Bursting

I feel like I might explode and, alarmingly, my husband tells me I look just the way I did when I was just about to give birth to our son. He suspects the baby might come any day now and I must say I don't think it's unlikely. I'm not due 'till February 1st and tomorrow is my last day at work. I'm counting on a couple of weeks to make the final arrangements to get ready for little 'S' and to get some rest as well. I had no idea how tiring it would be to take care of a two year old with this huge bump on me! Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep at the same time as him tonight, so this is all the blogging I'm doing today. Oh, but I did tidy up in my links, took out a few sites that I never read and added some I've been following every day. Added some too that I just discovered and might be following... when I get the time...
P.S. I wish I looked as adorable as the woman in the photo! We're going to have some family photos taken at a photographer's on Saturday and I have no idea what to wear! Went and got a haircut today though. Check!

Hubby's Home Office

Today my darling Hubby started film school. I've promised to set up a home office space for him and I've been spending some time online, looking for inspiration. Here are a few faves:

A discreet box desk that would look fabulous with a great chair, some nice lamps and cool prints on the wall. Storage included in the desk itself. Might not be enough for my Hubby, but I would definitely not mind this in my living room. Seen on oh_food's flickr photostream.

Maybe I could go full out and create a real attention grabber? Enough space for both of us here. Includes beautiful things that I love: vintage finds, a fabulous colour, great pattern and well organised open storage. First seen on design*sponge and since then all over the web.

If we had too much closet space, I might consider this. Seen on Jen44's Flickr photostream.

Very simple and beautiful, but I guess if you have to sit there for hours on end and do some serious work it wouldn't really work. Nice, still. From Wig3000's Flickr photostream.

Room 606 at the Radison SAS hotel in Copenhagen. Preserved just the way Arne Jacobsen designed it in 1960. Hello gorgeous!

I've posted this before. Still fab!

We could just use our dining table as a desk, just add in some good storage (like seen here). Realistically it would end up looking like this, very charming but it might frustrate me in the long run:


I could try to find a niche somewhere and hide the office behind curtains when not in use like supershoppertoo. Only problem is that I'm planning to put the changing table in the only niche like space in our flat. I'd have to find another space for it then. Pregnant brain overload...

Right now I'm leaning towards using a system similar to the Elfa system, there is a corner in the TV/family room where this would be possible. It's very functional and flexible and can be dressed up to look very nice.

Something about this picture from Apartment Therapy captures me. It has an old-school charm about it that I think my hubby would appreciate.

What do you think? Have you created office space in your home that you're pleased with? Please share.

Getting ready for a new baby...

... can be tricky when the bump keeps getting in the way!

Some changes coming up...

We have a few changes coming up in our life soon and our home will definitely be reflecting them. So I thought it might be a good idea to show you our living room as it is now, and then let you follow the changes as they happen. First of all, we're expecting a new baby in a couple of weeks, but also my husband will be going back to school (starting monday actually) so he will need some office space. The only place for it is in the living room, so here we'll see most changes. I've been looking everywhere on the web for inspiration for home offices and I'll soon post a few of the pictures I've found. But for now, our living room:

We got the sofas at a thrift store for next to nothing. I had gone there by myself and had forgotten my phone, so I couldn't reach my husband. I got help at the store getting the sofas into my car (had to go two trips of course) but when I came to our flat I had to carrie them on my own. This was exactly a year ago and we had snow up to our knees. I don't know how I did it, I just knew I had to have them! The credenza we got off the Icelandic equivalent to Craigslist. It had legs originally, but we couldn't get it into the car with them on, so off they came and we never put them on again. Our son got the wheely bug for his first birthday from our Danish friends in London. I made the curtains with fabric from IKEA.

I love having double living rooms. In the bigger one we have the sitting area and dining, and in the smaller, where we actually spend the most time, we have the TV, books, mags and stuff like that. We decided to paint the wall between the two areas black to seperate them more visually. We decorated on a really tight budget, so most of the items are either thrifted, hand me downs or something really cheap from IKEA. Like the dining room chairs, they were the cheapest ones we found there. The table comes from my childhood home. We got the mirror from the window display in a shop my husband used to manage.

I really like the profile of the sofas, it reminds me of my grandfather's old armchair.

I'll soon be getting the most fantastic item to hang on that black wall. It used to belong to my grandmother and I have such fond memories of it from my childhood.

I made enough curtain wings so they could reach all the way across the room when drawn, also in the TV room.

If any of you know of any great pictures that could inspire me to create my husband's home office in this space, please please please send me some links. Also if you have any advice, please share :)

Hot mama!

Seeing this picture (via apt #34 to fadtony) made me miss my heals and also assured me that I will be wearing them again, only this time as a mother of two. I have about two or three pairs of (very flat) shoes that are comfortable for me now and will take me through a whole day, and for a shoe-holic like me, that's torture! I look down on my collection every day, gathering dust at the bottom of my closet, and depending on my hormone-induced mood of the day (or hour) it will break my heart or make it jump with joy.

Wearing heals while with children can be tricky, but it's definitely doable. Chose a comfortable pair (yes they do exist) and consider a few things: A pushchair is a great help as you can use it for support. Don't plan on walking too far though. Plan a few stops (coffee for you, milk or juice and a healthy snack for the kids - keeps them out of trouble as well). On a warm day, pop the flip flops in your bag, you might be extremely thankful for this and at least you were stylish half of the way!

Just a few of my faves at the moment.

This is my dream for the future (taken in Absolute Vintage close to Brick Lane).

Clever advertising

Check out these cool billboards seen on toxel.com!

I <3 Benita!

Every now and then someone has a super simple, yet brilliant solution to a common every day problem. Benita seems to have these solutions to most things in the home, and here is one that even I can execute! The "Super Simple Bed Skirt How-To" inspires me to get moving with this project, which by-the-way is quite well under way! We got my dad to come round today and help us with the drilling (a three man job, one drilling, one hoovering and helping out, plus one to mind George who is terrified of the noise!). Afterwards I went to IKEA to get a little missing piece so I should be all set in a few days' time to show off the result!
P.S. We've decided to raise our bed off the floor, which is why I want to do this bed skirt ;) I know there will be lots of stuff going under the bed as soon as we have the "extra" storage space!

Some sort of pasta bianco... with tomatoes

After all the heavy food we eat around the holidays I really find myself craving for something quick, light and easy. I don't know what goes into a real pasta bianco, but this is something I made up in my student years on one of those days at the end of the month where you just had to make do with what you had in the fridge. All it is, is spaghetti, boiled according to the instructions and drained, a generous pour of olive oil, some (in my case, a lot of) butter, some (maldon sea) salt, grated cheese and halved fresh cherry tomatos. For this one I added in roasted pine nuts as well. Super simple, super easy and I love it (and so does my two year old son which is always a huge bonus)! Not so sure about the nutritional value, but I'm sure there's no harm in eating this every now and then.

I love this bed!

This bed, dark grey walls, breakfast in bed, heaven.

HAPPY NEWYEAR'S!!!

This is what New Year's looks like for most Icelanders. George was terrified of the fireworks so I put him to bed well before midnight, but the noise woke him up, so this is what I was seeing at 00:00

We spent the evening with my parents and left George there, headed home as we'd invited some people over to celebrate the new year with us. I figured I had two options this time, stay in and go to bed early or have a party at home. I wasn't about to drag my heavily 8 month pregnant body into town!!! So this is what the rest of the night looked like, I stayed up till 6 in the morning and I'm paying for it now... I'm not too badly off though, sitting here, eating ice cream straight from the tub :)