Hej hej!
Being busy made me forget to take photos because never before has my iPhone album been so empty (Empty might be an exaggeration. There's still 1060 photos in there...)
But! There have been some moments worth documenting so let's take a look, shall we?

As my birthday gift my mother and I went on a fleamarket spree and I got this beautiful teapot. I have at least nine teapots already but since I broke one a week earlier I thought it was OK for me to get a new one...

Oh, and this is dinner for me. Popcorn and tea. There's nothing better.

One day I rearranged my side of our work room. It solved a lot of problems so I'm very happy with the result.

David and I went to Österlen and it was cold as heck in the house!

I made a fruit plate that looked and tasted amazing.

We ate roasted tomato soup and garlic bread while it was storming outside.

One day I woke up to this gorgeous light. It had been rainy and stormy the entire week so this was such a nice change!

It was quite cold that one day. This winter has been SO weird. It's like spring outside and two days ago I saw a Magnolia tree ready to burst out in flowers. I started yelling at the buds "STAY STILL IT'S STILL WINTER YOU FOOLS!"

We found a spooky tree and an INCREDIBLE view.

We also found an over cuddly kitten.

The day we went back to Gothenburg it was foggy.

Midnight picnic on the floor with tea and shortbread working on a flowery GIF.

The week before Christmas I attended the Christmas fair in the mall Nordstan. Here you can see me hiding from customers. No, not really. I was putting things like bags and ribbons and boxes under the table since that was my storage room of sorts.

All the jewelry displayed and ready!

On december 22 it was my last day at the christmas fair and it was David's and my 7 year anniversary. We went for a meal at a nice restaurant and on our way home we kissed in the elevator.

The rest of the night it was packing and fixing mayhem in our work room. The day after we drove to our families and left it all like this to deal with after the holidays. It was reeeally nice to leave it there but not so great to come home to. It's all gone now though.

Alfred and Astor the cat getting to know eachother.

I was working the entire night on New years eve so David and I celebrated a day early. It actually felt like New Years for real. We toasted on our balcony at midnight and watched Fireworks on my phone.

I started the year with being sick in some kind of cold. After staying inside recovering for a few days it was nice to get outside for a walk. We went to the cemetery where it was rainy and sombre and spooky. Just the way I like it.

See you soon again!

Tjingeling!
/Lotta

Hej hej!
I'm having a few days of working from home wearing comfy clothes, drinking lots of tea, making jewelry and almost never leaving the couch. I have been dreaming of this the last week or so, just really wanting the calm productiveness that I need to have in my life.
Today David helped me with taking some really cool photos and I hope to be back tomorrow with a big post showing you what I've been up to.
Until then, here's a Two Two Two for you!

Two views from close to my work that made me stop and snap a photo.
The first one was taken one early morning (after a night shift at my job at a group home) when I almost missed my bus because of this photo and the second one just before a work shift in the afternoon when the sun painted Gothenburg in silhouette.

Two photos of a necklace in progress.
The first showing a half finished necklace held over the table filled with tea and stuff that I need to work, and then the second photo is of the almost finished necklace piece.

Two of me wearing the very first of my Tangled Triangle Necklaces.
The first photo was taken the day after I made the necklace and the second one was taken today during the photoshoot I talked about earlier in this post.

I have been editing photos today and I really can't wait to show them to you! But not until tomorrow...
I can tell you this though: it's going to be quite dramatic and Rita Hayworth-y.

When I was a child I made up recipes. I lay on the kitchen floor reciting ingredients for my parents who wrote them down for me on a piece of paper. And then we tried them.
One of these recipes was for a fish gratin with shrimps and a nice thick cream sauce that turned out to be a hit. It's called "7 year old Lotta's fish". (there was also a "6 year old Lotta's fish" and a "7 year old Lotta's NEW fish"- It was always fish recipes for some reason).
Last weekend my parents made that for my birthday dinner and it was as good as I remembered it to be.
Today I made up another recipe but this time it's safely stored in my mind and I kind of made it up as I went along.
It's for a creamy mushroom soup and I thought I'd let you know the recipe for what I, of course, call "32 year old Lotta's Mushroom soup".

You'll need lots of mushrooms (I used about 25 regular mushrooms and 3 portabello mushrooms), two big cloves of garlic, two large shallots and half a leek. You will also need a couple of decilitres of cream, some white wine, chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you prefer that), some grated parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Chop up the shallots, garlic and leek and fry all of it in a large sauce pan until they are soft.
Chop the mushrooms but leave one portabello and maybe five or so mushrooms for later. Throw the mushrooms into the sauce pan and stir for a minute or so. Don't fry the mushrooms for long, just soften them a bit. Add a litre of water, the chicken broth (I used three squares) and white wine. Bring to a boil and leave it under a lid for about ten minutes. Then bring on the blender!
Now it's time to take care of those left behind mushrooms. Fry them in some butter with salt and pepper and then you can put them aside again.
Back to the soup! Add the cream, the grated parmesan and also: grate some nutmeg over it. Stir and season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Pour into bowls, sprinkle the fried mushrooms over and eat with maybe a cheese toast on the side if you're into that (and who isn't?).

I am a big fan of soup during this cold season. Luckily David is too, so we make a lot of them. In addition to being tasty, soup is also very easy to make and it's always enough to put in the freezer for work or a lazy day. I love to know that there's soup in the freezer.
It's like frozen treasures!

Hello hello!
I've got myself a nice addiction. A Flower crown making addiction.
It all started when I made the flower crown for the wedding. I realised that it wouldn't be the end of my crown making days and this week turned out to be proof of that.

I sat down on monday evening with a large cup of tea and lots of fabric flowers and glued away.

And a few hours later I had this in my hands.

Tadaa! Not really suitable for work days but I had a special occasion in the close future in my mind.

The day after though.
That day I made this Frida Kahlo inspired crown. It wasn't really supposed to be this big, it just sort of happened. I have no occasion for this yet. Hm. Might need to plan something...

On thursday it was was my birthday! And the flower crown sat nicely on my head while I peeled apples for an insanely tasty apple pie. Had some friends over in the evening and rocked my flower crown until bed time.

And then yesterday. My birthday present from my parents was a trip to four big fleamarkets to shop away. This is like my dream come true. I found so many great things! Clothes, a teapot and SO MANY FABRIC FLOWERS I CAN MAKE FLOWER CROWNS FOR EVER!
You have NOT seen the end of my flower crown making days yet...