I´ve been doing sneaky things over my Chistmas holiday, and today I´d like to tell you about it. I am moving my blog from majapiraja.net to MajaHuse.com.

I got the idea of gathering my online life under one website early in December. It stemmed half from knowing that I had neglected my portfolio website for far too long and half from feeling like I had grown out of my online pseudonym. It is time to just be me. When I found the theme for my new website everything just clicked, and I could envision exactly how I wanted it to look. Things aren´t quite done yet – the portfolio has yet to be uploaded, there is placeholder text in some parts and some bits and bobs are still missing, but the blog is ready and functioning. The rest will fall into place shortly.

I hope you will follow me over to the new website and feel as at home there as I hope you have here. I am going to see if Bloglovin´can move my followers for me, and I hope the rest of you would like to update your bookmarks and feeds.

Here´s to a new year, a fresh new place to play, and new opportunities :)

See you on MajaHuse.com!

So, without further ado…

New Year´s Resolutions for 2012

• Start seriously saving up for a house/apartment.
• Work out at least 3 times a week.
• Shut my laptop every time I catch myself wandering aimlessly around the Internets. Life is too short.
• Buy less stuff. Even though I have been on a shopping ban for half of 2011, I have still managed to throw money out the window, so there is plenty of room for improvement.
• Get rid of things that do not serve a purpose. If you only really look at something when you clean the dust off it, why even have it in the first place?
• Take more walks.
• Draw more. I want to have a great looking portfolio to show for by the end of the year.

That is it! Or, to be honest, there are a few more, but I would like to keep those to myself. A lady needs her secrets, after all. If you would like some tips on how to choose (and keep!) your New Year´s resolutions, A Beautiful Mess wrote a wonderful post about the subject :)

Happy New Year!

I just realized I haven’t really blogged about clothes for a while now. I know, I know – I’m on a shopping ban – but a few things have still managed to find their way into my closet, so I thought I would do a little roundup on Polyvore. Now, to my defense, most of these items were presents. I only bought the blue dress (sale on Asos, bargain), the blue sweater (it is wool and I was cold) and the blue tank (counts as a basic). I haven’t bought my Macbook Pro yet because of some unexpected December expenses, but it is definitely good to go when January comes around, so all in all I would like to call my shopping ban a great success. The goal is almost reached, and I haven’t made a single clothing purchase that I have regretted. Internet high five?

This is what Christmas Eve looked like at our place – cookies, family and holiday laziness. The food is amazing, I oversleep like I´m 16 again (12:30. How?!) and my sister and I have made plans to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy together. The extended versions, of course. The theatrical releases, I pretend like those don´t exist. There´s a storm coming and it is supposed to be one of the worst we´ve had for 30 years, so what could be a better time to get your Middle Earth nerd on? I would wear my Evenstar, but I left it back home in Bergen. Shoot.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning and that there were a treasure or two underneath the tree for you. I was given a point-and-shoot camera, so now I will have a great camera on me at all times. Here´s to even better blogging for 2012 :)

Oh and also – thank you for sticking around and reading this little corner of the web. I really appreciate it. You´re the best <3

I just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a merry Christmas! I know things have been quiet around here lately – what can I say, I got sick again. Some kind of ungodly stomach thing sent from the inner circles of hell itself. I have been useless for about a week and a half, but today I flew home to visit my family for the holidays. I have brought my camera and laptop with me, I would expect some posts picturing Christmas at our place over the next few days. In the meantime, this fauxlaroid of me and Luna will have to do :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with friends, family and loved ones!

Edit: I completely forgot to add – if you use Spotfiy you can check out my Christmas playlist!

I was supposed to make another post for you before the weekend, but then stuff happened and suddenly it was Monday and here we are. I even left my DSLR at work on Friday, which makes this a Full Blogger Crisis™! The solution? My newly borrowed iPhone 4S and Instagram – I´m maja_piraja if you´d like to follow me. Here´s a little rundown of my weekend photos, left to right:

1. The mandatory self portrait. This is Instagram, after all!

2. My friend Maren´s poodle, Fie. She gives me poodle-cravings.

3. My birthday present from Marius finally arrived – brownie points if you can tell what it is!

4. Marius and I went out for tapas, and boy was it lovely. I´m such a sucker for tapas.

5. On Friday we went to Oslo to visit some relatives. It was absolutely freezing – between 0 degrees and -10 degrees at all times. We had a great time, and I met some wonderful people.

6. This sign outside a store reads “We have butter” – why the need to put this message on a sign, you may ask? Well, a combination of the current low carb fad and extreme baking of Christmas cookies has resulted in a nation-wide butter shortage in Norway. I wish I was joking. Some people have even been caught smuggling huge amounts of butter into the country, seeling it on online auctions!

7. I couldn´t go to Oslo without meeting up with Maria of lost in a spotless mind. We sat and chatted over hot chocolate for a little while, and I made a mental note to go back to visit as soon as possible.

8. The aforementioned hot chocolate.

9. Another Oslo must is vintage shopping, and I found this teal cashmere jumper at Velouria Vintage. It is so soft, like wearing a kitten. I´m turning into the biggest sweater snob :)

And that is it! I always love going to Oslo – it has a reputation of being a gray and dreary city, but I´m a fan. Did you do anything fun this weekend?

As you can see, I wasn´t quite used to it yet on Sunday. Winter dressing takes a certain amount of skill after all, and no matter how many winters you have seen, they always manage to take you by surprise. Marius on the other hand has cracked The Winter Code – always carry a warm drink! But hey, let´s skip to Monday and Tuesday…

Not only did we get snow, we got the full on Winter Wonderland. It is so lovely and as long as there is snow I really don´t mind the cold. It is just another excuse to dig out my giant faux fur coat, after all. A lovely blog reader e-mailed me photos from Australia the other day (Thank you Rachel, you are the best!) and I can honestly say that even though I would give an arm and a leg to visit Australia any other time of the year – I have wanted to visit for years – I would miss the snow and the cold terribly around Christmas. It wouldn´t be quite the same without it :)

We had a lot of fun running around trying to look natural while we pretended to text, chat on the phone and take photographs of ourselves, and for me personally it was cool to see how a proper photographer works out in the field. I even got to fangirl a little bit over his camera equipment – I wanted all of it, of course, but I don’t think I should get any big upgrades until I’ve outgrown what I am using now. Those things are expensive, after all – or that’s what I keep trying to tell myself, anyway ;)

All photos are taken by Sjurd Skutlaberg, and belong to Chess Communications. Published with permission, do not reblog.

The oomph isn’t completely back, so posting might not be super-frequent, but I shall give it my best. I needed a little break to regain control of my time and energy, and the pesky winter blues weren’t exactly helping – these days the sun rises at 9.30 am and sets at 3.30 pm. That is 5 hours of sunlight every day, all while we are inside at work! Remind me why I am living in Norway, again?

BUT! The solution to the winter blues sure as hell isn’t to mope around between the comfortable cushions of my sofa (although they are mighty comfy), so here I am, getting ready to show you what I have been up to. I even brought out the ink and knitting needle, just for you. While I was gone I…

And that is basically it! Fun note about the bag – I bought it as a Christmas present for Maria (it’s cool, she knows already) at a Salvation Army store a good drive outside town. I loved the bag and figured she had to have it, seeing how she’s such a fan of vintage fashion. Well, I took it out to have a closer look at it a few days ago, and it turns out the bag is by American designer Martin van Schaak who apparently made bags for Jackie O, Nancy Reagan, and Marlene Deitrich! I think that is beyond cool, and I’m so happy it will end up with someone like Maria :)

I seem to have lost my oomph over the last few weeks, so I am taking a little break from blogging to drink more tea, read more books, and most importantly – get my oopmh back.

See you soon :)