Little Corner of Ania

So.. this post is mostly for my mom & family & stuff. And even if you’re neither you’re still welcome to have a peek ofc *smile*

Vårt juletre iår – pyntet lille julaften :)
Må innrømme jula iår for det meste ble reddet av Simen som gjorde en masse hele dagen mens jeg hadde trøbbel med det ene øyet fra morgenen av – det var noe som irriterte det konstant uten at jeg klarte å finne ut av det. Måtte bare ta ut linsene og sove (hvile øynene :p) masse fra morgen til kveld. Fikk da gjort litt innimellom, men ikke stort :/ Var glad jeg hadde tatt meg fri fra jobben fra før av den dagen, for jeg hadde ikke kunnet jobbe i den tilstanden jeg var i da – helt sant :( Hele øyet var knallrødt og hovent og veldig lyssensitiv :( Ble heldigvis bedre til julaften!

Amalie modellerer den hjemmelagde hårpynten jeg lagde til et av julebordene tidligere i desember :) En helt vanlig hårbøyle til 19kr i butikken, en stoffblomst fra Prima, litt bling kjøpt hos Scrappejungelen tidligere i høst og sort fransk birdcage-veil shoppet på ebay :) + litt gluedots, fabritac-lim og sytråd :P (er det forresten ikke litt skremmende hvor flink hun er til å posere? Miljøskadd kalles det visst, når man er vokst opp med en mor med kamera ;p)

Det fine, ny-ryddige loftet ble raskt herjet med etter at ungene overtok det før og etter julemiddagen. Jaja.

I tillegg til ungene våre var Frida og Kristoffer her julaften – og de lekte bra sammen mens de ventet på at vi endelig skulle begynne på gavene..fire barn og seks voksne var vi på julaften..

Etter middagen og desserten (pinnekjøtt & riskrem) gikk vi rundt juletreet..(jada, jeg også – etter å ha tatt noen bilder først ;p)..…sang (Kristoffer var vel den som sang høyest av alle :D)…

…og klappet :p

Pakkeåpningen var en velorganisert affære – iallefall i begynnelsen ;p Ungene hentet pakker etter tur….men etterhvert som de fant seg favorittgavene sine forsvant de en etter en for å leke med tidligere nevnte favorittgave…:p

Amalie fikk en “Hello Kitty” laptop av Adrian. Som hadde lagt masse omtanke i akkurat denne gaven til henne, søte gutten :) Her hjelper onkel Hågen henne :)

Guttene synes Super Mario-spillet Adrian fikk til wii’en fra mormor og Trygve var super :D

Dagen derpå – Amalie viser noen av tingene hun fikk (Barbie-dukke og Hello Kitty-genser)

Adrian og Beste spiller Super Mario.. Beste og farmor overnattet hos oss og spise julefrokost med oss før de dro hjem til sitt.

Mer Super Mario-spilling…(nei de har ikke bare vært inne – de har også vært ute og prøvekjørt den nye rattkjelken de fikk fra oss i julegave :) Tenkte jeg skulle manne meg opp til å bli med ut snart for å ta noen bilder..for å bevise at joda, ungene mine leker ute også ;p)

Amalie viser hvordan man lager snøengler – på stuegulvet.

Og Adrian kom seg litt videre i spillet…
Amalie har vært opptatt av både sine (Hello Kitty, Barbie og Littlest Pet Shop) og Adrian sine leker. Tror hun lekte med bakugaene i minst 1 1/2 time i strekk igår kveld. Kjempelenge iallefall :p

Fascinerende små plastdingser…

Hun lekte igrunn mer med de enn det Adrian gjorde…

Særlig gøy var det at de hele tiden susset må vites…

Ok..det var litt ymse med bilder fra de siste dagene..håper dere er fornøyde nå, mamma & co ;p

Nå skal jeg ut i kulden og ta noen flere bilder…;p

This is my gorgeous littlesis.
And as of today, she’s in her last year of the twenties. Bwahahaha.

Happy birthday littlesis ;) Nyt siste rest av ungdommen din ;p

Miss you – håper dagen din blir superfin med snille unger og greier!! :)

If you’re like me, you may be feeling a bit like a stressed out maniac now these last days before Christmas (having LOTS to do tryin to multitask and getting…like, nada done..). Figured I’d share a bit of what’s been occupying me the last few weeks…(and I promise – this is the last post w/Christmas-pressie-stuff…saved those to go in one huge post so I wouldn’t bore you over and over again w/these sorta. Am nowhere close to done w/the pressies (unfortunately), but well- they’re just variations of what’s been shown already both here and in the older posts this December..)

I found this neat tip from Kimberly Neddo over at the Sassafras-blog, using the yoyo-concept on paper instead of fabric. Such an awesome idea, and a great way to use up those little scraps! :) I made quite a few to accompany the diff. gifts for this Christmas. If you spray the paper w/a little glimmer-mist prior the paper will be more cooperative and it’ll get a nice shimmer on it too – yay :)

More paper-yoyos and stuff…as said – awesome way to use up your scraps and make the pressies look a bit more prettier..maybe? :)

I’ve been mostly creating little bags w/treats inside & decorating matchboxes. Here’s the Hambly-version.

Lovelovelove this lace-transparency!

And really love the simplicity&elegance of this one. Sort of wish I had kept it for myself. Ahwell.

More Hambly. Papers and kraft-stickers. Yay! I’d either go for the elegant version myself, or the cool one. I’m not sure. I need a pretty matchbox to sit on the shelf of the fireplace, that’s for sure!

Remember this paper-flower-tip? Well, while packing the gifts I ended up with several strips of kraft wrap-paper. Instead of throwing them away I figured I’d put them to good use – spraying them w/red glimmer-mist (Candy Apple Red or whatever it’s called…veeeery red. The kind of color that doesn’t go away easily despite washing your hands and sort of looks yucky/gross on the fingers of said hand….say no more..:p). Anyways. It really looks awesome irl and is so simple & quick to make :) Other materials on this one includes 3ndypapir-paper, American Crafts felt-flower, adornit-letters (love these!) and staples :)

More gift-bags. This time I ran outta the paperbags, so I used squares of cellophane instead, wrapped w/ribbon from Søstrene Grene (awesome&dirt-cheap :p). The bags are kind of held together w/strips of Hambly transparencies stapled together at the ends…slapped Hambly kraft-stickers & adornit-letters on.

Look, a group-photo! :p

This time w/the Fancy Pants’ “Christmas Magic” line.

I’ve shared the card before – you can also find it here w/a diagram..(and if I was to be picky I’d mention that the matchbox&bag both have been shared on the FP-blog here. But I’m not picky ;p)

Really like how this one turned out. But the glitter….ugh. LOVE the look – hate the mess (is there any kind of glue that’s better than other for glitter??). Need I say I only made one w/glitter? :P Materials include Fancy Pants “Christmas Magic” paper & rubons, Maya Road snowflake chipboards, Pink Paislee glitter….mm….some inking too w/distress ink (Vintage photo & tea dye).

While I’m on the topic of Fancy Pants – also made this quick & simple garland that’s currently hanging across the walls above the fireplace. For more info on this one, feel free to check out this FP-post. Kinda love the buttons in between the paperpieces.

Look, more matchbboxes! This time w/3ndypapir-paper, lots of glimmermist and stuff (some of the tags has a coat of matte medium finish on them, love the subtle texture when you crackle the paper when the glue is dry).

Right!

I have a few layouts to share aswell, but this post is darn long already so I’ll save the layouts for tomorrow or something like that. Need to space out the scrappy stuff no?

*smile*

Thanks a lot for dropping by this busy Christmastime and have a lovely Christmas if you´re not around until then! :)

Heres’s a layout I made a while ago by the way, but haven’t gotten around to share yet..

More Hambly mixed w/the awesome crepe-paper from Jenni Bowlin :) Photos from Papirfesten – and my cameras oh-too-short-timer *cough* :P Crepé-paper! I need more of this! And I love this Kraft-sticker from Hambly!!

Love the black frame-transparent – so dramatic..:)

The rest of the post is for my mom and stuff..

I flere uker har Amalie sett frem til å få et juletre i hus, og stadig vekk mast om vi ikke skal kjøpe et snart. Vi har greid å snike oss unna juletre-innkjøpet lenge – helt til vi kjørte forbi et juletre-utsalg. Da var det ingen vei tilbake – nå skulle vi handle juletre! Amalie var såklart begeistret og smådanset rundt omkring.

Digger disse juletreinnpakningsgreiene! :)

Valgets kval..

Valgte vi riktig tre, mon tro..?

Tadah! Juletreet vårt pakkes inn :)

Ps. Amalie er den søteste jente-dinosauren ever!! :) Skal se om jeg får tatt et bedre bilde senere :) Hun lever seg bra inn i godzilla-rollen i den splitter nye dino-pysjen sin :)

Today I tried to wrap up some Christmas-stuff I’ve procrastinated way too long…above is three of the stuff I managed to do today – love using 3ndypapir for the Christmas-treats. Love the look of the papers, makes stuff look like, cozy and stuff :)

The whole sunday-craftiness-stuff came to a rough halt though when I realized I was missing stuff to continue. Stupid. Anyways, it meant I got time to do tonights Pencil-Lines after all. Yay!

So I whipped out some Hambly-stuff – pink “Le Romantique”, black “All Mixed Up”, transparent white “Mod Circles” and cut-outs from both the paper and transparent version of “Elephants in a Row” – and slapped’em all on some lovely bright green bazzill. And some Kaisercraft-gems, ofcourse, considering we’re still supposed to show off the Kaisercraft-sponsorshipstuff, only that I haven’t gotten mine – lost in the mail for 3 weeks – bleh :( I love the KC-gems though, so have a bunch of’em here.

Check out what the other girls did along with this weeks guestdesigner Mel Nunn :)

As usual – no “room” for journaling so hid it behind the flappy photodisplay. Yay.

Now. Excuse me while I try to wrap up the rest of the remaining Christmas-favor-gifts the next two days. Falalala or somethin’ like that :p

Mmm..still engaged in Christmassy stuff here…
Whipped out lovely 3ndypapir’s Christmas-lines from last year to create a card, matchbox and decorations for a pressie.

Spent last Sunday with the kids’ second cousin and his parents.

The photo above is like, so staged (notice how Amalie’s totally nailing the posing;p).

The photo below however – kids just being kids ;p Kinda love the randomness of the kids positions here..

He’s so cute :)
Unfortunately I forgot to recharge the batteries..so no more photos from our trip to Vannkanten nor downtown. Bleh.

On Monday we did a little more baking. Gingerbread-cookies! Apparently pretty yummy, according to Amalie…

And on Tuesday we decorated the gingerbread-cookies! Red icing! White icing! Which turned into pink icing within three minutes of decorating thanks to Amalie (who thought it was the most prettiest thing she’d ever seen).

As always – gingerbread-lights! See last year’s version here and the 2007 version here.

I’ve been at home with the kiddo today + yesterday – had to take him home from school cause he didn’t feel ok. He’s much better today though, and will return to school tomorrow…and I did get a fair bit of Christmas-wrapping done- yay.

Psst!

Check out this peek of future Hambly-posts!:

First things first - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! :) :) :)

Håper dagen idag blir super med familie og nærmeste venner - barna hilser så mye og savner deg :) :) Håper du blir fornøyd med gaven, kortet blir litt forsinka - men kommer ;)

Did a lil project for the Hambly-blog utilizing tags (finally - usually just save them :p) from clothes etc - dressing them up w/papers & photos. Below are a few samples of the mini - you can see more pictures on the Hambly-blog. There´s also a giveaway going on atm - along with awesome projects from this months guest-DT Kelly Purkey.

I also have a project on the Fancy Pants blog, for the Fancy This posts.
It´s a Christmas Card w/a little extra inside. The idea of using instant coffee-bags as small card-favors comes from Mo9ca, who created a gorgeous card w/bags and candlelights a while ago. Mine´s more simple & traditional-shaped.

I used the Christmas Magic-line from Fancy Pants- both papers and rubons.

There´s a diagram on the Fancy Pants-blog plus instructions if you want to give this a try yourself.

Have an enjoyable Advent! :)

Ps! I´m sorry to mention I didn´t get to do a PL-sketch last Sunday - still no box from Anna w/the Kaisercraft-stuff (they sponsored that + this week). Hopefully I´ll get it in time for the next sketch, if not - well - I do have a huge load of their gems which I love & use almost all the time along with the Prima-gems....guess I´ll do something with them only then or somethin like that :p

I simply adore this “Christmas Magic” collection from Fancy Pants Designs – love the style&colors of the collection :) :) The photos are from last weekend – yay for scrapping fresh photos :) The layout was made for the Cards & Strips-showcasepost on the Fancy Pants Blog.

Decided to shorten down the strip of card w/the doily punch from Martha Stewart…& to use the stickerborder – stuck upon a piece of cardstock & cut out. Gems from Prima.

Also decided to use rubons, gems & crackle accents on the minitags. Used a piece of the strips-paper for journaling.

Yesterday dad was in town for a day – so I used some of my compensatory time at work to meet & spend some time with him :) (HI dad!)

Loved that I had an excuse to whip out the camera & play tourist in the city..=) Here´s a part of Bryggen.

We even paid a visit to the Gingerbread City Display (mm dark photos..looked okay on my calibrated screen at home, looks too dark at the workmac...would have been better to convert them to B&W I think, but I loved the blue light in the area..ohwell)….it’s been written a lot about it in the Norwegian media lately. It’s even been mentioned in international newsagencies because of the vandalising…I completely understand the frustration & sadness generated from the incident, but it sort of turned into such a huge deal in the media it became a bit ridiculous imho. Anyways..lots of gingerbread houses and trains and boats and buildings and ..well..lots of gingerbreadstuff everywhere :p

(jeg visste ikke vi hadde en aksjonsgruppe for tårn i Bergen ;p)

Dad was in town to give a speech on “Deaf Humour”. Of course I had to attend – always funny & amusing to watch dad in action ;p

Title: Keep holding on – Glee (ok, I know it’s Avril Lavigne but I’ve been so hooked on Glee & its soundtrack lately – looooove so many of the songs covered on this show!!! & Salling is HOT..I can say so cause he’s not that much younger than me so it’s ok ;p)

I like walking to work.

You can get sort of interesting pictures early in the morning and stuff.
I’ve often thought that I need to try capture more photos early in the morning (the golden hour?) but in reality, I’m too lazy to get up that early just to take some piccies (lousy photog – yeah). But with work & the time of the year – when the darkness makes things sort of more interesting….well – I think it’s cool snapping pictures now and then while strolling.

I was halfway to work when I noticed the large arrow and decided to go back and snap some more.. :p

We got the Christmas-tree up today!

Although people in the paper (esp the journalists) are used to have their mugs in the paper I’m not really comfortable putting pictures w/them on the blog. Not yet anyways *cough*. Hence the boring before&after pictures w/o anyone in them :p The tree is situated in the middle of the (round) house – at 2nd floor.

:)

 

First – my Pencil-Lines layout for this week.

Our guest this week was Michelle aka MJM :)

Made with Fancy Pants Designs – Kraft Kuts (That Boy) & Rough & Tough. Added Distress Ink (faded jeans) & Glimmer Mist (Graphite & Patina) to this one, aswell as a blue cardstock as mat and paint on the edges of the pp & embellished it w/felt. Gems and ribbon from Prima, chipboard-letters from American Crafts.

I honestly can’t believe I haven’t scrapped these piccies of the kiddo before (I don’t think so at least??) – but – the boy lines from FP really matched these full-of-life&zest-piccies… I have the middle one as a large canvas at home by the way :)

 

Lots are happening over at Pencil-Lines right now – the BOOK is finally done and I can’t wait to get my copy in my hands (I totally love 80% of the layouts I did for that book at least..the rest..I hope she didn’t use them cough) – it contains 40 new sketches from Anna and several interpretations of these sketches by a design team of 11 different international designers – ie – there is sure to be something for everybody's taste in that book w/layouts made by:

Shimelle Laine,
Gigi Kennedy,
Michelle Filo
Sue Deacon
Anne Jo Lexander
Tracie Hudson
Iris Babao Uy
Christiane Muller
Carina Lindolm
Emma Trout
Annie Hafermann

And - maybe – in my humble opinion – the best of it all? The book is spiral bound (that one scored BIG points w/me – spiral-bound is sort of a must-be for craft books imo) and afaik it’ll be coffe-tableish in size (don’t quote me on that one – I’m positive I heard it would be a handy size for crafting but can’t find that info written down anywhere atm). You can preorder your copy here for £14.94 – wholesale-inquiries welcome – just email pencillinessketches@googlemail.com with “wholesale” in the subject-line. It’s expected to be delivered by the end of 2009 – hopefully in time before Christmas!

 

There’s also a Design Team Search over at Pencil-Lines atm!

I’ll just copy&paste what’s being said in the newsletter:

Design Team Search

Here at Pencil Lines we have sadly, said goodbye to Sue Deacon and Annie Hafermann . It now means it is time to look for some new DT members We have handpicked 2 new design team members and are now looking for 2 more members to join our design team!

Requirements:
1. Create a layout based on a sketch from Pencil Lines. Please label your layout with the sketch number and your name.; ie: AnnaBowkis _sketch101
Individual interpretation is encouraged, but the sketch must still be recognisable. Your layout must be made for this design call and cannot be uploaded to any blog or gallery, nor be previously published until after the design team call.
2. A link to your layout gallery
3. Full name, address and email
4. Blog link
5. A list of current DT's you are on
6. Link to resume/short bio
7. A twitter style 150 word , "Why you want to be on the Pencil Lines DT"
All entries must be 12 x 12 or 8.5 x 11. Please keep file sizes under 100kb.
Entries are to be emailed to pencillinesketches@googlemail.com

Please put Pencil Lines Design Team application in the subject line. Entries must be received by midnight EST on December 20th. The Design Team will be contacted by December 28th and will be announced on January 1st 2010.

Expectations:
* Your term will run from the January 2010 until December 2010 sketches.
*Each DT member will be required to submit 3 LOs per month. At the beginning of the current month, I will send you both new sketches for the following month and it will be due late in the current month.
* DT members are expected to remain exclusive to Pencil Lines Sketches for their DT period. We are not able to accept applicants who are current DT members for other sketch blogs / sites.
* DT members will occasionally have the opportunity to  work with product sent by our sponsors.
* Positions will be held for a twelve month period
*DT members should use the Pencil Lines blinkie and promote Pencil Lines where ever and when ever possible!
International scrappers may apply.
If you have any questions, please email them to me and I will answer them as soon as I can.
Look forward to receiving your entries.

Anna and the team
www.pencillines.com

Next month we will announce 2 new members to be joining our team. I know you will love them!

Do apply! Pencil-Lines is well-known for it’s International cast, so being an International really is no disadventage for once!! :D

Gonna share quite a few photos, so suppose I’d show a card first for those who’s here for the scrappy stuff only sorta =)

So.

Made this card for my grandmother-in-law but managed to forget the card at the office the day I was dropping by the hospital…ohwell..I’ll get it to her sometime I hope :p

Punched out butterflies w/my Martha Stewart-punches & used my scalloped scissors around the sticker. Paper&sticker from Pink Paislee, gems from KaiserCraft and letters from Adornit.

 

Right!

Back to the pictures…

Last night I finally got around to meet up w/some of the scrappy girls…it’s been a while!!

First I met up w/Marie, Eli and Ellen. We dropped by Moe, Udd & Tollefsen, who opened their own store at Bryggen. Nice little store & lots of people attending the opening. Cozy.

 

 

There were wine and snacks and Marie needed help w/the wine (srsly! ;p).

Then we detoured a bit & stood outside in the rain liek, just for fun – until someone had to lead people someplace & we ended up at The Scotsman. I think. The small, elegant pub next to the trad. doors to The Scotsman? Which looks totally different and way more chic and maybe it’s always been there & I’ve just been too drunk to notice/care. Like, years ago when I was young. *cough*

Anyways, they didn’t serve Guinness there until 10 (wtf! main reason we went there sniff..) so I opted for wine like the other girls. And sort of got fascinated w/taking piccies of the wineglasses.

 

Until someone had enough & threatened to grab their wines ruining my photos. Hello!!

 

Then we went to Egons & met up w/Ann Hedvig and Anki……soooo many people there and such great entertainment for those who had the view :p

 

Don’t look at me. Ellen and Eli decided to ..eh…refresh themselves or something.

Fooooooood!

♥ the whole evening, thank you so much for the great time gals…

 

Spent today w/the kids….

 

Visiting the Gingerbread Island at the local mall…so fascinating for the kids..♥

 

Adrian found this light-sphere fascinating..

 

…while I thought this part of the Island was most awesome. A replica of the AV-house (my workplace :D) in gingerbread….we’re located at the 2nd and 3rd floor :D Yes, the house is round. Yes the corridors goes around and round (like Eli learned last night :p). The bridge (connecting the island&mainland can be seen to the left, the boat to the right :p)

 

Then there was time for the Frost Princess to read out loud for the kids. Nice atmosphere.

Then we went home & started baking for Christmas :) Kakemenn! W/Hello Kitty! :D

Both kids helped ♥

Gonna make Bailey-balls (uh yeah) & try to get the honey&pecanmix wrapped up later today :)