Moon

I had lots of stuff to do at work but since everyone was headed home, and I still, after 4 years haven't gotten familiar with the alarm system in the building, I packed up too and kept working for 40 minutes when I came home.

The project is due on Friday and I am beginning to freak out. I leave on Sunday to host classes on the machine we have been building and I do not feel ready.

The girls were dropped off at the in-laws' this morning and will spend tomorrow and Thursday there so I can work late a few more days.

As I drove on the road out of town to go that short loop around before heading back to populated areas, the Moon hung low in the sky.

It dipped behind a barrow hill when the road turned and then showed up behind another barrow only to disappear again.

I stopped to take a picture of it but my iPhone just doesn't do it justice, and once I came home and had access to my good camera it had risen so high in the sky the feeling was gone and I am left to savour the memory of it.
File it away in my internal photo bank.

Rickard is away and I just had a few sandwiches and some coffee for supper. I was going to start on some quilting but I'm just not feeling it.
I'll leave it for tomorrow.

Piecemeal

I was awakened by Sofia yesterday morning when she came in to our bedroom crying that her tummy hurt.

A visit to the loo later and it was clear she had to stay home. Rickard drove off to the office with the intent to be back by lunch so I could get to the office and get stuff done.

Sofia and I snuggled on the sofa for a bit then had a light breakfast. There were no more incidents and by 10 am she was very perky again.

I plonked her in a bath to clean off any germs that might linger, plus a bath is always nice.

My sewing room is just across the hall from our bathroom and when I open the door I can see the tub from my computer desk which made it easy for me to get a little bit of sewing in.



I saw this star on Missouri Star's video tutorials a week ago and was dying to try it with a charm pack I had.
After snow balling it (putting the little right triangles on each corner) I was left with enough to make the little bonus pinwheel as well.

I like how it turned out. I think I will be making a few more of these soon.

After bedtime last night I also spent a moment in the sewing room and got this block pieced.



Anna Maria Horner designed the block and has a gorgeous feather quilt on her site. I really want to make a whole quilt with these feathers but it will have to wait.
I have so many things in progress I need to finish a few off before starting something new.

Art - take two!

The second print I bought at Isa Form is this kitchen print.

The website showed it in landscape format but we don't have a wall wide enough for that in our kitchen.
She was very sweet and accommodating and offered to turn the print for me at no cost.

I got another Ribba frame from IKEA for this one and I was worried it would be too large, but it does fit here.
The door handle will hit the frame when you open the door, but I have some little transparent glue dots to put on the frame to reduce the impact.

I think I'll pick up one of the colours and repaint the walls in the kitchen. The wall by the hob is in need of a touch up anyway.

Now to go with green or blue?

Art!

I never would have thought I'd get art for the laundry room. But given how much time I spend in there it is totally worth it.

I bought the print from Swedish  designer - Isa Form. She lets you customise the prints with your own phrases, so I picked "från halv tolv till middag" which in translation means "from half past eleven until noon" which is what my grandfather used to say to me when I spilled on my clothes. "You can't stay clean from half past eleven until noon."

The frame is Ribba from IKEA - I love that frame. Nice and chunky. When we redo the laundry (which I hope will be soon) I'll hang it on the wall that is behind our dryer now. It is a little low for my liking right now.

The brown tube on the right is our battery recycling collector.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Well, that last post was a word vomit if I've ever seen one. I'll add a few pictures here.

Starbucks opened its first Swedish location at Malmö Central Station this spring (I think). There is a Starbucks in Stockholm but on the other side of the ARN Security Checkpoint so it's not really accessible to anyone without a boarding pass.

I went there once in March with Rickard but didn't really like the premises. It's stark and the sound is weird.

I have however reconsidered since the food is good. If a bit (a lot) pricey.

The girls both wanted cake but we forced them to have a sandwich - it was breakfast after all.

The movie didn't generate much in the way of pictures but the new Adventure Miniature Golf course at Folkets Park (Peopele's Park) got a few.
There has been a generic, standardised golf course there for years but then they got a Ben & Jerry franchise to open up there and they gave the course a face lift.

It's all green astro turf and cool concrete obstacles that are all connected to the city. The one up there with the eyes are from the old chocolate company Mazetti. It's become something of a graphic icon that logo.

Sofia lost interest after a little while and I have never been very good at miniature golf, but I ended up winning with 2 points.

Rickard came in second and Isabel third.

This rose sculpture is a combined sculpture and splash pad. The water wasn't running on Saturday so the girls climbed on it for a while before we went home. The stem of the sculpture is really long and I couldn't get it all in one shot.

Domesticate

This has been a wonderful weekend. Yesterday we had almost 20 degrees and clear skies.

We took the bus to town and had breakfast at Starbucks at the Central Station. While eating I reserved tickets for us all to go see Hotel Transylvania at noon and we took a stroll through town browsing some shops before picking up the tickets.

The movie was fun and the girls both enjoyed it too. Before we left in the morning we had sort of promised them a round of miniature golf at Folkets Park so we walked over there via the video store and played a round. I won by a narrow margin!

The bus home stops right outside the park so we didn't have far to go once we decided to head home.

We missed the bus by a minute and had 20 minutes to spend while waiting for the next one so we stocked up for dinner at the store next to the stop.

We made home made pizzas and had ice cream but the girls were very disappoint we forgot the candy.

After the girls were in bed we got caught up on some televison before bed.

It was a great day.

Today I drove to the store for breakfast bread and the fancy juice. I picked up a package with some art I had bought while I was there.

After we ate I caught a bug of some kind and started cleaning. The patio door has been full of finger prints for a while so I decided to get them all cleaned. And while I was at it I vaccuumed the wooden blinds we have there. It was long over due too.

Rickard left with Sofia for swimming lessons, and Isabel helped me mop the floors in the laundry while I did the kitchen and hallway.

When Rickard and Sofia returned he started mowing the lawn and I took the girls to IKEA for lunch and some shopping.

We were out of candles and I wanted frames for the art I got. I also got new shades for the lamps in the living room. I just need to dig out the old bases for them. I think they're in the attic. I also found some great boxes for our pantry to make it more organised. It's been anarchy in there for a while. It's now looking much better.

We finished the day with fried herring and mash potatoes. A classic Swedish dish that I haven't made in this house ever. (We've lived here for 5+ years). Isabel ate 4 fillets/fish and declared it a great meal. Sofia ate one fillet and said she didn't like it but ate it anyway. Yay!
Rickard and I stuffed our faces with it and there are still food left over for my lunch tomorrow.

I got so much done at home today that I've been putting off. It feels great. and I hung the art in the new frames. One print in the kitchen and one in the laundry.

Tomorrow I'll see about those lamp bases. After dance class.

Don't be a doormat

In our former life. When we lived in town as DINKies we bought this very nifty doormat.



It says Cellphone, Keys, Wallet.

I love the simplicity of it and it did help me remember to bring all my stuff.

When we moved to our house 5 plus years ago the mat had seen better days and when my helpful FIL tried to bang it free of dirt against a wall he managed to tear off a corner of it.
Now it resides in our shed.

I happened upon an identical doormat at an online shop a few weeks ago and decided it was time to get one again.

Unfortunately when it arrived I felt it was a bit small for our hall - or maybe it was just that I had gotten used to the larger one we had.



So I flipped the larger one and placed the new one on the back and traced the outline. Then I cut out a hole in our larger mat and taped the new one down with duct tape on the back.

Perfect!

Puppy visit

Our Pup!Cousin is almost 5 months old and is getting big!



She came to visit for the first time with my FIL on Sunday when he came to fetch our old television set.
It was fun to have her here. She was very inquisitive and went all over to have a sniff and see what this place was like but she wasn't crazy active.

We had a bag of old plushies in the hall and she dove head first into it. Plushies are her favourite thing.
In the end we had to put the bag away but only after I dug out a fish for her to play with.
She went out in our garden which is perfect for her with a high fence she cannot jump over.



She left the toy out for next time she comes to visit. I hope it doesn't take another 5 months.

Wind blown

Sofia was supposed to have a swim class on Sunday at noon but the weather was great, albeit windy so we decided to ditch class and drive south to the beach instead.



Isabel was adamant she didn't need her windbreaker. The fleece was more than enough she said. Well. As long as she stayed in the car or behind some kind of shelter.



Down on the shore it was blowing a gale. She was more than happy to button up her jacket and the hood too.
There were at least 10 kite surfers and five-ish windsurfers enjoying the winds where we took our walk.

We went to Skanör which is the westernmost tip of Skåne and the place where migrating birds stop to rest before heading south across the Baltic along the Danish coast.

We saw murmurations of starlings (I think), quite a few swans and several different geese ploughs.

We seldom go to the beach at all and pretty much never in fall but I would like to make it a regular thing.
If we go further south(east), to Falsterbo there is good opportunities to find amber washed up after the autumn storms.
Skanör where we went yesterday is more of a sandy beach with loads of sea shells and sea weed. Further south the sand is mixed with pebbles and amber.