My wardrobe got me thinking..

I have a varied wardrobe. Variation is a good thing right? Well, no. In my case varied is just a polite word for not having anything that actually fits together. Oh I envy those who have a style, people who seem to follow a path clothes-wise and never wander astray….they stick to a certain type of clothes and buy stuff that fits right in there with the rest. Writing this, it sounds a bit boring but this is most often not the case. They can wear outrageous outfits but they sort of stick to the outrageous category if you know what I mean. . They are not office lady one day and punk rocker the next… Me, I seem not to be able to stay on the path…..

I love the Meg Ryan You’ve got mail kind of clothes as well as Madonnas crazy outfits in Who`s that girl. I also love hippie/grunge/skater kind of stuff minus showing your butt in a low waistline. I like suits for the office and I like colourful clothes. Heeelp! Is there such a thing as an wardrobe split personality disorder? ´Then I`ve got it!

Inspired by Eleanor I am planning a few posts on clothes. A “todays outfit” now an then, maybe once a week. At the end of the year I can look back and see where I went wrong that day, ha, ha!

This is todays outfit.

Yep, you saw right. Today Jeanette goes Pippi Longstocking. I always wanted a sweater like Pippi when I was a kid.



My Mum said she could knit me one but I didn`t want that. Handmade wasn’t really high fashion in those days but I would gladly knit one today though….

So today I am Pippi but tomorrow? Who knows!


Take care
Jeanette

I need flowers in the rain

Today I bought a winter jacket and a cap! The terrible thing isn’t the fact that I bought it now even if it’s not even September yet, the terrible thing is that I want to start using it at once.

The weather is so cold, rainy and grey right now that all I can think about is my new warm jacket !

I need autumn flowers to brighten up my day!



Take care
Jeanette

Fashion statements from the commentbox

One of my blogfriends has a newly found interest in fashion blogs…..and glasses. I have read her blog over the years and I absolutely love her posts which are usually spot on and almost always very funny. Can’t wait to read her posts on glasses and see the photos…..being a person forced to use glasses myself, inspiration and pep talk are always welcome!

Inspired by her I did a little embroidery. Of what? A pair of glasses of course.

I made sort of a collage with it and now I am of to the letterbox sending it to her.



Take care
Jeanette

PS I need reading glasses too. I have a lot of them. Mostly the kind you buy at the gas station.... My favorite pair are light blue with dark blue dots on them. My daughters say I look like Fairy God mother in Shrek. You know, the mother of Prince Charming.....ugh!

Short cuts

My head is constantly spinning with new ideas for all kind of creative stuff but my problem is that I want to try everything out at once. So I usually end up with a lot of unfinished projects. I seem to constantly find something that is even more fun to try out all the time… My shelves in the work room are not only filled to the brim with objects that might come in handy some day ( like jumble sale findings, tin cans, wire, wood, scraps of fabric, buttons, yarn, lace, paper….) it’s also pretty crammed with stuff that are almost finished. The fact that I am a woman in lack of patience tends to add to the piles too.

Today I decided it was high time to get rid of some of the shelf warmers. I`ve been meaning to do some pillows for my country house bedroom for ages and even started out on some but never getting round to finishing them. No surprise there eh ? The truth is that I find it dead boring to make the actual pillow case, it’s just so much more fun with the pimping part. So what could I do for a short cut? I remembered that I had a lot of old pillow cases that I inherited from my parents in law. Beautiful old pillow cases with lace and embroidery but since I had a lot of them maybe I could use some of them for my new pillows? Said and done.

Two hours later I had four new pillows, two of them made from the vintage pillow cases and one from an old velvet pillow case I found in my fabric pile. The last one I made from an old t-shirt. I simply took different kind of finished objects that I had lying about and added them to the pillow cases. Dead easy and fast!

Oh I love short cuts.

This one is the quilt that I made out of my husbands shirts but never made a pillow of. ...



....and this is the embroidery I made meaning to add it to a pillow some day....The text is kind of a pun in Swedish and hard to translate but goes something like this "the one you make the bed for, gets to sleep with you"




This one is I pimped with flower fabric and an old kettle-holder…



….and this is made from an old t-shirt I bought at a jumble sale. I love the buttons, don’t you? Yep,it’s Boy George in case you were wondering…



Take care
Jeanette

Patches

Last year I found this tiny little white patch on my right hand and when I visited my doctor I got diagnosed with Vitiligo. I had never heard about it before but the doctor explained to me that Vitiligo is a pigmentation disorder in which melanocytes (the cells that make pigment) in the skin are destroyed. As a result, white patches appear on the skin in different parts of the body. The cause of vitiligo is not known, but the most widely accepted view is that the depigmentation occurs because vitiligo is an autoimmune disease -- a disease in which a person's immune system reacts against the body's own organs or tissues. He also said that unfortunately there was no cure against the disorder and you could never tell how fast it would spread.

He went on telling me that there is an association between vitiligo and the most aggressive form of skin cancer, melanoma. Individuals with vitiligo and with fair skin in general should therefore exercise extra precautions when it comes to sun protection. Daily application of a moisturizer with a broad spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30 or greater to sun exposed areas was recommended. Use of hats, sunscreen and covering up while outdoors, avoiding sun exposure between 10 AM-3 PM would be a good idea. Yeah! I got this picture in my head of me sitting in a sunchair with an ugly sunhat and all covered up in a blanket. I felt like weeping! I went out of the doctor’s office feeling sort of numb. I looked at the tiny little patch and could almost hear the pigment cells chewing off on each other.

For six month or so nothing much happened. The patch didn’t get any bigger and I kept a brave face telling myself that I most certainly didn’t have the aggressive version and as long as it didn’t spread to my face I was OK with it…. That was a big fat lie of course. I wasn’t OK with it, well the white patch didn’t bother me as much as the skin cancer thing. That had me trembling…

Four months ago or so it started spreading really fast. I went back to the doctor but he had no answer to why it was spreading so fast but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. I still tried to keep the bravery up. It hadn’t spread to my face, I didn’t have skin cancer so it wasn’t lethal ( yet….) and although it was the same disease that Michael Jackson had I was almost certain that it wasn’t what caused his nose to fall of…. I worked really hard on convincing myself that this was no big deal. Hey, there is always make up….

Last week as I was in a shop buying a pair of jeans ( hate, hate, double hate) and was standing in this really, really tiny dressing room with it’s non flattering bright light trying to see whether my ass looked big in these ( which it always does) and that’s when I saw it – a pink patch on my chin. It had finally spread to my face.

I wept in the dressing room
I wept in the car back home
I wept for the rest of the evening.

Feeling sorry for myself and feeling that life was unfair. Why me I sobbed! The next morning I told myself to get a grip. So many people in the world were far worse off. So I might soon be looking like Yogi the Bear and so I would have to take extra precautions in the sun for the rest of my life but I still didn’t have skin cancer. I told myself that I had to focus on all the good things in life – my wonderful husband, lovely daughters and all my great friends. The country house, my creative work, my garden, my photography…. and it works. Most of the time.

But then there is the lonely hours at night when fear of cancer hits me big time but maybe there is a meaning to that too. Because otherwise I might get careless, not using sun protection, pretending that it will never happen to me...

…and come to think of it – Yogi the Bear is kind of cute!


Take care
Jeanette

Bird with yellow beak

Hand carving is fun but the most fun part is to look for branches and pieces of wood that resemble something. That speaks to you…Today I made a bird of sorts.. …

Take care
Jeanette

Carving

I have a busy period at work right now and do long hours. When I get home I am too tired to start any big crafting projects but try to do little tiny ones. I feel good when I create, it helps me relax. Yesterday I was tired of my knitting and went into my workroom instead.



My eyes fell on the pretty little heart that my friend Anna hand carved for me. That got me inspired and in search for a piece of wood but I had to make do with a cut of branch from my compost heap.




So bibidi



Bobidi


Boo




Done!

I am happy, relaxed and ready for another day at work.

Take care
Jeanette

It is all about dreaming

I planted a new border this weekend. It lies next to the fields and is actually a homage to my beloved cat Nasse who is buried there. I planted clematis ( from my friend B:s garden) surrounded by roses (Summerwind) and lavender and also a little “wild corner” with Lupines and Foxglove. I tucked all the plants in for the autumn in nice fluffy raw wool to keep the rabbits and deer away.

It doesn’t look like much now but gardening is very much about dreaming I think. About how it’s going to be later on….. when the lupines and foxglove start blooming in June followed by cascades of tiny pink roses surrounded by bright blue lavender and in the middle of it all the clematis proudly reaching for the sky.

Doesn`t sound so bad eh? So what that it will take a couple of years – it’s worth waiting for. OMG I can’t believe that I am writing this – me – the woman in total lack of patience! Could it be the same woman that would spend fortunes in plant shops every year just to have the border ready at once…and then dig it up again next year because it didn’t turn out the way she wanted fast enough? The woman who now grow almost all her plants from seeds and save all the little tiny infant lavender plants she finds while weeding…..

Wow, gardening haven’t just got me dreaming it teaches me patience too!

Take care
Jeanette

Pillows

I wanted pillows for my kitchen sofa and finally got round to using some of my jumble sale findings. I used scrap fabric and added an old embroidery, a crocheted doily and a kettle-holder from my kettle-holder collection.



The needlepoint field rabbit seemed to be the perfect choice for a pillow since I am surrounded by them at the country house. We have a sort of love & hate relationship, the rabbits and I, the amount of love I feel depending on how much of my flower buds they eat.

I am especially proud over the round crocheted pillow since I don’t actually crochet. I used a round kettle-holder from my collection and sort of just continued on it using different cotton yarn for a striped effect.



When I was finished I had to pinch my arm to see that I wasn’t dreaming – Wow, it was still round. Maybe not a giant step for mankind but certainly a great step for me. I can almost hear my wicked old craft teacher from school saying “are you sure no one helped you out with that”. She was one mean old lady and if there is any justice in the world she is sitting in a very warm place right now surrounded with tons of yarn that is all tangled up….

Sorry got carried away abit there....here is the finished result.



Speaking of school. The picture hanging over the sofa is an old school placard used in science classes in the 1940:ies. Needless to say it`s another jumble sale finding….



I love looking at it. The colours always makes me happy.

Take care
Jeanette

Berry picking

Today I went in search for berries, black berries to be presice. I decided to try the little nature reserve not far from my house. It’s a beautiful mixture of oak trees, shrubbery and meadows. The only disadvantage is cows. I am not afraid of cows, although in flock they tend to be very nosy, easily scared and therefore running about in an uncontrolled manner all of the time…. No it`s their boss that I am afraid of. I have run into him a couple of times and he never looks like he is going to sit under a tree and smell the flowers any time soon.



But I am a courageous kind of girl ( Yep, Batgirl thats me! Bet you didn`t know that....) so off I went anyway, walking through the woods, humming a little tune, picking a berry here and a berry there feeling happy. The grass was full of little baby toads so I had to keep one eye on the ground and one eye on the berry bushes and while I was at it I kept a look out for the cows too. My superhero costume being at the cleaners you see....But afraid? Oh no not me!

Just as I stood pondering over the fact that the biggest and yummiest berries always are the ones that are out of reach I saw a green Tree frog.The green Tree frog is rare and I have wanted to see one in the wild ever since we bought the country house. So when the frog disappeared into the bushes that’s when I started to get sloppy….

I eagerly followed trying to spot him again. Walking around with my head closer and closer to the ground muttering to myself “come on you little bugger, I am not going to eat you". I went round a big bush, looked up and….. yikes....



...Cows.....and the mean guy ? I bet he was lurking in the bushes just waiting for his prey. I was frantic!

I stepped round a tree in order to avoid them, sunk to my knees in mud and fell headlong landing on the berry basket. I think it was right then and there as I was feeling the smashed berries slowly trickling through my sweater that I decided to call it a day.

This Berry picking thing is nothing for us superwomen anyway!

And by the way – I am not afraid of cows!

Take care
Jeanette

Ösregn/ Hard rain

Sweden is a country where it rains a lot and this summer really sucks weather wise at least in the south of Sweden. I like bright colours and my firm belief is that rain would be so much more fun if you could wear a colourful raincoat. Still most of the raincoats that are sold here are black, dark blue or army green. I have red wellingtons so how hard can it be to make colourful raincoats as well? Hard apparently!

Today my heart made a leap of joy. I was surfing around in webb land and suddenly stumbled over the most beautiful rain coat. In turquoise with green lining. Cravings, cravings! After I had stopped drooling I read on and found out that the company was Swedish and called Ösregn. Which is a very funny and appropriate name if you are a Swede since it means “hard rain”.

All the coats had beautiful names like; Persian Turquoise, milk, strawberry cream, liquorice, Pompeian red and moss green. Makes your mouth water eh?
And even though I am not all that fond of black and green these looked great because they where made with a twist!

All photos from Ösregn

A raincoat to die for don`t you think? I cant wait to buy one!

Rainy days here I come!

Take care
Jeanette

I got gardening on my mind...

.....all the time !



Right now most of my thoughts are in my garden. Unfortunately not just at my spare time ….It’s dead annoying when I should be focusing on my work and the huge amount of different project reports that I am supposed to be writing and the only thing I can think about is how to replant my garden borders. Gardening is kind of creative work too. Shall I have roses? And plant them together with lavender? Should I plant another apple tree and would it survive from deer attacks if I do?

I want to run away. Jump out of my office window right down into my wellingtons, grab a spade and my wheelbarrow and just get started. A bit like firemen do, having their clothes and stuff ready in case of an emergency.



But I have to wait until the weekend comes. And then it will probably rain. Life`s a bitch!

Take care
Jeanette

Creative, happy & relaxed

Now that I am back at work I haven’t got so much time for doing creative work. I try to do something every evening because it makes me happy and relaxed but it’s mostly smaller stuff, the bigger stuff having to wait until the weekend.

This evening I made this wire angel for a friend with a heart inside because she is a very generous and loving person.





Take care
Jeanette

Mesmerized

I always carry my camera with me. It`s my faithful companion. If I am without it I feel nervous, thinking that I will miss out on that special moment, that perfect photo opportunity…. Today as I was taking a walk along the beachfront I went past Stapelbäddsparken, a world famous skate park. The speed, movement and the energy of the skaters drew me closer and soon had me mesmerized. Luckily I had my camera with me ….









Leaving the Skate park area I saw a poster saying that next weekend the Malmö Ultra Bowl would take place with the world championships in freestyle. Me and my camera will definitely be going….


Take care
Jeanette