Dec 6, 2015 | Daily Life, Iceland |
Today has been very snow rich and windy. The weather forecast had warned last week that the weekend was going to be rough in our area us so we made preparations by doing some grocery shopping and cancelled events we had planned. This weekend was going to be a cozy indoor weekend. This morning people were basically requested by the police and rescue team to stay indoors, the roads would not be cleared till the weather would get better.
When you know a snow storm is coming, you don’t even try to make plans, it just hits you and you’re happy that you and the people around you are safe. Even though it gets really cold outside (it very seldom goes below -20°c /-1F) and even if it does our houses are very strong and warm, always tank-top weather indoors. The snow gathers around the house and you might have to dig your way out but then you just have to remember the warm summer days and that they will be back, eventually.
The boys spent a good part of afternoon on our backyard porch shoveling and making tunnels and pathways, they really loved it and couldn’t care less that it was windy and had snow blowing everywhere.
They were really happy being outdoors, and especially when they thought of throwing snow at the window with their mum behind, who was safe and warm indoors!
On November 22nd we cleared our backyard porch
It feels a long time ago that me and little miss cleared the porch which is now completely filled with snow. We use the porch to hang out clothes to dry so we try to keep at least a part of it clear.
All of the windows in our house now have natures Christmas decorations 🙂
Dec 2, 2015 | Daily Life |
I know say this every year but I just can’t believe how quickly time flies and this year is almost over! 2015 has been particularly nice to us. It started out cold and dark like every January in our region. That’s why we hold on to the Christmas lights almost throughout January, especially the plain white ones, because everything would otherwise be so dark and dreadful.
January through March is a perfect time to go skiing in Iceland, and Akureyri has a splendid ski area in a mere 15 minute drive, you could easily go skiing after work – that’s the type of luxury we take too much for granted. I used most of January and February, and March and parts of April to go skiing. I’m quite confident at it and I absolutely love it, it’s also very much “me time” like hubby has his during the golf season. I do like to take the boys skiing and my oldest, who is 11 years old, loves it too.
And then came Spring:
I’m telling you, Spring up here is like a very stubborn child trying to do things on his own and you just have to be really patient, you know he’ll get it eventually but maaaaan waiting for it to happen can seem like forever.
Being in such an isolated place like Iceland really is, an island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, the need to travel abroad gets very intense. So 2015 has been very good traveling year for us. We’ve been to and seen new places and enjoyed a fair amount of sunshine, which is not so common when you live almost at the arctic. We went to Berlin Germany, Barcelona in Catalonia/Spain and Helsingborg in Sweden this summer. The kids loved being in the sun and went to the beach for the first time in their lives!
Berlin was wonderful, me and Hubby went there over a long weekend in April with his colleagues and we’ve never been there before. I love getting to know new cities even though I would have liked to spend more time at it. We did rent a bike and cycled from one end of the city to another like proper Scandinavians 🙂 The history is at every footstep and I admire the cities capability to face history and embrace different cultures.
I <3 the cherry blossoms, we don’t have them in Iceland and I miss them a lot in the springtime.
I’m hoping that we get to travel a bit next year as well, there are no big plans. Do you have any suggestions on destinations we should look into, as a couple or as a family? Please feel free to place your comments below.
Having a little person growing up from being a baby to becoming a toddler is another beautiful adventure this year has brought us. She’s unstoppable at everything she does, and she should be. She’s loves the daycare she started in September while I go to the design studio (which is conveniently at home, and the daycare is a 2 min walk from us, embarrassingly short walk) and work for approx. 6 hours. That’s our routine and it’s very convenient for the time being.
I have no doubt that 2016 will have new adventures for us and I can’t wait to find out what they are, all I know is time wont slow down. Lets hope not at least.
Jul 1, 2015 | Daily Life, Iceland |
Spring always arrives later in Iceland than in other parts of Europe, some say about two months later than central Europe and even later here up north. This impacts both the flora and fauna when the frost doesn’t leave the ground till April/May. It’s not uncommon for the birds to lay eggs in late June so that’s what we found in grandma and grandpa’s back yard last weekend.
A beautiful blackbird’s nest with five little eggs in it. The little bird was sat patiently in a tree nearby so we didn’t want to disturb him too much but we really adored his nestmaking skills.
Mar 9, 2015 | Daily Life |
A few days ago we celebrated Ash Wednesday. I don’t know how or if you celebrate it in your country but in my town here in Akureyri, Iceland it’s a grown custom for kids to dress up early in the morning, visit the companies in town and sing a song or two and get candy in return. My boys, aged 10 and 6 decided they wanted to dress up as their every day heros, namely Minecraft characters. It was a challenge because they had to be able to move around, get in and out of cars and such and being in a cardboard box isn’t really appropriate for that. Also they had to dress well because it was only about 4°c outside. It’s much easier to dress up when you don’t have to have the snow overall on.
But anyway.. I decided to sew two costumes, ‘a creeper’ and ‘diamond armor Steve’. The look and texture is of course softer than expected of bitmap characters but they did get some attention and were easily recognized in the town. Here’s a slight tutorial for the minecraft costumes. If you have any questions feel free to comment below.
For the costumes I used two blankets, one cardboard box which I cut in pieces, plastic tape, four empty Ritz Crackers boxes, two plastic flowerpots and some kids plastic paint. And ofcourse my sewing machine.
Did I just say flower pots?
Yes, I did. It was tough to figure out how to place the cardboard top onto their heads, so the bottom of the pot is taped to the cardboard and a piece of fabric threaded through the holes in the flower pot and pinned to their cap.
The ‘Creeper’ only had cardboard at the top so it was hard to keep it at place, so I would recommend something more sturdy.
The Diamond armor Steve was made by cutting down, forming and taping together a piece of cardboard paper. I only made the shoulders but made them wide enough for the fabric to stay straight down his body. I could add measurements but its really better to measure your child and make it fit him/her.
The fabric is folded so its a whole piece. The shoulders were closed in the final outcome, not open at the ends. The fabric was sewed together at the sides and glued to the cardboard.
In whole it took two afternoons to make these, they were thrilled and my Daniel, who wore the Diamond Armor Steve costume, was asked for a selfie with various people down town 🙂
Oh and the candy they brought home, best pay I could have imagined 😀
Nov 12, 2014 | Daily Life |
I’ve been fairly busy the last weeks, preparing the baptising of our youngest. We had around 80 guests so I was doing some of the baking and organizing till the very last minute. It didn’t stop me from turning the apartment upside down at the same time tho.. decided during the week it was time for the princess to have her own room, even though she’ll sleep in our bedroom for a little while longer, say 5-6 years.. 😉 – so, move the computer out of the office space and into the TV space, put TV in living room downstairs which then meant selling the TV sofa. Yes, exactly the thing you should be doing when you’re expecting 80 guests in the same week!
Thankfully it all went according to plan so now I have two spaces to organize, dream projects really; a new office space and a girly room. How exciting! How overwhelmingly thrilling! I actually and literally don’t know where to start!
But ofcourse I know. Everything starts on pinterest these days.
Aug 26, 2014 | Daily Life |
The day has finally arrived! The first day of school. Our little schoolboy will turn six on Sunday and he has been waiting for school to start for real for so long. He started to read when he was 4,5 years old and is a fluent reader. A couple of his friends from kindergarten will be in his class so we are hoping today will be the best day ever, he claimed so when he was walking with us to school this morning. There is a short walk to school, only a few hundred meters, and the path is quite safe – no streets to cross so after this week, he and his brother can go by themselves.
I really hope he’ll find school both entertaining and a good place to be at. If the feeling is good then all doors are open.
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