Askøy, Bergen, Oslo 2018

I just thought I would share some photos from my trip!

Those holiday feels!

Captain Marshmallow! My sister's cat who stays with mum ^ ^

The view from Kolbeinsvarden, Askøy.

St. Mary Church, Bergen

I almost had Bergen Aquarium to myself one sunny afternoon.

One of those pretty, traditional Bergen alleys.

My grandmother weaved this!

17. of May is Norway Day!

Every time I visit my family, mum loves passing on books she thinks I will like. This year, my dad and auntie contributed too!

Bergen-Oslo by train, it was such a beautiful journey!

We played Scrabble once I arrived my friends' place! (I lost....both times)

Street art in Oslo

The castle!

The Opera House

Sitting by Akershus Festning.

That's all folks!

Simple Changes for a Slightly Better Planet - Almost No Effort Required!

Hello and happy Thursday!

So I thought I would elaborate on my post about how to change things about - point by point! I hope it will help you feel inspired, perhaps you have made changes in your life for wasting less, using less plastic, and overall just minimalising? I would love to hear all about it!

Right! So we'll start from this picture here, shall we?

From right to left:

1. Use a shower bar instead of bottled soap - I am still working on finding the right one for me as I have quite sensitive skin, but the lemon bar in the picture from Lush smells A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

2. Biodegradable bin bags - so the ones you see here are the 50L bin bags made from maize! They are super silky soft, super strong, and you can fill them to the rim, it's basically the hero of bin bags! I also bought some smaller 10L biodegradable bags from AllGreen (which always makes me sing Al Green "Let's Stay Together" <3) and I have just started using them! 3. Right, so this was supposed to be toothpaste, however after my dentist appointment yesterday and had a heads up from a friend who is a dental nurse, I have been told that if I was going to use home made toothpaste, it has to contain calcium fluoride! And I had a wee browse to see if I could find any that I could add to my toothpaste, alas.... However! You can totally use this as a natural teeth whitener! Bicarbonate of soda helps removing stains on your teeth, and coconut oil can have a whitening effect - just don't use it as a toothpaste...

4. Shampoo bar! This Seanik bar is soooooo good, and my boyfriend totally sniffed my hair the first day and was like "Yum! How come your hair smells better than usual?!" So take THAT all other shampoos!

5. Home made lip balm! There are plenty of different recipes for DIY lip balm, I made it with coconut oil, cocoa butter and candelilla wax plus a few drops of essential oils - et voila! No chemicals, no plastic - it's all good!

6. Bamboo toothbrush - these bamboo brushes has been treated so they are fit for purpose! Mine has held up really well, and I'v egot another one at the ready for when I need to swap it!

7. Re-usable coffee cup for those cappuccinos to go! I bought mine before I got super aware of plastic, however - rather than having a billion coffees in disposable cups, this one will hold up for yeeeeeears!

Coffee safe and sound when I was taking the train to Elsewhere the other day, cup saved!

8. Soap bars - I know some people can be a cringy about this, but in the household with friends and family, I think it is totally fine to have a soap bar at the read, if you feel like you also need to have a liquid soap too - use that only when absolute necessary! And if you feel most comfortable with it - you can have a soap bar each. I am planning to see if I can make my own liquid soap in the future.

9. Yesterday, I got my shiny Klean Kanteen water bottle in the mail! I am so excited AND it is also my favourite colour, yay! I used it straight away for last night's badminton session.

10. Buy unpackaged fruit and vegetables when you can! Most of the time there is no need for packaging. When you think about it - a year of buying vegetables that aren't wrapped in plastic or nets or cardboard, you'll save quite a lot of rubbish!

11. I have a super cute bamboo lunch box! I got it for £4.99 in TK Maxx, which I thought was a bargain!

12. Eco-friendly laundry tablets! I currently use Ecover for my laundry, and also for dishes I do by hand I have got the bottle of Ecover. In the future I am hoping to get eco friendly fabric softener and dishwasher tablets too!

13. Using fabric bags or recycled bags for your food shop! Honestly the times I have forgotten my bags I have either stubbornly carried all of them by hand, or just gone home to do the shopping next day.... Yup, it's true!

14. Minimalise. When you have clothes that are worn out, recycle them! And don't replace them with anything... I went through my whole wardrobe, attended a friend's clothes swap - and brought all the clothes that were in a good condition with me. We had tea and coffee and snacks and we had a really fun time just trying on clothes and get some pretty new clothes - the rest was donated to a charity shop. And we have these swaps at least two or three times a year - it's so much fun! I donate as much as I can, and then maybe bring two or three pieces that I really like with me home, and just like that! Minimalism has begun. My wardrobe is no longer cluttered, and it is SO much easier to decide what to wear! Phew!
Also, if you don't do clothes swaps, then you can donate clothes to homeless shelters or two charity shops - They will appreciate it SO much! And make sure that clothes donated are clean and in good condition, if you wouldn't wear it yourself - you shouldn't donate it.

So these are just swaps that I have found ridiculously easy and I have written down a list of more things that I can easily swap out - I just want to make until the things I have needs replaced, because there is no need to immediately throw out perfectly good things, use them well - recycle and then replace!


Did you find these helpful at all? I am still just learning little by little, but the minimalising has helped me so much already, and thinking about how much waste I can save just by making a few handfuls' of changes! And like I said - if you have made any changes or attempted DIY projects for the home, or care products, gimme a shout! Also, would you enjoy more posts like this?

I hope you have a great evening and guess what? The weekend is juuuust around the corner!

De-cluttering, DIY Care, and Overall Simplification

Hi lovely people!

Now... I wanted to just write a post about what has been going on in my flat... Since watching the document "Minimalism" by the Minimalist Guys about half a year ago, as well as reading "The Art of D'scarding" - alongside all the forward thinking with zero waste, zero plastic, home DIY, capsule wardrobes to name a FEW to make life easier, I have been de-cluttering my surroundings and also my mind!

I am not going DRASTICALLY in any direction, but I felt general stuff just piling up around me, and impacting an already stressed mind and soul. I have been casually going through all the rooms in the flat, and Kev has been going along with it - one by one, just a bag here or three bags there. But it wasn't until today I actually started seeing a difference!

Unfortunately, I don't have any before or after pictures, because it has been a steady process, but it already is starting to feel a lot easier to wander around in the flat, finding the essential things that I actual need!

Today for example, I donated three bags of clothes and accessories that had not been worn for half a year - aint nobody got time for those things just taking up valuable space! Also, the things are pretty and all, but I reckon there are others who can get much more out of it! I also found at least two bags worth of stuff that shouldn't have been brought into the home anyways as well that have been thrown out. You know those gadgets that they sell you at food festivals that you are convinced you DO need in your life, and they have like a bajillion different blades and basically do everything for you, but then you get home and realise it was a mistake, and that it is way easier just julienne things yourself rather than construct this metal-plastic combo every darn time you are cooking!

I have put all my ingredients in order in glasses so I can see what I have at hand when I do weekly meal planning on Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee in hand, and I have really just started to use all the different teas I have in the cupboard rather than just exactly - grab that cup of coffee instead.

Them beans though....

Also, I have ordered biodegradable bags instead of the usual refuse sacks, and I am going to start using the biodegradable poop bags for Alphonse instead of nappy bags... In TK Maxx the other day I found a beautiful recyclable bamboo lunch box, perfect! Instead of storing 30 odd takeaway boxes thinking they'll get used.

For my clothes, I was inspired by Try Living with Lucie - 5 Days of a Capsule Wardrobe. I wouldn't be able to do a capsule wardrobe, despite having one for Spring/Summer and another for Autumn/Winter, BUT I have noticed for example I only really use 7-8 of my favourite t-shirts and tops - so the other stuff went, I bought new underwear and threw out everything outdated (i.e a small hill of holey socks....) So I bought six pairs of new socks bamboo socks, kept the others I already had that were reasonably new. In turn, I got twice as much space at the end of it! Buying better quality for the future, so I can wear my favourite pieces of clothing forever! (Sort of)

And..... *drumrolls*..... I made some DIY things! Lip balm and toothpaste to be exact! Now, the lip balm is divine (Recipe by Refinery29), whilst the toothpaste... is unusual (general recipe on Pinterest) - the latter only because it doesn't have as many additives, and contains quite a bit of bicarbonate of soda which gives it a sort of savoury flavour. But my teeth feel squeeky clean! I was told that toothpaste should contain fluoride, and I am going to ask the dentist about it when I go in in a couple of weeks time - so I'll keep you posted on that! I'm getting used to the flavour now as well, so if my dentist says it's all right, I wont be buying any more toothpaste from the shop!

Toothpaste on a cobble stone.

Peppermint and Lavender lip balms! I am waiting on some candelilla wax to make a second batch, as this first batch was very temperature sensitive.

Other than that, things like swapping stupid plastic bottles out with shampoo and soap bars from for example Lush, is something I am going to do in the future - got my first soap and shampoo bar the other day!

I bought little tins to pop them in so they keep better. Whoop!

Anyways, after a long afternoon of organising and sorting out, Kev and I went out for pizza at a new pizza bar here in Glasgow called Basta! It was awesome, and when I asked for no cheese, the woman said "we do also have vegan cheese" - and my day was made!

How do you feel about less rubbish? Do you find it challenging? I would love to hear if you have done different things, or similar things to this and your experience of it all!

I hope you have a lovely evening ^ ^

My Trip To Prague

Behold! This might be a little bit of a long post, but bear with me!

I decided not to cut it up into three parts, so that those of you who enjoying reading travel pieces can get the whole shebang here, OR if not - scroll quickly past it! Either way, there will be food blogs in the coming.... I have just been away for a few days :)

My wanting to visit Prague, was mostly after having discovered the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, the main character having a flat in Prague (we actually walked past the place several times on our way to Elsewhere!), also the little side novel called Night of Cake and Puppets all take place mostly within the Old Town - my favourite scenes being by the Devil's Stream!


Day 1
So on day one, we were just trying to navigate our way through the city.... Kev has been here once before, but it was a few years ago, so we needed a little bit of time to put the place into context!

In the DoSaB series, there are several seraphim (angel warriors) as well as chimaera - you can only imagine my delight when one of the first things I saw was two angels guarding a bridge....! Then we walked up to the giant metronome on top of a hill to get a good view!

Theeeeen, we found the Charles Bridge along with locks of lovers attached to various pieces on and around the bridge!

A Chimaera!

I was determined to only eat vegan - as at home I find it quite easy, so on the first day I was quiiiiiite hungry... But we found a little cafe, and later on a schweeet restaurant!

We found the Cat Cafe Prague in the early evening, and got our cat cuddles on (already missing Alphonse like crazy!)

Lo and behold! It turned out there was a really lovely vegetarian/vegan place right on the street where Kev had stayed on his previous trip here, only a few minutes walk from the cat cafe, yarr! I had the Pannang Curry - which was delightful ^ ^

Day 2
On the second day, we had learnt from our mistake the following day about finding food... And you know what? It turns out that a few minutes down from Hotel Astoria (where we stayed), there was a FOOD quarter! And it had a place called My Raw Cafe - amongst other eateries!
Kev got the savoury stuffed pancakes, and I got kelp carbonara! We both decided mine was a little bit tastier, and kelp was a really interesting and tasty texture!

Later in the day on the Charles Bridge, three statues were talking amongst themselves: "You've got to read this here book! T's called the Daughter of Smoke and Bone!"

Fancy fluffy pigeons on the bridge....

And we found this lovely magical place hidden out of sight on the other side of the bridge, right next to the main road that was packed of tourists! Dvur Umeni - an art cafe, where the woman who runs is was welcoming us warmly... brewing me a special mixture of a herby tea leaves "Oh, I just put a little bit of this and a little bit of that in..." and it was delicious! They also had light snacks and some pastries as well... AND she had built a small beach - Kiwi Beach, to be exact, and we got to choose if we wanted to have our tea and hot chocolate there, but afraid to somehow ruin it - we sat by a table, later on she insisted we sit in the beach and she snapped a photo of us! It was 25C degrees in there, and close to -5C outside!

If you ever find yourself in Prague, I'd check this place out - it is magic!

Sea shell sand and banana trees! It was ashame we had to leave, but the rest of Prague was awaiting!
Outside the air smelled of sugar and cinnamon, wafting down the hill and across the river - because on almost every corner they sold Trdelník.

Every night when we got back to the hotel, my hair and clothes smelled like smoke! Not in an unpleasant way.... just unusual - part of the Prague magic I guess!

Day 3
I had stocked up on bread rolls just in case... because... vegan! But on our last full day here, we had some left and they were so dryyyy! So I decided we could feed the pigeons on the Charles Bridge. But first a little pitstop to My Raw Cafe to eat cake!

Banana and chocolate cheesecake - yum!

Me feeding pigeons, and a man playing the didgeridoo! When I flung 50cr into his bag, he started singing, and later on when we passed, he played the recorder with his nose (for real!).

The Devil's Stream <3

I don't know the story behind this... Perhaps John L himself stopped by for a pint?

Nearby, this busker man was playing Beatles covers!

Since this was the last evening, we decided to splurge, and upon suggestion we booked a table at Kampa Park. It was stunning! And we were practically sitting on the river - the Charles Bridge right in the background and boats ticking by every so often....

Every day we wandered around, we found new nooks and crannies with hidden treasures! And I definitely want to come back some day... Perhaps when the weather is a little warmer, but regardless - I know a place with a beach, and there is always hot wine being served, so we're good *smiles*

Long Time no See!

Right, so it has been ridiculously long since I have posted anything - but there were a few reasons for that.

1. One of my previous jobs were grinding me down mentally to the point of me just floating around wondering what I was doing with my life. Thankfully, I had amazing support, and I made some amazing friends along the way of recovery - taking a few steps back, a time out, and heal. Also - we got a little kitten!! His name is Alphonse and he is disgustingly cute. And yes, he totally came into our home at the grand old age of two months and totally claimed the flat. So this is his kingdom now!

2. I was working hard, feeling overwhelmed and also I was studying (floristry), I still am studying actually - and it is only part-time, but jeez; a lot of work nevertheless! This next semester will be a little more demanding than the last - but I will power through it!

3. Part of the feeling of feeling overwhelmed also meant that taking photos of every new dish I made, uploading photos and writing became a bit of a struggle... But I might just be able to handle that now - I reset my laptop yesterday evening and am ready to rumble!

So yeh, those are the main reasons - and also, I have been reading tonnes! In 2016 I set myself a New Year's resolution (I know, I know, but this was actually quite achievable!) to read a book a month, and I did it! And then continued with it into 2017 and read 18 books last year! Eighteen!!!! I love delving into other worlds and just let myself be taken away on adventures.
I started playing badminton again last year as well, which has done me all sorts of good beyong imagining! In September I joined a local club, and I'm telling you - the members there are the best kinds of people! My sister also moved to Glasgow last year - which was the best surprise! So we have caught up with a lot of time that was lost when she was living back in Norway.

In addition to this, on a more food-related note, I have been eating more vegan foods over the last half year (those of you who follow me on Instagram - Julie_Skogedal) will probably have noticed all those stupid little hashtags.... (my boyfriend is a little daunted, but I'll try and make my transition as smooth as possible, and I wont stop him eating whatever he wants - this is just a personal choice for me!) This year, I want to challenge myself to eating close to all vegan. Although.... Today, on day THREE I grabbed a bottle of aloe vera juice which tends to always be vegan, but I noticed hey had added honey in it, probably because it was out of a health cafe - but it is all just a learning curve, and I hope to discover loads of great new recipes and be forever inspired by my blog-friends too!

I hope you have had a good start to 2018, and I'll be looking forward to sharing recipes and adventures with you as we go along!

xox J

Falafel Dreaming

Hello good people!

I am sorry for being absent for some time now, the thing is - I had hit a bit of a blogger wall! My memory card is almost full, I keep rushing to photograph the food before it goes cold, I have had some kitchen disasters... We have all been there, right?

Earlier today, I had the idea of starting afresh, a blank canvas; a new all vegetarian blog! I spent one hour setting it up, only to realise that there is nothing wrong with my old blog, and I can always tweak it!

Yes Nokia, I will miss you... I might keep you just so I can occasionally play Snake though!

Currently, I am charged with new energy, a new iPhone (maybe I should try blogging on the go? Do you have experience with Blogspot VS iPhone? I would love to hear it!) and over the last few days I have also made a few tasty dishes that I know have to make again because - I didn't write it all down for my blog like I normally do!

In addition to this I have also gotten myself Pinterest and Instagram! And here I was thinking that at my grand ol' age of nearly 27 I was a technophobe! I suppose... I still am, and there are days where I miss my little Nokia from the Jurassic period, however now I will need my phone on the go as I am spending less time online at home.

You might have noticed, that I have deleted all the meat and seafood recipes, why? Because now with having been vegetarian for over a year, I felt it was time to have my blog reflecting that as there is no way I see myself going back to being an omnivore! So Spring clean has been had just now in the late days of July - and I feel better about it already!
I kept the "other" posts despite some of them featuring pictures of meat dishes - simply because I want to keep the posts real, the way they were written to begin with - because that is Julie at her most honest. Rethinking and editing and trying to word it all right again just seems pointless. So yeh! To get some hints and tips just click the "other" topic on the right hand side of my blog, and read away! Just note that some of them were written back when I didn't just eat veggies, nuts and fruit - it has been a long food journey and I am excited to continue it!

But how about you! What have you been up to? Ans what would you make RIGHT now if you had the ingredients?

I have a few things happening in my life, but all in good time - I just want to get back into blogging now! ^ ^


PS. Pics in this post is taken from Google... Also, I wonder if a lot of cats do like broccoli... I need to figure out how to make vegetarian doggy biscuits - so many things to do! Can't wait to get started! *smiles*