Monday.....recovery day

It's Monday and both baby and mommy are exhausted after spending a family weekend in Zurich and Schaffhausen where we have introduced her to most of her Swiss relatives.  An absolutely lovely weekend, in so many ways, but all those new impressions (faces, places, voices and smells) was a bit too much for our little one to handle and on the way home yesterday, (as correctly predicted by Chris's youngest sister ;), she was inconsolable......beyond recognition actually....and it was an absolutely heartbreaking experience. Especially since it happened in the car and we couldn't find any place to stop on the highway, so she had to stay in her car seat and there was no way for me to take her out and hold her. When we finally came home, after we gave her a nice, warm bath, an oil baby massage and a feeding session, she fell asleep in my arms and we could finally exhale and close our eyelids. Oh my....how do you ever get used to your baby crying like that?!

Now it's Monday, our recovery day, and Allison is sleeping quietly next to me in her little baby basket and I'm sitting here in the sofa, with a cup of coffee that is way too weak to even begin to wake me up, listening to Lucy Rose's "new" album "Like I used to" and trying to shake off yesterdays unfortunate bad ending by dreaming about having a house....preferably one in New England style....with a lawn, big enough for her to play on when she starts walking and a little garden where she can plant and take care of her own vegetables when she is old enough to carry her own little watering can. Places and interiors like these:

Right.......that's enough dreaming.....time to get some sunshine ;))
Enjoy your week(s)!

xox

Home, sweet (but far from finished) home.... Part 5

There are still some spaces left of the apartment that I haven't showed you yet and it will have to stay like this a while longer as these rooms are "under construction" (read: in baby preparation ;)).

In the meantime, we made some changes to the living room. We wanted to somehow make the canvas print fit in better and free up some much needed space. Here's before and after. What do you think (apologies for using iPhone shots)?

Before.....

After...
So what changed? We bought 2 new, small coffee tables (one oval and one round, both from Interio), a new light green carpet, new pillows, a new blanket and the magazine basket on the floor for easy accessible reading ;))

xox

Home, sweet (but far from finished) home.... Part 4

OK, so now going through the upstairs area, starting with the bedroom and my small, but convenient, wardrobe/"dressing room".

Probably my favorite place in the whole apartment - The bed!! 

.....and from the bed, we can watch movies. The plasma is on top of a piece of old Mexican furniture (a gift from my dad), that we had re-painted white and changed the knobs on. It's very rustic and I love it!!
Another important detail, of course, is a full size mirror as I have the dressing room in the bedroom as well.

It's dangerous but undeniably convenient to have chairs close to the bed....they are mainly used for offloading
(which is what I mean with dangerous... In other words, it's not common to JUST find my
pajamas on this chair....... He he!)

A favorite detail here is this little alarm clock, bought in a little shop in Sweden. Unfortunately, the alarm itself is too loud, (it almost had me fall out of the bed once), so it's mainly for decoration ;)

Opening these doors, you will find this small, but very convenient room!

Lots of space for shoes....

....and accessories.

Some handbags also have a place on these shelves. 

Those who know me, know that jeans is a bit of an addiction, but right now (while pregnant), I'm only keeping out the ones I can actually use as it makes me a bit sad otherwise to see them every day ;))

....same principle here - mainly pregnancy wear hanging here at the moment.
It also saves me time in choosing what to wear.

xox

Home, sweet (but far from finished) home.... Part 3

So, almost done with the downstairs area....just the guest room, guest room toilet and hallway (well...the entrance) left.

This is the guest room. What you will see in the whole house is that the walls are white and unlike the typical Swedish house walls, all the walls I have had around me so far in Switzerland have been made of plaster, which is very uneven.....so it's not like you just throw up a nice wall paper and let the room be transformed by it. Also, painting these walls is not really an option as we'd have to restore it back to this when we once leave.
Here, the only change planned are to add some colorful pillows to break it off a bit....I was thinking turquoise...what do you think?

Favorite detail: Something that you can't see in the photo above is this antique lamp standing in the corner..... I love this lamp! It was also bought in an antique shop just when I arrived in Switzerland, now more than 4 years ago.

Quite a small hallway/entrance as you can see...which is a potential problem once the baby arrives ;)) Luckily, there is also a little wardrobe (here to the right) where we can hang jackets and put our shoes. Very few things here. A printout on the wall that I just love and here you can also see one of my favorite details, the carpet. I love this style and dream about once having a big house in New England style with many details such as this one.......

...this is what's written inside that frame.

The next detail that I love here are these cute little key hangers, bought in Sweden at Bluebox.se

Not so much to say here....it's a toilet ;)) ...what I can say is that the colors look better in reality than in this photo!
Ha ha haaa!

...but in here, you will find one of my favorite things though - Scented candles from La Duree! They are amazing and I have them all over the flat! They burn for a loooong time and smell absolutely divine. This is one of my favorites with violet scent.This specific candle was bought at Charles de Gaulle airport, but I also bumped into
a store in Lausanne and an online shop...

That concludes the downstairs area.....

xox

Home, sweet (but far from finished) home.... Part 2

Allrighty!! So continuing on what I started, sharing some iPhone shots of our home....still working my way through the downstairs area, now showing the kitchen and dining area.

Small, but we like it.....but since cooking and baking are favorite hobbies, we do dream of a MUCH bigger kitchen!

"Dining room" (well, it belongs to and connects the kitchen and living room....)
The table "El Mundo" (from Interio) and these lamps (from HK Living) are certainly favorites!

.....I have a thing for jars and boxes such as the ones on this shelf. We also keep parts of our wine in the kitchen for convenience ;)) ....as you might be able to imagine, being 9 months preggers, I have not enjoyed any of these for a looooong time! Soon........

Our mobile bar.....also from Interio (Interio is like the Swiss version of the Swedish Mio ;))

Favorite detail 1: There are no words for how much I LOVE our coffee machine!! This is the model "Dream" from Ascaso in "Kid Blue".

Detail 2: A chef's best friend's - Cooking Knives from Global! Best kitchen investment ever..... We just started to collect them a few months ago and they are by far the best knives I've ever tried.

Favorite detail 3: Talking about best friends in the kitchen.... We both love, adore and highly utilize this great kitchen  machine called "Kenwood chef" that I believe Chris got as a gift from his parents (big kisses to them for this!!!)!! We use it mainly for baking, but there are a million parts and accessories that can be added to use if for all kinds of cooking as well.

Again, all is work in progress........ Comments? Improvement suggestions?

xox

Home, sweet (but far from finished) home.... Part 1

I feel a liiiiittle bit bad as I think it was now a year ago that I promised to post some photos from our, at the time new, home on the blog....oops. What can I say, time flies? Well today I was in the mood to fix our home, so I used the opportunity to take some photos at the same time. I will find it easier to find details while shopping if I carry some photos with me. I apologize as the photos do not have the best quality - they're all from my iPhone. I'd also like to add that our home is still very much in the "making" and also, since it's a rental flat, we can not even do half of the things we would have done if it was OUR home.

Our flat has two floors and here, I'm sharing photos of the living room in the downstairs area.

Living room....as seen from the sofa ;)) Not wanting to actually hang pictures on the wall when we can avoid it as the flat is brand new and not ours.....we're avoiding making unnecessary holes.

....and from the opposite direction. This coffee table is to be replaced ASAP ;)) Am also not sure I was so clever when I did a canvas print of one of my photos in sepia.....regret it a bit and want it in B&W. What do you think?

Favorite detail 1: This magazine basket made of old tires! Love it!
Bought in a little interior shop in Schaffhausen called Girasole. 

Favorite detail 2: The posters, also from Girasole in Schaffhausen.
3: The little owl....love it! Can't remember where I bought it though....
4: These little candle holders made of Birch tree. Bought at Interio last year.

Favorite detail 5: This little second hand lamp. I found it in an antique shop in Schaffhausen and then Chris bought it for me as a surprise. Looooove it!

That's it for the living room..... Certainly work in progress and a lot whiter and more "naked" that I'd prefer it to be. We want a new coffee table, a new sofa AND a new carpet, so changes to come soon.

xox

I want!!

I just stumbled on this little interior treasure and I know it's not a need....but I WANT IT!!

You can find this clock here: http://www.inreda.com/showProductsDetail.asp?pID=13852&cID=71&agrID=

xox

I wished my office looked more like this....

Coucouuu!
Some recent findings on the World Wide Web that I thought I'd share with you all.
For inspiration.....

by anderssonlinda on Polyvore.com

xox

Linda - Lost in Switzerland, wishing my home was a little more PINK