3.14 Day

Hello everyone and Happy Pi Day!
I come to you on this special day with another recipe, this time (of course) for pie!

This apple pie is adapted from a recipe by the Hummingbird bakery. I personally love my apples to be a bit on the sour side, so I chose Granny Smith apples, but you could use any juicy apples.

The wonderful apron and dress that I am wearing are both from Olga Valeska's Etsy shop. And my ring is from Femme De Bloom.

Without further ado...

Apple Pie

INGREDIENTS

• 520 g flour
• 220 g butter
• 4-5 tablespoons cold water

• 150 g butter
• 5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 kg apples
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg + a tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Whisk the 220g butter with the flour, until you get a grainy consistency. Add cold water, tablespoon by tablespoon until the dough comes together. Leave to rest in clingfilm for an hour.

Divide the dough into two equal parts (one part for base, and one for the pie lid). Roll out one part of the dough until half a centimeter thick and line the pie tin with it.

Peel and slice the apples in fairly thick slices.
Put the 150g butter and cinnamon in a saucepan and melt the butter, then add the sugar followed by the apples slices. Make sure all the apple slices are covered with the butter-cinnamon-sugar mixture and let cook for a couple of minutes until the apple slices soften a bit, but are not completely cooked. Spread the apple slices on a plate and leave to cool.

Fill the dough covered pie tin with the cool apple slices. Roll out the other part of the dough, and place it on top of the apple slices like a lid. Cut a couple of slits in the pie lid (so that the steam can leave) and add any decorations.

Beat the egg and add a tablespoon of milk to it, then brush this mixture over the pie lid. Sprinkle on some sugar and bake for 30-40 minutes.

So there you have it, my apple pie. I hope you like the recipe and I hope you spend this Pi Day eating lots and lots of pie. I like to eat my pie with ice cream or custard, but I prefer Pie à la mode. How do you like to eat your pie? Please tell me in the comments.

Much love,
Mona

Etsy Love: Folksy and whimsical

Hello everyone,
It's been a while since I blogged and more than a year since my last Etsy Love post. I'll remind you of what it is - my Etsy Love posts are posts where I introduce you to some of my favourite shops and creators that can be found on Etsy.

I want to introduce to you the incredibly creative illustrator, photographer, artist, seamstress, crafter and shop owner Olga Valeska. Her style is influenced by traditional folk art and it has an air of whimsy to it - I absolutely adore everything about her and her shop. You can find Olga's stunning instagram account @olga_valeska, and her beautiful website here. Her Etsy shop has fantastic items, such as fine art prints, post cards, notebooks, home decor and hand made items of clothing, like the dress that I am wearing.

I saw this dress on instagram, and immediately thought I had to have it. I was lucky enough to find out it hadn't sold yet. The size of it was just right, on the milimetre, for me. So I instantly bought it.
When the package arrived it was like Christmas! Olga had packed it beautifully with love and an incredible eye for details. She had added a number of gifts for me in the package, such as a beautiful wooden hanging decoration and a mini wreath, as well as some postcards that are so beautiful that I want to frame them. Finally getting to the dress - I squealed with joy upon seeing it. It is just as folksy and whimsical as I wanted it to be. The dress is beautifully made with wonderful wooden buttons down the back, and the hand-embroidery is delicate, precise and oh-so-lovely! It is a comfortable and stunning dress that made me feel like a snow fairy in it. I adore it!

Olga is currently working on more items of clothing and I for one am excited about that!
She also has a sale in her shop right now! So please check it out - HERE.

Dress: Olga Valeska's shop (one of a kind)

Hood: Magic Doll (shop is now closed)
Knee socks: Primark
Boots: Ecco

Much love,
Mona

Crystal clear

Hello you,
Hope you are all doing great and that you're keeping warm or cool depending on where you live.
Where I live in northern Sweden it is cold (not very, but enough to not be able to photograph outdoors), and I'm keeping warm with blankets and hot cups of tea.

When I was a kid I loved rocks, stones and crystals of all kinds. I used to collect some and at times I would get them all out and arrange them in order of colour, just look at them and be joyful. The little things really make me happy, and I was like that as a child too. The littlest thing could amuse and preoccupy me.

Top: Book of Deer (here)

Jeans: Forever 21 (old)

Lipstick: Bésame Cosmetics (here)

This lovely top from Book of Deer with a crystal print reminded me of my box of rocks, and I went searching for them in my old stuff, and to my surprise, my box was still there, with crystals and stones of different shapes, sizes and colours - all living in harmony. It made me happy.

This unique and dreamy top also makes me think of the 70's, and I imagined that it would be what I would wear on the cover of my soul-rock record. Arms outstretched above me, my curly mane billowing behind me, a cross between Freddie Mercury and Erykah Badu. Well, I sure wish anyway...

I think I'm going to go arrange my rocks now.
I hope you all have a fantastic week, take care of yourselves.

Much love,

Idols

Hello all you wonderful people!
Christmas is only two weeks away, and we've just had the most celebratory day in the science world - the Nobel day.

When I was a kid I remember we were asked once who our "idols" were. This way in the late 90's/early 00's, and most girls my age answered Britney Spears. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. But I distinctly remember thinking "What's so idol-worthy about being a pop singer?", what can I say I was naive, and didn't quite understand that people have different goals in life. My goal was not to be a pop singer. No, I wanted to be a scientist. So when the question came upon me of who my idol was I answered "Albert Einstein". He was one of the most famous scientists of all time, and to the nine year old me - he was a true idol. I wanted to be just like him, become a person known for their great intelligence, make immense contributions to the world of science and, of course, win the Nobel prize!

Needless to say, I love the Nobel day! So all in all December is a great month, with advent calendars, Christmas music, presents, a bunch of cosyness and the biggest science party of the year!

On to my outfit, this is an entirely Book of Deer outfit, and actually it is also entirely AW14, but I got both of these lovely pieces that I had been pining for in the Black Friday sale of Book of Deer.

The lovely, warm, nice, soft, velvet jumper is available in some sizes, so make haste if you want it! The jumper is amazing, as you might have noticed by my description of it. I love everything velvet, and this jumper has a bow, which we all know elevates things to perfection! And the skirt is such a lovely ice-cold grey colour, and it has wee bears on it! How awesome is that?

Jumper: Book of Deer (here)

Skirt: Book of Deer (here)

Tights: Primark

Are any of the rest of you interested in the Nobel prize? I'm both Swedish and a scientist so it's close to home, but what do you guys think of the prize? And what did you think about Bob Dylan getting the literature prize?

Have a beautiful wintery Sunday!
Much love,

Kitties

Hello all,
Hope you are doing well!
So... It's December! Happy December everyone!
I blogged a total of zero times last month. I apologise for being absent, and I hope you can forgive me. I have no real explanation other than that I didn't feel like blogging, my mental health has been up and down, and I've been very busy at work.

Before I disappeared I promised to blog about my London adventures, and I'm still hoping to do that. Anyway... This outfit is from the beginning of September, right before I went to London with my darling family. I remember that it was very warm in London, but in northern Sweden it was autumn for sure. And now in December there is not a leaf in sight - just a whole lot of ice and occasionally (I'm sad to say it is occasional, damn global warming) some snow.

Anyway, you can never go wrong with black and white. And while it is minimalistic and classic, I decided to quirk things up a bit with a fun print.

I fell in love with this blouse when it first arrived to ModCloth. It has a super cute collar, and the print is darling! There's one cat with flat ears, one ear is black (in the very middle in the photo above) that I've decided is my very favourite. It would for sure be my cat, it looks so sweet. I'm a cat lady without a cat!

Blouse: ModCloth (here)

Skirt: H&M (old)

Cardigan: Zara (old)

Tights: Primark (old)

Meow!

I'm sorry the blogging has been so sparse during the autumn, but I update my Instagram (@curlsncakes) regularly - so follow me there if you want updates. As for the blog - I'm hoping to get back into it.
Hope you're all having a nice December day!

Much love,

Cat hat by PattyMac Knits

Hello all you lovely people!

Today I want to share a special feature on an amazing person that is the creator behind the hat I'm wearing in these photos. I want to introduce you to PattyMac Knits, which is run by the talented, innovative and super kind lady Patty McGuire.

Patty is one of the nicest people I have gotten to know through instagram (@pattymacknits, @pattymac100) and I'm constantly grateful for IG for connecting me with people like Patty. It happens to be that Patty lives across the world from where I live, in Virginia Beach (which makes me imagine that it must be very different from northern Sweden as it's got the word "beach" in its name!). She's a photographer since 25 years, which is so evident from the artistic and beautiful photos she takes, often of her twelve year old Golden retriever, Willie, modelling her luxurious knits.

Patty describes herself as a Creative Entrepreneur, and I can but agree. She loves to encourage people to try something new, and she inspires people to craft and knit. Patty thinks that it is important to create things with our own hands and she loves to knit because it makes her feel happy, hopeful, alive and connected. Being the wonderful person that she is, she wants to help people experience these same fulfilling things, so she designs fun knitting patterns, and then show people how to make the projects!

Patty also wants to start getting into selling online classes in knitting and crafting, and I for one am looking forward to that, since my knitting knowledge spans only so far. So keep a sharp eye out! But for now, Patty's etsy shop, PattyMac Knits, is filled with her unique knitting patterns, and a limited quantity of finished knits. Everything you can find in her shop is handmade by herself.

I am lucky enough to have gotten a handmade hat from Patty. It is one of her so called "cat hats", which are ridiculously cute. It is quite a special one as it is made with Wool and the Gang luxury yarn. And let me tell you this yarn is incredible. It is soft and thick and so warm! It's the perfect hat to have when you live in northern Sweden. I just want to let everyone know about this hat, because I feel like all the people living in Umeå deserve a hat like this. But back to Patty, you can find the hat I'm wearing, finished and handmade with love here. And another version of the hat (in black) can be found here.

The little ears on the hat make it look so adorable and appeals to my quirky side. I find myself feeling very cute in the hat, and I get a bit silly-nilly wearing it. It's like the child in me comes out to play for a while. Or maybe it is the kitten in me.

For Patty it's not just about knitting, it's about changing the world one stitch at a time. She has a beautiful way of looking at life and she tells people to, in life as well as in knitting, not give up. I often find myself inspired, especially by her intelligent words but also by her beautiful blog. Lastly one thing that I cannot omit to mention is one thing that Patty and I both share a great love for and that made us connect in the first place - Harry Potter! She actually has made Gryffindor scarves for her dog Willie. If I had a dog it wouldn't go far without a Ravenclaw scarf.

I just had to add this photo (above), because it is so cute and I love it! Here is the woman herself (together with my favourite book series). The maker of all knitted things in the shop and the mind behind all of the patterns. One day I hope that we'll sit together and talk about Harry Potter and knitting, but until then this blog post is as close as we get to that.

Hat: c/o PattyMac Knits (here)

Dress: ModCloth (Stylish Surprise)

Cardigan: Lindex (old)

Tights: Lindex (old)

Shoes: Ecco (here)

Get connected with Patty.
Website: http://pattymacknits.com/
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PattyMacKnits/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/PattyMacKnits/
Instagram: @pattymacknits and @pattymac100

So, are there any knitters out there? I've got one of Patty's knitting patterns but have yet to go downtown to buy yarn. It looks like I can do it though, and I'm going to heed Patty's words - I won't give up!

Much love,