Chez Larsson

Wille's DVD Collection

Quickie today.

I’m waiting for Wille to arrive back home after a week in Crete, Greece, with Martin. He should be home any minute now and I can’t wait to see him.

Meanwhile this is what Wille’s DVD collection looks like now. He used to keep his DVD’s in the Expedit in his previous room but requested shallow “DVD-depth” shelves this time. These are part of the IKEA Bestå line. Four shelves per unit are included and I added another 3x3 to maximize the space. Still plenty of room to grow his collection in there!

Martha's Moved

I guess you Americans out there are aware that Martha’s moved to the Hallmark Channel. What you didn’t know was that she did another important move too!

I’ve kept my collection of Martha Stewart Living magazines in the top cabinets in the dining area since we moved in to the house but I was running out of space. When I took this photo I’d already removed the 2009 and 2010 issues and before that wasn’t able to squeeze a single more in there.

 
Martin moving out does have it’s perks! One of them being I can finally move his collection of books on history downstairs to the boat room (which will stay intact for the time being until he has more storage space).

 
Look at all that space! Wohoo!

 
I’ve mentioned before that my Martha Stewart Living collection is complete and here it is in all its glory. All 202 issues! There’s also a pile of other current magazines, that’s the one in the top left corner. I don’t save those for longer than a year at the most.

What can I say other than; I love it!

Lotta

I have two complete collections. One is my huge stash of Martha Stewart Living (all 200 issues). The other is my complete collection of Lotta books.

Lotta is the funny, awkward and sweet heroine of a series of books for young girls and I used to love them. So much so that I wrote to the author Ester Ringnér-Lundgren who wrote them under the pseudonym Merri Vik and I received a sweet note back.  This was sometime in 70’s.

 
The Lotta books first came out in the late 50’s and as I’ve been rereading them this summer it’s definitely those early ones until the 70’s that are my favorites. One of my favorite passages is when Lotta is painting the furniture in her room (sound familiar?)…

The last book came out in the early 90’s and by that time one could tell that the author had kind of lost touch on what was “young” so they are a little bit too awkward but I still kept buying them. Last year I finally found the last missing piece of the collection on-line and thus the collection was complete.

 
For you other Swedes that may like Lotta, I just googled the author and found some fun sites including this one where all the covers can be viewed individually and with a bunch of other stuff that I’m going to explore further and there’s even an Ester Ringnér-Lundgreen society where they have Lotta meetings and celebrate her! I’m going to have to join that don’t I?

Do you have any complete or nearly complete collections of anything? What were your favorite books when you were young(er)? Do you ever reread them?

Thrifted Part 2

 

Ok, ladies and gentlemen (?), I had fun reading your "step away from the apple, lady!" comments and you'll be well pleased to see that the apple remains intact. I did not take a single bite. Actually I do love it as it is and when I do get tired of it I will pass it on to someone else who loves the wood no matter what. I will find thee a nice home Ms Apple. After I'm done with you. Promise.

 So on to the wall candle holders. They are now white and hang on either side of the dining area window. We haven't had tall candles for a while because of Miss Mini and Master Bonus so the fact that these keep the candles out of the way of them is great. Oh, before I get comments on tails wagging at candle height I just want to point out that we are super careful to snuff all candles when we leave the area and make sure Mini and Bonus don't jump up where the candles are. Three sets of eyes are keeping close watch!

Although I did contemplate painting the candlesticks in a bright color I again went for white. I know, I'm such a bore. I added another couple which were earlier thrift shop finds and now all six are on the mantelpiece. Again one of the few areas our feline friends stay off.

Did you notice today is Friday?! Yay! After this weekend I plan to add a page to the blog with before and afters of our house. Inside and out. It's as much for myself as for you guys. I know you love before and afters and so do I. I have all these photos and I'll try to compile them room by room and then pat myself and Martin on the back for all the changes we've made since we moved in eleven years ago. I think there will actually be some in-betweens too as things have evolved over the years. Stay tuned, hopefully it's ready by next week.

Thrifted

Yesterday afternoon I went around the city to get some inspiration for work and to run some errands, also for work. I suddenly found myself outside a favorite charity shop (omg, how did that happen?) so I had to go inside of course.

Above's my loot. I love it but am unsure exactly what to do with it. I'm torn between painting the candlesticks white or all in one bright color, like apple green or yellow. The tin wall candle holders at the back will most definitely be white but any suggestions for the rest?

I'm in love with the apple! I'm not usually attracted to wooden objects (to many sauna style interiors growing up in Sweden in the 70's) but this is beautiful inside and out and so well made. It would be sacrilege to paint it but will I be able to stand the woodsiness of it? Will keep you posted!