{"id":28555,"date":"2020-12-10T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T10:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/?p=28555"},"modified":"2021-05-13T12:15:32","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T12:15:32","slug":"annual-photoshoot-yule-renovation-madness-descends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/annual-photoshoot-yule-renovation-madness-descends\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Photoshoot & Yule-Renovation-Madness Descends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Photos taken 10 – 23 December 2020, posted online 13 May 2021. It’s ascension day and a public holiday. Two days ago I got my second Pfizer covid-19 shot, and spent most of yesterday in bed. Feeling much better now.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For too many years to count, I’ve done a ‘photoshoot’ of the kids in November\/December to put on the annual family photo-calendar. This year I decided to try using the new green wall in our bedroom as a backdrop, but had a harder-than-usual fight trying to get the lights to cooperate. Maybe I should finally watch those youtube videos I’ve been meaning to instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Christmas looming, Emma’s “art-corner” under the stairs drew my ire, as it was an absolute horrible mess. Making things worse were the boxes and boxes of random stuff tucked under the stairs, that had been mostly untouched for almost 10 years. In a fit of apparent insanity, I pulled all the stuff out from under the stairs, nearly giving poor Finnur a heart-attack. Happily, the impending-yule adrenaline meant things got squared away before too long, and Emma got the entirety of the under-the-stairs-area as her domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one piece of furniture from Emma’s room ended up under the stairs, her room no longer made any sense, so the renovation madness crept into her room as well… (60-ish images total)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday 10 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Three siblings.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Emma is all about the posing.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Pose #2<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The sisters.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The older ones.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anna solo.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Bjarki solo.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The nutty mother.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Friday 11 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Anna began planting things, utilizing Finnur’s daylight to see if plants would grow and survive in the dark.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I journeyed into work to pick up the company Christmas gift, along with a cup of hot chocolate and toasted almonds. My team showed up around the same time, but I neglected to bring a coat so I couldn’t stay outside long to chat, as there was no lingering inside the building, and the wind was cooooold.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The poor events people have had precious little to actually set up lately, so they went a little all-out in the atrium.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Bjarki had music theory class, and I walked alongside an ice-sheet while waiting for him to be done.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Spotted some weird art on the way.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 12 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I went out on a late afternoon hike, this is at 5 pm!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sunday 13 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I blame the following on Anna’s utterly amazing two-day caramel-chocolate-chip cookies… <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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My arch-nemesis after I moved the phone table away.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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So much dust! These electronic components\/remains were hiding under the stairs, much of it dating from when we lived in the US, which was almost 10 years ago! My advice to you all: never store things in open boxes!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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After three hours of dragging and moving and sorting, this was still the situation.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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By 11 pm (evening) I’d painted over Emma’s artwork on the stair-slope, painted the unfinished “ceiling” under the middle staircase, hauled Emma’s clothing storage cube<\/a> (sans the clothing) down under the stairs, and put away some of her things in it.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The pile of “deal with this later”.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 15 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I’d bought a fair number of Christmas presents online around the end of November. The delivery methods varied widely, but the most frustrating of all was picking up stuff from coolshop.is<\/a> which is an offshoot of some bigger chain based in N-Europe. They got hit by many more orders than they had anticipated, so many that they ended up renting a special hand-off space next to their actual store. They still had a horribly shoddy logistical system to hand out the orders to people so the line moved veeeery slowly. To add insult to injury, only 2\/3 of my order had actually arrived, and when I got home I got a message that the last part had arrived to be picked up. Grrrr!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Only 10 customers allowed inside the space at any given time, the workers did not count towards the 10.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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DHL also had a line, but they had a worker out front who dealt with the easy pick-ups, and I got my package in less than 5 minutes.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Next stop on my journey of madness, Ikea.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Flat-packs, awaiting my attention.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Later that evening… Emma had put down protective plastic onto the table, I’d installed a LED light-strip under the stairs, and furnished a kid-sized space where the dusty boxes used to live.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The new Emma-sized space.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Yet another corner made from Ikea. And yes, I can get under there, but just barely!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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As I was clearly stark-raving-mad I decided these shelves had outlived their welcome, as too many of Emma’s things simply didn’t fit into them at all. I sent the photo to friends and family, and one of Finnur’s sisters replied that she could make use of them. Bingo!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday 16 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Proof we made it to Costco, probably mostly to buy toilet paper.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anna trying to keep her sanity on the last day of school before the Christmas break.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Wednesday walk commencing. Mount Esja is always a sight for sore eyes.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Getting close to winter solstice, this is taken shortly before 4 pm.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thursday 17 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The coolshop.is pick-up line, argh! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Then I drove to work to pick up a festive feast! The team then hung out online for a bit, high on delicious food!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The kitchen staff at work is magical. This was ridiculously tasty.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anna, finally on break.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Mwwwhhhahaahaaa!!! I somehow got her to wrap all the going-outside-the-house Christmas presents! Such a sanity saver!!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Friday 18 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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It looks like I made it out on a jog!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Having decided to get rid of some shelves, I wondered if I could get rid of all our old California-era shelves. Finnur’s sister again stepped up to claim them. Score!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Saturday 19 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I went to pick up a package from grandma Hrefna. She painted those horses behind us!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I had some shopping at the mall to do, so I stopped at the cafe there. They had split the cafe into two zones by barricading a walkway with tables. Only 10 visitors in each zone, 2 meters apart, please.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Feeling civilized.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Parents could no longer enter the ice-skating hall, so there was a lot of waiting outside to pick up after practice.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Then it was back to dealing with the “deal with it later” pile. I found another box of frames, which I happily shipped off to my artistic-sister-in-law<\/a> (she’s also doing all the art for the Birds of Play youtube channel<\/a>!). I hope she can make good use of them!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A note found in the pile. How Finnur didn’t run screaming from his madly weird wife-to-be I’ll never know.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A few boxes emptied, and sorting piles piling up. I lost count of the dead spiders I vacuumed. (Closed boxes people, closed boxes!)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Monday 21 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Anna met people!! For five minutes!! Two of her friends came to drop off and pick up presents, the first time they’d met in real-life for almost three months!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
I had entirely too much fun organizing new sets of shelves and drawers for Emma’s room on Ikea’s website. Her clothes were still in the boxes that didn’t have a home anymore, not to mention the fact that her clothes had outgrown the boxes themselves!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 22 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Success! The electronics deemed “do not throw away” (mostly) all stacked into CLOSED boxes.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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After work I hopped on over to Ikea to get some of Emma’s new shelving units. Thankfully, they had everything I needed except for one drawer.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Emma’s disaster of a room before I began. You can see her clothing boxes to the bottom right. All the shelves on the left were moved elsewhere, and then I went to work assembling the new stuff.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Anna helpfully provided delicious carbohydrates.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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By 9 pm Emma finally had a functioning dress storage! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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White stuff outside!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday 23 December 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I’d discovered the joy of having a holiday on the 23rd of December, so I replicated it. I also discovered that one of the cafes I’d given up on had made some adjustments, and importantly, did not have “don’t stay here too long” notices everywhere. They became my new camp-out.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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By 4 pm Emma’s new clothing unit was up and running, minus that shelf that wasn’t in stock. I still haven’t added it.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Time to decorate the tree! Anna was in charge like before.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Acclimatizing the tree with some hot water in the leg bowl.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Having delusions of grandeur and activity during the holidays, I again went to Ikea, now to pick up the remainder of the planned units in Emma’s room. They were helpfully giving away free hot chocolate and cookies outside as the restaurant and cafe inside were closed due to covid-19 restrictions.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Thwarted! There were noooo (zero, zilch) shelves in stock in the size that I needed! The staff helpfully told me there might be a shipment arriving sometime in January, and signed me up on some notification list. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Mindful that more stuff might sell out, I grabbed all the other items I needed (I love my trusty roomy car) and hauled it home. Thus the Christmas madness fizzled into nothingness, and there would be no furniture heroics for some time. On to Chrismas!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Photos taken 10 – 23 December 2020, posted online 13 May 2021. It’s ascension day and a public holiday. Two days ago I got my second Pfizer covid-19 shot, and spent most of yesterday in bed. Feeling much better now.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

For too many years to count, I’ve done a ‘photoshoot’ of the kids in November\/December to put on the annual family photo-calendar. This year I decided to try using the new green wall in our bedroom as a backdrop, but had a harder-than-usual fight trying to get the lights to cooperate. Maybe I should finally watch those youtube videos I’ve been meaning to instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time?<\/p>\n

With Christmas looming, Emma’s “art-corner” under the stairs drew my ire, as it was an absolute horrible mess. Making things worse were the boxes and boxes of random stuff tucked under the stairs, that had been mostly untouched for almost 10 years. In a fit of apparent insanity, I pulled all the stuff out from under the stairs, nearly giving poor Finnur a heart-attack. Happily, the impending-yule adrenaline meant things got squared away before too long, and Emma got the entirety of the under-the-stairs-area as her domain.<\/p>\n

As one piece of furniture from Emma’s room ended up under the stairs, her room no longer made any sense, so the renovation madness crept into her room as well… (60-ish images total)<\/p>\n

Thursday 10 December 2020<\/h3>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Three siblings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-container col-md-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28555"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28626,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28555\/revisions\/28626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}