To keep or not to keep

So I lost my focus there for a while. In the middle of  painting the kitchen. Felt like I was never able to get anything ticked off of that To do - list, so I just
stopped trying.
Clutter and mess seem never ending. And with that there wasn't much fun in blogging. Well, after almost two weeks I've realized that I'd rather keep trying and move slow, than not move at all
:)
So
I'm picking up where I left off
painting the kitchen walls and trying to decide whether or not to keep the bottom two shelves on this kitchen wall, or find other shelving arrangements for the kitchen nicknacks that hasn't got a cupboard door to hide behind.

Sweet May

May presented itself in the best possible way; warm and sunny:)

We started this day off with a water war in the garden, we've baked and had our first trip to the beach and my water loving daughter had her first dip in.
And,
although the water felt freezing to the rest of us,
she claimed it was
"nice and warm". 

In the evening we had sandwiches and tea. 

Got out these plates from Rörstrand, Sweden, decor Gille.
For some reason they have to go with dark bread and a cup of tea by the side -
so that's what we had:)

Going on in the garden right now

Helleborus - fritillaria meleagris

anemone nemorosa - hydrangea / hortensia

tulips - daffodils

Our garden looked soo last year 

but now we have all these beauties 

to show that spring

is here:)

Refreshing the kitchen

For ages I've been meaning to paint the walls in the kitchen, and now finally I have - at least one of them. It's not a big change - going from pale to white on the walls but I love it. 

Hopefully I'll get round to paint the rest of the walls before long...

Before - a cluttered counter and painting the wall halfway finished.

How to get a fairly clean house by weekend

 

I've proven to be really challenged when it comes to housekeeping and organizing. I'd like a clean house come weekend as much as the next girl, but finding the time and energy to make it happen has been almost impossible.
Coming home from work on Friday afternoon knowing that a ton of housekeeping chores awaits
-knowing that whatever I want to do in the weekend I ought to be doing the cleaning instead
 - no thank you!

So what about the other days?
Thursdays and Mondays we come home late in the afternoon.
Wednesdays we're busy with my daughter's after school acticvities.
Which leaves Tuesdays for housecleaning
- I've tried that, and I do get a cleaning round done -
it's just that it doesn't last till weekend!
So then what?

What I worked out is this - don't know why didn't I think of it before :
I don't have to do it all in one go.
Do a little each day - nothing much - just a little !

Now I've made a schedule that seems to be working, and
inspired by (amongst others) Organizing made fun I've put up a schedule that goes like this:

Monday:
- dust (15 )

Tuesday:
-clean bathroom (15 min)
-change beddings (10 min)

Wednesday:
- clean kitchen (20 min)

Thursday:
-empty dustbins
- vacuum (30 min)

Friday:
-a simple wipedown of bathroom (5 min)

Saturday and Sunday:
NO SCHEDULED HOUSEKEEPING CHORES :)

Keeping in mind that for this to work we (usually just me) have to
continuously throughout the week
declutter,
tidy up,
 clean kitchen after use,
 do laundry and paperwork.

I realize that not every spot of the house is freshly cleaned come weekend,
but at least it's freshly vacuumed (which is the most important)
and the rest has been done sometime during the last week
so the house will have a fairly clean feel to it on Fridays.

It's not that this is revolutionary or new thinking,
but it does work wonders in our household:)

Mini-buns

This weekend we finally got round to bake buns again. Used the same recipe as before from Dagdrømmeren. 

This time we made some of them in mini size. 

Just cut the dough for one regular bun in four and we had the mini size we wanted.

Didn't fuss much about the shape:)

 Although they turned out a little bumpy they were also, by far,

 the most popular on the table 

and disappeared very 

quickly.  

Diamond and a bubble string

I've shown this living room shelf before.
But now I've just rearranged it a little
- removing some of the heavy colours
and adding a pink diamond in a frame and a string of bubbles.
When moving the stuff around the striped vase almost dissappeared into the frame:)


There are so many cool string lights around - and I really wish I had one.
But as I don't, I crocheted some bubbles and tied together on a string.
Kind of resembles, but no light though :)