• Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Stöde

    Here and now…ish

    I am writing again. Journaling, letters, something that could turn into a novel – and here. All thanks to Julia Cameron’s The Right To Write – or thanks to my friend A., who lent me TRTW? Or thanks to the book launch of another friend that made me want to write again? Or maybe thanks to everyone and everything at once. Either way, I am grateful.

    Where to pick up again after such a long absence? How about here and now…ish.

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    I’ve been baking – biscotti on Wednesday.
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    We’re all set for the winter.
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    Like I said: all set for the winter.
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    We’ve rearranged the living room, I just haven’t made time to take pictures of all its glory yet.
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    Oden is still awol. Freja is all the more snuggle-crazy – and we are all the more snuggle-crazy about her.
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    I’ve been crocheting and knitting and loving it.
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    More baking. This was yesterday. Orangey, marzipany, chocolatey yumminess.
  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Stöde

    Day 6

    The good news is: we do have internet at our new home. The bad news is: it’s terribly slow and I won’t be able to access it from my mac. No idea how this is going to affect my blogging (doesn’t seem like I could spread the posts any thinner as it already has been the case …). Right now we are at Peter’s mom’s, catching up on stuff. I am using this opportunity to post and schedule some posts to create the illusion that I am back, and frequently posting … So let’s get started on this catching up business.

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Stöde

    Days 3, 4 & 5 | After

    Looks like we’re driving up on Sunday, not tomorrow, as I thought. That kind of rendered my melt-down last night pointless, since it’s a lot less stressful this way …

    Day 3
    Compared to day 3, it looks like we just moved the lamps and boxes around.
    The status quo

    I would not have survived this week without coffee and Daft Punk. Somehow the line „Our work is never over“ got stuck in my head by the end of the week …

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Stöde

    Day 2 | After

    Obviously not much point in a before pic – see yesterday’s after.

    I am actually quite content right now with the progress, which is not how I felt yesterday and this morning when I woke up. It seemed like my goal to get this entire move over with before my birthday (this upcoming Sunday) was completely insane, and as usual, when I cannot meet my completely unrealistic expectations, instead of adjusting them I felt like a failure.

    Somehow things flowed today, though, and all we have left to do now is clear out the kitchen and the balcony, and clean everything. If we get the last of the packing done tomorrow, we have Thursday and maybe even Friday for the cleaning. That doesn’t seem so crazy, does it?

    I am super-grateful for help we’ve been offered from Peter’s brother. Renting trucks to pick up here and leave there is insanely expensive, so Peter’s ever so resourceful mom came up with the genius idea of renting a truck at rent-a-wreck in Sundsvall, having Felix drive it down here, and the three of us driving the truck with our stuff and our car back up the next day. That way it’ll all be done in one fell swoop. I am almost a little in shock that Felix agreed to do this – I am really not digging the whole moving thing, and frankly I wouldn’t even help myself if I had that option. And I don’t even have to go to work right now!? So, really grateful, and I hope Felix will never move because we owe him big time after this …

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Stöde

    August 23 2013

    From now on, that’s a date worth remembering. It’s the day we bought the house. Yay! We are still determined to move in before September 1, so from here on out we’ll be busy packing and cleaning like maniacs.

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    What I do when I am not packing | Procrastination

    We mean business. No, not the banana trade business. We mean the business that is packing so we get outta here.

    We got boxes alright …

    Now we just have to pack our stuff. We still don’t know when we’re going to be able to move but when you think about it, packing a little each day would make it so much easier in the long run. „Would“ being the operative word here, since you know how these things go: you start out with a totally sensible game plan, and then you end up putting it off until the last minute, 30 seconds of which will be spent wondering why you didn’t stick with your plan, and what did you do with all that time anyway that you didn’t spent packing.

    Well, let this be my account for at least part of that time not spent packing: obviously, I spend that time on the internet. Looking for inspiration for the part of the renovating process that I am looking forward to the most but which I already realized is going to end up pretty much on the bottom of the priority list of things that need fixing – decorating. Even I realized that waterproofing exterior unfortunately trumps beautifying interior.

    So this is me preparing to get sucked into an alternate universe where things are upside down:

    I am definitely into the style of Jess‘ room …
    … and not just because it basically feels like my own after watching two seasons of New Girl in three days
    Digging the technical drawing of the dandelion.
    I also dig Catalina Estrada’s folklore wall paper art, although I don’t really care for how it looks like it was drawn on a computer. I guess I would like for it to be a little more scrawly.
    Still – pretty cool.
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    I could go on – but I won’t check out Catalina Estrada’s site for more
    More folklore
    … and more. I wouldn’t want any of our rooms to look like this but I am liking the whole bright-colors-lots-of-ornaments-and-small-decorative-items thing that these folklore style rooms have going on
    Love the wall AND the tiles.
    I could also get down with an idea on the other end of the scale: an all white room with one element that pops out. Not necessarily with china dolls or a cheetah carpet …
    (Another) Future DIY project?
    Very much into yellow lately. I wonder if it’s just a phase or if I could actually live with wallpapers like these for a while … I’m thinking downstairs hallway. To be honest, I have seen these PiP wallpapers in a look book at a store (passing time waiting for the library to open, not that you asked), and I didn’t think they looked that great from up close. Anything that is processed by computer kind of loses it’s soul in my eyes … Maybe I need to draw my own wallpapers …
    Also digging turquoise in general and this baby in particular. Nice job!

    Well, so much for now. How do you spend your time procrastinating stuff? Got any inspiration for me (not in the procrastination department, doing pretty ok there by myself, but in the decorating department)? Feel free to send it my way!

     

  • Bewusst Leben,  Sarines Göteborg

    Indestructible | Plant life

    The deal with the house has felt so right and so real the whole time to me that making the down-payment (this past Monday) doesn’t even seem like that big of a milestone. The house has felt like ours the whole time.

    Not even the fact that we’re still waiting for an appointment with a chimney sweeper (who, we hope, will tell us that everything is OK because otherwise things could suddenly take a turn towards pretty pricey …) can change that. Like I’ve been saying: I have come to the conclusion that I’d rather be excited about things than worried even if not everything is settled yet. If everything works out, then great – I did not waste any time worrying. If things don’t work out – then at least I had those moments of excitement and happiness. Anything can change at any time anyway, so.

    The plants in our apartment, which we once again abandoned for a trip up north, remind me how powerful and amazing life is. If these little guys can bounce back like that, so can I if for some reason things with this house don’t turn out as I imagine …

    Tuesday night …

    … this morning (Thursday).

    They actually looked a lot better already a few minutes after watering them.

    I just didn’t really bother to take any more pictures until this morning.

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    If I can just get one tomato from these I’ll be happy.

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    Yes, that is a plant pot with the O’boy logo painted on. Don’t ask.

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    More like mourning glory …

    … morning glory!