Be still

Due to a broken camara lens and some health issues I'm taking a little bloggbreak.

"Be still my soul and know that I'm God."

He knows. And he cares.

And even here in Norway spring's around the corner.

(But the pics are from May 2011)

I'll be back. ;)

"new" sofas

Two weeks ago our oldest and I traveled to Bergen. It's an three hours trip and it involves a ferry ride.

I so much enjoyed the company of my big boy.

The trip involved meeting friends and family.

And an afternoon of stolling through the city ALL ON MY OWN (can you imagine what a seldom treat this is for me? - it was the first time I was away from babyboy over night!)

Did I shop? Actually I went to a bookstore and bought a book, found a nice Café, ordered a Cappuccino and read for several hours...

And I went to a certain swedish furniture and other fun stuff store and got a new slipcover for one of the two sofas I bought used (one in Bergen, one here on the island).

That equals two "new" sofas for 190USD/1050NOK and a very happy wife!

Thanks David!

A sunburst mirror made from flower tags

When sunburst mirrors first entered home fashion... honestly, I hated them.

 But it seems even I get influenced by what's "haute couture" ;)

They grew pretty quickly on me.

Especially those made of wood...

In fall I made one of driftwood.

Than I sold it.

So I copied Nester's craft paper eddition.

It was a tad to small on this wall.

Than I saw those cheap flower tags at store (Biltema)...

and I kept my eyes open for a round thrift store mirror.

I played around a while with how to arrange the tags.

After finding how I liked it best, it was just to warm up the hot glue gun...

And voila:

Sunburst mirror 

Nr 3

the fascination of running water

Japan and our living room

Some days ago I cut some bare branches in the garden and look at them now!

Isn't this amazing?

Out of nothing - green leaves, soft pink flowers.

HOPE!

In the background yet another sunburst mirror I made some time ago.

Now it makes me think of Japan everytime I see it.

Land of the rising sun

So does this little bonsai tree.

Day of silence

Praying for Japan

Spring wreath

Inspired by Laylas spring wreath I created my version the other day.

I actually had a wreath where I had twinned cotten straps around for a base.

So I used it just as it was.

Than I hotglued some stuff on it I had lying around...

a mix of flowers and buttons.

I hung it outside on our old weathered door, hoping for spring.

Five minutes afterwards it started snowing.

Japan

Japan is very much on our mind. My husbands family lived in Japan several years in the late seventies/early eighties. One of the places they lived is Miyako, one of the costal towns that is severely damaged.
We pray for the people there, especially for the pastor and members of an evangelical church of whom we yet not know if they have survived the tsunami...

A norwegian missionary we know lives about 40kilometers away from the nuclear power station which is in trouble. She want's to stay with her japanese family and friends.

Pray for Japan.

Kitchen inspiration

Gasp! Isn't this kitchen beautiful!?!

Flea Market Trixie

Check out how Flea Market Trixie transformed a dull kitchen into this lovly place.

on tour and a tip

Yesterday we drove about an hour into some fjords visiting a small church. I didn't take my camara along.(sometimes it's best just to enjoy life, but the picture above is from the area, and it looked jut like this ;).

 The drive on an early Sunday morning was beautiful.

The afternoon we spent having potluck at a playground together with friends

Even though spring is yet to come the days are longer now

 and my daugther came in with the first snowbells the other day...

Happy new week!

Feel the need to tackle some organizing projects?

Tsh at Simple Mom is doing a five week organizing series.

My Kitchen

(May 2010)

Because NIB's challenge in March is to show our kitchen, I took some new pics today...

(hence my cleaning frenzy the last days ;)

These cute boxes are from this shop: AnnaJohanna.

There are no major changes scince I painted the kitchen last April.

Babyboy got a amall table and chair - and he loves his little space...

And after our old fridge broke down we got a new (to us) side by side...

One of the best decissions when painting my cabinets was to remove some of the doors.

To add an old desk as kitchen island has worked very well aswell.

And the sawhorse is a favourite spot for the kids to eat some snacks.

And this is how the kitchen looked before:

I link to: Cottage and Vine

kitchen talk - I need help!

Yesterday 10.30 pm I started to declutter and scrubb my kitchen kabinetts. I was restless. Sometimes it's convenient to channel such feelings into something productive... ;)

Two weeks ago I got so frustrated with my inability to keep my kitchen neat and clean, that I joined the Flylady.

So now I dutyfully shine my sink every evening and slowly this shining habit spreads to other areas of my kitchen...

Are you keeping up with the dishes?

Have you experience with flylady? Did it work for you?

Any other suggestions to help to keep a kitchen clean?

fleeting beauty

Isn't a bunch of tulips a fleeting beauty?

They bent.

They die.

I still can't throw them out.

Because they still somehow are beautiful.

And today they remind me that imperfect still can be beautiful.

Just like my life.

Just like the door that does not shut properly.

Or the chairs that need a coat of paint.

And they tell me that in my strive for perfection I so quickly forget to enjoy the beauty God placed in my life.

So I thank God for my little man eating yoghurt with his hands (because mommy is busy taking pictures) and for a new friendship to the one who gave this lovly tulips to me...