My Norwegian Christmas in pictures...

Christmas dinner at H.'s mother... her tree, though artificial, was splendid and I smiled seeing at least three ornaments I made for her during the years hanging there too..

H. got us a lovely assortment of traditional Norwegian Christmas cakes... for your enjoyment, I added their names...

After dinner, my H. distributed the gifts... a lot of joy and smiles!

Back at home, we continued celebrating with a tradition we have in my family, introduced by my father when I was a kid... the tailed part of the family gets a gift too! When it was only a dog, a double sausage was hanging directly on the tree :)

Happy the dog got a gift as well but he was very quick at eating it, so - no picture! LOL

Answering questions: Toska stayed at my aunt... it was no sense to stress her with a plane trip just for 6 weeks.
The cat-boys names are Felinek (black and white boy) and Lucky (grey and white boy). I liked your suggestions around Loki and similar names, but H. wasn't fond of it... close to it, we chose Lucky - because he is lucky, isn't it? :)

Over the next days, we relaxed A LOT! Just the way we wanted it...!

We got tons of snow and low temperatures... -23 Celsius yesterday (9 Fahrenheit?) Here's what H.' mother neighbouring little house looks like:

Our garden looks idyllic but I could only take that picture as the rest of the land is inaccessible because of all the snow :)

Happy enjoys it... moderately...

He seemed to say - 'Am I a seal or what?'

More later....

Merry Christmas to all my friends! Enjoy these special days.... Relax a lot.... Stitch a bit... Blog a little... Laugh as much as possible.... ENJOY!

WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT!

We're back from Christmas dinner at H.'s mother... my first Norwegian Christmas... The cats and Happy loved going out in the snow... We're all tired after the last busy days and look forward to lots and lots of doing nothing the next days! :)

The cat-boys enjoy their first winter... Aren't they big? I swear they double their size within each month! :)

A longer pause

I have lots to post (and I apologize to Encarna and Lisa S. for not showing the beautiful pieces then sent me) but for the moment being, this blog will be on pause... a week or two more, a month, I don't know.
I am at my grand-mother's bedside since oh, so many days, waiting for a death that doesn't come, for a relief in grandma's suffering. My aunt and I are taking turns day and night at her bedside, so at this moment I am beyond tired. Her strong heart doesn't let go while all else is not working anymore. She can't even swallow, so we put drops of water on her tongue all the time. Tonight, I'll be 'on duty' till 4 am so that my aunt can get some sleep. Listening to this hard breathing, seeing her unconscious and obviously in pain is difficult.
At almost 101, my grandmother is leaving and I just don't have the inspiration to blog - and even time to stitch. But I'm working on a bigger job to deliver on Thursday, so I thought I'd leave a short hi here.
No real sadness, no despair... Grandma had a long life. But it's tough to accompany her in this journey that doesn't seem to end. Her strong body is her worse enemy at this moment.
Ah, I'll tell you - think twice before you wish anyone 100 years of age.

TADA!!! Meet my pear

See what I found in our garden:


A real pear! Did it grow there? Naaah, I made it for the Blackbird Designs exchange!! So glad with the result, really. It has now found a welcoming, warm home at Barbara's.
I used a Tilda pattern from the book "Home Sweet Home" - I love Tilda designs (and of course, she's Norwegian), though I am not a real "Tilda addict" as her fans call themselves. Don't really like the lady dolls - just like with Prairie Schooler, I am in the minority, it's not the Santas I like most (but the flora and fauna-related charts). Anyways, I am showing the original to the right - I like Barbara's more, hehehe! But this is where I got the idea.
The pear is not difficult at all to construct - but I have to admit it doesn't look like a pear at all till it receives a stem and a leaf (which I made but forgot to send). I chose to add a piece of wood from the garden, thicker, which I cut to the right proportions - and it looked fantastic.
The next step was to sew the BD design, the crow from "Souvenirs of Summer" onto it. I stitched it one over one but I am totally unsure of the count of the fabric, maybe 36ct? Really don't know. I am so hopeless at remembering such details that I need to check a close-up - did I use Lakeside Linens or R&R? Oh I'm so bad at those details.
Hah! I even bought the same Tilda fabric on a trip accross the border to Sweden. H. did the food shopping while I grazed in the Panduro shop.
I was not so happy with my sewing on the pear but Barbara is gentle on me and doesn't pick on the details :)
Two wooden buttons and the trick was done.

I was also delighted that the post service was so fast - sent on Wednesday in Norway, received in Holland on Friday!

And here's the bottom... these threads make the pear look even more "real"... but it's hard to see it on the picture.

I'll be back later with more to show.... but now I need to return to packing. I'm leaving Norway on Monday... sad, sad, sad days as I pack, sort, clean and enjoy every moment with the cat-boys! :)
We want to do as much at home as possible today so we can enjoy at least half a Sunday outdoor somewhere.

This conversation took place two days ago:

me, showing something: H., does it look like a pear?
H.: - Yeah, not really.
me: - Oh? Why not? I mean, it's a perfect pear?
H.: - Well...
me: - Pfffff. You have no sense of art. It's a perfect pear.
H. - So why do you ask me, if I don't know anything?
me: - Oh well.
me, trying again: - Hey, see, isn't that an absolutely beautiful, perfect pear?
H.: (...sigh...) - Oh YES, it's so beautiful, an absolutely perfect pear!! ...(silence...) isn't that what you wanted me to say?

I resisted the urge to... well, you know. He's just a man.

The pear, you ask? You'll have to wait to see :) A week or so.

I've finished and sent my PS exchange, I'm almost done with the finishing part on my BD exchange.... stitched a PS piece for myself, but need to do the finishing so I can show it properly... and tonight I plan to start on the LHN "Snow" piece that Gigi is offering on her blog and the benefits of which go to the Unicef. Two more designs come with the LHN, but I only like one of them. It is possible to pay with Paypal. To see and/or order, click HERE.

It's getting late, but I thought I'll post a short update about our cat boys. They got their next vaccines this week, they were also chipped (answering to comment: tattoos are much less popular here, I'll hope for the best that they don't get cancer - but then I am much more worried about the street and the risk of them being hit by a car next spring...) and they got their European Union/Norwegian passports :)
We weren't planning to that fast, but we just had to and the boys were neutered yesterday. I spent a long time searching the web for info about the advantages and disadvantages. Had I known it would be so painless and fast, I wouldn't have worried beforehand.

The boys upon arriving home...


Happy checked on them from time to time till they woke up. It was sort of funny to see cats sleeping with totally open eyes, it's the first time I saw it.

Our new vet has a home practice and I just stayed in the room and watched the whole intervention while it happened. The actual surgery part took less than a minute! What took time was all the preparations - injections of morphine, local anesthetics, antibiotics, vitamin B, shaving, cleaning... I and the vet (a woman) had a fun time observing H. who was really uncomfortable about the neutering part and just left for a 40 minutes walk! He became so pale and all... She said all men react that way! LOL

They were supposed to wake up after 4-10 hours and to relax for 7 days.
Well, they started to wake up after 2,5 hours and already at night, they were fighting, running, chasing each other, enjoying life at fullest. Nothing could be done to stop them - nothing at all! Like if nothing ever happened. We just had to stop worrying about the open wounds (no stitches, it starts to grown after 3 days, we were told).

They're just the most adorable cats on Earth I know. Watching them play is endless joy - and then they are perfect companions, they're more like dogs than cats. Humans are so important for them... They sleep close to where I type and they're on my lap when I stitch... they follow H. till the shower cabin... And then Felinek is vocal (his brother is not at all), he asks for water, for food, he complains when he's forbidden smthg (Felinek - no! - meeeeow!! I said NO! - meeeooooo!!!!) LOL
They come for hugs in the middle of the night and they generally are always around.
H.? He's so fond of them!! He made a clean space on his work desk where we laid a soft plaid for them to sleep on... He's planning to clean a sort of hall room in the basement where we plan to put a climbing/playing furniture for them, money allowing. They're such a joy!
(answering to Anonymous comment - thanks for the tip about wet food, I didn't know about that issue. We won't have them on wet food only, much too expensive, but they get some daily and they drink a whole sea of water in addition to their dry special food so I think they should be fine. Actually I almost worried at first seeing how much they drink!)

(I kindly ask you not to zoom on this one - who looks good after a 3 hours ride?? LOL)

We're back from our vacation in the (cold) wilderness since so many days, but days have been busy and maybe also I didn't have the inspiration to write. And since I fully subscribe to the idea of blogging without obligation... :)
I'll post photos and write more about the vacation in the following days after I have delivered a job for tomorrow, tonight I shall spend the evening typing away...


However, I just couldn't resist showing this last finish. I made three major changes: 1) I replaced the year with Jul (Merry Christmas in Norwegian), 2) I extended the red bar to the right in the window with the pine tree - a part was missing on the chart, I am not sure if it had a meaning I didn't understand or if it is an actual error but trust me, it looked weird the way it was. I mean the bars under the two red bells - see photo up.


and 3) I didn't use the brown linen included in the kit. I used 32 ct Belfast Planinum Pizzaz from Zweigart - see the blueish opalescent elements! It is just marvelous and I plan to use the half yard I got for many future works, especially ornaments. Just love it!! It played so well with the Crescent Colors floss from the kit. I wasn't so fond of the previous yearly kits - but now I see I might stitch them again on something else than the brown linen included in the kit - anything looks better than its sad color!!


This was such a fun stitch, like with all PS charts!! I especially love this finish... plan to turn it into a bigger pillow one day, but not very soon - Christmas gifts making has to happen first.
Till later....

Oh, I was about to forget - if you have nothing, I mean really nothing better to do after reading me, check THIS LINK to see our furry friends in real life. There are 4 more short movies uploaded (More from...). The quality is not so good because I filmed with the new iphone and the light was not easy. Some were made in the cabin and some in the old room the kiddos are using here downstairs. Enjoy!

Isn't he beauuuuutiful? :) How could anyone, really...

Traveling...

On the way up north, the boys refused to stay in their transporter. Made for a funny trip (not)! On the way down to Oslo, they were just perfect.

Some solutions... (Yup, H. is a saint. Confirmed.)


Poor Happy trying to make himself small... Having Toska that close means nasty things. Trust him, he knows - and even if she is very calm and nice when in the car, doggie remembers...

Expectation....


Late night junk food at the gas station Homemade pizza leftovers I packed for the trip... we just stopped there to "empty" the menagerie and get some light from above to see better :)


And then two weeks of happiness.


Yup. Traveling and good food, good wine. Some elements of a good vacation time.


This is the Spicy Bacon Chicken - got the idea reading Tanya's blog and made it twice already. Fantastic!!With mashed potatoes, heavenly.

They are staying!!!!!!

THEY ARE STAYING!!! Can you hear my joy, my relief, my excitement? A couple of weeks before I even expected approaching H. with any definite plans regarding the kittens... the decision was made unexpectedly easily, smoothly and joyfully on Friday.
Surely being being away and relaxing from home and the usual daily stuff helped... :)
Seriously, I didn't have much hope.... no expectations.... I didn't push my H. (I mean not too much LOL!)... I let things happen by themselves.... and the little fellows knew how to find a way to his heart... Oh that's maybe not precise, H. loves them a lot! But keeping them, well... only a few days ago he was saying "no, I don't want cats now" (meaning problems when he travels for work etc.)....
But then Felinek (H's favorite, the sweetest, softest one), the black kitten, put a whole plan into action... He started sleeping on H., waking him up by walking over his face and licking it softly till H. woke up to see a pair of tiny black eyes observing him... He developed a system of jumping on H's knees and purring, looking him in the eyes with love, presenting his belly to scratch, miowling distinctively to get water/food/go out etc. And giving so much love...
THEY ARE STAYING!! Both, together, not separated (how could we?)... in Norway. We'll do the whole veterinary procedure anyway just so they can travel abroad in case of emergency.
The plan is the following. I and H. will fly to Warsaw with Happy and Toska on Sept. 14th and lots of my luggage, H. will return to Norway in some days, the kittens will stay at a nice cat pension for the few days. I think I'll only stay in Warsaw one-two-three weeks, then I'll travel to my aunt+++ for a month or so to help with my grandma (if nothing wrong happens till then, what can you know at the tender age of 100,5 - her condition suddenly worsened recently). And then to my father for Christmas... after that I'll be back in Norway for a couple of months.... spring in Poland... back for summer 2010 to Norway... :)
As you see, I'll have to be particularly careful with giving the right addresses for exchanges and such! LOL

We still don't have a good name for the grey kitten - Huggy doesn't seem to work well, because Happy comes immediately :) We'd like a name that is funny but warm at the same time... If you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments... I promise I'll read all!! Any name related to his grey color is not nice enough (charcoal, smokey, cashmere etc.) and I can't seem to be able to find the right-sounding name at all! He's smart, courageous, strong, lovely... and beautiful! :)

Now, how did we end up with THREE cats and a dog?

I tell you. Miracles happen. But then, these kitties are really, really special.

Want to see the two brothers on vacation here in the wilderness? Scroll down :)

Exploring barns and all sorts of weird places is very important.... How did he get there?? There is no floor or stairs leading to the upper floor of this old barn...


Told you, lots of weird places...


Happy did his best to control what the cats were doing...


But sometimes dogs weren't allowed in!


Also sometimes, they found really scary things in the fields...

But generally, things went fine, the exploration went on for many hours each day....


They also learned to climb....


Yup, they're having a good time here. Still two days of vacation before we all return home...

Two finishes

One that will surely be framed... Very small, stitched over one:

Outline Art Garden Sampler
by By the Bay Needleart

And one that I would like to turn into a box top:

New England Reindeer Sampler
by Elizabeth's Garden