Then read this.
Congratulations
Mr. soon-to-be President. May you acomplish all you imagined you might be able to do, and have fun doing so.
And congratulations to you, the people of the United States of America. You did the right thing. I am profoundly grateful.
Edit: You need to read this and this (via – yes, they made me tear up, too. Sentimental sap that I am.).
Another edit: Not all the news are good, though.
Show and Tell at Jordbærstedet with Natalie Bird
Of The Birdhouse.
Below, Kitchen Capers, a new BOM quilt which I might accidentally have signed up for. Because I don’t have enough projects, obviously. Ah well.
Tits!
Cheap joke, or what? Here they are:
Dear John
We need a break, my love and I. (No, not the husband. We, in fact, have had an involuntary break of a couple of days and it was horrible, so no more breaks there, please.) My other love, my first love, really: Fiction. We’re in a rut, s funk, the dumps. Peevishly glaring at each other. Finding faults. Niggling. It’s not pretty.
I don’t know what it is, precicely, but I can’t seem to find a novel I’m happy with these days. Ok, so it’s only a few weeks since I finished The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, and that was indubitably a wonderful experience and a book worth climbing mountains and fording rivers for (should such things be necessary), however, that is the only piece of fiction (unless you count what’s in the newspapers, which, possibly, you should) I’ve finished since August, and it’s getting me down. I tried reading Are Kalvø’s Nød and almost threw it across the bus. I tried Jan Kjærstad’s Kongen av Europa and considered writing to Jasper Fforde to ask if he could send a hired killer for the main character (or possibly the author, but that wouldn’t stop the book, so why bother?). I started Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord and put it away almost immediately because I really do want to read it so I didn’t want to get far enough to get mad at it. I’ve looked at the books in my tbr pile (the physical one) and I can’t find a single one that says “read me now!”. I’m in that mood where I crave a good nove, but every novel I try seems contrived and petty and full of silly mistakes that the editors should really have exterminated. I’m reading Anne McCaffrey’s Freedom’s Landing and I ought to love it but she used “specimen” twice when I’m pretty sure she means “species” and I get impatient with her for creating minor characters that are petty, ignorant, prejudiced and blatant fools, when all she is trying to do is portray human foibles.
What is a girl to do?
Well, I’ll finish Freedom’s Landing, and then I’ll take a nice long break from Fiction. I’ll see other genres, and I’m pretty sure he’ll see other people, and then in a few months we’ll fall in love all over again. I hope. Facing a future without Fiction is too bleak a scenario to contemplate.
First frost
Pictures from the Wednesday morning walk to work.
And this morning there was snow. Where did the autumn go?
Castles in the air
Tigtog at Hoyden about Town choses 8 dream homes, apparently the meme is in reference to the McCains’ eight (or so, no one seems to be entirely sure) homes. Anyway, it got me thinking, so I thought I might as well note down my thoughts…
1. Large, oldish villa in one of Trondheim’s quieter areas, preferably with a view of the fjord – Singsaker would be good, except it’s overrun by students on a regular basis, so I guess I’d go for someplace else.
2. A roomy cottage somewhere in Scotland, on an island or near the coast. On Skye, for example, conveniently close to L&P in Balmacara, or on Islay, conveniently close to Ardbeg and Lagavulin.
3. Edinburgh – a flat. Scotland street would be fun.
4. London – a bedsit would do, really. Who wants to spend time inside when in London? We’d need a big bed and a kitchen large enough for tea, coffee and bacon-and-eggs. Though come to think of it, a separate sleeping space for the lass would probably be nice. So now we’re talking two-bedroom apartment, aren’t we? Anyway, in Islington, Camden, Kensington, somewhere with good pubs nearby, but to be honest that sort of includes most of London. Still, it’s worth mentioning, I guess.
5. I’ve always wanted to try living in New York – in “the village” in particular – despite never having been and despite not really wanting to live in the US. So studio flat in the village it is.
6. Somewhere I could keep horses. Iceland would be fun. Possibly also quite cheap just now. This home would have to come with (a lot of) staff, as someone would need to take care of the horses when we’re not there.
7. Somewhere warm, but not too warm. A place that has a beach and which will mostly have temperatures of around 20-22 degrees celcius when we have minus ten here, somewhere to spend January and February.
8. A posh flat in one of the more interesting European cities, Paris, Prague, Barcelona, Vienna. We might change this one every other year or so…
Also, I think I’m probably overly ambitious, but I signed up for NaBloPoMo. Perhaps I can breathe som life into the 365 days thing at the same time. We’ll see.
Now, there’s a halloween costume
…I’d almost say to die for, but I’d prefer to keep my head, thank you very much. Without it I wouldn’t really be able to appreciate the wondrousness that is Grosgrain’s Marie-Thérèse dress. Lookee:
I’m flabbergasted.
Imports
I have decided to merge the hobbyblog with the “main” blog. Considering how often (or, more accurately, how infrequently) I post to either, having them as two separate entities seems rather pointless. The crafty entries are hereby imported, and I will be adding to them here from now on. This also means I’ll probably be writing about craft mostly in English from now on. I’ll leave the previous entries in Norwegian, though – please ask if there is anything you’d like to know about them that you can’t figure out from the pictures.
Now, what am I working on right now? Well, various bits and pieces. The one main thing I really need to get going with is the digiscrap pages for the 2008 photo book. Having set a precedent last year with a photo book for Christmas for the grandparents and great grandparents, everyone is obviously expecting a sequel, and I have made – ahem – two pages so far. Yes. Two. Single pages, too, not two-page spreads. Last year I spent pretty much every evening in November in front of the computer speed-scrapping. This year, well, it looks like a repeat… Good thing I work well under pressure. Well, that’s what I say at interviews, anyway. I suspect a more truthful statement would be that I only work under pressure. However, let’s not go into that.
A work in progress, with a picture, no less – though not pictures of any actual work, as I forgot all about taking pictures once I got going – is the first block of the BOM (block of the month) quilt called Leanne’s House. The designer blogs at, you guessed it, Leanne’s House. I’m receiving my packages from Buttonberry, hence they are responsible for the choice of fabric. I will, however, be buying some supplementary quarters, as the quilt will only be 55″ x 55″ once done according to the pattern, and I will want to extend it a bit. Quite how I haven’t yet decided, I might repeat a few blocks – with variations, or I might make a stripey part at the top or bottom. In any case I wouldn’t want to bring in wholly new fabrics at that stage, so I need to start mixing them in as I go.
Btw: I am SO doing a Butterfly Garden in black and white with orange butterflies. Just look at it!
This
Is simply wonderful.