couch update

we brought back 10 kgs of fabric from thailand to recover our couch with, i have been squeezing in a little sewing here and there whenever i have time time. but now, 3/5 of our couch is finished, so here´s the pic. it looks a lot different from the old couch, which was a corduroy red, which had faded so much it was starting to look pink. anyway, we are pleased with the new fabric so far, but only time will tell how it stands up to the elements, or the thorens for that matter.

and our last two packages we sent from asia arrived, so now we have our scuba gear and underwater cameras back in our possession, which is always a bit of a relief. and zoe finally got her puzzle back that we had bought her in malaysia, it is one of those foamy ones with lots of small pieces to lose, so of course she loves it.

the greenhouse is complete!

that´s right, the floor is nailed down, most of the shelves are in, just waiting for the plants to grow. i am guessing that is going to take a little more time. but here you have it. my new favorite place, beauty isn´t it?
and if you look closely on the left you will see zoe´s very own shelf, where she has planted flowers and peas, and is waiting ever so patiently for them to pop up!

the ice cream monster strikes again...

babbysitting and a car wash

zoe is such a compassionate kid, well in some ways, here she is worrying over her little doll. the expression on her face is just priceless. it is often accompanied with the sounds "oye, oye, oye". however about 5 minutes later she was telling the dolly off for being naughty and there was no compassion in her voice whatsoever.
later zoe was a big help when it came time for a little car washing. she insisted on washing the mats herself, thus mommy got a bit wet due to hand eye coordination issues. she later turned the hose on bonita who loves trying to catch the water, she still has not figured out it is not and hard object like a stick or a ball!

another productive weekend at the thorens

so we started saturday morning off with our very first breakfast in the new greenhouse, even though it was not officially finished, we figured it was close enough. it ended up being almost too warm, but it was exciting to break in our new cozy space.after breakfast thomas and zoe screwed down the boards in the flooring. zoe was in charge of the screws, handing them to pappa one at a time. and he was NOT allowed to hold them in his mouth. it was very cute. but pappa took too long, so zoe came over and insisted on a picture of us in the greenhouse as well. she has really gotten into self portraits. i got a new cellphone that has a camera and she insists on taking fotos of her or me whenever she sees it.
then i had to put in a foto of zoe inspecting my tiny little tomato plants that are coming up. i am just hoping that it is not going to freeze overnight again. we are seeing tiny little green heads poking up here and there elsewhere in the greenhouse, but these were the first of the year. i am so excited, i cannot wait for all the homegrown tomatoes, unless zoe gets to them first like last year.
then after the screwing down of the floor, pappa decided to be even more productive and started cuttting down our chesnut tree. i know, i know, but it is not the kind of chesnuts you can eat, and it just litters tons of chesnuts on our lawn every year so that nothing can grow. not to mention that our neighbors have complained (very nicely mind you) that blocks alot of sun in their garden in the summertime. here is a pic of zoe holding up pappa in the tree. see? he is standing on her hands. she thought that was hilarious. now the tree is completely bare, well almost, pappa left enough branches so that we could hang zoe´s swing, which she is loving, finally has a swing close enough to the ground that she can swing by herself. i am looking forward to reclaiming our yard that was unusable due to chesnut dropage.

teamwork is golden

maya and monica came over for a visit. the girls had been talking about playing with each other for days, so we figured they would play nicely as usual. nope. zoe decided she was in a bad mood and did not want to play, then maya saw that zoe was grumpy and decided to be as well. so it was a bit more fighting than playing, but eventually they did decide it was not worth the energy being in bad moods, so they had a good time together. zoe even insisted on helping maya put her shoes on. maya was not so excited about the idea at first, but she mellowed to it, and they actually managed to get the shoes on, and even on the right feet!

planting time has begun!

zoe has been a real big help planting seeds for the greenhouse. the first day was a little enthusiastic, but not bad for her age. the next time was a little more detail oriented. she really had a lot of fun planting the peas, but she thought most of the other seeds were just too small, and thus not as much fun.
had to have the obligitory estatic me in front of my new greenhouse. yipee!

spring cleaning with a photo shoot.

this last weekend was a productive one, thomas managed to replace zoe´s window, which was good as the old one was so old that it was falling apart. we also did a bit of yard work, mostly raking up old leaves.
zoe was a reall big help. luckily one of our rakes had broken recently so it was exactly the right size for her.
she also insistedon holding thomas´ hand while he sawed down one of our trees. i think it made the job just a bit more difficult for him. but he of course claimed that he was getting his power and energy from the little monster holding his hand. i just looked at the picture and realized that letting a two and a half year old hold a big saw might not have been the smartest of parenting techniques, but she survived, so all´s well that ends well.
we then had a bit of a photo shoot, zoe was having so much fun climbing in the tradgård tunnan, that i had to get a few shots.


she was a real big help jumping on them so that we could get more in. i loved this shot of her with the leaves, pappa kept throwing them on her, but she did not seem to mind.





and this last shot i just thought was a cute one. but then i think any shot of zoe is cute, of course i am biased cause she is my kid, but i am sure the rest of the world think she is just as adorable as i do!

pappa´s got a brand new grill

our gas grill that we abuse every summer by grilling every single day, finally called it quits. so pappa went and bought himself a lovely new one. (which came in a million pieces, i think ikea is behind this assemble everything you buy phenomenom in sweden). anyway, of course the first thing he decided to bbq was the zoe monster. she looks excited, don´t you think?

monica is corrupting my child!

okay, so it is not totally her fault. but ever since she saw that maya had fingernail polish on, she has been talking about going to maya´s and painting her fingernails. i mean talking nonstop. looks like i got myself a real girly girl. anyway, she had monica paint both her fingers and toes, and i thought she sat amazingly still for a 2.5 year old, though it is tough watching my little girl grow up so fast! she is very proud of her sparkly nails now. she parades around showing me all the time. "samma som maya här" (i have the same as maya).

two of my favorite things, zoe and the greenhouse

so this last weekend was easter weekend. in sweden, the children usually get a colorful cardboard egg with candy in it. we got one for zoe and hid it in the greenhouse, it is her first påskägg, so we didn´t know what she would think, but she got pretty excited when she found it.
on a completely different zoe note, it amazes me how calm torre (farfar´s dog) is around zoe, she does everything possible to that dog, and he just lays there. caught a cute moment between them the other day and thought i would put it up for everyone´s viewing pleasure.
and here we have it, the greenhouse all finished, well nearly, 198,999 of its million pieces are assembled, still have a bunch of the inside fittings, but it is functioning anyway. but the doors are up and all the siding and roofing is there. needless to say i am very excited about the planting of seeds.

greenhouse taking shape

the greenhouse is taking shape, zoe was busy making sure that pappa and i were putting all the pieces in the right places.
thomas had to show off his assembly skills as the greenhouse really started to take shape, actually beginning to look like a building of some sort.
and here it is nearly finished, just some siding and the doors left, oh and a million and one fitting trims on the inside to keep the siding from making a racket when the wind blows. getting very close to having my dream green

skåne´s animal park (djurpark)

so maya and monica convinced zoe and i that it was a good idea to make a trip to skåne´s djurpark with them. not knowing any better we agreed, little did we know how much fun and adventure was in store. we all climbed into monica and tom´s eco friendly (little) car and drove out to the park, the company alone in the car was worth the trip. upon arrival, we hired a wagon to haul the girls around in, and started off.
great fun was had, there were horses and cows, and we even saw a little bit of the feeding of the seals over everyone´s heads. was a little bit of exercise pulling the girls down from fences and chasing after them, but all in all they were pretty good. and they certainly are good friends, i love this pic i snapped at them looking at the ducks.
they even got to take rides on ponies, thought they were so cute in their little riding helmets. zoe is certainly a big fan of animals, but i fear her joy of riding horses might put a big dent in our pocket book in the future.
riding the wooden mooses was a big hit as everyone took turns.
monica even hitched a ride on one with maya!
then the two little monster/angels decided to see how they measured up to the big birds, i think they may have been close to a parakeet or something.
we ended the adventure with ice cream for the girls. all in all it was a really fun trip and we are very glad monica and maya let us tag along.

building a new house for mommy

so huge boxes arrived the other day, and pappa told zoe that it was mommy´s new house. don´t know if i should be worried about how excited she was that i was moving out! but seriously, my dream green house arrived, in about a million pieces. so the work began. luckily farfar came up and made sure that the foundation was level and up to par. thomas used his massive muscles to move a bunch of grass and dirt to make the hole that would become my new favorite place to hang out. i can feel my thumbs turning green already! yipee!




even zoe got in on the action, with insisting on tighting the bases nuts and bolts. there was no prying that wrench from her hand until she was done. zoe is one stubborn kid, and when she wants to help, well, it is best just to sit back and wait and see what happens. i cannot wait for warmer weather and all my future plants going in my new greenhouse. thank you thomas, you sure know how to spoil a girl!

zoe is addicted to chocolate ice cream...

much colder than asia...

since we arrived in sweden, we have noticed a few new difficulties with zoe, but i have to say the worst one is shoes. she is used to her gummi sandals, she has been wearing them or nothing for four months, so why should she suddenly put on socks and uncomfortable tight fitting shoes? every shoe we try gives her "eeiye yieee". it was still freezing temps when we came back and all her shoes were too small, or so she said. luckily temps have warmed up, but this shot is of her going outside for the first time since we came home, do you think we bundled her up enough? she would not let us button the jacket though, stubborn kid, no idea where she gets it from.she is easily adjusting to all her toys and things though, she is in love with her hair thingy drawer in the bathroom. she has a little elephant purse she shoves as many hair thingies into every day as she possibly can. it is amazing, kinda reminds me of the clowns climbing out of the little car, there are just more and more. she carries the bag around until she finds a good place to take them all out, and later when it is time to clean up mommy can never fit them all back into the bag, zoe must be a magician.
and lastly, our newest in house renovation is recovering the sofa, we found the fabric in bkk, and bought a bunch of it to hopefully cover the hideous bright red sofa that we bought with the idea to recover immediately nearly 4 years ago. will post a pic when we are further along, this is only the first section.

anita´s ceramics

shortly after our return to sweden, we did a bit of a photo shoot for anita´s ceramics. she has an amazing talent, and has recently opened up a little shop/studio in her home. her website: www.bordertaktils.net. anyway, thought i would post a few pics from the shoot, as well as a cute one of the artist and the photo arranger (thomas has a knack for putting things in the right places for photos).