Lookie what she bought

So did I hit the yarn shops yesterday? You bet ya!

Did I come home empty-handed? Not likely!

I bought a lovely brown linen yarn for my asymmetrical tunic and a nice soft green wool mix for my socks. I had every intention of stopping there but when I was about to leave the shop my eyes caught sight of the most gorgeous Mediterranean blue linen and cotton mix. A must have. I convinced myself (no hardship….) that it would be perfect for a little top to wear on my vacation in Thailand that is due in two weeks. I would color match the sea! Wohoo!

Naturally I had to get started at once, don’t want to finish it on the plane…..

Take care
Jeanette

Knitting desperation

I always and I mean ALWAYS have one ongoing knitting project but more often than not I have at least two or three! Over the years this has resulted in a few (!) never finished or totally forgotten ones too….. Once when I moved I found a half finished sweater in a plastic bag behind my sofa. I could have knitted a new sweater just using the dust bunnies. Uck!

But now something very disturbing has happened. I am without a knitting project and it’s driving me crazy. I suddenly realized that knitting is like a drug…. and that I am in desperate need of a quick fix. So I dug around in my work room where I have a lot of yarn lying about but none of it inspired me ….I found some of those unfinished projects too ….but needless to say they didn’t inspire me one bit either.

Desperately browsed through my favourite knitting site and found this:

A beautiful asymmetrical linen tunic

Socks to die for....but a bit to complicated I think. I have never knitted socks before.

Think I will start out with these instead. My dear blog and IRL friend Anna has promised to help me......

And if I could crochet I would do this one. SO beautiful! But I better stick to knitting. This would definitely be an unfinished project....


Now I have to hit the yarn shops!

Just might shop material for all of them…..


Be right back
Jeanette

15 years today

What ever happened to all those years? Feels like it is only days or hours maybe since I held her in my arms for the very first time and now she is soon grown up. This little girl with her blue eyes and a big smile for everyone she met.

A happy baby
A happy little girl
A happy teenager.





Happy birthday Emma!

I love you baby!
Mummy

Wool, rabbits and The Mandelmann gardens

If you are in the neighborhood of Rörum do visit the Madelmann gardens. I did yesterday and it was very inspirational. It’s not really just a garden but a farm dedicated to ecological farming where sheep, cows, hens and pigs all are an important part of the eco farming system. Gustav and Marie Mandelmann are the owners and Fridays and Saturdays they open up their garden for visitors as well as sell their amazing vegetables. As I wrote in my last post you can eat there as well. They have a nice little garden café with yummy vegetarian dishes and the cakes – OMG!

The garden is a treat for the eye as well as inspirational and fun. You find something new to watch around every corner.


Like this interesting “nestingbox” or hotel for owls and storks with a very special hotel clerk. This guy…..



Everything in the garden is planted in smooth curves and circles with vegetables and flowers planted together in a beautiful mix. The paths in-between the rows is covered in wool from the farms many sheep. The wool keeps the ground moist but more importantly keeps weed, field rabbits, killer slugs and deer out. But not only that – the white wool together with the green vegetables and the color of the flowers is so, so beautiful and I can’t even begin to describe the feeling when you walk barefoot in it. It sure beats treading on thistles any day!





So what ideas did I take with me?


Well, I want to try and build this little arbour in the field close to my vegetable garden and I am definitely going to mix vegetables and flowers much more next year. And I will plant them in circles and curves…..

One thing I tried out at once though.

Since the field rabbit has been nibbling happily away at my newly planted roses I decided to test the “wool keeps rabbits out theory”. I had two bags of unwashed wool lying in my barn waiting for felting projects so I spread the wool out around the roses.


As I drove back to town again I saw the rabbit sitting there in the field patiently watching my departure and free access to the roses. I am almost ashamed to tell you this but I just had to lower my car window, give him the finger and shout SUCKER!!!!! My evil laugh echoing over the valley…..

Lets just hope the last laugh isn’t on me…..

Take care
Jeanette

Summer time is food time ...and harvest time!

Looking for potatoes

Summer time and vacation time is a lot about food for me. I love to cook and I love to try out new recipes. Cooking for friends and family coming for dinner in the garden or visit new restaurants for inspiration or reading magazines and rip all the recipe pages out….Unfortunately I like to eat too but what’s the fun in cooking if you don’t get to eat the stuff eh?

Many of my favorite bloggers seem to share my interests in good food or is that why they are my favorite bloggers ;-)

Here is some of the recipes that made my mouth water lately ….

Ellie´s great rainbow chard and feta pie!

Alisa Burkes greek-panzanella-salad. You MUST try it out! It’s to die for!

While you are at it why don’t you try Alisa´s ice-cream-sandwiches too?

I am planning to make these for Emma’s 15: th birthday party this upcoming Friday. Actually I was going with an Arabic-Moroccan-Mediterranean theme but what the heck…..

last but not least Anna´s perfect lunch recipe. Only in Swedish though ---sorry!

Yesterday it was harvest time in my vegetable garden. My parents were coming for dinner so I decided it was high time to see if the cabbage and potatoes where ready to harvest. Hurrah, they were!

How about that cabbage?

A bit silly, but I am SO proud. Haven`t really had an vegetable garden before....

We had a lovely feast on grilled pork chops seasoned with fresh herbs, cooked potatoes and cabbage, beetroot, onions and rosemary stir fried in olive oil. Yum!

Today I had another feast on fresh vegetables when me and my husband visited The Mandelman Gardens. But more about that tomorrow.

Lovely lunch at the Mandelman Garden

Take care
Jeanette

PS Now that we have eaten all those healthy vegetables why not finish of with something nice and sweet? My rhubarb and strawberry pie!

Lazy days

Lying in the hammock watching the wind playing in the fields

Picking my own salad in the vegetable garden and having lunch in the shade


Watching spectacular sunsets ....

.....then drive through the valley where the mist looks like fairies dancing

Thank god for vacation and lazy summer days!

Take care

Jeanette

Soul-searching and conclusions

Sitting in the sunshine outside the little pavilion”guarding” my exhibition I’ve had a lot of time to think. Mostly I have been wondering why the exhibition hasn’t made me feel happy or satisfied but made me feel unsecure, shy, exposed, vulnerable and lonely instead. To be quite honest I don’t like having an exhibition one bit! Oh the opening night was lovely with family and friends gathering drinking cider, eating strawberries and looking at my art – a very warm and comfy feeling – it’s what comes after that is terrifying.

It is very hard to explain why the exhibition has made me feel the way it does. I think that one very important reason is that I am also selling my art and I am SO not cut out to be a salesperson. I sit outside knitting in the sunshine and almost hope that no one will come up the stairs and go inside to look at my stuff. When someone actually steps inside they are all very nice and admire what I have done but still I want to run in the opposite direction….. Could it be that artists using art galleries do it to avoid something of what I am going through???

Am I making any sense here or are you marking me as a nutcase?

Anyway, these past days of soul-searching has made me come to the conclusion that I probably won’t have any more exhibitions. I still need creative challenges though but my soul-searching gave me some ideas about that too. I am thinking about a book or maybe to do some classes ….I would like to help people find their creativity!

So many people walk through life thinking that they are not creative. But most people are, they just don’t know how to get started….I am a person rather in lack of self confidence but I know one thing that I am good at – really good at - and that is working with groups of people to make them see another perspective, focus on solutions and see their own contributions to what they have achieved. Yeah, yeah I know – how about using some of that knowledge on myself - but it’s always easier to teach others right? So I would like to explore different ways to make people go creative!!!

I love the creative process! I love having a goal and something to work very hard for but I don’t think that that goal for me is having an exhibition. My most creative moments are often inspired by a special person, someone I want to make something very special for….and when selling your stuff some of that magic disappears.

So now that the exhibition is over some of my stuff just might find it’s way down some of my dear blog friends letterboxes……

Because you are very special persons to me.

Take care
Jeanette

D-day

Tuesday was the official opening day of my exhibition. I had a small vernissage for family, colleagues and friends. It was a warm, beautiful evening and Emma, my youngest was given the task of being photographer.

The tiny little Hunting Pavillion - welcome inside

Exhibitions can be fun

Guests

More guests...but Emma whats this obsession with my bum...


Now this is much better - me and my mum


My husband and my dad enjoying the sunshine

and last but not least - Emma the photographer doing the Ben&Jerry pose. Because B&J beats art any day.....

Thank you to all of you who came and to all of you that wished me luck through blog comments, e:mail and facebook I had a really wonderful evening!

Jeanette

Sneak peak

Tomorrow is D-day. Do you want an exhibition sneak peak?

Here goes....

Cakestands made out of jumble sale findings

Close up

Bridal crown made out of wool and tin cans


Guardian angels

"Paintings" made out of wet and needle felted wool

Thank you dear Anna for excellent measuring, hammering & lots of general pep talk. What would I do without you?


Wish me luck
Jeanette

The sound of silence

Life in the country is noisy. I never thought it would be. The silence carry the sound for miles….I can hear our neighbor coughing 2 kilometers away, Owls wo hooing, Kites screaming, frogs croaking and birds singing. In the evening sitting outdoors with a glass of wine I can hear tiny little mice quickly running about in the grass and a baby field rabbit munching on a particularly yummy leaf.

Most of the time I love the country noise but last evening it got a bit disturbing. Someone was having a hell of a party – in our bedroom. Or more correctly in the ventilation pipe!



Mr. and Mrs. Great Tit had moved in with their kids while we were away and boy were the kids hungry all night long!

Think I’ll sleep in town tonight!


Take care
Jeanette