outdoor decorations

Welcome.

It is already the second day of december.

I know this season will fly by so fast, and I want to enjoy every second of it.

Today my Home for chRistmas blogpost will be all about outdoor decorations.

It is freezing cold in Oslo, about minus 20 degrees Celcius outside my window.

Brrr

Anyhow I love the winter, the little layer of snow that covers the ground and the beautiful winter-light.

I enjoy ice-skating and skiing, but after being out for a while it is wonderful to get home.

I tried to make the area outside my door welcoming and pretty with some cute, rustic decorations.

I have a vintage-looking birdhouse, where it actually is room for a real bird to come in, and if they like I have some little seeds inside the house for the birds to eat.

I also used some felted hearts and some grain sheaf ( nek in norwegian ) along with the bird-house and with two lantherns.

I have some real vintage wooden fruit boxes outside my door to put my decorations inside and on top.

It is hard for the birds to find something to eat during the winter, and I thought i was nice to welcome the birds to my front door as well as it looks pretty for my friends and family when they come home.

This moss-and-twig-heart is simply decorated with a leaf I found on the ground and a felted heart.

The moss-and-twig-heart is bought in a flower-shop, but it is possible to make one too using twigs and thin metal wire, and decorate with moss.

I found a really cute heart here at the " sweet Paul" blog .

Have a great day, and enjoy the season!

:)

all smiles :)

Still enjoying the beauty of autumn here in Oslo.

Love to hang on to summer, sun and flowers as long as possible - the winter will be long and cold, and these last warm days when we are still able to be outdoor in the garden, having lunch or a cup of tea outside and embrace the low sunbeams are precious.
Some of the flowers are still beautiful, while other are getting ready to their long winter-sleep.

Eirik - the outdoor guy - he loves doing things in the garden or around the house.

:) Today "101 ways to use your scrapbook supplies" special issue of Creating keepsakes with Jennifer McGuire arrived at my doorstep.

I was SO honored and happy to find my layout Sol@7 in this magazine.

I'm all smiles

:) :)

a beautiful day in september

Hi all.

Today was a wonderful sunny day in Oslo, just the way we like fall, with beautiful colors, crisp air and sunshine.

A perfect day for a lunch trip in our old wooden boat before it gets to "sleep" for the winter.

We went to one of these little islands in the inner Oslofjord. Enjoyed the last warm sunbeams and a delicious lunch with foccaccia, ham, cheese and wine.

Mmmmmmmmmm

Today was my last blogpost at "my Stamp BOX" blog. This design-team term ends oct. 1st, and I have decided, after three terms on this gorgeous team I have to step down, make room for new designers and give my self the opporttunity to find new paths.

I have really enjoyed the time with my Stamp BOX. Bettina creates so beautiful, versatile and fun stamps, and her company is so great, and last but not least, the girls at the design team are all wonderful, talented and super inspiring women. I'll miss it all!

Here is the fall layout I created using my all time favorite mSB-stamp-set " floating leaves". LOVE this set, and it must be the stamp set I have used the most ever.
I also used "just add notes" set and "symbols". Love these. :)

Happy Birthday Eirun!!

My little girl turned 10 yesterday.

Happy happy bithday my girl!
Eirik arranged a wonderful outdoor party.
We had a camp-fire, hot dogs and of course birthday cake.
And all the little cowboys and indians played and had so much fun.
It was a great day!
:)

Summer

Hi my friends.

Long time no see - but finally I'm back home for a couple of days.

Strange how busy things can get when it is time for vacation - and all you want to do is to relax....

I have had a WONDERFUL summer so far - filled with sun, sea, friends, delicious food, time to relax, visits from friends and family, lazy days, days at the beach.... yes, all I really want from a summer vacation.

You can see some little glimpses from ourhappy, sunny days here.

:)

And Now it is time to create and play with all the WONDERFUL new lines by Cosmo Cricket.Have you seen it all yet?

If not, make sure you run over to the Cosmo Cricket blog to see all the new releases. I promise you'll fall in love emmediately. :) :)

This last layout was created for this weeks blogpost over at Cosmo Cricket. This saturday we've teamed up with ThermoWeb, and I had so much fun creating this layout. I used the super strong Double sided tape and the Dots for this layout.This is all for now.

Have a great summer and see you soon

xo

Weekend joy and "Eplekake"

It was beautiful weater in Oslo this weekend. Freezing cold, but still white and beautiful winter-weather. We used the spare daylight to enjoy the great outdoors :) Here is a pic of DH and Sol on the sledge - must say this is the best kind of transportation these days. LOL
And because it is weekend we needed some yummy food to eat. We had hot cocoa and apple-cake. Mmmmmmm. Hope you have a wonderful weekend too. I'll leave you with my favorite apple-cake recepie. ENJOY!!

xo

Gudruns favoritt-EPLEKAKE

350 g hvetemel - 12,3 ounces flour

2 ts bakepulver - 2 teaspoons baking soda

1 ts kanel - 1 teaspoon ground cinamon

1/2 ts salt - 1/2 teaspoon salt

200g smør - 200 gram softened butter

250 g sukker - 8,8 ounces sugar

50 g brunt sukker - 1,75 ounces brown sugar

4 egg - 4 eggs

1 1/2 dl melk - 0.6cup milk

4-5 epler - 4-5 apples

-Bland alle de tørre ingrediensene i en bolle

-visp sammen smør og sukker til en luftig krem

-tlisett ett egg av gangen mens du stadig visper smørkremen

-tilsett melken

-Rør alle de tørre ingrediensene forsiktig inn i blandingen.

-Del eplene i båter

-fordel kakesmeten i en liten langpanne og stikk alle eplebåtene ned i smeten.

-dryss over kanel og sukker.

-stek kaken på 180 grader celcius i ca 40 minutter.

:)

-add flour, cinnamon, salt and bakingsoda to a bowl

-mix sugar and butter in another bowl until light and "creamy"

-add one egg at the time to the butter/sugar mixture

-add the milk

-gently mix flour, cinnamon and baking soda with the creamy mixture.

-Cut the apples

-add the mix to a small baking-pan and add the apples

-add a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon on top.

-bake on 356 degrees Farenheit in aprx 40 minutes.

ENJOY!!

(I've tried to convert all the amounts and translated this recepie - I may have done things wrong, so please notify me if you find any mistakes, and I'll correct it)

See you tomorrow for a new "inspiration monday" :) :)

HOME for Christmas :)

Hi my friends and WELCOME to my "HOME for Christmas". It's 2nd of december today, and here in Oslo the weather finally changed from grey, wet november-rain to ice-cold, crisp, frozen december-winter-weather. We made the seasons FIRST ginger-bread yesterday, and the gingerbread smell fill the house. We also decorated LOTS of gingerbread "lollies" for the christmas marked next weekend. These cute lollies makes great gifts for the kids friends and the kids in the neighborhood.

I used pre-made gingerbread dough. (I don't have any really good gingerbread recepie :( ) Anyhow, the premade from IKEA works fine too :)

I cut the cakes with a round bowl and used a small cookie-cutter to make the shape in the middle. Added a lot of cruhched candy in the "window" before baking the cookies in the oven. The candy will melt and make the cute window. Let the cookies cool of for a while before you take them away from the baking-paper.

I've decorated the cookies with sugar frosting. :) Here are some pictures from cold, sunny Oslo today. Look at the frozen rose. Amazing, huh?:

Maybe some of these....or some other of the outdoor pics I took today will find their way to some friends walls during christmas. Beautiful outdoor photos allways makes great gifts :)

I made this little giftbag and filled it with a secret gift for my SIL today. Have to make one more for my BILs wife too ;) ;) The bag is super easy to make. You can download the pattern below. :)
Perfect for a little gift or to fill with some sweets.

Have a WONDERFUL day! and THANKS for popping by!

SOON Christmas!!! :D

It's 19th of november allready!! WOW! Time fly, and it's allmost just ONE MONTH left to christmas :D

I'm really, really a CHRISTMAS FAN! I love everything christmas.

I love to decorate

I love to make stuff

I love to make little gifts

I love to make cards and tags

I love to make sweets and cakes and yummy, yummy food :) :)

I love to make things and DO things with my kids - counting down the days before christmas :) :)

I love to SHOP for christmas and wrap all presents for the people I love.

I love light a candle, enjoy my cup of coffee

I love to take time, being grateful...

Do you Love christmas?

I've had LOTS of kind messages, e-mails and comments from you, my wonderful, encouraging blogreaders this year. And You all really make me happy - and make me feel special. THANK YOU!!!!

And as MY christmas gift for you - and because I want to share my LOVE and JOY for this season - I want to invite you to join me in my very own "home for Christmas" - every wednesday and friday, starting wednesday nov 25th - here on my blog. :)

I want to share some little ideas, homemade gifts, cards, tags, recepies, home decor etc. Hope to see you 'round :) :)

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my Stamp BOX designers are planning a GREAT blog-hop PARTY in December too. So please stay tuned :)

happy weekend :)

Hi all. Hope you enjoy the beautiful days of fall. Today I have enjoyed creating alot. So if you are up to some scrappy fun this weekend make sure you pop by LOTUS paperie and join our latest challenge: #145 "add a little color to your handwritten journaling". :)
I so loved this challenge, and it finally made me dig into my long forgotten colorful gelrollers. :) it also reminded me to actually WRITE something on my LO.
xo

Oslo today

It has been a wonderful day in Oslo today. Eirik and I had a day off, enjoyed the beautiful weather had a trip in our old wooden boat and lunch at one of the little islands here inthe Oslo fjord.

SCHOOL

School started yesterday and now we are back in the swing of things here in our household. It's so good to see all my kids go to school, being so happy - meeting friends looking foreward to the new schoolyear.
I've been working on a few LO's for Lotus lately - had totally fun using fingerpaint and watercolor:

a day in july

Yes, It's july allready yes, actually july 10th... I'm back home after a wonderful week of vacation.

I feel so blessed, so happy, so filled with warm, happy memories. Now the rain is pooring down and days are a little bit chillier - it's time to scrap - to visit friends, to eat strawberries, to capture those wonderful memories.:)

Here is some little glimpses of my summer days and a 100% digi LO I made using all 2peas digital kits. And not to forget about this Christmas in June-giveaway of mine.... I'll give you to the end of this week to leave a comment on THIS previous post for a chance to win.

Have a great day.

xo

SPRING

Finally Spring arrived here in Oslo too. :) Oh, I love when the snow leaves, the birds sing and the green grass and tiny, little flowers are back.
Here is my little girl with some cute little flowers she brought home for me after school today. SO love tese little moments. :)

Happy Easter! :)

Hi my friends.

Hope you've all had a wonderful spring-break and a happy easter.

I have been out of town this week - just relaxing - meeting friends and family, enjoying the holidays. Could it be better??

Here are some pics of MY easter. Crocheting, oranges, quis on the radio, snow, sun, skiing...

Just started this NEW project inspired by my super-awesome friend Tove. I love to make stuff and when I'm not at home, knitting and crocheting are some of my faves. So when Tove showed me a super-beautiful woolen blanket she made I was hooked. ;) She even shared how she made it on her blog. (for those of you who read norwegian ;) )