Birthday & goals for the new year :)

It's my birthday today, or it was, since it's now well past midnight. I really should get to bed, because I have to get up early tomorrow and pack. We're going back to our apartment to start everyday life again next week.

I celebrated my day with a nice breakfast (the mother had boiled eggs for me), then I got a couple of presents. One was a gift certificate for a music/movie store and the other was this cool cat bowl which I will probably use for candy:

Later we had taco wraps for dinner and I made cookies for dessert! I got a cool set of cookie cutters from Ikea the other day, and I wanted to test them :) Slightly burned (but very tasty!) hedgie cookies:

Tonight we went to visit a friend who's had the flu lately, and I brought the cookies to cheer him up. Who wouldn't get better from hedgehog cookies?! :)

So... The new year has begun, and I'm about to start a whole new education. Feels sort of like a new beginning, so I've decided to make up some goals for the new year:

* Study hard and try not to let my urge for crafting take up precious study time (this will definitely be the hardest - when I get a crafty idea it won't leave my head until I've tested it, which makes it very hard to concentrate on math...)

* Try to find a job (preferably part time - but only a little income would help our economy a lot)

* Make up a budget and spend less of it on craft supplies that I really don't need (I tend to go all out and get lots of supplies as soon as I find a new hobby, and then I get tired of it and never use the stuff again)

* Try new food & eat more vegetables (we plan to be mainly vegetarian from now on)

* Work out a little (walking to and from school doesn't count...)

* Lose some weight (only a few pounds would do, and hopefully the above goals will help with that)

* Try to control my temper (I will never be completely zen, but I can at least appear less grouchy)

* Learn to sew (I have a sewing machine that's been in the closet for at least five years & has been used once! Very sad. I really want to learn to sew useful things that are not made entirely of felt, like bags and stuff)

Hmm, I think that was it. I will do my best with all these resolutions, but I also have to try not to be too angry or disappointed if I fail at any of them. At least the minor ones, my studies naturally take priority :) Hope you've all had a nice start of 2011, and that you have lots of good things coming! :)

Weekend visit & shopping

This weekend we've had a visit by my boyfriend's parents. They brought LOTS of chicken/turkey hot dogs and chicken filets, our freezer is now completely full :) The mother's birthday was just a few days ago, so I made a cake, and I finally got to use my dinosaur sprinkles!

We went out shopping one of the days, the mother was looking for an 8mm crochet hook to make the Olympic hat, and we ended up getting new yarn for me to make more hats :) 

After I tried my first Olympic hat I fell in love with the yarn (DROPS Eskimo) and the spimplicity of the hat pattern, and I wanted to make lots of them to sell. I have now developed a pattern of my own that I'm happy with, and I'll add it to my pattern blog later :)

I also got the biggest Easter egg I've ever had, it has room for both Bollan and all my candy!

Happy birthday to me :)

It's my birthday today :) Well, technically it was yesterday, since it's now past midnight. I'm 27, and rapidly closing in on 30... Should I worry? I don't feel old at all, not much older than I felt 7 years ago. 

Earlier today we went for a walk at the frozen lake, and it was extremely cold. About 12 degrees freezing. I had a knitted alpaca hat, and my newly washed hair was tucked in my jacket, but the inch that was exposed actually froze stiff... 

My mother-in-law gave me some money for my birthday, and I thought I'd spend most of it on yarn in fancy colors (I need them all!). The yarn shop had a 20% discount on all yarn, so I  went a little bananas :) This is the yarn I usually use for small amigurumis, and for my granny squares:

I can also mention that I'll be participating in a crochet-along at Veronica's blog Ulliga Gulliga Saker. You find the crochet-along here. I understand it will be something like an amigurumi, but otherwise it's a secret. The pattern will be posted tomorrow, I hope. I'm so excited :)

Happy birthday to us :)

Yesterday was the birthday of a friend who's visiting us right now, and my boyfriend's birthday is on Saturday, so we decided to celebrate them both together. My birthday is in just a month, so I got a present, too :) I got a set with figures of the main characters from the Mouse Guard comics by David Petersen. If you haven't read it or heard about it, you should definitely check it out! It has also been made into a roleplaying-game, which I intend to play some time soon, if I can get my boyfriend to be GM :) My boyfriend got a t-shirt and a plush brain cell from Giant Microbes. Our friend also got a t-shirt, and she was very happy with a red and black owlet keychain I made for her.

Anyway, we went out for dinner at a Sushi place (I have eaten eel!), afterwards we went home and had home-made muffins for dessert, and then spent the evening listening to music and surfing the internet on our laptops. Yes, we are very social people :p

I haven't really been up close to sushi before, I've only seen the knit and crochet patterns for sale on Etsy, so now I want to try and design my own patterns, based on the photos I took at the restaurant. Don't know when that will be, but I'll definitely give it a try some time.

The muffins were the perfect opportunity to try out my newest food coloring: BLACK! The muffins aren't that successful, but with black frosting and sprinkles they look pretty good :)

On Monday we went out to celebrate that my semester is over and had cheeseburgers at the best burger place in town. The Great Boll joined us, of course, she loves that place. It's a rock place, and all the burgers are named after heavy metal songs. I always have the Paranoid with tzatziki dressing :)

The weekend

This weekend my boyfriend and I were invited to my grandmother to celebrate her 85th birthday, and since it's a long trip, we decided to make it a long weekend. On Thursday we traveled north by Hurtigruten (great big ships that continually go up and down the West coast of Norway), which is the most comfortable way of getting home to my place. We travel at night, so we usually sleep most of the time. This time we got a cabin because it didn't cost extra, and I thought the night would fly by in a good bed and with a private bathroom and everything, but I hadn't accounted for the weather. Since this was one of the smaller ships ("Vesterålen"), it rolled quite heavily. I almost fell out of bed once.. So, of course I got sea sick and didn't get more than a couple hours of sleep :/ I didn't throw up or anything, so I guess that was good, but I hate not being able to sleep.

Eventually we got home to my grandmother, and spent Friday sleeping and not doing anything specific. On Saturday the rest of the family arrived, and we had dinner at a very fancy restaurant. The bill was more than 5000 NOK, which is a lot of money, but not really that bad for dinner, drinks and dessert for ten people. After dinner we went home and had cake. Well, we were supposed to have cake, anyway. Everyone were so full the cakes were hardly touched. I now have lots of leftover cake in the freezer :)

Yesterday it was back to Bergen, because I had school today. Man, the computer linguistics course is boring! *sigh* Just hope I pass the final exam so I don't have to do it all over again...

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I met this gorgeous cat when I was home :) It belongs to a neighbor of my grandmother. His name is Achilles, and he's really sweet and cuddly and fond of people. I met him once before when I was home this summer, and I like to think he remembered me :) The first time he came up to me and rubbed against my legs until I sat down and petted him, but this time he came running and practically jumped up on me. According to the owner he refuses to sit on anyone's lap, but that's not the case with me :) I'm so proud! Now, I have mentioned that I am extremely allergic to anything with fur, and especially cats, so this really should have knocked me out. But Achilles is a Siberian, a breed that is suitable for people with allergies. He scratched me a little on my thigh and waved his tail in my face several times, and I didn't even sneeze! I so have to get a cat like this :)