5 Things – At Home

The soul is asking for color while the world outside is black and white. It’s been weeks since we’ve seen the sun. And then it popped out – for the whole day. Luckily, that day was Sunday so everyone took his skis and went skiing. We went for a walk around the lake Sognsvann, with hundreds of other sun-thirsty souls, who created a traffic jam around the parking space. But it was ok because – the sun! The nature in winter is so beautiful, I was sighing with regret of not having taken my camera with me, while simultaneously freezing my toes off. I didn’t check Facebook that day but I am sure it was full of happy sunny pictures with a capture like “ut på tur, aldri sur” which means “out for the walk, never sour” (a very well-used phrase that has become a cliche, but people still use it – without irony).

As I went to check the winter sale and see what’s new in the shops (my favorite activity), I was so happy to discover multiple shades of pink and red on display. At last! At last we can throw off our gray and black clothes this spring season. Norwegian street style is very careful in color palette, and it is great when fashion makes us wear red and pink. Some years ago it was considered way too girlish. Now it is officially in, and my inner child, who has never had a Barbie in her life, is rejoicing. Let’s rock that Barbie style! Let’s bring color to the streets!

It has been a while since I made a post for my hashtag “5 things”. I can’t even remember the last time. April? But these days I got inspired by the pretty details at home and collected them for this post. The most color-hunting I did at home was for pink (are you surprised? Me not). I hope also to go out for some color-hunting and share it with you. But for now let’s enjoy the small pleasures of inside life which feels so natural to lead in the winter season.

5 Things of Blossoming April

We are half done with the spring – and I just realized that I haven’t shared my 5 things for ages. Isn’t it great to have such a feature when you have desire to post but don’t have idea or the will to work hard on something sophisticated? Today I am kind of foggy, so this is an perfect excuse to skip my usual long texts (I love writing the long texts, maybe you noticed 😉 And I hope, there are people who care to read them to their end :)).

A funny story about my fogginess today. I had an appointment with my Mexican friend today and I got up a bit earlier than usually and battled the cold wind outside, almost running to the place with music in my ears. Only to discover that he was not there. And as I thought if this is Latino style and was close to calling him, I scrolled through our texting – and found out that appointment is tomorrow. I just had to laugh and eat my brunch alone there 🙂 Hope, that tomorrow he will be there (otherwise the regular customers at Evita cafe will consider me a crazy lady).

Back to our main show – 5 things which make me smile this April. It looks like the main motive is blooming and blossoming 🙂

1. I am a lover of botanical gardens. And how lucky I am that I can walk to the one – especially in the spring when the signs of new life appear almost every day! Even when it didn’t look like spring in the city, in the garden the first bush of rhododendron was already in bloom.  It means that the winter is officially over (even if it still feels like it) and the nature is waking up from its dream.

that first rhododendron bush

5 Things – About Inspiration

I continue to share my 5 things, and today I want to share the things that inspire me. These are not the things that have the fetish status and the power to kindle my inspiration any time, but rather the small details of my life which – when I start collecting them – have the ability to sparkle joy and excitement inside of me. And it feels like they make the small holes through which the flood of inspiration breaks through and takes me in its flow, like the water finds little holes in the dam and then smashes it, flowing freely.

My previous post was about our use of social media, but I haven’t mentioned the positive sides of them (and the post was not critical towards the social media, rather how we use them). My favorite one, Instagram, is an inspiration for me, because it sends me on the search for beauty in my nearest surroundings, which I started to consider boring and not so pretty. But the new interest for detail gives me a fresh eye, and I end up with finding a lot of tiny wonders. Right now I love the function “stories” because as I make my first snaps, I get a feeling of a treasure hunt- and after short time I have to stop myself because there are funny and pretty little things everywhere 🙂 So all of the pictures below I made for IG and “Stories”, and collecting them is such a fun way to be mindful and grateful for the beauty around me.

1. On our trip to the Southern France I decided to collect everything yellow. We were driving through the region of Occitanie, and I decided that the famous shop L’Occitane  is from these places – and as its color is yellow, so must this region be. You can guess what happened after that. I was noticing yellow things everywhere. Isn’t it weird how you start noticing whatever you make your mind up for? So if we decide to collect the positive vibes – surely we will notice them everywhere, right? So let’s do that! And let this yellow postcard be a reminder of that.

 

City bikes, spring flowers and French breakfast in Montpellier. Yellow boat in the port of Marseille

Five Things I like

Today I want to start a feature on my blog which I really enjoy – to post regularly 5 photos of things I like in the moment. I have been doing it for a while on my other blog (Russian-speaking), and I find it a great way to share, especially in the moments when I am not sure what I want to share about :). Like right now, when I am traveling. I expected to be posting a lot during this trip – you are full of impressions and emotions, so what to do if not to share them on the blog, right? Wrong, I have discovered. Or just not for me. I get so overstimulated by impressions and emotions, that when I come home all I want to do is to fall on my bed and rest. Resting can mean reading or watching Russian bloggers on Youtube 🙂 But there is no energy for creating a lot – my maximum effort is to post a pic on Instagram, and that’s it.

It has been a month since I started this blog, and I know how much energy is needed in the very beginning, just to get the thing up and going (I have read that the airplane uses a lot of its fuel just to get off the earth), to create a momentum. This trip has set my blogger plans on a pause. And while I am writing a list of posts I want to write, and getting big ideas – I have to admit that I need to find a quiet time for those ambitions, and right now I can just play 🙂 Just keep on going with some smaller things. So if you experience that your grand plans keep you procrastinating – start doing small things, just get going, get writing. This is my discovery so far, and I am grateful for it. You never discover such things unless you start taking steps.

Back to the post idea, though. I find it a great way to keep the positive focus in my life – by taking photos of things I like. Not for Instagram or other social media – just for me. Like a moment of appreciation. And later when I scroll through my photos and see how many nice things are there, it is like writing a gratitude journal 🙂 Admitting how beautiful and colorful my life is. I hope, my sharing would inspire you to try this little life-hack. So now I want to share my 5 things of the moment, taken on my way from Norway to Spain.