Tea towel to travel

I have drawn a winner in my mini-giveaway. This time there were 39 people that wanted to try their luck with a total of 72 entries. The winner is a follower of our English site, and the tea towel from Södahl will have to travel all the way to Australia before it reaches its new owner Sandy, who has the lovely blog Paint Me White. I would like to recommend everyone to go and have a look at it. I always find plenty of inspiration there.

Congratulations to Sandy, hope you’ll like your prize.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dinner tips for weary housewives

When you finally drag yourself up the stairs at home, dog-tired and ravenous after hours of overtime at the office, that is hardly the time for creative antics in the kitchen. No, at such times there are three things that will save the remains of the day: wine, a packet of something freeze-dried and herbs.

First - the wine. If you are practically minded, you’ll probably have a bag-in-box strategically placed somewhere, so you can easily pour yourself a little stimulant before you start rummaging through drawers and cupboards for anything freeze-dried - whatever, just as long as it doesn’t take more than ten minutes to cook and doesn’t require anything added but a little milk. Today's catch in my kitchen was Pasta Carbonara. (Which actually doesn’t take much more than ten minutes to prepare if you do it the proper way either, but that's beside the point.)

While the whole thing simmers, you can lay the foundation for a beautiful table by throwing on a checkered tablecloth. If you have cut flowers in the house, then by all means get the vase. If not, any old flower-pot will do.

Soups and casseroles don’t require much cutlery, and that saves the washing up.

And finally, when you have sloshed the food into some bowls, it is time for le Pièce de Resistance: fresh herbs! Since you are, after all, not a complete slob in the kitchen all the time, you will of course have a selection of something green and fragrant on the windowsill. (I would have shown you a photo of my herbs, had it not been for the fact that they were so withered and dry that a few sprigs was all I could muster.)

And presto, it is time to invite the man in your life to the table with a kiss and a dewy glass, and he’ll be simply dazzled by how you could whip up such a meal in mere minutes. Kiss him again, and he may even clear the table and do the dishes afterwards, while you can curl up on the sofa with another glass of wine and your favourite magazine.

I’d just like to remind you that there is still time to try your luck in my little mini-giveaway, where you can win a tea towel that your husband will certainly appreciate when does the drying up.

Mini Give Away

As I was standing by the kitchen sink drying cups earlier today, it struck me that since I am so happy with my tea towels I should probably blog about that. So here goes: I first came across tea towels from the Danish manufacturer Södahl some years ago and was so impressed with the quality that I have never bought anything else since. They seem to become softer and more effective each time they're washed.
A quick look in my linen cupboard revealed a few brand new towels, and that gave me an excuse to have a little Give Away here on the blog, and let some lucky winner sample the quality of these towels.

The prize is a white/green/pink tea towel made from 100 % cotton.
If many people join the contest, I might have to give away one more. We'll see. :-)

The rules are as usual: You'll get one entry for leaving a comment, one for following this blog and one for linking to this Give Away from your blog.

The final date is Friday the 12th of November.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Our living room

Every month the Norwegian Interior Bloggers site NIB presents a challenge. This month it was to show your living room. That is something we wanted to take them up on, because if there is one thing we have enough of here at Hilltop House, it is living room. The bedrooms are so small that we can barely fit beds in them and the bathrooms are tiny, but in the living room department we've got acres of space. Consequently, we have no less than four sofas. (And one more to come.)
This is the one we use most of the time, when it's just Hubby and Husfruen home alone.

As you can see, we have a rather classic English style in this room. The large yew bookcase is from Bowlings of Tenby. It takes up a lot of space, but it also provides plenty of storage. The cherry wood chairs are from the Swedish manufacturer Brödrerna Andersons. They are pretty and light weight and very practical. The walnut coffee table is called Astoria and is one of the few pieces of furniture that we bought when we moved in here two years ago.

LOVESEAT. The sofa has down fill and is incredibly comfortable. It was a bargain bought at a furniture sale a few years ago. Since they only had the two seater left, it was reduced by 70 percent. It doesn't bother us that it is only a two seater, as long as we have other sofas  when we are entertaining. 

NICE VIEW. From this room we can enjoy the view of the fjord. The large windows let in a lot of light, which is very nice. We actually appreciate the view a lot more than we thought we would when we bought the house. There's just something about being able to see water, even if it is just a tiny fjord. 

AUTUMN. There are not many leaves left on the trees now, but thankfully the snow is still at bay. 

A BIT EARLY. The Christmas cactus must like the light in this window. It has misjudged the season by a month and is already getting ready for action.  

FIREPLACE. One good thing about autumn is that it provides plenty of opportunities for lighting the fire. Nothing is more cosy, in my opinion. The little bookcase is also from Bowlings, while the pedestal is from Galtung Interiør. 

PLENTY TO READ. There are numerous good books out at the moment. I often read two at a time. 

Well, the weekend is here at last, and the I can see the sofa is beckoning me. Enjoy your weekend too!