…and it is a grey and rainy day outside my window.  It doesn`t matter much does it? As long as the tree is in the house and most of the gift shopping is under control. I know that if I had to take the car out in the morning I would appreciate that all the snow were gone.  Although – I love to have snow  during Christmas:)

Elin and Kristian have been busy today. I got a report saying that the tree are  under control and the gingerbread house is in the works.

Kids are funny. Instead of walking around she goes down on her belly and crawl under the tree.

Me? I wrapped the last Advent gift.

I January I will start preparing for next Advent. I swear I will. This year I had to make the same gift for both of the kids. They are very aware about getting the same thing. He will not have anything to do with pink - she may love pink but not so girly. The problem is the third member of the clan. He will be one and a half next Christmas and have to be counted for. With two older siblings – will he want the same thing as they? Hm…

New Years Eve 2008. Kristian was fascinated with the fireworks, scared and fascinated. I had an accident when I scanned the layout and cut some edges short but it looks good in the album:) Still have some photos from last Christmas that need to go into the children’s album but I only work with this if I am inspired. These days inspiration hits more often than not.

I have also done some thinking about 2010. Three things for sure: I am taking  Aby Garvey`s “How to achieve your goals” class at Simplify 101. I made this decision long time ago. That class start January 5 and runs to March 2. I love Aby`s teaching and the support you receive on the message board. I`m looking forward to start that session.

I also signed up for Cathy Zielske`s “Design your life” at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I did this class the last time it run and I loved it. It`s the same class but I still have a lot to learn from Cathy. I highly recommend everyone to take this class. You will love Cathy`s teaching.

Third, I will work on my LOM system. There are still no sign up for this class at BPS but one of these days it will show up. Stacy Julian use to let you sign up for free the second time arround. I finished this class in the spring and I have my system up and working but I would like to spend some time on refining it.

And there is always time for the things I want to do

 …once again at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Registration starts today. If you are taking one class next year – this is the class!

 My pre-assignment page. I worked hard with this one. Following the posting in the gallery as the date for class to start came closer I could see all these great pages coming up. I had no idea what I was doing.

This is the one page I made that I like the most. Not sure why –  because now I can see all the mistakes I did. I have learned a lot about using the computer in the year between now and then. Very much to Cathy Zielske`s credit.

I am going back and forth about signing up. I probably will because I want to feel the buzz that CZ creates in her classes and I want to spend more time learning about colour and type – this time around.

I promise – you will not regret signing up for this class.  Design Your Life .

…at yesterday and today is so much more fun than I ever thought it would be. I have always loved the “old” photos but I had no idea how fun it would be to put them together with the new ones. This is one of the benefits of organizing my photos according to Stacy Julian`s LOM system. Mixing the photos from years back with the new ones creates a lot of stories. When collecting and organizing photos back in January and February I found 3 photos of my father working outside with his two-year old grandson. The photos are of bad quality and they are taken from the window.

Baby Jan was hyper active and was always busy helping out – or doing pranks. He kept his parents and his grandparents busy 24/7…

I have wanted to make a layout with these photos from back in 1981 ever since. Today I was inspired. One of Cathy Zielske`s skethes from Design Your Life was a perfect fit for this. I keep focusing on what Ali Edwards is teaching us in her class. Embrace the imperfection. The pics are blurry and you can`t see their faces but closing my eyes I can see them both clearly.

A proud grandfather and a happy little boy. Happy memories. But this would not have been much fun if it weren`t for the fact that looking through my storage binder from August 2009 I found this photo:

The photo is taken from the same window 28 years later. The little helper is now a grown man and he has his own little helper who is eager to help his dad.

As an alumni I will be invited to join Stacy Julian`s Library of Memories class starting in February 2010. I am so thankful for that. I did manage to implement most of her system but it need to be worked with. In fact it needs to be worked with all the time and I have been a slacker these last months. I have done good with printing and I have kept up with my storage albums. February will be just the right time to start pulling photos for my category drawers and emptying some binders.

November 5 Big Picture Scrapbooking opens registration for Cathy Zielske`s Design Your Life running in January, February and March 2010. Take a run for it. You will love this class. As an alumni I can sign up for half the prize. I want to but haven`t decided yet. It is the same class that run in 2008 but this time Cathy has implemented digital templates for all the sketches she is giving in class. This templates are worth the prize alone.

I was so inspired when I took this class that I spent too much time making layouts instead of learning, so it might be a good idea to do the class all over again. And CZ is fun!

…Since I knew I had a busy day I worked out todays page in my head this morning. Coming home from work and a late meeting it was so easy when I had Cathy Z`s design to work from. I love this designs because I can use them over and over again.  I am also saving Lain`s ideas for pages. The are really good when I need inspiration.

Thursdays are busy since that means new handouts in the BPS classes. The most important one this days is Wendy`s Get Organized  – Be Inspired. The upcoming Saturday is Super-Saturday. That means we get to completely empty our workspace. That is so scary. Not the emptying part…I have already given up on the things I want to get out of the house. But, will everything ever get in there again? I wish I had a plan to paint and get new furniture and…and…, but I don`t. So why empty the room? Good question. I will come back to that one.

At least I made my layout numero 5. ( Thanks to Cathy Z.)

She is too lazy to walk to the playground.

I have been looking through the photos from Jan and Linda`s  wedding last summer. This is the album you want to be perfect. That`s the thing about perfect; if you want it to be perfect it may not be done at all. So…I am looking at them…

I used some for the load – layout today. Just a fast and easy layout. They have to be when you have to create one everyday for 28 days .

The dance - load day 3.

Now – before getting to the dance – you have to practise. Grandparents and parents had a ball doing the teaching.

Yes...they did have fun...(Design your life - Cathy Zielske).

Practising is a good thing, because they did look good when the dancing counted…

Kristian seems to think there is more then one way of enjoying the ornaments, and who can blame him…

Looking tasty...

He just has to take a "bite"...

He is a cutie. Last Christmas he was to young to help decorating the tree at grandma and grandpa. Now he is ready to go – after having a little nap. And with help from a bossy big sister everything works out fine.

She is the boss...

Today the whole family met here in Bud to have dinner at “Bryggja i Bud”. The restaurant is located in a seahouse in the harbour and they have mostly dishes made of fish. It was very tasty, and we were happy that Helga and Marthe joined us for this delicious meal.

I also made one more layout for my Design your Life class. I am a little behind in that class, but nothing to worry about. There is only one week left and it`s like I need to make it last for as long as possible. Now there is only one week left before the big shopping race starts. That means I have one week left to prepare for Christmas. This might be a busy week. ( Busy is good)

Elin Marie - helping grandma in the garden. Sketch - Cathy Zielske.

I got so exited about Kolette Hall posting the Pre Work projects for the class at BPS tonight that I almost forgot blogging. The albums, the templates are so beautiful. I can`t wait to get started. Sometimes it is difficult to find all the products needed. I know we can substitute, but it is nice to have the products found on the supply list. And Kolette, being the great designer she is, creates beautiful things with them.

I did work on this weeks sketches for the DYL class, both of them. Almost finished the first one and I picked the photos for the second. Then my printer stopped cooperating. So this is just a little sneak peak.

Sketch - Cathy Zielske - Design your life - BPS

I had problems deciding how to match this wedding photos with card-stock. I better sleep on this big decision:)

…but, there was a moment there when I wasn`t sure. I have not been out and looked over the place yet. It did sound like there was something moving around last night. Hopefully it was nothing important. I woke up early this morning and I did one more attempt on Cathy`s sketch. I could not decide what paper to use so I decided to go with the cardstock.

Sketch - Cathy Zielske - Design Your Life

 I better hit the shower. I am on my way home to Lyngstad  to get the car ready for the winter. Always have to do that in the last minute. Jan has offered to change my tires today and I have a dinner invitation at my brothers house. I haven`t seen the kiddies for almost a month, and Jan tells me Kristian is becoming quite a talker now.

…and then it is back to wintertime. I have been waiting for that extra hour sleep. Last week – I could have spent in bed - sleeping. I am not complaining because I am not allowed to complain. I am just stating the fact that I am tired. We have had bad weather through out October, and now we are waiting for another storm to hit. I saw this photo in facebook today, and it shows how it feels in this part of the world right now

Foto: Per Harald Kvalvik

A good thing there is heat in my room and that Cathy Zielske keep uploading her great sketches to get me going. In one of those honest moments I have to admit that I destroyed five photos today – cutting the wrong size, but who cares about that. I finally managed to get my page done.

Kristian -tasting something else than breast feeding for the first time.

 I did regret the birds, but they do look a little cute in real life. At least our baby boy is cute. Okay, I am going to bed because I do not have the nerves to stay up in this wind….

I spent some time reading up on some blogs I like to follow. It never stops to amaze me how many creative and smart people there is in the world. I can spend hours reading. Just wish I had it in me to follow up on all the ideas this is giving me. But rather than doing something, I seem to consume the ideas and forget all about it. And I move on….

I have been reading up on Jason Hall`s blog today. He is an excellent storyteller and he always has a deeper meaning with his story and in the end he has a word of advice. The best thing about it, I get what he is saying. That does not mean I am capable of follow up on his advice but sometimes during the day I can hear his voice in the back of my head.

Jason Hall was teaching along his wife Kolette in the Big Picture Scrapbooking class; the art of becoming more…, earlier this year. So when I say I can hear his voice, I really can. Coming January 1Th the two of them start a new class that will run through the whole year. I think this will be an amazing journey for everyone joining them.

You can see the class here: A life well crafted at BPS….and go read Jason Hall`s blog.

And then there is some scrapbooking. I finished the second assignment for week 3 – DYL.

Sketch: Cathy Zielske - Design Your Life.

 Great grandma Karen is tutoring baby Kristian in the art of drawing.