Cheating…

Tags

Basil, Chives, Gardening, Herbs, Indian Cress, Oregano, Thyme

My poor thyme that I mentioned here did not survive the hardship of my inattentive tending. I kindly planted the herbs outside, but after a period of draught in my kitchen window, a period of immense rain and drowning of the plants did not improve their quality (the drowning was involuntary on my part, as the weather gods of our city didn’t eitherapprove of me leaving the area, and thus wanted the rest of the inhabitants to pay for this, and then also my poor herbs).

I have now cheated and bought lemon balm and basil from the supermarket. As you can see though, the rest of my herbs are thriving (except the indian cress which, although vibrant and alive won’t come up with any flowers…). I should cut them down now and make them ready for winter. But summer doesn’t really seem to have started here yet, so I’ll give them another month or so before I look at them again. They are left to the forces of nature, survival of the fittest will be their motto, and only those with good survival instincts will survive. Wish them luck.

 

(the three pots that constitute) My Herb Garden

Tags

Chives, Gardening, Herbs, Indian Cress, Oregano, Plants, Survival, Thime

After a year of packing my daily schedule to the brim of what’s possible I now find myself with quite a lot of time on my hands. My bones ache and I definitely need the time off. My head won’t let me relax completely though. I’m going Martha Stewart on the house and find myself constantly planning and starting minor projects.

The kitchen project, which I wrote about here, was started many months ago. Now it is nearly done, but due to a certain’s warehouse inability to read my mind and automatically know what I want and when I want it, a few things are missing and the photos thus have to wait. The colour, I can inform you, is white.

My herb project started last year. I planted a few herbs, killed most of them by ignoring them while on holiday, and let the rest to fend for themselves. The plants in my house, and also those outside that are not part of Husband’s well tended garden, are sturdy plants. They have to be or they’d never survive. In the explanation of a person with green fingers, I’d be the antonym, the exact opposite. But, the plants that I do manage to grow can survive anything. I grew chives and oregano last year, but left them outside through one of the worst winters I can remember, still, both came back this year. The pot they were planted in did not survive though…

The chive and oregano that can withstand anything

I planted some more herbs this spring. But many died while I was working on the last part of my thesis and my husband was at work. The few that survived was tested again when Son and I went to Denmark. Two survived when I came back, a small, but not weak, thime and some indian cress. I think both will survive, but never grow as strong and sturdy as they would have been in anyone else’s garden.

A fighting thyme

I won’t spend as much time at work this year so my wee herb garden will have increased by this time next year. I hope the strong, green, little, miracles will still be with us then. (The indian cress however will not survive, it only lives for one season and I have no plans of trying to achieve the impossible!)

There’s no place like home…

Only a few hours ago did I park the car in the driveway after ten days on the road. We’ve had ten days of fun, excitement, adventures and bliss. I hope Son will cherish the memories for as long as his two-year-old brain is able to store them. The days have been packed and the two of us have not been apart for more than a few minutes every day. After a very busy year I’ve loved spending that much time with Son, but at the same time I’ve had very little time to myself. Hubby Dear has been at work and thus couldn’t come with us.

We came home late this evening, and although Son has at several occasions today exclaimed that he missed his bed at home, he had no intention of getting any sleep after the joyful reunion. But now, the house is quiet. I’ve unpacked everything that needed to be unpacked immediately, set a dough to rise overnight and am now planning on reuniting myself with my bed and pillow.

I’d forgotten my book in the car and while walking the few metres from the door to the garage, tranquility set in. The sky is cloudy and grey, the air is fresh and it is just warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt. The lawn is overgrown, the flowers and bushes have lived and done exactly as they’ve pleased for a while and look very different to how they looked when we left. It has obviously been raining a lot while we’ve been gone. All potted plants are nearly dead from drowning, in contrast to the plants inside that are almost dead from lack of water. The neighbourhood is quiet, Son is sleeping inside and I’m home.

I’ll now creep down under the huge duvet, open the window up wide to let the summer-night air in, read a few pages and sleep, for as long as Son allows, in my own bed. There really is no place like home.

Decorating for children

Tags

Art, Children's song

I came across one of those pink, Norwegian, interior design blogs, and saw someone who had payed quite a bit for a what seemed like very little work. It was a children’s song written black-on-white with a few words highlighted in a different colour. The song was then framed in what looked like just a simple IKEA frame.

I had a few frames lying about after we framed some of Son’s amazing art productions, see this post. I used one  about 20x30cm (about 7×11 inches), then spent a few minutes on the computer, and then had a result that I think looks kind of cute. It’s cheap, it’s personal and it looks good on the wall in Son’s room.

 

I’m dreaming of a white..

Tags

Kitchen, redecorating

No, not christmas, I already got that. I have a kitchen that is driving me mad! It’s pretty enough, but it needs to be more practical. We moved in here a few years ago and haven’t done anything anywhere, but this kitchen cries for an upgrade. It was redone only a few years before we moved in, and claimed to be done with someone with some sort of degree in interior design. I don’t believe it for a minute! It’s pretty enough, but the storage facilities, well, don’t get me started.

It is a plain Ikea kitchen and easy to fix. Only problem is; they don’t have the same fronts, doors and drawers anymore. So if we change the interior fittings of one cabinet, we have to change the fronts on all of them. So, I finally have husband agreeing with me that this is something that needs to be done, but we don’t know what colour to choose.

Part of me wants to do something crazy, and go for red. But we don’t plan on living in this house forever and need to think of future buyers rather than what we really want. But still, I love this colour!

We’ve thought about white. The floor is dark, our dining set is dark and most of the furniture around here is. (A tad darker than the floor) So white make brighten the room quite a bit.

Then there is this colour, which would mean hardly any difference at all and it matched the furniture. But a bit to monochromatic?

I’d love to hear your say about this, and I’ll post back soon as I have a solution.

 

Making over the bedroom :)

Tags

bedroom, home, Paint, redecorating

I’ve just started a wee make over for our bedroom. We don’t plan to live here forever and don’t want to make any drastic and permanent changes, but I need to make it more my own, mark my territory.

Jeg har nettopp begynt på en liten mini-make over på soverommet vårt. Vi har ikke tenkt å bo her for alltid og vil derfor ikke gjøre noen drastiske, tidkrevende eller permanente endringer. Men, jeg trenger å gjør det litt mer ‘meg’, markere terrioriet litt 😉

I found some wooden letters at a Panduro, and incorporated them in my “Great Plan” before I had to order them in. This is what they looked like…

Jeg fant noen bokstaver I tre hos Panduro, og fant en plass til dem I planen min. Slik så de ut da jeg fikk tak I dem…

 

I have planned almost every detail of this, but economy forces me to take babysteps. So far I’ve bought this wee shelf…

Jeg har planlagt det meste, men økonomien tvinger meg til å ta små skritt om gangen. Så langt har jeg kjøpt denne hylla…

these pillow covers…

disse putetrekka…

And tonight I painted these…

My Initials

Husband's Intitals

I’ll soon post a before-picture, or I should say present-picture, but I need better light. Hopefully the ‘after’ photo will follow soon.

Jeg skal få postet et ‘før’ bilde, eller egentlig et ‘nå’ bilde, men trenger bedre lys. Forhåpentligvis blir det ikke veldig lenge til ‘etter’ bildet.