What I did most of December

In December I did quite a bit of crocheting, but it was a lot of the same. I made my first one in December 2013, and lot of people has seen them, and would like some as well. It's can covers/cozies. 

I just finished another 3 pairs, which add up to 20 pairs from the beginning of December until now. I found the recipe here. I also made one of the Christmas ones, which you can see here. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it before giving it to my sister in laws boyfriend for Christmas. Well actually it was Santa who gave it to him. Since we had Jonas Santa comes to visit every Christmas, and he does not only bring a gift for Jonas, but one for everyone here. It's just a small gift, but it's quite fun seeing Jonas helping Santa handing out presents.

Now I think I will take a break from making these, and make something else. I'm dreaming of one day making a crocodile stitch scarf, and this Tuesday I attended a crochet class/get together at a yarn shop not too far away, and I learned to do the crocodile stitch, but I need to practice a bit more, before starting a scarf project.

Above it my try from Tuesday of the crocodile stitch, it really teased me, and there is some faults in it, but I think I might be able to make it the right way now, but it will take a few more tries. 

Have wonderful weekend when it arrives:)

Happy New Year and 12 MOC

I hope you all have had a fantastic start to 2015, we did, but I don't have any pictures to show for it. For the first time in over 12 years I have had time off from work between Christmas and New Year. After I started my new job on December 1st I no longer work in the evenings or during the weekends.... and of course no rules without exceptions, so I was working the weekend before Christmas because we were taking inventory. But when I left work on Sunday the 21st at noon I went on Christmas vacation, and it lasted until this morning.... can you believe it, 14 days without working!

We spent Christmas at home, as we have the done the last 5 years. My parents came on the 23rd and the rest of our family came and celebrated with us on the 24th. Otherwise it has been a lot of family time, and one day I really needed some me time and had to go for a walk, because Jonas was driving me crazy with all his questions non-stop, a bit of fresh air helped.

All the time of also left time for being creative, and I started my 12 Month of Crochet project for January. Is it cheating to start in December? Well I don't care, I am a rebel like that:)

So just before bedtime last night I finished the last of the pillows for our couch, I was inspired by a girl on instagram for this last one.

I will give you a picture of 2 of the others that I also made, and Jonas, he wouldn't let me take a picture without him in it.

One is made with bubble stitch, a recipe I found on ravelry, and the other is corner to corner stitch, which I found a tutorial for on YouTube. 

Have a good one:)

Block Party

Yesterday we attended our annual block party. In the morning/noon there were activities for the kids. Jonas loved it, and really had fun all day.

 Chasing clothes pins as tails on the other kids, Jonas had a blast, though he didn't always realise that he had lost his pin.

 Egg run, Jonas was really slow, but I was quite impressed at his balance, and his concentration. He was very proud that he didn't drop it, but I think 2 other kids passed him, in the same time he used:)

The block party was Christmas themed, and instead of dressing up as Santa and his helper I dressed up as a Christmas tree (my cousin had a dress I could borrow), and we made Frank a gift costume, though he took his off pretty fast, because it was really not handy moving around in. Though the hula hoop in the bottom of my dress gave me a few challenges as well. We had a great time, but are really tired today.

Christmas gifts from Jonas

I promised in another post that I would take pictures of the gifts Jonas made for us in daycare, so here we go. 

2 paintings, first they had put masking tape on the canvas, and then let the kids paint their own pictures. I love the look the masking tape gave the paintings.

 My favourite gift was this little plaster cast of his hand. I just love how you can see all the details of his nails, the little lines in his hand etc. When we unwrapped it Jonas first said "it's Eske's hand" Eske is one of the other boys in his daycare, his best friend, but it wasn't his hand we had got:)

 And last we also got 2 coasters for hot pots and pans. When we opened them Jonas carefully touched them and looked at his finger to see if the paint had come of. I guess they had been told not to touch it until it was dry.

I love how he made all these gifts for us, they were the best Christmas gifts we got this year.

Happy New Year - Christmas re-cap

Well first Happy New Year, hope you all had a wonderful start to 2014. I can't wait to see what 2014 brings, but instead of a re-cap of 2013 I will show a few pictures from our Christmas Eve instead.

 

In Denmark we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, and we open presents on Christmas Eve. My parents arrived at our place on the 22nd, so my mum helped cook and clean, which was great. On Christmas Eve everyone was here, which means my parents, my brother, Franks parents, his sister and his brother.

 

Jonas got his first present in the morning, he got a work bench, so he would be entertained for some of the day. He would pull the door back and say I'm going to my tool shed.

 Before we had dinner Santa came by, unfortunately we didn't take any pictures, but I know my mum did, so I have to get her to e-mail them to me. It was our Next door neighbour, and afterwards Frank returned the favor. I think it's a really nice tradition to have started, last year was the first time he paid a visit, and best of all he brought a little present for everyone, not just Jonas.

 

After dinner, it was time for presents. It has usually been me or Franks sister who has to give out the presents because we were the youngest. But this year we got to retired, and Jonas did a really good job. He found one, asked who it was for, gave it to the person and as soon as the unwrapped it he put the paper in the trash bag. The only presents he didn't asked who it was for was the ones wrapped in Cars paper, he knew these were for him:)

 Here he is helping my dad unwrap a book, and of course taking the paper to the trash.

 No one ever buys anything for the cat, well except for my mum, I think it's because when I was a kid and we had a dog, she was just as big a part of the family as the rest of us, so she got presents and even gave presents. So my mum had bought Gustav a present, which Jonas and my brother helped him unwrap.

By the time we reached the last presents Jonas was getting tired, so he sat down in his chair, saying I just have to relax a bit. But as soon as the present was unwrapped he found another one. After finishing opening presents Jonas was ready for bed, and he fell asleep right away. The 25th was then spent relaxing and playing with his new toys.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday.

Christmas

So now Christmas is over, and tomorrow I will be back at work. Well only tomorrow, then I have the weekend off, so I guess it's not that bad.

We had a really nice Christmas, which I will try to blog about later, for now I will just leave you with a few pictures of some of the ornaments I made for our tree this year.

 Some cornets (I have no idea if the is the right word, but I have no idea what it's called in English, so I have to rely on google translate). and the flag garland from last year.

 A crocheted Christmas heart, and included 2 of those in the ornament swap I participated in.

 Today we were at a Christmas get together with my family, and as tradition prescribes we went for a walk after eating, and the walk took us to the Queen summer castle in Graasten.

The next picture will require parental guidance, I crocheted a few can covers for some prank gifts.

Hopefully I haven't offended anyone.

 Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas:)

Is Christmas really just 4 days away?

Okay I can't believe that Christmas is just 4 short days away... the last couple of weeks have just been crazy/busy. It seems like the only day I had off was last Wednesday, which Jonas and I spent driving the bus into town, go swimming and ride the bus back. He thought it was so much fun, and was extremely tired afterwards, so tired he fell asleep on the bus ride back home:)

Otherwise it's been a mix of work and different Christmas gatherings. Then last my parents called that my uncle had passed away. He had been sick for quite a while, and when he passed away he was all prepared for it. He had talked to his 2 sons, his brothers (my father), and was ready to go. He was sure he was going to meet up with his wife again. I started to worry that the funeral would be on Saturday, where I was working. It was a really busy weekend, and would pretty much be impossible to trade away. Well the funeral ended up being this Tuesday, which was my day off. It was a really beautiful funeral, and nice to see lots of my family which we only see every second year at family reunions, though the occasion could have been better.

Though since I had planned to get a lot done on Tuesday, so I could get ready for  Christmas, well I was left a little behind. Though driving 1½ hour each way did put me a bit in the Christmas mood, I finally got time to listen to my Christmas Cd's. Luckily I have the weekend off, and will be getting the rest ready for Christmas. My parents will arrive on Sunday, so my mum will help get a little cleaning done, and cook Christmas dinner. 

On Christmas Eve we will be 10 people here for dinner and opening gifts. Both our parents, my brother and Franks brother and sister. So in case I don't get around to blogging again before Christmas, which I probably won't, the Merry Christmas everyone:)

Ornament Swap

A few years ago I joined in on Micaela's annual Ornament Swap, I really loved it, but for some reason the last couple of years I haven't joined in on the fun. This year Micaela is expecting her second daughter right around Christmas time, and we all know how motherhood will keep you busy, so she asked the sweet Erin to host it instead. 

This year I'm joining in on the fun, and you can to, just head over to Pugh's News and see how to join. I can't wait to see who I will be paired with this year:)

Christmas

Well, it all started very well with my scheduled posts, but then it just went down hill from there, and my little blog got neglected over Christmas, it seemed that between work, family and Christmas I just didn't have time to blog. But here is a few pictures from around Christmas.

 

The first picture is of me and Jonas fooling around. A friend from my knitting group made us santa hats with our names on it, aren't they cool? She also made a bag for santa to carry the presents in when he visited us, it had both Jonas' name and our address, so Santa knew where to go:)

Jonas got presents all through the day, and still he was overwhelmed in the evening and we had to save some of the presents for the 25th. Here he is opening a vacuum cleaner, which he was afraid of at first, but now he is vacuming all around the house:)

 

In the evening we got a visit from Santa, Jonas really enjoyed his visit, and helped Santa hand out presents to everyone.

Unwrapping yet another present, though he is quite tidy when unwrapping. All the paper has to go in the trash can, though he accepted to put into the plastic bag too.

There you have my little recap of Christmas, and I guess all that is left to say is Happy New Year all, I'll be back in 2013.

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, hope you will have a wonderful time with your families.

I hope Santa has been good to you this year:)

Christmas DIY

I have made a few Christmas things this year, and if you haven't noticed I have been quite a bit into crocheting this last year. So I made some Christmas trees, which is super easy to make, and even better they will survive a Jonas attack:)

Well, almost survive a Jonas attack, some of the stars are pretty crooked, but that can easily be fixed.

I also made a flag garland, in Denmark it's common to have a garland with the Danish flag on your tree. I have just googled it to find out why we do this. One of the reasons seems to be that from 1864-1920 it was prohibited to show the Danish flag outside in the Southern part of Denmark since it was occupied by the Germans. So in order to show that you were Danish the people started having the Danish flag on coffee cups, pillows etc. which also led to them putting them on the Christmas tree. 

 

Though you don't get a picture of them on the tree for now, since we aren't putting up the tree until the 23rd. 

 

Ohh and then I just had to show off the Christmas decoration I got from some former colleagues that came to visit last weekend, I really love it, and especially the purple colour, I had just decided that my Christmas table this year would be purple, so I guess this will fit just in:)

Cooking with Connie

Time for another "Cooking with Connie" post, this time I made Nutella truffles. I actually made those last year too, remember? Well this year I haven't made nearly as many cookies or candies as I did last year since we ended up throwing out so much last year. I did decide to make the nutella truffles since they were my favourite. 

They are super easy to make, all you need is:

125 grams of milk chocolate

25 grams of butter

2 tablespoons of cream

2 tablespoons of nutella

75 grams chopped hazelnuts

Melt the chocolate, butter and cream over a water bath, after it has all melted add the nutella and let it cool down. I ended up putting it in the fridge for about an hour. After it has cooled down you roll it into little balls and roll them in the chopped hazelnuts. The hazelnuts can be replaced with sprinkles like I did last year.

Enjoy!

I will be busy over the next week or so with work and Christmas, but for the first time ever I have actually scheduled some posts ahead of time, so you will actually get more regular post from me than I have been showing lately:)

Yet another finished project...

Sorry for have been MIA, but I seem to been way too busy for blogging the last week or so...I have today of, and now Jonas is napping, so I thought I would write a quick post.

 

So what is easier than snapping a picture with your phone of your last project? Well nothing, since I can't come up with anything else to blog about. So here you have my latest project, a blanket for Jonas.

 

So now he can cuddle up in his chair in front of the TV on the long winter nights... or should I say afternoons:) Just one problem, he doesn't really watch TV, or sit still for that long, but I'm sure he will like when he is older:)

 

Have a great day, I will continue mine with a cup of coffee and a few DIY Christmas projects!

Christmas is over...

I almost tend to say Christmas is finally over... as much as I love Christmas, I am also happy that it is over. Those days over Christmas has been busy, filled with lots of people, we have enjoyed their company, but now it's enough... for Jonas at least, the last couple of days he has been exhausted, and have been sleeping a lot, I guess he has a lot to catch up on.

Christmas was crazy, he got a million presents, and the sad thing is he doesn't get why, and he is mostly interested in the wrapping paper...

Here is just a few pictures from our Christmas days. We decided that Jonas should get his presents little by little, instead of all at once. So on the 23rd he opened the first present from my parents. The little car itself wasn't really the most interesting thing, but the plastic orange in the little basket was his favourite... especially if someone would pick it up when he threw it:) A friend of mine had bought him some Lego Duplo (her husband just started working at Lego), he got that present in the morning on the 24th, but at first he loved the paper, until we got the box opened and he could throw the blocks... My brother went crazy and got him a train that rides on tracks that takes up half the floor space in the living room. Jonas likes to ride the train some of the time, but not if he is too tired. All the "boring" gifts as clothes, shoes, books etc. for him we opened while we opened our presents in the evening of the 24th. On the 26th we went to a family Christmas party at my parents house, and my cousin and his girlfriend brought along Jonathan who is 4 months older than Jonas. He is walking and starting to talk, which meant every time he saw a santa figure he went "ho ho ho". Though it doesn't look like any of them like to be photographed during lunch...

The next couple of days will be spent relaxing and getting ready for New Years Eve. We are spending NYE at some friends, which we also did last year. The will be lots of adults and kids, though most of the kids are between 10-15, but I guess they can be babysitters for the smaller kids;) Though I am staying sober so I can drive home, because it is usually hell getting a taxi on NYE and I can't be bothered with all the trouble with getting the car seat in the taxi etc. I can have fun without drinking... I did last year, so I will again this year.

Happy New Year everyone.

Christmas is only a few days away:)

So are you ready for Christmas? I think we are about to be, still got a little grocery shopping to do, but my parents arrives on the 22nd so I guess I will have my mum to help out a little:)

Our tree isn't up yet, and it will probably be a few days before we get it up too. Because with Jonas rolling around and getting into everything... well it's just easier not having the tree up for all that long. But I have found the tree decorations, and this year I have made a few new ones. Sorry for the poor picture, but I think you will get the idea!

Jonas also wants to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Here is the picture we used for our Christmas cards, and every time he sees it he will be laughing out loud, which is so cute. Unfortunately when we got our Christmas cards developed they got really dark, but I didn't have time to order some new ones, so people had to make do with the dark picture.

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and don't know exactly when I will be back to blogging, since the next couple of days are pretty much booked. Enjoy the holidays:)

Recycling has never been this fun:)

I must admit I am not good at recycling and saving our planet, but I found a way so save the planet from just a little bit of waste. I know I'm not the first one to do this, and I am probably not the last one either, but I had fun:)

You see, in our little household we drink quite a large amount of coffee, and we are enjoying every cup of it:)

But it also means we are using a lot of coffee beans, and they are packed in these plastic bags which I bet is not good for the environment.

So after having seen these purses everywhere I figured I would give it a try as well, and the result turned out fairly okay if I have to say it myself.

I had a few problems with the zipper, I guess I should have made the bag just a bit smaller or bought a longer zipper. But I bet with a little practice I will get better. So I now have people collecting bags for me, well mostly my parents, who have friends at their old workplace who are collecting bags for me, so I will be making more. It does take quite a few hours and bags making one purse, but I find it a bit relaxing, and will be cutting and folding bags while relaxing in front of the TV in the evening. Then it somehow doesn't feels like a complete waste of time being in front of the TV.

Who knows by this time next year I will be a pro and everyone will get something I made from coffee bags or chips bags... it would save my the hassle of Christmas shopping. I thought I finished up yesterday, and then this morning I got an e-mail that one of the books I ordered online last week couldn't be delivered! So have now put my faith to amazon.com and are hoping to get it here before Christmas, the things is that it is now more expensive than if I had bought it at Danish site, since the shipping from the USA cost more, the other was free... amazon then promises to deliver between the 21st and 24th of December, with my luck mine will be set to be delivered by December 24th which is the day we celebrate Christmas in Denmark and no mail will be delivered... if so my brother will have to do with a lousy t-shirt until it's delivered (he doesn't read my blog, so I can tell what I'm getting him).

Ohh this wasn't suppose to turn into a complaint, but it did, sorry. Have a nice day, and enjoy your coffee:)

Some busy days

Okay I guess once again it went almost a week before I posted again, I don't really know what happened... well I kind of do.

On Thursday Jonas didn't sleep much during the day, and when he slept I tried to do a little cleaning, otherwise I spent my time entertaining Jonas. Friday was pretty much the same, but both of us were doing better so we did go to the baby swimming class.

Saturday we were hosting a small Christmas party for a few friends, so I spent most of the day cooking and getting ready for the party. We had a really great time, it was so much fun. We did drink quite a bit, that is usual for a Danish Christmas party, so Sunday I spent doing a little as possible. It was not that I was hungover, I was just really tired. So I spent a lot of the day laying on the floor with Jonas, he moved more that I did:)

Today I had to take the bus to meet with the girls from my midwife group. It was really nice to see them again, and we really enjoyed ourselves, but man a day passes by quick when you spent 30 minutes on a bus each way as well.

I'm not going to make any promises about when I will be blogging again, because I don't seem to be able to keep them:) Besides I should probably get around to writing my Christmas cards if I have to get them out before Christmas.

Have a great one:)

Christmas has entered our home

First I want to thank you for the get well wishes for Jonas, he still has as cold and so do I now. This morning I ended up taking him to the doctor because I didn't like his coughing... thankfully nothing is wrong he just has a cold, and he has to drink a lot. But him having a cold means that he doesn't sleep much during the day, I am thankful that he sleeps during the night, but it also means it leaves me a lot less time for blogging, so that is why I haven't been around for a while.

Though being a little under the weather hasn't stopped Christmas from entering our home. So here is a few pictures. First my Advent candles, where we burn one every Sunday the last 4 Sundays before Christmas. Then my calender candle, where I am ready for the countdown for Christmas tomorrow. Those candles are something I remember from my childhood, and I think almost every home in Denmark will have one during December... and yeah I am into purple this Christmas. And just to make sure we get in the right mood I have found a few Christmas CD's... Jonas loves when we dances to "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus". I really enjoy being on leave during December, and even better I don't have to work between Christmas and New Year, I don't think that have happened since before I got my first after school job! Even though he might be sick, he is still a happy camper... at least most of the time, if you don't count the 1½ hour of screaming yesterday afternoon, and nothing helped... that is just one of those times you think "why did we decide to have a kid?", but when he smiles like this while waiting for his dinner, and you know why.

I hope I will not be this far between my next posts, but for now I have decided that today is my day off, so when Jonas is sleeping I will be doing nothing (and now I'm blogging, but hey that doesn't count:).

Candy, Reading and Bingo

This have been a weekend that consisted of a few different things. Yesterday while Jonas was napping I made our Christmas candy. I made 3 kinds of truffles, cornflakes tops and oatmeal balls rolled in coconut. 2 of the truffles contains marzipan which I don't like, as well as I don't like oatmeal and coconut... This is all with good reason, because making things I don't like I won't be eating it all before Christmas and I will not gain the weight... smart huh? And just to be sure that I'm not eating the ones I like I put them all in the fridge in the garage, I know I will be way too lazy to go out there to get them:) But if I have to say it myself the cornflakes tops and my nutella truffles are amazing... but before they all went to the fridge I did take a picture.

Starting with the one in blue wrapping and going left it is nougat and marzipan truffle, cornflake top, nutella truffle, oatmeal balls, and truffle of marzipan and dark chocolate.

After Jonas' nap we read the adds, to see if something good was on sale next week, or if there was something we needed to put on our Christmas wish list.

Today our Staff Association had arrange a bingo game for us at work. There we loads of prizes... like a 40 inch TV, an Ipad, a camera, packages of books, a bike... name it and we could win it. The thing is I am hardly ever lucky at bingo, but it is usually really fun. There consolation prizes for the one sitting next to winners, so I got candy, chips and a knife sharpner (not bad at all). In the end they pulled numbers out of a hat for the rest of the prizes and I won a small trimmer for bushes and grass. So I guess I was luckier than last time where I ended up with a bottle of wine. I must say I was really impressed with all their work, and had a really fun afternoon.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that the week ahead will be a good one:)

Some busy days over Christmas...

So the Christmas days have been busy but amazing. My parents ended up calling us late in the evening on the 21st and asked if we would mind them coming on the 22nd instead of the 23rd of December, because they had promised quite a lot of snow on the 23rd, so they were more comfortable driving on the 22nd. So when I got home from work on the 22nd they had arrived, and we had a nice relaxing evening.

Both me and my husband had to work on the 23rd, but when we got home my mum had done all the laundry and ironed all my shirts, and my dad had been shovelling snow... How great is that? We had a lot of snow on the 23rd, though not so bad in the area we live, but further south where my parents live they had got a lot more, so it was a good thing they drove up here on the 22nd.

On the 24th, my mum and I prepared the dinner in the morning, or at least all that we could prepare was prepared. Around lunch time my brother arrived, and in the afternoon my parents and I went to church, while my brother and husband stayed home to "watch" the turkey... that is usually their excuse for not going to church.

After church we had a drink, and just relaxed before having the big Christmas dinner. After dinner we opened presents, which you do on Christmas Eve in Denmark. Oh boy did we get a lot of presents! We got so much baby stuff that it could as well have been a baby shower (which we don't have in Denmark). We got a bed, a baby alarm, a tilted chair, clothes, a few books etc.

The bed and some of the other stuff we got, after putting the bed together Gustav wanted to check it out!

On the 25th my parents and brother left, and we had a relaxing day, and in the evening we went to dinner with my parents in law and my sister in law and her boyfriend. Since my sister in law had been working on Christmas Eve we exchanged gifts with her on the 25th... and yet again we had another baby shower, I believe she has emptied out the baby store, we got a changing mat, linens, a big giraffe, a thermometer, a wash basin and some clothes! So now I believe that we are all ready for the baby to come.

On the 26th we went to a Christmas party with my cousins, uncle and aunts, we had a really great day, but since we got a lot of snow during the day, we left fairly early in order to get home before too much snow came.

My brother and my cousins at the party, I guess my brother is showing something of interest on his phone!

On the 27th I had to work all day for 12 hours, which I kinda feared, since that would be the big gift exchange day, but for some reason we didn't have all that many customers yesterday, most of them I guess waited for today, because today has been really busy! So I was glad when I could leave at 4 o'clock!

I guess that was my Christmas, all that is left is to wish you all a Happy New Year, see you in 2011!