Only Tuesday!

The week just started, and I can't wait for the weekend! My DH left Saturday morning and isn't coming back until sometime Thursday, but for a long weekend - and I can't wait!! I'm really not cut out to be a "single mum" and those who do it alone all the time have my utmost respect! It will probably get easier the older the girls get, but right now, I can't even take a proper shower in the morning, or a) the floor gets all wet because they just have to tell me something very important and thus get the shower curtain all to one side, or b) I close the door and they hammer on it the whole time, yelling that they just have to tell me something important and it just can't wait LOL

This morning we overslept. I don't have an alarm, because my 2 year old functions really well as an alarm most of the time, demanding breakfast sometime between 4:30 and 6:30 am. This morning, she decides to sleep in LOL so at 7:55 I wake up, with the kitchen a mess, school- and swimbag unsorted, needing to clean up the kitchen and prepare mid morning coffee for the carpenters, needing to find clean clothes for the girls and myself, clean up, brush teeth etc etc. And Lovisa needs to be in school by 8:30. Well, we got there at 8:40 - so she was late, but not by much. But, I don't want to repeat this morning anytime soon LOL It should teach me to get everything cleaned and ready the night before - but it probably won't!

Anyways, on to my layouts :)I took this photo of Lovisa Lin at the beginning of September and I just loved it. She was going around and around on that swing thing and I just thought there was so much motion in the photo. Didn't really know how to scrap it, but decided to just extract it and experiment with shadows to attempt a "swing off the page" effect LOL I like it - and it did get a mention in the General Standouts Thread at DST this weekend, so I'm really happy about that!

I used Birgit Kerr and Flerg's gorgeous Autumn Glory collab - it's fabulous! If you haven't gotten it yet, consider yourself enabled :)

This one I did for my ongoing challenge of finishing up my 2007 photos!! It shows Lovisa's love of doing the dishes LOL It's just too bad that their enthusiasm for houseworks leaves them before it's any use!!
I used a lot of different things from Karah Fredricks in this layout - her store is gorgeous, you really should take a look :)

Now, isn't she cute LOL This is another one for my 2007 album - I just haven't figured out where to add the journaling, so I left it as is for the moment. This is from the end of May 2007 and Matthildur was 11 months. She had been walking for over a month already, but couldn't quite keep up with her big sister when it came to running around in the grass. It was just too uneven and soft for her balance. So she sat herself down and just watched wistfully while Lovisa ran around. I just bet she was thinking: "You just wait, I'll catch up with you eventually...!" :)
I used Peta Boardman's gorgeous Innocence. I probably said so already somewhere, but I'm guesting for Peta this month and she has some seriously awesome designs!!

Last one today, I promise :) These are Lovisa Lin (white tank top), Matthildur Inga (middle) and their friend. We were visiting North-west Iceland at the end of July and caught the best weather ever! It would even have been considered warm in other countries LOL
I used Amanda Rockwell's Cord Stack papers and her Sweet Sugar kit for this layout. Amanda's stuff is amazing! I can't believe I got on her CT!! I did this layout for a scraplift challenge over at Scrap Artist.

Alright, that's it. I better get coffee on the table for the carpenters, wake up my 2 year old and pick my 5 year old up from her piano lesson. As always, the layouts are all linked for full credit.

Thank you so much for stopping by :)

Revamp...

I decided to try and revamp my blog. I've always been too intimidated by the html code to ever try. Yesterday, however, I got Shabby Miss Jenn's Autumn Flea Market Blog pack - and it's so stinkin' cute that I just had to try :) And I managed most of it - I still have no clue as to how to replace the boring labels in the sidebar with the jpg/png images that came with the pack, but I might figure it out. Or not LOL If anyone has an idiot prove tut somewhere - please turn me in that direction!!
Here's the blog pack and the gorgeous kit it's made from, Autumn Flea Market...

And here's a layout I did with SMJ's kit.

It's totally fantastic and just amazing to work with!! Oh - and it's in the weekend standouts thread over at DST and it's also in the Standing O's over at OScraps!!

Ok - I've got a few layouts to show. First of all, Dawn Inskip just released a new template, it's called Wish You Were Here and it's perfect for travel layouts. I used it with a kit I just discovered in Dawn's store. It's called Timeless Treasures and it sure is a treasure!! I've used it twice already.

I used it as a front page for our Novembe3 2004 travel album. This was Lovisa Lin's first trip to the US and her third continent even though she was not even 2 years old yet.The photos are taken at the international airport in Keflavik and we were getting ready to board. She was excited, but also anxious, since this was her first visit to Uncle Siggi's and Aunt Jennie's. After a 10 day visit, she had Siggi and Jennie wrapped around her little finger and didn't want to leave LOL

Studio Phuong has a new paper pack in her store. It's gorgeous, and she calls the pack Fallen. The texture and warmth on those papers is amazing! I have a feeling there might be accompanying element packs in the future ;) Since it's not out yet, I used elements from Phuong's beautiful kits, Serenity and Floral Grunge...

These are my daughters last fall. We went to this cottage one weekend in October and while there, visited a site where one of Iceland's greatest 13th century authors once lived. They are standing in front of the door to his "pool house" - or the tunnel leading from the pool to the main house. The pool is circular but not big, a medium sized man can stand in the middle and easily reach both sides with his hands. But it's a natural hot water pool - and really cool :)

Ok - last one today. I did this one for the Unique Style challenge over at the Catscrap blog. They usually have the coolest challenges! I used Creashen's As I Am, mostly, for the layout, and it just shows my lovely 2 year old in July.Off to try and figure out the rest of the html stuff LOL As always, the layouts are linked for full credit - and thank you so much for stopping by :)

Shabby Girl...

...I'm a Shabby Girl!!! Shabby Miss Jenn just announced her new CT members - and I'm a full time member on her team!!! I can't really believe that I'm part of her team - this is like an all star team - and me!! I'm just smiling from ear to ear :)

In other news - the winds are howling outside and picking up speed. They are up to 80 miles per hour and getting stronger. It's supposed to be windy like that for the rest of the week. I have mixed feelings about the autumn storms, if I don't have to go anywhere, and my family is home - I love to snuggle up listening to the wind. If I need to be somewhere else, or if my DH is out on sea, like right now, I REALLY hate the sound of the wind.

Anyways, I've really gone overboard on all the fantastic fall kits out there - and some of the designers I CT for have just designed the most fabulous kits. Birgit Kerr and Flergs got together and designed an amazing fall kit called Autumn Glory. It really just has to be seen to be believed!!

Gorgeous kit - but really, would you expect something else from these two!!?? I've done one page with it. I took these photos on a walk we took in Reykjavik in the fall of 2006. We don't get too many of the beautiful colors here where I live, since it's usually too windy for the leaves to actually stay around long enough to change colors LOL - but they do in other parts of the country. Anyhow, Lovisa Lin had so much fun - and the weather was just so great...And here's one page for our China album. This is Lovisa Lin at 15 months and we had signed her adoption papers just the day before. She never cried during this whole process, but you could just tell she was grieving. Her eyes were always wet from unshed tears and she always had a solemn look. Quite a bit different from the vibrant happy 5,5 year old that she is today.

I used a combination of Cinzia Loosemore's My Journey and Live in Color. Then I found this amazing quote by Anna Aspnes. It somehow fit the layout perfectly!

This next one is for Vera Lim's blog challenge. This week the challenge is to scraplift Antje's (one of Vera's CT members) gallery. Her gallery is stunning - so if you plan on taking part in the challenge I can pretty much promise that you'll have a hard time choosing just one layout of hers to lift. Here's my layout...if you check out Vera's blog you can see which one of Antje's I chose to lift :)I used Vera's brand new Fallin' 4 Fall kit again. This kit is fabulous - and I know I'll use it a lot!!

And here's my one non-CT layout for now :) I used Milla Design's gorgeous Autumn Leaves to scrap my 2 year old on a fun, and cold, and windy, and wet walk we took on Saturday. That about sums up fall in Icelan - cold, windy and wet!! Well, she had fun - we did too, actually :) We jumped in a lot of puddles, got really wet from rain and puddles, saw sheep and beautiful waterfalls - and when we got back home and walked past the rocky shore, there were some seals enjoying the wet and windy weather too LOL I tried getting a good photo of the seals, but they were too far away and I couldn't hold my hand steady enough to get a clear shot at maximum zoom.Can you tell she had fun LOL

Layouts are linked for full credit - thank you so much for stopping by!!

Rainy Days...

We have had some rainy and windy days over the weekend. It started Friday and from the looks of it, the rain won't let up any time soon. And the wind will only pick up more speed. We are supposed to get stormy weather on Wednesday and Thursday - maybe next weekend will be better :) The good part is, that when there is a storm, my DH's boat is usually not on sea, and now he'll get 2 extra days at home! Yeah for that!

Scrapwise, I think I lost my mojo somewhere. So if you find it, please return it to me LOL

I did manage a couple of pages over the weekend...This is Matthildur Inga, my 2 year old, at the end of July. We were camping and there was a field of dandelions close by so Lovisa Lin and Matthildur Inga went over there. At first it was only Lovisa who was blowing on them, but soon Matthildur wanted to try too. She found a nice full dandelion, put it to her mouth and blew on it a little. And then she inhaled LOL - filling her mouth with all the pesky little dandelion seeds :) Not fun!! And blowing dandelion suddenly lost all it's charm!!
I used Dawn Inskip's Timeless Treasures kit and her gorgeous new Clearly Creative Overlays.

I've said it before, I'm desperately trying to finish up my 2007 photos, and I have a whole lot of photos of my little one from January, there were just so many firsts for her that month! She sat up for the first time, she got her first tooth and she pulled herself up to a standing position for the first time at the middle of January, at the ripe old age of 6,5 months. She hasn't stopped since LOLThis is her first standing up photo :) She was so proud of herself and kept trying to get us to clap for her LOL It wasn't that hard - we were pretty proud of her too!!
I did this one using Peta Boardman's beautiful Innocence kit. It's fantastic!!

The last layout, I just finished this afternoon. I used a brand new kit by Vera Lim, Fallin' 4 Fall, which will hit her stores at SBG and VLD sometime tomorrow. It's EVERYTHING you would ever expect from a fabulous Vera Lim kit - and more!!!

This is Lovisa Lin on her bike and my DH on a walk we took last fall. It was at the beginning of October and the first snow had already fallen in our mountains, so our glacier looked so fresh and beautiful. The colors and the light were just perfect - so I got some good fall photos out of the walk. That and exercise LOL

Better get going, laundry is waiting - as are the dishes, unfortunately they don't put themselves in the dishwasher LOL
As usual, the layouts are linked for full credit. Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Almost midnight...

...and I can't fall asleep! So what better than to turn the computer on, surf some scrapping forums and do a layout???!!! LOL I'm totally addicted to this - I'll admit it freely and completely :) Anyways, my DH is coming home later tonight or tomorrow morning, depends how far they went this time around. Sometimes they sail so far out into the Atlantic that they are almost closer to Greenland than Iceland. Then it takes them awhile to sail back. The first few weeks after he goes back to sea are terrible for my sleep. I go to bed late, wake up early and sleep very lightly in between LOL I do get used to this, it just takes awhile.

Since it's late and I'm feeling reckless, I took the plunge and submitted a layout for publication. It's a big step for me since I'm awfully afraid of rejection LOL - but I guess you won't know if you have a shot at being published unless you try...! So here's crossing my fingers and hoping for an "Out for Publication" sign in my galleries!

Well, I haven't been very productive, scrap wise, for the past few days. I've only managed three layouts in three days LOL I did another layout with Peta Boardman's gorgeous Sweet Delight

It's my little sweetie being utterly adorable with her binkie LOL I love this stage - not the binkie, but the 2 year old stage. There is so much progress each and every day - and it's so amazing to watch!

Amanda Rockwell put a new kit up in her store at the end of last week. It's so much fun and gorgeous like all her stuff is. It's called Backyard Whimsy...

There is a story that goes with this one LOL. We went to England in June 2005 with my in laws. Lovisa Lin was 2,5 and all she wanted to do was visit farm parks, or "go see farmers" like she put it :) So, we went to a lot of them. Usually the animals were fenced in (or the visitors really) so there was minimum contact except to put some food in ones palm and let them eat it through the fence - which she LOVED. Then, at this one place, there was a goat roaming around free as a bird - and it was a pretty big goat, big enough to lick Lovisa's face LOL - and she did NOT like that. The goat just wouldn't go away, just pushed and pushed for more food. Eventually we had to rescue Lovisa and go visit the playground :)

And here's my layout for today. I did this for the DST October color challenge. There's no story with this one, it's just a nice photo of Lovisa Lin when she was experiencing the crisp cool weather of fall for the first time - at least the Icelandic version of cool. She had already experienced the southern Chinese version of cool, which is quite a bit warmer LOL

The layouts are linked for credit - as usual :) Thank you so much for stopping by!

This and That

There is a new blog challenge over at Vera Lim's blog. This time it's a photograph challenge - you have to use the same photo twice on your layout, once in color and once in black and white. It's a fun challenge - here's the layout I did for it...

I used Vera's gorgeous new kit, Shabby Cottage to scrap my lovely Lovisa Lin enjoying an evening walk at the end of August. She has an innate ability to enjoy each and every moment to the fullest and sort of becomes immersed in a little world of her own. I actually envy her this - although sometimes I get irritated with her since it's not always easy to get her out of this world LOL

I'm still trying to catch up on 2007 photos - I probably won't have them done until 2010 at the rate I'm going, since I'm still only finishing up on January photos!! I do have layouts from other months, but I need to finish the photos I want to scrap from each month. And, I have to redo a few, since they were scrapped during my "ugly scrapping period" LOLThis is my little one in the middle of January 2007 - she had so much fun trying to stand up everywhere, and it was such a joy to watch :)

I used Cinzia Loosemore's newest paper pack, The Essential Papers, and elements from her gorgeous Dare2bU kit.

And my little one again, this time 19 months later - what a difference!! She is on that same car as in the layout on top, only using it outside, usually at maximum legal speed limit :) And she breaks for no one. Can't you tell, though, from her look, that she's a crazy driver? I already dread the moment she will get her driver's licence LOL

I did this layout for the scraplift challenge at Shabby Pickle Designs and I lifted one of Sabrina Dupre's layouts. I used Lydia Kurniawati's (silversword71) designs, mostly Interlude, her contribution to the second Pickle Barrel, but also some of her individually sold alphas. She makes the best alphas!!

My last layout for now is using a photo from 2007. It's my big girl cleaning up the mess she made while experimenting with Crayon Indoor Graffiti LOL She was so ashamed of herself - evident from her look. I got rather angry, but didn't tell her off, just let her clean it herself. She hasn't done it since, so I'm hoping that approach worked :)This is another layout done with Dawn Inskip's gorgeous Express Yourself. It's funtastic!!

I had another layout to show, using Studio Phuong's stunning By The Sea, which she just re-released at her studio over at Scrapbook Graphics. But, I just found out it might be published in the October issue of the Artisan Guild Magazine, so I'm not allowed to. Not that I'm too sorry about it - always fun to be published and not too often it happens LOL So, I'll just show you the kit instead, it's so gorgeous!! Phuong is so extremely talented!!

As always, layouts are linked for full credit. Thank you so much for stopping by :)

New Stuff

Fall is officially here now that my DH has gone back to sea. His boat is out 3 days out of every 4 so 75% of the time I'm a single mum LOL

I love fall - but this is the one thing I dread about the season. Especially since it's usually VERY windy around Iceland this time of year. Fall brings huge south westerly storms, which makes life out on sea not so comfy, and my life really anxious. I watch the open ocean out our living room window and when it blows from the south west, the spray from the waves bathes our windows in salt water. I just made a layout showing the difference between summer and fall when it comes to our ocean - granted, the windy photo was taken when the wind had gone down enough to venture outside, but the ocean was still really wild!I used Karah Fredricks gorgeous new fall kit, called Love Is {Jen} and Karah's Stamped Alphas for this layout.

And, have you seen Dawn Inskip's gorgeous new kit yet? It's huge! And unbelievably beautiful...

The kit is called Express Yourself and is available in all of Dawn's stores, TTS, SSS and NDISB.
Here's one of my layouts with it - it's my 5,5 year old enjoying an evening walk at the beginning of August. Usually we don't go out much after dinner, but that night the weather was so gorgeous, we just had to go for a walk to the beach. And she enjoyed it immensely!

One of the things Lovisa Lin enjoys the most is when we stay at a hotel. When we go to Reykjavik and can't stay at my mom's we try to get a good deal on a big hotel room. Last February we lucked out and got a huge room with an enormous bathroom and jacuzzi for the price of a regular room. The bed was the size of 2,5 king size beds and the girls were in heaven! They fell asleep at different ends of the beds, but during the night they somehow rolled together and more or less ended up in each others' arms. It was so adorable - and of course, the trusty camera was close by LOLI used Birgit Kerr's gorgeous In Dreams for this layout plus a few more of Birgit's awesome designs. I also used a new font FO-Doodle Dance Studio Fontologie. I love it!! So beautiful, but also very usable and readable - perfect for journaling and titles. And, it's got almost all of the European characters - including my special Icelandic ones, which makes it even more wondeful!! It will be available in Steph's studio tomorrow!!

My baby is calling - she is trying to get her rainclothes on, and they are not doing what she wants them to do, so she gets really angry LOL She's got some temper!! So, it's only fitting that the last layout I have to show is of her angelic face :)She's got her pacifier permanently stuck to her face - we are trying to get her to use it less and are trying for her only to use it during the night and never when she leaves the house. It's not going too well, but we'll see. I'm pretty sure she will at some point decide herself that it's not too cool to go out in public with a pacifier in her mouth LOL

I used Amanda Rockwell's gorgeous Sweet Sugar kit for this layout. I love it - perfectly sweet but also totally funky!

As always the layouts are linked for full credit.
Thanks for stopping by :)

September already?

How did that happen? I thought summer just started - and now it's practically Christmas LOL

I'm desperately trying to finish up my photos from 2007. In a moment of madness I made a 2006 album of the girls for each grandmother and in another even worse moment (I really don't know what I was thinking!!) I promised the grands an album for every year. So now, 2008 is drawing to an end - and I haven't finished 2007 yet!! I keep getting reminded of that promise, so I really have to keep it.

Anyways, here's a layout with my little one at 6,5 months. These photos are from January 2007 when she was starting to pull herself up to a sitting position - and a whole new world opened up to her. She could see things she could not while on the floor, and better yet, she could reach for them and draw them towards her!! These were fun times for her - anxious for me - and her big sister started to see her as more than just an immovable object that took mom away from her LOLI used Peta Boardman's gorgeous Sweet Delight kit for this layout. I'm a guest on her CT this month and I just adore her designs!!

My second layout is of my daughters playing a new game. Lovisa Lin, the older one, runs away then turns around, opens her arms and Matthildur Inga comes flying into them. And then they hug like there's no tomorrow :) This is so adorable - and such a change from before, when Lovisa really didn't like to touch Matthildur at all. She was afraid she would slobber all over her - and apparently her drool and snot was deadly poisonous LOL

This is made with Vera Lim's newest kit, Your True Colors, it's gorgeous! Everything Vera makes is stunning - and I can't really believe it, but I'm a guest on her CT this month! I've been Vera's No1 fan for as long as I can remember and this is really a dream come true :)
Anyways, the layout is done for the current challenge on Vera's blog, focusing on siblings. I also used one of her new word arts - she just released 4 new sets of Quote It Family word arts.

But aren't my girls just the cutest??? :D

Layouts are linked for full credits - thanks for stopping by :)