Sunday adventures…

…Elin and Kristian was invited to join grandma and grandpa for breakfast when they woke up Sunday morning.

These two belongs to grandma`s Sunday morning breakfast club and they would arrive with or without an invitation. But – today they were invited. They were invited to go along on a fieldtrip.

Life as a grandparent is a challenge. At least it is when you work full-time and also want to be a full-time grandparent. I think that  issuing an invite brings out the best behaviour in the kids.

And one more thing – food and hot chocolate to drink. Also a good choice.

Design – Cathy Zielske. Embellish – feistuff embrace.

Monday – it`s take-off for Shimelle`s new class : Blogging for scrapbookers. Looking forward to that. If I only could solve the mystery of blogging on WordPress using my own domain. The more I read and try the more mysterious it gets. I have almost given up. But, it is no big deal. I am happy blogging anyway.

And don`t forget to sign up for Jessica Sprague`s free class today. I will be doing my Christmas journal with Shimelle but JS always has something really good to offer and I do not want to miss out on that.

Halloween…

…my mother loved it when Halloween came to “town”. I think she enjoyed it more than the kids did and she was always prepared when the little ones knocked on the door. This custom is new in Norway and not everyone like it. I can understand that parents get pissed when the monster kids wake up their sleeping children and I surly understand the frustration when they find their house smeared with raw eggs in the cold weather. We may have adopted this american custom but we forgot to learn the rules. 

Me? I love Halloween. The fall colours, the pumpkins and the kids having fun. I am so happy that the kids got a taste of the fun.

 

Template – Cathy Zielske. Paper – The Sei Company.

I bet someone was scared under those masks.

 

Have you made plans for your Christmas Album. There are many options to consider. Shimelle does her Christmas journaling class in December. Loved doing that last Christmas. Ali Edwards have set up a flicr group. I will join  Jessica Sprague`s free class. Registration starts Monday.

 

 

I haven`t decided yet how I want to do my album. Last year I premade a 6 x 12 AC album and that worked well for me. You can see the album her: Christmas album 2008.  The only thing I am sure of is that I will love getting Shimelle`s prompt in my mail every morning and I can`t wait to get started.

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.

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.

The second time we met…

 

…back in 1983 – you reach out to your grandfather and called him mother. You were the sweetest baby boy I have ever met and you and your grandfather was the best of friends.

 

 

 Before you could walk you came downstairs early in the morning. Hours before the rest of the family was up – you two had breakfast together, and together you were building boats.

 

 

In 1986 my boat was finished and already you made plans for how you could make it yours…

 

 

Now – you are still sweet…but the real reason I am walking down the memory lane is because you bought your first home yesterday and I just want to tell you that I am proud of you – as your grandfather would have been. The best of luck with your new home.

 

Since it is October and the Load challenge is still going strong I  had to make a layout. Digital today. Free download from Shimelle.com.

 

 

I am easy to entertain so I was tempted to do a test at Ophra.com.

“When you feel threatened, or others refuse to go along with your agenda, you can become confrontational and domineering, sometimes to the point of being dictatorial.”

Not so sure I liked the conclusion…

Prizes…

 

…Lain Ehmann knows how to give away prizes. Everyone who uploaded a digital layout on Friday won a free download from Pixel Gypsy designs . It is hard to say no thank you to a free download, even if I try to. Mixed up with yesterday`s cute photos of Kristian and Cathy Zielske`s template number 2:

  

 

Kristian wanted to go home after dinner. He had no time to waste. He wanted to go home with his daddy. Because his daddy had promised him that he could help him working outside. At two – he is already eager to spend time with his dad.

I had no inspiration when I started working on today`s layout for Load. We are half way there and the energy level is hitting rock bottom. I surfed for inspiration and found a sketch at Ella Publishing. It is a page call, so you might want to start working on it. It is one of my favourites. I made mine with only cardstock – a first time for me. The scanner killed it but it looks good in real life.

 

 

Tomorrow is the big dayat Ella. They are publishing their new e-book written by Lain Ehmann and Stacy Julian. Can`t wait to read that e-book. With the two of them together it is bound to be a lot of happy and colourful content.

The colours of fall…

…I love everything about fall. The colours, the feeling of starting fresh, the smell of crisp air…only, this fall is not like any normal fall. Summer ended the first week in August and it has been all rain and storm ever since. Now winter is peaking around the corner and I think we missed out on the fall season. Except today. Today we have had a beautiful day even if I spend most of it at work.

I was playing with Stacy Julian`s colour inspiration using photos I took when I came home this afternoon. Using Jessica Sprague`s template. The final result is not what I planned it to be. Not at all. But, sometime you have to go with the flow…

 

Today`s Load layout is about nephew Tor. I found these two photos from the last weekend in August and I realized that he is an adult. I have treated him as a grown up for years, but he is an adult man now – starting his own family. It is time to dig out those cute baby photos and make some cute and funny layouts

 

 

Oh, I have a lot of cute pics of this guy…

Sunday morning…

…at least it was when I climbed out of bed. Knowing that this is the last day of my rather short vacation week, forced me out of bed early. Because this is the day to do everything I had on my to do list when the week started. I am just saying – it is a long list.

I made my layout for the Load challenge early yesterday:

No baby colours for baby Tor Magnus. He will be the youngest of three siblings and I decided he needed strong colours.

A good thing I made my layout early because my brother came to help putting together my Expedit. Thanks to his wife we managed to get it right. I am very proud of myself for doing the drawers all by myself.

I did clean and organize my room last night, but I still have some organizing left to do. Even with a lot of new shelving there is still not enough space. But, the most important thing is to know where to find what I need,and easy access to my storage albums and category drawers.

Kristian and his dad came to see us on their way home from the doctor. Young Kristian had an unpleasant meeting with a table and needed some stitching.

He was a trooper about it all. At least he was doing fine after digging into my chocolate stash…If he is anything like his dad, this will not be the last time he needs stitches.

I had to document the first stitches, and since Designer digital launched Cathy Zielske`s first layered templates today I just had to buy that one. I did try to resist, but I am weak when it comes to CZ`s design.

Template – Cathy Zielske. Paper – Bohemian kit, Mindy Terasawa.

Loved working with this template. Changing the Here & Now title to the Norwegian Her & Nå probebly would be the right thing to do but it did not look so good…:) And Here & Now is pretty universal and understood by everyone.

At last – todays Load layout. Yes I am early. You know – the to do list is next.

Snapshots from the window. I have had those photos on my desk for some time now. They are not the best shots, but they do tell a story. She may consider her self to be a good doll mother, but getting the mail is more important. She is a persistent young girl – I will giver her that…

Now – the to do list…

A proposal…

 

…it was supposed to be an ordinary cold and rainy Saturday. Then the good news hit home. This brave girl had the guts to ask this boy to marry her. And the way she did it is so cute. The boy was delivered this cake at work yesterday:

 And as the wise boy he is – he said yes. Good boy.

A good decision. Now – she is also a lucky girl because he is the kindest boy I know. I have to say that since he spent his day off – in line – at Ikea for me today. Thank you Tor Helge! You are the sweetest.

I was up early this morning going into work. Then it was home making today`s Load layout. I found this really cute layout to lift at this blog made by a girl named Sheri Reguly. Never heard of her but her layout is really cute. Here is mine:

Now I am going to browse  the Load gallery at Flickr before I take an early night. I can feel that I was up at 5 am this morning…Again, congratulations to the cute couple.  I have already made a saving plan for the wedding gift.

On a countdown for weekend…

…and one more rainy day. It never seem to stop raining. I still have the Friday evening shift and the early Saturday morning shift to work before it is weekend. Since I am working this evening I had to make my Load page early – before Lain`s prompt came into my mailbox, so I browsed the internet for inspiration.

On Stacy Julian`s new blog I found a colour inspiration and a journaling challenge. Writing a story about my kind grandmother who died in 1976 is high on my list but I am saving them for Ali`s class. Looking through my category drawer looking for photos I found one of my grandmother Elen and one of my great niece Elin. Both taken outside – both dressed in the same colours. The little girl has this sassy look in her face. Clearly ment for her own grandmother. So this turned out to be a friendly reminder that kind grandmothers deserves kind grandchildren.

Day 2 – Load October 09

 

The template is a download from The daily digi – Janet Phillips. The green paper is from Designer Creashens – Sprung digi kit. The blue paper is Anna Aspnes. And the rubons is made by Michelle Martin – Designer Digitals.com.