Life according to Thess

Trying Blurb

I've decided to give Blurb a try to compare it's services to Shutterfly... Decided to do so by ordering a copy of the latest book I had done by Shutterfly. Can't wait for it to arrive!

Cruise 2009 | Make Your Own Book

Christmas preparations

 We're preparing for Christmas at home and at work...

It feels like we get shipments from all over, every day, with stuff that needs to be unpacked in 3 seconds and displayed in our store! And we need to get the trees set up, the stars hung and the staff in a "christmasy" mood! We bought new black trees for our store. I'm anxious to see how they look...

I still can't find my decorations at home... So I've started buying new ones! My new fake Christmas tree will have all new ornaments and lights this year! I just have to find time to get the tree out of the box... And get someone to move the liquor cabinet so the tree fits... That leaves no room for our TV... I guess I have to re-arrange our livingroom too!

Sussie and I visited the Christmas fair at Liseberg yesterday. Cold as h-ll, but quite pretty. I'm just happy there weren't more people, or I would have gone mad. On the other hand - I talked to some of the craftsmen selling at the fair, and they would LOVE if it was more crowded! My guess is it will be by next week...

Here's a Liseberg-photo:

 

 

Signing session with Hardcore Superstar!

We worked late last night because "Hardcore Superstar" visited our store to put their autographs on their latest album "Split Your Lip"!

Even if it was very cold (-8 Centigrades), quite a lot of fans showed up to meet them! And I must confess to being rather partial to bands/artists with a local connection - but it makes me very happy when the bands from Gothenburg are met by more than just a few people at our store!

 

 

My (former) father amazes me...

... or disgusts me. I really don't know which right now...

I know I should just let this pass, but it's just too good not to mention! Something tells me I should start writing that book soon. Heaven knows my family gives me enough inspiration for one!

A little bird told me the other day, that my father is getting married next summer. What?!?!?! Did they kill her husband? Or are they planning to? Or have they joined some cult that allows multiple husbands?

I think the cold, hard truth is that they have found a way for her to divorce her husband without too much of a legal hassle. She, or my (former) father, is her husband's custodian. They must have figured a way to keep custody of her soon-to-be ex-husband even if she divorces him. The money they get every month for his "care" is way, way, WAY too much for them to wave goodbye too... We're talking an obscene amount of money...

So, by the end of July 2011 - I will have a new stepmom! 3 years older than me...

Ain't life grand?

Scrapping 2010!

I've been digiscrapping for a little bit more than 4 years now, and I don't seem to be loosing interest at all! On the contrary, it's making me more interested in Photoshop, Lightroom and photography by the minute!

I always have a bunch of projects in the making, and work on what gets my mojo flowing at the moment. Right now, a book on the entire year of 2010 is what works best for me. Here are a couple of double spreads for that book!

 
My friend Karen came over from Scotland a couple of days in January 2010. It was freezing cold, but Gothenburg showed itself from one of it's best sides anyway!

 
Karen and I decided to spoil ourselves one evening and had dinner at Fond. Excellent service and fantastic food! We ended with a couple of drinks at Lipp before going home.

 
On her last day here, Karen and I went downtown to the foodmarket and picked up whatever we found interesting! Then we had a Tapas-style dinner that evening and played my new Wii... Can you tell we're snowboarding?

Shutterfly e-mail!

Woke up and found an e-mail in my inbox from the Shutterfly Gallery - my latest book is featured in their Digital Scrapbooking section! ;-)

Cruise-book has arrived from Shutterfly!

I worked like crazy earlier this fall to get the book on the second part of our holiday early 2009 done! It recently arrived from Shutterfly and now I don't have to worry about a Xmas-gift for my in-laws! I'm very happy with the result, and it's the perfect companion-book to the one on the first part of our trip!

Click here to view this photo book.

Here's the first book! The one on our Florida RoadTrip! 

Click here to view this photo book.

Monday again...

I don't know what it is about Mondays, that just makes me not want to get out of bed at all? Of course, this weekend brought some weird rythm to our days - but this is more the norm than not...

I tried to go to bed early Friday, since I was getting up really early Saturday. But I kind of merged with my sofa Friday-evening... Home alone, with a DVD-box of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple-movies and all the time in the world to digiscrap - time just flew! I really didn't stay up too late, but I got 6 pages done for my book on 2010, and I saw 2 Miss Marple-movies.

Saturday-morning, I woke up to this:

 

I don't mind snow! But the fact that I was driving down to Lund in this and knew the roads would be bad, didn't put me in the best of moods... However, halfway to Lund, I stopped at my friend Eva's house for coffee. I haven't seen her in years, so that was fun!!!

The Håkan Hellström-gig in Lund went well. A newly built arena, lots of fans and a great concert. I even managed to sneak away and take some pics... 

Arrived home in Gothenburg just before 3:00 AM Sunday-morning! Guess how I spent the rest of that Sunday (after sleeping)? On the sofa watching Miss Marple-movies and digi-scrapping!!!

 

Summer

IMG_3587, originally uploaded by ThessH.

It is freezing cold today, slightly dark and a little bit wet... I can't help but wish for summer again! Doing what my husband is doing in the photo - taking a break in the sun, in a lounger on our patio at the summerhouse...

Weird fall...

It's been a really weird fall...

The Greek vacation was awesome! To say the least! But one week of vacation in an entire year is just a tad to little... Dear husband is not complaining though! But he had three weeks in the US with his son over the last Xmas and New Year's, and then another two weeks in Augusta, Georgia, in August.

It's weird having Alex in the US! Not that he ever spent an enormous amount of time at our house, but he used to come by work after school and work some holidays and weekends. He seems to settle in nicely at college. I think the weather agrees with him! It would with me... But he's flying home for Christmas! I don't know how much time we will get to spend with him. Between his very extended family and the girlfriend, I guess time is something that he will be short on!

It's also weird having my sister in Seattle! Well, they live in Kirkland. I guess I should be used to having her far away since she's already spent time in Taiwan, but I must be getting old or something... No, what bothers me most is the fact that I want to go visit, but I can't seem to find the time! I've never been to the Pacific North West and it's a part of the US I would love to see. And not only do I have my sister there, but a whole bunch of ScrapGirls live in WA and OR!

It's been very weird having my sister in Gothenburg this past month!!! She's been moving between my house, our mom's place and my oldest nephew's tiny apartment. The reason for her visit to Sweden was her youngest son... He's just not getting it... He wants the whole world to revolve according to his wishes and needs. He doesn't understand that if you want to have, you need to give. Yin and Yang. Balance. And no drugs!!! Seems terribly hard for him to grasp... His situation is not resolved yet, but my sister felt useless here. Especially since he won't listen to anybody... So she left for Seattle this morning.

It's weird that it's been a whole year since I last talked to my father.

It's even more weird that I don't miss talking to him...

It's weird that my mom has gotten re-married. But I'm happy for her!

It was exteremely weird, and somewhat rude, that I found out via text-message that there had been a wedding!

Weird! Weird! Weird!