Take Note

Camping in the woods

When we arrived here, she could only say "yes", "no" and "bathroom".

What you'll see here

this is Småland

Upcoming on blog:

• Camping just north of New York
• Taking off for Sweden on Tuesday
• Stockholm in summer
• Tuscany in July. We'll be staying at some kind of mansion together with 4 other families. 
• Summer in Gotland - where Swedes think summer lives
• Summer in Småland - will be living the life according to the Swedish summer gospel

this is Gotland

Is this supposed to be funny?

The humor is lost on me together with every intention to ever buy anything Athenos.

The dream body

Every era has its own ideals, but they all seem to share the misunderstanding that a woman's body is never fine as it is. It's always distorted in some fashion.

Or have you ever met a lady who looks like this? If so, good luck to her when shopping for highwaisted jeans.

On confidence

Confidence is such a fickle emotion. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. It's altered by people and situations but sadly and strangely not so often by actual accomplishments.

One of the biggest differences between the US and Europe that I've noticed after a year (or a lifetime) is that people over here seem to have more confidence. More people think they can accomplish greatness. I envy that and want my kids to have that feeling too.

Yesterday, at Niki's moving on up ceremony, the theme from Rocky played and each little kindergarteners name was called and each kid walked like a true star on his or her own up to the stage to the sound of applause. They then proceeded to sing songs about how proud they were to move up to first grade and how their teachers loved them.

I will try this for myself. Press play below.

Know the book on sentiments and feelings of 5,5-year old?

The one I really want to write but didn't have a publisher for? It seems to be happening now. So happy!

The main source of inspiration (and joy, frustration, pride, anger, love, laughter, confusion and tenderness):

Will also try to find the best pic ever taken of me. Was about that age, was missing most teeth, had static hair and was laughing so hard about a plastic dog turd next to me on a table.

Ballet Beautiful

Did any of you try it? Notice any effect on body (and sure, mind)?

First American school year: Done.

She's learned to read well enough to discover school misspelled her name. Progress!

Can almost imagine him as a teenager now

Posture

High maintenance

The guy from High Maintenance lives (or works? who knows with Williamburg creatives and their work hours) down the street. I see him every now and then. He doesn't know me of course, but every time I see him I want to scream "more, we need some more. Help us maintain".

Best bottle opener

Midsummer 2014

Important message to all women!

Don't learn the caloric content of foodstuffs. It takes years, sometimes decades to unlearn. In some cases a lifetime is not enough.

American girl 2014

Every morning is a challenge

There goes my baby

RE-blogging this to remind myself how I usually feel about life

It's a bit out of sync, but when you're that happy, who cares?

Childhood friendship

I ask Niki what her favorite word is. She says: Nora.
Nora's mom asked her kid the same. She said: Niki.

There was no coaching involved in the making of this moment.
I still have my childhood bestie. And yes, Sara is still one of my favorite words.

Petra is another favorite word. Have known her since I was 13.


Speaking of female friendship, am reading this.
Only started the other day, but it's interesting.

My next book

I'm working on a book exploring the life and sentiments of a 5,5 year old. 

Putting these pics here to make it more real and to remember 

my main source of inspiration beyond the inner kid. 

Returning to Sweden in 2 weeks. First time there? This is what you need to know.

Punctuality
If late for an appointment or meeting, even with friends, the average Swede gets physically ill. If you invite us over for dinner at 7, you can start regarding your door bell as an alarm set to exactly 7 pm. I have a close Swedish friend who tried to be late on purpose, just to see if she could do it. She could not.

Rain gear
Swedes live by the annoying saying "No bad weather, just bad clothing". This philosophy dates back to pagan times and people have hated it ever since. Nevertheless, every Swede who makes the transition into parenthood mysteriously starts believing it's true, forcing kids out to play in rain, blizzards or any other challenging climate.

A favorite topic of conversation is how poor other nations are at catching up to us and our rain gear.

If you see a Swede with a stressed facial expression, it's likely sunny out. That means the day must be seized frantically and immediately in every imaginable way.

Ideals - summer
The Swedish ideal is to be out in the countryside looking for mushrooms that you will fry and eat on crisp bread. Preferably, you should find lots of chanterelles and they should be close to your stuga. The stuga is a cabin, ideally located in the middle of nowhere and very far away from the nearest neighbor.

Then you have pickled herring or soured milk with crisp bread  for lunch. You should then proceed to work up a heavy sweat in a sauna while beating yourself with fresh birch twigs before skinny dipping in freezing water. For dinner, you eat pickled herring again. This is the epitome of Swedish summer. Be sure to spend 95 % of your awake time out of doors (except for time in sauna). This is very very important. There will be lots of mosquitoes and the weather will certainly be shitty. Does not matter, put your rain gear on!

If you manage to do this all in one day, you score 10/10 and the envy of all other Swedes who do exactly the same thing.

Ideals - winter
In winter, it is customary to complain. And to not complain is almost impossible, since Swedish winters never ever end. They begin in early October and last till May. When not complaining, go skiing. All the time. Cross country skiing is good. Plan your life around it.

Disagreeing is frowned upon. 
Swedes love agreeing so much, work meetings take exactly the time it takes for a room full of people to finally agree on a compromise no one is exactly happy with (= 3-4 hours). You will be served lots and lots of coffee to stay awake and get to hear every participant's opinion on everything in their life, regardless if it has anything to do with the topic at hand.

Working my way around NYC

Mostly work from home, but since I love being surrounded by people, 

here are a few recent temporary offices.

Working in Union Square. 

Working at the Met.

Working at the Wythe Hotel.

Working at the New York Public Library.

Working at our local school playground.

Working at the Simple Cafe.

Subway tricks

I love love love when I get to see a woman apply makeup in the subway.
So swift, alluring and efficient, the few times I've been lucky enough to seen it happen, haven't been able to even to pretend not to stare.

The makeupee's full attention is luckily directed towards her own mirror.

I feel like I'm getting free makeup classes.

while looking for pics to go with this post, stumbled over this.  Seems it (begun and ) stopped in 2010, but still worth a browse.

My life as an author

Writing children's books has been a lifelong dream for me, now it's happening. 

Eagerly asked my editor at what point you can really get away with calling yourself an author. 

She replied "Some people call themselves authors halfway through their first draft, long before anyone else has even seen, read or expressed interest in it. Others publish 20 novels and still don't feel comfortable with the term. Most people though, seem to get into it all by their third book. It's often said that anyone has one book to write but it takes a dedicated writer to keep making things up and making them come together."

I don't know yet what it will be for me, but I do have something now that I've never had before : The author portrait:

Oxymoron

How often are the words "In my humble opinion" voiced by anyone who's really humble about their opinion?

I don't even understand why you should be so humble if you do have an opinion.

Personally, I'm feeling a bit opinioned out.

Dog's best friend

Yes, that is a dog in a wheelchair. 

Green guardian.

Someone really cares about this big grass. 

It happens everyday

Not sure what exactly is implied here, but my guess is a woman tiring of wearing high heels and throwing them to the wind like a bad dream. Does happen everyday!

Toothy

Tooth fairy apparently never got around to switching Mary Magdalen's tooth for a coin before it was encased in this elaborate relic container. 

Williamsburg confessions

We can't know for sure, but my guess is that the owner wears a beard and is very particular about his coffee. Also, if he doesn't have at least 8 steam punk tats, I'm willing to eat nothing but kale for the next two weeks. 

we all know this feeling

Williamsburg confession

My tastebuds are not refined enough to fully appreciate the artistry of local baristas.
To me, most coffee just tastes like coffee with the exception of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, which tastes like ...terrible.

Do love their logo though, especially the old one.

4th wedding anniversary today

Anders job surprised us by giving us a one night stay at Jade hotel and dinner at the Standard Grill.

We felt spoiled. Also Rangers won, so had the feeling that all of NYC was happy. At least the people who care about grown men skating, chasing a small round object for hours on end. 

I have now been together with Anders for 15 years, of which we lived in sin for 11years. The sinful years had a very thin veneer of sin, mostly they were about tidying up, hugging/comforting kids and trying to catch up with work. I wish they'd felt more sinful, sound so exciting. 

The 4 married years have been almost identical to the sinful years. Still, getting married was fun. 

Williamsburg confession

All these beards make me angry.

Life lately

Niki wanted to put her Frozen cake on the internets

I so remember this age