Tiny, round and delicious.

I don't like to cook. Sure, I do it, and the food always (ok, usually) turn out good - but I don't enjoy it. It's sort of a vicious cycle; because I don't like doing it I can never bring myself to until I'm so hungry I can barely stand up, and then how could it be pleasurable? I wobble at the stove, trying to make the ingredients cook faaaaster by giving them the evil eye, and when it's finally done I wolf it down, barely tasting it.

Except when it comes to pancakes. I love making - and eating - pancakes, always have - especially these small Swedish ones called "plättar". You eat them with jam and a glass of milk and they're delicious. Luckily, my boyfriend loves them too, so he doesn't mind that they're pretty much all I cook! I guess they're techincally more of a dessert, since they're not exactly full of healthy nutrition and protein, but it's my favorite thing to have for lunch.

Do you guys like to cook, or do you have one dish that you consider your "specialty" and that you could eat at least once a week for the rest of your life? (Or maybe that's just me!)

Welcome to my humble abode.

On Thursday, these two lovely ladies drove all the way out here for a day of complete countryside chillin' with yours truly and da katz.

We started out by taking a walk around the neighbourhood - I needed to go pick up one of our cars that was being serviced down at the auto shop - and apparently both Malin and Annsofie found the walk quite hilarious. In both of these photos, Annsofie is getting ready to throw chestnuts for me to catch. Like little kids! That's awesome. I happen to love kids.

Then we went home and made dinner. Malin was making her dad's "famous" beef something - turned out it would have deserved being famous, it was ridiculously tasty - and I was in charge of the appetizers.

Malin thought it was a good idea to try and feed raw onions to Biianka. Luckily, my baby girl knows better. She and her brother got their favorite smelly chicken-ish cat food instead.

I am not very much into cooking, but I do make a mean goat cheese toast - and why change a winning concept? It is one of the most delicious dishes ever!

We were all working on Friday, so we toasted in non-alcoholic cider and felt like insanely responsible adults. Which I suppose we sort of are.

Responsible Adult # 1.

Responsible Adult # 2.

Sleepy kitty # 1.

The cats finished their food in about three and a half seconds, but Baryshnik decided to stay and hang out by the dinner table. Such a gentleman.

After dinner, we slumped on the couches, drank coffee and ate candy and talked about boys and work and boys and work and eternal love - you know, the important things.

I'm always really nervous before friends visit our house for the first time; for some reason I keep obsessing over if they'll think it's nice and clean and charming or not. Which is obviously a complete waste of time, since if someone didn't like it, they would most likely be polite enough not to let me know. I'm not sure why it's so important to me that others think we have a great home, but probably it has something to do with the fact that people generally think Ronnie and I are a bit nuts for leaving Stockholm for a house - a life - in the middle of nowhere. So if they come out here and think it's idyllic and peaceful and beautiful out here, it's like I've somehow redeemed myself in their eyes. That they might understand why I've chosen this life for myself. But gosh, it's all so stupid. I know it doesn't matter, not even a little bit - all that matters is that I LOVE IT HERE. I really, really, really do. This is my sacred place, be it nice and clean or not. This is my life now, and I've never regretted it. Not for a split second.

The photo shoot yesterday went beyond my expectations, I'm so happy with the result! Now I just hope that Tove - the amazing lady I photographed - will be as satisfied with the photos as I am...

I've been working for a few hours and now I'll have to get ready, since I'm driving into Stockholm for the second day in a row; Ronnie and I are going to have dinner with friends before driving back home tonight. I'm absolutely not used to all of these activities - even if they're really great and fun ones - and I just hope I'll be able to enjoy myself and not get too tired and worn out in the days to come. Because on Monday, I'm going to London, baby!

Fretalian Friday.

Cobalt blue dress and mustard beret, Monki. Snakeskin print belt, Asos. White lace socks, Lindex. Black suede wedges, Steve Madden.

(Photos by me.)

My favorite clothing store in the whole world, Monki, now has a webshop. This is both fantastic - since I rarely have enough time or energy to drive for hours to get to one of their stores - and very, very dangerous. How am I supposed to refrain from indulging in all that awesomeness when it's right there, only a few clicks away?

I decided that the best way was to go through all the different categories and order the five items I, ehmmm, "couldn't live without" (yeah right) - oh, and maybe I should mention that this is an incredibly affordable brand - and now I have begun a complete no-shopping-regimen. The somewhat disturbing reality is that I own tons and tons of clothes and shoes that I haven't even worn yet - ergo, no use whatsoever for more shopping.

This mustard beret and cobalt blue sheer chiffon dress were two of the "can't live without" pieces, and I love the way the colors compliment each other. I wore this on Friday when we had friends visiting - Ronnie made the most delicious Italian dinner, which I didn't match that well, fashion-wise, since I was going for more of a French touch. Whatever, we'll just call it European Fusion! Or maybe... Fretalian?

Our friends were, as you can see, absolutely thrilled to get to spend their weekend in our lovely house. Sure, it could be that they're just crazy about eachother, but I prefer to think that they were blown away by our company.

Biianka, who is usually not too excited about having new people in the house, turned out to be quite the friendly little darling all night. Here: one cute kitty butt. 

Ronnie has an awful lot of amazing qualities, and cooking is definitely one of them!

I was in charge of the Saturday morning breakfast, and I took my task quite seriously - I baked not only one loaf of bread, but two! A dark bread with lingonberries, raisins, cranberries and pumpkin- and sunflower seeds. I had one of my sandwiches with brie, parma ham, tomatoe and basil and the other with brie and apricot marmalade.

All in all, it's been quite the pleasant weekend - I hope you've had a good one, too!

The Back Home Breakfast.

My first morning back in my house, naturally I had to make myself the breakfast I've been yearning for these past three weeks!

Nothing against American breakfasts, gosh no, but after a while... I just get fed up (haha) with pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. And when I left New York, I was also pretty much done with my usual everyday Starbucks morning meal: greek yoghurt with granola, fruit bowl, mocha frappuccino and tomatoe and mozzarella panini. Don't get me wrong, I love all of those things, but after puking my guts - and my breakfast - out on Union Square the day before I left (thanks to menstrual cramps), I didn't really feel like having that specific combination ever again.  (Believe me, it didn't taste nearly as good on its way up as it used to on the way down.)

Ooops, sorry, no talk about throw up close to photos of delicious food! My bad!

Let's get back to today's long-lusted-for breakfast.

 To drink: blueberry tea and many, many glasses of fresh juice, made out of...

...two oranges, one pink grapefruit and lots of carrots. (I totally hated myself when I stood there, making it, and caught myself thinking "wow, I've really missed my juicer". What's happened to me? When did I become the kind of person who misses a juicemaker?)

Sure, scrambled eggs are fine, but I prefer my eggs boiled, ideally by me. I happen to have a sixth sense - I don't need a timer, I always know exactly when to take the saucepan off of the stove for the eggs to be just the way I want them. This particular skill only works on eggs and may not be very useful in other areas of my life, but it does comes in sort of handy while making breakfast.

Now, onto sandwiches:

Shrimps and mayo. This may seem completely gross to you, but then I'm going to assume you've never had fresh Swedish shrimps. (Or you have but just don't like it, in which case I feel sorry for you since you must have something seriously wrong with your tastebuds. Justkiddingbutnotreally.)

Smoked ham and yellow bell pepper.

Brie cheese and apricot jam. Proooobably the best sandwhich ever. Well, at least if we don't count the shrimps-and-mayo-one.

Now I have to get some work done, while trying to ignore the fact that my kitties are furious at me for not letting them out. Baz is meowing mournfully by the door, Biianka laying on the kitchen table where I'm sitting, watching me with eyes overflowing with resentment. I've told them time and time again that I just want them to stay inside for one day, to get used to the fact that they're back home, but I don't think that's going to work. I'll have to get my writing done fast and then follow the cats outside to keep an eye out for the devilish Sotis. Because this night will not end with Biianka being chased up a tree by that little demon. It won't!

In focus on Bond Street.

Grey satin top and nude layered tulle skirt, Monki. Black leather belt, Gina Tricot. White lace trim socks, Lindex. Black army boots, Vagabond. Brown leather satchel, Vero Moda. Lipstick, "Red Revolution" by Maybelline.

Let's start by giving a big hand to my darling stand-in photographer slash boyfriend, who's totally starting to master my camera's auto focus! Yay Ronnie!

Hmm. I just now realized that I might not have told you the reason why I'm in New York City. (Have I? Can't remember. Sorry if I'm repeating myself!)

I'm here because my boyfriend (the cutie in the scarf above - my scarf, to be exact), who's a writer and wants to be a film director, is studying at The Edit Center for the summer. He's going to make his second short film soon and he got a scholarship to study a six week course here in NYC - I guess he believes having a greater understanding for the editing process will help him out a lot while directing, and that sounds pretty reasonable to me. And it's not like I'd pass up a chance to spend a summer in the city of my dreams, so here I am!

I can't stay all summer, though - we could only find a nice home for our cats for three weeks, but that's okay: I couldn't stand being away from them longer than that anyway. They're living with a really sweet and caring family way out in the woods (yes, we know this family) and can run around outside all day long, just like they usually do. We get constant updates on their whereabouts, so we know they're okay, but I'm so not used to life without them! Luckily, New York is a pretty awesome place to be when you want to get distracted.

On to the outfit. Not a lot of variety, as you can see if you follow this blog - I didn't bring a lot of clothes and most of all, I can't wear half of what I brought. It's way too hot. (Everyone told me that even the nights are really warm here, but I suppose I didn't listen, haha!) I only brought one bag, the leather satchel I'm wearing in every single post, since I knew I'd never use a bag I can't stuff my camera, a couple of books and my computer into. So it's a good thing the satchel goes with practically any outfit.

I bought the lipstick, "#630 Red Revolution" by Maybelline, my first night here and I've been using it every day since. I always thought I hated Maybelline (their mascara is a disaster for my lashes), but it turns out their lipsticks are actually terrific. When I say that, I basically mean that they smell really nice - that's usually what I base my lipstick opinions on! I generally dislike the "long lasting" lipsticks, they're much too dry for my lips, so I don't expect the color to stay put for very long. I figure, whatever, it's not like it's such a hassle to put on a new coat now and then.

The outfit photos were taken on Bond Street last night when we went down to NoHo to have dinner. We ended up at a place called "Jones", a very laid back chili restaurant on Great Jones Street.

I had the chili of the day. It was spicy and delicious and everything chili is supposed to be.

Ronnie wanted the chili too, but I ordered first and he has this thing about not wanting to order the same as me (or anyone else at the table if we're a group of people). I think he sees it as unoriginal. Well, his loss! But he got the Louisiana Jambalaya with corn bread and seemed perfectly happy with it.

Coconut cream pie for dessert. Ronnie loves coconut, I used to think it's okay, but now I use a shampoo with real coconut flakes in it and when I had the pie, I couldn't stop thinking that it was like eating hair products.

Then we went on to have a beer at Kings Cross on Bowery - a basement bar where they happened to play all of our favorite songs! Even a lot of Swedish bands, which made us very proud and patriotic, haha.

Now I'm going to meet Ronnie in Central Park - can you believe I've been here almost a week and I haven't been to Central Park yet? Time to change that!