Update from London

We moved in on Wednesday. When we arrived there was no one to meet us at the house. But it was unlocked as apparently there are 3 workers still working on the bathroom. They will be there for at least an other week apparently. Of the 3 toilets in the house, luckily one them does work. The washing machine unfortunately did not. It was filled with smelly water, and when we started it it flooded the utility room... The kitchen has a nice fridge/freezer with ice-cubes in the door. Unfortunately that was leaking water too. Most of the rooms of the house where finished, but as our beds are being sent from Norway we were staying in the guestroom, where we have rented furniture. However that room plus one of the other had no ceiling light. The house was supposedly cleaned by professional cleaners, however it was really dirty still and there were dead insects in the lamps (where there were lamps, which was not in every room).

It has been really warm in London the last two days. Yesterday was about 32c. One of the newspapers wrote about a heatwave coming in with temperatures up to 50c apparently. But the workers are working on tiling the patio (well they are working on the bathroom, so there is really no progress on the patio), but anyways we cannot use the garden for at least another week.

So there is a little bit of chaos on this end at the moment. But today the movers came with our stuff from Norway, so at least now we can move into our rooms, and things will start to settle. Although we will have to deal with the ungoing work for some time still. My agent calls it a "breach of the tenancy agreement" and have filed a complaint. But that does not really help us that much...

Fingers crossed, come next weekend we will finally be able to use the garden and have things a little more settled...

I am at work today for the first day, which has been really nice. Although the tube ride in was an experience I dare say. I came on on the second station, where all seats were already taken. After about 2-3 stops the train was so full I though there would not be room for more people on it. But apparently there was! So Monday morning I plan to try for the first or last carriage to see if those are better. The highlight of the day has been to meet my new collegues. There are so many people that I know from before, and everyone is being really nice. So I do really feel welcome. Which is always good on ones first day at a new job...

Our new house!

There has not been much time for scrapping lately, and now all my scrapbooking supplies are in boxes awaiting a journey over the ocean to our new home... Here is a picture, with Oliver sitting on the garden steps of our home for the next (possibly) 2 years:



The front of the house. The house is being renovated, so in this picture there are some workers...



Today the movers came and packed down most of our house. So now we are living out of our suitcases at my mothers house. On July 1st we will get on the plane and fly to our new home. It is a little surreal, but exciting, although quite stressful at the moment...

My new scraproom :-)

Happy birthday, Norway!

Today is Norway's national day. A wonderful combination of happy children, national costumes, parades, balloons, Norwegian flags, games at the local school, and lots and lots of ice cream! Oliver got so exhausted we had to take a break and let him nap :-)

So I used the break to crop some pictures of LO's I did when we were in Oslo in March (a little overdue I know, sorry!)


Flowers for Mummy



I love when the kids bring me flowers, it is so cute! And with lilac flowers, I got to use lilac on my LO too, which is a colour I for some reason hardly ever use... The tag with the vintage picture on it I made with transfer technique, getting instructions from Oddbjørg.


Ella



This picture is from my fathers summer house last summer. I just love this picture of Ella, it simply captures the atmosphere of the place. I experimented with this photograph in PS, removing the colours from everything except her dress.

London, here we come!

It is finally official, the reason why I have been SO busy lately (and such a terrible blogger). We are moving to London! This summer we will be moving to Wimbledon, London to stay for the next 1-3 years. I am so exited, but also a bit apprehensive. I will be working at the London office, and my husband will be a stay-at-home-dad. I hope this will prove to be a wonderful adventure for the whole family, and that we will not be TOO homesick while we are abroad.

Any tips on scrapbooking in London are highly appreciated. I hope the English have crop-nights too!

Easter vacation

The kids are home from kindergarten, and we are off from work. It is so lovely getting to spend some "lazy days" together. Yesterday we went to the beach with friends and neighboors and grilled hotdogs. Today Ella and me are going into Stavanger to visit Scrappejungelen and pick up some goodies. Both Ella and Oliver scrapbook and have their own supplies and album :-) It is so great that we can share this wonderful hobby! Ellas 6th birthday is coming up, and more than anything she wants a camera (how cute is that!). So she is getting a pink Canon powershot E1 (hush, don't tell). Oliver and daddy are going to work in the garden. The weather is beautiful outside, and life is good!


New dress


I made this LO a while ago. The picture is of Ella on the Norwegian National Day some years ago. She is wearing a dress that me and my mother knit for her. So I got inspired by that textbox with a mother knitting for her daughter.

Some new LO's

I was at the crop in Misjonskirka in Stavanger last weekend, and I got to make a few new layouts. The two first below I made then. I also got to attend a course by amazing Ania AND I got to hang out with a bunch of wonderful, inspiring and amazing scrappers. Gotta love that!

Spring

Recognise the picture from my header? I love that picture, and just had to use it right away on a page.



Run like the wind

Oliver running like the wind last summer.



Practise makes perfect

Ella practising her skiing skills this winter. I made this for "Mesterscrappen" at Scrapping a few weeks ago. But had trouble betting a good picture with the winter darkness outside in the afternoons. So I have taken a new picture. Starting to get a hang of taking LO pictures with my new lense :-)

New header

I just love my new lense :-) I resently bought the 50mm 1,8 lense for my Canon EOS 350D, and love the sharper and lighter pictures. The picture in the new header I took today on our sunday trip. Sunday is expedition time in our family, so today we explored the old houses in "Gamle Stavanger" (old town in Stavanger).

I have been sick for over a week, so not much scrapping going on for a few days... Feeling a little better today though, so hopefully I am over the worst of it. Have received a few scrapping goodies in the mail over the last few days, and am looking forward to playing with them.

Jeg er på Scrapwalken :-)

Så gøy! Jeg er blitt plukket ut til februars scrapwalk på Scrappehuset Nå ble jeg kjempeglad!

I have been picked out to appear on the Scrapwalk on Scrappehuset Wow! I am so honoured :-)

Playing around with some new CHA goodies for Scrappejungelen (DT)

Bliss! May Lis came home from CHA with samples for us in the Scrappejungelen Designteam to play with. Gotta love that! So I made these:

Ready for school

This paper from MME's Penny Lane series reminded me of school and of Ella being so ready to start school. She does not start untill this fall, but last summer she was talking about it all the time, and wanted to start sooner. On this picture she looks so determined, so I thought it fit the story well. I have also "gone crazy" with Prima flowers and metall embellishments from Kort og Godt.

Gummel

I was challenged to make something from the new America Craft papers. Although not quite my usual style, it was a lot of fun doing something a little more clean and simple than I usually do. The story is of Oliver who awoke late at night and told me about an angry man who had been there. I was alone in the house with the kids, so I ran into Ella's room checking that she was ok. All the while wondering why the dog was not barking like crazy if there were strangers in the house. So as you can imagine my heart was beating fast while I was contemplating what to do. After a while though I managed to get out of my three year old Oliver that the angry voice had come from outside. The window was open, but the bedroom is on the third floor. Our yard borders a path where apparently an angry man must have walked by. Poor boy. He woke up so worried. But had to scrap the picture and story though.

Fri

The new Enchanted line from Pink Paislee is so beautiful! One of the papers is covered in adorable butterflies, which is where the butterflies are from. I punched out a hole in the background paper to frame one of them. The rose is from another paper from the same series. I stamped a fairy on an old magazine page and embellished with Stickles. I also stamped a bird on a corner of the picture and traced it with Stickles.

Balder

Ella and our dog, Balder. They are such good friends. She always wants to hold him when we go for his afternoon walk. And he will walk extra carefully when she is holding him. Another LO with the Enchanted line from Pink Paislee.

Mummy I don't know anyone I can marry !!?!

Ella was really into growing up last fall. She planned how many kids she would have (at most she was up to 2 boys and billion girls). Of course she needed a husband to be a father for those children (well daddy is mummy's husband, and to her at 5, we are the big rolemodels). It was kind of a blow for her when she understood that she could not marry her little brother, Oliver. So then panic struck, and she exclaimed: "Mummy I do not know anyone I can marry!!??!". I suggested her friend in Kindergarden, Lars. But she explained that he pushed and hit her, so she could not marry him. I (proudly) agreed. After all we cannot marry someone who does not treat us well...

All this happened in the back seat of the car driving to kindergarden so I did not actually capture it on film. But I wanted to scrap the story, and this picture seemed fitting. The story is recorded on the tags behind the rose. And I added a photo of a mother and baby from a 1950's magazine for good measure :-)

I made this LO for round 3 at Mesterscrappen, the task was to use the word "Tenk" in the headline.

Adventure

I made this for the second task at Mesterscrappen, and came in second in my group :-) The task was to be inspired by an add.

I love this picture from our local park. The kids love to explore it. And an added bonus is my mother living close by. So our little adventures often end up with waffles or ice-cream at her house.




I got a new lense today for my camera! I am looking forward to hopefully taking better pictures of my LO's... I have a Canon EOS 350D, and it is so difficult getting good pictures with the kit lense, when I try not to use the flash. But the new lense takes in more light so hopefully that will help!