So good fortune brought me the last of my exchange Christmas tree ornaments. This hand-painted angel is from Tammy in Canada. She is such a talented painter, so fond of glitter and the most beautiful soul in all of Canada, that´s for sure!

Most of my Christmas-decoration is cleared away, but there are exceptions:

This big lilac is standing on my work-table, and at night the scent is so strong and ever so lovely. It´s definitely my favorite Christmas-flower. As a bonus, I can plant it in the garden in the spring, and it will flower again during the summer. Perfect!

From her lovely mother Karla (and my when-I´m-away-from-home-mother-to-borrow), this incredible little bird. Notice the vintage diamond necklace!

And from Mystele, this fun&funky-dangling-do-bits with the painted lady.

Mystele is going to be teaching at this e-course that you might want to check out.  I´m thinking about joining in, it looks like a great course.

After days of not doing much, we needed to get out to see some culture and friends!

We finally got to see Scenekraft´s Rabinowitz. A very strong theatre-drama about “the man who loved Haugesund”. They did a wonderful job telling his story! If you live on the west-coast, be sure to see their next show. They are just really, really good!

And last night, Anne´s annual singing-party took place. This is such a great idea. I mean, it´s fun to get together and talk and eat. But add singing as a planned part of the evening, and be amazed at how much fun it is! A piano, a couple of guitars, even an accordion… and sing away!

I totally have to add this to next years activity calendar!

Look at this incredible tempting yarn I got! I am making patterns in my head, trying to figure out the very best way to use these textile treasures. Hand-dyed, hand-spun… will be hand-knit of course. Long time project. Long-time projects are good too, every now and then.

The yarn is from ColorCrazeFiber on Etsy.

A little bit of cozy-on-the-couch… Karoline, Diana and Axel.

A little bit of fresh-air-in-the-rain.

A winner from the fourth advent goody give-away: Debra from Skilled hands. Congratulations! You should check out her site, she´s such a talented pottery-artist. She even makes pottery sinks! How cool is that?!

The last day of the Advent Activity Calendar says:

“Random act of kindness-day”

Go out, smile, enjoy life, be kind! And have a wonderful Christmas!

So let´s just jump straight to the advent activity calendar:

Make a photo-collage of YOUR Christmas.

Bring your camera along with you, and capture all those probable, planned and improbable and unplanned motives. At the end of the day, sit down and make a big collage of your Christmas. The way it is. What is special for you. (I know the scents can be hard to catch on film, but give it a try anyway

We start the day by eating a huge dinner of tacos! Then we put a big plastic cloth over the working table, and they get a canvas and a palette each. They´ve got color codes, Ylva makes her pictures in blues, and Bjørn Andre in greens. Ylva is seven years now, and knows well what this is all about, and what she wants to paint. Bjørn Adre is only 1 1/2, and last year he didn´t really understand any of it, but thought it was great fun, once he got the feel for paint in between his fingers.

This year, though, he simply wasn´t interested. Didn´t see the point at all. And it was a lot more interesting that Axel was assembling Christmas lights. Now cords and hammer, that he gets! He absolutely needed to some “banging” in the window pane and on my couch. Soon everybody was banging nails into my bread-board!

Well, what can you do, it´s only Christmas once a year, right?!

On that note, let´s see what the advent activity calendar says today:

Make a popcorn garland for your Christmas tree.

Or for decorating the doorway, for that matter. And eat the leftovers

Just yesterday this lovely pewter raven´s head arrived from ArtChix, and of course immediately inspired me to make this necklace. It´s combined with stones, shells and a couple of self-enameled beads from my Barbara Lewis class at Art&Soul.

I also added a couple of olive-colored feathers in there, to add a bit of mystique!

One down, still a couple to go. So while I get to working, why don´t you just play among yourselves with today´s advent activity assignment:

Christmas nuts, with hazels, almonds, para-nuts… and a quiz.

Invite the family along to a cozy evening around a quiz-game. My favorite is Trivial Pursuit, but any game that requires the small grey brain-cells to work-out is great!

An ordinary oak table-top with black metal feet from IKEA. It´s been with me for … probably 20 years now. Wow! Time flies!

Only a few little paint-marks on it, I´ve been pretty good to it, haven´t I?! Oiling it every second year or so…

But you know how it is. Sometimes all the color inside of me, just spontaneously bursts out, and on to whatever happens to be around me!  Which is why the table now looks like this:

Happy-snappy-summer-whimsical-colored!

With a little race-track stamped around the edges. (Need to go over them again, with more paint). There is a 45 degree angle about 1/2 cm along the edge. I wanted a bit of lime in there, so I glued down a lime ribbon I had lying around. Nifty, huh!?

I actually want to stamp or paint a quote around the edges too, on the top, over the pink and yellow. I have these alphabet stamps from Teesha Moore. I have a couple of good quotes, but wanted to ask if you had any favorite quotes to share? I´ll probably need a few to get all the way around the table.

A couple of my favorites are:

Start turning your dreams into plans.

Your imagination is your preview of life´s coming attractions.

In many ways, this table, with the sweet colors, is exactly that, too sweet for my taste.  But the good thing about painting is that it is re-paintable! People shouldn´t be so afraid of colors! It you paint something, and it turns out horrible, no need to cry, just paint over it! Again and again, until you´re happy with it (and have become an expert painter along the way)

Ok. Enough with the moral-lecture already!

Let´s just swiftly move on to the Advent Activity calendar:

Make a list of ten things you are grateful for.

Or more. Write it down, and hang it somewhere you can see it, read it, and remember to appreciate it all over again.

The winner of last weeks advent give-away with postcards and magnets is:

Bjørg Nina at Vilt og Vakkert!

For the final Advent goody give-away, I thought I´d give one of you a bread-bag. I make these in 50% linen/ 50% cotton, the motif is silk-screened on, with text from “On the shores”, and one of the 1004 islands in Bømlo. (Bread not included

Want to win?

Here’s 3 ways to Enter:

1. Leave a comment on any of my posts in the past week, and get an entry.

2. If you leave a comment on this post telling me your wish for the new year, you get 2 entries!

3. Promote my giveaway on your blog and get 3 entries! Feel free to pull this image to use on your blog. And don’t forget to leave me a comment so I know you did.

Mr. Random will tell me who won the Christmas day. 

So. What does the Advent activity calendar have in store for us today?

Learn how to play Silent Night on the piano.

If you don´t have a piano, learn to play it on the guitar. If you don´t have a guitar, learn all the verses by heart and sing it. This way you can really chime in, on Christmas eve.

Well, you´ve guessed it. I´m going to Artfest again. This will be the last time Teesha is organizing this amazing, creative event. There are still a few spots left, and if you ever thought of going, it´s pretty much now or never! (Click on the picture below, and be tempted!)

And if you by chance don´t know Teesha´s art, i tell you, it´s a well of inspiration! (Click on the picture below, and have a peek yourself. )

My favorite Christmas flower, simply because they make the whole house smell divine!

So what strange, little task is i the advent activity calendar today?

Indoor bowling with an orange and empty plastic bottles.

Use 6 or 10 empty plastic soda-bottles, and set them in a triangle at the end of the hallway. Take turns rolling an orange against them, just like in regular bowling. Whoever knocks down the most bottles, wins the tournament!