Archive for October, 2009

I’ve been making a few scrapbook pages lately, and wanted to share This is really my way to relax after a busy day at work and to be creative with photos and colors. I’m so glad I get to scrap with papers and elements made by talented designers in digi scrapbook land – there is a lot of creativity and talents out there – and I also love to use a template to jump start my process. I’ve found that I like the simple layouts best and anything with blocks or circles are usually a winner. I love to use more than one photo – but every once in a while I let that one really good or meaningful photo shine. Lately I’ve been doing a few 2 pagers and I love that too!

So here we go, a few recent layouts:

……………………. new room ………………………………

journal: You brought a box with cars on our first moving day. You sat down on the floor in the middle of your huge new room and started playing. I think you loved the room instantly, I’m glad you now have space for books, toys and friends. A room for happy memories!

credits:
template by Janet Phillips; papers, alpha and elements from Girls Are Yucky by designs by Lili (from the digi files for October); stitches by Syrin

……………………. a Sunday afternoon ………………….

journal:
a Sunday afternoon makes for
| a little stroll in the woods |
| following the map of a leaf |
| visiting a farm where nobody lives |
| cutting some grass |
| some jumping and standing on ones hands|
| nice conversations |

credits:
template by Yin Designs; papers and elements from Going Green by Inkin’ Creations

……………………. Halloween – to me ……………………

credits: template by me (lime); papers and elements from Spooks by Sweet Tomato designs

journal: I have never carved a pumpkin…
Growing up in Norway in the 70th (and 80th), I didn’t know much about the tradition and celebrations of Halloween. It was first in my teens that I started to learn a few things about it, mostly from watching American sit Com’s and dramas on TV. I didn’t pay much attention to it, though, the series mostly aired on the wrong time of the year anyway. So most years the fall went by without much thoughts about the season celebrated in other countries. Our stores wasn’t filled with pumpkin and scary crows to remind me about it either. Now I know more about the day and how it is celebrated, I also know a bit about the days origin. It’s still not a part of my years of celebration, but now we can find scary masks and plastic pumpkin in stores here as well.
Lately I’ve seen Halloween emerge as a celebrated day in our country as well, even small and mostly among the young school kids. I know my kid have started to pick up on it; there might be some trick or treating coming from him in a few years (and a question for some fun and scary costumes). I guess it’s manly the commercial side of it all, that is the background for the emerge of new traditions here. I’m not sure I like that very much; If you asked me I’d rather have Thanksgiving. We live in one of the worlds riches countries, we should set of one day of the year to give thanks and to acknowledge the gift of living in a safe country.
I’ve registered that there are some different opinions among the churches wheter to celebrate this day or not; knowing a bit about the history I understand why even though I haven’t given it much thought myself since this isn’t much celebrated here. That being said there isn’t just bad associated with the season; I love the colors, the candy and the overall fun and happy thing about it. And if anyone where to come visiting us on the last day of October, I surely would go in search of any kind of candy or sweets to give them

……………………. spooky ………………………………….

Credit: template by Janet Phillips (moderated); elements and papers from Spooks by Sweet Tomato designs

journal: September evenings are dark and never long enough. My dad usually works on the field till he can’t distinguish the grains from the grass – and then he have a few many things to take care off ion the farm; in the darkness. MT helped him hold the light one of these fall nights- and he had so much fun making scary faces and spooking around with the flash light. Safe in the darkness, with his Grandpa right by his side.

–> jump over to my lime scrapped blog and get the links to a blog train with freebies made with the Spooks kit from Sweet Tomato designs.

……………………. morning frost ………………………….

journal: The last day of Sept 09 gave us a chilly morning with lots of frost on the ground (for the second time this season). It was cold, but also soooo beautiful that I almost forgot the cold for a while and then the promise of some sunshine helped a lot as well.

On a side note:
The only problem I have with this (besides the cold factor) is that my car only have summer tires, I hate driving on slippery road being unsure if I’ll stay on or not!
But I don’t really want to change them myself either…..

credits:
template by Janet Phillips papers and element from Enchanted a collab from Pretty Scrappy; stitches by Syrin

……………………. poisonous ……………………………..

journal: I don’t like eating mushroom, but I absolutely love bringing my camera out into the woods to take photos of them. It’s one of my favorite photo objects in fall season. And then I don’t have to worry about if the mushroom is poisonous or not. In fact I love taking photos of the most uneatable fungus. They have the most amazing colors.

This photo was taken in the woods right above our house on one of our few walks in the fall of 2009. A busy time with packing and moving. Glad I captured some of the fall special….

credits:
template by Janet Phillips; papers and element from Enchanted a collab from Pretty Scrappy

……………………. splash …………………………………..

journal: This summer we went back to our friends in the western part of Norway. MT got to spend a few days with old friends. Here he is down by their pier jumping in the water like he’s done nothing else all his life.. With the life jacket he felt safe and secure. Good thing.

I can remember when I tired to take him into the pool at the resort down in Ethiopia. He screamed NO, no! He was too afraid of the water to even stick his toe into it. Now look at him!

credits: template by Janet Phillips; alpha by Denise Beatty Originals; all else from Calm Cool Collected by Designs by Mel

……………………. tumbling ……………………………….

journal: Sometimes MT have to tag along with me when I head out in the evening. Especially when we are going places where he can find something fun to do while I’m working. Here he is tumbling around while I joined a club night with the church youths in a room next door to the gym.

credits:
template by Janet Phillips; papers and elements from Tiny Tumblers by Design by Angel

……………………. the piano player ……………………..

Credits: papers and elements from American Symphony (September collab) by Pretty Scrappy; edge overlay by Feifei’s stuff; staples by Pailee Press; template by Janet Phillips

Journal: He used to play music everyday, more or less. He used to play guitar and piano and he did sing too. Lately he’s been so busy with life, family and work that music became a thing of the past.
Then my grandmother died – and we both remembered our promise to her: we should sing at her funeral. As sad an occasion as it was, I’m still glad it got my brother back behind the piano. And I think we both found it meaningful to honor our grandma’s wish in the way we did (and as we also did at both our grandfathers funerals as well so many years ago).
Some day in the near future I hope to sing with him on an happy occasion as well. Don’t let the music slip away little brother!

–> some of these I did a while back, but I haven’t shared them before so I will now:

……………………. 6 years old ………………………………

journal:   On his 6th birthday MT celebrated with friends, cake and lots of playing outdoors. He just loved it from start to end and he was so happy everybody could come – and didn’t mind them bringing him gifts either. LOL. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day. Our home. April 22nd 2009

credits:
papers and elements from Happy Day by GET designs; #6 from Pretty Scrappy Designers collab; template by Wendy Zein; stitches by Mira Designs; happy birthday from Catscrap celebrating freebie by Cathrine

……………………. pancakes ………………………………

journal:
Every now and then we make pancakes for dinner. Just to celebrate our everyday life with something sweet. I’ve tried to teach MT to eat them with blueberry or something like that, but it didn’t take! So now we eat our pancakes with sugar and nothing else. It’s a treat, but only a couple times a month.

credits:
template by Janet Phillips; alpha, paper and elements from Scrapping and Snapping, The Digi Files for August; paper from Sprung by Creashens; stitches from Silly by K. Studio

……………………. crazy jumping …………………………

journal:
Every now and then MT get the urge to do some indoor jumping. He goes for it with precision, speed and joy while throwing himself into the soft pillows of our sofa. IKEA promised that it would hold hard use, so he’s allowed using the sofa in whatever fashion he needs, we still have a few years left on that 10 years guarantee.

Our Living Room, late August 2009

credits:
papers from Little Boy’s pocket by designs by Mel; template by Janet Phillips; stitches and wordart by TaylorMade design

………………… the end ………………………….

The post got a bit longer than I planned, thank you so much for reading to the bitter sweet end Have a blessed week! I’ll better find my bed, it’s past midnight in my neighborhood….

This Sunday was all about keeping two thoughts in our head at the same time.

1. we are loved by God and are free to live with joy
2. we are different from God and do (or don’t do) things that mess up our relationship with God

In our service today we had both this aspects clearly with us: 4 children where there to be baptized and we had a special liturgy focusing on our need to repent and pray for mercy (we called the day bots- og bededag in Norwegian). I think we managed to give both these aspects weight through music, words and actions, but it took some preparations and thoughts throughout the week.

If we speak the truth about our selves – God will speak His truth.

When we realize just how much we are loved, when we realize just how much effort God took to make the wrongs right between himself and us, when we realize what we have in Jesus Christ – our life will change. We will not become perfect human beings doing nothing wrong to God or the people around us, but we will dare to go to our God with our life; the good and the bad. We can do that because through Jesus we are forgiven, still sinners – but forgiven sinners.

So speak the truth and receive Gods grace and forgiveness. There is nothing like it (and to be honest we need it more than once a year!).

Blessings

Right now..

• the evenings are getting darker and I get the urge to burn more candles
• I wish I had more time in the day to get everything done in time
• I cherish the moments spent with my kid
• the fall is at it’s most colorful. Gorgeous.
• I’m happy to have broad band installed in our new home
• I’m blessed with family and friends that make me feel good
• I’m eager and happy to get to work with and for people that appreciates me being here
• I’m happy the first service went so well and humble about the tasks coming
• I try to catch up with life both offline and online, I’m getting there but it’ll take some time
• people are working on our basement making it less damp and possible mouse free. A good thing.
• I’m happy to know that a few of my new colleagues also blogs and takes photos. Friends instantly.
• I have a few photos to show:
  
  1. messy office, 2. blurry water boiler, 3. Ups…, 4. table is set, 5. biking MT, 6. river in the evening, 7. shiny red, 8. Bea, 9. eating waffles, 10. some berries, 11. mixing, 12. frosty morning 4, 13. frosty river

Today I’ve been thinking about the man that got lowered down before Jesus while he (Jesus) was preaching the word of God inside a friends house. Someone thought that bringing their friend to there were more important than keeping up with the normal rule about not breaking anything that doesn’t belong to you (like a roof…). I’ve been thinking about the man laying on the stretcher; what was he thinking about it all and how did he felt when everybody was looking at him – the intruder.

I guess a myriad of thoughts and feeling went through him, but one might have struck him as something new. He got to experience that he was loved by God, maybe for the first time ever. Back then they believed that there was a reason for being sick; someone (he or his parents) must have done something really bad for him to be this sick. They thought the sickness was God’s way of punishing people for their sins. So naturally most people kept a distance to the sick people,  they couldn’t go against God’s punishments; so to speak. It’s not an easy burden to carry, in addition to being sick he also felt that God didn’t like him very much. I’m so glad we don’t think like this any more (or do we??!).

I’m so glad Jesus is by our side for the good as well as the bad days. I’m so glad that I everyday can know that Jesus loves me more than I know – he loves you too; all of us!!

The man got his life back, he got forgiven and he got his health. I’m not sure what he would say was most important if I asked him, but I know that even though life doesn’t always show it’s good side – through it all we are loved by God. We can live our life knowing that that never goes away. This week I will think about the blessing in that; even though I see sickness and hard times so many places – God does see it too.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
PS: you can find the text in Mark 2:1-12

Finally I’m back online on a regular basis. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve only been here a few minutes now and then (when I’ve got the chance to borrow someones Internet connection ) – and I love being able to check up on blogs I’m reading and loading up my stuff to galleries and such again. I know, I know, I have an www-addiction….

Anyway. We are doing great! MT is happy at school and I’m finding my way at work; slowly learning how things are done. My new colleagues are nice and welcoming, they help me figuring things out and I can’t wait to get to know them better

I’m excited (and a bit scared) about it all and look forward to meeting the congregation on Sunday for my first service here; working on the sermon as we speak.

Our home is also getting together nicely, there is off course many things to do yet (like hanging something on the walls.. or placing the washing machine in it’s little corner of the kitchen,) I have gotten many things done too. (Yay!!)

Right now I’m all alone in the house, working on my sermon, blogging, thinking, praying, washing clothes and getting ready for the weekend. In a few hours MT is finished at school and a bit later my friend is coming back to stay some more days with us (SO NICE!!) We don’t see her often enough since we live so far from each other, so having her visit for a week is super great for both me and kiddo.

A little bit of everyday life and new things from me.

Take care and be blessed!!

anneberit

Cara of Sweet Tomato Designs have given me a place on her CT team. I’m so happy and can’t wait to start creating with her designs. As a CT for Pretty Scrappy (the store) I’ve already scrapped with two her kits, the Darjeeling Kit and Autumn Bliss

I love her deep, rich colors; the yellow in both of these kits are making me feel light and warm This is what I have made before (click images for credits and journaling):

And this one I made yesterday (with an old photo I’ve been waiting to scrap forever):

I only wish I knew when this photo was captured, but the cell phone ¨photo file doesn’t tell me that. My guess is 2-3 or something years ago. I know for a fact that it’s taken when we lived in the western part of Norway, but that is all (at least for now).

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We got our first snow of the season today. I was planning moving to our new house, but I’m not driving on snowy roads with my summer tires – so now I’m blogging instead

Better go and pack a few more boxes, this snow is bound to go away in a few hours and then we’ll see if we are in the mood for moving like planned – or if we rather stay here a little bit more (having fun surfing on our broad band, hehe). In that case we are going to the store because we are out of a few essentials…… Anyhow, see you around!!

1. I made pesto and pasta for lunch today. Reminds me that I HAVE to grow basil at home next summer.

2. I can’t believe we’re only 1 day from moving. Iiiiik + Yippi

3. I’ve ordered a super fast broad band for our new place. Can’t wait for it to be installed (2-3 weeks).

4. I’m on the search for a new stove (electric), the one I have is really old and used by my grandma before I got it from her 15 years ago or something. I’m torn about it, because it means spending more money (that I don’t have), but excited to get to cook on my very own new stove for the first time in my life! Recommendations is appreciated.

[This photo is old, from my previous house in Sogn - I was making food for my sons baptism and made a real mess of it But it was the only one I could find with the stove in it.... Hehe]

5. Today I can’t spell. So glad I have extensions that help me fix most of them….

6. My kid has his last day at this school, he was super excited about the cakes they where going to eat. I wonder if he understands that this is good bye?!? I know he’s looking forward to start the new school, so it’ll probably be alright.

7. Being without job for a month has been SO GOOD. I’ve done a lot of thinking and regrouping, I’ve joined a few new things online (classes and more) and have gotten some time just for me and the things I love to do (blog, take photo, type words, read blogs and more).

8. MY CAR IS FINISHED. It really made my day yesterday when I got the news. The car has been in the garage for almost 2 months, and even though I’ve driven my old car (that I gave to daddy – and now he’s been without..) – it shall be soooo good to get to drive the red car again!! A new engine has been installed (!) so now I hope everything will run smoothly. And hopefully there will be no more car issues in the next couple of years (or more..).

9. My friend Bea is coming to visit me in a couple of weeks. Sweet. Maybe I’ll get her to cut my hair?! It’s that time again for sure… Looking forward to nice talks and lots of smiles – and images of her new baby girl grandchild. Yay!!

10. I LOVE the beautiful frosty mornings. Even better when I get winter tires and a ticker coat.