A mitten or a sock?

Today I finished the first mitten. Lets hope it shrinks as it is supposed to when I throw it in the wash machine. It is made of a 100 % wool so I guess it will felt but otherwise I will have to use it as a sock.....ha,ha!

Take care
Jeanette

How did it happen?

Do you remember when Saturday night meant dressing up and going out not dressing down and staying in? No? I do. Vaguely. When did it all happen? The slow transformation from party princess to couch potato? Well two kids happened and a husband .....not necessarily in that order. Then age hit you big time and suddenly there was no way you could go directly from the club to work at least not if you wanted to live until lunchtime and not even if you took just the tiniest detour to the coffee shop for a double espresso on your way there.

If I go out on a weekday nowadays I hear myself say “ I better be going home now. Workday tomorrow you know” when the clock has just passed 9 pm. Í have a faint memory that before I used to say "the night is still young" and then it was usually past midnight.

Maybe it’s a vitamin thing?
Or a germ thing?
Or a lack of sun thing?
Anyway, I hope it’s a passing thing.

Wouldn’t want to start sitting on a park bench feeding the pigeons just yet.

They say that many fun-loving boys and girls go unnoticed because they walk around in uncle and aunt bodies. So maybe I am just a fun-loving lady temporarily hidden in a grandma body?

Fat chance!

Take care

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Origami Hearts

I suck at origami. I think it has something to do with my inability to see things three dimentional. It could also have something to do with my total lack of patience if I doesn`t understand something right away. I have tried to make a crane an uncountable amount of times but they still end up looking like a squashed goose. Anyway, I was about to give up on origami when a friend taught me how to do origami hearts. It was dead simple, probably something they teach in kindergarten because even I got it. Ha,ha! So for you out there with the same problem as me ( please say there is someone....) here goes.

You need: a rectangular piece of paper. Any rather thin paper will do so why not recycle some old magazines, gift papers or envelopes.

1. Fold corner to corner to make creases. Unfold.

2.Fold one corner to center



3. Fold opposite corner to the top edge



4. Fold the corners up at right angles to the center – the heart shape is starting to appear right?



5. Fold side corners back



6. Fold top corners back

7. That was really simple right?

I made the photos with a white piece of paper to make it easier to follow the instructions. Of course your hearts will look so much more beautiful if you use all kind of colors. Last Christmas I made lots in red paper, glued them to a string and made garlands for the Christmas tree.

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!

Jeanette

Guitar, tennis racket or wings?

Actually it is none of the above. It is a leaf.

The Swedish Art & Craft Society is celebrating its 100 year anniversary next year by arranging a huge exhibition at Liljevalchs in Stockholm. 2000 crafters from all over Sweden are making one leaf each, 100 trees in total with 20 leafs on each one. The exhibition is called “Can you see the leaves for all the trees".

When the exhibition is over there will be an auction where the leaves will be sold to the highest bidder. All the money raised will be given to different charity organizations.

You can chose whatever technique you like for covering the wooden frame just as long as it is a reflection of who you are as a crafter. I am thinking about felting and embroidery with a touch of metal craft and mixed media.

Yep, as a crafter I have a split personality. Ha,ha!

Take care

Jeanette

A fast delivery

The yarn arrived today, five soft red balls of wool together with three beautiful cards that Maria makes herself and also sells in her web shop. I want to start knitting on the cowl right away but think I have to finish this project first.

I know it looks like I am knitting for a troll or an ogre but they actually are meant for me! I am felting them in the wash machine and hopefully they don’t come out like mittens for midgets instead. That’s the fun part about felting though. You can never be quite certain of the outcome.

Take care

Jeanette

Ideas

It’s hectic at work right now but strangely enough that also triggers my creativity. I am too tired in the evenings to start anything though. That makes me feel so frustrated!  My head full of creative ideas and no time to fulfill them. Today it felt like my head was going to explode so I had to make something or I`ll go nuts! I made this. It sort of sums up how my head was feeling…..

I tore out a page from a book (page 84), painted the page with gesso and then wrote down all the ideas I had in my head. Just for the fun of it I decided it had to be 84 of them. Then I added some color in ink and a photo from a magazine. Felt so much better afterwards! Relaxed and at ease.

Take care

Jeanette

I want one too....

photo from Jag Blommar

Today I spoke to a blogfriend IRL. Her name is Maria and her blog Jag Blommar is a constant source of inspiration to me. Today she was wearing the most beautiful cowl in thick red wool and I had a serious attack of craving! It turned out that she had made it herself from yarn she sells in her web shop.

One phone call later I was the happy owner of five balls of yarn. I bought enough to make a pair of mittens too! If I am lucky they will arrive tomorrow and I can get started at once. It felt so nice speaking to her, a bit like you already know each other. Thats one of the great things about Blogland getting to know new people from all around the globe.

Thanks Maria for the inspiration you give me everyday....and the yarn!

Take care
Jeanette

Things I Love Tuesday

Fabric from India

Hockey and wool

I had a good weekend although it started with a scare. I had to spend Friday afternoon at the emergency room with my eldest who fell of a horse. Luckily it was only a concussion. On Saturday I went to a hockey game, my very first IRL. It was more fun than I expected, well not the game as much as the intermission  rock music and the cheering. Even the photographers wore a helmet!

On Sunday I made a tiny crown out of wool. Or that was what it was meant to look like…..I am not really satisfied though ….but it’s a kind of prototype for a bigger one that I want to build.

I started on some Christmas presents in wet felting. These are supposed to keep your butt warm if you are on an outdoor picnic in the wintertime. I am going to add some needle felting and embroidery too.

 I added four more chairs to my champagne cork chair collection. Making them is addictive. Wish I could say that I had some champagne too but unfortunately these where corks that I saved from my daughters graduation in june…..

Take care

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Cake stand

I promised to tell you how to do your own cake stand from recycled glasses and tellers. Why not stick to the X-Mas spirit and make it from Christmas tellers? In Sweden you can buy these for next to nothing at the flea market.

You need: 3 tellers preferably in different seizes and 3 wineglasses also in different size. The glue from hell – or more correctly, one of those two components quick-expoxy glues. Finally you need some tape to stabilize the tellers when drying.

1. Mix the glue as instructed on the package. Glue the “rim side” of the wineglasses to the back of the tellers. Stabilize them with tape and let them dry.



2. When they are completely dry you add glue to the foot of the wineglasses. Be very careful with the glue. You don’t want to end up at the emergency room with a wineglass glued to your hand now do you?



3. Place the tellers on top of each other and stabilize them with tape. Let them dry.



4. Put something yummy on them. Here are some my Saint Lucia buns on a cake stand I made for Christmas last year.




Why stop at wineglasses?

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!

I plan to visit a hockey game, my first IRL ever but I also have some creative plans that contains felting and making chandeliers.

Jeanette

Santa Claus is coming....

I am addicted to Christmas. I am one of the few people who get a happy smile when the first decorations show up in the shops in early October, who buys special Christmas magazine editions and can ask my husband what theme we want for the tree this year on a hot summer day at the beach. I say addicted but someone else might say that I am nuts.

I love candles, gingerbreads, advent calendars, snow flakes, sleigh rides, Christmas decorations, cookie dough, moss, Grinchen with Jim Carey, the smell of hyacinths and making wreaths for the front door. I like planning gifts, making gifts, wrapping gifts, baking, drinking glühwine, eating oranges, wearing mittens, long johns and evening walks in the snow looking in through windows at other people’s decorations. I love making Christmas cards, sending Christmas cards, receiving Christmas cards, making snowmen, feeding the birds, decorate my house, decorate the tree and decorate me. I lo….. yeah I guess you get the picture!

Take care

Jeanette

The Remake competition

Stockholms stadsmission is an organization that works for the exposed and vulnerable in society. The have shelters for the homeless and some of their fundraising comes from second hand shops where you can donate clothes and furniture for them to sell. The also have their own brand called Remake where they make new stuff from old stuff .  

I love recycling. To see the potential in something old and battered and then turn it into something new and useful – that’s when I have my happiest moments.

This September Stockholms Stadsmission arranged a competition to gather new ideas for the Remake brand. I entered my cookie stand made of an old teapot and wineglasses. I didn’t make it to the finals but that doesn’t matter it was great fun and very inspirational just to see all the fab ideas for remaking stuff that was entered in the competition.

Do you want to be inspired too? Look here.   I really want to try and make the table made of books and the basket knitted of old fabric.

Take care

Jeanette

PS I`ll show you on Friday how to make the cake stand.

Things I Love Tuesday

Tin boxes

A weekend report

Autumn is upon us. Leaves and grass was covered in frost when we came down to the country house this weekend. It was breathtakingly beautiful, like the garden was sugarcoated. The sun was shining but we chose to stay indoors all the same. We put up 10 new boards on the ceiling which took all day. I know that it doesn’t sound like much but first you need some careful measuring and then you stand on two ladders holding up 4,80 meters of board while hammering the nails. A somewhat wobbly business! We try to see every board that goes up like a small victory and try not to think so much about the approximately 90 boards that are still to go….. This is SO much easier for my husband than for me. I want the room to be ready now!

In-between my husbands measuring and me needing to give him a hand I was knitting. I am working on a tunic in a brown linen yarn and it is rather boring because the yarn is thin so it was quite nice with some knitting company even if my husband isn’t very talk active while measuring. Knitting is good for doing some soul-searching too.

When I was knitting I was also enjoying the view over the sunflower border. The birds were having a feast on the seeds and although there were a lot of sunflowers they still fought about the seeds. The room we are building is on the second floor so it was a perfect spot for doing some bird watching.

I love my country house and living close to nature. It gives me a perspective on things. I could say it calms me down but that would be the tiniest of lies. I think I will always be a “places to go, things to do“ kind of woman.

Take care

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Tin can angel
I love tin cans! Maybe I will show you just how much in next weeks Things I Love Tuesday....I love them because you can make almost anything out of them. Flower pots, jewelry, candle holders….you name it! Today I wanted to make a tin can angel but you can use this technique to make whatever shape you like.

You need:
A tin can of course. A template – you can draw one yourself or find something in magazines or on google maybe. You also need some wire, pearls and a heavy duty nibbler ( also known as a double-cut pipe cutter) for dismantling the tin can and a not so heavy duty flush cutter for cutting out your angel. You also need a sanding paper if you don’t want your angel to end up as a lethal weapon.

1. Cut off the top and the bottom of the tin and then cut it through the middle. Flatten it out. You now have a rectangular piece to work with.

2. Trace your template to the tin and cut it out.



3. Use the sanding paper to soften the edges otherwise you will have made a Brazilian throwing star and not an angel. In my opinion a throwing star doesn’t go all that well with the spirit of angels.



4. Punch a hole in it.



5. Hang it up in a string and maybe add a pearl or two as embellishment if you like.



You are done!

A word of warning though - it`s addictive. You just want to keep going and will from now on be on the lookout for tin cans all the time. I am giving this one to a friend who just had her firstborn. I think it will be perfect to hang on the wall over the cot.

Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!
Jeanette

Lecture

Today I am giving a lecture on social isolation and loneliness in elderly. I like giving lectures. It is such a great feeling when you "click" with your audience and you can sence that they truly understand your message. I love when we can have a dialogue and discussion together that brings the subject further and it becomes a learning experience both for me and for them.

I hope that’s how it will be today!

Take care
Jeanette

The mad hatter

I collect things! I am like a squirrel that way or a hamster. I have a rather small workroom and when I have problems with cramming any more things in I have tried giving myself shopping restrictions when it comes to jumble sale findings or stuff from the thrift store or yarn shop. I also give myself “hamster” restrictions when it comes to stuff I find at the recycling plant, garbage dump, at my beach walks or in the woods. I say to myself that I am not allowed to buy or bring home any more of this or that before I have used up what I have already got. That is easier said than done. Mostly because when I find something I usually know that it is exactly right but I might not know what it is that it’s right for. I just have this feeling….It can be something in the shape, color or form that sparks my creativity or the hunch that I can use it to make something entirely different from what it’s generally used for.

Today I decided to stop giving myself restrictions. I mean it’s like I would say to myself “stop being creative”. So I bought five vintage lamp-shades. Because their shape appeals to me. I will probably strip the big one from its fabric and fringe and make a chandelier. I don’t know about the smaller ones. Not yet! I just know that they will be exactly right – one day!

Take care

Jeanette

  

Things I Love Tuesday

Polka dots