Quick, quick, slow

I started painting my studio yesterday and had high hopes I would get the brunt of the job done the same day. But dark turquoise walls are really hard to paint over with a white colour. I had bought 3 liters and the vendor assured me it would be enough.

Spoilers! It wasn’t.

The clock was ticking for closing time at the paint store so I enrolled my mother to go and buy another can of paint, certain another liter would be enough.

Nope, still not enough. And the store is closed on Sundays.

So we turned to the internet to see if we could find another local store that carried the same brand of paint and was also open on Sundays. Turns out paint is not something store owners think you want to buy on Sundays. But the internet told us there was a place 15 km away so we decided to go there.

Turns out the internet was wrong and they weren’t open on Sundays at all. The second closest place was 65 km away and while I really wanted to get it done, I didn’t want it that bad. So I had to rethink my plan.

I thought I’d get nothing done but I have primed the fourth wall, sanded down the chest just before it started snowing, painted the chest once (dry time 8 hours, ugh) and I just finished painting the focus wall the first time. I can paint it again in 3 hours which I intend to do, if only so I can take off the masking tape and see the result.

I’m really liking the colour.

Slow going

I didn’t get as much done in the studio this week as I had hoped. The girls are both back in school and evening activities have started up.

Tonight we bought Indian take-out and watched some Netflix before the girls bedtime, and I fell asleep on the sofa. Woohoo! Big night.

I did manage to bring out all the rollers and brushes from the shed though, so tomorrow, bright and early there will be painting.

New studio

Now that the attic is done (more or less) I have turned my attention to Isabel’s old room which is being turned into a studio for me. I say studio because it’s easier than “my new sewing room”, and also because it sounds less home spun.

When we moved in to this house we picked a dark turquoise for Isabel’s walls and I put up some cute ballerina wallies. They will all have to go now. It was time either way – Isabel had started mentioning that she wanted them gone even before we began the attic conversion. I was just sad to see them go. She was still in diapers when we moved in here. My wee girlie.

But I digress. I took down all the ballerinas yesterday and tonight I’ll go over and patch all the holes in the walls and window sills. I plan to get all the prep work done this week so I can start painting this weekend.

The plan is to paint three of the walls a bright white with a very slight pinkish tint and the fourth wall (the one with the door) will be a pale dusty pink. I also picked a different texture for the pink wall. Alcro has a brand they call Pashmina which has a very matt finish. I hope it will be a nice background for photographs as well.

The wall behind the door will be white and I plan to cover it somehow with flannel or fleece so I can use it as a design wall. The door will come off and put into storage. If I need to close off the studio I’ll have to make some kind of drape for the door instead. Both girls are so big now that there is no need to shut the door to keep them out any more.

Initially I planned to put the computer in one of the wardrobes but I may need the space for my stash and shop stock – I hope to do a personal destash when I move in though so there is still hope.

The Attic – Unveiling

Remember this?

In almost exactly six month’s time it has become this:

We did an epic IKEA run on Friday last week where we got beds, sofas, storage drawers, rugs, bedding, lamps etc. We assembled flat pack furniture until 10 pm on Friday and got up early on Saturday to continue.

Before the addition of posters and book cases this is what Sofia’s room looked like. I love the floors. Not only because I laid it but because I think it’s absolutely gorgeous.

This is Sofia’s bedroom nook. We added a hanging net over it after this picture was taken and it looks really cosy.

Isabel picked a wood grain pattern on her drawers.

I think her bed calls for a blue and white quilt with pin wheels – don’t you?

We had the grand opening of it on Sunday with ribbon cut, finger sandwiches and bubbly cider. The girls had already slept up there that night but let’s not dwell on that.

We have the closet to finish as well in the attic but we have all the material for it – we’re saving the work for the weekend. I have a chest to sand and paint this weekend as well. Fingers crossed the temps rise a little so I can get to it.

It took 6 months and 3 days from start to move in which was a bit longer than we had anticipated but still not bad since we’ve worked full-time as well.

All that’s left for the girls to do now is find the favourite lounge spot. Isabel likes the sofa. Sofia prefers this for now.

The Dark is Rising

I joined a FB-group dedicated to re-reading The Dark is Rising sequence in honour of the 40th anniversary of the titular book’s release and it led me to this link with reviews of the books.

I am reading them to Isabel at the moment. We are almost finished with book 4, The Grey King and I’m constantly reminded of how much I loved them as a child and how much they shaped what I’m looking for in books.

I was 10 or 11 when my teacher, who was also the school’s librarian, handed me The Dark is Rising one day at school and said “I think you’d like this one”. I took it home and showed it to my Mum who asked if she could read it first. Not sure if she was vetting my reading or not and I said sure – I was a little scared by the cover illustration.

She finished it quickly and handed it back to me saying I should definitely read it, but that it was a bit scary. Which of course made me put it at the back of the queue – I had mostly read Little House and Anne of Green Gable by then so scary books weren’t really my thing (or so I thought).

Then the date when I had to bring the book back to school was getting closer and I sat down to read it after all. And my memory is that I devoured it in one sitting, berating my mother for saying it was scary and immediately bringing it back to my teacher asking for more of the same.

For some reason The Dark is Rising was the first book to be translated into Swedish so I read them out of order.

I got four of the books over the next year or two and read them over and over again while hoping to get the fifth and last book for my birthday. A few weeks before my birthday I was home sick and I got permission to take a nap in my Mum’s bed. I put my hand underneath her pillow and pulled out Silver on the Tree. She had bough it for me and was reading it herself before giving it to me.

It took all my willpower to put the book back without reading it and then wait until the book turned up, wrapped for my birthday.

As I learned more English in school I found myself attempting to translate the books into English in my head as I read them. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted to read them in English. So – this was before Internet and Amazon in the late 80′s – I went to a book store in town and asked them to track the books down for me and they found the sequence – all five books in one.

I brought it with me on our graduation trip to Yugoslavia (before the Balkan-war) and got a lot of comments from my class mates on why I read in English and what a snob I was. I didn’t care.

Since then I’ve read it several times – usually when I’m sick and need a distraction from my stuffed nose or sore throat. I can usually finish one book in a day so they are on my annual re-read list – sick or not.

Lucia Cats – Yule Boars

I made saffron rolls last week which were very tasty but the traditional use for saffron at Christmas is in “Lussebullar“.

Traditionally made for Lucia which always fall on Dec 13th to celebrate the martyr Lucia who wore a crown with candles on her head to keep her hands free to carry food and drink to the poor and to persecuted Christians.

I can’t really tell you why Scandinavia celebrated an Italian saint but we have done it this way for about 100 years now. The Lucia day has been a day of celebrations for much longer than that though so it may be a case of hostile take over of a pagan tradition.

The s-shaped bun is the traditional shape but I did a few variations. In the upper picture you can see a Lilly, a swaddled child and a Yule carriage (the double bun with the spirals going outward).

Sadly (?) the saffron make the buns go stale rather quickly so you either eat them all at once or freeze them and take out only what you “need”.

Straight out of the oven they are so good I could inhale the lot.

Windows and hatches

Rickard took the day off on Thursday and put in the wooden boards around the windows (embrasures, google translate tells me) in our windows in the attic.

After a line of putty on the outside against the wall the windows look really good. Now we’re just waiting on a delivery of the stone windowsills. I’m told we should be able to pick them up this week.

Each of the rooms has two inspection hatches so we can check the ventilation and electricity systems. The doors are flush with the walls but the board around it stick out. I’m not sure how to decorate around it but we’ll work it out.

The board on the right hand side (where the hinges are) is stuck on with magnets so we can open the hatch as well.

The floors are swept and vacuumed and ready for the floor boards. We finally managed to get hold of the plumber and he may have an opening next week to put in our radiators. We’ll have to hold off with the floor until he’s done. But I am itching to start.