It's the week before the crazy hits

Although the shops and city centres have already been hit by the crazy wave of decoration, we - or I - have not. Not yet, anyway. 

The closest thing to Christmas decoration that has hit our house so far, is me torturing the rest of the house by playing the 24/7 Christmas radio (they started broadcasting about a month ago - but why oh why is there no such thing as a Halloween radio?) - and this little lantern I test-painted before last weeks scouts meeting.

This used to be a jar of taco sauce (salsa), but is now transformed to a lantern with Christmas motifs (a braided heart on one side, and mistletoe on the other side). I tried using a regular candle inside, but the opening is rather small, so a battery operated light works almost better.

The boys (scouts, they're all boys this year) loved the idea - and I had the pleasure of having 5 boys paint their own lanterns last Wednesday. Next week the remaining 14 will have their turn. I hope there are no leaders missing (we're usually five adults) or sick, because 5-6 is about the most kids one can aid, assist and manage when it comes to this. 

Well, perhaps other leaders might handle more scouts, but I don't. Not yet, anyway.

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Two more weeks and we'll have the yearly Christmas meeting with the scouts, starting their "vacation", giving us leaders the rest of December off to do other things. "Charge our batteries" as one might say here in Norway, 

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The school's not out until December 22nd - with the kindergarten open until the 23rd, but A will start her Christmas vacation on the same day as P. 

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Now, with regards to the crazy coming in about a week... next Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Advent, which is when we usually decorate with Advent stars and lights outside. For quite a few years now we've gone all Christmas and decorated the whole house. I asked P what he wanted us to do this year, and he's all up for going nuts. Decorating the whole house, tree and everything. I'm actually looking forward to decorating for Christmas. November is such a dark month, so every little shining light in December brings a kind of fuzzy warm feeling. (I'm ignoring the fact that January will seem even darker, after all the decorations have been taken down.. but at least the sun will turn in December, so every day will be a little bit longer and brighter.)

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I've just ticked off a couple of items on my to do-list now, ordering calendars for 2021 and Christmas cards. They ought to arrive some time during the next 10 days. 

 

A kitty present? 🤔 @kathyschmitzstitches

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The Story of my Day - block 25!

And we're done! 

The last block has been stitched - and there are no more blocks to work on. 

What's left now, is cutting the blocks down to size and deciding on borders - before sewing them all together.

I'm curious to see if there are any similar background fabrics that will be next to each other. These blocks were made in the order the patterns were drawn in the book - not the order of the finished blocks put together. And seeing as I've used a number of different background fabrics, I'm not completely certain that two blocks next to each other won't be in the same fabric. We'll see - but there's no crisis if this occurs.

Fish for tea - a cute block! I loved the little piece of lemon and the fish.

Here they are, all together.

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We've already decided on our next project, my mom and I - the Christmas blocks from "Love & Hugs from Australia" (the patterns came from a group on Facebook). 12 small blocks with Christmas motifs. I've already decided to stitch mine in a variegated red (from dark red-almost black to bright Christmas red). 

I probably won't sew these 25 blocks together before Christmas, we'll see - there's no rush to finish them, although I'm looking forward to having the quilt all done. I think it'll be a nice memory of this year, how we managed to make something together - although being apart. And remembering how fast time seemed to go, even when we were all "just staying at home".

The Story of my day - block 24 of 25

We're almost there! One more week - one more block! 

Try a new hairstyle? Weeeeeeell, no thanks. I'm not completely fond of trying new things with my hair - although I have cut it short a couple of times during the last 10 years - but I guess I prefer it shoulderlenght, so that I can put it up in a ponytail. I absolutely hate having my hair down.. I can't explain it, it just really bothers me. So perhaps I ought to cut it short again... or not.

Nå kan desember bare komme! 🎅🏻 @varbitt #varbittgarnkalender2020

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Story of my day - Block 23 of 25

We're nearly there!

Last week's block was block 23, leaving only two more blocks to finish. Even with one block a week, this feels like it's gone by so swiftly! I mean, 25 weeks is a long time, it's almost 6 months. And still, it doens't feel like it's taken that long. 

You know what? When I'm looking at the picture of this block, I realize that I've forgotten the line of crosses on the bottom of the block. *facepalm* Seriously?

*sigh*

That's better. The crosses are stitched - and the block is done. 😁

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November is a grey month here in Norway. The sky is cloudy, covered with rain-filled clouds. There have been several days with heavy fog (we could hardly see to the end of the street coming home from kindergarden the other day). All the bright coloured leaves have turned to brown and have fallen off the trees, covering the once green grass in a layer of moist, muddy brown with speckles of dark red-orange. 

I know we had sun the other day, but I can't for the life of me remember which day that was. It could've been last Sunday.. however, the colour scheme for this week seems to be grey to pitch black, with grey being the colour of the day, and the world turning pitch black in the evening and nights. The light drizzle of moisty, foggy rain is more or less constant. 

I miss summer; the need for less clothes to go out side, not fetching children with drenced, cold, muddy clothes, feeling the warmth of the sun.. but I'm also looking forward to December; when the glow of Christmas is shimmering everywhere, the neighbours put up their decorations outside, lights everywhere - and perhaps even snow, if we're lucky.