goodbye october

goodbye october! you have been such a good photo month. i took 122 photos this month, well there were about double of that since i do have a digital SLR so i can do that :) but there are 122 photos in my october file on my computer. that´s rather good for me, i am happy with that. tomorrow i will say hello to november. oh, november when exciting things will go down for me;

my secret will be revealed :)

i will take an airplane to the big land in the west

i will celebrate my very first american thanksgiving...i guess i will do alot of firsts since it is my first trip to america :)

i will drool over the craftiness over at sew mama sew since they will have their 4th annual handmade holiday festivities!

my own holiday crafting list will also be shared here on the blog and after that the blog will be filled with holiday goodness

hello november!

flickr gets me every time ♥

1. sunflower, 2. rich in tomatoes, 3. outside friday night, 4. for sharing, 5. Autumn bench, 6. Untitled, 7. wrapped in plum., 8. heading to the lake

mini appel pies (non fat!)

so...during my latest virtual coffee session amy (miss virtual coffee!) asked for a appel pie recepie. 

here is one i make sometimes. they are non-fat. mini, as in muffin forms and superyummy. sometimes i make them as a "regular" appel pie too. 

here is what you need:

2 apples

2 eggs

3 dl sugar

2 dl cremé fraiche

2 tablespoons all purpose flower

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

i like to use a bit of a sour apple, it goes best with the sugary taste.

first, whip your eggs and sugar. then blend the other ingredients together and finally hust pour everything in the same mixing bowl. peel and cut your apples in smaller pieces. i used cupcake wrappers, so they are abit bigger than your usual muffin form, so i used the small pieces of a quarter of an apple for each form.

then just pour about 2 big tablespoons of batter in each of the forms.

then (ofcourse you should put your oven on at the beginning!) put them in the oven at 200 degress celcius for about 10-15 minutes.

they are delicious and i hope that you like them if you make them :)

ps.i used crystal wilkersons frames and digital tape to jazz up this post :)

lets share!

i just remembered that i had some new layouts to share!

i had an urge to use a photo strip on a layout, so i used a photo from this summer. i like that the background paper is a little aged and yellowed.

while going through an old notebook, i found an idea from 2008 where i had recorded small things that happens right now; in the world, in sweden, on my island and in my house. i wanted to make one for right now and i didn´t initially think that it would be a non-photo layout, but it ended up not needing any photos.

i used the punched stars at the bottom of my page even though a few of them were not perfect!

i usually don´t scrap in english, but here i used my blog entry about my ex-husband that is in afghanistan. i wanted to keep it a bit masculine, i went with these green tones. goes with the military theme aswell!

i am excited about this one! it is very inspired by the very lovely and creative Karen and her awesome layout that she posted this weekend! i wanted to lift it at once when i saw it!

i have used a few of Crystal Wilkersons digital kits for the:

banner: October 2009 collection sweet paper collection

wordstrips: october 2009 Spooky elements and Sweet elements

circles: october 2009 Sweet elements
and my sewingmachine :)

i can´t stop scrapping these fall photos from our annual photoshot :)

this is a digital layout, which i seldom do. but i got to play with crystals templates and i just had to try it out! scroll down in this post to see more examples of using this template, lot´s of yumminess!

ok, thats it for now :)

virtual coffee # 6

hi, its time for virtual coffee again! and this time i actually am drinking a good cup of coffee instead of hot tea, because i have my voice back! wohoo! i still have a slight cough, but i am not hoarse anymore.

so, if we were to meet today i would comment on that the weather has been terrific today! i love these sunny, but cold autumn days. we had a real frostnight last night so it was really cold in the morning, but then the sun came up and made lovely dances with the leaves.

if we were to meet today, i would ask about your halloween plans. as we don´t celebrate halloween that much here in sweden, i don´t have any to share with you. but i am always intruiged about other peoples traditions.

if we were to meet today, i would tell you that i had a good talk with my boss today. nothing special really, but it was a good constructive talk that i needed. she reached out and asked what she could do for me and i had some ideas. yeah for constructive talks!

if we were to meet today, i would have a warm apple pie all ready when you came. i went to pick some apples from a friends tree, because this year our tree harvested almost no apples at all. i have been baking apple pies, making apple sauce and such all weekend! yum! what is you favorite to make with apples?

if we were to meet today, i would tell you that i have gotten some cool questions from cool crafty people online lately. i can´t tell you more just now, but i promise you will be the first to know when it is finally official!

if we were to meet today, i would have had to cut this coffee date a bit short because i am so very tired today. i had dreams (not nightmares) but just deep dreams last night and it seems like i didn´t get any sleep at all!

but before you go, i would give you an apple pie for you to bring home. i have so many i would love to share!

i hope to see you next week!

pink ribbon - so far

i went to see how much money the pink ribbon in sweden had got through donations so far. and i say wow: 1 171 687 :- swedish kronor! that would be exactly: 178 883,51 us dollars!

isn´t that wonderful! on friday there will be a big tv-gala in favor of the pink ribbon. and i am sure that amount will be so higher! good job everyone!

i tried to get info on how much money the us pink ribbon has gotten so far, but i could find it. if you know, please share!

my friend linda has her own quick donation and for fun she set a goal that is 50,000 swedish kronor and look at it so far! almost there! this, i think means that we are so many people that are effected by this in one way or another and we want to contribute in some way!

ok, so have you given someone a friendly reminder yet?

look what i just bought!

Buy the Wooden Camera Gift Set at the Photojojo Store!

isn´t it the cutest thing ever! i get the newsletter from photojojo and they always have the coolest things. this camera stamp is actually part of a mini camera gift set. they also had an offer to only buy the stamp which i did! i will be picking it it up when i get to virginia this november!

my color personality is...

after blog wandering today, i stumbled over this quick quizz;

what´s your color personality? at bhg.com and i am happy to tell you my result:

"Your color personality is: Yellow

Like yellow's strongest symbol, the sun, you radiate warmth. Others love to be around you because you have a gift for always looking on the bright side, and your ready smile can be infectious. Chances are your calendar is packed -- yellow lovers tend to be always on the go!Your signature color indicates someone imaginative and creative, so don't be afraid to express yourself through the way you dress and the way you decorate your home. Cheerful yellow is the ideal hue for a kitchen, laundry room, or any room that needs some extra brightness."

:)

after all:

i posted this image to my tumbr blog 2 months ago and it has been reblogged 750 times! iguess more people than me thinks yellow makes them happier!

here are a few of my yellow tumblr favorites!

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and finally the awesome yellow mosaic from the color week on flickr!

1. yellow, 2. yellow, 3. eyes of a killer, 4. Yellow is Easy, 5. Yellow!, 6. day 32::365 gratitude::happy, 7. for the love of color - yellow, 8. "I love all things, not only the grand but the infinitely small:thimble,spurs, plates, flower vases....." {Pablo Neruda}, 9. motel awnings, 10. my present, 11. yellow suitcases, 12. a little sunshine, 13. yellow daffodils - for the love of color14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

 

it´s fun; go do your quizz and please share what your color personality is!

scrap shares

finally i got some time at the craft table! yes! i have worked on lots of new ideas, but this one layout is what i have done until now :)

i am loving these colors! and i love these photos of my little sweetheart ♥

i played some with languages in the title:

the meaning of the title should be: i love you.

but, "löv" means leaf in swedish so i went with that :)

right now i am working with these bits and pieces and will share more soon!

easy peasy photoholder

(source)

i have been admiring those mini log thingys. and decided to make my own one day.

i must say that if you have small pieces of wood at your hands, this is the easiest thing ever!

you basically need to saw a small slice into the log and also use some sandpaper on the bottom part so the log can "stand" and voila it is finished!

and i love them so much!

cute chalkboard stickers

i bought these cutie chalkboard stickers at Panduro hobby. i put them on our bathroom door.

we use them as a place to write small messages. a lot like we do on the bathroom window or in the shower :)

:)

on the day sadie went to dogheaven it looked like this...

but mostly the messages are just short love letters ♥

a part of my heart is in afghanistan

i created this post after a comment from susie on my last post!

hi, susie!

even though me and my ex-husband have been divorced for many, many years we are still close and have a strong friendship. we are lucky, because that is not the norm, is it?! we both have new relationships,but he will always be a part of my heart since he was my first love and obviously the father of my child. our daughter has always lived with me, but has visited with her dad several times a month. when he first talked about going on his deployment to Kosovo a few years ago, we weren´t that worried since there are no open conflicts there at the time. but our daughter reacted ofcourse. she is mostly angry with her father as she see it like he chose his work before her. that is normal for a child i think. when he deployed to afghanistan this past spring she (and very much me too) worry more.

for many, many months there have been calmer where he is stationed in mazar-e-sharif in the north of the country. but since this summer the situation has been worse and the swedish ISAF troops have been involved in a few incidents.

now, my ex-husband is not often involved in open conflict as he takes care of landmines and such.

but we are often worried when he is out and about on assignments.

we have worked alot with the feelings that our daughter has. she has had trouble showing her anger towards her father, since she does miss him so much and want to make the best of the leaves he has had. but he knows and we have worked alot on their relationship while he is gone and now they talk more often and her father calls or emails as often as he can to tell us that he is ok.

we all look forward to his homecoming this december!

if you read this, daniel; please take care!

virtual coffee # 5

if we would meet for real over a cup of coffee today, i would probably not have coffee this week either. i still have almost no voice and now i  have something messed up with my stomach. i have felt queezy and dizzy. but i think the dizziness has to do with something in my neck because it does get better after a massage or two. nontheless, i am feeling just about done with being sick :(

anyhow, if we were to meet for coffee today i would still give you a hug and ask you how you are. so, how are you? how has the weather been? any snow yet? we have had our first fall storm here and the other night the weather was really icky. but in between rainy days there are still some lovely autumn sunshine days too.

if we were to meet for real today, i would tell you that i have my ex-husband on my mind. now, let me tell you that he is the father of my daughter and we have a wonderful relationship still. he is in afghanistan as a officer in the swedish army. and the swedish troops have been in several incidents the last week, where 2 soliders are in hospital and one tragically died. my ex-husband is on my mind...

if we were to meet today, as i have difficulties talking still, i would suggest that we would make this cute halloween craft together. you do like crafts, right?

even if you don´t really, this is a super easy one.

toilet paper roll

masking tape

funny eyes

done!

i think they are so cute!

if we were to meet for real today i would tell you that we have been struggling with homework over here. my daughter is smart, just lazy, right?! hehe

if we were to meet today, i would tell you that work is still so busy. so busy, that i took afternoon naps both monday and tuesday after coming homefrom work. i hope that it does get easier soon, because i would like to be able to do something more than work you know.

if we were to meet today, i would lastly just tell you how much i am looking forward to this weekend when i will be able to go thriftshopping! wohoo! it is one of my true passions! and i have been in so long!

thank you for your company today!

(virtual coffee)