American pancakes

We got up rather late today - at least for us :) Usually the girls get up sometime between 5 and 7am, and theydrag us out of bed with them. This morning, they woke up just after 7, but instead of getting us up, they started to play, so we could stay in bed until 9!!! Getting out of bed at 9 is almost unheard of in my house LOL
My husband made us brunch today, bacon and eggs and American pancakes. I love it when he does that!!

After that heavy brunch, we went out and walke 3,5 km to my in-laws' house. Lovisa was a trooper and walked the whole way, but Matthildur only made it a very short distance and then she got a ride in the pack on her dad's back :) She's a lazy butt LOL

I'm in charge of the Member Spotlight Challenge this month over at Scarp Orchard. I'm highlighting a layout by keyr, called Attitude. I made it into a template, which is offered free for the challenge...I made this layout with the template, using Wild Dandelion Designs & Kristin Cronin-Barrow's gorgeous collab, Snowy Sweetness :)These are my girls on January 2 :)

Well, that's it for today. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend and thank you for stopping by!!

Cleaning up

My daughters had friends over this afternoon - and after they left at 6pm, the girls' room was like a tornado had just hit it. So, they were sent in to clear up a bit - and for some reason, they actually did it smiling, singing, dancing and made it into a game LOLThat's Lovisa Lin showing my how to enjoy cleaning up a room :) Other than that, today was supposed to be about cleaning, organizing and putting away Christmas decorations. Well, I finished taking everything down and making the pile on the diningroom table almost as big as a mountain of decorations. I also managed to clean out the kitchen a bit and make it workable again - AND, I managed to clean out our closet, which was no little feat, let me tell you!!! There is just too much stuff around here - and this year I've sworn to de-clutter the house. I'm going to go through everything and give away or throw away all that hasn't been used since we moved in here 4,5 years ago. And that's a LOT of stuff!! I'm a big gatherer of stuff - but I really enjoy living in an un-cluttered house, so I have to stop with the gathering LOL

Anyways, in between cleaning and organizing, I made a double layout with one of Penny Springmann's new double templates :)

It's a bit small on here, but if you like, you can take a better look at the left side here, and the right side here :)

Well, that's it for today. Thank you for stopping by - I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!!

Making bread

We are trying to adapt a healthier and cheaper lifestyle LOL Part of that is making our own bread. We have a breadmaker so it's not like it's a huge deal - but sometimes I just feel that it's easier to buy it. So I'm trying not to buy any bread, then we are forced to make it ourselves :) Matthildur Inga loves to help with any kind of housework - all 3 year olds do, don't they? - so she got to help her dad put the ingredients in the bread maker.

Lovisa would have had her nose in there too, but she had a friend over so she was busy playing :)

I've got a couple of layouts too :)

Matthildur Inga on Christmas Eve. I used Scrapidea-Timkova's new Granny's Christmas Tale.

This is Lovisa Lin on a trip we took in July 2008. We were visiting a secluded bay area - there was no one there except us, some birds, an awesome view and total quietness. Even the girls decided to honor it and just take it in :) I used Dawn Inskip's gorgeous new goodies that were released at The Lilypad today. She is guesting there this month and has some fantastic stuff for the January BYOC!!

This is Matthildur during that same trip. There were some ruins there from an old fishing station and she was enjoying trying to balance herself on the rocks and leftover walls :) I used Irene V Alexeeva's gorgeous new kit, Kiss Him He's Green, perfect for fairytale layouts - and even Valentine's layouts!

Playstation

I had a meeting this afternoon and got home a bit late. When I got home the girls and my husband were busy singing with Queen on Singstar - a totally unbelievably difficult band to sing with!!! When they were done, the girls got to play their Dinosaur game on the Playstation, where Lovisa won game after game after game - but Matthildur didn't care in the least, so it was a good deal, I thought, since both were having fun :)

This is Lovisa, my 7 year old, enjoying her victory LOL

So, it's been a week and I decided to scrap my layouts right away. I'm going to keep it simple. I use Biograffiti's 365 templates - which are almost like completed layouts if you choose them to be, but I added a little bit extra, backgrounds and a couple of elements, mixed from K Studio's 365 kit from last year and Weeds & Wildflowers' Hodge Podge series, also from last year.

I add the photos to the layouts each day when I add them to the blog and to facebook, so basically they are ready when the 7th photo goes in there :) So, here's my Week 1...The layouts are not linked, since I'm not going to upload them to online galleries. Only here and facebook.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you're having a wonderful day :)

The kittens...

We have 3 kittens in the house, they are approaching the 8 week mark, almost ready to leave the house and their mother for new families. When the Christmas tree and the decorations went up, they were too small to figure out that they could have fun with it. Not any more!!!! Now, they definitely know how much fun a Christmas tree can be! They climb up in the middle, then walk on the branches until they get to the edge - where they can easily reach the fun decorations and lights. So much fun for them, not so much for me LOL

We have a fake tree and sometimes I find the branches scattered around the livingroom floor - decorations still attached, but the lights hanging to the floor. This is Anna, having fun with the lights. I was reading Pippi Longstocking to the girls when the kittens were born, so their names are Lína (Pippi), Anna and Tommi :) It's good we had two girl kitties and one boy kittie LOL

Ok, I've got layouts too :)

This is Matthildur Inga on January 2. She was tired on our walk and lay down in the snow with such a sweet smile. She's really energetic, but gets really tired on walks so our resolution is to adapt a healthier and more active lifestyle with the girls in the new year. She needs to build up stamina - and so do we :) I used Phuong Ton's gorgeous new kit, Resolutions, available at Scrapbook Graphics.

Matthildur Inga again. This time in February 2007, when she was just a few days short of 8 months. It was National Bun Day in Iceland - a day where we stuff ourselves with buns filled with whipped cream and jam and covered with chocolate on top LOL This day falls on a Monday every year in February - and this was Matthildur's first taste of whipped cream. She LOVED it :) I used a bunch of new stuff from Dawn Inskip, available at Catscrap and Pickleberry Pop.

That's it for today. Thank you so much for stopping by - and have a wonderful day :)

Dancing

Today was our first day back to school and work after Christmas and New Years. Both my daughters have been on vacation since December 18 - and today, when they got back home at around 4:30, they were both tired. When they are tired, they start out by sitting in front of the TV for 5 minutes with empty faces. Then, when they have recharged, they get fun LOL Matthildur wanted to watch a show with lots of singing, and the whole time, she sang with the show and danced around the living room floor, just oozing energy!! Then she ate and was asleep in 2 minutes flat LOL

I apologize for the horrible quality of the photo - but I have a horrid feeling that my faithful old camera is giving up. All my photos are turning really grainy these days. Or maybe I just need to cuddle it a bit :)

No layouts today - but thank you so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!!

Sliding

It's cold today - and very slippery!! But it's also sunny and since today is our last day off for Christmas we decided to go for a little walk with my nephew, who spent the afternoon with us. We hit a slippery little slope on our way and the kids had so much fun sliding down - on their butts LOL

Actually I had so many photos to choose from today - but this one just shows how much fun they were having :) This is our weather today...

I took the photo at around 3:15 today and the sun was about to set so it was already getting a little dark - but I like it anyway :)

And two layouts again - I'm slowly but surely getting into my scrapping mode LOL

This is Matthildur Inga on a walk we took on Saturday. It was cold and she had rosy cheeks and a red nose - although she firmly denied having a red nose, telling us that she was NOT Rudolph!! I used Julie Bullock's gorgeous kit, Snowtime, available at Scrap Orchard.

And Lovisa Lin on that same walk. The lighting was just perfect and she got herself in between the straw in the snow and posed away :) I used PST Designs' gorgeous Somewhere Above, available at Pickleberry Pop.

That's it for today. I hope you're having a wonderful day - and thank you so much for stopping by :)

Guitar solos

My 3,5 year old went from crying to hyper in just a matter of seconds many times today. I guess it's time for Kindergarten again - she's been off since December 18 LOL

This photo is taken just a couple of minutes after her lates meltdown - she found her big sister's old guitar and proceeded in giving us a concert, with quite the stage show, dancing, singing and playing the guitar. It was fun to look at and listen to - but it was really difficult to get a decent photo of her since she moved around so much LOL
Other than that, the day has been quite uneventful. We went outside a little bit but all the photos I took were bad. I think it's the weird lighting we are having. It's only a few hours of daylight here and today it was overcast so it really never got really bright. So, I didn't have enough light to take photos with the flash off - and if I turned the flash on, it looked like I was taking photos during the night. And I didn't have time to play around with the camera settings - so it's my own fault too LOL I also thought of posting a photo of our dinner since we are back to normal eating and trying to keep it really low calorie - but I didn't think anyone would like seeing a photo of boiled cod mashed with boiled potatoes and a little bit of ketchup :)

Oh, I have a couple of layouts too. I'm trying to get back into scrapping mode after having spent all of December doing almost anything but. It's slowly coming back!!

This is Lovisa Lin on New Years Eve 2008. I haven't scrapped the 2009 photos yet. I used Edeline Marta's new kit, New Beginning, available now at Scrapbook Bytes.

And this is Matthildur Inga shoveling our sidewalk during our late November snow storm. She enjoyed it only when she was shielded from the wind :) I used Katrin's Designs' new winter kit, Magical Winter Dream.

Both layouts are linked for full credit :)

That's it for now - thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope your day is wonderful!!

We locked ourselves out!

My photo for Day 2...

The feet of my 7 year old disappearing in through our kitchen window!! We locked ourselves out and she had to crawl through the kitchen window, land in the sink, jump down to the floor and open the balcony door for us to get in LOL I'm just glad she is a tiny little thing and can still fit throught the opening of the kitchen window!!

Other than that, the weather is fantastic!!! We went on a walk after our locked-out adventure and it was just perfect :)

Have a wonderful day - and thanks for stopping by!!

Happy New Year!!

I'm giving Project 365 another chance this year - without any pressure as to layouts or daily blog posts. Just photos and a little bit of journaling each day :) I'll see if I can make it past 2009's 6 week mark LOL

Happy New Year everybody :)

We had a wonderful New Years Eve, surrounded by our families and the girls were literally in grandma heaven LOL They both made it past midnight, our three year old took a little nap at 10:50 pm, but woke up just in time for the fireworks at midnight. They had a blast!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your year will be wonderful in every way!

Countdown to Christmas at the Orchard

It's December 1 - and all the Mega's at the Orchard are on sale!!!

Check back every day for more fantastic deals!!

More sales...

Vera Lim has all of her stuff at 45% off

Shabby Miss Jenn has TONS of new stuff in her store - all of which are 20-40% off, and she also added a brand new $1 kit to her store for Black Friday!!

Edeline Marta also has new kits in her store - and everything is 35% off until Cyber Monday!!

Kristin's ScrapDesign has all of her stuff at 35% in both her personal store and her Pickleberry Pop store. This deal is also good until Cyber Monday!!

I hope you are enjoying all of the fabulous sales out there!!!

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you so much for stopping by :)

Black Friday Sales

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!! I can't believe November is almost done and that the first Sunday of advent is only 3 days away!! I still have so much to do before Christmas rolls around - I haven't bought a single Christmas present - and my work is a nuthouse this time of year as well. But you've got to love this time of year, though. Busy as it is, it's still just so lovely, with the lights and the songs and the excitement...it's just like nothing else :)

And then there are the Black Friday sales LOL They are definitely like nothing else!!! Aren't you glad you can do your Black Friday scrap shopping without waiting in line for hours?

Kim De Smet has a sale in her OScraps store - and she is back from her hiatus so she also has some new stuff in there!!!

Dawn Inskip has 30% off everything in both her stores, at Catscrap and Pickleberry Pop

And there is the annual Farmer's Market at Scrap Orchard!!! Tons of gorgeous goodies for only $1 - definitely check it out!!!

This is definitely the time to make fabulous purchases for next to nothing :)

Enjoy your day and thank you so much for stopping by!!

Orchard Girl Blog Train

The designers at the Scrap Orchard are having a Halloween blog train...
Lot's of gorgeous Halloween goodies on the train so make sure you check it out :)

Black & White from Soval - and a freebie :)

Soval Designs just released her Black & White kit in her store at The French Frog...She also has some coordinating clusters and QPs in her store!

I made this layout with this beautiful kit...

And I made it into a QP for you to download :)

DOWNLOAD

I hope you'll enjoy :) Thank you for stopping by and have a good day!!

Amazing Snowland from Irene

It never ceases to amaze me the artwork that Irene Alexeeva releases each and every week!!! This week, she released her Amazing Snowland...

I used to scrap a photo I took last December...These are my DH and our younger daughter out in the snow around mid December 2008. We had perfect Christmas snow, and lots of it :)

And one last layout, also a winter one, using PST Designs' gorgeous Glaze Dreams

This is Matthildur Inga again, this time in January 2008. She was really freezing her behind off being out in the snow. She stood there for about the 10 seconds it took me to take the photos and then she was inside, getting warm and toasty. Can you tell from her face that she was NOT having a good time :)

Penny's new papers...

Penny Springman released a new set of papers last weekend, Out On The Town Again, and they are really gorgeous in black and white...Here's my layout, also using Penny's new Autumn Word Jumbles...Matthildur is the ultimate cool child LOL She knows really well that her green lizard sunglasses go perfectly with her pink winter coat and the chocolate smudges around her mouth :) I love her to bits and she definitely colors my world in all the colors of the rainbow!!

Phuong's Autumn's Kiss

In Studio Phuong's newest kit, Autumn's Kiss, apart from being a fantastic fall kit, there is also a little Halloween addon called Eerie...

I wasn't going to use it since I have tons of Halloween kits and no Halloween photos. However, a couple of weekends ago, my mom, my MIL, my sister + family and my SIL came over to my house to make haggis and blood pudding. My girls were extremely interested and got to help with all the stirring of the gooey stuff. I had this photo of my younger one, which I thought would make a fab Halloween layout with Phuong's kit...She is so intent on stirring the blood sausage dough, tongue out and everything. She is just the cutest little thing LOL

New from Mystique Designs

Brydka of Mystique Designs and Iwonka from Starlight Designs just made this stunning collab, called Winter Dreams. It's just a gorgeous pink dream :)

Here's my layout with it...My beautiful Lovisa Lin last Christmas. This was taken on Christmas Eve while she was waiting for dinner :)

Cluster frames from Kristin

Kristin's ScrapDesign has a new set of cluster frames in her Pickleberry Pop store...

They are amazingly versatile and fun to use!!

This is Lovisa Lin practicing for a piano recital in February. She is really good, and has wonderful talent (even though I say so myself :) but she's lazy when it comes to practicing LOL