(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...