The Cutest Cupcake Liners Ever!

Earlier this week Mary and I went on a fun shopping trip in downtown Oslo. It was our first time traveling there by ourselves (without Woodley's guidance) so I was a little bit nervous but we were able to find our way there and back without any trouble. Did I mention I love, love, love the T-bane system? (Oslo's subway) Riding it reminds me of my first two years of college when I lived in Boston and rode the T quite often. Although back then it cost just $1 for a fare token and here it costs $4.40 per ticket (based on the type of tickets we have been buying). But then, everything is much more expensive here...

Anyhow, on our outing Mary and I visited a fun housewares shop that was full of all sorts of fun useful items for the home. I found some pink and purple dish towels and dishcloths (Woodley wasn't there to insist that I get blue or green so I went for the girliest colors, I'm still not entirely sure what came over me, but I have to admit, I love them!) I also found what I believe are the most adorable cupcake/muffin liners ever! Actually, I think I'll have to use them for some very special cupcakes, I think they might be wasted on simple muffins. What do you think?

I loved them as soon as I saw them and I knew they would be coming home with me, despite the fact that I don't yet have a muffin tin here in Oslo. (Back at home I believe I have at least 6 muffin tins in 4 different sizes, but the topic of my overabundance of kitchen gadgets back at home is something for another day...)

I have my special cupcake liners sitting on my kitchen counter and they make me smile every time I look at them. I'm now dreaming about what would be an appropriate occasion to break them open and use them. Perhaps Mary's 1st birthday. Maybe I'll have to go back and buy another set because I enjoy looking at them so much that I'm not sure I could bear to use them up!

I guess I do have these photos now though. : )

~ElizabethRose~

Birthday Tulips

My birthday was last Thursday, February 10th and I turned 28. Hmmm I suppose it's time to update my blog bio. Mary and I had a nice quiet day at home while Woodley was off at the office. Remembering back to a delicious birthday dinner my mother made me years and years ago, I decided to make a special dinner of chicken stew with biscuits. I didn't get around to taking any photos of the food but it turned out really well and I'll definitely be making that recipe again. Dinner was extra special because Woodley brought home a big beautiful chocolate cake!

Woodley's advisor Stephan and his wife and daughter (Liv and Tordis) joined us for the birthday dinner and brought along a beautiful bunch of pale purple tulips that they gave me as a birthday present. I love, love, love tulips and this was a particularly beautiful bunch. They are the perfect spring flower but I'm not able to grow very many of them back at home due to the malicious deer who consider tulips a delicacy. Thankfully I don't have to worry about the deer here.

Ahhh lovely tulips! Perhaps Spring will come someday. However, for now our yard looks like this: 

~ElizabethRose~

More Photos of Our House

Finally, here are some more pictures from around our house! This is our house from the outside. Mary is sitting in her stroller by the front steps (although it is hard to see her). We don't actually use the garage. The windows in the front left corner look into the kitchen. Although it looks like it is only one story from this view, the house is built onto the side of a hill and is actually three stories.

This is our entry way - looking back towards the door. There is a handy closet to hang our winter gear and a chair to sit in and take off our shoes. Mary's car seat is by the window but it doesn't get too much use these days since we don't have a car.

When you walk in the front hallway you come to the railing for the stairs and off to the left you can look into the dining area. (Sorry the photo is so blurry, I took it while holding Mary and it was hard to keep my arm still.) If you walk towards the dining room, the kitchen will be off to your left and the living room to the right.

Here's the kitchen, along with my favorite little helper!

And the living room. The black thing on the right side of the photo is a fireplace. It has wood but we haven't actually gotten around to trying it out yet. The window on the left is actually part of a big sliding door that goes out onto a porch/deck overlooking the back yard. 

Here's a (sadly blurry) photo of the deck. I think it will be really fun to play on the slide and swingset with Mary when the weather gets better!

We've been able to see some very lovely sunsets from the porch and it is so nice to have the evening sun. Sunsets these days have been around 4pm so we appreciate getting as much light as we can. 

Here you can see a little bit of our view looking out towards the soccer stadium. We walk in that direction to go to the larger of our two local grocery stores. 

And last but not least, here is another shot of our beautiful piano! Woodley plays it some each day and it is so nice to be able to have family music times.

Sadly we'll only be able to rent this house until the end of June when the owners return from their sabbatical year abroad. We really love this neighborhood though so hopefully we'll be able to find another rental close by.

I hope you've enjoyed this quick tour around our house. I'll have to take some photos of the downstiars area soon so that I can take you down there as well. And now, I'd better do some cleaning before Mary wakes up from her nap!

~ElizabethRose~

OMO? Oh no!

When we first arrived at our new house I was a little wary about using the new appliances because I wasn't sure exactly how they worked and I didn't want to hurt them. However, after a few days I finally decided that it really was time for me to try out the dishwasher. I looked under the kitchen sink (next to the dishwasher) and located two packages of soap tablets. I wasn't sure which one to use so I waited another day before I finally got up the courage to try one. I looked at both of the packages but couldn't decide which was best. One had a picture of a shiny glass but I thought that it looked more like a rinsing agent (our dishwasher has two little compartments for soap) so I figured that that one probably wasn't necessary. 

The other package (OMO) had packets containing two soap tablets each, one of which was opened and partially used. I figured that was probably the best type one to try. I pulled out the other tablet and tried to stick it into the soap compartment in our dishwasher. It didn't quite fit so I crumbled it up a bit and managed to close the little door over it. I closed up the dishwasher and started it running.

But then I looked back at the box of soap and it hit me... Maybe that wasn't actually dishwashing detergent? Why didn't the soap tablet fit into the compartment? Why does it say "color" on the front of the box? After thinking about it a bit, I took the box over to Woodley and had him translate the Norwegian using Google Translate (I didn't quite have the heart to do it myself). All too soon it became clear that I was washing our dishes with laundry detergent! Oh no!! 

Woodley then spent the next half hour looking up all of the horrible things that can happen if you use laundry detergent in your dishwasher - it can void your dishwasher's warranty, you can end up with soap suds all over the house, it can break the seals on the dishwasher, it can release volatile chemicals into the air... Since the dishwasher still had over an hour to go we sat around tensly and watched for signs of bubbles. 

Thankfuly, none appeared and the worst thing that seemed to happen was that it seemed strange to smell something like laundry detergent coming out of the dishwasher. The dishes appeared clean but I washed them again using a tablet from the other box that Woodley determined was in fact dishwashing detergent. 

It has been a couple of weeks now and the dishwasher is still going strong. (Yay!) The smell has now disappeared as well. I still wonder how I could have been so silly as to not realize that the OMO box was laundry detergent. I guess I'll just have to blame the jetlag, general lack of sleep, and the fact that I had never seen laundry detergent in tablet form. Oh yes, and the fact that the box was found under the kitchen sink instead of downstairs in the laundry room! I mean, really, who stores laundry detergent in the kitchen and not the laundry room? I returned the box to the laundry room but I can't bring myself to use it. The smell of OMO makes me feel a little sick now. 

I'm just so glad that the dishwasher is ok! 

~ElizabethRose~

What's that on my sandwich?

The other day, while I was out shopping with Mary, I picked up a delicious looking chicken sandwich one of our local bakeries. When I bit into it, noticed and then tasted something different that I didn't recognize. When I opened it up I discovered...

A slice of star fruit! Very interesting. I had never thought of putting star fruit on a sandwich before. I've eaten them a few times in fruit salads but aside from that I wasn't aware of other applications for them. I think it worked pretty well on the sandwich. The crisp texture and slight acidity are reminiscent of a pickle although not as sharp. If I can find one in the grocery stores here maybe I'll have to slip a slice into Woodley's lunch sandwich someday and see what he thinks of it!

~ElizabethRose~

Åpent Bakeri

I'm hoping to take some pictures of our new neighborhood to post soon but so far it has been hard to carry the camera when we have gone out with Mary. Until I get around to that, I thought I would post some photos from one of our local hangouts, Åpent Bakeri. We are lucky to have one of these delicious bakeries just a few minutes walk from our house.

The first three photos here are actually from a different Åpent Bakeri which is located closer to downtown Oslo. We took them when we were visiting Norway in December of '09 but they do a nice job of showing off the delicious pastries and beverages. 

Mmmmmm varm sjokolade! (hot chocolate)

Here's a photo of our local Åpent Bakeri. We order at the close end of the counter and pick up drinks down at the far end. There is a great assortment of pastries, bread, hot drinks, and fresh orange juice. There is also a little room at the back with a wood stove and some tables to eat at. It is very cozy and is often quite busy. 

At the end of the counter there is always a big bowl of butter packets along with another bowl of strawberry or raspberry jam. When you get a roll you can grab a plate and dish yourself up some tasty butter and jam to spread on it. 

Delicious! Below you can see a bit of our local square. This photo was also taken in December of '09 so there isn't any snow on the ground. Right now there is definitely snow everywhere though. 

And to finish off, here's a current photo. I like to walk with Mary over to the bakery to pick up a fresh loaf of bread every few days. Thankfully most everyone in Norway speaks perfect English so it is very easy to go shopping. :) 

~ElizabethRose~

The Laundry Room

As we continue the tour around our new house, let me welcome you to our small laundry room which is downstairs. Although it is quite tiny, it is able to fit a washer, dryer, sink, floor drain and a storage area.

As a housewife with a small baby, the kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms are probably the most important areas of the house to me. We are using cloth diapers on Mary so I was excited and a bit nervous to try out our new laundry machine. 

As you can see, I did mange to get the laundry machine to work and I think I have sort of figured out the programs. I was unable to find a manual for it, although I did look online in addition to the cabinets around the house.

One thing that surprised me about cloth diapering was how passionate cloth diaper users are about various cleaning methods. If you look online, there are many different suggestions about the best detergent to use, the right temperature, the preferred cycle, which machines work well, how to add more water to make sure your diapers get fully rinsed... it goes on and on.

My method at home was to do a cold water wash with detergent to get the stains out and then to do a hot water wash with non-chlorine bleach to sanitize. After that I would run them through one more time with vinegar as a fabric softener (all I really needed was a rinse and spin cycle but I couldn't figure out how to get my washer to do that). Here I've opted out of the vinegar rinse cycle and instead stick with my original two. So far Mary hasn't had any rashes and the diapers look very clean when they come out. Yay!

Ok, that was probably way more than you wanted to know about washing diapers! Moving on to the dryer...

I was able to find a manual for the dryer in one of the kitchen cabinets and, as I flipped through it, I was surprised to note how charming our dryer is.

She appears to have quite a sweet disposition along with some fairly dreamy eyes. Unfortunately, she doesn't actually work very well. My guess is that she is a bit past her prime. Although I was able to get her to turn on and run some cycles, the diapers come out just about as damp as when they went in. Even after 2 hours of drying time.

And I had such high hopes for her!

So now I have resorted to air drying the cloth diapers as well as the rest of our clothes. Thank goodness there are lots of drying racks!

One other interesting thing about the laundry room is that there is a big drain on the floor (similar to one you might find in a restaurant kitchen in the states). This allows the water to drain out to the sewer in case there is ever a bad leak. Norwegians are very concerned about flooding and these big floor drains can also be found in the bathroom. It seems like a very good idea to me! I'll post pictures of the bathroom one a little later. 

And now I'd better go hang up some laundry while Mary is asleep! 

~ElizabethRose~