BABIES AND KNITTING

Twins are 8 months now and they are keeping everyone busy! First thing we got when we came back to Houston was a playbin.

Little brother is jumping quickly around the floor, not much crawling, but more jumping like a frog.


Not much time for knitting this summer, but I managed to finish little sister's babyjacket, thanks to Jorunn, she gave me the yarn I lacked to finish it.
I have worked a bit on my squares too, got some leftover "Baby ull" from friends, like with my quilts, I like the scrappy look!
Had time to crochet a little top that I will make into a dress when I finally get to the sewing machine!
Finally, how happy can we be for 10 minutes of rain, I had to go outside and take some pictures!


Have a nice weekend, we are hoping for cooler weather and rain here!

BACK IN THE HEAT

After 5 weeks away we are back in the heat. It is the hottest summer ever recorded in Houston!
We are glad we have been away for a while.


Here are the twins just of the plane in Oslo where we spent a few days in beautiful weather

Then home to Stavanger where we had a busy time trying to get the house and garden back in shape after being rented for three years. We had a lot to do, the garden was a jungle overgrown with weeds and the house looked ok by the first sight, but then we realized that things were broken and we had not been told. Well, that is the disadvantage of being away....

The house got painted, and thanks to the oldest son we got the new fence and gate up the last minute before we had to leave again.

The harbor had a lot of visitors, cruiseships and a beautiful swedish tall ship.



The twins discovered real grass and went for long walks in their stroller.


It was nice to be tourists in our own city.

Traveling twins

We are ready for our first flight! We have two passports each!

Leaving the sizzling heat in Texas for a month of nice weather in Norway. It is nice there now and we hope it will last for a while.

A lot of luggage this time, but I have made room for my knitting and crocheting too. Two babyjackets and my granny square blanket is coming with me. Wonder if I will find time to work on them.

Hoping for a baby friendly flight! Next posting from Norway next week!

RED WORK PILLOWS AND MORE

I have to show my redwork pillows and here, also our Maine coon cat Redwork stitchery was very popular a couple of years ago, now it seems like everyone is knitting, quilting or crocheting "granny squares", a lot of blogs have pictures of their version of the squares.

Here is mine, now I am out of yarn. Have to wait until I am back home in Norway or ask friends if they have some leftover yarn. I am using "baby wool".

Our swallows had 4 babies, one day they all left the nest!

WEATHER

I read somewhere that it is typically Norwegian to talk about the weather, and yes, that is very true. Weather comes up in most conversations, and esspecially in May, when we have our independence day and we're hoping for nice weather for the parade.

When the weather is nice in Norway, everyone is out, either for a walk in nature or at an outdoor restaurant enjoying a cold beer.
Here it's getting hotter each and every day. Nobody is outside... It is way too hot!
This is from a week ago, when we had some rather nice mornings... I enjoyed my breakfast outside!

I bought a birdhouse, maybe some birds will move in?

Our swallows now have 4 babies and they keep their parents busy, I think they are ready to fly in just a few days.

I've noticed in many blogs that it is popular to crochet "granny" blankets, so I had to start one too. I do one piece each day, that is managable along with all my other ufo's.

Here is how far I got on my babyjacket before I was out of yarn, but a nice lady back home has some for me so that I can finish it when I'm home.

We are nearly 6 months now!!

Shopping

Taking the twins to the mall can be kind of amusing. They have a stroller that is quite uncommon here and it seems like everyone has to stop to comment on it and the babies. "Wow, how cute, are they twins, boy and girl?" These are the most common comments. Men will admire the stroller and one comment was "That must be the Hummer version of a stroller." Another is "Are they identical?" This is practical impossible because they are different gender.
But this one is, to date, the best one. This one is priceless: one woman said, "My husband is a boy/girl twin too! His sister is a girl." My oldest daughter looked at me with big eyes and said in Norwegian "I am glad she is!".


The mall has an indoor skating rink and one of the biggest fireplaces I have seen! Even though, yes, it is nearly 95 F (35 degrees C) outside.



One of the baby stores had these. I just had to buy them; I've never seen anything like it!!


Did some shopping...


The thistle shawl is now put aside and I am working on a baby jacket, the challenge here is, do I have enough yarn? I do not even know the name of it, so if you recognize it, let me know


Did some sewing yesterday. I made a tablerunner to put in my Etsy store, it needs some new stuff. I also cut some squares for a new 4. july quilt....


Nearly crawling!!

BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!

We have a what they call a "cold front" here, the weather is just wonderful, like a nice summer day in Norway!

May 17. is Norway's national day and we, and it seems like all the other Norwegians in Houston, gathered at the Norwegian Seamen church. Here is my oldest daughter in her bunad.




I picked flowers in red, blue and white from the garden


The banana plant that I have been telling about before in this blog, has bananas on this year.


The gardenia also has a lot of flowers this year


We are 5 months!

Swallows nesting

Just outside our backdoor I have this bat hanging, one day I saw that a pair of swallows have taken interest in it.

They kept on building




This is what it looks like today, they have been very busy



The cowboy quilt is finished and I have started on a new order