autumnal images. Alvar in his Swedish outdoor gear (the picture is a bit fuzzy but its impossible to catch him standing still at the moment and also i love his expression in this photo),

a fat pumpkin from the alottment, a plump little mushroom in wet moss, and early morning mists in Sweden. And the last image is from my parents garden, which was overflowing with apples. The biggest harvest for a long time. I havent worked out how to turn the picture once they are uploaded. I will get there eventually...

bookshelves

The boys in action. Alvar is making sure that the ladder is holding up.

They making bookshelves in our living room. Floating bookshelves. At the same time we are trying to decide about wallpaper and colour on the wall. We want something colourful on the chimneybreast and I am thinking something from the grey colour spectrum. This might take a while.

Lotta in Swedish

Saw in my new issue of Lantliv that Lotta's fantastic book Simple Sewing is out in Swedish. I think I prefer the Swedish cover. (of course) The projects in the book are so beautiful and inspiring and actually look like they are easy to make. I am half way through the door stop.

autumn cooking

the weather has been so miserable the last few weeks (some might say the last few months) and today I just couldn't avoid it any longer. Autumn food. I had been putting it off as I was still waiting for summer begin properly. So tonight I made a lamb, vegetable and barley stew and let it simmer for hours. Oliver made a bread and butter pudding. Now, that is not summer food is it. But what can one do with skies this grey and heavy with rain? You just want to potter indoors, cook great stews, bake bread and watch movies. We have also finally begun work on building shelves and cupboards in the living room. It will be a bit chaotic whilst all the books and CD's are clogging up our floors but I am sure it will be worth it. They can house all of our books and I won't have a heart attack everytime I see Alvar climbing up the Billy book cases that are currently there. The house is slowly coming together.

buttons and baking

I feel that I had been lurking long enough around other peoples blogs, checking out what they are sewing and baking etc. so I will now be brave and post some of my own random purchases. It will be a while before I brave actually showing what I am attempting to create. These pics are not very good I realise but I hope that I will get better at this.

Found a marvellous charity shop in Sydenham. Its a gold mine of all things vintage crafty. I dug out these gorgeous little buttons for 50p and some vintage teatowels....dh looked at me strangely as I was very exited about my finds. He went off and tried perfecting his scone recipe. This is his third attempt. He added cinnamon this time. He is still not happy with it so I expect more scones anytime soon. Well, I dont mind, I think they are pretty perfect already.

reflection

This is Alvar looking out the window at my parents house in Sweden. He has just having seen grandma Brita gardening and was quite transfixed. I love the way you can see the reflection of what he is looking at in the window.

green...

I love cooking fresh food for Alvar that requires minimum amount of preparation.
This evening we walked back from the alottment where we had picked one courgette, two large handfuls of french beans, a beaker of blackberries and some mint. I steamed the vegetables, mixed them with olive oil, lemon juice and mint and stirred the blackberries into some Greek yogurt and Alvar ate it whilst studying the planes and pigeons flying past the window. The evening was so warm and still and the sunshine a bit hazy. Beautiful.

Början

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