House hunting then.. Hmm a bit tougher to solve just like that. Right now there isnt much movement in the apartment bit. There are a few that im interested in though. But all of them have a downside that i dont think i could live with. Either their to expensive, both to buy and then to pay rent for, or they are in the wrong part of town which would mean we need to buy a car so i could get home when im working late evenings. So either way it would get more expencive just to live and that wasnt what we wanted now was it.

Hmmm, and besides we dont know if James will have work for a while after the end of next week. Its wintertime and not so busy in the world of bookprinting apparently. Well im sure it will work out alright, and besides James might get the time to do a swedish course in swedish economics and get it on paper he did a swedish one as well for his english credits.

Part from all that i had great news today. Mary, the irish rambler is thinking about buying a house here in Sweden! YaY to that! She phoned on the mobile just as we were going out so we had a chatter while walking. Which was interesting since i had to think really hard to walk uphill while keeping track of the news she was telling. I phoned her later on today and had a good natter(strange word) and helped her out a bit with her blog. Feel kinda proud to be co-admin! ;o)

Im listening to a set of cd's with The Boss set on random as i contemplate what to do with the wedding, the apartment hunt and whatever else comes into my mind. I suppose the wedding will sort itself out, its just a matter of deciding what you want to do.

I would like to have it on Valborgsmässoafton(30 april) i think.... Let me set the scene a bit for you all.
Big bonfire with firecrackers and a warm drink, the traditional songs sung to welcome spring and then have the weddingservie there while the bonfire sends sparks up into the darkening sky. And then we all go to the hotel for a delicious 3 course dinner with further merryment and dancing and end it all with a lovely firework finale before me and James sneek away for our wedding night...
Mmmh?
Waddayathink?

I thought this was soo cute im going to share it with all of you...! Arent i in a loveable mood today then..huh? ;oP

ps. found it here d.s

I think im getting weddingsickness!
Sweaty palms, trembling hands, no idea to how to have it, does that sound like it to you????
And to make matters worse we finaly got a reply from the place we were thinking about holding it at and it all of a sudden made it feel real. And i got hit by the fact that there's SO MUCH to be done and organize and were the heck did my nerves just go off to!!!!!!

James isnt at home since he is working evening shift. So it is only me and Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and soon to be ready hamburgers with chips mmMMmm...

Today was alright at work i suppose, it always helps that your mood is good, like mine was today. It will be a busy week anyway since it is Halloween, or as we have here in Sweden, Alla Helgons Dag. It is more of a remembrance day for us, but the more commercial Halloween is making big progress over here as well. Of course it helps that it is being cheered on by the commercial powers as well. We went down town today a bit before work, mainly because we wanted to know how big our chances were of getting a loan if we decide to buy ourself an apartment. The woman at the bank looked very stressed out when i wanted a draft from my account since it doesnt add up with the statement i got in the money machine and what i keep at home in my money spreadsheet. She said their computers were down and that they would be up and running at the earliest by noon. And when i asked about a loan she gave me a form to fill in and told me to send it in and she would answer yes or no in a day or two. That was a bit odd, because last time i asked how much i would be able to loan i got an answer straight away. Maybe this is because i didnt recognize this woman at all, and she didnt recognize me either. Maybe i will phone in and ask for an appointment with my usuall bankwoman. Oh well, the overall feeling she sent was that no we wouldnt get a loan since it was only me going to sign the papers. It might be just in my head, but somehow i think they will see me as a risk and not lend us the 245 000 kr.

So back to the drawingboard. Maybe we should by one a bit further out of Falun and invest in a small car instead?
Anyway, its not bothering me, yet. But it will start to bug me that we really need a bigger place soon. For one it would be nice to have a hobby room where i could have my sewing machine up all the time and get a move on doing the quilt for our bed!

More later since i think my dinner is getting ready!

This is Sundays post since blogger went all pearshaped and didnt let me post ANYTHING! Im most displeased!


Today was a really really CRAP day. It must be hormones because i've never felt this...evil... without a just cause. Does the word spiky help? And very touchy, agressive type..? ;o)

Oh well, that is fading as we speak so never mind that. On to more fun things, like WEDDINGS and PLANS and where and how and most importent WHEN! We (james and me) have had a "serious" chat. Hrmpmmm well more like 'well we really should' and more of 'it is about time soon isnt it' that kind of talk. Anyway, we have decided (almost) that our wedding will be held in springtime (a date will come as soon as this place returns my mail with questions about availability) It is really a very nice place just outside Falun. If you interested to have a peek you go here. Sorry but it is only in swedish, but there are nice pictures! ;o)

We've seen an apartment that is quite nice. But its one that you buy and the prize is a bit steep. Ok, its a 3 room and kitchen with a rent below what we pay now, but to purchase it we have to come up with at least 245 000. It might go even higher than that if several people are interested in it. My mum thinks it is a bit too much, and im sort of thinking it might be. If you look in here and look for the one at Jesper Svedbergsväg you can have a look at it

It is the dreaded friday the 25th. That is when a major part of the swedes get paid and they all rush off to the supermarket to stock up on food. Or so it seems anyway when you see the queues at work straight away when you get in the door.

I stayed home yesterday due to migrain, couldnt bother to do anything much at all since my head felt like it exploded on a regulare basis and once it calmed down felt as thick as concrete, and just as heavy. It's been quite a while since my last migrain so i had forgotten how bad they really can get :o(

No news on the apartment side, no new nice apartments to let either. And the Acorn/Bcorn competition is still in a stalemate, no sprouting in sight! Wonder what you have to do to get them going? Or rather mine to get going ;o)

What a disappointment the appartment was¨.
Not in a million years will i figure out why people live like they do....
The apartment looked bare and very very lonely and cold. Maybe it just was how the interior looked like or maybe it was how she lived in it that bothered me. But straight away when i got in the door i felt like, naaah im not going to live here. And still you have to look beyond how the person in there has it arranged and imagine your own stuff and style in there, but this time it was impossible. A place has to have a ...ahem.."soul" to interest me. And this one was dead... oh how sad because the balcony was EXCELLENT!

*ATCHOOOOO...!*
Beware, entering this blog might cause you to catch a cold!

Why do i have to feel like shit on my day off??? Only thing i can do now is go and have a look at the flat and scrap all the other plans i had for today. I will have to send James off to gran today since i dont want her to catch a cold at her age. Also i will have to see if i will manage the other errands i was suppose to run today or if i'll just crawl under a rock and sleep for the rest of the day once back from taking a peek at that apartment....

Having a cold sucks... big time!

To rent or not to rent, that is the question...

We're in a bit of a dilemma, well not a serious one but anyway. I've been seriously bitten by the house bug and want a place that we can call our own, in other words, no rentals. But there isnt anything nice available right now so it is a bit frustrating to apartmenthunt right now. At least we got to know this morning that we have a chance of getting the penthouse flat since it was offered to us. Question is if anyone else also is interested in it and got more points then us, because then it will go to them. I called the tennant up this morning to see if we could come and have a look at it today or tomorrow, but it was a very weird conversation. Here this girl is going to move and she HAS to show the apartment to people but still i had to DRAG an answer out of her and really push her to let me come see it tomorrow before she goes to work. I only have untill friday to give a yes or no to it so i would like to have seen both of them before deciding anything. The trouble is though that since James is working mornings and the girl start her work at 3 he wont be able to come see it with me. But there is a similar flat available as well and we are first in that queue so he will get to see how it looks like anyway as soon as the other lady returns my phonecall and tells me how she could arrange me seeing the apartment since she is living up in Sundsvall and it was her son who had been staying in it.

Another tuesday....
Im not sure i like being in the veggies anymore. I dont get to say anything about what to take home, all that is gone. But maybe Mr T will be gone soon as well.... Lotta had heard some mumbling from his general direction that he wasnt going to stay much longer when she was in the kitchen yesterday morning. And seriosuly im not surprised. When Big Boss gets it in his head to test someone he wont stop untill you exceed his expectations or you snap and fail in his eyes. And Mr T doesnt work that well under pressure.....

It had apparently been high life yesterday morning when Boris thought he could say whatever he wanted about Johanna, but since she has had enough about his bullshit and is going to quit soon anyway she took him by the horns and told him that if he had any complaints about her come see her instead of running around like a 5 year old telling on people. I thought the last bit was the most amusing. Because being at work is like being in a kindergarten sometimes when Boris doesnt get what he wants. Have you ever seen a 32 year old baby? No? Well please do come see our Boris! I wont charge any admission, promise!

Btw, Boris had of course run to Big Boss and 'cried' about how bad Johanna had been telling him off but the boss told him it was his own fault and he would have to go and apologise to her, which he did, but with a truck load of explanations about how it wasnt his fault?? He was very low the rest of the day, but i think it was good for him. It cant be good to get away with lie after lie after lie and not be found out. But since he is a compulsive liar im sure he has stored away and rearranged it all in his head so that in his mind Big Boss didnt tell him to go and apologise at all and he will come up with some fantastic explanation to it all today when you talk to him. Its scary actually to see him go off on one of his tirades. And he really believes himself to the point that he gets really offended when found out and angry at the person exposing his lies. What do you do? Really what do you do?

It is snowing with a capital S!
They promised some but i never believe the weather report. James is going around mumbling something about "silly white stuff" and just grunting at it. But me im very pleased, i LOVE snow.

I wasnt so pleased yesterday though. We bought 2 new lamps that i was thinking to hang by the windows, but since there isnt a plug for them there i had to connect them and draw a cord to the wallsocket. Only thing is, when i had finished connecting them and plugged them in it went all dark in our apartment!! The man at the store didnt say you had to use two of the connecting cubes so i hotwired it to one..... Anyway, no harm done more then a blown fuse and a shattered ego. I was very proud to have got it all togheter....
I phoned Lotta and asked about what to do and she said that he had been a silly man saying i could do it like i had when there was an easier way to do it, and a safer way! So today im going with her up to Coop and buying the proper stuff! I feel like an idiot though not making sure how to connect the leads, you shouldnt play with electricity if you dont know what your doing. A fried tigs isnt what i want at the end of the day!

Btw, we have a deadline for when we have to do our washing, in 2 days. Thats when James' underwear runs out... But you could of course do like he did yesterday, in despair looking for clean underwear he wore his long-johns with the legs folded up, maybe he will start the next fashion trend? ;o)

And the race is on!
In the first lane we have Acorn (James') in his slightly smaller terracotta pot and in the second lane we have Bcorn (Marias) in the bigger terracotta pot. The rules are simple, get yourself a wee gardener to take care of you and make yourself sprout, the first one showing signs of life wins the prize to be named later.
As the first day ends, no sign of green, so it still seems a dead heat. Bets are taken to whom will win the secret prize (any suggestions to prize is appreciated)

YES YES YES!!!
I finaly got my archives back and running and i made the error 503 disappear!!!!
Am i a genius or what!... ;o)

Im wondering if this is things to come when trying to phone Marie. Either no ones at home, which is fine, or there is a constant busy tone. And now im wondering, is it her daughter clogging up the landline with calls to friends and then internet surfing??? Hmmm????
Please let me or Lotta know if we can meet tomorrow for a fika, ok Marie?.. :o)

I've chopped off my hair again and colored it brown red. I dont know why, but this is much more me then my ordinary mousy blonde color... I've not had my own haircolor for ages now. Wonder how it would look like. Im sure people wouldnt recognise me straight at once if i had my natural color....

Other then that i dont have much to write about really. Life is just stomping on as usuall. We're casually looking for somewhere else to live but since i am so picky i doubt we will find anywhere quickly. There is a lovely looking flat available, but since i've only seen the layout online the final decision has to wait untill i see it in person. It is anyway a penthouse suit (of course ;o)..) Heres a layout of it.


kök - kitchen
sovrum - bedroom
vardagsrun - livingroom
hall - hallway
bad - bathroom
klk - its a walk-in-closet ;o)
Notice something? The HUGE balcony stretching almost across all of the apartment. Thats what i fell in love with, also that its on the top floor with no neighbours part from the underneath ones.

Im kicking YACCS out! Im so tired of the long loading time so im going to try this other commenting system out. Please let me know if it is slow or what else you think of it, still got some fiddling to do since you can add piccies if you likes and me likes that! :o)

Birthday cards will probably come tomorrow, if the postman is willing to drag them off to my doorstep! ;o)

Happy birthday to meeeee, Happy birthday to meeeee, happy birthday dear Mariaaaaaaaaaa, happy birthday to MEEEEEE!

So, its my birthday. I thought it would be a quiet little affair with my mum only. But oh was i ever wrong! James, yes he himself, had gone and orchestrated a little surprise party for me! Well it all started last night really when i asked if i was allowed to open one parcel after 12 o'clock which i could. And i opend the very smelly one from James' parents. I got some Lush bathbubbles and a bath ballistic and some shower gel and soap scented with honey. Lovely, will use them for my shower tomorrow morning. I also got a nice blank book, which i might use as a guestbook. But i forgot to ask people today about writing in it *slaps forhead* I also got a fridgemagnet with some words of wisdome, all this has been stowed away since James' parents were here in sept, and i can tell you its been hard not to have a peek before today!....lol

I had changed my shift earlier this week so i worked early and got home at about 3 o'clock, jumped into the shower to get ready before mum was supposed to come at 4 for dinner and coffe. Mum came as mum usually does, before the time stated. She had made a cake and had bought me an orchid (dark crimsone flowers with white speckles and a yellow center). I also got a gold necklace with a pendant and a pair of nice darkblue lace table cloths from my mum, sister and gran. I got some lotterytickets from my brother, i won 2 new tickets. (YaY) We had our lovely chicken and rice dinner followed by lovely James-made bananacake and icecream. I got a birthday phone call from James' parents and earlier James' gran phoned as well before the storm.

And then they all started to drop by.....
First came Rosie and she sang for me and gave me 4 cheers that must have been heard all over the building, i got a nice umbrella rack for my hall and some flowers, i also got a little something from her parents. Then next in line was Lotta and Marie who had bought me an orchid, a great big one with darklilac flowers with red and white bands in them and 2 lottery tickets, didnt win anything though (boo). And then after a while longer Carolina came by and i got Jamie Olivers cookbook from her, sadly i had that one but she will give me the receipt so i can change it to his second one. I like his cookingstyle so i was pleased anyway. We then had mums cake with 30(!) candles in it and i managed to blow them all out without setting off the firealarm so i got a birthday wish! And then there was a lot of cackle going on and laughter and it was a most pleasant and fun evening. From what i thought would be a quiet little day to one like this... and all organized by James, i didnt have a clue! And that says a lot of how good it was organized and kept secret because i usually cop on to these things but not now.... Chucks, i must be getting old!

We won on the lotto!!!!!!

Before you all get overexcited and ask where the champagne is to celebrate i have to tell you we won a measly 25 kr, about Ł1,70...
But we're getting there! At least there is a bit more to go into the kitty for our future night out. Have to get the numbers off Marie yet though, havent heard anything from her, maybe she's won big and ran off with it all! ;o)

Tomorrow is the big day, i thought i bake a cake and take with me to work. Its one of those heavy, sticky, absolutly gorgeous rich chocolate and toffee cake with crushed almonds on top... Yummie! And as things are, only the people that i like at work will be there tomorrow morning, well maybe not all of them, but those who i would like to make a cake for are there. If others can be picky, so can i!

I got some more flowers today, but they are for tomorrow so cant really boast and say i got them just-because this time.... Still, its lovely to get a bunch of them from time to time. Why dont men understand this?!? If they knew how much we women will forgive them for just the odd ickle flower i think the florists would have a field day all year round! Dont you..? ;o)

I have a lovely bunch of roses sitting on my coffetable.. 20 of them, dark red. I got them on wednesday, for no apparent reason it seems.... Made me smile big time though, still do when i see them.. :)))

I might lose my bet about James not finishing the beanybag bird before christmas. But then again i might not since seeing as James did sew the other pair of wings up wrong so he ended up with two left wings instead of a pair of them.. Makes me wonder as well how he will manage the tricky bit of getting the rest of the body togheter. Made me laugh though today when he told me what he had done when i phoned him from work. He is cute you know.. ;o)

I need to unwind

I think im going to have a long bath....
With Lush bubbles.....

My day off...

Am going to grans soon and doing a bit of shopping, then im going to go and buy some eyes to the teddy beanybag bear im making. James bought a book about how you make your own beanbag figures. He has so far got one (1) wing cut out and put togheter, not sawn toghter or anything just pinned togheter so he can run around flapping it from his shoulder, very cute i know but it makes you wonder about the sanity of this guy sometimes. And mine as well since im marrying him! ;o)
Bet you he still will only have one wing by the end of the year, you see it was too much hassle cutting all the parts out, oh not to mention to copy them off the book first! I mean, he is worse then me when it comes to completing stuff you start!!

Any bets on how long it will take him? Booky Tigs is now open, my odds are 20-1 that he will finish it before christmas.... ;o)

Did you all know its my birthday next sunday...?
Well if you didnt you do now
The Big 3 0.....
What am i saying! Of course i wont be that old, i'm just 25! Yes thats a nice age to be isnt it?

It snowed today! YaY!!! Super early as well but who cares, me i LOVE snow!

But it makes for an interesting day when the first thing you hear from James in the morning is, "for fucks sake!!" followed by a very heavy sigh and a lot of grumpy noices at the sight of snowflakes slowly falling outside. This is before we've even got out of bed. I was to say the least very surprised. He used to look forward to snow and go out and jump in it when he first came over here. But now...? I hate to think about how winter will be with James if this is the start of it! But maybe it has to do with that he will have to walk to and from work when there's no buses at night. Or maybe that he usually falls over several times in winter because he walks on like theres no tomorrow and absolutly no snow! Well he just has to get used to it, anyway if he is to live here.....

We went to the big market in Rättvik yesterday. And i had a promise from Mr James that he wouldnt complain and nicely carry my bags. He did quite well untill his small toes got cold (awww) then he started to look very droopy and i knew it was time to poke mum in the side and say it was time to go home. As usuall the market had grown bigger, lots more to have a look at, but i agree with James, if your a sock fetisicht, your in heaven. Cant they come up with anything better to sell??? They had the odd good stall. And of course the candy ones in abundance. But generally i just walk by those and all the other common ones. I always keep my eyes open for the odd one, or the arty one that has quality insted of tatt in it. And i found some this time as well. I found a lovely rug for my kitchen, handmade by the older lady selling them at the market. Since i am into weaving myself i saw it was a good one and i know how much work goes into making one i do appreciate them. Could have spent more money there but resisted. I also found a nice handmade chip basket in different colored wood. James still thinks it will end up in the storage. And maybe it will, but it will be used before it goes out into the big black hole of our storage! Oh, i bought myself a new handbag as well, of course... James didnt bat an eyelid at it, good boy, but he did complain later when i was looking at these nice drawings of elk and bears by Jan Norman. I already have 2 big ones by him hanging over my sofa, one is of a pack of rĺdjur (small deer) and the other is of 2 grazing nordsvenskar (swedish horse breed). I also have one where he pictured a dalmatian. I like his style and thought i might buy one since you cant get a hold of them so easy but then James put his foot down and stomped off after saying that we dont have anywhere to hang it and that we have some pictures still to find a place for! Tssss, i have lots of stuff i cant find a place for right now, i sometimes swop them around but he is right you know. Argh that did hurt to say, James ... is... right...! But i still would have liked to buy a picture!!! And there are plenty of room to hang pictures still, just have to rearrange the ones i got to fit the rest of them in. Its more or less that whats keeping me from framing the others. Do you KNOW how tidious it is to get them all aligned and hung straight?? There must be an easy way to do that, but i havent figured it out so it will have to wait.. Maybe it will be done when we move... :o)

They are very quiet about what happend on the cruise. I suppose we outsiders arent allowed to know what happend! They can have an animated discussion and then when you walk into the staff room everyone shuts up and looks at you a bit like, 'did she hear anything?' Definetly time to get another job....

It is nice out side right now here in Sweden. All the trees have changed color into bright yellows, reds, very dark crimson red and orange tones. And all is framed by exceptionell fine weather. Sun and clear blue sky. Im in awe how beautiful it looks out there right now. No wonder i like autumn best. But best of all is you get the first frost covering everything in glittering snow that twinkles like a million diamonds when the sun rises and taws it away.