Juletreet

Ahhh! Christmas! I just love watching the kids open their gifts. This year we had some good friends over, and ate a lot of good food.....way too much. I cooked for two days leading up to it, but it was all worth it. I tried making some traditional Norwegian "julemat", so i salted lamb, made rutabago-stew (kålrotstappe), and made a traditional "riskrem" (ricecream directly translated). I think I stirred the rice (cooked in milk) for about three hours, from midnight to 3 am the night before, and then i mixed it with whipped cream. In Norway you buy the "porridge mix" in a bag, and it's done in about 15 minutes, but lacking that here, I did it the old fashioned way. You can also buy the raspberry sauce to go with it in a carton in Norway....I did my own. I mixed a Minute Maid frozen raspberry juice with some potatoe flour, and used only half the water. It actually tastes exactly the same as the "real thing". Delicious! I made a whole lot of other things too....Chocolate pudding with vanilla sauce, a pot roast, rosemary baked potatoes and steamed carrots, yellow split pea soup....Now I don't have to cook a thing for three days I think! :)

From Ålesund and the area around.....

I found all these pictures in Sunnmørsposten online, from the area around where I come from in Norway.....Ahhhhhh....They make me TOTALLY homesick....To smell the air from the sea, and to listen to the waves...

noen til....

and more.....

And some more....

The rest of the cards...

Here are some more of the cards that I made for the United Way sale. Since I had to charge a fairly low price for them, and had to make a whole bunch, they are not the most elaborate ones perhaps, but I still enjoyed making them.

United Way sale

Today was the long-awaited United Way one-of-a-kind art sale at work....And I did sell some cards! I am glad that my frantic efforts these last weeks trying to produce enough cards came into fruition. I was actually still up at 2am this morning taking pictures of the last cards I made...Although these cards were not the most complicated, I still spent time on design and colour, so I thought it sensible to capture it, in case I need to make a last-minute card in the future. Will post a few of them as soon as I've downloaded them from the camera. Although I sold quite a few cards, I am also thrilled to say that I didn't sell them all.....This means that this year my family and friends just might get a card as well...

...and, I don't think I'll make another card for...oh, about a year or so. He-he. Just feel completely carded out! Now I am looking forward to trying out some scrapbooking, and I have a few ideas swirling around in my head for some paintings too. And I have a tons of snippets of songs recorded on my phone ready to be developed into whole pieces....Although it was fun being part of the United Way sale (and it's a good cause too), I must admit it is nice to be free to do what I want again! :-)