Christmas Fun in Sweden

I had a lovely lovely Christmas at home in Sweden. The weather was fantastic; cold, dry and lots of snow. When we got off the plane we got a bit of a shock because it was -18! And later that evening it was -25, brrr! It's so beautiful though, so quiet and the snow's glittering like diamonds.

My mom and dad..

and brother Peter.

James and I the day we arrived, a bit tired but happy!

Cuddles...

My lovely auntie Ewa-Lena and cousin Julia.

The Christmas buffet was amazing, everyone fell into food coma afterwards!

Swedish Christmas bread.

Me and Julia.

For coffee my mom had made so many different types of biscuits!

Then it was time for pressies!

We make a rhyme/poem for every present that is supposed to give a clue of what's inside, here's Peter reading one out for dad.

Seems like he liked it!

I made some fudge from this recipe, highly recommended! The recipe is in Swedish, but you can use Google translate if you're not Swedish :)

Ewa-Lena taking some snaps...

My mom tried on a fake "tattoo sleeve" that Peter gave dad, then we took a photo and sent it to my uncle as a joke!

Tough mama!

Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful Christmas!

Josie's Leaving Dinner

Last night I went out to see my friend Josefine, she is moving back to Sweden, so we had a leaving dinner for her. First we went to "Winter Wonderland" in Hyde Park, it's a Christmas market + theme park with a German theme. A bit on the hysterical side we thought, and very expensive, but we did have some really nice pancake-type snacks.

Then we went to a Korean restaurant for dinner. But first we gave each other some Christmas gifts.

I got this super cute Christmas tree decoration that Josie had made...

and I made her this hairband as a leaving present.

She liked it a lot!

I had Ginseng tea with ginger and honey, yum!

For starters we had these Korean pancakes, I forgot what they are called... but they are delicious.

For main course I had bibimbap with seared beef sashimi. They bring it in a hot bowl and at the table they mix the ingredients with an egg and spicy sauce.

It was really good!

After dinner we went to have a look at the Christmas decorations at Carnaby Street, a famous shopping street in London. Here's the window at Liberty store.

The xmas decorations were really cool!

Josefine and Raquel.

I'll miss you Josie!

Lussebullar

This weekend I made traditional Swedish buns, "lussebullar" for Lucia-celebrations at work next week. They took me ages to make, but are really tasty so I hope people will eat them!

Tutorial: DIY Collage Birthday Card – Quick and Easy!

Just because it's almost Christmas we mustn't forget people with birthdays in December! Last week I made this cute birthday card for my cousin's little girl. It's really fun and easy to make, and a personal way of saying Happy Birthday!

Start with picking out some different kinds of card or paper that you think go well together. They can be scraps from brochures, old wallpaper, magazines or the inside of an envelope.

Cut a rectangle to begin with and fold it in half, a top tip here is to score the paper before folding, it makes for a much nicer fold without any creases. Use a ruler and scalpel and cut very gently where you want to fold the paper, you're not supposed to cut through the paper, just "scratch" it gently. If you don't have a scalpel you can use a sharp knife, but be careful!

Then you need to cut out some shapes for decoration. If you want to make a birthday card like this one you can use the template below, or draw some of your own shapes. Draw on the back of each paper and cut them out with scissors or a scalpel. Stick them onto your card et voilà!

Click here for a larger template for printing.

I Need Some Website Inspiration

I'm going to re-design my portfolio website in the new year, and I want to come up with a really nice design that is also easy to update. It can't be too complicated either since my webdesign skills are somewhat limited.

Here are three websites that I really like the style of. Screenshots from Telegramme Studio, Lowe Brindfors, and Nubby Twiglet.

Does anyone have any other tips on cool, inventive yet simple portfolio sites?

Movie Update

I had a nice relaxing weekend, watched three movies and worked on some small projects. The movies were "Despicable Me", "Shrek Forever After" and "The Town" with Ben Affleck. Despicable Me was brilliant, I haven't laughed so much to an animated movie in a long time! Steve Carell is perfect as the lead character "Gru", and there are some adorable moments with the three little girls he adopts. Oh, and I LOVE the minions!

Shrek was ok, I would give it 3/5 stars. Better than the third one, nowhere near as good as the first. Had some funny moments, but it feels like you've seen it before, because you kind of have. I think we all know what Shrek is about at this point...

"The Town" had some very good actors but unfortunately the story wasn't great, it was a bit boring at times. I felt like Ben Affleck (who directed and acted in it) tried to do a new "Good Will Hunting" but kind of fell flat without Matt Damon by his side. I did enjoy seeing my favourite Gossip Girl actress Blake Lively in a completely different role though, her character was a very far cry from "Serena van der Woodsen", I thought she was really good in this film!

That's all from me!