Merry Christmas!

Luckily I got a lot of decorating done pre-vertigo. The snowstorm we had definitely helped put us in the mood to deck the halls!

My aunt Marcy and uncle Tom gave us this beautiful pan dau handmade by Hmong women in their community.


Dan and I have a new favorite store. We found our stockings there.
AND he surprised me with these. Aren't they cool? We snipped some boxwood to place in them.

Since we're both Nordskogs now I thought it's be fun to have a Norwegian tree!

My aunt Andrea and uncle John gave us this gorgeous German pyramid for our wedding.

The great snowfall of December '09:

Thanks to Val!

As a gift for our wedding, Red-Haired Shannon's mom made us a quilt. She was very patient working with me as I decided that I wanted a design that didn't have a pattern to follow. She listened to me and figured out how to do it and IT'S PERFECT!





I love our new bedroom.

Vertigo Crafting

I've been couch-bound with vertigo for 5 days now.
Luckily I've been able to do a couple of craft projects that don't give me the spins!

Martha Stewart had a needle felted penguin that was too cute to pass up. Thanks, Martha, for inspiring me to make this. It gave me ideas for other creatures to create.

Sentimental Sweater

A co-worker asked if I'd be willing to create a creature out of her daughter's sweater. She loved the sweater but the daughter had grown out of it. This was a fun challenge! I admit I was a bit nervous making the first cut into the sweater but I'm thoroughly pleased with how she turned out.

Monkey-a-Rama

As always I have a monkey in every state of creation.

Here are a few of the ones I've been working on.

A visual representation of my greatest skill—starting projects without finishing them:

Jinger, Julie and I had a monkey making night! I think Jinger was inhaling the polyfill . . . Jinger?


Every year my place of work has a silent auction for the United Way. This time I donated "Stripey Striperson" and "Dottie McHottie." A co-worker won them both and gave them to his 2 kids. Fun!


My aunt commissioned me to make monkey finger puppets to go along with the story "Five Little Monkeys." Dan is modeling the first batch of monkeys. The second photo is of the doctor monkey who is crucial to the plot line of the book. :)

Oh, Baby!

In October I hosted a baby shower for my good friend Shannon whose baby boy was born just a few weeks ago!
Here are some photos from Levi's baby shower. I went with a theme of elephants because Levi's room has this adorable bedding!




Clockwise from upper left:

• Wrapped candy bars for guests to take home. • The invitation • All of the decor in my dining room waiting to be hauled to the party spot • Guests took home my favorite chocolate mint cookies along with the recipe • My first attempt at a souffle (and it was successful!) • Silverware wrapped with paper labels • Details of garland, confetti and all of the fun things that made this a great celebration!

I Love You, Sam!

My little buddy Sam had surgery a week ago. I made him a couple of creatures to divert his attention from his pain if only for only a few minutes. Sam, I love you and I'm wishing on every star you feel better soon!

No Satisfaction: A tragic lunch story

In an effort to eat a filling yet non-super-fatty lunch today, I spent 25 minutes trolling the aisles of the grocery store. Here’s how it all went down.

The deli aisle proved to have too much mayo.

The only thing at the salad bar that didn’t give me a gagging feeling in the back of my throat was the 7-layer salad which is basically 7-layer dip.

I moved on to the cracker and chip aisle sensing that nothing there was going to give me satisfaction.

I walked briskly to the frozen aisle section filled with a sense of relief knowing that my lunch was hiding somewhere behind the frosty doors. It wasn’t. I found a bunch of options that I decided were all simply frozen chemicals shaped into what looks like food.

Then I had an a-ha moment as I turned to the refrigerated food behind me: Yogurt! But if I have yogurt I want the berries and the granola, too. Too much work.

By this time I’m thisclose to tears because my stomach is eating my spleen. My thoughts were now more in the eat-whatever-you-want-just-do-it-fast camp.

Cheese, yes, cheese. That’s what I want. But not a whole brick. Back to the deli. 2 pieces of co-jack cheese. Check.
Thirsty. Juice. Bottled smoothie – perfect. Check.

I decide popcorn will round out this misfit lunch.

The bagged popcorn is filled with oodles of fat – who knew-but I was now committed to a crunchy food so I obsessively read the labels of the things that I think will be the least artery-clogging. The Pirate’s Booty caught my eye. The low levels of blood sugar had me convinced this was the healthiest option.
Crunchy food: check.

So I sit here back at my desk having just ingested my “lunch” and wished that my blood sugar had spoken to me sooner because I would have gotten that Happy Meal that I really wanted.

Quilt & Color

In anticipation of our new bedroom quilt arriving soon (red-haired Shannon's mom made one for us as a wedding gift - THANK YOU!), I'm posting the palette for our "new" room. Until I see the quilt I won't be able to settle on a paint color. Right now I'm going between grey or yellow.

Armchair Travel

If I could get a passport stamp for every country I visit via the internet I'd win some sort of prize for sure.
Today I stumbled upon this gem—thousands of Photocrom travel prints from the 1890's and early 1900's.
I especially like the ones from Norway. My mom and I were there in 2003 and our pictures don't look much different than these taken so long before.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Fabulousness

If it’s one thing I love more than being in a foreign land, it’s scouring the streets to find charming shops. Lucky for me London has Liberty which is a department store of YUM.






One floor in particular had me at hello.

It’s like a Craft Apothecary with ribbon capsules and fabric-covered button pills.



I had to limit my purchases because I didn’t have any projects in mind and the price of the fabric was enough to make me be very selective. I curse you, exchange rate!

Goods to declare:


Next time I’m back at Liberty I’m bringing a little stool and a cup of coffee. Because I’m going to be there all day.

  

Married with jet lag

I'm waiting to post wedding pics. But for now you can see the happy couple on the best honeymoon ever in jolly ol' England.

Dress Decision

Here’s a sneak peek at the adorable dress the girls will be wearing! Miss Morgan is pictured below. Could she be any cuter? And I have a feeling this is the last time she’ll be smiling in this dress :)


Addy needed a “big girl” dress so she’ll be wearing this adorable frock!
She will be a ring bearer (or princess in her case):