18 November 2007

Handmade proudly presents.....


……four new blogs on my link list! Pay them a visit and you will return full of inspiration.


Lantlif
A lovely blog with a home decorating theme and lots and lots of shabby chic!

Anna Stilla
Beautiful photos and quiet words describing her life up north. Low key in a very nice way!

Janey`s journey
Janey does incredible and colorful drawings mostly in watercolor, ink and markers. I LOVE her cats! Go check them out!

Modern Country
Another blog full of inspiration if you like your home to be shabby chic!

17 November 2007

X-mas spirit....



I have a confession to make. I am addicted to Christmas. And now is the best time…..when it’s still a few weeks away and you feel that you have all the time in the world to make this Christmas the best ever. I buy all the glossy Christmas Magazines and borrow tons of “do it yourself Christmas inspiration books” at the library and then I just sit there happily reading soaking up on the Christmas spirit. For me Christmas is the smell of fir, cinnamon, hyacinths, oranges and gingerbreads. Especially oranges. When I was a kid we had oranges in the shops only in December ( No, I’m not 95 going on 100) so now when you have them all year round it’s not really the same. But there are still moments when I feel the smell and it takes me right back to younger days….The best with Christmas is planning the decorations- both for the tree and the house. I usually do a lot of it myself and try to make something new every year. I’m not in to the overloaded, all pimped up kind of Christmas I’m more of a “less is more” girl and flowers, moss, candles and wire is important ingredients. When November comes my husband sighs and says that our house turns in to Santa’s workshop but he usually likes the finished result

The Christmas tree is a story of its own. To say I’m meticulous is a huge understatement. No one want’s to come with me and buy it anymore….Do you want to know why? Okey, here goes. . A few years back ( six in fact) I decided that we should cut down our own tree. I had this dream about us in a sleigh, snow slowly falling and hot chocolate in a thermos. That it was us in a Volvo with the rain falling was just a minor disappointment. I still sat in the car happily humming jingle bells….. So of we went to a wood outside town were a smart merchant had made good business out of stupid people like me hunting the Christmas spirit. One tree was uglier than the other. My daughters grew tired of the tree hunt first. They sat down on a fallen tree and asked me to come get them when I had found one. My husband joined them shortly after. After an hour and a half of “to short, to big, to wide, to thin, to ugly” the language started to get nasty. They threatened with leaving without me. I closed my eyes and chose one in random. My lumberjack of a husband quickly cut it down. Boy, was it ugly. No were like the Disney variety I was seeking….and I had to pay a fortune! At first no one dared to utter a word in the car but after a while my husband started to giggle and the daughters fell in and then I had to laugh too. My anger and disappointment….it was all so ridiculous. And nowadays this is a milestone in our Christmas memories and the daughters say oh yes, that was the year when we cut our own tree….

But still no one want’s to come with me and buy one. I wonder why?

My longing for Christmas usually starts come end of October but I try to hold out until the end of November. But yesterday I couldn’t help myself I just HAD to buy a hyacinth and make a wire angel…..Hurray! Soon Christmas is here!




I made the wire angel out of just one piece.....bending and bending.
A challenge but great fun!

04 November 2007

Where is the fairy god mother…..

….. and the freaking mice when you need them? There I was lying on all four scrubbing the floor with soft soap feeling exactly like Cinderella and not a single bibidi bobidi boo was heard. I just had to keep on scrubbing muttering to my self that this fairy stuff is highly overrated if you ask me. And the ball at the castle? Well not much of that to look forward to either. Must be due to the fact that we haven’t got any letterbox yet and the king’s men had nowhere to put the invitation! Anyway the finished result was worth every teeth grinding minute of scrubbing. The floor was so smooth and the room smelled wonderful. Did I mention that I really should be ashamed of myself for complaining? No? Well you see my own prince charming did most of the really hard stuff (like sandpaper down the whole floor….after building the inner roof) and not once did he ask around for a fairy god mother …… or talking mice! Who needs a ball at the castle with a husband like that!



Bibidi bobidi boo....



Speaking of mice. The rat problem still isn’t solved but I bought rat poison and placed up on the attic so hopefully we are getting there. I also rat secured the kitchen by putting anything edible in cupboards’ and glass jars. While cleaning out the kitchen I found a package of hard bread that the rat had been eating on and that confirmed my suspicions that we are dealing with a giant mutant rat with beaver size teeth. I felt a bit bad about the poison though. I am an animal lover and I would much rather leave him a note asking him politely to leave but somehow I think that a note just wouldn’t do the trick here. My dear blogfriend Angela in Australia recommended a carpet snake. Maybe I can hire hers on a monthly basis? Well Angela, thanks but no thanks. Snakes make a good second on my most NOT wanted list. So poison it will have to be.



Giant teeth....


Besides scrubbing and poisoning rats I had a lovely vacation. I tried a few different wire work techniques’ and made an angel and a “Victorian bird feeder” to hang in my garden.

Wire work Angel



Victorian Bird feeder


I took long early morning walks on my own just enjoying the fact that it’s a beautiful world and that I’m alive and well and privileged to live in the middle of it. If you slow down your pace there are a lot of life’s small miracles to discover. Did you know that you can see the sky in a dew drop if you look closely enough?



Morning mist over the fields




Dew on a spiders nest in the purple cabbage



The sky in a dew drop




Slow down and take time to enjoy life`s small miracles !