party

Saturday treats

Yesterday was harsh on my granny self. Had I not known better, I´d swear I was born tired!;-) We left the party at 11, after drinking some coffee, so I wouldn´t embarrass myself too much by leaving at 10, when the others just started to arrive. haha!

I was Morticia and my husband and Sam were Dexter. My friend, Dragana was a holy cow and her husband, Alex was Cardinal Sin. 😉 We had Nicki Minaj, a beduin, a lion (who Sam fell in love with!), a creepy doll, Marie Antoinette, a scary clown, pretty much the whole range of cool costumes. It was lots of fun, but I´m so much of a couch potato that when everybody insisted on standing and dancing, I started feeling out of place after a while. 😉

Today we woke up late and I treated Sammy to a really long walk in the drizzle. The reward for walking that distance in the rain was the prospect of buying a big cup of coffee on our way home. 😉 When the time finally arrived, however, it turned out I had the wrong pin (it´s a card I never use). I was feeling so embarrassed and angry with myself that the barista said I could get the coffee and pay for it another time. 😉 Now that´s what I call a true Samaritan! 😉

Fire in the fireplace, a snoring cat beside me and lots of magazines are today´s recipe for a perfect Saturday. Tomorrow I´m baking American pumpkin pie, stay tuned! What are your plans for the weekend?

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Halloween stress

Halloween kind of freaks me out. Maybe it´s because I´m not American and I haven´t grown up with it, maybe it´s ’cause using money on costumes you´ll only get to wear once in a while still makes me cringe, or simply because I suck at facial paint. Last year we actually dropped Halloween party just because we didn´t come up with anything to wear and couldn´t bear having the worst disguise ever. 😉 Haha!

This year is no better. Since I´m a freelancer and a luxury slave, I often run out of money at crucial times. Today was one of those days and I was so angry with myself I could have cried. Not only did I not buy key pieces that could have lifted any character, like a witch hat, a vampire cape or a broom, but I couldn´t even afford spray paint for Sammy. :-/

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This being said, I´m definitely not missing out on Halloween this year, I´ve worked too hard this fall to chicken out on a party! I´m going to be either a high end witch without a hat and with a designer broom, a pirate with a Hermès scarf, Morticia in a black Max Mara dress or simply a prostitute. (I´d rather be the latter, but I think it´ll be overruled by the mister of the house. ;-)) Sammy will probably need some eyeliner and a scarf and he´ll be good to go as a crook. My man will probably be a sexy zombie. Voilà!

What are your plans for the evening?;-) Inspiration for next year is welcome!

xxx, Alina

 

 

Drowsy days

It´s been so hot in Oslo it´s been difficult to do anything at all, really. Whenever I´ve worked I´ve done so early, but the way back has been an ordeal! I kept feeling I´d collapse before I´ll ever get home. And I find it hard to believe it, since it´s never been this hot this long in all the years I´ve been living here. So I keep pushing myself to do all the things I´d normally do at 25 degrees, but to no avail.

Yesterday I had to tend to my accountancy and since I don´t get internet from the garden I boiled inside. Today was a bit better, I had to translate some documents and I could do it in the garden with Sam, but no beach for this cutie!:-/

Hiding from the heat

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New Year´s Eve

I´m a sucker for a nice dress and high heels! Any excuse for that! And I love a good dinner party. This year it was our turn to be hosting the New Year´s Eve party and it was lots of fun. Everybody had a good time, or so I like to think, including Sam, our fearless samoyed who lay down to sleep on the ´dance floor´ while one could still hear the fireworks. We had three courses- cheese platter with lemon curd and chutney, tomato bruschetta and Romanian ´salade de boeuf´, turkey and rosemary potatoes with carrot salad for mains and Swiss cake and truffles for dessert. Everybody contributed with a dish since I was a bit fed up with cooking after Christmas. A bit too much to drink, laughs and dancing, in the end we were three girls left gossiping until 4 am. In between all this fun, we sat down and summed up 2013, as well as disclosed our New Year´s resolutions. For my part, I want to give myself some love. I´ll start swimming and doing yoga, since that´s the only work-out I remotely like. We´re planning a trip to Vietnam and New York, so I need to spend less money on clothes and shoes. 2014 won´t only be about career and nothing else like 2013 was, I´ll make sure to be more approachable for my friends and a better wife, sister and daughter. What about you? What are your resolutions? Let 2014 be awesome!
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