Sports holiday hangover

I'm not sure if Sweden is unique in the way that we have a school holiday called "sports vacation" one week every February, maybe you could tell me? Well, this year school was closed for two weeks in this town due to the World Championships in skiing. I also had 1,5 week of duty as a teacher but worked two days as a volunteer at the event. 

My favourite knitted wool hat to keep my brain warm from the snow slush. 

Not usually a sports nerd but as the Swedish team took lots of medals and the event taking place in my town it was irresistable to avoid. One of my students was also competing in ski jumping.

The photos below shows the ski jumping arena with lots of drunk and crazy Norwegians waving their flags (took even more medals). Two Gripen planes passing by and a backstage photo taken from my booth selling food. 

The community tried to take advantage of all the visitors and do something cultural down town. Grafitti walls, food market, and ice statues (melting away) et cetera. 

You can see at the photo in the middle wich one who is an indoor person and who is the outdoor one. 

I promised earlier to take more photos of the buildings in my town. I love the details of this house.

Alfons was for once ready to try downhill skiing and we went to the local slope. First visit for me. Ok, we have mountains. BUT they are not Alpine mountains as a visiting polititian from the Capital claimed. Wonder if she slept on her Geography class at primary school. 

View from the top. 

It went great. As he listened carefully at my instructions, he managed the skiis only after one round.

I'm a sucker for nice views. Here's view of our beautiful lake Runn that is very popular for skating. 

 The sports vacation was too short for recovering from a hectic semester. Like most teachers I was cursed by the flu a couple of days (no time to be sick, except on holidays). My ambition was to do more than I had time to. I did take some time to paint though, wich I usually never have time for, sadly because it's very calming.  Johan says I painted his coworker. 

 Well well see each other next vacation...Easter maybe?

Jewellery organising

For a while a great deal of irritation has been launched every morning I wanted to choose a jewellery for my outfit. I ended up picking those laying on top and never using earrings because they are always scattered.

So this is a project that has been in progress for a long while. The towel holder was found at a flea market without a rod and no paint. The only thing I did was to paint it and carve a twig fitting the holes for the rod.

The bracelet stands are all handmade by myself. The bottom is a part of a mug holder. With glue, a drill and a screwdriver it was more easier than it look like. The padding under the fabric is glued on with hot glue. 

 I also made a little drawer from three Glossy boxes and their lids to store more jewellery. This is a great tutorial if you have those boxes (or three of another kind).

The necklace bust is made of a lamp foot and a bust made of plaster strips.

The little pink box on the right is a upcycled box from an electronics supplyer. It is wrapped in wallpaper and decorated with old clock gears and a small mounting. 

I will add boxes and a earring holder later. 

 Our town has changed and got a sudden world wide focus due to the World championships in skiing. It's the first time I'm visiting an event like this as I'm not very interested in watching sports. But wow, it was amazing so many happy people and all the yelling and waving flags. The photo below only shows a half of the audience. 

 Lots of people stood in the snow along the track as well. 

It's a big event around the championship as well with lots of sponsors showing their products. SAAB showed their warplane Gripen and Alfons tried the cockpit of it,(looks claustrophobic in my opinion).

With sturdy boots and skirts in layers you don't have to freeze. 

Work and winter

First of all, I would like to show you a photo of my university were I study. This is in Karlstad 160 km from where I live. Thankfully I have a friend to stay with when I visit. This is the back entrance of the uni but I loved the contrast between the gloomy morninglight and the light from the buildings. I'm supposed to practice as a teacher at my own work this term, but I'm working as a professional already. 

Next photo is the view from my office window. You can see the bus stop, train tracks and the mist rising from the lake.

If I turn my head 90 degrees, this is the other view. Isn't this fantastic? I call it our Eagles nest and we are 5 teachers sharing office. I censure photos from the inside to keep you in false expectations of a clean and organised place. From this angle you can see the river that divide our town in half. The brown building on the other side is the theater and cultural center. The white building is actually where the other half of our schools reside. The old building with the tower is the senior elementary school were my two oldest kids are going. If you would be able to turn your head right you would see the shopping street. 

I've been working at the school for, wow, it's already 5 months!! I think the job is great so far. I really like to work with these young people, they give me lots of energy but sometimes makes me drained. It's a challenging work but it is so much more rewarding and useful than the other jobs I had. I work too much though and have very little sparetime, but that's a teachers life.

I have to show you the soap making laboration we had a few weeks ago. I wanted to show them how easy it is to work with chemistry at home and make something useful. The samples on the photo contains, orange, lavender, cacao, honey and tobacco.

Following photos was shot this weekend. Another half week is gone and it's still snowing...I have heard many complaining about the snow, but I love it! I even like to shovel it!

This is my tired, red nosed shoveling self. As you obviously can see and probably already know, I don't aspire to be a fashion blog.

 I have to shovel the bunnies pen's to prevent them from running away. 

Can you believe my Wilma has reached the decent age of 7,5 years? I have never own a bunny that old. She is in great condition too. 

 This is how my apple garden looks like for the moment. Lots of the fluffy white stuff covering it.

 There is just a little more than one week until we will have the Skii world championship in our town. That means that the schools are shutting down for two whole weeks (instead of one). I will work as a volonteer a few days, but I also hope to have som sparetime for once.

After Christmas sale haul

Look what I found at the Christmas sale! Jean Paul Gaultier underwear for half of the price. They are very comfortable too.

I had money from my birthday, christmas and a gift card. For once I used them to buy something for myself only and one of the rare times I go to a sale I shopped lots of clothes. A pair of trousers, a pair of tights, a sweeping jacket, two long sleeved tops and these undies. The background of the photo is our bedclothes bought at H&M. 

Tomorrow is the end of my vacation and I'll go back to work again. The week starts with two extreme days with several lectures. I don't like that because I'm not as prepared as I should.

A cold winters day

 A few days after Christmas we had a very low temperature, but the sun gave warmth.

  As the bunnies had their cages at the north side of the house, they  weren't able to take part of the sunlight. The temperature reached down to -20 degrees Celcius at night. To assure you that the bunnies don't take any harm of the cold I tell you that the straw in the cages gives shelter and plenty of food gives energy enough to keep them warm. I have actually found them prefering the cold ground outside their cages wich I never close the door. The old one, Wilma has actually reached the respectable age of 7,5 years. By giving them room for movement in a natural environment and variation in food, they can absolutely live long and healthy.

They have to be separated as they would fight  themselves to death. The pens are much larger during summertime by the way. Here's Pooki eating her food and enjoing the sunlight. It was - 17 degrees outside but as the air is still and very dry, you're not troubled by the cold.

The time is two o'clock on the afternoon and the sun is about to set.

We had a great New Years eve. We were invited to a couple of friends along with other accuaintances for dinner and to celebrate the new year. It was actually the first party I wen't to since summertime, just what both me and Johan needed.

I hope you had a wonderful New Years night as well. 

Bat fit: Kick off for 2015

Ouch! I'm heavier than ever... haven't I written this before? Yes, I have. Reasons for this are: I eat too much sugar, too large portions of food and sit most of my time. So, it would be reasonable if I lost weight if I changed those things, right?

Last years motto for Frannys Bat fit 2014 was Cleansing and a cleansing year it was. I cleansed my life from a toxic job, a job that bored the hell out of me. The problem with too many workplaces are that the hierarcic structure is not for the companys best but for the bosses in charge. As an employee you are not supposed to say your opinion or try to change things for the better. If you have ideas, keep them for yourself. And for god sake, it's better do do nothing at all than to do something wrong. It may sound harsh and I may sound bitter but I have learned to never trust people again.

One of the best desicions I've made was to start my University studies again. I've got following questions so many times now: But how do you cope with work and studies at the same time? You can get sick again. Well the best cure from my now gone depression is the studies. I once again got cleared that I'm NOT stupid and I'm capable of doing hard work when it's motivated.

My goals for Bat Fit 2015 are following
1. Skip sugar, eat smaller portions and eat more healthy home made food. I will also stop eating sandwiches for breakfast and have a green smoothie instead.

2. Start almost every morning with yoga. I have already started and it feels great eventhough I look more like an elephant on the circus. I will also have a goal that I will take a walk from work (12 km). I will go to the local pool and swim 1 km as I did before, almost once a week.

3. I will do a good proffessional job as a teacher and be the kind and cheerful one as I started. I'm actually very impressed by myself and my great patience :-)

4. I will keep on with my studies with second University degree.

Breaking silence

Well hello there!!

It took over a month to revisit my blog and I do hope I haven't lost any readers along the absence. 

I changed proffession and got a shitload of work. 45 hours per week is not what it is as a beginning teacher. I have been working every single minute I got left. I just barely finished my university assessements and have one to go this semester. 

I have in only a couple of months experiencing all the problems you can get as a teacher but thanks to great colleagues and the best boss I EVER had, I got the support I needed to handle those issues. I can frankly say that I have never in my 22 years as an employee had a boss that supported me completely in an issue were a third person is complaining about my work. Can you imagine how great it feels?

Due to all the busy days and nights this was the only humble decoration I accieved for Christmas this year. A tiny tree and a few branches on the mantelpiece. The other members of the family thinks it's ok. The younger ones are more interested in the gifts anyway.

We also visited the local Christmas fair and at a booth was a lady who made these rustic crowns out of cans. So beautiful I had to buy one. It reminds a bit of the traditional wedding crowns some brides are using here. She also cut out similar patterns with a cutting torch on used oil barrels. I will definitely buy one of those later.

I do hope that next semester will be not as busy as this one. I will definitely try to discipline myself to schedule my time better to get time to exercise. Maybe that will be my goal for next year.