I ♥ A-HA

Yesterday was the day of the A-HA concert with Ellen. I’m so glad I everything worked out and I was able to get a ticket, because it was a super show.

To my big surprise the warm up act before A-HA came on was Donkeyboy – a new Norwegian group who has had at least two singles playing on the radio constantly for several months. I like them and was happy to see them live. But they didn’t beat A-HA of course.

I just love Mags’ (Magne Furuholmen) synth! We were standing to the left of the stage and had a clear view to Mags. Paul was on the other side, so we didn’t see that much of him. He came over to our side once though. Morten was most at the middle, but wandered around from time to time.

I wouldn’t have expected it, but Mags was the one who talked the most. I think that was a good thing, because Morten has a tendency to get lost in his own words. And something that can take a few seconds to say, often takes a few minutes. heh.

I haven’t had time to listen to the new album that much. I’ve sort of forgotten about it. So there was a few new songs I didn’t remember. They weren’t bad, not at all. Foot of the mountain is a new and really good song.  But I like the old hits the most.

The stage was great. I loved the visual part of the concert. They had big screems behind them and everything matched with the songs. That makes the concert so much better.

They started with the sun always shines on TV which is a great opening! We also got served Hunting high and Low, Manhatten Skyline, Scoundrel Days, Stay on These Roads and Forever Not Yours.

In the middle of the show they had a little sequence where they slowed down and played a few low-tempo songs. I liked that. I love when I get surprised by a song. I got that yesterday. I had forgotten about the song Velvet. It is so utterly beautiful. And they played it. Ahh. I was so happy.

The encore was great. They started with Cry Wolf, the song I’ve been singing on all week. I texted Linda with the words Cry Wolf oooh oohh . Then they played Analogue. The second last song was The Living Daylights which kicks ass live. Everybody sang together on the chorus.

When Take On Me came, after 1 h. and 45 mins, we all knew it was the last song of the evening. They always end with the monsterhit – the song that made them superstars world wide.

I missed a few songs like Touchy and Early Morning, but you can’t get them all. The show couldn’ve been longer. We all want more, you know! 1 h. and 50 mins didn’t seem enough.

Place: Oslo Spektrum
Audience: 8500 (sold out)
Playing time: 1 h. 50 mins
Number of songs: 21 songs
Score: 5 / 6

I ♥ concerts

It feels like eons of times since I last went to a concert. Good lord, I don’t think I’ve been to any since the Pink Pop festival in late May. Jeeze Louise. It’s about time I go to one then.

Today I got hold of a ticket to see A-HA on saturday. They are playing at Oslo Spektrum.

I had thought about going since August. On monday I thought ‘oh I have to buy the ticket NOW!’. Then it was sold out. Not good. Ellen, who is also going, was not impressed with me. I found a guy on finn.no who sold one ticket. I was able to buy that. So today I went downtown to pick it up.

Something strange, is that today I saw there were tickets left. Maybe they added more tickets? Or maybe they relisted the tickets no one has picked up. I don’t now, but it doesn’t really matter.

I’m really looking forward to see A-HA again. It’s been years since last time. It’s so long ago I don’t remember. Maybe it was 2002 or 2003? I’ve been going around singing on Cry wolf all day.

And if that wasn’t enough. Next week I’m going to see Lars Winnerbäck again! That will be great! I absolutely LOVE Winnerbäck. He’s fantastic.

I aslo might have another concert to attend this month. It depends if a friend is avaliable. Can’t say much about it now, since it’s gonna be a surprise for her. Hopefully it will work out!

So, two concerts in one week. And maybe one more this month. About time! It shouldn’t go several months between my concerts.

Even though it has rained some days now,  it’s been very grey outside and the prospect of cold nights is present, november won’t be that bad! It will be quite good actually.

Christmas cards vol. 5

I’ve made some new christmas crads the last days. It’s less than two months until Christmas arrives and it feels good to have made as many as I have.

Cisca’s cards are ready and will be shipped this week. Linda is visiting me on friday (and will stay until saturday). She will be picking her ten cards then. The rest is for me and mum. I’ll let her pick what she wants. And I’ll take the rest. Or I’ll ask Ellen if she wants any. I haven’t asked her yet, if she wants me to make her some cards. I need to make sure I will finish the ones I have planned first.

Anyway. Here is the newest cards.

Here I used the rubber stamp I got for my birthday. Gift from mum. I love, love, love it. It’s very pretty.

Chocolate cupcakes (nom, nom, nom)

In the grocerystore today I went past the baking aisle and I saw these boxes where you can bake a cake in three steps. Instantly my cake  crave began. I knew I had to bake some sort of  cake today. Not the easy way, with a box, but from one of my own recipes.

I landed on chocolate cupcakes. Good idea. Very good idea!

What you need is:

• 100 grams of butter
• 100 grams of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 deciliter of milk
• 100 grams of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa

And you do like this:

• Stirr butter and suger until it’s ‘white’.
• Stirr the eggs and add the milk.
• Put flour, baking poweder and cocoa together.
• Add the fluids and the dry stuff little by little.
• Fill up cupcake cups 3/4.
• In the oven on 200 degree celcius in about 20 mins.

This will give about 15 small cupcakes. Today I doubled the recipe. I wanted lots of cake!

Some of the ingredients.

When the cupcakes came out of the oven, it was time to decorate them. You need icing sugar to do that. And some food color of course.I got red, blue , green and yellow.

Only your creativity will stop you when decorating. Here are some samples of what I did.

What else is there to say?

Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom.

 

 

 

Hi November!

November is here. Boy, time flies. October flied away before I got the chance to blink, so it seems.

For a few months now, I haven’t really been photographing anything else than doors. Every morning when I’ve packed my purse, I’ve taken the 18-125 mm lense with me, since that fits best when I take pictures of doors. The 50 mm has been resting for a long time, too long!

The bokeh, the light and all that jazz. I need to capture that with my 50 mm again. And with all the beautiful autum colors, it’s easier to find lovely things to photograph.

October is over. November is here. All the beautiful colored leafs won’t be here forevery. Soon it will all be gone and replaced. The trees will be naked. And the ground won’t be covered in layers with leafs. The greyness will be more present and there will be less to photograph.

Yesterday, when I was heading for the grocerystore and finding the door of the day, I took the 50 mm lense with me for a change.  It was so great to shot with that again. And even though it wasn’t any sunshine or nice light, I managed to get some nice shots anyway.

Now I just wish for some sunlight. I know I can get good pictures with no light, but it gets so much better when there is sunlight. The weathercast is depressing. It will be cloudy and rainy all week. Blargh. Lets hope it will change before all the autumn goodness is gone.

Oh, what awful 7 days!

The title of this blog is refering to my door project. It hasn’t been a good 7 days.

I’ve been buzy and sick the last seven days. Not sick all 7 dasy, but almost. On friday the company I work with started its 10 years anniversary celebration and we all went to Copenhagen with boat. Left on friday and was back on sunday morning.

Friday morning I had to take my door picture. And saturday, I was shopping in Copenhagen and there was really no time to take any pics of doors. I didn’t see any cool doors either. Maybe because I didn’t really paid the doors any attention? the shops got most of my attention. My few pains got some attention too. On saturday I ended up taking a crappy picture of the door in the boat cabin I stayed in.

Sunday I came home and I got sick. Dad offered to pick me up and take me home for dinner. I said yes. It’s better to eat dinner with someone when you’re not feeling well! It got dark before I managed to think about a door,  so i stumbled myself out and searched for the nearest door. It was a door attached to the garage.

I didn’t go to work on monday or tuesday. And I stayed at my parents house. Was too tired to go home. It was nice to have some company while being sick too. I was lucky to still find some doors on our property that wasn’t already taken. I doubt there is any lef now!

Today I went back to my apartment and Oslo. I didn’t go to work, only went to see my doctor. I found a door on my way home from the doctors. I didn’t bothered to take more than one picture.

So right now, I’ve worked on the 7 doors in photoshop – to save them from being ugly. haha. I managed to make some OK, but there are some that doesn’t come out good no matter what  I do. Sigh.

Oh whatever. It’s a door anyway. And I can’t make it perfect every day.

I should be impressed, and I sort of am, that I managed to continue this project even while I was sick.Cos i actually concidered quitting. Well… I thought I wouldn’t manage to go on.

But I did! Hah!

Now I can look forward and head for 150 doors. That’s my new goal.

Only 15 left!

Aim. Focus. Click!

It’s been 16 days since I wrote about my door-project. Lots of things can happen in 16 days, so I thought it was time to give an update again.

I’ve had some serious trouble  / dobuts about this project since last time. Last week I wasn’t feeling well and all I wanted was to get fast home to my dear read IKEA sofa. And this week I’ve had dasy I’ve been too busy to chase cool doors.

“Oh dear, how long am I going to keep up this madness?” The thought has entered my mind. More than once. Some days have been a struggle to get a decent pictures. I’ve shot a few in the morning and that’s not easy since it’s quite dark outside when I go to w0rk.

I have been fed up concidered quitting, but I’m still here. Still shooting one door each day. There is something inside me refusing to let go of this project. It’s kinda weird to say it, but there will be something missing in my life if i quit. What am I going to chase if it’s not the doors? It will be weird not to look for doors anymore.

And honestly. 124 doors isn’t enough. I need 150 at least. If not 200… I’m gonna do this project and I will pull off that last picture as you squeeze out the last drop of a lemon. I want as many photos as possible.

Writing this… I write like I know I’m gonna quit before it’s over the right way (when the 365th shot is taken). And that makes me bah. Because I do not want to drop out!

I think I need a change. I need to stop focusing on the bad stuff, on the limits and what’s gonna kill this project. I need to focus on the good stuff. And believe me, there is still good stuff out there! Like…

1. the sun is still shining some days.
2. It’s been minimum with rain and clouds so far this autumn.
3. I re-discovered an area (Vålerenga) where there is a good bunch of cool doors to shoot. It only takes me about 15 minutes longer to get home.

Chantie said to me here the other day that I got 1/3 done already. That made me happy. Really happy. 124 doors have been shot. 241 left to shoot. Tomorrow is a new day and a new door is waiting for me.

Watch out doors! I’m on a mission. You’re about to be shot!

Wishlist for birthday (and Christmas)

It is soon my birthday. One week left to be exact. A while ago I started to write on my wishlist. I always have a wishlist for my birthday because I know my mum needs one. She always gives me presents. And not only one, but often three or four. It’s not needed, but very nice of here.

Sitting there weeks ago I tried to figure out what I wanted. It wasn’t hard coming up with things. Not at all. There is always something I want. It’s quite surprising how much a human being needs. Or what we think we need. Because it’s quite different what we need and what we want!

Anyway… I made this list on what want:

1. Books. Lots of books. I want the new book that Jo Nesbø has written. It’s name is Panserhjerte. And then I want lots of books by Håkan Nesser.
2. DVDs: I want the whole serie of Beck. Swedish crime-serie. And I want the films Man On the Moon and Philadelphia. Since my vcr decided that life was over, I haven’t been able to see these two great movies since.
3. Scrapping things. I want all sorts of things.
4. Pens from Promaker in a varaity of colors. Gonna use them to color what I stamp out for my cards.
5. Toaster.  I got hooked on toast after my two visits to Chantie this year.
6. Beef knives. I only have crappy ones now. They doesn’t look good.
7. Photoprinter (from Canon)
8. Polaroid camera.
9. Perfume: Poison (green) from Calvin Klein.

New order (Christmas cards)

It’s been a while since I updated now. I know I should be better at this. I’ll try in the future.

I wonder if I should start a business with this christmas-card making… A while ago Cisca, my other Dutch (South-African) friend asked me how much I charged for a Christmas card. When I gave her the price for each card and shipping, she immideately requested 10 cards!

Nowing I had to make 10 cards, I instantly knew I had to buy more stuff. What I needed the most was a rubber stamp saying ‘merry christmas’.  It would’ve been stupid to use my norwegian rubber stamps on cards sent to the Netherlands.

I searched online (ebay and  scrapping stores) and after a while I found a beautiful rubber stamp that wasn’t too expensive. You can see the use of it in the cards further down.

I’ve now finished Cisca’s cards. I got a little worried that I would’nt be able to make them and the rest of the cards I’m making in time.  So I had to step up the game and get more productive.

I have about 20 cards left to make. Not bad. I’m over half way. I’m still concidering making some for Ellen too. Since I did make 10 for Cisca, I should definitely make some for Ellen too. She hinted about me making some for her before Cisca ordered.

I know I at least have two events when I can make cards. Lisbeth is hosting her annual christmas-craft-get-together and Sissel and I, we decided to meet up for some scrapping.

Status update: 365 doors

It’s time for an update on my 365 project. I’ve reached over 100 doors which means there will be a book.  I’m very happy about that. When I started I wasn’t sure if I was going to last this long. Finding new, exciting doors isn’t as hard as I once predicted. I find new areas to explore which is either not far from work or where I live. That’s good.

But it’s not all easy.

A week ago or so, I hit rock bottom. I had two bad door days and I came to think of something for the first time while this project has lasted. How will I be able to take pictures in November / December when it’s dark when I go to work and dark when I go home?

I live way up north you know and we’re not privileged with long days with light in the winter. In late November the sun goes up at 9 ish and going down 15.30 ish. You see my problem?

I’ve never thought about this before. Why? I guess the summer, sun and long days had something to do with it. Long, cold, dark winter days wasn’t on my mind when I started this.

I must admit I’m not good at taking pictures in the dark / low light. You really need a tripod then or else it will be blury. Even with a flash it will be blury if you’re not supersteady on your hand. I’m not. I do have a tripod, but carry that around every day will be a bit of a hassle. I don’t like using flash either. At least not the built-in flash. So then I would have to carry my other flash as well. All in all, it would be a lot to carry around. I would need a bag on wheels like the old ladies use to carry groceries in, haha.

I talked to Chantie about my new-found problem and she made it sound so simple.  This is why it’s a challange. Be creative. And she listed things I could do:

• make it black and white (you can make a bad picture ok by just turning it into b&w)
• use flash
• use the blurryness and make it artistic
• simply be creative.

I said no to everything. I was very negative and couldn’t find anything good about what she said. I don’t like flash and def. not want to make them black and white. I want my pictures to be in their original color. I have one picture in black & white and it annoyes me greatly!

The big question is? Am I going to quit this project? No. Not now at least. I will keep on with this project as long as I feel I can make good pictures. I don’t want crappy pictures in this project. Of course I’ll have a few bad/less good photos , but when I feel like I only produce crappy pictures, I don’t wanna do it anymore.

Somehow I think 105 doors is not enough, it’s a small amount of doors. Even though it’s not small at all. I want way more doors. I want 365! I really, really want 365!

I love this project so much and hate to think about ending it before I supposed to. Sigh!  But I have to be realistic. Yep, I have to be realistic.

Let’s end this post with a small collections of my latest doors.Not that some pics are cropped since they’re not originally in square format. See all doors on flickr (of course).