Day 05 – A book or series you hate
I generally stop reading books I start to read that seem ridiculous.
I absolutely hate/love Fredrik Reinfeldts book Det Sovande Folket however. You can download it here, it’s so worth reading, takes only an hour or so.
Quoting from Alliansfritt Sverige!
Kapitel 1, ”Sovhjärnorna”, börjar med att en 28-årig man dör – en otroligt skicklig litterär blinkning, redan i den första strofen. Mannen har dött ”välfärdsdöden”, i ett framtida samhälle pacificerat och försoffat, där allt sköts från TVn, mat intas i pillerform och Socialdemokraterna och Folkpartiet har gått ihop till ett parti som nu förslavar mänskligheten – ”sovhjärnorna”. Allt kontrolleras av staten, till och med vädret. Känslor är förbjudna. Ingen är någonsin utomhus. Huxley och Bradbury för de som inte tycker om subtilitet.
28-åringens far är dock välfärdsstatens ansvarige för bidragsfrågor, och får en känslomässig reaktion när han märker att avkomman av hans donerade sperma har avlidit som får honom att ifrågasätta hela statsystemet. Detta gör att han går till ”Mästaren” som är hans gamla lärare, och berättar det för honom. ”Mästaren” väljer in honom i ett upplyst hemligt sällskap där alla genomskådat välfärdsstaten. Ridå.
Day 04 – Your favorite book or series ever
Ok! From now on the merchandize will be displayed like this! And soon I will redo the site and make it all prettier in general I hope. New front pictures and so on. Here are some things I added to the site today:
Insanely great 60s trenchcoat with blue/red lining S
Toulouse-Lautrec-esque 70s blouse S/M
Stripey 60s sun dress S
50s floral skirt XS
Pretty gorgeous floral dress with buttons up the back M
More is coming! I have soooo so so much saved up since I haven’t been wanting to add them while the site looked like it used to. I will post all the stuff I add here so that you’ll know when the site has been updated.
Hope you like! /Karin
Day 03 – The best book you’ve read in the last 12 months
Another really tricky one, I’ve read a lot of great books in the last 12 months and they have been great in different ways, and they’re hard to compare. And I am not going to go through the lists to find out exactly which books I’ve read in those months because it has been too many… But the ones I started thinking of right away are:
1. Regnspiran by Sara Lidman
2. Hjortronlandet, also by Sara Lidman
3. Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
4. Ljuset – Torgny Lindgren
I am actually in a hurry to get ready to meet up with Rebecka in town so I have to leave it at that, with no descriptions. If you trust my taste however, you should read those books. Ljuset has been translated, it’s called Light. To my knowledge, Sara Lidman has been translated aswell, at least some of her books, but I can’t find a list of the books translated anywhere. But if you’re swedish, they’re often in second hand stores and so so so worth buying instantly! Especially those two.
I’m pulling a huge sale on Lily of the Valley because I will finally get my act together and make the site pretty and the merchandize photos like the bathing suit above instead! So if you want to get a bargain – please help me clear out the shop! Everything in the clothes and accessories sections is 30% to 50% off and will stay that way until it’s all gone. I will also start slowly filling up with all the new and pretty things I’ve got!
Thing in hair – it’s a tablecloth….
Vintage dress – bought at Myrorna ca 2 years ago.
I’ve cut the sleeves off which is pretty sinful! And have yet to hem the edges.
Vintage purse – thrifted ages ago.
I have to tie it shut because the clasp is broken, hence the bow.
Pretty shoes! – borrowed from Suss
Suss’ shoes were great but gave me blisters & I impressed an elderly couple by walking barefoot over glass when I exited a tram.
Frej always keeps taking pictures while I am not focused anymore…for once I managed to not look crazy when he did that so I will post it.
A picture I took before I left home this morning, that table cloth is pretty great!
Our mission for the day was Fram, which is a really lovely ecological food store by Olivedalsgatan. I bought spirulina hardbread (!) and sprouted wheat bread which I love. And an Urtekram deodorant aswell, will tell you if it’s any good once I’ve used up my old crappy one. And some other things; coconut fat which I will start using for frying things sometimes because it has good fatty acids in it.. and more that I can’t remember now and have to go because Frej is telling me the dinner is ready!
Day 02 – A book or series you wish more people were reading and talking about
I think that all of Hans Alfredsons books are sadly neglected, especially by my generation. Hans Alfredson is a pretty famous man in Sweden, especially for his collaborations with Tage Danielsson who was even more famous, for writing books, being an actor & a comedian (along with Hans, Hasse & Tage) among other things. I’m in Hans Alfredsons fanclub on Facebook because he only has 18 fans and Tage Danielsson has 17.000! This is a shame since Hans Alfredson rules at least as much, very possibly even more!!!
My favourite book by Hans Alfredson is called Tiden är Ingenting (Which means Time is Nothing, but it has never been translated into english, sadly. And on boktipset.se it has only been reviewed by 5 people…CRAZY!) which is a humorous and sad story about the family Brosse’s destinies during a century and a half, it chronicles the social changes in Sweden in that time while it never stops being hilariously funny and very sad. And coming in second is Attentatet i Pålsjö skog, which is a story about what could have happened if Germany had actually invaded Sweden during the 2nd world war which is a very relevant read.
Grässtråets barn, så lika sin fader,
Växa och dö i oändliga rader;
Morgon blir afton i evig ring.
Tiden är ingenting.
-F.M. Franzén
Vintage 50s dress - bought at the second hand store Börsen
Belt from the 19th century if I am right – thrifted for 5 kr
Army bag – from Mattias
Stripey stockings – a gift, from AA
Vintage shoes – thrifted many years ago
Was also wearing a tulle underskirt I found at Myrorna and that’s light orange and pretty great.
Ulrika also gave me this wonderful eyeshadow from Make Up Store before she left.
I accidentally walked into a book store today and could not resist since I loved Oryx & Crake so bad. And so far, this is just as good. I was going to wait for the swedish translation but temptation took a hold of me.
Then I met up with Frej for a huge adventure; going on the boat Paddan for a tour around Göteborg!
Frej & Ostindiefararen
Day 01 – A book series you wish had gone on longer OR a book series you wish would just freaking end already (or both!)
(Haha first I’ve got to say that I am really amused that like three people removed me from Bloglovin once I posted about doing the book thing yesterday! Sorry if it’s that boring! I promise this list won’t be the only thing I post for a month!)
This is actually really tricky to reply to, I rarely read book series these days and I instantly stop reading books if I want them to end already, am not one to keep on reading when the book sucks. Life’s too short to waste on stupid books or stupid people. I think though that my reply is one I’ve mentioned a bit about before – I absolutely loved the books about Tora (House with the Blind Glass Windows, The Mute Room, Naked Sky) by Herbjørg Wassmo and was very disappointed when the first book about Dina didn’t measure up by a long shot so I stopped reading that book series after Dinas book because I really didn’t want to waste my time and be even more disappointed. I found Dina ridiculously annoying, the other people boring, and the story went on forever and ever. That series continues on with the books Dina’s son and Karna’s inheritage. I am ignoring them both in thrift stores all the time.
When Ulrika moved out she gave me a bunch of really nice things that she didn’t wanna bring with her… (Thank you!!) Among them were Urtekram’s aloe vera tooth paste. I’ve only used it for two days but I think it works really good and I am glad it doesn’t have flouride in it. It feels a bit strange at first to use a tooth paste that doesn’t make your mouth taste like menthol but the teeth feels clean and all good. The price for it is ca 37 kronor according to my google search and I am totally going to switch over to this full time once I’ve used up my old one.
Urtekram (click here to go to their website) is a danish company that has been making ecological & organic products since 1972. Their products are not tested on animals which is a big plus aswell. And the factories are run with no use of oil, and only wind power! And so on… they are pretty great.
The other week, before I got the tooth paste, I also decided it was time for me to try a new shampoo brand. I bought this one at a Life Store (Life is a health store chain in Sweden) because it was the only Urtekram shampoo available and I’ve heard much good about them before. And it’s been really really good to my hair! Not that the hair was bad before but it stays clean & not greasy for at least one day longer with this shampoo. Which I love since my hair takes a long long time to dry, looks shit if blow dried and I don’t wanna leave the house with it wet. I think it also curls a bit more now but that could be my imagnation. The shampoo was like 70 kronor if I remember correctly which is ca 700% more expensive than my last shampoo, the Coop X-tra… but that’s ok.
