Happy Easter!

A little bit late, but here comes a Happy Easter wish! We have celebrated Easter mixing French and Swedish traditions, and here I show you some of the Swedish examples. 

1) The Easter "Bouquet", filled with eggs and chickens. 

2) Kids dressed as witches. In Sweden children dress up like this and go around the neighborhood wishing happy Easter and getting plenty of candy in return. Actually, most of the witch clothes are sewed by my mother for me back in the 70-ies.

Knitted pillow

This is my new pillow, made using this cable pattern from Drops design. I am very happy about the outcome, and I am happy to cover the ugly simple IKEA pillow that has been lying around from quite some time now. I am always so happy to try out new models and new techniques, and this one was really fun to start with, but once I know it I tend to start looking for new patterns. The pillow was put aside for a while when I did my last one and a half shawl, and maybe because I started to know the pattern of the second shawl and wanted a break I finally finished the last few rows of the pillow. It feels really good to finish a project and I hope my blog will make me better at finishing things since I want to present them for you.

Tasty crackers and Low Carb Bread

This is a bread (or crackers) totally without carbohydrates, no salt, no sugar, super easy to make and tasting fantastically! I starting eating less carbohydrates when I decided I wanted my second pregnancy to be a better experience than the first. It worked, and I only gained half of the weight as compared to the first time, I was not swollen, I felt much more movable and energetic, so I strongly encourage this diet! In fact, also my husband felt very good eating like this, so we have just continued for the last three years now. Not with a lot of rules, but just generally substituting all pasta, rise and potatoes with vegetables, and eating less sugar. It has come to the point that I actually not even like things that are too sweet anymore, so I don't even feel like I am making an effort to avoid it. For all of you who want ideas of how to eat less carbohydrates I will once in a while give some examples of things we eat, starting with this bread.

2 dl flax seeds (brown or golden, or a mix of both)

1 dl sunflower seeds

1 dl sesame seeds
1 dl pumpkin seeds

Mix everything in a pot and add cold water so that it is cover (see picture), and leave it covered in the fridge over night (or until you have time to prepare it). During this time the flax seeds become sticky, and this is what will hold the bread together.

Next day the water will be absorbed by the seeds and you will have a moist paste. Divide this paste on two oven plates covered with oven paper and spread it out. I usually take an oven paper that I put on top of the paste and use my hands to spread the paste out all over and evenly. Put it in the oven on 120-130 degrees for 1-2h. You know it is ready when it is completely dry. Good luck, and I hope you will like it as much as I do!

Ici, vous trouvez une version francaise

Trilingual news

After hesitating back and forward on what language to write in, I have finally decided to make three blogs to cover the different "worlds" that I belong to. I am Swedish, living in France, having a lot of English speaking friends. 

In our family we speak all three languages all the time. I speak English with my french husband and Swedish to my kids. My husband speaks french to the kids and the kids are bilingual and speaks french and Swedish mixed. Interestingly, our oldest, soon-to-be five years old, is starting to pick up English and often makes comments about things we discuss in English. It is fascinating to see how it is completely natural for them that we switch language all the time.

Sometimes I will post the same thing on all three blogs and sometimes there will be posts adapted for the specific audience. Please feel free to comment, discuss, suggest, criticize, question or whatever you feel like doing. 

French blog can be found here.

Swedish blog can be found here.

You can also follow the links up on the right side of the blog.

Knitted shawl

Almost two weeks ago I started knitting on the Winter Breeze lace shawl from Drops design. A bit tricky to get started, but once into it, it is so fun! I feel like I get hypnotized and all the time want to do "just one more round" before i stop. I am using Drops lace yarn which is 30% silk and 70% alpacka. It is very light and soft and I look forward to wear the end product soon! 

Tomato Soup - Tomatsoppa - Soupe de Tomates

Perfectly healthy fast food - yes it does exist! I often make this soup when I am by myself and want something fast and easy, but still tasty and healthy. Hope you will like it as much as me!

1. Put some olive oil in a pot and put the heat on.
2. Chop garlic and put it in the warm oil and fry shortly.
3. Add one can of crushed tomatoes (preferably Bio).
4. Boil on low temperature, add salt, pepper, and herbs (dried or fresh, whatever you have available).
5. Mix to avoid tomato pieces, serve with chili and fresh herbs.

Rose Cone - Roskotte - Cône en forme de Rose

I wanted to share theses amazing cones I found in the park the other day, with you. I have never seen anything like it, they look exactly like roses! I have picked a enough of them to be able to create a beautiful ever lasting bouquet for the house. To be continued...