I´ve been so good at decluttering lately, I don´t know what hit me! Moving things around doesn´t feel strange anymore and it makes me appreciate all the pretty things we´ve been collecting even more. Besides, they feel like different things entirely. And since the apartment feels airy and nice, I´ll let you take a peep! 😉
Author: ghetran
A January Update
How is life treating you after New Year? Are you back on track or still struggling to find the pace? My days are only half full, which suits me just fine because the end of the month will be pretty hectic. I was in Vienna for the weekend and met my family, which was great, and now I´m ready to face whatever 2015 is throwing my way. I´m trying to get some office work done and otherwise I´ve mostly been involved with a major decluttering at home. I´m a hoarder, I´m the first one to admit it!. No matter how many baskets, boxes and bowls, there´ll still be lots of things floating around. I collect magazines, small decoration pieces, jewelry boxes and old tea boxes. Oh, and lamps! 😉 And I love them, but hate them, because I´ve always dreamt of having a stylish, lightly minimalistic home.
Anyway. It´s amazing how light you feel when you just strip down the apartment, throw away some things, give away others, sell a couple on the internet and store the rest in the attic. It´s so much easier to see what you need, too- a String shelf in the living room, a couple of lamps in the bedroom (I know! sigh), a new piece of art in the kitchen (I thought I´d ordered a poster of a cup and it turns out I´d ordered a cup! 😉 haha), the bed stands I´ve shown you before and a giant wardrobe. Besides, we really need some shoe closets in the hallway and storage for my books in the studio. I actually think we´ll manage all those changes in 2015. 😉
Take a look!
A family weekend in Vienna
We´re back from a lovely weekend in Vienna with my family and had so much fun they should have made a movie about us. A “telenovela”, to be more specific, because we´re so refreshingly crazy the whole bunch of us! 😉 At times I felt I was starring in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, it was THAT cliche! I had been looking forward to the trip for a while and at the same time I was a bit nervous- three generations under the same roof, need I say more?! Many personalities, to put it mildly- a 2 years old toddler who screams when she doesn´t get what she wants, a brother who´s reluctant to new experiences, a father who likes to call the shots, but unfortunately, so do I. You can only imagine. 😉
Traveling plans
The year hasn´t really started yet and it seems that most of the places we wanted to visit have been replaced by others already. 🙂 I don´t know about you, but with us it´s always like that. And as much as I love making plans and stick to them, nothing beats having to make new plans altogether. haha! 😉
So tomorrow we´re going to Vienna to meet my family, it´s a short trip, but I´ve been looking forward to it for several months now. So I and V, mom and dad, brother and sister-in-law, as well as the star guest- our niece- will all be staying at the same hotel and enjoy ourselves for a couple of days. Looking forward to chatting and drinking beer with everybody, try the hotel massage and sauna and sip to Viennese coffee at one of their venerable old coffee houses. Oh, and I need to dig into an apfelstrudel, it´s my all-time favorite dessert!
Spring dreams
I had a great day today up until I read about the gunfire attack at the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. It did something to me. I would assume it did something to most of us, but I´m the anxious type, remember? It simply shattered some safe walls inside me. I realized how I take most things for granted. How I just expect to be living until my 90 years´ birthday and live through it all. Don´t worry, I´m not going to say I felt happy to be alive and that from today on I´ll be living every second as if it were my last one, because what I enjoy most is normality. That things stay the same. That people don´t die. That I can count on them being there next year, too. It´s not the scare for tomorrow that makes today more worth living, not for me, at least. It´s the continuity of things.
Back to our subject. I´ve never been particularly brave, but I´m quite outspoken, so I´ve had my share of pointing fingers. It never ceases to amaze me how horrible people can be, though. The world we live in today is just as crazy as a 100 years ago. Things just carry different names. I can´t wrap my head around what people must be thinking when they decide to take other people´s lives in the name of God. I don´t believe in any God myself, but if there were a God he couldn´t be that deranged.
Stay safe!
xxx, Alina
Artsy beginnings
There´s something about new year that makes you want to improve, grow, change. It also applies to the outside world- freshen up your home, get a couple of new plants, change your hair style, have a mani-pedi. I love collecting beauty and what better excuse to do so than New Year´s Eve promotion codes!
Today I acquired these prints from Hilde Mork´s web store and I can´t wait to get them! The first goes in the bedroom and the second one in the living room. Or maybe the kitchen. What do you reckon? I love the faded colors, the greys and the fact that they´re both understated. Any New Year´s purchases on your part?;-)
New Year´s Eve party
Happy New Year! We started ours with a terrible head-ache and nausea, so we slept most of it away. Today, however, was more productive. 😉 I started working and came home with fresh flowers and eucalyptus branches whereas Vuong had a day off and spent it on tidying up. We threw out the Christmas tree and packed away the decorations, prepared the left-over lobster and the duck breast and now we´re snuggling on the couch ready for “The Suits”.
But let me tell you more about our New Year´s Eve party, which was awesome, loud and long, as a real party should be. Melissa, our friend who organized it, gathered 15 cool people under her roof, made enough food to feed an army and was simply the coolest and most glamorous host I´ve ever seen! And I mean it, since I´m pretty good at hosting, myself, so I don´t go around boasting about other people. 😉 haha!
Glitzing my way to 2015
Yes please, 2015 couldn´t come soon enough! 🙂 We´re heading over to a friend´s place, for dinner and a show!;-) I´ll put on my best dress (haven´t decided on which, yet) and my Stella McCartney heels. 😉 This one is from last year.
Lazy bones
Today I woke up early to finish a couple of written translations that are due today, but I seem to do anything to postpone it. In fact, procrastinating is my middle name. These days have been wonderfully lazy, so sliding back into routine is no easy task. We´ve had movie marathons and binge eating (not food, but chips and sweets), napping from 8pm to 9pm and things unheard of outside Christmas break. Yesterday however I managed to read a couple of pages, after working for a bit and then giving the house a quick shine. A friend visited with her sweet baby and we had the greatest time bonding. Unfortunately I´m quite ambivalent about children since I´ve been longing for one for so long, so I never know how I will react, I either like them too much or I just couldn´t be bothered. But Isabella was the cutest little thing and so easy to get along with, I was sold!
Family Gathering for Christmas
On the third day of Christmas we were invited to a family gathering at Våler, where Vuong´s sister recently moved with her husband and child. Although the Trans are Buddhists, they do find a day around Christmas to get together, eat good food and do some catching up. And yesterday was that day. 🙂
Since interethnic marriages are not very common in Norwegian-Vietnamese communities, that´s given us some heart-ache along the years. In the end we all had to admit we were stuck with each other and make the best of it. So now we meet once in a while and smooth things over for the sake of our nephew, who is one gorgeous and lovable little guy!
Today we went for a walk in the woods and had the best time ever! Sammy was super happy and so was Benjamin, who slid like a pro! After taking in the fresh air and the amazing landscape, we felt our cheeks flush with blood and our feet ache with cold. So we went in for cakes and coffee. Take a look!
life in a bubble 