24 years

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I spent it in bed with a cup of tea. I started getting sick this past weekend and unfortunately the worst of it hit yesterday. Today is much better.  My head feels lighter and my face doesn't hurt like it did yesterday (I'm thinking it's a sinus infection). I've taken a ton of Vitamin C and haven't really moved much since Sunday night. My first outing as a 24 year old was last night when I took the recycling out. How'se that for being a grown up?

Anyways. It wasn't much of a birthday, being super sick in bed. But I'm grateful to everyone who sent me birthday wishes- thank you.

The sun is shining today and I'm itching to leave the house but this sinus infection is still lingering so it looks like it'll be another day indoors. The good news is that it's getting lighter and lighter out and despite that it snowed yesterday (a really beautiful snow too) the sun is out and I can feel that spring is almost, almost here. Finally.

I think today is the last day the painter will be here. Which means that once the paint is dry I can move our kitchen back into the kitchen. Since Monday all of our kitchen supplies (dishes, glasses, food, etc) has been camping out in the dining area and living room which is also our bedroom... so it's felt a bit cluttered here. I was pretty bummed the first night since it was Valentine's Day and I had planned this lovely romantic dinner for G. Instead he made dinner! There was cursing and frustration but he made us dinner and that was probably one of the best gifts he could've given me!
The painter came back yesterday and I thought he'd be done. Nope. It's a three day process. So another night of having a non-kitchen. We got pizza!
I really don't want to complain because I know our kitchen is going to look awesome in white but I am a bit upset/annoyed about the fact that the company never told us this man was coming out on Monday until Monday and that they never said it was a three day process! I would've been more mentally prepared and probably cooked some meals ahead so we wouldn't have to frantically look around for plates and forks. Thankfully my schedule is flexible enough (ie: non-existant) that the painter can be here this week or else it would've been really interesting.
So today is supposedly the last day. I went to the grocery store this morning and bought my romantic foods and my fingers are crossed.

PS. The paint he is using today is super fumey. The past two days I haven't noticed a smell at all but today, wow.

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day today. So Happy Valentine's Day.
G and I have a lot of celebrations in February so we try to keep Valentine's Day low key.
Here's our list of celebrations during the month of February:

9/2: my bff Leslie's birthday
14/2: Valentine's Day
21/2: our wedding anniversary
23/2: my birthday (I'll be 24!)
28/2: my dear friend Jenny's birthday
29/2: my mother-in-law's birthday (usually celebrated on the 28th).

It'll be next week that is really crazy and unfortunately hits right before pay-day.

Anyways, so far today has been really sweet. G surprised me with breakfast in bed and an American magazine. We dined  super early since he had to be at work but it was really nice just being there in the quiet and dark in those early hours.
I thought I had the morning free but at 8:00 we had workmen here! I had forgotten about that. They were here to remove our kitchen cabinets for painting. And then they informed me that another man was coming to hand paint all the small details. This was a complete surprise as no one had told us about that. I had 15 minutes to remove everything from our kitchen cabinets. It now looks like we just moved in. Again.
I'm hoping I can get our kitchen back in order in time so I can get my part of Valentine's Day ready for G.

EDIT:

So we have the reschedule Valentine's Dinner. Well, the smoozy romantic part of it. Our kitchen and dining room is a mess and will be this way until probably tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow night I can work my romantical magic. Whatever that may be.

a resolution

I've been making a mental promise to myself for the past few months to start working out. I have never been an active person but I have never really felt the need to be active. I am very skinny (which is accredited to family genes) and I eat fairly healthy, so working out has always seemed counterproductive to my body type. I guess that's because I've always seen working out as something you to do lose weight. In fact, the only time I've ever worked out was for two months in high school when I wanted to lose weight. I over worked myself, went about in a very, very unhealthy way, and quickly burnt out.
But over the past few years I've notice that I'm pretty weak. I don't have much muscle mass or strong muscles. I'm pretty lazy too. And although I might not need to work out for weight loss reasons, I think I still need to for health reasons.
My body and mind have been nagging me to do so for some time now and I think it's soon time to start. I say "soon time" because to be honest, I'm not as motivated as I want to be to undertake this life change. My game plan is to take advantage of living by the beach and to start going on long walks a few times a week. I am hoping to train my body into liking these several times a week long walks to eventually start jogging. (Oh my, I can't even imagine myself jogging now!). And I am hoping that by the time next winter comes I'll enjoy exercising so much that I'll want to join a gym (which right now in my life would be waste of money).
I have told myself that once the weather gets better (and that's right around the corner) I'll start this new phase. I hope I stick to that because I know it's going to be really beneficial to me.
It took me awhile to realize that working out is not just something people on diets do. Even rail-thin people like me should work out if they want to live a healthy lifestyle. And as I get older I'm starting to realize what exactly being healthy means.
I hope anyone who reads this will help me keep this promise to myself.

wishlist from granit

Today is the prettiest day yet. We had crazy, incredibly strong winds the past two days that I didn't want to leave the house. So I didn't. But today is just perfect. It's still cold but the sun is shining, there's a gentle breeze, and even though it's still so far away- spring feels close. I have two windows open right now and it's just so nice to get fresh air and not freeze!
I was out and about town on a mission today. I wanted to go window shopping at Granit to see if all the products I've coveted online are amazing in real life (they are!) and to buy some fun cards for various family members and friends back in the States. I also wanted to pick up a birthday present for my bff, Leslie, even though her birthday is today (we always send each other presents a few weeks/months later than the actual date) and a present for G since our two year wedding anniversary is coming up. Missions accomplished!

Since I spent a good amount of time at Granit and now that my wish list has grown even more, I thought I'd share some of the things I can't wait to get my grubby paws on! What I love about Granit is first that their shop always smells amazing. It's the only store I've found here that sells good smelling candles! And they only sell products in: white/cream, grey/metal, brown/tan, black, or a natural wood. These are all of my favorite colors so entering this store is like entering a candy shop for me, or better yet, a chocolate chip cookie shop!

Our hallway is a really weird size and we haven't been able to fit any of our shelves or tables there, so I think these letter boxes that hang on the wall would be perfect for mail and gloves/hats.

I think this would make a great bedside table. Yes. It would.

I would like a few of these boxes to hold all our bathroom supplies that don't fit in the medicine cabinet.

Since we have a glass shower wall and you can see everything in our shower,  I've started to realize how ugly most shampoo and soap bottles are. Unless I buy really lovely bottles to begin with, I think I'll switch our shower stuff over to plain unmarked bottles like the one on the right. They only come in plastic but I'm hoping to find a more sustainable alternative.

I hate most throw pillows I come across, but I like these. They have just enough pattern to be interesting but they aren't' too loud. I checked them out at the store, they're soft too!

I really want this! I think it'd look so awesome in our inglassed balcony!

Today at the store I only bought two things, a candle and two unmarked plastic bottles for the shower.

So what have I learned about myself today? I really like metal things, I wish I smelled like Granit, and I have a lot of saving up to do.

PS. All the photos are from Granit's website.

monday

Happy Monday!
This weekend has been a busy one. Starting Friday night when G put up our new wall shelves. They've made all the difference in our apartment and have really helped to set the "tone" for how we're decorating. They also allowed us to unpack all of our boxes and hang paintings. So as far as things go, we're done for now decorating wise. Of course there's still a lot to be done (the list keeps growing) but it can all wait till pay day later this month.

I used Instagram to take this photo. At night. So that's why it looks kind of weird. I'll take better photos during the next sunny day (whenever that might be). The shelves need some re-arranging. And we need bookends and storage boxes for DVDS, etc.

And this is our "dining room" which is just really an extension of the living room and kitchen. Unfortunately, our home wouldn't be complete without Buddy the deer, but he adds a certain rustic quality to our city lives. We also need chairs! The exercise ball isn't really cutting it anymore.






































This photo has nothing to do with the apartment. But it is near our neighborhood! We went on a walk on the beach yesterday and saw some people feeding all of the swans. It was crazy, those things are huge.

And finally, if you get a chance, you should check out my friend Leslie's etsy shop! She creates the most whimsical and fun jewelry. I'd wear this necklace or this necklace with a black v-neck t-shirt and dark jeans (and of course red lipstick!). This necklace is perfect for Valentine's Day or to wear with a polka dot dress! This one is sweet too. And if I didn't have such sensitive ears, I'd totally rock these earrings with a messy bun.
She has a bunch of really fun, quirky jewelry so check it out.

It's already been a week

We've now been in the new apartment for a week! And what a crazy busy yet surprisingly peaceful week it's been. This neighborhood is so much quieter than our old one. Last night I counted how many noises I've heard from the outside this week and I think the number was like eight. Eight outside noises during a span of seven days is not so bad considering at our old place we constantly heard doors slamming, high heels on the sidewalk, people scrapping ice from their cars, kids yelling... etc.
I'm getting used to it here, getting caught up on laundry, figuring out the best placement for our stuff, organizing everything. The To Do list is still a mile long but last night we bought wall shelves which I'm so excited to put up!
We sold a bunch of our furniture before we moved and put most of that money aside to buy chairs. I really want a set of white Eames DSR chairs, we can't afford the real things but we're ok with getting the replicas. However, instead of using the money for chairs we decided to buy shelves instead. We have a huge mountain of boxes sitting in our living room corner and everything in those boxes is meant for the shelves. So, shelves took priority over the chairs.

The weekend To Do list looks something like this:
Put up shelves
Unpack the rest of the boxes
Bring everything that we aren't using down to our storage
Paint the hallway
Hang art
Put up shelves in the closet
Clean

Other things I'd like to do:
Window shop at Granit*
Buy a tv wall holder thingy
Take a walk by the sea (regardless of the weather)

*Granit is by far my favorite store in Sweden. I have a To Buy list going and stuff from Granit forms more than half the list.

New Apartment

We've been living in the new place since last Thursday and we're now more or less settled. There's still a lot to do but most of it we have to wait on until 1. we have the supplies and 2. we have the money. So for now things are still a bit in limbo but it's ok, it's a good limbo.

On Thursday I got the keys to the new place! I excitedly navigated my way to the apartment caretakers office and got the keys (all in Swedish). I wasn't able to enter the apartment right away because it was still being cleaned so I took my sandwich with me down to the beach (a seven minute walk!) and sat on a pier, staring out into the sea. Despite the fact that it was one of the coldest days ever it was gorgeous outside. The sky was blue, blue, blue and the sun was shining. After an hour I made my way back home(!!!) and entered our apartment for the first time since we viewed it. Here are the photos.

This was my view during lunch. Pretty amazing.

This is our entry way! To the right is a slightly awkward curved wall followed
by a walk-in closet. The wall paper is coral colored and reminds me a lot of
the 90s (when the building was built). We'll painting this area white.

The bathroom! It is by far my favorite room in the apartment. Everything is done to a really high standard and it's a HUGE space (although you can't really tell by the photo). Since it has a window it has a ton of natural light. It also has a ton of mirrors. The downside: the shower door was only built halfway out so when you shower water goes everywhere. It's being fixed. Another downside: even though the window is made of frosted glass you can still see A LOT from the outside. We didn't realize this until last night (because why would you put a huge window in the bathroom that others can see through and you have to stand right in front of when you shower?). We're on the first floor. I have no idea how many of our neighbors have seen more than they probably ever wanted to see of their new neighbors but we're really embarrassed. We're heading to IKEA today to figure out some sort of water resistant window treatment. Eeek.

Here is the main room. It serves as a bedroom and a living room.  We have hard wood floors!

This is our in-glassed patio. It's not heated but I think it'll be really cozy in the summer. 

Here is the kitchen. It's lovely and has a dishwasher! G hates the wood color, it reminds him of Swedish government offices and schools so we'll have it painted white. Where I'm standing to take the picture is our dining nook.

And our utility room! It has a ton of storage and our very own washer and dryer!

We moved over our bed, kitchen supplies, and bathroom necessities Thursday night. On Friday we did the all the rest. A few friends helped out (thank you) and I stayed at the new place unpacking everything so we'd be kind of set up that evening. It was a good plan and the day went by fast. Saturday we ran a bunch of errands to get all the things we would need to help make the new place more livable for us.

This is the chaos mid move. It was an obstacle course.

And this is where we're at now. On the wall to the left we'll build full wall shelves which will hold our TV and  all of the stuff from the boxes sitting in the corner. On the wall to the right, between the couch and the bed, we'll build a temporary wall that goes halfway out (about the length of the bed). Unfortunately, we won't be able to do these things until next month and they're the things that will make it really feel like a home- having the boxes unpacked, privacy of a bedroom, etc. I have a list a mile-long of the things we'll need to really finish this place.
 Even though we feel a bit unsettled, we've both agreed that we feel so much calmer here. I'm sleeping better than I did at the old place. It's so quiet here. Everyone is really nice too.  So despite still having a lot to do and accidentally giving our new neighbors a peep show, I think we're going to like it here.