flädersaft - elderflower cordial

This morning we went out into the yard to pick flowers from the elderflower tree and make cordial! If you don't know what that is, it's a sort of juice syrup that you blend with water to make a drink. It lasts a long time on the shelf or in the fridge and is really popular here in Sweden, you can make it (or buy it made from) strawberries, raspberries, oranges, sloanberries, rhubarb ... well pretty much anything!

Anyhoo, although I think they have elderflower cordial in England too, to me it seems like the most Swedish thing ever! And people have been making it for generations! We used a recipe from recepten.nu but they are all more or less the same, if you have a swedish cookbook there will definitely be a recipe in there! Here's a look at the steps involved:

First collect your flower clusters, we used this pretty basket that's usually used for mushroom picking. Most recipes call for 30-40 flower clusters per 2 litres of water.

When you bring your flowers inside you can lay them out on a white tea towel and let them sit for fifteen minutes or so, this gives any little bugs that have been hanging out inside the blossoms time and opportunity to climb out. Then rinse them well!

Meanwhile you can cook up 2 litres of water with 2 kg of sugar (it feels so wild to empty a whole 2kg bag of sugar into the pot! That's what you need to preserve the saft and make it tasty and syrupy, though).

Pretty!

Cut the flower clusters off the stems into a big metal bowl or bucket and add the lemons.

Pour over the hot sugar-water. Then the hard part - you have to let it sit for three days before you can sieve the liquid and enjoy your cordial!

The perfect summer drink!

 The little flowers go everywhere - afterward you'll have a lot of floral decoration in your kitchen!

a day in town

I'm in Gothenburg for a few weeks and today we took the streetcar into town. It's so exciting to go shopping in a big city sometimes! I got the latest issue of the magazines Min Boudoir and Vintage Rock n Roll, which I have never ever seen in Uppsala! I'm so excited to read them, I'm going to go to bed right after I write this and start enjoying them!

I also got to go shopping for the sewing group I lead back in Uppsala, we get a little bit of money from an organization called Folkuniversitet and I get to spend it on things to help make the group better! Today I found a book about several types of handiwork (weaving, knitting, embroidery, etc.) at the second hand shop along with bags of different coloured wool, and I picked up a book of crochet patterns for small, cute animals and some basic sewing notions to fill out our stocks. It's so fun to shop for the group and try to find the best, most fun and useful things!

After that shopping spree we partook of an afternoon beer at a place called 7:ans Ölhall (beer hall), it's a real authentic old beer hall in the centre of town that's been there forever. It actually opened in 1900. The prices are not shocking to a small-towner like me and the atmosphere is great, check it out if you're ever in Gothenburg!

Speaking of, one of the cool things about this town is that certain corners of some neighbourhoods seem to have been left in a time warp. Especially one called Majorna. I'm going to go for a walk there one day soon and have lunch, I'll take pictures of all the cool vintage-y stuff I find!

And now for some reading!

a vintage day

I have a strange hobby, or maybe you can call it a pastime. When I'm just sitting around and my mind starts to wander, I sometimes try to imagine what my day would be like if I were living it in the '50s or '60s. Why? Well, I don't know, part of it is just my vintage obsession I suppose. But for me that goes beyond say wearing vintage clothes while living a completely modern life, you know? I want to try to live (some aspects) of my life the way it would have been back then.

For another thing, I read a great novel a few years ago about a man who learns the secret of time travel - surround yourself with sights and experiences that you would see the year you want to go to. Live in that mindset for a couple weeks and one day you'll wake up, look outside - and really be there! (I forget the name of the book but it's by Jack Finney, check it out!). That thought always sticks in my mind - hmm how could I make today look just like a day from the 50s, if I so desired!

Usually I don't "score" very high on getting a real 50/60s type day! Most days start off with checking my phone and doodling around on it - a habit I'd like to break! Take today - woke up and used my very modern phone. I made a casserole for lunch and went grocery shopping by car - would have been better to walk, no?  I also played a computer game, and here I am blogging, with Pinterest and Etsy open in the background! Other days seem a little more 60s-esque, like those days when I ride my bike to work and come home and listen to records or something.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really try to "score" myself on if I am living a real authentic vintage lifestyle or something like that, oh no! It's just a fun way to occupy myself if I can't fall asleep or am at work with nothing much to do, you know, a thought game. On the other hand, it's also a useful way to think about what aspects of my life and the way I fill my time I enjoy, and which habits I'd rather change!

My birthday!

Today was my birthday! Hooray!

It started with brunch with my mum and dad at my favourite old-fashioned restaurant, Russel William's in Burlington. Because it was by birthday I ordered the most enormous breakfast on the menu. It was hard to fit it all into the frame.  Yum!

Cute parents.

When we came home it was time to get ready for my cousin's wedding!

I had the bright idea that by standing on the bed to take a photograph I could try to disguise the total disaster which is my room. Clearly that idea did not work! My shoes didn't make it into the picture but I wore my beloved navy blue Ferragamos. They looked just right with this outfit, which I sewed myself from vintage patterns. 

The wedding and the party afterwards were wonderful. I was so busy talking, dancing, eating, dancing, talking, drinking, dancing, eating that I only managed to take this one blurry photo the entire evening!

All my nicest cousins that I hardly ever see were there and my cousin's new wife looked happier than I have ever seen anyone look. It was all lovely, and the band played all the best songs. We all danced and laughed and danced some more.

At midnight we left because my sister was getting tired, although I was not. It's saddest feeling I know to leave a party before you're ready!

I'm gonna kick his ask

 New haircut! I went back to my old hairdresser in Toronto and she did a great job on my bangs but I think I pointed a little too high when indicating the length. It came out a bit shorter than I wanted and now I think I look kind of like this girl:

It's very fancy on old Delancy street you know.

I AM GOING TO NEW YORK I AM GOING TO NEW YORK I AM GOING TO NEW YORK I AM GOING TO NEW YORK

I have never been before, which is quite silly considering how close I live. (Close by Canadian standards, mind you).  But I am going to fix that by spending the first week of September in New York!!!!

this year

My birthday is coming up soon, so I thought I would look back on this year a little bit. It's been different!

Good things: 

• I finished my Masters Degree!
• I received my residence permit to live in Sweden
• I sewed a looooot of great clothes
• I finally got over my fear of spiders, for good this time! I've always wavered back and forth between being (mostly) indifferent to spiders, to being petrified of them. Now I think I have really gotten over the fear! I see them all the time in my garden, and they are always trying to get inside, and I am never afraid!
• I got better at tennis!

The not-so-good:

• Living at home was ... interesting. In retrospect, I would not decide to live a two hour commute away from school (or work) ever again. It just eats up all your time.