2010

No resolutions this year but a few humble wishes......

I would like to:

Enjoy more moments

Watch more sunsets

Sing more songs

Jump in a lot more water puddles

Walk along more beaches

collect more see shells and drift wood

Grow more flowers in my garden

and

Laugh even more with my family and friends



Basically I think 2010 is going to be all about

living, loving and laughing!


Happy New Year

&

I wish you all the best year ever

Jeanette

In loving memory

During Christmas I lost a close relative and dear friend. He was my uncle and an important part of my life. He lived alone and for the most part of my grown up life we have spent all kind of family gatherings together and among those an endless row of happy midsummer festivities and crayfish parties. He had a great sense of humor and was always close to laughter but also had a dark and very thoughtful side. For him mindfulness was a natural way of life. He was an artist and painted mostly in watercolor and oil. He also made sculptures and built fabulous and enormous model airplanes. He was a very creative and inventive man and his curiosity and will to try out new things an inspiration to me.


He died unexpectedly and his death has left me very sad and with a great sense of loss.

Dear Gert
I will miss your laughter
the way you could tell a story
the smell of your pipe tobacco
and the sorry sight of your old beat up car.

I will miss your generosity
your empathy for all living
your knowledge
and your kindness and warmth.

I will miss you terribly

Rest in peace
Jeanette

Candles

Christmas at my place is mostly about flowers and candles. Okay, I wouldn’t like to be without a Christmas tree either ( you can read more about that here and here) but if I only could chose the one thing then it definitely would be candles. Nothing beats sitting in the candle light sipping a cup of tea or a glass of wine watching the flickering of the light making strange shadows on the wall and feeling the holiday calm slowly take over your body and soul!

Up till now the holiday calm has been scarce I can tell you. I can’t seem to get to Christmas, just a million of things getting in its way. No flowers, no tree, no presents bought and no food yet made….I was on a speed track towards disaster ….the crappiest Christmas ever lurking in the shadows…..

That’s when its time to tell yourself to get a grip, load Grinchen in the DVD: player, and invite friends over for Glögg. Nothing beats Jim Carrey to make you feel completely sane! Tadah, problem solved!

Then the weather took care of the rest with lots of snow covering everything in fluffy white. That’s when you realize that life is good and that good enough is enough. The spirit of Christmas is all about spending time with your loved ones anyway and not about presents and food.

So dear friends, near and far I wish you all a great Christmas full of love and joy!

Jeanette

Little Miss Sneeze

Four days ago little Miss Sneeze moved in with us. Not permanently but over the Christmas holidays. She is one of the barn kittens that I have written about earlier and she was in great need of TLC. She had a very rough start in life…..At the age of three weeks she was found in the stable where she had fallen down from the haystack. Since she was motherless she moved in with Mrs Missy and the six kittens and Missy nursed her too. Later on we learned from the school Vet that she had broken most of her ribs when falling down. She is12 weeks old but she only weighs about 500 grams which is the normal weight of a four week old. She has a bad eye infection and sneezes. The plan is to nurse, feed and love her and when she has built up a bit more strength we are going to try and find her a really good home. The kids are trying to convince us that the good home is right where she is (aka our place) but hubby is dead against it….and very hard to win over. We will see.....

Take care
Jeanette

Can opener and heavy-duty tin snips

I like a challenge now and then and breathing new life into something old or thrown away is a challenge of my choice!. Furthermore it’s a very appropriate time to do so with the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen basically next door. I worry about the climate changes and have followed the reports from the conference but so far I think it has been way too much talk and way too little action. Right now I lean more towards micro activism ….trying to make a difference here and now through little things. …..and me making art and stuff with recycled objects sort of fits right in with that.

I like birds and I like red. I might dress like an undertaker (make you look slimmer….) but red has always been one of my favorite colors. Red is for love, friendship and warmth and to me that’s what life is really about. Okay, okay I want go all Woodstock on you…..

The challenge I made for myself this time was not only to deconstruct a tin cookie jar but also to see how many birds I could get out of the one jar.

I managed four birds, small winged messengers meant as gifts for dear friends. I actually ran out of inspiration instead of material, I still have the lid and the bottom left …..not bad eh? I decorated the first bird with vintage paper but later considered that cheating ( I am hard on myself….) so I made little messages using the text on the jar on the others instead.

Peace, Love & Understanding folks

Jeanette

Knit with attitude

Pretty in Punk: 25 Punk, Rock, and Goth Knitting Projects

Punk Knits: 26 Hot New Designs for Anarchistic Souls and Independent Spirits



In my teens I dreamt of being a punk rocker but never dared.....I lacked the right kind of attitude and my mother didn`t let me color my hair black either. But the music, the clothes and the fab hair fascinated me back then and in fact it still do. So when I found these books at the library my heart started beating. Now I have a chance to get pretty in punk just by starting to knit with an attitude.

Who knows I just might color my hair pink.....or have dreads...

or yet again......I might not!

Take care
Jeanette

To have it shabby or not.....

......thats the question!

I can’t decide whether I think shabby chic is overrated or not. When I look at all the web shops and blogs dedicated to shabby chic or French white or Danish white I feel a yearning as well as a light panic attack. Most of the homes are so perfect….everything in its right place and not an object to be seen that doesn’t match the designated theme. It makes me want to scream or secretly go there at night and place an ultra modern chair or

gall green plastic bowl among all the white finery. At the same time I wish that my house could look just like that, pristine, white and clean like a freshly mangled sheet but shabby chic doesn’t go that well with a shoebox shaped terrace house from the 60ies.

Come Christmas time my yearning grows bigger mostly due to all the Christmas magazines that I read. I mean it’s called a white Christmas for crying out loud! Or does that refer to snow? This year I think I will give in and have it both ways. A vintage like Christmas at the country house and a more modern Christmas in town. How is that for defying ambivalence?

Take care
Jeanette

Hard work is the cure for hard work....

I have just had one of those weeks with so much to do that the only thing that keeps you going without actually going insane is to focus on one thing at the time. If you just for one minute let your guard down and start thinking about the enormity of it all your heart starts racing and you end up in frustrated tears. Come Friday night I was speeding fast towards insanity….knowing that I had two more weeks of the same ( or possibly worse) to come before work got back to normal again. I had planed to get some work done during the weekend too but decided that I had to choose between taking a day off or call 911. Well, 112 actually in Sweden.

So I drove down to the country house instead, the sky blue and the sun shining and I could feel my shoulders sinking the closer I got. Hubby was already there building a room on the second floor and I brought him freshly baked bread from the local baker and was greeted with a huge smile and a hug. Life suddenly felt so much better. A feeling that lasted about an hour or so and then the delivery came…..



How could I have forgotten? The firewood we ordered a few weeks ago to take us through the winter and that now had to be stored in the barn. Oh well, I told myself with a cheerful voice (can you hear the irony here?) this beats sitting in front of a computer all weekend….. 3 hours and 26 wheelbarrows later I was done! I was beyond tired but stood and looked with great satisfaction at the two neat piles of firewood in the barn. Do you know what the best of it was? Not once during those three hours did I think about work.

In the evening we drove over to my mothers to celebrate her birthday and I was pampered with a home cooked meal and birthday cake. YUM! And boy did I brag about my firewood !!!!!

Since both my mother and I are crazy about cats I made her one.

In moss.....

Hope you have a great week!
Jeanette


PS Speaking of cats, do you remember Missy`s kittens. Here they are all seven of them in Johannas lap....

7 weeks old but still a bit tiny the Vet said last week so now they are getting cream cheese and kitten food as well as Missy nursing them. Cute aren`t they?

Hearts for Rini

A few days back I got a very nice e:mail from Rini saying that she liked the hearts in my blog photo very much and wondered if they where for sale. Since I much rather give away than sell I said we could do a swap instead. I would make some felted hearts for her and she would make an ATC for me. So here they are Rinis hearts ready to be sent off to the Netherlands.

Oh I like Blogland! Full of nice surprises and new acquaintances!

Take care

Jeanette

Textile Ladies on the road

Yesterday the Textile Ladies went to Jönköpings Länsmuseum to visit the Eco craft exhibition

" The revolution is being Handmade". It’s a 3,5 hour drive and being on the road with my textile friends ment almost constant laughing and some serious amounts of coffee breaks.

There is no end to the multitude of topics four women have time discuss during a long car drive….. On the way back for instance we talked about what kind of book we would write if we where given the opportunity to do just that next year. Lisa wanted to write a cookbook, Monne a crime novel and Anna an interview / photo book with real people instead of celebrities. Me? I wanted to make a DIY book that would make people see that there is nothing to being creative. You just jump right in and do it!

The exhibition was a great inspiration for “just do it”. All kind of recycled art, enormously inspirational. Want a sneak peak?


Oh sorry, not of me but the exhibition of course....

Pimp my ride - knitting on a bike!

Dress made out of recycled plastic straps

Lamp made out of coke cans

Mobile made out of.....glasspinnar ...eh what you call it in english....

the wooden pegs meant for holding your ice cream popcicle ?????

Well as you can see I had a great weekend, hope you had one too!

Jeanette

Do re Do

I never liked hand me downs as a kid. But now I do…or at least if they come from my dear friend B. When I visit her in Stockholm there is more often than not a bag full of her wrong buying’s which happens to be exactly right for me!

A year back I “inherited” her gorgeous knitted tunic which I have now loved to threads. But I just couldn’t make myself throw it away, some of the tunic still being OK and the yarn a beautiful black linen of great quality. So I made it into something else.

Bi bi di .....

Bo bi di .....

......boo

I cut it short, mended a alot of holes and unraveled stitches and then knitted a black lace and sew it to the hem. Hey presto! Something new of something old. Recycling in ít`s most fun way!

Since I had a two pieces left I made a short knitted skirt to wear over a pair of jeans och leggings.
Take care
Jeanette

On my most wanted Christmas list

Dear Santa!
If Santa you read my blog this is what I want for Christmas. Yeah, yeah I know it’s only November but you might have a hard time finding the stuff so I like to give you a fair chance.

1. Mikaela Willers absolutely gorgeous rokoko Vase in white ( seen on the top shelf)


2. A pair of knitted UGG boots



3. A knitting kit for this sweater, replica of a Skånsk Spedetröja

5. Little Miss Missy......or

.....Little Mr Nils, the beige one. He looks just like my beloved Nasse that past away this summer. Or...

.....any of Mrs Missy`s six kittens.

She is my eldest daughters barn cat and the kittens are now five weeks old. At the pictures they are aprox 2 weeks and had just opened their eyes. The are so sweet you get diabetic! To be honest they should be on top of the list. My husband is dead against it though mainly because we have one cat already, the remaing brother of Nasse but mostly ( he says) because I was devastated and swore never again to have animals when I had to have Nasse put down at the vets. But a girl can change can`t she......

So please, please Dear Santa .....make my husband see the light!

Take care

Jeanette

Seeing another perspective

photo from blog.craftzine.com


I have a confession to make. I am a yarnoholic! I get abstinence when leaving a yarn shop if I didn`t buy anything and I can wake up in the middle of the night with a strange urge to start knitting….. But yarns are off limits at the moment! I took a decision that I don’t get to buy a single hank or ball until I have finished what I am currently working on……Which is SO frustrating but necessary if I don’t want to go bankrupt.

On the other hand people collect stamps right? and valuable art and toys and cars…..So technically speaking you could say that I am building up a collection right? And a collection per definition means something quite big in proportions doesn’t it? Thinking about it in that way my collection of yarns is really quite small. Not big at all. Could do with an added collector’s piece or two !

Oh I love to see things in another perspective!

Got to dash! I am off to the yarnstore……
Oh bother it`s 22.40.....got to get some sleep...then I will dash to the yarnstore!


Take care
Jeanette


PS My last finished piece. Green linen shawl with black linen lace.

The Textile Ladies

Anna, Lisa & Monne - The Textile Ladies

Meet the Textile Ladies, my fantastic friends always ready to do crazy things in the name of creativity. Monne a lady with excellent taste in interior design and colors, full of knowledge when it comes to design and gardening. Is currently trying to forget the 100 piece coat that once seemed the perfect spring sewing project ….Lisa, former head of a bookstore who knows what there is to know about books and has great insight in what I like. She can always recommend something that suits me. Does fantastic embroideries that only occasionally by mistake get stuck to her jeans…. Last but not least Anna, the most colorful person I have met with enormous integrity and an aptitude for creative knitting! Patterns are there to be neglected or redone…..and she always seems to land on her feet …… and then there is me who enjoys talking so much when we meet that I seldom get anything done!

Do I need to mention that all of them has a great sense of humor? Even now when I am sitting here all alone in my office writing a huge smile spreads over my face and I get all warm inside just by thinking of them.

Now that is what real friendship is about.

Take care
Jeanette

An even better remedy

Birdie flying over Eleanors desk

Just read my e:mail and had two lovely mails proving that “Blogland” is quite amazing sometimes. One was from Eleanor in Australia with a photo of Birdie. I made Birdie for her because I think her writing is wonderful and now Birdie flew back through cyberspace with a greeting for me. The second one was from Caroline, whom I met when I held a summer school at the University of Lund in 1987! Can you believe it! She found my blog and recognized me and sent me a lovely mail. I must have aged with grace…you wish.

So I think I am cured and back. I just needed to know why I was doing this and now I know. I write because I like sharing my thoughts and meet new friends from all over the world. Old ones too as it happens!

And it gets better…..tonight I meat Anna my dear blogfriend who just happened to live right across the park from me. Pretty amazing! First blogfriend and now friend in IRL.

Take care
Jeanette

Remedy?

Could this be a remedy for my writer’s block? I remember I tried something like this taking a writing class many years ago but this one I got over at Helylle though.

I just get to answer with one word. Here goes:

1. Where is your mobile phone? Desk
2. Your hair? Long
3.Your mother? Caring
4. Your father? Loving
5. Your favourite food? Chocolate
6. Your dream last night? Nightmare
7. Your favourite drink? Wine
8. Your dream/goal? Mixed media artist
9. What room are you in? Home office
10. Your hobby? Crafting
11. Your fear? Loss
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Country house
13. Where were you last night? Bollerup
14. Something that you aren’t? Patient
15. Muffins? YES
16. Wish item? Canon Mark 1
17. Where did you grow up? Malmö
18. Last thing you did? Kissed
19. What are you wearing? Long johns
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pet? Cat
22. Friends? Vital
23. Your life? Precious
24. Your mood? Reflective
25. Missing someone? Sven
26. Vehicle? Volvo V 40
27. Something you’re not wearing? Hat
28. Your favorite store? Any chocolate store
29. Your favorite color? Black
30. When was the last time you laughed? 10 seconds ago
31. Last time you cried? 1 hour ago
32. Your best friend? Barbro
33. One place that I go to over and over? Österlen
34. One person who emails me regularly? Jonas
35. Favorite place to eat? Seeside
36. Tattoo? Someday
37. Work disciplin? Effective
38. Why do you blog? Sharing
39. Skill you wish you had? Ice skating
40. Favorite trait in others? Humor

Now here is an even better cure for almost everything.......





Savannah Chocolate Cake with Hot Fudge Sauce
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
•2 cups brown sugar
•1/2 cup vegetable shortening
•1 cup buttermilk
•1 teaspoon vanilla
•2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
•3 eggs
•2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon salt

Hot Fudge Sauce:
•1 (4-ounce) bar German chocolate
•1/2-ounce unsweetened chocolate
•8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
•3 cups powdered sugar
•1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
•1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake, cream the brown sugar with the shortening in an electric mixer. Add the buttermilk and vanilla then the melted chocolate. With the mixer running, add eggs, 1 at a time. Sift the flour with the baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and beat for 2 minutes.

Grease and flour a 13 by 9 by 2-inch rectangular cake pan. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake until the cake is springy and a toothpick can be inserted and removed cleanly, about 40 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes then turn it out onto a rack to finish cooling.

To make the sauce: Melt the 2 chocolates with the butter in a saucepan over very low heat. Stir in the powdered sugar, alternating with evaporated milk and blending well. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, about 8 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. Serve slices of cake topped with warm fudge sauce.

( Recipe and photo from Food network)

Take care
Jeanette

Writers block

Have you ever felt like you have run out of words or have nothing more to say? That has happened to me these past months. Many are the times that I have sat down thinking “now I really must write a post” and then I just sit there staring at the blank page….Strange! It used to if not pour out of me so at least go with a certain ease. Of course I’ve heard of a writers block but at bloggers block? Eh, don’t think so.

My blog has brought me a lot of joy and many new friends and I want it to stay that way. I want my blog writing to feel fun, comfort me or inspire me but lately it have just made me feel stressed. Stress is something I have enough of in my life already without adding more.

So I have decided to take a blogging break!

I will be back I am very sure of that!

Until then…..

Take care
Jeanette

About catching......and failing

Naturally you have all heard about catch a falling star but how about catch a falling leaf? No? Well thats what I have been trying to do all weekend. On film! Not an easy task I can tell you! This is what I managed and it took me about a 100 pics...

When I came home I also tried catch a falling box.....with not so good a result. It hit my head....luckily it was filled with my old feltings so I am not in a coma. I think. I feel sort of woolly though, ha, ha.

Speaking of leafs this is one of the feltings that fell out,one of my very first inspired by autumn!

Take care

Jeanette

The difficulty of asking for help

I have always been rather hard on myself especially when it comes to what I think I ought to manage on my own. Many a times I have put up a brave face saying I’ll manage, don’t bother about me and then silently cried when on my own or panicked thinking someday they will discover what a great big fraud I am. A natural result of this is that I am not very good at asking for help either and this isn’t just work related but also when it comes to my private life. The difference is that when it comes to work I really think that I ought to manage on my own however impossible the task is but when it comes to married life its more in terms of me thinking my husband ought to know I need help (or a hug, or encouragement, or..) without me having to ask for it……you know, like if he doubled as a mind reader or something.

To not become the south of Sweden’s biggest martyr is something I have to fight everyday. I don’t want to be the kind of woman who turns all silent and cold answering her husband’s question of “what’s wrong ” with a “nothing” in a 20 degrees below zero voice and a rigid body language really saying “everything is wrong” you insensitive so and so. It’s not the kind of roll model I want to be to my daughters either.

Today I read in a book that the help and kindness you receive isn’t worth less because you asked for it yourself. Reading it was one of them mind revealing “Ah, I can see the light” moments, an eye-opener because it really was so true. Of course it isn’t worth less, it’s the act of kindness in it self that is worth something not what brought it about.

I suppose that deep down it all has something to do with self esteem or self confidence, a feeling deep in side that you yourself are worth something. Being worth something makes your doings not as important as your “beings” and asking for help doesn’t signal failure.

I made the wet felt with embrodery on the picture above a few weeks back with something else in mind but the message I wrote goes quite well with todays revelation as well.

Hard lessons learnt
about being
and not doing

Brings hope for the future

Being human
A human being
not a human doing


Take care
Jeanette

Wishes come true

My daughter started taking riding lessons at the age of six and ever since then she has wanted a horse of her own. Yesterday, after eleven years her dream came though. My daughter is a natural when it comes to horses don’t know where she gets it from though. Not me I am sure. It was a joy watching them together slowly getting to know each other. He is a real beauty, sweet tempered but very curious.

Is he cute or what?

Hello, who are you?

Even I dare.....a giant leep....for me

Welcome to the family Kalle!
Jeanette

Crayfish party

Do you remember I once wrote a post about crayfish parties? Should think it was about this time last year it being a august tradition thing in Sweden. Well the crayfish party is basically yet another opportunity for the Swedes to drink aquavit and sing obscure songs. We decorate our houses with paper lanterns, eat enormous amounts of crayfish and wear silly hats. And drink aquavit! My family usually celebrate our crayfish parties at my parents house in the country which is nice and isolated for the singing part. This year wasn`t any different but the difference was that I drew a blank and was the one having to do the driving back to town, meaning I had to stick with the singing and loose the aquavit. I had a wonderful time all the same and woke up feeling like a spring flower with my husband looking more like a desert plant and his mood prickly as a cactus!

I usually bring my mother flowers but this year I thought I should try something else so I made a chandelier out of rowanberries and dill. I haven`t done any chandeliers in a while and it was great fun so now I feel inspired to do some more.




Take care
Jeanette

Hazardous part two

Give me some rock music with a good beat and I am one happy driver. So I like to play loud music in my car, you have a problem with that? It’s a free world etcetera, etcetera… Oh, by the way do you remember my Volvo issues ? I saw a great bumper sticker the other day that would be perfect for pimping my Volvo, saying: Insured by Mafia Inc. You hit us and we hit you!

Hilarious!

Anyway, there I was happily driving my car with the youngest riding shot gun and the oldest in the back seat, car stereo on full blast and all of us doing some serious head banging to Nirvanas Rape me when suddenly I see all the cars in front of me changing lane heading for the shoulder. Strange I thought searching for some road block or other further on.
When suddenly……

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!

Holy crap!

Looking in my rearview mirror I saw a fire engine so close I swear I could see the firemen laughing at me. Jeez Louise I nearly wet my pants. Did I head for the shoulder? You bet ya! Did I learn something? Not much I am sorry to say. I still think music is best loud on the car stereo. I do look a bit more often in the rearview mirror though and might invest in dipers…..if the accident should occur.

So what do you think? Loud music or not?

Take care
Jeanette

Possibilities

I’ve had kind of a creative draught lately but for the last couple of days the urge to create something has started to build up again….. Suddenly my head is full of ideas swirling around like in a gigantic spin dryer and I feel like I’m going to explode…..A nice feeling in one way but also a bit stressing because so many possibilities and so little time…Where shall I start?

I want to knit some graffiti to put on a lamp post outside my dead boring neighbor’. I first thought about knitting a “hand gesture” but decided to go with “live, love and laugh” instead. It having a more “love thy neighbor” touch…..

I want to make something out of my old stamp collection that I found on the attic the other day…..

….and my old Disney collecting cards found at the same place




…..and I have so many ideas about what I want to wet felt that my head is starting to feel all woolly….



So enough writing, better get started . Just need an ice cream break first.....



See ya soon
Jeanette