flowers & girls

I have to admit I'm a little more exited to prepare for my little daughters birthday than for the boys'.

(Even though I have organized parties with themes like jungle, universe, detective, Italy, etc)

She wanted "flowers" as a theme.

How fitting for January- looking forward to spring!

She helped a lot with all decoration and wrote all name cards by herself.

I wanted to make tissue paper flowers a la Martha Steward for a long time, ever scince I saw the beautiful bedroom my friend Rie from Home and Harmony created for her four girls.

(read about it here)

But first I had to find out what tissue paper is called in norwegian and where to get it.

I succeeded.

Unbelievable my little girl turned from this

to this

within the last six years.

I'm so happy to have her!

weekend fun

The battery of our camara isn't working anymore... arrrggghh....

My boy Nr2 (9years) made a little video this week. I like it. ;)

Boy Nr4 is keeping my hands busy. He starts to talk now, and all his siblings are cheering along...

Happy weekend!

layering mirrors

House Beautiful Photo: Miguel Flores Vianna

I must be the queen of unfinished projects. A long time ago I announced I would give my up-stairs bathroom a mini make over.

Than I wished I never had mentioned it... :)

I'm still not done.

But I like my layered mirror.

First I thought about framing the mirror, but adding this darling thriftstore mirror (which was gold before it came to my house) adds a little interest and I'm happy with it....

Speaking about mirrors, I really got inspired by this cool DIY sunburst mirror:

Ii's Michelle from Ten June who made it.

I especially love that it's so LARGE!

I blieve in moving furniture...

Because:

1. it's free
2. you can instantly give a room a new feeling
3. it burns calories
4. you have the chance to really clean behind the furniture
5. it helps to relief cabin fever (which I get if it's raining for days/weeks)
6. ...

Need any more reasons?

now

before

In autumn I had moved our bed into this arch in our bedroom.

It was cozy.

On friday night Mr Viking mentioned that it was kind of annoying that he had to crawl into the bed from the bottom end. I agreed.

(Mr Viking did not know that my plans for saturday already involved a bedroom change :)

"But isn't this the wall where your faux fireplace has been???"

I am amazed how well you follow along.

The thing is, we have no warming in this room.

In winter it's  f.r.e.e.z.i.n.g  cold.

Which we dont't mind as long as we have good bedding we love to sleep in a cold room.

But as cozy as this corner was, in winter it's actually too cold to sit there...

And I believe interior has to have a function...

Over to this room:

It has been boyNr2 and boyNr3's room.

But they had moved in with boy Nr1.

So it functioned as playroom.

I want to use it as family room.

As the kids grow older the need for another living room is growing.

But the tourquise color had to go - I felt like sitting in a swimming pool.

(even though it's not very long scince I painted it that way - what was I thinking !?!)

So the fireplace moved.

More of this new family room later....

lovly childrens room's

At Norske Interiørblogger the January challenge was childrens rooms. There were so many lovely rooms - it must have been hard to choose some winners...
Here are some I liked best:

ralfefarfars paradis

lykke-bo

den gamle stil-de svunne tider

pitoresk

mias interior

And for a teenage boy this room must be a dream:

hegemors store lille verden

Happy weekend, everybody!

quirky candle holder

Just a little impression from my January livingroom...

I love sukkulents and zinc pots.

See that little candle holder with antlers attached to it?

I paid 5NOK (0.85USD) for it at my favourite thrift store!!! 

It makes me smile.

Otherwise I'm busy preparing the guest room today, scince we expect a visitor.

And somehow all sewing projects pile up on top of this bed...

Our old house and...

...why I have not been blogging for a week

(Note: all pictures are from our old house. In January 2009 we did a house-swap with my parents-in-law.

We loved this house which we had fixed up the previous years... but it was getting too small for our growing family)

I think last week I had a blog-block.

I just was so busy with life.

And we are in a process...

thinking.

praying.

asking the big questions

Where are we in life?

What do we want for the next years?

Do we have our priorities right?

Mr Viking and I have been laying on the bed and been talking for hours.

That is good.

Is it just the new year?

(the word "mid-life crisis" is lurking in the back of my mind... oh no, we are not THAT old!)

At the same time I have been sorting out, throwing away, purging and getting organized...

and I really start to long for spring!!!

Do you find yourself in the reflective corner this time of the year?

children's bedroom

NIB utfordring for januar er "barnerom". Tenkte jeg viser litt hjørna til eldstegutten. Han er elve år. Han lærte å lese før han begynnte på skulen og jeg vet sannelig ikke hvor mange bøker han har lest siden. 

Idag, når jeg kom opp for å ta litt bilder, låg C.H. Andersens eventyr oppslått på nattbordet - på tysk (vi er tospråklige). So dette er ikke "staged". Men eg har jo redd opp senget ;)

Universet har fascinert ham siden han var en liten gutt, så var gleden stor når besteforelderene gav ham stjernekikkert til jul.

Han har begynnt å spele gitar sist sommer.

Seng: fra fretex for noen år siden

Sengetøyet: Princess

Kommode: arvegods (malt)

New sunburst mirror

Since my homemade sunburst mirror is for sale, I had to replace it with something else.

How convinient that the Nester just posted about 

how-to-make-a-sunburst-mirror

the day after I took down my old one!

This is the Nester's original mirror

I had all that was needed on hand - a free and quickly done project is what I love!

This is how my copied version turned out.

Mine is a bit smaller and will not hang there for long - but works fine as space filler until I get something else.

Happy weekend!

Linking to:

For Sale

News to my local readers. My sunburst mirror is for sale.

Nyhet til mine norske lesere: Rekvedspeilet mit er til salg hos "Blissful Design" i Åkrehamn.

Den passer både i et sjøhus eller vanlig bolig!

Less is more

You remember that in fall I placed my four oldest in ONE bedroom?

It worked quite well. No more dragging mattrasses from one room to another...

But lately little princess stated to complain that she got disturbed by the reading lights of the others...

So it was time to move back to her girly princess room...

I love those "moves", because they give me the chance for some decluttering and purging of "stuff".

As the mother of five there is one thing I have observed again and again:

Children actually play better with less toys.

Things that stood the test of time is a large bin of basic lego's, matchbox cars and a box of those small  animals...

(Excuse bad picture quality today - very gloomy outside and nearly no natural light)

Decluttering

Happy new year everybody!!!

Yesterday, after a fourtnight of sitting on the sofa drinking coffee and eating cookies, I suddently arose and started some serious decluttering. I mean SERIOUS. 

The reason? I could not get this pic that Rie from Home & Harmony posted some days ago out of my head:

The woman behind this beautiful room is Kelly McGuill.

Check out her blog O so D.

What I love about it? 

It's so clean and fresh and calm.

So, this pic got me going - I want my home to look clean and fresh and calm!!!

My goal? Finish the upstairs today!

Se you tomorrow!!!

P.S. Want to know my new years resolutions???

None.

(I'm not good at keeping them anyway...)

But I have a goal: to grow in grace.

(For those others out there who love their bible: 2 Peter 3:18)