Look! A bike in the bedroom

I love everything in this picture, the light pouring through the windows, the bed that looks like the softest cloud, coffee...mmmm coffee, and most of all the bike - what a beautiful setup! (via Design*Sponge)

Simple tricks that make you look smart

You've probably already seen this over at Apartment Therapy, but I'm posting this link here so that I can always find it again.

Wishing I was in Boston...

... 'cause then I could get four of these for one hundred dollars!

DesignMarch 02 - Ljósspor

I would love this as a bedside table, perfect for breastfeeding in the night (and once I'm out of this excluding state of mind I'm sure I'll think of loads of other uses for it!). It uses an ancient Nordic textile pattern as the basis for the design, and it's part of a series of tables, shelves and lights. I can't wait to see more! By my very good friend and favorite product designer, Ingibjörg Hanna.

DesignMarch 01 - Timeless

Over the next few days I'll be posting some of the things that caught my eye during the weekend's DesignMarch.
This clock shows us in such a brilliant way what a stressed out, clockwatching society we have become. It has a tiny peephole that you have to look through to actually see what time it is, should you really need to. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but do check out the website.

Apparently...

... the Golden Plover, our sweet bearer of spring, has arrived. As I'm sitting here, on a Saturday morning, sipping my chamomile tea, all I can see when I look out the window is bare tree branches through the blizzard...

photo by *Jonina*

I'm glad spring is out there somewhere

From the talented famapa of my funny eye.

Way back when...

... I had time for scribbles like this. It seems lifetimes ago, and in a way, this is me in a previous life.

Good times ahead!

Reykjavík is buzzing with creative activity these days (well, on any given day really). I will be attending this and this. Hopefully I can post some pictures, but my darling Hubby has gone and misplaced yet another item of ours, this time the camera!

Lemonade Award

Yay! The lovely Carrie of Carrie Can has awarded me the Lemonade Award! Thank you, I'm honored.

And now for the rules for the award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate 10 blogs that show attitude and/or gratitude.

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on a post.

5. Nominate your favorites and link to this blog.

Ok, so I don't have so much time these days, so I probably can't nominate 10 blogs, but these are the ones (in no particular order) I try to read regularly:

1 A cup of Jo - for some New York fabulousness

2 Chez Larsson - for inspiration to make my life less chaotic

3 East side bride - for indie wedding inspiration

4 Le Blog de Betty - for French chic

5 Babyccino - for all little kiddo things, from 4 stylish girls in 4 stylish cities

6 Nesting - for family lifestyle, and finally

7 Crabmommy - because we're not all perfect goddesses!

8 Carrie Can - for wonderful inspiration

9 My Funny Eye - for beautiful photography that lifts the spirit

10 Automatism - for endless inspiration

Oh look at that, I made it to ten!

So anyway, I haven't vanished from the face of the earth, jusb been a bit busy in baby world. I'll try to blog whenever I get the chance, my free time these days is mostly spent getting some food into my system and catching up on precious sleep. Love to you all!

We're home - again!

Ah, sorry for the lack of posting lately, baby 'S' and I are just settling in at home again after having spent a few days in hospital. He caught the RS-virus and had to be given oxygen and his oxygen levels and pulse had to be constantly monitored. The hospital was absolutely great, the staff were amazing and the facilities really good, we shared a room with another little boy with the RS-virus and his mum; "fortunately", because we had to be in isolation due to the infectiveness of the virus and it was nice having some company. We're so glad to be be home again and we can't wait for this winter period with all it's diseases to be over so we can start enjoying spring :)

The picture is of our little taste of spring, flowers from our guests today... as you can see, we're far away from spring here!

Oh you genious!

It's not even spring yet (so far from it!) and I'm already salivating over next autumn's runway shows. I mean how gorgeous is this!?


Marc by Marc Jacobs, A/W 2009

Baby bliss

So our newest family member did come on the full moon on February 9th. I'd been getting mild contractions since the evening before and they continued in the morning. At noon I called my husband to come home from school (oh yes, did I mention he started film school?) and he accompanied me to the appointment I already had with my midwife. She confirmed that the baby's head was finally engaged and that I was about 3-4 cm dialated. She told us to call the hospital when the contractions lasted 40-60 seconds and coming every 4-5 minutes. We went home and I sat on my fitness ball, rolling and bouncing, and concentrated on my ujjayi breathing. At about 4:30 in the afternoon we went to the hospital and to make a short story even shorter, our boy was born 2 hours later. He's an absolute beauty, a calm, content little creature. We're enjoying getting to know each other and settling into each other's routines.

When he sleeps, I'm busy catching up on design blogs, fashion and, with my unsatiable appetite, delicious recipies that I can't wait to share with you (I'm ready to get domestic!). First up, check out the total gorgeousness in the next post!

Finally here

Here he is, my little boy, sleeping next to his mummy on his first day in this world.

Come on full moon!

Well, I'm still waiting, now 8 days overdue. The moon is full tonight and apparently the maternity wards get filled up when that happens, apparently some units even have more staff available during the full moon periods. I'm counting on nature to pull it's weight here, oh and the fact that I'm going for a cervical sweep later today. Crossing my fingers (and not my legs)!

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).