Paperwork

The word paperwork has a bit of a negative ring to it hasn’t it? A pile of paper, deadlines to make and a very high stress level is what the word usually means to me anyway. But today I did some paperwork that was entirely to my taste – paper mache!

I spent this Sunday afternoon making tiny teacups in paper mache after finding a great pattern at Ann Woods’s blog. Ann Wood is one of my favorite artists and her blog is a treat. She makes the most exquisite little birds in vintage fabric not to mention her owls. She names them all which I think is a very nice way of bringing them all to life. Go make her a visit!

After making three teacups I had so much fun I just had to make tiny little saucers to them too. Now I have to wait for them to dry before I can add paint and other embellishments. No problemo my friends. Not for a woman with my kind of patience. You didn’t buy that ? My luck then that you can’t see me standing here with my blow dryer…

Hope you had a lovely day too!

Jeanette

Paper & cloth

…..and some embroidery.

As I have said before I am completely hooked on embroidery. I try to manage to do some everyday even if it is only for a couple of minutes. The feel of the fabric under my fingers and the needle going up, down forming a pattern almost without my thinking is so very calming and relaxing after a stressful day. Lately I have done tiny embroideries of women – strong women! I have made them with a friend in mind and I have a nice little pile of them now.

I wanted to find a way of combining them and this weekend I tried different ways of sewing my embroidery on to paper. I also wanted to add a “vintage” feel to some of the linen fabric I used so I colored it with tea.





I first sew each piece of embroidery on to a book page, the text of each page matching the woman’s character in some way.





Then I sewed them all on to a big aquarelle paper. But first I painted that too with tea to get a nice beige color for the background. I wrote a few messages here and there and added a drawing. I don’t know if I am entirely finished yet but I am slowly getting there…. and I have great fun while doing so!


Take care
Jeanette

Hope

It has been freezing cold the last couple of days and winter is still holding Sweden in a firm grip. I am getting almost desperate and I long for spring something awful. Today something had to be done if I wasn’t to loose it completely. So when in need….visit a florist or a nursery. I bought lovely spring flowers for all my windows and a serious amount of seeds.

I actually have a plan for what to grow this year and I brought a written shopping list to the shop. The list is amazing in it self but more amazing is the fact that I actually stuck to it!!! It could have something to do with the ridiculous amount I had allowed myself to buy…



I now have seeds for both vegetables and summer flowers and the flowers annual as well as perennial. Boy will I have a full green house in a month or two.

This is what it looked like last year. Then I just planted about 1/3 of this years amount but on the other hand I didn`t have a proper green house then just these two tiny "tents".



The hard thing now will be not to plant the little buggers too early. But since I am a tower of strength this will of course not be a problem. You can sense some irony here huh?

Take care
Jeanette

Tadahhhhhh - drumroll..

The winner of my OWOH doorprize is ......




Susan



from Threads of Inspiration

Susan has a fantastic blog so go check it out.

A funny thing is that Susan also had a heart as a doorprize over at her blog. Not just a heart but a Swedisk looking one too - design wise that is. And now a heart from Sweden is heading her way....I lovely coincidence of OWOH.

Congrats Susan! I will be contacting you about where to send it!

Jeanette

Not on Valentines Day

I am not very fond of Valentines Day. I don’t like anyone – tradition or not – to tell me when to celebrate love or how to do it for that matter. For me it is important to show and share my love everyday.

I like hearts though and also crafting with hearts as a theme. Today I just played around with different ways to create a heart shape.

Key to your heart

A letter of love

Sent with express delivery

Message in a bottle

My love is all buttoned up

With love to you all - not on Valentines Day but always

Jeanette

Rasta goes skiing

In about a week’s time my husband and the daughters are going skiing. I am so NOT going! Ever since my childhood I have had this hate relationship with anything that is slippery under my feet. My dad and twin sister were both very good at ice skating and skiing but I spent more time hitting the ground hard than I care to tell you about. Luckily for me neither of my daughters has inherited my fears – they gladly ice skate and ski, use skateboards and rollerblades (eeek) and last year my youngest tried snow board and was hooked. This snow board thing comes with a certain kind of fashion I have been told…by my daughter. So a couple of days ago she put in an order for a multi colored cap to match her newly bought bright blue skiing pants. Did I knit one? You bet ya! Much more fun than my husbands socks which by the way I haven’t finished yet….

Bibidi




Bobidi




Boo




This is a picture of me ice skating. It is three years ago I think and the last time I tried. Ever! It will NEVER happen again. The red blurry thing flopping desperately with its arms is me. The beautiful grey girl holding me in a steady grip is Johanna my eldest. Sorry about the lousy photo quality. It is not due to the speed I am having though. Emma, my youngest was laughing so hard she couldn’t keep the camera still.

Take care

Jeanette

A word of wisdom

This is a note I have on my bulletin board.

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

I hope I have a whole lot of WOO HOO left in my life!

Take care
Jeanette

Another kind of art

As I cycled home on my bike through the park yesterday I saw a strange looking tree in the distance. When I came closer I saw that it was a kind of exhibition done by very young artists. It was a pacifier tree.

Small children that had “outgrown” their beloved pacifiers had hung them on the tree as a way of saying good bye to them. There was no children around at the time but being a parent I could see the picture so clearly in my mind – the mum or dad telling the child that he or she was to old to be needing a pacifier, encouraging them to choose a branch and lifting them up so that they could hang them there themselves.

The pacifiers where all very beautifully displayed

and some had even hung a tiny little good bye letter together with the pacifiers.

I had a lump in my throat as I stood there looking at the tree and remembering my eldest daughters tears when she put all her pacifiers in a big envelope sending them off to one of our friends newborn baby. Saying that she was a big girl now and the baby needed them better. I also remembered how I found her later the same afternoon hiding under her bed and joyfully sucking on a pacifier she had found under her pillow. It is no easy thing to be a big girl!

As I continued my ride home I was thinking that it was a tree of love and that art is all around!

You just have to keep your eyes open. Both for the art and the love.

Take care
Jeanette

Inspirational Sunday

This weekend I visited two exhibitions with embroidery as a theme. The first one was held at a Gallery Krets in Malmö. A small gallery but with interesting art and never ever mainstream. They have an ongoing exhibition - Baldness Pleasure with French artist Isabelle Boinot. Open until February 27.

Why bald men? This is the artists answer on the gallery homepage

”I really like men with baldness. It's for me a sign of virility, but it's not very pleasant for them and their ego, so it's a perfect mix of hero and anti-hero, strength and weakness. Also, as I like contrasts and ambiguity, I find it interesting to let those guys play together.”
I found the exhibition extremely inspirational – red and blue the way you do traditional embroidery but with a whole new expression. As some of you know I have done a few embroideries’ in red based on my sketches already and this exhibition really inspired me to go on and explore that further.



I know most of you don’t live in Sweden and can visit the Gallery Krets but if you like to see more of Isabelle Boinot work do visit her homepage

Do you remember my vintage altered wall hanger I had at my exhibition last summer? Sorry about the lousy photo. Took it with my cell phone.

Anyway, I suppose that was why I felt right at home at the second exhibition. It was held at Gallery 21 and was called “Welcome to Hell by the artist Ella Tillema.

She uses vintage wall hangers and table runners and gives them an embroidered message which is far from their first cozy appearance.

Like an embroidered surveillance camera for instance! A whole wall was devoted to wall hangers with all kind of ironic messages.

Oh you want a translation do you? Well, here are some of them:

“Think about death”
“Time is money”
“Shame on you”
“Global break down”
“The party is over”
“Sex and violence”
“Thanks for nothing”

Now wouldn`t you like to wake up every morning and read " Think about death". Guess that would brighten up your day some eh?

I had a great sunday! Now I can’t wait to get back to my own embroidery. A pity the weekend is almost over.

Take care
Jeanette

Going to knit my own sandals eh?

My husband wanted a pair of new socks for his hiking boots for Christmas. He wanted them in 100 % wool. I went in and out of shops not finding one single pair that didn’t have some percentage of synthetic fibers in them. So for Christmas I gave him wool, a pattern and a promise of me knitting them….

I have knitted a lot of things and would call myself a rather experienced knitter but I have never knitted socks before. Mittens yes but socks know. Why? Well I never really got the hang of the heel knitting thing. I started on both pair of socks and knitted as far as the heel…..then it was time to call in a professional – Anna!

This is Anna. She is one of my best friends, a fabulous person and a great creator of all kind of stuff among which is knitting socks! So when I sent up my smoke signals there she was spending an entire afternoon trying to teach me. We sat side by side knitting a sock each taking one step at the time.

- Now you have eight stitches left on your fourth needle Anna said.
- Eh, nope. I have nine…..I said.

Big sigh from me and laughter from Anna and then we had to start all over again. She has patience my Anna but then she used to be a teacher. 3 hours, a zillion cups of tea later and by the time Anna had to leave for home both heels where knitted. Now I can continue on my own.

Anna you rock !!!



In my last post I wrote about being a full member of knit your own sandals brigade. The meaning of that is sort of different of course but if you where to take it literally well I wouldn’t produce a lot of sandals would I. For obvious reasons.

Have a great day!
Jeanette


PS Sorry that I am being a bit low on the blog posting level right now. I am flying on the wings of OWOH and I’m kept busy with reading fantastic Blogs. See you in a while…