Nice to Meet you .. Oops We've met! Of Norwegian pleasantries

Scandinavia in general has a interesting set of social greetings that you exchange but one particular one has got my interest :

'Takk for Sist'
So when meeting someone for the first time you ofcourse extend out your hand and say ' Helen, 'hyggelig' (the second word basically translates to 'nice to meet you'). Now initially I made sure I said nice to meet you because thats a clear indicator you don't speak the language but in the aim of 'integration' I've started using the word hyggelig which of course leads to a response / conversation in Norwegian and me looking a bit confused and waiting for the correct time to say 'err I'm sorry I don't speak norwegian yet'. So really I squash the aim in a matter of seconds but that's an entirely different topic :) But one must remember this greeting is used only the first time you meet the person.

Subsequent times that you meet this person you are going to be using the term that interests me the most 'Takk for Sist'. Literally this means 'thank you for the last time' and could be extended to either it was nice meeting you last time or thank you for the fun time we had together or the lovely dinner etc you get the picture. What's even more interesting is that time is of no consequence. The *LAST* time could even have been a year ago ... so this is clearly where my problem begins.... my most recent experience went something like this ... 

Helen: Hei, Helen, Hyggelig

Person: Hei Helen, Takk for Sist .. 

Helen in her mind: **BIG Oppss !!**

This is usually the point where I then feign ignorance of what just happened ...I think I'm just going to stick to my safe pleasantries in english and definitely ones I can wangle my way out of when met with situations like this :)

Clearly Norwegians have a  better memory than this Indian ...... Must Be All Fish !

My DIY Attempt At Pimping Up a Set of Ikea Stools

We have 2 basic Ikea stools in our home and they are at the entrance. We use them to sit on and put on shoes etc. They were annoying me simply because of their lack of any aesthetic value they added to the area. I contemplated looking for something to replace them but I knew I would just a soon want to change that around (give how easily I get bored and want to change things around) not to mention how much I would spend on something new. Just then I had a genius thought or so I'd like to think .. of doing a simple pimp up of these stools. The good thing is that if I made a mistake it wouldn't cost me an arm & a leg and well if it came out well .. I'd be super happy and then share it here with all of you :)

So here it goes a quick step by step guide to pimp some boring stools at home.

What you need:
1. 2 Stools (or as many as you want)
2. Thick'ish Ironed Fabric enough to cover the stools (I used less than a meter)
3. A glue gun (hot glue)
4. 2 round cushions (not very thick)


How to do it:

Step 1:  Access your stool.. then place the cushion on top of the stool and cut out the bit of fabric you will need to fit & cover it. Be a bit generous as its always good to have a bit more instead of a bit less.
















Step 2: Heat up your glue gun. Place the cushion on top of the stool seat and keep lifting it up and putting the hot glue between the seat and the cushion and pressing it down immediately. I realised hot glue cools very fast  and doing it this ways ensures you can quickly stick the cushion to the seat.

Step 3: Lay your fabric down print facing the floor and then put your stool upside down with the cushion on the back of the fabric. Make slits to the fabric in accordance with where the legs of the stool will come and then pick up your glue gun and start gluing the fabric to the underside of the stool seat. When doing so try and ensure that there are no creases and that the you neatly fold the fabric on the sides.

Step 4: The back of the stool doesn't look the prettiest and in the case of an Ikea stool you can screw off the legs in the beginning and when your done with the seat put a piece of material over it or a cut out board. Lazy me I've just left it as i don't really think people will be looking under the stool :) But once your done with you're gluing ... Voila you have a set of nice to funky stools and in my case definitely made the entrance a bit more attractive than it was previously :)

              

   




Price wise 2 stools were 90 Nok (that's 2 cups of coffee here in Norway) The fabric 50 Nok , the Cushions 100 Nok also both from Ikea and the glue another 50. So in about 300 Nok I have 2 fun stools.

Now I know its not the biggest achievement in the world and definitely not the hardest thing to do, but  I'm still happy that it was cost effective (as was the husband), it took 2 hours one evening (works well for my short span of attention) and I love them !! :)