Time continues to fly

Strange, isn't it, how time always seem to fly so fast - eventhough you have tons of things you would like to do - and suddenly it's Sunday, and it's been more or less a month since the last "real" post. Oh well.. I blame it on periods of sunshine, knitting and movies (Dr. Who The New Series and Criminal Minds are definetly to blame here). :)

Well, I think the last post contained a picture from the NQT in Göteborg - a great trip, but somewhat chaotic, considering all the people. The dinner had 664 registered guests (I wonder what happened to the dessert? o_O ), the city was beautiful, and a tiny bit of shopping was done. I only bought two things at the NQT shop area (well, three, but the last one was a gift for the summer lottery in Lørenskog, so it doesn't really count) - a jellyroll from Moda (Patisserie, to be used in the new Cinderberry Stitches BOM, which should arrive some time now in June) and a kit (sewing kit in blue/gray) from QuiltMyDesign - which I think ended up being everybody's favorite shop.

I went to my very first course in Göteborg (been sewing since I could hold a needle - and quilting since I was about 10 or 12) and I absolutely loved it! But I do believe that if I ever go to another course, I might be very disappointed.. According to the more course-experienced ladies attending, noone had ever been to a better prepared course. The lovely lady who held it, Mirjam Hakala from Finland, had prepared 10 projects (actually 12, since one of them had three different solutions to chose from) under the theme "The Quilter's Sewing Accessories" (course no. 22), and she had made models showing all of them, written great and easily understood (incredible detailed) descriptions of how to create them - and on top of it all, she had prepared individually packed kits for all models (precut fabric, paper templates, drawn templates, buttons, beads, string, everything you could possible need to complete each model)!

I brought my (then) 4 completed models to show a couple of the ladies in Lørenskog the following Wednesday, and they all agreed that I should finish all the models by the August meeting (the first one after the summer) and have a little presentation of the course. And I'm working on it. ;) As you see in the picture below, I have now completed 6 of the models, and have four kits left - although I am thinking about making the two other versions of the star (on the left) but then again, I have made these ones before, so I can just bring two of them to illustrate the choices.



In other news, I'm still knitting! I've figured out that I'm unable to read while driving (bus or car), I haven't tried sewing yet, but knitting works like a charm! So far - since April - I've knitted a shawl (picture will come soon, I just need to get a good one) and fall pants for Emma, and currently I'm working on another blanket in light wool (just to have something ready for when we go driving.

Speaking of Emma, it's her baptism next Sunday, so we'll be going up to Trysil - and so will more or less the rest of the family too. My national costume is ready (bunad, as we call it) and I have bought the shoes to wear with it, so I'll be sure to get some pictures of that too.

And last, but not least, I'd like to say "Hi!" to the wonderful girls from Lillehammer, who we shared table with during the dinner in Göteborg. It was lovely to meet you - and I hope we meet again soon. :)

I'm off to get some lunch now - and possible a walk outside in the sun. A Frozen Cocoa seems very tempting (it's actually very very nice).

Have a nice Sunday!

NQT in Gøteborg

A bit chaotic - and some waiting.

Tempus Fugit - Busy Times

Well, it's been a while, and although I've thought about blogging every now and then, time just hasn't been on my good side. Much thanks to this little girl.

Meet Emma, our niece and the newest member of the family.




There hasn't been much sewing going on lately, more knitting, actually. In the picture above, taken on her first real trip outside in her stroller, Emma's wearing a hat I knitted up the night before (the other one she got was a little tight, and nobody likes a tight hat, now do we?).

But I think - maybe - I'll manage to get a more creative post together soon. Sometime. Maybe. ;)

We're off to Göteborg next week - for the Nordic Quilt Meeting. I should definetly manage to get some pictures from there. :) And maybe, just maybe, Cinderberry Stitches will finish her new BOM soon too - my fingers are itching!

Monster's on the subway?!

Just kidding. :) A friend showed me how to do this a while ago. Pretty neat, huh?

Preparations and finds

On Monday we went out to Sandvika to deliver the two quilts I've entered in the NQF (Norwegian Quilt Association) yearly meeting/exhibition/stuff. It's the first time I'm entering an exhibition, and I'm both excited to see how my quilts are doing - and nervous, because, well, nobody wants to hear bad things about their work, right?

Anyway, this is a glimse of what I've entered - my Truly Scrumptious and Annie's Calendar Quilt. I feel bad for not having any of them up on the wall yet, but to be honest, we don't really have the space in our apartment..


I took a walk downtown after work one day, and came across this old - once painted over - sign, and - well, yes, I do live with a graphic designer who collects pictures of old signs, so I've just had to get influenced somehow, right? - well, I just had to take a picture. it looks like the sign for Johs Falkenberg (as in Johannes Falkenberg, I'm wondering what kind of business that was..) might be handpainted or "stensilized", but it looks way cooler and prettier then those plastic signs they use now. :)


And lastly, this guy was put up on a wall in our neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago. I think it's a stensil too, not quite sure.. but it's really cool and incredible detailed. Too bad, though, I know that tagging (as they call it here in Norway) isn't allowed and it ruins the buildings, but things like this one is actually pretty to look at and makes you smile. :) Sadly, when I came home from work today, someone had painted over him.. :( I still wonder who made him - and if the artist has more creations like this one around the city.

One Picture a day - 6, 7 & 8

This weekend was truly coloured by the cinematic kind : two visits to the movies (Watchmen and The Secret Lives of Bees), and a ton of films and series on DVD.

One picture a day - 5.

Quiz night!

One picture a day - 4

I like this bench - eat the rich. ;)

One picture a day - 3

Sunshine!

One picture a day - 2

Playing with blues and browns. :)

One picture a day - 1

This has been taking up alot of my time lately.

Part of my desk.

This is a small part of my desk at work. Currently blinded by the sunshine and snow outside, but you can see my calendar, a picture of my Truly Scrumptious quilt, and a birthday card I got last year. Oh, and my bamboo plant (it's the green "stick" on the right). :)

Our Etsy-shop

I forgot to blog the address to our Etsy-shop last week..


Nibbles'n'Bits

What's this?

When I was walking to the tram (trikk) yesterday - after gettting broke in the Nøstebarn-store - I found this poor little fellow sitting outside a coffee bar. I think he wanted to go inside and get some warmth in his branches..

Would you like ice with that?

Edit: This picture shows a gigantic piece of ice hanging outside the window of the office. Cool, huh? Despite the Oslo winter going from cold to warm and back again to cold, there are some pieces of beauty out there. Btw, we had to showel snow twice this weekend - BF went outside on Saturday and did a fantastic job, but when Sunday came, there was just as much - or even more - snow in the yard. Atleast we didn't have to dig out the car on the way to work today (we both take the bus). ;)

Help!

We're snowing in. I wish..

Today's view

Fog and snow. :)

I think that basically sums it all up. After about half a week with - for Oslo - very cold temperatures, it started to snow yesterday afternoon. And this morning? Well, still something falling down (although extremely small pieces of such) and about 10 centimeters (close to 4 inches) on the ground. Atleast they tried to remove most of it from the roads earlier this morning.

Winter's here!

As the picture shows, it's a really nice day - only, it's very cold. Very cold for Oslo.. This morning, when I left the apartment around 6AM, it was about -10 degrees celsius outside. People might say that it's colder in Trysil, but I have to disagree. It's a completely different type of cold near the coast then inside the country or up in the mountains. The moist from the sea really makes everything sooo much colder. It feels like no matter how much clothes you're wearing, the cold sneaks around, finds a weak spot, and attack. I'd rather have the -26 degrees celsius up in the mountains then the -10 degrees celsius (or colder) down here today.

There hasn't been much crafty things going on lately - mostly because we're both working alot these days, and when the weekends finally come, we're spending it on the couch watching movies.. But I have been doing something!

Last night I helped BF finish 4 more softies for our Etsy shop (I'll post a link some day). I finished a pair of baby knitted socks during last week's meeting in the guild, and I'm almost done with the January block for the Sunbonnet Sue BOM. I'm also knitting another baby blanket (in very very soft and light wool) and I'm about halfway done with this one.

On Saturday I received a parcel from an online bookstore with two books about knitting. One's called 50 Baby Booties to Knit and the other is a collection of patterns from a very popular store in Norway (both on and outside the web) called Nøstebarn.

In other news, we've planned our vacation for this summer, booked the hotel and bought the tickets for the plane to... Iceland! We'll be spending 10 lovely days in Reykjavik and the area around, and we've started to plan different activities. According to BF, the guy who runs our hotel also works as a guide of some sorts, and he said he'd help us arrange things if we needed help. This will be so much fun! I've only barely been to Iceland - we had to swap planes there the last time we went to the States - but I don't believe that counts. :)

What's this?

Winter has come - again - probably won't stay that long. I mean, this is Oslo. It never does. Better enjoy it while it lasts. :)

Edit: This picture was taken with my cellphone at about 06:30 this morning, as I was waiting for the bus.

Still alive - and SSCS arrived and opened

It's December 29th - and we're still alive. :)

We had decided to celebrate Christmas Eve just the two of us this year - but because of things happening, we ended up celebrating the afternoon with BF's family at his aunt's house, and then took a second celebration in our apartment later that night. But it was a nice day. BF's brothers came by and spent some time with us earlier in the day. Our internet connection was repaired (it took over an hour, the poor lad fixing it being on his cell and poking our cables at the same time) after being broken for about five or six days (and that's alot, when you think of how much you depend on having everything available to you at all times - like mail and bank services).

I was a good girl and saved my SSCS gift until Christmas Eve. :) And I was a very lucky girl too. Cathy was my elf this year, and she sent me a very full, fun and pretty gift. :)

In the picture below you can see the fabric it was wrapped in, chocolates, a tazzie devil (stuffed, luckily), two patterns, postcards, Christmas decorations (I'm still looking at the tiny tiny stitches - they're so adorable!) and vegemite! (I remember that a friend of my sister went to Australia to study medicine, and he got completely hooked on Vegemite, I still haven't tried it, but I will!)



My "victim" this year was Anita. I received an email from her the other day, and everything was just perfect. :)


After spending the last couple of days with BF's family, I seem to have caught some of the bugs his middle brother's battling, I can just feel my throat getting more and more sore by the minute. Hopefully this can be battled quickly (and not end up in a two week sickleave like the last one).

Today we're going in to town to do some shopping (and looking). My sweet BF got me the new Ipod nano for Christmas and I'm so afraid I'll scratch it I'm going to look for a protective cover for it. It's soo pretty (bright red) and soo tiny and thin (and huge! considering it's about 16Gb space for music, movies and pictures on it).

Hope you're all having wonderful Christmas days!