05 September 2011

New Blog - welcome to tag along




Dear friends!
As you may have read a few posts back I am experiencing problems with my blog since Blogger upgraded the interface. Somewhere in my html-code is a fault causing all my links, labels and archives to “glue themselves” to the bottom of my blog. Blood, sweat, tears and a heck of work hours later I am no closer to the solution of what went wrong.

So now I give up and start on a new blog instead. I call it My creative everyday life! I am still on blogger and here is the link to the new one MY CREATIVE EVERYDAY LIFE

This is not an easy thing for me to do. I have written this blog since 2007 and the posts are an important part of my life. And I am afraid of losing you – all my dear blog friends!

I know I have followers from all corners of the globe and some of you also kindly have a link to my blog on yours. I would be so very happy if you would change the link to the new one. I will try and send a personal message to all my followers but if I miss out on anyone it is not intentional.

I hope you will tag along to the new one. I will be looking forward to seeing you all there.



Take care
Jeanette


PS Hurry over and you can win a photo of your choise in my first post. Just leave a comment on which photo you like best and I will pick a winner on September the 15th.





04 September 2011

Sheep-shearing

I love wool and all the amazing stuff you can create with it but most of all I love the actual producer. No I am not going to elope with a sheep farmer I meant the sheep of course. I have promised myself that one day I will have sheep of my very own. Maybe when we move to the country house permanently and not just use it for weekends and vacations. Unfortunately my husband doesn’t share my fascination and love of sheep so I just might have to find myself that sheep farmer anyway….

Today I went to watch sheep-shearing at Katrinetorps gård. It was great fun. One sheep took approximately 2-3 minutes to shear. Unbelievable! At first I thought it looked a bit brutal but then you saw that the sheep didn`t seem to mind. They loved getting rid of the warm fleece.
This is Torgil and his primadonna Lisa.

"Hey Torgil, had I known there would be such a turn out I would have brushed my fleece"


"Could I have some privacy please! My butt is showing for crying out loud!"


Am I cute or what! Please buy my CD after the show!


Mmmmm that felt nice. Scratch me some more....


Katrinetorp has a beautiful garden as well and I stayed there for hours taking photos. will show you some tomorrow. And after today I am even more convinced! I want a sheep....or two!


Take care
Jeanette

PS I bought the fleece from Torgil. Such beautiful, curly and bouncy raw fleece. I just couldn`t resist.

02 September 2011

Frustration


Today I have been very, very angry – with Blogger. When they upgraded their interface all my labels, links and contact information suddenly appeared at the bottom of the page. I have tried everything and they are still like glued to the bottom. My dear blogfriend Anna tried to help me just now and we ended up chatting on facebook. That made me feel so much better. It is so nice to have someone that really understands not only your frustration but also understands how important this blog is for me. I have written since 2007 and through my blog I have shared my happiness, been comforted in my sorrows and ventilated some anger too and now, when everything is upside down I feel like weeping.

When everything was feeling really hopeless my husband came and gave me a package. A brown paper package tied up with strings. ( Like that song in Sound of Music you know!) He had collected it at the post office. Woohoo I thought, it must be my green raincoat that I ordered a week ago.


But it wasn’t. It was 7 tiny little jars with dye for my raw wool that I had forgotten that I ordered. Red, yellow and blue.



Oh joy! Can’t wait to try them out, but not tonight though. Tonight I have to finish the shawl that I am making to match my new raincoat and tomorrow I am off to the country house for some serious gardening.



Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Take care
Jeanette

PS Do you know what? When I looked at the preview of my post - suddenly everything looked OK again. All labels and links was where they were supposed to be and then when I published it everything was all wrong again. Crap!

01 September 2011

Embroidery against FGM/C



This is by far the most “strange” embroidery I have ever made but also the most important. It is a portrait of a female vulva. If you find this repulsive or provocative please, please read on anyway because it is made for a very important cause and even better - all can join in.

I read this post at Craftgossip.com and that is what got it all started…

The Embroideries Campaign is not about shock value or sexuality, per se. It is about bringing an end to female genital mutilation. The practice of altering female genitals to protect a girl’s marriage ability is still widespread in some parts of the world. This surgery not only robs women of sexual joy, but also can complicate childbirth, affect general health, or even result in death from infection or hemorrhage.

To raise awareness and combat this tradition, the Embroideries Campaign invites women worldwide to create 7″ x 7″ works on fabric depicting healthy vulvas “as abstract or accurate as you like.” Needlework has been chosen as the medium for these works because it is usually the traditional domain of women and because the Persian word for genital alteration is “embroidery.” The works submitted by contributors will be joined into a patchwork wall hanging and displayed in public to invite media coverage of this issue.


I decided at once that I wanted to participate. I made my embroidery with a “flower theme”, the flowers representing the freedom of sexuality that I think every woman is entitled to. If you like to join in and support the cause you can get more information on the Embroideries Campaign website.

You can send your embroidery to:

EMBROIDERIES
5a Gransden Ave
London E8 3QA
United Kingdom


Do join in!
Jeanette