Remember to polish!

4 Comments

When I was out shopping with my sweetie DDSIL (Dear-Danish-Sister-in-Law) on Friday, we stopped by one of my favourite local shops – an Aladdin’s cave for girls of all ages – the Pink Flamingo 🙂  They had some new spring nail colours.  I couldn’t resist and bought three of them.  I should point out (mainly for the benefit of DH, who occasionally reads what I write here…) that they were as cheap as chips at the knockdown price of 20 Danish crowns a bottle.  [That would be about £2.50 or $4] 

I’ve already changed my nail colour twice since Saturday morning (it’s 10.30am Monday morning, as I type). And that gave me an ‘a-ha’ moment. In my pre-Flylady days, I would always wear transparent pink nailvarnish.  Because I could get away with wearing it for about two weeks before anyone noticed it chipping etc…  These days, I change my nail colour at least once or twice a week.  And not just pale pink.  Cherry red to pale lilac, strong peach or turquoise blue. It really doesn’t take more than three or four minutes to do the job and it makes me feel great.  And young.  Or at least young-ish… ;D  And some days – by complete accident – the colour even matches the scarf that I’m wearing. Howzat!

Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

Pamper time again!

4 Comments

The Flylady habit for the month of December is pampering…a habit which I’ve written about on many occasions (um, 25!) here on the blog. Just search the pamper tag.

One of my fastest pampers in the winter months is smothering my cold tootsies in bodylotion and putting on a pair of bedsocks. Not exactly a sassy look – but soooo relaxing at the end of the day! ;D

Another is to put on some really rich facecream or a facemask just before I go to sleep…

This ‘Drink Up’ mask from Origins (great name, huh?) takes me right back to my childhood. Probably because it smells of peach. Does anyone else remember those Christmas gift sets from Marks and Spencer with bubble bath, soap and body lotion? How I loved those! Simple pleasures…

Anyway, time for another early night for me. Sleep tight and sweet (peachy) dreams! 🙂

Pamper Monday – No time to stop! :)

2 Comments

It’s Pamper Monday here on the blog and today I’m putting my money where my mouth is (or where my blogmouth is) and – gasp! – going off to pamper myself for tonight’s Girls Night Out instead of writing a blogpost… 😉

My fingernails sorely need a bit of attention. But I gave them a quick coat of pink nail varnish (five minutes before DH came home from his trip, ready to take on babysitting duties) and I was good to go 🙂

I’m hanging out with the girls at the Comedy Zoo…

and then cocktails at one of Copenhagen’s ‘in’ places

…have a great Monday night, just enjoy yourselves, who knows what’s round the corner?

Feel Good Friday – Time for Bed

6 Comments

Before I started on my Flylady journey, I never wanted to go to bed. After a long day with the wee ones I felt like I deserved some ‘me’ time at the end of the day. “I want to stay up late and watch rubbish television, eat crips (or chocolates, preferably both!) and go to bed when I feel like it!” Our bedroom was one of the worst places in the house.

These days I love going to bed – and the earlier the better! 😉 These days my wardrobe is (a little…) easier to navigate. These days there’s nothing (yep, nada) under the bed! These days there’s no bedside clutter. At least, not so much. Now you see it…

Now you don’t! (Our bed/headboard/rolling shelves are from those clever people at Ikea– Malm series)

Our (Renate Slinga) duvet cover is from Ikea too (the only place we buy bedding) and – when the sun shines in – it looks fan-flippin-tastic…

Just the spot for a quick pamper with my little pink pamper basket 🙂

Have a fabulous Friday evening wherever you are – I won’t wait up! 😉

Pamper Monday – Bite me!

6 Comments

Copenhagen, Monday morning, 8am. I’ve just delivered the kids to school and I’m unlocking my bike and putting on my cycle helmet. I’m already saying to myself ‘in an hour it’ll all be over and done with’. The ‘it’ in question being my dentist appointment. If you don’t know what the word ‘dentist’ does to me, go read my post Fangs for the Memory 😉

But as it’s ‘pamper Monday’ here on the blog – the day where I focus on little ways to pamper myself (a keystone of the Flylady system) – this presents an ideal opportunity for me to do something nice! 🙂 My dentist appointment is at 8.30am, so it’s just a tad too early to partake of the beer in my dentist’s waiting room. Yes. Beer. Did you read Fangs for the Memory or not? It’s all explained there…

The appointment goes well. I’m finally (fingers crossed) rid of that darned infected root that caused so much heartache and tears…not to mention neverending dentist bills for root canal work, an operation on my jaw and, when that failed, removal of said darned tooth/root and, finally, its replacement with a bridge. I had the bridge put in back in January and it’s doing very nicely, thank you very much. So today I’m let off with a couple of x-rays and a general clean-up. And no fillings, Mum! 🙂

So what can I do for a little treat afterwards? My only other options at 9am in the morning are the bakers, the supermarket, the newsagent or the bagel shop. I never made it past the bakers….

A lovely høj chokolade snejl (‘high chocolate snail’, which is a big cinammon roll with chocolate on top). The dentist probably wouldn’t approve. Bite me! (said the ‘snail’) And let me tell you – it was terribly good with a warm cup of chai…

Hope you have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

Pamper Monday – I like coffee, I like tea…

4 Comments

Monday is the day here on the blog where I concentrate on pampering. Taking pleasure in the little things that make me feel good and help to recharge my batteries 🙂

Twelve years ago we got a fancy schmancy coffee maker as a wedding present. Not something we used every day, mainly at weekends and when we had visitors. The coffee had to be ordered by phone and sent from Holland, so the last couple of years the machine has just been sitting around collecting dust. I discovered last year that there’s now a shop smack bang in the centre of Copenhagen selling the capsules. Just never got round to going there…until last Friday, that is! These pink ones were just too cute 😉

It’s now Monday afternoon, 4pm. DD8 is over at a friend and DS10 has two friends here to play. And me? I’ve just prepped tonight’s dinner (Chicken Parmesan from the first Saving Dinner book) and have some ‘me time’ to spare… So luxury coffee it is. But – shhhh – don’t tell the kids I’m having fancy schmancy chocolate waffle biscuits to go with it! 😉

Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

PS: Need more pamper ideas? Search my blog or go to the Flylady’s pamper pages.

Pamper Monday – Basket Case

4 Comments

Monday is here again which means it’s time to focus on pampering. Certainly one of the fun parts of the Flylady system but definitely one of the most difficult things to accept that you NEED to do…just for you…if you want to be a happy bunny, that is! 😉

On Saturday my ‘twisters’ (twitter buddies) and I had a 30 minute Twister Pamper Party. We live in different corners of the world but – thanks to the wonders of BlogTalkRadio – five of us were able to talk on the ‘party line’ together and chat online with all the others who were listening in. Thanks to Flybaby Moni for hosting, you did a sterling job! xo

Here’s thelink to the Twister Pamper Party show if you’d like to listen for yourself. But hey, don’t click just yet, go get yourself a suitable drink and grab some pamper items ready before you start listening! 🙂 Here’s what I grabbed to take with me. My pink pamper basket. Given to me this Christmas by DD8 (she painted it at school), I’ve filled it with manicure/pedicure stuff (and a few carefully hidden chocolates) and it lives beside my bed…

Maybe that kind of stuff isn’t your thing? Then spend 15 minutes doing something you like. Just for you. I post my own personal pamper ideas here on the blog on Mondays but the Flylady has tons of great ideas on her website. You can see them here.

Have a marvelously manicured Monday! 🙂

Pamper Monday – Who’s a little sweetie?

4 Comments

Last week I was pampering my tootsies and – hooray, hooray – we’ve finally been rewarded with some spring weather, my new sandals have had an airing and the first daffs and tulips are shooting up in the garden before our very eyes 🙂

But, as usual on a Monday, I’ve got another pamper idea for you up my sleeve. Or should I say in my handbag..?

I’m not a huge fan of sweets (candy, for all you US peeps) but I love a little bit of chocolate and tend to go overboard – oopsie! I especially love chocolate in the afternoon or (for some reason) when I’m at a rock concert. I’m infamous in my circle of friends for producing a giant box of After Eights, a Tupperware box full of M+Ms or a cellophane bag full of homemade chocolate fudge when standing having a beer at the bar. Here’s a little peek at what we’ll be enjoying at tomorrow night’s Ultravox concert 😉

But have you tried this killer combo? Macadamia nuts and chocolate-covered raisins? I love that it combines sweet and salt, a sort of trail mix for grown-ups 🙂

The kids have got some dinky little plastic lunch tubs which I’ve pinched borrowed for my sweet treats. Just enough room for a handful…

I ended up with 9 tubs in all, so there’ll be one in my handbag every day of the week. And a couple for ’emergencies’ 😉

The pamper message for this week? Remember to be nice to yourself because – just like rich good dark chocolate – a little goes a long way 🙂 If you need more pamper ideas, I’ve got lots more of them here on the blog and the Flylady has a whole section on her website.

Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

Pamper Monday – Best Foot Forward!

8 Comments

Welcome back to another week and another Pamper Monday! Is it hotting up where you are? It’s certainly been sunny in Copenhagen this last week. Alas, the heat is dragging its feet. So – on that note, boom boom! – this week I’m going to focus on pampering my pins!

Here are my brand new, metallic strappy sandals. I needed a new, fairly flat pair for pottering around in, and these are going to be great with all my white and silver/grey things for summer. (I already have two pairs of high-heeled Ecco sandals, the same model in two colours, that I love!) And, yes, they have zips at the back – just like the ones Missus Smarty Pants bought! You can see her gladiator sandals here 🙂

Have the shoes. Now the legs… I had a nice long shower yesterday morning and followed it up with some fake tan, especially on my feet and toes. And then applied some nice dark purple nail varnish on my toenails. Do you remember my Scaredy Cat Challenge at the end of January when I got myself a professional pedicure? You can read it here, Twinkle Toes. Well, that one session gave me a really good base to start on and I’ve been applying foot lotion etc (which I got for Christmas) almost every night since. So I’m almost good to go!

All we need now is the heat… Here’s DD8 at 7.30am this morning. I actually had to go and dig out our gloves (which I had just put down in the basement) for the bike ride to school – yikes, it was chilly!

But I can’t go wandering around in big boots until it heats up outside can I? So I was ‘forced’ to get these too. And if you read yesterday’s Scaredy Cat Challenge – Declutter Time 2 – don’t worry, lots of old pairs of shoes have already been flung 😉

Have a marvelous Monday. Best foot forward! 🙂

Pamper Monday – Cover to Cover Girl

Pamper time again! Spring is most definitely in the Copenhagen air. Just look at this carpet of crocuses/croci I snapped this morning. Yep, sorry it’s a bit blurry, but I was out on my morning run! 😉

And I l-o-v-e that the evenings are getting l-o-n-g-e-r. Makes me want to invite lots of friends round for dinner. It’s also beginning to warm up outside. Well, slightly. We might even make 13 degrees (55f) today!

I’ve decided that this week I’m going to get in a good pamper by going outside for (at least) 15 minutes every day and reading a book. (Before I started Flylady, novels were only something I read on holiday…read all about it in my post Lazy Days and Holidays) At the moment I’m on my very last (sniff!) Detective Montalbano book. (If you love accents, you’ll love these books. See more about him in yet another of my old posts Love That Accent) But luckily my sweetie friend Candace has come up with a replacement. Amelia Peabody mysteries. She’s an Egyptologist and the books are set in the 1920s so they’re sure to be right up my street (along with my love of Hercules Poirot and Thoroughly Modern Millie). I checked the website for our local Danish library and [praise high Danish income tax] they have four of them (in English) in stock. Guess where I’m going this afternoon? 😉

And where shall I sit and pamper? In the morning, I like to sit on this deck. It’s round and always makes me think I’m on a ship…

By the afternoon, the sun is round here, on the main deck outside the kitchen.

All I need now is a nice, new springy cushion to sit on. Time for a quick trip to Ikea, methinks!

Are you ready to pamper?

Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

Pamper (Easter) Monday

Today is the last day of the school’s Easter break – boo hoo! 😉 We had friends over for a slap-up 3 course lunch today and had a really cosy time.

DD8 and I had ‘tie-dyed’ eggs with 2 of DH’s old silk ties. A really simple craft from one of my favourite ‘foodie’ websites http://ourbestbites.com

The mini chocolate eggs we had also put on the table as a decoration disappeared pretty fast. Luckily I had made Danish marcipan cake for dessert.

That disappeared pretty fast too…

Well, we did have a couple of slices each. With squirty cream, of course!

At 5pm I told the kids I was making homemade pizza for dinner. DD8 said, ‘Mum, don’t worry! We’ll walk to the pizzeria and get a takeaway for you!’ And off she went with DS10, a small purse in hand 😉

Truth to tell, I don’t really like the pizzas from our nearest pizzeria. But the kids love going off there on their own and it’s so rare (thanks to Flylady and menu planning!) that we get takeaway food these days. So I’m sitting back, enjoying a quiet moment in my fantastic kitchen, enjoying not having to cook and enjoying the fact that my ‘little ones’ are pampering me…

Time for me to get this show back on the road and get this new school week started. Hope you have a marvelous pamper Monday. Pizza or no pizza! 🙂

Pamper Monday – The Sound of Music

2 Comments

Mondays here on the blog are me days. Not about little old me. Oh, okay then, maybe just a teeny bit! 😉 More about the things I can do just for me to recharge my batteries. Creative ways to be nice to myself! 🙂

Music is my world. The one thing that can change my mood in a heartbeat. Or a single guitar riff 😉 And if films should be seen on the big screen, then music should be experienced live. Last weekend DH and I went to see the Swedish rock giants, Kent. And I’m still high, 10 days later! 🙂 This week I’ve got not one but two (count ’em) gigs to look forward to…

Thursday night I’m taking a trip down a 1990s memory lane with Heaven 17, those awfully clever boys from Sheffield, on their Penthouse and Pavement Live tour. And sometimes they add in a little number by the Human League too, so fingers crossed! 🙂

Friday night is going to be a Copenhagen classic. Denmark’s finest punk rock band Magtens Korridorer (which means The Corridors of Power). Click on the link and then move your mouse over those handsome boys, one by one – you won’t be disappointed! 😉 My sweetie friend Rasmus is their guitarist.

They’re playing – as always – at my favourite, favourite Copenhagen concert venue, VEGA. Built in the 1950s, it was named Folkets Hus (People’s House) and was a kind of headquarters for the unions. Today it’s a listed building and still s-u-p-r-e-m-e-l-y stylish. Mahogany wooden floors, the ubiquitous Danish design lamps, elegant staircases (that don’t always lead where you think – or maybe that’s too many G+Ts on my behalf?), woodpanelled walls, snug bars. Sometimes I think I should have a beehive hairdo to fit in with the glamorous feeling of the place. If you’re interested in architecture or style there are lots of great photos of the various rooms here. All in all, it’s going to be a great night. By the way, if you want to come along to Magtens K on Friday, you’re too late. It’s a sell out. Yay! 🙂

Have you had a little bit of what you fancy recently? Rock, theatre, stand-up comedy? Then maybe it’s about time you treated yourself. Just remember to do the Flylady thing and book your tickets well in advance…

Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂

Pamper Monday – Sticking My Neck Out

3 Comments

Well it’s Pamper Monday here on the blog and time to focus on a little thing I can do every day – just for me – to make my world a little sunnier 🙂

I’ve got a new weapon in my arsenal. A new product in my toilet bag…

“The Great Pretender” by Origins. A self-bronzer which has teeny tiny bits of glitter in it. Think discrete sparkle, not 70s revival party. It even has a lovely, fresh smell – orange and mint. Think refreshing Moroccan salad, not the usual “I’ve just put on self-tan” chemical giveaway aroma! 😉

I’ve been using it on my arms and upper body (nice to have a bit of colour when I’m wearing more revealing evening tops). But I’m really loving it because it’s solved a problem with my neck. You see, I discovered last week that I had a white patch from wearing all those wonderful scarves I love so much – the sun hasn’t shone on that part of my body for the past five or six months! Tee hee! 😉

You didn’t know I love scarves? Well, go back and read I heart scarves or These are a few of my favourite things (Scarves).

Hope you have a marvelous Monday and that the sun shines on you! 🙂

Pamper Monday – Top Gear 2

5 Comments

In last Mondays’s pamper post, I announced I was on the hunt for some new running gear. Hey, I deserve to look good out there! 😉

Not just any old thing. Some new stylish and flattering sports tops in my seasonal colours. Thanks to Missus Smarty Pants colour analysis, I know that I am a spring – guess what, it’s also my favourite season! 🙂 So I went into town last week and trawled the major sports shops and department stores. And came up with…nothing! Who knew it would be so difficult?

I thought it might be easier finding something online. After all, there are plenty of Danish catalogue companies these days that sell major sports brands like Adidas, Nike etc. But then I did that old SHE thing of getting sidetracked by the computer and – several mouse clicks down the line – I was in the virtual nightwear department looking at new jimjams instead! Which, by the way, are another thing I have difficulty finding. Have you ever found stylish sleepwear? This big, old Danish house is too cold for wearing nighties (unless it’s high summer) and I refuse to walk around with Snoopy or any other cartoon character on my pyjama top. That’s something my children do! 😉

So I’m back at square one and still wearing the same old, same old… I’m thinking that I probably need to change tack and cast my net a bit wider. Maybe look for flattering t-shirts in good colours first, and then make sure that they’re in a suitable fabric for running. (Or sleeping, for that matter.)

So the hunt is still very much ‘on’. And I haven’t given up hope! Hope you all have a marvelous Monday! 🙂