…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

Some get lost at Mount Everest. Me – I am taking the risk of entering my own home..

I am happy here, but I do wish the owner of the building would  pay attention to the fact that the building is falling apart.

I love Monday mornings. A brand new week and a fresh start….even if I was pissed when I found out that the man that was supposed to inspect the building I am living in was here Friday without me knowing. All he had done was taking pictures on the outside. I could have done that….actually, I did…

So...maybe he didn`t have to come inside to look.....

 So to brighten my day I have to show some pink. I just keep doing Cathy’s sketches. They are so easy to work with and I like how they turn out. Here is one with a photo of baby Elin from summer 2006. I love these strawberries-photos, and I am using them over and over. Maybe it is time to get some more prints. If I keep up I have to start working with the wedding photos. I have planned to save them until I have finished this class. I might learn some more in the 12 weeks to come.

Our strawberrie girl from the summer of 2006.

When I came out at 7 am this morning, the fog had made a takeover.

That happens a lot this time of the year. I can not remember there has been fog earlier this summer, but my short time memory is not what it once was. I hope the sun is shining again tomorrow.  I have made a layout tonight. It suddenly came to me that I should check the last day for uploading the pages for the challenge I am doing at Scrapping.no. I was so sure the date was the 31. It was the 30^Th. I only had one layout out of ten left, so I finished the last one. It is too dark to take the photo tonight so I will do that tomorrow. I hope I don’t forget.

For now, here is my card number 22 in my technique class:

card 22

I am substituting a lot in this class. Instead of spray paint I mixed acrylic and a little water. It worked – almost. Not perfect, but I got my card done.

 Hulvågbroen…

IMG_6180, originally uploaded by thelge2.

I stole this photo from Tor Helges flicre account. He has turned into a camera freak and I love that fact. One of this days he got to take his old aunt out on a photo safari. Maybe if I am paying enough…..

I made my card numero 19 today. Tena Spenger showed us how to make our own transparencies. A good thing to know. I bought a pack of sheets going in to this class, and I never would have thougt about doing this. I am in “the mood” to night and focused on kissing….

Jan and Linda – kissing during their first dance as husband and wife.

I have stayed out of the funny department  today, and I had a good day. I need to think more about this class before going in again. The weather is still bad and there is no summer to see out there.

…Stacy Julian added this project as a bonus to the Have more FUN class. I just had to order one from Amazon. I have been reading about this fun project before and was kind of intrigued with the whole thing. When it arrived today….well, I am not so sure anymore. Where is the fun in dragging a book in the mud? Or, how about slipping it into the bathtub? Every page has some stupid idea of what to do. OK, that is me – completely without humour. I am not worried, I will find someway to use it. I just haven’t decided if I want to join this crazy bunch of people wrecking their journal….

I started out carfully by putting it outside in wet grass for just a little moment.:)

I made one of the cards for my 52 card pick up class today. We made mosaic of paper scraps on contact paper. That was fun. Don’t think I will be doing much of that with the price of the contact paper. That was expensive, but fun to work with.

I have been working with the photos from the wedding today. It took forever to upload from the computer. I need to order some prints to work with. And I can not decide what pictures to use for the album without seeing them on print.  I will try again early tomorrow. It might have been a lot of traffic on the line.

I have a slight cold so I have been sleeping this afternoon. That is what you get, running around with little cloth – during late hours….

guess who`s happy about that? One more day of doing just what I want to do. I have been reading up on the last instalment in the BPS classroom and I have made two pages. The first one is from father’s day last November. Baby Elin is allowed to play with her grandfather’s collection of old coins. That is a little tricky when her little brother is crawling and wants to play. She probably told him off because he looks a little shocked.

Let me see if I can find a photo of her on my computer…. See, he better be carefull…

Baby Elin has a great voice and she loves to sing – she takes after her mother….Even at her young age she remember all the words. This next page is of grandpa and the kids singing. OK, so maybe Kristian is not so eager yet – and he might take after his father and grandfather. Then it will not be pretty….

In the Bakers Dozen class Stacie Julian gave us a cool challenge today. She gave a tool to how we could show our appreciation of our extended family. I did not feel that she was pointing at me. My extended family is my family, so I guess I have to move further down the line of family. But, I could see her point.

Really, it is easy to forget to document your sibling’s story and what they mean to you.

I also spent some time surfing the internet and came across a lesson taught by Adrienna Lomax; on how to use the PS. It is really embarrassing to admit that I used 30 min to find the program on my computer. I almost gave up, even if I knew it was there. When I finally was able to open the program I loaded a self portrait from Monday and started with that. Just remember I only did lesson one.

…and the rain is pouring down. That is okay; I have a solarium downstairs so I don’t have to waist time hanging around on the beach. Since it is vacation time I joined a new class at BPS called; A Bakers Dozen. We have been given a list of stash to collect to fill an egg carton. First of all I didn’t have an egg carton. Second I didn’t have much of the stash. I lacked a simple thing like a paper binder. And what grown up with no children has crayons? Not me. So there are a lot of improvised products in my nests. It is going to fun to see which picture is going with what stash.

So, here is my collected stash;

To tell the truth I would have given up if it hadn’t been for the contract I signed with Darci.

Now I have to wait until the morning to see what we are creating with this stuff.

“Spell your secrets out, and cover them over in masking tape and paint.

Whisper your fears onto a piece of paper and lock them away in an envelope.

Paint around your insecurities and make them seem pretty and manageable.

These pages are places that will keep your heart safe from the critics. Nobody has to see these pages but you. But I bet you will feel better for writing something. “

Rhian Cooksey Quinton.

I like this girl. And I like this idea; to put your thoughts on paper and lock them in with paper and paint. I took one piece of paper and wrote down my hurt feelings and another one and wrote all and nothing.  And I covered them, putting them away forever…

Well, that was the last pages for now. I have enjoyed myself and now I know where to get the Gesso. I will need that because I loved to make these pages. Next, I will be diving in to the bargain bins looking for cheap fabric.

I started out cleaning my apartment. That is not my favourite thing to do so I easily let my self slip in to do something else. Did not get to do much more than watering my “cactus farm”, when the cactus is dying, you know you are in trouble.

Next weekend Bud is celebrating our great trail that goes along the coastline and around the village. A lot of people have been working hard to make a good program for those who want to visit Bud that weekend. When I was young (a long time ago) Bud had great festivals. Some years ago that came to an end. Organising events like that takes a lot of work and I guess people got tired in the end.

This event is focusing on the trial along the coast. It is not so much about show and sale. It is more about nature and people, music and exercise. Planning for this while cleaning this morning, it suddenly downed on me that a lot of people will be visiting Bud next weekend. So, maybe I need to do a clean up outside? The building I live in is placed in the village centre and a lot of people will be walking by.

How to motivate for that? I don’t like gardening at all. I made a mini album. One piece of smooth carton, one piece of basic grey scarlet letter and two pieces of cardstock and in the end I will use the bind it all. I hope this will help me to focus to get the work done.