from scandinavia with love...

I have a bit of a thing for Scandinavian influenced design at the moment. I'm thinking it may have started way back when I was a child visiting my Aunty Marae and Uncle Wally's place at Bilgola on the northern beaches.  Although Aunty Marae is not Scandinavian, she did come from that part of the world, Estonia. Not far from the Scandinavian countries, in the Baltic.  She always mesmerised me with her gorgeous-ness - tall, olive skin, blonde and so fit and healthy looking.  I loved their beach house. It was decorated in a minimalist kind of style, white with dashes of colour here and there.  And then the second influence came a few years later when Robyn introduced me to Ikea - and I have never looked back! Who doesn't love Ikea and all of their wonderful Swedish designed furniture and accessories.

Now, having lived in Germany for 2 years and with most of my 'clutter' in storage back in Sydney, I think I am rediscovering my love of minimalism and Scandinavian interior design.  I long for white walls and Danish designed furniture with splashes of colour in cushions, paintings and interior accessories. White and blue is my thing at the moment. And as for furniture, my current obsession is the Eames chairs. Matthew is calling it a chair fettish! I was disappointed when I realised Eames was American and not Danish (not that I have anything against Americans, well most Americans, but I just thought he was Danish), oh well...  I do so love this recliner...

If I can't have the Eames recliner then I must have an Arne Jacobsen egg chair! Very Danish!

Ok, well if only they weren't so darned expensive! I must work on my technique when attempting to talk Matthew into buying a chair to fulfil my ''fettish''!  Not sure how I will go about explaining that spending thousands on one chair is actually an investment in our children's future...hmmm, must work on my delivery technique! Luckily for me I have found a website that sells ''replica eames'. Oh yes!  My coveted Eames chair could in fact become reality. 

Matthew also plays a part in this newly awakened love of all things Scandinavianish.  We were invited to a Christmas get together by some of our neighbours in one of the apartments upstairs. When we came home later that evening Matthew said to me how he really liked their apartment and how it was decorated... light and bright, minimal with a few much loved and cherished family antiques mixed with modern Ikea/ Swedish inspired furniture and art works. They had great storage solutions and had no clutter around at all and they had raised 3 children in a 2 bedroom apartment.  I had to admit that yes, it did look good. And immediately I started to mentally rearrange our apartment.  But why oh why did we have to move into an apartment where the previous owners had gone wild with the ''ragging and sponging'' painting technique so popular in the 90's. Ugh! We have yellow and brown sponged walls...not at all like the bright and breezy apartment upstairs! Since I don't have the opportunity to change the colour scheme in our home here, I will have to set my sights on home, at home. 

So for the past few months I have been planning a few changes to our decorating scheme for our house at home. We plan on having some work done when we get back next year and I figure adding a lick of white paint on the walls and not unpacking the clutter out of storage should do the trick.  Plus my new (yet to be acquired) ''eames''chair,  a Danish inspired light fitting or two, perhaps a new 'blonde wood' dining table and some strategically placed shades of blue in vases, cushions and throws will complete the look and make me feel all Scandinavianish!  

My new decorating bibles...

scandinavian modern home

(forget the white lounge - it's never going to happen) 

scandinavian modern
danish designs

Mind you, I do have the 'clutter and hoarding gene' which I have an internal struggle with on a daily basis. So you never know, I may end up with the 'scattered clutter' scandinavian look.  Well, it will be fun trying anyway!

and happy new year to you too….

And the love is free

There is nothing quite like a good visit with family and friends at Christmas time. Even if it does involve a trip from one side of the world to the other (and a considerable amount of jet lag to boot).  It does wonders for the soul, not to mention the sun deprived levels of vitamin D.  Now back in wintery Munich and with the trip home a far from distant memory…what with all the gorgeous photos we took while home, who wouldn't want to take a wander through them on a regular basis…I'm sitting back and enjoying a few of my Christmas gifts.  The ones that are occupying most of my time at the moment are the 2 recipe books that I received from two of my sisters, Robyn and Chris.  

Robyn gave me the Donna Hay collection of recipes called Seasons..I am a big Donna Hay fan and love her simple to follow recipes and delightful collection of photos that go with them. Chris gave me a book that has me hooked at the moment. Not that I have actually cooked anything from it as yet, but just reading the opening story about the author's mum then looking at each and every recipe and remembering some of them and similar ones from my own childhood is an absolute treat!   

The book is called And the Love is Free.  It's written by Jules Clancy who is a country chick like me, in fact she grew up just down the road from me in Gunning.  It's a collection of recipes from her childhood …. hearty and simple meals, good country fare….my favourite sort!  You'll find everything from lamb chops with BBQ sauce, braised beef, sausages with mash…my mind has taken a wander back down the dusty path to my childhood once more!  Some of the recipes are such a giggle…'pan fried brussels sprouts'…has me remembering many nights when I was not allowed to leave the dinner table until I had finished them! Ugh! Now, in small doses, I quite like brussel sprouts, especially if they are cooked with bacon…yum!

Then there are the desserts…cheesecake, apple crumble, custards….mmmmmm, yummy!  Not only are the recipes a delight, I also love the photos. Simple and elegant, no fancy-schmancy stuff and only natural light used..the result is something special.  Well done Jules Clancy!  AND thank you to my sister Chris for her thoughtful gift…LOVE IT. 

I think one of the reasons I like this book so much is that I have had a similar idea kicking around in my head for the last few years.  And a few years back, knowing that time was not on our side (and when is it ever??), I even asked my mum if she would write down a few of her favourite recipes for us (the kids) to have as something to love and cherish for ever. I suggested she could give me a list of them and I would even put a little recipe collection together for us, her daughters.  But, well you know, life just gets in the way sometimes and she had a lot of other things on her mind at that stage. And I guess so did I.  Now, I think, the time has passed when mum could gather a collection of recipes together for us, so I have decided to take this idea of mine one step further and do it myself and to actually make it happen!  Yes, look out sisters, you know what is ahead of you, don't you…relentless questioning, phone calls at all hours and emails from me on what your favourites where when we were growing up! And you know what you will be getting for Christmas this year don't you!  Well, what is a girl suppose to do with all this time on her hands?

Mum was a bit of a dessert Queen, so I think many of the recipes will be desserts…my mouth is salivating at the thought of trying them all and photographing them….lemon meringue pudding, lemon delicious, cheesecake, baked custards, apple and rhubarb crumble just to name but a few…ahhhh, the joy of it all…..

….to be continued!   (not that it will be a professionally published book, just one I'll whip up for us girls!)

Oh, I've been sidetracked! Not being able to kick my jet lag and while up at 5 am this morning, I discovered that Jules Clancy also has a great blog  stonesoup - definitely worth checking out. I love her whole minimalistic and pared back approach to cooking and for that matter, to life. I think I need to adopt this approach too.  I could make it my new, new years resolution!

Messages of Love...

OH YES! Lamingtons!

The kids and I are looking forward to making these for Australia Day on the 26th. Yay, can't wait! 

7 things that made me smile this week…

1.  Feeling like I am finally in control of my health and it is not controlling me!  This is a major achievement for me and one that I have been battling with for some time now. I have found a great doctor who practices conventional medicine combined with homeopathic remedies. So far it is doing wonders for me.

2.  Watching my children open their advent calendars… the true meaning and tradition of these calendars may be lost on them, but just one small piece of chocolate can make them so happy!

3.  Seeing photos from home of friends celebrating birthdays…so nice to see how the children have grown since we have been away.  Thank goodness for modern technology and the internet.  For these I am very grateful!

4.  The simple pleasure of buying a few new Christmas decorations for our home. It makes me happy to put the Christmas decorations up. It brightens up the whole place. Nice!

5.  Anticipation…….counting down the days until we fly home to see family and friends for Christmas.

6.  Matthew retrieving some of our old photos from our computer made me smile this week.  We thought we had lost them forever when our computer died last year. But he found them! Oh boy, I am so happy to have them back again and relive the memories!  It makes me realise how quickly life passes you by especially when you see how the children have grown so much in the last few years and see how much our life has changed since then. 

7.  Inspirational quotes…. Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

It's lovely to look back at happy moments like these. 

christmas at our place …..with my new christmas decorations

I bought some new Christmas decorations this year…I love buying a few new Christmas decorations each year to add to the collection.  I love my new string of multi coloured baubles, they match the baubles on my tree. And I love the red star light Matthew bought for me at the Christmas Markets. 

This year I brought Christmas into the kitchen with me….

I love my new angel…she is hanging from my glass Eiffel Tower shaped bottle…so cute. She reminds me of someone!

Above her is my new Santa. Sean says he is ''freaked out'' by this Santa! I'm not sure why!  He is hanging from the kitchen window along side my special ice skating fairy, given to me last year by a wonderful friend.