Some of my favorite things

Right before Christmas, I randomly came upon ceramic pens at Nille - a part dollar-store-like, part hobby lobby-like store in Stavanger Sentrum. And of course, after seeing all the awesome DIY projects using ceramic pens on the World Wide Web, I had to pick them up and put them to use on a bunch of Ikea coffee mugs. I  learned a few things while working on this project:

1. ceramic pen + ceramic ware = lots of fun DIY projects

2. I am terrible at drawing free hand. Thankfully, all I needed was a wet paper towel to erase all the funny squiggly lines I made and start over

3. I really like imperfection in my design. Mommy Sunshine sent me some information about Wabi-Sabi - a design aesthetic from Japan that celebrates the imperfections and incompleteness in life and design. I had heard about it before, but never really bothered to delve much in to it. Now, I have to. I might just have found my aesthetic soul. 

Here are the results. Two of the mugs are going to Sweden with Mr. Sunshine's cousins.

Lysefjord

Pictures from our trip to Lysefjord. We collectively took hundreds of pictures, and sort of lost track of who took what picture. Pictures were taken by the very talented Ramnath Bhat and Vijendra Bhat. There are a few pictures by Mr. Sunshine as well. 

Possibly the prettiest sight of our trip

Entrance to the fjord

Homes overlooking the fjord

A lone cabin

Light house

The sun shining through the clouds

We got lucky with the weather

Vagabond's cave or Fantahålå 

Vagabond's cave or Fantahålå 

If you see carefully, you'll see a doll hanging way up on the cliff. 

Snow-capped mountains

More snow capped mountains

Water fall

Pulpit rock

Clouds

More waterfalls

The boat guy/ tour operator stuck out a bucket under the waterfall and collected the water. We then got to toast with it and drink it

Pretty sky

Sunset from the Television tower

It is a new year!

Fireworks in the Sentrum 

Hi all! I hope all of you had a lovely time celebrating 2011 and ringing in 2012. We had the bestest time hanging out at a Stavanger bar with some friends and Mr. Sunshine's cousins R and V. At midnight we walked to the water front to view fireworks over the harbor. Unfortunately, what we thought were the official city fireworks went off 10 minutes before the clock turned 12. But, we were not disappointed - there were hundreds of illegal fireworks all over the Sentrum that we were able to enjoy. A couple of them even looked like they were being set off by professionals. And in true Stavanger fashion, it started raining on the dot at 12 AM, so we rang in 2012 in this part of the world with illegal fireworks and icy cold rain. Fun times! 

Fireworks from one of the Islands

2012 started off really well - I got to cross off one of the items on my life list! The weather gods in Stavanger decided to give us a break for once and let the sun shine through, so at noon, we walked to the harbor and took a three hour boat tour to see the Lysefjord. There were just about 12 people on the boat - in fact, the tour operator almost did not let us board, because he needed a minimum of 15 people for the tour to be a go - so we had the boat deck to ourselves for the most part. The entire trip was amazing! The sights were so extraordinary and breathtakingly beautiful that words cannot even begin to describe them. And I will not even try. Here are some pictures from our trip taken by the very talented Ramnath Bhat and Vijendra Bhat. 

Picture of the fireworks.
I love the colors in it!

I think this is going to be a good year. I tend to not make resolutions (because I forget about them very easily), but I have a few plans/ goals for 2012. Most importantly, I want to stop putting life on hold for other things to fall in place. In the past few months, as I have struggled to get a grip on my professional goals vis-a-vis my personal life, I have come to realize that there is no such thing as the perfect time for anything. So this year, I am not going to worry about all the chips falling in place. I will not stress about things being perfect. I will work on perfection, but I will not beat myself up if things are not perfect. I will not worry about what cannot be and what is not under my control. I will not be concerned about others' opinion of me. I will do what makes me and Mr. Sunshine happy. I will sing more and I will dance more. I will cook more home made meals, and I will learn to make new dishes. I will be more creative. I will try to live healthy lifestyle. I will lose weight and I will become more environmentally conscious. I will try to eliminate the use of paper towels in our kitchen and plastic bags at home. I will try to make my own beauty and personal care products. I will write more handwritten letters and respond to emails faster. I will travel more and I will talk to more strangers. I will call family more often and I will tell them that I love them. I will read more and take more photographs. I will apologize less and learn to take compliments better. I will give more and expect less. 

Let's see how many of these I am able to accomplish this year.

Do you have any resolutions/ plans/ goals for 2012? What do you do to stick to your resolutions, and accomplish your goals? I'd love to hear from you!

XOXOXO

Ms. Sunshine

Things you can do when you own a boat: set a mini fire in the middle of the harbor

All pictures courtesy of Ramnath Bhat and Vijendra Bhat 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Print made by Ms. Sunshine using lettermpress for the iPad

Happy New Year, Godt Nytt År, Gott Nytt År, नये साल की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं, ಹೊಸ ವರ್ಷದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು, नवीन वारशाच्य शुभेच्छा, નુતન વર્શ્ભીનંદન from our home to yours! 

I hope all of you have a lovely new years eve. We plan to celebrate 2011 and the upcoming new year with some Greek food, lots of alcohol and fireworks. 

We wish that all of you have amazing and happy adventures in 2012, and we hope you can all come see us this coming year.

XOXOXO

Ms. and Mr. Sunshines

Happy Holidays!

The Sunshine family Christmas tree

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope all of you are having a great holiday weekend, and are celebrating these last few days of 2011 (yikes! - where did this year go?) with family and friends and lots of good food and drinks. I would love to hear what you are doing to see off this year!


We at the Sunshine household have had a busy (but fun) past few weeks. Mr. Sunshine's cousins who study in Sweden are here to spend Christmas and New Year's eve with us. They arrived yesterday, and as usual, Mr Sunshine and I were running around trying to get the apartment in order before they arrived. A lot of shopping trips to Ikea later, I am happy to say that we might just have the most organized home we have ever had. 


We have had a lovely Christmas so far. Yesterday, we decorated our tree, listened to some good music,  went for a lovely walk around town, and ate lots. Today, we plan to make our very first Norwegian-American-Indian inspired Christmas dinner with pinnekjøt as the main star of our meal. I am keeping my fingers crossed to see how it turns out.


I am going to take a break for a few days, and try and be back to posting regularly after the New Year. If I don't get to speak with you before that - have a lovely Holiday season! Stay warm, if you are in a cold place. And if you live in a warm place, well, then go have a few Mojitos for me!




Much love,
XOXOXO
Ms. Sunshine

Christmas time in Stavanger

I came across this at the Stavanger Sentrum a few days ago. The first video is of carolers (I think) in front of the cathedral. There were a bunch of older kids in white robes (you'll see them in the second video) singing hymns and carols and then little kids. The second video is a clip of a procession led by the kids in white robes, and followed by people holding sparklers. The procession started at the cathedral, went around the lake once and ended at the same place it started. I am yet to find out it's significance. You can also see the city tree in the videos.

Around and about Stavanger

The harbor the before it started snowinga

Christmas decorations

View of the harbor from one of the streets in Stavanger Sentrum

Christmas lights on a tree in the middle of the lake

The love tree

Gingerbread houses at the Aftenblad building

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread castle. I would love to live in one

I can't believe this is all edible

Sugar window panes

Winter wonderland

So pretty

Ginger bread greenhouse

Yummy Eiffel tower

Yes. They protest here too. The sign (I think) says "Stop the Islamization of Norway" 

The counter protest. Their signs say "Stop the hating of muslims" Most of these protesters were young

This one is for our dear friend L. Come visit us - there is a chocolate store full of these!

The view from our bedroom

At our first Julebord - Christmas dinner at Mr. Sunshine's office

So pretty!

We took our first train ride to Ergesund to a Christmas market. I was so excited. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time we were there (surprise, surprise) and we couldn't take a lot of pictures

At the Christmas market

The glogg stall at the Christmas market 

Our holiday cards, stamped and ready to be mailed

Christmas carolers in front of the cathedral