More house pictures

I told you I’d be back today with more pictures of my new house. We signed the papers for the house and got the keys on April 14th. A lot has to be done before we can move in but things have taken much less time than anticipated. The following pictures show the state in which the house was once we got the keys. Lets look at the ground floor first. Once you walk into the house you come into an entrance.

This is the front door, in the back you can see where the guest WC is supposed to be. What is missing is the wall into the guest WC and the wall between the entrance and the kitchen.

From the entrance you walk into a small hall, to the left is the stair up to the second floor.

Next to the stairs is the living room, there is a nice little corner ideal for our piano.

This is the other end of my living room. Notice the door that lead into our garden. We plan to build a patio outside this window later.

To the right from the small hall is my kitchen. The kitchen has the two windows in the back.

Looking up the stairs you see the roof. Lets take on the stairs and go to the second floor.

In the back you can see a door leading into a big balcony. The family/tv room is in the corner. The window closest to us is in Johanna’s room. There are still quite a few walls missing at this stage.

The master bedroom is in the left corner (has two windows), then we have the family/tv room in the right corner.

In the other end we have Fridbjorg’s room in the left corner (it has one big window), then we have the big bathroom (with the little window) and finally Hjalmfridur’s room in the right corner.

Here you have Hjalmfridur’s room in the left corner, in the middle comes my laundry room and in the right corner you see the window in the master bedroom.

And finally we have the garage, in the back of the garage there will be a small storage room with a door that leads into the garden (hopefully to the patio before long).

 

So, now you have got the grand tour of my new house. I know it takes a lot of imagination to try to think how it will look in the end. Mind you those pictures were taken a little more than a month ago once we got the house. A lot has been done since then and things have gone more quickly than I had ever hope for. I won’t give you more pictures this time though, but I will be back tomorrow with some more. 🙂

Hope you have a wonderful day, take care.

Blowing the dust off my blog

Hello everybody.

Remember me? I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to my blog. I used to enjoy posting a lot but I went into hibernation with a lot of things when my father got sick. Now I feel the urge again to start posting to my blog again. Maybe some people are still here reading….maybe not.

A lot has happened since I wrote something the last time. More than a year has passed. The girls are all doing great at school. Hjalmfridur Briet is finishing 8th class, her confirmation is getting closer – the date is set for June 12th. Lots of preparation going of for that special day. Fridbjorg Lilja is finishing 5th class and our little baby girl Johanna Brynja is already 5 years old and doing well at day care. Looking at her makes me wonder where the time has gone?! I´m adding some pictures of the girls so you can see them…………I’m so proud of my girls.

This is Hjalmfridur Briet

This is Fridbjorg Lilja

This is Johanna Brynja

Craftwise I have not been doing such a lot. I’ve been trying to find my stitching mojo but it seems nowhere to be found. I’ve been doing some knitting for my family, but apart from that nothing at all.

We have big changes ahead of us. We have bought a new house and are working hard to get it ready for our move in August. We bought it in a building state, only the house had been built and everything else needed to be done.

The front of the house

The back of the house

Plans for the ground floor

Plans for the second floor

I’ll show you more pictures in my next post. Like I said we are planning to move around the middle of August if everything goes as planned. We have put our flat up for sale but it hasn’t been sold yet. The new house is in a town called Hafnarfjordur which is where I lived when I was a little girl. My mother and two brothers live in Hafnarfjordur and I really like the idea of living closer to my mother. When we move I need to change my job so I have already given my resignation from my current job. My last day at my job will be on July 15th. I’m not looking forward to that day as I really love my current job, my workmates are just great and I feel great at work. But like they say, when one door closes another one opens up. I have already got another job. It is at a day care center only 5-10 minutes walk from my new home. It is a big day care center combined to a big school so we will all be walking together in the mornings. This is a great advantage and I’ll have the chance of meeting all my girls during the day. 🙂

Well, I’ll sign off for now but I’ll be back tomorrow with some more pictures of our house. Until then take care and hope you have a wonderful day.

In memory

It is with a great pain in my heart that I tell you that my beloved father passed away yesterday. I cannot tell you in words how much I miss him. I know he is at a better place now, free from pain and sickness.

Bittersweet Advent and Christmas

First off let me wish you all A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year

I’ve spent wonderful Christmas time with my family. We spent Christmas Eve here at home just the two of us with the girls. After we had eaten dinner and opened our presents my parents and two of my brothers came over for some hot chocolate and cookies as they always do. We had a quiet and relaxed evening. On Christmas Day my parents had invited us all to dinner. We met there with my parents and my three brothers and my sister in law. We spent lovely time there and it was nice spending time together – a cherised moment which had a different meaning this year – but I’ll tell you all about it a bit later in this post. Rúnar had to work yesterday but we had been invited to a Potluck Christmas Party with his family. I decided to go with the girls and it was a great decision as we had a lot of fun meeting everybody. I am a bit saddened that Christmas is over once again. I don’t have to go to work tomorrow as I have the day off but I have all sorts of things to do so I will be busy all the same. I am looking forward to wednesday though as I also have that day off and I plan to do nothing then but to either stitch or knit.

All my plans for the Advent and Christmas went out the window and the last 1 and half month has been like a roller coaster ride for me. It is the most difficult time in my life but I feel like I must write about it here just to let you know in a way why I did disappear and why I might disappear from my blog again.

It all started on my father’s 80th birthday which was on November 9th. We were invited for dinner with my family and during the dinner I had noticed that my brother was sort of under the weather healthwise. I didn’t think more of it until later in the month when I found out he wasn’t eating well (he is single and lives with my parents) and could hardly keep anything down. At first we thought this was a stomach bug that had been going around. But after two weeks it had become a bit suspicious and I kept telling him to go and see the doctor. He had then made an appointment to go an see the GP but had to wait for another week for that appointment. Shortly before my daughters birthday on November 28th, he had come for a visit and I could tell that he was in agony with pain so I insisted that he would go to the ER and get checked out there. Luckily he decided to finally do as I said and he wasn’t allowed back home after the check-up but was sent to the hospital for a better check-up. After a various tests the doctor found a big tumor in the stomach. He was then admitted to the hospital for more tests and stayed there for more than 2 weeks. The type of the cancer is lymphoma wich will be treated by chemo-thearpy. He has finished the first cycle and things are going pretty well and we are trying to be optimystic about the future. 🙂

But it didn’t end there. While we are all dealing with the fact that my brother is sick and waiting for the diagnose for him my father gets sick with what we thought at first was the flu that was going around. He got a bad cough and wheezing which the doctor thought was pneumonia and put him on a doze of penicillin. He finished that doze but didn’t feel any better. When he contacted the doctor again she called him in and wanted to do some tests on him. She draw some blood and put him in a lung x-ray scan. They found something suspicious there so he had a MRI scan where they found a tumor in each lung. He was admitted to the hospital a few days later for additional tests. When the results were back it turned out to be a Small Cell Lung Cancer and he has one big tumor in the right lung, another smaller in the left lung and two tumors in the abdomen. He has started chemo-therapy, started last week. He won’t be getting a full force chemo-therapy as he health (age, etc.) would’t permit it. So, he has been put on smaller dosages to keep the cancer down but it is not enough to cure the cancer.  This came as a big blow to us all and we are still processing the information. I’ve been the one who has been taking him to see the doctors and I will be following him though with the chemo-therapy. I find it very difficult most of the time but I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

So, I would like to ask you – if you do pray please add us to your prayers as we really need this right now. I am trying to stay optimystic about it all and trying to be the one who cheers everybody else along but I have my moments where I just break down.

I hope you will have a good year ahead of you and I wish you all the best of good health, love and happiness for the new year.

All the best to you all,

Out of order…….

……that is what I have been feeling like for the last 2 weeks. I came down with the swine flu and have been feeling miserable up until today. I consulted a doctor at the beginning and he precscribed Tamiflu which made the fever drop. But I kept on running a fever and finally went to the doctor again yesterday. He thought I had developed a sinus infection and prescribed some antibiotics and nose spray. I must admit that I am feeling a lot better today and I am pretty sure that I am not running a fever today so hopefully I’ll be able to return to work on monday. Fingers crossed. 🙂

I haven’t been able to stitch or knit anything while being sick as I have had this splitting headache the whole time which didn’t help. So, I have no stitching or knitting updates this time.

But I received another lovely birthday present from Susan. She sent me a chart from my wishlish – Circe de cercle. I can’t wait to fit it into my stitching routine as it has been on my wishlist for the longest time.

Have you seen the new LHN Ornament Series, it is so lovely. I found out that Vonna has made a SAL blog for those who are planning to stitch those ornaments and I have joined. I couldn’t resist. I have also put myself on auto ship to receive those every month. The SAL blog is called Little House Needleworks Ornament SAL. You can visit it by clicking the link.
I can’t wait to receive the first shipment and start working on it. 🙂

Well, I´m going to leave you all for now. Hope to have a stitching update for you soon.

All the best,
Edda

Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club

I’ve saved the best for last. I belong to the Stitching Bloggers Birthday Club. This is the second year that I am a member of this group and I must say I really love it. I have enjoyed making special gifts for special ladies and I have really loved the gifts that I have received.

This year I received my gift from Stephanie in England. It arrived well before my birthday but I didn’t get to the post office to pick it up until after I came back home from my trip to London. I got quite excited on my way back home from the post office seeing the return address on the big box was Stephanie’s. I had sent her an crazy exchange once and the return exchange she sent back was so beautifully stitched and finished.

Once I opened my gift I was in for a special surprise. I couldn’t believe my own eyes, the box was filled with lots of small packets, everything wrapped individually. And whow, Stephanie well and truly spoiled me at my birthday, so many stitching treats.

Stephanie had stitched me not one but 5 items. She chose to stitch from Autumn Leaves by the Prairie Schooler. She made me a beautiful pinkeep, a needlebook, a scissor fob and two thread keepers. Everything is so beautifully stitched and finished, those items are just perfect. Here is a picture of the stitched items.

And the box was filled with extra goodies. I received 2 lovely fabric pieces, 2 pieces of cotton fabric for finishing and another piece of fleece fabric. Some monster magnets, 2 blocks of chocolate, lots of ribbons, a lovely orange thread, some thicker ribbons, some pins for finishing, metal rings, a beautiful floral box that I put my ribbons in. And lots of balloons, some birthday candles and confetti. Here is a picture.

And this wasn’t all as Stephanie also sent me 3 patterns from my wish list. Alphabeth Pumpkin by JBW Designs, Christmas Biscornu by Just Nan and Where Stitchers Gather by The Victoria Sampler. And she also sent the threads and embellishments needed for Where Stitchers Gather.

Words can’t really describe the feeling I felt when I had opened all my gifts and saw all this stitching stash sitting in front of me. I was overwhelmed, thank you ever so much Stephanie. You have made my birthday very special this year and I wish I could give you a hug and thank you properly. I really love my birthday gift from you, I am truly being spoiled by you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

More birthday gifts

I received some more beautiful birthday gifts from the girls of BD Group that I belong to. I’ve been with some of the ladies in the group for 2 years.

From Felicity I received

From Jillann I received

From Judith I received

From Kay I received

From Lorrie I received

From Maggie I received

From Taryn I received

As you can see from my previous posts I’ve had a birthday filled with wonderful stash. I’ll post one more post about my birthday stash so keep an eye on my blog. 🙂

Birthday gift from Ina

I was in a private birthday exchange with Ina from the Crazy Exchange group. Ina had already had her birthday in August so I had sent her a birthday gift. Ina sent me a beautiful birthday gift. Her stitching is so beautiful and the finishing is just perfect. Here is a picture of the stitched ball.

And another picture of the whole exchange.

Thank you ever so much for this beautiful gift Ina. I really love it.

Birthday celebrations

Can’t believe how quickly the weeks seem to pass. Since I’ve posted here the last time I’ve had my birthday and birthday celebrations.

On October 11th, I had a big birthday. I turned 40 years old this time. We decided to celebrate in London, England just the two of us. So, on October 8th, we left for London, my husband and I. We had an intienary full of exciting things and I got to plan the trip (mostly). 🙂  We spent 6 wonderful days in London.

The day we arrived (thursday) we just walked around, went for a walk in Bayswater and ended up in St. James’s Park which is my favourite park to visit in London. And of course we caught a glimpse of Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus. We woke up early on Friday morning, had a full English breakfast at the hotel before leaving to visit “The Knitting & Stitching Show” at Alexandra Palace. This was the first time that I go to a show like that. I really enjoyed myself. I did some stash buying as well, not a lot but some. I got 5 different pieces of fabric, 32ct linen in natural colours. I also bought some buttons and ribbons, WDW and GAST for a project that I am going to start soon. And when visiting the Michael Powell stall we bought one of his kits. It is called “Cottage Garden 1”. I also bought a magazine “The World of Cross Stitching”. Friday evening we met up with 2 stitching friends from Belgium and their husbands. It was lovely to meet Iris and Pascale from the Crazy Exchange Group, we found out that we were all in London at the same time so Iris’s husband booked a table at a lovely Chinese restaurant. We spent a lovely evening together.
Early Saturday morning we went to Greenwich. It is the second time that I’ve been there and I really love it there. We saw the Old Naval Royal College. The ceiling there is so beautifully painted. Later in the day we went to Covent Garden where we met another stitching friend Carol. We had a lovely time, Carol had found 2 beading shops in the area and we visited them both together. I came away with some beads. 🙂  After that we sat down and had coffe. It was so wonderful to meet Carol again.
Sunday was my 40th birthday. We had decided to spend the day outside London. So early in the morning we went to Paddington station and bought train tickets to Oxford. We arrived in Oxford in the rain, did a trip with the sightseeing bus which was lovely as it managed to stay dry during the 1 hour drive. It was a good way to start the day by this tour as we had a wonderful live guide who told us about the college buildings and other interesting information about Oxford. It was raining until midday. We walked around Oxford (after buying a couple of umbrellas). 🙂  Later we found a lovely little cafe where we had English Afternoon Tea. It was simply delicious with sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, coffe cake and of course some wonderful English Tea. Once we had finished the tea the rain had cleared and we saw some sunny skies again. We climbed the stair up to the tower of one of the colleges and saw the beautiful view from the top. We finished the day by walking down to the canal to enjoy the view of the narrowboats and dreaming of another narrowboat holiday similar to the one we had last year. 🙂  We caught a train back to London in the evening and came back very tired but satisfied with a great day.
Monday was spent shopping. We went to Oxford street and did the shopping we had planned to do. I bought some new clothes for the girls and something for myself as well. Tuesday morning we checked out of our room at the hotel, we could keep our luggage at the hotel as our flight back home wasn’t until the evening. We finished the shopping, went to a small knitting shop close to Carnaby Street called “All the fun of the fair“. I bought some buttons there and also some bubble yarns to make fun scarfs for the girls. In the afternoon we went back to the airport to pick up our luggage before going back to the airport with the train. It was a fantastic trip and we enjoyed a lot spending few days together just the two of us. My mother moved into our flat while we were away to take care of the girls.

Before we left Rúnar and the girls had given me my birthday gift. For the longest time I had been wanting to stitch something Icelandic and I had a special project in mind that I liked. This project is called “Riddarateppi” or translated (the knights wall hanging). Well, when I opened my gift that is what I received. The pattern of the “Riddarateppi” and all the material I need to complete it. Here is a picture of the wall hanging how it is supposed to look when it is finished.

And this is a picture of the material needed.

The yarn that is used for it is icelandic wool. It is very big and will take long time to finish. It is stitched in old icelandic cross stitch (long armed cross stitch)

I’ll put in pictures of other gifts that I received in a few more posts. So, keep on visiting my page for updates. 🙂

Some more stitching to show.

I stitched some more today and quite enjoyed it. I was feeling much better today, no fever, less caughing but still some headache and being tired. I am going back to work tomorrow, hope I’ll stay OK.

This morning I finished my slot for “Under the friendship tree” by Mirabilia. I really enjoyed it. I finished the cross stitch in the flowers/apples on the top and started stitching on the dress of one of the little girls. This is how it looked like as I packed it away this morning.

After taking a nap (how refreshing it was) I decided to dig up the Oakhaven SAL that I started at the beginning of the year. I did quite well until I had finished April but then things started to slip but now I intend to finish it quite quickly. I finished of May today and it was less than an hour stitching. It is looking pretty, now I just have to post my picture on the list and request June.

Now, I have to decide what I want to stitch next. I saw a very pretty Christmas SAL that has just started and I think I might just start that, maybe later tonight. We’ll se about that. 🙂

Anyway, I am off to send the girls to bed. All the best to you.