low-carb diet

Quinoa summer salad

As a child, summer equaled holiday. We used to stay with our grandparents in the countryside for two and a half months, then my parents would come and get us and we´d go to the seaside together, for a couple of weeks or so. Summer meant reading, taking care of my little garden, meeting with my friend Irina and getting tanned. It also meant loads of fresh fruit, straight from the tree, running around freely, building huts and getting “infested” with fleas from the neighbour´s cats.

Nowadays, summer for me is first and foremost a holiday somewhere in the South of Europe. 😉 For the rest of the season, wearing dresses without stockings,  walking bare foot on the grass and eating yummy salads is as good as it gets in Scandinavia. If you´re really lucky, a couple of days on the beach and some holiday guests make the picture complete!
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Trondheim

Once in a while I get to travel in my work and this time the trip went to Trondheim. Although I´d been here before, last time was a brief weekend visit two years ago and before that I was a student mainly concerned with shopping and partying, so I can´t say I´d seen the city properly before. This time Vuong came along to keep me company and check out shops to place his products in, so I was in luck! Otherwise I would have most probably eaten i my hotel room and spent most of my afternoon napping. 😉 Remember I´m a napper?

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August

Even though the calendar says otherwise, I feel we´re coming towards the end of  summer. Although the air is still warm, most festivals are over (not that I ever attend) and the rain seems to settle in. I started work for real last week and each day is busier than the last one. I don´t mind it, though. A sort of holiday atmosphere is still lingering in the air and people are in a better mood than they were in June, before they left for Italy, Spain, France or Greece. Or stayed at home  and couldn´t believe their luck when summer came to Norway, too.

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Hiking with Sammy

You´re probably fed up with my baby boy by now. Well, that´s too bad! `Cause I love him so much I don´t care to write of nothing else today. 😉 We went on a small hiking trip, you see, so I need to brag a bit about it, since I´m such a lazy wanna-be diva on a regular basis. 😉 haha! I had a coffee date with a good friend of mine I don´t get to see as often as I´d like to, so I suggested we should go for a walk in the forrest and get our coffee on the top of the hill, at Frognerseteren, an imposing café where you would meet you grandma for lunch a while ago, but that´s managed the transition between tradition and innovation well. So we talked and Sam ran and bathed and chewed on sticks and ran some more, we lost our way and we found it again and in the end we were on top of the hill savoring a cup of coffee with cream porridge (because I´m halfway back on my low-carb diet and I don´t want to turn into a heath freak!).

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Summer goodies

Since Monday, my strict low-carb diet is over and I´ve been trying to eat healthy and stay off the worst types of food.  I even signed a monthly membership at the gym where a friend of mine goes, so I´d have to stick to our deal. I´ve already been to yoga and every single muscle of my body has been hurting ever since. 😉  I´ve made a new appointment for pilates on Monday, meanwhile, I try to stick to my abs and squats on an everyday basis.

What did change though is my desire for sugar. We went to a couple of parties and I indulged in a little bit of cake there, a pannacotta here, you know the drill. And all I think of is sugar! Grrrr! Thought I´d share a couple of pictures from Pinterest, hoping I won´t need to taste them as long as I can rest my eyes upon them, the way I sometimes do with shopping. Have you tried? Go to netaporter, fill your basket with the sassiest babies and don´t proceed to the counter. Just know that they´re a click away. 😉 Have a lovely Saturday! xxx. Alina

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Living room styling

We went to a party on Saturday, in fact two of them! The first one was in the lovely apartment of Melissa Hegge from Ideastosteal, damn, does she have a cool place! We were stunned! So many artifacts and so beautifully gathered, it felt like a gallery. We literally  went from room to room and took pictures!

The other party was on a roof terrace just a couple of blocks´away with a view over Galgeberg. Our lovely host Mona was not pleased with us for needing to go and walk Sammy like a pair of  Cinderellas before midnight. 😉

Now it´s a fact that a party every now and then is therapy for body and soul and this time was no exception. In addition to new people and subjects of conversation, good laughs and a bit of cake to sin with, Melissa´s interior was such an inspiration! What do you think?

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Heat wave

These days have been so hot it´s crazy! Luckily, I spent them either at the beach, in the shade of the garden or sipping an ice coffee at the terrace. I can never tell you enough times: There´s no place like Oslo in the summer!<3

If in Oslo, you need to check out Delikatessen, they now have 3 locations, but the best one is still in Grunnerløkka, if you ask me. Generous salads, yummy tapas and cool cats serving them to you.

I´m still on low-carb, 8 days to go, on Monday I´m starting yoga and pilates again, after a couple of years´laziness.

I hope your July is FAB and feel free to leave a message if you care!:-)

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