Hallway theme: Nature

I wanted lots of mixed hooks by the entrance to hang coats and handbags on. So while looking around at some online shops and bookmarking the ones I liked I noticed a theme. And suddenly it all became so clear. I want a fairy taleish nature theme! I was thinking about making the really long wall in the hallway green.
And put these wall stickers from supernice on the wall:

Then put some random hooks all over the place. These are the ones I found that I want to get:

Birdie hooks from Rocket St George

Deer hook from Caravan Style:

Mushrooms from dotcomgiftshop

spotify playlist - March

I make a spotify playlist every month with music i listen too a lot during that time and I thought id share them here. It's a little bit late but better late than never right?
So here it is.

Tandoori masala chicken and how i lose weight

I've just had a mouth orgasm. Last night we put some chicken fillets in a tandoori masala yoghurt mix to let it marinate over night. I can't believe the difference in taste when something gets to swim around in pure yummines for hours and hours.

This portion: only 180 calories

The marinade was made of:

- tandoori masala spixe mix
- ginger
- chopped garlic cloves
- yohgurt
- water
- bit of salt

And I then had it with a mixed salad. I would have had it with rice but since Andrews father is making dinner for us tonight I wanted to save in some calories since I won't be able to count them.

Here it comes ... This is how I lose weight without losing my mind:

The story behind my weight gain is simple and probably similar to other stories.
Girl loses father to cancer, girl gets depressed and stay in bed for a year living on food that gets delivered to the door, girl wakes up a year later looking like a blob.  Girl has a hard time fighting the depression and blobs up a bit more.

When I started feeling better I tried lots of different things to lose the extra weight. Lots of different diets, bought a crosstrainer, diet pills, living on soups etc etc. Nothing felt right and nothing would really work in the long run. (except maybe having a crosstrainer, but only if you actually use it)
I even thought about having surgery, but I love food, I don't want to get full by eating a grape and I don't want a restricted diet for the rest of my life.

I just woke up one morning and felt like "enough is enough! I want to wear cute dresses too!". And I think that is important, you need to wake up one morning really really wanting it and really be ready to work for it. If youre not in the right place it wont work.

So here it is:

I count calories.
If I eat over x calories I will gain weight.
If I eat x calories I will keep the current weight.
If I eat under x calories I will lose weight and depending on how few I eat I'll lose less or more.

It's all about simple maths.

I'm no doctor tho so I'm not going to put out any directions on how many calories you should eat. If you want to lose weight you need to find out how much you need because everyone is different. go to a personal trainer at a gym and get advise, also go to your doctor who can help you or refer you to a dietitian. This way they can give you an amount that suits you, I for example eat 1794 calories per day at the most. That's a lot!

If I want to have a little extra one day it's ok, but if I feel like I want to lose weight faster or if I've had way too much one day there is a simple solution. Just do some working out! (I never do tho cus I'm lazy, a walk now and then is ok for me) And then you can take away the calories you have burnt from the exercise from the equation.

After a while you learn to check what you eat, think about not drowning the food in fats etc etc. I use a cooking spray for example. Food still taste the same!
And I never deny myself anything I crave. I absolutely love wotsits and I have to have it, so I eat it. Often.

Before I post there are two important things I want to say:

1. Don't ever starve yourself! If you eat under 1300 calories per day you will starve.

2. I want to lose weight to be healthy and feel good about myself. I absolutely do not approve of the skeleton ideals of this society. Every woman is beautiful in her own way, and it shows mostly in her confidence, not the weight.


My weight loss so far: 10 kilos (1.6 stone) in10 weeks

Soundtrack: Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill

Finally a full nights sleep! I'm celebrating that with music that makes me feel cosy. Enjoy!

Happy easter

I come from a wannabe catholic family. They are Catholics but they sure don't act like it. Maybe my grandma but absolutely not my mother. She does like to use it as an excuse to have me coming over for holidays like Easter that doesn't really mean much to me. I used to do it for my grandma, but now I live in England and also I've had about enough of my mother and I'm keeping my distance for the sake of my health and sanity.

I don't cook anything special and I don't decorate any differently. I'm pretty much just annoyed that the shops are closed and no one at school answers e-mails.

This is about as much Easter as it gets in my house.

Happy Easter!

(And I really wish that bass player at the Georgian Theatre would stop playing "Don't stop believin' " over and over because they are ruining the song for me!)

Changing beddings on a king size bed is a workout

The first Christmas me and Andrew spent together he was living in a house with two eco-warriors who would rather freeze to death than put the heating on.
The first night I spent there I slept in sweats, dressing gown and a knitted hat. It was cold! I come from Sweden and I'm used to the cold, but the Swedish people are also so aware of the cold that they build houses that will withstand the icing cold too. Here in England the houses are built in a more optimistic way. But thats not what I wanted to talk about.

I wanted to talk about changing the beddings on a king size bed. What I was getting at was that the day after the really cold night we went to buy a new duvet, and we got the largest one I've ever seen so that I could roll myself in it like a French hotdog.
The only problem was that its so much work for the arms to change the duvet cover on it but Andrew showed me how he does it. He climbs into the duvet cover and pulls the duvet up from inside. It works, and it's more fun! I gave in today and tried it too.

What to do with insane neighbours

A few days ago we finally got internet again. Finally, life is so much easier now.

On Friday night, or more like Saturday morning at 3.30 I flew out of bed because the whole house was shaking. The upstairs neighbours had brought some guys home with them and decided it was a good idea to have a party. Since it was impossible to fall back asleep with them jumping around, screaming and playing music we decided to just get up and wait it out.
They never stopped!
Or eventually they did but its hard to say when because around 9 the sounds of the streets and the environment around us blended in with the rest of the noise. I really hope this is an isolated incident. I haven't met the girls upstairs yet but so far it annoys me that they have absolutely no respect for their neighbours by partying loud and late, removing their fake nails in the stairs, leaving beer cans outside our door and leaning out their windows yelling at the people outside.

Bad neighbours can make the best home feel like a prison where you don't have a saying in when to sleep or being able to relax. Since we have a years lease on this place and we are determined to make a home of it and probably stay here for 18 months we are going to deal with this and not just let it be. We intend to talk to the girls before we do anything though because we don't want to surprise them with a warning from the landlord. That might just make things worse.
Maybe they are just clueless. Me myself is not going to talk to them though, I'm not English and polite as my boyfriend. So he will have to talk to them. I come from the land of angry notes and revenge.

What is the best way to deal with bad neighbours?

One week until broadband

It's been a real hassle getting broadband here. I'm using a 3 dongle with mobile broadband for studying and email but its pretty unstable because there is not much coverage in this area. That's really awesome since we both use 3 mobile haha.
Anyway, in waiting I thought I'd just put two pictures up to show the difference between our old hallway and the new one. I have plans for it, now its pretty much a white (magnolia) canvas like the rest of the house. First one is the old one, and the second one is the new place. I have a fireplace in the hallway!

Problems with moving house

So apparently no house is perfect. We moved in on Tuesday and these are the problems we encountered so far:

- Virgin media was supposed to install cable, phone and broadband on Wednesday but about the same day they figured out that our house wasn't in their system so they couldn't provide any services. Sky can do it instead but it will take some time because the house is listed.

-We have two boilers. none of them seem to be able to provide hot water tho. the plumber has been on his way for a few days now and is probably going to show up today between 11 and 13. The time when it is the most inconvenient for me ofc!

-The fridge has still not arrived. We paid our booking fee over a month ago ad thats how long it takes to provide a fridge?? Wow I did not know they were bringing it too us here by foot from china, but I guess it's better for the environment.

There are more tiny stuff that are possible to live with and not really worth mentioning. So I'm sitting here with greasy hair, hungry with nothing to eat and I cant really go out because I'm waiting for the plumber plus I look like a homeless person.

BUT: the flat is so nice, we really like it here and it already feels like home to us. I dont even mind the drunks outside our bedroom window at night.

Moving day!

Finally the day is here!
We are pretty much packed and I'm just sitting here surrounded by boxes waiting for the movers to come and do all the heavy lifting. The biggest problem for me with the packing has been wrapping glass in newspapers and handling cardboard boxes. The material of the paper and cardboard against my palms makes my skin crawl. I hate it. And the sound of the boxes when I close them, it's gonna give me nightmares. At the start I was labelling boxes, but after a few I just got bored with it. I know I will regret it in a few hours when we arrive at the new flat.

I just want to sleep now. ZZZzzzZZZ