nini

Getting feet clean

fotbadI bought this tub for foot-bath from IKEA a couple of years ago (they no longer sell it or anything like it). It is for putting your feet in to get them clean and nice and give them a treat.

Until a couple of weeks ago though still hadn’t used it. So, when the final of the 2011 Eurovison Song Contest was to be sent I parked in front of the TV with my feet in warm water and green soft soap.  Towel nearby and foot cream. And a foot file. It was lovely. I really wonder why I hadn’t done it before…Feet felt like new afterwards.

This time of the year when feet often are bare – at least mine are – and get very dirty, really must do this more often. It is hard to get grass and soil and other dirt off the feet. Wish there was a wonder product that did that when bathing the feet. Any ideas?

Posted by nini in Thoughts, 1 comment

New life for the old bathroom cupboards

I have two old bathroom cupboards which were falling apart (very rickety) and had the wrong color of the doors.

bathroom cupboardsHaving blue doors became very limiting as I sometimes wanted to use colors on towels and bathroom mat that clashed with it. Like cerise towels. Looks really awful when the door is this blue (OK with the floor which is dark marine blue).

So what did I do?

First I removed the legs on both the small and the larger cupboard and let them stand directly on the floor for a while. Then I removed the door from the small cupboard.

bathroom cupboard

bathroom cupboardMuch nicer. But of course they needed legs. So I went to IKEA and bought new legs for them, LILLÅNGEN. Can be used on any other IKEA cupboard I might buy later (if they ever get bathroom cupboards I like). No, i do not like the LILLÅNGEN cupboards. They do not have a lower one withoput a sink. And the bigger one does not have a halfsized door. Which is what I want.legs for bathroom cupboard

Assembled the legs and put them under the cupboards.

cupboard legsI also got a new handle for the larger cupboard door and some white plastic self-adhesive foil to cover the blue color.

foil and handles for the bathroom cupboardAnd this is the result.

smaller bathroom cupboardCupboard comes up from floor with the new legs. And they are not wobbly any more.

bathroom cupboardsMuch better. The foil is a bit thin though so the blue door slightly shines through it. Should need yet another layer of it. But I’ll wait. One of these days I might find the cupboards I really want…. I then at least have the new legs already. This is a temporary solution.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, Thoughts, 1 comment

Bullace or Cherry Plum?

bullace, cherry plum, krikon

I have one small tree just outside my patio, and a bigger one outside the kitchen window, which I have no idea if it is bullace (prunus domestica or krikon in Swedish) or cherry plum (prunus cerasifera or körsbärsplommon in Swedish).

bullace, cherry plum, krikon

bullace, cherry plum, krikon

It has long thorns on its branches and blooms in early spring, shortly before the first leaves come, with lots of small white flowers with a fantastic fragrance. In late August it has small yellow fruits, very sweet and nice plumlike ones. Last year there were almost no fruits as the spring was too cold and the bees never got the time to come to the flowers before they fell off. When i first saw my flat (in August 2009) the fruits were yellow and ripe and I tasted them. Tasted good. Looking forward to get some by August this year.

bullace, cherry plum, krikon

This year we got lots of small plants under the big tree. Probably because we dug up lots of thorny bushes and and turned the soil around last autumn. We cleaned up the space between me and my neighbor and planted bulbs for tulips and such. We’ve since also sown grass on the bigger area between me and my neighbor. Grass is coming along fine now. I cleaned away all the small tree-plants (see picture above) just yesterday. Don’t want a small forest under the big tree… I’d rather have flowers and those small seedlings had really deep roots and prevented anything else to grow there.

bullace. cherry plum, krikon

The fruits are coming along fine on the trees this year. Definitely going to harvest them when time comes.
If anybody knows if it is bullace or cherry plum, let me know please.

[Edited 2011-08-06] Have just recently learned it is actually a Mirabelle. They come in yellow or red-blue variants. Ours are yellow. All as sweet and tasty and good for jams, marmelades, pies…. anything you can do with plums you can also do with mirabelles. They are ready for picking any day now.

Posted by nini in Garden and Nature, Thoughts, 0 comments

Certain flowers…

spring flowers

When spring comes, the first flowers to appear – after the coltsfoot – are the blue anemones. The blue anemones are shortlived and very soon give place for the wood anemones which last longer (some are still around in shady places).

blue anemones

vitsippa, wood anemone

Then you know that spring has come.

Next there are other flowers which simply promise that summer is ahead and remind you of your childhood and end of the school year. Like lilacs….. first the lilac ones, then the white ones.

syren, lilac

vit syren, white lilacs

Can you imagine the scent? Mmmm….lovely.

Posted by nini in Garden and Nature, Thoughts, 2 comments

IKEA finally got it

piedestal, pedestal

My new pedestal

I have for a very long time, years actually, looked for a pedestal to put largish, heavy plants on. IKEA used to have years ago, but then they disappeared and the only choice was their stools. No the best solutions because of wrong hight and overall sizes. I looked at Blocket several times over the years (Swedish buy-and-sell site) without finding anything suitable either.

Then, suddenly a couple of weeks ago, IKEA had it again. And in the right (in my eyes) model too. Took them some time to get it in my nearest IKEA store, but finally it got there. Hurried to get it. The white one of course. The one in brownish-black isn’t as nice as the white one. They also have a larger model which is quite nice. In white of course.

My new pedestal now resides in my kitchen with my super-heavy and alrge November-cactus on it.

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

Testing Lindahls Rysk Yoghurt

Lindahls Mejeri I’ve applied to become a yoghurt tester, testing a new brand of yoghurt. Application page for Lindahls Rysk Yoghurt test is here. (Page is in Swedish).

Why you might ask?

Well I’ve always loved yoghurt.One of the few milk-products I can eat without feeling nauseous.

Primarily I use the Turkish yoghurt from Lindahls, not the “light” one, but the fatter one. I find it more tasty.

I’ve also tried the Greek one which is a bitter thicker than the Turkish one. I prefer the Turkish one though. (I make Greek tzatziki with Turkish yoghurt, oh yes).

I use yoghurt for a lot of things.

Thought it would be fun to test the new Russian variant.

How do I use yoghurt?

  • with breakfast cereal
  • on top of strawberries
  • for making tzatziki (recipe in Swedish on my website)
  • for various sauces
  • for certain fish dishes in the owen
  • in certain deserts
  • as a replacement for creme fraiche
  • on small pancakes with chopped onions and caviar (like smetana)
  • probably for more things I’ve forgotten…

So far have just applied to be a tester. Has to become approved too.

It would be fun to get approved.

Lindahls Rysk Yoghurt (Youtube-video).

Posted by nini in Food and Recipes, Thoughts, 3 comments

Spring is definitely here

One of the first tulips

Spring is definitely here. The first tulips (all yellow with red stripes on the outside) are blooming. I have also planted some aubretia in my small, round flowerbed. And some daisy just outside the stones. Plan is that they will spread til net year. Looking good. The chives is getting big and ready to use too.

Flowerbed

It started out like this when the snow first disappeared about two weeks ago.

spring flowers

The first green after a long and cold winter

The crocus were really nice (all finished blooming by now).

crocus

Yellow and white crocus

Posted by nini in Garden and Nature, Thoughts, 0 comments

Fantastic customer service

Flowerbox, holder seen at the right.

Flowerbox when flowers were smaller.

I have three black iron holders for flowerboxes for the outside. The first winter I lived here half of them disappeared with snow and cold and the rest got so damaged they couldn’t be used. So I put them up with temporary strings for last summer. This year I decided I would find the correct holders for them. We were in and out in all the garden-shops and hardware shops. No luck. So we came down to contacting the manufacturer of those boxes. The boxes are actually sold with the holders. I emailed, my neighbor Gullis called them. And they sent them to my by regular mail free of charge! That is real customer service. The company is NYBY Smidesprodukter.

Flowerbox holder from NYBY smidesprodukter

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

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