AWARDS AND 10 THINGS ABOUT MEEssence Health Care

In the blog world, there are many awards from other bloggers, which is a really very nice gesture! Bloggers are very skilled to recognize each other, which means more security and confidence in relation to that other bloggers like what you do and to read your blog. Together with an award, there is also often a challenge to give the award further and to tell something about yourself…so, below my awards, you will find 10 things about me.

I was recently tagged by Borjana Eghbalian with the blog “GREEN AND STYLISH”, for the Creative Blog Award.

I was also tagged today by Cecilia in Madrid with the blog “DESDE MI VENTANA” for the Happy New Year Award. Thank you Borjana and Cecilia.

To night I also get a award from Trude with the blog "BLUGGI BUGGI BLOGG". She gave me the Kreativ Blog Award!
Also Charlotta Ward in Australia with the blog "SPACE FOR INSPIRATION" have given med the Kreativ Blog Award!

I dag mottok jeg en Sunshine Award fra Tove i Møre og Romsdal som har bloggen TOVES SAMMENSURIUM. Tusen takk Tove, den varmet godt i en meget hard tid!
Det er alltid vankelig å velge ut hvem man skal gi den videre til, så i stedet for å gi den til 12 forskjellige bloggere, vil jeg gi videre til alle mine bloggvenner.

To day I get the "Stylish Blogger Award " from Gina, who writes the blog GINA CERAMICS. Her obsession is Italian Renaissance Ceramics and she is learning to paint them.
Also from Tereza in Brazil, whit the great blog CASA TRÈS CHIC, I have receive the "Stylish Blogger Award".
And from Cotehele, who writes the blog THE OLD KITCHEN, I have also receive the "Stylish Blogger Award".
The difficult part of choosing only 10 favorite blogs, is that there are so many more I would like to honor. So instead, I will give the award to all my blog friends.

Many thanks to all of you, I really appreciate the awards. It's nice when someone likes what you do.
THANK YOU!!!
I do not have awards elsewhere on the blog than on this page, (something I hope all of you will understand).

15th March 2011, I received two wonderful awards from the sweet, lovable and thoughtful Swedish Charlotta in Sidney, who writes the blog SPACE FOR INSPIRATION. Charlotta was one of those who often sent me thoughtful greetings when I was sick.

I am very grateful for the two prices Charlotta - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

As I said before, that's all too difficult to pick out ten favorite blogs, as there are so many who deserve honor. In addition to twenty different named blogs that I want to have these great awards, I will also dedicate these awards to all my blog friends.

I want to give the awards further to this blogs:

Miss Mette

Beautifulism

Krea-Krampen

Acquired Objects

Sussinghurst

Splenderosa

Emidoras Verden

Hyacinth's Cottage Home

Willy

La Brocanteuse

Belgian Pearls

Sarah Klassen / Haute Design

Toves Sammensurium

Desde My Ventana

Hjemmebest

Acanthus & Acorn

Gypsy Purple

Bluggi Bluggi Blogg

Vignette Design

Vosges Paris

There was also a challenge to all these awards - to tell somethings about myself…so here are 10 things about me.

My family means everything to me, but it's obvious, so it is in addition to the seven things.

I have been self-employed for many years - now I dream about to take things more calmly.

I wish, that someone could use my entrepreneur skills, ideas and my sense of aesthetics… or that I can paint and write books full time and being able to live by it. My first book, which is about the Nordic Treasury Chamber in the nature, will hopefully be published in 2012.

I love to paint pictures! Although I currently are an abstract painter, I have a dream of hopefully getting an equally skilled flower painter, as Anne Just, who was / is my big role model in that area. You can see Anne's paintings here and here.

In December 2009 I get married to the love of my life, who comes from Denmark, after living together for many, many years. Each morning all this years, he has written a love note for me, and every day, he calls me at my office, from his job. I have a wonderful husband and I do appreciate it! We had a civil ceremony in the Old Town Hall in Aalborg, Denmark. We are also going to have a big church wedding here in Norway. Our plan is, that the ceremony will be in Heddal Stave Church in Telemark County (the picture below), which is the cathedral among the Norwegian stave churches and the largest of the 28 remaining stave churches witch are still preserved in Norway. The stave church is an architectural masterpiece from the Middle Ages, with an impressive and distinctive exterior. The present choir is the oldest part, built in 1147, the rest are from 1242. I'm going to tell about our wedding in Norway later.

I hate clutter around me and the worst thing I know are people not keeping their appointments – both comes in all areas...

My mother-in-law, whom I am very fond of, is a vegetarian, which is completely incomprehensible to me? For me, an very important part of the quality of life is delicious food and wine together with good friends.

I never buy ready-made, but make dinner together with Noller every day from scratch. The chefs from the Bocuse d'Or, says Norwegian ingredients are the best in the world ... we think the same of course!
My top favourite dish are fish, seafood, Norwegian cured meats, lamb, musk, duck, grouse, moose and reindeer. Also different berries like cloudberries, blueberries, raspberries, cranberries and elderberry/elderflowers are a some of my favorites. We are fortunate to live in a country with pure nature, where you can drink directly from the river and retrieve food everywhere in nature.

I also love to bake cakes, special cakes for the big occasions. This wedding cake I baked some friends a few years ago. It is a big job, but my husband and I are enjoying ourselves along with it - he also think it's fun.

Sometimes I miss Denmark and especially Copenhagen. I love the city's vibrant life, culture, parks, restaurants, coffee shops and not least, the architecture. Sitting at a sidewalk restaurant and receive impulses and shopping in the city's many wonderful shops... The picture above shows the Rosenborg Castle in the spring. Here you can among other things, see the Danish crown jewels.

I love my garden i Denmark and it's a privilege to own one! Joys are endless - here you can enjoy the nature and following the year's rhythm. Here on Funen it is probably a little too much garden (about 3,700 square meters), but precisely why we have tried to plan it so that it would give the least amount of work when it was all finished. The old garden have enormous number of plants - I can hardly mention a plant that can't be found here!

An important philosophy for me are; a house can be built in a few days, but a beautiful tree must often grow more than 20 years to achieve their beauty. Therefore, we take care og the old trees - they are the garden's soul and worth gold!

10.

I love traditions! They are important for us today and in the future. Especially in Norway, but also in Denmark, the traditions are an important way of living. In Norway, we take good care of our tradition, our wooden stav churches, old houses, costumes, old dishes and much more - all are an important part of our lives. On our constitution day in May, we have the world's longest children procession! The picture above shows the children's procession in Oslo.

A bunad is a Norwegian folk costume used for parties and holidays. The name comes from Old Norse "búnaðr" ( "household equipment", "clothing"). The most common types of costume is named after the geographical area it originated in. All counties in Norway have their own costumes, usually there are several types within the same county. Usually we use the costumes from the county, we come from or live in. The design of a costume is typically very elaborate, with embroidery and hand-forged silver or gold jewelry. We use the costumes (bunad) for almost every occasion, like weddings, confirmations, Christmas, our Constitution Day and for other festive occasions. Costumes are also strongly associated with folk dancing and folk music.

Almost 100% of today's female confirmations get a costume to the big day. 55-60% of all Norwegian women and almost 30% of Norwegian men have a costume. The picture above shows the bride dresses from different counties. Costume is festive fashion, culture, identity, emotion and good business to a price between twenty to ninety thousand NOK. Each year, Norwegians buy costumes for over 700 million, total value of the costumes in Norway is more than 30 billion.

More than 3000 men and women working with costumes. There are about 400 different costume types and Sami folk costumes in Norway. Every type of costume has its own background and place of origin. Most are made according to old local traditions, while others are reconstructed in the 1900s, based on local and historical sources. In folk costume research distinction is made between costume and folk costume. "People's Suit" is the local dress from the past, with all their variations and uses. The word costume is only used for festive costumes.

You can see my ovn two costumes here.

Lovely, smiling girls in winter snow. The costumes come from Setesdal.

The picture shows two men in costumes, which is blowing in a wind instrument on a place called Nebbet in the valley Nærøydalen in Sogn county. This is one of the places in Norway that is part of The Worlds Heritage.