100th post giveaway!!

This giveaway is now closed!

I have finally reached my 100th post! I guess I'm not the most eager blogger since it has taken me about two and a half years to reach this number.... It has been so much fun all the way from the beginning when I was only blogging about ATCs through family life and now my knitting and sewing. So many of you have been a big inspiration to me... there are so many great blogs and bloggers "out there"...

Anyway... I'd like to celebrate this "milestone" with a little giveaway. I really appreciate all of your comments, questions and support, and I'm happy that you take time to visit me. I think you all deserve a present... but, that would probably ruin me... so one lucky(??) reader will get a little something from me. I've put together a little "winter care packet" (handmade by me) consisting of:

One pair of pocket slippers. To keep your feet warm so you (hopefully) avoid the sniffles. These are really stretchy, so they'll fit most people.

If the slippers can't hold the sniffles away, I've added a travel tissue holder (with tissues)... so at least you can have the sniffles with a bit more style... hmmm....I've also added a couple of small fabric hearts on a string to cheer you up. Hang them on a peg on your wall, on your christmas tree, or as I do, on a couple of candles...(or chuck them in a drawer so you don't have to see them...)

All you have to do to be in the drawing for these things, is to leave me a comment on this post. I would love to hear from everybody... the lurkers as well. I think it is so much fun seeing who visits my blog, and to go visit their blog back. You have until midnight next monday (10th November 08). I will do the draw next tuesday. Make sure I have a way of contacting you in case you win.

While we're waiting...

...for my post no 100 (stay tuned... I'll have a giveaway), I thought I'd show you some wintry photos of the snow we've got the last coupla' days, but blogger won't let me upload any... so I guess I'll answer the challenge I got from my mum (Sonjas side) a while back instead then... (I'll do this one in Norwegian since the questions are in Norwegian... can't be bothered to translate them...)

1. Hvilken mat eter du ofte?
Ofte? Hva menes med ofte? Jeg spiser jo brød flere ganger hver dag... ellers har det gått mye i fiskemat (fiskekaker, fiskepudding, fiskeboller) og pølser etter at vi flyttet "hjem" til Norge igjen. Det var noe jeg savnet da jeg bodde utenlands.

2. Når du er i selskap, er du den personen som sitter, eller hjelper du til?
Tjaaa... det kommer vel litt an på det da. Jeg pleier å hjelpe til hvis det passer sånn, men det er jo ikke alltid det er så greit å blande seg inn... kommer an på hva slags selskap.

3. Hvor sitter du helst når du blogger?
Da sitter jeg på roterommet/datarommet (og forhåpentligvis snart syrommet) i øveretasjen.

4. Kjøper du ofte skrapelodd?
Nei! Det tror jeg faktisk aldri jeg har kjøpt. Har jo fått noen i gave da... liker veldig godt å skrape dem og se om jeg vinner... jeg har forresten kanskje kjøpt skrapelodd av gevinsten et par ganger...

5.Hvilket land eller by har vært din beste ferie?
Syria! Uten tvil! Vi besøkte foreldrene mine, som bodde ett år i Damascus, i tre og en halv uke da eldstejenta var 5-6 måneder gammel (2003). Vi var der akkurat da krigen mellom USA og Irak brøt ut, så det var jo litt spesielt (Irak er nabolandet til Syria). Folkene i Syria var helt fantastiske... så gjestfrie og hyggelige. Tror ikke jeg har møtt noe folkeslag som jeg har likt så godt før. Det eneste jeg kan "klage på" var at nærmeste nabo var en moske... og høyttalerne som kalte til bønn flere ganger om dagen var rettet rett mot verandaen vår, men det var jo egentlig litt artig det og.

6. Hvilken TV kanal ser du mest på?
Øhhh... ser ikke på tv. Vi har faktisk ikke tv her i huset. Æres ord! Men jeg ser jo endel på film da. Vi har prosjektør, så det blir som å ha kino i stua (som Maja sier). Greit å ha biblioteket omtrent rett utenfor døra, for der er det gratis å låne dvd'er...

What IS it???

I've been wanting to make some of these for a while now, but I didn't have a pattern and since I've never seen any in real life, I didn't have a clue how to make them. But then Tofo was so kind as to send me a pattern... and here they are;

I even crocheted a wee flower to decorate them with. Cute, ehh??

When my husband first saw these, he said "what IS that??" And when I told him he just laughed. I don't think he was too impressed.... but I like them. They are called "pocket slippers", and are really stretchy and really easy to make (and really cute too).

I'm definately going to make some more of these.

Pink drawsting

I thought Susie ought to get something as well since Maja just "ordered" a bag from me. Sus loves to put things in little bags and carry them around, and she always pinches Maja's wee bags. So I used some more of my flea market fabric and made her a pink drawstring bag.

It wasn't easy to take a pic of the new owner... she's always sooo busy...

...So I caught her while she was stuffing her toys in her new bag.

Ok, so she finally tired of running and stuffing and stood still long enough for me to get (a good) one.

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I just want to mention there is a great give away over HERE.

Strawberries in October

It was Maja who insisted I buy the strawberry fabric at the flea market on Saturday. There was a bit of mildew on it, so I didn't really want it. But she insisted... "can't you sew me a bag of it, mum? Pleeeeeeeease?" What can you say... I guess I could just cut round the mildew... I threw it in the pile of other fabrics... And here is the bag... Tadaaa! I used one of the other flea market fabrics for the lining and pocket.
The pocket on the front is a "double" pocket, one with a zipper and one behind. Quite handy.
It has an inside pocket as well... a girl can never have too many pockets...
Maja was so eager to get her new bag, that I finished it already Sunday evening (but haven't had time to blog it before...). And here we have the new bag owner... happy as can be!

Tourists and a flea market

I just realized that we hadn't been in to see Oslo since we moved here in the beginning of August... so since Maja didn't have to go to school on Friday (they got Friday off since they had to "work" at the charity event on Thursday evening) and hubby was off work on Friday as well, we decided to spend the day as tourists... in Oslo!

So, of course, we had to do all the touristy things like: - take photos in front of pretty fountains,
-Take a picture in front of the Opera house, and walk onto the roof of same house
- lie down and enjoy the sunshine
- take photo with the guard in front of the King's castle

Well, enough of the touristy things... When we took Susie out for a walk in her push chair to get her to sleep on Saturday, we came by a flea market.... Heheyyy.... In we strode to see if we could do a bargain... It's been years, and I mean years (probably a decade or two), since I went to a proper Norwegian flea market. I was a bit apprehensive, bringing this stack of fabric to the lady behind the desk... thinking this will be a fortune (everything is expensive here), but boy was I wrong... Happy happy joy joy... I paid next to nothing for this... Some of the bits are quite small but a couple of these fabrics were huge!
I also found these wall hangers that I'm sure I can use for something.
I've already found use for the blue one. I cross stitched this dream catcher... ehhh... (blush)... five years ago, and I still haven't hung it on the wall. I didn't have a wall hanger for it... All it needs now is some interfacing on the back and it's ready to hang.
Just a detail of the dream catcher. I used beads and metallic thread for effect on it. I can't wait to hang it in my bedroom...

Carrots and mice

I've been baking today. Maja's school was arranging a night for collecting money for this years tv charity event, and everyone was asked to make a cake. I decided on Maja's favourite... carrot cake.
P1 was responsible for selling the things the pupils had made. There was lots of things to choose from... decorated boxes, mints, jam, felted apples... P1 had made mice with a peg inside (for hanging notes...) so I had to have one of those. I bought the one Maja'd made.

Here we have Maja (and her teacher) in action... I think she took great pleasure in "working" in the shop...

Over and done with...

Today I feel a bit... I don't know, not empty but... dunno... I didn't really know what to fill my day with (even though I still have boxes from the move to unpack). I guess the planning and making things for the market has taken a lot more time and energy than I thought... And now it's all over.

We had a beautiful day at Bortelid on Saturday. The weather gods were on our side and there were plenty of visitors.

Here my mum is getting our stall ready. Her rugs are on display, we only have to arrange the table...
The table is finally set up and ready for customers.
We were lucky with the weather. Nice and sunny and not too cold. It was a bit windy though, so I'm glad we had a tent. There were plenty of visitors to the market as well.
My mum in action...

The sale went fairly well. It could, of course, have been better (couldn't it always...??). At least I didn't lose any money on this, and my sales covered the petrol money for getting there.... and I'm happy with that. We met a lot of really nice people and I hope to be able to do this again sometime. (There are more photos over on my mum's blog)

And over to something totally different: Maja has finally lost her first tooth!! Hoorayyy!!!

Ready for the market

I'm almost ready for the market at Bortelid this Saturday. I'm putting price tags and my card on all the things at the moment. Just thought I'd show you some of the things I've been working on lately and will be selling at the marked.

Here are my egg warmer hens... Aren't they cute?? Well I think so, and I hope someone else does too, or else I'll be able to have one heck of an egg party afterwards...!

I've also made three angels. Christmas angels or all year round angels?? That's up to the buyer. These are my own design. I got inspiration for these from different places, but I made the pattern for them myself (couldn't find a pattern I liked.... I loaned the pattern for the wings from a "Tilda" book though)

Toilet bags and make up purses in different sizes and designs. Most of them I didn't use a pattern for, but the pattern for the two box bags in the lower right corner I kindly got from Elna W. Næss.
The colours are more true on this picture...

Travel Tissue Holders...
And some hearts to hang...
I've also done some crocheting. Old fashioned pot holders.
And knitting. Dishcloths. I used the ballband pattern for these.
(I think maybe the colours got a bit rich on this one...)
Knitted woolly socks... will keep your feet warm. I only made one of those though...
I also have a few things more, but I think I've showed them before, so I'll leave them for now.

I'm very excited about this whole market thing. I've never done anything like this before. Hope someone wants to buy something.... that would make me happy. And if not... I've sure had a good time planning and making all this.

I'm back, I'm back!!

I'm just popping in to tell you all that I'm finally back online. One should think we'd moved to a third world country when it comes to telephone and broadband... we've been in the new house since 1st August and we got broadband only a couple of days ago... Don't know what took so long.

Anyway.... At the moment I'm trying to sort out my 600+ emails and I've got a lot of catching up to do, so this won't be a long piece... Just thought I'd let you know that I'm still here.

The move to Norway went well, and as you all know we spent a few weeks at my parent's house while waiting for this place. We're now almost settled in our new place... just a few more boxes to go. I'm running out of places to put everything though, so I'm not quite sure what to do with the last boxes. I've kind of just put them to one side and decided to deal with them later. And by later I mean after the autumn market at Bortelid on Saturday (11th Oct). My mum and I will have a stall there, selling (hopefully...!) things we've made.

Trying to make things to sell in between moving house and staying with parents hasn't been easy. I've been sneaking off sewing 2 minutes here and 2 minutes there while unpacking, cleaning, playing with my kids, bringing and picking Maja up from school and trying to find all my "sewing accessories" and fabric... but I'm getting there. I don't have any pictures of what I've made yet, but I promise to show you later.

Today I've been baking a cake for Maja to bring to school tomorrow. It'll be her 6th birthday!! We won't have a birthday party for her this year since we don't really know anyone here yet, but we'll make the most of it and go out somewhere for a meal (probably pizza...) and take her to see a film at the cinema on Tuesday.