One of those days

The weather outside is beautiful, sunny and glorious. But for some reason I feel in a rotten mood today. I'd like to get back in to bed (I'm still in my pyjamas) and hide under the duvet all day. I have things to do, oh so many things, but I CAN NOT BE BOTHERED! Christmas spirit, I need you now.

Christmas rush

I am so disorganised this Christmas. We have yet to book our tickets to Dublin even though we are planning to leave on Tuesday (!) and I've barely bought any Christmas presents! Right now I need to get off my ass and go to Westfield to do my Christmas shopping and I can tell you I am not looking forward to it. Last year I was so organised and had all my presents bought and wrapped at this stage. Why oh why have I not done anything yet this year?

Day of rest

I am celebrating third advent with a gingerbread sponge cake. We had a Christmas party last night, lots of fun but also tiring for a preggo! So today we've stayed in all day, still in our pyjamas. Sometimes it's nice to have one of those days when you just potter around the house, do a bit of baking, drink lots of tea and just chill out. Our TV isn't working for some reason so we've just been listening to music, which is nice for a change.

Instead of a Christmas tree

Christmas cheer

Here's what I've been up to in recent weeks, getting in to the spirit of the festive season....

Celebrating First Advent with my sister with a spread of yummy Swedish Christmas food...

...and an Advent cake that turned out great. It was delicious if I do say so myself!


Was given an early Christmas present by my sister Sabina, a box full of pampering bath goodies.
Bath bombs from lush, beautiful scented candles and all sorts of lotions and potions. She knows me all too well....

Sabina and I baked "lussekatter". A Swedish saffron flavoured pastry that is essential to achieving the right Christmassy feeling.

We did three different varieties: plain, vanilla flavoured and marsipan filled. All equally scrumptious.

I love Christmas!

I heart Hanson

Last night me and my sister went to see Hanson play live. I was a crazy fanatic screaming teenage fan of Hanson when I was younger and was convinced I would marry Taylor Hanson. Last night was the first time I've ever seen them live and I can tell you this much, they've still got it. Taylor if you're reading this, call me!

I'm off to Scandinavian Kitchen to get a few Swedish essentials for our Advent celebration today. It does feel strange thinking about Christmas when it's this sunny outside and the temperature is 13 degrees!

Last night was great, lovely Italian food and good company. By 11 pm I was knackered and feeling quite faint so I got a taxi home. I was very happy when I was finally in my bed.

Toasty toes

Perhaps it's time for me to get changed out of my comfy clothes and slippers (best slippers in the world btw) and start getting ready for tonight? I am going with my sister to a 50th birthday party... I've even bought myself a new dress that miraculously FITS! It's a maternity dress mind you, but still! It's going to be my go-to dress for whenever I need to be a bit dressed up over the Christmas season.

Not half bad...

I'm planning to fritter away the next few hours with a soya hot chocolate, croissant and a book.
This whole thing of starting my maternity leave over 2 months before the baby is due really was not a bad idea!

All's well that ends well.

Yesterday after establishing how lazy I am, I decided to clean out the fridge. After about 20 minutes of back breaking cleaning I realised that the fridge wasn't particularly cold anymore. James thinks the fridge overheated after I had been cleaning it out without switching if off ( I blame my pregnancy brain here...). So there we were with a broken fridge and all that food I had just gone out to buy! At this point I sank in to a deep depression. All that work for nothing.

But then something magical happened! James rang the landlord and he said we could buy a new fridge! I shiny new fridge! It was like Christmas had come early! AND we managed to save all our food by putting it in a cooler bag that is now hanging on a hook outside the back door, safe from the foxes.

Speaking of lazy, today me and James rode our bikes to the leisure centre and went swimming. And I am baking bread as I am typing this (well, the dough is rising..). Guess I'm not so lazy after all!

Lazy mama

I'm so lazy. Even though I am not working anymore and have loads of time on my hands I am getting nothing done. If I get one thing done a day I am impressed with myself! Today that one thing was going to Sainsbury's and doing a big shop. Which took about an hour. Now I am stuck on the sofa drinking cup after cup of tea, eating lemon drizzle cake and watching daytime TV. I keep thinking "I should go clean out the fridge" or "I should put the washing away", but do I actually get up? Erm, no... I really should get my ass in to gear, my to do list goes on for miles. I'm just going to have one more slice of cake first....

Ladies who lunch

I'm out shopping on High Street Kensington with Sabina and we've just had the most delicious lunch in Cafe Concerto and now we are both uncomfortably full. Good thing I'd already done most of the shopping I needed to do, I think I'll need to spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch trying to digest my meal!



Sabina!


Yum.....

Radio silence

I'm on holiday in Sweden for a couple of weeks, hence the radio silence here at Smells like London. I've just arrived in Stockholm after spending 5 days in my home town Umeå. I've had an amazing time so far, lots of time spent with friends, talking about all the important things in life. Lots of walks through my beautiful home town. And of course, lots of "fika".



The beautiful river in my home town, Umeälven...


and the view of the town centre across the river.


My longest standing friend, Maria.


Breakfast at Madde's house.


Yum!


Maria and my brother Petrus.


"Fika" at NK...



and at Mekka!

Moroccan parcels

My sister came over for dinner yesterday, I cooked some Moroccan style puff pastry parcels that turned out great. I did a vegetarian version filled with roasted butternut squash, spinach, pine nuts and feta cheese and a meat version with minced lamb, spinach, pine nuts, feta cheese and lots of parsley. I seasoned both fillings with the moroccan spice mix ras el hanout.








We ate them with salad and my sisters delicious chili jam, which she had brought. Lovely.

Minimal effort

After being woken up at 4.30 this morning by a drunken James who was locked out, I didn't get an awful lot done today. We were both too lazy to cook tonight so we had an easy dinner of baked potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn, grated cheese and a salad.


Yum. Now I am beyond stuffed and planning to lay on the couch until bed time. Maybe James will give my sore back a massage to make up for his drunken silliness.

Under construction

We having begun the immense job of turning our flat in to a home. So far we have managed to inadvertently paint the living room pink. We were planning on painting it a putty colour and chose a shade from the colour cards in Homebase. As it turns out those colour cards are not very accurate! We came home with 5 liters of pale pink. After the initial shock I've decided that it looks great. And I'm really pleased that we will have a more interesting colour scheme than putty. Just another word for beige....













We've also sanded the window frames and painted them with white gloss paint. The skirting boards also got a makeover. Now all we need to do is paint the doors as they have a distinct tobacco-yellow hue. The hallway is next in line, wonder what pastel we will accidentally pick out this time?

24 weeks

Sunny Stokey

Yesterday I had brunch with my dear friend Heather in Stoke Newington. It was such a nice sunny day and we managed to get a table in the sun, bliss!


When I got back home I made myself a tasty lunch of couscous salad with a dill and lemon yoghurt sauce and with that I had a piece of salmon leftover from dinner a couple of days ago. Yum.

A bit of a schlep!

I've just come back from a hellish trip to Finchley Central where I've collected a carrycot that I've bought second hand. I honestly don't know what I was thinking taking it home on the tube in the middle of rush hour!! Now I am absolutely knackered and my body is aching. I have recently started to experience a lot of joint pain, especially in my hips. I basically feel like an old granny! It probably doesn't help that I was scrubbing doors and doorways this morning. I guess this is what they call nesting....

Tonight we are staying in and ordering a curry. Food + Sofa = Very happy pregnant chick!

Happy Sunday

Today I met my sister and my friend Heather for a coffee on Portobello road, then we strolled through the market, looking at all the junk/treasure. My sister came back to mine and on the way home we ate crepes with strawberries and Nutella, yum!

My belly has felt really tight all day and my body is achy so I have just taken a long bath and now I am going to bed. I'd forgotten how nice it feels to have the day off...

Paris Fashion Week

I got the Eurostar to Paris early Friday morning.



After setting up at the Capsule show I had a couple of hours to kill, so I headed straight to Galaries Lafayette...



...and Printemps...



for a spot of window shopping.



So many beautiful buildings to look at, like the opera house!



We went out for dinner with one if the designers, to an Italian restaurant of all places! My boss doesn't like French food...



Every morning I had my breakfast delivered to my room so that I could eat it in bed.



The next day I spent at Capsule, surrounded by beautiful clothes.



The show was located on the stunning Rue du Turenne, couldn't complain!



Sunday and Monday I spent at the Memy Mode show, which was held in the Bourse du Commerce, look at the amazing 35 metre ceiling!



On the Monday I managed to sneak off for an hour to visit the Tranoi show, held on Rue du Rivoli, next to the Louvre.



So much to see and so little time as usual! I have now worked 12 days in a row, tomorrow will be my 13th. But as of next week I am only working 2 days a week so can't complain.

Say what?

I'm in total denial about the fact that I am going to Paris tomorrow morning. I just can't face packing and trying to find decent outfits that will actually fit me!

I think I'll just eat a huge portion of sausage and mash and ignore the Paris trip for a few more hours...

Weekends are never quite long enough...

Friday night James cooked a delicious Thai coconut soup with lots of lemongrass, chilli, ginger and prawns.


It was just what I needed to combat my cold.


Saturday started off the best way possible, with a lovely breakfast and the sun shining in through the window. The rest of my Saturday was busy, me and Sabina went to look at a University she is considering applying to.



Sunday me and James headed out in the beautiful weather.



Me with my bump...



and James with his boot!


We rounded off the weekend in the perfect way, with a roast dinner.