Women in my life

Singing women, that is.
There are three of them, actually. All incredibly beautiful and blessed with voices that sound as if they weren't born on this planet.
I had the incredible pleasure of seeing Alela Diane in Berlin a while ago. I spent an hour on a beer crate because I can never see anything during concerts unless I climb somewhere (yes, I'm a garden gnome). Hearing Pirate's Gospel live just cracked me.

Marissa Nadler's songs are very much like her - very dark, impossible to approach, they're to be enojoyed from the distance. I remember that hearing her actually speak was totally weird.

And, finally, Keren Ann.
No matter if she sings in English or French (she does both), it's magical. If I was ever going to marry anyone (I'm not), I'd do it to her Right Now and Right Here.
And she's beautiful, too.

 

Source picture 1
Source picture 2
and picture 3

(Art)work in progress + Hannover on Sunday

Surpirsingly, I've managed quite a lot lately. Let's take a look at the little list:
1. Digested a bunch of inspirational books and picked some brilliant ideas.
2. Went to Ikea (oh yes, that long time no see feeling!) and spent a couple of wonderful hours. Just me and my shopping cart. It's paradise! And here are the results:


Soon, very soon the Chaos Corner will be a thing of the past!
3. Bought these fantastic prints at Lucille's store:

One is going into the bathroom (nicely updated with a couple of very inexpensive yet stunning Ikea rugs), one's destined for the dining room and the lovely blue bowl of Japanese soup will be staying in my modest abode.
4.
Some fresh pictures from the kitchen - it really needed some clean lines. All the cheerful blues and greens made it look a bit like a candy store but black surely does the trick.


There's a very ugly cable hiding right behind the rosemary!
5. And finally, I'd love to show off my neighbourhood (pictures made on a VERY short walk due to the freezing cold)





Sometimes I still can't believe we're really living here, right next to the beautiful gardens, surrounded by the old buildings and yet just a short train ride away from the city center. Oh, Hannover, you're the place to be!

The Power of To-Dos?

Quite honestly, is there any?
I'm going to test it!

So, what needs to be done in FF right now? Let's face the reality!

Living Room
1. Buy a sideboard for the chaos corner.
2. Decide on the art wall above the sofa. Ledges vs free? I'm rather sure there'll be ledges!
3. Buy ledges.
4. Sort the cabinet (oh yes, this is a BIG project).
5. Buy a bigger basket for the faky faky fireplace  - tall enough to hide all the cables. Why are baskets so expensive?
6. Have our great contractor guys hang 1. and 3.

My room 

1. Decide on frames for this (and two further) beautiful picture by Lucile. This lady is a genius!
Order mats (yes, more mats and more frames. Crazy!)
2. Go to Südstadt and order a glass for a beautiful silver frame I bought this summer.
3. Close the holes in the walls and paint over them (I really doubt this one will get done before the summer holidays).
4. Finally buy a pendant (need to go to List for that. And have a test lunch at Lulu. The power of combining!)
5. Have the secret team hang my pictures (all of them! Oh yes!) and 4.
6. Order fabric for cushions, cushions and a bedspread. Sew cushions (hm, this won't be easy).
7. Sort the file cabinet. Ha ha ha. This is a good one!




Bathroom
1. Have the team of you know who install the too-beautiful-to-be-kept-in-the-closet House Doctor lamp.
2. Finally find a shower curtain. I'm feeling so inspired by this

    It's an old tablecloth! Well... I do know a special source...
3. Put some decent artwork/do something to the picture ledges. Maybe then one day I won't be too ashamed to post a picture of my bathroom here.
4. Buy a rug. Oh yes! The green Ikea rug goes with NOTHING in here.

Corridor
1. Buy wire baskets for smaller objects.
2. Have 1 and a lovely framed chalkboard I've recently made hung.

Dining room
1. Do some painting in the niche.
2. Find old wine boxes and replace the baskets where we keep our large collection of alcohol :)
3. Arrange the niche shelves. They look like a complete disaster right now.
4. Solve the chair problem. The ones I bought at eBay (and re-did, with a little help of Chaos Man) are no longer presentable. Ideally, I'd go for some vintage bistro chairs with cushions but where to find those without spending a damn fortune?
5. Make a magnetic inspiration board and have it hung next to the cupboard. I really dislike the empty space between this beauty and the door.

Chaos room
1. Paint the wardrobe. It's going to be gray.
2. Make Chaos Man choose some decent artwork. Buy frames and picture ledges (he actually had a great idea as if where artwork could be hung in his room. Great influence?!)
3. Stop being scared of entering this room.


Random stuff
1. Buy a decent pot for the brave olive tree (it has survived in FF since summer!)
2. Clean the balconies.
3. Re-do the bench+chairs. I'm really looking forward to this one!
4. Sell half of the basement contents. I actually started today and felt really happy afterwards!

Isn't 13.02.2011 a great date to start a test like this?

A frame a day....

I'll tell you a secret. I now have a private guru. I won't tell you this guru's name  - just quote the action-causing-guru-words.
A frame a day. Just a frame. Not more.
I started following these wise words quite a while ago. This is how my living-room floor looked this weekend.

Spot the cat!

I finally made myself carve out some time to play with my scrapbooking treasures (long live October Afternoon - thanks, dear guru!)  - that's what the results look like:

As you can see, I'm quite into hearts right now. Now, let's hope that this qise strategy will keep working as it has already helped me finally measure practically everything I wanted to have framed, order a bunch of mats, quite many frames and do some spray painting in the basement. It also brought me one step further in the middle of Fantastic Flat as I've finally decided what should happen to the chaos corner of the living room. And yes, imagine this, there've been some changes on the other side of FF - right where someone very very messy resides - and this makes me very happy!
See you all, dear non-exis, soon, hopefully with more results! Keep it in mind - a frame (or whatever you like it to be) a day...