MY BUNAD...

Here we go

This is the top part of my bunad, it even has the ribbon attached to it still.

It is made from wool, and is sown and embroidered by my own mother.

OK, I had to move it to a brighter room, with a whiter door to hang it on... not easy to take close up photos without flash... as you can see the skirt part of the dress is folded.. we call that plissè...

And here's a close up of the chest embroidery

And even closer

Now I have attached the apron, that has A LOT of embroidery on it.. this is the top part

and this is the bottom part

here are some close up photos of the skirt/apron...

Now on to the back

even the belt has decor

some close up pictures of the belt....

and some from the back

it was hard to keep the camera steady... so some pictures are a bit blurry....

this is a pocket... that is sown on to a silver locket... this sits on the waist line of the dress, and is a smart thing to keep money or a camera in...

ON to the silver

this piece is worn in the neck part of the shirt... I didn't have my shirt around, it is white linen, and has the same embroideries as the dress.. only it's all white.

This next one is big, and sits on the chest part

and we have cuffs and earrings to match

I found this picture of a girl modeling the dress, and as you can see, she has the shirt and the special shoes as well... I forgot to take photos of the shoes.

Meet my GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

while preparing my BUNAD pictures..

I will introduse you to my

GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS...

I visited my mother today, and she has this wonderful picture on the wall.. IT looks like it's been drawn in charcoal or something... it must be really old!!!! My grandmother was born in 1919, her mother in the late 1800's... so this photo could be from 1870-80's... I'm not sure.

These two imigrated from Finland to America, and made their home on the EAST-coast somewhere... I must investigate! They are buried there, their graves are probably gone a long time ago.. with no family around...... my great-grandmother moved to Portland and then to Norway... (luckily for ME )

(for any newcomers.. you can read about that a couple of posts down)

What struck me in this photo is that HE has brown eyes! MY son has brown eyes, from his brown-eyed father most likely.. but my mother has always found that special, saying we have never had brown eyes in our family!!! HM! I must ask her to take a second look at this picture.. like me, she has probably not REALLY looked at it.

Poor things... they look so bored!

They've probably sat that way for a while. hehe!!

But you got to love their clothes!

Our national costume.. the BUNAD

NOW.. this would be quite a long story...

but I am going to narrow it down as much as possible,

In the olden days people made their own clothes, mostly from wool... and cotton... but to stay warm they made pants, vests, jackets, skirts etc. from woven wool... and these were their work clothes, and for dressing up, they started to add nicer colors, aprons with embroidery, belts etc. this has been through some kind of evolution, and has turned in to our Norwegian national costume, called BUNAD.

most Norwegians owns one.. and it's used in weddings, christenings, gatherings, celebrations of all sorts, where it's fitting to wear it.

I have one, and I will go into detail about that in my next post.

PEOPLE FROM EVERY WALK OF LIFE COULD WEAR ONE.

Like the Royal family

Kids, women, men, dolls, trolls and santas ;-)

they all wear them ...

I hope you enjoyed... and like I said.. will let you see mine too... with some up-close pics of the details and embroidery, and silver.

grandmothers treasures..

Here we go...

This first one really captures how people lived before...

and I was so lucky as to inherit this from one of my grandmothers.... my fathers mother... she had this in her house, and it was the one thing that really reminded me of visits at her house.

SO although it's a little oldfashioned, I still love it!

This next one my fathers mother made for me, after my father died...

I had to take the picture from an angle, so the flash wouldn't ruin the picture,

beacuse it's behind glass.

Can you imagine all the times she would have to change colors??

It came in this frame (that you can hardly see) , and it's an expensive frame,

so I was in an Aaaww, when I got it.

This next one is that same grandmothers pillow, that I got to take home after she had passed... I didn't need/want a whole lot, just things that reminded me of her...

and I just love the colors!!!

Now to my other grandmother.. this next pillow I got when my mothers mother passed away last year... it has some beautiful details.. and is very very beautiful!!!

And on to my favorite pillow... this one I got from the same grandmother as the last one... and you know what?? I think this actually used to belong to my great-grandmother. the one in the picture that I told you about!.... Maybe this pillow is from the united states?? It looks REALLY old, and looks so fragile (but it isn't) I simply love it!!! I think this is a beautiful piece of art!!


and here's a close up for you Jessica ;-)

All these things, don't really fit in at my house, but they are so dear to me... so I don't really care!

I have table cloths and pillow cases too.. but I am going to save that for later!!

Hope you enjoyed!

States I've visited...

USA is in my ♥

Someone asked me if I have ever been to

the United states...

YES I have :)

Here are the states I've been in:

MINNESOTA (lived there for a year)

MONTANA (just a short visit)

OREGON (visited for a while)

NORTH DAKOTA (just a short visit)

NEVADA (just a short visit)

NEW YORK (just short visits)

IOWA (been there alot)

ILLINOIS (visited for a while)

CALIFORNIA (lived there for a year)

ARKANSAS (never been there, but wish I had..notice the first letters.. haha)

and I have been to:

SOUTH DAKOTA (visited for a while)

WISCONSIN (just short visits)

WYOMING (just a short visit)

I will tell you more stories from my visits over there.

I so hope to come back some day... bring my whole family and travel alot!!!

I love America!!!!

Story time....

Let me tell you a story.... once upon a time (that's how all great stories start) there was a couple from Finland... they decided to take the big leap and sail across the Atlantic... and somehow they made it there.. and ended up on the east coast of America... and this is where my great-grandmother was born.. her name was Maria Alina Dahl .... she grew up an american citizen.. and at some point in her life ( I am not sure of any details) she met a boy called Jacob Benjamen, but had called himself Jack to make it a bit easier, son of Elias, so called himself Ellison . His full real name was Jacob Benjamen Myklebust, kind of tough to pronounce in english.. therefor he ended up called Jack Ellison....

Anyway.. these two met, fell in love and made their home in Portland, Oregon. In one of those beautiful tudor style-houses .. looking something like this:

I found this house off the internet, but I remember the photo of their house, and it looked very much like this one... beautiful if you ask me..

Well, anyway, they got married and had a baby boy called Eldor... a couple of years later they were expecting another baby, but that is when Jack got words from his family back home in Norway.. his father had died, and he had inherited the farm, and needed to come home..

so imagine this beautiful woman here

pregnant, and travelling from Portland, Oregon... across america in 1919... and then across the Atlantic, to her new home on a farm... a tiny Norwegian house, but huge farm... and alot of work ahead of them.

They made it to Norway safe and sound, and my grandmother was born on june 7th 1919. They must've really loved eachother to make such a huge change of lifestyle.... my great-grandmother didn't even know the language... but I remember her speaking a mix of norwegian, swedish(learned from her parents and swedish relatives) and english...

And this is how and why I came to be so interested in America in the first place... You can imagine all the stories I have heard over the years...

HaLlOwEeN !!!! Boooo!!

My pumpkin

there's no tradition for halloween in our country, but being who I am, and having lived "over there" for a couple of years of my life, I still think it's a bit fun to carve a pumpkin, if I can find one.. (not always as easy as it might seem)

This year I did, and I made it into a

happy smiler :-D

My daughters birthday is on halloween, so I like to make this day a little bit special for her. They don't always go "trick or treat"-ing, because it's not "in our blood" and the poor old people around here don't much like it, and get a bit scared seeing all the monsters and spooky creatures they dress up as.. but sometimes they do, and I have told them they don't really have to be scary.

This year my daughter turned 13 (magic number) and went out with a couple of girlfriends, when they came back they said... "never again, this was embarrasing.. there were only kids out there.. with their parents mostly!" so this was her last year dressed up for halloween and trick or treat-ing!!

She is all grown up it seems. ;-)