Day 14 - Fresh Meat

Not mush processing was needed for this shot. Subjects such as these make themselves and only need a tiny bit tweaking. I used levels, Detail extractor, Contrast color range, Skylight filter and a vignette. That's it. Easy peasy.

We hosted a party last night, celebrating my 30th birthday with our friends. It was a great evening, it always is when those guys are involved! Our friends are awesome! Funnily it was also our official "moving in party". "Funnily" because we have actually lived here for over two years now. We teased a friend of ours for the very same thing a few years back - it took him a while too - but we ended up taking even longer ourselves. Now though, that our house is finally fully renovated, we felt that it was completed enough to host that party - all rooms are now actually moved into, even that one "room of chaos" where "everything" went haha.

 /MrsHjort

18:17 - Ceberations

This series ends with a nice glass of the bubbly. Mr and I have finally, finished renovating our house! Today! We've been at it for almost three years, but now it's finally the way we want it.

We've done it all, name it, we've probably done it! We've re-plastered the facade, changed the windows, redone one kitchen and torn out another (yes we had two), "bricked up" a door, torn down a wall and moved another, renovated one of the  bathrooms, painted everything, built sliding door wardrobes, changed all the floors and now, remade the washing room. And that's not even mentioning the garden...

Aaaah, it's nice to be done with it all. Now we'll just wait a few years before starting over again :P

/MrsHjort

Solitude - doing the grunge

Originally, this picture had a lot more color. But the old wicket really didn't fit in with the happy colors. It's not often that I find subjects like this interesting, but this... this worn and weathered gate, in the middle of nowhere, with no fence to justify its position, really caught my eye. A piece of the past, persisting in spite of the ware and tare. With no purpose what so ever anymore, but to remind us of its long since past glory days. It seems I'm waxing nostalgic haha. Maybe because we're currently in the process of making new stuff look old for the wine cellar we're building here at home.

So, as I said, the grungy feel of this photo really didn't fit the wonderful lime green grass. And, so, I've done something so unusual (at least when it comes to me) as desaturating and darkening a colorful photo. The gloom fits it much better though, and as a matter of fact, it even made Mr go "Oooooh, that's a nice looking photo, did you shoot it?". Awww! Dear Mr! He's just too sweet sometimes ;)

/MrsHjort

Crooked Lines

When you think about it, you really don't have to travel far to get an interesting picture. I rarely shoot anything in my home, but one day I realized, right then and there, that the lines from this view - at the top of my attic stair case - are actually quite interesting.

Maybe I should challenge myself to do this kind of thing more often - to shoot something interesting at home. It's so easy to become blind to what is this close at hand - in search for exotic subjects - but what's close by can be just as intriguing. Even if it is just the a shot of a worn down stair case.

If you have sharp eyes, you'll notice that there are numbers over the door; "1935 18/12". That's the date the house was finally "christened", though a traditional Swedish attic party. The feast is held after the roof is finished, and the house can be lived in for the first time. I really love that you can still find little details like that in our home. A lot has been torn out, renovated and replaced, but some small details will continue to be persevered, and cherished.

/MrsHjort 

Where the Heart Is

So, finally, after roughly 1½ years of renovating, our home is ready. As I've probably told you already we've redone just about everything - both exterior and interior.

I love living here, in the outskirts of our town, and yet close by. A ride by train into town only takes five minutes, my workplace is a 10 minute walk away and there's a little forest grove right behind the house, which means - no neighbors in that direction.

People often ask us about the railway tracks, since they run right behind our house. As I tell them, I never think about it anymore. The trains run very silently nowadays, and our windows are triple glazed, so we hardly hear anything when inside. The only time when it's noisy is when the cargo trains go by, if we're outside that is. Though there's only one or two of those per day anyway, and they go by fast. So, I'd much rather have the railroad behind the house than an other neighbor - it's so nice to have the back yard completely to our selves. Don't get me wrong though, I really like our neighbors, but it's wonderful to have secluded spot where one can relax wearing ugly, but comfortable clothes haha.

One thing that's a bit funny about our house is that I'm the third teacher to live here. My mother-in-law who lived here before us taught business administration at an upper secondary school and the lady that lived here before her taught younger children. So it's become a bit of a "tradition" haha.

Speaking of tradition, our house was built in 1935 and originally it housed two families - one on the first floor and one on the second, but now it's only Mr and me... and our three four pawed friends. Anyway, it's been quite interesting to see what lies beneath the surface when renovating. We'we found several layers of wallpaper at places (one word; yikes!) and even pencil drawings and writings. I love stuff like that! When ever we're gonna paint over something I like to doodle a little or write a message - like in the kitchen, behind a cabinet, there's a thank you letter to all who helped us redo it. At one time I traced Mr on the wall in life size and me beside him, holding hands. I like to think that little things like that add to the atmosphere, or at least for me it does. Even though it's painted over, it makes me smile :).

/MrsHjort

A Room with a View

I'ts been a year now, a year since we moved into our house here in Huskvarna. A lot has happened during that year! We've renovated just about everything; the kitchen, one of the bathrooms, the bedroom, the hall, the stairs and the media room. We have brand new windows and the whole outside of the house has been redone, from the new facade plaster to the paint jobs. Yes, i'ts been a busy year filled with hard work. I'm very lucky to have such a handy husband.

The most recent thing we did was knocking out one of the walls downstairs, in order to make our living room larger. It has made the room a lot brighter too, and it has improved the view significantly - since we now have three windows facing the valley.

These are not a recent photos - the top one was taken about a year ago (and the rest are from the same season) but autumn this year is just as beautiful. Since we moved here we've quite often marveled at the rainbows rising over the hills... When they're particularly colorful, like this one, I grab my camera as fast as I can and run up to the attic. It's a very nice place to shoot from, no matter the time of year, and "today's" pictures are all taken from up there. I just love standing there with my tripod and my remote.

Come to think of it, many of my photos on W1K the last year have been shot right here at home. More than before - when we lived in the flat - but I suppose that it only natural because of "A" the novelty of it all, "B" the fact that it's bigger and "C" we didn't have a garden before and I love shooting flowers.

It turns out I also love shooting the view, and maybe you'll see even more variations of it here, or on W1K, in the future. I've always though of myself as a macro kind of girl though, and I've always been a bit uncomfortable with landscapes - so often they end up not doing reality justice, and I end up sighing at their "flatness" and lack of "atmosphere". But you know what they say; practice makes perfect. :)

/MrsHjort