summertime

It´s finally summertime in Iceland! I went to the beach with my boys and hubby... I walked barefoot in the sand... my boys found a lot of pretty and fun things like shells and dead crabs... we sat down and dug our fingers in the warm sand and enjoyed...

 Grótta, Seltjarnarnes

 Barefoot...

my boys run a lot...

... and did a lot of digging...

 we also found some pretty things, like this heart 

we dug our fingers in the sand...

we found some dandelions...

we blew and made a lot of wishes...

quality time

... and we got really tired - so tired we almost couldn´t stand on our feet... :-)

A homemade greenhouse of my own...

Growing your own herbs is so much fun and eating them even more! :-) Somehow everything tastes better from your own garden, isn´t it strange? While living in Freiburg, in the south of Germany, I had no problems growing my own herbs. But after I moved to Iceland it seems almost impossible to keep them alive - I don´t know why... maby it´s the temperature, the wind from the ocean, the light? Well, anyway...  that´s why I´ve been thinking of making my own recycled-greenhouse for a while now - using only material I have at home or get for free.

What  I came up with was the following: 
Material:
1. The nice lady who works in my local grocery store (Bónus, Mosfellsbær) gave me 2 wooden, fruitboxes    (appelsínukassa) for free... they would have landed in the garbage anyway - but I gave them a new live and a new purpose. I love that feeling!
2. an old, transparent plastic oilcloth
3. paint
4. a stapling gun

What I did:  (if you don´t understand a thing, just look at the pictures - you´ll see what I did with your own eyes :-)

I removed 2 of the longest, wooden side-boards from both boxes, the buttom of one and put them on top of each other. I used the long boards to fix the two boxes together (the long, vertical boards you see on the front side)

After that I painted the boxes with white paint I had at home.

To finish the whole thing I cut the oilcloth to pieces (1 long piece for 3 sides, 1 small for the buttom, 1 long one for the top and the front side) and fixed it with my stapling gun.

I really love the way it turned out and what I need now, is some kind of a small, transparent shelf made out of something (any ideas?) to use all the space inside the greenhouse in a more effective way... I had SO MUCH FUN making my cute little greenhouse... I DID IT!

My greenhouse

 

open:


 closed:

Inside: seedlings, thyme and basil  

 

 my old thyme from last year surprised me and is getting a little bit green again...

chives: old and new 

Beans - did this one just for fun for my boys... 

My little balcony-garden:

 Bidenam hunting spiders with his water pistol:

Knit Tag

Johanna at Knittingmydayaway knit-tagged  me! Here you have 5 knitting-related questions she asks me:

 

1. Are you always happy with your FO’s (finished objects)?

 No, not always but it´s getting better every year... the more I knit, the happier I get! 

2. Are you sometimes so disappointed that you frog everything and start a new project? Why? Color? Yarn? Making? Too small? Too large?

I rarely frog a project... but I do, when I´m knitting a lace shawl, and I made an error or if my needles are to big and my lace isn´t looking good  - or generally only if it´s a total disaster and I can´t think of a different way of using the piece. 

3. Do you wear your knits or do they end up at the bottom of a cupboard? If so, why? How do they age after being washed and worn?

Yes, I do wear my knits! I use lot of lopi and lopi just keeps getting better when it ages...

 

4. Do you always make a swatch? (maybe it should have been the first question, lol ?!)

NO, and if I do, It´s an exception! :-)

 

5. Finally, would you rather work with some yarns you know well rather than others to avoid bad surprises?

I love experimenting with yarn and of course, I love luxary-yarns... but I do use a lot of lopi because  it´s my favorite yarn... !

Now, I´d like to knit-tag Hilde, Litla Skvís, Jacqueline and Siv! 

A diary of positive thoughts

 A few months ago, I decided that I was going to think of one little thing at the end of every day, that made me happy. My plan worked out fine and I´m actually still doing this every day and enjoying it... it´s so good for your soul and for your sleep :-)
The other day, while waiting for my my friend Rodprjonar at the city center of Reykjavík, I went into a bookshop (Mál og Menning, Laugarvegur) and found this wonderful little diary/notebook, called "Jane-a-Day 5 year journal. - with 365 Witticisms by Jane Austens". I thought it would be so very perfect for this positive-thought-a day-thing I'm doing. I really love this little "diary" and the fact that it reminds me of that wonderful, amazing day at the city center of Reykjavík with my dear friend, makes it even more precious to me :-) 

  (click on the pictures for a full-size)

A "Jane-a-Day"

 From the inside: every day has enough space for 1-2 sentences - enough for a happy-thought!

Every day has an interesting quote by Jane Austen - on my birthday it says: 

"Happiness must preclude false indulgence"...

 And some knitting: Mittens for 2 year old, pattern: "Kríli" and yarn: léttlopi.

The lopapeysa

Have I ever told you how much I love lopi? Here you have some lopipeysa/Islandpullis/lopisweaters I have made in the last 5 years...

1. Green one on the left: yarn: léttlopi, horses: I got them on the Istex-homepage; shaping: I made it up... 

On the right: unspun, one strand (really thin) - the pattern: "Bokki" from the book Prjónaperlur

2. yarn: léttlopi from Istex; pattern: "Fjör" from Lopi 25

3. on the left: sweater for my dad, yarn: álafosslopi; Pattern: from Lopi 12; shaping: myself

on the right: Sweater for Bidenam; yarn: léttlopi; Pattern: Lopi 12, adapted for a child; shaping: myself

4: this one is one of my favorite child-lopisweater-pattern, so pretty and classic; yarn: Álafosslopi; pattern: from Lopi 2

5. Yarn: Álafosslopi; Pattern: The stars/roses/snowflakes from "Fjör" (Lopi 2) adapted for a child;     shaping: myself

 6. in the front: also one of my favorites... classic and so pretty! Yarn: léttlopi: Pattern: "Barnahettupeysa",    a free pattern on the Istex-homepage found here;

And here you have something else I love: driftwood... so beautiful... this one was taken in the south of Iceland, near Höfn in Hornafjordur

Landmannalaugar, what a magical place and a wonderful, adventurous drive... you can bath in natural, hot springs there...

Cross stitch and pretty in pink

 

When my husband and I where living in germany, we sometimes watched this televisionshow where the host used to end every show with this quote in german: "alles wird gut" or something like "everything is going to be just fine". ... we have been using it since and love it - it sounds so very soothing! Soooo... when so my mother gave me this wonderful woven fabric in the perfect colour (mustard of course:-) the other day, I new right away what I wanted to do with it: a "cross stitch piece" with our favorite quote, since I really wanted it on my wall as a reminder and also just for fun! We really like the result and we can´t wait to find the right spot for this piece!

I used my own handdyed einband from Ístex (left overs) for this project:
grey: crowberries
brown: lichen
yellow: Rumex longifolius

Letters: found somewhere on the internet (I picture-googled: "cross stitch letters")
Pattern: from the wonderful icelandic "Sjónabók" (if you picture-google it, you´ll see why it´s so wonderful)
Frame:  from a thriftstore

 

my current knitting-project: