24.

One year for every hour in a day.
That's how I old I am as of yesterday.

This is the year of the unknown.
I finish school in two months and then I'll be looking for work.
I have no idea what will happen between now and 25.

I'm glad I started the year celebrating over brunch with friends
and a delicious cake made by Julie.

Recommended Reads: Martin Beck Mysteries

I'm a murder mystery lover, it's true. Poor genre novels, like mysteries, are often in that "guilty pleasure," shameful reading category. I'm not sure if I believe in that nonsense, I'm more of the mind that I should admit to loving what I love without shame!

In any case, the Martin Beck mystery novels by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö are absolutely fantastic. I first heard about them through Carly and then I did more research into Swedish crime fiction for a class project. As it turns out, the Martin Beck series is pretty famous. The couple who wrote them is often credited with changing the nature of detective novels: prior to their series, Sherlock Holmes-esque characters (brilliant solo detectives with amazed audiences) were the only kind of detectives featured in mystery novels. Martin Beck, the main character in Sjöwall and Wahlöö's books, works with a team of downtrodden, imperfect and jaded policemen in the city of Stockholm's murder investigation department. Sjöwall and Wahlöö's police procedurals were revolutionary in crime fiction literature. The stories are gritty and deeply critical of 1960's Swedish society. There's ten books in all; I've just finished the fifth and I can't wait to start the sixth. As Carly mentioned, the series is really addictive.

P.s. Jonathon Franzen is also a fan of the series, he wrote an introduction to the fourth book, The Laughing Policeman.

P.p.s. Thanks for all your get well messages! I'm feeling a bit better this morning.

Flu Season

I've finally succumbed to the seasonal flu. I'm treating it with lots of spinach, banana and orange juice smoothies and rest. It's a good thing I have a cozy couch and a wonderful Atlantic Treefox poster to keep me company.

My Alfred Hitchcock education continues, so far I've watched:
Rear Window (My tentative favorite.)
Vertigo
The Birds
Psycho
The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Trouble with Harry
Shadow of a Doubt
North by Northwest

Favorites for Friday

1. Laura Lombardi Scale Necklace - I purchased this on New Year's Eve at Robber. I lusted after it for so long and NYE seemed the perfect excuse to buy a new piece of jewelery. I've worn it at least three times a week since. Laura's new collection looks amazing, too.

2. Apartamento Issue 6 - I love viewing stranger's living spaces, especially in Apartamento. They feature apartments that with all their imperfections, I could imagine calling home, .

3. Uppercase 8 - The letterpress issue! I love that this magazine is often full of my favorite bloggers, Tanya of Snap+Tumble and Tara of Seven Spoons to name a couple in this issue.

4. OLO Valens - I have jumped on the OLO Fragrance bandwagon, introduced to me by Anabela of Fieldguided. And what a great bandwagon it is! I first fell in love with Forêt; but since it was not available at Robber, I gave the other scents a try. It was a toss up between Dafne and Valens (I'll be back for Dafne in the spring). Valens is the perfect warm and spicy scent for winter. Erin at Robber mentioned that Valens is supposed to be reminiscent of Old Spice, but I assure you, it smells much better than this guy.

5. Peach Washi Tape - My very first roll of Japanese tape. Its colour reminds me of spring.

6. Ivy - There is nothing better than the sight of green ivy in the middle of winter.

My favorite wall.

When I mentioned being Dala Horse crazy and Melinda Josie in the same post, I was alluding to two new paintings now hanging in my apartment.

Back in November, Melinda posted about a series of paintings commissioned by Mjölk Scandinavian design shop (pronounced MI-YELK! reads their website) in Toronto's Junction neighbourhood. I picked up the phone and called J right away telling him we had to go see them, ASAP! I even called ahead and we visited them before John and Juli could hang them! After collectively ooohing-and-aahhing over Melinda's beautiful work, J asked me to point out a few of my favorites. Then he kicked me out of the store.

At the party John and Juli held to celebrate the store's one-year anniversary, J revealed that not one, but two of the paintings were mine for Christmas!
Meet Dalahäst Marinblå and Dalahäst Sticka!

It means so much to me to own artwork from an artist I admire for her talent, kindness and everyday creativity.

Dala Horses

I've gotten a little obsessed with Dala Horses.

I owe this obsession and the discovery of this mitten pattern to Melinda Josie. When Melinda posted this picture on her flickr stream months ago, I hounded her to see where the pattern was from. She was kind enough to share and she posted about her finished mittens here, on her blog.

Not only is Melinda a talented knitter, she paints incredibly beautiful paintings.

You can read a little story about the Swedish Dala Horse tradition here or here. (The stories are very different, so I included both.)

Thanks to J who took all the photos of me and the mittens.
I couldn't help but show off all the pretty details of the pattern:



Dala and Hest spelled out on the inside of the thumb.



Lacy cuffs.



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