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Slow Living for Creatives: How to Honor Your Emotions Without Losing Your Dreams
As a creative soul and solopreneur, life often feels like a dance between freedom and structure. When we’re in flow, everything feels light and full of possibility. But when personal challenges come up, emotions can spill into our creative work and leave us feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or ready to give up.
I know this cycle well. For years, I tried to push through, believing that discipline and structure alone would keep me on track. But what I discovered is that bulldozing myself only led to burnout, self-doubt, and even deeper lows.
Through slow living and intentional self-reflection, I found a gentler way forward—one that honors both my emotions and my dreams.
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The Creative Conundrum: Flow vs. Structure
Many creatives thrive on freedom and flow. Rigid structures feel constricting, yet total free flow can quickly unravel when life gets hard. Suddenly, personal struggles bleed into business or creative work.
This emotional rollercoaster can make you feel “out of control,” incapable of sticking to your goals, or even questioning your entire path. If your work or business is centered around you—as many creative solopreneurs’ are—this can feel especially overwhelming.
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Why “Just Push Through” Doesn’t Work
A common piece of advice is: ignore your emotions and keep going. At first glance, it sounds practical—but in reality, it’s dangerous.
Bulldozing yourself is like stretching a rubber band too far. You can only push forward for so long before it snaps, pulling you even deeper into resistance and emotional lows. Over time, ignoring your emotions can even affect your health and sense of purpose.
Instead of overriding your feelings, slow living invites us to pause, listen, and create space for all parts of ourselves.
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A Gentle Approach: Listening to All Parts of Yourself
What changed everything for me was recognizing that I don’t have just one identity pulling in a single direction. I have different “parts” within me, each with its own needs and fears.
When one part of me feels resistance—like not wanting to record a video—it’s not laziness or weakness. It’s usually an inner voice, often rooted in childhood experiences, that’s trying to protect me from pain or rejection.
Through intentional living, I’ve learned to slow down and give space to these parts:
• Listen without rushing. Instead of forcing a resolution, I allow the resistant part to be heard fully.
• Acknowledge valid fears. Resistance often has a reason—it wants to protect me.
• Invite collaboration. I reassure the fearful part that I won’t abandon it, even as I move toward my dream.
This process creates integration instead of conflict, helping me move forward with greater peace and sustainability.
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Slow Living as a Path for Creatives
Slow living isn’t just about decluttering, cooking from scratch, or cozy rituals (though I love those too). It’s also about the inner pace we bring to our lives and businesses.
When we approach creativity slowly and intentionally:
• We stop cycling between overwork and burnout.
• We honor our emotional waves instead of suppressing them.
• We build businesses and dreams that feel sustainable, not overwhelming.
Even in simple acts—organizing a drawer, cooking pancakes, or taking a mindful walk—we can reconnect with our inner compass and restore balance.
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Final Thoughts: Your Dreams & Your Emotions Can Coexist
As creatives and soul-led solopreneurs, we don’t have to choose between abandoning our dreams or abandoning ourselves. The real path forward is learning to walk gently—with compassion for every part of us.
Slow living gives us the space to listen deeply, care for our emotions, and still stay aligned with our bigger vision.
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🌱 Next Step
If this resonates with you, I’d love to stay connected. Join my newsletter and receive the Aligned Planner—a gentle guide to help you reconnect with what truly matters and create a life and business at your own pace.
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Stop Chasing Signs: How to Regain Your Power by Trusting Your Inner Compass
We’ve all been there — waiting for a sign to show us the “right” direction. Maybe it’s a job offer that just “appears,” a person who crosses our path, or a coincidence we take as destiny. But here’s the truth: blindly following signs can actually disempower you.
I recently had a powerful reminder of this in my own life.
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My Story: The Job I Quit After Just a Few Days
When I moved into my countryside home in Sweden, a friendly neighbor offered me a teaching job. At first, it seemed perfect: a local connection, financial stability, and people who genuinely wanted me there. It felt like a sign.
So I said yes.
But almost immediately, my body told me otherwise. Sleepless nights, stress, tears — everything inside me screamed no.
For a while, I tried to rationalize it:
• Maybe it’s just first-week nerves.
• Maybe I should push through, because everyone says it’s hard at the beginning.
• Maybe this is my opportunity, and I shouldn’t waste it.But the truth was undeniable: this job wasn’t aligned with me. And when I finally honored that by quitting, the stress melted away.
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Why Chasing Signs Can Be Dangerous
Signs are not meant to make decisions for you. If you follow them blindly, you end up living a life built on outer circumstances instead of your own truth.
Here’s what happens when you put signs above your own inner compass:
• You override your body’s wisdom.
• You stay in situations that drain you.
• You outsource your power to “fate” instead of taking responsibility for your choices.⸻
What to Do Instead: Use Signs for Clarity
Signs can be helpful — but only if you use them as prompts to check in with yourself. Instead of asking: What does this sign mean I should do?
Ask:
✨ Why am I drawn to this?
✨ What need or desire is it pointing to?
✨ Is this opportunity the most direct way to fulfill that desire?When I asked myself those questions about the teaching job, I realized:
• What I actually wanted was security.
• I also wanted connection with local people.
• But this job was not the healthiest or most aligned way to meet those needs.That clarity allowed me to make a different choice — one rooted in my truth, not in fear or pressure.
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Regain Your Power: Trust Your Inner Compass
True empowerment comes when you take your power of choice back. Every “sign” is an invitation to go inward and align with your inner compass.
💡 Remember:
• Signs are not instructions.
• Your body often knows before your mind does.
• Courage is choosing what feels true, even when it doesn’t look logical to others.When you stop chasing signs and start trusting yourself, you open the door to a life that feels authentic, expansive, and deeply fulfilling.
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Final Thoughts
Leaving that job after just a few days wasn’t easy — but it was necessary. And in doing so, I showed myself (and others around me) that it’s possible to choose alignment over security, truth over pressure.
Your desires are not random. They are here to guide you. And when you honor them, you create a life you don’t need to escape from.
🌿 So the next time you’re tempted to chase a sign, pause. Check in with your body. Trust your compass. Regain your power.
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Would you like support on your journey?
I help people like you rediscover their inner compass, take bold steps, and build a life that feels aligned and vibrant.
👉 Find more resources for living in harmony with your needs and your inner calling at SarineTurhede.com.
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Trust Your Inner Compass: Lessons from Renovating a Countryside House
When I first set foot in my old countryside house in Sweden, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. No running water, no working heating system, and a renovation list longer than I could imagine. And yet—I felt at home. Buying this house wasn’t just about bricks, beams, and repairs. It was about something much deeper: trusting my inner compass.
In this post, I want to share what this house is teaching me about personal growth, transformation, and listening to the quiet voice within. My hope is that you’ll see reflections of your own journey here—and maybe find the courage to take your next step forward.
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Trusting Your Desires, Even When They Don’t Make Sense
For years, I ignored the longing I felt inside. On paper, my life in Germany was fine. But deep down, something wasn’t right. I had always felt called back to Sweden, especially to this very area where I had lived before.
The truth is, our inner desires rarely disappear. If you feel a persistent pull toward something—a dream, a place, a way of living—it’s not random. Ignoring it often leads to numbness, dissatisfaction, or even burnout. Following it, however uncertain it may feel, is what brings you back to life.
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The Honeymoon Phase Always Ends—And That’s Okay
At first, the excitement of being in the house was overwhelming. Everything felt magical, exactly as I had imagined. But sooner or later, reality sets in. For me, it looked like:
• Stress over not having water in the house
• Worries about heating before winter
• Endless phone calls to contractorsThis stage isn’t failure—it’s growth. Every personal transformation moves from the thrill of possibility into the challenge of reality. The key is to keep going, knowing that the discomfort is part of becoming the person who can live the life you truly want.
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Every Challenge Reveals Unexpected Strength
Living without water, I discovered how much I had taken it for granted. I found creative solutions: using rainwater, brushing my teeth in the yard, even accepting help from neighbors who offered showers in exchange for home-cooked meals.
Personal growth often works like this. When you step into the unknown, you uncover strengths and solutions you didn’t know you had. But you can only access them once you’ve dared to leave your comfort zone.
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You Don’t Have to Do It Alone
One of the biggest lessons this house has taught me is that independence is overrated. Whether it was friends helping in the basement or neighbors stepping in when I needed support, I realized that asking for help isn’t weakness. It’s community.
In life—just like in renovation—we thrive when we lean on others. Transformation isn’t meant to be a solitary path.
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Trust the Process, Trust Yourself
Your inner compass will never lead you astray. It doesn’t promise an easy path, but it does point you toward the life that’s aligned with who you are. Yes, there will be obstacles. But each one will either show you a strength you already carry or teach you something new.
When you feel that inner pull, you can trust it. You don’t need to know the entire path. You only need to take the next step.
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Final Thoughts
This house is becoming more than just a renovation project. It’s a mirror of personal transformation—messy, challenging, and deeply rewarding. Every broken pipe, every delay, every small victory teaches me to trust my inner compass more deeply.
If you’re standing at the edge of a decision, wondering whether to follow your own calling, I invite you to listen inward. You are not broken or in need of fixing. You are already worthy of your dreams, just as you are now.
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Swedish “chokladbollar” {vegan, glutenfree} | Recipe
This recipe for vegan, gluten-free Swedish “chokladbollar” (chocolate balls) is an absolute everyday favorite. Easy, quick, with only a few ingredients, no baking, and delicious. Everything I love.
The recipe is based on a Swedish classic and can be found on many websites, including the website of the Swedish supermarket chain ICA. For the original recipe, see the ICA website.
My adjustments
I like to use xylitol (birch sugar, available at dm, for example) for sweetening. You can, of course, use your favorite sweetener and adjust the amount to your taste. I like it a bit less sweet.
I use coconut oil instead of butter; I like the taste and imagine it’s healthier—and it makes the recipe vegan.
I use more liquid than the original recipe calls for, simply because I find the rolled oats are more digestible when they’re slightly soaked and not so dry.
The recipe is gluten-free as is; if you’re particularly sensitive, you can of course use the explicitly gluten-free rolled oats.
I can’t tolerate caffeine, so I use the decaffeinated version instead of regular coffee. For a kid-friendly version, replace the coffee with oat milk. 🙂
In the original recipe, the chocolate balls are rolled in pearl sugar; I use coconut flakes.
Ingredients
Makes about 15-20 pieces
100g coconut oil
1 tbsp birch sugar (xylitol)
3 tsp cocoa powder
150g oat flakes
about 1/2 cup (decaf) coffeeCoconut flakes for rolling the balls in.
Step by step
Melt the coconut oil.
Mix the dry ingredients.
Then stir in the coconut oil and coffee, and knead everything into a smooth mixture.
Let it sit (I usually make the dough the day before, but a shorter soaking time is also sufficient; just experiment).
Form balls with your fingers. I always keep a bowl of water handy and moisten my fingers occasionally; this prevents the dough from sticking to your skin and makes it easier to shape.
Roll the balls in coconut flakes.
Place in the refrigerator (or, in summer, the freezer is also delicious) and let sit for 1-2 hours.
Variations
Spices aren’t included in the original version. I always go with what I like best. Especially in fall and winter, I find cinnamon and cardamom go very well. I’ve also kneaded in cacao nibs, which was also delicious. I can also imagine a pumpkin spice or gingerbread version.
Your version of the Swedish no-bake chocolate balls
Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried the recipe and created your own variations.
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From Fertility Struggles to My Dream House in Sweden: The Real Story Behind Following Your Heart
Hi, if you’re new here, my name is Sarine, and I want to share something deeply personal with you today. This past winter, after a fertility treatment, I found myself in a life crisis.
That experience made me question everything. I went on a retreat where I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t living the life I truly wanted. I had no choice left but to make the decisions I had been avoiding for years.
One of those choices led me to buying my dream house in Sweden.
I’m sharing my story because I want you to know: yes, you can create the life you want. But it’s not as easy as social media sometimes makes it look. There will be pain. You need to understand that so you won’t question yourself when things get hard.
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Why I Went on the Retreat
In the fall, I went through a fertility treatment. It wasn’t how I had imagined it. I chose it, yes—but it felt wrong. The first round didn’t work, and I was left with a nagging feeling that something deeper was going on.
Part of me thought: Maybe there’s unresolved childhood trauma stopping me from wanting to be a mother.
Another part whispered: Maybe motherhood just isn’t right for you.I felt torn. Some days I desperately wanted to align myself with moving forward with treatment. Other days, my entire life felt wrong.
I had trouble getting out of bed in the mornings. I had no excitement about my life, nothing to look forward to.
I realized I was avoiding something important. I’d been following Teal Swan for a while, especially her workshops where she helps people see what they’ve been avoiding in themselves. Her approach resonated with me because she doesn’t sugarcoat reality. She talks about the real pain and difficulty of choosing your truth.
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Making the Leap
When I saw she was holding a retreat called “Curveball,” I knew I had to go—even though it was a lot of money for me. It meant selling some stock options, but the investment felt worth it.
I thought maybe I’d attend in the spring. But then I found out there was one in February… in Costa Rica. I didn’t care about the location. If that’s where the truth was waiting for me, that’s where I would go.
On the very first day, I saw it clearly: I was being fake.
Most of my life choices were about making other people like me, not about what I truly wanted. I rarely asked myself: Do I even like this person? Do I want this?
That realization was painful because I knew it meant I’d lose many relationships. Some people would leave me. Others I would have to walk away from because staying connected hurt too much.
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The Sweden Connection
One of the biggest truths that surfaced was my longing for Sweden.
I’m originally from Germany but lived in Sweden from 2011 to 2017. When my relationship ended and my job contract wasn’t renewed, I took it as a sign to leave. But I’d missed Sweden ever since.
Even when I traveled to beautiful places, I’d think: This is nice… but it’s not Sweden.
On the retreat, I admitted it: I already knew exactly where I wanted to live. Not “somewhere in Sweden,” but the exact area I had left years before.
I had been eyeing a particular house online for weeks, telling myself it was just a “future vacation home idea.” But I knew the truth—it was the house I wanted to live in. Now.
When I returned from Costa Rica, I booked a flight to Sweden immediately. There was a viewing that Sunday.
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The Price of Following Your Dream
Following your heart sounds romantic, but it often comes with loss.
In my case, it meant breaking up with my partner over the phone—something I never wanted to do. I also quit my job. Not just because I was moving, but because I didn’t want to stay in a system where it’s normal to spend five days a week in an office, and then “treat yourself” to expensive things and outing to compensate for the lack of meaning in my life. I wanted more time to do the things I love. Like expressing myself creatively (through YouTube videos, blog posts such as this one, and photography), and for my coaching sessions, where I help others build trust in their own vision for their dream life and find very specific action steps that are actually managable for them in their current life situation. And also just for being in nature, being with my feelings and just dilly-dallying and playing around.
I decided to buy the house in cash. That meant using all my savings and taking on some debt for renovations. I used to fear loans, but I reframed it as a bet on myself. The bet being very simply that I would always be able to repay the relatively small sum I borrowed. I wasn’t planning on doing this without ever having an income again after all, so … not really a huge gamble.
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The House as a Teacher
Now that I’m here, I’m enjoying having time for my coaching clients and my creativity. But the house also comes with challenges and choices.
For example: Do I take on another loan to install a modern heating system, or do I live with some physical discomfort by heating with wood?
Each choice comes with its own pressure. A loan might push me to make money faster but could create stress (which would lead to me breaking down and not making said money). Living simply might keep me comfortable financially but it might be … well, pretty uncomfortable physically. Which might also lead to my motivation for creativity to take a hit.
The deeper question is the same: Do I believe in the value of my work enough to do it consistently—whether I “have to” or not?
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Why This Matters
This house represents more than a physical space. It’s a mirror for my growth.
Keeping it warm, safe, and alive requires me to keep showing up for my work, to believe in my value, and to stay aligned with what I want—not what others expect.
It’s not easy. But it’s alive.
And I’ve learned that comfort without alignment will make you miserable. That’s what I had before—safety, stability, and constant people-pleasing. It made me ill.
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You Can Do This Too
If you take one thing from my story, let it be this:
What you feel inside is possible.For me, the moment of clarity about my house came in February. By July I owned it and moved in.
Things align when you take steps. Opportunities appear. For example, I negotiated a lower price because of a fungus problem—saving far more than expected. In the long run I will obviously need that saved money for the renovation but this still bought me some time not having to do everything at once. New income streams are appearing as I write this, so everything is working out.
You don’t have to do it alone. I couldn’t. I got help from retreats and coaching. And it fulfills me with deep gratitude that I can offer that to others as well in my personal life coaching sessions.
If you’d like my perspective on your situation, you can book a free discovery call through this link.
If you’d like to hear about actual clients’ results, check out the highlight “client wins” in my instagram profile.
Remember: You are always loved. You deserve the life you want. You already have what it takes inside you to create it.
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Vegan Peanutbutter Oatmeal Spelt Cookies | Recipe
When I moved into my house here in the Swedish countryside, one of the many charming details was the stove in the kitchen. As it turned out, however, the oven function wasn’t working. I only discovered this, of course, after a dear friend, who was visiting here, took the trouble to clean the oven…
Since I can’t do without sweet pastries, and while I love making and eating American pancakes or chokladbollar very often, but would like a bit more variety, I came up with the idea of looking into whether there were any cookies that could be made in a pan. There are.
It started as a skillet cookie fail.
For some other reason I can’t quite fathom, I decided not to follow the recipe (oh wait, I do know the reason: it’s always like that with me… I just can’t stick to recipes, I always have to make my own). Instead, I took a regular cookie recipe that sounded delicious to me (vegan peanutbutter oatmeal cookies) and fried them in a pan.
Of course, I “had” to adapt this recipe as well. And for some reason, the pan-cooked version wasn’t a success (although the cookie in the photo above suggests otherwise). If you follow me on YouTube, you may have seen my short video with the pan-cookie experiment:
The cookies simply crumbled. But at least: since the main ingredients are peanut butter, oats, and sugar, the cookie crumbs were delicious. And the dough was definitely too good to throw in the compost. So I saved it, intending to take it to a friend’s house where I’m currently doing laundry and showering while there’s no water in the house. In exchange, I cook for him on these “laundry days.” Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately, as it turned out), I left the cookie dough at home for this occasion.
My kitchen mishap became a new favorite recipe.
The next weekend, I had the idea at breakfast, which is practically a mandatory pancake meal for me on the weekends: I baked pieces of cookie dough into the pancake batter. And it was just as delicious as you’d imagine!
There was also a short video about this on my YouTube channel:
You can find the pancake recipe here on my blog. Here’s the recipe (my version) for the vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies. It’s based on this recipe “Vegan peanut butter oatmeal cookies” by lovingitvegan.
Vegan Peanut Butter Oat Cookies
Ingredients
½ cup (112g) melted coconut oil
¾ cup (150g) cane sugar
½ cup (125g) peanut butter (I prefer crunchy)
¾ cup (94g) spelt flour
1 cup (100g) rolled oats
½ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp saltMix the dry ingredients first, then add the rest.
Use about two tablespoons of batter per cookie.
Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 12-15 minutes.
Pancakes with Vegan Peanut Butter Oat Cookie Dough
As I said, this was a clear hit for me, and proof of the theory that the best recipes come from accidents and mishaps in the kitchen.
To do this, simply pour the pancake batter into the pan as usual and sprinkle pieces of cookie dough over the top. You have to be a little careful, because cookie dough will brown faster than pancake batter. So flip it a few times to make sure the cookie dough doesn’t get too dark.
If you have any delicious baking or cooking creations that started out as mishaps, I’d love to read about them in the comments. And if you try this version with peanut butter and oat cookies in pancake batter, I’d also love to hear how it went for you.
Das könnte Dir auch gefallen:
Swedish “chokladbollar” {vegan, glutenfree} | Recipe
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Our experience reflects the reality of the past – not the future
Our experience does not reflect the totality of reality. It reflects the reality of what we have experienced in the past.
If you use your experience as a measure of reality, then you limit life’s ability to give you a different future. And thus, you limit yourself.
You don’t do this consciously.
That you do this isn’t a bad thing; it’s very human.
You do it to protect yourself from the pain you experienced in the past.Don’t use your experience as a reason to close yourself off to life.
Yet, this very avoidance—not wanting to open yourself up to experiencing pain again—is also what closes you off to life.
Thus, you choose a different kind of pain: the pain of an unlived life.
Life is desire and pursuing desire through decisions.
Desire calls to us in the form of longing.
The longings whose call we don’t follow and/or whose fulfillment we close ourselves off to at the crucial moment create the pain of the unlived life.
The pain of the unlived life is bearable. That’s why so many choose it.
This pain is less stinging, less vivid than a painful experience.
It is dull and lies over you like a lid.
It is bearable.
There are good reasons to choose the pain of avoiding life. For every time we act on a desire, there is a possibility that we will be hurt. That our desire will not be fulfilled. That we will be rejected. That we will fail.
Most people remain stuck with this pain. They perceive it as absolute.
They don’t understand that rejection, failure, non-realization actually mean: Your desire will not be fulfilled in this way.
Vivid pain is, in truth, an important compass.
That’s why many people choose the pain of avoiding life rather than living pain. Vivid pain confronts us with the truth. It shows us that something we desire doesn’t want to/can’t come to us in the way we’ve chosen.
Vivid pain looks like a meter-thick concrete wall, toward which our desires are currently steering us.
The moment we decide to walk directly toward our desires, it’s as if we’re allowing ourselves to be pulled into that wall with full force.
Go beyond the horizon of your experience.
There are two possibilities for what happens next:
Either it turns out that the wall isn’t a wall at all, but our idea of something. The wall dissolves like a veil of fog the moment we prepare ourselves to have to break through it or to be broken by it.
The second possibility is that we truly experience pain. The pain of a shattered illusion. Our longing isn’t fulfilled, and we see our fear confirmed that our wish won’t be realized.
Those who succeed in not stopping at the rejection of pain, but instead recognize its information, come closer to the true fulfillment of their longing.
The opportunity lies in the fact that through the impact we discover that we weren’t moving toward what we thought was our longing. Pain shows us what our true priority is. It gives us the opportunity to recalibrate and align ourselves with our deeper truth.
That’s how life works.
Experience can be interpreted as “not like this” – or as “not at all”
You may have a different image for the concrete wall. It is the “it doesn’t work.”
It doesn’t change anything:
Life is a constant outgrowing of one’s own horizon, beyond the walls with which the mind encloses the known.
That’s why the feeling always remains the same:
No matter how often we experience that we’re heading towards a wall, and no matter how deeply we reach in consciousness that we can trust that the wall is either a smokescreen or a help in recognizing our true desires:
The same feeling, the same choice, remains.
Do we pursue our needs, desires, and longings even when they come accompanied by fear, or do we let them go?
The former is a “yes” to true life—colorful, intense, pleasurable, and connected to ourselves, everyone, and everything.
Making the experience the absolute truth means withdrawing from life.
Not pursuing our desires is also living. However, here the creativity we naturally carry within us, which flows through us and wants to be expressed, is guided by fear.
No matter how powerful the creativity flowing through us may be—it is the guidance of this force that determines the outcome. The content of our life reflects this force.
Since we do not only live an individual creation story, but shape this world together with others through our creative power, the world reflects the individual and the collective creation that represents our inner state.
We ignite the full positive potential of our creative power, which leads to a loving, beautiful world, and bring it to fruition by choosing our true desires AND the associated fears.
There is no path without fear.
There is no path without pain.
Only lived joy is fulfilling.
There is a way to allow joy in our imagination, perhaps even to delve very deeply into the richness of the inner world, and yet to choose not to realize the fulfillment of this inner world on the physical plane. It feels better to avoid pain (or the possibility of pain). The price we pay for this is to receive a life in which we survive but do not live.
There is a path of deep and genuine joy and bliss, which is also connected to deep pain (and thus to deep healing from pain) and deep fear (which turns out to be the idea of something).
Those who truly want to live must answer the question, “What are you willing to pay for it?” with “My life.”
Those who dare to do this will discover that this means “My life so far” and that you will be given a new life that surpasses everything you could have imagined in the best way possible. Again and again.
✨ 💌 ✨
All the best,
Sarine
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Junk food – for real 2
I did make those burgers for dinner today – with homemade BBQ sauce and hamburger dressing and all. Only the ketchup and the mayonnaise in the dressing were not made from scratch, even though there were recipes for that in the Junk food book. I hope you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me this fast food faux pas.
Do you too see a face in this picture? She’s frowning, right? -
DIY – Scented tea cup candles
Do you have a hard time throwing away stuff that’s practically useless? Do you stuff it in a drawer, telling yourself you’ll come up with something it’ll still be good for? Here’s a suggestion for what to do with leftover wax from candles that are technically burnt down:
Tea cups: my latest thrift-store hunt. Wick: some linen cord. 
For the wick it’s important that you use a cord from a natural fiber, since, you know, you’re going to light it. I used linen since it happened to be around. Cotton works, too. 
To make the wick not drown in the wax, I wrapped a rubber band around the cup … 
… and hung the linen cord over it. One mustn’t be stupid, as the Swedes say. Now this step I forgot to document in pix: melting the wax. I just put the chunks into a tin can, which in turn I placed in a pot filled with water. Heat until the wax is melted. I put the linen cord in there, too, so that it would soak up some wax (which I imagined would keep it from burning too fast). Also, I added some tea tree oil. I am sure any essence works, but I probably wouldn’t use anything that’s not organic.
And this is the result. You like? 
I do! These are going into the bathroom. I don’t like having the fluorescent light blinding me when I brush my teeth at night, so I’ve been decking out the place with tea lights. To state the obvious: this is prettier.
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Recipe – Make your own nutella
The hazelnut chocolate cake deliciousness from earlier reminded me of one of my favorite homemade things. Homemade nutella. I came across this recipe when I got into the low-carb thing. I am not that strict about it anymore as I was then but I still use birch tree sugar.*
Obviously you can use any sweetener you like – and it’s still home-made nutella. In all fairness: it doesn’t taste exactly like nutella. In my opinion, it tastes better. Plus, it’s easy, fast to make, with no exotic ingredients (except the coconut fat), and some might even say: healthy. I don’t know if I would go so far considering that I probably eat way too much of it at once. I would however go so far as to say that – as anything home-made, and thus made with love and care – it is a healthier alternative to the stuff from the store.
You need:
- 2 cups of ground peeled hazelnuts
- ca. 4,5 to 5,5 tbs of sweetener (just use how much you like)
- 3 tbs cocoa (the raw stuff for baking, not the sweetened ready-made stuff for chocolate milk)
- coconut fat – I start out with 2 tbs, see how the texture turns out, and add till it’s right
- a dash of vanilla
Just put everything into a blender and, well, blend. Add whatever you feel needs adding according to your preference. Done. It lasts … well, I don’t know, in our household never long enough for me to actually figure out a best before date.
Hazelnutty for you! * Birch tree sugar is a form of xylitol, which doesn’t up the blood-sugar level so much. I like it best out of all the alternatives because although the sweetness is different from the taste of sugar, I don’t feel “cheated”. Stevia just tastes like licorice to me, so that’s no real alternative if you ask me. I make sure I buy it at a health food store because xylitol can also be made from – guess what – GMO corn.
