Furillen

Today I had an interesting encounter. At the coffee shop I overheard a man say that he just got back from a month-long visit to Sweden. Since I'm leaving for Germany in pretty much 3 days, I took advantage of the opportunity to talk travel with him. Turns out he's a pseudo-archaeologisit (his words), a film-maker, a world traveller, and a Viking aficionado. I came away from our long and fantastic conversation with excitement. He had many, many recommendations for beautiful places to visit while I'm away. Much of our talk was about the Swedish island Gotland. Tonight I ran across this hotel. It's called Fabriken Furillen and it's located in the middle of the Baltic Sea.

Cupcakes

I've been experimenting with cupcake recipes lately. I've tried some fun ingredients like agave nectar and applesauce. For these, Mom and I went a little bit chocolate/sugar crazy. We started with devil's food cupcakes, filled them with a chocolate buttercream (delicious!), then topped them with vanilla meringue and ganache drizzle. Overload, yes, but so yummy!

my favorite brother

Landon has been at camp this week. We've missed him so I thought I'd post some old pictures and a sideways video.

Hoy

Good day. I read, shopped with Sarah-Kathryn, visited Grandma, went to the sewing store with Mom, made this cover for my laptop with my new attachment (it's lined with a cute black and white polka dot fabric), went to Central Market (once again!), and ate some really delicious orange roughy tacos for dinner.

more music

I love watching music videos lately. After watching some fantastic ones by Mumford & Sons, I discovered Laura Marling. Here's "Rambling Man."

and Devil's Spoke and My Manic & I

Sweater weather

How on earth do I pack for this trip? I've been digging around in my closet tonight looking for Germany clothes. All I know is that I'm so ready to wear sweaters, scarves and boots!

I ran across these baby sweaters today (by Eva Handmade). I don't need baby sweaters but my best friend will soon!

P.S. This is an old video but I think the Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Perpetuum Mobile" is beautiful!

Marit Larsen

I just discovered the Norwegian singer Marit Larsen. Thank you Mike & Erin for showing me the wonderful music website aurgasm.us. I think her style is so sweet and I enjoyed watching a couple of her music videos this afternoon.

Other things I've been enjoying lately include cashew butter, the beautiful antique bedroom set for "my" room, spending time with my sister, and trying out an agave nectar cupcake recipe while wearing an adorable apron.