My New Norwegian Home

I could make thrift shopping and flea marketing a hobby. While I'm not big on buying anything unless it has a purpose, I do love looking at things and occasionally finding a few gems. When I first moved to Norway I was convinced these places didn't exist. It turns out my husband was just the wrong person to ask. Many thrift shops go by the name of gjenbrukt and often people advertise for their own personal garage sales as well as school fundraising in the form of a flea market. There are also Fretex stores scattered about for people to purchase used items from. The word antique in Norwegian is antikk, very similar to its English cousin's word antique. One thing I love collecting is foreign coins. I've been collecting them since I was a little girl. So of course this is one thing I try to look out for when I am at a flea market. I was pleasantly surprised the day I went to a flea market for a school fundraiser this year. I brought my daughter with me and she wanted a...

Aside from warmth and sunlight, the other thing I mostly look forward to during the Norwegian summer is the strawberries. Norwegian strawberries are the best. This is simply a fact. No matter what the Danes say or the Swedes for that matter. Norwegian strawberries are the best in the world. Hands down. I've had a major strawberry craving the past couple of days which is what has inspired me to write this post. 9 bowls of strawberries later (no exaggeration) and here I am writing about my love of Norway's sweet strawberries. It's hard to describe a taste, isn't it? The strawberries I grew up eating as a child needed to have a bit of sugar on them as they were a bit sour alone. The strawberries here however are really sweet as they take longer to ripen. The whole inside of the strawberry is red in color. Often they're eaten with vanilla sauce. It's really the best thing since sunlight. Aside from buying norske jordbær (Norwegian strawberries) at the store, I n...

It's that time of year again. I'm counting down until our next America trip. Our tickets are bought, our rental car and hotels have been ordered as we have decided to only take one flight a day. After all we are travelling with a toddler. I'm racking my brain with lists. A list for what to entertain the kid with on the flight. A list for what to pack. A list for what to buy in America. A list for what we shouldn't forget. The rest my husband takes care of. Where to go, what to do and so on. Luckily, I planned on this blog post a year ago so I have already prepared this Trip Planning post in pictures. First, Packing: I like to pack very lightly on our way to the U.S. I also fit our carry on bags inside the suitcases.  Inside that I have gifts for the year to family. Birthdays, Mother's & Father's Day and Christmas.  I don't like to spend unnecessary money on shipping to the U.S. so it makes sense to have the gifts prepared and packaged...

I'm a bit disappointed in myself for not writing as frequently as I used to. I think the reason being I feel more integrated now. Life is just happening and everything is falling into place. I'm settled. Of course that doesn't mean I still don't feel like a bit of an outsider. I don't totally feel like I fit in. I feel like I'm in more of a limbo. I feel like if I were to move back to the United States I'd miss Norway and while I'm here in Norway I miss the United States. My brain is still always churning cultural differences between the two countries. And not a day goes by that I don't complain about how tiny and illogical Norwegian parking spaces are. But more to my point, life has just been happening in my neck of the woods. I have promised myself today I will be lazy and just stop for a bit and write. So I am. :-) Refleks is a tiny, but important part of your mørketid (dark time) clothing choice. As many people have places to go by walking,...

A few weeks ago I was introduced to BloomNation - a  flower delivery service  and was inspired to share some of my own ideas of how I as an expatriate use my own cultural background in my personal decorating with my blog readers. My husband and I bought our first house last year. When I first moved here to Norway and moved into his apartment I never had the feeling of fully being in my own place. It just felt like I moved into my husband's bachelor pad. Of course I did change a few things, but once we bought our own home I felt like I could completely let loose and feel like our new house was my blank canvas. I do whatever I set my mind to as far as decorating my home - inside and out. I do like having a bit of American-ism in my decorating. I really love primitives as can be seen in my kitchen. When in America, I enjoy finding primitive decor and bringing it back to my home in Norway. For example, I have a sign in my kitchen I bought from Tennessee that says, "When mama ain...

Why buy berries in the late summer when you can pick them yourself?  Last fall, my husband and I bought our first home and we now have a spectacular view of the woods. Our daughter has recently discovered the joy of picking raspberries and now that she knows she is welcome to her own free buffet of raspberries, I'm often dragged into the woods by a wild 2 year old shouting, "Here, Mamma!" as soon as we reach the raspberry bushes.  Picking berries in late summer is a popular thing for the Viking people to do in the untamed Nordic wilderness. ;-) I often see others picking blueberries or raspberries along the forest, or wherever else wild berry bushes can be found.  My berry sweet partner in berry picking.  Blueberries picked from my back yard, not the forest. :-) Wild raspberries. This was my first time making raspberry jam. :-) 

Kjøp drikkeflasker og matbokser billig på Med24.no  A staple in Norwegian life is the matpakke. An openface sandwich with cheese, leverpostei, or other forms of pålegg  (the wonderful word that basically means all types of food you can place on bread) is what a matpakke consists of.  Bread + pålegg + waxpaper + bread + pålegg + waxpaper  and continue.  Simple as that. :-) The matpakke is brought to work, to the forest, to barnehage and school, to the park, etc.  A complete matpakke. 2 sandwiches made of polarbrød (the bread of the northern folk) to be shared between me and my little girl.  Extra food for another matpakke box. Fruit snacks brought from USA, a banana and a can of leverpostei. The matpakke is such a large part of Norwegian society that children bring them to school on a daily basis as warm lunches we are so accustomed to in the United States aren't served in Norway. The typical lunch drink of choice is milk, ...