Just add water....

I'm confused lately... about style, maybe I am just obsessing, but it's been a tick in my brain for a while now either way...
I like styles. I like naming a room to a certain style. And even though my home is overall country-cottage, I do have subtle changes and themes in each room. And I guess now I am in two minds about my diningroom.... I shall tell you why.
When I first started decorating the cottage I was visioning a country-farm-woodland cottage with light airy colour all about summer and spring. I have always loved fairytales, and naturalia curiousities. So the living room quickly became a blend of forgotten-garden-fairytale-with.a.sprinkle.of-naturalia and curiosa.
Originally the diningroom were to follow this theme as well...

the kitchen turned 50's farmhouse cute, with loads of greens and mints and aqua colours. I love my kitchen.My bedroom is classy airy with a flare of country. And the hallway is now very much equestrian cottage...so back to the diningroom... it all started with birds as an overall theme, with aqua colours and white. My sister then gave me a dried, white starfish and I was sold. Later came the sea urchin, and some other shells. And newly I aquired a white, cute sperm whale. The diningroom has gone very beach-house-chic! When did that happen exactly?! I like it, no, I love that style. So maybe this just creeped up on me from dreams... but a beachy diningroom in a forest cottage?! Embrace it? Or get a grip?!?? And remove all sea-like decor?On my old door hung on the wall there are images of horses. Should I perhaps see if I cant find some images of fish or starfish to hang here instead? After all my horsey hallway should do enough for my love for all things equine...So what do you think? A "just add water" room in a forest... or ridiculous? :D

Amazing houses

One of my favorite things to do with my sister is go house hunting. We get in the car, drive around on random and just looks at houses!!! Ones for sale or not, it doesnt matter. I love a good exterior! And sometimes, when the urge gets me, I do this online instead... so today I just want to show you some amazing houses that I have come across online :)

I certainly wouldnt mind this wee cottage, and that arched gateway is just gorgeous. I want one like that!

The elaborate, almost dragon style, decor on this swedish house has me absolutely captivated! And the location too is just dreamlike!

there is something special about houses at the waterfront. I love all the windows in this house, in every nook and corner... I wonder what it looks like on the inside...
A most adorable, crooked wee witches cottage this! Love the weathered shingles and the blue window!
another fairytale cottage, I just love! That chimney is to die for!
Just... breathtaking! I am a sucker for english cottage architecture!
A red swedish cottage. Now I do live in a red cottage myself. And intend on painting it black.. so I dont understand why I love these so much! But I do!

Maybe it's teh foliage of autumn, but this little lady has me enchanted! I would love to grow old there!

I dont know why this appeals to me, but there is something about this new zealand girl that I just love!
yes please! The colour and details are just perfect. I could see my horse grazing up front...
Maybe my all time favorite dream house. But that is all it is, a dream. The house ws buildt for the movie "Practical Magic" and it was just a shell.. once, when I am a millionar... I want to build a real copy of this!
Gotta love the turret!
A classy beauty she is! And I wouldnt mind peeking inside!
Another wee swedish, red cottage... just like mine :) But this one has that slanted roof I just love so much!
p.s. if I could find the source, the image is linked.

the last days of easter...

So many have been complaining about easter comming around just too darn late this year. I couldnt disagree more... being a pagan easter for me, is all about new life, spring! So what better way to spend a few days off work in the sunshine? Enjoying the smells, the greens of spring?

Originally easter had nothing to do with the church, but the spring festivals were so incubated in people's way, they just had to work around it... I mean... ask yourselves why the easter bunny came to be? I sure know what bunnies do in spring, it's all in your biology book... in case you have forgotten... and it it's all about bringing about that new life :D
So bunnies are my favorite easter decor, and I am forever looking for more... This bunny-eggcup is a relic from my childhood... I think... it's german?

now this one is absolutely german, the newest addition to my easter decor. A gift from Libby, she brought it over for easter lunch. All the way from Germany. I love it :D

there is eggs and chicks about too! This little chick was found at a fleamarked!

a little yellow is nice. I actually love yellow, esp in flowers.


And my little Pixie girl is growing into a gorgeous Welsh Cob Pony. She sure is enjoying spring as well.... She's nearly 11months now. And I can't belive how wee she was when she was born. She's still the runt of the pack though :D
I hope you all had a sunny easter, and a brilliant time!

Easter...

Tomorrow is the big annual easter lunch here at the cottage :) But today I just wanted to share with you some pics from my easter decor :) And please head on over to "Monique" to look at some more pics from my kitchen!

the pictures are taken by Mille of course :D

The easter eggs on the branches are cheap ones from Plantasjen, but I really liked 'em!


Have a good easter thursday everyone :) I'll be back with some more pics later on...

What do do?

So... I have these vintage green sign currently hanging at my kitchen wall.. But I do not know if I like them there. I do love the signs, but I sometimes feel they seem alittle skimpy on that rather large piece of display wall...
My kitchen has a very farmhouse feel to it...
and I have this old window with vintage illustrations from a "farm animals" book hanging in the diningroom... My didningroom has a more beachy-birdy feel.... And I actually feel the window is abit heavy for the rest of the decor...
What if I made a switch? The cute sign hung in the diningroom, which are NOT so imposing, and added the window to the kitchen wall where it would make more of a statement?

What do you think? Let me know please :D

Free pollmaker

peeks from the Equestrian hallway :)

My good friend Mille from "Monique" came over today, along with her two wonderful boys and her equally wonderful mother. Mille loves my cottage. And she is always racing around the house spotting picture-perfect settings :) Which I dont mind. Dont mind it at all actually! She is a fantastic photographer, with the coolest camera ever! Love her! So all the photos today are trough her lens...

My dad and I (read mostly dad....) painted the floors and stairs today. So I am currently camped at my parents house while it dries. Tomorrow will be the 2nd layer and then I have one more layer on the railing to do, as well as the doors. I am so excited!

And I am so incredibly happy with the pictures on the wall. All the details will eventually be shown, but I just dont want to spoil the big finallè ;)
The framed postcards are antique postcards from early to mid 1900's. The larger pictures seen over are prints from said postcards (same artist). The framing are super cheap (but ended up super expensive due to the sheer number I needed)

Anyhow.. I am so happy and excited and full of energy. I loved hanging hooks and pictures and lanterns with Mille today! I great sunday!

She took some other awesome pics from the cottage, I will show you those some other time!
Have a good easterweek!

a taste....Hallway update!

Here is a small taste of the hallway... which is not far from being done now :) I've hung a few pictures, and I really like the dark wood next to the subtle gray shade on the walls :) Hurray!I hope you all have a great weekend!

I won I won I won!

I won the giveaway at "Myrullpiken". They had three gifts and I won the best one (in my eyes anyway) A stunningly cute apron from Greengate!!! Oh lucky lucky me!!!
Thank you SO much :)

*does the happy dance*

tomorrow I will be painting, yepp I am still working on the hallway... it's taken longer than I had hoped.. I'm just so impatient... sigh! I want to start doing the FUN stuff... hang pictures, decorate... you know the deal... lol Well maybe maybe it'll be finnished this weekend eh? Maybe?

New-ish layout & spring baulbs

It's raining outside... and it's rather chilly. I stayed in bed for ages... listening to the tapp tapp of the spring drizzle, the sound of the birds, my cat purring and soft piano music on the radio. It was bliss. Because of the cold and wet though, I havent painted much today. Just the window. I'll do the doors next weekend :)


I am now off to pick up my sister at the trainstation. She's home for easter :) It'll be great! Thank goodness it's only another month or so untill she's home for good! I miss her terribly when she's away.I hope you enjoyed my pictures from the cottage today. I am in love with spring baulbs. I buy way too many :) But they are just so decorative. And you can "re-use" them outside. Just pop them out when they've died. And next spring, you'll have spring baulbs in the garden! :)

Hopefully new pics of the hallway will come soon. There is still that floor to do... sigh... can't say I'm looking forward to that!!!

First Flea of the year

Well the first flea market of the year has come and gone. I travelled home with a few treasures. Some I will keep, and some I won't :) The hallway is also getting along very nicely and hopefully will be done before easter. Gosh I really do hope so!


Easter has is sneaking up on us, and there are more and more easter-ish feelings in my cottage these days. Small easter eggs tucked away here and there.

Also one of the treasures that came home with me saturday was this lovely vintage cockerel! He now stands proudly on my kitchen shelf!
I've also decided to start writing my blog in english once again. After I joined HGTV's "rate my room" (link on the top of page) I have gathered more and more american followers, so I figured it would only be fair to keep my blog international.
If you have not been on "rate my room" yet, I strongly suggest you do. It's a great source for inspiration. Loads of lovely people with very sound advice and a great place overall. My rooms received so many positive comments and also flew up high on the all time high :) Which I must say baffled and warmed my heart!

I will keep you all updated on the hallway soon! And I have two majour cottage-show offs comming up soon as well :) Hard to keep a secret when I am this excited though :)

Have a great spring still... talk soon!

Storblogging - Stue

Stua mi er definitivt den værste å ta bilder av. Fordi rommet er knøtt lite, og det er derfor vanskelig å få oversiktsbilder... og den inneholder tv'en!!!! Men jeg har iallfall prøvd... give me credit for det :p

Sofaen er kjøpt gjennom finn.no og er fra 70-tallet tror jeg. Den begynner å bli sliten, og kattene mine har *ikke* hjulpet for å si det sånn. Men jeg liker den godt alikevel. Den skal trekkes om, en dag når jeg finner penger under senga!
Bildene over sofaen er fra kunsteneren Tony DiTerlizzi, som illustrerte barnebøkene "Spiderwick". En av mine favoritter. Disse er tatt ut av boken derfra. De går i sarte farger som grønt, brunt og aqua. Kanskje min aller hærligste favoritt i stua! :) Bestemor kaller dette for familiebildene... hi hi... lurer på hvem som er trollet?!
Den store skinnstolen med puff er også funnet på finn.no :) Den skulle egentlig stå på biblioteket, men så passet den så altfor godt inn i stua :)

Tv skapet er reddet fra mine foreldre, jeg har blogget om det før. Den var en gang mørkebrun og fæl. Nå er den lys aqua og fin!
En liten detalj sånn til slutt... detaljer fra stua ser dere ofte her på bloggen, så jeg lar det være med denne akkurat nå!
I dag øse pøser det ned der ute... jeg skulle liksom male en vegg eller to i gangen, men det er kaldt! og ekkelt... spørs om det ikke får vente til helgen istedet... bedre tid da :)

In progress!

Slik var gangen avbildet i prospektet. Hærlig bondeblå, mørk og dyster. Med grått, grusomt nedslitt "teppe" av filt i trappene *grøss* Og slik har jeg hatt det (minus norske bonde antikker på veggene) siden jeg flyttet inn.
I går fikk jeg og Ida vasket ned vegger og grunnet den fæle blå fargen. Allerede ble det mye bedre, og lysere! Jippi!


Og i dag har første støk blitt tatt, både oppe og nede, samt taket nede! En helt sinnsyk forrandring. Fargen kommer ikke godt frem på bildet, men det er lys lys, varm grå. Lister og trappegelender blir i en litt mørkere tone, mens gulvet blir mørkere det også. Dørene får en sart turkisgrønn farge :) (selvsagt!)Jeg er bare hoppende fornøyd! Og håper inderlig at hele gangen er ferdig neste helg. Iallfall veggene og taket! Om gulvet må vente bittelitt lenger så overlever jeg det! :)