Work and winter

First of all, I would like to show you a photo of my university were I study. This is in Karlstad 160 km from where I live. Thankfully I have a friend to stay with when I visit. This is the back entrance of the uni but I loved the contrast between the gloomy morninglight and the light from the buildings. I'm supposed to practice as a teacher at my own work this term, but I'm working as a professional already. 

Next photo is the view from my office window. You can see the bus stop, train tracks and the mist rising from the lake.

If I turn my head 90 degrees, this is the other view. Isn't this fantastic? I call it our Eagles nest and we are 5 teachers sharing office. I censure photos from the inside to keep you in false expectations of a clean and organised place. From this angle you can see the river that divide our town in half. The brown building on the other side is the theater and cultural center. The white building is actually where the other half of our schools reside. The old building with the tower is the senior elementary school were my two oldest kids are going. If you would be able to turn your head right you would see the shopping street. 

I've been working at the school for, wow, it's already 5 months!! I think the job is great so far. I really like to work with these young people, they give me lots of energy but sometimes makes me drained. It's a challenging work but it is so much more rewarding and useful than the other jobs I had. I work too much though and have very little sparetime, but that's a teachers life.

I have to show you the soap making laboration we had a few weeks ago. I wanted to show them how easy it is to work with chemistry at home and make something useful. The samples on the photo contains, orange, lavender, cacao, honey and tobacco.

Following photos was shot this weekend. Another half week is gone and it's still snowing...I have heard many complaining about the snow, but I love it! I even like to shovel it!

This is my tired, red nosed shoveling self. As you obviously can see and probably already know, I don't aspire to be a fashion blog.

 I have to shovel the bunnies pen's to prevent them from running away. 

Can you believe my Wilma has reached the decent age of 7,5 years? I have never own a bunny that old. She is in great condition too. 

 This is how my apple garden looks like for the moment. Lots of the fluffy white stuff covering it.

 There is just a little more than one week until we will have the Skii world championship in our town. That means that the schools are shutting down for two whole weeks (instead of one). I will work as a volonteer a few days, but I also hope to have som sparetime for once.

Decorating for christmas

I was home with a coughing Alfons today and finally got time to do some decorations in the kitchen. The advent lights should have been fixed a couple of weeks ago but, didn't have any time. 

I think that maybe was meant because the ribbon I bought in Tällberg was perfect for this.

Here's a closer look at one of the candles, no 3. I made those figures several years ago and have used them every year since then but with different ribbons.

The moss is picked in the forest by our house. I like to decorate with natural elements and green moss is a perfect material.

I love those bottle brush trees, they are my etsy addiction I have to confess. The bottlebrush forest grows every year. The mini pumpkins I bought for Halloween is still in great condition so I can't throw them away.

The zinc cones got purple hyacints that fills the kitchen with a lovely scent.

Christmas is very much about filling the house with nice smells. Like baking gingerbreads. I have my own recipe (of course I have to creat the weel once again) with my own secret spices added. Thats why I baking in the same speed the family are eating them. I can tell you I filled 1,5 cans and there is only one halv left, within a few hours. 

By the way; spicy cookies are good medicine for children with cough, but too many gives stomach ache.

Tomorrow and friday will be Lucia celebration, I wrote about that tradition last christmas, if you wan't to know more about it. Or you could hop over to Ms.Misantropia who gives a good explanation of what it's all about.

Easter parade

 I was late with the easter decorations this year. But since I don't overdo it, it doesn't take much time.
I reused the twigs from halloween to put hen feathers, decorated eggs and crosses in it. This kind of decorations is very common in sweden but they use fresh budding twigs and colourful decorations instead.

The tradition with these twigs is an old reminder of Jesus suffering at the cross, when family members whipped each others during the lent. Today this sounds so weird and domestic violence is illegal, the twigs are used as decorations.

My zinc cones are filled with tiny yellow flowers.

 Oskar has made the towel hanger at school.

Even if the snow is still laying on the ground the sun is warm enought to let us sit on the porch to eat lunch or a short coffee brake (fika).

Some more twigs with feathers.

The cage is decorated with a LED-candle, twigs, feathers and misc eggs.

 I'm recovering from a stomach flu that hit the whole family. It came so inconvenient. We were supposed to selebrate Alfons 9th birthday this weekend with his friends and a treasure hunt, but it's not possible in these conditions :(. 

A good medicine for stomach flu is to carefully sip coca cola mixed with water.

Fluffy bunny

It has been really cold days now the frost cover the trees and turns the landscape to a dreamy fairytale land.

A few weeks ago a friend called me and asked if I could take care of her bunny Fluffy. She was moving from her house to an apartment and she felt that she couldn't give him the proper care there. As I'm very soft hearted when it comes to pets, I couldn't refuse. This little dust was is Fluffy. I got him for free but bought the cage. Without telling anyone in the family exept Johan, I prepared for his arrival and bought a fence for a little pasture.

Before I wen't to get him I asked Moa if she wanted a bunny. Oh, dear, she was shining like the sun! She fell instantly in love with the little fuzz.

Unfortunately he has suffered from eye infection for a while. And I'm a little worried about it. I was told that long haired rabbits gets that easily. If it wont get better I will take him to a vet to get a proper medication.

I put the rabbits beside each other so they could get company of each other without fighting or making babies. They seem to like each other but the old one seems to be a little envious. How do I know this, you wonder... she's so easy to understand. She has a body language that is communicative and I think there is a some thelepaty as well.

Here's some tracks in the garden from their cousins. The twigs sticking up from the snow is leftovers from cabbage and kale. I always leave those for the deers and hares.

4

Oskars birthday

 I have been so busy lately. Lots of work and some preparations for all the december birthdays in our family and christmas. I realized the other day that I'm very late and that the stress is affecting me badly :p. My eldest had his 13th birthday the other week. As a present for him I renovated his bedroom. He started with it this summer but he needed help to finish it. Hadn't got the energy until now.
New curtains, plants and a lantern gave it a modern and cozy look. 

I followed his instructions almost exactly when I renovated the room. At first I was very sceptical but along the way I worked ,I saw it would be a nice room for a boy :). This is how he wanted it: One white wall, two green in a colour he had chosen and the print M90 from the Swedish army uniform on the fourth wall.

I bought the original fabric from garderoben.se and put it up on the wall, easier and cheaper than a wallpaper or paint. I sew a cusion as well and that was trickier, didn't like to sew with the fabric at all.

The bedside table is a fake military gear box and was found at a local store.

The package on the bed contains a camouflage net, an US airforce tshirt and a Swedish Army gasmask from the 50's. The gas mask is a joke from my side. He watched the episode of Dr Who, season 1 that is called "Are you my mommy" and freaked out :D (like I did).

I also bought a military map, framed it and put it up on the white wall. I will look for more maps like these because they are very decorative. This corner will have a cosy armchair in the future.

 Heres a view of the writing desk. It would be nicer with a heavy old desk but I havent got the money to fix that now. I used the fabric on the chair and on a pinboard as well. There is a little piece left for other projects. As you can see the skirting boards are missing, like any other project it's always something that's missing to make a renovating project completed.

The pictures below shows how it looked this summer when Oskar worked hard with painting the ceiling. Yeah, he wanted grey and white stripes! Here is he removing the plastic carpet and pulling out needles from the wooden floors. Moa is very supportive.

As you can see in the corner, the walls were very greasy and ugly. It's nothing more than fair that the eldest with the ugliest room will have it renovated first. 

The last christmas presents will be purchased this evening and wrapped. Tonight I will pickup my newly become teenager and a bunch of friends at a disco for a safe transport home. I guess there will be lots of late nights like this in the future.

Modest decorations. Gothidays 2012 day three

I realized yesterday when I decorated my home that I don't use or have much decorations in my home. I can't overdo it and I can't use things I don't like, like kitschy santas, figures of straw and bright red pointsetta cloths. One thing I always do is my own Advent candle tray. This year, I used a silver tray and white moss. I have made the numbers with iron thread and a few pearls and the ribbons are old letter ribbons.

I choiced to go for a quick fix for the door this year. A friend of mine had bought a grave wreath for her door for only 2,5 € at the supermarket. I went to look for one myself and came home with this one. You simply lay it in front of the grave stone. I sprayed it with snow spray and added a shabby hemp rope to it and hung it on the door. 

I'm a bit embarrased to show the door. I painted the porch the first summer we moved in but haven't painted the door yet.

I have started to look for nice boquets in the supermarket for fair prices and this time a twig of white lilies came with me home. This is how the mirror table in the hallway look like now. The table cloth is a art noveau cloth that I have embroderied myself. I almost cannot imagine myself doing this with all those stiches! A praying madonna stands under the glass dome.

Report from a tired carpenter

Table is done at last. Since I don't use the most expensive wood and the reason that it's not a homogenic material to work with it was trickier than i thought it would be.

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Äntligen är bordet klart. Eftersom jag inte har använt särskilt exklusivt trä och att det är ett ohomogent material så var det betydligt mer tålamodskrävande än vad jag hade tänkt mig. Det var inte bara att svänga ihop så att säga.

Here's a closeup on the table. It will be possible to dismount it and store it somewhere else if necessary. I will paint it white with linseed oil paint. I have been busy with this in almost a week (not full time) just to finish it before M's birthday party. And I can say it was needed. It was 13 kids around the table yesterday.

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Så här ser det ut vid lite närmare titt. Det är helt nedmonterbart och lätt att förvara på annan plats om det skulle behövas. Det ska målas i vit linoljefärg när jag har lust. Det har tagit mig nästan en hel vecka att göra klart det (inte på heltid då) i tid för M's kalas. Jag kan säga att det behövdes, det var 13 ungar runt bordet igår.

My estethic sense was bucking when M choose the style of the cupcakes I'm obeyed to bake every year, but it's her party and her descision. Looks delicious , right?

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Mitt estetiska sinne sparkade bakut när M skulle välja hur toppingen på cupcakesen skulle se ut, de som jag är beordrad att baka varje år. Men det är ju trots allt hennes kalas och hon bestämmer. Visst ser de goda ut?

Oskar has been very restless and bored. A few days ago he started to renovate his room. Well what can I say, he doing it his way and I'll post picture later on the process. Oskar is taking a break in his renovating project.

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Oskar har varit så uttråkad och rastlös här hemma. För några dagar sedan så började han renovera sitt sovrum. Ja vad ska man säga....han gör det på sitt sätt. Jag ska visa bilder senare på arbetet. Här tar han en liten fikapaus.

A bouquet for the porch./ En bukett för verandan.

I figured it out what the heck is happening every year. We have about 4 weeks of vacation and during that time I always fall in a vacation coma. It has arrived now (calculated 2nd or 3rd week). Simple home duties can be so exhausting and all I really want to do is to sleep. 

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Nu har jag räknat ut vad fasen som händer med mig varje år. Vi har ca 4 veckors semester och under den tiden så hamnar jag alltid i semesterkoma. Nu har den inträtt (beräknat till 2:a el 3:e veckan). Enkla hushållsysslor kan vara extremt jobbiga och det enda jag egentligen skulle vilja göra är att sova.

A curch bench for the porch

The furnitures on our porch is falling apart. The table, two chairs and the sofa is from my childhood and so wiggly and small.  I've been looking for a bench or sofa like this a long time and found this church bench on internet, it was expensive but had the right size and looks so I decided to buy it. I considered to paint it first but I like the worn look of the wood as it is.

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Möblerna på verandan har börjat falla sönder. Bordet, två stolar och en soffa från min barndom är så små och vickiga så behovet har funnits där ett tag. Denna kyrkbänk hittade jag på blocket. Jag har letat efter något liknande ett tag, den var jäkligt dyr men hade rätt storlek och utseende så jag bestämde mig för att köpa den. Först hade jag tänkt att måla den men jag gillar den slitna träytan som den är.

It is 2,4 meter long so now I obviously need a larger table. You can see on the picture how tiny the old wiggly one is. So what I'm busy with right now is to build a table large enough for the bench. I'm in a hurry because M and G will have their birthdays party on monday.


The weather this summer is so bad. I was making a hole for a plant support with a skewer yesterday, 1 foot down the water was flowing in the ground. Upon all that rain the temperatures has been at least 10 degrees lower than usual for this time of year :(


Bat fit update
I've been starting to run almost every other day in the forest now. I'm not fast and I only run 5 km, but at least, I'm doing it. Yay! The drawback is a bad pain in the back every time. I've been living with that pain for 7 years but now it got worse, I guess I have to live with that too.

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Den är 2,4 meter lång så nu behöver jag ett nytt längre bord. Ni kan ju se hur litet och löjligt det gamla bordet ser ut. Så just nu är jag upptagen med att bygga ett nytt större bord som passar bänken. Jag har lite bråttom eftersom det ska vara klart till M & G's födelsedagskalas på måndag.


Vädret suger verkligen. Det är så blött i marken att när jag skulle spetta ett hål i marken för växtstöd så hittade jag rinnande vatten 25 cm ner i jorden :( Kallt är det också.


Bat fit uppdatering
Jag har börjat springa i skogen igen nästan varannan dag. Det går inte snabbt och jag springer max bara 5 km, men jag gör det iallafall. Tjoho! Det tråkiga är att jag får så ont i ryggslutet varje gång. Det är en smärta jag har levt med i 7 år men nu är den värre, men jag får nog lära mig leva med den också.

My backyard

I'm so sick of this weather. We have been climbing on the walls in two days now. To activate ourselves we went to the lumber store to buy some stuff to be crafty with. I'll show you later. First a stroll through my backyard.  In the bed below, grows garlic, parsnip and onion.

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Blä vad jag är trött på det här vädret. Vi har klättrat på väggarna de senaste dagarna. För att göra något aktivt har vi varit på Byggmax och handlat grejer som vi kan pyssla med. Det får ni se senare. Först en liten promenad på baksidan.  I bäddarna nedan växer vitlöken, palsternacka och lök.

These are the only flowers on my pumpkins. I planted 5 pumpkins and 3 survived. The same has happened with the cucumber and the zucchini, it's a mystery.

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Dessa är de enda blommor jag har på mina pumpor. Jag planterade 5 pumpor och tre har överlevt. Likadant har det blivit med gurkan och zucchinin, det är ett mysterium.

I have one peony left to move from the backyard. But it looks quite nice with parsnip in bloom. I save about three parsnips every year to the next to get seeds from them, it's very easy.

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Jag har en pion kvar på baksidan som ska flyttas upp. Men den ser riktigt fin ut med palsternacka i blom. Jag brukar spara ungefär 3 palsternackor till nästa säsong för att odla frön av dem. Det är väldigt enkelt.

The only pea and bean that like this soggy weather is the sweet pea and the farmer bean, the others is no use to show. 

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De enda baljväxter som trivs i detta väder är sockerärten och bondbönorna. De andra är det inte ens någon ide att visa.

This is my garden shed, I will extend this side to a green house, someday. The shed will be a hen house in the future.

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Här är uthuset. Denna gavel ska utökas till ett växthus någon dag. Uthuset ska bli hönshus också i framtiden.

This disturbing corner is the heart of the garden. This is were I make my soil. The three wooden boxes are waste bins for the weed while the blue barrels contains waste from the kitchen. I mix it with horse dung from my neighbour and get fertile soil for my garden.

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Den här stökiga hörnan är hjärtat i min trädgård. Det är här jag gör min jord. De tre trälådorna är till för trädgårdsavfall medan de blå tunnorna är för köksavfall. Jag mixar innehållet med hästgödsel och får en fin jord till trädgården.

I promise I won't write another garden post for a while. I have a lot of projects to show. Both sewing and  carpenting :)

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Jag lovar att inte skriva ännu ett trädgårdsinlägg nu på ett tag. Jag har ju faktiskt lite roliga projekt att visa, både sy och snickeriprojekt. :)