Taking a break

It's been pretty quiet in here of late. I have found the need to focus less on my online presence, and more on the stuff that really matters – family, friends, love... life.



For now, I'd like to say thank you to all my readers and wish you a fantastic summer! I can still be found on Twitter for those of you who would like to keep in touch. I'm not shutting the blog down permanently - I may come back to blogging at some point... or I may not. Or I may come back with a different focus. Who knows!

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To This Day Project

It's beautiful. It's sad. It's powerful. The message is important, and a little too close to my heart for comfort.



From the project website:

To This Day Project is a project based on a spoken word poem written by Shane Koyczan called “To This Day”, to further explore the profound and lasting impact that bullying can have on an individual.

Please watch, share and help spread the message: bullying is most definitely not ok.

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Not Nutella

What if...



What if there was a chocolate spread, that was both ridiculously tasty and healthy?

Guess what? There is! And it's easy to make: Take one ripe avocado, a few drops of stevia, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of cocoa powder. Blitz. Eat. Soooooo gooooood!

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How can 7 years feel like 7 seconds?

It feels like only yesterday that I finally got to meet my baby after the longest 9 months in my life. You've changed my life in ways I never thought possible - you challenge me, infuriate me, you make me laugh, cry and worry, you make me proud every day, and you make me marvel at how it is possible for my heart to contain so much love. Happy birthday, R! I love you so much ♥

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Recipe: Home made "Bounty"

I've brushed the dust off my Flabfight blog and am attempting to give myself a good kick up the derriere to get fit and shed some of the flab that has crept back on over the past two years. Please forgive the cross-posting if you follow both blogs - this recipe was too good not to share!

"But, that doesn't look like diet food?!" I hear you ask. I know it doesn't. But I also know one more thing - if I deprive myself totally, I will fail. Fact of life. What I will strive to do is to go for the healthier option when I allow myself a treat. Like these sugar free "Bounty" choccies. Simple to make, low carb, and totally delish.



RECIPE:

1 tin of coconut milk
2 tbsp cocosa (virgin coconut oil)
Desiccated coconut
Sukrin (Erythritol) or stevia to taste
Dark and/or sugar free chocolate (I love the Cavalier brand)

Use only the solid bit from the tin of coconut milk (use the liquid in a sauce later, if you don't want to waste it) and melt it in a pan with 1-2 tbsp of cocosa and sukrin or stevia to taste. Stir in desiccated coconut until the mixture has a porridge consistency. Shape the micture in one of the following ways:

• Put it in silicone moulds and place in the freezer for half an hour.
• Put the mixture in the fridge to set, roll into balls and place in the freezer for a while.
• Put the micture into a lined cake tin and place in the freezer for a while. Once set, cut into bars.

Dip them in some melted chocolate. Leave to set in the fridge. Enjoy! Try not to scoff them all in one go though... They may be a healthier option, but they're not totally innocent!

(Note: if you have a low fat, rather than low carb, approach to weight loss - these might not be ideal for you. They do contain a fair bit of fat from the coconut milk and -oil.)

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Oh, Kubus!

Where have you been all my life?





The Kubus candlestick was designed by Danish architect Mogens Lassen in 1962. Intended as a rebellion against the ornate, elaborate home, it has now become a design classic.

I've been lusting after this for years, but haven't quite been able to justify to myself spending so much on a candle stick... The irony is that in my attempt to find a cheaper alternative, I have probably spent the same amount, maybe even more, on other candle sticks that have been discarded along the way. Lesson learnt: buy one beautiful thing that you love, rather than 5 mediocre alternatives you don't. You can call me materialistic, but every time I look at my new Kubus, I smile and my heart skips a beat.

Best x-mas present ever - thanks mamma & pappa!

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Post x-mas catch-up

Happy new year everyone! I had planned quite a few posts in December, with how-tos and recipes and... and... and then kazooooom! Xmas was there, it came and went - as did the whole of December, really. Or even the whole of 2012. 2013 has started in much the same way. Where is the "pause" button?! Anyways, we did manage to fit in some fun and festive activities too, and here's a bit of a re-cap.

R and I made x-mas decorations - some to be pressies for friends and family, others to keep for ourselves. We made glitter-filled snow globes by glueing ornaments to the bottom of jam jars and adding water, glycerine and glitter:



My fave is this Lego one that R made for his friend. How cool is that?!



...and we made clay ornaments following a cornstarch clay recipe I found here. Simple and so decorative!



We also made various other creatures. I love R's idea of letting the hole in the bead become a mouth!



A candy-laden gingerbread house is a must, of course! It was demolished and devoured by eager little hands and mouths on new years eve.



These toffees were a huge hit too. Since the recipe is in Norwegian, I have taken the liberty of translating it – just scroll to below the photo.



Vanilla toffee

500 g sugar
200 g butter
200 g double cream
1 vanilla pod (or use vanilla extract)
50 g coconut oil

Melt the sugar slowly in a cast iron pan, until golden brown. Be careful not to burn it at this stage! Meanwhile, place the vanilla pod and cream in a pan and bring to a boil. Remove the vanilla pod, and pour the boiling cream into the caramelised sugar. Watch out, this will bubble like crazy! Stir well, add butter and boil rapidly for 5 minutes. Pull the pan off the heat and add the coconut oil. Stir well, and pour into a lined baking tray. Leave to cool completely, place in the fridge for a little while, and then use a sharp knife to cut the toffee into chunks. Enjoy!

Phew, so that was a glimpse into our x-mas preparations. After a hectic few weeks we went off to my parents to spend x-mas with my family. R was poorly for a few days, but we did still find time to go for a nice wintery hike.



R forgot about his post-illness-grumpiness for a little while and had fun with my sister's boyfriend (I guess it's about time we upgraded his status to being R's uncle now, or what say you sis?) on the ice.



R also lost his first tooth! He lost the second one yesterday, so now he's really toothless!



We went back home for new years eve, and spent it with good friends and good food. Can't beat that combo!



Decorated the table simply, using a scrunched up linen table runner, birch bark stars and squirrel motif paper napkins from Kremmerhuset, pink washi tape and dymo labels. I also went and chopped down a whole tiny little baby spruce, placed it in a vase and used the remaining stars to decorate it.





That vase used to be a brown and orange 70s bonanza, by the way. Just goes to show what can be achieved with a can of spray paint... I'm a sucker for quick and easy DIY projects like that!

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Minimalist xmas tree advent calendar

I saw a really funky danish designer xmas tree somewhere on the internet, and fell in love. I did, however, not fall in love with the price tag. I can't justify spending the equivalent of two weeks worth of groceries on a modern minimalist xmas tree, especially not when I know the materials to make one will cost me less than a third of the original. And so, the DIY version was born:




The plan is to use this as our advent calendar in years to come. I have printed out little notes for each day, with a fun activity written on the inside. As the days pass, the notes will be replaced by baubles one by one until xmas eve, when the tree is complete. I can see this becoming a cherished xmas tradition in our little household!

If you want to make your own, you'll need the materials listed in the top image. I wanted to make my tree 1.5 metres tall, so I cut the thickest dowel to this length. I cut the top at a 45 degree angle, to make it look a bit more elegant. I then cut the thinnest dowel into pieces measuring 70, 60, 50, 40 and 30 cm respectively (two of each length) to make "branches". Next, I measured out and marked the placement of the branches on the tree trunk. I started 10-15 cm from the top and spaced them about 10 cm apart. I placed them at right angles to each other, but the original tree that I saw had a more random placement. Do what you think looks nice!

Then comes the fun part. Errrr... Make that the f***ing difficult part. Drilling holes in the thickest dowel, to accommodate the branches. I'm pretty handy, so I figured this was going to be really straight forward. Not so. Seriously, my attempt resulted in the most outrageous swearing fit ever heard south of the Arctic Circle. I clamped the darn thing in place, I attempted to pre-drill a small hole... but no. I just could not do it. In the end, I was rescued by a friend who works at a school and has access to a woodworking workshop complete with all sorts of wonderful tools. I handed her the rock hard piece of shit wood, and the next day, she brought it back to me with all the holes in place. Yay!

So... let's assume that A) you've managed to drill the holes yourself, or B) you've persuaded someone else to do it for you. Either way, you now have 10 holes in your mighty rod – into which you will now place the pre-cut lengths of thinner dowel. Starting with the shortest pieces at the top and working your way down.

Next you need to make the base. I cut two pieces of my plank to about 40 cm length, and two smaller pieces about 6 cm long. I used the hole saw to cut a 35 mm hole in the middle of one of the longer pieces. I then placed this on top of the other piece at a 90 degree angle, and screwed them together. The shorter bits were attached to the ends of the top piece, so that the whole thing would be stable.

Finally, I slotted the base of the tree trunk into the hole in the base (having applied a generous amount of wood glue first), and used a long screw (from the bottom up through the base and into the dowel) to fix it firmly. I sanded the tree and gave it two coats of white paint, but you could leave it unpainted if you like the natural look.

Good luck!

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