Adding cosiness to a room with fairy lights

I recently wrote a blogpost about my new white metal daybed that I assembled and styled to fit my arty room in the house. This room is decorated with a lovely olive green hue, along with some dusky purple details, so the throw and the cushions on the bed obviously had to match these hues.

My latest addition to this room is a lovely set of fairy lights from Cable & Cotton. I realised when I got the bed that I needed some atmospheric lights in the room if I was going to have guests around – the ceiling lamp is just too bright – and Cable & Cotton came to the rescue.

The fairly lights are made of little handmade balls of thread, which you can custom order in the colours you want, so I opted for dusky colours of green, pink, grey and lilac that would match the rest of the room. You simply pop the balls on the light bulbs yourself, and can therefore decide exactly how you want your lights to look. If you’re not happy with your original combination you can just take the balls off and move them around until you’ve got the result you want.

I’ve also hung a couple of white wooden mini shelves on the wall this weekend. I’ve had them for ages but couldn’t decide where I wanted them, but once the lights were up I found a great spot for them. There’s not much you can keep on these small shelves, but they’re only really there to look pretty. I got the idea of placing some colourful books on them though, which I think looks quite cute.

Again, matching everything to each other. Lamps, books, cushions... (this cushion is from Primark's home section) 

...and my Swedish panel curtains as well, of course! These were a birthday present from my sisters a couple of years ago, and I absolutely love them. I also find it hilarious that my English friends don't see the point with them since you can't cover the window with them. But us Swedes are all about letting in as much light as possible in our homes!

This is what my Cable & Cotton lights look like when they're lit - very cosy, and I think any guests staying in this room moving forward will be very happy with the whole room in general. 

Meatball recipe with a twist

The dish Sweden is most famous for is meatballs. I mean, who hasn’t been to IKEA and tried their meatballs in creamy gravy with potatoes?

It’s a classic!

I’d say I will never get tired of meatballs, but to make things more exciting and get away from those everyday tastes, it’s great to experiment with some new meatball recipes.

Us Swedes tend to be drawn to Mediterranean flavours when we experiment with our food, and I’m not an exception – I absolutely love garlic, basil, feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.

Another way of varying the taste of your meatballs is to swap the standard pork or beef mince to another meat. We eat a lot of wild meat in Sweden as well, and I’ve grown up eating both elk and venison, so when I came across this video recipe by professional huntsman Mike Robinson I was hooked straight away!

Looks delicious, doesn’t it?!

There’s currently a whole series of Mike Robinson's Wild Kitchen online, with everything from wild meat to vegetarian mushroom dishes.

This particular recipe was recently tried and tested by blogger Foodsessed.

My own favourite meatball recipe with a twist is of the creamy kind, and this is the recipe for it:

Recipe for 4 portions

Ingredients

• 500 grams of minced meat (pork or mixed pork and beef)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 table spoons of chili ketchup
• Butter
• 1 tub of reduced fat crème fraiche
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 teaspoon of dark soy
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon of thyme
• 3-4 tablespoons of water

This is how you cook it:

Mix the minced meat, garlic, chili ketchup and salt to an even paste. Shape into approximately 8 meatballs (2 per person), and fry them in the butter – ca 3 minutes on each side. Take out the meatballs and put them to the side whilst you mix the sauce. Add crème fraiche, pepper, soy, thyme and water to your pan, and bring it to boil. Lower the heat, put the meatballs back in the pan into the sauce, and let simmer for a few minutes.

Serve with pasta or potatoes, and a fresh salad.

Delicious!

I usually find my food inspiration on Swedish recipe sites, but you can find lots of great recipes on sites such as Homemaking Hacks.

What’s your favourite meatball dish? The classic Swedish, the tomato sauce based Italian, or the garlicky and creamy Greek style?

Creative and unusual bathroom inspiration

Most properties - rented or bought - tend to come with a really standard bathroom, and it's usually a room that most people decide to redecorate after a while. Me and my other half redecorated both our bathrooms a couple of years ago. We didn't just change the toilet and the basin, but we tore out the whole bathrooms and redid everything from scratch - and what a satisfyng feeling that was! Finally our bathrooms were exactly the way we wanted them! 

Although, when I say 'exactly the way we wanted them' I'm still talking about pretty standard bathrooms, just with our choices of tiles and furniture. If I could afford it, I would obviously style my bathrooms into some funky designer rooms. You can always dream though... and here is some bathroom inspiration.

How about a Baroque inspired bathroom for example, with dramatic black swirls a see-through glass bathtub? Houzz is featuring lots of glass bathtubs on their site which you can check out here. I love the Baroque style with it's swirly patterns, but even though the bathtub looks really sleek and stylish I would probably feel a bit awkward actually taking a bath in it.

When it comes to basins you can really think outside the box and go all creative. I'm loving the simplicity of this wall-hung stone basin, and the combination with the Oriental style tiles. Opposites attract, right? The rouch stone and the fine swirls look beautiful together.

And talking about beautiful... how amazing is this basin made out of purple quartz?! I've never seen anything like it before. So unique and absolutely dazzling - literally!

Using a wooden worker's bench as bathroom furniture is part of the recycling trend, and it really compliments a white bathroom. When going for such a focal piece, white really is the way to style it. The counter top basin looks so simple yet stylish, and suits any bathroom style since it's so versatile. It reminds me of the old times when people simply washed their hands in a bowl. You can find similar counter top basins at bathroom stores such as Bella Bathrooms.

Going for a rustic look in your bathroom is extremely popular, and even though the actual toilet, basin and bathtub is standard white, a bathroom can look extremely interesting due to its other features. You really can't go wrong with the combination of roughly cut wood and stone together with standard white ceramics. It's timeless!

Who doesn't love a long, warm shower? And it's an even better experience when it looks fresh and stylish. Above is a pretty standard bathroom with a twist - they've gone for creative shower doors rather than the standard style. The black patio door style gives more of a cosy atmosphere to the bathroom, with a bit of an antique feeling to it.

When it comes to actual showers there are a huge number of styles to choose from, both when it comes to look, technique and power. Why not go all modern and high-tech for example? This digital shower controller from Mira would look really sleek and stylish in any bathroom, and as well as this they have a wide variety of electric showers and any other showers under the sun.

What does your dream bathroom look like?

For the Love of Food - street food festival

 On the last weekend of September, the food festival 'For the Love of Food' came to Leeds. It was all set up on Millenium Square in the heart of the city, and it sure was a different experience.

 With street food from all over the world including Scandinavia, Asia, the Caribbean and more, there was something to suit everyone's taste. There was even speciality food that doesn't belong to a certain part of the world, but that would work anywhere - the one I'm thinking of in particular was a stall that served smoothies out of donated fruit and vegetables that were going out of date, that would otherwise just have been thrown away and become landfill.

The different street food companies are all part of a competition, and they tour England to gain votes to win an award for Best Street Food. You can read more about it on For the Love of Food's website. 

I was really amazed by all the different stalls, with the unique decorations and quirky and unusual menus. All companies had something really unique with their food - either ingredients wise, or the way they were cooking it.

How about this funky street style caravan from Fresh Rootz for example? Doesn't it look unique, if anything?!

Myself and my other half, whom I visited this food festival with, tried a few different dishes - one being this slow cooked venison in a flatbread from The Moocher. Their unique thing is that they cook their food on an original Sankey Army Field Kitchen. It looks delicious, and it was - except for the insanely hot scotch bonnet sauce that almost made me cry!

Being from Sweden, I was extremely curious of what they would serve in the Nordic Street Food stall, and I hurried over straight away...

I almost screamed with joy when I read the menu and saw that they served chanterelles - a sort of mushroom that is classed as a delicacy, and that only grow up north. Me and my parents used to go out in the forest and pick these mushrooms every autumn, but unfortunately they don't grow in England. If you're lucky you might find them in Scotland, but nowhere near the same amounts as in Sweden. 

The wrap looked and tasted absolutely delicious. Very fresh flavours, with sour cabbage and soured cream as well as the chanterelles. I was in heaven!

This is what chanterelles look like when they're fresh - bright orange-yellow, and they smell amazing. I was so close to grab the whole basket and just run off with it ;)

We walked around the food festival for a couple of hours, and it was so lovely just taking in the atmosphere; the Caribbean music that blasted out from one of the stalls and filled the whole square with its rhythm, the fantastic smells from all the food being cooked, and the general noise from happy people munching on food.

I'm loving how it's so trendy to be environmentally friendly nowadays. This is what the people behind The Cauldron says about their company;

-“All our power is supplied from the solar panels on the roof of the van. And all our packaging is 100% compostable. Our mission is to prove that fast food CAN be delicious and ethical and give the towns and beaches in our corner of the world a taste of something different from the usual fish ‘n’ chips and frozen burgers.”

We tried the pulled pork wrap from The Cauldron, and it disappeared so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to take a photo of it. I guess that's the best feedback they can get ;)

We were very happy with our little day out in Leeds at For the Love of Food festival. It was a lovely day, and something different to do. If this festival comes to your city it's definitely worth visiting! Even if you're not hungry it's worth it just for the atmosphere.

The only thing we thought could have been different is that we would have liked to see an option of half sized portions, so that you could have gone around and tried more food without getting too full. Something to think about for next year, perhaps?