where i go to get energy

you know all people have those days. those days when you are like drained and down. i have those day kinda often. today was one of those days. i am home alone, the other ones are out and about. i am home with the dogs. i haven´t really talked to anyone the whole day and i didn´t quiet know what to do with myself.

so, i packed the dogs up in the car and we went to the beach.

the beach is my place to place to think. my place to wander. my place to pick rocks. my place to breath.

i especially like to go to the beach at night/sunset year round. it is usually quiet and empty. i like to be alone with my thoughts. rock picking and just to sit and feel the sand on my hands. the light is usually magic. just magic. 

sometimes i go to the beach when it is stormy. i can sit in the sand and just feel every bad thought and anxious feeling blowing away in the wind. 

 

tonight the air was so fresh and the sense of a beautiful summer night was so intense. the water was so still and glimmering.

 i stretched and took a few deep refreshing breaths.

i waded in the water.

i picked rocks.

 i felt better.

randomness

todays post will be very random (as most are!)

* i spend the weekend in gothenburg celebrating my grandomother and grandfathers birthdays. we ate at my sisters house surrounded by lots of kids and laughs. i gave my mother a late mothers day gift; a photobook with photos from our trip to budapest in april. she loved it!

* i have been making these (see photo above) necklaces for me, my husband and daughter. i love that they are wearing them! my husband has my name and my daughters name and my daughter has all our pets names on hers :) my friend J gave me the metallic stamps for christmas 2 years ago and i have seen so many cool washer necklaces around the blogs lately. i love making them!

* this weekend i am hoping to get to play with some concrete. i bought some this past weekend and am totally inspired my benitas latest blog posts! go check them out!

* todays inspirational word over at creativity boot camp is drizzle and even though it did rain and drizzle today i have not felt inspired to take any photos. and that is ok for me.

* i did a movearound on my walls last night. i am not finished yet, but when i am i´ll show you :)

ok, that is all for now. tomorrow i´ll have some scrapbooking layouts to share!

10

i am still in such disbelief about the fact that i have a 10 year old... a tall, skinny and beautiful 10 yearold. she is just one head shorter than me and i always tell her that she is going to outgrow me before she starts 7th grade! she agrees :)
10 years ago i experienced one of the most excrusiating pain in my life, and then suddenly she was here. i was so suprised that she was acctually a she :) i was positive that we were going to have a boy, so positive that we hadn´t even talked much about girl-names! so, while i was in a nice morphine coma her dad decided on the name Stina. Not Kristina, just Stina. and i agreed, but i had to write the name up on a piece of paper by my bedide because for the life of i couldn´t remember the name! ha!



nowadays she is making motherhood really challenging for me. or maybe it is not her, maybe it is me? i mean this mothering thing might be the most difficult thing i have ever tried my hands on! people might say that i would be all on top of that since i work with kids professionally, to those i say: well, i might like the kids i work with, but my daughter is the love of my life! it is just that, the love and emotional bit of the problem that acctually makes the problem. you just want to make everything right and not disapoint her, but sometimes life stings and she has to learn that too. it is so hard raising a girl; i want her to be strong and confident, nice and a good friend, but at the same time i don´t want anyone to walk all over her and take advantage of her niceness. i want to teach her that she is the soule owner of her body and that no means no. i want to teach her that education is so very important. i want her to know that she can come to me with everything.
how come that we are just supposed to know how to do that automatically when we become parents?



happy birthday, my favorite girl!

randomness

• i slept in the tent with my daughter this past night and now my back is killing me! and those damn crows had a convention, a loud one, at 5.20 am!

• my coffee tastes so good this morning!

• i am always touched by a big artists death, no less today since i heard the news about michael jackson.

• it seems to be a wonderful day today!

• i am so happy that i stayed inside for a few hours yesterday to clean the house!

• i am looking forward to the huge yard sale i am going to tomorrow!

• we are planning my daughters 10th birthday party, i suggested a girls night, to what my daughter replied ALL girls??? mom, it is more fun if the boys are there too! :)

• my peonies are so beautiful right now!




• i´d really would like a brown pair of crocs...

*hello*

hi there all! i am still on vacation but i miss blogging :) i forgot my camera cord at home so i have no photos to share yet, but i will be back home tomorrow afternoon. i can´t wait until i can start scrapbooking all the photos i have taken.
so far on this mini vacation i have:

eaten way to much of everything!
petted lots of dogs...and a cat too!
laughed
rolled my eyes
learned more about swedish history
shopped
photographed
talked
reading my bloglines
eaten some more
swimmed in a lake
trying to get a groups shot with one 9 year old, one 3 year old and two 1 year olds
slept
gone one a ferry ride
picked flowers
hugged
been to IKEA
...

and lots more i am sure :)

i can´t wait to get home tomorrow. don´t get me wrong, i love a good vacation but home is always home :)

my current random wish list :)

♥ these lovely glasses from anthropologie



♥ lovely bedding



and i want to lay here :)



♥ i might just need this hat while gardening :)



♥ well not only do i wish for every one of these throws, but i think i need a sleeping porch!



♥ happy bingo cards



♥ a lovely handmade little thing, right!



♥ oh, how i adore this clutch!



♥ lovely tray from indiska.



♥ this might be good.



hm...i might be back :)

we had a wonderful weekend with my parents-in-law. they had their birthdays coming up and we had some celebrations. speaking of birthdays, i have to share this photo of my rocking mother-in-law who turns 62 (!) this week! isn´t she cute!



my husband helped them with some yard work that included a 14 meter tall lift that he used when he sawed down a big tree. after the work was done he had us up there taking some photos :)




the scrapbooking bug caught me when i got home from their house. and this is what i have come up with so far.



the story: see above :)

the goods: as always super simple. i cut a page from a atlas as a scalloped tag and added a self-printed tag. the sticker letters are from K&company.



the story: my sister and her family came to visit the other weekend and suddenly the house was full of her children :) they are wonderfully messy :) we went to the kindergarden where i work so that they could play around for a bit and this photo is from there.

the goods: i made a fun minigarland at the top of the page out of some scrap paper pieces. the labels are self-printed from the containerstore.com the butterfly from my ever schrinking stash of butterflies from my mel :) i bought the foam letters (bus) from pandurohobby.se.

i am so ready for spring and even easter. my mom asked me if i could find a template for her on marthastewart.com and i came across some cuteness.
i think some of these easter crafts are really cute...what do you think?

ok, i am off to nurse a child with fever and a cold with some crafts...more to come.

inspiring me this week

hearts
- i guess it is all the valentine preps that makes me all loving of ♥ :)
- second to the peace sign, my favorite sign is the heart.



- i made a mini heart wreath that i think turned out really cute.



i put it up on the wall where we have a calender frame that we change every month and hang things from that month.








note: kram means hug in swedish!

quotes

- i have noticed that quotes can really help you in different stages in life.
-right now these are a few of my favorites:

"imagination is more important than knowledge. for knowledge is limited to all we now know and understnad, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

- A. Einstein

"creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties."

- E. Fromm

- whats your favorite?

the notebook

- a fantastic love story.
- and have you seen this?



- :) oh now that makes me warm and fuzzy all over!
- this movie makes me want to love passionatley!

love letters

- i have found a bunch of my husbands letters + notes and read them all :) it gives you a good feeling i tell ya´ :)
- i am writing him a love letter for valentines and also to my daughter.
- don´t you love love letters and notes?

this

what has inspired you this week?

happy weekend and hello november

hello.

i am back from a work trip.
it was fun.
we had a storm.
as usual when on work trips...
:)


can you belive it is november?!
we had some snow, well not on the
island but we went grocery shopping
on the mainland and we found snow :)

dixon loves snow
:)







i have decided to take a photo
a day in november. i am really
hoping that it will last.
i have no self-control
:)
i was so inspired by the we♥it site
see what i♥


i created.
it was ok.
it is a october minibook.
i like it.
:)




for the little date i used
the same technique as i did here






i used a transperency sheet.
it makes a lot of difference.



i am still working on the weekend
projects...



i have decided that the first newsletter
will go out friday november 7th.
i am excited.
:)

random list

1. i love fall! i want to state that once and for all :) i love the crisp fresh air, the beautiful colors, the smell of appels and leaves. i love to have my camera with me when i am out and about.



2. job things can wear you down! we have had some communtication problems at work and it really takes too much energy from me. i love my job very much, but the bickering takes alot of the fun out of it...

3. we had lovely shrimps yesterday it was so much yum!

4. i am loving new inspo for minibooks. i totally adore Karen Russlles latest one.

5. i am thinking about joining Ali Edwards one her "a week in the life quest". i am just worried about commiting. i don´t know if i can do a whole week :)

6. i am itching to do a RAK, look out! :)

7. i am also itching to make something with my new digital kit i may even think up a christmas gift or two with this...

8. i have borrowed jason mraz´ album from my sister and i must say that the music makes me want to playin puddles, search for rainbows and dance barefoot in the grass :)

9. my bleh-post the other day had a photo of me in my new shirt! and inge, i love it too! my mother bought it for me when she went to hungary the other month. i don´t know if i have said this before, but my mother is from serbia and my father from hungary. so i have a whole other cultural heritage and this shirt is a part of that. my grandmother has always made table cloths and other works of art using this sewing techniqe. i have two other shirt, one white with the same coloring and one with blue tones.



photo from 2006

10. we are making pizza tonight and have a bourne marathon :)

ramblings

last night i had the strangest dreams. i always dream alot, but this was to much! i had like torture dreams the entire night. i woke up all wet of sweat all night long and it was like i wanted to wake up, but couldn´t really. bleh.
i did have a more lovely morning though. i had the best coffee infront of the computer while browsing my favorite blogs. Among others I especially loved these posts today:

Ali
Cheryl
Taras header
Suzanne
work in progress
memory makers




i listened to some morning shows on the radio and then had to get ready for work. it was a bit rainy today, so the rainboots was on :)

i was so energetic when i got home that i went for a 2 hour walk with the dogs, mowned the lawn, vaccumed before 4 pm :) it feels good. so my night will hopefully be peaceful!

I am getting the family ready for a happy and fun weekend here. we are hoping for some really good weather!

i so want to get some scrapping done!

i need to sit with my dear daughter for a while, to get her to write a wishlist for her birthday...can you belive that she can´t get one out by herself! She is 9 soon!

ok, rambling is over. :)

weekend and inspo list

wow monday already! where did this weekend go?! well, i made the town on saturday. I went with the early ferry and found myself in town at 10 already! i shopped way to much :) some clothes, books, cd´s and a few must haves :) I bought Bruce´s CD for us and Jonas Brothers for the tweenie daughter :) She has her birthday on August 31st and i have started a little gift collection for her.





Oh and speaking of the daughter, she put on one of her shows, which usually consists of her, an outfit, the mic and radio on our bed. Yesterday was no exception, but this show had a special feature: Dixon!





:) i guess she loves showbuisness more than Mr D!

I have seen a cuple of "what inspires me right now-lists" going around and thought i´d do one too!




Yellow just makes my heart skip a beat. Yellow is just a happy accent color, i think. I have this lovely yellow necklace and i wear it often. And doesn´t it look good where I store it?!






I love Project Runway! I can watch at all the re-runs and still be inspired by all of them!



I stopped Facebooking a while ago, it just wasn´t for me. But when i saw that all these cool flair images came from there i just had to make one :)

Other things that still inspire me are:

notebook paper
office supplies
eclectic photos
poems
hands

...