Weekending

How was your weekend?
Mine has been filled with...

Homemade pizza
Sun
Picking Marsh Marigolds
Sand everywhere
The forest have suddenly turned green
A few rain drops which made the air smell so fresh
Looking for tadpoles
A huge pile of books from the library
Planting flowers and vegetables into larger pots

Friday Flickr Favourites

1. Our new kitchen, 2. Weaving Days, 3. shells, 4. 9, 5. www.flickr.com/photos/26681973@N04/5760815293/in/faves-72...,

6. Cadence socks nr 2, 7. Modern Juliet, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled, 10. day 351 (5.14), 

11. chat#1, 12. we have 1, 13. DIY Shelf, 14. Happy Friday, 15. Doorway, 

16. Nefertem Close, 17. the hero shot, 18. so many miles 19. announcing my food styling  20. Untitled

What's inside the pupa??

A few weeks ago, Endre & Eirin found a pupa on the ground when they were playing in the forest. We took it with us in and put it in a box. Hoping something would come out of it ;)
And it did. One morning after the older kids was off to school and just Endre and I were home, we heard a strange noise in the kitchen. After a while we found out that the noise came from the box. And we could see that something was cutting it's way out of the pupa! The kids had hoped for a butterfly, but instead it was a huge fly! I have no idea what kind of fly it is, but I think it might be the same kind as we saw last summer.
*Note to self: We really need a good insect/bug book!

We gave it some strawberry and we could really see him/her eating on it. Endre thought it was very cool :)

Yarn Along :: WIP Wednesday

The days just seem to fly by me this month... It's Wednesday again and time for joining a lot of other knitters who also loves to read for  Yarn Along and WIP Wednesday. I am using the picture I took for last Wednesday, but which I totally missed to blog about. Sometimes real life takes over. But I'm still reading the same books and knitting/crocheting on the same things ;)

Reading: I seem not to manage to focus on just one book at the moment... So I read a bit here and a bit there ;)  I have however finished Dead reckoning. Not as good as the previous Sookie books, but it had some great moments. I've also read about a third of The Land of Painted Caves. It's ok, but it's been a bit much caves and not so much about Ayla and Jondalar and their love story so far...
I haven't had time to practise on my spinning, but I'm really enjoying Spinning in the Old Way. The book makes it looks so easy ;) In one of the Ravelry Book Group we are reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I'm not sure if I like the book or not - I haven't read so much yet, so I might make up my mind after a few chapters more. And then there is Napoleon's pyramids - a book I started in March. I had high hopes for this book as it sounded like a version of Indiana Jones ;) It started ok, but then it was on and on about Napoleon and his marching into Egypt. The book didn't get exciting before halfway through. I have a few chapters left and I hope the end will be good.

I'm reading a few more books, some are on hold and some am I reading out loud for the kids. You can check them out here on my Goodreads page.

Knitting: My sweater is still on the needles. I have divided for sleeves now and hope I'll manage to knit it up before May is over. I have also casted on for the Summer Mystery Shawlette by Wendy D. Johnson. And I have crocheted two whales that are waiting to be seamed.

Weekending

How was your weekend?

Mine has been filled with...

Lots and lots of hours spent outdoors
Hiking
Playing
Great to see that our mallard couple are back
Blowing soap bubbles
No need for an alarm clock - a woodpecker have been banging on the lids of the telephone poles to find food
Julie & Julia - a geat movie
Warm - we've had around 15C
Crocheting
Lunch made over a fire in the forest
Watching the ice melt on the lake
Birds chirping

Friday Flickr Favourites

1. A beauty!, 2. T-SHIRTS., 3. Closeup, 4. 000027, 5. Year of the Rabbit, 

6. Untitled, 7. sunday morning #1, 8. first cherries of the season, 9. crown decreases, 10. rhubarb, 

11. Untitled, 12. FO: Nøstebarntunika, 13. love, 14. Untitled, 15. Rose/chocolat baby cardigan, 

16. firelight, 17. Untitled, 18. ., 19. got enough yarn there, lady?, 20. my cute cute cute dachshund

Tiny hats and socks

The tiny hats and socks for the the premature intensive care units at the local hospital are done and reaady to be mailed :)
Pattern: Made as I knit along. But for the hat I casted on 64 st and for the socks 32 st.
Yarn: Leftovers of baby wool.
Needles: 2,5 mm

For de av dere som har lyst til å bidra kan dere finne mer info på facebook her.
Mitt bidrag er sendt til UNN :) Dette er også Mai utfordringen inne hos Strikkere :)

You Capture :: Motherhood

We should capture Motherhood this week at You Capture. I know a lot of you have made this a mothers day post, but as we celebrate mothers day in February I had to come up with something else ;) My kids can drive me crazy sometimes with their bickering and fighting, but they also give me so much love and joy. Like giving me a handfull of the first spring flowers :)

Angels

Yes I have seen angels,

and devils and gremlins too.

I see them practically everyday

they look like me and you,

When the angels come out

They want to play

They like to read books

They dance and they sway.

The angels are lovely and kind and sweet,

They share their love of the people they meet,

They make me feel young yet also wise,

For they never have answers

for questions they devise

For the angels are innocent

They don't belong here,

On this cruel mean world

That they often fear.

When the devils come out

You'll want to be going

They like to destroy

They keep anger flowing.

The devils i've seen are just as pure,

In the way that they see this life

Their evil and sadism is simply a mirror

Of the things they've learned from strife.

The devils are horrid and ugly and sour,

They share their hatred of all in power,

They make me feel old yet also naive

For they never find questions

for answers they believe.

The gremlins, I think,

Are the worst of them all

For they want to make mischief

They walk and they crawl.

The gremlins are sneaky

But they mean you no harm

Their aim is to reach in

And trip your alarm.

The gremlins are here more often than not

They live to wreak havoc with nary a thought.

They make me feel tired yet also in charge

For they never have eyes

for the trouble at large.

All these creatures I love,

This whole crowded mob,

For I am their mother,

And that is my job!

The Wayward Muse

The Wayward Muse by Elizabeth Hickey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"I apologize again for my boldness, but I must tell you that you're the most beautiful girl in Oxford. Maybe in all of England. I have to put you in my painting."

With these words, the scandalous, wildly talented painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti changes seventeen-year-old Jane Burden's life forever. Jane's gaunt, awkward figure and grave expression have cemented her reputation as the ugliest girl in Oxford. Raised by a stableman on Holywell Street — the town's most sordid and despicable slum — Jane is nearly resigned to marry in-kind. But when she meets Rossetti at the theater, he sees beyond her worn, ill-fitting dress and unruly hair and is stirred by her unconventional beauty. The charismatic painter whisks Jane into Oxford's exclusive art scene as his muse, and during the long and intimate hours of modeling — draping and tilting, gazing and posing — Jane finds herself falling in love. (From Goodreads)

I like historical fiction, and had relatively high expectations for this book. The first sections I thought were good, but then I think that the action happens too fast. I want to know more! More about what the main characters think and feel. And I also think that there are some loose ends in the book. What happened to Georgie for example?

I feel that the author has only scratched the surface of something that could have been a very good story ...



View all my reviews

Yarn Along

The days seems like they are flying by, it's Wednesday again and time for another Yarn Along with Ginny :)

Reading: I'm reading "Spinning in the Old Way" as I have started to play a little with a spindle :) It's a great book for beginner spinners!

Knitting: Still working on my Plain and Simple. I am about to devide for sleeves now.

Weekending

Weekending, my favorite part of the week. A time to relax, live, love, just to be. If you'd like to share your weekend either with words, photographs, or both, leave a link to a weekend post in the comments.
This weekend was...

sunny with a bit of rain
homemade lasagna, recipe here
teaching Eirin to purl
sleeping a few hours longer in the morning - thank you Hubby ♥
crocheting
icecream
a bottle of my favourite white wine
reading
soaking up sun while knitting
laundry
chocolate mousse with vanilla sauce
finally seeing some buds
getting a sunburn

how was your weekend?
I found this at the habit of being

Spring hat

With spring in the air, a new thin hat is necessary.
Pattern: Summer Cap by Lucinda Guy. The pattern is from her book Crochet designs for kids.
Yarn: Some cotton leftovers :)
Hook: 3 mm

Match the jacket perfectly :)

Friday Flickr Favourites

It's been a while since I did Friday Flickr Favourites. There is so many beautiful pictures out there, but I have made a small collections of my favourites this week. I have also made one collection with red & orange to share some Project Spectrum colours. Enjoy!

You Capture :: Outdoors

The theme for this weeks You Capture was Outdoors. We've been outdoors as much as we can soaking up some sun since Saturday. It really feels like Spring is in the air now :)

:: Blowing bubbles ::

:: Endre finally agreed to try out the bike ::

(He has shown no interest in this bike for years... But he was so happy when he found ot how fun it is)

:: The snow is slowly melding ::

:: The kids have made a fort, cooked dinner and ride fantasy horses ::

:: Pussy Willows ::

Yarn Along

It's Wednesday again and I'm joining Ginny over at Small Things for Yarn Along.
"~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ... ~"

Knitting: I have started a Plain and Simple sweater for myself. I have had it in my queue for a long time and with Project Spectrum having red as the colour for May, I had to cast on :) It's a mindless piece of knitting - perfect when watching tv and for me to grab and knit on when I watch the kids play outdoors :) The colour is much more darker in real life. My camera is not very good at capturing red...


Reading: Well, I'm reading the same two books as last time + the 6th book in the Hollow series, which I love!

Casting on with red

It's the first day of Project Spectrum today. The colours for May is red and orange. I like red, but orange is not one of my favourite colours. I've had Plain and Simple in my queue for a long time and I've had some red yarn for it too. So I guess it was the right time to cast on for it today :) Hopefully I will have it done before May is over.

Nature Connections :: April

Nature Connections

is a collaborative link collection

posted at the end of each month

on Living and Learning.

Its purpose is to showcase photos of children

enjoying nature to inspire all of us to get outdoors more.

April have been a month filled with all kinds of weather. We've had snow, rain, wind and some sun. We've digged out a snowcave and built a snow bunny :) And finally we have also got some spring feeling. We have had days with temperatures up to 10 C. So the kids are happy not to have to go with 4 layers of clothes when they are outside playing in the mud :)

Yesterday Endre and I finally had our first lunch outdoors this year. Great to be able to eat out without having to wear mittens in a hurry afterwards;)

You Capture :: Pink

This week's theme was pink. Although I love pink and I have a daughter, there was not much pink to spot around the house... I found this little drawing of some cute little pink pigs on the fridge though :)

Yarn Along

It's Wednesday again and I'm joining Ginny over at Small Things for Yarn Along.
"~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ... ~"

Knitting: I'm still knitting tiny hats and socks for charity.

Reading: I'm sure I'm not the only one reading several books at the same time... Right now I'm reading these + one more (Napoleon's pyramid).  I have just read a couple of chapters in The Land of Painted Caves, so I haven't made up my mind if I like it as much as the other Earth Children books. I'm also reading The Wayward Muse,  and I like these kind of historical novels. Hoping for a happy ending though. I took the picture earlier today so I finished reading the 7th Anita Blake novel during the day. Not the best book in the series, but I'm looking forward to the next book.

I ♥ Paperpotter

I spent some hours doing this yesterday. I bought a paperpotter a few years ago, and I love it. It's so great to make small pots to plant in. And I feel better knowing that I'm not using some kind of plastic pots that will break and get thossed in the trash.

I've planted leeks, cucumbers, Sunflowers, Nasturtium and a mix of pink flowers (Eirin's choise). I really hope we'll get some cucumbers this year. The first time we planted cucumbers we had the whole window filled with cucumber plants and picked lots of cucumbers all summer. I've tried a few times after that without any success... I haven't been able to find the same kind of seeds we planted that time, so we are trying some new kind each year ;)
Since I don't have much space to grow plants here, I dream about a little greenhouse... I also hope we can make the garden a bit like this. I'd love to have small patches where I could grow potatoes, rubarb, carrots, turnips, onions and maybe some strawberries :)
Since the warm season is rather short here, it puts a limit of what we can grow. But I'm ready to give it a try. I remember that my grandmother used to grow carrots and small turnips when I was a kid. And they tasted so sweet :)
So what are you planting this year?

You Capture :: Spring

When I saw that this week's challenge was spring, I just had to sigh, because there is not much that looks like spring around here... The rain and snow has been pouring down the last week together with lots of wind. Ofcourse the snow is melting, but it's just a slushy mash. I so long to hike to our lean-to in the forest, but the snow is so rotten... So I really hope this last meter of snow will melt fast in the weeks to come!

The kids are having a fun time in the swing though after we moved away some snow ;)

 

And with the wet, new snow yesterday we managed to biuld a Easter Bunny :) Have a great Easter everyone.

Yarn Along

Seems like the days just fly by. It's Wednesday again and I'm joining
Ginny over at Small Things for Yarn Along.
"~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? ... ~"

Knitting: I'm still knitting some small projects for the premature intensive care unit at my local hospital. Right now I'm making a pair of tiny socks to match a hat.

Reading: I've finally started on "The Land of Painted Caves" and I so hope this will be great read. Been waiting for along time to find out how things will end for Ayla and Jondalar. I had to reread the last couple of chapters in the 5th book - "The Shelters of Stone" first to "get in" the story again :)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What a sweet, beautiful and warm first love story this was! But also a story about growing up, doing the right thnigs and about those hard decisions in life.

I really loved it, espesially the parts when Henry was young. I would have liked to learn more about Keiko after she lost contact with Henry, Sheldon and Mrs. Beatty, she turned out to be a nice lady after all ;)

And there was some small mistakes made by the author... (Was there any internet support groups in 1986..? Did internet even exsist in 1986..?) Not that I cared so much about those detailes, as I loved the story itself.

Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers.

In the opening pages Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

View all my reviews

You Capture :: Smile

You Capture this week was Smile.

Being allowed to play in the bathroom sink yesterday made a hugh smile on Endre :)

And doing it alone without his sister made it even more fun.

 No one to argue with and no mess for me to clean up ;)