Soon it is Monday…

…and we have started the countdown for Christmas. 23 days left before the big day. Only 23 days. I wish December had more days. Wouldn`t that be neat?

We have been blessed with good weather this weekend. My family is planning to build a vacation home on the land my father was born. It has taken years to get to this point. Building so close to the sea has become difficult in Norway. We have been waiting 40 years for this to happen and now we are almost home. Since the weather was good Tormod and Kjellaug has been out there this weekend looking over the place.

Out there we have the Atlantic Road – turning around, we have Håholmen and the open sea.

Today – on the seventh day – I have been resting. And I am ready for Advent.

Tomorrow I am ready to journal my Christmas….

The village is ready for Advent…

After weeks with storms and a lot of rain,  we finally had a good day and I bet the men working with the Christmas decorations today were happy about that. The lights are right outside my windows and gives me an extra nice view this dark and cold month of December. I just took a photo from my window:

I hardly need Christmas - lights inside my apartment...

Earlier today I finished all my 37 pages for my Christmas-album. I will use the front page for photos and whatever Shimelle inspires me to do. The back will be for writing. Since I`m still inspired from Jessica Sprague`s Stories in Hand I plan on writing a lot.:) The good thing about the AC ring album – you can put in extra pages and move them around. And that is a good thing because I have no idea how Shimelle plan to play this.

American Craft 6x12 - ready to go...

The little three is one of Kolette Hall`s design and it is so cute – I just had to find a way to use this cutie.

The front page - design Kolette Hall

I am so exited about this class, I can hardly wait for December 1. For me Christmas starts tomorrow. In the afternoon there is a mess in the church, then everyone goes to the center of the village and lit the Christmas three. There will be music and singing and all the kids gets a bag with candy from Santa Clause. Then it is time for countdown for Christmas Eve….

I am ready to go…

…Journal my Christmas that is….

Ready for Christmas? No, not me. Still a lot to do here. I did start cleaning out my scraproom today, but I am not finished. I am not so sure I will be, but I can see my floor and there are some nice piles on my desk so I am getting there….I think…

I finally decided how I will be making my album. Since I never planned to join this class I have not bought anything in advance. Never been big on shopping for Christmas stash and I don`t plan on starting now. I had this American Craft 6 x 12 I planned to use for my 30 days Hath September project so I am putting that into use. I am getting low on card stock so I did mix some lighter colors.

I have this beautiful designs created by Kolette Hall, given to us in her Giving Well class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Since I don`t have any Christmas stash I printed her design on the top of the page. There were at lot more goodies in that class witch I will pull from during December.

Design - Kolette Hall

Tomorrow I will cut the AC paper into strips and I am ready to go. One thing left though, I haven`t decided how I am going to date the pages. I am planning to use the computer for writing so  I might just put the date on while writing.

I think this will make it easy for me to do this project. December is a very busy time for me at work, and I have more than one project to do before Christmas….If the prints I ordered almost two weeks ago ever arrives… Talking about work, I better hit the shower and take on my evening shift.

Journal your Christmas…

 

I am still cleaning…and the only room left is my workplace. Yes…that`s me, leaving the worst for last. But, I better start getting this room ready because I did join Shimelles online class; Journal your Christmas. Starting on December 1 – ending January 6. This is the third year she do this, and for many it is an ongoing project. I have not decided on what format  or how I will do this yet. With Stacy Julian`s; 30 days Hath September still fresh in my memory, I know it is hard to make one page every day. And this  goes on for 37 days. …12×12 ? I don`t think so…

But, I am really exited about this and I am ready to make time for it. Take a look and join us:

And I want to share this little cutie: He dressed himself to visit his grandma…

Krisitian dressed himself - ready to visit his grandma....

 

Not so happy being stopped in the door....

The good old days…

 

 

 

Lyngstad – May 17 ..early 60`s…

I was browsing Face book earlier this evening and I found this photo posted by an old friend of the family. Gunnar and my brother are seven years older than me and from my perspective Gunnar was always there when I grew up. The boys were always hanging out together.

The last time the family had Sunday dinner together we talked about this. I was trying to convince my brother and his wife how important it is, writing down their stories. Coming straight from Jessica Sprague’s class; Stories in hand, I was really burning about this. I know I am fighting a losing battle to get them to write anything, but that is not stopping me from trying.

We got to talk about the good old days. We talked about my brothers first job and how Gunnar’s father became his first boss. My brother started out as a TV repairman.  We all have clear memories about the first television, and we remember when my father came home with the color TV.

But, we had all forgotten those crazy years my brother worked in the TV business. The dishwasher, the car stereos, the video, the satellite, the video camera, the hairdryer….Man, there was an ongoing stream of newbie’s and we were right in the middle of it. And…we had forgotten all about how big this was for us. My dad had the best time in his life and I think Gunnar’s dad also had exiting days being responsible for getting this new fashion things into people’s home.

About the photo and the importance of it…I don’t have a photo of “the old road”. Nowadays the road is on the other side of the river.

Someone is ready for Christmas…

Yes...she is ready for the guests....

 Me ? No, I am not ready yet. Although I have been cleaning one more room.

….Instead of working hard – I take it easy. When I came home from work today I plugged in my TV. Have not done that in almost three years. I was starting to feel left behind. Not so much to see, but I did get some Christmas spirit. There is no way I can spend time watching the screen without doing something with my hands, so I made something totally useless…..

So...maybe I will find a bush to hang it on....

Sad moments…

…Poor baby…Tor Helge had to say goodbye to one more Golf today. Driving home from Trondheim to deliver his rental car and to empty the wreck of a Golf he crashed last weekend. To be young and poor is no fun.

... the end of a good relationship...

Okay, he will get over it. Since I am the only one walking into work –  he is back in Trondheim with my car. Since I don`t like driving and I don`t like owning a car at all, I am perfectly fine with that. I guess we have some fun time ahead of us. Both Tor and I need a new car. Tor is the lucky one that do not have an old car to sell. Selling old car is not good business this days. Buying second hand might be…I don`t think the men in my family are looking forward to dealing with me buying a car…

I have not been scrapbooking at all this weekend. Since I am working Saturdays, the weekends are over all to soon. After almost a week with rain, snow and storms we had a nice winter day…after it stopped snowing this morning. I have done some cleaning and I finished all my 48 pieces of crocheting.

There is only one week left – getting ready for Christmas.  I do not like to stress in December. Working in a super marked provides enough stress and I need to relax when I am home. Since I didn`t do that much today it means I am having a busy week ahead of me.

Photo book at Blurb.com…

I just had to try out Blurb.com. I did try almost a year ago, but that did not work out so good. My old computer worked to slow. I downloaded the program once more on my new PC and it worked so much better. The pages just popped up in no time.

This is so much fun. Jessica Sprague made a deal for her class “Stories in hand” at Blurb.com. We get a deal on one book ordered before December 5. That don`t give us much time, so I better work fast.

The best thing about this; the stories keep coming when I work on the book. Going trough month by month, little stories from my own childhood keeps coming.  This might be a nice and easy way of combining the past and today….

I did try and copy one page in to my blog but all I got was the front page. So this is all I got to show for myself.

Cleaning? No way, this was much to fun. I am saving the cleaning for another rainy day…..

A scrapbooking brake…

5 pieces done - 43 left to do......

Reading Stacy Julian`s blog last night almost made me decide to follow her advice : Eating healthy, no sugar, 30 minutes exercise every day and going to bed before 10…. I messed up at 6.30 am…and I hate going to bed before 10 pm. So..I guess I am no follower. Then again I don`t have Thanksgiving to think about.

I am taking a brake from my scrapbooking for a few days. I am trying to clean up the mess in my room, and do some cleaning before Christmas. Still following Jessica Sprague`s storytelling class. Trying to find a platform to keep my writing together. Maybe a private blog can be the answer….There is a lot of clever people in the class so I might get some ideas in the forum.

In the meantime I found my crocheting needle and some yearn. Maybe it can be something for the baby-doll cradle….

Family….

…I spent som time with my family this weekend. It was nice to meet the kids.

What is it about boys and cars?

 

                                             

                                            Okay…I was more like thinking about this kids….

 

Elin Marie and Kristian knows how to "play grandpa"...

 

                                                           

                ELIN JANNE