basement update

Mr. Hare's man den is coming along! I'm very impressed with
how it's looking. I can't wait to start inserting the pretty stuff!

Happy Friday!

plastic and a smelly flat

My house is wrapped up in plastic. For real.

For a good month now, the whole house is wrapped up in big plastic, and all wondows are blocked with thick, dirty plastic sheets.

They're restoring it, of course. And of course I'm glad they are. It's been looking like sh*t for the last 5 years and a bit of new plaster and paint will do it a world of good.

But it is dark indoors. No sunlight manages to break through that horrid plastic. No air finds its way into the flat. The cats can't watch the birds as they usually do. I can't go out on my balcony for a cigarette.

I tried - in desperation - to smoke a ciggie under the kitchen fan one night. I still regret it. Everything indoors smell of ashes. It's disguisting.

They say patience is a virtue and in this case it sure is. I wonder if it'll be like this all through the summer?

wallpapers

I've been thinking of wallpapering the bedroom. I found this wallpaper and fell in love with it. The problem when it comes to wallpaper, though, is that I tend to fall in love with a lot of different styles. I'd need about 30 bedrooms to satisfy all my ideas of interior design of bedrooms...

... Because as soon as I decided on the wallpaper above, I found this one and fell in love with it. It was love at first sight...

... Until I realized all that pattern would clash terrible with my Tibetan Altar Tables. And I found this. Serene, peaceful. Perfect. Would match my Altar Tables beautifully.

Oh, don't quite know what to do. Which one do you like the best?

magazine wall

Excuse the iPhone pictures. I was too excited to share my
new magazine wall to wait and take pictures with my good
camera. So I'm posting with "so so" shots from my iPhone.
I promise to take better ones once the office is complete.

I used three white Ikea Ribba picture ledges. They were easy to install and super
inexpensive. The office is still in the works so this may turn into an actual picture
ledge someday. For now, it's the perfect place to display all my pretty decor
magazines...

Ménage à trois

Kif really DOES sleep in top of my face. Here he's cleaning my hair whilst I'm fast asleep.

One of my favourite pictures ever. Kif fast asleep on top of a fast asleep Mr.



Every morning two little cat heads pops out from under the duvet to say good morning.
Sometimes three (or four) is a crowd for sure, but most of the time it is lovely!



The awards – 2010

1) Best day of the year: Midsummers day was a lovely day in every sense. Wonderful company, wonderful weather, great food, great views… Yes, perfect in every sense of the word.

2) Best holiday: There was no special holiday for me this year. Travelled nowhere exciting. However, without doubt Lizzie and Macy’s holiday visiting me was the best! It was truly lovely to have my best friend visiting for over a week.

3) High Point of the year: Meeting the mr.


4) Low point of the year: it’s a close call between work and health.


5) Best read: “Brick Lane” by Monica Ali.


6) Anthem for 2010: “how far you go” by Tim Christensen


7) Regrets: I don’t regret things. Just remember bad moves so that I won’t do them again.


8) Best Night out: a drunken night in the beginning of the summer. It was in a scruffy pub in Stockholm and the company was fantastic. The outcome even better.


9) Worst Night out: all those nights that I had to cancel due to working overtime at work.


10) Best purchase: the kitchen wall paper. The antique living room furniture. And I’ll be so vain I’ll mention those high heel calf high boots with wooden sole too. It was love at first sight.

11) Best relationship: The one that began.


12) Worst relationship: The ones that got infected partly due to the one that began.


13) First show of the year: I went to see the premiere of “den banala kärleken” in Uppsala in January. My sister-in-law invited us as she worked on the production.


14) Last show of the year: was “The Real Groups” Christmas concert in Stockholm in December.

15) Best decision made all year: to study those uni courses besides working. I think I’d gone mad otherwise. And to take that pottery course. It was great fun!


16) Plans for next year: enroll more courses. In pottery. Photography. God knows what. And getting something more challenging to do for a living. And get healthy, of course.

Christmas spirit

This year's tree got a very animalistic feel

...with birds and elephants...

... more birds...

... and a camel!

The Christmas stockings this year are home made. VERY much so. Found these old socks in a box at my dad's, filled with stuff from the 19th century! And because whoever wore them back in the days had gigantic feet, I thought they'd be perfect as Crimbo stockings. (The red lace/frills and red loops are of course added by me)

The cake rack also got into the Christmas spirit.

Long ago, I was given this Winnie the Pooh snow globe. It has been with me every Christmas every since.

And this year's advent candles were put on a pewter tray filled with star aniseed and cinnamon sticks.

Hope you've all had a lovely Christmas!

my pottery

My little ceramic house. Made to have a nightlight inside. Don't know how the paint on the roof got so bizarre, but I have to admit I quite like it.

My pride and joy! Four tea mugs made by me - not bad for someone who's never thrown pottery before, eh?!

Not my pride and joy. A plate which I messed up completely with the paint - supposed to have been green all over, but ended up with bold patches. Never mind.

... Last but not least: cat bowls. I wouldn't be a good cat owner unless I made them something too. I have now wrapped them up and put them in the cats stockings.

hearts galore

I was looking through some websites to find new crimbo decorations, and noticed the shabby chic-trend has infiltrated christmas. Everywhere I looked there were old fashioned baubles, paper garlands and so forth.

... Not to mention all the cotton hearts! Loads of web sites sell little "home made" heart shaped cushions to hang in the tree or around the flat. I can make that, I thought to myself and got the sewing machine out. And look! I could!

Place your orders here, please. :-)

my new (-ish) kitchen

The kitchen is finally finished. The wallpaper is up and the red accessories are all in place.
(Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

A few different angles of the eating area in the kitchen. As it is mainly the cats who eat in here I got them a new, rather flashy food bowl. And even though it's not red I loooove it!

Of course the sink area also had to get some red accessories!

The old, quite rusty cake stand got a make over and is now bright red.

Even the kitchen window got a little red lamp. And I'm buying a new, red kettle tomorrow!

home sweet home

There is no place like home. As nice as it is being away I looooove coming home. To my flat. To my boys! How I've missed them. And they had missed me too, judging by their clinginess for a few days. As soon as I got home from my sister's farm we fell asleep on my settee for a few hours, all cuddled up.

Now my holidays are nearly over, and I still have to finish off the last bits of wallpapering the kitchen. Somehow it feels overwhelming at the moment - I could do with another week of just lying in the settee cuddling the boys... But the wallpaper IS pretty cool, isn't it?!

Dear Lord/Santa/Toothfairy or whom it concerns,

pleeeeeaaaaaseeee give me a dishwasher!!!!

the poshest restroom in town!

I bought this old, wooden Traveller's Trunk in a second hand shop recently. It is rock solid with metal gables. My plan was to - somehow - use it as a cat litter tray. Today I finally got around to do it:

I sawed out one of the side panels.

Inside I placed the cat litter tray. Eventually I will remove the lid of the tray, but for now I want everything to be as familiar as possible for the cats when they visit the toilet...

Tylor watched the whole thing. A bit sceptical at first, but then he baptised the new, chique restroom and seemed quite happy about it too!

I blew a fuse

Yesterday I tried to connect a lamp to my new socket in the ceiling. To do so I had to rewire the lamp, which resulted in me blowing the whole fuse box...

... Great. I phoned my dad who talked me through what to do, and after putting in new fuses things started working again. Strangely, my radio in the kitchen started playing as I added the fuse, even though the radio was turned off.

I went to turn it off. It wouldn't. I unplugged the whole thing and plugged it in again in hope that it would work accordingly. It didn't. I pressed the "on/off" button several times, but the radio kept on playing! Weird.

I gave it a couple of good bangs with my fist and eventually it switched itself off.

Then, at 4 am this morning, I woke up by the radio in the kitchen playing again!!! I couldn't believe it. Either the fuse-blow has made my radio brain damaged or I have a ghost in the flat. A ghost would be nicer, but I guess I've brain damaged the damn thing.

a bit of wallpapering

I have finally finished the hallway. I couldn't face throwing away the old chest of drawers I got from my granddad. Instead I wallpapered it and changed the handles.