Pappersbruket is just a 5 minutes drive away from Denningarums Gård, and we arrived there after a brief afternoon detour into the woods for a geocache. It was somewhere around 4 in the afternoon, and we had plenty of time for a shower and some clean clothes before dinner. Jessica who runs the place together with her husband, greeted us and showed us to our room.

As soon as you set foot in the hallway of the hotel, you cannot help but know a lot of love went into the creation of the place – it’s just really beautiful and filled with atmosphere! After we freshened up, we went downstairs and had a look around before dinner.

Every detail in the pretty hotel has been tended to carefully – from the beautiful wallpaper panels to the furniture and the colours. After looking around on our own for a while and being shown around by Peter, Jessica’s husband, we sat down for dinner. Though the host couple were totally sweet with the children, it didn’t take Mads and I long to agree that this would probably be a place we would be more likely to go without children. The girls loved the acoustics and space of the hall and the restaurant – does that tell you anything at all? Calming them down was rather difficult – good thing we were the only ones in the restaurant that evening… Dinner was amazing, by the way!

The girls fell asleep late, and Mads and I stayed up talking, seated in the soft couches. Next morning we had breakfast before Peter took us on a tour of the rest of the site which is used for events of different kinds, and it just showed us once more that everything is so well accomplished it’s hard to believe. It would be a truly great place for a company event of some sort or a large party.

After the tour we borrowed a canoe, so that Mads and I could take the girls out for a little while. We both weren’t too optimistic about how that would work out, expecting the girls to not be able to sit still for more than a little while. We were soooo proved wrong. After a little while the rain started pouring, and we got out the raincoats for both girls.

At this point things could have been way more challenging than they were – the girls were singing most of the way, and in fact they just seemed to really enjoy our quiet trip down the stream – and so did their parents. Mads and I have been canoeing in Sweden quite a few times before we had kids – now I think we may just try a few days trip again soon.

When we got back, Peter was there to meet us with umbrellas and while we got into some dry clothes, Jessica made us a cup of tea. After that we said goodbye and went back to Denningarums Gård to have lunch.

Finally, we were all tired and ready to go home after a great weekend of Swedish impressions – this cool bus is what you see close to the town when you go there – but don’t believe what it’s saying (Helvetets Port = gateway to hell), because Östanå definitely has something to offer.

And now, we’re so off to Mallorca – see you when we get back!

After a two hour drive we arrived at Denningarums Gård in Skåne. The sun was low in a blue sky, and everything looked wonderfully idyllic! The girls immediately ran off to the nearby playground, and Mads and I were welcomed by the friendly host couple of the farm. They showed us to our cabin, a primitive wooden cottage with four bunk beds, facing the stream. We unloaded our luggage, and while we had a look around the place with the girls, they lit the barbecue and brought us baskets with barbecue-ready meat, salads, drinks etc. – mmmmmm.

We had a delicious dinner on the cabin terrace in the evening sunshine.

It sounds almost over the top, I know, but it was great. The girls left the table to go play when they had finished, and Mads and I enjoyed the tranquility of the place. After a while of playing by the stream, we all went to bed early after a long day.

Next day after breakfast we went out on the stream on one of the roofed rafts. We brought a basket with coffee, cake, and juice for the girls – Ulf (the owner) gave us brief instructions, and then we took off down the stream.

We were out sailing for a few hours and it was absolutely brilliant! The girls brought sticks and spent a lot of the time “fishing” – actually, come to think of it, they spent most of the day splashing sticks into water someplace or another.

The rest of our Saturday there, we did nothing but relax. The farm has pet rabbits, emus, llamas, pigs, ducks, and besides all the animals they have a very impressive fruit and vegetable garden. The girls loved the place, and really it’s just a great place to get into a slower pace than what is usual for a family with children like ours.

So far the weather had been slightly chilly, but still very nice. However in the afternoon, when we had gone out for a walk, it began to rain, and as the girls were also starting to show signs of tiredness, we decided to say goodbye to Ulf and Karin for that day and head on to Pappersbruket, where we would be spending Saturday evening and some of our Sunday. More about that in my next post.

The girls had a pool in the garden – they started out like this, and then they ended up soaked, jumping around in the water with absolutely no inhibitions.

Nelle, Frida, and Ronja at dinner in the garden. Nelle’s parents and her younger brother were there as well, and we had a real summery evening, barbecueing in the garden in the warm weather.

That’s just not possible this weekend. It’s been raining pretty much since this morning, and the guests we had over for dinner this evening just had to stay inside and imagine a summery dinner at the garden table. We had a cosy evening all the same, and Mads made some yummy lamb shanks for dinner.

Next weekend we’re going to Skåne in Sweden – my family and I have been invited by Tourism in Skåne to try out some of their offers for tourists, and of course we had to happily accept. Mads and I have taken a number of canoe trips in Sweden years ago, and we generally love the Swedish countryside, so it was an easy call to make. We will be going to Pappersbruket, and Denningarums Gård (sorry, no English version for that last one, but I hope it’s as beautiful as in the pictures – see “Bilder” in the menu on their website). I’m really looking forward to it!

Pappersbruket

Denningarums Gård Surroundings

Tomorrow, however – we will just be relaxing at home. Which is needed after a lot of running around lately – let’s hope for a bit of sunshine.

]]> http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2010/06/12/rain-rain-rain/feed/ 4 http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2010/06/03/ring-on-my-finger/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ring-on-my-finger http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2010/06/03/ring-on-my-finger/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:37:24 +0000 Astrid http://www.connectingthedots.dk/?p=1261 Guess you don’t hear much from me at the moment. But I mean – WOW… Life is so busy at the moment. This here below is one of the few breathing spaces Mads and I have taken lately.

The picture is from a minicriuse Mads and I took to Oslo in Norway, without kids. DFDS Seaways have a route from Copenhagen to Oslo, and we booked a cruise for our 10 years boyfriend-girlfriend anniversary. It was a wonderful trip. The girls had their grandmother looking after them, and Mads and I could enjoy a few days of total relaxation in each others company. The first evening, we had dinner in a restaurant aboard the boat with a panoramic view of the sea and the setting sun, and Mads totally topped it off by taking me to the deck later on and breaking out that question, you know…!

Even though we were limited to 7 hours in Oslo, we enjoyed every minute of them. Walking across Oslo to Bogstadveien, taking the bus up to Holmenkollen (the ski jumping hill) with the amazing view of the Oslo bay, admiring the sculptures of the Vigeland Park, and drinking latte in the sun every chance we got. We had sunshine and high temperatures, and we really had nothing to complain about – as dull as it may seem.

Today it is Mads’ birthday and he is not even here – he is working in Hull, England.

So Mads – lots of kisses from your girls – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

By the way, Mads got his ‘yes’ without too much trouble.

and this?

Not to mention the somewhat demanding and quite extensive process:

Well, it has now turned into this:

I don’t think I need to tell you that we’re happy!    You can see all the pictures right here.

Following a marvellous day yesterday, Easter Sunday has been rainy. We were planning to go somewhere, light a fire and make twistbread with the girls, but with the weather today, it just wasn’t possible – or at least it would have been rather wet.

Instead we painted Easter eggs (better late than never), and had good friends over in the afternoon.

Tomorrow is my last day off before I start my new job – and Ronja’s last day off before she starts in the after-school centre. She will be going there full time as kind of a transition period, until she starts school for real in August. What a big Tuesday for this little family.

Maybe tomorrow we will have weather for twistbread…

Happy Easter!

I didn’t realize until the elastic was in its casing, and everything was pretty much done – only needed to sew the two tiers together. I have no idea why I didn’t see it coming – there is so much fabric around the waist of this skirt, you could fit an elephant in there – if the elastic was long enough. But I didn’t. See it coming, that is. I ended up gathering the top tier to fit the second tier, and now I can’t decide whether I should unpick a lot of seams and redo the whole thing. All that fabric around Frida’s tiny waist does take up some space…

I adore the fabric (baby corduroy) which I found at Malika & Rosa, but I only got half a metre, because that should be plenty for a small skirt – however now that I used everything making the waist of this skirt (yep), I have next to nothing left. What to do, what to do… In the meantime, Frida absolutely loves the skirt – I’m not sure she sees the problem!

A few days ago, I mentioned here that Rae is doing her Spring Top Week again – and it’s open for entries now! Being last years winner, she has asked me if I would like to be part of the jury this year, and of course I would love to! I am so happy and proud to be included, because the rest of the jury is made up by 9 incredibly talented women – I’m sure it’ll be lots of fun.

I’ll get back to that some other day – but right now I’m just feeling so internet-lucky! The internet is an amazing place to get together with like-minded people – online as well as IRL. During this past weekend, I was at my third bloggers meetup with an amazing group of girls who have their blogs and a great deal of creative talent in common – and then we have come to see that we really just share so much more than that, and I love being part of it.

Lucky me!

I sketched the ballerina from a picture on the internet, and sewed it on with a short straight stitch. That way it will fray slightly on the outside of the stitches, but that will be part of the “look”. I used the same technique for my matryoshka appliqué, and that worked just fine – actually that blouse has been in use for a year now.

The pattern is #7 from Ottobre 6/2009, and I shortened it a bit to make it give it more of a girly shape. Still considering whether to add a tie in front – it might work well even if it’s fine the way it is.

I made a Lickety Split bag for spring a while ago as a gift for a special blog-friend. I didn’t show you then, but it’s more than appropriate now, because I think I can say with confidence, that spring is finally here!

These are pictures from yesterday afternoon, when the girls and I enjoyed the sun in the garden. Mads was out with his friend Martin and thousands of other motorcyclists celebrating the annual opening of Bakken Amusement Park – the oldest amusement park in the world. (If you’re curious, the first to paragraphs here explain the event rather well.) I do believe they enjoyed themselves as well!

So now that I’ve proved to you that spring is really here – this is the Lickety Split in my dotted spring-version.

I made it just the same way as usual (previous versions here and here) – followed Rae‘s pattern, and added sew-in interfacing to give it a touch more body and a magnetic snap. I’m really fond of it, and I think the recipient was as well.

And speaking of Rae – don’t forget that her awesome Spring Top Week is about to begin. Tops can be entered from March 30th, and all the details on how to participate are on her blog. Even if you don’t participate, the amount of inspiration found in the many contributions is amazing – and that will be revealed over on Rae’s blog in the beginning of May.

Yesterday I was sewing – it has been a while, and there are so many things I want to make. I actually wanted to take part in Sarah’s Pattern Challenge, but I haven’t had the time or energy to make concrete goals for myself, so I’ll just go on to sew a bit here and there, using her challenge as an inspiration.

Anyway, I made these things – a vest and a pouch for my Ipod Touch.

The vest is from an Onion pattern, #6013, it has a dart on each front piece, and I really like the fit of it, though it is quite simple. I made a size small, based on measurements, and it is just right, but it couldn’t be any smaller for me (normally I’m a size M in Onion patterns). I used a quilted fabric, and the pattern is easy peasy, so it didn’t take me long – also I love wearing vests, so this is a welcome addition to my wardrobe. Oh, and I left out the tie in front – like the look better without.

The pouch for my iPod Touch has been planned for a while, but I wasn’t sure which style I wanted to go with. I have been looking at (and drooling over) these beautiful pouches by KapomCraft on Flickr – she has an Etsy-store as well, so if you’re not into sewing, you could go there. I wanted to make something in a similar style, but wasn’t sure if I could do it without a tutorial or something to go by. So I went back to the same tute I used for Ronja’s Nintendo DS pouch, using new measurements, and adding a pocket in the front. I used the same fabric as I did for the vest – it’s already padded, so I didn’t need to use any interfacing or similar. Otherwise I would have.

Everything came together almost right – except when I was done it was just 3 mm too small in the width, so I turned the wrong side back out, undid the seam, and made a new one adding 1.5 mm on each side. Now it’s just right – nice and snug.

At first, I didn’t add any kind of handle or strap, but I quickly realised that was a mistake – so therefore I went to my all-kinds-of-stuff-drawer, and found a nice piece of ribbon, which I added as a neckstrap. It really is just the way I wanted it now.

Only thing I would want different is the Ipod Touch itself – ’cause what is an Ipod Touch really? An Iphone without a phone – that’s what it is. I want the phone too… 

We’re finishing off with a funny story today: Frida has taken the first steps towards getting rid of the diaper, and she has started using the toilet. Her doll though is using a potty for that very same purpose (well, perhaps not entirely, but still). In Danish a potty is a ‘potte’ – however Frida seems to believe it’s called an Ipodde. Now, where could that possibly come from?