Year: 2018

Mar

2018

Moving carpets around

Present carpet in livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

So, I finally got around to moving carpets and switching them between the bedroom and the livingroom. I thought about it for quite some time, but then when I fell on the large stone and hurt my chest, and after that got a severe cold with a cough… Couldn’t execute the switch for quite some time. Could just think about it. All is well now again and I did the switch about a week ago, all by myself. Had some help in the bedroom by neighbour in the end as it is tricky to move a carpet in under the bed at the same time as you lift the bed. Hard and sweaty work because it also included moving furniture in the livingroom (and moving it back again after the switch).

Carpets in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The beige carpet started its life in the kitchen. It drove me nuts there because it was really hard to move chairs out and in from the kitchentable with this carpet. I then moved it to the bedroom, under the bed, where it has been until now. Lately I realised that it would be much better in the livingroom. In preparation for a new sofa it was time to mover it again.

Livingroom carpets. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The longhaird wool-carpet I had in the livingroom, I moved to the bedroom. I might not keep it there. It is nice underfoot when you get out of bed, but it needs cleaning.

carpet, rug, bedroom

This rug is much smaller than the one I moved to the livingroom.

The rug in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Carpet in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

And yes, I DO want a carpet under the bed, despite the dust that collects there. Small rugs at the side of a bed is an accident risk. You risk flying away on those smaller one if it moves on the floor. So a heavier carpet, firmly stuck under the bed is the thing. I might change to the blue one I have in storage though. This long-haired off-white wool-carpet looks dirtier here than it did in the livingroom… That will probably look worse when I switch to my all white bed-cover (which I first have to clean) as this carpet is not all white to begin with.

I am happy with the result in the livingroom though.

Mar

2018

Sofa time again

My present sofa, an IKEA Karlstad 2-seater. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

It is sofa time again.

Sofas come and go for various reasons. I think I remember most of mine… so not THAT often. But now it is sofa time again.

Presently I have an IKEA KARLSTAD 2-seater. The 2-seater was discontinued quite some time ago and is no longer sold. The 3-seater is still sold. My Karlstad sofa has one cover in grey and another cover in white. The grey one needs to be cleaned by a laundry and the white cover can be cleaned in a regular washing machine.

I switched to this sofa after some time in my present flat. When I moved in here I hade a 3-seater sofa from MIO which was much too big and clumsy for the smaller livingroom in this flat. It was almost impossible to get rid of that sofa. Tried to sell it at Blocket.se. No deal. In the enda after much trying I gave it away for free to a neighbour whose son needed a sofa. Just to get rid of it. It is hard selling sofas – or even giving them away – on Blocket.se. There are too many sofas there. I am personally a bit suspicious of second hand sofas as you have no idea what has happened to their cushions… So no wonder they are hard to sell.

Ikea Delaktig by Tom Dixon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

When IKEA announced the release of the sofa DELAKTIG by Tom Dixon my interest was awaken. Finally a clean and simple sofa without any thick armrests and with space under it to make it easy to vacuum-clean the floor. It was introduced on February 9th 2018 in the warehouse. I went there with friend Ulla to have a look at it, sit on it, feel it, experience of that was what I wanted.

Ikea DELAKTIG by Tom Dixon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

I love it. It is comfortable. It is flexibel. The cover can be cleaned in a regular washing-machine.

BUT, at about the same time, the new brochure for spring from MIO landed in my mailbox. So I had a look at the sofas there. Found one that looked promising and flexible and had covers that can be cleaned in a regular washing-machine. That is actually important as it is very expensive to have the covers cleaned professionally at a laundry.

MIO Clean sofa. Screenshot from MIO website.

The one that caught my eye was called CLEAN and filled all the criteria I had for a new sofa.

So I went to MIO to have a look at it, feel the covers, get some details and sit in it.

Good enough but not a sofa that made me feel that that was the one. Too boring. Too ordinary. Too much like any other sofa I’ve had over the years.

So I went back to Ikea a second time to look at DELAKTIG again.

Ikea DELAKTIG by Tom Dixon. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

That is my next sofa. What I love about it is its clean lines, it comfort and its flexibility.

I love the light grey covers and they are washable in the washing-machine at home. To begin with I don’t need more than one lean-to-pillow of the thicker model, and one slimmer armrest. If I later feel I need more cushions/armrests for it, it is possible to get that later. Ikea is supposed to be selling this sofa for at least two years it has been said. So, no hurry.

I only need to decide if I want the smaller 149 cm long model, or the longer 202 cm long model. I have space for either. For the longer one I need to remove one smallish book-case, but that’s all.

First I have to get rid of my present sofa before I can order this one. I will at least TRY to sell it via Blocket.se. If no luck, Ikea can remove it when delivering the new one.

To be continued…

Feb

2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018. At the entrance exhibition by Paola Navone. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

On Saturday I visited the Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018. I visit this fair every year. It is interesting. There are beautiful and innovative furnitures and lights shown. It is my favourite fair.

The fair is big though. They fill all the three halls of the Stockholm Fair ground. By the time you get to Hall C, you are exhausted and don’t really see what you are looking at… One thing I appreciate with this particular fair is that they do not sell anything except to resellers.

The entrance exhibition by Paola Navone was wild and craxy. I kind of liked the hug flowerlamps though…

Chargeable by usb lamp. This small lamp you can carry with you. You charge it by usb-cable. It lasts for about 20 hours. In the shops it costs SERK 1800. On the fair you could get it for SEK1000. The attachable fixture that hangs over the side of the chair is an add-on. I didnät ask for the price of that.

As for the furnitures and lights… there are beautiful things and there are wild things. Less office furniture this year than previous years. As for trends? I see lots of black details. There is still natural materials in wood and carpets in natures own beige colors… Less pink. Less pastels. The lamps and lightings are interesting and with the LED technique I guess the possibilities to create real interesting lightings is much larger than the lamps from former days. Lots of small stools. Lots of small chargeable lamps that you can carry with you. Lots of thing metal legs on small side-tables.

Someone has looked too close on the similar stool from Ikea I would say… Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

Others may have reported from the fair with more details like the names of the producers and such. I intentionally don’t. I am more interested in trends and looks than the producers. But here are some of my impressions that I caught on picture.

Hover over the images to see eventual text about the picture. Re-load page to get the images in a different order.

Hanging lamps.

Chargeable by usb lamp

Hanging lamps.

More stools.

Ceiling lamps.

Outdoor furniture.

A chair with beautiful details.

At the entrance exhibition.

Peanut-shaped chairs.

A bathtub of copper.

Black, black, black…

More stools.

Bathtub of wood.

At the entrance exhibition.

Wall-containers for small stuff.

A puff on wheels.

Chargeable by usb lamp.

Tools for curtains.

Balloons in the ceiling

Outdoor benches.

Outdoor plantstands.

Black, black, black…

Small tables.

Daybes. I think this one was at laast years fair as well. It is nice though.

Cats- and banan-lamps.

At the entrance exhibition.

A beautiful wooden bench.

One of few pale interiors.

Lights

Chargeable by usb lamp.

wall full of chairs.

Mice-lamps.

Grey and orange and teal interior.

Nice, square bed.

Shelves of sticks… Doesn’ look to stable.

Wallcontainers for storage.

Stools in a pile.

One crazy interior.

Varpets in greys.

The cat lamps.

Tht little table in the background… Love it.

A bed with mice-lamps.

Someone has looked too close on the similar stool from Ikea I would say…

At the entrance exhibition.

Ceiling lamps.

Wooden animals.

Oriental carpet. Love this one.

At the entrance exhibition.

Green conference corner.

A wall decoration.

One single stool.

Lambs skins.

Carpets

Tools for curtains.

At the entrance exhibition.

Cactus

Jan

2018

The blackbirds

The tree across the road where the blackbirds sit. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

The blackbird is Swedens national bird. I love blackbirds.

I have some blackbirds that always visits me. They spend a lot of time in the tree across the road, opposite my outside place. From there they can watch if I go out and fill the feeders. Then they fly over the road and eat at my feeders (when the cats are not around). I like watching the blackbirds.

Birdfeed in December. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

One of the feeders is in the garden near to bushes and I can watch it from my kitchen windows. That bowl with peanuts flew off last week when it was very windy. I took it indoors for cleaning and haven’t put it back there yet.

Birdfeed. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2018

This winter I also feed the blackbirds on the table on my outside place. Here they get peanuts and sunflower-seeds. And another bowl with mixed goodies for birds. Dried flour-worms among other things that the birds like.

Birdfeed. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2017

This winter it has been difficult to feed the birds as it until recently has been an extraordinarily warm and wet winter with no snow and plenty of rain. At times the birdfeed was swimming in water and had to be regularly thrown away and replaced…

Last week it snowed. This morning we hade -12.7C°. Warmer now, but still a bit below zero. The birds are hungry.

Birdfeed with blackbirds and a great tit. Photo:©nini.tjader.2018

I feed them the year around, but particularly in the winter when they really need it. They compete of course for the food with the smaller birds, like the great tits and the blue titas and the occasional nuthatch. And during spring-summer-autumn also some woodpeckers.

Next weekend it is bird-counting weekend in Sweden. That’s a recurrent activity every winter. We count the birds and report them to an organisation that collects the results and by that can see if certain birds in certain areas decrease or increase. I use to participate best I can. I am not a “bird-nerd” but I find them interesting to watch.

The blackbirds are fun to watch. They are always arguing with each other and competing for the food even though there is plenty of it. The females rule and chase everybody else away from the food, male blackbirds and smaller birds alike.

I take pictures of the blackbirds when I can. Both with my iPhone 7 and my Canon G15. Always through the window, which means I don’t get all that close. This time of the year the natural light is also extremely poor so not that easy to get good pictures. But, here are some of my blackbird-pictures. And one of a great tit that took the opportunity to get food when the blackbirds weren’t there.

Jan

2018

Indoor plants in January

Indoor plants in January can be rather depressing. The ones that are still alive often look very tired and almost gone. Others are already gone for various reasons. And some are still green and promise to survive the dark winter days. The picture above is from October 15th 2017. The number of plants in my kitchen windows (which are exceptionally good for indoor plants) has since changed somewhat.

They have also become fewer. The large philodendron that climbs both windows and is there instead of curtains has grown further. It has lost a lot of leaves but at the same time also sprouted new leaves here and there. It actually looks better in January than it did in October. My ginkgo biloba has gotten a new pot and fresh soil. Not optimal to replant in December, but the pot was empty and the ginkgo needed a larger pot. It is still green and has so far not lost any leaves. It will though. That is what it normally does. The two green hanging plants look as they’ve always looked… Not much change there.

The west-facing window in the kitchen. I’ve opened up roll-up curtain all the way for the winter. The plants (and the kitchen) need their light when there is some.

One of the rosemary plants I had in this window is gone. It just died. The remaining one in the middle of the window is slowly dying too (picture above). Will have to get a new rosemary plant later on in spring. I use rosemary a lot on oven baked potatoes for instance. I still have some dried rosemary too but I prefer the fresh one.

The small aloe vera there has grown a lot since it got a new pot and fresh soil in the autumn. I know. shouldn’t replant in the autumn. But sometimes there is no choice.

I threw out my orchids during the autumn. They were really tired and uninspiring. And I needed the space.

The indoor plants in the livingroom include two figtrees that are indoors over winter. They have extra light to survive. They are both growing surprisingly well indoors. The smaller tree has lost some leaves, but the oldest and bigger not. That one lost its only fig the other day though when the large aloe vera fell on it… My fault. I moved their stands to be able to reach electricity and to clean under them.

There are fewer indoor plants in the livingroom too as some have been moved to the kitchen and others hav e gone for ever. (I need to do something about all the cables on the floor…). Under the sideboard I keep the bird-feed for the birds outdoors. They need extra food particularly in the winter.

Notice the large aloe vera to the left in the above picture? Notice how small its pot is? Yes, right… it needs re-pottering in a larger pot.

My oldest and largest aloe vera has again got lots of baby plants at its bottom. To remove them or keep them is the question. I donät need more aloe veras in the flat… I already have four, three of them originating from this large one at re-potting. I’ve also given away a few to friends and neighbours.

The problem with re-potting the aloe vera is that it is BIG, THORNY and HEAVY, I do have an empty larger pot that it can live in. If I take it into the bathroom I might be able to re-pot it. Inormally do this outdoors in the garden as it gets a bit messy. But it is winter and very cold just now. and the warmer season is far way still.

This (above) is how the plantwindow in the livingroom looks when you enter the room and it is daylight.

In the bedroom I keep three white pelargonias for their winter-rest, one put with three figtree cuttings (which are coming along just fine) and one hanging plant in the background which is not that fuzzy when it comes to light.

On the windowsill in the bedroom I have my cactuses and one more aloe vera plus a small aloe vera of another kind.

One of my old cactuses started blooming some time in November and the above picture I shot from outside the house on December 30th (easiest way to take a picture of it without having to move it around on the windowsill indoors). New flowers are still coming on it. If it blooms, it normally blooms by the end of February or beginning of March. I got a bit surprised when I saw the flowers now. Wrong season. Not that I mind. They are quite nice. This one also need re-potting. Never got around to it in the warm season.

Year: 2018

Moving carpets around

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Sofa time again

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The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

The Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholm 2018

The blackbirds

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Indoor plants in January

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