Happy New Year! Gott Ny År!

Do you love Moleskines as much as I do?  I use the unlined notebooks for my daily journals, and I get the minis for to do lists. I also have the Stockholm guide, which has awesome maps with clear things so I can write directions over the map without actually writing on the map. So cool, I use it almost every time I go somewhere new in Stockholm on my own. Subway map, pages to keep notes on directions or things I learn when I'm out and about. Awesome!

Check out this cute video, which stars 2011 Moleksine daytimers:



On New Year's Eve we went to a nice dinner party and at 11:45 we bundled up and ran out to a bridge with a bottle of champagne and glasses. Loads of other people were doing the same, and we all stood on the bridge looking at fireworks going off in all directions all over the city. It was snowing and so magical!

This isn't shot from the bridge we were on, but it shows that there were fireworks all over the city and when you're above street level you can see so much:



The julmust and pepparkarkar are all gone and I finally joined a gym for my time in Stockholm! Bring it on!

Julmarknad, snökaos, Jul i Sverige

I love Christmassy things!  We went to a few Christmas markets here in Stockholm, called Julmarknad. So snowy and festive!  There was a record-breaking amount of snow in most of Europe, you probably heard about all the cancelled flights in Paris and England. We had trouble getting a train out of Stockholm before Christmas, but eventually after a few delays and detours we got to the smaller town we were aiming for. The Swedish papers were calling it "snökaos" ... which you can probably guess is 'snow chaos' ... so cute!

first night of hiatus in Sweden!

Hejsan! I've taken 2.5 months leave from work and am spending it in Stockholm. I planned to be there before Christmas, then when I found out The Soundtrack of Our Lives were playing on December 16, I knew I had to get there on time for that. TSOOL is one of my very favourite Swedish rock bands, and seeing them 3 times in 3 nights in 2007 kinda kick-started my interest in Sweden. Now I have a lovely Swedish boyfriend and am temporarily living in Stockholm! funny

 

Today is the 14th day of visit! I vowed to take it real easy for the first two weeks because I was pretty burned out, and it worked! I'm just about 100% relaxed now!

crafty video game

Check out this very cute Wii game, Kirby's Epic Yarn. Kirby is a cute little pink creature in a series of games, and at the beginning of this game, an evil tomato uses a sock to turn him into a yarn ball, and then the rest of the world turns into craft supplies too. Kirby swings on buttons to jump across obstacles, pulls zippers to expose new areas and collects beads for points. The layout looks like a quilted, embroidered scrapbook. So crafty! I rented it and suspect if I buy it I won't get much done at home, it's addictive!

rescued dog dance party

I was in a bad mood tonight, repetitive strain in my fast-typing parts, and I was too tired to get to yoga but then when it was too late to get there on time I really wanted to go ... wah wah wah ... but then I came across this adorable video! Much better mood now!

OK GO is such a fun band, maybe you watched their other videos, esp Here It Goes Again, a million times on YouTube like I have.

Sometimes dogs being made to do tricks for a long time seems cruel but these pooches look joyful....am-I-right? They're all rescued dogs! And the band has a webpage supporting animal rescue.



One of the fun things I do for practicing Swedish is to count dogs when we're out walking, and try to describe them with the Swedish words I know ... so many dogs out there!

en hund, hunden är söt
två hundar, hunden är svart
tre hundar, hunden är liten

I still can't pronounce "sju" which means seven...just three letters but so tough to pronounce, you have to make a sound kind of like clearing your throat!

knitting

hee hee, this cracks me up! It's from Indexed. So true in the summer. I'm happy that it's almost normal weather for sweaters now and time to get back to knitting!

I love this knitting video, a sweater all in one day with apple and coffee and people coming and going.

first veggie pride parade in Toronto!

This is old news, but I'm dumping pictures off my camera and remembering a fun on a hot, happy summer afternoon .... June 5 was the first Veggie Pride Parade in Toronto!

Swedish Royal Wedding

Just another reason that great things come from exercise .... the Swedish Crown Princess married her gym trainer a few minutes ago! I watched it online, it was beautiful!

Swedish phrase of the day: kungligt bröllop it means "royal wedding."

Arlanda is the "Official Love Airport" this year, ha ha. I got smooched when I was there last month, so I guess it's true!


A lot of the stores were brimming with Royal Wedding souvenirs .... china, tea towels, chocolates ...



Victoria and Daniel paper dolls:

lots of postcards ... I liked this cute one:

and this silly one, "how to become a Swedish Prince" ... the text describe's Daniel's upbrining, gym ownershop and royal romance leading to his becoming a prince:

temporary tattoos of the newest royal couple:

and coasters of the royal family:

glass knick knacks, there is a lot of Swedish glasswork:

Victoria wasn't always the Crown Princess. She's the eldest child of King Gustaf and Queen Silvia, but when she was born, the law stated that the first born son would be heir to the throne. That law was changed in 1979. Too bad for Prince Carl Philip! Strikes me as odd because the Swedes seem to have a "gender doesn't matter" approach to everything, but I guess that wasn't so before 1979. She has studied in different countries, supports Swedish public radio and struggles with an eating disorder. I'm just learning about things Swedish, and I don't live over there, so I'm not bored of or annoyed with the royal family yet!