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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

Room for my patterns and sewing magazines.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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…

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.

]]> http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/09/02/no-place-like/feed/ 10 55.411485 12.141007 http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/08/19/lend-me-your-voice-whats-in-the-future/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lend-me-your-voice-whats-in-the-future http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2009/08/19/lend-me-your-voice-whats-in-the-future/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:44:05 +0000 Astrid http://www.connectingthedots.dk/?p=999

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?

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!

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.

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.

Bathing in the garden

A lot of things have happened since I last wrote.

Summer has arrived, which is a great thing. The house is expanded into the garden, and much of our time is spent outdoors – working, relaxing, playing, etc. Mads’ birthday was the 3rd of June, and among other things he received a Weber fireplace, which has already given us several cosy evenings in the garden around the fire. On the evening of his birthday we celebrated by going to a nice restaurant without Ronja – and we had the best time. House of Souls as the restaurant is called is always good for a guaranteed positive food experience in a wonderful and friendly atmosphere. We rounded off the evening with “The Da Vinci Code” – my personal opinion of the movie is that it’s better than its reputation – though not a masterpiece. We definitely had a really nice evening!

Mads finished his education as a technical designer with a fine result two weeks ago, and he’s now permanently employed, modelling 3D in the plant space design department in DONG Energy where he also worked as an intern. So that’s the end of fulltime education for this couple – at least for a little while… ;o)

Now we’re going to concentrate on our house. The plan is to rebuild the entire second floor on the inside, and that is actually what Mads’ final project on his education was about. Good thing he got a good grade – now we dare use the drawings… ;o) Take a look here (pdf) if you want to see a 3D drawing of the house the way it will look – when we’re done! Notice that you can rotate the drawing, look inside and other cool stuff (if you have Adobe Reader 7.0 that is – otherwise you can get it for free here)! We ordered the new doors and windows yesterday, which is a big thing. The choice fell on Outline Vinduer after researching the market thoroughly, and now we’re looking forward to seeing the windows arrive in approximately 10 weeks.

Ronja is learning new words all the time, and she has also started combining them, which makes way for a good laugh once in a while. She enjoys the good weather as much as anyone – running around in the garden finding snails, picking flowers and making sand cakes.

Everything’s fine – though at the moment Ronja and I are both spending a few days at home with severe sore throats, which is less amusing. Well, well – it’ll pass, and I do believe the summer is still there when it does.

During the summer we are going to change doors and windows in our house, and Monday we’re going to Byggecentrum, an exhibition that shows products from lots of different manufacturers, making it possible for you to evaluate the style and quality of each. I’m really looking forward to that, since it’s one of the first steps towards the greater improvements of our house, and finding out which windows to use is a big thing.

At the end of next week we have booked a small weekend cottage through Mads’ work – it’s right next to Roskilde Fjord and if the weather is with us, we should have the opportunity to have some nice walks by the water, so we keep our fingers crossed.

I think we’ll also find the time for one more trip to the ZOO to check out how the elephants are doing. ;o)