The trouble with daylight savings...

...is that you have to pay it back.

Makeover round two

I do have some wonderful friends here in Sweden, so wonderful that they even allow me to come over and move their stuff around... mostly just because I just really enjoy doing it.

I really do believe that the smallest changes in your environment can have a big impact.
And, there's nothing I enjoy more than spreading a bit of happiness!

It makes me happy to make you happy!

Here's my darling (and slightly daring) friend Jenny, in their lovely apartment! (That's her flipping through her boyfriend's Wallpaper magazines for some patterns for me to use for my peg magnets. )

This is a huge living room in comparison to most inner city apartments!
They are also lucky enough to have a large separate kitchen with dining room, and a separate bedroom... Definitely enough room to swing at least three cats!

Here's another view in the lounge, take a note of the wooden sideboard and the book shelf.

First of all, I didn't really want to change anything.
But after about 10 minutes of standing in one corner, then the other corner, sitting on the couch, then standing in the doorway... I knew exactly what we needed to do!

All that was needed was to swap the wooden sideboard and the bookshelf!

You know when I room is successfully furnished when it feels balanced.
It's not about perfect symmetry, but harmony and proportion.

The sideboard is now a part of the room again, as it sort of got a bit lost and not used to its potential where it was previously placed.

And now the bookshelf is helping to add interest to the height of the room without being quite as dominating. It also helps to visually break up the large room without having to divide it.

It was such a joy to help Jenny and her boyfriend with their apartment because they have such good taste in furnishings, so it really was quite easy to pull it all together!

We also had a lot of fun colour coordinating the books on the book shelf...

So, who's next!?

LOL

When moving to the other side of the world,

you get really good at getting rid of stuff. 

I've somehow managed to do it three times now!

I hate to think how much crap I'd be bogged down with if I had never done it.

The past would have been dragging me down, and holding me back.

You could ship it all with you, 

but in my experience this usually ends up being more trouble than it is worth.

You wonder why on earth you bothered to pack down half of the stuff when it finally arrives!

The same goes for what ever was in those boxes that you left in storage all those years...

Although it may seem like a daunting task,
but once you get a bit of momentum going you almost want to throw it all away
and walk out of the house with nothing but the clothes on your back! 

I almost managed that this time around.

I posted forward a box of books with a few treasures, 

and I had with me only two suitcases of clothes...
My winter jacket took up almost one whole suitcase! 

It is important though to hold on to some small treasures.

To remind you of who you are, who you were and where you came from.

One of my treasures was some wooden blocks, in the shape of my name.

I don't remember when I got them or even who made them for us.

My sister Zoe had them as well and I was always jealous of how cool her name looked in the wooden letters, wishing I had a 3 letter name too.

So I would rearrange the letters as much as I could:

I was pretty stoked to figure out that I could even
make my name in to an armless man with a hat!

But probably the best one of all, seemed like a nonsense word at the time...
Now, many years later it has to be my favorite!

Hooray for...

Boyfriends who cook!! 

Well that last post was a bit moody wasn't it...
But such is life, sometimes it sucks a little bit.

So, I thought I should get back on to talking about things that I love.

What better to start with than my darling boyfriend who does most of the everyday cooking.

Plus he actually seems to enjoy it too?!

I've noticed that a few of my female friends have the same routine, 

boy does cooking, girl does dishes.

Can you imagine this happening 50 years ago?

No!

Husband comes home from work to a cocktail and dinner waiting for him on the table.

Honestly, I love the clothing and design and everything else med-century, 

I just don't think I'd ever be cut out to be a full on house wife. 

Sure, cleaning and laundry is all fine and dandy, no problem!

But just don't ask me what we're having for dinner...

This is usually what happens when I put a pinny on!

Wine somehow gets involved and then any food is good food, especially vegemite on toast. 

Hmmm... My pinnies haven't been put on for a while, who wants to come over?