366 Challenge 213: Running

I have been taking a lot of photos the past week. I am just not happy with them. I think it has to do with my over-all feeling at the moment. Feeling very tired from being alone with the children (over 11 months now...but only 2 more or so to go!!).

This photo, however I took earlier this June. I have noticed how happy C have been lately and I took some pictures of him as he was running around outside. The lighting isn't the best and I remember looking at the photos in the evening, when I had put the children to bed, thinking that I should try taking a running photo on the beach some evening, but I realize I can't think "I can do this better" every day. If I do, there will not be a 366 challenge for me, only a 100 challenge or so. ;) So here is my running contribution.

I love the fact that you can really tell by the photo that this guy loves to run.

Midsummer

This was the first Midsummer weekend spent in Sweden since 1999..hence the first time with the kids, which felt very special. The weekend was extremely windy and we didn't know for sure if there was going to be any celebrations at all, we were wondering how on earth they were going to get the pole up in the wind. Above is a typical Swedish Midsummer pole. Around this people gather up with picnics and (mostly) children and parents dance around the pole singing traditional children's folk songs. (Which one is about frogs, C didn't really believe me when I told him that we were going to meet up with a lot of families and daddy was going to jump around a pole singing "quack-ack-ack *Swedish frogs don't say "ribit", they sounds like ducks... ;)

The gorgeous lady standing by the leafy pole was playing the accordion and singing and I was soo proud of my non-Swedish boy, who wanted go up to her and thank her for singing so beautifully!

My biggest challenge of the day was to only use "cool flowers" in Cs flower wreath. Unfortunately, the wind gave my wreaths about 1.5 minutes to live and this photo is taken just about 30 minutes later..

J in her supersized wreath. I loved making this, though. All pink and summery..

J is trying her first frog dance, with some advice from dad.

Some more dancing.

After the celebrations it was back to our house, where O and my dad started building the patio..will post photos when it is finished.

366 Challenge 13: Chocolate

I've had a very busy Midsummer weekend. Will tell you more about it, but first I want to post a new low carb recipe I have tried for a Chocolate cake, it was sooo nice, you have to try this!

Chocolate cake:

• 250g 70% cocoa chocolate (I used 200g 70% and 50g 86%), break the chocolate into pieces.
• 400ml whipping cream, heat 200ml in a sause pan and add the chocolate pieces into the cream when it's heated and stir until the mixture is smooth. Leave until luke warm, in the mean time:
  
• Whisk the rest of the whipping cream (200ml) together with
  
• 200ml creme fraiche until it is barely dripping from the whisker.
• Take 1 1/2 tsp of instant coffee and crush it and mix it into the chocolate mix.
• Take 3 tbsp of organic cocoa powder and mix it into the chocolate mix.
• Carefully stir down the whipped cream (and creme fraiche).
• Line a bowl or baking pan with cling film.
• Pour down the mixture and put another cling film on top.
• Put it in the fridge for at least 10hours before serving.
• I served this with strawberries and cream.

All credits to Gunnilla at KiF (swedish low carb forum) for this recipe.

Ordlos Onsdag -366 Challenge 131: Cuddle

I have had a quiet moment here with my breakfast and I have been looking through my spring photos to see if anything would suit the 366. Here, the children are at a great amusement park near by. Although, C was big enough to go on "bumper cars" and both children went on a children's roller coaster, the best attraction is still to have a cuddle with the bunnies.

More Ordlos Onsdag contributions can be viewed here.

One thousand and one, one thousand and two...

This post is not going to be about how exciting it was to see the half finished patio last night. I have never seen such bad craftmanship in my life! It is neither going to be about how fun it is going to be to spend our Midsummer weekend building a balcony type patio (because it is not on the ground) instead of actually enjoying one, like we planned!!

*Rising above and beyond.*

Instead, I am going to take my camera and try to take some nice photos of a white rose that has started to bloom in our little garden. I also have "27 dresses" that I am hopefully going to watch tonight if only the children will go to sleep early (considering we were up at 7am it probably won't be that much of a problem)

PS The photo above I took while we were out on our trip on Sunday. There was a bee bugging me as I tried to capture this flower, so I managed to hold the camera all tilted. So I have rotated and cropped this a little bit...

Update: *Boohoo* My pretty rose has died! It was beautiful yesterday, but then I was busy taking photos of all the different faults on our "patio" so O could call the guys this morning to let them know the job is no longer theirs. Fingers crossed, I will at least get the kids into bed and watch my chic-flick.

Tomorrow is another day.

366 Challenge 123: Treasure

Today, we went to a Nature Conservation Area close to where we are staying. In July, we are celebrating our engagement anniversary *well, we are actually extremely bad at celebrating anniversaries, to tell you the truth I wouldn't be able to tell you the date of our wedding out of the blue...*

Anyway, we bought this house 3 years ago, but the funny thing is, that back in our London days, when I shared a flat with Crille and O, I had more 1 week more vacation to enjoy than O and I simply needed to get away from the boys after 6 months together, so I rented a holiday flat. The flat is actually only a couple of minutes away from here. I spent a lovely week only reading and watching the sea and then O came here as well and we got engaged "somewhere on the cliffs" in the Nature Conservation Area that we visited today.

Since we most probably will spend the end of July here, we are planning to engage my dad in some baby sitting and take a picnic out to the lovely spot where we got engaged. Only problem is...we don't exactly remember where this was.

All we know is that is was not the place we went to today. We have to do a new excursion every weekend and hopefully we will have found "our spot" by end of July...

Anyway, we had great fun today, me mostly taking photos and O and the children playing.
We also collected treasures to take home.

366 Challenge 56: Magazine

*Iiiih* This is going to be my new hobby for the next couple of weeks. We have decided to spend most of the summer in our summer house. *O can just as well commute here as to Scotland* and here we have a house and garden and don't have to spend our summer in a flat until we find ourselves a house.

We've already been back and forth over the past 2 months, but now it's going to be mostly forth. ;)

3years ago we bought our summer house. It had no walls upstairs and we have actually not done much about it until this year *my dad has put up walls and I've been painting. O had the honour of doing the grubby plastering and sanding..* and since we have decided to put more focus into this house for the coming weeks it will also have a new patio (hopefully buiders arrive on Monday) and we will also put in a new window in our bedroom, it will give me a great view of the sea from the bed, can't wait!! So..the magazines I read from now on are "window catalogues" and any magazine to do with building your house! *iiiiih*

366 challenge 104: Cake - Raspberry and chocolate cake

I made a birthday cake for my dad the other day. I started baking two days in advance, because I wanted to find a lowcarb alternative that was really yummy. I succeded, if I may say so myself, it was absolutely delicious and NOONE would have guessed that the cake had no flour, nor sugar (part from a minimal amount of vanilla sugar)

This is how I did it, by changing some recipes I found at Kolhydrater i Fokus

50g butter, (whip this together with)
2 egg yolkes
1 organic vanilla pod (scape out the seeds of the pod)
4.5 pieces of dark chocolate (melt it in the microwave, I used 70% cocoa chocolate)
100ml whipping cream (pour it in together with the seeds and chocolate)
120g almonds (mixed it to "flour")
1/2 tsp baking powder

Put it in the oven ca 15 min at 175C.

I did 3 of these for the "spounge cake" for the cake.

To the first layer of the cake I mashed raspberries.

For the 2nd layer I did a vanilla creme:

500g mascarpone cheese
4 egg yolks
1.5 tsp organic vanilla sugar (Can just as well use vanilla pod here as well)

Then I covered the cake in well whipped cream and decorated with raspberries.

Here is a picture of a piece:

366 Challenge 96: Reminder

Today, we had a birthday party. Someone very special came to see us. He also got to try wii for the first time. It was a great reminder of all the fun we had while co-living, Crille, O and me in London, in a pre-kids era. We miss him already and look forward to Wednesday when he will come to visit us again, (O will buy more wii-controls until then!!)

Evening

A moment ago, I was taking some pictures of a cake I just baked. It was sunset time and I couldn't resist pointing my camera towards the harbour and the sun setting. In June and July you can't see the sun set in the sea, but the rest of the year, you can see the sun set into the sea from our garden.

It always amazes me that the people living here all year, they can easily stand talking to each other with their backs towards the setting sun. I read in a book once that the old people from around here don't get the whole staring-at-the-sea-bit, it's just like looking at a glass of water..

Well, O and I stand like the angels on the beach in "City of Angels" whenever we get a glimpse of the setting sun, I love it in any form.

Dreams of a patio

Maybe it was my dream of a patio that made me place an order for these pair of trousers with The White Company today. I have been looking everywhere for my camera charger, but I am completely useless with cords and I feel almost intimidated by the chaos of cords stairing back at me when I pull out the drawer in our hallway, *where O has instructed me that the charger is located*.

Well, he is back tonight and we have a whole week of vacation in front of us! Ah, I am sooo desperate for some alone time, can't wait! I also look forward to share some moments with you from the little harbour village in Sweden where we will be staying.

While waiting for the return of the master of cords, I am going to do some more online shopping...