Change of plans

My dad had a stroke last Monday. Probably as a complication to his heart surgery. He is on the mend and luckily suffered only a minor stroke. We decided to cancel our trip abroad though. I couldn’t face being a 12 hour flight away if things got worse. It’s hard watching your parents get older. Knowing that someday the time will come when they are not here anymore with there constant love and support.

Oh I so want him to be a part of me and my daughters life for years and years to come!

"Love likes little words. It prefers grandpa to grandfather and gets real comfy with pa"

Take care
Jeanette

Off the radar

I have been off the radar for a while. Sorry about that. But first I was in Stockholm visiting friends ( had a lovely time),then my father had to undergo heart surgery and I wanted to spend time with him and then there is work, work and still more work at the office ant then there is…… CHRISTMAS! How come it takes you by surprise every year? There you go thinking its October and the suddenly wham December sneaks up on you from behind. I am a Christmas freak and every year I chase the perfect Christmas. I start in October drooling over glossy Christmas interior design magazines and writing lists over what to do and what to get. I feel all prepared and ready to go and then something strange happens ….days or whole weeks even sort of disappear from my diary….like erased…. I think it’s a giant conspiracy or something…And this year I can’t seem to get to Christmas. Something is always in the way. And I start to worry…

Yesterday I managed to buy a tree. No easy thing for me. I am very picky! ( If you want to know exactly how picky you can read here). I want a perfect Disney kind of tree, triangular shaped, freshly cut and it has to smell good too. My Christmas tree problems are probably due to the fact that I grew up with Christmas trees that looked like they had grown next to a nuclear power plant. My dad always cheaped out and bought the trees no one else wanted for a bargain. My sister and I used to tease my him for the sorry excuse for a spruce and how it was dropping needles long before Christmas and balding fast at the top. Arriving home with the tree yesterday I had a taste of my own medicine.
– Can you help me bring in the tree in from the car Emma? I said
– Sure
– Oh boy you bought an outsider! Emma exclaims on top of her voice.
– No I said. We are having it inside. In the living room.
Emma started rolling her eyes.
- I said an outsider Mum not outside she said doing another eye roll.
- What do you mean?
Now she was rolling her eyes so much I feared she was going to shake something loose in there.
- It’s ugly Mum! You bought a tree no one else wants. An outsider!
So the hard way I understood that she wasn`t referring to the actual placing of the tree but the look of it. And being the very mature and composed mum that I am I just stuck my tongue out at her and said
- I think it’s a beautiful tree so duh! .

And after some serious pimping with ornaments in silver and white and little white bow ribbons even my daughter had to give in. It is a beautiful tree.



Speaking of trees. In 12 days time I am going off the radar again. Leaving for this ....




......by they way of Bangkok. I am spending the rest of the holiday with my sister and brother in law under another tree namely a palm tree.


Well my friends I have to run along. Things to do and places to go……
Hope to keep you posted on the rest of my Christmas preparations real soon.

Take care
Jeanette

I am done

Now I have finally finished my entry to juniforms exhibition and lottery. This is what I started out with.... Some wool in white, grey and red. Some vintage lace, a vintage table cloth and red glass pearls.

......and this is the finished result.

It`s a pair of wristwarmers made in wet felted white wool, decorated with needle felting in grey and red. The old tablecloth became a little application and I finished it all of with a frill of vintage lace decorated with red glass beads. I was going for a christmassy folkloric touch. Sort of!

And do you know what?

This evening I recived a winning of my very own. Anna at Helylle came by and gave me the beautiful handspun yarn that I won in her lottery. It`s in an amazing emerald color! So beautiful! I was so taken by surprice, her suddenly standing there at my doorstep in the rain that I didn`t even invite her in! Now am I a lousy blogfriend or what? All I could think of was that I looked like something my cats had dragged in ....and what would she think of me.... Silly isn`t it! But hey thats me! I am a silly kind of gal! But I will make it up to her I promise! I have long going plans on luring her over in the false pretence of a meal and a chat and I won`t let go of her until she has teached me to spin too!

How come I think that it would send her running in the opposite direction?

Anyway, thank you so much Anna! I loved it! I think I will use it in a wet felting.... or try needle felting with it....or....

Take care

Jeanette

And Anna, I am not usually that impolite....

Getting a head start on Christmas

Yesterday we had snow. We don`t get that in my parts of the world all that often so it put most part of the family in a state of complete joy.

Training for the winter olympics...

Making snow angels

But also some amount of foul words and regrets about not having put on winter tires last weekend as we meant to….and the tires being at the country house…. We set out retrieving the tires late in the evening, my husband driving thank god but had to turn back after 15 minutes. It was simply snowing too hard and the roads were like ice. So we ended up in the sofa with a glass of wine which on the whole wasn’t a bad way of spending a Friday night either.

Next morning the weather was much better and we drove down to the country house in a much safer fashion.

The road was much better….


Summer is definitely over…..

.....and the Deers are grazing in the fields

Back home again I decided that since it was snowing you could technically say it was December….and therefore high time to start with the Christmas decorations. It’s never wrong to get a head start on Christmas right? Wrong is what my husband would say so that’s why I didn’t feel any immediate need to ask him. He,he.

So off I went and bought hyacinths, a Christmas tree of sorts ( 10 centimeters high…) and an amaryllis.

It is my favorite Christmas flower. This one I hung by the stem in my living room window. They are SO beautiful when in full bloom. And you can water them by pouring water down the stem.

I did a few arrangements with hyacinths and moss but put most of them in hyacinth glasses. I love the way you can watch the roots.

My getting in the mood for Christmas preparations also contains watching this….

….

and also the greatest sin of them all. A sin that is likely to cause me a painful death in an early age. I bought ready-to-make gingerbread cookie dough!

What’s so bad about that you might wonder? Nothing if you actually make gingerbreads…..but I don’t make them I just eat the cookie dough! Oh yum!

When I was a kid my mother used to make an enormous gingerbread cookie dough for making gingerbreads for Christmas. According to her recipe the dough had to “settle” for two days in the larder before baking. I used to sneak up to the larder when ever I had the opportunity and quickly cut me a piece of dough when no one was watching. Then I tried to smooth the surface again so that Mum wouldn’t notice.

Oh the taste….so yummy ….but oh the stomach ace I had….. Now as I am older and wiser I eat the whole package of dough all at once. No need to have the stomach ace from hell days on end when you can have it all at once and be done with it eh ? Am I smart or what?

Watching Grinchen at the same time as eating cookie dough is by my standards considered the ultimate “get in the mood for Christmas” preparation by the way. That’s me! I am a simple kind of gal!

This weekend I also started with my project for Juniforms competition/lottery. The one I told you about a few posts back This is what I will be using….

Red, white and grey wool, some vintage lace, a vintage table cloth and some red glass beads...

The 2:nd of december is the last day but you have to write a post about it on the 29:th so time is runing fast folks! I will keep you all posted on my progress.

Take care
Jeanette

Saturday night slackers

Do you remember when Saturday night meant dressing up and going out not dressing down and staying in? No? I do. Vaguely. When did it all happen? The slow transformation from party princess to couch potato? Well two kids happened. And a husband. Not necessarily in that order. And then age hit you big time and suddenly there was no way you could go directly from the club to work. At least not if you wanted to live until lunchtime and not even if you took just the tiniest detour to Starbucks for a double espresso on your way there. And if you go out on a weekday nowadays you hear yourself say “ I better be going home now. Workday tomorrow you know” when the clock has just passed 9 pm. Í have a faint memory that before I used to say "the night is still young" and then it was usually past midnight.
Maybe it’s a vitamin thing?
Or a germ thing?
Or a lack of sun thing?
Anyway, I hope it’s a passing thing.

Wouldn’t want to start sitting on a park bench feeding the pigeons just yet.

They say that many fun-loving boys and girls go unnoticed because they walk around in uncle and aunt bodies. So maybe I am just a fun-loving lady temporarily hidden in a grandma body?

Fat chance!

No doubt in my mind. I chose my slippers over these anytime!

Take care

Jeanette

Add some light to your garden

Today I went to a lecture on how to light up your garden. The lecture was part of the arrangement “By light” that I wrote about a couple of posts back. The guy holding the lecture was rather pompous and more than a little boring and after 15 minutes my friend and I started to look for the door. Unfortunately we were weighed down by our photo equipment and couldn’t sneak out so we had to wait for the coffee break. Boring as it was I still learnt a thing or two that I like to share with you.

When you chose plants for your garden chose flowers, bushes and trees that look interesting or beautiful even during the winter season.

Walk through your garden. What do you see? What would you like to focus on? What can you see through your windows? Is there a tree, a brick wall or a group of dry or withered flowers that would look beautiful under light? The simple is almost always the most beautiful.

Never try to make night into day. To much light only makes the darkness behind it even darker and scarier. Instead try to make rooms of light in different places in your garden. To make the garden feel safe it’s always important to have a goal for the light. The light should travel towards something. If you for instance light up a path but the path ends in complete darkness then walking down the path feels unsafe. But if you can see a lit up flower or tree in the distance it feels like you are walking towards something safe and secure.

Use both warm and cold light. Cold light directed up a tree creates a glittering silver effect and a warm yellow light towards a brick wall can create an almost golden glow. If you place a spotlight up in a tree always let the light pass through at least one branch on it’s way down as to create shadow effects and spread the light on the ground.

Create a “place for possibilities” by letting a small spotlight light up a small space. It becomes a little scene where you can place all kind of things like pots of flowers, an arrangement of stones, sea shells, your old garden wellies or what your mood feels like.

Intensify the gardens own colors.

Well that’s when it was time for coffee…..and we hit the door.

Still what I learnt will come in handy at the country house since it is always pitch black there and ax murderers are know to wander about the neighborhood. Lurking in the bushes....The feeling safe part is important…. When we where finally out the door we went for a stroll in the beautifully lit park and naturally I had my camera and tripod with me…..

A small light in a tuft of grass. So beautiful in it`s simplicity.

a “place for possibilities”

Why stop at warm or cold light. Why not go for blue...

...or red

.... or green !

Time to hit the bed so lights out folks

Take care

Jeanette

Exhibition and lottery

The blog Juniform is having a exhibition / lottery and it sounded so much fun that I decided to join. It`s both a lottery and a kind of exhibition of art. Do you want to join too? Well, the rules are as follows:

Amateur or established doesn`t matter just as long as you put your heart into the creative process.

All entered creations are put in a lottery and every one wins something that someone else has created. Great huh?

You enter by making a comment on this post at the Juniform blog. Last day for entering is the 11 th of november. When you enter you also write a post about it on your own blog and link it to Juniform.

The vernissage or the opening day of the exhibition is on december 2nd. Then all the entered pieces are showed at Juniform with links to the contestants blogs where all readers can see and read more about their creation. At december 2nd you will also know which one of the enterings you yourself won.

When entering the "Exhibition" please send Anna at Juniform a mail, info@juniform.se with your e:mail address so that she can tell you what you won and who one yours.

Well know I have to start thinking about what to create....

Take care
Jeanette

YES HE DID

They accuse us of giving a false hope to the people of America.

But there has never been anything false about hope.

Three words will ring from coast to coast... YES WE CAN

and last night....

YES

HE DID ....

......Bring hope!

Take care

Jeanette

My heart goes out to Betty Jo

Today I had the sad news that the husband of Betty Jo, my dear friend at Digiscribbles passed away unexpectedly on October 14. I can’t even begin to imagine how it must feel to lose your loved one and my thoughts go out to Betty Jo and her family.

Last year a close friend was taken seriously ill and to try to get a perspective on the fact of death I read Joan Didions book “The year of magical thinking”. It’s a beautiful but also devastating book in the sense that it is very precise and truthful and desperately honest about the feeling of loss and grief. She writes that “Grief takes us to a place none of us knows till we reach it” and I also felt when I read it that it took me places that I would not otherwise have gone – and in a way didn`t want to go! I had to put it down many times because it was too painful to go on reading but I always picked it up again. Reading it left me with an even stronger conviction that life is very precious and that we must always remember how little we know about what the future holds in store for us. Therefore we have to seize the day and tell our loved ones over and over again how much we love them.

Life changes fast
Life changes in the instant
You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.
Joan Didion

Dearest Betty Jo, there are no words to encompass such sadness! But it is my belief that grief is a tribute to love. Those who can feel grief and bereavement are fortunate because they have loved!

Jeanette

Malmö By Light

Some of the parks in the city of Malmö had a total makeover this weekend. Artists and architects were invited to dress Malmö up… in lights. I walked through one of the parks this evening and it was so beautiful. There was chandeliers made of knives and forks, a fountain full of lights, trees colored up in blue, red or orange, a dragon, a windmill with its windows all green… and oh so much more. The park was full of people walking around admiring the lights and it’s beauty and yet it was almost silent. All people talking in hushed up voices not to disturb the mystic of it all. A truly magical evening.

So you want to take a stroll too? Take my hand and shhhhh.......please don`t disturb the elfs and the fairies....

The chandelier made og knifes and forks....

.....and a row of chandeliers lighting up the path to the fountain

The fountain full of lights
that changes constantly from yellow to orange to red

...then suddenly a color explosion in a tree

...turning it quite purple

... a golden path leading up to a blue tree

the green windows of the windmillgleaming in the distance

Lights and the Turning Torso reflecting in the canal ...

boooo

a dragon shows it`s ugly face

and walking towards the gates more lights are reflecting one of the small lakes.

I hope you enjoy the walk just as much as I did!

Good night!

See you all soon

Jeanette

Felting frenzy

The past week has been a creative one. I had a real felting frenzy and made wet felted shawls by the dozen. Well not really by the dozen but four so far (….and a few more to come I think) Maybe it’s due to the wet, windy and cold weather we have been having. It’s nice to be indoors working with a material that is meant to keep you warm. I tried out different techniques – wet felting on a pure silk fabric, wet felting on a knitted alpaca shawl and wool and linen yarn wet felted together. I had so much fun! And my head is full of new ideas…..lucky for me that Christmas is waiting just around the corner so some of it just might be turned into gifts….


As it was so nice to be indoors I also played around a bit with my photos. I made a collage. I used one of my photos of an autumn flower, two pictures from a magazine and then added a painted background with black ink. I call it "Fear of flying". I was inspired by a drawing made by a friend so it felt natural to give it to him. ( Thanks for the inspiration J). I haven’t tried to draw with ink before but it was great fun! Will definitely do it again.

"Fear of Flying"

Wool wet felted on pure silk fabric

wool wet felted on a knitted shawl made of 100 % alpaca wool

" Halloween"

wool wet felted together with linnen yarn

two colors of wool wet felted together

( sorry for the lousy photo - took it with my cell)

I long for Christmas. I am an absolute Christmas freak sharing my life with a man that doesn’t want to start decorating until the 23rd. We compromise of course…. but we never decorate the tree until the day before Christmas Eve. This year we are going abroad on the 27th of December and won’t be back until the 12th of January so in order to be able to enjoy Christmas at all I have an excuse for starting with the preparations really, really early. Like tomorrow. Oh well, I suppose I have to wait a while more…. But nothing wrong with an early start on making the decorations though… I will keep you all posted.

Take care

Jeanette

Kilim - Love at first sight

Close your eyes and let’s make believe that we are in Turkey, in Istanbul maybe?

Hear the sound from the mosque when they call out for the evening prayer, see the light slowly fading in the narrow alleys and feel the heat still coming from the thick white walls and the lovely smell from fresh herbs and spices. Can you feel the feeling?

Now open your eyes and let’s go for a walk… along the streets not in Istanbul but in Stockholm. Turn left at the chimney......

and up the long steep street .....

and there it is at the corner – Taners Kilim Carpets! And if you are lucky the proprietor is standing outside welcoming you to step inside......

Welcome inside.....

And when you are inside? Oh joy! Beautiful, beautiful Kilim carpets, rugs and pillows everywhere you look. And if you close your eyes just for a minute you are right back in Istanbul again......

For me it was love at first sight. I fell like a ton of bricks not only for the carpets, rugs and pillows but for the proprietor as well. A charming man! Very patiently he showed me all the lovely things his shop could offer and told me a bit about the carpets as well.

I learnt that the Kilim carpets are hand-woven in wool or cotton. They were originally made by Asian nomads who used the carpets as interior decorating of their tents. The nomads spun the wool buy hand, colored it with vegetable dye and made carpets and woven fabric for pillows, sacks and saddlebags. The Kilims date over ten thousand years back and the carpets are a part of the nomad’s culture and tell us about their dreams and the environment in which they were living. The Kilims are woven in the whole of the Orient. The word Kilim in fact means "weaving technique" and since a Kilim is never a mass production every carpet, rug or pillow is unique. As the proprietor said

- A handmade carpet is not something you use and the throw away. A “real” carpet should last for a lifetime.

So did I buy me a carpet? No I didn`t. But I bought a beautiful pillow. A pillow that was so very much ME that it felt like it was made just for me. And next time I visit I will maybe buy a carpet. Because I feel very strongly that somewhere in that shop there is bound to be a magical and very special carpet….

........A flying one of course!

And once I have my flying carpet I can take a trip and visit you whenever I want to. I could fly to Angela and Cathy in Australia, Lili in Netherlands, Jane in San Diego or Betty Jo... or take a quick trip to Val in Chulmleigh or why not to Gerda-Thyra in Gothenburg or Anna Stilla or..... Now that beats visits in cyberspace don`t you think? So don`t be afraid if late at night there is a knock at your window - It`s only me on my flying carpet!

But until then..... if you ever are in Stockhom please pay Taners Kilim carpets a visit! It’s worth every minute of it!

And be sure to say Hi from me to the proprietor! As I said, a very charming man!

Take care
Jeanette

IRL

I want to tell you about my blogfriend Clara!
Her blog, Claras Linneskåp, was one of the first that I started reading when I entered Blogland back in February 2007. I was instantly charmed by the way she wrote and in constant admiration for her beautiful pictures and she always took her time to write long and very personal comments to my posts. I became addicted to her blog and took a quick sneak-peak everyday. Still, reading it makes me happy and it feels like receiving a warm hug from outer cyberspace! Clara became my first blogfriend! Through her I understood that this blog writing business isn’t just about surfing around, reading and commenting but that you can also meet some truly nice people out there….

Since then I have made a lot of other blogfriends too but Clara is special because she came first! Clara is special in many other ways too – a very talented photographer, excellent writer and a person that cares deeply for nature and environment. Now she has taken her environmental interest one step further. Some of her photos are being made into postcards and part of the profit is going to Naturskyddsföreningen which is a Swedish association for protecting the environment. So many people would have been satisfied by just selling their postcards but she goes and does it for a good cause too…

Way to go Clara!


Back in September I met Clara in IRL. She was having a photo exhibition in Blekinge and I went to see it. It takes about two and a half hours by car but that’s no distance when you have a chanse to meet a blogfriend. Meeting her was like meeting someone you have known forever. Of course I had to take a photo of her. A photo of a photographer…..

Here is a great big hug for you my friend


Take care
Jeanette