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By nini, May 13, 2012 10:11

I have a thing for various decorative shapes. I tend to place them in small groups. The square in the background is a very old candle holder from Ikea. Can hold regular candles or tea-lights. If you turn it upside-down you can place flowers in it.

The black and the white mini-statues are both from Greece. Pretending to be replicas of some real statues or ritual objects. The black one is heavy iron. The white one is marble.

This glass ball is like the universe if you look into it long enough. Bought that in Malta in 1996. About the only beautiful thing I found in Malta actually. I have two other glass balls/glass things from Malta that are nice too (not pictured here). Glass balls like these have fascinated me since I was a child.

The black round thing is ceramics from Greece that looks like a stone. The white candle holder for tea-lights at the back I bought in a store in Stockholm that is no more. The blue ball is from Malta (see above). The small terracotta ball is in fact a salt or pepper holder if you turn it around. Bought that in Greece long ago.

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By nini, May 10, 2012 10:26

The wait is over.

The fence is coming. And soon done.

This will be good.

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By nini, May 4, 2012 21:21

Have been playing around a bit with Adobe Photoshop CS6.

The best with Photoshop CS6 is the new Camera Raw 7.x. Can fix images which previously were quite hopeless. Love it.

Others might say that it is the new Oil Paint filter. Personally, I don’t get it with that filter. Using it on an image just makes it look very artificial. Or I just don’t understand the point of that filter. Or how to use it. Somebody please explain to me what is so great about it?  I wouldn’t paint like this… (Photo is my own). On the other hand I do not do oil paintings. If I paint, I do aquarelles.

Generally I love Photoshop CS6 though.

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By nini, April 15, 2012 09:59

The renewal and building of the fence along the road came to a standstill for a while for technical reasons (they couldn’t agree on how to fasten that additional bit of plank that will make the fence more protective against noise from the road). Friday they begun building again, but they are still at the other end from me. Will still take some time (a week or two?) until they come to my part of the fence where they will prolong it with a new part.

When done, I have plans for this spot at the this side of the high fence at my outside place. More plants….

I really long for them to prolong that fence. Below is my bedroom-window as seen from the street. Yes, it is that close.

Meanwhile I am just waiting for them to come build that part of the fence. Soon now…

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By nini, April 11, 2012 10:21

How could this look once have been modern and popular? I get depressed every time I see this sofa-group with armchair.

Well, it was popular. Very. As was the color of the walls.

As a blast from the past you only have to enter our housing cooperatives’ premises. Here they are, the sofas, the armchair, the coffee table and that dreadful wallcolor.

We have now decided to get rid of those furniture and repaint the premises and buy new furniture.

The walls will be gray.
The conference table and chairs will stay as will the lamps.
The sofa and 2 armchairs, will come from IKEA, probably an Ektorp with exchangeable covers that can be washed. Cannot be white unfortunately as these premises can be rented by anyone in our housing cooperative for a symbolic sum for parties and meetings. Covers have to be dirt resistant. Unfortunately IKEA recently changed the choice of colors for covers and the one we more or less had decided on is not available any more.

A lighter, both to weight and color, coffee table, will also be bought.

We cannot get new furniture until we have painted and until we have gotten rid of the present furniture.

The Salvation Army will come looking if they want them for free on May 3rd. If they don’t, they go to the garbage dump on May 5-6 when we have our spring-cleaning day for the housing cooperative. Cannot wait to get rid of them.

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By nini, April 11, 2012 08:03

And the first tulips appeared.

Just a few days later the snow fell again.

They have survived though and there is more of them this year than last. This is an early variant that is quite low. The rest of the tulips are just waiting for better weather until they show themselves. Presently you only see their green leaves.

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By nini, April 2, 2012 08:00

In my kitchen I had this narrow board to the right of my drawers.

Last winter I damaged the board because one of the drawers (full with knives) got stuck and it took some brute force to unstick the drawer to get it out. I then thought, let’s make a space for the trays there and use the damaged board for it.

I didn’t get around to actually doing it until this winter though.

So I removed the board by first taking out all the drawers so I could get to the screws inside that cupboard that held that board.

Then saw that the wall inside was not painted. Used white ceiling paint to paint the wall. Then adjusted the length of the board to the depth of the cupboard and sawed off the piece that was too long and made it the length needed to support the board toward the floor.

I then glued that to the bottom of the board as a support for it when put into place.

Turned out to be a bad idea.

The width of the space to the wall was too narrow at the back to put the board in with its support glued to it and the doorframe (to the kitchen) was also in the way. So I simply put in the support all by itself on the floor inside, put some glue on the edge that was to support the board, and forced the board into place.

Very solid. That board will not move in there.

And this is the result with the trays in place. I like it.

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By nini, March 31, 2012 15:35

One of the best inventions ever for us commuters here in the Stockholm-area is the sign at many bus-stations (those where a certain number of travelers qualifies the station to get this system) announcing when the bus is due. So you know how many minutes you still have to wait.

Highly reduces stress.

Except when it tells you the bus is leaving NOW – and it has not yet arrived…

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By nini, March 19, 2012 08:00

There is this round tree down by the school which I pass when going up to the dams for a walk or down to Tumba C for shopping or taking the bus to get away from Tumba. Actually, there are three of them, but this one above is the nicest. Its form is interesting. Almost round. Haven’t seen anybody cutting it into shape. This was on March 15th, 2012, and you can see in the background that the snow isn’t all gone yet, but almost. And the tree is waking up. It looks more compact every time I pass by, the branches are swelling and the leafbuds growing.

Below is how it looks in the summer.