Week 52-- one postcard left!

Hello Shanon!
How was your Christmas? I really hope you had a wonderful time. I feel like this last week has consisted of at least ten days, last Monday just feels like it was so long ago :) My Christmas holiday started on Tuesday afternoon and I had two days to make the last preparations. I baked a huge batch of "lussekatter" (lucia cats), saffron buns shaped like cats (or actually 8's) and I also made "knäck" which is a sort of toffee made from cream, sugar and syrup that boils forever on the stove. I always love those days just before Christmas when the air is filled with expectations of what's to come.
We spent Christmas Eve (which is the big day over here) at Martin's sisters place. Almost his entire immediate family was there, so we were around 11 grownups and 4 children. We had a very nice time, eating lots and lots of Christmas food and relaxing in front of the fire, talking and eating nuts and marshmallow santa clauses. They live about a 30 minute drive from town and all along the road there was lots of snow and pretty red, snowcovered houses with fairy lights. I just know you'd love it if you saw it :) All in all it's been a very nice Christmas with lots of hanging out time with Martin's family, but also lots of time in the sofa with a cup of tea, a movie and my knitting. Now I'm looking forward to New Year's Eve when we're going to my mum's place. I'll see you in the new year! :)
xoxo
Moa
PS. My postcard this week is of our pretty amaryllis. Martin bought two for me but this is the only one that's bloomed so far. I like that it looks like a peppermint stick :)

Hello Moa and Merry Christmas!
Christmas week came and went so fast this year! Next year I vow to get my shopping done in November and I also vow to BUY my baked goods. I spent too many days searching for the right gifts and ruining never-attempted-before recipes, that all of a sudden "BAM!" it was Christmas. I did enjoy the crafting that I undertook, so I think I'll bring that forward into next year. I already have plans for Christmas stockings. I can't wait for that. =)
So, anyhow. Let's get to the lowdown of the week. On Wednesday we hung the pantry shelves in the almost completed laundry room. It's been fun to see that come together. Thursday we headed out of town and straight to a restaurant to spend time with two of my girlfriends that I've known since grade school and high school respectively. We may live a distance from each other, but our parents are still live in the same houses we grew up in, so when we go back to see them it's easy to see each other. They gave me lots of pregnancy advice. Priceless!
Christmas eve was spent at my parents (where I took the photo for my postcard) and we went to Christmas eve mass together, ate, opened presents, watched movies, and played games. The next day we pretty much repeated the same thing at Ben's parents, only this time minus the mass and add staying up until 2:30 in the morning catching up with his sister. =)
My postcard gives a hint of the icicles hanging from the roof of my parents house which you can see through the upstairs windows. It was such a winter fairyland looking out into the backyard. There was a branch sticking up from under all the heavy snow covering a bush, and 5 little fat brown birds perched on it. If only I would have caught that! But you can imagine how sweet it looked. ; )
Til next week, and our very last postcard of this project. It's been a treat! See you then!
Xoxo,
Shanon

Week 51

Hello Shanon!
How are you doing over in Minnesota? Here in Sweden we're drowning in snow, all you read about in the news is that there is snow and chaos everywhere. Planes and trains don't go anywhere and there are cars in every ditch (at least if you read the newspapers!). I feel like I've hardly had time to notice the snow since I've been so busy. The weeks just before Christmas are always super busy when you're a teacher, but I'm glad the end of the semester is almost here. On Tuesday afternoon my holiday begins and I'm SOO looking forward to it :)
Other than work related stuff I haven't had time to do all that much. I got my hair cut for the first time in about 7 months, which felt great. I'm waiting for it to grow out so I've postponed going to the hairdresser but now it was way overdue. The funny thing is that when it was just cut it looked so long and I was so happy about it, but since it's been trimmed and gotten lighter my curls have become even curlier so now it looks very much shorter although my hairdresser hardly cut off anything from the length. Such is the curse of curly hair... As you can tell, not much of substance happened this week, since all I have to talk about is my haircut :)
I hope your Christmas will be cozy and warm and that you'll enjoy lots of fun times with family and friends! Merry Christmas! :)
xoxo
Moa

Hello Moa!
Week 51 and the holiday crunch is on here. My to-do list every day seems to get larger instead of smaller. Things come up and things I need to do get pushed to the next day and the next day. It's so stressful! I still have half my Christmas shopping left! ARGH!
=)
But if you remember, I said awhile ago that I was working on a crafting project involving felt. (I think I mentioned it?) Well, I finally got it done this weekend. It uses 4 of these felt flowers. I've made so many that I have lots left over to use on something for myself, which was what I had planned for them in the first place. A wreath for our entry. I suppose I'll get on that after Christmas. ; )
Other than that, the other exciting news this week is that Ben and his dad put up the wall for our laundry room and I'm so excited! It's white beadboard and looks really fresh and clean. We picked out all the white shelving, and need to narrow down the tile for the floor. I really can't wait. I think it's a female thing, but I'm incredibly excited for a nice laundry room! (I don't think the guys get it. But then again, I don't get computer games/equipment, and big ugly tv stuff.)
Now on to week 52, and Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful week to look forward to, full of everything you hold dear. I'll see you soon with our 2nd to last postcards!
Xoxo,
Shanon

Week 50

Hello Shanon!
I hope you are well! I'm writing this postcard in the early morning hours with the tv on in the background. Today is the Lucia day in Sweden, it's a traditional thing that celebrates light. All over Sweden little girls dress up in white robes with glitter or candle wreaths in their hair (battery driven candles for the little ones and real candles for the older ones), the boys can either wear white robes and pointy white hats or be dressed as santa's helpers or gingerbread men. They then come into a dark room with candles in their hands and sing Christmas songs and special lucia songs. What was on tv right now was a very talented choir of grownups doing the same thing and it's very atmospheric and beautiful. If you google the word "Luciatåg" you'll see lots and lots of examples :)
This week I've started on the Christmas decorations, so now our apartment is much cozier :) We have big paper stars in the windows and glass ornaments in glass jars. The latter is a way for me to use them even though we don't have a Christmas tree. I would love to have a tree but we simply don't have any room in our apartment for something like that. We might, however, get a little Christmas juniper and decorate it as we've done for the two last years :) In my photo this week you can see a glimpse of one of our Advent candlesticks. This one comes from my grandfather and is from the 60's, I'm very fond of it as it reminds me of my grandfather. I just love all the lights during the Holiday season, it's much needed during these dark months - I say months as we always leave the more neutral Holiday decorations out until February or something :)
Have a great week!
xoxo
Moa

Hi Moa!
I thought this week's postcard would maybe be of Bub's crib that we picked up this week, but we didn't get around to putting it together. =) I also thought it might be of some Christmas shopping, a family dinner out, or from a theatre production we were suppose to see this weekend... BUT we had a huge snowstorm and were snowed in for two days!
Nearly 2 feet of snow fell in Minneapolis this weekend (mostly on Saturday, and was the 5th biggest snowfall on record for the city) and the wind blew the whole time, causing huge drifts of snow on the roads, sidewalks, and around our house. I attempted to take a shot out the front door while Ben was shoveling, but I couldn't get the door open! =)
I love snow days like this. It's fun to watch the snow totals climb safely from a warm blanket on the couch. It reminds me of being young and having school canceled. However the snow got so high it covered some our bushes that Ben put Christmas lights on. Poor little bushes! You wouldn't even know they were there! Haha
I didn't really know that the snow was coming, but fortunately, when I was shopping this week I picked up ingredients for Potato Leek Soup (with ham of course), and stuff to make caramels, so we had fun stuff to eat during the storm. On Sunday morning I also made French toast with raspberries. I got carried away putting berries on mine and got a stomach ache from the tartness. Who knew you could eat too many raspberries?! ; )
Happy week 50 Moa! 3 more postcards to go!
xoxo,
Shanon

Week 49

Hello Shanon!
I just realized that it's actually week 49 now! Time has flown so fast these last few months and I'm really behind in my mental calendar and I didn't realize until now that there are only a few postcards left. I just can't believe that we've done this for almost a year! It's been such a fun project to share with you :)
Well, over to my postcard for the week. My photo this week shows the paper star that hangs in the window of my sister's and her husband's apartment. We went to see them this weekend and it was so nice. They live about three hours away by car, which is too far away in my opinion but still manageable. We live almost at the coast and they live about 250 kilometres to the west, which is what we call the midland. Even though we live on about the same latitude the temperature dropped considerably the further to the west that we drove. In Umeå it was about -5C and when we arrived at their place it was about -23C (which is about -10F). All the trees were covered in a thick layer of sparkly frost and it was all just so beautiful.
On Saturday we had a very relaxing day and we made a nice little excursion to a nearby village. First we visited a second hand shop where I bought some vintage books with the coolest covers. I actually only considered the cover when I picked my books, I think I'll use them in some future project. They were really cheap too, a whole shopping bag full for only 10 Swedish crowns, which is about $1.50. After that we went to the most lovely place ever - and I didn't have my camera! Can you believe it, the one time I really wanted it I didn't have it. The place was a super pretty little coffee shop run by a very nice lady. She'd decorated the cafe in a gorgeous and airy Scandinavian country style and she had the most creative Christmas decorations. On the walls she had her own paintings, which were also for sale. All the delicious pastries were baked by her that same morning. I took some shots with Martin's mobile phone camera but that can't compare to shots taken with my camera so they really don't help much. We'll just have to go back there some other time and then I will most definitely bring my camera!
Hope you'll have a lovely week my friend!
xoxo
Moa

Hello Moa!
I hope your week was wonderful! Week 49. Wow! Isn't it fun that the end of the project coincides with the holidays, so that our postcards can be very very festive? Almost like celebrating our project as well as Christmas, etc. as we come to the conclusion. Very cool.
I've been making lists of things I need to accomplish before March, as well as things I want to do and make for the holidays. This past week I picked up lots of good smelling candles, put ALL our decorations out- including my mercury glass pine trees, sparkly silver reindeer, nativity set (from my grandma), and every single decoration we have went on the tree. Last year we only put up a tree with lights. We didn't decorate it at all.
I've been marking recipes that I want to try and I've also started a craft project with felt. I'm hoping to make these wintery looking flowers, and I will probably put them on a bare wreath that we have. I also have other big ideas for them, but we'll have to see if I'm actually as crafty as I think I am. ; )
On Saturday we drove out to the country to my grandparents house, where my side of the family was having our Christmas party. (My grandparents leave for Arizona for the winter, so we have to do it earlier than normal, which I'm not really in favor of. I prefer to do it on the actual holiday, but I don't get a say. haha) I had planned on taking photos around the farm, but it was extremely cold. So I found a comfy chair to sit in and chat with my aunts and cousins all afternoon. Of course I did get up occasionally to fill my plate with food!
My postcard is from Sunday, however. While Ben and a friend of his were doing more work on our basement, the wife and I went out for lunch and shopping! We always have such a good time. What made it even better was that we went to Bachman's, which is a huge garden center, as well as a home decor store. So we explored thousands of ornaments and Christmas decorations, and just so many other fun things. Out in the greenhouse they had a Roadmaster bike displayed amongst the poinsettias. As soon as she pointed it out to me, I knew it would be my postcard to you!
Xoxo,
Shanon