Man Cave Afghan Ta Dah!

"Man Cave" or "Kosestua"?

Coordinating with the fabric that was chosen for the

"Man Cave".

The man (the NVO, that is) is such a good sport for allowing me to incorporate this fabric into his room. He claims the room is no longer the "Man Cave" he calls it the "Kosestua", which is sort of Norwegian for "Cozy Room". I like that.

 The "Blue Bird of Happiness" coming in for a landing on the Man Cave Afghan.

(Yes, I know, random.)

The Pattern:

From Jan Eatons, Ripple Stitch Patterns.

"Storm Clouds"

The Color Sequence:

The Border:

Edging is a DV stitch  (Double V stitch=1 dc, 1 ch, 1 dc, 2 ch, 1 dc, 1 ch, 1 dc) all in the same stitch and then a sc between each DV.

Norwegians love geraniums, so of course, they must be photographed with the afghan. :-)

Now it's time to finish up the room...so many details that will be in a series of upcoming posts.

Have a Fantastic Day!

Ha en Fantastick Dag!

Re-mix: The Hippie Purse/Backpack

The hippie dresses are now a 
purse and a backpack!!!

The "Mama" Purse

The "Daughter" Purse/Backpack

Both Modeled by "Little Bug"

The Daughter

Thanks "Little Bug"!

More Hippie Dress and Skirt

I'll tell ya'...when I get onto something I don't let it go. :-)

More granny roses combined with the hippie dress and skirt:

I can't stop!!!

 A Newborn Dress

A 12 Months Sized Skirt

See Mrs. Wild for the pattern.

I just simply replaced the granny squares with granny rose squares.

She spurned on my obsession, and for that I am ever grateful. ;-)

WARNING: 

Tomorrow you will see that I took this a step further...

PAID IN FULL!!!

Pardon me as I feel compelled to pause and boast as

today at 1:00 PM we became 100% DEBT FREE...including the house!!!

After three years of working Dave Ramsey's plan we finally made it.

Dave's 13 week Financial Peace University course cost us $100 dollars and that's the smartest fun coupon we ever spent.

We cannot thank you enough, Mr. Ramsey for helping us change our lives,

now we hope to help and encourage others to do the same.

All prepared and ready to hit the enter button for our last on-line payment.

That's a count-down calendar there at the bottom of the photo.
Our friends gave us this preset digital calendar, many months ago,
when we shared with them that May 25th was to be our BIG day.

And to make today even more special, these same awesomely supportive friends, gave us the above celebration gift. They remembered and tracked the day. Can you believe it? They even snapped a photo of our home whilst we were away at work one day, stamped it "PAID IN FULL" and here it is! 

(Now those are the kind of friends to cherish.)

Little Bug gave us this cute card with a very special message written inside.
I suspect she might be excited at the prospect of not having
 to take care of us when we grow old.

We are so grateful to everyone that supported our weirdness through the last several years
we are also so grateful to be born in countries where this dream can become a reality.

We are truly fortunate!

Awwwww...sweet, sweet freedom!

Carole of the UK

My heart swells with the kindness and thoughtfulness of people that I have never met that are thousands of miles away in a different land. I would have never imagined that a blog that's mostly about me :-) would actually touch anyone so far away and that I would have been touched by so many. If I had known this I would  have started many years ago; so much joy and heartfelt interest on both sides shared by all. It's been a wonderful way to connect with like-minded ladies that magically transform into friends.

A package arrived this weekend from one of my lovely blogging friends and CAL buddies from the UK, Carole. You can find Carole here at her blog called StarDust Gems and Ribbon.

You'll see her beautiful Granny Rose pillow there, too.

Here are the treasures she sent:

 There's a granny bag pattern in this book that I am so excited to try out,

and some awesome chair covers....

She also sent me a pattern for a granny rose afghan similar to the 

CAL Granny Rose that will help me fine-tune my pattern.

As you must have guessed, my favorite part of all is the pin cushion:

Just look at these colors. 

I'm melting - they are so pretty!

It's as if she knew that I have been sticking my pins and needles

 in the sofa armrest next to where I crochet.

Thank you, Carole! 

Your kindness and thoughtfulness brings tears to my eyes and warmth to my heart!

P.S. The originator of this pin cushion pattern can be found here at the

Clever Chesire Cats Blog.

I squeeled with glee when I discovered that this blogger's grandmother is from Norway!

Norway in Red, White, and Blue!

A Norwegian Constitution Day Celebration

at the International Peace Garden

Today our community celebrated Norway's 198th Constitution Day.

It was wonderful gathering complete with a parade 

(these Norwegian parades are quite curious

 as everyone is in the parade - no on lookers - go figure?),

polse med lompe, marspian cake and Firkløver.

Firkløver is a yummy chocolate and hazelnut candy bar from Norway.

It's heavenly!

See this post for a Firkløver kake.

This is the two of us photographed in front of the sign representing my hometown:

Kristiansund N., Norway

This was a lucky day for the NVO and I, as we won two prizes in the rafflle:

1) A gift certificate to Finn's, a premier Norwegian restaurant in town.

and

2) This colorful flower arrangement, and as many of you know, I do love color!

We were in seventeenth heaven!

Immediately following the celebration, the gift certificate was burning a hole in our bunad pockets so we headed straight to Finn's in our Norsk garb.

And just when we thought the day could not get any better, Finn himself came out to see who wore the Norwegian costumes to his restaurant, introducing himself then buying our lunch.

What an unexpected surprise!

Woo hoo! 

It was our lucky day!

We were treated with so much generosity and kindness.

Thank you Finn!

and once again

HOORAY FOR NORGE

i rødt hvitt og blått!!!

Hanalei Strings Yarn

 Frolicking in Hanalei

One of my favorite things to do while away is to visit yarn shops.

This lovely yarn was purchased at Hanalei Strings on Kauai. 

This was the most interesting shop selling both ukulele's and yarn, 

complete with a warm and friendly proprietor.

 All things strings!

Oh and I must not forget to mention that Puff the Magic Dragon frolics in Hanalei.

I did not see him, but then again, it was not Autumn...
(I hope your speakers are turned on. )

A scarf might be this yarn's fate. :-)

See Hanalei Strings blog post

with knitted scarf photo from this same yarn here.

Oh, how I dream of owning a yarn and coffee shop one day...

Syttende Mai 2012

Happy Constitution Day Norway!

How lucky can you be when your mother lives in Norway and her very good friend

 in the USA sends this delightful cross stitched gift the day before 

the Syttende Mai (The Seventeenth of May)...

...and included this sweet note?

Liv is also the lovely lady that gave me the brød oppvarming klut (bread warming cloth)
 that I turned into the pillow from this post:

Thank you, Liv!

Happy Syttende Mai!!!

Snow in Summer

Are you as familiar with that ever increasing list of "Things To Do" as I am? You know, most of the items are little things...such as that last 10% of the project that is so difficult to finish or that something that will take just a couple of minutes to complete but we somehow just simply don't do it because there never seems to be a minute? Well, somehow I have mustered up some energy to commit to turning the list into the ever decreasing list instead of the ever increasing list.

 (Is it possible? I dunno, but I'll give it a whirl).

First on the list for today:

Starch and block those snowflakes that I made before Christmas last year.

AFTER                                                                    BEFORE

Here's how it all went down:

The poor snowflakes hung on the tree all sciwampous this year. 

Seemingly no big deal; no one noticed; however,

I KNEW! 

Arghhh! the sleepless nights!

Since shortly after Christmas they have been sitting in a baggy on top of the dryer begging to be starched in hopes to be ready for the holiday season 2012.

I have looked at them everyday since and done nothing about it.

(It's a game I play - I think if I leave things out that I will be so bothered by the clutter that I will take care of task at hand, but, NOPE, it didn't work this time.)

A very small part of the problem was that I had never starched and
blocked snowflakes before so I was a bit intimidated.

Thank goodness for the internet, as in about 3 nano seconds I found this
wonderful, wonderful solution to my dilemma:

http://crochet.tangleweeds.com/blocking.html

and in about 3 minutes I was on my way with this:
Thank you so much, Noel!!!

(The link has easy homemade recipes for starch, but I happened to have this on hand.)

and I was fortunate enough to have all the other supplies needed!

This is simply foam board that I took from my "Vision Board" from this post, (my NEW vision is to get stuff done, plus there's always Pinterest; the ultimate electronic space saving vision board.), the printed out template from the above name link, starch, wax paper, tape and pins.

All the snowflakes did not fit on the board so I had to do two rounds, and in order to hurry up the process so that I could get back to "the list", I placed them out in the sun for quicker drying time.

Here's "Snow in Summer" enjoying the sun with our ground cover called "Snow in Summer" .
How weird is that? 

It was all meant to be!