Albin in 2nd grade

Am I the only one getting grey hairs because of Blogger lately? I can't put links in my texts, or at least not more than once in every blog post, I can't change the fonts, and it's acting really, really weird! My first guess was that it was my laptop that caused this disturbance somehow, but I've tried blogging from three different computers, and it's the same everywhere, so that's not it. These things are supposed to just work, and it's really annoying when they don't.

So, anyway, I'm going to use my only link in this post for ScrappTorget, a site that is hosting a cybercrop at the moment. I made a layout for one of their challenges last night, a challenge where you were supposed to make a layout with a lot of white space on. This is my take. Yeah, I know, there could be more white space, but I figured I also needed to keep it balanced.

The papers and decorations are from the Nook October kit, fabulous MME Lost & Found II. Love it!

Have a great week, everyone!

Saturday night blogging

Good evening, world. It's Saturday night and I'm sitting at my beloved farmhouse watching the fire in the stove. P is at the movies with a couple of friends and I just got back from the neighbours, where the kids and I have spent the evening. Now, the kids are in bed, and what better thing to do than updating the blog while the fire burns down.

I'm on my job computer, so I don't have access to my photos, but I can show you a few cards that I've made for Scraplagret, using one of my favs lately - Victoria Gardens from Echo Park. This collection is absolutely adorable, and the colors are fabulous. Echo Park has made a whole bunch of lovely collections lately, and it has become one of my favourite brands.

The sentiment of this last card really got to me when I read it. "When you stop and look around, life is pretty amazing." Isn't that just so true? We tend to always move ahead, and set up higher and higher goals for ourselves and those around us. We really need to slow down, and see what we have right now, and that's pretty amazing, for sure. Myself, I have my family, my two precious children who give me so much joy every day. I have a university degree, a job that I love, and a hobby that allows me to be creative and meet amazing people. I have friends that I like having around, and I know which ones I can rely upon. I'm strong enough to keep out of all drama going around everywhere, not letting malicious people get to me, and I'm confident in who I am and what I do. I have, not one, but at the moment two, pretty amazing homes, one of which is the place I've always wanted, in a pretty amazing area. I have the financial means to give my children everything they need. Moreover, I have a fantastic journey overseas to look forward to. So yeah, life is pretty darn amazing, I'd say.

There's only embers left in the stove now, and I guess it's time for me to go to bed. Have the best of Sundays, dear blog readers.

How about some Riddersholm and a Blog Candy?

Last week, I received a package with the magnificent new lines from Riddersholm Design, including this one, Chantilly Dawn. I am completely in love with this line, it has the softest colors and the pretties patterns ever. I love it.
My son was invited to a birtyhday party, so I decided to make a couple of gift boxes and matching cards with Chantilly Dawn for the two birthday girls.

Now, how about winning some Chantilly Dawn of your own, plus tons of other goodies? It's really easy, just click on the button below to see the the Blog Candy, and read the instructions.

What are you waiting for? ;)

Crop at KiAs.

First of all, long time no see. I guess I got swept away by all the commotion about school starting over again. The students walked in at work, and I've been busy since. Albin and Agnes are back to school and daycare, soccer practice has started, gymnastics practise has started, and I'm back to doing laundry, packing gym clothes, school bags and all that stuff. On Sunday, both of them are back to swimming practise, and on top of it all, Albin has decided to join the scouts. I'm guessing we'll be really busy this fall.

Oh, and I forgot - we're painting windows at the farm. Today, P wanted me to paint. I grabbed the bush and I painted. When it comes to paint, I'm a perfectionist, whereas he isn't. He litterally paints the windows, meaning the glass. I paint only the frame. So I painted, carefully and perfekt - not a drop of paint ended up where it didn't belong, and I was really pleased with the outcome. Then P came along and had the guts to tell me that I painted too slowly! I almost threw the brush after him. But I guess I deserved that, since I had the bad taste of going cropping at KiAs Butik yesterday instead of painting windows.

I got tons of stuff done at the crop, among them this papier mache torso, which I altered using papers, stickers and trinkets from Bo Bunny's lovely Et Cetera line.
There was a challenge during the crop - to scraplift this layout, which I did last time I was there. The photo is from this summer, when we visited Glimmingehus castle. Agnes loved to sit by the window, very high up in the castle, and fantasize about whether there was ever a beautiful princess sitting in that window waiting for the prince to come riding on his noble steed... Thence the title - awaiting the prince.

And so, I scraplifted my own layout also here using Et Cetera. This photo was taken after a long, warm, dusty day at High Chaparral, our own Swedish wild west town. On our way home, we stopped by a lake to try and cool of a bit. I got this photo of Albin running along the platform as the sun was setting. The water was so warm that night, and the kids just loved it. They didn't want to get out of there.

So, that's it for tonight. I'd better be getting to bed soon. I thought I'd sit around for a while, finishing up a layout I started yesterday, but I think I'm too tired.

I wish you all a very good week.

The Rose

The ongoing challenge att Once upon a... sketch is to combine the sketch with at least two lines of your favourite song. My favourite song, ever, is The Rose by Bette Midler. I've been singing that song over and over again since I was like... ten or so. I've always loved it, and I still do.

So I decided to print the entire song onto my layout.

Sweet little sheriff

One day this summer the kids and I, and some friends, went to High Chaparral, our little part of the wild west. We took a ride on a riverboat, we were involved in a train robbery, we visited the indians and Agnes got her face painted, we watched the buffalos and we learnt how things were back in the days. It was a great day, and the kids loved it as much as I did when I was a little girl. Of course, they had to get dressed up, and Albin wanted to be a really fierce sheriff. But how can you look fierce when you are that cute? Impossible. He was the sweetest little sheriff, really, don't you agree?
I've used a lovely sketch from Skissedilla.

Sassy Lil' Sketches August week 2 sketch

Our auntie Anna, she's a cool one. She has her own motorbike, and the kids loved taking a ride on it this summer. I made this layout with a sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches, and I really love how this tuned out. I'm not usually a big fan of these kinds of bold colors, but mixed up with som kraft colored elements like this, they're quite OK. I was inspired to this by fabulous scrapper Carina Lindholm, of course, who makes marvellous layouts and cards bursting with color. And speaking of summer... today is officially the last day of our summer for us. Tomorrow we are all back to work, school and daycare again. It's, as always, a tiny bit sad, but we're hanging in there. Agnes is really happy about going back to daycare. I called them this morning, making arrangements about time for her this week, and after I had hung up, and went to tell her that they are really looking forward to having her back there tomorrow, she was soo happy. She cant wait to see all of her little friends and the teachers again. And to be honest, I miss my colleagues too, so it will be fun tomorrow, seing them and catching up with what they have been up to these past weeks. And I do look forward to next week, when the students get back. It will be a blast. :)