Lifestyle changes

Last September me and my friend Lotta started brainstorming about how we could create for ourselves the lives we really wanted.
It's been clear since we met in 2010 that this would involve starting our own business ... so that's what we did.
On the 2nd of April, after months of dreaming, imagining, thinking, planning, ordering, organising, and quite a few freak-out moments we opened our lifestyle store called "Varför inte idag?" - Swedish for "Why not today?"

A name that became our motto, a daily reminder, and now also the name of my blog which till this day was called "Sustainability" a term that has become so vague over the years that it was time for an update.

Why not today?

Happy New Year!

It's the 2nd day of the year and so far I've kept all my January Resolutions*:

I got up at a reasonable time, didn't eat meat, didn't drink alcohol, did (some) yoga, didn't spend money on anything I didn't actually need (none at all today actually), and did more work than I'd planned to do.

Oh and on top of that I did all my dishes, so my kitchen was clean for at least one full hour!

I've also had time to watch a chick-flick while eating cookies.

Talking about a successful day ...

Now the movie's finished and so are the cookies and there's a really loud storm raging outside that makes it impossible to sleep, so I picked up my favourite gardening book at started planning/daydreaming about the spring.

Amongst all other exciting plans I have for this year, my vegetable patch will be bigger than ever!

I don't know about you, but I'm SO ready for this new beginning!

*to put a little less pressure on myself I'm dividing my new year's resolutions up into monthly ones ... You should try it, it feels so much more manageable :p

I'm planning a sugar-free February. Who's with me?!

Winter Jam

When the grass crunches under your feet you know winter is here.

It's definitely winter on Gotland,

but still there are things to be harvested!
The other day I took in the last of my kale (decorated with ice crystals!) to transform it into a pie,

and picked a bowl full of rosehip buds.

A word of caution (since most recipes don't stress this fact enough):
you need a LOT of patience to make rosehip jam.

I watched about a dozen TED talks during the process of cutting each of the rosehips in half and scooping out the seeds,
sighed a LOT,
was ready to give up about half way and toss out the rest,
but persisted & succeeded! 

The amount of struggle directly correlates to the appreciation of the result.

The Gratitude Experiment

Every now and again I catch myself dwelling on the things that suck in my life.
I've even considered turning my little blog into a venting space for my irritations, sadness & anger. I mean, life is multi-faceted, why should I keep myself from having my own little pity party just to keep up the good cheer?

The thing is, this blog has always been my happy place, even in harder times, and today I decided it would be such a shame to infect it with negativity. 


I will appreciate my moments of gloom for what they are, but not give them more importance than what they deserve either.

In the honour of Thanksgiving, I will learn to be grateful for the disturbances in my happiness level,
because aren't those exactly what makes us realise how extremely lucky we are to be living this thing we call life? 

According to this article, cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher long-term satisfaction with life and kinder behaviour toward others, including romantic partners.

If that isn't something worth the effort I don't know what is!

Water under the bridge

I'm starting yet a new chapter in my life.

The past 2 years now belong to the past.

New beginnings always start with an ending.

This one doesn't sound like a happy one, but in a way it is.

The past 2 years have been filled with memories to last a lifetime.

A rollercoaster long-distance relationship, many many late night phone calls, fabulous week-end getaways, the longing, the excitement of meeting each other at airports ...

as well as our fair share of doubts, fights, too many cancelled plane tickets and changed plans ...

but we made it through, survived the messy first year, laughed about it all, moved in with each other, embarked on the most amazing trip ever, made it home safe, loved it, worked hard, most often side by side, the way we liked it, the way we had become used to.

We literally spent pretty much all of our days together for an entire year.

It was nice. 

Great at times. 

And I often wonder what would have become of us had our dreams for the future not been so different ...

Pointless really. They are. Very different.

Now at least we can finally start working towards what we really want.

The memories of our 2 year long adventure will always remain. 

All the rest is water under the bridge.

Life

You know the feeling when your head is too busy with daily life and too full with random thoughts that there's no room for anything else?

I usually write things down to make space for new things 

but sometimes I can't find the words to describe the things I want to "extract" from my mind 

and they stay in there whirling around until they find peace.

There was no room for new things in my head the last couple of months.

There was no peace either ...

When I flew to Belgium a few days ago 

to be with a dear friend who lost someone very important to her 

I didn't know that being away, being with her and going to the funeral, however heartbreaking it was,

would bring me peace.

The truth is that thinking about death almost forces you to think about life.

I bought a new notebook and started writing. 

Home

Listening to a random playlist, "I feel home" by O.A.R started playing, right as I was about to start writing.

"I feel home when I see the faces that remember my own
I feel home when I'm chillin outside with the people I know
I feel home, and that's just what I feel

Home to me is reality and all I need is something real, I feel home"

I can't get over how nice it is to feel home somewhere.

And even though me and J are already talking about our next travels,

right now it's home we want to be.

A week ago being home got even more fun, because that's when we got this little furball :)

Hector, the newest addition to the family!

In the picture above he's staring at the lens cap dangling from my camera - it's actually pretty difficult to frame him awake & not moving too much :)

See? :D

For those who follow me on Instagram. Sorry for the cat picture overload ... I can't help it. :)