Gingerbread baking has begun!

Just to let you all know: we have officially started the Christmas preparations in this house, despite our hectic days..
On Saturday I made the dough for gingerbread and I also made a box of "chocolatey rice puff ball- thingys" a lot of Norwegian Moms make to make their kids happy...
On Sunday morning we baked gingerbread from half the dough before we got sick of it and decided to leave the rest for later..
Then we made coffee and brought some of the gingerbread men with us to the hospital to see B.
I am supposed to get the hospital bed and the other stuff he needs on Wednesday so I'm hoping they will let him come home on the weekend at least.... We'll have to see how the doctors respond to that suggestion, i think B will ask them tomorrow..
Please, pretty please, let us have him here just from Friday to Sunday to begin with!!

New things for the house

Got an aquaintance to frame these pictures for me. Steep price but it will look nice with my old couch I think.. I have moved it into the other living room. we have two new chairs for the other room, but are still waiting for the couch.. It is supposed to come before Christmas.






I bought these little glass cups with frosted rose pattern for 10 kroner (NOK)= next to nothing. I have put them on a glass tray and thought they will be nice for advent- will think of something to decorate the tray with until then..





Last Saturday I went to a fabric sale and got fabric for curtains for the living room that I showed you in this posting. Don't have much time for sewing rihgt now, but I'm sure the room will come together nicely when they are done..
They also had dirt cheap lamps and shades there so I bought two of these:


Yesterday my aunt visited from out of town. We went to see my mother for a while, then we had lunch at my house and spent a few hours just talking and drinking coffee. She likes to knit and do crafts too, so a good part of the conversation revolved around that.
It is Sunday (seems to be the best day for blogging for me,,) and we are puttering around in our PJ's too long and have no intentions of hurrying with anything. We will go visit B in the hospital and bring coffee and gingerbread in early afternoon, but most of the day will be spent slouching on the couch I think. A heavenly thought after a busy week.

Wintertime is here to stay...?

This was the view from our one living room windows the other day. My youngest took the picture.








I went back to work on Monday. It's been a pretty hectic week. i was making sure I went to bed early (which really is against my nature!) and I got kind of worried when I woke up at three in the morning on Wednesday and couldn't go back to sleep until five.. But I was alright the next day.. and i slept okay the other nights...
B is doing okay, they are reducing his painkillers drastically and are opting for him to come home in another couple of weeks I would think.. His physiotherapy has been stepped up as well and they put a lot of stress on upper body excercises so that he can handle being on cruthces for a long time..
I do look forward to him coming home. I would rather help him alot at home than run up to the hospital every day.I don't mean to complain though.. It's no big deal compared to what could have been...
Have not worked too much on any projects this week, but the socks are done!











..and Oh, BlISS; my favourite interior decorating magazine came this week. I had a magical hour by the fire, in the candle light, with a cup of tea, leafing through it the other night.

Father's Day

Efficiency above all! Made batter last night, baked cake while having breakfast this morning.. Put icing on after breakfast (and after this picture was taken) and now we had both Father's Day cake to bring up to B at the hospital and 3/4 to stick in the freezer for Christmas.
I'm just going to have to lower my ambitions about Christmas by the way. I am not going to be able to handle visiting B, walking the dog, taking care of laundry, helping the kids with homework, keeping the house in order(more or less..as always)and preparing for Christmas- all this after supper on regular work days...
Even though we made a list -the girls and I - so that we could share some of the chores it's absolutely necessary to make sure I don't get all stressed out.
I wake up stiff as a pole in my back every morning, and this week I go back to work. We'll see how that goes...

anyhow.. here are the collaged cards we made for hubby/daddy.
The youngest's card in the making;














The oldest's being created;
















my card:
















We also took the dog with us in the car, and had B come daownstairs to the entrance in a wheelcaihr so he could say hello to her for the first time in weeks.

Now it is time for a coffee, browsing a few blogs and later tonight I have to work on a certain Christmas present...I say no more...

Rise and shine...!

Waaaay too early to get up- it's 4 in the morning, but I'm awake and cannot seem to fall back to sleep..
I'll show what my sister sent me in the mail last week:





a cute little heart to hang on the Christmas tree (or any other place). Sending something by mail these days are a rare thing, but that's exactly why it is exciting!
I sewed her a little heart of tea-dyed fabric with the words "God jul" (Merry Christmas)embroidered in red on the one side and "velkommen" (welcome) on the other and with a loop so you can hang it on the door knob if you like.
FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE! But it is in the same style as I made these inlast year:







But I do have photoes of the collaged card I made:
Here the front:







...And the back











... and the package/handmade tag:(that says: "Remember this: make art"






I started a sock on Thursday night. Used yarn named "Butterfly". I bought it when I was in Oslo/Røyken on september. It was on sale for 10 NOK (Norwegian currency), it's fuzzy and the right blend for makin socks. Made them for my youngest and we agreed they are perfect for morning/evenings when you sit around in your pyjamas in the wintertime. Started the other one before going to bed last night.








we all went to see B in the hospital after supper yesterday: Brought coffee and cookies (pepperkaker) and tangerines.
When we came home we discovered that the movie "the girl with the pearl earrings was on a swedish channel so we watched that.( I watched it quite intently while knitting socks, the girls on an off until the last half hour, then they got really into it. It was a lot better than what I anticipated.
click on the picture if you want to find out more about the movie.

Last week of sick-leave

I have been off work because of B's accident for three weeks and I thought for a while that after the two first week I'd be able to get more time to sit around at home just knitting and -doing nothing. But there's two days left of this work week and I still run around, although not quite as bogged down...
I am at least taking time this morning to blog a little!!!
Went to the knitting cafe last night too, that is always nice.
Beside a Christmas present I'm faithfully working at I'm knitting on this one:


It's made out of the left over yarn from this shawl I made for my sister last year:













...and the pattern is to be found as this:







It's from the book "Fargerik strikk" (colourful knits) by Lisbeth Bjørndal.
If you are about to serve a long prison term or got stranded or a deserted island - and you only got to bring 3 items, I would suggest yarn; Hifa 2, needles size 3 and the book i just mentioned... All WONDERFUL patterns- but you need TIME, sister!!!






I am also working on another sitting pad to be felted, but the knitting is so outrageously boring that it is coming along quite slowly... They are only for us in this family . so no deadlines have to be met, thank goodness.












Bought some remnant Christmas fabric last year, and the other day I made a bag for ...hmm, nuts, maybe?. Have enough fabric for another one, but my last sewing machine needle broke and I haven't taken it out of the cupboard since I bought new ones...


Later this week I'll show the little mailbox surprise I got from my sister last week - and what I sent her back...

My previous entry just proves that I'm not quite with it since B's accident...
I never write in Norwegian in this blog but last time I did and I didn't even notice until next time I went in on this site...
It's Friday night, I have NO PLANS tonight other than sitting in a chair, watching TV, having a "Christmas beer" by the fire.Maybe some crafting.. All in all an evening at home aimlessly sitting around letting myself slip into a light katatonic state.
Haven't had an evening like this for so long. Even the walk with the dog was relaxing tonight. These last nights it's just been like anonther chore I have to get done before I move on to the next one- before I run up to the hospital..
The kids will probably not need me for much conversation tonight, but I'm sure they'll enjoy my physical presence in the house at this hour..

Not long ago I received this issue of "Cloth. Paper and Scissors".
Always a great day when that arrives in the mail.




I also bought myself a magnetic pattern board and magnifying glass to use for patterns and needlepoint.





And I got some gorgeous yarn from "Mauds garn", it is imported and hand dyed from Lorna's lace, i think it's called. I rolled it up in balls just so I could feel it run through my fingers. Have NO IDEA what to use it for yet. It's superwash by the way..






Last- but not at all the least: my sister gave me a gift when I was at their house when B was in the hospital in Oslo: LOOK HOW CUTE! A BOX FROM "TILDA". Was that a nice surprise gift or what!!!
It cannot be revealed what's in there.