E-book

Gingerbread Sweetpotato Dream Cake

Well here’s a winter treat worth sharing. This creamy raw cake gets its surprising richness from sweet potato and gentle warmth from gingerbread spices. And lemme tell you that it is one heavenly union.

Made in collaboration with Electrolux Explore 7 blender and Asennemedia

As you may may have noticed from my previous blog post where I launched my new ebook Dreamy Season – Wholesome food for Holidays & winter, I’m kinda of a Christmas freak. Like I could actually eat Christmas related food the whole winter season and when it comes to Christmas recipes, my imagination seems to be endless.

One of my favorite nice cream recipes I’ve ever created is a gingerbread nice cream that has sweet potato in it. Homehow those two elements make a perfect match and I’ve been wanting to bring them together in some other dish too.

Gingerbread Sweetpotato Dream CakeElectrolux Explore 7 blender

The idea evolved when I got to test the new Electrolux Explore 7 blender. As the first thing I wanted to try with it was a smoothie. I’m kind of a smoothie nerd and my way to test a blender is to see how smooth it actually makes my smoothie. And I have to say I was kind of surpised. Blenders in this price group usually leave smoothies a bit grainy but this baby blended them smooth as velvet. Really nice job.

The second thing I wanted to test was a raw cake. The batter there is thicker than in a smoothie so it gives new challenges to the blender. Again, very nice, very smooth. One great feature in Explore 7 blender is that it’s designed in a way that though it makes mixtures smooth it doesn’t heat up the ingredients so it keeps everything fresh and the nutrients alive n´ kicking. It isn’t a blender for thick nut butters, raw cake crusts etc, but you can definitely make great soups, smoothies, raw cake batters, grind nuts and even make juice (!) with it. Plus it’s pretteehh.

Oh, and back to my sweet potato gingerbread matching mission. So when I challenged the blender with a raw cake I wanted to make something christmassy. Because of my christmas mania condition, you know. Then I remembered the heavinly union of the gingerbread and sweet potato in my nice cream and the idea was born. Also wanted to make a nut-free raw cake for a change, as people ask me about them constantly.

And it came one fine piece of cake, I have to admit.

Try it yourself to get yourself into Christmas mood and let me know how it resonates! And if the Explore 7 blender resonated, tune into my Instagram as I’m giving away one blender on my today’s IG post. See you there!

V

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Vegan & gluten-free gingerbread cookies

Hello love! Check this out – One thing I’m really proud of is that I get such an amazing feedback about my recipes from you guys. I also get a lot of wishes on what kind of recipes you want me to create and share. And I always listen to them very carefully, so that I can serve in the best way possible. 

Upon your wishes, I have now created a luscious collection of wholesome and delish feel-good Christmas recipes, most of them suitable for the whole winter season, not only for the Holidays.

Dreamy Season ebook

My brand new ebook is called Dreamy Season and it contains 62 recipes and 141 pages, all made with love by Yours Truly. In this book I have gathered my all-time favourite winter recipes and treats – the ones I love to pamper myself & my family during the Holidays. I have to say that this has been truly a passion project for me, as I’m a crazy Christmas lady who could eat Christmas-spirited food the whole winter. 

Dreamy Season ebook serves wholesome & delish recipes for breakfasts, dinners, desserts and drinks, all perfect for the Holiday season – or for those moments when you just feel like enjoying some deliciously comforting winter food magic.

How about for example a bowl of Pink Morning Kiss Porridge or Golden Oatmeal, a piece of Christmas Toffee, selection of plant-based Cheeses and some Christmas Wreath Pizza? Or maybe a slice of Tofu Ham, goodies from the Christmas Platter, a piece of Chai Banana Bread or few mouth-watering Gingerbread Fudge or Snickers Moon Balls with a sip of Cloudy Apple Drink? All plant-based, naturally sweetened and gluten-free, all good for your body as well as to your soul and perfect for those comfy winter moments.

You can read more about the book from here and check out also the Dreamy Season menu. Note that this ebook is in English and it has some of the same recipes that can be found from my Finnish cookbook Joulukirja.

Vegan hot chocolate

plant-based tofu ham

What’s in the ebook?

* 62 recipes

* All plant-based

* Gluten free

* Dairy free

* Refined sugar free

* Beautiful colourful images

* Breakfasts, dinners, lunches, drinks, dips/basics, treats

* Simple & easy recipes + some more challenging ones

* Book full of comfort and pleasure

Dreamy Season ebook - Plant-based Christmas platter

How can you use this ebook?

  1. Click the PURCHASE button.
  2. Apply the discount code at the checkout.
  3. Pay for the ebook safely with PayPal of with your credit card.
  4. Wait for your page to redirect you to a page with a downloadable link.
  5. Download the ebook onto your laptop, iPhone or iPad. (NOTE! the download link will be available to you for 24 hrs and then it will expire.)
  6. Open it with your preferred program such as Preview on Mac, Adobe Reader or iBooks
  7. Go and make your Christmas dreamy!

Snickers Bliss Balls

And for the celebration of the launch I’m giving a big discount for you guys. During this week you will get the Dreamy Season only for €5,90 with the code DREAMY. (Normal price is €9,90.) So if feel good Christmas food resonates, apply the code DREAMY here and get your copy.

I really hope you will enjoy the ebook as much as I enjoyed – LOVED – creating it. And when sharing your creations from the book, remember to tag me @vanelja in so that I can see them.

Wishing you the dreamiest season, friend. 

Vanelja's healthy, easy, gluten-free and plant'based pancakes

Hello, Sunshine! So happy to see you here as I’ve got some real nice goodies waiting for you. Something I’ve created with loads of love and care and something that I hope will bring plenty of good vibes and inspiration to your mornings.

May I introduce: In Bed with Vanelja.

In Bed with Vanelja free ebook

In Bed with Vanelja – Comfy Breakfasts and Dream Food for Eternal Sundays is my brand new ebook I’ve created for all you dear followers of mine. As a thank you for your ongoing support and love. The ebook is now available for you to download – FOR FREE. 15 wholesome, plant-based, gluten free & naturally sweetened healthy breakfast recipes to make your mornings taste and feel oh-so-good.

In this ebook I share some of my all time favorite healthy breakfast recipes, like for example my go-to green juice, comfy granola, brekkie apple pie, Insta-famous blueberry crepes, pumpkin seed bread rolls, dreamy cream cheese, mocha soft serve and my updated weekend pancakes. Sooo many goodies waiting there for you!

I made this ebook as a handcraft by myself as I wanted to learn more about doing layouts an all that jazz. I got so excited about this project that in the end I had to shrink the book as it was about to become enormous. But I took it as a sign that I might be again ready for a new book project. So we’ll see if I’ll end up expanding this ebook to a bigger title or what will happen. The author in me is anyways purring again. 

Virpi Mikkonen In Bed with VaneljaEasy plant-based cream cheese recipe

In the ebook I was happy to team up with two beautiful Finnish brands, Kaslink Aito Oat Drink and Balmuir Home Textiles. Both known for their high-quality products. Kaslink’s organic oat drink, or oat milk as I say, is present in many of my recipes as I adore the mildly sweet and subtle taste of it and the fact that the oat in it is organic and locally produced here in Finland. And the luxurious linen beddings and kitchen towels and blankets by Balmuir just take the breakfast in bed experience to another level. People who follow me know that I love to eat (and shoot my food) in bed so pretty and comfy beddings are really a must in Vanelja household. Especially crazy for these sand tones linen duvet covers.

Vanelja's healthy, easy, gluten-free and plant'based pancakes

Gluten-free and vegan seed bread rolls

So go collect your copy HERE and let me know how you like the ebook and my healthy plant-based breakfast recipes. If you are listed on my newsletter you can find the ebook on your email you have given while subscribing. Just in case you don’t find it, check out your junk mail, if it has slipped there accidentally. 

Feel free to share love and let your friends know about In Bed with Vanelja!

V

* In collaboration with Balmuir & Kaslink.

 

Vegan Chocolate Nice Cream with raw chocolate Cake chunks

It is time, to get your nice cream balls rolling again, baby!

You probably remember the N’Ice Cream book by me and my co-author Tuulia Talvio that was launched exactly a year ago, first in Finland and in the US and then later in the year in 6 countries, like in France, German and Chroatia. The book has found it’s home in the arms of so many healthy ice cream lovers around the world that it is hard to even realize. So thank you! There is no better feeling than when your passion inspires people, makes an impact and is even a part of a cultural change (the ever so lovely ice cream culture), like now for example when we’ve been witnessing many big brands bringing out their vegan ice creams with better sweeteners after the last summer in Finland.

We have not been talking about an ice cream revolution for no reason! * raised fist emoji *

To give it even a stronger boost we have now launched this Deluxe Edition of the Finnish N’Ice Cream book – as an ebook – with 10 new bonus recipes in it, which means now over 90 recipes for lovely delicious vegan, gluten free and naturally sweetened ice creams. And you can get it only for 8,90 euros.

Note, that this Deluxe Edition is only available in Finnish and as an ebook and you can download it here. We’ll try to find a way to get these bonus recipes out also in English in some form asap!

But so that you international readers won’t have to return with empty hands, here’s one faaabulous nice cream flavor for you to exploit: Deluxe Chocolate Nice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirls and Raw Chocolate Cake Chunks! I came up with it by accident when I decided to blend together chocolate mousse (from my Chocolate Pizza Post) and frozen banana. So freakingly delicious. Then I also stirred in some raw chocolate cake chunks and peanut butter swirls and I honestly almost started to cry when tasting it. That’s what pure pleasures can do to you. 

When scooping balls from this nice cream a song by Barry White, Can’t get enough of your love, babe, started playing in my mind:

“I’ve heard people say that
Too much of anything is not good for you, baby
Oh no
But I don’t know about that
There’s many times that we’ve loved
We’ve shared love and made love
It doesn’t seem to me like it’s enough
There’s just not enough of it
There’s just not enough
Oh oh, babe
My darling I, can’t get enough of your love babe…”

 

That kind of sums up the whole essence of this nice cream. You just can’t get enough of it – And you don’t even have to. As good stuff makes good to you.

V

Hello, Love!

I have been waiting so eagerly to tell this to you. And now I can finally announce:
The hottest – or should I say the coolest cookbook of the summer is now available for PRE-ORDER! And – there is a magnificant pre-order gift, too!

Hooray, it is really happening, my friends! I’m so happy to launch this!

So as I mentioned in my previous post, N'Ice Cream – the healthy vegan ice cream cookbook by me and Tuulia Talvio will be out May 17 by Avery Publishing, Penguin US. There’s gonna be over 80 delicious recipes for healthy vegan ice creams without gluten, dairy and refined sugar. …Creamy ice creams, ice pops and sorbets, instant ice creams, ice cream cakes & cookies, waffles, sauces and jams, you name it. THIS BOOK covers it all when it comes to wholesome ice creams!

And as a thank you we wanted to make you something special. So when you pre-order N'Ice Cream cookbook now, you'll get this delicious gift:

GATHER e-book with over 30 recipes for your wholesome, easygoing, plant-based summer parties.

Oh yes, baby, it is true! By pre-ordering N'Ice Cream now you'll get this luxurious digital cookbook totally FREE. (Or if you’ve already pre-ordered the book – Thank you! – the offer includes you too.) Gather is not available in any other places so pre-ordering is really the only way to get your hands on this summery piece. And note also that the gift book comes as a pre-order gift only with the N'Ice Cream cookbook, so it is not included with the Finnish version, Hyvän olon jäätelökirja, which will be out in stores in Finland already in about 2 weeks.

GATHER E-BOOK OFFERS:

  • More than 30 original healthy plant based recipes for your summer get-togethers

  • All recipes are vegan, free from gluten, dairy & refined sugar

  • Recipes for savory snacks, sweet desserts and fresh drinks

  • Tips for organizing a stress-free party

  • A full-size color image for every recipe

The book includes recipes such as Falafels & Cashew Sour Cream, The Vegan Party Platter, Flaxseed chips & Creamy Dip, Sweet Potato Mini Pizzas, Nut-free Blueberry Pie, Divine Raw Chocolate Cake (presented below!), Apricot Cookies and Nut Fudge, Summer Pancake Cake, Brazilian Lemonade, Melon & Lime Aqua Fresca and many many more! And note, that all these recipes are totally new and original, not posted anywhere else before.

Check out more about Gather e-book and how to pre-order and get your gift HERE.

Oh and hey, I recommend warmly to subscribe to Vanelja’s newsletter asap, as there is coming some great weekly giveaways, bonus recipes, playlists and everything wonderful to get you in summer vibes & ice cream mood!

Come and follow also our official Insagram page of N’Ice Cream. A really nice giveaway is coming in our IG page already today, so hurry. We are waiting for you! 🙂

N’ICE CREAM HOT LIST:

And before I leave you to enjoy the Divine Raw Chocolate Cake from Gather I have to say that we are AMAZED by all the support we have been getting from people to help to spread the news about this book. From people we know and from total strangers too! We are grateful for all the help we can get to spread the word of n’ice cream and healthy ice cream revolution.

If you feel like you would want to help in any way we would be so so happy! Like by sharing this post, the N’Ice Cream preorder gift, N’Ice Cream Instagram posts or anything else. Or if you are a blogger and would want to share some ice cream tips, some photos, bonus recipes or a small feature / interview, please send us an email to nicecreambook@gmail.com and we’ll got you covered!

And now, finally. The cake. The Divine Raw Chocolate cake. It is a-bliss. Please enjoy!

V

DIVINE RAW CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ok, wow. Do I have some BIG news for you people. Big, creamy, delicious and heavenly news. And yes, it is about ice cream, and it is about books. As I bet you guessed already from the photo.

So, remember the e-book about healthy ice creams we did last summer with my friend Tuulia, that was called Kind Ice Cream for You? Yep, the cute little pink book that became surprisingly popular during the summer. Well, we thought that the e-book would have been just a nice little summer project for us, but life had bigger plans for it.

As it happened, one brilliant book agent found our e-book through my friend Jessie’s blog post (Jessie, you girl are pure gold! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for writing that post!) and asked if me and Tuulia were interested in making an actual book out of our e-book.

And oh-my-god, OF COURSE we were!

So one thing lead to another and now I am SO PROUD and SO HAPPY to announce that our cookbook about healthy vegan ice creams is gonna be out in the US in May 17th and it goes with a name N’Ice Cream. The publisher of the book is the ever so lovely Avery, part of Penguin Random House which is one of the biggest book publishers in the world.

So there we are now with our ice creams sharing the home with Nobel prize winners and biggest best-sellers in the world.

So crazy. So so crazy amazing! N’ice cream, I scream, everybody screeeam!

There you can see the cover of N'Ice Cream on the right hand side on the first photo. That one is gonne be seen in bookstores all around North America and Canada. The cover photo on the left hand side is from the Finnish edition called Hyvän olon jäätelökirja, that will be out in the middle of May in Finland through Cozy Pyblishing.

So it’s gonna be healthy, vegan and super easy ice creams for all the people around the world soon! And we are just so overly excited here and can’t wait them to come out. We feel we have done something revolutionary with this piece and that the recipes in the book have an actual potential to make this world a little better place. Maybe we’ll too get a Nobel nomination from it. Haha!

But really, as Don Kardong put it: "Without ice cream there would be darkness and chaos." So ice cream IS plain good, and healthy ice cream is even better.

And if you wanna join this ice cream parade beforehand, you can go and pre-oreder N'Ice Cream already from these places:

I can tell you that there is going to be a super duper nice gift for people who will pre-order the book and it will be the perfect companion to N’Ice Cream. But more about it next month!

Also, be sure to sign up to my NEWSLETTER because there’s gonna come some brilliant material to subscribers during this spring.

And finally, before I wrap this up, I want to thank deeply everyone who supported us with this project in any way, purchased our e-book back in the days and shared the love – there's some good karma coming your way!

So, we are living wonderful times, my friend, and the upcoming spring is gonna be filled with possibilities for all of us. Lets keep the light up!

V

I have to say my life is super full at the moment. Actually even a little bit too packed for my taste. My calendar is full with work, meetings and photoshoots, my hands are full with things to do both in home and also in work field, and my head is crowded with stuff I need to remember and take care of. Surprisingly, even though it usually never goes together with a hectic life, my heart is full also – and it is just bursting with gratitude!

One reason for that is this unforgettable incident I had last week in New York at the Saveur Food Blog Awards where Vanelja was nominated as one of the finalist. And you can’t believe this – the craziest thing happened: Editor’s Choice for Best-designed Blog! As in Vanelja was picked to be the winner by the editors from the almighty Saveur magazine!

high-fives with my graphic designer friends Leena Oravainio & Lotta Niemien who helped to build this site and with all you followers, readers and lovely friends and supporters! You guys made this happen!

It is such a huge honor and such a recognized award that I am still totally overwhelmed and it is still hard for me to understand that it actually happened. The whole event, the award, all the amazing people and fellow bloggers I met. The whole experience was like from a dream. Especially when I was totally jet-lagged and was feeling quite surreal even in the first place.

So now, we need to party. Because that's what we people do when something big comes our way – we celebrate and throw a party to mark these big happenings and changes in our lives to somehow make them feel more real, right? First we ask someone to pinch ourselves and then we party.

And because it is summer and I’m just all about ice creams at the moment, as our e-book about healthy dairy-free & refined-sugar-free ice creams, Kind Ice Cream for You just got launched last week, I decided that we celebrate with ice cream. Yay!

This one is an adaptation of one “Instant Chocolate Ice Cream” recipe from our book which can be enjoyed as a soft serve or as a more solid ice cream. I chose to flavor it with a little bit of rum and raisins just to make it more festive. And because rum & raisin is my all time favorite ice cream flavor. And well, because alcohol just gives a nice boost to certain occasions. Though here the rum is first brought to a boil so there’s no change/risk of getting tipsy. …Although, you just might do it anyways because of the intoxicating raw chocolate and the super rich flavor!

So enjoy, live life to it’s fullest and celebrate all the big and small treasures life throws to you. For example now with these luxurious party ice cream balls flying your way!

V

Remember to follow me on Instagram and tag your ice cream photos with #kindicecreamforyou or #kindicecream!

RUM & RAISIN CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM

It has arrived! Our e-book about healthy ice creams is finally out! And I must say that I am deeply and utterly in LOVE with it. Hands down, it must be the loveliest cook book I have ever encountered. And that is my totally objective opinion. If me and my partner-in-crime Tuulia Talvio would have not made it I would still love it to pieces! Hahaa!

But the most amazing thing for me here is how this book took even myself by surprise. Because when we started making it this winter I would have never guessed that it would become so big, beautiful and comprehensive as it is.

First we planned to make just a nice small e-book about healthy, dairy-free, refined-sugar-free and gluten-free ice creams with few nice recipes with few nice pictures. But the project kept on growing and growing until one day we realised that we have a real book in our hands, well, on our computer screens – with 130 pages and over 60 recipes, great pictures – and last but not least, a beeeautiful layout, thanks to my dear friend, a super talented graphic designer Leena Oravainio.

So here I am now, super proud, deeply happy and a little bit teary over our kind and beautiful new-born book, Kind Ice Cream for You. And I really want you to meet her, so go ahead and
read more about it in the book’s official website: www.kindicecream.com.

You can buy the book through my SHOP or through www.kindicecream.com or by going straigh HERE. All the roads lead to the same destination. NOTE: E-BOOK IS TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK

So be free to share, download and spread the love! We have really poured our love and passion in this one, so we are very grateful for all the help you can give in spreading our kind ice cream message! #kindicecreamforyou #kindicecream

Take care, be Kind and have a lovely ice-cream-filled June, my friend!

V

Ok, are you ready for the most delicious summer of our era? Have your taste buds and sweet teeth ready because an ultimate e-book about healthy and delicious homemade ice creams, KIND ICE CREAM FOR YOU is almost here!

This is a book that we have been preparing the whole spring with my lovely colleague & friend Tuulia and it is going to be published online in the beginning of June, meaning next week! Eeeek! This is so Exciting! It´s going to be the book of our dreams – and hopefully yours too!

KIND ICE CREAM FOR YOU serves over 60 recipes for homemade & healthy ice creams, all free from dairy, soy, gluten and refined sugar. Most of the recipes are raw and they can easily be done vegan. People with nut-allergies will find loads of goodies for them too!

The book is going to give you recipes for Creamy Ice Creams, Soft Serves, Sorbets & Ice Pops, Instant Ice Creams, Ice Cream Cakes & Cookies and Addings & Toppings + introduction to kind ice creams and to good quality ingredients. And because it is an e-book it can be easily read with a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. That way you can carry it with you to all of your summer adventures and make kind ice creams whenever you feel like indulging!

And hey, it is in English so all you quality ice cream lovers all around the world can read it!

All in all, I honestly think this book includes everything a perfect ice cream book should. I am feeling SO happy and proud.

AND NOW A WARM RECOMMENDATION: Right now would be a perfect time to sign-up to my newsletter, because all the subscribers who have signed up before 1.6. will be getting a 20 % discount from the KIND ICE CREAM FOR YOU e-book immediately when it´s released, which makes it then only 9,50 euros! And you´ll be also getting a free Smoothie Guide delivered straight to your e-mail right away!

Sign-up HERE

Last week we asked you guys in our social media channels to give us your helping hand and to tell us your favorite ice cream flavors. We received over 200 mouth-watering ideas and happily noticed that many of them were already covered in the book, for example, blueberry pie, mango melon, matcha white chocolate, licorice, cherry garcia, salted caramel and so on.

Still, we managed to pick two winners who will win free copies of our e-book and whose favorite ice cream will be included in the book. The other winner is Salla, who wished for a healthier version of Snickers Ice Cream and the other one is Minna whose favorite ice cream is Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches. Both recipes will be now found in the book, and in our web sites too, as tastings. The recipe for the super amazing Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches is found at my co-author Tuulia´s page, and the recipe for Snickers ice cream will be presented here – in a cake form!

This chocolate covered caramel peanut butter ice cream cake is just a perfect treat for summer parties. People who love peanut butter and caramel will adore it!

And don´t be frightened if this recipe seems to have a little too many steps for your taste – 90 % of the recipes in our book will be super easy, because we think both summer and this book should be merely for lazy pleasures. But in some occasions you just need to have a few extra layers to make it festive – like now when announcing this super cool ice cream news!

V

SNICKERS ICE CREAM CAKE

I have a huge spring time crush happening here. The target of my affection is oh-so creamy and dreamy home-made pistachio milk. What a charmer. The color of this heavenly nectar is so beautiful that I could just sit and watch it´s tones through my drinking glass forever. …If I would not be so eager to gulp it down in a heartbeat.

Pistachio milk is perfect for example in making raw cakes and ice creams and it´s a loveliest base for smoothies too! In today´s smoothie recipe I connected pistachio milk with figs. And boy did it turn out delicious!

I warmly recommend you try it out on some lovely spring day. And also a bunch of other delicious and fresh smoothie recipes from my free e-book, Creamy Smoothie Guide!

And hey, while you´re here could I ask you to take a minute (or more like 30 seconds) and vote for VANELJA in Saveur Food Blog Awards in the best-designed blog category, as my blog is one of the finalists. Your vote would mean a world to me! As this whole being-in-the-finals already did. You need to registrate first but it only takes a second and you won´t get any junk mail.

So Click & Vote for VANELJA and pure pleasures! Thank you darling, I send you loads of love in return!

V

PISTACHIO FIG SMOOTHIE

“She´s a smooth operator, smooooth operator…”

I am so happy to announce that I have created something really cool for you guys. I have been a real “smooth operator” and collected my all time favorite smoothie recipes and best smoothie tips inside of virtual covers of an e-book. The Creamy Smoothie Guide includes 34 pages packed with delicious recipes, mouth-watering photos and hot tips + a formula for a perfect green smoothie. This e-book is a gift from VANELJA to you! You can now download it from HERE.

At the same time you´ll be able to subscribe to VANELJA mailing list which means that you´ll be privileged to get more pure pleasures, recipes, news and quality content, such as this smoothie guide, to your email about once in a month. No non-sense spamming, I promise. Just diamonds.

So go ahead and download your Creamy Smoothie Guide and make your blender buzz! I hope the guide can channel even a drop of that inspiration and energy to you that these liquid lovers give to me! Feel free to share love and tell about VANELJA and The Creamy Smoothie Guide to your friends in your channels:

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Twitter

TWEETABLE: A LOVER OF SMOOTHIE? GET THIS FREE CREAMY SMOOTHIE GUIDE WITH 34 PAGES FULL OF MOUTH-WATERING RECIPES, PICS & TIPS!

Thank you!

V