Not found in Fantastic Beasts

Hello all you wonderful people!
I hope you are having a splendid weekend.

Today I am wearing a blouse from the old Book of Deer collection from AW13 called Sea & Selkie.

I wanted something from this collection very badly so when I found out there were a few blouses left I jumped for joy. Not only is this feminine blouse beautiful with it's high collar, but it has a delicate hand-drawn print on the bell sleeves.

Another reason why the Sea & Selkie collection interested me so is that I adore selkies.
Selkies are mythological creatures found in old Scottish and Irish folklore. A selkie is a seal in the water that turns into a human on land. They are different from other creatures that you would think are similar, such as mermaids, because selkies are shapeshifters, and can have a completely human form. Selkies are for example not found at all in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander.

What ignited my interest in selkies was the beautiful animated film Song of the Sea. The film came in 2014 and was nominated for an Oscar. It's about a young girl that discovers that she is a selkie and her quest to recover her seal coat and to find her voice, with the help of her human brother. I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful and simply beautiful this film is, both in animation style and in the story. I find myself watching it almost once a week.

Blouse: Book of Deer (old)

Skirt: Miss Patina (here)

Flats: Asos (here)

Hope you all have a beautiful day, don't forget to check out Song of the Sea.
Much love,

Are you still here?

If you are still here that makes me very glad that you would visit this blog again. But the question was directed at winter. Are you still here Winter? How long were you planning to stay?

February is one of my favourite months even though I usually feel like I want spring to just come already. And it is definitely not spring in February.

However, there are other great things about February. Mainly edible things.
February is my birthday month, which means birthday cake. It is also the month of Valentine's Day, which I celebrate by eating some type of cake or pastry.

Shrove Tuesday (or Mardi Gras as you Americans call it) also usually falls within the month of February. In Sweden we have a special pastry for Shrove Tuesday called Semla (I'll tell you all about it in another post). And to top it all off, within the first week of February, the 5th to be exact, is Nutella Day.

Could this month get any more delicious!

So Happy February to you all! I hope this month will treat you well. Expect lots of recipes on the blog this month. But to start it all off here's an outfit post.

This is the perfect winter dress. It's a cosy material, almost sweatshirt-like, that's warm and toasty. It's got the cutest fit and the little wings are just adorable. There are wee elf houses embroidered on it which makes me smile. I paired it with knee-high socks and it really did become the comfiest outfit I've ever worn. At the same time it's really a cute look because of the minidress fit.
Psst... this dress is currently on sale right here. So if you like it, make haste.

Dress: Book of Deer (here)

Knee-high socks: Lindex (old)

Shoes: ModCloth (here)

Much love,

My first Thanksgiving

Hello all,
I'm sorry the blog hasn't been so active recently, but once again life happened and I couldn't find the time to update the blog, even though my thoughts have been with all of you!

I'll just jump right into it, I was to my very first Thanksgiving dinner last week. I have never celebrated Thanksgiving, but a group of my friends (an American in the lead) decided that we should have a Swedish version of Thanksgiving. It was loads of fun hanging out with people, but the food...

How can I say this gently, I don't really understand the big deal that is made about Thanksgiving food. It might very well be because I'm a vegetarian and can't eat the main dish - the turkey. But generally I don't really like food that is made for big festive events (I'm not too fond of the Swedish Christmas food either). A friend of mine made a really good vegetarian lasagne, which I believe is not really part of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but that might have been my favourite dish on the big table of food that we had set up. I was also very pleasantly surprised by green bean casserole - very yummy indeed.

However, anyone who knows me, or even people who may only have glanced over this blog will know that the desserts were where my hopes laid. And there was plenty of it.

I made a pecan pie, the first one I've ever made, and it turned out quite well if I may say so myself. I think I might have over baked it, but that's a story for another time. We had pumpkin pie, which I looooove. We also had tarte tatin (French upside down apple pie), made by the french friend in our group. So it really was all sorts of luxury. I might have rolled out of the place being so full.

All in all, my Thanksgiving experience was very nice, and for the desserts I understand why you would want to celebrate it year after year.

As for the outfit, I really can't take the credit at all. I saw Jenna Coleman wear this pinafore from Miss Patina in Doctor Who as the character Clara Oswald and just had to have it. In the show they had paired the pinafore with a mustard yellow turtle neck, and since mustard yellow is my favourite colour I did the same!

Pinafore: Miss Patina (here)

Turtleneck: Lindex (here)

Tights: Primark

Heels: ModCloth (here)

Much love to you all!
And Happy December!

Understanding Cancer - The Cancer Series part 4

Last time we discussed how there is no cure for cancer, because cancer is really many different diseases and there is about as many cancers as there are cancer patients. This time we will look further into that. What exactly do I mean when I say that there are as many cancers as there are cancer patients?

From part 1 and 2 of the Cancer Series you remember that cancer cells are cells that have special traits and can grow uncontrollably. In part 2 we talked about the "hallmarks" of cancer and we said that a cancer cell can grow on it's own and forever, it can ignore signals that tells it to stop growing or that tells it to die. At the same time cancer cells can create new blood vessels and by doing so can spread to the rest of the body. Well, how come a cancer cell can have all these traits and characteristics. The answer lies in the genes.

Genes are snippets of DNA. DNA consists of nucleotides, which are the building blocks of DNA. If you've studied these things before, you'll remember that there are four nucleotides, A, C, G and T. These nucleotides are arranged in a super specific order and create a certain sequence. Together the sequences tell the cells how to manufacture proteins, and proteins are basically everything we as humans (and other carbon-based life) are made of.

So the gene, the sequence of DNA, is an instruction of how the protein should look and be. Sometimes though, you can have mutations which changes the instructions, and when talking about cancer this is where things go wrong. A mutation in the gene changes the way that the protein it codes for will look. This can alter the protein so drastically that it cannot function normally any more. However just one mutation will not cause cancer. Usually it takes at least five or six genetic changes (i.e. mutations) for a normal cell to become cancerous. And if you think about it, we had six hallmarks of cancer. So a mutation in each of the hallmarks lead to a normal cell being transformed into a cancer cell. And as a tumour gets bigger more and more genes starts to mutate. Some mutations make the cancer more aggressive and "meaner". So there can be thousands of possible combinations of mutations, every cancer is caused by a different set of genetic mutations. And this is why a drug might not work for some patients while it works for others with cancer in the same tissue.

Hopefully now you better understand what I meant when I said that there are as many cancers as there are cancer patients. Each patient will have a unique cancer that has gotten to where it is by taking a different genetic path.

I realise that this part became very science-y so if you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask, I will do my best to try and answer them all. And then next time I'll tell you about two types of genes that are always involved in cancer.

On to the outfit...

This pinafore is from Miss Patina and I absolutely love it. It goes with almost anything and is super comfy and very warm (which is good for someone like me that is always cold). I also really like it because another colour of the same pinafore is worn in Doctor Who by the character Clara Oswald in the episode that will air later tonight! The style is very Clara, and with the colour I got that is in tweed it is also very Doctor, so it is a nice pinafore that sums up both the Doctor and Clara in one item of clothing.

I also have to mention the shoes. This is the first time I'm wearing heels in a blog post and that's because I didn't really choose the shoes at all. It was a ModCloth Stylish Surprise. If you're not familiar with the Stylish Surprise that ModCloth hosts every once in a while I'll enlighten you. It's a mystery item that you buy in your size for a fraction of the price. You choose either to buy a dress, an item of clothing (top or bottom), or a pair of shoes, and you have no idea what you are sent until you get it. It is super exciting! I think about what I might get from the moment I order it until I actually receive it (which is usually a couple of weeks, since I live in Sweden). I received these lovely shoes as my Stylish Surprise and I fell in love within an instant. I am so into these shoes. They aren't too high, they're comfortable (which I don't usually think high heels are), and they are so pretty! I was super excited that I received these shoes. Definitely worth the 10 dollars I spent on my shoe Stylish Surprise.

Pinafore: Miss Patina (here)

Blouse: Miss Patina (here)

Tights: Primark

Shoes: ModCloth (sold out, similar here)

I also got some dresses and tops as Stylish Surprises, but I will show you those in another post. For now I will conclude with this: I am lucky in my Stylish Surprises, and have always received pretty things that I like. So I am definitely pro-Stylish Surprise by ModCloth! It's about twice a year, so it's important to keep an eye at ModCloth's social media pages where they announce it. This is by the way a completely non-sponsered post. Just wanted to let you in on the exciting Stylish Surprise if you didn't already know about it.

Have a lovely weekend and a beautiful rest of October.
Much love!