White sofa

We have white slip covers on the sofa. The covers do need to washed from time to time. I had not washed them for a while (maybe for a year), it is bit of a hassle to take the covers off and put them back on. But surprisingly I do not think those have needed washing until now, maybe my standards of cleanliness or whiteness are not that high. 

Removing the covers for washing reminds me of why I made the slip covers in the first place. The sofa frame and the cushion fillings are in very good shape, but the upholstery is really worn. The pillows have holes and stains. Considering it's age, about 30 years, it's a miracle the upholstery is the only thing that is worn. The sofa is obviously well made, I love the it, the proportions are excellent and it's good to sit on. Odd to see the sofa in it's original colour.

Replanting

When I moved to my own home, to live on my own, I bought a coffee bush to decorate that home, about 10 years ago. The coffee bush was so tiny back then. Now it's not so tiny anymore. It was time again to replant the coffee bush, since it had out grown from the previous pot. I was hoping that I could have found a white pot for the coffee bush from my large collection of flower pots, but I only found a terracotta one on the right size. Terracotta is not bad either, it's after all very traditional.

Now the coffee bush is covering one third of the whole window area. I would prefer to have it deeper in the room and not having it in front of the view. But our living room is not the sunniest especially on winter and the plant would die from lack of light if it would be deeper in the room. Our bedrooms are lighter and I could keep the plant there, but I love to have one big plant in the living room. It makes the room come alive.

Long overdue installation of a wall hook

After months of consideration I added a wall hook next to the terrace door. Back in November I noticed a need for a wall hook or some other way to keep the blankets and sleeping bags used when napping Likka on the terrace cradle. I just threw the sleeping bags on the floor when I took Likka inside from her nap. I did occasionally fold them but usually I did not bother.

I did consider also a basket, but that just takes too much floor space on an area which does not really have much room. I decided on a wall hook, but then I had to decide which one to get. I considered all sorts of hooks, even design ones like the Hang it all or the Muuto Dot. All those desing hooks are nice for sure, but I didn't need anything fancy and just wanted something that suits our home. 

In the toilet and bathroom we have wall hooks, which are original to the apartment (you can see two of them in this picture), those are fairly plain and common, but have prooven to be good in use and seem to be practically unbreakable. Remarkably those hooks are still in production. The size has changed a bit but the style and material is same.

So I bought one wall hook finally from a home improvement store. I screwed it on the wall, it hangs fairly high since the blankets and sleeping bags are quite long. When we do not need the hook anymore next to the terrace door I can move it to the bathroom or Likka's future room or any other place and it should suit to that place too.

Crafts basket

Small things can make world of a difference. I started to make a crocheted basket last year, but I unraveled it because it looked horrible. Then I got a book Virkkuri (only in Finnish, so far) by Molla Mills as a Christmas present. The book has lots and lots of new ideas where and how to use tradional chrocheting techniques. The book has excellent pictures and fresh feel. 

So I got the book and there were two hints about crocheting a basket, the first was instructions on how to make a 90 degree angle turn between the base and the sides of the basket and the second was to use labels. Those two ideas made all the difference. Even though I crocheted with the same yarn and made the same size as the trial before, the basket just ended up much more modern and crisp. I love it.

Holiday sofa pillows 2013.0

Some holiday decorations in the living room.

 

I sewed on the red pillow covers I usually use around the holidays some lace. The crocheted corner laces are, if I remember correctly, made by A's mom's mom. These were made for bed sheets but had never been used and A's mom gave these to me. Now I'm using these as holiday decorations. Those are very loosely sewed on so those can be removed later and used in some other place later.

 

In 2011 the pillows had ribbon decorations.

 

 

Is it echoing here?

Hello...hello...hello

Am I hearing an echo from last year or actually from two years ago? Again I made a wreath for the front door. I over estimated how much material I have and used too much first and had to then ration it for the remaining parts so the wreath is now a bit bottom heavy, but I don't care.

I found the material for the wreath while on a walk with Likka. I know some of you have wondered where I collect all the natural materials. Well, by the side of the roads, this time the city (I assume) had done some logging by the side of one of the ring roads of Helsinki. 

There is always branches and other logging waste left over, so I collected some from there. Also parks and road sides have often fallen branches that I take with me if I need them. The road sides are also really good places to collect flowers.

Over the weekend

We had a studio built in our home. A friend of ours is a pro photographer and we asked him to take some baby and family photos of us. We already got some photos from him, really good stuff. I will show some on Wednesday. Now we need to deside which of those to have print and framed.

Part of Finland has got the first snow last week. South Finland got just some hail, but it has been cold, really cold. I did a bit of crafts for the christening of Likka, those will be in two weeks. In the christening she will also get her real name. Need to plan the food served at the occasion and also the decorations. We got some table cloths and other items from A's mom and cousin for the christening which I need to check. Then have I done some fall cleaning on the front yard and some sewing.

Carpet washing

I have written a post about this before, but I thought I'd repeat it, since I know this is so exotic to those outside of Finland.

Most cities in Finland have free places where people can wash their carpets. Those have metallic tubs with a wooden counter. Cold water comes from hoses and the used water runs to the citys sewer system. There is also huge amount of wooden racks where the carpets can be left to drip dry.

This time I went to the rug washing place together with A. The living room carpets is so heavy when wet, I could have never handled it alone. We also washed the rag rugs from the conservatory, finally. There were lots of people at the washing place, and I did not want to bother them by taking that many photos, but check my old post about rug washing, it's from the exact same place.

Sofaside wall lamp

Yay! I got rid of a floor lamp that had been on the side of our living room sofa and replaced it with a wall lamp.

I love things that are attached to the walls (or ceiling). I do not mind drilling gazillion holes to our walls especially when I can get rid of things that need to be kept on the floor. Also the floor lamp we had was not really of my taste and I bought this Ikea PS lamp to replace it. 

I fell for that lamp already sometime last year when I saw it the first time, but then I did not know where I could use that lamp. At some point this year I had started to think that the wall lamp could be good in the spot we had the floor lamp. I did not run out to buy the lamp but waited till I had something else to get from Ikea. Now after many months we finally had to give in and did need to get some baby gear from there so I at the same time bought the lamp.

I'm really really happy about the wall lamp, it has good cool light and it's modern. Looking at it from a distance makes it appear as it is attached quite high and it is, I just don't want to hit my head to it when I sit on the sofa or that any of our guests would hit their head to it.

Smoke detector

I've understood that for our apartment which is about 95 square meters it is suggested to have two smoke detectors. We used to have only one, it is still on the hallway near the bedroom and the office. But now I got another one and also got it on the ceiling.

I must admit that this might appear as a bit of an add, but the only nice looking smoke detector I found from Finland was the Kupu by Jalo Helsinki. I bought it in light gray. It is not the best colour for our ceiling but I have a dream that one day we will move to an apartment with white ceilings or that I will paint the ceiling of this apartment. So I bought this mainly for it's looks, but I'm sure it also works fine.

Airing day

Sorry to have been this quiet lately, I have no particular reason except that I have not done anything blog worthy, which actually is quite rare. Also next week I most likely will not post much. But then I have a good reason. I will tell you later, although it's most likely not that exciting.

On the weekend I took the bedroom blankets and pillows out to air and also some blankets from the living room. The living room carpets I threw on top of the snow to freshen them up.

I always put the blankets and pillows out with their dirty sheets, that way I don't have to mind if the laundry lines need wiping or if a bird poops on the pillows. When I bring them in and change the sheets. There aren't many better things than fresh smelling bedding and linen. Should air the textiles more often.

Exercise equipment

I did not really do any New Year resolutions or deside on goals, but I was finally motivated to do something for my neck pain, something else than just taking a pain killer. So I do just a bit of exercise everyday, but now I have a another problem.

Where do you keep your basic exercise equipment? I admit that when I do exercise I do like to do it in front of the television, so I would also like to keep the equipment in the livingroom where the TV is. I'm happy to keep the equipment in sight all the time, but not in the middle of the floor where it looks like I've just forgotten them there. If you have any hints, I'd love to hear about them.

Colourful canvas

Long time ago I bought a fabric from Ikea in purpose of making a canvas picture in the livingroom. Apparently Ikea does not sell the fabric anymore. But it was designed by the same designers who designed this similar fabric.

I had bought the fabric with the idea of painting the livingroom walls white or whiteish and thought that the fabric would look good in such a fresh and light room. Well I haven't painted the walls yet and I'm not sure when I will get the inspiration to do that. But I was annoyed that I had bought that fabric and just kept it in a closet where I couldn't see it. So even though the walls are not painted I desided to go ahead with putting up the fabric.

That is what we had in the living room, a board of chipwood covered in white wallpaper. I took it off the wall, placed the fabric on the floor and placed the chipwood board on top.

I did remove some of the extra fabric. I have now some fabric to make for example a pillow from. Then just used a stapler to attach the fabric. I did not remove the wallpaper since when I get tired of the new fabric (and I will get) I can easily take it off and again I will have a white wallpapered board to decorate with.

So there it is, and it's not actually looking too bad with the brown wall. I'm pretty happy with it.

Shoe rack on the wall

On one of the living room spring cleaning posts I mentioned that I will be making a shoe rack near the door to the terrace. At first I tried to find U-shaped piece of metal from the factory area at work, to create something like this, but I had no luck. I discarded that idea and thought that I should make something out of wood since I have experience working with wood but not with metal. I also liked the shoe rack where pairs of feet are formed from wire. I like that the rack and that the shoes take up so little horizontal space. And then I found this shoe storage item that I thought was the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but yet I think it looks very functional and versatile.

And then I thought of combining those two. I made a cardboard model from my own foot and I copied it on a piece of plywood. I flipped the model around every other time so I was able to make three pairs of feet on the plywood. I used plywood because the layers of wood are in 90 degrees angle against each other, which means that both directions in the plywood are equally strong.

I cut the excess material off with a jigsaw. Then I assembled the rack from three pieces and painted a white base coat. Once the paint was dry I tried out my shoes on the rack. The places on the rack felt too tight and the shoes didn't slip on well. I think what had happened is that because I used a cardboard model that was much thinner than the plywood that the shoes slipped on that very well but not on the plywood because it is much thicker.

Then I redraw the model, I made it smaller and transferred the model on the plywood and then cut again with the jigsaw. I also used the Dremel to sand the edges and sanded the gap between the toes a bit bigger.

After I had tried a shoe on it I returned to the painting. I painted the areas that were now left unfinished and then painted one layer with furniture paint.

On the back of the rack I had drilled before the assembly six holes for the hooks. I attached the hooks with small screws. After that I measured the gap between them and the height where I wanted to place the rack and drilled two screw holes on the wall in the living room. Then I just hung the rack from the screws.

And there it is a shoe rack for three pairs of shoes. I think it's pretty cool, but if I would do it again I would not leave such a big gap between the wall and the rack, not sure if the support pieces on the sides could be similar as in here then, don't know... Anyway I like it, the shoes are near the terrace door and the door can be opened and closed without the shoes being on the way. Excellent.

Got my grip back

I lost the spring clean inspiration last week, perhaps because it's turned quite cold outside and we've got lots of snow again. I also started a craft that created so much dust that the vacuuming and mopping we had done earlier last week was a total waste of time. I knew I had to vacuum again and I hate vacuuming. And because I hadn't vacuumed again I thought I couldn't dust either. I did wash the sofa slip covers, the dining table seat cushion covers and the curtains, but I postponed putting them back. So the living room had even a bigger mess after the spring clean week than before it.

On Monday I thought I should get my grip back and do at least something. So I put the dining chair cushion covers back on and the sofa slip covers. The sofa slip covers are usually bit of a hassle since they are so tight that A needs to squeeze the cushions while I pull the cover over the cushion. On Tuesday I hung the curtains, I thought of ironing them, but in the end I didn't bother. Those are linen, so wrinkly is fine, also they will straighten a bit when they hang there. I also re-vacuumed the floor and dusted all horizontal surfaces.

Take the carpet outside and give it a beat CHECK
Vacuum and mop floor CHECK, Vacuumed twice
Wash sofa slip covers and dining table seat cushion covers CHECK
Wash curtains CHECK
Vacuum sofa CHECK
Go through CDs, try to convince A to let go of some
Dust CHECK

If you are intrested in some before shots, those can be found from here.

I haven't placed the seat cushions on the seats since I'm still continuing the messy craft I started and I do that over the dining table. 

Ugh... those cables behing the TV are really ugly. Have not had the energy to tackle those.

There is still some stuff near the sofa, but A requires those, so I'll leave them be.

+ Brainstorm a shoe rack for the terrace shoes CHECK

 I do think I've figured out what I will make. I was trying to find a piece of metal formed like in this shoe rack, from the factory area at work, but I haven't seen anything good. And I don't have any metal working skills or tools so maybe it would be too difficult. And I certainly don't want to buy one, those are ridiculously expensive. I will make a little something out of wood.

I haven't gone through the CD's, I know we have too much of them, but on the other hand we are not drowning in them. Those do fit in the place we keep them in. I'll do this later... maybe.

But instead of going through the CD's I wiped the white leather armchair clean and polished it. I've understood that leather should be treated from time to time to keep it nice looking. I wiped the leather with a damp rag and saddle soap. That soap is sold in any place that sell riding gear, atleast in Finland. It's very good and apparently it does not dry out the leather. I have cut that piece of soap from a bigger bar my sister had, she rides a lot. I use this soap for all leather, shoes, bags, anything.

I use also natural wax to polish the leather. I've understood bee wax based would be the best, I don't know what wax we have at home since the jar does not specify it. Anyway I try to avoid any chemicals. I wipe the wax on the surface, then wait for 15 to 30 minutes and wipe the excess wax off with a clean rag.

 

This week I'm supposed to be consentrating on the office. Since the office is under renovation that's been put to hold because the weather is acting up, I don't know what I can achieve there. There are stuff all over though that could be put away and I could quicly vacuum the room.