Cinque Terre Revisited

My little sister's 18th b-day: 

a brilliant excuse for a surprise trip to Italy,

the perfect occasion some to dress up and wear wigs to make the surprise even more surprising :)

(none of those pictures will appear on this blog)

and even though Maike didn't seem so pleased with having to hike on her birthday, 

the others all had a fantastic time! :p

Love you sis! And now you have no excuse not to surprise me on my 25th ;)

Wonderful Saint-Paul

Part one of our holiday: Saint-Paul de Vence, at my mum's B&B. 

The dog is always the most excited one in the house when we come for a visit, so she got rewarded with walks and a lot of attention :)

The tree houses soon will get a total make-over for the winter season so if you still need to book your winter get-away - go for it!

The newest addition, the sauna, has been thoroughly tested and approved! :)

Leuven Love

Mushrooms!

After our mushroom hunt of last week we have now enough dried mushrooms to last the whole winter.

I love the thought that we live off the land (at least for a very very small percentage :D)

Fårö - continued

Picture nr 4: the terrace of Sylvis Döttrar - Fårö's most popular bakery - where we had fika (which btw, is my favourite Swedish word, by far)

nr 5: Kutens Bensin - an old gas station/junk yard turned restaurant - where we had dinner and danced to the rockabilly tunes of the Flat Git it Gang.

... and nr 6&7: details of Ola's mum's adorable summer cottage - more colorful and thus more interesting than the cottage we stayed in :)

For those who remember my post about Ola's school-house: Cool houses obviously run in the family :p

Weekend Getaway

September is the start of low season on Gotland - a chocking change from the busy summer months.

But then there's Fårönatta (on the island of Fårö). One night every September where everyone is up and everything is open.

An event a lot of people are grateful for - and we were there!

We were super lucky with the weather (even though we did spot some intimidating dark clouds at one point) and enjoyed everything the island had to offer.

Bye bye Google ... Hello Ecosia!

Didn't you just love the google doodle today?

I love learning about random facts this way. Today I learned that Albert Szent-Györgyi is the guy who discovered vitamin C, that he lived to be 93, and that today would have been his 118th birthday.

Interesting? It get's better :) Did you know that you can help the planet by changing your search engine?

I encourage everybody who reads this to watch this little video below:

Doodles or no doodles, Ecosia is now my new homepage :)

Visby - City of Roses

Very stormy weather here on Gotland these last days ... I hope the roses survive just a little bit longer to keep the spirit of the passers-by high! 

I went on a second mushroom hunt today by the way! Pictures will follow :)

Goodbye-Saturday

Detox tea was just what Lotta and I needed this morning after last night's excesses.

I tried to take stylish pictures of the mess we woke up to but there was no way to beautify the enormous amount of dishes - but admit, based on the pictures above you'd think my kitchen was in top shape, no?

My mum often remarks how my blog is only part of the truth - I carefully select the pretty pictures and pretty stories ... but isn't that what we often do?

There's enough sadness and ugliness in the world - there have to be a few places one can turn to for cheeriness and joy, no?

Color me Katie is on of those places, and Kerry's pictures on her blog Seventy Tree also do the trick :)

But to make sure we have a good balance of happy and sad this fine and sunny Saturday - here's something sad:

Lotta is abandoning me and my fellow island dwellers to move to Stockholm ... 

Boo hoo! :(

I fell in love with the fall ...

Fall is back, mushrooms are back, and we managed to eat them before I thought of taking a picture of our harvest ...

I guess I'll just have to go back ... and according to Swedish customs (so I've learned), I won't share my spot. Too many people know already!

So Jon, Simon-Philippe & Ola, ssshhh ;)

Couches & Wallpaper

(the pictures are taken from Eco Wallpaper's website)

I think we can safely come to the conclusion that the couch we adopted from its former owner is a good one - tried and tested by my first couch surfers!

 And since the wallpaper I selected/stumbled upon got Luqaz' approval, our living room will (hopefully) soon be transformed into the living room I want it to be :)

Stuck on You

The idea was to make a collage of sticker art in Stockholm. I didn't get that far, as you can see, so I'll have to go back and find some more :)

I don't know if the middle picture qualified as "art" but it's a love note of a guy trying to get his ex-girlfriend (and mother of his children) back.

Struck a chord in me I guess ...

Dramatic Clouds and Pavement Humour

The last days of August I spent in Stockholm with my mum. Good old mother-daughter time, family visits, some shopping, and numerous cups of coffee and tea in cosy cafés all over the city.

A mini-holiday at its best!

When I still lived in Belgium, the first of September used to be the first day of school (and it very often rained!). 

Today it feels pretty much like any other day ... but to revive that start-of-school feeling I made myself an extensive to do list for this month (I was one of those kids who always looked forward to the first day of school). 

I'm giving myself homework! Who would have thought ... :p