Buy of the Year 2014

I use to nominate Buy of the Year, just for fun.

The opevious winners are:
In 2009 a vintage immersion heater
In 2010 a vintage Pyrex measuring cup
In 2011 a lovely notebook from Etsy
In 2012, I forgot, oops
And last year it was my iPad on which I read my blogs daily.

I have never defined the nomination precisely, but in general it has to be something I have been especially happy for and which have made a difference in my life. So which buy fulfills the criteria this year? Well, it has been extremely expensive, but also incredibly fantastic. On 1 March I started working part-time, having Wednesday off, so it became my creative day. On Wednesday I relax, I am creative and my stressed brain calms down. So although it cost me about 20% of my salary (fortunately son moved just a months before, and believe me, teenagers do not come cheap), it is worth every penny, and I hope it will never end. Last spring I got my own creative room (son's old room), so now I have all my things and stuff at one place and can work on my projects while I listen to old records.

What I make? Well, many different things, a.o. this copy of a Kate Spade clutch, which I also made a tutorial for:

I play a lot with my old seed beads, which my beloved grandma gave to me as a child. I am so happy I have kept them. Here is a gift for a dear colleague:

Necklace and bracelet after a Russian pattern found on Pinterest. You can find many free patterns and tutorials there.

I paint and draw:

And I have made lots of Christmas card and to-and-from cards:

Decorated with glitter, rhinestones, and pearls.

And I've started sewing again:

On my old sewing machine, which my dad thrifted in a container about 30 years ago and repaired for me. It is so good.

Here I have sewed a top from a fifties pattern. PDF-patterns are brilliant, because it is instant-download, so you can buy a pattern and sew it right away. The fabric cost me about 3 dollars:

Yep, it is me! Finally, a photo of me on my blog. I hate photos of myself, so normally it is on Instagram you can see photos of me, because the photos are so small so you cannot see how old and unphotogenic I am. ;)

And here is a skirt sewn of fabric I bought about 25 years ago:

I really like it and would love to use the same pattern for another skirt in some wintery fabric.

My latest project:

A houndtooth skirt with big pleets:

Really nice and it doesn't need a petticoat since the fabric is very thick. It became a little too large at the waist, but I can change that next Wednesday. :)

Kickoff in Dubai

I know this is not the place to show off your holiday photos, but I have just attended the most fabulous kickoff in Dubai with my company, and I simply have to share it with you. Be prepared to be envious! :)

It was four truly hectic and very compressed days – we experienced a lot in a very short time and were all very tired when we came home. We ate great food and danced all night, we talked and hugged and everybody became good friends outside the department barriers.

At the first day we visited the new Dubai and were thereafter sailed with taxi boats to the old Dubai, where we visited a market. It was boring. I had planned to buy spices but since there was an intense smell of pee, I didn’t. There were lots of shops with spices:

And there were many shops with decorations for the home:
You cannot imagine how incredibly tasteless it was.

Thereafter, we went to the Dubai Mall, which is the largest shopping center in the world. I ran around with a colleague to buy shoes. She only bought one pair, while I controlled myself and only bought two pairs.

Later in the afternoon we visited the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world:
Everything is bigger and bolder in Dubai, you simply cannot imagine how rich and bold everything is if you haven’t been there.

The Khalifa is 828 metres tall and has 164 floors. As a tourist you can come up to 124 floor.

And here I am:

You are really ”at the top” when you are standing on the 124 floor:

Later in the evening there was a fountain show, which also was incredibly big – I have never seen anything like it. Imagine water dancing belly dance!

The next day we attended a kickoff at the lawn of the hotel, we played beach volley at the beach and had the rest of the day on our own. I just laid at the pool and read. In the evening we should eat at Buddha Bar, but before going there our CEO announced that there was a change in the programme. We were driven to the Burj Al Arab hotel, the only seven star hotel in world and shaped like a sail! We sat and drank expensive champagne and took a thousand photos. We could freely choose a second drink from the bar card.

When we came down the bus was gone and replaced by Hummer limos:
It is an amazing company I work for!

We had the last day on our own. I needed some privacy, so I walked down a promenade, and started noticing the cars. There were no cars older than three years, and every third car was a luxury car. You kept hearing V8 and Porsche sounds all day. There were Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Camaros, Rolls, Porsches, Mustangs, Hummers and other expensive cars everywhere:

In the evening we went on a jeep saferi and boy, it was fun! We drove for about an hour and ended in the desert. Here I am standing in the middle of no where:

Eight Toyotas raced around in the sand and it was much like riding a roller coaster.

We stopped in the middle of the desert and drank champagne, sitting on pillows and carpets:

Thereafter, we were driven to a tent camp where we ate an Arabian dinner:

It will NEVER be ordinary day at work again!

Black Day at My Job

Yesterday was a black day at my job - two got fired and one quit. One got fired in my department, and we were all very surprised. She was a great colleague and worked hard. The one that quit was my fantastic x-boss, she is both a lovely lady and a very skilled specialist. So we group-hugged and cried several times during the day.

On my way home I went to a supermarket, they had a bargain for washing powder, and I ended up buying a gift for my best friend, DH and son. You have to appreciate what really matters in life - family and good friends. A job is just a job.

Overdose

I'm home again after literally having got an overdose of family and great food. It has been so cosy and we have been so social that it is OK to come home again.

I've been a little more quiet than usual here on my blog - a lot has happened: we have moved old (96 years) great-granny to a nursery home, I've already attended a fleah market at her new home and bought a lot of great treasures, but that's another story. I've got a tooth pulled and got a new job! Almost at the same time, that is I got the tooth pulled one day and the next I filled myself with pills and cotton tampons and went to a job interview. It was definately much more fun being together with my new boss than with my dentist! But why a new job AGAIN! I'm literally tired, I always work, they promise a lot, but nothing happens ... mum has to move on. At the new job I already know half of my new colleagues, and they are the sweetest, so I think that THIS time it will be great and THIS time I'll stay there for a long time ... perhaps not for the rest of my life, but for long! Congratulations to me!

Perhaps I even get the energy to to diet after having stuffed all those chocolate eggs into my beak this Easter! ;)

News About My New Job

As some of you might remember I got a new job as Microsoft license expert and started on 1 April. We should be five in my team, we were three with me! Then one of them went down with serious stress and then the other one quit!!! Not good! Not good at all! Also because I liked those two great women so much and we could have been a great team.

So now we're me who has been employed for almost three months now, one of the "old gals" is there for two more weeks and a brand new guy started yesterday. Yeeha! Do we have fun!

I'm SO exhausted in the evenings that the only thing I can do is sit in my lovely vintage garden swing and relax and then go early to bed later. No energy for anything at all!

Fortunately, I've also got a new boss (yep, my life is nothing but boring!) and he is the greatest! He has already employed one more (in fact a former colleague of mine), he has two more job interviews tomorrow - and he invites me to the last job interviews, and listens very much to what I have to say (I've turned two down and he agreed with me!). He is very dedicated and have already got a yes from our Managing Director that we have to be one more in total in my team.

I still hope and think this will be a good job.

Job and Happy Easter

I hope you all get lots of eggs, sunshine and have a cosy time with friends and family. :)

I will! We go to my tiny Summer Cottage at the Isle of Moen (small southern Danish Island). Friday, we have invited my sister and family for barbecue dinner. Saturday, my mother in law has invited us for dinner. And Monday, my mum makes Easter breakfast for all of us. It is a lovely old tradition, we give each other eggs and there is chocolate eggs all over the table. Almost as great as Christmas.

I started my new job this Wednesday, and there is a very friendly tone all over the house. Everybody is very nice to me and I've got an introduction plan. There is lots of goodies, like we can borrow movies, we get free tickets to cinemas and other events, we get birthday gifts - I've never tried that before. I've already placed some orders and answered some customer calls. I know I'm impatient, but I want to get started and help as soon as possible. I'm very tired when I come home, there are SO many new things to learn and I have to be hyper-charming all day, so not much energy to blog, I'm sorry!

Happy Easter to all of you! :)

Long Weekend!

Very long indeed!

I got fired from my job last Friday. I had guessed I didn't fit in, so I had started sending out applications for other jobs, but it would have been more fun quitting myself instead of getting fired. My Managing Director was rude to me when firing me, not much fun anyway, so he could have been kind. I was fired due to the company's new economy, and he didn't think I would be able to make enough money. He didn't even let me try. At the beginning he promised me another job than I ended up with, so I wasn't satisfied working there anyway. According to Danish law I have three months full salary and they sent me home, SO great! But it is not the greatest time to have to look for a new job, considering the financial crisis. So cross your fingers for me, friends.

But I try to look at the bright side: I'm a HOMEMAKER now!!! :) That is: in between sending applications, surfing the internet for jobs and making phonecalls to my huge network.
I will not dress up in pencil skirt, high heels and wear red lipstick every day, but I will do my hair, wear matching clothes and buy healthy groceries, bake son's favourite cookies (he has complained I haven't done that for a very long time), and perhaps I will even cook ... I'd better end this blog post, before promising too much! ;)