Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2023 i Ideas

I will most likely remember 2023 as my personal 'year of the house'. Of fixing faults, of selling my home, packing up, buying a house, breaking down walls, painting, beautifying, moving again, unpacking, and more beautifying. Three houses in one year. And of living in covered up, 'dressed up' chaos. Which is definitely not good for my soul. Especially when it comes to my bedroom, which has to be a haven of peace and tranquility. If it isn't, I quickly become jagged and snappy. As my beloved old house gradually changed into a storage space full of boxes, I tried to leave my bedroom for last (which in the end happened on moving day). Then it was five days in my son Anton's spare room, with everything that I might…

Linocut printing is a relief print process that involves cutting into a sheet of linoleum. Make your own linocut artwork by layering a few of the same stamps in a variety of colours over each other. For our artwork we also made a smaller flower and two leaves. DIFFICULTY: medium TIME: two hours YOU WILL NEED ♥ Black-and-white flower image printed on an inkjet printer ♥ a sheet of lino (available from most craft stores) ♥ lino cutting tools ♥ acrylic paint ♥ art brushes ♥ any paper of your choice ♥ acetone ♥ rag ♥ scissors or craft knife ♥ latex gloves Place the printed image, face side down, onto your lino sheet. Apply a bit of acetone to your rag and rub over the back of the image.…

PAINT THE PICTURE Nothing beats wool and all its knitting and crochet mates for creating cosiness in a home. Keep snug and warm this winter by surrounding yourself with lots of woolly items. Light a fire and relax with your crochet or knitting. And when you are done, cover yourself with your blanket and read a book. Here are a few projects to warm up your cold fingers. CHEVRON MAT DIFFICULTY: average TIME: a day SIZE About 104 × 60cm YOU WILL NEED ♥ Elle CottonOn DK in Dusty Pink 053: 4 × 250g balls (415m each) ♥ 7mm crochet hook NOTE: If you crochet quite tightly, use a larger size crochet hook and if you crochet loosely, use a smaller size hook. ABBREVIATIONS ch – chain stitch rep –…

DIFFICULTY: experienced beginner SPECIAL SKILLS: knitting in the round, Fair Isle colourwork knitting, increasing and decreasing, pick up and knit stitches TIME: 2-3 weeks SIZE Small / Medium GAUGE 20 st and 18 rows = 10cm × 10cm (blocked) MATERIALS ♥ AFRICAN EXPRESSIONS HARMONY MC – 9 × 50g #2059 (Grey) CC – 1× 50g #6059 (Natural) ♥ AFRICAN EXPRESSIONS HOPE MC – 5 × 50g #6059 (Grey) CC – 1× 50g #6001 (Natural) ♥ 6mm circular knitting needles for knitting back and forth and in the round ♥ stitch markers ♥ scissors ♥ darning needle for working ends away ♥ stitch holders or scrap yarn to hold stitches ABBREVIATIONS CC – contrast colour k – knit k2tog – knit two stitches together knitwise MC – main colour p –…

food & entertaining BLOCK CANDLE Place a 500g block of salted butter into a butter dish. Cut three wicks according to the height of the block and simply press them into the butter. Light your candles and enjoy the melting butter on bread! LEMON AND HERB CANDLE (LEFT) DIFFICULTY: average TIME: half a day (refrigeration included) MAKES: 1 candle YOU WILL NEED ♥ 200g salted butter at room temperature ♥ grated zest of 1 lemon ♥ 5ml finely grated garlic ♥ 15ml finely chopped fresh herbs of your choice ♥ acetate ♥ craft knife and cutting mat ♥ ruler ♥ masking tape ♥ piping bag or sandwich bag ♥ food-safe candlewick * TO MAKE 1 Soften the butter with a spoon and add the lemon zest, garlic and herbs. Mix…

your life TRAVEL IS NOT REALLY ABOUT LEAVING OUR HOMES, BUT LEAVING OUR HABITS.-PICO IYER When I met Lizelle Tenten, a former colleague, for coffee, I had just sold my home. It was the house I had lived in for the longest time yet, and ahead of me lay 11 years' worth of things that needed to be packed up. A chat with her was exactly what I needed! Across the table sat Lizelle, just as sparkling as I remembered her. She looked the same and laughed the same. Life has certainly treated her well. Or should I rather say, her choices for her life have served her well. Especially her big choice - to do away with possessions and focus on memories. She and her husband, Werner, had walked…

SIGNATURE DINNERWARE Mervyn Gers Ceramics now offers a bespoke design service to help you create your own signature set of dinnerware. The service includes a 90-minute consultation to discuss your requirements and offer creative advice. You can choose your favourite colours, shapes and glazes. All their products are fully functional for daily use, food safe as well as dishwasher and microwave safe. The company also supports sustainable job creation with each piece being handmade, which ensures a true one-of-a-kind collection. For more information, go to www.mervyngers.com. HANDCRAFTED COPPER FOR YOUR BATHROOM If you are in the market for a new bathroom, be sure to visit the Earth Gold website where you will find copper baths, hand basins and lampshades that are meticulously handcrafted from 100% pure copper by teams of…

GET THE LOOK We used a mix of bright colours, textures and patterns to recreate our vibrant Frida Kahlo inspired bedroom. To keep it from looking cluttered, stick with one colour tone; we used bright colours. When introducing patterns, mix large ones with small ones. This way things are not fighting with each other for attention but rather working together as a cohesive whole.…

DIFFICULTY: easy to medium TIME: two hours It is really easy to make a headboard from a round jute mat. Use your dressed bed, with pillows and duvet, as a guide for how high you want to place your headboard. Use coloured chalk to outline the headboard shape and where the holes in the mat are. This is where you will place the screws for the headboard to hang on. Now drill a few holes with a masonry drill bit into the wall at these marked areas, insert the wall plugs and screws – four to five should be fine – and hook the holes of the mat over the screws to hang your mat in position and use it as a headboard.…

food & entertaining BRAZILIAN-STYLE CHICKEN WITH COCONUT AND LIME Try out this dish next time you feel like treating family or friends to something a little different. It’s slightly spicy with a wonderful fragrance and zesty flavours, and a rich and creamy sauce that everyone is sure to enjoy. Serves: 4-6 Preparation time: 40 minutes Cooking time: 60 minutes Oven temperature: 180 °C ♥ 1 whole chicken ♥ 30ml soft butter ♥ 15ml grated lime zest ♥ 200g baby rosa tomatoes, halved ♥ 250ml drained canned black beans ♥ 45ml freshly squeezed lime juice ♥ baby spinach leaves, to serve ♥ cooked rice, to serve ♥ charred lime wedges and fresh coriander, to serve SAUCE ♥ 15ml canola oil ♥ 1 onion, finely chopped ♥ 2 cloves garlic, crushed ♥…

DIFFICULTY: average TIME: half a day (refrigeration included) MAKES: 1 candle YOU WILL NEED ♥ 200g salted butter at room temperature ♥ 15ml smoked paprika ♥ acetate ♥ masking tape ♥ craft knife and cutting mat ♥ ruler ♥ piping bag or sandwich bag ♥ food-safe wick (see below) While you're busy making the lemon and herb candle, try your hand at this paprika-flavoured one as well. Soften the butter with a spoon and add the smoked paprika. Mix well. Cut a piece of acetate in the desired size and fold it into a cylindrical shape. Join the sides with masking tape and also tape the bottom closed. Spoon the butter into a piping bag or use an ordinary sandwich bag with a small hole cut at one corner. Pipe…

My father was ahead of his time. We were almost certainly the first house in Potchefstroom that had a sauna, in the 1970s. (He also had the first Apple computer in town!) I can still see all the young Krügers sitting in a row on the pine benches in our sauna while he added steam by ladling eucalyptus water onto the hot rocks. And afterwards we ran shrieking and yelling over the large, frostwhite lawn to jump into the ice-cold swimming pool. A few hot-cold-hot-cold sessions one after the other… Contrast hydrotherapy is a popular trend in wellness rituals these days. It includes water-based treatments like sessions in an infrared sauna or steam room, ice baths and cryotherapy. Health experts can't say enough good things about it: Exposing the body…

Asking Anett Jorméus to describe her style is like asking a painter why they paint. There is no straight answer. ‘My spaces are what they are because of what I need in order to live the way I like to live,’ she says. Of course, it’s not difficult to see that Anett has a wonderful ability for creating easy-on-the-eye spaces, and in fact it’s her eye for accessible style and her impeccable design sensibility that helped shape Granit, one of Sweden’s most successful lifestyle and interiors chains. Quite simply, Anett is allergic to overly designed or overly thought-about spaces and furniture. Dig a little deeper and when asked why she decided to renovate her home using salvage-yard and junk-shop finds, the ever-pragmatic Anett explains: ‘It’s a really old house, I…

how to DIFFICULTY: challenging TIME: one day YOU WILL NEED ♥ white duvet cover ♥ design on page 38 (or use your own), printed in the desired size ♥ craft foam rubber ♥ carbon paper and ballpoint pen ♥ square of MDF (size depends on your design) ♥ acrylic paint in the colour of your choice (we used black) ♥ fabric painting medium (we used DecoArt's product) ♥ sponge applicator ♥ glue gun ♥ craft knife and cuttng mat ♥ rubber gloves To create our tile pattern, we cut our symmetrical design into quarters and used just one quarter to repeat the pattern. Cut a piece of foam rubber the size of your design and transfer the design to the foam by tracing it with carbon paper and ballpoint pen.…

THE SQUISHIEST BLANKET by ELSBETH EKSTEEN DIFFICULTY: medium to difficult TIME: a week SIZE 2m × 80cm NOTE: I'm sure all the makers out there have seen items made with roving yarn. It looks so breathtakingly beautiful, but we also know that any item made with roving cannot be treated just like any other wool blanket. Wool roving generally refers to wool fibre that has been processed, but not yet spun into yarn. Roving needs to be treated gently because the fibres are not twisted together like the usual wool you buy. It breaks very easily if handled with force. When the finished item has to endure lots of rubbing motions or handling, it will start to make little piles (round fibre balls). Any sharp items will hook on the…

CARROT TARTE TATIN Makes: 1 tart Preparation time: 40 minutes Baking time: 25-35 minutes Oven temperature: 200 °C ♥ 1 pack puff pastry, defrosted but keep it chilled ♥ 30ml each butter and olive oil ♥ about 15 baby carrots, peeled and halved lengthways ♥ 2 garlic cloves, skins kept on ♥ 1 shallot or small onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges ♥ 5ml caraway or cumin seeds ♥ black pepper cream cheese, to serve ♥ handful of fresh sage, fried in butter, to serve Heat half the butter and oil in an ovenproof frying pan. Add the carrots, garlic cloves and spices and slowly fry until the carrots are soft but still firm. Remove from the pan and heat the remaining butter and oil to fry the onions…

your life Connection is key in parenting and in raising healthy children. Kids who experience connection with the caring adults in their lives feel seen and heard, and have a greater sense of belonging. This creates an emotional security and confidence, which leads to healthy social and emotional development. Moments of connection also allow caring adults to get to really know the children in their lives, which then improves ongoing understanding, support and love. In a constantly changing and very busy world, moments of connection are often interrupted and distracted by technology, social media, busy schedules and increasing levels of stress and anxiety. There is no doubt that parent-child connection is under threat, with far-reaching negative consequences. It's vitally important that parents prioritise and intentionally build connected moments into their…