TAG

Jeg har vært så heldig å få denne prisen fra Maret i Strikk med-bloggen. Tusen takk!

I've been so lucky to get this award from Maret who's got the Strikk med-blog. Thank you!


Hun og Hobbygåsa har også utfordret meg med en tag. Instruksen er: "Fortell 7 ting om deg selv, både alminnelige og spesielle. Utfordre 7 nye bloggere."

1. Før var jeg koffeinavhenig. Nå må jeg holde meg unna koffein for å holde en mest mulig jevn form. Heldigvis finnes koffeinfri kaffe. Det rare er at jeg fremdeles er avhengig av kaffe om morgenen. Så enten er det sant at summen av laster er konstant, eller så er kaffe mer enn bare koffeintilførsel.
2. Jeg er fan av frosne erter. Fine, grønne, runde ertene :-)
3. Jeg klippet håret halvkort for et år siden, etter å ha hatt langt hår i 30 år. Det hender jeg fremdeles lurer på hvem den damen i speilet er.
4. Først etter at jeg startet blogg, har jeg virkelig skjønt hvor glad jeg er i fugler.
5. Jeg liker ikke nyttårsforsetter, men moren min klarte allikevel å dra et ut av meg på nyttårsaften: Jeg skal prøve å være mer miljøvennlig.
6. Jeg liker elektroniske dubbeditter veldig godt, men blir lettere hysterisk når de ikke virker. Jeg skjønner dem jo ikke. Ikke kan de fikses ved å limes, eller oljes, eller dunkes mot veggen mens man banner. Dårlig gjort egentlig.
7. Motto: "Alt som i rimelige mengder er godt for humøret er sunt!" Ergo er for eksempel sjokolade sunt :-)

Ønsker du å skrive 7 ting om deg selv, kan du herved anse deg selv som tagget.



Maret and Hobbygåsa have challenged me to write seven things about myself:

1. I used to be addicted to caffeine. Now I have to keep away form caffeine in order to keep a more stable energy level. Fortunately there's decaffeinated coffee. The strange thing is that I'm just as addicted to drinking coffee in the morning as before. So either it is true that the sum of vices is constant, or that drinking coffee is more than just adding caffeine to the body.
2. I'm a fan of frozen peas. They are so cute and round and green.
3. I cut my hair quite short a year ago, for the first time in 30 years. I sometimes still wonder about whom that woman looking at me in the mirror is.
4. It was after starting this blog, that I really realised how much I love birds.
5. I don't like New Years resolutions. But my mother managed to drag one out of me anyway. This year I will try to me more environmentally friendly.
6. I like electronic devices a lot, but when they don't work I become quite frustrated. I don't understand them. They can not be glued together to work again, or oiled, or banged against the wall while I curse. It feels really unfair.
7. Motto: "All that in reasonable amounts is good for your mood is healthy!" Which can be translated into: Chocolate is healthy :-)

If you would like to write 7 things about yourself, you can hereby consider yourself tagged.



Jeg kommer tilbake med rapport om strikkemøllen om litt. For øvrig har jeg brukt tida på å plante sopp i knappe –og glansbilde butikken min på DaWanda :-)


I will be back with a report on the knitting mill. I've also spent my time planting toadstools in my DaWanda-shop :-)

Mzansi Madame

Mzansi Madame er en blogg som ble startet i august 2008. Kvinnen bak bloggen presenterer den slik: "Mzansi Madame is about showcasing South African design and also creating a link between S.A designers and Norwegian designers."
Jeg tenkte med en gang at det er jammen en spennende og kreativ miks, å skulle presentere design fra to land som ligger på hver sin ende av jordkloden, en langt mot sør og en langt mot nord. Da kvinnen som skriver bloggen spurte om hun kunne få presentere noe av det jeg har lagd, ble jeg veldig glad, og veldig smigret. Linken er her :-)


The Mzansi Madame blog is a blog started in August 2008. The woman behind the blog presents it like this: "Mzansi Madame is about showcasing South African design and also creating a link between S.A designers and Norwegian designers."
I immediately thought that this sounds like an exiting and creative mix, to present design from two countries situated on opposite ends of the globe, one far south and one far north.
When the woman who writes the blog asked if she could feature some of the things I've made, she made me very happy, and I felt very flattered. Here's the link :-)

En tag og sommerbilder / A tag and summer pictures

Jeg er blitt tagget av Maret og Pinneguri. Man skal svare på 5 spørsmål om seg selv. Deretter skal man tagge 6 andre personer.

1) Hva gjorde du for ti år siden?
Jeg var nyutdannet, hadde flyttet til Oslo og var i jobb.

2) Hva er 5 ting på å gjøre-lista mi i dag?
Denne er litt vanskelig, da jeg ikke lager lister over hva jeg skal gjøre. Jeg tar det som det kommer utover dagen. Men jeg kan ta det i omvendt rekkefølge – 5 ting jeg gjorde i går: Bandt opp noen-og-tredve tomatplanter (med pt2 garn da hyssingen tok slutt), mediterte, surfet på internett, lagde middag, strikket.

3) Snacks jeg liker: Sjokolade

4) Ting jeg ville gjøre dersom jeg var milliardær (eller billionær):
Å skulle være milliardær høres så voldsomt ut at fantasien min strekker ikke til. Det eneste jeg vet er at jeg ville delt med andre.

5) Steder jeg har bodd:
Haugesund, Bergen, Oslo

6) Det er så mange som har svart på denne nå at jeg vet ikke hvem jeg skal tagge. Har du lyst har du lov :-)

Bilder fra et sommerlig Indre Oslofjord. Et motiv med strå i det ene øyeblikket, og en gåsefamilie som spiste fotomotivet i det neste. Himmelsk duftende ville roser (det er synd det ikke finnes duftblogger), blodstorkenebb og urgamle fossiler.


These pictures are taken in the inner part of the Oslo fjord. We have had some weeks with lots of sun and high temperatures. You can see a picture where the motive is some straws, and a goose family eating the same motive a few minutes later. Heavenly scented wild roses (it’s a pity no one has invented scent blogs), geraniums, and some fossils that are more than four hundred million years old.


I’ve been tagged by Maret and Pinneguri. The rules of the game are that each player answers the following five questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags five or six other people.

1) What were you doing ten years ago?

I had just finished my education, moved to Oslo, and was working.

2) What are five things on my to do list?

This is a difficult question. I don’t make lists, or make plans. But I can take it in the opposite direction – five things I did yesterday: Tied up about thirty tomato plants (with yarn because I didn’t have a proper string to use), meditated, surfed on the internet, made dinner, knitted.

3) Snacks I enjoy: Chocolate

4) Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Being a billionaire sounds too overwhelming, so I haven’t got enough imagination to find out. The only thing I know is that I would share with others.

5) Places I have lived?

Three places in Norway: Haugesund, Bergen, and Oslo

6) I won’t tag anyone else, but if you want to play, feel free to do it :-)

Bildene 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, og 8 er fra Galleri F15 på Jeløya utenfor Moss. De øvrige bildene er fra egen hage.

The pictures number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 are from an art gallery outside Oslo, that we visited a week ago. The other pictures (# 6, 7, and 9) are from my garden.

Bursdag / Birthday

Plutselig ble jeg 40 gitt :-)

Suddenly I turned forty :-)

Kreativt kaos / Creative chaos

(Scroll down for English version)

Jeg har lenge klamret meg til tanken om at alt hobbyrotet mitt egentlig bare er et kreativt kaos. Jeg må imidlertid innrømme at når jeg ender opp med å bruke mer tid på å lete etter ting jeg ikke har noen som helst oversikt over, enn jeg bruker på å bruke det jeg kanskje er så heldig å finne, da har jeg nok egentlig endt opp med å være den ikke fullt så lykkelige innehaveren av et kreativt katastrofeområde. Kreativt katastrofeområde høres liksom ikke like kult ut som kreativt kaos. Det er ikke like kult heller. Egentlig er det ganske slitsomt. Det tidligere omtalte gjesterommet som skulle pusses opp, innholdt katastrofeområdet mitt, og måtte følgelig ryddes opp. Huff for en jobb. Alt sammen skulle flyttes inn i et annet rom, men ikke i bæreposer denne gangen. Rommet har skråtak, og rom med skråtak er jammen vanskelige å møblere. Derfor: Tre ganger tre hurra for Ikea som har så mange geniale oppbevaringsløsninger! Lykken kom denne gangen i form av seksjonen ”Träby”. Ser dere hvordan seksjonen følger skråtaket! Det er bare å sukke henført, det er i alle fall det jeg gjør hver gang jeg kikker på den. Jeg får ruske det til litt mer etter hvert slik at det kan bli litt mer kreativt kaos igjen, men noe kreativt katastrofeområde skal jeg ikke ha igjen :-)



For a long time now, I’ve been clinging to the thought that all the mess I’ve got when it comes to all my craft related objects, really are just a creative chaos. At one point though, even I had to admit that when I end up spending more time searching for what I’m going to use, than I actually spend time using it (if I actually find it), then I don’t have a creative chaos any more. I’m actually the unhappy owner of a creative disaster area. A creative disaster area doesn’t sound as cool as a creative chaos. And it really is not. It’s actually quite tiresome. I wrote earlier that we are redecorating a guestroom. That room has contained my disaster area, so I had to clear it. What a job. Everything had to be moved into another room, but not in plastic bags this time. The room has got a vaulted ceiling, so it’s not an easy task to find functional furniture and a way to use all the space. So I say: Hooray for Ikea that has got so many wonderful storage solutions! The happiness this time came as a solution called ”Träby”. Can you see how it follows the slope of the ceiling? I find myself sighing with happiness every time I look at it. I’ve got to create a little bit more mess though, so I can get into the state of creative chaos again, but I’m definitively not going to turn it into a creative disaster area again :-)

Intervju/ Interview

For noen uker siden fikk jeg en e-post fra Carina (Carina’s Craftblog) som ga meg sommerfugler i magen. Hun ønsket å intervjue meg. Jeg har lest Carinas flotte blogg en stund, og tar det som et stort kompliment at hun ville ha et intervju. I dag fikk jeg beskjed om at hun har publisert intervjuet på bloggen sin. Så nå har jeg sommerfugler i magen igjen :-)


Some weeks ago, I got an e-mail form Carina (Carina’s Craftblog) that made a lot of butterflies start to flutter in my stomach. She wanted to interview me. I’ve read Carina’s lovely blog for a while now, and I take this as a big compliment. Today I got an e-mail form Carina, telling me that she has published the interview in her blog. So now those butterflies are accompanying me again :-)

Ravelry

Jeg fikk invitasjonen fra Ravelry i går. Akkurat nå føles det litt som på bildet. Nick: HildeC


I got my invitation from Ravelry last night. Just now, it feels a bit like the picture above. Nick: HildeC

Tag: 7 (not so) random facts about me

I've been tagged by Mary. Here are the rules: Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog those 7 facts as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven other people and list their names on your blog. Then you leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

OK, my facts are not very random (but it is my blog after all :-)

1. I got myself an education. I worked hard and enjoyed it. Life was hectic, exciting, stressful, and interesting (although I didn’t knit). This is what life used to be:



2. August 31st, 2001, this happened:


I would like to encourage all readers of this blog to concentrate (don’t knit!) when driving a car. Being hit from behind by a car driving in 43.5 mph/ 70 km/t is so incredibly unpleasant.

This was the result:




3. I felt like this for 1,5 years:


That is, until I got an interest in gardening, then I started feeling like this:


Due to a lot of help and support from family and friends, I was fortunate enough to also feel like this:


The three pictures above show how it feels to live with ME/CFS (at least from my point of view). Although at that point in time, nobody knew what was wrong with me. I could only state the facts: All energy seemed to be drained out of my body, and in addition, there was a long, long list of other symptoms. I was barely able to leave the house at all, and got sicker and sicker every time I did.


4. After about 18 months, I got this message:


Great news! At that point I had tried all sorts of hobbies, all of them just making me even more exhausted. When getting the great news, I suddenly remembered that I used to knit when I was a teenager. OK, one more thing to try, maybe it wouldn’t be to energy consuming to knit? It was energy consuming, and it took me 7 months to knit a small jacket, a dress, babysocks and a hat for my little niece. But it was less energy consuming than all the other hobbies I had tried, so I continued. And continued, and continued, and still continues (Thank you, little sister!)


5. Then I got more great news in 2003. After two years of wandering in a desert of a health care system, a doctor finally took interest in my “case”. He sent me to another doctor, who finally diagnosed me. Getting a ME/CFS diagnose is not something to wish for, but it’s better than being undiagnosed. In addition, this doctor enrolled me as a “guinea pig” in a scientific project, using experimental medication. These happenings made me feel like this:


I had started the road to recovery. Recovery is slow. Very, very slow. Oh my God it is slow. But slowly getting better, is better than not getting better at all.
(The scientific project does no longer exist due to lack of funding.)

My partner helps me a lot. He bought me a green house. Every spring he goes out, digs and carries compost, and makes me a blank canvas to work on:


Thank you!!!!


6. So I got a new life. I didn’t want it, but you can’t appeal to life. Life does as it pleases. My new life is not a hectic one. ME/CFS patients are unable to tolerate much stress. So out of an old hectic life, grew a new and very peaceful one:




7. It is now 5 years, 8 months, and 28 days since the car accident, and now I feel like this most of the time:



I hope to feel like this (at least once in a while):



Before I reach this stage:



If I ever get well enough, I plan on turning into some kind of anti-stress-guru. I will publish books with titles like these:

“How to relax while finding 55 ways to photograph a Dandelion”

“How to relax while your partner does all the digging in the garden”

“How to relax while knitting a scarf”

“How to relax while crocheting a hat”

“How to relax while blogging”

And if I still got any energy left after that, I’ll start a knitting factory ;-)

You would do me, and all the other thousands of ME/CFS patients, a great favor if you spend a few minutes on educating yourself on what ME/CFS is. There is a severe lack of knowledge, both among medical personnel and laypersons. Having an invisible and unknown illness makes life so much harder for all of us. Every time I meet someone who says they’ve heard about ME/CFS, it makes me so incredibly happy. It somehow makes me feel that I don’t have to fight so hard to get them to believe me.

This is the only post where I’ll write about this. I have defined this blog to be a corner of my life where illness is not allowed in. I guess this post is just the exception to the rule :-)

Links concerning ME/CFS:

YouTube: CFS 2006 awareness Campaign CDC (7,33 minutes long)

YouTube: Sleepydust - About M.E. / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (9,16 minutes long)

Informasjon på norsk (Information in Norwegian)

I’m not tagging anyone, but feel free to list 7 random facts about yourself if you wish to do so :-)

Tag

Supernøtt og Linda har tagget meg, så her kommer 6 rare ting om meg:

1. Jeg er reddere for å gå til frisøren enn til tannlegen.

2. Jeg går i skjørt når jeg graver i hagen.

3. Jeg blir lykkelig når jeg kan stikke nesa i kompostbingen og lukte at komposteringsprosessen går som den skal. Etterpå setter jeg meg på trappa med en kaffekopp og lurer på om det gjør meg til en hagenerd. Jeg finner aldri svaret, så da fortsetter jeg med å tenke på om det er bra eller ikke å være hagenerdete. Siden jeg ikke finner svaret på det heller, lukter jeg på komposten en gang til i stedet.

4. Jeg prater for mye med insektene i hagen. Men de hører ikke på meg. Da jeg fortalte edderkoppen over her at den i grunnen ikke var særlig lur som satt på en lilla tulipan, når kamuflasjefargen dens tilsa at den burde sitte på en hvit tulipan, bare snøftet den og ba meg passe mine egne saker ;-)

5. Jeg har fobi for krabber. Også for dem som er kokt. Jada, jeg vet at kokte krabber er døde, men de er fryktelig skumle likevel. Dere har vel sett den siste scenen i filmen ”Farlig begjær”? Hvor man tror at Glenn Close ligger død i badekaret for så å plutselig sprette opp lys levende. Hvem vet, kanskje krabber kan gjøre det samme? Jeg har aldri sett noe dokumentarprogram på Discovery som forteller meg at det ikke kan skje ;-)

6. Da jeg var ferdig med 5 punkter i denne taggen, trodde jeg at jeg var ferdig. Heldigvis fortalte samboeren min meg at det skulle være 6 punkter. Hvilket er et glitrende eksempel på hvordan konsentrasjonen og hukommelsen min fungerer til daglig.

Jeg klarer ikke holde oversikt over hvem som har svart på denne utfordringen (ref. punkt 6). Derfor sender jeg utfordringen videre til dem som måtte ha lyst til å ta den :-)


Supernut and Linda has tagged me, so here are six weird things about me:

1. I’m more afraid of the hairdresser than the dentist.

2. I wear a skirt when I’m out digging in the garden.

3. I feel very happy when I can put my nose into the compost bin in my garden, and smell that the compost process is going like it’s supposed to. Afterwards, I sit down with a cup of coffee, and wonder if this means I’m a garden nerd. I never find the answer to that question, so then I try to figure out if it’s a good or a bad thing to be a garden nerd. Since I can’t find the answer to that question either, I just put my nose in the compost bin again.

4. I talk too much with the insects in the garden. But they never listen to me. When I told the spider on the picture above that he wasn’t very smart when he was sitting on a purple tulip when he actually had a white camouflage colour, he just told me to mind my own business ;-)

5. I’ve got a phobia when it comes to crabs. Also when the crabs are boiled. Yes, I know boiled crabs are dead, but I think they are terrifying anyway. You have seen the last scene in the movie “Fatal attraction”? When Glenn Close is in the bathtub, and we think she is dead, and then suddenly she sits up. Who knows, maybe crabs can do the same? I’ve never seen a documentary on Discovery channel that told me that it could never happen ;-)

6. When I had finished the 5 facts above, I thought I had finished this tag. Fortunately, my partner told me it’s supposed to be 6 facts. Which is a very good example of how my concentration and memory function on a daily basis.

I’m not able to remember who has answered these questions or not (ref. number 6 above). So I send this challenge to anyone who wants to answer this tag :-)

Første garnminne / First memory of yarn

På whip up.net er det i dag en post om bamser. Det minte meg på at jeg for noen uker siden stilte jeg meg selv spørsmålet: Hva er mitt første minne om garn? Altså mitt første bevisste minne om garn. Det øyeblikket da jeg forsto at det er noe i verden som heter garn, og at det kan brukes til forskjellige ting. Svaret dukket opp i hodet mitt umiddelbart.

Da jeg ble født, fikk jeg en bamse av min bestemor. Jeg var svært glad i bamsen min, og den fulgte meg i tykt og tynt. Den var fylt med sagmugg, og etter hvert ble den ganske slitt. Jeg kan huske at moren min stadig måtte sy igjen hull, fordi små stier av sagmugg fulgte meg der jeg gikk. Dukker likte jeg ikke. Jeg syns de var harde og kalde, i motsetning til bamsen min som var varm og myk. Dukkene hadde imidlertid en ting jeg likte: Langt og skinnende hår. Bamsen min på den annen side, var sørgelig skallet, noe jeg syns var fryktelig trist. Moren min har fortalt at da jeg var ca. 4 år gammel, krevde jeg at hun skulle gjøre noe med dette problemet. Jeg husker jeg så våknet en morgen, til en bamse som hadde fått langt, hvitt ullhår. Og jeg husker jeg var fullstendig og komplett lykkelig. Jeg børstet og børstet ullhåret, satte bånd i det, og undersøkte det i detalj. Jeg husker ikke nøyaktig hva jeg tenkte, men jeg husker følelsen av å synes det var fantastisk at disse ulltrådene fantes, og at de nå var blitt til min bamses vakre hår. Jeg var overbevist om at ingen annen bamse i hele verden hadde så fint hår, og at jeg nå hadde verdens aller, aller beste bamse.



At Whip up.net there’s a post about teddy bears today. That reminded me of something I was thinking about a few weeks ago. I had asked myself: What is my first memory of yarn? The first time I really discovered the fact that yarn exists, and that it’s something you can use for different purposes.

When I was born, my grandmother gave me a teddy bear. I really loved my bear, and I carried it with me all the time. It was filled with sawdust, and after some time it got a lot of holes. I can remember that my mother regularly had to sew those holes, because a small trail of sawdust followed me wherever I went. I also had dolls, but I didn’t like them. I thought they were hard and cold, in contrast to my bear that was soft and warm. But the dolls had one thing I liked: Long and shiny hair. My bear was shockingly bald, and I thought this was a real problem. My mother has told me that when I was about four years old, I commanded that she should do something about this bald-bear-problem. I remember I woke up one morning, to discover that my beloved bald bear suddenly had got long white hair made of wool. I remember it made totally and completely happy. I combed and combed the hair, and I put a ribbon in it, and looked at it in detail. I can’t remember exactly what I thought, but I remember feeling that it was just wonderful that these threads of wool existed, and that they now had become my bear’s beautiful long hair. I was convinced I had the only bear in the whole wide world with such beautiful hair, and that it made him the best bear in the entire world.

Tagged

I’ve been tagged by Annie.

Four jobs in your life:

1. Chocolate factory (alternating between eating and working)
2. Moving papers around in an oil company
3. Working hard as a student
4. Mental healthcare

Four movies you could watch over and over:

1. Three Colors: Blue (or Three Colors: Red, or both actually)
2. What’s eating Gilbert Grape
3. Chocolat
4. Moulin Rouge

Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. Six Feet Under
2. West Wing
3. Nytt På Nytt (Norwegian)
4. Homefront in the garden

Four places you have lived:

1. Oslo, Norway
2. Bergen, Norway
3. Haugesund, Norway
4.

Four places you have been on vacation:

1. Barcelona
2. France
3. Germany
4. Scandinavian countries

Four websites you visit daily:

1. Whip up
2. Hobbyboden (Norwegian discussion forum)
3. You Knit What??
4. Newspapers

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Pasta with pesto
2. Chocolate
3. Deer (marinated with fennel seeds and juniper berries)
4. Char (see picture above)

Four places you'd rather be right now:

1. My greenhouse (but it’s still frozen)
2. Northern part of Norway (see picture above)
3. In my cabin in the western part of Norway
4. A yarn store that contains everything I could possibly want (but I haven’t found it yet)

Four favorite types of yarn:

1. Misti (thick alpaca)
2. Cotton viscose from Garnstudio
3. Pt2
4. Gedifra fashion trend

Four bloggers I'm tagging:

1. Guro i Hobbykroken
2. Elaine
3. Anette
4. Supernøtt