Summer Wrap Up: Junction City Scandinavian Festival, Scandinavian Princess Daybed

Life has been busy again--mostly for my beloved Farmer Boy.

My smashed car window is now repaired,

a pine tree has been felled (by a professional this time),

the roof is half done (with a temporary ridge cap between the new and old roofing),

the air conditioner has been taken down and stored,

the autumn leaves are wonderful,

the grapes have been ripe for several weeks now

AND I still haven't seen any snakes:)

 

Oh--and my ever busy hubby is now working on another project.

Such a talented man with MUCH more energy then his wife.

 

OK, that brings you up-to-date mostly in what has/is going on in our lives.

Now on to summer photos of the Scandinavian Festival.

 

 

Years ago we happened on to this festival totally by coincidence.

 One of several Scandinavian festivals in the Pacific NW,

this one is held in downtown Junction City in the Willamette Valley

(Other festivals/celebrations take place in Astoria, Portland, Ballard and Poulsbo. Scandinavians were one of the immigrant groups to the PNW and we even have our very own fjord--the Hood Canal in western Washington)

 

 

We love the folk dancing!

The kids are a lot of fun to watch.

(This is a very kid friendly, family event with lots to see and do)

 

 

Yours truly loves the aebleskivers--Danish pancake balls.

They are beyond yummy--as the Small One found out.

I especially like them with lingonberry preserves but plain with a bit of powdered sugar is good too.

YUM!

(These are actually fairly simple to make with some practice and an aebleskiver pan)

 

I also love lefse, meatballs and...

 

 

the not so traditional, but totally yummy cotton candy.

Mmm. It was sugar-licious and  

so BIG that it took all three of us to finish it off.

 

 

We stopped by to see the blacksmith at work...

they also have other crafters.

 

 

Small One encountered some Vikings--

fortunately they were very friendly Vikings and even let her hold one of their swords.

Sadly we did miss getting a photo of the wonderful trolls wandering about.

 

I suppose I should let you know the "decorative" cast on her right arm was the result of getting thrown off a horse at "summer camp". Fortunately she still LOVES horses.

YEA!

 

 

I enjoy the different hairstyles the gals wear.

Braids are so lovely.

 

 

Love the rosemaling on different buildings also.

I almost always buy something to add to my collection...

 

 

But, in keeping with my decluttering goal,

this lovely Scandinavian floral crown was all I bought and

it wasn't for me:) 

 

Well, it's WAY past time for bed and I am about ready to fall asleep typing so...

Blessings all!

Aimee

 

Oh yea.

I forgot to show you our little bit of Scandinavia...

the Nordic Princess Daybed Farmer Boy made his little princess MUCH earlier this year.

 

Here's a photo of the finished project.

 

 

Big enough for an adult

(I know because I slept on it for several nights when I was trying to avoid a moth),

yet cozy and very cool for a child.

 

I do have a question for all you talented crafters out there though.

We have considered painting some of the Swedish folk designs that you see on the rug on the drawer fronts and possibly painting certain parts of the trim red. Good idea, bad idea?

We're also OK with leaving it as it is in case we want to change the color scheme in the room later.

I have other pillows for the bed too but they aren't in this photo.

 

Any suggestions oh gifted ones?

 

(Link to Akerkulla rug in case you need to see the design better--http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20230627/ )

 

Photos/Info:

Junction City Scandinavian Festival, August 2015

(Link: http://scandinavianfestival.com/)

 

Scandinavian Princess Bed:

We got some inspiration from Ana White's great website

and her Lydia daybed: http://ana-white.com/2010/05/plans/lydia-daybed.

More from doing a search for photos of Norwegian beds with rosemaling.

And, I liked the drawers on an Ikea daybed and another daybed...

but hubby ended up designing the bed because none of these,

however wonderful, had all the elements we wanted to incorporate in the bed.

 

Oh--did I say a certain Disney movie played a role in all this to? And a certain Princess?

LOL.

 

If anyone is interested in how we put together the bed, let me know and I can post photos of the process. It was a LOT of fun and we're really happy we chose to make one instead of trying to buy something.

 

Ok--bedtime.

 

Of Roses In Winter, Christmas + Another New Year

When Advent started,
 I made a hundred and one plans--
most of which were changed when Farmer Boy decided

that Christmas would be a great time to finish some of the items on our seemingly endless 'to do' list. This would mean very little decorating and no baking, but it was logical in that he had time off from work and we would not be entertaining this year.
 

At first, I was VERY disappointed and stressed out, as I was looking forward to turning our home into a lovely winter wonderland...but because I wished to maintain my sanity,
I finally followed Elsa's good advice and "Let it go"--
well at least the winter wonderland part.

Now, looking back, I am glad I did because I'm SO happy to be done with more projects!

 

 

Finished:

 the G (guest) room, 

new handmade cabinet doors on a once very ugly storage area

and a few smaller projects.

YIPPEE!

 

Additionally, we were able to start cleaning and organizing the third bedroom that's been

used as a storage room for years now AND I found all my craft stuff --

some of which I had forgotten about--

candle and soap making supplies, ribbons, craft books, stamps (unfortunately way too many of these),

other card making stuff, scrapbooks, etc. Now to finish the job so I can use the treadmill and

work on the crafts I enjoy again. It would be a great way to start the new year off don't you think?

 

And that winter wonderland I dreamed about creating for this Christmas season?

Well there's a little surprise decorating project I am planning for that remodeled guest room--

in honor of Elsa and the Small One who loves her of course

:)

 

 

As I said baking was out this Christmas season,

but one of my sweet SIL's saw to it that we had a lot of homemade goodies to snack on during this time. Although this is a terrible picture, the goodies were indescribably yummy! And, unless my hubby Elf comes up with another project to work on, I still have a few days till Epiphany (January 6th) and a long list of Nordic goodies I want to make.

 

Speaking of indescribably yummy Christmassy food...

 

 

on Christmas Day our oldest son had us up to his place for a luscious dinner of glazed ham, green beans, mushroom gravy, a special potato-root veggie mash (sweet and russet potato, celery root, parsnips) and a lovely crostini topped with cream cheese, roasted beet and hazelnuts. It was SO GOOD that both hubby and I had multiple helpings and wanted even more!

 

 While there, in the lap of "civilization" (LOL) we enjoyed things we normally aren't able to do--things like watching a movie on Netflix (Skyfall--007) and doing Facetime with our granddaughter and son using an iPad. I can see why so many people love Apple products. My son used to do support for them and he has sung their 'praises' for years--LOL

 

As I have already mentioned, one of my Advent/Christmas dreams

had been to bake, and one of the items I had really wanted to try was lussekatter--

that lovely golden saffron roll Scandinavians make on St. Lucia's Day

(December 13th).

Here's one I shared with a good friend several years ago...

 

 

YUM. I can almost taste it now.

 

Doing it the traditional way was NOT going to happen due to all the remodeling and health issues;

a trip to the bakery I originally found these at was out of the question too.

But today, with no remodeling or cleanup happening and feeling OK (yea),

I was finally able to make an easy substitute...

and it did help satisfy my need for creating a pretty roll that reminded me a little of the swirls

and flourishes of rosemaling (Norwegian folk art) I love.

 

 

Since these were definitely not baked per tradition (no raisin or currant in the middle of the coils, no saffron, wrong type of dough, etc.), I also indulged my constant wintertime need for citrus with a very unorthodox orange icing that reminded me of orange sherbet.  These pseudo lussekatter turned out pretty well although next time I will have to alter the baking time +/or temperature as the bottoms were a tiny bit burnt.

As for the real thing...my son told me he will give me a private

 cooking lesson sometime soon and even provide the needed saffron :)

 

 

Around Christmas Day, I asked Farmer Boy to come with me up to Mom's gravesite and immediately started to gather a wintertime bouquet of camellia sasanqua (above photo) for her grave. Suddenly I heard him yelling that we had blooming roses. Roses? Blooming roses? Turns out we did.

 

All I can think is it must be some kind of miracle to have blooming roses here in winter and

that my mom must be smiling at God's little Christmas gift to me. She probably smiled at the fact that the deer that live near the cemetery would be happy to see the roses too:)

(my mom had a great sense of humor and deer love to eat roses)

 

 

Another Christmas surprise--

but not nearly as nice as the roses--

was the yellow jacket I found in the G Room this week.

Fortunately he was moving a little slower due to all the chilly night temps

 we've had recently

and I was able to convince him to leave the house without getting stung.

Roses AND yellow jackets in late December?

Strange but wonderful.

 

Finally, it being New Year's Day, I wanted to share my New Year's resolution here.

As I have been doing for the last several years, I chose some scripture for my goal.

For 2015 the following verses will be my resolution.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3: 5, 6 KJV

 

Wishing you all a blessed, peaceful and joy-filled 2015!

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Sorry about the less than stellar photos.

Many of them were taken with my cell phone or when I was in less than optimum conditions. Also, as usual, I am watching one of those wonderful cooking shows and--well you know what that means:)

 

On the Day I Discovered My Hubby Was Right --- Again

A lot has happened lately.

I completed a goal I set for last week

(yes, you may say 'yippee'!).

 

I bought the Frozen DVD and have watched it twice since Tuesday--

once with my dad

(who really liked it by the way);

once with Small One and my hubby

(who both like it too, one much more than the other).

 

I now find myself singing not one, but two, of the songs from the movie and

 I keep finding things I relate to in the film...

 I feel I have a lot in common with Elsa

(although her hair is a lot nicer than mine--LOL),

some things in common with Anna

(I used to be quite gullible when I was younger).

I adore rosemaling and have lots of it

AND I have had the pleasure of riding a Norwegian Fjord horse before just like Hans does

(hopefully that is the only thing I have in common with him)!

 

I also totally believe that Olaf the Snowman was right and there are people in my life

 "worth melting for"

(this may not mean anything to you who have yet to see the film).

Ok--enough talk about Frozen and Nordic things -- till Våffeldagen later this week that is..

 

 

On a totally unrelated subject,

this past week

we found evidence that we've been visited by either a cougar or coyotes...

Small One took it a lot better than her poor grandma (me) who has a very weak stomach

(I'll spare you the yucky details and will only say a fawn was 

in the wrong place at the wrong time).

Sigh.

 

We know for sure we have had coyotes in this area because our neighbor,

when I visited to let him know the situation, told me they had

apparently seen a pack nearby earlier this past week...

(note to self...no more nightly trips to dump garbage)

we just don't know if they were the ones responsible. 

 

To add to the delight of living in the country,

we also apparently have another skunk

(not under our house this time though--yea!)

and ants--lots and lots of smelly, yucky ants.

HELLO spring!

(Don't misunderstand me,

I am still very thankful to be living in the country

AND for beautiful, wonderful spring).

 

 

A lot is blooming outside

(I braved imaginary 'visions' of wild animals watching my every move (not),

to take photos and check out the blooms Sunday)...

yellow, white, purple and pink.

I LOVE it!!!

 

 

Since we last 'visited', we took Small One to the beach--yet again--under cloudy, misty skies.

And today, under sunnier ones we visited one of my favorite lakes...

I find lakes particularly relaxing, don't you?

There were quite a few people there at sunset--walking, fishing, relaxing.

 

Maybe we should turn our entire yard into a lake...

nah, I wouldn't have fruit to eat during the summer if we did that.

Of course, my DH did want to add yet another pond...

 

 

We opened the door to our little 'dream come true' for the first time this season

and all looks good--

I can hardly wait to use it to go camping in!

Just need to pick up a pool noodle,

 and maybe a ladder for getting into the top bed.

We also removed the remaining kiwi we stored in there during winter--

still looking pretty good considering they were picked in autumn!

 

I am finally in a savings mode again

(it has really hit me how little time we have left before retirement

and some major expenses coming up).

Yikes.

I am SO thankful our home and all of our vehicles are paid off and

that we have contributed to IRAs for quite awhile now...

but still --

time is passing all too quickly and neither of us feel totally prepared for the date soon to come.  

 

 

And now it's time to go to sleep as I have a very long list of 'to do's' this week...

and, since it's Spring Break, I might have some more time with Small One.

Yea---more Frozen viewings:)

 

And about the title?

It's mainly to remind ME,

 that not only was my hubby right this time,

but he was REALLY right --

like totally, completely, overwhelmingly right.

Of course, that would make me

really, totally, completely, overwhelmingly

wrong...

:)

 

Have a great Monday!

Blessings,

Aimee

 

For, lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

The Song of Solomon 2:11, 12 KJV

 

Photos:

Vernonia Lake at sunset

and our early spring garden.

 

Note:

Frozen of course refers to the latest Walt Disney animated movie.

Yep, it's another early morning blog--

so please ignore any grammatical and other errors:)

 

 

Of Lefse, Rosemaling + Celtic Harps: Pt II

 With my mind on the wonder and goodness of vaflers this morn,

I thought another post on our trip to the Junction City Scandinavian Festival would be a good thing.

You can find part one here 

and, of course, I have quite a few posts about

Scandinavian festivals, food and celebrations here.

I also follow several Scandinavian blogs as you can see

 if you check out my blog favorites to the right...

 

 

My current favorite troll--

this time a front view.

He had me laughing with all his naughtiness--

reminded me of a 2 year old!

Have I ever told you just how much I LOVE the so called 'terrible 2's'?

I always thought of them as more terrific then terrible

:)

 

 

Speaking of Scandinavian food,

one of my favorite subjects,

I always get one of these from the Frikadeller booth...

in fact it isn't a festival till I have eaten some kind of Scandinavian food! 

I LOVE Scandinavian food and my goal is to one day try at least one bite of lutefisk.

Have you ever had some lutefisk?

How about poi?

Not Scandinavian AT ALL,

but I like to include it in my list of foods I have tried:)

 

The top section of the information windmill--

it is here that you will find AWESOME people to help answer all the questions you might have--

questions like "Where do I find my favorite rosemaler?"

and 

"Am I going the right way to find Noah (Celtic Harpist extraordinaire)?"

and

"Is anyone selling the dried flower headbands I bought years ago here?"

(sadly the answer was 'no' to the last question...)

 

We always enjoy the town's Scandinavian dancers...

all the way from the wee ones

(now that sounds rather Irish)

to young adults.

LOVE their floral crowns,

the music that gets your foot tapping,

their colorful traditional folk costumes

and of course the dancing!!

 

Of course, you will find rosemaling there...

on buildings,

some vendor booths

and on craft items too

(more about that in part III).

I have lots and lots of useable and decorative items with rosemaling (rose painting) on them--

shelves, a wood bucket, a fjord horse and more.

I LOVE rosemaling and we are lucky in the PNW

to have several women who continue this beautiful folk art! 

 

And last but not least,

another of my favorite things to find at Scandinavian festivals

are these....

 

 

flowers,

lots and lots of flowers...

one can never have another flowers in their life

and one can never have enough flowers at a folk festival:)

 

Have a great day!

Our weather has changed and they are having thunderstorms in the southern portion of our state.

So much of the western states are now having wildfires...

and sadly, as you may know, we have had loss of life and property.

Would appreciate prayers for rain--

lots of drenching, healing rain.

Thanks!

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Photos:

2013 Junction City Scandinavian Festival

 

Celebrating Midsummer (AKA Another Reason I LOVE Astoria)

What's a girl to do when she is hungry for some Nordic pastries?

Well, if it's the weekend closest to the summer solstice,

she heads to Astoria of course:)

 

And this time she headed there with her blue-eyed Farmer Boy

and her green eyed, blonde flower loving youngest granddaughter!

 

 

After a wrong turn,

a bit of a walk

and a trip over a pedestrian bridge suitably decorated for a Scandinavian festival,

we arrived in time for a quick peek at the flag raising taking place outdoors.

 

 

LOVE the traditional costumes...

 

 

Inside it is a Nordic-lover's shopping paradise,

but with a wee one in tow I never ventured there...

my Farmer Boy could save a LOT of money if we always had a wee one along:)

 

 

No matter---I have many Scandinavian hand crafted items already,

AND I did take time to grab the ESSENTIAL Norwegian krumkake and a Finnish pinwheel (tart).

YUM!!

Sadly the line for aebleskiver was too long and so I just may have to make

myself some later this week

(they're actually quite easy to make).

 

 

The festival is held in a pretty setting at the county fairgrounds.

This is in the Midsummer Pole area --

for those that may not know,

that is a large pole with a cross piece that has been decorated with flowers and greenery.

Oh--and topped with a tiny rooster:)

It is quite fun to watch them raising the pole and all the dancing that follows it!

 

 

Sorry we missed that this year...

it would have been fun to see our little one dance around it,

but after a little coaxing from me,

she did do some dancing to the awesome live music of

                                                    Harold Haugaard and Helene Blum,

as did other children there!

If you'd like to hear some of what we heard follow this link to the Festival website...

http://www.astoriascanfest.com/

 

After the pastries and some music it was on to the Barnefest...

where our wee one played a lot of games...

 

 

and won some Viking treasure:)

 

 

And then it was time for some fun in the sun at the beach...

but since this is already SO long,

that will have to wait till another time.

Wishing you a Monday filled with many blessings,

Aimee

 

Information:

You will find a link above should you want more information on this wonderful celebration

of Astoria's Scandinavian heritage.

 

 

 

 

Syttende Mai Dinner: May 17, 2013

Good day friends and visitors!

I hope this post finds you well...

Today's post is going to be short because I have a lot to do and woke up late.

 

Last week for Syttende Mai,  I decided to cook the Farmer Boy and I a Norwegian meal.

Originally I had planned to make a wonderful bløtkake for dessert but that changed when I found out to my horror that my butter had expired:(

Sigh...

 

But, as it turned out, I was pretty busy between all the things I did cook and taking photos during the process. I should probably say here that these were taken with my smartphone, I didn't mess with the phone settings before I took them AND (this is the really important part) our kitchen lighting is really awful.

 

Well now that we're all on the same page and,

 we all understand that Aimee is NOT a food blogger and that these won't be great photos,

let's get started....

 

 

Oh my! I should have eaten breakfast before posting...now I am really HUNGRY!

This is kjøttkaker -- Norwegian meat cakes and they were fabulous:)

I ended up modifying the recipe I was following a bit--using 1/2# each of ground beef and veal (no, you don't have to use veal if you are morally opposed to doing so) and 1# of ground pork. I also omitted the cloves--mostly because I just had whole cloves and was short on time.

I did cook the gravy, substituting lingonberry preserves for the red currant jam and I liked it, but I liked it even more the next day...I personally LOVE gjetost cheese and lingonberries but my hubby is not fond of either so he ate his sans gravy and liked them very much.

 

Also on the menu was pickled herring (YUM), agurksalat (ditto the YUM),

boiled Yukon potatoes and green peas. Next time I will try to cook the peas Norwegian style;

next time I will have butter on hand that is NOT expired:) Sigh.

 

 

Making the agurksalat...I've actually made a Swedish version of this for decades

(yep, literally decades). Yum...

This was my first time to use an English cucumber for this salad so that was pretty neat too.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the kjøttkaker--

this was after all the meats were mixed together and the spices were added.

And this was when the fragrance of those spices made me believe that I was in heaven...

yes, they smelled THAT great!

 

 

And then this was after the onion, panko (LOVE this stuff now) and egg was added...

after which came kneading and mixing, kneading and mixing...

and then the FUN part of forming the little meat cakes!

I decided to make them look like slightly flattened eggs...

loved it:)

 

 

And then came the cooking.

I used the last, itty bitty portion of my good, not expired butter and a bit of cooking spray.

This photo reminds me

#1) I SO need to clean my stovetop,

#2) I'm really starving now

and

most importantly

#3) I again have GOOD BUTTER!

 

So as gray skies replace the earlier mix of blue and clouds,

I bid you goodbye...

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

The recipe I followed for the cucumber salad was similar to this one:

http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showRecipe.jsp?document=CucumberSalad.html

 

For the meat cakes I mostly followed this first recipe but also used the second one for a guide:

http://arcticgrub.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/kjottkaker-a-rival-to-swedish-meatballs/

and...

http://www.gooseberrymooseberry.com/2012/05/norwegian-meatballs-and-syttende-mai.html

 

And now breakfast...

and then to finalize my menu for my clan's special day.

Mmm...Scottish food:)

Today Isn't Just Your Usual, Ordinary Friday...

Well the countdown to the big day is over
(and we even have a little blue sky over our heads--yippee)!

Today is important to me for three reasons...
the first, someone VERY, VERY important in my life will be celebrating their birthday today
Happy Birthday!

Secondly,
many, many (am I aging myself enough??) years ago I was baptized on this very day
(Thank you Lord for your many blessings).

And finally, today is important for -- at least -- one other very important reason...

 

Does this photo of my fav doll Kristin Liv give you a hint?
Yes? No?

Ok, I'll tell you...
It's Syttende Mai -- a day similar to America's July 4th.
A day I choose to celebrate too because of my deep love for the beautiful country of Norway.
Now,
I've celebrated this day in various places...
one year in wonderful, glorious Poulsbo, Washington...

(sorry--old camera)

 

(oh how I miss you and wonderful Liberty Bay).
And last year I celebrated with these beautiful fjord horses
(yep, they are totally AWESOME and SO MUCH fun to ride,
 as I found out one year at a farm that had fjords).
 

 

and, last year, I ate my FIRST (but definitely not last) most YUMMY bløtkake!

 

 

I also ate some delicious lefse wraps last year too made from the most PERFECT lefse!

 

 

OK I'm starving now!

 

This year I was hoping to be a 'bit' north of here...

but the weather didn't cooperate yesterday when a friend was able to go with me.

Maybe later this year I'll make it there...

 

But since I can't be where my heart would like to be,

along the river or the bay,

or in Norway

(even better),

I am celebrating at home by making Norwegian recipes all day...

 

 

Mmm!

lemon vafler or Pannekaken

(with lingonberries--yum)

and

for lunch a lefse wrap...

maybe with some awesome gjetost

(a totally yummy brown Norwegian cheese)

 

And then,

if all goes well and I stay healthy

(I woke up in a LOT of pain but it has lessened for the most part),

at the end of the day my hubby and I will share

a little Nordic feast...

 

 

Yep, that's what I'm doing today...

what plans do you have for this Friday?

Blessings,

Aimee

 

 

Links of Possible Interest:
Viking Soul: http://www.vikingsoulfood.com/Viking_Soul_Food/Home.html
(totally yummy lefse wraps and more, located in Portland)
Norse Hall: http://norsehall.org/
(love this place, also in Portland)
Viking Fest: http://vikingfest.org/
(on gorgeous Liberty Bay--not too far from where my Swedish great-great uncle lived next to his Norwegian neighbors)
Ballard Syttende Mai: http://www.myballard.com/2013/05/13/get-out-your-norwegian-flags-syttende-mai-is-on-friday/
(how I miss you my beloved Seattle with your beautiful bays, lakes and canals...sigh)

And if you're in the need for something Nordic today....
Scandia Imports:
http://scandiaimports.com/
(Love this place! They carry many items, including some food items, from all the Scandinavian countries)
There are also wonderful Scandinavian shops and bakeries in Poulsbo, Astoria and other places that I have been to...
(fattigman, Finnish pinwheels...YUM!)

Or if you just want to try some of the Norwegian food at home that I'll be attempting to cook today:
Lemon Vafler (waffles):
http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showRecipe.jsp?document=LemonWaffles.html
Pannekaken (Norwegian pancakes):
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Norwegian-Pancakes---Pannekaken/
Agurksalat (Norwegian cucumber salad):
http://www.sofn.com/norwegian_culture/showRecipe.jsp?document=CucumberSalad.html
Kjøttkaker (Norwegian meat cakes)with some side dishes:
http://arcticgrub.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/kjottkaker-a-rival-to-swedish-meatballs/
and...
http://www.gooseberrymooseberry.com/2012/05/norwegian-meatballs-and-syttende-mai.html
Bløtkake:
http://transplantedbaker.typepad.com/the_transplanted_baker/2010/05/norwegian-bl%C3%B8tkake.html  

And...
of course you will find some Norwegian blog links to the right of this post...

All in all it looks to be a very yummy day...
that is if I can get off this computer, stay more or less well and get busy cooking!
Wish me luck:)

Blessings,
Aimee