All work and no play..

Makes me a little stressed...!

This month has gone by so quickly I'm not even sure of what I have done. I know that the first weekend of April I went to Olavsgaard for the annual meeting in NQF (I went with Quiltoholic and met my mom), so not much done that weekend. The weekend after our parents (both mine and BF's) came to celebrate my birthday in advance - so besides baking cakes there wasn't much time for other things that weekend either. Then the weekend after we spent outside in the sun (this year's first icecream outside in the sun!). And now, suddenly, it's the last weekend in April, and I have a TON of things I need to do. I'm writing a list of things I need to do either this weekend or some time during next week, and I think that tonight might be a late one for me..

I have to finish sewing three swap-patches for the swap arranged by Hobbyboden (a forum I'm a member of) - this shouldn't have to take too long, but a couple of hours, yes... I'm planning to mail them tomorrow, to make sure that they arrive in good time for the 1st of May. I haven't received any myself - I've got two coming I guess - but maybe that's a minor punishment for not exactly being on time with my own patches.. I hope not.. I really didn't plan to put these ones on hold for almost the entire month, it's just been too much to juggle lately.

I have to go through my warderobe and empty it a little.. I have too many cute and funny t-shirts I don't use anymore, but I don't want to throw them away. So I figured I could cut out the print, stabilize it and save it for a project later (maybe make a scrap quilt for a baby or just something to "use up"). That way I won't exactly throw them away, but keep them and do something better with them then keeping them in a drawer (a very full drawer, btw, I haven't been able to close it all winter..).

What more.. Oh yes, I promised both my ratties and my friend Heidi's rat boys that I'd make new hammocks for them. :) They need new ones - my ratties' favorite hammocks barely holds one of them now, and barely hangs by a thread or two.. The hammock is basically completely worn out, washed out and chewed up!

I sometimes wish we had a room where we could keep like computors and all our crafty things. Both BF and I like to keep our hands busy, and so we have quite a few books, stacks of materials, inspiration things, and, well, stuff in general, and right now all of this have been spread out around our little flat (about 56-60 m2, so not that big) - mostly in the living room and in the kitchen. I miss having a proper basement, but our space down there is very moisty and not particulary handy for storing things besides cardboard boxes and empty suitcases.. I never go down there either - I'm afraid I might get an allergic reaction to all the moist and mouldy stuff that's down there. I heard they're looking for the baddest room in Norway right now, for this interior design program, and we've been toying with the idea of sending in a picture of our basement (but, hey, I don't think they can do much with a 100 year old moist basement?). I sometimes wish we could move to a place that was a little bit bigger (like having an extra room for our computors/crafty stuff) and a proper storage room/basement) but I don't think that'll happen until we decide to buy our own place (which brings forth conflicts regarding where we'd like to live) or if there's ever kids involved (here we agree, none of us wants our potential kids to grow up in Oslo - we're both from small towns and I think that's what we'd want for our kids too). But it would've been nice to have something that was "ours" - which we could fix up, paint and, well, feel actually belongs to us (as a difference to renting, which we do now).

I don't think there'll be any pictures in this post (sorry...) but there has been a little touch of progress in the creative department. ;) I've finished block three on Truly Scrump. and have prepared the fourth (I really like this one, can't wait to see it finished, but I'm not rushing). I've also completed all the blocks for the block of the month-thing I'm doing with my mom and a couple of her friends (the "Annie's Calendar Quilt"), so now I need to find fabrics/colors for the borders (I'm thinking either green or brown, matching some of the colors used in the stitcheries).

I mended BF's winter coat the other day! (It took about 5 minutes, but, hey, it's something.) ;)

Next in line for the projects to be completed before the summer vacation is a small bag to carry a water bottle in. Quiltoholic bought a pattern at Olavsgaard/the NQF meeting from Japan, and it's so incredible cute! And practical. ;) We're going to France for 11 days, so if any of you have any good ideas of what we should see or do when in Paris or Nice, let me know. :) I've already plotted in a couple of things that we'd like to see, and we're trying to decide wether to go to the Mouline Rouge or not (we really want to, but it's soooo expensive - almost as much as our plane tickets..) for a dinner/show.

What else is new.. Well, I've joined a quiz-team! :) Every Thursday night for the past three weeks I've met a group of great and fun people in a bar up at Sogn (a part of Oslo with literally tons of students). Now the group has been together for years (I think..) but they needed another member and I was asked (by one of the guys I kinda know) if I wanted to join them one evening. After that night I guess I was adopted (while saying goodnight I got a "See you next week" from the boys so I guess I made a good impression). :) Next Thursday is actually a National Holiday here in Norway, but there will still be a quiz. I checked the total results so far this year yesterday, and my team is in 6th place this year. Not bad, really - I think there are about 20 teams all in all (but not all of them join in the game every week). Yesterday we ended up on a shared 3rd place again for this weeks match (as we did last week, the week before we came in second).

I went to see my doctor on Wednesday, got another dose of B12-vitamin, and took some tests. Will be interesting to see the results - she'll call me when they get in. So far the only one who's called me today, was a phone salesman. *duh* I'm getting so sick of them..

I have to finish my "to do"-list - and see what I can get done tonight and this weekend. Next week - hopefully - will give me some time to get some work done _at work_ - instead of spending all my time in meetings (like the two last weeks). Overtime and meetings.. once in a while, yea sure, that's ok, but every day for several weeks? Seriously, I have better things to do - like actually working on my projects (I call them mine, they're my babies, but actually there are up to 100 persons in this company working on them).

Oh well, back to the list.

Busy weekend

This has been a really busy weekend for me - and not much time for either sewing or relaxing. Oh well, better luck next weekend, I guess. :)

On Friday my BF and I went to a pub called Garage here in Oslo (a really tiny place, but with a stage in the basement). A friend of my BF plays in a couple of bands, and one of them were having a release party that night. So of course we had to go and give our support. ;) The guys were really good - and so were the two bands warming up for them. It didn't really make my wish to learn how to play the guitar or the bass any less, so maybe I'll have to do something about it one day..

This weekend - as you've probably read on several other blogs from Norway - the NQF (Norwegian Quilt Association) held it's annual meeting, and on Saturday Quiltoholic and I decided to go and meet up with my mom and a couple of her friends. We had a really great day - lots of shopping (both real shopping and shopping with our minds.. much cheaper I must say ;p) and I think we got so many ideas our heads more or less hurt by the end of the day (my legs were definetly hurting). I'm going to make a new post about Saturday when all the impressions have calmed down a little. I feel very tired at the moment, having been to work all day, and not really having much quiet time this weekend.

In addition to having a really active social life at the moment, the swap I joined on this forum has reached the middle mark (or something..) as I have now received 4 of the 8 blocks I'm going to received (the 9th I'm making my self). I originally asked for blocks in brown or blue, but added that a little purple would be nice too (and I see now that only the first block is brown, the rest are actually purple.. a challenge, and I have to change my idea now I think.. never good to plan too far ahead, when one doesn't really know what might come). But don't get me wrong, the blocks are gorgeous - just not what I first expected. :)


Here they are, all 4 of them. The brown one was made by Brasl, the one with the heart by Kuriosa, the striped one came from Madir, and the last one from Rutha.

I can't wait to see the last four. :)