This morning I am…

Thankful…

 

 

 

Me like…

 

As a proper Norwegian I eat two pieces of bread with cheese for lunch – and I make them at home before going to work in the morning. Would anyone laugh if I brought my lunch in this lunch box? Cute?

Upps… I woke up to early…

…Waking up at 4am a Tuesday morning is not high up on my list. That is four hours after I layed down and one hour before my wake up call. And it`s Tuesday…I don`t like Tuesdays. Going into work this morning – knowing that we have 200 kg with frozen Christmas ribs waiting for us – without enough room to keep it frozen – does not feel good. I bet, if my college Hilde had known she would have stayed in bed:) Well – we don`t have that choice so we will both turn up and perform our magic. I know we can do it.

Talking about magic. Christmas is getting closer and it is time to perform some magic here at home. I have been slacking these last days and with advent coming up I need to get moving forward. Coming home today there will be no computer, no scrapbooking and no slacking. Just cleaning, cleaning and cleaning.

Wish me luck!

Blogging or not…

 …At the beginning of Shimelle`s class Blogging for Scrapbookers I did have some thoughts about blogging – or not. On the board one of the girls said that she now knew blogging was not for her. She would rather spend the time with her family than spend more time with the computer. For her it was an easy decision. It`s not easy for me. First of all because I like to have a blog and I like to connect with people blogging. I have the time. Sure I could use my time for something different, but I like to  spend time doing a totally unnecessary thing. Our lives are full of to do lists and guilt. Lack of time seems to be a big problem for people in our society today. Scrapbooking and blogging is my way of slacking. It is not work and it is not something people wants from me. And if you know anything about me – you know that I am not much for cleaning and housekeeping…:) So – maybe I will stay on blogging – for now.

The first Sunday in Advent 2008. Jan is helping his mum with the gifts for Christmas. And if you wonder the box of beer is not Jan`s beer…and the mum is the handyman in the family.

Christmas Eve December 24 2008.  We did not celebrate Christmas Eve with the kids last year. Just us old folks having a peaceful dinner and we had some fun wrapping the cars for next morning. We celebrate and give gifts Christmas Eve. The cars were not gifts for the kids. The grandparents bought those for all their grandchildren – born or not. I believe this was a good idea. It is more fun for the kids to play with them when they don`t have them at hand and that way the cars will have a much longer life.

This was my take on the sketch @  Ella`s page call. Don`t forget to play and submit before December 1.

Still time for one more page tonight. I have the unwrapping on December 25 to scrap.

The end of the weekend…

… The last Sunday before the advent celebration start. The last Sunday wasting time. But, I have enjoyed myself wasting time. And in my book that has to count for something. I have travelled the world blog hopping. Starting in Australia and back again to Australia. I had so much fun reading all these new blogs and looking out the window all over the world. If you haven`t taken the trip you can go to Helena where it all start. I promise you will enjoy your trip.

Yesterday I wrote that few American knew where Norway was. I was not talking about the American Scrapbookers. They travel the world all the time through online classes, forums and blogs. We do learn a lot connecting with each other, don`t we?

Even if I did make a Christmas journal last December I have lots of photos that need to make it into the albums. And I enjoy playing with the Christmas papers. I have never done much of that. Always thought it was a wast of money buying all that Christmas stash. Now – I couldn`t help it, I just had to get some of the goodies. And I am working to get some layouts from last years Christmas into the albums.

 

Second Sunday in advent 2008. The kids are beginning to feel the excitement of Christmas.

 

Christmas Eve. For baby Kristian tools where a big hit last year. He is such a boy. He is crazy about tools.

 

 

Ella Publishing have a page call. They challenge you to take one of their sketches and rework them into a two page layout. Both sizes and cards are welcome. So – if you want to get published the submission date are December 1. I liked the sketches so I`m using one of them for some Christmas photos. Almost finished, but it`s dark and almost impossible to take a good photo at this time of the day.

Thanks to everyone doing Shimelle`s blogging class. It has been so educating and fun.

Blogging around the world…

…Welcome to Bud – the North West Coast of Norway.

If you follow the blog train – Blogging around the world – you should be coming here from Huntersville – North Carolina – USA.

Do you wonder where you have landed? …no, Norway is not the Capitol of Sweden. A couple of years ago a newspaper wrote that most American who had heard about Norway believed that it was the Capitol of Sweden. Let me show you the google map:

Even I have a hard time envision the map in my head and Norway is a tiny dot on the map. Let`s zoom in.

I have to admit that I never reflected over the fact that Canada is just next door:)

Surrounded by a lot of water you  will find the fishing village Bud. These days most of the fishing is done by the tourists. Tourism is about to become the most important part of our community. In November, December and January we have down time but in February we can feel the buzz again. We love that buzz. The visitors really enjoy their time here in the village and that makes us appreciate our village even more than we already do.

To take a picture outside my window this time of the year is a challenge. We have few hours of daylight and right now we have a little storm going on. Just in case I have made a collage of photos taken through out the year. You can see the collage at the end of the post.

But right now this is what I see outside my window:

Up the hill to the left just out of sight we have the nursing home for the elderly. From there you have the most beautiful view. The sad fact is that you don`t get a bed there before you are to old and sick to enjoy the view but it does make it a nice place for relatives to visit. For the few lucky ones who are able to manage on their own there are small houses were they are given the help they need. (The red house in the foreground is one of those houses).

When I moved here 6 years ago this was one of the things I liked about this place. They had made room for the old in the midst of the village. Not on the outside. I think that tells something about a community.

Inside it can be like this:

But, most of the time it`s like this:

And sometimes this mess creates pages like this:

I love to play with photos and beautiful paper and the dark season here in Norway is perfect for that.

It is time for the train to leave this station. Next stop is Canada were you will find JJ Soby – she is an accountant by day and scrapbooker by night, and she has a great eye for details.

Next Stop

If you would like to follow the train from the start you can go to: New Zealand and visit Helena

Welcome to a grey Friday…

…I am not complaining about the day being grey and wet. We have had great weather this November and while the south-west of Norway is raining away like other parts of Europe, we have almost no rain. During August, September and October it was raining every day and my roof carries the evidence.

Soon I will be able to grow something here…

The only positive thing about this is the fact that the roof does not belong to me, so I still sleep well at night.

I have been out this morning getting a haircut. On grey days like this I love to hurl up in my scraproom. I have been playing a little with last years Christmas pics and this years Christmas papers. Can`t wait to start my Christmas journal. Still haven`t decided how I want to do that one. @Jessica Sprague her Holliday in Hand templates was given to-day. They are great but I still have issues on the size of my album. And I am not so sure if I want to do a theme throughout the whole album. A theme and a set size makes it easier and faster. Maybe I want to give my self more room to play? Maybe I wont make a page every day? Maybe I will make a page for those days when something worth mentioning happens? The rest of the days I can make a page about what ever comes to mind?

Some days are about Christmas – some days are just plain survival…

The boss of him…

The Challenge…

…so – do you think I can learn to play this beast again?

It has been 30 years and I have to honest here. I had a really hard time making a sound.  It is a little hard to accept that everything I knew about this instrument are gone. All of it. I have forgotten the notes and the scales. I think I will make this a challenge for myself. Anyone having kids playing the trumpet and can give a pep talk here?

We did buy the trumpet hoping that the kids would take an interest in playing, but it`s way to early for any of them to blow the horn. Eager? We? Noooo….

This girl is far more interested in the cleaning department:

 

Or, she is sulking for not getting what she want. She can put up the most saddest face if there is something she is unhappy about. My guess is that she is not happy about her baby brother getting the attention from grandma:) I can understand that. I do remember that from my own childhood. Fighting for attention…

 

I was browsing the french blogs today and found this great sketch @kesi-art . Love that it is so easy to make many different layouts from the same sketch.

I`m going back – practising my scales. Oh – and I need to plan for my posting for our blog – train on Saturday. Join us for a blog around the world tour.

Good writing…

…as a Norwegian it is difficult for me to recognise good writing in English. Today I read a blog post that made an impression on me. It make me feel sad that I am not able to comment on this post because my English is not good enough to describe how I feel about her words. Not only in today`s post but on her blog generally. She is such a beautiful person. A great artist, photographer, teacher, mother and writer. I will never get tired of reading her words and admiring her sweet kids. Her blog posts often resonate with me and she is one of the few brave bloggers out there who have the courage to be honest about her every day life – without being funny about it.

If you were to visit only one blog today, you should stop by Karen.

I am working on the kids album, without finishing anything today. Sometime there are a lot of photos from one event. Okay – it don`t have to be an event. It can be a totally ordinary Thursday afternoon. Like November 8. 2008:

 Sketch – May Flaum. The paper is from Lain Ehmann`s Summer Loving kit.

But, before he got grandma to help with the balloon, Kristian had fun watching TV with his grandma:

And before that he his mother fed him fruit:

sometimes I just can`t let go of any of the photos. Love these page protectors that gives me the choice on how I want to display the photos without going crazy with paper and stash all the time. 

…my English may not be good, but I am not a coward, so I did make a comment on Karen`s blog anyway. Are you?