Welcome to Chaos !!

Well HELLO......let me tell you about my Saturday and Sunday (so far)......
It is rainy season here in Oregon. Woke up to rain yesterday Saturday.
Had my latte in bed. Feeling kind of lazy and sluggish in general....probably because of the rain.



Later on it was time to go to work. Urgh.....I started working again this week.
Not super excited over that. But it is what it is. Once I am there I am OK but getting ready and getting there takes some mental effort. I much rather stay at home than work. Here I am at work. Work was bad. But I looked good as always.





Had my latte at Stumptown today Sunday. I have actually started to make coffee at home more and more. Decided that I will always get my latte from Stumptown the Sundays I volunteer......which so happened to be today.



Then I had Pet Pack. Picked up a generous load of donations. Sweaters, a rain jacket, a litter box, some toys and cat and dog food.



In the afternoon I went for a long walk. It rained in the beginning and then it stopped. I love strolling around like this watching stuff.



And now I am eating peppermint bark ice cream and binge watching Emily in Paris. J'adore! I love seeing the footage from Paris.....Perhaps I need to visit France again sometimes soon. I only spent one evening in Paris, all I did was walk around mainly along the Seine. The following day I took the train down south and spent a couple of weeks outside Grenoble. I was amazing.
My plan tonight is to lay in bed and continue to watch Netflix and read online stuff for several more hours.
A perfect Sunday evening in my opinion

This year's temple at Burning Man got announced - Temple of the Heart.
The lead artist is a girl from Kraków Poland, Ela Madej. She lives in San Francisco now.
The Temple is designed to look like an upside down desert flower and the stem is going to reach up to the sky. The Temple will have traditional Eastern European lace patterns. I am very familiar with those, every window in Poland when I was little and later on when I would visit had white thin lace pattern curtains.
Ela says, "When I was growing up, my beloved grandma had a huge rose garden and we would all collect the petals to make rose preserves. Grandma passed away when she was 80. Grandpa outlived her by almost 17 years.
He never stopped taking care of her roses and making rose preserves.
Still today, I think the smell of rose preserves must be what love smells like. That's why the centerpiece of the Temple features giant roses."
There will be a rose altar in center. Beautiful! I am so happy that this girl from Poland that also loves going to Burning Man is the lead artist of the Temple this year!

Right now there are some amazing pieces of art in Portland. I do not know who put them there but thank you for doing so......they are so pretty. Since Christmas I have been down to the park blocks by the art museum to see this several times. Each time I am hoping it is still there and not destroyed. The disco ball. The tree.

Can you see the moon in between the branches? There are messages around the trunk of the tree. This so remind me of Burning Man. It makes my soul happy.

And the flower. I love this flower!

The last day of 2022 is over and so is the first. On the last day I did some shopping during the day. I have a hang up with that certain things should be done and taken care of before the new year starts. Usually the things I want done end up being too many and have to wait. Sometimes for several months because I procrastinate.
I can always find a good reason to do nothing at all. But I got certain things accomplished. Something that I absolutely must do is to start the new year off clean. So my hair must be washed and my body scrubbed. Clean is good. Another thing that I always do is take the trash out. Very quick and simple.
No trash from 2022 can be in my place when 2023 starts. I prefer for things to be tidy and clean too but my place is rather messy right now which is unusual but whatever, I just do not have the energy right now.
These Nike Cortez went in the trash the last evening of 2022. I've had these for over a decade and they definitely seen better days, both soles were coming off. I pretty much dress and look like a bum when I am out and about doing errands simply because I just do not care. The less people look at me the better. Bye Bye shoes.....



On New Year's Eve I went to a small gathering of friends but honestly it was rather dull. Some people there were just.....meh. Being meh on New Year's Eve is like? I happily got home at around 11 pm and spent the last hour of 2022 in bed by myself, drinking tea. When the clock struck midnight I was reading affirmations. A very very calm New Year's Eve.
On New Year's Day I visited a friend and we did say Happy New Year to each other and I had some pink champagne.



I went for a couple of walks too that day. One in the evening and the little Christmas feeling I had is completely gone by now. It makes me feel a bit sad to see people's Christmas decorations out still because I remember childhood Christmases and how excited I would be. Often there was lots of snow and being out sledding and playing in the snow especially after sun down was almost magical. The sky was full of large soft snowflakes that slowly made their way down from a sky full of stars and I would look up and catch the snowflakes on my tongue. After playing outside for several hours I would walk home tired and content. The time off from school felt long and was full of play either outside in the snow or inside. I don't have those sparkly childhood feelings about Christmas anymore. Things are grown up now and often stressful. But I am glad I have those memories from the past.



Well it is 2023 now. Yeay.....I guess?

I went and had some tea the other day in solitude. So nice to just sit there and not have to engage with anybody besides myself. I went to Smith Tea, first time there.
I picked three macarons to have with my tea. Lemon, chocolate and pistachio.
And my order number was 11. That is my special number as well.



The day after I signed off on a project I have been working on for months. It is now done. There was tea in that Starbucks mug.



It was time for tea this evening too. Ann stopped by so we had some Earl Grey and gingersnaps. In Sweden gingersnaps are called pepparkakor and it translates to pepper cookies. Yummy.



I'm in bed, finished up 30 minutes with my legs inside these compression boots.
I have been thinking about getting a pair for a while, so I decided on these.



I am yawning. I think I will be sleeping soon. Tomorrow it is the last day of the year.....wow. Already?

Today it is Boxing Day here in the US but in Sweden we call this day Annandag Jul which translates as second day of Christmas and it is a holiday in Sweden.
It rained hard basically all day. I did not get up until around 11.
I barely moved all day, I just lounged in bed, ate and then I did decide to go to work so I took a bath and washed my hair, because I felt bored. So I am at work right now in the dressing room. Ready to go home and sleep.
This year I gave away Swedish dish cloths (aka Swedish sponge cloth) to several people as Christmas gifts. I use them myself, they are great.
Read alllllll about them here and you need one as well if you do not have one yet! I mean.....we were using these in Sweden when I was a kid. Less waste. Environmentally friendly.

https://ecologieliving.com/pages/whats-a-swedish-dishcloth



And then I gave away these Swedish Angel Chimes as well. Same here, grew up with these at Christmas time only though, since childhood. Angel Chimes are very pretty.
Tomorrow December 27 used to be called Tredjedag Jul......third day of Christmas and used to be a holiday as well until it wasn't anymore. Well it should, December 27 should be a holiday all over the world. For a very good reason.