Happy week :)

I'm so tired from the weekend LOL Is that normal? We had visitors, our friend and her daughter and the house was full of life and noise and mess all weekend. Which is fun, but tiring - or maybe I'm just getting old!! We went for a little walk Saturday and picked quite a bit of blueberries and crowberries. There are so many this fall and the kids had a blast!! And the cat LOL she came with on the walk and loved investigating all the crooks and crannies of the lava fields!! Seriously, that cat is like a dog - just follows us around everywhere :)

There's lots going on in the scrapping world, it's obvious that fall is settling in after summer being busy with other stuff.

Scrap Orchard is having a huge sale on summer products...lots of fabulous goodies for a very good price...The sale starts today and on Thursday prices go up to normal - so hurry up :)

Soval is having a mega contest...you could win her whole store at The French Frog!!!And her designs are fabulous, so get busy ;)

And I have a few layouts to show - they are all a bit fallish looking LOL

This is actually made from the Scrap Orchard Mystery Mega for September. It's called Rule the School, although my layout has nothing to do with school - but it does show that the Mega is very versatile!!
These are my girls the other day. We take their photo each fall and frame it for their dad so that he'll have a recent photo on the wall in his room on the boat. Since he's away so much it's very important for him :) So this is from the "photo shoot", although it's not the photo we chose to frame.

This is my younger daughter at 7,5 months. She was standing up anywhere and everywhere - and enjoying every minute of it. She was actually already crawling up the stairs at this time, giving my poor head quite a few extra gray hairs LOL
I used Kim De Smet's new paper pack, Collage Art Papers Vol 2 - both vol1 and vol2 are really fantastic papers!!

And here she is again, my younger daughter, that is :) This is Christmas morning 2008. Our tradition is to have cake and hot chocolate for breakfast Christmas morning - and she LOVES it!!! She has a huge sweet tooth - and it didn't hurt that she got to drink her chocolate from a grown up cup :)
I used Shabby Miss Jenn's fabulous Cup of Love kit!!

Last but not least is a layout I made with Phuong Ton's new September kit (and calendar). It's fabulous - I just love her papers, they are so rich and warm and...absolutely and totally gorgeous!!This is my older daughter on Saturday when we went berry picking. It was August 29, and she was already wearing a fleece sweatshirt, her thick coat, gloves and a hat!! That's Iceland for you LOL When the designers bring out their spring and summer kits, sometimes in April, I still have a long ways to go until I can have any usable springlike photos to scrap. But when the fall kits start to hit the shelves in August - I'm READY!!!

Anyways, that's it for today. All the layouts are linked for full credits. Thank you so much for stopping by and have a good week :)

Weekend

I can't really believe it's the weekend already - although I have to admit, this past week has crawled by at the pace of a snail, so I'm kind of glad it's finally over LOL
Us girls have been home alone since Sunday afternoon until my DH came back home Thursday morning. The girls were ecstatic when he got home, it's really tough on them when he goes back out on sea after having been home for 3 months during the summer. And now he's home for the weekend, he leaves again sometime Sunday night, so we are planning on relaxing and having some family fun this weekend :)

I'm trying to catch up on my scrapping too. This summer was so busy that I just put all scrapping obligations on hold and enjoyed trips and my being outside with my family. I also lost my mojo completely, so I wasn't really happy with what I came up with when I sat down and scrapped a bit. Now I'm trying to catch up, and I feel like my mojo is slowly but surely returning.

Dawn Inskip released a new kit today at her Pickleberry Pop store. It's called A Wild Adventure - and it's really terrific!!

Here's one of the layouts I've made with it

It's me and my older daughter hiking in southern Iceland in July 2004. She was only 18 months old - but she has always been amazing when it comes to hiking and climbing. This time, she climbed quite the ways up, until she was totally exhausted and got a ride in the walking pack on her dad's back :) Can you tell how much I like photos of myself? It's pretty aparent from the grand use of the eraser brush LOL

Edeline Marta joined forces with Carolyn Kite this week and they came out with a fabulous kit called Rock Star. I used it to scrap my super cool 5 year old nephew playing his guitar. He knows the MOVES!!!

Isn't he cool?

This little lady in the flower pot is my beautiful three year old daughter. We were at the beach in July, in unusually (for Iceland) warm weather and she was just having a blast!! When we got there she was asleep and we let her sleep for a little while in the car while we went down to the ocean. When she woke up she was in the worst mood, but once she got to strip down to her undies and got to wade a bit in the ocean, she was the happiest camper of them all :) Since we were alone there, she ended up butt naked, wading in the North Atlantic upto her waiste!!!

I used Mystique Designs' fab new kit, Pink Delight, just released at OScraps.

And lastly, there is my gorgeous 6 year old in a contemplative mood. I just love her to bits and pieces. I used Irene V Alexeeva's newest kit, Thumbelina - available at Scrap Orchard.

That's it :) All the layouts are linked for full credit. Thank you so much for stopping by - and have a wonderful weekend!!

New stuff...

Got a few layouts to share today :)

Dawn Inskip came out with a new kit at her Digi Chick store last Thursday. It's fantastic - and so completely a MUST for any serious digi scrapper!!! It's called Confessions of a Digi-Scrapper...

I made a layout showcasing the layouts I've done for Dawn so far - there were quite a lot of them LOL I am a total scrap-aholic, and I don't think there is ever a day where I don't scrap a page. Or two. Or three LOL

And a new kit from Soval, Just a Little Boy, available at The French Frog. I love the name of that store :)

I used it to scrap a layout of my youngest nephew. He was born at the end of March 2007 - exactly 9 months after my younger daughter was born. I guess my sister's eggs went rattling off once she held my baby girl LOL

Last but certainly not least, a new and fabulous kit from Vera Lim. It's called School Days...

Of course, school is one of the signs of fall - and it somehow feels more like fall after everyone is in school again. My little one started Kindergarten on the 13th after 6 weeks of summer vacation, and last Thursday, my older one started second grade. I took this photo before she went to school on her first day. She was so excited and proud, with her new pink schoolbag - which is almost bigger than her LOL

That's it for today :) Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Fall's Coming!!

I guess fall is really coming. Today, Matthildur went to Kindergarten, Lovisa went to school, I went to work and DH got his first weekend break of the season. I got home at lunch and it was totally quite - I had the house to myself for an entire hour. And it felt good!!!
After work, we got into our car and drove for 3,5 hours to my mom and her husband's country hotel in the south of Iceland. We are running it for them this weekend since it's their wedding anniversary and we decided they should get away somewhere to celebrate. So we are here - and they are not, which is a first, and I have to admit that it feels a little weird. But I hope they'll enjoy themselves. As for us, this evening has been rather entertaining since there is a group of senior citizens staying here, and they just whipped up a little party, with music and singing and dancing. Of course, with the average age well above 70, everyone was tired (and a little drunk LOL) by midnight and everyone was in bed by 1am :) It was a lot of fun, though!!
Anyways, a sure sign of fall is that my designers are already producing the most fabulous fall kits. I've already scrapped three of them...

My beautiful girls in a rare hugging moment. They do hug for the camera when I tell them to - but hardly ever otherwise. It's not that the little one wouldn't like to hug her big sister, it's just that the big sister still thinks she might catch something if she gets overly touchy feely with her little sister. After all, the little sister still produces her fair share of snot. Sometimes she's also dirty, and the big sister hates to be dirty LOL
I used a fantastic new collab from Mystique Designs and MDesigns. It's called Precious Autumn and is available both at OScraps and Digital Créa.

This is my girls again, only the photo is a year old. It's taken in October 2008 and we were on a little weekend trip to a vacation house out in the middle of nowhere. This is on one of the walks we tood - in amazing weather and beautiful fall colors!!
I used Irene V Alexeeva's beautiful new kit, Whisper, available at Scrap Orchard.

And, finally, my big girl when she was little :) This is in October 2006. We lived in Reykjavik at the time and Matthildur was only 3 months old, sleeping in her pram while we took walks. Lovisa, however, at the mature age of almost 4 years old, walked everywhere - and was very proud of herself usually :) This photo was taken while we were on our way back home from visiting Lovisa's great grandmother, Trausti's grandma, who lived across the valley from us, so it was an easy walk.
I used Kristin's ScrapDesign's gorgeous new kit, Crisp Autumn, available at Pickleberry Pop.

That's it for today - or night, since it's 1:30 am :) Thank you so much for stopping by!! The layouts are all linked for full credits.

Mojo's back :)

So yesterday I seemed to have found my scrapping mojo - so cleaning was on the back burner LOL I've got to get some done today, though, I only have 2 days left of my vacation so it really has to be done!! However, I also got some peace and quiet yesterday, since my older girl went to a friend's house and my little one was at Kindergarten. That's an unusual quietness around here - maybe that's why my mojo got back :)
Yesterday, my husband also went back out on sea after having been home since the middle of May. He's been working on the boat all summer, but at least he's slept at home!! As much as I love feeling fall sneak in after the summer, this is one of fall's aspects that I really hate. And speaking of fall, today really feels like fall. It's a dreary and windy day, the clouds are low and the waves are beating the shore. This is what I see from my computer room window...

And a little closer-up of the ocean :)Anyways, I have some layouts I want to show...My precious little girls last Easter Sunday :) They do know how to pose like they like each other sometimes LOL I used Vera Lim's newest kit, Precious Ones, for this layout.

Lovisa Lin will be 7 in December. She is starting second grade tomorrow and I really can't believe how fast she's growing!!! And, she's lost SIX babyteeth!! SIX!!! It's a huge milestone, actually - at least if you ask her. I do miss her full mouth of teeth, though LOL I made this with Shabby Miss Jenn's School Time - it's just out in her store :)

And a little bit of a fantasy layout showing my three year old taking a bath last weekend. She was having so much fun floating in the bathwater :) I used Mystique Designs' Enchanted. It was released at OScraps yesterday.

This last one took me ages yesterday!! Well, not the actual layout - although it did take some time, but this is part of my first ever hybrid project, which is the front cover of my daughter's second grade school folder. I'm rather proud of it, even though I miscalculated the size and almost glued all 10 fingers together while trying to fix it LOL I'm not sure I'll venture into something like this in the near future - but it was fun. Sort of :) I used Edeline Marta's newest kit, School Again, just released at Scrap Artist.

This is the finished project :)

Anyways, better get cleaning LOL All the layouts are linked for credits. Thank you so much for stopping by :)

Vacation

I'm on vacation right now - at least for today and the next few days. My 6,5 year old will start second grade on Thursday and I wanted to be home with her organizing her school stuff, our craft stuff and getting the house ready for fall. Sunday, we managed to move a couple of desks and make a little homework/computer room for both girls and me :) It's kind of cozy, since we'll all be sitting next to each other - me at my computer and the girls at the other desk doing homework or drawing. Today, I tidied up all of the middle floor, where the bedrooms and our cozy homework room is - now all I have to do is clean LOL

My little one started kindergarten last Thursday, after having had 6 weeks off for summer. She loves it there and couldn't wait to get back, really, but she is SO tired after having spent so much time there. She is tired, cranky and whiny when she gets home - so there is a complete relaxation hour for her, just vegetating in front of the tv or with me and a book, after she gets home. It's good for everyone, actually, to get that hour of relaxation, although I am planning on using it to help my schoolgirl with her homework when that starts up in a few days.

Anyways, I'm in a bit of a scrapping dump these days, but I did manage this one, with one of Edeline's newest kits called Vintage Memories. She made it especially for her guest month at Scrappity-Doo-Dah...

This is my three year old picking blueberries last Sunday. Yes, this is what we wear in August here in Iceland LOL - no tanktops and shorts for us, just heavy sweaters and hats!! It's getting slightly chilly and fall is definitely in the air. Here are a couple more photos from yesterday's berry picking trip :)

Evening Inspiration from Elo Designs

Elodie of Elo Designs, just released a new kit called Evening Inspiration...
I made this layout with it showing my beautiful 6 year old at the beginning of June.

More new layouts

I meant to update the blog at least every other day - but my good intentions with this blog never seem to last LOL I do have photos for my 365 project, but - I'm not going to upload them quite yet. I think I'm just going to scrap them and upload them as layouts :)

In the meantime, I have some more new layouts...

My older daughter and I on our adoption day in China. I did this for the first round of Battle of the Creative Teams over at DSA. I'm on Irene Alexeeva's team - and, therefore, used 100% her designs.

My younger daughter on the beach at the beginning of July. I used a new kit from Mystique Designs - which is also my new CT (yeah!!) - it's called Dolce Vita and is Brydka's debut kit at her new OScraps store!!

Doesn't he have the cutest little face? He's my little nephew and he's just as sweet and mischievous as his little two year old face looks :) My sister and her family live a bit away from us, but we went and visited them at the beginning of July. I used Shabby Miss Jenn's newest kit, Little Prince.

This is the lagoon Jökulsárlón, which is in the south of Iceland. It lies at the foot of the glacier Vatnajokull, the biggest glacier in Europe, and is filled with icebergs which break off the glacier. We went there in June and sailed among the icebergs - which is an amazing experience :)

I used Studio Phuong's Play Day freebie - available at the Studio Matters Blog.

This is for the second round of BOTCT - and I used 100% Irene Alexeeva's designs. The focus of the challenge was to use lyrics and all team members had to use the same lyrics. We chose the theme Friendship and used the lyrics to You've Got A Friend In Me. The girls in the layouts are my older daughter and my niece. They met for the first time in May and they were instant friends. This photo is taken like 12 hours after they first met - and 8 of those hours were spent sleeping LOL

My last layout for today is also using Irene's stuff, and this time her newest kit, Frolic Tunes.

This is my older daughter again - and this is a totally posed photo, since I had this layout in my head but no photo to use LOL I usually don't pose my girls - but when the necessity arises you have to do what you have to do :)

That's it for today. All the layouts are linked for further credits :) Thank you so much for stopping by and have a good day!!

New layouts :)

I'm not good with dark colors - and I'm not a Twilight fan - but Irene Alexeeva has such a gorgeous new kit out, that it had to be scrapped LOL It's called Her Lullaby, and it's very dramatic in black, red and white...I made a layout with it, showing my older daughter's happiness while she was on the beach playing with her kite the other day :)It's so much darker than my usual style - but I just loved how well the paper blends with the photo, and I love Irene's fabulous wordarts :)

And Edeline Marta is making her debut at a new store today!! She is going back to her home at Scrap Artist, and I have to say, her style is perfect there!!! Her debut kit is called Make Me Smile

and that's exactly what my little girl does on a daily basis :) She has such a beautiful smile!

That's it for today - I'm off to enjoy the beautiful weather we are having :) Thanks for looking and have a good weekend!!

New kit from Phuong

Phuong Ton just released her newest kit - it's so fun and fabulous!!! It's called Prehistoric - A Dinosaur Kit, and it's available at her SBG store. REALLY COOL!!! Here's my layout with it

I had so much fun with this kit :) The photo (the extraction of my daughter and my nephew) is taken at the entrance of a Dinosaur Park in England in June 2005 - and is meant as the first page of many from that visit.

Vera Lim also has some new overlays in her stores - she makes fabulous overlays. I used one of them here along with some more of Vera's goodies...This is part of my 2007 album, which I'm busy trying to finish up . This is my older daughter in February 2007, feeling really cool in her favorite sunglasses :)

Thanks for stopping by :)

No photos - just layouts :)

Just a couple of layouts to show off today - I sort of like them LOL

My gorgeous little (or not so little anymore :) girl. She was 4 years old at the time - now she's six. And a half LOL I used Lily Designs freebie for the July On the House challenge over at A5D.

And this is my sweet three year old sitting on the beach the other day. It was just such a fabulously extractable photo - and fit so well with Irene Alexeeva's amazing doodled little elves and that pumpkin house, which I absolutely love!!

Lovisa Lin loves to read - so this is a tribute to the magical world of books :) I used Studio Phuong's amazing new kit, Veiled Moonlight - it's just so fantastic that you really have to take a look to believe it!!

And finally, a fun moment between DH and our 3 year old at the beginning of June. They were running around the pier and in the end, she just wanted to run around in his arms :) And they both loved it. This kit is also by Studio Phuong and aptly named Fatherhood.

All layouts are linked for full credits. Thank you so much for stopping by :)

Blog life!

I'm going to try to resurrect my poorly neglected blog - since it's not Valentine's Day anymore LOL There has been a lot of stuff going on in my life for the past 4 months so the blog has been very low on the list of priorities. Now everything is settling down, so I'm going to give the 365 project another go :) Starting yesterday:

July 8 - The Midnight Sun

I took this photo off from our balcony. It was actually July 9th at the time, but since I hadn't gone to bed yet, I'm counting it as belonging to July 8 LOL The time was 1:16 am and the sun hadn't set yet - not that it really ever sets at this time of year.

July 9 - Good WeatherAnother one from my balcony. I like my balcony LOL - it's huge and it's been sitting there, unfinished for almost a year now, until my DH finally put the floor in two weeks ago. Just in time for the fantastic weather we've had :) I love to look at the ocean and the sky when the sun is shining and the weather is completely still.

Thanks for stopping by :)