Little Corner of Ania

It's snowing here now - snow of the beautiful kind, not the wet, yucky kind....yet! It also kinda means it's pretty cold here now - at least compared to how it's been lately...and this house is kinda big and cold and takes time getting warmed up so I grabbed Amalie, put her in the bathtub and sat down on the warm floor (love the warmingcables!) reading a book while she had fun and I was occupied and we both were - well - warm! :)

I then decided to bake a chocolatecake (I dunno - cold weather like this makes me wanna cook more!) and Amalie "helped" out. It's cute when she does so but god she spills so much, esp when she's so determined on doing stuff on her own!!! I mean - I'm pretty good at making a mess outta the kitchen but she's a little Champion! (yeah yeah yeah - "just like her mom" uh :p) Anyways.

The Bad Girl kit was revealed last night - and I'm so sorry but despite Wendy increasing her number of subscriptions each month (except from a one-month break) there's still a waiting list. Yikes! Good thing however is that the waiting list usually only lasts a month in most cases so you can pretty much sign up being safe to get the next months kit. Don't hit me if I'm wrong though!!! :p

Here's my contributions this month. My personal faves? Hmmm I think that has to be the "comfortably numb" one and "mel blø" as a close second cause it turned out so much nicer than I thought it would. And I love how the sewn ribbon looks irl. Love velvet ribbons that's scalloped - need more of those!!!

Now. Re last posts declaration about war on lightbulbs and stuff. Sigh. Xstine explained that there's supposedly a fine print (which I haven't checked into yet but it sounds very plausible anyways) about lightbulbs only lasting for 2 years if they're used like, avg. 2 hours a day. Bleh!

Spørsmål: Hva gjør man når det snør og er kaldt og huset er ganske så kaldt også og man er alene hjemme med vesla?
Svar: tar henne med ned på badet, lar henne bade og leke og kose seg mens man ligger på varmekabelgulvet og leser en god bok. I nesten to timer til hun blir lei.
Me smart!

This is a picture I did not take of Amalie at a small office in the hospital grinning broadly from ear to ear and her head at a cute tilted angle, stretching her tiny hand in front of her eager to greet my doctor as he was shaking Adrians hand getting to learn his name. Amalie saw him get all that attention from the doc and decided she wanted a part of it too and jumped the gun so to speak almost trying to push Adrian away so she could shake hands with the nice man too.

I just discovered Unphotographable thru Photojojo - a site devoted to pictures you wish you had taken but didn't because you were to slow on the shutter, the manual settings on the camera was wrong for the situation, you forgot your camera in your car, you took the photo with wrong focuspoints and so on and so on. Still - you want to tell the story of the picture and by all means who says you can't??

I hereby declare war..
Yep! I hereby declare war on lightbulbs and stuff!
I'm trying to swap out the remaning lightbulbs in the house with the energy-saving-kind. Dang expensive but hopefully it should be worth it in the long run. However - those halogen-spotlights ..... I'm damn sure they're like, mocking me!!! They're supposed to have a lifespan of two years (Hmmmm!?!?) yet I'm damn sure the one I had to swap just now was the one I swapped just a few months ago..?? Gah. So. I grabbed my sharpie and wrote the date on the new halogenlight..... and I'm so gonna do that with all the other lightbulbs I'm swapping from now on!! And if they only last for like, say, less than a year instead of two or even three (as some of the packages claim)...well..uh...I dunno.....but then I'd know for sure :P

7 random things about me

• I love to bake.
• I hate to clean up. (bad bad combo)
• I wish the day didn't start sooner than say, 11am.
• I am pretty much always constantly tired or sleepy.
• I never get hangover *flex*
• I wish I was a little bit taller (dammit...stupid song stuck in my head now!)
• I don't drink coffee (and am hereby not a real grownup according to mom and dad). I do however make exceptions for coffee-bar-kinda-drinks preferrably involving chocolate too :p Hey. There's gotta be a connection between this and #3 and #4!

So. I love to bake and make snacks and stuff. Really tryin to cut down on that kinda stuff but coudln't resist this one - melting a little butter, a plate of light chocolate, a bag of marshmellows and a bit of rice crispies. You see - I keep browsing around the net - see a wonderful reciepe or picture of some kind of treat or whatever - and immediately want to try it out aswell. Happens. All. The. Time. Ohwell. The kids haven't complained so far :p

Ok.
Lagde litt god snack tidligere idag (tomt er det og, bleh)... smelt et par spiseskjeer smør i en panne på svak varme... brekk i en plate kokesjokolade (jeg brukte lys) og rør i en pose marshmellows til alt er smeltet og godt blandet.. ha i rice krispies (tror jeg tok ca 8dl), bland godt og legg det utover en bakepapirkledd plate med litt sprayet matfett på. Press massen flat med en slikkepinne og avkjøl hele greia før du skjærer den i ruter. Yum! Merkelig nok er det ikke noe mer igjen av dette her..jeje :p

A little everyday treat.
Got this totally gorgeous & ubercool necklace in the mail today. *swoon*
From Sighfoo/Starving Artist Bazaar on Etsy.

Decided it was about time to pimp me up. A little bit. :)

Have ordered couple other stuff on Etsy lately - but they're like, belated bdaypressies for my fam. I'm such a procrastinator (and hey not my fault they insist on having bdays so close to Christmas when I'm already broke and all that stuff :p) Ohwell. Don't think I should show off their links here cause they're like, watching this blog from time to time but there's no doubt there's a lot of pwetty little stuff on Etsy!! ;p

Anyways.. saw Juno last night. Been seeing people around on various blogs rave about this little nugget and decided it was about time to check it out for myself.... and boy it's so cute, sweet, witty, funny, quirky and all that :) Lots of talkin' - smart & funny talkin in that movie...yeah it might be a bit 'too smartass upbeat in your face' dialogue (reminds me of clerks in that sense actually..just not as uh "crude" :p) but it's really...a feelgoodmovie and well worth the entertainment methinks :)


Oh btw!! Check out Scrappedugnad!! Silje made us a totally cool tutorial involving linoleum and carving to make your own stamp! So awesome!

And tomorrow's Feb kit debut at Bad Girls - will post some of my layouts then I guess :)
Tomorrow's also the kids day off school/kindergarten, which normally woulda been nice & swell but I have an appointment at the hospital so I have to drag them along. Ugh! Ohwell. Promised them icecream when we were done :p

Note to self: Don't ever let the kids play with the brand new bottle of shampoo when it's not even time to start wash the hair. Damn waste!

Ohwell.

I promised some peeks for the Bad Girl Feb kit earlier today but the camerabattery died on me before I got to upload them, so .. here they are :) I kinda started slow but in the end I actually got four layouts done in three days. Yay me!

Tomorrow's time for a lil crop! I both hate and love crops. Love peeking at the other gals stuff soaking in all the inspiration. Hate pre-printing photos and staring blankly on my own pages.

Ohwell. Right - the tag - um. Brain's mushy atm. Will think of something soon :D

Round 2, Minnopol at Minneriket :)
Totally love Scenic Route :) :)


Oooooohhhhhh :D
Check this out!!
This is the cover of the Norwegian mag Vi Scrapper.... inc Feb 5th... I wrote a huge article for them about kitclubs.... check it out!! And check Scrappedugnad Feb 6th....there might be a fun giveaway or two there! Kinda! :D


I got a wonderful RAK in the mail yesterday.....sweet Tessa sent me a RAK some weeks ago including a totally lovely wonderful ribbon...I totally fell in love and asked her where she got that from... looks like it's hard to get more of this ribbon as she got it from a Scarlet Lime kit.... but....she got some extra and split what she had and sent me another yard + some lovely goodies! Aww *hugs* you're so sweet & kind and I'm so happy!! (And yeah - that ribbon's used on the above layout :) )

Nrgh. Dead camerabatteries. Sorry! Guess I'll have to wait with the rest of the BG Feb-peeks! :p

Yepyep - Pencillines went live last night - with Suzanne as our guest - she provided us with such an intricate sketch - I first thought!! But - after looking at how she and the other ladies did that one I have to admit it didn't look that hard as I first thought!! Dang! Once again - a perfect example on how I personally tend to over-complicate things!! Lol. I rotated the sketch ( a doublepager! ), squeezed the photos together and placed them like on the sketch - then shuffled the photos some to better fit my photos. See - my layout differs so from the sketch - yet it's inspired by it :)

I used two Daisy D papers of different red shades, some Cosmo Criket chipboards and yummy ribbons I got in a few RAKs at Minneriket, prima flowers and well, diff stuff :)

Been busy playin with my BG kit - I'm done with one (check out the peek - yeah - I played with stark spray haha) & in the middle of my 2nd one :) This kit is so beautiful and I'm seriously in awe re how much stuff Wendy put in these kits!! Seriously - I know the BG kit is slightly more expensive than the average kit out there but there's a reason for it - and to me it seem to be well worth it! :) (And BUGGER I hate it when lush shimmersparklestuff doesn't show well!! hrmf ;p)

Off to play more before Little Missus Pwincess is home and demands ....stuff. Like. Attention and stuff ;p

PS!! Check out what Tracie has made the last days (+ at this weeks Pencillines)!!! I suppose I'm not really objective but - *melts* ! Big Hugs to Tracie and safe travels!! :) :)

Ps2! Yes! I know I've been tagged! Will play very soon, promise! :D

Ps3! I forgot to mention in the earlier posts: there's a chance to win a free BG Feb for the winner of the Split Coast Stampers-challenge! Yey! :D

Funny thing. I did a little quiz at Glassbooth to check who I'd support/share beliefs with if I was to vote for the US President Campagin. It was just a fun lil' tidbit as I do not have all the insights to how things are or work in the US - like the No Child Behind thing they asked about (just briefly looked at the resume at Wiki - the intentions looked good but good intentions are like, one thing - another is how it's actually executed and the consequenses...I guess.).. but... apparently if I was an American I'd be a Democrat and share 79% similarity with Mike Gravel (who??), 78% with John Edwards and 76% with Hillary Clinton. Right. But then again - if I was an American I'd probably have more and better insight when it comes to what the questions really was about and stuff and the results woulda seen a lil different..maybe? :)


Ohwell.
Letseee.
Scrappedugnad went live last night yep - with Amber Skolnick as our guest and this yummy challenge: use stars and paint in your project. I created this layout way back in November for this challenge - sometimes I'm too fast for my own good which means loooooads of waiting until I can finally show and by then I'm not happy about the layout at all (a typical trait w/me - I usually don't like layouts older than 2 weeks). Ohwell. I'm happy I made it though - it's me and Ingunn when we were in Stavanger for Papirfest :) When I got to know Ambers prompt I just HAD to make a layout like this - 'cuz Ingunn's a star ya know... true story! ;) *snicker* I joked with her that it'd be the first of many "star"-photos and layouts she'd have to endure lol ;p Right. The stars - yummy Lil Davis' stars painted w/ dabbers and smudged with vaseline and then repainted and then wiped. I like that technique - a very cool tip that originates from Emily Falconbridge. Papers used here are um, Making Memories and Sassafras Lass :)

Now. Off to take the kids down to watch a basketgame and do some grocery-shopping :)

I found this link through Candice Stringhams blog - a son shows off his moms photos from the 40s and stuff - complete with her own notes and stuff on flickr. His mom even is on flickr too, commenting the commenters. I liked this photo, love this one and the description and this story is so sweet and well, reminds me that old people were young too and had lives before becoming parents kinda (shouldn't surprise me ;p but I don't know if I'd tell about exes to my son and stuff..maybe when I grow really really old and it's all long gone and innocent?) and here's the whole set :) And I have to echo Candice - this really reminds us that simple photos and journaling can give so much to the future generation. I don't think I'll go running around staging everyday moments including myself in the frame now, but I'll certainly gonna give more thought as to how to show the children more of the personal me and daddy and our everyday life in the layouts. I think.

Right. I made this simple layout some weeks ago for a challenge I'm doing as a part of the Bad Girls team over at Split Coast Stampers forum - will be posting sometime today. I think my own challenge will just be, take an old photo and have a go at it - haven't quite decided yet. Tracie and I guested there this Christmas with the Pencillines-gals - now we're back w/the Bad Girls team :) And yes - that's me - celebrating my bday...I liked the thought of singing "happy birthday" to me on the layout *smile* Everything on this layout except the title-thickers and stamps are from different old Bad Girl kits. Used the last of the Prima-bling (dang! I *love* these!!) and am happy I finally got around to use the black filefolder. Inside the filefolder I've tucked a prima-journalingpad noting the things I remember from this photo - well - I don't remember the exact day but I find it amusing to note how I remember the furniture (note the posh green and yellow striped couch - we had that one for YEARS ;p), a little corner of the frames of moms oil-painting (horses in a valley - she was pretty good at painting - but always points out that she never got around to finish this painting - the horses are lacking their shadows :) ), the good old serveware that's still in use today when we get guests at home..ahh... those sweet little memories and connections that gives so much more value to a photo for those involved...
I have to say though - I struggled with this photo for three days!! Gah!! Seriously - I really really wanted to scrap this photo. Yet it was somewhat muddy and dark and well - clashy colours and stuff....so did not know how to scrap this. Whined about it on msn for at least two days to friends who wanted to hear (or maybe they just ignored the whine-part :p). Just didn't want to give it up. Went thru Daisy D and Scenic Route and whatev papers before I pulled out the old BG kits and settled for this. Ohwell. I think I pulled it together okay considering my headaches and the aestetic challenging photo.

Nuff boring talk.
I'm currently workin on future Pencillines-layouts and I have to say: YAY for Rouge de Garance! (Urbaine and Indigo. Beautiful stuff!) Two layouts feat RgD now and I remember why I loved RdG in the first place. So excited to see what's in store for CHA! And re. CHA, did you see the peek what's incoming from Prima?? (check the Scrappy Gourmet blog, "More CHA Sneaks!", at the end of the post) Woah! Looks like a mix of Scenic Route and RdG! I know I'm so excited to see if it's really as cool as it looks like!! Atm I think - yeah - I'm most excited about SR, Prima and RdG for CHA. The MAMBI peeks looked totally lovely and cool aswell and I love AC's thickers and MMs elegant and chick journalingspots!

Now. Check Scrappedugnad sometime today - there'll be a new challenge up there and I totally adore my own layout for that one ;) (oooh yeeyyy don't make your head explode now Ania :p)

Piccies from yesterdays fun with Amalie! Me and Amalie had a girlie-day out hanging around McDonalds eating icecream and visiting her great-grandparents and oooh, exploring the very very cool areas around McDonalds..;) Alright. I might have evaluated the room for a perfect spot to sit & take piccies at. And I'm a sucker for cool backgrounds. Seriously. So when I spotted these containers from inside McDonalds I knew I had to drag Amalie along takin some more photos when done w/the icecream. So cool! And I made a nice discovery in RAW on how to edit those kind of outdoor-photos (basically drag brightness way up and counter with blacks and temperature, add vignetting & adjust the corresponding saturation/lumination) so they'll make a very nice foundation for the extra wrapup-punch in Photoshop :) I know. Color's so fakey...but oh, so yummy! :D Coudln't resist showing quite a number of them - sorry if they're loading slow! :)

I also have those layouts to show:


Pencillines featuring Sasha Farina....one of the faithful followers of PL and such a talented one...love her layouts, love that she's pretty much always doing the sketches and love the fact that she's our guestdesigner this week!! I used the january-kit from ScrapMuse (and a paper from an older kit from same kitclub).... cute K&Co and Making Memories papers...:)

Minnopol at Minneriket has started - first prompt was to make a layout about 10 things you didn't like. I did so - but kinda forgot one more thing I absolutely disliked (IV Antibiotics - I know - it's necessary & kinda lifesaver and stuff, but it doesn't mean I have to like how it's done!). Used a number of leftover papers I had lying on my desk - bits and pieces from various kits and SR papers. If youre able to check out the gallery at Minneriket do so - such fabulous layouts from these gals there!


Oh - I got a nice award from Tessa last night too!
A cute "You make my day"- award :) How nice - thank you Tessa! :D I have to say - you all make my day when you take the time to comment on my posts - I know a number are readin, but not that many compared actually comments - so - you who do - you make my day! :)
(No - I'm not tryin to guilttrip you readers - I'm happy people drops by and I'm guilty of slackin on commenting myself too *blush*)

Humtehum. I'm alive. Things are happening. I'm happy. :)

First, I'm currently planning and sceduling some future classes for this spring (and the rest of the year :p). I don't think I will be doing massive teaching when it comes to this spring - still have some personal things to wrap up first....but there are a few exciting & fabulous things lined up for sure...I'm not sure if I can tell right now but I will soon I promise :) Best of all? Most of the classes will be open for both sign-languageusers and hearing people.

I also got an amazingly freakin ...I'm almost speechless & was this .. close to fainting....news the other day...I know...I'm such a tease ;p) In a few weeks for sure =) I'm still blushing and almost fainting when thinking about it.

Right.
I was forced to do a selfportraitthingie the other day. You like? (no Anna Im so not gonna do this more than necessary!)


Har hatt et par spennende dager nå med noen gode nyheter... om alt går bra kan jeg avsløre noen av planene fremover, men inntil videre......må jeg bare si "ÅÅÅÅHHHHHHH" så kult og la dere vente (as if noen cares :p) Et par av de går ut på fremtidige kurs med meg denne våren...kurs som vil være åpne for både døve og hørende... jeg har ikke tenkt å kurse så veldig intensivt denne våren, men et par kule gigs greier jeg å presse inn - vi får se når ting forhåpentligvis blir 100% sikkert. Ohwell. Back til å fikse samples! *smile* *wink*

Ha en super helg! :D