Happy Happy days # 4

Life has been busy here with my new kitchen and a lot other things on my mind, so blogging ended up being somewhere in the background, in the neglected, dark corner.... Time to get it out of there with a Happy Happy days post.

:-) living in my hometown. It is great to know the people and the story of the place. And I love the groceries round on Saturday when you meet everybody in the shop and have a small chat or say hi. Or town fair when walking 10 meter takes half an hour due to all the chatting.

:-) my mums helping-the-old-ladies sceme. She and a friend started helping some elderly neigbours with laundry, recycling and so on and I askes them if there is a job for me to do too. So far she only came up with the silly things but maybe one day they will find something for me to do as well.

:-) my neigbours. Our house is pretty amazing. We help each other if needed, but we also tolerate what the others do. When E has the radio on too loud or the Italians downstairs have their whole family visiting on Sunday and ten people are sitting on the balcony. And it is good to know that nobody comes to complain when friends visiting and we're getting a bit loud.
We just hope that we will get nice neigbours into the currently empty flats.

:-) having my best friend living just some houses away soon. We were neigbours for two years, literarely next-door-neigbours. We lives on the same floor, just about six, seven meters from door to door and it was an amazing time. She then moved back in with her parents and was then looking for a flat with her boyfriend and I told her that she should ask our landlord. She now got a flat just about hundered meters away and will get the keys next week and we'll be neigbours again.

:-) Sitting on the balcony during a thunderstorm, drinking tea and listening to rain and thunder. When it gets cold I take my nice, red blanket and wrap myself up. The catties also love it out here and will sit in a dry spot.

Happy Happy Days #3 - or the magic of being grateful

Lately I met H when I did my groceries round. H is in her mid seventies, a former farmer, mother of three and grandmother of eight. She has such a wonderful and positive outlook on life which I want to share with you.

Whenever I ask H how she is she replies with: "We're all healthy and managed without major accidents or illnesses so far. I'm grateful." She even said that after her husband had a heart attack or broke his leg. He survived the heart attack and he could have had worse injuries than just a broken leg, so she was just happy that it wasn't worse.
She often tells me that she is so happy that she managed to rise thee children on a farm where there are always tractors and things like that around but nobody ever got hurt.

The most important thing in Hs life is her family. Her husband, children, grandchildren, her sister, everybody around gets her love and care. She would never miss a family birthday and always picks up family members that come from holiday at the station or the airport and is happy to have them back safe and sound.
When H was twelve her older brother died in an accident. Ever since H would not part with a loved one in an argument and always says sorry before going to bed, just in case something happens.

H and her husband are married for 51 years. They're no longer in love like a young couple, but they care for each other. I remember when H told me two years ago that they will soon be married for 50 years. "50 mostly good years."
Her husband, W, loves to complain that she isn't treating him right. When somebody asks him how he is he normally says: "Not good, H isn't treating me right." with the biggest possible smile. He is happy and he made sure that H is happy too and that they have a good live together.

After Hs brother died the family had no strength to carry on. For years they just worked somehow, ran the farm, tried to have a normal family life, but it wasn't working properly. When W arrived on the scene things started to cheer up. H is still grateful that he saved them all in a way and she is still grateful that her own family is so happy. She still mourns her brother and also her parents who died heartbroken, but she also thanks destiny each day that live is so good for her.

Holiday preparation and packing

Soon soon my sister and I will board a plane and fly to lovely London. But our stay there will be a short one; Heathrow Express, hopping on a Cirle or Hammersmith&City Line train to Kings Cross, getting some food at Pret-à-Manger and spend our first pounds at the Harry Potter Store before boarding a train north; to Edinburgh.

We both don't like flying, so for us the fun of the journey won't start before the plane lands in London. But I'm sure we will manage the flight. My sister talked a working colleague of hers into driving us to the airport, most likely she told him that we might get lost... He is a bit overprotective when it comes to my sister...

So the flat is clean; ready for my parents to come home from their holidays tomorrow and my suitcase is packed. All that is left for today is writing and posting a letter, cuddling the catties and try to have an early night before going up superearly and try to remember to pack the last bits and bobs - I never forget my toothbrush, but my hairbrush is often left behind...

I tried to take some pictures while I packed, but of course it all ended differently....

 

Not on the pictures are underwear - for obvious reasons - and my ankle boots which were still on the balcony after I cleaned them. I originally wanted to take two pairs of jeans but then unpacked one again. The reason why we take a board game on a journey is a simple one; my sister needs to practise so she can win against our granny who is the Queen of board games. 

I packed the knitting and stitching stuff, the little pink bag - which contains the rest of the board game, pens and stitching stuff -  and the game into a small bag which we will then take out once on the train.

And this is the handbag. Travel guide, book, pen and paper, my sunglasses, phone and ipad, my camera, purse, passport, chewing gums and and an... The small bag at the back contains some small stuff while the plastic one holds all the liquid ones. In the envelope are all our things like tickets, reservations and information.

Happy Happy Days #2

There were some things this week that weren't too happy. I had a rubbish moment at work and then I learned that an acquaintance had died a while ago. I was thinking of her last weekend when I had a chat with somebody about accents and dialect and remembered having a similar chat with her some years ago and thought that she would have enjoyed that one too. Later on I learned that by the time I thought about her she was already dead for a week. It is a rubbish feeling to know that and I for sure will miss her somehow. I didn't saw her too often in the past two years since I left choir but I knew she was around.


But well, back to happy things as this is about them.


I spent last weekend with friends and it was really really great. We were 22 people all together (some arrived later, some left earlier and I don't think we were more than 18 at any point of the weekend) and rented a house from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. We had tons of food and spent almost all weekend eating cake, delicious Mexican and Italian food and also had some alcohol to go with it. We spent the weekend knitting/crocheting/stitching/spinning and it was such a great time.
Plus we spent a lot time talking about language, accents, dialect (that happens when people from all over the world come together) and did funny stuff like accent tags and learning Jamaican accent in case we will ever need it.
It is really nice to be part of a knitting circle!


I moved in with my parents on Thursday for the next five weeks as my flat will get a new kitchen and bathroom! Hurray! So I soon will have a fully renovated 2-bedroom-flat - I got a new floor and everything was painted when I moved in a year ago - which will cost less than 25% more than my old 1-bedroom-flat with 40 years old kitchen and bathroom, a tiny balcony and an ugly carpet.

So my parents are on holiday this week. My Dad most likely forgot that I had my own household for the past six years and seams to be afraid that I might starve. He told me twice that, should I run out of any staple food items upstairs, I just have to go to the basement to find his stock. 1; having lived in that household for 20 years I fully know about his stock keeping and where to find his stock. 2; being his daughter, I also believe in stocking up when things go on offer, so all the staple food I might run out of are also available from my own basement. And 3; there are things called shops around.
But thanks for caring Dad!  

The text I got from my sister this afternoon. "What are we going to do if we really like Edinburgh?"
Well, I would say go back for another holiday somewhen. Or move there. Become Scottish. Get a nice accent.

Happy happy days # 1

This afternoon I've been thinking that it is really true that the small things in life are the ones that make you truly happy. Not the big things that happen every now and then, but the small, daily ones. Which is also good, as this gives us the opportunity to be happy all the time and not just now and then when major events happen.

Some hours ago I came across a new blog and discovered that she writes down the things that makes her happy each week. So I decided to steal that idea and report here which things make me happy at the moment.

¦-) Baking. I think there is nothing more relaxing then kneading bread and then enjoying the nice scent hovering through the flat when the bread is baking. And of course eating the bread afterwards. My current favourite is dark bread with some thyme and Italian herbs in it. I think it tastes best with some honey or with salted butter. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out today, the last few times it was a bit dry and didn't really rose, but now I discovered that I just need to add a bit more water and it rises like crazy.

¦-) Keeping my flat clean and organized. I gave it a good clean today and even cleaned some of the windows and it is so nice to have everything nice, tidy and clean.

¦-) Hanging laundry outside. In my old flat I had a teeny tiny balcony, not sure if my laundry hanging thingie would even had enough space out there. So as soon I moved in here I discovered the joy of hanging laundry out on the balcony.

¦-) Texting with my sister about youtube videos. I introduced her to some of my favourite youtubers and she is now a fan of a certain greyhound called Reggie and a certain little girl called Darcy... :-)

¦-) Being organized. Comes right with cleaning, but I generally love being organized, writing to do lists, shopping lists, budgets and so on. I've always loved planning.

Sophies week

Another week passed by very quickly. Another weekend dedicated to crafting and meeting nice people. My sister and I visited granny today and we played out favourite board game. Normally granny wins at least two out of three games but this time it was me who did that. My sister was quite dissapointed as she didn't wone a single game...

 

*Book* "Broken Homes" - Ben Aaronovitch. An old childrens novel.

*Song*Some Czech music.

*Craft* Finished taster stitching. Second half of the bag. Worked on my knitted scarf. Sunglasses case.

*Food* Pancakes. Blueberry muffin. Mars ice cream. Pasta with chicken and mustard sauce. Chicken with peanut sauce. A lot peanut butter things.

*Drink* Water

*Done* Crafted. Visited granny. Played boardgames. Spent a nice Sunday morning with friends.
*Met*Knitting friends. My granny. My sister.

*Bought* More  flowers for the balcony.
*Thought* That Eastern is really close now.

Sophies Week(end)

After a pretty normal week I had quite a busy weekend and am really happy with all the things I did as the last few weekends were really lazy.

So what I did:
running some errands (groceries shopping, library, recycling centre and so on)
bringing my sewing machine back to life with the help of my mum
sewing a birthday present  for a friend
spending an afternoon with my mum
having a long hapnap in the late afternoon
having a pamper evening including colouring my hair
spent a sleepless night reading, folding laundry, searching for sewing ideas and polishing my nails
finally going to sleep at three in the morning
having brunch with the bunch as my best friend called it. A nice brunch with four very close friends, a lot laughter and a lot to chat and catch up
sewing half of a bag
going for nordic walking for the first time in ages
having very light berry pancakes for dinner

So all in all it was a really nice weekend. And here comes the rest of the week:

*Film/series* youtube tutorials. Vlogs.

*Book* "Whispers underground" - Ben Aaronovitch. An old childrens novel.

*Song* The new Johnny Cash album "Out among the stars"

*Craft* Easter stitching. Birthday present for a friend. Half of a bag.

*Food* Brunch. Pancake. Strawberries. Too much Easter chocolate. Maltesers Easter bunny. Greek salad. Couscous salad.

*Drink* Tea.

*Done* Brunch with friends. A lot crafting. Afternoon with my mum.
*Met* My best friends. My parents.

*Bought* Tulips. Some  flowers for the balcony.
*Thought* That I have to go to the dentist really urgently :-(

Wednesday music- Salford days

Wednesday music is back with a new idea behind it. I often find that two songs somehow match up. For example songs that share a topic. I don't know which radio station it was who sometimes had a special and played only songs about a certain topic for an hour. So for example songs where the title had a number between one and hundred in it or songs talking about trains.
Or songs that were all covered by the same singer. I think especially in Folk and Country songs were pretty often sung by various people. And sometimes this kind of matches up.

One of the songs I've listened to quite often in the last weeks are Matchstalk men by Brian and Michael. The first line "He painted Salford smoky tops..." brings me to Ewan MacColl who was from Salford and sings about it in Dirty old town.. Kirsty MacColl is Ewans daughter and New England is a song I really like.

So here are this weeks Wednesday Music songs.

Sophies week

*Film/series* 101 Dalmatians.

*Book* "A fare country" - Daniel Mason. "Moon over Soho" - Ben Aaronovitch

*Song* New Orleans Hall Jazz Band.

*Craft* Dealt with my knitted hat. Bunny door decoration for Easter.

*Food* Muffin. Polenta bake. Pepper filled with cottage cheese. Fried rice. Cookie. Ice. 

*Drink*Ginger ice tea. Caramel macciato. Lemonade.

*Done* Met my best friend. Went for a drink with some friends. Crafted. Went for a walk in town.
*Met* Bestie. Three other friends.

*Bought* A blue blouse.
*Thought* That I hope that spring is coming back soon.

Favourite things at the moment

Another thing I love on youtube are monthly favourites, but not the ones limited to make up but the ones showing various things loved at the moment.

At the moment my favourite things are

reading - this is book 15 this year!

blueberry drink from IKEA

my new "Rättvik" glasses from IKEA

the cubby-stick dupe from Catrice

tulips

the violet yarn for my knitting project

The Body Shop Blueberry shower gel. As it was a limited edition I stocked up on it and hope now that it will come into the regular range

wearing spring shoes

Not in the picture are Ro's Argan Body Conditioner from Lush which I forgot to picture and the Lush Fizzbanger bath bomb since I used it on Saturday evening....

Sophies week

*Film/series* Youtube videos. Wanted to watch Letters to Juliet but the DVD wasn't working...

*Book* "Er ist wieder da." -  Timur Vermes. "Die Lust zu leben" - Françoise Sagan. "Remarkable Creatures" -  Tracy Chevalier

*Song* "New England" - Kirsty MacColl. "Mack the knife" - Bobby Darin. "Matchstack men" - Foster and Allen.

*Craft* Restarted my knitted hat. Finally framed my Baaatle-of-Hastings stitching.

*Food* Pizza. Rösti. Veggie Cottage pie. Blueberry Muffin. Apple Crumble. Gnocchi with chicken and veggies.

*Drink* Tea. Orange juice. Blueberry drink from IKEA.

*Done* Met a friend for dinner. Celebrated Grannys birthday with a family thingie. Cleaned my balcony. Spent time on the balcony. Went for a long walk. Edited some photograhps. Knitted with friends. Took a long, nice bath.
*Met* My knitting friends. My extended family (extended in our case means 11 people, so not too many...)

*Bought* Tulips. A notebook. Ordred two pairs of shoes and a tunic.

*Thought* That spring makes you feel just great.

The reading bit might look like a lot to read, but basically I just read "Er ist wieder da" which is a book about Hitler reappearing in 2011 and both funny and scary. "Die Lust zu leben" which is a fictive biography of actress Sarah Bernhardt was laying around half-read and I just  finished it. And from my new book I just read 60 pages while in the bathing tub yesterday - yes, it was a long bath.

What's in my bag

What's in my bag videos are my favourite things on youtube and the best way to discover new youtubers. But as I'm not taking videos here is a written what's in my bag.

This is the current state of my handbag, but soon I will also add my sunglasses to it if the weather stays like that.

My agenda is from the Woodland Series from Paperchase which I really had to resist buying the whole series. But I still bought the agenda, notebooks, pens, stickers and post-its....

The bag with the lovely Liberty Print holds a small notebook, handcream (Bluebrry by Cath Kidston), handwipes and some things not pictures like a small hairbrush, coins, hairbands, painkillers etc.

Tissues

My beloved Cath Kidston purse. I have two other purses, a green one with rose print from Cath Kidston and a blue by Ollie&Nic and use them alternating.

My I-phone with the case I bought in NY two years ago.

Chewing gums, a mirror, lipcare and the Woodland pen matching my agenda.

Lipstick of the day - or sometimes rather all-the-lipsticks-worn-in-the-last-10-days

Random facts about Sophie

The last Random facts about Sophie were back in October and I feel like talking about them again...

I still have two of the cakes I made for "THE  event" in my freezer... And we really gave some cakes away... We passed some over to our local sports club who needes cakes for an event and as quite a few of their people were helping us with our event we decided to help them too. And my sister took a whole lot of cake to work, but there are still some left over which we should eventually eat...
But baking cake is more interessting than defrosting them...

I eventually moved my Itunes over to the new laptop. But I still don't like the app screen.

The knitting/stitching events with my friends was really nice with a lot of crafting, eating, booze and chats. Thanks C for walking back to the house at least five times to get some more gin&tonic while we had the campfire.
Although I came quite far with my christmas picture that weekend I gave up on it afterwards as I couldn't see it anymore and knew that I would never hang it.

I still look for pictures for my living room. Some days ago I said to somebody that I actually feel like framing some nice liberty print fabric. And guess what I got for Christmas from my bestie? Liberty print patchwork fabric! <3 

I think I reached a point where I have to move on in some way and am currently looking for a new job.

Only three more months till I'll get a new kitchen and bathroom. I'm moving in with my parents for this time and by mid June I will hopefully be back in a nice "new" flat.

My Mum told me last week: "We're moving." I asked her if Dad knows about it and she said yes. So I asked if he agrees... No.... She knows of somebody who will be moving in September and really likes that flat and since the landlord is her employer chance to get the flat are almost 100%. But Dad doesn't want to move - yet - as this means decluttering his life...

My sister is turning a van into a caravan with help of my Dad. She asked me last week if I would come on a camping holiday with her when the caravan is finished. Of course I said yes and now we're already discussing how we can have our holiday ritual in a camper. When we go on holiday together we normally buy carrots and a dip on our way back to the hotel and then watch a strange movie on the telly and eat carrots. And before we leave the room for breakfast we normally have a cookie. We're living life on the edge :-)

Sophies week

Hello everyone! *imitating Mirandas voice*

Long time not seen. How are you? Back in October and November life has been very busy due to "THE event" which went very well and which I enjoyed. But afterwards I was just in the mood for some days of laziness, followed by a little holiday in Bath. And then life went on and I kind of lost track with blogging. But now I feel like I want to blog again every now and then and already restarted my (German) book blog back in January.

So here goes another Sophies week, though without pictures - once more.

*Film/series* Nothing yet and I don't think I'll watch something tonight.

*Book* "The turning point" - Judith Lennox

*Song* "Baby ride easy" - Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash. "It's a real good feeling" - Peter Kent.

*Craft* Finished the first wrist warmer. Started the second wrist warmer. Tree with paper leaves. "Birthday in a can" for a friend.

*Food* Brunch. Homemade bread. Soup. Pasta. Muffin. Chocolate. Cinnamon roll. Banana-chocolate crumble. Baked potato.

*Drink* Tea. Tea. Tea

*Done* Met my bestie for brunch and a late Christmas celebration and an early "anniversary" celebration. Went shopping for presents. Cuddled with my favourite little man, L (4 months) Baked. Made holiday plans with my sister. Been tired and had a very long nap today. Rediscovered my favourite hairdo and feel much better about my hair now.
*Met* My bestie and her boyfriend. My parents. Some knitting friends including little L.

*Bought* Lush Skindrink. Henna. Blueberry shower gel from The Body Shop. Some presents. Tulips.

*Thought* That there is actually nothing to be sad about. That am glad my sister takes it relatively easy that her boyfriend moved out.