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.

Sunday lists: Last weeks dinner and next weeks to-do

Dandelion - my favourite wild flower

To sum up the past week and plan the coming I'm making a couple of lists, one for dinner and one for next week's to-do. 


Dinner; problem find something healthy and tasty and fast and doable. 
I'm trying to improve but am not sure it's enough. Instead of  making a dinner plan of the week to come (and fail to follow it) I'll make a list over what we actually had for dinner each day. Hope this will inspire me to improve on dinner.


So this is last week's dinner list:
Sunday: Salmon, potatoes, vegetables (we were guests at my sister's)
Monday: Chinese restaurant
Tuesday: Pyttipanne - little bits of potatoes, ham, onion in a pan

Wednesday: Rice porridge - the healthy version with butter, sugar and cinnamon
Thursday: Boiled vegetables; potatoes, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and kidney beans        and corn, and sausages.  
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Pyttipanne - little bits of potatoes, ham, cheese in a pan 

For next week I've set myself the goal to execute this list of five things to do in the living room:
1. Remove the Easter holiday decoration (a bit overdue - I know).

2. Elevate the big map that's hanging on the wall to level the window. 
3. Put felt pads under the legs of the dining room chairs.
4. Paint first coat of the one remaining ceiling that's not been painted yet. 

 5. Change the plastic thingy in the ceiling with one that's not got a hole in it.