I have two complete collections. One is my huge stash of Martha Stewart Living (all 200 issues). The other is my complete collection of Lotta books.

Lotta is the funny, awkward and sweet heroine of a series of books for young girls and I used to love them. So much so that I wrote to the author Ester Ringnér-Lundgren who wrote them under the pseudonym Merri Vik and I received a sweet note back.  This was sometime in 70’s.

 
The Lotta books first came out in the late 50’s and as I’ve been rereading them this summer it’s definitely those early ones until the 70’s that are my favorites. One of my favorite passages is when Lotta is painting the furniture in her room (sound familiar?)…

The last book came out in the early 90’s and by that time one could tell that the author had kind of lost touch on what was “young” so they are a little bit too awkward but I still kept buying them. Last year I finally found the last missing piece of the collection on-line and thus the collection was complete.

 
For you other Swedes that may like Lotta, I just googled the author and found some fun sites including this one where all the covers can be viewed individually and with a bunch of other stuff that I’m going to explore further and there’s even an Ester Ringnér-Lundgreen society where they have Lotta meetings and celebrate her! I’m going to have to join that don’t I?

Do you have any complete or nearly complete collections of anything? What were your favorite books when you were young(er)? Do you ever reread them?

Wille’s grandma, my mother in law Barbro, was so sweet and wanted to reward Wille for his awesome grades when graduating from "högstadiet" (~junior high) and sent some money. She asked if I could present it to him in a neat way and not just hand over the cash. So I did.

 
Any Swedes out there will probably see where I hid the money :). That third bunting from the right is a 500 kronor bill. And there are two of them.

 
Here’s what I did in a hurry as Wille was on his way home from school and I was leaving the next day to come to my mom's; I folded the bill in half and then folded in the sides towards the center to create two points.

 
So as you can see here the money bunting is double while the other “less valuable” ones are just little paper triangles where I folded over the top edges. I could have done them double too but I was in such a rush and this had to do.

To secure the bunting pieces I stapled the paper ones over a string  and used a bit of rolled up office tape to close the money ones over the same string.

 
I heard Wille at the door as I was taping the ends to the window frame and this is what he was greeted by when he say down at the computer. This along with a sweet note from grandma.

So what did he use part of the money for? I spoke to him around lunch on Saturday and he had been on an all night computer games event in the city. A 12 hour session arriving home at 8 am... My boy is growing up :)

We finally taste the first of our tomato crop. We each got a tiny one. The verdict.; It tastes like tomato. Nothing extra ordinary but still kind of neat because it’s home grown.

 
A man on a mission. As soon as I’m outside Bonus starts bugging me and wants to be petted and combed. We have a Furminator but he prefers a regular men’s plastic comb.

 
Apologies for the feet that keep appearing in these 365 photos. On days when there’s “nothing” to shoot I end up grabbing the camera when I’m finally sitting down for a break in the evening.

 
Wille’s breakfast. Normally there’s chocolate milk and half a grapefruit but we were out so I substituted with a glass of OJ instead.

 
Mini and Bonus in the same shot is quite a rarity unless it’s time for food. They tend to go their separate ways. 

 
Good mail day! I finally got the IKEA catalog. Not too impressed I have to say. It’s all a bit overly decorated for my taste. I also got the latest issue of Family Living. It’s a great Swedish magazine on all things decor and family. Geared towards families with younger kids, but I still really enjoy it. Oh and, I inherited Wille’s I Phone! He’s now got the I Phone 4 and I have the vintage 3 :)

 
Along with the magazine I was sent a couple of cute trays. The Family Living ant pattern is so cute. I was really pleasantly surprised at the quality of the trays and very pleasantly surprised that they sent the trays in the first place because a white tray of this size was on my shopping list! Lucky girl I am!

So as you’re reading this I’m either on the train to my mom’s or have arrived there. Hopefully my mobile internet connection works well this time too. Didn’t get a chance to prepare posts so if you don’t hear from me you know why, but fingers crossed that I can blog as usual at the beginning of next week!