fabrik brun

kitchen euforia

2009-05-26T22:31:00.003+02:00

look - two years of cooking on the floor is over - we got the oven in place, finished the bench and today I have been cooking mungbeans, parmesan-baked endives, bread with bulghur and rhubarb pie with a little help from two chubby hands.

spring by the sea

2009-05-12T22:01:00.002+02:00

More and more bikerides to the sea as days get warmer and the wind calmer. Little, happily jumping lambs everywhere. Thank you for all great comments lately, I am happy wild tulips make you happy too!

the wild tulips

2009-05-04T20:57:00.002+02:00

... the wild tulips are here for a few days ...

happy things

2009-04-27T22:41:00.004+02:00

- reading vintage childrens' books in the light spring air - the first self-portrait of my 3-year-old - spring fires - forest flowers in open windows

beginnings

2009-04-21T20:31:00.002+02:00

I saw a japanese cherry tree in bloom in a park I really like - someone just drew his first human, after a period of monkeys - I started sewing and things are growing fast in the window sill.

light

2009-04-20T21:07:00.002+02:00

Light is back, and so am I.

primula and porridge

2009-03-04T19:35:00.017+01:00

Primula are the first perennials to appear in our garden, planted long before we came to the house. I have already seen tiny, light green signs ofit in the mud.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is a flower I have not really cared about before, but yesterday I bought some to lighten up indoors while we wait for spring to come for real. I did not know they smell so good - like having a whole flowershop inside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I made porridge for three today. We eat a lot of butter in this familiy.

closing off winter

2009-03-03T14:51:00.004+01:00

a view to our garden, this year and last year. I made a winter-photo-set here. Days are still hovering between cold and warm, but I decided to close off winter for now - no matter how much snow and wind there might be left still.

snowday

2009-02-05T20:44:00.003+01:00

We got one snowday! We made a snowman, but he is all gone today.

I started making a bench in the kitchen with white tiles.

Top: view from the garden

Bottom: the bench, my town

end of something

2009-01-29T19:51:00.003+01:00

My hibernaton-time is over today - renovation is taken up again, stitches are sewn, veggie-garden planned, things cut and cinnamon rolls baked. Days are lighter, the wind calmer, and spring flowers are starting to grow in the garden.

pink mood

2009-01-15T09:44:00.003+01:00

grey is nothing worse than all colours mixed together, Jo reminded me in a comment to my last post. Here are some pink appearances - evening sun on a short visit, drawing table, baking cinnamon rolls.

a grey study

2009-01-13T21:19:00.002+01:00

what can I say about these grey days of late winter?

apples and babies

2009-01-06T20:18:00.003+01:00

one of the many cool drawings appearing in our house these days!

winter reading

2009-01-05T20:27:00.004+01:00

I read Tove Janssons Moominland Midwinter. The story of how Moomintroll wakes up too early from hibernation to explore the unknown world of winter is just perfect for these first, quiet days of the year. Quiet and cold. This has been the coldest day so far after we moved to this old house. I keep close to the fire, making plans, writing lists, preparing the first steps into this new year.
.......

One of the first things that happened this year: someone sent me flowers!

2009

2009-01-02T20:12:00.004+01:00

Iceroses are climbing the windows, the fire is burning, bread is baked and babies are happy. 2009 has started beautifully.

Happy new year!

black hearts and facts about me

2008-12-21T20:08:00.004+01:00

Here is what happened to the gingerbread-hearts from last post ... And here are some facts about me - 7 for Karen, 7 for Ritva who were so nice to tag me a while ago:

- I am a very bad cookie-baker.

- Until recently, I thought there were parachutes, not life vests under the seats in airplanes. After I found out, I am not scared of travelling by plane anymore.

- I would like to play harp and hammond organ.

- I want to learn japanese and icelandic.

- If I could choose where to work in the whole world, it would be New York City Library.

- I love books.

- I was a scout for many years against my will until I found out I could just quit.

- I tried to like dark chocolate for a long time like every other grownup woman with good taste and manners but finally I admit; I prefer it sweet.

- My oldest son has his middle name after Noam Chomsky and my youngest after Linton Kwesi Johnson.

- I love Stockholm.

- My tendency to dress in tweed and drink portwine comes from reading too much Agatha Christie when I was ten.

- I desperately need a driver's license.

- politics interests me more and more

- I never feel bored

Happy holiday to all friends and readers!
I will be back in 2009.

gingerbread

2008-12-08T22:23:00.006+01:00

We are more or less back in business here - no fever, sister safely back from Bangkok, happier than last week ... I made gingerbreadhearts with orangutangboy. He was very funny - so quick, eager and effective. He obviously knew exactly how to do this from kindergarten. He wanted to eat lots of dough, I wanted to eat his sweet little hands.

out of order

2008-12-01T19:08:00.007+01:00

I wanted to show you this great hat I made out of desperation, fury and icelandic lopi-wool after almost having frozen my head off when biking orangutangboy to daycare in these frosty mornings. My regular hats simply did not work. I thought that the sheep on Iceland must be experts on keeping the wet and windy out, so I sat down and knit until the hat was done. It is ubelievably warm, water- and windproof - and winter is much more welcome already. I recommend lopi if you have similar winter-troubles!

...............

I know you can not see much of it on the photo above, though, which is just as blurry and messy as everything else at the moment; I am sort of happy somewhere, but I desperately need:

...............

1. my sister to come back from Bangkok

2. the four of us to get well from a wintercold that chased us to bed for a week

3. sleep

...............

I get so many nice and sweet comments these days - thank you all!

a week for two: the end

2008-11-24T19:23:00.008+01:00

on our way to the gallery again we saw: some rural grafitti, frozen sea and the sun for the first time after a week of storms and darkness. I thought I would make the tiger lots of nice and fancy winter clothes while we were home alone, but he wanted it otherwise. Moving around everything upstairs was fine with him, though, so now we have a book-room, my office turned into our bedroom, our bedroom into playroom and lots of other new solutions, some of which I might show you soon. Now orangutang and father is back, heavily, happily sleeping in their new bedrooms. Maybe now I will find some time for making something nice and fancy for tiger ...

a week for two: new mittens

2008-11-18T20:17:00.005+01:00

I remember sitting in my tiny cityapartment many years ago knitting a sweater out of a million leftovers on extremely thin needles. I can't believe I finished it, actually, as I was into totally different things at the moment. In fact, I didn't knit at all, even though I have always known how to, - I was a starving performance artist with lots of important things going on - people, parties, artsy fartsy stuff. Thinking back, it is indeed hard to believe that I found time to knit a whole stripey sweater on extremely thin needles, but it is even harder to believe that I actually managed to shrink it the first time I washed it. Just a tiny bit, but enough to make me feel claustrophobic wearing it. So it turned into one of those garments that just follow along year after year, that you know you will never wear, but that still is too special to be thrown or given away.

Today I took a big step. Admitting that I will never ever use the sweater, I cut up the treasure and turned it into new mittens - one pair for me, one pair for tiger. That way, we will see a lot more of the lovely stripes, I thought. And do they not seem to fit this landscape just perfect?

a week for two: the gallery

2008-11-17T21:12:00.006+01:00

I have a new job - at a small gallery by the lighthouse where I will help out from time to time. At the moment there is an Art Brut - exhibition, turning my view of the world inside out, very strong, I am proudly presenting. This book is a treasure if you find this corner of the art world interesting.

I had to bring little tiger with me on this first day, making it sort of crazy; I was trying to look professional, he was trying to eat the art. This will be a week for two as orangutang and father are in the big city. Welcome back to see more of the two of us!

bu!

2008-11-06T20:16:00.004+01:00

This drawing made me so happy - at first my man thought I made it (!) and I thought he made it, so it took a couple of days before we realized that it was made by our orangutang-boy - his first creature - a ghost on the road! I am so proud!

beach finds

2008-10-31T16:07:00.004+01:00

Autumn is perfect for beach finds. The storms throw up all kinds of interesting things on the beach. Today I found a boat, a shoe and a rusty, machinelike object, and a little collection as seen above; pieces of porcelain and ceramics, pink shells, a button.

favourite autumn ingredients

2008-10-29T12:00:00.001+01:00

... rosehips and my new rubber boots ...

the kitchen chronicles

2008-10-24T19:12:00.012+02:00

One of the first things we bought to the house was this deer hook by Jorine Oosterhoff dedicated to the kitchen, the first room we started working on after moving in. And we are still working, or - at the moment - mainly scratching our heads to figure out how to deal with all strange angles - and the fact that nothing is straight and simple. The deer hook somehow marked a start to the kitchen-work, and will also mark its ending. Because one day, the kitchen will be done, shiny and new. That day, I will solemnly find a place for it, drink some champagne and be very happy.

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The plan is to make the kitchen the heart of the house. We want it to be a place for slow, happy cooking, dinnerparties, cookbook-reading and kitchen-playing for the boys. We want it to be full of fresh herbs, homegrown organic veggies, vintage tablewear, candles and books.

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The kitchen had - sadly - been renovated in the easiest and cheapest possible way some time in the eighties, so the first thing we did was to tear out everything - layers and layers of greasy linoleum, old isolation material, walls, floor, flaking ceiling. I remember finding small, fragile skeletons of mice and old textiles used for isolation in the walls, and a recipe for "simple cookies" cut out from a magazine.

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Next step was to build up everything again; white ceiling, chess floor, and walls painted the most delicious shade of blue. Now we are scratching or heads to figure out how to continue - getting everything in place, building a shelf under the window, the details.
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I try to enjoy the process - but honestly - right now all I want to do is to hang up the deer hook, have some champagne and start baking.

the oak forest

2008-10-21T21:36:00.003+02:00

we have been picking oak nuts because I really really would love to grow an oaktree or two in our garden. I also plan to plant hazel and chestnut and walnut, but have not yet found those kinds of trees around here. And I guess I need to ask my neighbour the farmer to sell me a piece of his land to make room for the nutforest ...

autumn gardening

2008-10-17T18:34:00.003+02:00

ah - autumn gardening - I love you - the smells, the colours, the plans for next season. I have been digging, collecting seeds, planting garlic, harvesting the last of the carrots, dreaming; artycho,- fennel,- and hokkaido-dreams, poppies ... next year's veggie garden starts to take shape in my head while I dig, preparing the earth for my wild veggie-plans.

golden forest

2008-10-15T21:25:00.007+02:00

In the forest with orangutang boy, looking at the trees, the colours, the gold. We bring some of the beauty back home and he makes the most beautiful pictures from it.

home

2008-10-09T19:27:00.004+02:00

today I have been home, really just been home. Doing laundry, cleaning, planning, looking around, taking notes, making decisions, kissing babycheek and picking a last bouquet of garden flowers. Tomorrow I will start working on our kitchen again after a long renovation break.

floral decay

2008-09-25T20:24:00.006+02:00

2 years ago I saw these signs of my first-borns first autumn; petals dissolving in a thin, silvery layer of rain on the asphalt; a bee looking for last pieces of summer; a microworld of humidity, insects and changes; last moments before the flowers turn into another kind of beauty.

Click for more.

autumn in the archipelago

2008-09-22T11:07:00.003+02:00

I had a lovely, long weekend in the archipelago. These are some of the things I saw. How was your weekend and what did you see?

six things I like today

2008-09-16T23:29:00.006+02:00

1. late summer flowers still glowing in my garden
2. light playing on my walls
3. orangutang blanket finished just in time for the chilly nights
4. closets organized
5. a huge apple harvest
6. wrapping up summer, remembering good moments

I was tagged by fliss looong time ago, thank you, I enjoyed this a lot!

dinner in the city

2008-09-15T19:15:00.003+02:00

Pastel coloured houses and dinner at my sister's place in Oslo.

Don't you just love her plates? They are from our family summer house. They were almost forgotten until one night when she had a dream about them. After that, she inherited the plates, brought them with her from the simple little house in the archipelago to her fancy Oslo city apartment where they fit in just perfect. Now she serves the loveliest veggie lasagna on them.

apples and wool for a little tiger

2008-09-12T22:35:00.009+02:00

an old boring sweater turned into a perfect wool suit for a little tiger who likes to play under the apple trees these days. The design is simple and the sewing too, but recycling clothes no longer needed into new and useful ones is so satisfying. Quick, easy and ecofriendly.

fika in the city

2008-09-09T21:07:00.003+02:00

One thing I love about cities is that you can get really good coffee.

Above: Fika in Oslo this summer; cappucchino and scones packed with dries fruits, seeds and nuts.

crabs and lobsters

2008-09-08T21:06:00.005+02:00

chilies are ripening,

someone has been drawing crabs and lobsters

shopping local

2008-09-04T21:21:00.002+02:00

Found a local farm recently where they sell the most delicious organic vegetables and the most beautiful brown eggs I have ever seen. My orangutang-boy is in love with the cat. They have the same golden haircolour.

september

2008-09-01T14:15:00.018+02:00

dry flies removed from windowsill
oaknuts, blackberries and yellow leaves observed

getting ready for September

raspberry heaven

2008-07-14T19:22:00.005+02:00

look - we found raspberry heaven - in an old, abandoned garden they were growing - big as strawberries!

the garden

2008-07-01T10:15:00.015+02:00

I used to grow peas and cucumbers on the windowsill in my tiny city apartments. The plants got long and pale with small leaves and deformed fruits from lack of space, light and nutrition. I promised myself that one day, somehow, I will find a real garden to care for. Here it is;

The fruit trees in our garden are probably almost 100 years old. The most beautiful one is a big cherry tree, blooming spectacularly in spring. Now, the cherries are ripening, but the birds eat them all. We also have red and black currants, apple trees, blueberries, raspberries and stikkelsbær.

My first project in this garden was a small vegetable bed. I promised myself to keep it simple this year as the two minis need most of our time. But - we have lots of coriander, parsley, dill, lettuce, carrots, peas, radishes and calendula that managed to help themselves quite good with just a minimum of care.

there are lots of strange flowers, and big old trees to love forever.

the house

2008-06-10T13:18:00.010+02:00

The house we renovate is a white wooden house built in the early twenties. The roof is made of beautiful chiffer tiles. It has a sunporch and many windows so the light floats beautifully through the rooms.When the sun sets we have a fantastic light show on our livingroom walls. We call it our private cinema.

We were looking for a place where we could realize some of our plans and projects; an organic garden, an atelier for S, a room for me to write in, a big kitchen for our veggie experiments, and a factory for smallscale production of something good. We wanted to be able to build up a sound studio, an organic bakery and plant a walnut tree if we felt like it. We wanted to have the open sea within reach. Last winter we found our house. It had everything of the above, or at least a potential of getting there.

So what we have is a frame at least. We have lots of space and charm both inside and outside, and we can hear the sea roaming in the background. It is a start. There are no straight lines, the paint is falling off everywhere, we do not yet have a kitchen or a real bathroom. Yet we love our house. It has a special mood. The first time I was here, I found ladybugs on the window sill. It felt like ours from the first time we saw it.

painting, sewing

2008-05-25T22:08:00.004+02:00

I have 12 windows to paint. Poor flies get stuck in the paint all the time.

I started making summer clothes for Leo. I tried to do a photoshoot with the model himself wearing the new outfits, but I guess that is not the way two-year-olds work. This shirt is for summerparties and is made out of my grandfathers old shirt. I love recycling textile!

blue

2008-05-24T10:40:00.004+02:00

Top: Painting windows - the blue tape is so beautiful with the light coming through. I don't want to take it away ...

Bottom: Leo's hands - turning into spiders all the time these days ...

summer production

2008-05-16T13:27:00.003+02:00

We are having beautiful and busy days around here; cherry trees in spectacular bloom, planting, painting, making summeroutfits. Hope to have things to show you next week. Happy weekend!

Top: summer wardrobe in the making
Bottom: peanuts in he making

first leaves

2008-05-06T14:49:00.002+02:00

As I took a walk in the garden last night, I realized that the first leaves of the year had popped out already. Such magic every time!

comeback

2008-05-05T18:26:00.009+02:00

The wild tulips are back, guarding the house in the most beautiful way as they stand in the outskirts of our garden. They remind me that we have already lived in our house for a year now. They were everywhere with their birdlike appearance when we came here last year with all our boxes, knowing very little about how to use tools, and next to nothing about living close to sheep, mud and roaring sea. I still don't know much about those things, so the struggle continues ...

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top: wild tulips

bottom: a necklace/plough for Leos tractor and a new rabbit

a date by the sea

2008-05-01T20:18:00.002+02:00

A date by the sea with my 2-year old.
There is a small grocery store nearby where they sell the most delicious bakery products.

mist

2008-04-29T22:33:00.005+02:00

Now and then mist is coming in from the sea. It creeps all the way up to the house. It can take hours or days before we see the neighbour houses again.

celebration

2008-04-12T11:30:00.007+02:00

Top: A book, a nice chair and some loneliness - that is how I celebrated my birthday the other day. It was perfect - coffee and sun and no mess and stains and babies around for an hour or so. Just perfect.

Bottom: My mother makes the most beautiful things for little Hugo. Here he is, kicking and waving on his brown and soft merinowool blanket, wearing the cutest baby jacket with enamel buttons.

sun and snow

2008-04-12T11:08:00.004+02:00

Spring is being dramatic and deceitful as always, mixing sunbeams and flowers with snow and frosty mornings.

Top photo: A window I love, - in our future bathroom.
Bottom photo: Narcissus freezing on the windowsill.

first pants

2008-04-02T22:27:00.003+02:00

Using the softest creamcoloured cotton/wool blend I made Hugo his first pants. Nice and baggy with looong cuffs, hoping he can wear it for a long time. Good for kicking it seems!

sweet sleeper

2008-04-01T11:47:00.003+02:00

Thank you for sweet comments about Hugo! Here he is, wrapped in wool while spring is warming up the days more and more.

Some favourite sleepers:

daysleepers
wake up dear friend
don't wake me please
thats why Im lying here

ooo - how I would like to have some of that quiet sleep!

willows

2008-03-26T12:28:00.006+01:00

We went out to hunt for willows, - I love how Leo gently carried them home inside his palm, as if they were alive. So I thought when I was his age - I even made them nests and tried to feed them.

More precious things carried gently by little hands:

marshmallows
earthworms
starfish

Hugo

2008-03-17T10:34:00.005+01:00

Hugo was born on 8. March, International Women's Day.
Happiness and sunbeams are in every corner of our house!

view from inside

2008-01-08T22:29:00.001+01:00

...
Obviously, we have some trouble getting started this year as

ear infections and storms seem to be haunting our house ...

so we stay inside, patiently waiting, studying drops of melted

snow on our windows.

At least I have my new gold slippers to brighten up the days!