Get Organized for the Holidays…

…Yes, it is that time of the year again. I am not big on Christmas, but I love the happy memories from my childhood. I am old enough to remember a childhood without a proper bathroom. On the evening December 23 it was time for baths. As the youngest one I was first to go.  The kitchen was warm and the fire was burning. Even as a little girl you could feel the stress from the adults.  In the middle of the buzz of Christmas preparation, I was the first one to crawl into this:

After the bath it was bedtime. Trying to sleep with all the butterflies in my stomach. The anticipation of the gifts Santa would bring in the evening December 24. Downstairs they were busy getting ready for the celebrations. There were few traces of Christmas when I went to bed. The tree and the decorations were put out on display after our bedtime. Then it was time for the adults to have their bath. I had no idea at the time – but I guess that was an enjoyable affair…Waking up in the morning – and it was Christmas. Never understood how my mother did that.

I may not be big on Christmas but I love the month of December and I try my very best to be ready for Christmas before December 1. As I see it I have two choices; Be ready by December 1 or skip the whole thing. It works well both ways.

This year I am joining Aby Garvey at Simplify 101 and her class Get Organized for the Holidays. I can`t think of a more enjoyable company getting ready for Christmas. Her skillful guidance and the supportive community on the board will make the road towards Christmas peaceful and fun. I am already signed up, but  Cathy Zielske has a give away spot in her blog today. All you have to do is give a comment and you are entered into the draw. Still a few hours left before the drawing.

 

Today I celebrate the end of October.

 

I finished my 31 layout for the Load October Challenge. The weather is good. Everyone in the family are in good health. We all have jobs. I have the weekend off and I have so much to look forward to in November.

 

Design Cathy Zielske. Paper Michelle Underwood.

 

Life is good. Welcome November.

 

 

 

Today I learned…

…yes, I can hear Eddie Skoller sing; “What did you learn at school today” – loud and clear. But, now I know that saving the PSD files of the digital layouts is a smart thing. I have been printing the digital layouts I made during the Load Challenge. When you are about to print the layout you can see all the things you should have done differently and you see all the mistakes. How easy it would have been to be able to go back and change this before printing if I have had the PSD file. I did have a few and that made printing so much easier. I could chose how I would like to print. Bits and pieces or the whole layout.

 

At least I feel good about having all 30 layouts printed and ready for albums.

 

We are almost at the end of October. Here is the second last layout for the Load Challenge:

 

Design: Cathy Zielske. Paper: Michelle Martin – Ethan.

 

All my layouts printed. One layout left to do. Almost finished cleaning the house. Up to date with the laundry. Yes – I would say October has been a good month. And I have the weekend off – for the first time in 2009. What more can a girl want?

But, first I have to work the Friday evening shift. I can do that!

Day 29 – Load October 09

 

Day 29 – Load October 09, originally uploaded by elinjanne.

Just a quick page for the Load Challenge before going back to do one more shift at work.

The talk of the day…

 

…Yes - svineflue. Why are so many dying from it here in Norway compared to Sweden, Denmark and Finland? A few days ago most of us didn`t want to take the vaccine – today people are lining up all over to fight over the few doses that have arrived the country. It is still weeks before I have to decide since I belong to the group that will get the shot last. I am glad I don`t have to decide on behalf of the children.

 

 

 We have had a beautiful fall day.

We deserve that after 2 months with rain.

Hopefully there will be a few days more.

…before the snow…

 

 

 

Dinner…I had this for the fourth day in a row. 

My brother made this on Sunday.

And I am eating it for the fourth day in a row.

I love my brother.                                                                                                          

 

 

All week…

something has been wrong.

Silence in the morning.

Just wrong.

This morning it hit home.

The bakery across the street

closed the doors Saturday.

 

 

 

Today`s digital page for the Load challenge:

 

 

 

I made the template myself. Pretty sure the design is something I have seen in some blog or gallery. I never download or bookmark layouts to lift later. I love to lift a good design if something inspires me but it to be there and then. This is a simple and “flat” page – but I love it!

Three more days to go with the Load October challenge. Can`t wait for February 2010…

New blog header?

 

…I used to change the header with the season or whatever fancied me at the time. To things happened today. I am doing a class about blogging and I received an e-mail from Jessica Sprague about a tutorial showing how to make a blogheader using collages and brushes. So I had to try. The problem is the usual one – I am a slow learner…

 

 

 

I guess something went wrong because it did not turn out the way I planned. Well, that`s me – the slow learner. Looking at it now I can see what`s wrong and one of these days I will try again:)

 

Today`s challenge from Lain Ehmann and Tami Morrison for the Load layout was to make a page using only cardstock.

 

 

Template – Jen Martakis.   Paper – Ali Edwards.

Not only am I a slow learner but I am also messing with this sweet baby`s age. I could pretend I didn`t notice but I am sure someone close to me will point it out for me. So – yes – I did mess up with the numbers again.

Influence…

 

…We just realised that Jan and Linda are done having babies. That means that it`s time to put some pressure on Tor and Marita. It may not be a nice thing to do but we will do it anyway. Now – a part of this plan is to gather all the baby gear to let them see that they don`t need to buy anything. Elin Marie love to help:

 

 

This girl is ready for more cousins:

 

 

 

She also agree that it is time for uncle Tor to have babies and she promise to help out. In fact, she spent  hours yesterday taking care of her doll and Kristian was helping:

 

 

 It is time for this family to expand. Only – Marita comes from a family with twins…What about triplets? Let`s see if there is room for triplets…

 

 

 Yes! We can do this!

 

 

Okay – maybe we need more practice? But, practicing on the real thing is so much more fun!

Blogging for scrapbookers…

 

…

 

…I am not sure if I joined this class because I want to learn more about blogging. Shimelle being the teacher may be the main reason why I signed up. It`s always a joy to do her classes and learning the secrets of blogging may come in handy. Why do I get the feeling that I once again have made an overcommitment ? Anyway – it`s still time to join in on Shimelle`s class. This upcoming week is mostly about how to set up a blog. We are not getting serious before November 2.

 

I made today`s Load layout early this morning. Still playing around – scanning old photos. Found this cute one of my youngest nephew from around 1987.  I used a template from Ali Edwards. No words necessary here…

 

 

I have spent most of the Sunday with my family. Came home with a lot of great photos of the youngsters. Most of the time they are so sweet and cute. Although they can be very frustrated when grandpa don`t know the songs they have learnt in kindergarten. Elin knows all the songs and she is a good singer. Little Kristian also knows his words and sings along. Now if only grandpa could update his play list…

 

 

Grandpa wants to play the songs he sang at their age or the songs Elin taught him two years ago. That wont do it for these two. Maybe it is time for Elin Marie to learn how to play the piano herself?

 

 

We had to pay Kristian with chocolate to sit down for a photo shoot. His big sister is much easier to “handle”….

Powernaps…

 

…they call it…

 

 

…but it`s more like rolling over and give up. I woke up way to early this morning. Three hours sleep is not enough even for me. I had so much I wanted to do when I came home but there were no energy left after six days of work and to little sleep.

At Stacy Julian.com I found a new colour inspiration I wanted to try.

I am not good with colours but for some reason I love Stacy`s colour inspirations. The digi template is made by Karen Cole and is a download from Shimelle.com. The paper are made by Carina Gardner and is a free download from 2Peas.

The journaling is me raving about the feeling of exhaustion after working six days a week. Sometime soon I have to stop doing that. Tonight I am most grateful for the extra hour of sleep we get in the upcoming night because we move from summertime to wintertime this weekend. For that I am thankful.

Three women – three lives…

 

 

 

My grandmother had a husband, four children and a farm. She was hard-working.

My mother had a husband, two children and a farm. She was hard-working.

Me? No husband, no children and no farm. I used to be hard-working.

Three generation of women – what do we have in common? The love for making things with our hands. The written word. The ability to enjoy the moment – to enjoy our own company. Faith.

All of this made me think about how I  spend my time. Never in my life I have had more time to spend. I am not one of those women running around screaming about lack of time I have time to spend. I have the same amount of time to spend as everyone else, 1440 minutes a day. After 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of work – you still got 480 minutes left. Or, if you are like me – sleeping 6 hours – you got 600 minutes left to spend on what ever you like.

I am joining Karen Grunberg at Big Picture Scrapbooking  in December for her class Reclaiming my time. This class have recess during Christmas and is picking up again in January. The message board will stay active through out 2010.

 

 

Talking about time. We have one week left of the Load October Challenge. It is time to reclaim order in my home. At some point during a load challenge things start to slip. Like housework. Not my favourite thing to do anyway. But – it is a beautiful fall day. I am working the evening shift. And tomorrow is the last day before turning back the clocks to wintertime. It is time do put things in order. To get ready for November challenges.

Happy weekend!

Yesterday & Today…

 

…There are many great teachers at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

I knew I was in for a treat when I signed up for Ali Edwards class. Of course it would be a great class – it is Ali E. Just like Cathy Zielske`s classes I expected it to be pro. And it was. It is better than great. Do you want to know what the best part is? We are only in week 4 and we have 8 weeks to go.

I have to admit that I had my doubts about how much content she could spread out on 12 weeks. When you start out with an almost one hour-long video presentation in week one… one more hour in week two…and follow up with one more in week three…surly she couldn`t dig up more content for week 4? She could. Boy! She could.

This class will not produce an album for me. I have not made my list of 12 stories. But I love what she is teaching me and she is inspiring me to tell stories. She inspires me to tell my story as I remember it and she says that it is okay to put my feelings into the mix. Just tell the truth as I know it.

 

 

 

This is my childhood home. I moved out in 1979 when my brother moved back in with his family. It was not okay to be asked to remove my last belongings from my room around 1985 because my brother needed the space. Hey – that was my room. My last connection. It took a long time before I was totally okay with that. About the truth…  My mother`s plans for transferring the house to my brother and his wife back in 1996 did not make me happy. It took some time to be okay with the fact  that my childhood home was not my home anymore.

I never really lost my childhood home since I have always felt welcome in my brother`s home. We grow and move forward, and I was totally okay when my brother told me that the house was too big for the two of them and they wanted to put it out on the market.

Still – I have to admit that I cried happy tears when I was told that my nephew wanted to make the house his home. His three children will be the fifth generation living there and that makes me feel really good.