Wednesday, May 29

finished~19



~ dr. van der hoog oxygen face mask ~ unfortunately, i didn't really like this face mask. it's a powder that smells very much of pure clay and that you have to mix with water. it then gets very dry and hard on your face, and i didn't notice any improvement after using it (my skin didn't feel worse either though).
~ etos x-tra black volume mascara ~ still not really managing to stick to the new-mascara-once-every-three-months rule. 
~ kneipp orange and lime-tree blossom shower gel ~ usually, i really like kneipp shower gels. but this one did not do very much for me. i guess i'm not a big fan of orange.
 dr. van der hoog chocolate face mask ~ now this face mask was a lot better than the first one. it smells divine and it actually looked and felt like it did something for my skin.
~ weleda skin cream ~ i'm getting more and more enthusiastic about this simple but lovely cream.
~ l'oréal color appeal eye shadow golden beige ~ i have quite a stash of eye shadows, but this is really the only colour that i wear often. it still lasted me ages though.

Monday, May 27

sleeping arrangements



things have not changed very much since the beginning. this is still how it works. a bedroom for the three of us, where little imp takes his afternoon naps in his own bed and where he also starts every night in his own bed. as the evening progresses, he wakes up for a drink, after which he spends the rest of the night in our bed. hence the little side rail. the more i find out about raising children, the more i also learn about the way it is done in various societies. which gives me the confidence to keep doing things the way it feels best, in spite of the ways that happen to hold sway in the part of the world where i live.

Saturday, May 25

and more sewing



since i was already spending much time doing things with trousers (and then some more time), i decided to try making something for myself as well. these ones had quite an old-fashioned flare and i handn't worn them for years. so i made them into summer trousers by cutting off half the trouser legs and i added a piece of pink ribbon on the pocket to make it a bit more fun. now i'll just have to wait for the sunshiny days and see if i will actually wear them again.

Thursday, May 23

more crawling



and on and on i sew...

Sunday, May 19

the summer book



i started reading this book in sweden, where i found it in our family's library and it somehow caught my attention. it is such a gentle and thoughtful little book, i love it. 

gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you're looking for. if you're picking raspberries, you see only what's red, and if you're looking for bones you see only the white.

tove jansson ~ the summer book (sommerboken)

Thursday, May 16

less empty



remember the empty corner? it got a new destination. we found this beautiful little second-hand bench online. boyfriend drove almost an hour to pick it up. he didn't mind at all: it was a good way to listen to music with the volume up very high. the man who sold the bench said that his son did not need it anymore since he now measured two metres. i like the thought of a once little boy who has now grown so tall sitting on that bench years ago. and our little boy sitting (or rather climbing) on it now.

Sunday, May 12

crawling



little imp likes to take things easy. while all around him, babies are turning into toddlers and are walking like pros, he still sees fit to do everything on all fours. it gets him where he wants to go so why change things? and now that the weather is getting better, he wants to play in the garden all day. on all fours. which means: holes in every single pair of trousers. so this has become my new passtime: patching up the knees with bits of old fabric.

Thursday, May 9

overnight oats



so this is an example of a so-called lifehack. what a terrible word but what a brilliant idea. (a lifehack, supposedly, is something that makes life a little easier.) overnight oats: in the evening, you put milk (rice milk in our case), oats, banana and some other nice things - shredded coconut, pumpkin seeds, flax seed - in a bowl in the fridge. and in the morning, all you have to do is add some fruit. it definitely makes life a bit easier for me: no more stress over cooking porridge in the morning. and, even better, little imp likes the simple version of milk, oats and banana as well.

Monday, May 6

project garden: turtle



our garden is a typical city-garden: it's old, rather small and shabby and it consists mainly of brick. i'm on a quest to make it somewhat more good-looking without spending much money on it. step one in the project: i glammed up the old green turtle that will be little imp's sandbox when he grows out of putting everything (including sand) into his mouth. all it took was some leftover white and silver paint.

Sunday, May 5

spring in sweden



we were in sweden for a few days, visiting family. it was a time of firsts for little imp: first time in scandinavia, first time on a plane, first time on a boat, first time visiting some of the places that boyfriend and i had been to before and wanted to see again. a day in beautiful stockholm, a day in the forest, long evenings at the kitchen table while imp was asleep upstairs in his little tent. spring was only hesitantly arriving, but it was warm enough for him to crawl through the big garden with little bare feet in the grass: the image that had been in my mind since he was born and we talked about someday going to sweden again. how often does it happen that an image of your mind's eye actually turns out so close to reality?