All or nothing

 I bought a new canvas of Marilyn Monroe

 This week is filled with...work, surprising?

 I haven't had time to read so much lately but now I started to read this book.

I'm collecting glasses like these. Every time you go to the gas station to fill gas you get to buy these for like one euro.

I told you about this Swedish blogger, Blondinbella, before. Blogs are huge in Sweden and a lot of people have gotten famous by blogging, like this girl. I would say that she is the most famous blogger in Sweden. She even has her own magazine. Her blog isn't as big as it used to be though. This girl has one of the biggest blogs and she became famous by being mean to people. About 100 000 people read her blog - every day.

The truth is that I would actually have more visitors if I blogged in Swedish, since the blog atmosphere is so big here.

I love magazines, both Swedish and American ones. The top one is Seventeen and the one below is Blondinbella's. It was the first time I read it. It was ok but the bad thing about working as a news designer is that I see every tiny mistake and that annoys me. I do lots of proofreading at work so I know a lot of all the "language rules" there are for Swedish press.

Believe it or not, but I haven't been pink this week, except for today. It's funny how my coworkers notice when I'm not. They always come and search if they see a tiny pink detail somewhere, which they usually do, and then they get satisfied: "well, at least you got a liiittle pink on you".

Lots of mobile pictures!

 
I saw that I have lots and lots of mobile pictures that I haven't published. Most of them are from my old phone, which had a much better camera than my pink Nokia:/

 

I  always get to design the entertainment pages, I wonder why;)

 A night walk with my mum's dog

 Going with the snowmobile to the top of a mountain

 Reindeer are cute but it's a bit irritating when they're everywhere. I don't want to hit them.

 A last coffee with my classmates

 ...and a coffee with my best friend.

 The view from my hotel room in Stockholm when I went there for a conference.

 And this is me in the hotel.

 I was the first one on the top this day, can you tell!?

 I designed a magazine, but I actually didn't keep that pink color.

 This movie really has a special ending.

 My youngest niece.

 Rehearsals during the music festival.

 Photoshoot with a famous journalist.

 Here I'm doing a radio clip that was aired later.

 One of many hockey games I went to this winter.

 I drove a lot the last semester of school since I was working as well.

 Brussels.

 The cappuccino and waffles in Brussels were amazing...

...and the brownies!

Life goes on

 
I know that I always have your support and once again you proved it, thank you. Just so you know I would never stop blogging because of mean comments, and that wasn't even the reason why I thought about it. There has just been so many things going on lately and the tragedy in Norway has effected me more than I would ever have thought. In one way I'm glad that I have been working a lot the last days so I haven't had time to think about that and everything else all the time.

Take care ♥

A beautiful quote a girl said about the tragedy in Norway

When the world isn't pink

 
When I woke up this morning I didn't want to blog anymore. How could I blog about pink things when the world isn't pink? How could I blog about pink things when my world is falling apart? I could blog about other things than cupcakes and bows - but I know that's not what you want to read because those are the posts you don't comment.

I don't blame you. You come here to see my pink pictures and read about my "pink" life as entertainment. And that is also necessary, I know that. Everything doesn't have to be so serious all the time. But sometimes it is, and it's so hard to pretend that I live in a fluffy world - because I don't. My life isn't pink, more than on the outside.

A few hours after my thoughts I saw that some people wrote really mean things about me in an Australian forum. I don't understand that. What's the point? Does it make you look better? Does it make you feel better? There is already so much cruelty in this world, you don't have to make it worse. The next time you're about to write something bad about someone online, please think twice. I'm not trying to harm anyone. I just want to bring some color to people's lives.

There is this famous blogger in Sweden called Blondinbella. She always says that girls have to stand up for each other and not fight, and I couldn't agree more. I am so grateful that there are girls out there who really do that too. During the time I have had this blog I have come across so many amazing people.

You know I love you,

Sandra

...

I saw some people criticize me about my picture from Norway because it was taken in the water. I would never, ever do anything to upset the people that were in the Norwegian tragedy. I posted that before I knew what really happend on that island and I have taken it away now so there will be no misunderstandings. I can't believe how rude people can be and accuse me of something like that about my homeland.

Ooops...I did it again!

 
I "accidentally" made another chocolate cake.This kind of cake is really popular in Sweden and if you translate it it would be called "sticky cake" in English. Mine didn't get so sticky this time though but it's yummy anyway!

I quit!

  
I haven't told you that I quit my job as a recruitment leader in the beginning of this month. I was working for an au pair agency and I was responsible of recruiting au pairs in the north of Sweden. It took a lot of time, especially since I already was working as a journalist and I was also still in school during the year I worked for them. It was a good experience but I'm glad it's over. Now I'm off for real the days I'm off and I don't have to think about calling au pairs every day.

At least the "uniform" was cute:

Rush to work

 
It feels like I mostly just write about my job these days...but that's because I don't do some much else than to work right now. I really have to go there now...I have to be there in half an hour and I haven't had anything to eat and I'm not even dressed yet, ooops!

Header making in progress

 
Tomorrow I start working nights again which is good. That means I can be up for a long time in the night and I love that. Right now I'm about to do a new header. I got so inspired doing it for others so I thought I should do a new one for myself as well. I'm just waiting for my camera battery to charge so that I can take some cool pics.

The good thing about working day though, is that it's not so stressful and you get to be more creative designing the newspaper pages. Just when I was about to go home today there was a murder in the city I live in. That is really unusual here so it's going to be big news about that in the paper tomorrow.

Hey, I'm not pink today!

Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together

The future

 
It's so hard to decide what I want to do in the future. Or actually, I have already decided. I am moving back to Minnesota. I just don't know when yet. I'm working at the newspaper as a designer until the 1st of September. I'm a bit afraid that I will be offered a job as a reporter after that. It will be so hard to say no, and at the same time I want to say yes because I just graduated from school and I should work for a while.

The thing is that I have to study when I go back to the States, to get a visa. I'm going to get a bachelor in that case, which will take me at least four years, that is why I should do it soon.

Right now the plan is to work here until spring semester next year, but you'll never know what will happen...

 

Minnesota is where I belong, I know that.

I need my beauty sleep

 
Working daytime isn't really my thing. I only slept for one hour tonight:/ But I managed to survive the day anyway.

I have eaten up all of my brownies already. I think I have to bake something new, I just don't know what. I really want to try to do chocolate chip cookies, soft ones, since we don't have that in Sweden. I'll do that when I have some more free time.

What a day!

  
Oh my, what a day this has been. I went to the mechanics and then straight to work. It was really hectic there. Usually we are done designing half an hour before the deadline but today I sent the last page with only a few minutes left.

It has been worse though. Last summer I had to design a page in ten minutes (usually it takes over an hour) and I was only a few seconds away from missing the deadline but luckily I didn't. It was because the reporter and the photographer gave me the materials too late. If we, for any reason, miss the deadline it's really, really expensive for the newspaper.

I guess I should show you and tell you more about what I really do as a news designer. Not now though, I work daytime tomorrow so I have to go to bed.

 

I better eat something first, I'm starving.

Back and forth

 
Now I have to take my car back to the mechanics...again. I hate it how I have to keep going there once I start. Nothing's really wrong with the car, they just didn't do one thing properly last time I went there so they have to fix it.

I'm also going back to work. I have had three days off but it feels like weeks!

 

Maybe I should start walking more, in heels, instead of taking the car everywhere ;)

I can't live without flying, it feels like...

 
I booked another flight to Stockholm. How many times have I been there lately? I don't remember. Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and sure, it's a nice city, but I don't love it as much as almost everybody else does. I only go there when I have to, which is quite often. This time I'm flying there in the morning and then home at night, in the beginning of August. I'm going to take the TOEFL test and Stockholm is the "closest" city I can do it in.

 

The last time I was in Stockholm was in the end of May when I came from Minneapolis. 

This is how I looked then, so tired after traveling for 18 hours.

Sandra goes blog designing

 
A Swedish girl asked me if I could do her blog design. I was really flattered so I said yes. I love designing so why not.

But what I do regret a bit is that I also said yes to do the whole layout, not only the header. To work with all the codes is a bit boring, especially when it's not even for yourself. So if anyone ask me in the future I'll probably only do the header :)

It's weird to not design in pink. This is how it looks right now (it's not finished):

Life as I know it

 
It's not only good to have some days off. I didn't fall a sleep until eight in the morning or something. Oh well, I work tomorrow again so I'm not going to complain.

Today I reaaaally need to fix those curtains. I promise! I'm also trying to figure out my future, and that is a whole other project.

The first time I tried macarons. They weren't as good as I thought:/

---
Sent from my Nokia

Once you go black...?

 
I don't really like black clothes but everytime I dress in them I feel so stylish and actually comfortable too. I just like to mix it with colors though so that it doesn't get so dark:)

My brownies