Merry Christmas

Dear friends.

Wishing you a very merry Cristmas!

The tree is lit, the kids are asleep.
The decorations are up.

No fancy, trendy stuff, just good memories and warm and cozy.

I'm looking forward to the greatest, most magical day of the year.

Wishing you all the best too.

The Nutcracker

Today I went to Oslo Opera hall with my kids to see the Nutcracker ballet.

This is a tradition of ours, and the ballet is SO beautiful, and always brings us all in to the right Christmas mood.

This year it was special, because it was the first year ( for us ) visiting the new opera-house.

Last year it was all sold out, and we were not able to get any tickets, so this year the kids ( and I ) was totally happy and excited to go to the opera-hall.

You can find more pictures from this 2010 Nutcracker HERE


I have made a little Christmas card and a giftbag with the fun Cosmo cricket christmas line.

Tomorrow I'll go hunting for this years christmas tree.

:)

oh, you think I'm late??!!??

Well, we usually put up our tree at the 23rd ... so it is still time ....

:)

xo

gifttags

What!? Is it 20th of december already??

Can't believe this december went by SO quickly!!

I had so many plans and ideas I wanted to do and share with you before christmas, and now it is only 4 days left...

It is time to hurry up and wrap the last gifts.

I have made some cute gift tags to share.

You can use the circles as is.

I have printed mine on 85 % of the original size, and punched the corcles with my 2 inch circle punch
Then added a larger circle with 3D foam-tape and then another even larger ( 3 inch ) scallop sircle.

On the other side of the tag I added a smaller white circle ( 2 1/2 inch ) and a 2 inch circle of a wintage picture. ( used pictures from "julie" cut out sheet by 3ndypapir and from collagesheets designed by me for Minnehjørnet )

These two little gifts for my darling little nieces are just wrapped in white paper, added red paper ribbon, a chrochet star / heart-ornament and the gift tag.


You can download the norwegian gift tags ( pdf ) HERE

and the English gift tags ( pdf ) HERE.

Enjoy and have fun!!

And some free vintage pictures for you.

Just right click on the picture and save. ;)

xo

December daily

Hi.

Today is a cold and grey day in Oslo, but it is all good and we are starting to come in to the right christmas mood.

Yesterday I attended The most fun christmas concert " the source of Christmas" at Cosmopolite in Oslo.

We go to this concert every year to hear lots of talented artists: "the source";

Mats Eilertsen, Per Oddvar Johansen, Trygve Seim og Øyvind Brække, and all their international guests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSO7hDJhNOU

Yes, and it is finally time to share some more of the pages in my december daily album.

I really do enjoy this december journey along with Ali Edwards.

My pages are pretty simple, but this year I have tried to focus on the little stories, and the little everyday memories.
Even if our days have been crazy and busy It is always some little things to remember.



on december 10th and 11th we made my hubbys favorite Christmas cookies. "kongen av danmark" ( english: the king of denmark cookies)
(recipe inside the tiny brown paperbag on the right page )
This is always a fun and happy happening in our family.
The dough have to be made one day ahead, and then, the second day we have to roll the little cookies.
We use to gather around the table to make the cookies, and it is a great way to spend time together, relax, talk, laugh and make plans for what we want to do at Christmas.
I devided my two day pages with a little piece of hambly overlay with the number 10 on one side and 11 on the other.



Here is my page for des. 13th.
We celebrate St Lucia that day, with special buns baked with safron.
At school and in all kindergardens they celebrate with a lucia parade, singing the special songs and eating buns.
This page are made on white cardstock and slip in to a pageprotector.
Recipe for the buns is printed on the back of the white cardstock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaJbR4a5Afc

Chocolate Snickerdoodle Drops

Today I made these delicious Chocolate Snickerdoodle Drops with my kids.

First time I tried this recepie, and we had so much fun making these little cookies. And they are SO yummy.

This will be my new favorite Christmas cookie. ;)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar, soda, and cream of tartar. Beat until combined. Beat in egg. Beat in cocoa powder and as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour.
2. Drop by slightly rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Stir together remaining sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle dough with sugar-cinnamon mixture. Bake in a 375 degree F. oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on wire racks. Makes about 30 cookies.

:)

christmas star ornaments

Hi my friends, and welcome to december 17th.

Hope you are all fine, and enjoying your december.

Today is the last day of school before Christmas for my kids, and the christmas decorating of our house will soon begin.

We save the tree and the most "serious" decorating for the 23rd, (as we celebrate christmas eve on the 24th ;) )

But It is always fun and good to decorate little by little during december as well.

:)

Today I'll share some of my all time favorite STAR ornaments.

Love these tree.

As soon as you know how to make them they can be made in all sizes and variations.

Today I've made it easy for me, by just re-dericting you to some very instructive "how-to"s and videos.

You can find instructions on how to make the above beautiful swedish paper-star

HERE

Mine is not stuck together in the middle, but is all fluffy.

In Sweden these stars are usually made of wood / particleboard ("never" or "spon" in norwegian)

and the large ones have a light-bulb inside, and are hung in the windows.

:)

These super cute little 3D stars are made by Eirun and me the other day.

I love to hang them on the Christmas tree, or use them as decoration on my christmas gifts.

So fun to make and very affordable as decorations. ;)

You can find a great instruction on how to make them

HERE

This LARGE paper-star looks gorgeous in my window.

I used 3ndypapir "felicia" for my star.

My star has 8 points, and are made out of 2 pieces of 12 X 12 inch patterned paper.

The pieces for each point measures 6 X 6 inch, but you can make the star any size you like.

My star is glued together using a hot-glue gun.

In the instruction shown here the star has only 6 points, wich works perfect for smaller stars.

You can find the instruction

HERE

and another step by step tutorial

HERE

Thanks for taking your time stopping by my blog today.

Have fun creating, and enjoy the season!

xo

gudrun

Photoshoot

Today I’m so honored to be the guest over at Scrappehuset.
They asked me a while ago to make a post for them on Christmas photography.
It made me so happy to be asked this, and I had a blast working on this project.

The article is all in Norwegian over at scrappehuset, and some of you, my blogreaders can’t read this strange little language… But I guess you can use google-translate if you like to read the post anyhow.

So, on to the process of my Christmas photo-shoot.Luckily my kids are pretty confident in front of the camera, and they were all excited and happy when I asked them to cooperate and play with me on this photo-session

It was a slightly gray, but still a nice winterday in Oslo that day. It was pure, new snow, and the kids wanted to sledge and go skiing around the house.
I was happy, and the plan was to just interact, and ask them to pose if needed….

Well, as you see – it is hard to be a mom … and a photographer…

Hubby planned to put up the outdoor Christmas lights that day, and Maybe this would be a good setting for Christmas-pictures…..

Well…maybe not …

Still we had lots of good laughs tho….

So, we decided to get into some serious photoshooting, and the kids lined up.
And as I said they enjoy this, and we had fun.
Wonder why it is so hard to get a picture where all 4 looks normal…..

We tried a few different locations, and it was all good.

So hubby had made some hot cocoa, and we all gathered around our outdoor table and enjoyed the cocoa and the beautiful winterday.
I had some gingerbread lollies as gift for the kids for the “hard work” they did for me with the photo shoot.

We decided we needed some photos of them with the lollies as well …

… I strongly recommend this setting for the most un-serious cristmas pictures …..

Now the short hours with daylight in Oslo was over. We packed the stuff and went inside for dinner and a fire.
We were all happy – and I promise – we had lots of good laughts looking at the result of the photoshoot.
Hope you’ve had some good laughts along the way too.

…. If you worry about my Christmas pictures ….
Yes, I got a couple of good ones too. ;)

To see more of my good pictures, and more of this photo-shoot, PLEASE visit scrappehuset today.

Have a great day.
Hope to see you back soon!

December daily

Hi.

Even if last week was extremely busy I still enjoy making my December Daily album.

If you haven't been in to Ali Edwards blog yet, make sure you do. Her projects and all the inspiration she shares is amazing.

Today I'm sharing my day 3, 4 and 5.

These days were filled with so many things. Music, concerts, waldorf marked, doing things at home ...

I needed more than one or two pages for each day.

As our life is filled with so many things it is hard to make a foundation for a album like this in beforehand ... and I'm still happy for my blank pages to be filled in.
Last week was crazy. Hubby and I had concerts ( Händel, Messiah) every day, so that week will be a "short chapter" in this album. But the most important is: I will have a complete album from this december - our life: busy days and cozy days...good stories, and just plain everyday.

:)

Pictures from the Waldorf Marked.
Last sunday was one of these wonderful, cosy days with lots of time just hanging around the house.
It was new, pure white snow outside, and we had so much fun playing, having this little photo shoot, drinking hot cocoa, eating ginger bread and just enjoying the day off.

-------------

All this being said, this has been the most busy and exhausting december (and actually the whole year ) ever.
I feel totally flat.
No batteries left at all.
I want to enjoy creating, I have so many projects i want to start, I have so many ideas..., but when it gets too much it is hard to enjoy the little things.
This weekend I Took all my scrapbooking stuff in to large garbage bags, and decided to "clean my desk" and shut down scrapbooking, papercrafting and creating.
However
it is probably impossible for a person of my kind to quit creating.
I have to create, no matter how tired and exhausted i am or how busy life gets.
It gives my life joy, and I love to create. It keeps me going.
So don't worry! I'll hang in, and still enjoy my creating.

Now the bags are back in my room, Things are in a mess, and I need to clean it all out.
Please be patient.

gift Tag in a pocket

Hi my friends and welcome to my home for Christmas-blog.

Today I wanted to share this tiny, cute little gift-tag-pocket.

If you, like me, like to give away books for Christmas this is the perfect gift tag.

The tag inside the pocket will make enough room for you to write your greeting, and the pocket ( with the tag inside) can serve as a bookmark for the reciever of the book.

I created the pockets using patterned paper " tiril" and "jenny" by 3ndypapir
and the cute vintage motifs are from collage sheets made by me for Steffens AS
You can download the pattern by simply right click and save / print

This is a little Christmas card I made lately.

For Cristmas I'm in love with a sort of "simple vintage" style.

The old, cute motifs from old christmas cards, patterned paper from 3ndypapir "hilsen gudrun" christmas collection, old book-pages, a little feather, a snow-flake and a pearl is all I need to create a card like this.

SORRY about the poor picture. At the moment the days are short here in Oslo, and it is not much light for photography.
Today has been grey and cold ...

Thanks for stopping by!
Hope to see you back soon.
:)