Easter Holiday

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Easter eggs on Easter branches 

We are so enjoying our Easter break here. It totally popped up at the right time! Yesterday, the first day off, was a day of painting Easter eggs and spending time in the garden. The weather is awesome, and for a few days now, Frida has been almost completely back to being the happy girl we had before her surgery, and it’s just a joy to see. She manages the arm splints brilliantly, and does just about everything she normally does – they really don’t seem to bother her much during the day. They only mess up her sleep a bit, but still, everything is so much better now, and we can only be happy about the way she’s coming round.

Ronja and I painted Easter eggs yesterday. Mads and I blew out the eggs, washed them, and left them to dry – and Ronja just couldn’t wait to get started with the paint! So check it out – before:

Ready for some paint 

During:

Ronja and Mom at work 

And after:

Colourful 

We had a lot of fun, and Ronja was actually a more patient painter, than I would have expected. I love the eggs she made! Afterwards we fetched some branches from the garden to for them to hang on, and I added some of the Easter stuff I have already.

Easter eggs on Easter branches 

We spent the afternoon outside – we still have to keep Frida from colds, but the weather was really warm and not too windy, and she absolutely loves being in the garden – as does Ronja!

 No room for Dad on this motorcycle!

I haven’t been getting around to do any sewing since I made nightgowns for the girls, but yesterday evening, shile Mads was playing with his motorcycle in the garage, I got around to cutting the fabric for a tunic – for me, myself, MOI! Yep, that’s right – it’s kind of a test drive really. The fabric for it comes from my stash, and I really want to check if the pattern is good, before I move on to possibly purchasing fabric for the next version of it. I hope I’ll be able to do some sewing tomorrow.

A Wonderful Weekend

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Yellow 

We had such a nice weekend with wonderfully mild weather. Saturday, Mads did some work outside, building a new fence, and while he was at it, Ronja enjoyed herself for hours – literally – digging for earth worms and playing in the sand box. So while Frida had her nap, I had some quiet time for the tidying and cleaning in the house. I know the last task may not sound all that exciting, but if you’re used to having the kids running between your legs while tidying up, you consider it somewhat of a luxury to be left alone with your doings.

Sunday Mads did a half marathon – isn’t he cool? A year ago I would have never thought he was about to start running, and now he’s so serious about it. The run was in Jutland in a town called Taulov (a 180 km drive from here), and the girls and I went with him. He did the 21.1 km in 1 hour 52 minutes, which I find pretty amazing!

Buds on the Japanese Cherry Tree 

On the way home we visited my cousin and her family near Odense which is always wonderful. We got home rather late last night, and the girls fell asleep in the car. Today they have both been tired and showing signs of too little sleep, so we’re just hoping they’ll be over it by tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’re receiving a visit from the nurse who has been our regular contact since Frida was born. She specializes in clefts, and she’s going to be telling us a bit about the operation that Frida’s going through at the end of this month. I’ll be working from home so I can hear what she has to say as well – and I’m looking forward to it too, because she’s just such a warm person, and it’s a great thing that she comes here to answer our questions and prepare us for what’s coming.

Glimpses of the garden

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Winter aconites 

Yesterday, I had been at the doctors because of a sore throat – again – and Frida was with me. When we came home, I just lifted her out of the car seat, and instead of walking to the front door, she set off at a high pace (for her anyway) towards the garden. So we took a little walk in the garden, and look what we found.

Snowdrops 

Crocus 

Ooohhhh – spring is coming – can you feel it?

I also want to share some finds with you. Now Ulla’s blog is always great for ribbon and trim inspiration, and she guided me to these amazing ribbons from Aspegren Denmark.

Ribbon from Aspegren 

I have been using a lot of ribbon for all the bibs I have been making lately, and I just love these! As are the ones below from Farbenmix – I couldn’t help myself. Found here and are not all that easy to find, so I’ll leave it up to you to do the googling. Gorgeous right?

Farbenmix ribbon

Hibernation

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Our garden is white at the moment.

Winter in the garden 

Ronja gave me this little bird feeder Christmas before last, and it has been hanging there in the Japanese Cherry Tree ever since. I love the colours on it, and when the rest of the world is white it really comes into its own! I think I’ll go put a new fat ball on there a bit later - now that there’s snow all over the place.

Ronja’s swing set has hibernated for the day.

Winter in the garden 

And I wonder if this will ever start again?

Winter in the garden 

Maybe we will have time for a sled ride with the girls this afternoon, when I’m off from work? Let’s see…

Winter in the garden

November in the garden

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Autumn in the garden 

November is taking control now. It’s raining a lot, and there’s quite a strong wind blowing as well – claiming the leaves from the trees. At the moment we’re not spending very much time in the garden, though we should probably be preparing for winter. The potted plants need to be cut down and moved inside before we have night frost. I’m not terribly good at getting that done – I love working with the plants when we’re moving towards summer, and I can look forward to a season of blossoming flowers in crocks and pots. Preparing them for winter is different, but I really ought to get it done.

Autumn in the garden 

Frida has been sick these past few days, throwing up and not eating at all. It’s pretty much the first time she has been really sick since she was born – she has had a few colds but that’s it, really. Sunday was bad, yesterday was better, and today she had her oatmeal for breakfast - now she’s sleeping.

Autumn in the garden 

It’s really dark outside today – and inside as well. A perfect day for lighting candles and drinking tea – I was thinking about sewing a bit, but I actually don’t really know what I want to sew. Can you believe it? I should probably go through my stash – that always seems to inspire me. I think I’ll put on some music.

Autumn in the garden

A tiny comedian in the sunshine

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Today has been sunny and beautiful. Frida and I have spent some time in the garden – she loves it when I push her on the swing, and playing with a ball is the best. We had a wonderful day – which is good, because she doesn’t care much for sleeping during the day at the moment… Again…

Some of the last flowers in the garden

Frida has kind of a comedy-stunt going that is ridiculously entertaining. She is always on the go, from one toy to another – one kind of trouble to another. Typically, she will play with something, throw it over her shoulder and move on to the next. And then, when the first thing hits the floor with a loud noise, she turns around with eyes that say: “Who made that noise – what’s going on back here?”. And the best part is, she does this over and over… Man, she makes us laugh!

Some of the last flowers in the garden

A while ago Mads and I agreed, that we needed a break from him working on the house. Or maybe I agreed..? Anyway, we had a break, and now Mads wants to get something done again – fair enough. This house is dated 1912, and there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The previous owners had a fence around the small yard out back. We wanted to take that down in order to open up towards the garden, so we did – long ago. This weekend, Mads removed the foundation for the fence, which could have been an easy job, had they not thought it necessary to cast a concrete foundation 40 cm into the ground for the entire length of the fence. Geeeez – talk about unnecessary solutions…. So instead of it being easy, this is what went on in the garden.

Working again

And now it’s gone – the concrete foundation, that is - thanks to Mads and his very noisy and shaky device.

Eventually, we’re going to cover the yard with new garden tiles, but for now, I think we’re settling for an expansion of the lawn, until we have the time and means for the solution we really want.

The colours of late summer

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 Now, there’s just no way around it. There’s not much summer left, and we’re moving towards cooler days. Most of the perennials in the garden have now withered, and are just waiting for next spring, when they will come back with full strength as they do every year. A few are still hanging on by their fingernails, but now it’s just a matter of time. One stubborn shrub has started to bloom again, pretending that we have everlasting summer in Denmark. But hey, that just isn’t the case, and I for one love our changing seasons – though I do find it particularly hard to let go of summer.

Ronja's sunflower 

Some things still lend a hand in keeping the garden colourful, though. A month ago or so, Ronja brought home two sunflowers that she had planted in a pot at kindergarten. One of them is blooming now, and the other one isn’t far behind. Looking at them definitely does give you a summery feeling!

Apples 

The apples on our two 4-year old apple trees are almost ripe – I think they need a week or two still to be perfect, but a few have fallen to the ground, and they have been eaten with much pleasure! Those apples are so crisp and juicy – the perfect snack apples!

Ronja had a wonderful birthday – or rather she had three of them. Besides the kindergarten visiting Friday, we had the family visiting Sunday, and as her real birthday was Saturday, we celebrated then too with a traditional birthday morning, a visit to the National Museum, and her own choice for dinner. And what does a 4-year old choose, when she gets to pick anything? Spaghetti with meat sauce… :)

 Ronja's new puppet theatre and xylophone

Ronja had so many wonderful presents, and she was really happy. She has been playing with all of them (no, literally) since – she didn’t get a single one that wasn’t appreciated. Mads and I gave her a puppet theatre, which we are having lots of fun with – it came from this shop:

klodsmajorlogo

Now, some of you will remember, that I recommended a toy shop in Amsterdam not so long ago, and now I’ll recommend one in Denmark (this probably goes mostly to my Danish readers, sorry about that). It’s an online shop, and it’s by far the best online shopping experience I have had for a long time! Klodsmajor.dk not only has fabulous toys for all ages, the service around the purchase is also just impeccable. They will wrap your gift beautifully at a fair price, they ship quickly and include a nice personal note with every order. If you wish, they will handwrite a birthday card and ship the present directly to the recipient, and you can still be certain it looks wonderful! I have recommended them far and wide, and I have used them or seen them used several times – it just always lives up to the same high standard. Thumbs up, Susanne!

Now finally I want to say a belated thank you to Wondermommy for awarding me these prices:

kickass           brilliant1

 It’s so kind of you and greatly appreciated! At the moment, I’m only going to send them on to one blogger – I’m running out of time for today, so I hope you don’t mind! However, Amy over at Habitual continues to inspire and entertain with her wonderful style in crafts, her beautiful photos, and her personal and well narrated daily adventures. I was sorry I didn’t nominate her the last time I had the chance, so here you go, Amy – two in one! :)

Pick a number

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 I think the mailwomen around here have been kind of confused for a while. And people we know (who know where we live) have passed our house, when coming to see us, because it doesn’t look like it used to – and there has been no number.

The new house number 

There is now! We were lucky enough to find it second-hand at frou-frou.dk - it’s kind of expensive to buy new, and now we get a number with a past, allowing us to guess where it has spent its previous life… I’m going to see if I can make a name plate for the mailbox in photoshop to match the design of the housenumber. Again, it would be nice to buy a real one, but that’ll have to wait, because the name plates like that cost a small fortune!

Mads installed our new front door yesterday and fixed the finish around the door this evening. The door actually isn’t all that new, since we bought it along with the new windows way back in August 2006. It has been living in the garage ever since. It has windows in it, and yesterday I was going for the door several times, thinking someone forgot to close it. C’mon, girl – that’s just your new light in the hallway… :) I do love the way it lets lots and lots of light into our hallway, but we still need to get used to the fact that you can actually see through the front door – amazingly, it works both ways, so you have to consider how you look before people come up to the door, and not just after they ring the doorbell! That’s right, we also put up the doorbell, which has been down since the house was sandblasted late April. Once we get the lamp back up as well, I promise I’ll post a picture of how it all looks. In the meantime you’ll have to do with my anemone japonica.

Mother and child 

I want to say thank you for all the wonderful feedback I’m getting on my blog. I love reading it and visiting your blogs, finding out who you are and why you stopped by. I always answer questions in the comments, so remember to check back, if you posed a question. Should you have any suggestions for me on how to improve my blog or make it more welcoming for you as a reader, please send me an email or leave me a comment on it. Speaking of which, if you would like to know when I update my blog, but you don’t use any kind of reader, I added the possibility to subscribe to my posts by email. However, please do continue to come to my blog and let me know you’re here! :)