Candles for Christmas

I visited a very nice candle factory a little while ago. It is based in an old aquavit factory - now it makes candles. Not sure the connection between alcohol and candles.... but anyway:) The front gives us the history, as I think this is actually the formula for the aquavit.

The whole building consists of candles in absolutely every shape you can imagine! A lot of emphasis on Christmas at the moment, but a lot of other stuff too. Amazing!

They had made theme rooms. Like this 'ice' cave with just white candles in every shape and form, with angels, polar bears, snowcones and snow flakes. I find it good that they had lighted so many of them, because it made you see that they are even better lighted than not. If you are like me, I tend to not light novelty candles as it feels like ruining them. But they are actually made to be lighted. Look at this angels. 

There where whole rooms with table settings for suggestions of creativity, a lot of different decorated christmas trees and rooms with different themes and colours.

In the second part of the house they had set up different craft and gift stores.  At the end they had a small eating area that was decorated so as to make it look like  you were sitting in an old city back yard. I particularly liked the clothes lines:) Got to admire the drawers. Good thing we don't have to use that kind of yardage anymore.... although in this cold weather it would probably been a good thing. Brrr....

Knights and kilts in the mountains

Each year, Highland Scottish Festival takes place in Estes Park, Colorado. I have been lucky enough to visit the festivals twice now, last year and this year. It has become a part of my vacation. I have no irish or scottish blood in my veins at all. My uncle, the history buff, have proved us to be Scandinavians through and through. Though I did read somewhere that freckles is a proof of Celtic heritage, and those I have enough of - my whole face is covered, even at my age.

Anyway, there are lots of fun things to watch at the festival.




Grand costumes, 



slightly weird costumes (though, if a foreigner came to Norway on May 17th he might find our costumes weird, too.....)

and lots of music. Among them the most fabulous, heart pulling and blood pumping bagpipes and drums you have EVER heard!!! Albannach is a scottish band that can't be explained, just experienced. Even if you are not into bagpipes or scottish music - if you ever have a chance to hear them - DO!

Among the more ..... strange.... ? things you can watch at the festival, the jousting tournament has got to be the strangest of them all. I did not think things like this actually existed anymore. It is a true jousting championship. That consists of (mostly) men dressed in heavy armour on big horses riding full speed towards each other with big wooden lances, trying to hit each other and break the lances down to kindles. Or, if possible, heave them off their horses. And it is not for show - it is real! We are talking pain and the occasional need for ambulance and health personnell. But my goodness it is entertaining:)



This is the BLACK KNIGHT!:)





My pictures aren't that good as I was stuck on the stands, but this guy was down there among the horses and the knights.

So if you need a tip, go to Estes Park on the first week of September. Highly recommended. If only to watch the men in kilts.....;)

On the other side of the world

On a business trip to Singapore in December, we got stuck in the rain back from lunch one day. The streets of that city is so clean, we ended up going barefoot back to the office. No way I was ruining my shoes!

When you go barefoot, you look down to make sure you aren't stepping into something, and you start paying attention to the ground. Walking over a wonderfully smooth and clean tile floor in one of the very nice cool walk ways outside an older building, I started to look at the pattern. It was so familiar. I stopped, grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. My colleagues thought I was crazy:)

These where the tiles:



And this was what it reminded me of!




Walter's Place from Dear Jane, the one I used in Elisabeth's Quilt!

I wonder what the ties are between an old tile floor in Singapore and a woman who sat in US during the civil war making the greatest quilt of all time (my opinion!). I could spin stories about that - exciting travels and daring adventures!

I love that things connects. 

Gates to summer

I drove passed these lovely, handcrafted gates earlier this summer in Sweden. Just love the way it looks:)

Enjoy the moment

I was on a two week guided tour of Japan two years ago. The trip of a lifetime. I have to go back one day. The Japanese have an incredible estethic eye. You can just point your camera and click and you get amazing pictures.


Like this gold palace on a quiet fall morning, with a perfect mirror image.

Among the many things that fascinated me, was the appreciation people had for the crafts.

We were so lucky to be able to participate in a 150 year old tea ceremony, as the only foreigners. We were told how to behave, and the ritual for receiving the cup and how to drink the tea. Yes, there were rules for all of it:) The last part of the ceremony was to sit and appreciate our cups; all different, all handmade and some of them very old. Looking around, even not understanding the language, you could see the ladies in their finery showing each other the cups and just enjoying the craftmanship. 

Our guide told us that this was a part of their culture - and she put it down into three simple words: enjoying the moment. They are always so busy, but they manage to stop, even if it is just for a short minute, and just enjoy a beautiful sight. Like just stopping and looking at the rain. Or sitting down and enjoying the first snow. Just for a brief minute. Then you are off to do your job.

I started thinking about our busy lives, and how we never do that. So returning back to Norway, into heavy rain..... I stopped for a minute and just looked. I hate rain, as it always is cold and makes everything grey, but for the first time in my life I saw that there were beauty in rain, too. And in the first snow - though I hate that, too:) Though I lapse constantly, now and then it is so enriching to really look and see - like the marina I drive past every morning. How the moon, in the winter, and the sun in the summer, puts different colour on the sea.

And I really adhered to the momentary enjoyment when we visited a craft center and was shown the latest fall fashion in kimonos! I could stare at them for hours.


Visiting a temple a few days later, we came in the middle of a ceremony for seven year old girls (I think they were seven) as they were presented in the temple. All in these perfect little copies of kimonos. I thought this mother and daughter were just beautiful together.


I found this book: Quilting with Japanese fabrics, by Kitty Pippin when I returned home. This quilts has been haunting me ever since. One of these days I will make my own version of it to commemorate my trip to Japan.