a few 2014 favorites: February

life, week 5 // life, week 6 // life, week 7 // life, week 8

in 2015 I plan to

my first bike, ca 1984 // slide film photo by my dad 

- move out from my parents' and in-laws' houses
- move into our Stavanger house
- make and organise a new home
- starting living my everyday life in a new house in a new city
- start planning our weekday dinners again
- start cooking again in general
- drink more tea
- take my vitamins and fish oil capsules every day
- buy a bike and start biking again
- start making a lush garden of the mud whole that is currently our garden
- read at least three novels (yeah, not much, but trying to keep my goals real)
- finish the 2014 Blurb book
- finish my PGCE degree (PPU på norsk)
- update the about page on this blog and my website
- have regular movie night - with popcorn - in our home cinema room in the new house
- start shooting film again (haven't done it since the summer vacation)
- celebrate Sara's 4th birthday and let her invite her little friends over for her first kids' birthday party
- meet my nephew for the first time
- travel to Tromsø to see my sister's family's new house
- start a tradition of an annual family Christmas party in our house
- have house guests stay in our new house
- host dinner parties with old and new friends
- drink my morning coffee on the terrace
- not travel abroad (renovating a house is not cheap...)
- stay at least 15 days at the mountain cabin (we live much closer now than when we lived in Bergen)
- not check my iPhone for social media updates or surf the web right before I go to sleep
- start moving my body again (exercise has been a non existing word in my vocabulary ever since we moved to Stavanger)
- keep working as a teacher - but I don't mind doing some freelance work too
- have regular date nights with my husband (now that we live in Stavanger, we have plenty of babysitter options)
- give my little print shop a little more attention

So, what are your plans and wishes for 2015?

life, week 1

This beautiful chocolate filled brioche was served with homemade vanilla ice cream. Lucky us who have such excellent home chef friends!

Ostehuset - we will be back! Especially for the cauliflower soup.



We are SO happy to be reunited with some of our best friends from Bergen!

Still a little bit of Christmas in the city centre of Stavanger.

New Years Eve, part 1: grilling hot dogs and outdoor games with the kids



Minutes before 2014 ends. Trying to get Sara back to sleep. I give up and instead I bring her outside, bundled up in a duvet, to welcome the new year. Here's to a happy new year!

Friday afternoon bathroom tiles shopping companion // our house renovation, week 18

Always happy to be greeted by a pastel colored morning.

a beautiful start after a rough night // apparently chickenpox are much worse the second day - my poor little baby chicken

Why not?

Despite the chickenpox, she really wanted to go outside and play in the fresh snow. Fascinating how much fun you can have in 2 cm of snow!



Can not remember the last time I made a snow lantern.



Sunday 7:30 pm // my substitute will need a plan for my classes on the first day of school after the Christmas break - whilst I take care of my chickenpox baby

- - -

Week 1: December 29 - January 4

our house renovation, week 18

In-between Christmas celebration, family time and New Year's fun with friends we worked on the dining table plus the shelves and daybed for the basement living room.

After a lot of sanding, we realised the wood is too pretty to be painted.

Instead we decided to oil the table, to keep the beautiful wood texture. The oil has a little bit of white in it. That way the pine won't turn yellow, like it typically does. (Note to self: make note of the name and color code for the oil for future reference.)

The table is done! Very, very happy with it! The shelves for the basement living room will be oiled too; the same as the daybed (see below).

The daybed is almost done. It will be big enough for two grown ups to sleep in; the basement living room will double as guest room in addition to home cinema room.



The daybed and the shelves will be treated with skyggegrå (shadow grey) oil from Trestjerner.

Looking forward to seeing the result in daylight.

what happened to those 2014 plans?

August 23, 2014 - the day we moved from Bergen

Before I share my plans for 2015, I will go through my 2014 list and see what actually happened to all those pretty plans.


- cook a new meal from one of my cookbooks each week - I did it once or twice, then forgot about it

- eat in moderation (my jeans have been too tight for too long, and it is no longer baby weight…) - now they are even tighter... sigh!

- keep up my running routine - eh, no

- take good care of my body - for a little while, yes, all autumn; not at all

- read in bed before I go to sleep - nope

- spend a weekend in London with my husband - yes!

- spend a long weekend in Paris with my husband and our fellow Champagne and food loving friends - yes! which reminds me I still have film photos to share from this trip

- finish reading D2 every week and not let them pile up - during spring, yes, during autumn; not at all - haven't read a single issue

- focus on quality - not quantity - in the photos I take - can always be better

- focus on balance and simplicity - not really - this autumn has probably been the most busy ever due to the move from Bergen to Stavanger, a new job, studies, house renovation, living with my parents and in-laws - and I had no idea it would be like this when 2014 started - what a year!

- spend time outside every day - not as much as I wanted to, especially not during autumn

- continue journaling life through photography - yes!

- continue my Monday photo organizing routine (every Monday I transfer last week's photos from my cameras to my computer and upload a backup to my Flickr) - yes!

- continue the Friday tradition of "things I like lately" posts - yes! most Fridays at least

- continue the dinner planning project - because we love food and find it easier to eat healthy dinners when they are planned ahead - I thought I would continue all year, because I like the project, but I lost the drive and stopped the project some time during spring. Hope to get back to it when we move into the house and start making our own everyday routines again.

- continue to make note of good things and stay positive every day - yes!

- continue to love my little family all the way to the stars and back - YES!

a few 2014 favourites: January

life, week 1 // life, week 2 // life, week 3 // life, week 4