More windows

Promised to get back to you on the window sash project. So here goes.

For a while now I’ve been wanting something to hang over my bed at the country house, a picture maybe or a painting or some of my own photographs of the woods, animals and flowers in our neighborhood. I have never really gotten round to it mostly due to the fact that interior decorating comes rather far down on my to do list. High up is stuff like renovating the second floor, weeding and growing vegetables and flowers.

On my way back from the outing yesterday I realized that I had an old window sash that would be perfect for a picture frame. Once we got back I couldn’t wait to try it out.

I love the fact that it is old and a bit shabby....

and with rusty details.



I cleaned it up a bit and then I was eager to hang it on the wall. I didn’t have any suitable photos but you know me - I am a girl in lack of patience…..so instead of calmly wait and bring some photos from town I tore three pictures from a fashion magazine just to see how it all worked out….



In fact I quite liked the modern touch so I just might do a fashion shoot with my daughters as models ….in black and white I think. Until that is done these will have to do. I think I need a few pillows though so that just might be my next little project somewhere in-between carpeting and weeding!

Take care
Jeanette

Windows

I love old window sashes. In my opinion windows are the soul of the house or the eyes if you like. The good thing with having a country house that comes with a big barn and an equally big stable is that you have a huge amount of space for storage! So I sort of collect window sashes. I have feelings for each and one of them and for me they all have different personalities. I like to go out in the stable and just look at them and dream about what I will create from them, a green house maybe, a cupboard or a shelf.

I once visited a shop where they had hung an old window from the ceiling. It hung in old ropes that was tied in each corner and made sort of a floating shelf. Ever since then I have dreamt of creating something similar, a floating shelf with candle lights on it in silver candle sticks. Can you see it before you? The glimmering lights reflecting in the glass, Oh the beauty of it all! I haven’t given up on the idea, I will just have to wait ( 10 years or so) until my old stable is converted into my work room / exhibition room. There the ceiling will be high enough.

This is what I would like my stable to look like in ten years time....A girl can dream can`t she....

Anyway, yesterday my husband and I visited Gorms Byggnadsvård at Dälperöds castle

A castle with a barn full of goodies!

It immediately became one of my favorite places. Why? Oh the window sashes of course! That the castle and barn was beautifully situated didn`t make it any worse either.



Are they not beautiful?

They also had a lot of beautiful old doors. Have I told you that I love doors too? I don’t collect them though. This is where my husband would say - not yet!



The car ride back home became a slow one due to …..hay.



So I started thinking about different projects for my old windows that wouldn’t require a high ceiling. But I will tell you more about that tomorrow!

Take care
Jeanette

Addiction

Is there such a thing as yarn buyers anonymous? If there is, I need it – badly! I have SO much yarn. I do NOT need anymore. So what happens? I enter the Salvation Army jumble sale in search of an old cupboard for my country house kitchen but what do I leave with? Yarn of course. I just couldn’t resist it! I blame the fact that it where color coordinated and that the poor bright pink, green and orange/red in the ugly plastic bags simply cried out to me – "bring us home please! "

Usually I get an idea for some creation or other immediately when I see yarn at a jumble sale and that sort of makes me think that it is OK to buy it. But this is cotton yarn. What on earth am I to knit or crochet with that? Granny squares? Suggestions are highly appreciated!

My name is Jeanette. I am a yarn buyer.

Take care
Jeanette

New inspiration

Taaadaaa (drumroll please) Jeanette proudly presents 5 new Blogs added to my Blogs that inspire me - list today. Meet Alisa, Ann, Karin, Cathy and Frida - five talented ladies with great blogs that always inspire me in my craft!

Go and meet Alisa Burke, an amazing artist from San Diego that always inspire me when it comes to color, patterns and fabric.

Ann Wood, New York based artist making birds, owls and spiders from vintage fabric.

Brodösens Blogg, Karin Holmberg a swedish embroidery artist who uses old embroidery patterns in a totaly new way. Her blog and newly published book is a constant source of inspiration to me.

Cathy Cullis, one of my favorites when it comes to embroidery, mixed media, poetry and paintings. Her work is amazing!

Kurbits, Frida Arnqvist Engström with a swedish blog about trends in craft and design. Inspirational and always with a twist!


So if you are seeking new inspiration why not go pay them a visit! A word of warning though, once you have been there you are hooked!

Enjoy!
Jeanette

A walk through the woods

A rainy day got so much better with a walk through the woods. Bluebells make me happy and isn`t it amazing how many different colors of green there is?











Take care
Jeanette

For Norway

I light a candle in my window. A candle facing north.

A candle for all those who have lost children, friends or family in this dreadful tragedy.

Jeanette

I carry you in my heart

I am not very good with colors. I never feel confident around them. I have this perfect color match in my head but mysteriously never can get it down on paper or fabric. I follow a lot of great mixed media artists for whom this seems to come naturally. I always envy them. Clothes, furniture, interior decorating, fabric, paintings or yarn – they just know what makes a perfect match. Or what doesn’t but looks great anyway!

Is this a natural skill or something that you can learn I wonder? I decided to give it a try though, to work on my color skills a bit. And what better way to do it than outdoors. So I could really slobber all over the place….

I used a bed sheet, torn in smaller pieces. I added a lot of water and then sort of poured the fabric paint over it. A bit like working with wet in wet with watercolors. Then I just hung it up and let the wind do the rest.



I like the result of the big piece best. I think I will use it to write on, maybe a poem by one of my favorite poets EE Cummings. I carry you in my heart….


Take care
Jeanette

Creative days

Ï never went to Stockholm. Well I flew there but then I spent wonderful and creative days in my friend B summer cottage outside Stockholm instead. We laughed a lot, talked a lot and created a lot. Something happens to my creativity when we meet – it multiplies by about a 100! We had so much fun!

I helped B pimp her old hammock and making it a little less ordinary….

Old roof


New roof


I also made a lid for her granddaughter’s sandbox. You know me, give me an empty sheet of paper ( or wood) and I have to draw something on it.





In the evenings we sat on her porch talking and drinking wine while I crocheted or made flower dream catchers.



We visited The Linné Museum in Uppsala where I took a serious amount of photos. There is something about taking photos of plants…. I just can’t get enough.



We also visited a whole lot of jumble sales and flea markets and I made one of my best finds ever – a granny square bedspread in different blue colors made of wool for just 4 euro. A bargain! I tried to keep my cool while asking how much it was and B said that my voice went all squeaky when I heard the price and said "I’ll take it” Unfortunately I had to keep the shopping down to a minimum since I was flying back.



We also visited Alsta Trädgård in Örsundsbro, a garden center with oh so beautiful old green houses.



They had a wonderful herb garden and I made a quick sketch of it on my friends Ipad to remember what it looked like. I think I want try making something similar at the country house.



They also had a lovely little garden table made out of rusty iron and concrete and I just might give that a try too….

Now that I am back home again I miss B terribly. She really is the best friend ever and I hate the fact that she lives so far away. Luckily for me she is coming on a return visit in august and then we just might build something….or make that rusty table….or....

Take care
Jeanette

New friend and stash no 3

Last summer I got three big sacks full of raw fleece from a friend who keeps sheep. I meant to use it in my garden since it is a great way for keeping the field rabbits and deer at bay. They hate the smell apparently. As I was spreading the wool around my plants I opened one sack at the time and the last one contained the most beautiful white wool and I hadn’t the heart to use it for gardening.

I kept it but wasn’t quite sure what to do with it or how to wash it. I knew I wanted to use it for my felting but how to go about it? I searched the net and tried different ways of washing it and have now found a method that works for me. I have also tried felting the raw wool and I am keen to try it out even more. I also want to try dyeing it and spinning it with a drop spindle.

This summer I would be getting even more wool from my friend. She is just interested in breeding you see, she keeps a special and very old, almost extinct race of sheep and don’t want the wool. In fact I would get ALL her wool! From 43 sheep!!!! On the first day of my vacation I drove down to collect it and made a very special friend….

This is Eleanor, my new BFF. She adopted me and so did her beautiful daughter Snowwhite.

She is very cuddly and wants you to scratch her behind her ears all the time. If you stop, she kindly nudges you with her nose just to say “you haven’t forgotten about me have you” .

All the sheep are very friendly and love their owner and she loves them right back. When she has to have any of them put down she drives them to the Vet in the back of her car crying all the way….



I spent all the afternoon together with the sheep but finally I had to leave and go get the wool. It was an absolutely silly amount of wool ...... Although I have already used a whole lot in my garden I still have plenty left.

So I have built up a new stash of woolsacks in my old stable.

Now I definitely will have to try other ways of using it - like dyeing or spinning. Lucky for me my friend Heather at Wool Love – functional fiber art has given me a lot of good tips. Can`t wait to try them out.

But first I am off to Stockholm to meet another BFF, my dear friend B.

See you all in a couple of days!

Take care
Jeanette

All in a days work - vacation project no 2

Today I started on another vacation project. Not a fun one but a long avoided and dreaded task….weeding my big yard at the country house. I have managed to keep the worst at bay up at the house but outside the barn and the old stable it looks like a rainforest.
It’s a gravel stone yard and my husband does must of it by using a lawn mower with a sort of raking thingy at the back of it….Oh yes he drives it of course. Unfortunately the machine leaves about half a meter close to the house and that is where I come in……




But today was the day when my days of weeding would finally be over. I had a plan! I was going to clear the ground from weeds, cover it with a mulching sheet and then make a flower bed. So? Well, by making the flower bed a meter wide my husband would be able to drive the mower along side of it and hey presto, no more weeding for me. Woohoo, am I good or what?

Two hours, four wheelbarrows and an almost broken back later I was done! Now it was just the fun stuff left. Planting the plants.



This is when I went into denial folks; totally forgetting that under the gravel is an old cobble stone yard. I had 16 plants to plant. 16 not very big plants! It took me four hours to dig 16 freaking holes mostly using an iron bar lever. Some of the stones where so big and heavy that I actually wept from fatigue… The only thing that kept me going was the thought of not doing any weeding anymore.

Killer stones!



Here is the finished result.

I know it doesn`t look like much to brag of right now. But give it a year, then the Hosta will cover the mulching sheet, the Clematis will climb high on its pillar, the box ball will be bigger and the honey suckle will be covering the stones - hopefully. But best of all, next year I will do no more weeding !!!!

The white stuff along the stone border? Well that is raw wool used for damage control, keeping the field rabbits and deer from breakfasting on the plants! I meant to cover it with another row of stones but I just couldn’t manage to lift another stone ….. But tomorrow is another day….

Take care
Jeanette


PS Life in the country isn’t entirely bad. At the end of the day when I walk down my driveway enjoying the stillness and the insects settling for the night – then I feel blessed!

Vacation project

I found this beautiful pillow case at a jumble sale recently. I love the pattern and the color! 1970:ies – you rock! The minute I laid eyes on it I knew I wanted to make a skirt out of it but being on the plus side made me in somewhat lack of fabric. So I decided that I would make a “striped” skirt using the pillow case for the front and back and adding brown linen fabric on the sides. Buying the linen I first meant to go for a purple one but chickened out and bought brown instead.



My daughters would have totally freaked out otherwise….Come to think of it, it`s not the linen that is the problem. It`s the flower pattern. So they will freak out anyway. Ha, ha!

Will keep you posted on the progress….

Take care
Jeanette

My stash – 2

Here is another pile that is growing - my embroidery yarn. I inherited some from my mother in law but have also bought lots and lots at jumble sales. This is one of my boxes, I have two glass jars full too. I like to store them in jars so I can watch all the beautiful colors. That too gives nourishment to my creativity.



I also buy a lot of table runners with embroidery already on them. You can find them for practically nothing on jumble sales. Sad really, how all that hard work is sold for next to nothing. I like to “recycle” them and make something else out of them. Using them in a new way is a kind of homage to the ladies that once did the embroidery….



On these two I plan to add a message…

Normal people worry me

and

No shit Sherlock!


A little vacation project….

Take care
Jeanette

My stash - 1

My pile of kettle holders is growing. You can get them at a bargain on every jumble sale and I just can’t stop buying them…. I think they are so lovely. The colors, the pattern, the texture – it all nourishes my creativity. Sometimes I just play around with them. Making different color schemes.










I plan to make a bedspread one day…..But I might start with a pillow cover, a patchwork kettle holder pillow cover. How about that eh?

I just have to figure out how to “sew” them together in a nice way. Crochet maybe?

Take care
Jeanette