And the winner is......

I like angels.

I think we need a guardian angel or two in this world.

So the wool was felted into angels with faces made of buttons with tiny little crowns cut out of old metal candle holders.

Now we just need to know who these angels will watch over......

It is Elis!

Congratulations dear Elis. Please email me your address and I will send you your little guardian angels.

Take care

Jeanette

Creative day & a sneak peak

Today I had a day off. Before going to sleep yesterday I lay for a while contemplating the enormous amount of creative stuff I would finally have the time to do. I had a long list…. Naturally it didn’t quite turn out that way. My daughter’s sore throat turned out to be tonsillitis and needed a trip to the doctors and I had to go shop for food and then to the pharmacists for medication and….But this is what I managed to tick off my list

I made an autumn wreath for the door

Carved out one seriously big pumpkin and put tiny Christmas light bulbs in it





Went to the thrift store and bought an old wooden flour sifter, a polka dot dress that I just might be able to wear in ten kilos time, two old lampshades that I am going to strip from its fabric and make something else out of, embroidery yarn for a bargain and about one zillion tiny white buttons.

Well 830 of them to be exact. Not mother of pearl buttons or anything fancy like that just plain white ones but I think it was the amount that got to me…. They had 800 more in another plastic bag but I chickened out and left those to other buyers. Might go back tomorrow though….



The pink knitted strait jacket is also coming along nicely…..



….and I started on the gift for the give away. Do you want a sneak peak?



It involves prefelted wool, buttons and old metal candle holders. So you kind of wish you hadn’t made a comment eh? Well I promise you it will look better than this when it’s finished.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend
Jeanette

Celebration and a Give Away

I started my first blog in February 2007. Back then I wrote in Swedish and being a keen photographer it was initially a way for me to do something else with my photos besides saving them in my computer. It was also a way for me to express myself, put words not on a paper but a “digital” paper of sorts instead. I wrote for myself, not really thinking that anyone else would be interested. After a while I started to get comments and then I was hooked!

Some of the comments where in English and I started to realize that I had readers from all over the world. It was a feeling of great joy but also amazement. So I began writing in English and I installed a Google Analytics visitor’s count. Not to keep score because the amount is uninteresting for me but to follow from what countries the visitors came. I still love to watch the map and its little dots wondering what made someone from for instance China, Russia, Latin America or Turkey to stumble over my Blog. Thinking about who they might be and what kind of life they lead…..

When I started my first Blog I could never in my wildest dreams imagine that I would get a “twin sister” in Netherlands, a soul mate in Australia and creative inspirational friends from all over the world. Or finding out that one of my visitors lived on the other side of the park from me, meeting her and get a friend for life!

My visits to Blogland are a constant source of inspiration for me. There is a heck of a lot of talented bloggers out there!

Today my Google map showed tiny dots in 58 countries! Oh joy!!! So I think a celebration is in order! What better way to celebrate it than having a Give Away eh? A little felted piece maybe? Or one of my other creative things inspired by Blogland? I won’t tell you what. That will spoil the fun…….. and to be honest I haven`t actually created it yet....

So all you dear visitors out there leave me a comment and on Monday the first of November I will draw a winner!

Love to you all!
Jeanette

Embroidery, distractions and a pink straitjacket

I have started on the embroidery on my mittens. I was inspired by the lovely flower that Maria at Jag blommar made on her jacket. Unfortunately I am SO easily distracted….I found another book at the library you see and it had a pattern for the most beautiful knitted shawl. Made in mohair so thin it looked like it a spider’s web.



I know I should be finishing my mittens. I really need them. It’s so darn cold in the mornings now! But it’s like an alien force takes hold of me and I can’t control my actions….so before I knew it I was inside a yarn shop buying 100 g seriously pink mohair and here I am knitting and NOT making any progress on the mittens.

I am a weak person!

Take care
Jeanette

PS My husband looked at the pattern and wondered why I was knitting a pink straitjacket. Naturally I said it was because I love him like crazy....ha, ha

Love hurts

Being a mum can be really hard on you sometimes. To stand beside the one you love so much and watch her endure her own private pain, anxiety and frustration knowing that there is absolutely nothing you can do to make it go away. You can’t put a band aid on it, kiss it and make it better. This is beyond band aid, this is about losing your trust in someone you considered being your friend. This is a “life sucks” experience! This is something she will think back on as a life altering experience when she grows older but that’s not much comfort now is it?

But do you know what? Although I have preached non violence to my kids from an early age and have tried to tell them that violence doesn’t solve anything I must confess that my most primal feeling right now is to hunt someone down, grab them by their ears and shake some sense into them. No one messes with my kid and gets away with it! So dah! I don’t do that of course. She is 80 kilometers away from here and luckily for them so are they.

The hard thing though is that the only thing I want to do is hug her, hold her, wipe away her tears and say that life sucks now but it will get better. One day at the time. But the only thing I can do is talk to her on the phone and tell her that I love her.

Yep, being a mum is hard.

Love you kiddo!

Take care
Jeanette

Walk on the beach and heart stopping activities

Yesterday my husband and I meant to do a bit of renovating on the country house but the weather was crisp and clear and the sun shining so we decided to save the renovating for a rainy day and drove to the beach instead. It was blowing a hard northerly wind and the waves were spectacular. I love walking along the seaside looking for seashells, feathers and interesting debris washed ashore. Who knows you might even find a message in a bottle.







Afterwards we drove to my Johanna’s school to watch her practice show jumping. Not my favorite thing I am afraid. I get so nervous. I think it’s due to my former occupation as a physical therapist when most of my patients were suffering from brain damage due to accidents. I simply know too much about the consequences to feel really at ease. But a mother got to do what a mother got to do so. …

I had my camera with me and stood out on the course taking photographs feeling better and better about the whole show jumping thing when suddenly it happened. Kalle rode towards the fence and stopped like he had hit glue. Needless to say Johanna didn’t and she hit the ground with a sickening thud. My heart stopped! Amazingly enough I could still walk over to her and there she was lying on the ground calmly breathing slowly and taking stock over the damages. In a minute she was up again, grabbed the horse, gave him a serious bellowing and then up in the saddle again. Jeez, I wonder where she got her genes from. Not from me that’s for sure. God I admire her!



After the practice was over I meant to have a quiet talk to Kalle about the fact that evil horses end up at the glue factory. But then he nudged me with his muzzle and searched my pockets for apples and I went aaahh and all gooey inside.

Those brown eyes get me every time.

A real cutie isn`t he?

Take care
Jeanette

Mittens and distractions

Ta dah, my mittens are done.

Yeah, I know they look like a pair of kettle holders but some serious pimping is still to be done! Some embroidery, buttons, pearls, some vintage lace perhaps or….

According to the weather forecast we can expect cold weather and night frost this weekend so I really should get started on that pimping but unfortunately I keep getting distracted by this fabulous book that I found at the library.

Creative Cloth Doll Making by Patti Medaris Culea

I don’t give a hoot about mittens right now, I want to make cloth dolls !

Aren’t they beautiful?

Hope you have a creative weekend!

Take care
Jeanette

Findings and cravings

I had a great weekend in Stockholm. The weather was lovely and the company excellent. My beloved “big sister” and my dear daughters what more can you wish for? Well maybe that I didn’t spend quite so much money….especially when my plan was that my daughters would do the shopping…

I bought a jacket and trousers in linen and some blouses. They were all on sale so it almost doesn’t count. I also dared to visit Gustav Mellbin for the first time. This is a shop that specializes in ladies underwear and where the shop assistants have supernatural skills. In the fitting room they take one look at your sorry excuse for a body and pick out the absolute right kind of bra for you. Scary… and expensive…..but worth every penny!

Since I currently have a yarn shopping prohibition I wasn’t supposed to visit any yarn shops but you know me. I just can’t help myself and I am so glad that I did. I bought this fabulous knitting book with gorgeous photos and so, so beautiful patterns. It is a winter collection and the photographs are taken at the Jukkasjärvi Ice hotel.



This is one of the models that I plan to knit…

Speaking of winter collection…..I also visited Gudrun Sjöden and fell in love with this coat in felted wool.

CRAVINGS!!! It was very expensive so today I bought a pattern and plan to try and make one on my own.

And the mittens....I want to make them too. The coat and mittens most probably want look exactly the same but I will keep you posted on their progress.

Take care
Jeanette

I am off.....

.....to Stockholm for the weekend.

See you all next week!
Jeanette

Same, same but different

I have a dilemma. I find a sheepskin to be very beautiful but I also love the sheep that wore it. I have been trying to find a way to combine my wish for the sheep to live with having something similar to a sheepskin to wear but without it being synthetic. Needless to say, so far I haven’t been that successful.

A few weeks ago I got three sacks of wool from a friend. It was meant to be spread in the garden around my roses to keep the deer and field rabbits at bay. One of the sacks was full with beautiful, soft, curly white wool and it almost looked like someone had stuffed down a whole sheepskin in the sack. Looking at it I suddenly had an idea – I was going to make my own….

I had no idea how to go about washing the stuff but Google soon came up with a solution.

This is how I washed it...
I filled my sink with hot water, added a few drops of liquid detergent, placed about 500 gram wool in a plastic colander and then gently sunk the colander down into the water. I left it there for 20 minutes without stirring. I didn’t want it to be felted just cleaned. I took the colander with wool out of the water, filled the sink with cold water and down with the colander again. Waited another 20 minutes and up with the wool again. Now I filled the sink with hot water and added 2 tablespoons of white vinegar and repeated the 20 minutes in hot water and 20 minutes of rinsing in cold water and then the cleaning was done! I placed a wire netting over the sink and spread the wool out on it to drip dry for a bit.

....and then I started the “sheepskin” making
I spread the wool out on a prefelted piece of white wool and when I was spreading it I was extra careful to try and preserve as many of the natural curls as possible. I wanted it to look real!

I added soap and hot water, rolled it up to a log and threw it in the spin dryer for 15 minutes.

Boy was I nervous when I prepared to unfold it….. So nervous I started humming to myself “ see my west, see my west made of real guerilla chest…” All you who know your Simpsoniana get the picture….

But it came out looking just like I had hoped it would. A fake sheepskin but of real wool! Same, same but different!

Of course this is just a tiny piece for trying out the method but I think I will make it into a bag with embroideries on it….or a pillow cover…..or a seat cover…or….

Now that I know how to do it the possibilities are endless. The next thing I want to try is to color it…..Oh joy!

Take care

Jeanette

The Swedish cinnamon bun tutorial

Yesterday it was the national day of the cinnamon bun here in Sweden. Yep, we actually have one! This kind of cinnamon bun is probably more Swedish than the Swedes themselves so it deserves having a special day and it gives you excuse to eat loads and loads of the stuff..... I am no Julia Child but I thought I might give you a tutorial anyway. Here goes.

You need:
25 gram yeast
75 gram butter
2, 5 dl milk
0, 5 dl sugar
Pinch of salt
7 dl flour

Filling
75 gram butter ( room temperature)
0, 75 dl sugar
1, 5 teaspoon cinnamon

Garnish
Sugar





1. Melt the butter and add milk. Heat until 37 degrees C
2. Crumble the yeast in a mixer and pour the butter and milk over it. Mix at low speed until the yeast, butter and milk is well mixed.
3. Add sugar and salt. Mix.
4. Add flour and beat the mixture at a higher speed until you have ball.



5. Cover the dough and let it rise for 30 minutes.
6. In the meantime combine the ingredients for the filling and stir until they are soft and well mixed.
7. Put the dough on a table, knead it a bit by hand, cut it in half and then roll it into two 30 cm squares.
8. Spread the filling over the squares and carefully roll the dough into a log.

9. Cut each log in 12 pieces and place them in paper muffin tins

10. Cover the buns and let them rise for another 30 minutes.

11. Whip up an egg, brush each bun with some egg and sprinkle sugar over it. We use pärlsocker ( sugar beads???)

12. Bake in the oven at 225 degrees C for about 8-10 minutes.

13. ENJOY!

Take care

Jeanette

Speaking of birds….

I like birds but I am not all that fond of giant flocks of birds. Hitchcock has a lot to answer for there…..but I love watching birds in passing. The way they fly in their V-formation and how they always seem to find the right way.

At dusk yesterday I was out in the vegetable garden finishing my digging when I heard a terrible noise. I looked up and saw hundreds and hundreds of geese flying past my house. Eh ….wait a minute…they weren’t passing at all….they where LANDING!!!! Holy cow! In ten seconds the nearby field was completely filled with geese. Loads of them. Standing room only! And the noise! They sounded very annoyed, really pissed of actually. Was it just my imagination or was their anger directed to one specific goose? Poor thing, maybe it was the leader goose and she was lost? How stupid of me, of course it must be a male leader goose otherwise they would have stopped and asked for directions a long time ago….. Anyway, the angry cackle grew higher…and higher....and higher and then it suddenly stopped. One goose left the flock, the field and walked right down to my drive way. Took a few steps ….and was airborne….and with an enormous woooooosh all the other geese where up in the air too….In no time at all they where gone.








What was that all about I wonder. Coffee break? Change of driver? Recharging the GPS battery or what? Well I will never know will I. I don`t speak geese. But I must confess that I was rather relieved when they left. I wouldn’t have liked to have a gigantic choir of tone-deaf singing for me all night.

Take care
Jeanette

PS I got a comment on my last post saying that one of my felted birds had been found in a square in Malmö and now had a new home – in Luleå !!!! That is about 1600 kilometers north from here. I wonder how it got there. Amazing!

Elvis has left the building….

The birds have flown. Or will fly soon to be more correct… I finished them yesterday and they will fly out into the world on Saturday morning with the help of two of my friends. I have a long planed date with my wheelbarrow this weekend you see so I will be at the country house and not in town. But my friends will hang the birds up on different places for people to find and hopefully they will be found and brought home to someone. I attached a tiny note explaining about the FeltUnited and that the bird is a gift and I also wrote the link to my blog so maybe someone will contact me and tell me to whom my bird flew….

A test flight in my garden before take off

Why Elvis? Well I named them all and one of them is called Elvis…..

Hope you have a great 2nd International Day of Felt and a lovely weekend.

Take care
Jeanette