Right now

Right now I'm typing this out while waiting for the water to heat for coffee. I woke up much earlier than planned due to some sort of loud crashing sound. It woke Greg up too, so I asked him what it was. I thought his response was something about wine, so I said "what?" and he clarified, "different line styles… on plots." Okaaayy.





Here are a few old photos I found on my camera. I feel like I need to erase or edit a lot of what is going on in this post, but instead I'll just forge on.

Last night I pulled out my needle felting to make a small round bird. I was doing just as good as I could have hoped for until I got to the beak. I never got my beak small enough, so I'll have to start over with a smaller bit of wool.



The End!

Humpa at Stornoret

Last weekend I spent some time in the woods. It is one of my favorite things, to go enjoy the slow life. The Swedes called our excursion a 'humpa' although I'm not sure most of them knew what a humpa was. But had a humpa we did! Here is the photographic evidence(:

Needle felting!

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a needle felting kit, which I was really excited about. I had never tried this craft before December, which is really a shame, because it is a good bit of fun. Plus you can make super cute things:)





Meet my elephant! He occupied a good portion of my yesterday and got his ears attached this morning. I'm still considering adding a little tail to him, but I don't yet have the skills necessary to make something so tiny. He also might get some little eyes or some tusks. We shall see!

If anyone has any great ideas for things that could be felted, do let me know!

EDIT: I hope this isn't poor form, but I'm updating this post from last week to include in Cari's Theme Thursday linkup! I mean.. it is a photo link-up, and the theme this week is 'craft' so I hardly feel like I have any other option when I have this nice elephant that I crafted and then did a photo shoot with. Right?

7QT: the cross-stitched dog version

I didn't partake in the quick takes last week, but I guess I missed it, so I'm back again this week to join the party. 

- 1 -

I moved offices this week. The old space I was in was working fine, but wasn't entirely ideal. So far my new space is treating me really well. There is a very large plant that I think could be called a tree. And also there is this:



This is my favorite part of the whole office. Meet my newest love, the cross-stitched dog. Partly I just love imagining that it was made by the person who previously occupied this office (male, Chinese, physicist).

- 2 -

And the person who made this was clearly very dedicated to their project. I only ever attempted cross-stitch when I was a kid, and the furthest I got was to finish the pink part of two kitten ears. And this dog is pretty sizeable. It must have taken hours upon hours to craft!

- 3 -

That is my plant in that photo (not the tree). It is the one a co-worker is letting me have while she is away for half of the year. She left shortly after I arrived, so she thought I might want a plant since I didn't have any yet, which was a thing I really appreciated. My favorite thing is to rotate the plant so that the newest leaf is facing the window, and then it grows straight up like that for a week or so before it starts to get horizontal like a normal leaf.

- 4 -

Also, this plant is a kind that spits its seeds out as a means of re-populating. I've yet to be hit in the face by a flying seed, but I am just waiting for the day. I did find three seeds on my desk so far, so I collected them up and plan to plant them so that I can hopefully have my own baby plant one day.

- 5 -

I figured you'd want a second photo.

- 6 -

I don't know how you follow something like that, so now I'll talk about the weather. I used to like looking at weather forecasts a lot. For the past few weeks I just stopped doing that. I am already dressing at my warmest, so it is not like I'll add any extra layers. And my warmest coat can handle precipitation, so that really isn't a concern either. Plus it is kind of fun to just wake up and see what kind of weather we are handed that day. I don't know for sure, but I think it dropped at least 10 degrees in the past day. This morning it was -20 C (which is just below 0 in F).

- 7 -

The tradeoff is perfectly clear blue skies! And I also saw the sunrise on my walk to the office. The cold weather is completely worth the banishing of the dreary grey skies.

7QT

Once again linking up with the quick takers, despite the fact that I really don't have anything of substance to write about.

- 1 -

In Sweden, there is a law saying the royal family must be protestants.

- 2 -

At lunch, one of my co-workers started getting crafty with a doritos bag, which turned into lunchtime-Christmas-crafting-time. I made this.

It is very Swedish. And it is like an ornament that you can hang on your Christmas tree. It is like a woven heart basket thing, but you just glue a handle to the top and you are good to go.

- 3 -

There will be cake for fika this afternoon, homemade by a different co-worker who is starting her maternity leave.

- 4 -

And that reminded me of how Greg is leaving soon and has yet to have the best princess cake that I've had in Sweden so far. Princess cake is this amazing thing, which is 90% cream and 10% cake. It also has green marzipan on the top. Looks like this:

Usually they taste quite good, but there was one day when I had one that was completely exceptional. So I wrote down the name of the bakery, and tomorrow we will go there with the hopes of being able to buy a Christmas princess cake.

- 5 -

Tacos for dinner tonight! It's the Swedish way!

- 6 -

I invented this outfit today. Some days just require tomato pants. I blame my lack of focus (on work, I'm not trying to comment on the clarity of the photo) on it being the last day of work before Christmas vacation. Also, it seems that storing a lot of things in my pocket takes away from the fashionability of my clothing.

- 7 -

Every time I wash my hands I think of this guy. I keep waiting for the day when someone sends an email to the entire office saying something like, "Will the person who keeps shaking water all over the bathroom please stop doing that!?" And then I'll have to respond and apologize and say, "but it is this guy's fault!" And then once they watch the video they will all do the shake too!