Chez Larsson

Organizing mail

2008-08-20T20:04:11+02:00

This post is so overdue. Sunny, I'm so sorry I haven't replied to your question from back in June until now...

Sunny left a comment and wrote; QUESTION: I have a place for mail when it comes in - and I recycle the junk mail. But can you walk us through how you handle mail, bills,etc. and how you store your paperwork - maybe how you decide what goes where?

The reason for my lateness is actually partly because my mail system works so well :). So everytime I've thought about writing about it I realise all the mail is already opened and sorted and there are no photos to be taken that day. Then I forgot it until the next time and next time and time just passed...

Today the mail box was stuffed so I took the opportunity to take some photos. My neighbour across the street looked at me with a raised eyebrow and if she didn't think we were weird already, she does now.

As soon as I get through the door I place the pile on the counter between the hallway and livingroom...

...and immediately sort it. One pile is to be opened and filed. One to be read/checked and then tossed. One to be tossed straight away. And one to be saved.

This is where the mail goes which has been opened. We each have a slot and there's one for bills.

Under the coffetable top there's a little shelf. I put the things I want to read or check there. They are mostly catalogs, newspapers and magazines. I never let his pile get very high. I usually deal with what's in it within a week and toss the things I've read and checked and don't want to keep. If there are keepers, usually the magazines, they go in the magazine piles just behind.

Junk mail goes in the wastepaper basket right next to the front door. I usually empty it once a week while decluttering.

Catalogs I want to save for reference are kept in a little drawer in the dining area. The fact that it's so small is a good thing because I can immediately weed out the previous issue and replace it and I never have old ones because I wouldn't be able to shut the drawer. The catalogs I keep are IKEA (don't worry Angie, I'm sending you a copy :), Clas Ohlson, Jula, Kjell & Company, Panduro and some US catalogs too, like Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma and Restoration Hardware.

After emptying out the wastepaper basket by the door the newsprint and other paper goes in a recycling bin under the sink in the kitchen. Due to our local recycling program I throw some of this in the trash after a while but the newsprint I now shread and use in the warm compost.

That's basically it. It only takes a couple of minutes every day to sort and toss and I never have piles of mail lying around. Gotta love that!

One of those days...

2008-08-19T20:08:26+02:00

Today I felt increasingly bored at work. I've been back for a little over a week but it's hard to get going 100% at the office. Things are a little slow as the fall campaigns have just started and our first marketing meeting isn't until tomorrow where I'm presenting the Valentines Day 2009 campaign ideas. Christmas is done already.

Everything's prepared for the presentation tomorrow so I spent the day going through e-mails, reading magazines and contacting suppliers. Too slow for me, especially since there's soooooo much to do at home. I couldn't wait to hop on my bike and go back. Oh, the bike broke the day before yesterday so I've gone back and forth today with it duck taped because our local bike workshop were to busy and not interested in helping me yesterday OR today. So I need to fix the bike later tonight. Think I'll ask Martin to do it for me actually.

Before I left for work this morning I did some spackeling on the inside window frames on Wille's window which I finished painting after I got back. We're also trying to connect his computer to his TV and the darned cable won't work. I hate cables. They drive me nuts and for some reason I'm the cable guy of this household. I connect everything and I hate it. Nothing stresses me out as much as sitting at the computer reading instructions and it still doesn't work.

I still haven't gotten to do any painting downstairs in my new sewing area. I haven't grouted the newly laid tiles. I haven't finished the work top. I haven't done any of the things I wanted to have done by now. Because I have to go to work... I so need to figure out a way to work from home at least one day of the week. My promise to myself to work in the office four days a weeks has already been broken for financial reasons...

Sorry about my moaning. It really has been one of those days.

I did cook dinner though and it was delicious. Recipe curtesy of Middagsfrid so I had nothing to do with it tasting so good. By the way, the guys at Middagsfrid came across my post about them and called me to say thank you. That was so sweet! They may even want to use the photos I took of their grocery bags which is very flattering.

The photos in this post are my work surroundings.

Work in progress

2008-08-18T21:04:14+02:00

Come spring we will swap our current heating system into a new one which is quite an investment but which will save us money in the long run. The new system requires much less space and the best part is it can be moved completely into a different location than the one we have now.

This little wall is now gone

When I heard this my mind went racing, What to use the new old space for when the heater is gone? A sewing space for yours truly of course! Today I keep the sewing machine and supplies in the boat room and bring everything upstairs to the dining table but this means I can have a permanent space for it. Yay!

These shelves are gone

Of course I couldn't wait until spring, I had to start immediately. Parts can be done already and others need to wait. What can be done is to transform the storage area behind the ironing board into a desk area which is what I've been working on this weekend.

I've removed the little walls, removed cut tiles where the walls were and replaced them with full sized ones. Spackled the walls and have will start touching up the paint tonight. The dirty mustard color you see is the color the whole basement was in before I painted it white. Yuck. With burgundy trim and doors. Double yuck.

The desk needs to sit at a weird height due to pipes along the wall so I've decided to use a stool which can be swiveled to the right height and add a podium on the floor so I can reach the sewing machine pedal. The desk top is an old hollow core door from IKEA which I will need to sort out at one or both ends because it's a little short. Will come up with some solution for that I'm sure. The desk top will rest on 2x2's affixed to the walls which means there are no legs. Easy to keep the floor clean and makes the space feel larger. I'm going to add a cushion to the stool so don't worry about my behind.

I can't do the other side of the room yet because where the heater is today we replace it with a dryer and next to the dryer a small drying rack. Need to wait for the dryer to be in situ until I can remove the washing lines and until the washing lines are gone I can't add the blue metal cabinet I want to store my fabrics in. At least I don't think I can. Hmmm. Maybe I'll figure out a different solution for hanging the laundry until spring so I can bring the cabinet into there already now.

I'm so impatient. Everything immediately is what I want.

Kanelbullar

2008-08-17T20:27:02+02:00

I promised you the Cinnamon rolls (actually knots...) ~ Kanelbullar recipe so that's what I'm giving you today. I'm using the recipe from Rutiga Kokboken.

*Edit. I've reviewed the recipe and have used an online coverter to make the measurements more clear.

Ingredients

100 grams / 3,5 oz Butter
5 decilitres / 17 fluid oz / 2 cups Milk
50 grams / 1,75 oz Yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 decilitres / ~~5 fluid oz~~ 4,3 oz Sugar
1 teaspoon Ground cardamom
1,3 litres / ~~1,4 quarts~~ 5,4 cups Wheat flour

Filling ingredients

100 grams / 3,5 oz Butter
1 decilitre / ~~3,5 fluid oz~~ 2,9 oz Sugar
2 teaspoons Cinnamon

On top

1 egg
Pearl sugar

Melt the butter, add the milk and heat until finger warm. Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Add a little bit of the milk/butter mixture and stir until the yeast is disolved. Add the rest of the milk/butter mixture, salt, sugar and ground cardamom and 2/3 of the flour.

Mix and add flour until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. Save a little bit of flour for later.

Cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rise until double the size, about 35-40 minutes. Mix the dough for a few minutes in the bowl and then knead it on the flour dusted work top with the rest of the flour. I usually end up adding more flour than the recipe states or the dough will be very sticky...

From Rutiga Kokboken

Divide the dough into two equal parts. Use a rolling pin to flatten the two dough parts into 20x40 cm ( 8"x16") each. Mix the filling ingredients in small bowl and spread the butter/sugar/cinnamon filling on the dough.

From Rutiga Kokboken

Fold dough in half lengthwise and cut according to the photo.

From Rutiga Kokboken

Twist the two "legs" separately and then twist them both in to a knot.

From Rutiga Kokboken

Place the knots on a covered or greased baking sheet. Let rise under a tea towel for 20 minutes. Whisk the egg in a bowl and use a pastry brush to brush the egg onto the knots. Sprinkle some pearl sugar on top.

Place in the middle of a 250 degree Centigrade / 500 degree Farenheit (hot) oven for 8-10 minutes until gloriously brown.

Mmmmmm!

Organizing Expedit

2008-08-16T16:56:01+02:00

Since we were on the subject of books and bookcases the other day I thought I'd show you another one of our bookcases. This IKEA Expedit is in Wille's room and houses his Harry Potter books, manga collection, DVD's, magazines, CD's etc. Basically all the stuff a teenager wants to have around. In the baskets at the bottom are software boxes, assorted cables and other stuff we (I...) don't want to see.

I love the symmetry of the cube shelves of Expedit and I also love that it's deeper than regular bookcases so there's plenty of space to display things on top. This Egyptian temple was built by Martin and Wille out of MDF after our trip to Egypt five years ago. There's Anubis, Horus and the rest of the gang.

To make best use of the deep space we added shelf raisers which we cut to size from foam core board. It's glued together with a hot gluegun. Simple and fast solution. Ours are 12 cm ( 4 3/4") tall, 18 cm (7") deep and 33 cm (13") wide.

The shelf raiser enables you to put things at double depth but are still able too see what's back there.

If you want more Expedit ideas there is a Flickr groups devoted to just that here and here you can check out photos of Expedit and other IKEA bookcases. Enjoy!

No brand label groceries

2008-08-15T17:45:49+02:00

I love pretty packaging. A lot of companies are really good at packaging their products so they are pretty enough to display. There are also a lot of companies that don't. I have a problem with all those too bright boxes and containers that scream at you from the grocery store shelves. Buy me! Buy me!

To remedy that I simply transfer the contents into containers I like. Some I like because they look good and some I like because they are plain but practical.

Honey

Cereal

Sugar

Macaroni

On some of the more practical ones I make labels for the cooking time as well as the contents.

This is where the practical ones go. The reason for them is partly that I can reach what's on the top shelf without a step stool but I also like the uniform look up there.

And this is were the pretty bought spice packages go and also my transferred ones.

Organizing books

2008-08-14T19:21:11+02:00

Martin is a book worm. I like books too but he loves them. Keeps saying to me that a house it not a home without books and that kind of thing. I've grown to accept that there will always be books around our house but I do think they mess the place up quite a bit. The spines are all different and they just create a busy background. I'm not keen on busy.

There are some things that can be done to make filled to the brim bookcases appear less visually disturbing. I find the best way is to organize books by color. I know some of you out there agree, but I also know quite a few people who cringe at the idea. I personally would love to keep all my white spined books in one room, all the green in one etc, but I do realise it's not very practical. You'd have to remember the color of the spine of the book you're looking for. So that's a no in our house. Unfortunately.

What we have done is a compromise. We've divided our books into subjects and instead of having a huge book case somewhere with all the books we have several smaller ones around the house.We keep all our novels in a book case in the downstairs hallway, all the interior design books are kept in the dining area, the gardening books are in the bedroom, books on history are in the livingroom, books on nautica in the boatroom etc. Within these bookcases I am then allowed to color coordinate the books. Yay!

I usually go from light at the top left hand side and venture downwards to black in the right hand bottom corner. Having the darker books towards the bottom is for the same reason you put the bigger heavier ornaments at the bottom of the Christmas tree and the smaller lighter ones towards the top. If it were the opposite way around it would feel like it would fall on top of you.

I like to break up a book case with a few objects. It helps in keeping it lighter and airier. I also line the books along the front of the shelf instead of pushing them againts the back of the book case. This straight line also make the look less busy.

Are you for or against color coordinating your books? Do you have other ideas to share on how too keep bookcases less busy? I've tried the "covering all books with paper" bit. Did not work. I did five books and realised it would be 2010 until I'd be finished. With the one book case.

Småland wash room update

2008-08-13T18:19:30+02:00

One more Småland post. I love the simple changes Sanna made to the wash room after Wille and I left. Before it was a jumble of stuff and had a tired piece of oil cloth on top and badly stained paper shelf liner inside.

Photo credit: Sanna

Fresh new white oil cloth on top...

Photo credit: Sanna

...and corralled supplies inside on top of fresh white easily wipeable oil cloth.

Photo credit: Sanna

Here Sanna corralled little hotel shampoo and soap bottles in a bowl. Easy to grab one or two when going for a shower at the nearby pool . Recognize the house?

Corralling clutter makes such a difference.

Småland kitchen update

2008-08-12T21:22:17+02:00

When my friend Sanna came back from Småland she brought with her some more photos of the various projects we did there while Wille and I visited.

There is a wood burning stove in the kitchen and it's surround was some laminate sheet of faux yellowed tiles complete with vintage paint drips. The backsplash are these fantastic subway tiles but they too were paint spattered and needed regrouting.

Photo credits: Sanna

I took on cleaning, spackeling and painting the wall above, cleaning and regrouting the tiles and removing the faux tiles in favor of new white mosaic.

Photo credit: Sanna

I didn't get a chance to see the end result before we left but here you have it. Have to say it looks pretty darned good if I do say so myself.

Photo credit: Sanna

Sebastian then painted an old table and used left over mosaic to tile the top and shelf. Perfect for the buckets of water. There's no indoors running water in this summer house.

Still to do, repaint the paneling and the rest of the walls but that will be next years project. I'm hoping to be invited back to help out :)

Scones

2008-08-11T20:22:05+02:00

After yesterday's post I got come recipe requests. First up are the scones. I promise the Kanelbullar recipe will be coming up soon too. It takes a bit of thinking... trying to translate the recipes. Let me know if this one makes sense. Or doesn't...

There are only three of us so I only use half the recipe below to make two rounds of four scones each on Sundays. The recipe below makes four rounds of four scones each.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees Celcius or approx. 490 degrees Farenheit. Hot!

Ingredients

8 dl (3 1/3 cups) wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
100 grams (3 1/2 oz) butter or margarine
4 dl (1 3/4 cups) milk

Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl. Cut the butter into little pieces and mix them with your fingers into to dry ingredients until crumbled. Add the milk and quickly mix it all together with a wooden spoon.

Make four equally sized roundish mounds of the dough on a greased baking sheet. The dough can be pretty runny and sticky. Don't worry about making them look pretty, the messier, the better the end result. Honest!

With the back of a knife blade make a cross indentation in each dough mound. It's easier with some flour on the knife, I usually pat the knife against the dough first to make the flour stick to it, then dip it into flour and then into the dough.

Pop them in the oven for 12 minutes. Done. Couldn't be simpler.

Break a scone in half, add some butter and jam and Bob's your uncle!