Speaking of Christmas

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(Because Christmas is all about traditions. 2002 2003 2005 2006  2007 Hm. Did I really miss 2004?)

Dear Santa

I think I’ve been reasonably good this year. I only yelled at someone for being an anti-social idiot once, which is very restrained of me, I think. Considering you came through on that permanent job thing from last year, I don’t really want to ask for much, but there are always things a girl can wish for, right?

1. Peace on Earth. Thanks for sorting out the presidential situation in the States, but we’re still a bit of a way off the target, really. Any progress is appreciated.

2. An Overlock. Like this one. Or one of the Husqvarna Huskylocks they have here.

3. Non Stop. As per usual.

4. Health and longevity for my nearest and dearest and for the following authors/artists (and any others I may have forgotten): Robin Hobb, J.K. Rowling, Stephen Fry, Jo Nesbø, Ole Paus, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Alanis Morisette, Michael Wiehe, Michael Parkinson, Håkon Gullvåg, Rosamunde Pilcher, Bill Bryson, Kate Atkinson, Bob Dylan, Jasper Fforde and the Top Gear guys. You know why.

5. Pondus 8. divisjon, Nemi Skumle damen, Naiv og brutal, Lavmål mot nye høyder, Rex Rudi Go, Cat, Go! og Mperiet slår tilbake.

6. Silicone baking trays, especially for large muffins.

7. A Bosch kitchen machine (MUM6 or MUM8).

8. A couple of 8 gb compact flash cards.

9. Anything from Gaver med mening, Gaver som forandrer verden, Oxfam unwrapped (look, you can buy “me” schoolbooks!) and similar sites would give me warm, fuzzy feelings.

And since she’s too young to write her own list (partly because she can’t spell and partly because she hasn’t quite understood this Christmas-thing yet) and I need somewhere to keep this, here’s the list for the lass:

1. Audiobooks on CD, especially Thorbjørn Egner (all we have so far is De beste Egner-viser/Karius og Baktus).

2. Other CDs for children – good ones, please, that won’t drive her parents bonkers.

3. Listen and read combination things – those books with the story on CD – if they still exist?

4. Jammies. We’re in dire need of more. Size 98/104 centilong.

5. Woolens: Tops and longs/trousers.

6. Good books (but check with us first, we have quite a few – understatement of the year – though not too many for the age she’s at now and a couple of years ahead).

7. DVDs: Disney (check what we already have) and old children’s tv shows.

8. In the Night Garden (Drømmehagen) books and figurines/softies would make her happy, I think.

9. Doll’s clothes (pretty much any size doll) – hand made if you do that sort of thing. Judging from what we’ve seen so far she’s going to be “into” dolls in a major way.

10. Sleigh with steering wheel. What are they called in English? “Rattkjelke”, anyway.

Trying to freeze time

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Well, perhaps not exactly, but I feel the need to capture the little everyday stories. The lass is growing so quickly, and I feel like I miss something vital each time I blink…

Jessica Sprague‘s Stories in Hand class just finished, and I really enjoyed that. It’s given me lots of prompts for writing down the stories of yesterday – the class is really excellent – and a prod to get the everyday stories down as they happen. However, I know that to achieve the latter I could do with some help.

Along comes the Journal Your Christmas class from Shimelle, and highly recommended several places. So I thought it might be a good start and signed up.

Journal your Christmas

Join me if you like!

Done!

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Quilt done!

The doll quilt is done and on its way to *******. 

Pretty happy with the way it turned out, since it’s actually quite close to how I pictured it. I ended up cutting off the top ray of sunshine in order to square off the top and only realised afterwards that I could probably have fixed it with a scrap of blue instead, but it works like this, no? I would have free motion quilted it, too had I dared switch the presser foot on my machine, unfortunately I dare not, as the part where you fix it is worn and needs replacing and I really need the macine to work next weekend when we have a workshop. After the workshop I am handing the machine in for service, I swear. Here’s to hoping the recipient likes the quilt!

Go have a look in the Flickr pool for the swap, by the way. Such a lot of amazing quilts! I haven’t received mine yet, I can’t wait to see what it looks like.

Another list

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Well, you *know* I’m a sucker for these… (Found here, check out the designs while you’re there.)

Bold the things you’ve done:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (I’m assuming fish count?)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Doll Quilt Swap

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I joined round 5 of the Doll Quilt Swap (though I don’t seem to be on the blogroll… Hm. Might need to email someone about that…) and I’m finally making progress. I had one design in mind for a while until I realised it was madly complicated and I had two months ‘ till deadline, not two years. I then had another idea, but needed more fabric. Once I got the chance to, I went shopping. I now had an idea and fabric. Then the lass fell ill (she’s fine now, but we had about a week of cuddling and not getting much done) and then I came down with a serious cold. Anyway. I have started, and I’ll probably manage to finish tomorrow so that I can get it in the mail on Monday. That should theoretically be enough, the deadline for reception is 1 December, but international mailing being what it is, well, uhm. I sure hope it gets there.

Anyway, pictures:

Dolls' quilt swap - part 1

Dolls' quilt swap - part 2

Dolls' quilt swap - part 3

That was how far I got a couple of days ago. I now have all the rest of the bits in place, pinned or fused and tomorrow I will attach them, then back, quilt and bind. And voilla. That’s the theory, anyway.

While looking for the fabric I needed for this quilt I found some others that I just “had” to have (surprise!). These are from Jordbærstedet:

Shopping: Jordbærstedet

And these are from Sy Steen:

Shopping: Systeen

Lookie! Fishies!

Fishies!

And do you remember this WIP? I found my stars. Obviously what I now want to do is drop everything else and finish this, but I have TONS of things to do that actually need to be done by Christmas, so it will have to wait. But, you know, look! Stars! Proper stars!

Stars! I found stars!

The gift of empathy

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Babyslime posted a YouTube clip (and I can’t for the life of me get it to embed without messing up the layout), and says “San Diego’s republican mayor has a change of heart on gay marriage – this conference that he held, explaining what had changed for him, is so incredibly moving. It’s long, but it’s worth it. I cried a lot.” Which is pretty much what I’d say too. Watch it.

Now, personally, I don’t (as far as I know) have any family members or close friends who are “members of the gay community” (not anymore, there are a couple in the vast group of people I’ve lost touch with, though), and it would be nice to see a politician have a change of heart simply because (s)he’d thought about it properly and come to the conclusion that it IS discrimination and it IS unfair and what the world needs more than anything is LOVE so why bother about the whom, where and wherefore? Still, a change of heart is a change of heart and daring to do the opposite of what you said when you were elected when you know a lot of your supporters are really not going to like it is quite admirable. It made me hum the line “What kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay” – watch (and listen) here if you don’t know the song – and that is something I ask myself whenever people argue against homosexuality.

Playing around with templates

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Of the digital scrapbooking kind, this time. I really need to get the layouts for 2008 DONE as the grandparents seem to expect a follow-up to last year’s photo book. These literature fans are hopeless, you know, you release one book they like and they are on to you like veritable hounds. Really.

Anyway, to get me going (and boy do I need to get going) I’ve been looking up some challenges, and the first one completed is from Weeds & Wildflowers (specifically, this blog challenge). Since they happen to be one of my favourite design teams (the other one being Catscrap) finding products to use was not a big problem.

071215laptop_web.jpg

Credits:
– template from Weeds and Wildflowers template challenge 11-17
– Papers Weeds & Wildflowers, Gina Marie Huff, Being Me kit, the blue is the green paper recoloured
– green letters from Weeds & Wildflowers Gina Marie Huff, Being Me kit
– & from CatScrap Cathrine’s Traces of Print
– cardboard stars and paint from Weeds & Wildflowers GMH Super Stars set
– stitches from Weeds & Wildflowers GMH Believing in You Kit

Oh, and I know it’s from 2007, but since last year’s books were printed in early December, the last few weeks of 2007 have to be included in the 2008-book.

Now, if I can just persuade the administrator of the W&W forums/gallery that I am not a spambot so that I can get the layout posted, I might just win myself some more goodies. You never know. And at least I got one layout done. (One done, a trillion or so to go.)

News in briefs

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…or shorts, if you like.

– If the parties that make up our coalition government were in agreement all the time they wouldn’t need to be three parties. Could the media please stop trying to make a mountain of a molehill? (No, I guess not.)

– If Ingrid Betancourt doesn’t want to talk about her experiences as a hostage, perhaps she ought to stop saying yes to appearing on talk shows? (Or: What the f was Grosvold supposed to ask her? “So, uhm, which celebrity would you most like to have sex with?”? No, I didn’t watch the show so I don’t actually have any idea of what I’m talking about.)

–  Best line ever on Nytt på nytt this evening and now I’ve forgotten what it was. I might have to watch it again online just to find out.

– Does anyone (outside his and her immediate circle of family/friends) actually, seriously care that Peter Nortug has a new girlfriend?

– NaBloPoMo didn’t quite work out for me, did it?

Budgeting

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Is not something I do well. I’m terrible with money. Ok, not so terrible that I need a tv-team to sort things out for me (well, not yet, anyway), but bad enough. However, I have ambitions, and this is probably a good thing, and to inspire me and perhaps give me a few tips (or a lot of tips), I’ve been subscribing to Simple Mom on Bloglines.

Oh, yeah, I started reading blogs through Bloglines lately. Didn’t I tell you? I love it!

Anyway, Simple Mom is having a giveaway, and we all love giveaways, don’t we? This one is for an Epson do-dah that basically does everything except make the tea. Head over and have a look.

In addition to Bloglines, I also started using Delicious lately, and I can no longer remember whether that was prompted by Simple Mom or whether I suddenly remembered that I’d been meaning to check it out all by myself. In any case, it’s great. I keep bookmarking all sorts of stuff. One day I’lll actually use it to find things I’ve bookmarked, too. Kidding, I already do that. If you’re curious about what I’ve been bookmarking (lots of recipies and digilayouts, basically, as well as a general mish-mash of other stuff), you can find me here. If you use Delicious, too, please add me to your network and share your own finds with me.