Vase collection

For the last few years I've been collecting vases, not so much for the practical use of holding flowers, but for decoration purposes.
I thought I had a fairly together collection, but it turns out I've been just all over the place!
There are wooden, ceramics and glass vases, in pastels, bright and natural colours - all in one mix.
The funny thing is I'm always for the look out for vases in white glass or black ceramics, but I've hardly got any of those. 

 

Most often I've thrifted  vases in fleamarkets and charity shops and they were usually just packed away when brought to the house. Now I thought I'd put them together in a display, I had a meter of shelf in the kitchen that would work fine for that purpose. 

 
I've downsized the collection by a whole bag which go back to donation, and there are still some vases that are on the maybe list, but I have'nt decided yet if they can stay or have to go.

High up on the kitchen wall

Floating away on the glass shelf

On display

Our local library had a book sales a while back and I bought a few old books, some for the title and some for the patterned front cover. They don't make them like this anymore.

 They got a display of their own in our staircase.

Still instead of list

Not quite up to date on the Sunday lists, so the one I posted two weeks ago still holds. 
Even though the tasks from the list has been ignored these past two weeks I'm not giving up on them. 

Instead I've amused myself with displaying different still lives on the cubic shelves in the living room.  

I really fancy these cubic shelves but they've always seemed a bit off, I've never quite figured out how to dress them. 

So I made a new attempt today and it turned out not too bad. (A bit unsteady hand with the camera but that can't be helped.) 

May blossom

Rhododendron

Showers of rain has cleared the air lately. Bought this lovely rhododendron about a month ago, and it's still waiting to get into the soil. It's giving beautiful flowers though, and the label says it's fastgrowing and will be up to 2 m high.

Indoors - waiting for the rain to take a break.



Lilac - Syrin

We got this little lilac tree as a housewarming gift when we moved here four years ago, but this is the first year it's bearing flowers - I'm thrilled. Last year I planted it in the south-west corner of the garden and it seems to thrive there.
Only problem is it seems I planted the lilac too close to the hedge next to it. Later this summer or next year I'll have to move it a little to give it better growing conditions.  

Hosta

In the south border of the garden I've planted three different hostas. I'm going to move them as well, as I plan to plant a hedge all the way along the south border. 



Pansies

Pansies under the kitchen window

May 17

Celebrating Norway's National Day

Unexpected help

It's been just over a month since my first post on the blog. 
It's been fun and interesting. I'm surprised at my own eagerness and enthusiasm to achieve my goal of clearing the house. 
BUT - this last week has been a really low period. I haven't done much in the house nor garden. 
What I have done I haven't finished. 

Started copying pattern for å sewing project - not finished

By the way - my new sewing box

And whatever I did I almost never photographed. And if I did the pictures were usually too bad to be used in a post. 
And even if they turned out usable they were blogified and the space around so chaotic my heart sunk... 
And instead of getting stuff out of the house, I've brought more things inside...

 So I've realized that I've come nowhere and it's hopeless trying to sort out this house...

Then my daughter saves the day; she came home yesterday announcing: "Mom, I have something beautiful for you!" - and she presented me with this sunny bouquet of flowers.

Later she found these (and more) glossy coloured prints that I had when I was a girl and she put them up on the living room wall, declaring that this was exactly the kind of decorating the living room needed!



 

This really cheered me up and made me want to continue to try to get this house in order. So hopefully I'll be back very soon reporting on projects of clearing, tossing, organizing and decorating inside/outside our house. 

Kitchen shelf

In the kitchen there is a wall with open shelves. I've tried to make it a decorative storage space, but haven't been successful. Yesterday I had another go at it and it now looks so much better.

Before - the decoration looked like clutter

After - much more pleasing to the eye

 Remember the ceramic cans I bought? I wanted to keep cutlery in them (there's not room for everything in the kitchen drawer so these have been kept in a cupboard in the living room - but that was inconvinient). 

So now I have one can each for knives, forks and tablespoons, and I bought three more cans for teaspoons, coffee and chocolate.

I've labeled the cans according to content because I'm turning the cutlery upside down and then it will all look the same - well, apart from the teaspoons.  

First week of may

The first week of May has come and gone, and here's the new Sunday lists.
This is what we had for dinner:
Monday: Pasta, broccoli and chicken nuggets: Even dessert: strawberrys in milk with sugar. mmm...
Tuesday: Same as Monday. Dessert Fruit salad.
Wednesday: Greek sausages, baked potato, corn and tomatoes. 
Thursday:  Chicken soup with corn, cheese and bread. 
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: No dinner (have to mention that my daughter wasn't at home this weekend)

Last weeks to-do list:
1. Remove the Easter holiday decoration (a bit overdue - I know). Done!

2. Elevate the big map that's hanging on the wall to level the window. Done!

3. Put felt pads under the legs of the dining room chairs. Done!

4. Paint first coat of the one remaining ceiling that's not been painted yet. Done!
5. Change the plastic thingy in the ceiling with one that's not got a hole in it. Not finished - I'm sure I bought a new plastic thingy a good while back, but now I couldn't find it. 

Next week's to-do is in my daughter's bedroom:
1. Lamp over the lower bed.
2. Lamp over the top bed
3. Lamp in the ceiling
4. Anti-slippery mat under the mat
5. Remove paint-mess on the window

Opening doors

Doors conceal and reveal, they close in and shut out.
And they're a piece of furniture on their own.

Pictures from alvhemmakleri.se, stadshem.se and fantasticfrank.se.

A promising garden

Promise of beauty.
Promise of hard labour.
Promise of growth.
Promise of happiness
Promise of failure.
Promise of life.
Promise of yet another summer.

Feeling more philosophical than labourious today.
But did manage to change the daffodils for these pansies.  

Cutlery and utensils drawer

It's not exactly breathtaking but this is how it goes if I'm to sort this house out. 
So here is! My attention has now been drawn to this drawer  

Before

After

 The drawer needed cleaning and tidying.

I removed all the content, gave the container a good clean and also cleaned all of content.

There was a difficult spot and I took some cooking oil on a tissue and the spot easily went away.

Before putting it back my daughter and I had some fun with laying out the utensils to be photographed. We tried to make them fit in an imagined, square frame while also considering form and colour, and when we were satisfied we took a picture of it. It's a captivating game!!

Everything back in the drawer again, now in a clean and tidy edition.
Nothing donated, tossed some measuring cups for medicine dosages.