Decluttering.... phew...

This past March my parents moved back home to Denmark (YAY) and with them they brought 8 years of gathered stuff from England... ok..ok, some of the things were from before they left too, but they certainly had aquired quite a bit of new things as well!
They also had 2 storage rooms filled before they left 8 years ago - and now had to fill their new home with furniture and memories from all 3 places... YIKES!

And my dear mum is a classic collector - ie. she keeps anything anyone ever gives her or which she has bought as a bargain.
(I've inherited this trait as well to my husbands dismay)

Hey! You never know when you might need that "thingamabob"-  

but be sure if you throw it out, you'll need it the very next day!!! 

...that's how my brain works...

But being inspired by my moms predicament of decidning what should stay, what should be given to charity or sold and what should be thrown (ARGH!!!) out - I decided to start planning our own decluttering
(yes plan... not do... not yet.... hehe - don't judge... saying goodbye takes time....)

Anyway I read a great article about Marie Kondo's book: TheLife-Changing magic of Tidying up
and this is definitely on my reading list this spring! Her basic premise on decluttering is that you should only keep something if it gives you pleasure.

She has two key points in sorting your things:

1. Keep what you love.
If something sparks a sense of joy when you handle it - keep it! But be tough! Not everything makes you happy... (apparently she's never seen MY things....)

2. Sort by type, not room.
Instead of cleaning by room/space, for example: your closet - she suggests handling all the same type, for example: clothing - in one sitting. Because you are likely to have the same type more then one place in the house. (ok here I have to giver her props... that's a new approach for me)

Almost seems too easy - but according to Kondo, what makes the method more difficult is the fact that many of us imbue our things with emotions. We hang on to things we don’t like because they were gifts; we allow books and papers to pile up in anticipation of reading them later; we refuse to let go of regrettable purchases because of the money we spent on them.

The purpose of the KonMari Method is to sharpen the sense of judgment of what items are important to oneself,

This is where the difficult part comes in, and Kondo has a simple remedy. In the words of Queen Elsa in Frozen, “Let it go.”

Phew - two Disney quotes in one blog post... *highfive!*

Bookcase before KonMari method

Bookcase after KonMari method

I know which one i prefer!!!

What are your ideas for declutting and tidying??

Yummy in my tummy Blueberry muffins!

I love muffins - in all flavours, but one of my favorites is Blueberry.... *drool*

This is the easiest and most healthy recipe I know and here you go:

PenNnyLanes Yummy Blueberry Muffins

Yields 4-6

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 dl cream

1 dl = 60 g Almond flour

1 tbl sp psyllium husks

75 g Sukin Gold or any other sweetner. This is my prefered tho...

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup of filling – in this case blueberries - but in theory there are infinite possibilities

Off the top of my head: White chocolate and raspberries / Dark chocolate and orange.... Mmmmm

How to:

Mix everything together. Let the batter rest for 10 min. To allow the psyllium husks to soak up some of the liquids. 

Add the filling. Pour into muffin cups and bake for 20 min. at 200 degrees (celcius.... hehe).

ENJOY!

Spring inspiration from Ebay

Spring has really hit my mood; in gardening, cooking and yes even my wardrobe!  and I'm very happy to see flowery and bohemian patterns are trending this year! I've always had a casual, bohemian style (or well... that was what I was going for anyway...) and since I discovered Ebay
- I'm finding good deals left and right!!

And of course I'm going to share...

1. / 2. / 3. / 4. / 5. 

6. / 7. / 8. 

I've hit the "order" button on 2. and 5. - vacation is coming up and I need to look my best!

Which are your favorites??

Ostara - My spring Equinox

Ostara comes from the name Eostre - a germanic goddess of spring! 

Every religion celebrates the season of spring starting -  "Ostara//Easter/Passover.... to give a few names" 

As Spring reaches its height, day and night are in perfect balance, with light increasing. The young Sun God now celebrates his joining with the young Maiden Goddess, who conceives.This is the time of great fertility, growth, and newborn animals!

The next full moon is called Ostara and is sacred to the germanic fertility Goddess Eostre 

(where we get the word estrogen from and whose two symbols are the egg and the rabbit.)

These symbols for Easter are still used to this day - although a bit more commercially. Christians funnily enough decided to keep their "Easter" in accordance to the pagan traditions and it is still celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

The legend of the Easter Bunny

Long ago, according to legend, many animals attempted to win the favor of the goddess Eostre, but because  she was so difficult to impress, all of them failed. 

However, one day on March 21, a rabbit decided to try to impress her by taking an egg from a local hen's nest and decorating it beautifully with paint. 

Much to the suprise of the other animals, Eostre was very moved by the beautiful gift, and as a result, she gave this rabbit the task of creating and delivering these beautiful eggs, which he carries in a basket, and still does to this day! 

Another legend says that Eostre found a wounded bird on the ground and to save it's life, she transformed it into a rabbit. The bird appeared to look like a rabbit, except that it could still lay eggs. And so every spring it would decorate it's eggs and give them as an offering for Eostre as thanks.

I celebrate Ostara or "Påske" as we call it in Denmark by hanging coloured eggs from branches and filling the house and gardens with spring flowers! 

We have a great tradition in Denmark of sending "guessing-letters". This is a small Ostara-greeting - a paper with cut out shapes and sent anonymous with a little rhym... (roughly translated)

"Guess, guess, guess, my name has been lost. Here it stands with dots, watch out it doesn't jump!"

And the sender signs his name with a number of dots equivalent to his name... 

 If the receiver can guess the sender, he is owed a chocolate easter egg, and if not, it is the sender who is owed the chocolate egg. 

It's very popular for kids to send these letters to their close families and friends and earn treats this way!  

My dear niece and I made some last weekend... and she has already earned her first treat!

You can put pressed flowers and decorate the letter as you wish - but most of all you must try to make it as hard for the receiver to guess as possible.... 

What are your Ostara traditions?

I have saved some of my Ostara inspiration on Pinterest - Go have a look!!

My first buy from Ebay

Ok, so I'm not really one to buy things online 

(except dogfood.... just because delivery is so much easier then having to carry home 2 x 14 kg bags of dogfood...!)

- but I've just bought my first item from Ebay!

...and I can´t belive how cheap it was! and the delivery was sooooo fast!

Korea style bracelet w/pearl

What it really looks like:

Even Gaizia - "Queen of the cusions" loves it!

But it's quite addictive that Ebay.... hmmm what to buy next....??!

What are some of your best online buys??

News from BY Nord

One of my favorite danish designs at the moment is "BY Nord" who really showcases the nordic nature, a mixture between raw details and supple softness. My clear favorite and on my permanent wishlist are their animal print pillows.... I really love the wolves and oooooh the little penguin... SO CUTE!

Check out their new catalogue here

Here are some of my favorites...

I love their play on tough dark wood and soft/light glass in the tealight holders... definetly on my WANT list!

What's on yours?

Babyshower

So my very good friend Majken just had her baby boy Julian - and since I haven't had time to post earlier - his arrival suddenly reminded me I had lots to post about her (and his) babyshower!

Majken & Jakob and little Julian

Babyshowers are not really a common thing in Denmark - usually you just wait for the "new family" to invite you over (one at a time, so they're not too stressed) and you pay your respects that way.

 My family lives in England though, and over there it's quite a big deal with these babyshowers - so last time I visited my parents I was inspired to do the same for my good friend.

She and her boyfriend had been trying for some time to get pregnant, so when it finally happened, I really wanted to show my support and happiness for her! We studied together at the same hospital, but sadly don't have as much time as I would like to see eachother (mostly cause we live so far apart), I plan to be better at it this year though (yup - new years resolution nr. 1!)

Anyway she is a busy girl, so the greatest challenge was to find a weekend that wasn't completely booked already in her calendar. I gor her boyfriend in on the plan and he put at fake date on their calendar - he just told her, that he had a suprise for her... which was ... well... true hehe....

Next I went on Pinterest..... omg... sooooo much stuff on pinterest.... and I made a board.

We didn't use all the ideas and some plans had to be changed last minute, because of cancellations, but it was a great way to brainstorm, and plan the shower.

Shortly translated: Majkens little prins is on the way....
...it's a suprise, so help keep the secret!
adresse and phone nr.

I teamed up with one of her co-workers and former study-mates, so I could invite both her family, friends and co-workers. Sadly the date that worked for most was in the danish autumn holiday, so not everyone could attend - but we were 10 peeps in total, which I thought worked really nicely.

We made it a Babyshower brunch, because that fit everyone best and the food was easy (though we made waaaay too much! but it's always nice with leftovers!)

We filled the countertop with brunchy-yummy-goodness!

And a fruit baby....
(grapes, kiwi, pineapple, strawberry, melon and orange for a head)

No babyshower is complete without games!! 

Here we had been very creative - we planned 10 events/games!! and thinking back that was way overkill for 3 hours hehehe 

We bought a onesie for everyone to sign (kinda like a guestbook) and made a "pin-up board" with some good advice for mommy and daddy. 

Also we made a calendar - where people could guess Julians birthday, which mommy later could frame for his room. 

Oooh and of course we brought presents!!! 

Mommy dearest opening presents! 

We ended with the game of all games!! - toiletpaperdiapers! Aren't they cute?? 

Teams of 2 - 3 min. to make the best toiletpaper diaper....
it's harder then you think!!

All in all a great day that I would repeat in a heartbeat! The very best moment, was when Majken opened the door and saw us all in her living room. She got so very emotional and I could see she really knew we all cared for her and her little soon-to-be baby boy! 

If you're planning a babyshower for a friend/sister/co-worker - head to www.pinterest.com. There is so much inspiration to get there. 

Decorations and so on I bought at Søstrene Grene (danish shop that has really affordable, cute tablewear and decorations!) 

I'm especially crazy about these honeycomb - paper-pompoms that you hang from the ceiling....

and was thrilled to see that Majken had kept the ones we had bought for the shower and hanged them in Julians bedroom - such a cute idea! 

When I was in England, visiting my parents, I went to Party Fever where I got the sash for Majken and some great banners for her house! They also had baby-shaped confetti and in case you don't want to make your own invitations - you can also buy them there. 

Next time it could be fun to make the shower co-ed! So hurry up Majken - Julian needs a brother or sister!!!!