Celebration!

It seems like, some weekends, the celebration never ends. It is just one thing after another - a Tour de France of celebration, if you want. Last weekend we celebrated: my sister's house-warming party, her improvised wedding, my brother's birthday, and father's day. The only thing that we actually didn't celebrate was the French football team....'nough said about it though, I'll let the media waste their ink on them :)

My sister is finally done renovating her big beautiful house in the countryside, so she had a "barn party" to celebrate...and she thought "why not use the day of celebration to also get married?". Just a fun, casual, unplanned wedding :) And so, extra celebration it was! My sister and her now husband David are expecting a little baby boy for September, so talk about a busy year for them.

Too bad for us that Olivia was super tired and not in the mood to party. I guess waking up a baby at 4 am for 9 hours of traveling in plane, train and car, and then arriving in a house with 80+ partying French people will do that to her - haaaaa bad bad parents that we are :)

The trip back home always seems soooooo long... but when we arrive, it takes just one listen to the birds singing in my parents' backyard and a glass of my dad's wine in our hands, and we forget all the neverending travel. Plus, the trip back home was more than needed - it had been too long since she had seen her papou, her cousin and the rest of the family.

While the party went on wild, we managed to escaped here and there for some walks in the beautiful countryside and found the peace and quiet that our little Olive needed. And Nils tagged along - her just LOVES spending time with his little cousin.

And then on Sunday, David turned the big 2.5.. A quarter of a century already!

And apart from the traditional birthday cake and presents, Troels and I decided to suprize him with a little bit of Danish tradition: Cinnamon in the hair when you turn 25 and you are still single :D

Of course we had to wait until after the Jaccuzi, when he was all wet so that it would stick some more. Haaaaaaaa I love silly traditions like these :D

Happy (insert whatever) everybody!

Rain keeps falling on my head

The past week has been all about rain. Light rain, heavy rain, and everything in between....you name it. Remember when Forrest Gump is in Vietman and talks about rain? Yeah, kinda like that. In Seattle they call it Spring - well, a looooong Spring I'll give you that much, but spring nonetheless.

Here, they call the "Danish summer".


Tinymus and I celebrated the arrival of the Danish summer every morning in our big bed, listening to the rain tap on the roof of the house, the two of us cozied up under the blankets.

Oh the sweetness of having a little girl cuddled against you, and looking at her as she is trying to understand what's happening around her.

This morning she gave me what I think was her first kiss, and my heart just melted when I realized what she was doing. I picked her up from her bed and gave her her morning kiss. She looked at me with a smile in her eyes, opened her mouth as big as only she can, and smacked it wide open on my cheek. She stayed there for a few seconds, and when she let go she had the biggest smile and her eyes said: "Look look, I kissed my mama :)".

She is growing up so fast. Maybe it is because of all that food we've been giving her these days. Yes yes, one more milestone down: Olivia started solids this week! And she already wants to take control of the spoon!

Boy are we in for a ride :)

The rain fell down and somehow it got me caught up with all sorts of thought about the course of life. Where I have been, where I am right now in my life, where I thought I would go, where I think I might go. These days I feel that I am at another cross-road, having to decide which path to follow by imagining what the destination will look like. Damn...sometimes I wish I had a guide book you know? :)

Tonight though, the sun came out in the evening after a gray day, and all I wanted to think about was the good old "Carpe Diem".

So I picked up Olivia in one arm, a blanket in the other and we headed down one of my new favorite spots - only two minutes away from our house and wooohooo, guess what....no mosquitos :) Smits 1 - Mosquitos: 1

The minute I put my little girl on the blanket under the big tree, she wiggled and giggled like I have never seen before from so much happiness. She listened to the birds, and the cutiepie even tried to answer their calls with her own little screams.

It was priceless. These few minutes just made up for all the rain that had been falling for a week. Now your turn - go, go out now and enjoy life for what it is today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow.

Wishing you a big happy Carpe Diem!

"I am a sewing nerd" (understatement of the year)

Ok. It's official.

I am a nerd.

A sewing nerd, with that.

What's the remedy, doctor?

Lately I have been going crazy with photography, leaving behind all of my sewing projects.

So it was super nice to have my friend Katharina come over a few days ago. Kat is an avid sewer too, and she brought all of he fabrics with her so we could do a bit of "brainstorming".....

.....and it ended up going completely bananas. In the best way, that is :D

Because you see, Kat is as bad as me when it comes to sewing.....so the two of us together.....ohhhh dangerous. It led to this:


Us putting all of our fabrics together into a color wheel. Oh nerdy nerds :D And the worst part is, we had SO much fun doing it hehe :D Now all of that made me want really bad to take a trip to New York to find even more cool cheap fabric!

Oooooh the fashion district. Katharina is game for a fun week out there, and I think my Lilo is too! Anybody else reading this interested? Give me a shout out!

And the real outcome of our afternoon together? We've challenged ourselves to a few projects....now to see what comes out of it! Stay tuned for an update in a few weeks :)

A weekend of firsts

The irony of this...as I am writing this, it is just pouring rain in Nivaa. Like my post from yesterday made the sky change in mind and all go to gray. Oh well, Monday morning weather it is, and regardless I am just enjoying listening to the rain drops tapping on the roof of the house.

So, with our very first real summer weekend of the year, came a lot of firsts - especially for our little Olivia.

First "dip" in the Baltic sea. We're not quite sure what she thought of it, her face was saying "Dude, guys! You never told me that water could be so cold!". Time to raise her the viking way!

Hanging out with girlfriends and going to the beach. Pia and Clothilde joined us, first hanging out at the house.

Look at them, almost independent! Hardly needing their mammas....soon they will be learning to drive and going to the disco. Hehe. Sigh :)

And then, because, why not....a quick escape to Nivaa beach.


It just never gets old.

The only thing that we were missing really were Pina Coladas! Not sure the girls would have appreciated the Pina Coladas in their mamma's milk though ;)

First trip on Far Far's boat. Steffen and Hanne took us on a quick boat ride on Saturday, and it was just lovely to hang out on the water.

On another note, with all that sun - my freckles are coming out. Mmm. Never know what to think of that. But hey, here they are, don't have a choice, so here I give you the freckles in the picture below :D

And it looks like Olivia enjoyed the trip as well ! Look at these little chubby cheeks sticking out of her life jacket.

Haaa I am going to eat her alive this little cutiepie.

The boys played with a toy submarine that Troels had been eager to try for a looooong time. They were just like children! Steffen, all dedicated to boats that he is, even jumped in the water so that he could better supervise the operations :D

And I, for the first time, drove a boat!!!! I almost felt like the captain of the Love Boat :D

It was, needless to say it, a good weekend, a very good first summer weekend.