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….

(The photo is from 2005! My favorite snow monster )

It is the first snow non the less, and now I wonder if I’m ready for this cold, white and beautiful season. Have I changed my car tires? NO. Have I covered my flowers and the well? NO. Have I put aside summer furniture on my veranda? NO. Have I removed the ashes from my wood stove? YES.

I might have a few things to take care off. Anyone want to change the tires on my car???!

Anyway, I have a to-do list on the INside as well! It’s short, but not easy as it sounds:

1. Get the things off my floors and vacuum!

I have a bad habit of not picking up after me when something falls to the floor. Need I say anything more for you to get the picture?

The reward is computer time. I haven’t created anything for a few days and I feel the urge. I love to work with my photos, make digi scrapbook pages and mess around with my PSE (photoshop elements). I learn something new every day! I really want to figure out how to make my own papers and elements, how cool wouldn’t that be. This is a few examples of what I’ve made so far, just trying out using my own photo as a background and blending and such…..

It makes me so happy to have colors and creativity in my life again!

Speaking of scrapbooking. There is this thing called a CT-team (as in creativity team, or something), every serious designer (of the scrapbook kind) have one of these. When you’re on this team you both get and give, you get to download and scrap with free supplies and then you give the designer credits and lets her use the scrapbook page made with the designers papers and elements (the kit) for promoting their stuff. Sometimes the rules are a bit different (they can be anything, really) but this is the basic. This is also a great way for anyone scrapping digitally to get in touch with others, to learn and get inspired. To be on a ct-team you have to apply and be approved. I’ve applied for two. The first one was for a one kit only. The second one is to be on a ct-team for a shop and do LO’s for different designers every two week. I haven’t started the latest one yet – but the first one is finished, and here is what I made for Jessica of Scrapbook Ideas with her color theory: OLIVE kit:

You can read a bit more about this in my scrapping LIME blog (there is even a more few more post about it, the link is to the first post)

So that is a bit of my life right now

By the way; if you got some time on your hands and do love to use your hands making stuff – you should head over to Ali for this super idea for capturing the December memories. I wish to make something similar, but maybe just digitally at first?!?!?!?!?!?! It is a really great idea, but then Ali tend to have great ideas

Take care and enjoy the fall into winter season!!!