Lazy weekend

I spent yesterday at the countryside. It was cold but sunny with spring desperately trying to win over winter but not quite succeeding. As we drove slowly through the landscape I sat watching the birds. A kite flying low over the ground looking for its prey and three cranes resting on a field or maybe they were hiding from the big hawk that was circling over them. We saw deer everywhere gracing on the fields. They all looked so content. Probably happy that the deep snow was finally gone and they could eat grass again.










Today I did some spring cleaning in the garden raking up old leaves and drank my first cup of tea in the greenhouse. I also finished the “Dala häst” embroidery that I am making for T & B in New York and made a ATC for i hannas ATC embroidery swap.





A long and lazy weekend!

Take care
Jeanette

Get that creativity going…

As many of you know being creative is a necessity for me, as important as breathing, eating and my heart beating. Without it my life is grey and boring, my days long and my future bleak. I am always looking for new projects and eager to get started when I find them. So eager that I more often than not forget the project I am currently working on for the joy of starting something new. A deadline is therefore always a good thing and gives my creativity that extra dimension of a competition against myself! LOL!

Today I found the I hanna blog and two new creative projects, a postcard swap and a ATC swap. Both with a deadline. Wohooo! The last day for signing up for the ATC embroidery project is today but the DIY postcard swap is open until the 18:th of March. If you are interested go check it out.

Now I have to get started….



Take care
Jeanette

Playing with icons

These are two Swedish icons - the Dalahäst ( Dalahorse) and the tube of Kalles Kaviar ( Kalle´s caviar). They are more Swedish than the Swedes themselves.The caviar tube is for the Swedish family what Campbell’s soup was to Andy Warhol. Sort of.

Today I combined the two by making a Dalahorse out of a caviar tube.



I also used the Dalahorse pattern for some wet felting.



Here it is hanging to dry. I am making a pillow case and plan to add a whole deal of embroidery to it when it has dried. It is going to be a gift for two American gentlemen - a small thank you for bringing gingerbread cookie dough ice-cream into my life. An ice-cream to die for!

Now I have some tedious waiting to do before the really fun part starts – the embroidery!

Take care
Jeanette

Teletubbies & Team work

Have you ever heard about a Onepiece?
My daughter came home yesterday and said she wanted to make one and I looked like a gigantic question mark. So she explained what it looked like and I said
- why do you want to dress like a Teletubbie? You didn’t even like them as a kid?
Luckily for me my daughter has a sense of humor and wasn’t offended. Instead we made a deal. If I cut out the pattern and the fabric she would make her homework – deal!




Cute fabric eh?



I think she will look very cuddly in it when it’s finished.

I will keep you posted on the progress.

Take care
Jeanette

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