I have a Husky, some bragging, a word for 2011 and a Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of 2010.

2010 has been a good year for me and my family in many ways, I'm gratefull and my thoughts and prayers go to those who have struggled and have been challenged over the year, financially, mentally and when in comes to health issues.


My word for the year
My word for 2010 was Simplify. I felt my life was quite cluttered and that we spent to much time on uneccesary stuff. So I made a list with some priorities. I'm not going to be too personal, but some of things we changed were quite easy to do and caused a great impact on our daily life: planning meals and shopping, getting rid of energy sucking commitments, unsubscribe to magazines that never were read and we have tried to stop hoarding. I looked through my freezer yesterday, before going out shopping, and was happy to see it was almost empty: this means we know what we have and what we need, and we will not spend money on food we already have when going out for groceries. Simplifying our everyday life has surely saved us some money during this last year.

For 2011 I have chosen Health as my word. I (and my closest family) are by good health right now, but mentally and physically, and I want it to stay that way. So we will focuse on eating good and right, being active and outdoor, having good conversations, working up good realations with people around us and push away the negative ones, take the time to invite people etc etc.


So what about you, have you found your word for 2011 yet?


I have a Husky
My husky is camouflaged as an English Cocker Spaniel. I took her with us today when we went out cross country skiing. She has been with us on earlier occations, but I had forgotten how good she is at, and how much she loves, pulling. The cool part is that she is MY pull dog, she doesn't pull the kids or the husband, the way she pulls me. The snow is dry and cold right now, so she doesn't get those nasty ice lumps in her fur and paws, and it surely it's a good way to exercise her - after all she is a part of the family and therefor the word health goes for her too :-)

So here we are: DS8, his buddy, my husky and me in the end of the string.

The brag part of this post
It was sad, but had to be like that, when we shut down the sketch challenge blog CISter's Stylish Sketches at the beginning of the year. Suddenly I found myself without any scrapping assignments, but it was good, too - I could fool around and do whatever I wanted to. So I participated in challenges etc, worked on finding my own scrapping identity and went all "happy go lucky". My big dream came true when I became a part of MyScrapbookNook's DT in August. For some reason RL also needed me at the same time, so there was little time for working with challenges this autumn. But the last month I had so much mojo, and in fact planty of time, too, so I jumped on the challenge wagon again. And I must admit I feel very proud and honored when I have seen my name "on print". Here are a few:

The layout Snow - It's a winter thing got a honorable mention and was featured on the manufactorer My Mind's Eyes blog (and I got a HUGE prize package in the mail yesterday, thank you MME)

The layout Den store juletrejakta (The big Christmas Tree Hunt) was picked as a fav and featured over at the Norwegian sketch challenge blog Skissedilla

The layout Fregner (Freckles) got an honorable mention at the multiple photo challenge blog Get Picky (Australia)

Let's hope the new year starts as good as the old one ended, scrapwise :-)

I'll finish this post by sending a big Thank You to all of you who have made the year 2010 such a happy year for me. Thank you for all the comments, the mails and anything else. Just the fact that you pop in to see what I am up to, make my days! Therefore:

I wish all of you

A Happy 2011.

I have a cordless mouse!

I was kind of disgusted when I arrived at our work barack (right now I work at a construction site out in the woods) last monday and discovered that we had had visitors. The scroller at my Roller Mouse was chewed on as well as the main bar, and when I tried to log into the computer the T and the G on the keyboard was stuck together. Somebody had used it as a toilet...

The intruder showed up at lunch time on Tusday again and he wasn't shy at all. I thought he (I assume it's a boy, no girls wold pee and pooh on a key board, right?) would run away as soon as he saw me, but no. Even when my co workers showed up with cameras with flashes, he just run arpund on my desk, like he was all alone.

Anywhere, here he is, my cordless mouse. We call him Little Vegard, named after my boss (why is a totally different story which I'm not sharing in public *lol*), but his official name is Apodemus flavicollis (Yellow Necked Mouse - Skogmus in Norwgian). The journaling is about what I already have told you :-)

This layout was made by the lovely December 1th sketch from Stuck?!. Head over to Stuck?! to see it and play - there are endless possibilities and make sure to leave the Creative Team some love!

Fregner - Freckles

When I browse the layouts I have made this year, there seems to be more with DS8 than with DS11. It might be because DS8 is more around, and stick his stuff up in the camera whenever possible. He is also the kind of kid who is creative and make lots of things, so it's easy to get him on film. DS11 is more of an action boy, and it's hard to take his photos as he a) as often makes funny faces when he sees a camera or b) is on long distance (tell me, how many long distance golf photos can I scrap?).

Do you have it that way too? Find that one kid is on more pages than the other?

When we went tree hunting last weekend (see post below), I finally got DS11 to stand still long enough so I could have a photo shot with him. I noticed he gets freckles so quickly when he spend time outdoors and he looks so cute (but don't tell him I used the C-word). I apologize it doesn't show very good on the image below, but you can trust me on it. I find taking photos of photos very hard, btw. The skin tones on the original photo tend to turn orange on the second photo. Any tips?

This layout is made with sketch #3 at GetPicky. Head over for a great 4 photo sketch! Thank you Tanya &co for another great challenge!






Most materials from MyScrapbooknook March Kit

Jeg har et juletre! I have a Christmas Tree!

Egenfanget! Tradisjonen tro.
Bildene er fra årets jakt, og layouten basert på den superkule Skissedillaskisse #91.

We have cought it ourself. We're true to our tradition *lol*
The photos are from this year's hunt, and the layout is based on the super cool Skissedilla sketch #91








Minstebarnet er en kløpper når det gjelder klipp og lim. Nå den siste uken før jul har han masseprodusert modellfly i papir, skrevet ut fra nettet, og de har selvfølgelig fått hedersplass i juletreet. Til størstebarnets store ergrelse.

DS8 is a very crafty boy. The last week before Christmas he mass prodused paper air plane models, downloaded from the big web world. And of course he has given them a focal spot in the Christmas tree. Juletrepynt = Christmas Tree Ornaments.

Born on Dec 24th!

Har du sett den søte hunden på bildet øverst i høyre kolonne på bloggen min? Det er Timanka's Christmas Wonder, til daglig kalt Scoobie. Hun ble født selveste jualften i 2004 og det er derav oppdretternavnet :-) Scoobie er faktisk ganske pen, i tillegg til å være veldig deilig.

Da jeg fikk se juleskissen til Scrappehuset, fikk jeg lyst å gjøre noe jeg nesten aldri ellers gjør: bruke bling og blomster. Så det har jeg gjort. På juleskissen er det lagt opp til tre bilder, men jeg valgte i stedet å bruke tre mønsterark her og så bruke ett stort lagt over. MyScrapbookNook's desember kit var bare perfekt, det eneste jeg har lagt til er bling og blomster.

Have you noticed the cute dog on top of the right column in this blog? That dog is Timanka's Christmas Wonder, but we just call her Scoobie. She was born on Christmas Eve in 2004, hence the breeder's name :-) In fact, she is a very pretty dog, but she is a real cutie pie as well.

When I spotted the Christmas sketch over at Scrappehuset, I got this urge to play with stuff I hardly touch - bling and flowers. So I did. On the sketch there is room for three photos, but I chose to use pps here instead and then mount a larger photo on top. MyScrapbooknook's December kit was perfect, all I added was the bling and the flowers.








Jeg vet de siste dagen før julaften blir hektiske, så jeg lager nok ikke noe nytt innlegg her før det, så da vil jeg bare benytte anledningen til å ønske

I know the last days before Christmas Eve will be busy, so I don't think there will be any new posts on this blog for the next days. I therefor want to wish you all

En riktig god jul!!!

A merry, merry Christmas!

Christmas preparations

The advent time is busy in our house. I bet it's busy at your place too in December?

We went tree hunting in the woods yesterday, the gifts are all wrapped, we have started decorating the house (in Norway we don't start as early as in other parts of the world)- and we have tasted the aquavite, a must with traditional Norwegian yule meals.

DS11 made some saffran rolls for St Lucia Day (December 13th) and we all made ginger breads at my mum's house last weekend. Here are some photos to prove it :-)

Original sketch by LG for MyscrapbookNook

Most materials for these layouts were found in MyScrapbookNook's awesome December Kit.

So, what about you, are you prepared for the holidays?

Marilyn Monroe was wrong!

The inspiration prompt from Get Picky this time, was some words by Marilyn Monroe - you find the words on the hand written part on the layout below.

When I read the words, I couldn't help thinking of these aweful photos of me, taken in June on a windy beach *lol* Got to have some self irony, right?




All materials from MyScrapbooknook Dec kit except metal charm and twine.

It's a winter thing!

Snow. It's a winter thing. Quite obvious.



And this year it came early - and have stayed so far.
And it's cold. For the last weeks we have had 12-14F/-10-14C - steady.
So it's going to be a long winter...


This summer was cold, too. I haven't been paler since I was new born, I think.

I browsed some travel agencies today. And I ordered a trip for my family. To the Canary Islands. In february! Oh, yeah! I finally get to wear to shorts I bought in May *lol*
It's my Christmas present for myself!




But the kids are happy with the snow:









All materials from MyScrapbooknook December kit except red buttons.

This layout is based on the sketch challenge at the MME blog. What is there not to love about that challenge?

Last year's Christmas photos

It's about time to have them scrapped. New papers always makes it easier *lol*

Tell me, why is it so difficult to scrap Christmas photos?






All materials from MyScrapbooknook December kit

My Scrapbooknook December kit!

Here it is, in all it's beauty! Click on image to see even better!




I have played with it. A lot. And it seems I never get to the bottom of the pile of papers and embellies. It's endless. I think I'll have Christmas papers for the next decade! Yippie!

Did you notice the rain dears on the bottom? Those are there because we have a card color challenge for you in the forum :-)

Click on button on side bar if you want to know more about the kit or the forum - or here :-)

All I want for Christmas...

I can not believe it's just three weeks until Christmas. I'm not prepared at all!

The December kit from MyScrapbooknook provided us with beautiful papers and chipboard elements from the MME Holly Jolly line (I'll show you the whole kit in my next post). As soon as I saw the Pencillines sketch #215, I knew what I was going to use some of it for - this layout with Ponky the grown up (?) kitten, sitting in the window, wanting a tweety bird...