Week 53 {The End}

Hi Shanon!
Happy New Year! Can you believe it's already been a year since we started our project? I can honestly say that I feel like last January was only a couple of months ago :)
So over to this week :) I got a head cold that started last Saturday and it's still with me more than a week later. I haven't been deadly ill but you know how it can be with a cold, you're not really up for much. We've spent most of this week in Falun with my mom and her husband, part of the time my sister and her husband was there too, which was also nice. Luckily for me and my cold we had some lazy days with them, we mainly watched movies, took walks and just relaxed. On Friday we cooked some great food (that I sadly couldn't feel any taste of due to the head cold) and struggled to stay up until midnight :) On New Year's Day we drove the long way home through newly fallen snow and were surprised at how alone we were on the roads. We stopped at an almost empty McDonald's to eat lunch and discovered that even the IKEA next door was closed, which was shocking to me - I didn't think they were ever completely closed :) It just made me feel like we were the only people out and about.
My photo for you this week is of my mom's chrystal chandelier, since I know you like chandeliers as much as I do :) I started taking photos of the prisms when the sunlight shone through them in a beautiful way, which made my mom jump up and start talking about cleaning it :) We spent some time searching for the chandelier spray and then she sprayed it while I held a big umbrella underneath it so the detergent wouldn't run all over the place :) It was just a bit of a funny picture, so now you know the behind the scenes work that went into this photo :)
This year full of postcards have been such a great project to share with you, I'm so glad you asked me to participate! It has taught me that every day has a photography in it, even if I only sit in the sofa with a book and a cup of tea - and that's a lucky thing since many of my days off are spent in that fashion :) So once again thank you!
Lots of love to you.
xoxo
Moa

Hello dear Moa and welcome to 2011!
If I had a bucket of confetti I'd toss it high in the air. =) WE MADE IT! YAY!!!!!
Getting right down to the business of this week, Ben and I are both sick with colds. Of course! Haha I spent the week alternating between blowing my nose, trying to clean up, and unpacking all the stuff that made it back to our house after being out of town at our families for Christmas. Unpacking a suitcase is one of my least favorite things, and it sits at the end of the bed for as long as we can possibly stand it.
Being sick, as well as having one of us pregnant, made for a very low key New Year's Eve. I sat on the couch under blankets, trying to stay awake til midnight, watching a ridiculous show on Bravo called Watch What Happens, which is a "talk show" that focuses on all the reality tv that airs on that channel. Super exciting times! Haha Even more exciting was the fact that Ben hung out in the basement playing computer games. It was a wild house around here! ; ) New Year's Day we did force ourselves to get out and take a trip to Ikea (yum, meatballs!). It was freezing cold which made us laugh the whole time. We also hit up a store for our laundry room tiles, which is where I picked up this African Violet. It's probably very appropriate that I end our project with some sort of flower-- we have such a soft spot for them!
I'm going to blog about this project coming to an end, and I have to say, I got quite sentimental thinking back over the year. THANK YOU so very much for undertaking this with me. I bet there were weeks where it was hard to fit it in, and maybe there were weeks like here, where it was hard to find anything close to lovely to document. But WE DID IT and I adore all of our postcards. It's been so neat to follow what you've been up to in Sweden. You have some of the prettiest light ever, and I'm so jealous of your baking skills and the fresh flowers you find. =)
It's been a real pleasure. Best wishes in 2011! I'm going to miss your photos in my inbox each Monday, so don't ever stop shooting. You are the best!
And I just might send you a postcard every now and then for old times sake. ; )
Xoxo,
Your postcard pal,
=)
Shanon

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