Year: 2011

The ceiling lamp

kitchen lamp

My kitchen lamp from IKEA

kitchen lamp

My kitchen lamp from IKEA

I have an old ceiling lamp in my kitchen. It has followed me for many years as I love it and is rather timeless. I bought it at IKEA in September 1984 for SEK 595. When I moved to my present flat I changed the electric fittings and cords (they were old and not very safe) but kept the metal lampshade.

At the time when I bought it, this lamp was a copy of a design lamp called SEMI.

Last year (?) production of the original SEMI lamp was again taken up. The original lamp is now sold again in design shops both in Sweden and in Europe. The Ambient Direct webshop – which sells all kinds of design items and furniture on the Internet – is one place which now sells it again. In Sweden you can find it at R.O.O.M and lamp-shops with design-lamps. It is now available in three sizes, 30, 47, and 60 cm diameter, and several colors. My IKEA version is 60 cm in diameter and white. I don’t remember if IKEA had it in other colors. The 60 cm model costs €399 at Ambient Direct. That is about SEK 3500 today….

Can you see the difference between my lamp and the “real thing”? I cannot. But I know mine is from IKEA. I could of course have pretended that it is the original…

SEMI various colors at R.O.O.M

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, Thoughts, 0 comments

Wall Art

wall art, Storvreten

The Fantasy

In Storvreten, Tumba, Sweden, not far from where I live, there is this painted wall. In grey weather it really comes out and shows itself at its very best. The text on the wall is the following:

(In Swedish) “Låt fantasin leva, för där fantasin slutar tar våldet vid”.

(Translated into English) “Let fantasy live, because where fantasy ends, violence will take over”.

I find that beautiful.

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments

Spring IS approaching

spring, trees

Trees just waiting for the spring

spring, trees

Also these trees are waiting for the spring

Tomorrow is the vernal (spring) equinox, when day and night are of equal length. Snow isn’t really gone yet except in sunny and warm spots. The nature is just waiting though, and ready…

spring, tulip

Tulip?

spring, crocus, thyme

Crocus and Thyme

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments

The chili has got flowers

chili flowers

Red hot chili in bloom

My chili has got flowers. Lots of them. Now what? Does it need a new pot? New earth? I know nothing about growing chili peppers…  But apparently I will again get hot red chili from this plant. Very hot actually. So far it has only got tap-water, no fertilizer, nothing else since I bought it. It lives in my kitchen-window where it is reasonably sunny (when there is sun). The below was the result last time. One small chili fruit made a large casserole extremely hot. I like hot food, but not that hot. Will be more careful next time I use it.

chili pepper

Red hot chili

 

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments

Finally have got a new lamp for the bedroom

Bell from BELID

Bedlamp Bell from Belid

I’ve finally got a new lamp for the bedroom. It is called Bell, halogen with dimmer. I got the white one but it is also available in black and red. Can even be had as table-lamp and freestanding floor-lamp. Have also seen it as ceiling lamp. I really like it. My old bedroom lamp – also white – was from the 70-ties.

This is how it looks in my bedroom:

New lamp over bed

At the same time that I exchanged the lamp I also got a white picture-list to put up above it, primarily for pictures. Makes it easy to change pictures when you feel bored with the current ones.

Unfortunately they were out of stock all over town – seems like everybody else already bought theirs and demand had dwindled or something as they were almost nowhere to be found. IKEA had them but suddenly had changed sizes of them so had to get two, one short and one longer, to get my desired 120 cm length. I know they have had them in longer lengths than 105cm before… not any longer though. If I’d had carpentry talents I might have built one myself…

Posted by nini in Interior Design, 0 comments

Returning items from the past

ikea_kakfat, cakeplate, tårtfat

Recently I’ve noticed some items from the past suddenly returning. Just as suddenly everybody wants those kinds of items and they are everywhere. An example is the cakeplate above. Another one is the coockie-plate in sections (below right).

The most odd item is the glasscover which you put over just any decorative item on a sideboard or table. You see those (see left) in every home decoration magazine lately.

Inside it you can see plants or other things. Even the once-upon-a-time crocheted piece of cloth under it is a returnee.

Have to get a cake-plate (the first item above – that particular one is from IKEA), but the others….? No, thanks.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, 0 comments

Cats, dogs and small children

Gustav the cat

Gustav

Cats, dogs and small children usually like me.

This is Gustav, one of my neighbors cats (she has two, the other one is called Alice – haven’t so far managed to take a picture of her). He sometimes comes to visit me if I leave the door to the outside open. Plants himself in one of my chairs and don’t want to leave. Twice now I’ve had to carry him back to his own home. I used to have a cat (Josefina) but I do not intend to get a cat of my own again. Costs money (food, vets, cat litter, insurance) and it is a huge responsibility. Living just beside a busy road makes it even less tempting as the cat would most certainly sneak out as soon as the door opened. Cats are nice though and I sometimes miss having a cat.

When I meet dogs they usually behave as if I am their best friend. I don’t want a dog though. We had a dog, a dachshund, when I was in my teens. He was nice but he was always my fathers dog. I am not a dog person even if dogs seem to think I ought to be just that.

Small children usually like me and trust me. I am not all that interested in children though and have no patience with them really (particularly when they are howling at the top of their lungs in public transportation or shops). I said already at the age of 14 that I never want to have children. And I never really did want it later either. Or had the time for it. My “luck” in this was that I lived for about 15 years with somebody who also did not want children. I have never regretted not having children. Some do and live to multiply themselves and don’t feel fulfilled if they don’t manage to do just that. For some it’s a great sorrow. Not for me. I never really wanted children.

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments

Still snowing

spider in snow, spindel

Spider in snow, probably lives under the snow

It is still snowing. Today more than ever, combined with wind. Yesterday when I was shoveling snow the spider that lives under the snow was out again. Probably because it was reasonably warm, +/-0C°.

The amaryllis is as big as it will get (+ one stem that haven’t bloomed yet). A really interesting flower if you look close enough at it.

amaryllis

Close-up of amaryllis

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments

Records to record

records

LPs and EPs to be recorded

I have a pile of records to record and convert to MP3 file format to get them into the computer. The above is only the POP and Rock pile (and a few jazz records). Then there are also the classical ones (below) and some old israeli ones.

records

Classical records

Slowly going through the pile. So far I’ve only had patience to do two (2) LPs a day. Why? I’m so used to listen to music shuffled by iTunes that it gets extremely boring to hear an entire record with the same artist, all songs by the same artist… My ears get tired. It is a different matter with classical music – there you really need to listen to the entire record in one go or you don’t get the whole picture. That is not the case with POP and Rock records.

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments

Amaryllis

amaryllis

Amaryllis

The amaryllis today (2011-01-01) finally opened its first flowers. 2 so far on this stem, 2 more on same stem. And 2 more stems to grow up with flowers on. It is dark red.

Want to see more amaryllis-pictures? Go here.

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 0 comments