Project completed!

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One of the chairs that I wrote about in my last post is now actually renovated!
Yesterday evening the chair got a few nice layers of Shellac. Shellac is great to work with, because it dries very quickly. One has to be careful, though, not to apply the next layer too fast. Otherwise the first layer might dissolve again, resulting in the surface not being as shiny and smooth as it should be.

After that, the glue pistol got some work to do. It is an almost meditative, highly focussed work to get the furniture ribbon in the right place and straight, and no glue in places where there shouldn’t be any. Especially in the places that are not as easily accessible, like  where the armrests join the backrest.

Anyway, now everything is done, and the chair will move back to it’s home soon.

Here are some more pictures of this week’s masterpiece 🙂 . 

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Before                                                                        After

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The entire series you’ll find on Flickr!

 

Post #9 of 100

 

 

A new life for an old chair

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In my upholstery class, I am known for that having quite a stock of old chairs in the family heritage, that are in need of renovation. I am one of the few students who never has to worry about a lack of projects. In our garage and on the loft, there have been sleeping a number of sofa chairs who got a new life during the past years.

Actually, this was how I got started with upholstery. I saw the potential of the chairs – they are built of a quality you no longer find these days.

The current project are two similar chairs of the Jugendstil epoche. They got an entirely new inner construction, as well as a new outer fabric. The pattern is a design by William Morris, a famous English textile designer and artist of the same epoche (follow the link to read more about him). Morris’ many designs and patterns for wall papers, fabrics are much loved even these days.

The pattern of my fabric is a variation of his design “Willow Bough”, dated from 1887.

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Today I will hopefully be able to finish one of the two chairs, and then we can take it to our house in Grythyttan. I hope that both chairs at some point will find their place in our railway station in Grythyttan. They might fit well into the old station master’s flat, or in the first class waiting room.

Here are more pictures of the restauration progress on Flickr. 

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Happy Crazy Monday!?

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Happy Monday? Well, I dunno. Crazy? Yep, definitely. A “super Monday” it was in quite some respects. It started with snow slush on the way to work in the morning. IMAG2325

It continued with all sorts of strange questions in the work-inbox waiting to be answered.
On a day where you get calls like “Oh, is it not the owner of a bike that chooses a starting number? Really, the rider chooses a number?” and then on top of it an email from a work buddy at the British federation mentioning something like “Regards from a sunny bladiblah…” (sunny? England??), then you know it is one of those Mondays that you just have to survive :-D.

After all, “What can possibly go wrong?!”

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Well, in the early evening back at home it was time to put on the running shoes. Not only because it was part of the plan for today, nope, by then it had become a pure necessity to get the brain cells back on track. Just a bit more than 4k it became tonight, a rather short run, but nice, despite today’s grey, cold and wet weather.

And look what I found – some small green buddies sticking their head up into the cold, Swedish pre-springtime air:

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So, let’s give the week a second chance tomorrow! 😉

 

#7 of 100

A totally new meaning of blog(g)100

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Last Friday the world’s oldest (known) blogger was guest at Skavlan, the most popular Scandinavian Talkshow.

Her name is Dagny Carlsson, and she started blogging at the age of 100 years. Now or never, one could translate her motivation. When she was younger, she didn’t dare to put her dream of becoming a writer into action, and also, when she was young, women did not have the same possibilities as today. Another fact is that today’s technique makes it easy to write and publish online. It is amazing that Dagny at this high age tackles modern technique and starts blogging. But as she says in the interview at Skavlan, the biggest hinder in life is oneself.

For that, Dagny is a real inspiration to many of us, an example of “It is never too late” and “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Not to mention the detail that she at her age is a walking Wikipedia of history. She remembers a lot about the old times and writes about it on her blog.

The old times were NOT better, she emphasizes. So I’d say, let’s just do what we want to do – it is not sure that we get the chance to become 100 years old, so that we then can start realising our dreams. Let’s start NOW.

Another advice she gives is “Be curious!”. For her, blogging has an important social function – she meets a lot of people online and offline. She does not know anyone her age, all old friends passed away. She has a younger sister who is over 90 years old, the only family that is left. She never had children of her own, since she first married a guy who loved alcohol too much. The second one, who she spent over 50 years with, she met at the age of 40. Then she was too old for children, she thought. After she left her first husband, she went to Norrköping and became a “konfektionstekniker”, someone who is an expert in fabrics, patterns, sewing technique – an important role in the textile and clothing manufacturing industry, even today. Norrköping was at that time still Sweden’s Manchester with loads of textile industry and many women were employed there. (The concert hall Louis de Geer I went to yesterday is a part of the old, now totally rebuilt industrial area.)

Dagny has by now more than 1 million followers, and this is her blog:
http://www.123minsida.se/Bojan/ 

If you understand Swedish, then you can watch and listen to this interview with Dagny:

#6 of 100

An afternoon with SON, Bruckner and Jurowski

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This afternoon it is time for the second last concert in our subscription with Norrköping’s Symphony Orchestra (or SON – “Symfoniorkester Norrköping”).

Since we luxuriously enough live a 15-minute-walk away from the home of one of the main Scandinavian orchestras’ home, it is almost obligatory to go and listen.

This afternoon, Michail Jurowski, a very well known Russian conductor will lead the complete concert of Anton Bruckner‘s 5th symphony – a piece of about 80 minutes length.

This will probably be the longest classical concert I listened to and I am actually looking forward to it! (I remember a situation during university where I successfully avoided Wagner’s opera “Tannhäuser” which is on for more than 4 hours with intermissions.)

Wagner and Bruckner lived during the same time. What I noticed when I read about Bruckner’s 5th symphony is, that it has been written during the same time as the early years of our old railway station in Grythyttan, which we try to renovate. The composing periods where 1875 – 1878 and 1877 – 1878.

It will be fun to listen to some music from that time period! Grythyttan’s station master will not have been able to enjoy the music at home, though. The phonograph was only invented in 1877, and Bruckner’s 5th did not get recorded until 1937.

On Youtube one finds some nice introductions to the piece, like this one, played by Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra conducted by the famous Herbert Blomstedt, who by the way was principal conductor in Norrköping between 1954 and 1962.

Enjoy the music!

#5 of 100

Friday Night Nibbles!

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First of all thanks for some great food inspiration to my colleague Pernilla! 

Everyone wants good Friday food, right? Then you should try this recipe and experiment a bit with it.

You need:
– a muffins form
– a packet of puff pastry ( ideally with 10 or 12 square slices)
– 1 egg
– a bit of spicy oil, such as chilli oil
– some grated hard cheese with about 30-35 % fat (such as cheddar or here in Sweden “Västerbottenost”)
– some ingredients for a savoury filling (this is where you can be creative!!)

I had 10 slices of square puff pastry, and the fillings I chose to do where these two: 
1. a bit of frozen whole-leaf spinach and about 5 slices smoked salmon
2. half of a sweet red peppar and 5 mushrooms, all finely chopped, and almost half a packet of herb cream cheese, such as Philadelphia.

How to put things together:
– preheat the oven to 220 degrees centigrade
– defreeze the puff pastry so that it is really soft
– prepare each compartment of the muffins form with a tiny bit of chilli oil. This will add extra taste and makes the pastries come out easier when they are ready.
– mix an egg in a cup, and then put a thin layer of egg onto each puff pastry plate.
– place the puff pastry like small cups into the compartments of your muffins form
– then place the filling into each puff pastry (I had smoked salmon and spinach in half of these, and then the peppars mixed with mushrooms and philadelphia cheese in the remaining ones)
– top each one of the pstries with one (or more) spoons of the grated hard cheese.
– you can choose to close the the puff pastry pockets or you can choose to leave them open. I closed them and then I put a bit of the egg on top.
– the remaining egg I mixed with some chilli oil and put it into one of the two remaining empty compartments of the muffins form.

Put the form into the preheated oven and let everything get ready, it takes about 15 minutes. 

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Take the form out and let it cool off about 5 minutes. Then lift each pastry out of the form a table spoon will help you. Serve with some fresh sallad if you like, or enjoy them as they are.

Very important – don’t forget to enjoy a glass of redwine with it! After all it’s Friday night! But they also work with other beverages or plain water of course.

ENJOY and have a LOVELY WEEKEND!

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Running in the morning….

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…. has several advantages:

  • One wakes up on the way (one certainly isn’t when dressing for running, trust me, that phase is called “auto-pilote”).
  • One feels really great once the day’s activity is accomplished and one actually IS awake, thanks to millions of oxygen molecules having just been pumped into your lungs and body.
  • Ever experienced turning up at work amazingly awake, overly happy and then enjoying the effect of the sentence “I just ran 5k before breakfast” on your colleagues, who try to achieve the same awakenes level with a cup of coffee or tea (often even several cups)? No? Well, you should then.

This morning I even met 3 fellow runners! Rather rare at half past six in the morning on a week day in Norrköping.

This year I am a bit more disciplined with running, since I am registered for Göteborgs Varvet, the biggest Swedish half marathon.

Let’s bring it on!

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Photo taken from Instagram @anmaratube .

 

Blogg100? Blogg100!

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Today, on 1st of March, the 5th Swedish blogging competition Blogg100 starts, and this year I want to be part of it.

What the heck is it all about? 

The challenge is to publish each day for 100 days in a row a new blog post. So hopefully one gets back into writing again, and hopefully this blog will get a bit of a life again! It has been neglected in favour of
– not writing at all, except on Facebook or Twitter (stupid really, since one doesn’t even own the content)
– writing about motorcycle related topics on Elisa travels
– writing about our railway station renovation project on Grythyttan Station

Since I love writing, but not necessarily when to my opinion there isn’t anything to write about, the challenge really will be to find interesting stuff for each day to come.

Just to warn you, the coming posts can contain anything, from contemplating about simple questions about life, to reports about hobbies like upholstery, station renovation jam making, running, Eskrima training, motorcycles , Grythyttan and Norrköping.

Oh yes, and who is responsible for all this #blogg100 stuff?

Fredrik Wass, one of the most known Swedish media bloggers. You can follow him on his Bisonblog.se or on Twitter @bisonblog , not to forget on Facebook and Instagram!

HERE WE GO! Read you on #blogg100 ?

Yes, YOU can do like me and take part! Read more on Fredrik’s Bisonblog. 

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Christmas Eve 2015

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This year, we decided very early in autumn to stay at home in Norrköping during Christmas.

We also decided to follow the tradition of our friend Anneli, the tradition of walking the streets of one’s town on Christmas Eve, after 3pm. At 3pm, most of the people are at home, watching the traditional show with Donald Duck & friends.

Sooo… the streets are empty! While Anneli was enjoying Stockholm at that time, we were walking through Norrköping.

See a selection of the pictures taken in the album  Christmas Eve 2015 .

Happy New Year to all of you!! 

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Jam and Marmalade FTW!

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This week started for me with a jam making course at Harg Odlarna in Kisa! The course was in cooperation with Eldrimner in Östersund. Throughout the course we got to know quite a bit of new stuff about the basics of jam and marmalade cooking. I also got confirmed quite a bit of the knowledge I already had from my own more or less self-taught marmalade cooking sessions during the last seasons.

Apart from learning new things, it was great meeting other nerds of that area of interest, and it will be great fun to stay in touch with each other. Follow the link for pictures from the course. The ones of you that understand Swedish have a definite advantage when it comes to reading the recipes ;-).

Enjoy!

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Flu Fighter Soup – a recipe

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Is everybody sneezing and coughing around you? Do you feel a flu coming on or are you already one down in a fight against it? Then this recipe might help you getting back on track. Take yourself to the supermarket, or send someone, to buy the following ingredients for a flu fighting soup with 3 – 4 servings:

– a tin or glass with 400 grams  tomato pulp
– a tin with cherry tomatoes (ca. 250 grams)
– 1 onion
– 2 – 3 garlic toes
– 1 piece of ginger (thumbnail size)
– 1 lime
– Mediterranean herbs (loads), fresh or dried
– chili powder (or fresh chili, or dried, whatever you have available)
– sea salt (a good amount)
– a big tea-spoon of honey
– olive oil
Optional: 200 grams of salmon (fresh or unfrozen) OR Wiener sausages (or other tasty sausages, whatever you fancy)

Then you throw the ingredients together as follows. However, before you start, you have to understand that the soup works through its components “hot/spicy, salty, sour and sweet”. Bearing this in mind, it helps you finding the dose of ingredients you want. It is free to experiment, and let’s face it, if you don’t taste anything due to having a cold, the hotter the soup, the better.

Here we go:
Take a sauce pan of a decent size and put 2 table spoons of olive oil into it, and put it on middle to high heat.
Chop the onion, the ginger and the garlic and stew it in the hot oil, a bit of brown colour is totally desirable. If you use fresh chilies, add these now as well and let them stew with the onions. Chopped chilies of course, and do take out the seeds, and do not forget to wash your hands after handling these. Otherwise your hands will get hot, and eyes, if you rub them with unwashed hands, you probably know what I mean.
If you decided for Salmon or sausage, then these should be cut into pieces and added to the onion/ginger/garlic mixture now, so that even these get a bit of colour on the outside.
Once things in the pan got a bit of colour, add the tomato pulp, and the cherry tomatoes.
Then add the herbs, the chili powder/ dried chilis (if you did not take fresh chilis).
Add as well a generous amount of sea salt and a big spoon of honey. Honey will balance the saltiness and sourness of the soup in a nice way, and it will do wonders for your throat. So don’t be shy.

Now that everything is in the sauce pan, take down the heat to the lower level and let it simmer for about 7 minutes.
The rest should have taken about 10 minutes to fix.

Now you have a great hot soup to enjoy. You can also freeze it and have it next day, so you can really just stay in bed and sleep off whatever decided to hit your poor body.

Get better soon!

And no, there is no picture of the soup, just get creative with the ingredients! Should you find other variations, please do share them in the comment section below, thank you.

Norrköping Walkabout

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Today the BF suggested to take a loooong walk through our town, Norrköping. And yep, off we went, almost 10 km from South to East and West of town. We discovered a few new sights and places, and it was a real pleasure to be able to enjoy all the Christmas lights in a halfway decent weather. You must know, it has been pissing down with rain most of the days, and November was a month with only a few hours of sun. December hasn’t shown much of an improvement for that matter either. But never mind, let’s focus on the nice things in life!

Follow the link and join us on our Sunday afternoon Norrköping Walkabout!

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Route10 km in 2,5 hours, if anyone is interested. A great round for runners as well!