Fashion blogger designs for H&M
H&M’s next collaboration will be with fashion blogger Elin Kling. The collection – 9 pieces of clothes and 2 accessories – will be sold in ten stores in Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö and Uppsala. It will be launched in Sweden on February 3. “To be the first to do this sort of Swedish collaboration with H&M is extremely flattering and exciting,” says Elin Kling. “It’s been so inspiring to be able to work with the design team of H&M and I am very happy with the result.” Kling is a former model, and has worked with fashion for daily Expressen. In 2009, she was awarded with the Stora bloggpriset (the great blog award) in the fashion category. You find her blog for instance here: http://stylebykling.tv4.se/

Not much equality in Swedish schools
Old gender ideas will at the end produce different chances for boys and girls according to Deja (The Swedish delegation for equality). “We must start changes early, already in pre-school,” says Minister of Integration and Gender Eqaulity Nyamko Sabuni. Sabuni looked at the conclusion that Deja turned into the Swedish government on Monday, which states that girls put in more time, effort and commitment for school than boys, and that boys get teased if they study. “This is very serious,” Sabuni says. “It is not OK that girls go to school scared each morning because they are afraid to get bullied or that a macho culture tell boys that it is nerdy to study. But it is good that we have this information.” When Sweden is held up as an example of gender equality, it seems the school is falling behind. According to Anna Ekström, chairman of Deja, not much has happened since the 1960’s. “If girls with their top grades will enter all the attractive fields of education and the boys therefore will be locked out, then this boy problem can turn into a man problem in the future,” she says. Research shows that if girls are set back early on, it follows them through life, whereas boys are usually deemed to be developing a bit slower have more possibilities to recover later.

Swedish crime duo celebrated in the US
Stieg Larsson has made the bed nicely for fellow Swedish crime writers Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström. Their novel “Tre sekunder” (“Three Seconds”) is celebrated in USA Today. “Roslund & Hellstrom [the duo] is writing explosive crime novels as good, if not better, than those of Stieg Larsson,” writes Carol Memmott. “Gun play, explosions, betrayals and the ingenious ways drugs and weapons are smuggled into prisons give this novel, Roslund & Hellström's fifth, an eau de testosterone level that's through the roof.” “Three Seconds” is in American bookstores now. ISBN-10: 1402785925

Orange jam
“The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today,” said the White Queen in “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”. Well, make your own jam and you can have it today, too. We found this recipe at Receptcentralen.se, tweaked it a bit (we didn’t have ascorbic acid but it still turned out firm and we took a little less sugar and the jam was still nice and sweet). Well worth trying. Ingredients: 2.2 lbs oranges, 4.2 cups water, 3.3 lbs sugar (we used only 2.2 lbs sugar), 1 Tablespoon ascorbic acid (which we did without). Wash the oranges carefully, and cut each orange in four pieces and cut each piece in thin slices. Collect all seeds in a piece of gauze fabric and tie it. Put fruit and the seeds in the tied gauze in a big pot with a thick bottom and pour on the water. Bring to a boil and let boil until the peel is soft. It takes 30-40 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and remove the gauze with the seeds. Stir in the sugar, a little at a time, and stir until dissolved. Again put the pot on the heat and bring to a full boil uncovered until the jam becomes a bit thick and hazy (the recipe says around 40-50 minutes – we let it boil for 1 hour and 15 minutes). Stir occasionally. Make sure the jam is ready, by taking 1 to 2 teaspoons and pour it onto a cold plate, put it into the fridge for a minute. Take it out and make a groove in it with your finger. If the groove stays, the jam is ready. Lift the pot from the heat, remove any foam. Dissolve the ascorbic acid in a bit of the ready jam and then stir it into the rest. Pour the jam into hot, clean jars with lids and keep in fridge.