All I Want For Christmas

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Hygge

Christmas Eve came and went. The pixies have been up since December 1st, and the girls have each counted down by opening a small present every day. In case you don’t all know, in Denmark we celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th, which was yesterday. In spite of the vast amounts of snow that doesn’t make crossing the country (or the continent) any easier, the whole family managed to get here - our mothers, my older brother with his family, my younger brother, and Mads’ sister. Mads had prepared the bestest Christmas dinner, and everybody ate way more than they could, which is exactly the way it should be. We lit the candles on the Christmas tree, danced around the tree singing Christmas songs, and presents were distributed generously to the great (over-)excitement of the three children. I think we had a wonderful evening.

Our Christmas tree

Today we went for a walk – not a long one because it is sooooo cold here at the moment. We have been down to minus 18 degrees Celsius which is around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and though it’s not quite that cold now, it’s still freezing outside.

Christmas Day - out for a family walk

Now everyone left, we almost have the house back to normal, and Mads and I are enjoying a quiet evening. And I want to show you my new SEWING ROOM. At least that’s what I call it. It’s been work in progress for a little while:

So, check out my new hide out slash creative space!

Our finished bed room and my new sewing room

The entire room, which will be serving as our bedroom as well. The new cabinets are all IKEA kitchen cabinets.

Our finished bed room and my new sewing room

My table – my sewing machines are still under the table, but that is just because I haven’t used the room much yet – we only finished it a bit more than a week ago, and it’s been Christmas, you know.

Our finished bed room and my new sewing room

2.7 meters of oak table top – I got this from Homeworks.dk, and I’m actually quite happy with their service. Most of the places that sell table tops the measurements I needed, are considerably more expensive.

Our finished bed room and my new sewing room

Room for my patterns and sewing magazines.

Our finished bed room and my new sewing room

Full closet for fabric, tools and all kinds of stuff that I need for my sewing.

I really love the room, and I can tell I will be using it a lot for all kinds of stuff – Frida has already spotted the opportunity to come sort her mother’s stuff, while I’m working with something else in there. LOVE it! I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present.

So there it is – A Very Merry Christmas to all of you guys out there!

Seamstresses – Gather ‘Round!

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As I mentioned earlier, Mads and I have worked up the last bits of renovation energy and emptied the bedroom, in order to renovate the very last of the ‘real’ rooms in the house. I won’t even show you what that does to the living room at the moment. The reason for the expression ‘real rooms’ is that we have a small section of the house which is not insulated, and which hosts the laundry room and back hallway – we will get to these eventually I believe, but they don’t have very high priority as they don’t belong to what you may refer to as the main house.

But here’s what I’m getting to: Mads said, that as long as there’s room for the bed in the bedroom, I can pretty much decide what should happen to the rest of the room. (He later gets to insulate and fix up the garage for his motorcycle, so though it’s terribly sweet of him, he does have an agenda…:) ) Are you still following? This means sewing corner! It means fabric space! It means no more dragging out all my sewing stuff to the dining table in the living room each time I want to sew, and it means I will be able to sew a little when I have the time, instead of waiting until it makes sense to spend 20 minutes getting everything out. It’s not a huge bedroom, but it isn’t tiny either, so I’ll work with what I have. I am currently trying to figure out the wall colour, but the rest is where you guys come in!

I know many of you have wonderful, functional sewing spaces or even whole rooms – and I would love to know what advice you would give me? Think of anything – think drawers, table, light, shelves, containers, etc. What did you get right in your sewing space? What do you wish you had done differently? Do you want to show me your sewing space? I will be thankful for any inspiration or advice!

I have purchased a lot of my fabric through Fabric.com, and I just received a discount code that I thought I’d share – so: Use code “CLEAR30″ at Fabric.com and get an additional 30% off the clearance section! Offer valid through 11/15/10.

Kitchen Renovation – Check!

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One really great thing we got done this Easter was to finish the kitchen renovation, and to really finish the connection with the living room. I’m not going to say much about it – just show you how it all turned out. But first – do you remember the old kitchen?

Kitchen Before Demolition

and this?

Kitchen Before Demolition

Not to mention the somewhat demanding and quite extensive process:

Want to come visit - anyone?

Yep, that's the driveway out there...

Frida is less than thrilled about our kitchen's condition

Well, it has now turned into this:

Kitchen Renovation - Check!

Kitchen Renovation - Check!

Kitchen Renovation - Check!

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

No Place Like…

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Home

We’re back home! Moved back Sunday after two weeks in the Bed & Breakfast, and let me tell you: Two weeks of four people living in a one-room B&B can work if it needs to, but it’s not something I would do for fun. Even though we have nothing but a raw concrete floor in the kitchen area of our house at the moment, I just love being back home!

So what did you miss? Let me see – oh yes, Ronja had a wonderful birthday, and thank you so much for all your sweet birthday wishes!

5 years

We celebrated her birthday morning as usual, waking her up with a birthday song, presents, and breakfast. After breakfast we had to hurry outside, because Ronja got roller skates as well as a big trampoline (together with Frida who will be 2 in a month) – it all had to be tried, of course. Mads had set up the trampoline in our garden the day before, and even though it was still wet from dew, it was a huge hit with both Ronja and Frida. She caught on to the roller skating easier than what I would have thought, but it was still a bigger challenge than what it appears below…

Roller skating is fun

Back in our house, Mads has been working hard. We now have a concrete floor in the kitchen, and yesterday after work we went to choose some tiles for the floor. We’re already pretty much decided on what kitchen we want, and finding the domestic appliances is coming along slowly – we don’t want the kitchen to get too expensive, so we’re trying to get us some good bargains, as we would rather not compromise too much on quality or design. For those of you who are dealing with similar projects, there are so many people out there who bought something for their house, and then realized they made a mistake for some reason. That way, you can get new stuff relatively cheap (25-50 % off compared to the price in the shops) at places like eBay or the like – in Denmark we have DBA.dk. Mads and I use that a lot.

I have added a few pictures from the process below, but if you’d like to see more – go here. It seems that you guys have as much faith in Mads as I do, so let’s see how quickly our kitchen will take shape. :)

Pipes

A layer of leca stone topped with insulation

Pex tubing for the floor heat

The finished concrete floor

Lend Me Your Voice – What’s In the Future?

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Kitchen demolition - mosaic

This is where it becomes a bit nerve-wracking. There’s this big hole in our house, and at times it can be a bit hard to believe, that the hole will turn into a kitchen any time soon. Thumbs up to Mads, though – he’s really good at wrecking stuff and digging big holes – even dug a few in the yard as well to prove it…  :) The pictures were taken a few days ago – it’s worse now…

What do you think, guys? Do you believe in our project? Or do you just think we’re a couple of crazy Danes who have taken on an impossible project that won’t be finished without serious help from professionals? Let’s see what kind of expectations we’re trying to live up to here – will we have to prove you wrong, or will we struggle to meet your sky-high expectations?

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Will this hole in the ground be a kitchen again anytime this year?

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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.