Feel Good Food

This past week I've been making a lot of oatmeal. I've always loved it, even the simpler recipes I started out with. But lately I've been trying a lot of new things in it, like goji berries. I also bought pecan nuts and can't wait to get some maple syrup. I will post a recipe one of these days.

And I've continued to explore the Japanese kitchen. Oden have grown to be one my favorite dishes. It's really easy, but so very delicious. I just had some last night.

I've also been trying to eat my way through our stock of jello. Turned out I had a bunch of bags stacked in the cupboard. This one was coffee flavored, hence the strange color. I really love how well the butterfly mold worked, can't wait to try a different color.

We're getting more and more daylight here, which hopefully means I'll be shooting some decent dinner pictures soon. I'm sure I'll keep cooking and baking so expect a lot of food posts when spring starts.

I've really had it with winter and am very much looking forward to spring. Or summer...

Any winter blues tips?

Great Reads and the Murakami Challenge

I've just finished Norwegian Wood. I was already planning to read it, seeing I'd love to read all of Haruki Murakami's books, but when I noticed the movie was going to be released soon I made this one my priority.

Apparently this book has gotten a lot of criticism, despite it being the most popular and appraised book. Fans of the bizarre say it's too much of a cliché, whereas people who only read mainstream books claim it's too slow.

I do love Murakami's weird books, but I really loved this one too. I'll post the movie once I've seen it, probably next week.

While surfing online I came accross this Reading Challenge. Since there aren't any strict rules, you can just read as much as you'd like, I thought I would join in. I like how that takes the pressure off, but still has a certain level of competition or achievement. You can join here if you'd like.

There are different levels of participation and right now I'm betting on Toru, which means I have to read 5 books.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Treasury Time

While being sick I felt so disconnected from the whole blogosphere as well as Etsy and it took some serious adjusting to get back into it all. But I think I am now officially back!

The orders are coming in again and ideas for blogpost are popping up too.

But I thought I'd start again slowly by posting a little treasury. I always forget how much fun it is to make one.

This one's theme is circles, you can click here for the real and bigger version.

Hoping to see you all again tomorrow.

Lovely Series

I will spare you all the gory details, but I will say that the flu(or whatever it is) that I've been having these past couple of days has not been fun. After days of lying down and drinking tea, apple juice and an occasional cup of soup, I got fed up and really wanted to do a little blogpost.

It seemed appropriate to pick something I did enjoy this week, namely: "The Middle".

The reason I gave it a try was that I saw this cute and quirky little kid in the trailer, he plays the youngest one in the family: Brick.

Of course I was also hoping it'd be a good show, but I would never have guessed it would be this great.

I often give you a spoiler alert about the trailers I post, but I think this one deserves a code red, because I didn't even want to watch the whole thing in fear of ruin the whole season for myself, but you can watch the beginning just to give you an impression:

Ok, I'm off to bed again, hoping to be truly back in action soon!

Marvelous Music

A few years ago this cd cover caught my eye. I knew it just had to be good music. My mom said that Suzanne Vega had one big hit I probably knew, she was right, everyone has come across Tom's Diner at some point. However I had no idea about the rest of her music.

But I quickly grew to love her other songs and have been a fan ever since. Just a couple months ago she gave a concert here, but I am sad to say I missed it. But she's still very active with her music so I'm hoping to see her live some day.

I'd never seen any of her videos until now, but they're pretty cool, right? And because I can't contain myself I am posting two songs today.

Caramel is definitely one of my favorite Suzanne Vega songs. I'ts way more bossa nova than the rest, but it still has her unique sound too. I can't wait to give it a go on the guitar, although I can't believe I never thought of that sooner.

Feel Good Food

As mentioned, I've been experimenting with Japanese food a lot lately. The pictures started piling up, so it's high time I share some with you.

Ok, so the jello isn't really Japanese, but I did give it a bit of a Japanese touch with the cherry blossom right? Either way it tasted really good, like coconut, and it looked pretty cute too. The original jello was white and I used food coloring to make some in pink and then used a cookie cutter for the flower.

I've also been interested in bento boxes lately. For my mom's last work day before her holiday break I had made her one. The sheep was based on this tutorial. The bottom was filled with jello and fruit, including apple bunnies:)

Sent along with my Christmas gifts came a few Japanese gifts as well.

This cute owl package contained this amazing bento book. I read loads of awesome recipes and helpful tips and can't wait to put it all to use.

There also were egg molds in different shapes. I tried the bunny first.

And last but not least, these gorgeous sweets. I'm about halfway through and they are delicious! Some are similar to each other, some are completely unique, so it's always a surprise what I'll get.

Unfortunately it has been to dark here to take any dinner pictures, but as winter passes I'm sure that will change sooner or later and I'm hoping to show you some home cooked meals then.

Have you tried any new foods or recipes lately?

Lovely Movies

After seeing the trailer of "The Kids Are All Right" I somehow expected it to be more of a comedy, however I was pleasantly suprised when it turned out to be extremely realistic. It's very serious at times, but still hilarious.

I have to say it is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The acting was unbelievable and I love how everyone looked so natural.

Plus I watch almost every Mark Ruffalo movie I come across. He, again, is so very real and I love his sense of humor. Almost makes me wish I had a spermdonor-dad somewhere.

In the movie he has this girlfriend(aka Yaya DaCosta) and I just felt the need to post her picture because she's so super gorgeous.

Anyway I am very very excited about this movie, you should definitely go and see it. As always here's the trailer, but with the warning that it does show a lot of what happens in the actual film.

Have you seen it yet? Are you as in awe as I am?

2011

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a great night celebrating. Mine wasn't too interesting, but I enjoyed myself watching comedy through the fireworks while drinking kid's champagne and eating a tiny little amount of sushi after midnight.

Apart from all the celebrating there of course has to be a moment of remembering and making plans.

2010 was very eventful, some good things, some bad things, but I think the one thing that made the most impact must've been opening my Etsy shop. I've had a great time starting the business and look forward to finding out what this year will bring.

For 2011 I have made a few goals.

I'd like to take the shop to a new level, which will hopefully include:

• Listing new designs more regularly
• Making owls in a bunch of different colors
• Adding some completely different items to the shop
• And promoting it, not only internationally, but also in my own country

I'm also hoping to do some things around the house and totally reorganizing all my crafting stuff.

And I'd love to pick up my paintbrushes again.

Plus I'd like to keep exercising and eating healthy and hopefully cook a lot more than I have this year.

And last but not least I am hoping to make this a great blogging-year!

~

I hope 2011 will be amazing for all of you and I look forward to reading your blogs and comments again this year!