Autumn planting and strawberry mint

Autumn will soon be here for real. But garden season isn´t over just yet!

September is a great time to plant perennials. Most of the times it´s actually preferable to plant in the autumn because the plant will put all it´s energy into growing roots, making it strong and steady, rather than putting energy into developing leaves and flowers.

By this time last year I was busy planting dozens of plants creating a small medicinal garden in front of our tiny house. All summer we´ve been able to harvest almost everything we need for our home remedies, crunchy cleansing products and herbal teas from that patch.

This years I´m taking it easy with the planting. Mainly going for different kinds of mint - I love mint! I think We´ve got about 7-8 different kinds of it out in the garden. I  use it in toothpaste, deodorant, tea and almost anything else I can think about. Sometimes I just eat a leaf as it is (it´s good for digestion and great for the breath).

Last week I was super excited to find both banana mint and strawberry mint at the garden center (!). Yes, they actually smell like strawberry and banana! Funnily the scent and taste of the strawberry version really reminds me of a smoothie that I used to get from a local juice bar some years ago. I will soon try to brew tea from each of the mints, and I really hope they will be great for the purpose.

I learned the hard way that moroccan mint, chocolate mint and eau de cologne mint makes quite awful tea.

Tea of apple mint though, is absolutely delicious.

A bag full of mint and some flowers for autumn decoration... And as you can tell from the picture I also like colors and funny shoes.

Nick your boyfriend´s shirt!

This video inspired me to look at the clothes in my wardrobe differently...  Not to mention my boyfriend´s wardrobe.... ;)

Who knew that a shirt could be transformed into a skirt or a dress? Not me! Now I definitely will start to play around with my clothes some more.

Reverend Billy says it!

Yes! Most of us including me could do better when it comes to shopping.

Let´s shop less and support our local independent stores.
Amen!   

Powered by wind and sun - SOLVINDEN

I´m really excited about our new wind- and solar powered lamps from IKEA. 

They come from a collection called SOLVINDEN (meaning "the sun-wind") consisting of several different light sources run by (as you could guess) sun and wind. According to staff at IKEA they´re supposed to survive hanging outside all-year-round, even trough chilly Scandinavian winters. 

Though I doubt there will be enough sun to charge the sun cells during winter, it´s possible that the wind will blow enough to charge the generator. That´s at least what I´m hoping for as it would save a looot of electricity. 

And what do they look like? 

Pictured above are two of them, in all their colorful glory, charging up on my veranda. When they´re spinning in full action they look like flying ribbons.... Or tiny Tivoli attractions!  

When the darkness creeps in, I bring them inside where they shine for hours. A fully charged lamp last me about 2 days. Below is a single lamp in a pitch dark room.

All in all, I´m very happy with my new sunshiny lights. No matter what anyone might think about IKEA, it´s a great thing that a big company like such make a full collection of sun powered lamps. 

And now I want a sun powered phone charger, fridge, stove and water heater ;)

What´s your experience with solar and/or wind power?

<3

The frugal kitchen - Save the onions

Next time you find soft or sprouting onions in the kitchen - think again before you throw them on the compost pile. 

There´s a fair chance that those onions can be resurrected! 

Simply plant them in a pot or straight into your garden (about 1/3 down in the soil) and watch them grow beautiful stalks. The stalks are delicious to eat raw and can be used the same way as chives. 

With some luck the old onion may even split and turn into several "new" onions, like the beauty on the picture below that was harvested from my garden just earlier this week.  

Besides saving you a little bit a money, it makes you feel like a super fierce master of onion resurrection. Which is cool.

<3

Euphoria - Loreen

Today the official video for Euphoria with Loreen, winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2012, was released!

This is the song I´ve been dancing to, cleaning to and sweating to while exercising this spring. It´s so uplifting and yes I must say it - euphoric ;) Loreen is a very inspiring artist and i think they did a great job with the video.

Or what do you think?

<3

Hello Holiday

The sun is not shining today... but I am, because I've got holiday starting from today!

The best way to celebrate seemed to be with a lemonade and a garden magazine.

...Life is pretty good.

 Even when the sun is hiding.

<3

Glutenfree vegan granola bars !

Today I would like to share something special with you =)

Here it comes...

The recipe for my widely famous, ultra delicious Glutenfree Vegan Granola Bars! (Or shall we just call them food for the Gods?)

It´s all thanks to my boyfriend really. At the same time he found out that he is gluten sensitive, he also found out how hard it is to find healthy vegan, glutenfree snacks to bring on the go. After some experimenting in the kitchen I came up with a recipe that is easy to make and easy to vary when it comes to flavour. Now we make a big batch on a weekly basis and pop them in the freezer were we keep them until needed.

For a batch of about 8-10 granola bars you will need:

The base:
300 grams of dates
100 grams of glutenfree puffed grains and/ or cereals (I like to use puffed quinoa, puffed buckwheat, puffed amaranth and cornflakes)
A pinch of salt


Optional (A total of two handfulls):
Dried fruit
Chocolate
Chopped nuts
Seeds
Cocos 
Vanilla
(etc)


For this batch I added 100 grams of chocolate and a small handfull of sweet dried banana chips (feeling decadent)


Step 1.
Mash or mix the dates and salt into a paste. Nowadays I just use a simple potatoe masher and a bowl for the purpose (Why? Well to make a long story short, dates have a tendency to brake blenders for me... Four blenders in three years to be exact! Naughty dates...) 


If the dates are very dry you might need to add a little bit of water. 


Step 2.


Add your puffed grains and/or cornflakes. Also add optional ingredients like chocolate and nuts.

Step 3.

Put on some good music and blend, blend blend - Worrrrk those biceps!

You know you´ve got the consistency right when all the ingredients sticks together like one big cake.

 Step 4.

Shape your lovely batch into desired shapes. Somehow my bars always tend to take the shape of eggs. Which is fine, really. I pretend they are kick-ass vegan Kinder Eggs. Without the toy... but full of love! =)

Did you try it? How did it go?

<3

Take Part

Do you (like me) sometimes feel like you could do more to make the world a better place? But feel you don´t know what to do - or were to start?

If so, TakePart is a organization that was founded to help people like us to do just that. To take part.

Or in their own words:

TakePart is a digital media organization and cause services agency that provides content, products and services that inspire, empower, and ignite people to take daily action in making the world better.

Check out their 30 Days in 30 Ways action calender to see if you find an action that inspires you to take part. Myself I´m aiming to complete atleast 10 of the actions this month.


<3

People Tree

I hope you all are having a great summer! Myself I´ve been busy with a bunch of lovely projects that involves some of my greatest passions - gardening and flowers! ...But more on that another day.

What I wanted to say is that I got real happy the other week when I saw that People Tree (one of my favorite brands) is throwing a big sale.

If you have not heard about them yet I can tell you that they make the most stylish organic etichally made clothes I´ve ever seen.

Check out the video below if your interested in the full People Tree story ;)

As an aspiring minimalist I´m trying to avoid mindless shopping. However, when I acctually do need to buy some new clothing I see People Tree as an awesome choice!

Three days, One pair of pants and a Few thoughts on possessions

I took a trip to the other side of the country

Packed light

Spent some time with loved ones

Practised yoga

Slept in a lovely room

And thought

Life is pretty good

I´ts a special feeling to live out of a backpack. 

It´s an opportunity to meditate over what things we really need.

Clutter tend to be easier to let go off when we literary have to carry it on our backs...

... And I´ve realized that most of the things that I´d learned to yearn for, was things that I never really wanted

I´ve also realized that when I want less, I feel truly rich and liberated.

Over the latest couple of years I´ve donated, sold and thrown out somewhere about 75% of my belongings

And do you know what? I barely remember any of those things

Needless to say I don´t miss them

Funny this thing with stuff and happiness... how I´d gotten it all wrong to start with!

Read it, do it, go trough it

As I´ve told you earlier in the blog, I´ve been struggling a bit with my perfectionistic tendencies lately.

Today I came across a blog post on Crazy Sexy Life that I found to be so, so inspiring. It gave me perspective and I hope you will find it inspiring aswell.

Read the post: Make friends with your perfectionism

Fruity Makeup

This girl knows how to think outside the box. Her name is Megan and she will show u how to make your own raw vegan makeup!

Check out the video below and see how she works magic with just a blackberry and spirulina.

A busy bee left the pity party

The latest day´s have been busy, busy

Mostly I´ve been hibernating behind my computer, trying to finalize two big assignments for university.

Wow was i overwhelmed to start with!

The work I had lying ahead of me felt like a mountain to climb, and to be really honest with you, it took two whole days for me just to collect courage to begin. I had this silly idea that, if I couldn´t hand in a perfect assignment, then I would have failed. And I didn´t feel that i could do it perfect, so I spent two days of feeling that i had failed already before I had opened my computer. Boo hoo - welcome pity party!

Anyways... my writing block didn´t fade away until I decided for myself that I had let go of my perfectionism, my all or nothing attitude, and foremost - my idea of that outstanding work only can be created by 24/7 blood, sweat and tears. Otherwise I would get nothing done. And that would be silly, right?

I had to find a way to make it possible to climb the mountain - and do you know what?

 I did!

I decided to split my work in 20 minute sessions... That fel doable. 20 minutes of complete focus on my work, and then a 10-20 minute pause. I´ve studied like this for a couple of days now and have managed to accomplish more than I hoped for. My pauses have allowed my to keep a high energy level while staying completely focused during my 20 minute sessions... I feel great, and by now, the overwhelming pressure I felt earlier is gone.

Giving yourself a break can get you far!

Plant and Grow

The last few days have been busy and beautiful!

We had a few warm days, the first taste of summer. Me and my man have been out in the garden, digging, planning, dreaming... And a great thing happened.

We were intendning to buy a greenhouse this year, but after installing a soapstone wood stove that turned out to cost more than we had planned, there was no money left for that. You can therefore only imagine how happy I became yesterday when our neighbours knocked on the door and asked if we wanted to keep our plants in their greenhouse. They know about my passion for plants and have a big and sturdy greenhouse which they hardly use (!!!) A whole new world of planting possibilites opened up and I could hardly sleep yesterday as I was dreaming of aubergines, tamarillos and cucumbers... things that I thought I wouldn´t be able to grow this year. But now it´s possible!

Ah, I love this time of year. To plan the garden, order plants and sow seeds (crossing my fingers that they will want to grow and thrive)... This year I will focus mainly on tomatoes, sallad, leek, beans, herbs and strawberrys.

What will you grow this year?

Morning Walk

Practise makes... sushi!

So! I´ve decided that I´m gonna learn how to make sushi (and not just something that resembles sushi, but kick-ass delicious sushi)

Because i´ts my favorite food it would dig deep holes in my pocket´s if I could eat is as often as I´d like... And making it myself will spare the environment from many take-away boxes.

Here´s my first try (using cucumber, avocado and tofu). The rice got way to sweet and would probably make a real sushi master cry... but wow did I feel proud with myself! Baby steps my friends, baby steps...

Defining minimalism

What is minimalism..?

To me, a minimalist lifestyle means freedom from burdens like clutter, negative relationships and media overload. It´s to choose what´s important in life and focus on that, like picking the most delicious truffles on the all you can eat dessert buffet and leave the rest (well kind of) 

As a budding minimalist I´m getting much more selective with what blogs and news sites I choose to follow and I rarely buy anything mindlessly. And yes... I´m starting to choose raw chocolate bars over those high-fructose corn syrup frankencandies (new word, write it up!) that gives me bellyache.

When it comes to relationships I´ve hade to take some tough decisions and end some friendships that was no longer supportive or positive. I cherish the good memories that was made and bow to the fact that everything is everchanging, and that sometimes people grow apart. All that energy spent on feeling frustrated over dysfuntional relations can instead be spent on making new beautiful friendships! Clearing space to make room for new energies to flow.
 
And the food? To me it makes all sense in the world that a minimalistic lifestyle is a vegan lifestyle. I´m against hurting someone else for the sake of my own cosumption, and hey, when I freed myself from animal products my health skyrocked, my skin got clearer, and my energy increased! Those benefits I would never want to be without. 

This cherry tree didn´t go shopping for it´s beauty

I don´t believe in magic numbers. In my opinion it doesn´t matter if we´ve got 30 things or 300 things, as long as all the things we decide to keep serve a purpose. Our belongings should benefit us in some way and not weigh us down. It´s all about keeping things we use and love, no more than necessary, and most important of all - not to buy more than we need (and to shop organic when possible).

All in all, I don´t want to be owned by my junk or spend my time cleaning and organizing it.

Minimalism means saving time.

Minimalism means long walks, new experiences, liberty from trends, hours playing chess with your loved one, learning how to make sushi, sketching a whole evening or perhaps a spontaneus trip.

Minimalism is a empty canvas that can be painted with what really matters.     

We reached our goal!

Update: The flea market was a success!

I am so happy. We raised money well beyond our goal, and all of the children at the orphanage will now get an health insurance. I´m sure we will do this soon again!

Well I have to say that it´s insane to see how much things we accumulate. Things that we neither like or need, and I can tell you, the flea market was flooding with stuff that still had the price tag on. But... In this case it all lead to something great, and it was fun to see how someone´s clutter could become someone else´s treasure.

If I bought something for myself..? Yes I found two things that I´d been planning to buy for some time: a big mason jar and a carpet to replace the torn one in the hallway. But I´m working the principle "one in - one out" so I will throw out the old carpet and give away some other jars that I´ve never had any good use for.

All in all... a great day!

Japanese micro houses

I love small houses. In fact, I can´t imagine choosing a big house over a small one.

Small is cozy, easy to heat and easy to get an overview of (no need to wonder what hides in the darkness on a empty top floor...) 

And even though the house I live in right now, at 40m2, is considered to be tiny, I wouldn´t mind moving to something even smaller as long as I could have a garden or live close to a veggiepatch (top priority!). 

So, as a fan of tiny living I got excited when I found this video about japanese micro houses. They are so cute, and the best part is that they have included a little patch for plants too! So you can have both the house, the plants, and live in the city. Sweet. I can easily see myself dwell in such a house one day (though... I would slab some paint on the walls first!)

One layer at a time

Tomorrow I will volunteer at a flea market. We will work to raise money for a orphanage in Ghana and this my friends is an excellent opportunity for me to go through my little house (again) to find things to donate.

I give away things to thrift shops regularly, but funny enough, a few weeks later I always seem to find more stuff that I don´t want/need! (Is there a secret gnome sneaking in junk in my home, or is it really me that brings home all of this clutter?)

I´m not a fan of shopping but things tend to collect with one little gift here, one little thrift store find there... but mainly I think I more and more realize just how little I acctually need to feel content.

There are so many things that I´ve decided to keep in an earlier fase of decluttering that now shows to be unecessary... and easy to get rid of.

Yes decluttering can be a process... like peeling an onion, one layer at a time.

  

Another box on it´s way to the flea market!

On being rich

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

                                                           /Henry David Thoreau

Going mnml

As an aspiring minimalist I find it inspiring to read about other minimalists.

Yesterday I found a great post on Minimalist Packrat with links to 50 minimalist blogs. Wow what an amazing bunch of people!

Check it out here and get inspired!

First Aid Kit for the soul

Now and then I fall head over heels in love with a song.

The latest week I´ve been in love with Emmylou. First Aid Kit knows how to make magic. This song makes me all goosebumpy and dreamy and ofcourse I want to share it with you <3

ToothyTabs

Hey check this out, it's toothpaste in the shape of tablets: ToothyTabs from Lush!

If you´ve never heard about Lush, it´s a vegan friendly cosmetic company that don´t test on animals.

I like Lush´s efforts to use as little packaging for their products as possible. For example they make shampoo and massage oils in bars, and sell them as "naked", ie without any packaging. They use mainly natural ingredients, though not all of them are organic (which I really do not like. Now that you have come so far Lush, why not go all the way?)
 
Anyway... ToothyTabs! There are several varieties to choose from and I´ve got Ultrablast and Aquatic.

How it works? Chew a tablet until dissolved (without swallowing of course) and then brush teeth as usual with a damp toothbrush.
 
I really like the feeling afterwards. My teeth looks whiter and my mouth feels really fresh and clean. 
 
And when it comes to taste? Well Ultrablast is definitely my favorite! It has a minty taste with a kick (and it contains wasabi, really cool). These I´ll easily use again! I wasn´t as charmed by Aquatic though. The taste was a tad to "perfumy".
 
I adore the packaging that consists of a cute little cardboard box. No plastic in sight, and therefore much more environmentally friendly than regular toothpaste tubes. 
 .
Well simply put, ToothyTabs is a fun little invention!

"We have to believe what we know"

Have you seen Home yet? If not then please, please do!


Then let me know afterwards what you felt, and what you plan on doing now. 

Myself I will right now go and soak some sprouts, try to grow as much of my own food as possible, stop buying things I do not need and put som time into charity.


Ok, are you ready?


Watch Home on YouTube here

Hello World

Time to wake up, rise from bed with pride and smell the organic coffee (or, do you like me prefer green tea?).


Hello World, Hello Blog and goodbye pointless junk!