And one more thing....

I got a fabric post card from HOLLY!

THANK YOU....it's great! I will post a photo later this week!

GROSS DOGGY

While I was working on that previous post...Bo took the dog out for a walk...Pepe came back in, ran up the stairs to give me a doggy HUG....and he smelled like, excuse me, SHIT!!! Alllllll over! qucaklllllyyyaldlljrurt yuck! and double yuck! So I put him outside until I could gain control of my senses again....then Bo and I escorted him to the basement shower where I doused him in doggie shampoo. Wet dog smells so much better than SHIT dog! I'm not convinced if he's totally clean, however the smell is probably coming from the laundry basket where my stinky pants are hiding in shame after having been rubbed on by shit dog! GROSS GROSS GROSS...I'm not so sure he should go on a leashless walk at night anymore!

And luckily for you all...I don't have photos of this episode!

Mushroom Sunday

For those of you who didn't know this....we live in the forest. Therefore, we have access to all the beautiful things that grow, live and sit there...to look at, smell, touch, eat and photograph! (If you want to see any of these photos in a bigger size, just click the photo mosaic and it will POP UP in a larger format for you!)

Here are some of the colorful things we saw on our Sunday walk with my Swedish family! I've mentioned this before but now I'm showing you proof...my father-in-law is an expert mushroom hunter! He teaches mushroom classes every fall in Malmö with field trips to local forests to put theory into practice. Every time we go into the forest with him I learn so much about these little fungii. The variety of mushrooms, their characteristics, their strangeness...their delicious flavors....when Robert is with us on a mushroom walk we always take home a greater variety for eating because he knows so much more about them. I trust him completely! He would NEVER take a risk of poisoning us. If we find a mushroom that he's not so sure about he puts it in a separate bag so that he can look it up in a book (or two or five) later. Maya is fascinated by all this knowledge and she knows the mushroom picking rules thoroughly! Never eat mushrooms in the forest. And always show them to an adult. Some are for looking at and some are for collecting.
Our silly dog loves to go with us....and he carries his own leash with an owner at the end....actually, we allow him to walk on his own because he is a very good dog! Can you find him the leaves below?
Barbro, my mother-on-law, is an excellent mushroom prep cook! We ate these fried in a little olive oil with pepper and salt....with raclette grill for Sunday dinner! YUMMY!

With this warm and wet fall... we'll be finding a lot more to dry, soup, fry and pie!
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PS- Because I can already anticipate your question....NO, Gilbert, we don't pick THAT kind here!

PPS- check out these mushroom and pumpkin decorations! click HERE

Tooth Fairy comes tonight!

EXCITMENT tonight....The toothfairy is coming to our home for the first time! The dentist decided to pull the first tooth that was hanging by a thread today. Very proudly Maya placed the tiny-weeny tooth inside a "tooth pillow" under her pillow before going to sleep. She decided that she wanted the "AMERICAN TOOTH FAIRY" to come first, next time it will be the Swedish one. You see, the Swedish tooth fairy takes the tooth from a glass of water instead of from under the pillow! She can't wait to see what the tooth fairy will bring her! If it is money she will add it to her piggy bank...money that she's saving for a mermaid watch! (But I think the tooth fairy is also bringing her a silver " winged tooth necklace"...a gift from good fairy friends in Gainesville, Florida...been saving it for just this night!)

Besides money, what else can a tooth fairy leave for a tooth?
This fairy is seeking creative ideas! Please share!

My First Swedish Wedding (other than my own)

September 6th....a special day for two wonderful couples!

Fifty-six years ago on September 6, 1952 Polly and Paul Doughty became wife and husband! On September 6, 2008, Kristofer Nilsson and Frida Emmertz became husband and wife!

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Saturday turned out to be a great day for a wedding in Bosarp, Skåne...warm and overcast but not eye-squitting sunny or humid! Bo's cousin, Kristofer married his sweet heart, Frida in an old church (1847) along the eastern coast of Sweden. (We were just there with my brother 3 weeks ago.) It was my first Swedish wedding, other than my own and I learned so many new things about getting married in Sweden! We had a lot of fun participating in the festivities, chatting with family and new friends, and eating delicious food....

This post is mostly for my mom and dad...they know the couple from family parties. But if you're interested, keep reading. It was a creative party!
Follow the photos to understand the day....(left to right, top to bottom) Click on the photos for a bigger size.
1) We drove to the restuarant where the reception dinner was to be held later in the day and parked the car. We all boarded two "vintage" buses and rode together to the 1847 Vitby Church (2) on the top of a hill. (3) The minister greeted us before the ceremony and the couple walked in together smiling to all the guests. (middle photo) The ceremony was sprinkled with palms and songs, prayers and oaths, tears and smiles, rings and kisses! (4) The couple rode in an old fashioned bright red firetruck decorated with branches, balloons and bells. The two buses followed and delivered us to a park (5) over looking the Baltic Sea. At this beach side park there were bronze-age rune stones (6) set in a circle around a central boulder. Just simply beautiful and historic! The wedding families gathered for photos and photos (7)...this is the Nilsson family. (8) Maya had a little chat with her Great-Uncle Bengt on the field. (9) The amature photographers were wild outside and inside...probably 1 million photos were taken! (10) Kristofer, Frida and Kristian (groom's brother) shared in the champagne toast. (11) Maya playing around with headless Bo (the program cut him off, not me!) (12) A lovely archway photo at the church.

After the spinach and salmon mini empanadas and champagne on the cliff, we boarded the buses again and rode back to the restaurant in Brosarp. Maya's Swedish grandparents took her home to our house (about an hour and a half away) so that Bo & I could relax and enjoy the evening. The dinner was delightfully fun...I wished my Swedish was better so that I could have understood ALL the jokes and stories but I did understand the geest of most of them.

(Follow the photos again by number...left to right)
Each guest received a little booklet at their place on the tables (1 & 2) . I sat across from Andrea, the bride's little gragarious sister with a loverly voice and Kristian, the groom's big brother (3). Our seating arrangement was in the little booklet and each guest had been assigned a number (4). Also in our little booklet, beside each of our numbers was a description of us! Yes, they wrote a personal note about each of the 90 guests!!! In the description, it said who we were with...mine said "She is married to no. 42." (5 & 6) That gave everyone a starting point for conversations although we had to do a little reading first! The dinner entertainment was completely organized by the hostess of ceremonies (toastmistress), Frida's cousin. Various friends and family stood up and read poems, sang songs, told jokes, gave helpful advice, etc. to the newlyweds! It was VERY TOUCHING! So loving, personal and FUNNY! One of the ideas that I just LOVED was from two of Frida's friends (7), they passed out papers (8) with all of the anniversaries on them (first anniversary - paper, 25- silver, 50- gold, etc....), we were to pick an anniversary then on another piece of paper write a note, wish, saying or whatever to the couple about the anniversary we picked, then place our personal message in an envelope with the number of anniversary on the outside. The two women in charge of this are going to send Frida and Kristofer the envelopes on those anniversaries! WOW...what a committed friendship! I choose Wedding Anniversary 28 - masonite- because that will be exactly half way to my parents anniversary 56th-- the day that K & F got married. PHOTO (9) shows one of the surprise visits....a char woman showed up and told silly jokes about love and marriage and she even sang a love song to the pair! (She's actually their dog's groomer who also is a part time actress.) PHOTO (10) shows one of the weirdest Swedish traditions....each time the groom leaves the room ALL the men are supposed to go over and kiss the bride on the cheek. And the same happens when the bride leaves the room...ALL the women jump up and go to kiss the groom. As you can see from Frida's face...this is the fun part of being the bride!

Another weird tradition they have is when you clang on the glasses, the newlyweds must kiss--OK, we have that in the USA, too...but here they must STAND ON THE CHAIRS! (I was nervous for Frida each time she stood up on the chair with her long train and high heeled shoes!) And if the guests thump on the table tops, that means the couple must go UNDER the TABLE to KISS! Poor bride! I was thinking if I was to get married again with a dinner like that I'd wear a sweatsuit bride's dress with all that climbing around! he he

After the dinner, we had cake and coffee and liquors....then the band started playing at 11:30pm. We watched for a while but as Bo is not a dancer, and I wasn't ready to make him start dancing...we decided to head home, arriving around 1:30 am....then we chatted with my in-laws for an hour before going to bed! What a fun evening!

It was a WONDERFUL event and I'm so glad that Bo and I went to ALL of it! And now I'm joining my friend Natalie in waiting patiently for my daughter's wedding...'cause I want to be involved with creating something like the wedding I went to on Saturday! (oops, I guess Maya should be the one to decide, huh?!) OK...someone else's daughter needs to get married soon! Let me know...I've got new ideas for you!

Tell me about it!

FRIDAY LOVE LIST: FILL IN THE BLANKS

Swiped in its entirety from Meg! and Liz

Song you love:

Word you love:

Academic subject you love:

Hobby you love:

Type of baked good you love:

Type of sky you love:

Beverage you love:

Vacation you love:

Restaurant you love:

Way of getting around that you love:

Person you love:

Room in your home (or ideal home) you love:

Movie you love:

Book you love:

City you love:

Future plan you love:

Form of communication you love:

Junk food you love:

My list is first in the comments, now let's see yours!

Mom's Summer Project is FINISHED!

Despite painful days with arthritus in her thumbs and shoulders mostly, my Mom, wonderful and persistent, finished her summer knitting project for Maya! This SASSY SWEATER will bring a joyful brightness to the dark days coming closer each day. Maya loves her sweater with all its crazy colors....it will go with everything she wears! THANK YOU MOM!

I would like to learn to knit BUT I have a feeling that my husband is right when he says that it will become another obession for me and I'll buy everything in sight and complain that I don't have enough time to do anything! So, I'll save the knitting for a time when I have used up my fabric stash, made all my crafties, organized my stamps, rubber stamps and scrapbook photo albums and have a weedless garden! (If I live to be that old, I'll be lucky to still have agile enough fingers to knit!)

In the meantime, I did make a tiny, oh so tiny, dent in my stash of fabric today while Maya was at her "Swedish as a second language" class (she's one of 5 Kinder kids who attends this 1.5 hour class each Friday--she doesn't have regular Kinder on Fridays and I don't work on Fridays--it's our cozy day together!). I"VE STARTED making my first fabric post cards for my Swap group!!! No photos to share but I'm content with what I've done so far.

AND I've pulled out the patterns that I will use for the ANGEL STITCHING swap!

AND I decided on the squares I'm going to make to contribute to the FAWCO charity quilt this year. (I'm a member through my local American Women's Club of Malmö.)

AND I found what I want to make during Crafty Day with Kelly Sue at the summer house in October! (Looking forward to that BIG TIME!)

So it was a busy morning digging around like a squirrel in my crafty room! FUN!

Energy....

Along our drives in Sweden we often see these enormous windmills turning gently, steadily, and smoothly....safely producing the electricity we need in a clean and efficient way. Sweden is ceasing to use nuclear energy in a couple of years, they are phasing it out slowly. It will be replaced primarily by windmills to provide us with the energy we need to live.
I saw many of these today on the drive to Copenhagen, Denmark...especially out over the water near the Oresund Bridge. A beautiful site...clean energy. In Copenhagen we had dinner with my mother's cousin's family, the Arzrouni's. Maya was able to communicate enough to play with her 3rd cousins as Danish and Swedish are quite similar. It was good to reconnect with them although it was only for a short time. Tomorrow morning my parents will fly back to Florida!

Chasing at school

After Maya recovered from her long day at school & after school care, she told me over and over again with lots of laughter about her adventures in the school yard during recess times! It seems as though she is part of a little gang of girls who are being chased by the boys in her class. I heard all the details of where and how they ran and ran, hid out then ran some more...escaping each time from the clutches of the boys! At one point she was being held on the arm by a boy (a good family friend of ours) and she managed to wiggle out of her jacket to escape yet again! Someone else brought her the jacket back...my first response was "you didn't leave your jacket on the ground, did you?" After she finished telling me all the details of this play, I asked her WHY they were chasing them... I asked if the boys wanted to hit them, kiss them, or play with them? Maya responded "Oh, if those boys had wanted to kiss me, I wouldn't have minded. I like getting kissed!" OH PLEASE HELP ME! She's only in kindergarten! Maybe she's watched one too many princess movies from Disney! I have to be happy though, at least she's hanging out with a group and not alone! (She's usually a shy, loner kid.) Maybe the dinosaur t-shirt she wore today was an attraction to the boys...who knows!

Louisiana Art Museum in July

Earlier this summer I took my parents and Maya to the Louisiana Art Museum in Denmark. The museum was named after the founders 3 wives who were all named Louisa! (He wasn't married to them all at once, however.) Its location on the Oresund Sound between Sweden and Denmark gives it a beautiful view of the water and Sweden on a clear day. It's only a short trip away from us and we can go either by car or ferry/train just as easy. Since I take my 5th grade art class there each spring, I get a free ticket to go back during the following year with 2 guests. (Small kids are free) The art collection is wonderful...mostly modern art with the modern classics (Hockney, Picasso, Monet, Moore, Warhol, etc) and they always have a great touring exhibit. The KIDS CREATIVITY ROOM is FANTASTIC!!! All materials are FREE and the children can create to their hearts content! There are college art students doing "practical work" there to help the children if needed. Maya choose to do paintings, something she could do at home any day...but that was the only room that wasn't packed with kids the day we went so I can understand her attraction to that space to create without distractions. Maya's favorite painting in the exhibition halls was this David Hockney above...Grand Canyon! Isn't it interesting how she was drawn into a painting of an American landmark?! She sat down and made a sketch of it in her little notebook that we take around with us to museums. (Bad Mommy lost this notebook during our trip to Dalarna! And I haven't been forgiven yet.) We'll be back again another day to see a new exhibit and Maya can draw it again, if she wishes, in a new notebook!

Now, you are probably wondering why I stuck this blip about the Louisiana in here...well, a Swedish quilter blogger buddy of mine makes these remarkably beautiful photo mosaics on her blog....so she sent me the website and I had to try it out with my own photos!(THANK YOU STINA!!) I love it! I will be practicing more in the weeks to come...even more photos on my blog for family and friends to see! Oh, I just love learning more things to do on this computer!