Tuesday 30 April 2013

Busy days.....

...with no time to update the blog.....until now!

So Friday found us all off work. It was a bank holiday and so we headed down to visit Kristiain´s mum. Kristian´s brother Søren and family were also there and so we had a lovely afternoon and evening together there.

Saturday Anne came by. We had arranged to meet for brunch, which I would cook! (Poor Anne!) Then we were not sure if we would go shopping or stay at home and paint. We decided to see what mood we were in.


While eating brunch we started to talk about painting and suddenly we were inspired to stay home and paint. 



 The Crazy Artist at work!


Mid-afternoon and it was time for a snack.

None of the two of us were happy with our painting. I ended up painting over all mine in white, ready for the next painting session.

We had also thought that we would go out and eat and maybe go to the movies but the afternoon went by sooo fast. It was 7.20pm when we realised how late it was. We were not in the mood to get changed and all dressed up to go out so we ordered a chinese and settled down in the living room for a good old chat.

The evening flew by. Anne went home at 00.45am!!!  The amazing thing was that it felt like we had only been together a few hours and not 13!! Time sure does fly when you are having fun!!

Then Sunday afternoon Laura and Mia, along with Leah and me decided to work around the house and garden. Andrew joined us for a while too. (Kristian was away for the weekend at a go-kart race.)

 The weather was fantastic!


1
 We found some wall paint out in the garage and covered up the holes that were made when the insulation was put in during the autumn months. They had been a gray cement colour all autumn and we wanted to paint them the same colour as the house. We achieved our goal!!


 Laura did a bit of work on the garden.


 I painted the window sills and the bottom of the house black. It was in desperate need of a touch up.


 Andrew got the job of removing all the garden rubbish.


We found time for a break....tea and ice cream!! Yummy!


We ended the day by each making our own dinner and then getting together to share what we made. A  really great and productive day! 

On Monday us 4 girls (Laura, Mia, Leah and me) had planned a girly night out. We were going to grab a burger and then go to a concert that The Young Continentals were giving. They were a group of young people from Holland who sang and danced and did drama and told about their experiences with God. It was a great evening and the young people were just so lovely. We had a great evening together, there was something for body, mind and spirit.

Not to mention the laughing fit we had on the way home!! There is never a dull moment when you are with my neighbour Laura!!!! 

Today I am tired!!!  I went shopping for my old lady friend after work and then had a few hours visitng her. We were able to go a walk....well I walked and pushed her in her wheelchair but it was lovely for her to just go out exploring.

Kristian changed all the tyres on our cars today from Winter tyres to Summer!!! Whoopieeee:-) that must mean no more snow!! :-)

Now I am off to bed!! Tomorrow I have nothing in my calendar!!! Oh except work!! haha but I am so looking forward to just coming home and relaxing for an evening!

Thursday 25 April 2013

So......


guess what I started this week?   My healthy lifestyle - AGAIN!!!!

Monday I woke with determination that I was going to start eating the right foods again! Since coming back from Ireland I have lost 3kg. I am so happy about that but there is still a way to go....8kg more!! 

I let the healthy eating slip a bit while I was sick, however I am glad to say that I didn´t put on any weight!! 

So since Monday I have actually been doing really well.  I have, believe it or not, started to do my aerobics DVD again. Each day this week I have danced areobics in front of the TV along with good old Rosemary Conely.  It feels soooo good and it is amazing how much energy you get from exercising. How come I know this and have for years, yet have such a hard time exercising?!!!

Anyway lets see if I can get the last 8kg off by the summer:-)





Wednesday evening and I was out again, this time with my friend Audry. We usually go to Ikea but since she broke her ankle a couple of months back, she can´t walk around too much. So we met at our local café and had a delicious meal and chat. I am so blessed to have so many great friends around me!

Sunday 21 April 2013

If at first you don´t succeed....

....you try and try again!! That´s what "they" say isn´t it?!! So today I decided to try again, to see if I could succeed at painting abstract. 


Boy it is hard for me to paint abstract. I want my painting to look like something.....
 I don´t have that deep arty thing going on that other painters have - you know where they have to get out their anger or joy or sadness, so they put those feelings on canvas. (I must not be that deep!) 

I just look at the canvas and see nothing! I feel nothing! haha I just want to paint something that looks like something and then I try my hardest not to make it look like something - only then it looks awful! Most of the time it looks like something a child has done in kindergarden.


All afternoon Kristian was popping in and out trying to encourage me.

I was telling him how I had no feelings to put down on the canvas. He told me to think about what makes me mad....hahaha I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT TO THINK ABOUT!!  GO-KART!!! haha Like when he goes away 3 weekends in a row to a go-kart race, which he has done the last few weekends!! That can crack me up! So I thought about that and started to paint, I got all my frustration out! hahaha It was fun! Above is the result. I call this painting..."Go-kart madness!" I still don´t like it, but it´s the closest I have ever come to a decent abstract painting. I don´t like the colours and I probably will paint over it again and try something new in the near future.


Then I tried another technic. I used a palettee knife on the painting above. I call it Jungle dreams. When I look at it, it reminds me of Africa....like a jungle. I like this one better than the other but still not one I would hang up anywhere! Ah well, once again I had fun.

The weather has been fantastic today. Before I started painting I was able to spend a bit of the afternoon on the bench, basking in the sun, with my book! Long may the good weather continue!

Thursday 18 April 2013

Catching up.....

 ....with another "old" friend over a cup of hot chocolate.



Tonight I was out with my friend Jette. We met at our favourite cafe for hot chocolate and a good chat. I think the last time we were together was the start of January so there was a lot to catch up on. It was a such a great evening with a lot of chatting and dreaming going on! 


My diet will start this Monday!!!!

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Old friend - new friends.....

....today I went to visit my "old" friend Rhona. It was time for our cake date and what a date we had!! She had baked rhubarb muffins with rhubarb (off course) and maricpan. I had bought strawberry cake for us. The whole lot was delicious and we ate far too much of those delicious cakes! But even better than the cake was the natter we had. I love our time catching up with each other. I am blessed to have so many great friends in my life....Rhona is one of them! 

Then this evening Kristian, Leah, and I went with Laura and Mia, to meet our neighbours. They live over the fields in a farm and Laura wanted us to meet them and see their farm. 

What lovely people they are! We had a great hour at their place. Kristian was in his element talking about cows, sheep and tractors! 





 When we got home we went to check the post. There was a letter for Andrew from The Danish Army. He has been accepted into Den Kongelige Livgarde (The Royal Bodyguard) and starts his training August 2014. So he will be protecting the Queen by standing at the Royal Palace. I can´t believe he has been accepted! He wants to make a career out of the army so this is the first step. He is over the moon! 

 This could be Andrew in a few years time.
  

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Enjoying life.....

We have had a few good days.

Kristian and I planned a date night. It has been a while since we´ve been on a date so we did something about that on Friday. Kristian told me to be ready for 5pm and when he came home from work, he rang the door bell and acted like a real date coming to pick me up!


 We headed to our favourite Italian restaurant and had a delicious meal and a good old natter. It really was a great evening out.  

 Some friends gave us their old garden furniture. We were so happy to take the garden set. At the weekend I went out and got some cushions for the chairs and a plastic table clothe for the table. 

The table clothe that I actually liked and wanted for the table was 10 pounds a metre, which I wasn´t going to pay for a clothe that would be outside all the time!! so I settled for the one in the picture which I got for 2 pounds a metre - that was more like it! Even though it might not be my first choice it does the job! I do LOVE my bargins!



 I also wanted to get some lanterns for outside the house, but these too were so exspensive so I headed to a flea market (jumble sale) and found some great bargins. The lantern in the picture below I got for 3 pounds!


 The two below I got for 3 pounds for the two of them!


 When my colleagues were here a few weeks back, they gave me a gift card for the local plant shop, as a house warming gift. I decided to use the gift card at the weekend and a pile of plants and flowers were bought. I had a great time! There were sooo many bargins and suddenly the one side of the house was full of colour.



 I made different areas around the place to sit. These different areas get the sun at different times of the day. 
 It is amazing to see the flower bed today (Tuesday) compared to when the picture below was taken (Sunday). So many things have sprung up over the last two days. I didn´t do anything with the flower bed at the weekend as we want to see what will come up over the next few weeks and then we will decide what we should do.


 The weather in Denmark changed at the weekend and on Monday it got really warm! I bought a strawberry cake on the way home from work and Leah and I sat outside and enjoyed our snack. It was about 18 degrees. I sat outside for ages and read a few magazines before falling asleep. I first woke up at the sound of our neighbour, Laura, coming home.

n

 Talking about Laura....her cat, Bert, has more or less moved in with us! Shadow and him are starting to get along. They can be in the same room together and one day they even shared Leah´s bed. 


On Monday I went outside and was greeted by two cats sitting on our chairs. The one was Laura´s cat, Bert and the other one, our other neighbour´s cat which we call Charlie (not sure what his real name is!) Good job we like cats!



 Shadow had to also have a chair!

Kristian loved coming home to all the cats!

Monday evening and we ate outside for the first time! We are loving the change in the weather!


And we are loving the fact that we can now sit outside and eat!