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!