I love spring!

I love spring! That time of year when the days are starting to get a little longer, the plants are slowly starting to come alive, and the weather clears up with a few nice days, here and there!

Even though it is still cold outside, there is warmth to the sun, and if you find a secluded corner, it gets nice and toasty 🙂

Sine the weather forecast is “promising” some fine weather the next few days, I thought it time to unpack the garden furniture. I love how putting out all the garden furniture, makes the outside suddenly look like an extra “living room”. It makes the whole place look much friendlier and welcoming 🙂

I’ll be waiting for some warmer weather, before the furniture pillows comes out though 😉 Still, spring is here, furniture unpacked… woohoo!

Spring cleaning

We have had a couple of really nice days, and it feels like spring 🙂 It’s still cold outside, but the crocus are out, and it’s time to start the garden spring cleaning.

I have some raised flower beds, and the edges are painted white. Well actually, after the winter they are no longer quite as white, they are kinda green 😉

So out came the pressure washer, and now it looks much, much better! If the weather warms up a little, I might even be able to freshen the edge up with a lick of paint.

Looks better, wouldn’t you say?

Out with the old – in with the new!

Ice cream with silver specks? Nope, no more, absolutely not!! I’m done, my dear old ice cream scoop, I’m done picking silver paint out of my ice cream.

You have worked really hard over the years, spooned tons of ice cream, to me and my friends, and I really appreciate it, but it’s time to let you go.

I’m sure you don’t mind, me swapping your worn body out, for a new green shiny ice cream scooper thingy 😉

Woohoo! A Liebster Award!!!

Last week I was nominated for the Liebster blog award! How cool is that! Just three months into this blogging world 😉

The whole thing caught me completely by surprise. This is kind of random, and unexpected, and totally flattering… and it has taken me a few days to get it together. Thank you, Sandra at It’s Tidy Time for this wonderful gift.

Receiving the nomination, I got a little curious, what on earth is The Liebster Blog Award?

As far as I can see, nobody really know for sure, how or when this award started. But what I’ve gathered, is that it started as an idea, to recognize new bloggers. It’s given to bloggers by other bloggers, in order to create new connections, welcome them and bring attention to their wonderful blogs. COOL 🙂 As I find out more, I’ll put it together on a separate page

A short summary for now:

It’s on the internet only, as a virtual award.
It is given to bloggers by other bloggers.
“Liebster” is a German word, meaning dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favourite.
It follows the principles of a “chain letter”, in the sense that it should be passed forward to a certain number of people.
Each of us choose if we want to; accept it, and continue paying it forward or refuse it.
The “rules” have changed over time, so now several sets of rules exist.
It seems to have been started in Germany, late 2010.
Earliest reference I’ve found so far, is to a post on a German site December 19th, 2010.

Now back to my nomination 🙂

Thank you, Sandra over at It’s Tidy Time for nominating me for my first award, ever 🙂

Here are the RULES received from Sandra – not the original ones from back in 2010 – but a different set:

Thank the rockin’ blogger that nominated you
Answer the 11 questions you were given
Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 500 followers
Post 11 questions for your nominees to answer
Tag your nominees and post a comment in their blog so they know they’ve been nominated!

ANSWERS to the questions I was given:

1. Where do you like to blog? Since it’s been winter since I started my blog, I blog at home, mostly curled up in my sofa with my laptop/ipad.
2. Who is your main inspiration in life? I don’t’ think I have a main inspiration, there are so many to be inspired by. A few:
– my friends Lisa and Mia for following their dreams, love you girls!
– Ed, for being the best dad ever (and my best friend), love you sweetheart 🙂 (and no, we’re not dating 😉 )
– my dad, who sadly passed away less than a year ago
– my step-mum for putting her “best foot forward” after loosing dad, after 30 odd years
– and there are so many more, way to many to count, so I won’t…
3. How do you feel about winter? Living on the west coast of Norway, winters tend to be wet and grey! So I gotta admit I love the season of sun and warmth! But if you give me a couple of cold, sunny snow filled days? Then we’re talking…
4. What was the happiest day of your life? Happiest day, oh gosh, there are so many, how to choose? So I won’t, and leave at it that 😉
5. Which movie makes you laugh out loud, literally? It’s Complicated, with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alex Baldwin
– the Skype scene in it, just about had me fall out of my movie theatre seat, I was laughing so hard.
6. What’s your favourite candy? Why! Chocolate, off course 😉
7. If you could be any animal, what would it be and why? TIGER. They are confident, strong, independent, both solitary and social animals. I don’t know if it is because I would want to be like them, or because I am like them, that they appeal to me. I actually think it’s both! I can be both strong, independent, solitary and social. I think it’s the confidence the tiger has, that I wish I had little bit more off.
8. Android or iPhone? Both
9. What would be your favourite country to visit?
Counties I’ve already been to – US – I have so many friends there
Countries I’ve never been to – Africa – I’ve always wanted to go there
10. Coffee or tea? Hmmm, Cafe Mocha – does that count?
11. What would your dream retirement scenario look like? Dream retirement! Living in a warmer climate, close to the beach, hanging out with friends, sipping margaritas 😉 and having the financial freedom to travel as much as I want.

MY NOMINEES
Okay, this is going to be difficult. Hmmm, let’s see… Voila! I pass The Liebster Award to – in no apparent order 😉

The Next 50 Years
Living not Wanting
365 minus 1
Musings from a Tangled Mind
Journey thru L
Me Woman You Man
Life Decluttered
newbieminimalist
quarteracrelifestyle
For the Love of Loving Things
Moving forward

There are a couple of blogs I would have loved to nominate – but they have more than 500 followers – so I’ll call them honorary mentions 😉

Simply Save – just squeaking by the 500 mark – already a Liebster – but absolutely worth a check
Life Out of the Box – I love how they use their time giving back to world by supporting school kids in less fortunate countries
Turquoise Compass – makes me want to buy a backpack – I wish I was 20 again…

QUESTIONS to my nominees
1. What is the one thing you are proud of?
2. If you won the lottery, by a substantial amount (so money was no longer a factor), what would you do?
3. Your absolute favourite dessert?
4. What three words do you think your closest friends would use to describe you and what three words would you use to describe yourself?
6. Your favourite quote?
7. Mountains or beach?
8. Can you sing?
9. What is number one on your bucket list?
10. Holy smokes! The apocalypse is here! Your family and pets are safe. You’re at home and can only take what you can carry. What do you save?
11. If you could have a teleportation device that connects your current location to one specific location, what would that location be and why?
12. You get a letter in the mail from 90-year-old you. She/He tells you 3 amazing things you’ve accomplished. What are those 3 things?

My final task, is to let the above bloggers know that I’ve tagged them.

I’m working on it. But you know what, I’ve been working on this for a while and I am anxious to get the post out of the “draft” folder, so I’m gonna go ahead and publish it and the individual notifications will show up eventually 😉

Auf Wiedersehen, mein Liebster’s 😉

7535

It’s been a month since I posted my email declutter challenge article, where I stated I would try to de-stuff my email at work by at least 7000 emails in 30 days.

Actually, it’s probably been closer to 10 000 emails de-stuffed, you see I did a little “boo-boo” in the middle of my clean-up. I wasn’t sure if I had consolidated all emails into my outlook mailbox, so I moved the folder I wasn’t sure about.

Turned out I had already copied it before, so suddenly I had two examples of a bunch of emails! I sure really appreciated getting another 2100 extra emails to clean up… (yes, that me being ironic!)

But anyhow – I did it, I did it 🙂

There were moments it didn’t look like I would make it, I was forever staying put at about minus 1500 emails, but I just carved away some dedicated time, and this morning, I managed to sort out the last ones, that got me past the 7000 mark.

I went from 19592 email down to the current 12061 emails I’m at right now. Thats 7535 less than when I started. Yu hu!!!

As you can see – I’m still not done, and I don’t think it’s going to get any easier, but since I’m on such a good roll right now, I think I will continue with fase 2 of my email declutter challenge.

What is Face 2 you’re asking? Well, let me tell you, it’s another 5000 emails be-gone!

And when am I gona be finished? Another 30 days from today…!

I can’t believe I just promised 5000 emails in 30 days – oh well, now it’s down on paper – so I guess I’m commited 😉

Hotel candy!

For some reason, every time a stay at a “fancy” hotel, I always end up with some of their shampoo/shower gel/body cream bottles in my luggage. It’s a curse! But they look pretty and I can’t seem to contain myself 😉 They are just sooooooo cute.

I don’t have a lot of them, but I’ve been saving the pretty ones for my guests. And I always lay out a nice towel and some “hotel” shampoo/shower gel for them to use, when I have people staying over.

So why haven’t they gotten used up long time ago? Well it turns out, my guest tends to bring their own stuff! And not only do they bring their own stuff, they even leave some stuff at my place if it’s almost used up. So what happens? Well, I get an even more excess of shampoos and shower gels.

Enough is enough! I’m sick of all these small bottles/tubes “hanging around” taking up space. So this year, I decided to use them all up myself 😉

So here they are – all used up 🙂

NB! A little note for the thrifty out there 😉 Since the hotels tend to toss what’s left of the soaps, shampoos when you leave the hotel, you might as well bring it with you, and use it up at home. It’s what I do!

No more Renfest

I have a friend of mine who loves going to the Texas renaissance festival. It’s on, every year, outside of Houston. I’ve been there a couple of times, in, I think it was 2007, while I lived in Houston.

It was so much fun, and off course I got a little carried away, and ended up buying a leather vest and a long knife/dagger, as part of my “outfit” 😉

Now that I’m no longer living in Houston, I haven’t been back to enjoy the Texas renfest. And there are no renaissance festivals here in Norway that I know off.

So I think it’s time to let the “outfit” go. It’s not like I’m going to drag my vest with me, should I happen to be in Houston, at the time of a renfest.

I love the look of my dagger, so I’ll keep that (at least for a little longer) it’s seriously cool 😉 But the leather vest might as well go. I’ll never use it again. Should I ever decide on acquiring a renfest outfit, I have a different look in mind, that this vest won’t work with.

So, bye, bye, my dear vest… it was fun while it lasted 😉

Judging others!

This quote found it’s way to my mailbox, and the statement is so true..

And I’m guilty!

I’m guilty of having judged myself by my original intent; on what I was planning to do (even if I didn’t actually do that) while I’ve judged others by what they actually did.

I’m guilty of my behaviour not always reflecting my intentions.

I’m guilty of having given myself more “leeway”, while I have given others less or even none.

I’m guilty of having given people a hard time or even brushed them off because of their behaviour. Not having given them the benefit of the doubt.

Then again!

I’m also guilty of having given people to much benefit off doubt, having looked for good intentions, that might not have been there in the first place.

I’m also guilty of being too hard on myself for not having the right intentions or behaviour

How do I “judge” people?
By several things actually. How they act in public, how they speak to others, how they look, how they dress, what they say and how they say it. In a way it’s about morals, values, and ethics. There is a difference though, between people that I just pass during the day, and people that are in my life for more than a day.

For people I just pass in day, yes I judge them by their actions and I don’t always go out of my way to understand their intentions. They do say that “Actions speak louder than words”, and there are a truth to that. When it comes to people that are in my life for a longer time or even “permanently”, I try harder to find the intentions behind their behaviour. But then again, there is no doubt, I can do better…

So what does this mean?
I believe this means we should take a look at ourselves. It’s easier to to point the finger at someone else than it is to own up to our own flaws. Don’t be quick to judge anyone. Find a good median line, not to tough nor too lenient. Make sure we judge others how we expect them to judge us. Give others the same leeway we give ourselves, and give others the same benefit of doubt that we expect from them. I believe we should strive towards having our intentions and behaviour aligned – to make sure the inside and outside convey the same message.

And when in doubt! Talk to people. Communication is the best way to avoid misunderstandings, don’t just assume we know their intentions from their behaviour. Give them a quick question about their intention, or what’s going on with them. We never know what day a person have, or what’s going on in their lives, that might affect their behaviour. Check it out… so at least you are clear about what’s going on, before you pass judgement. Make sure the “penalty fits the crime” so to speak 😉 And that goes for ourselves as well, that we are hard enough, but not too hard on how we judge ourselves.

And me? There is definitely times when my behaviour is out-of-whack, and I need to do a better job, at explaining my intention, or even say I’m sorry, when I see my behaviour is not the best (we all have bad days). I also need to get better at clarifying other peoples intention, before I let their behaviour affect too much how I feel (they might have a bad day too). There is obviously work to be done!

What about you…do your “inner and outer” send the same message?

Cheating….

SPRING is here!!!

Well, no actually not! Here in Norway it’s still cold, wet and spring..? Well.. not so much!

So today I decided to cheat 🙂

I need a little spring in my front yard. It’s much more fun coming home, after work, when there is some bright plants welcoming you.

What you think? Much more cheerful, wouldn’t you say 🙂

It can happen!

I’m the proud owner of a spotless kitchen 🙂

Now if it would just stay that way. Unfortunately it normally last about 10 minutes, and then it looks like a bomb went off 😉

Having a smallish place, I’ve found that it doesn’t take much before the house suddenly starts to look messy. You know what I’m talking about! A glass here, a pot there, a few magazines thrown around, a bowl, a cup, a piece of clothing, some shoes and WHAM, what the heck happened to my spotless place?

The key to keeping it “kinda” under control, is to have space to put things away, preferable behind “closed doors” 😉

And no, I’m not talking about the, throw everything into a room, close the door, and hope (seriously hope), nobody ever opens it, because they will surely loose their life, by all the things falling on top of them, kinda “closed door” 😉

I’m talking about the being able to open a drawer, cabinet, closet and nicely put things away, kinda “closed door”!

I wish I had a few more of those spaces available, and that is why I’m decluttering. To give myself some free space to tuck things away, for the everyday clean look, that I love.

And to show you, that I – for at least a minute – succeeded with the clean look. I’ve attached a couple of pictures of my kitchen (which, by the way, I am really proud of – you see – my dad and I installed the kitchen ourselves, when the house was built 🙂 ).

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