Working in sunshine.

This has been my workingspace today.

Today has been summer. I moved my stuff outside to enjoy the sun and still do some work. It has been such a lovely day. The birds singing, the sun shining and me smiling. Couldn't be any better.

Some days ago I painted some pages ment to work on. I wasn't quite satisfied with the result and didn't know exactly what to do to them.
Early this morning I was reading Janets blog and she inspired me to continue my painted papers. So thanks to Janet for the inspiration.



I'm thinking of tearing my papers apart and use them for some collages (well, try to make some) I still have a couple of pages left to work on but tonight I'll have to prepare some new ones.
The first one I'm not sure if it's finished but when I saw it on the picture it reminds me of a sunrise. Perhaps it's done after all.



The picture below was a little too dark in my opinion but when I made it look like a waterfall it's not bad at all. In the end it doesn't matter what it looks like anyway.



This was the first I made. I've used acrylics, markers, stamps and stencils. How quick time goes by when one have some enjoyable things to do.



The last was a challange since all the colours was so similar to each other but I feel they came out well.



My favorite is the right side of the last picture, which one is yours?

Whish you all the best.

The postcard swap once more.

It seems I ended up getting nine cards.

I miss one card but I was lucky enough to get one extra. Hanna sent me a card to say thank you for a little something I sent her. I really appreciate that. The four last cards are also exiting cards. I had a big laugh when I recieved the card with a photo on, it was such a clever idea. Humorous, fits me well. Shannon made it but she did not leave her blog adress.



The red card with butterflys is a very nice card too. It's made of fabric and stitched around the images, feels very soft and is kind of quilted. A lot of work I guess. Diane made this.

The next card, I guess you all know the artist who made that. This was Hannas thankyou card. I really don't understand how she does this magic. All her collages looks so great and her colours too.

The green hearted card is very exiting. What do you see? Most people I've asked see a bird and a pig/dog. First thing I saw was a male face or more correctly his eyes and a bit of a broken nose. Can you see it? Super exiting card. Laura made it.

The turtle card contains several different images too. A horse, a duck swimming in a pond and an eye. Can you spot them? Very nice and a big card too. Christine made it but she didn't leave her blog adress.

A cheerful bunting.

Dressing my bike for summer.

Now I'm done with the yarn work for my bike. It's about time to start the fabric work. Right now my bike dressing feels a bit too much but I'll have to accomplish just to see if I'm wrong or not.



This cute little bunting is ment to hang in top of the front basket. Like I'm celebrating spring/summer every time I use the bike.
I had a visitor (male) last afternoon who told me that I would never dare ride the bike down town looking like this. Pffft.....piece of cake!!
On the contrary I do hope a lot of people want to dress their bikes so our little town could be known as "the colourful bike town." Wouldn't that be nice? And as a bonus we could hope for a little less cars.

Wish you all the best.

I've had an awful lot of fun.

Dressed for summer.

My bike is dressed for summer. I've had a lot of fun making this "seat" for my bike. It's very easy to make but will make a huge difference. I really don't think anyone will misunderstand my statement. Leave this bike alone, it's mine!!!



I like the way the cover came out and I'm pretty sure I'll have a lot of comments when down town showing it off.



Perhaps I should make some bags to hang at the back. I think I will. Since I have no car any longer I need to get my groceries home and a couple of bags at the back would really help.



As you see there is a basket in front too, if I make something acordingly to the rest I would have THE BIKE in town.

I promise some pictures when it's done. By the way, I found the pattern for the cover here. Scroll down and choose the very last pattern. If you can't read the Danish pattern just ask me and I'll translate it.

Have a nice day everyone!

My socks are done.

Now they are done. It was quite a job to figure out the pattern (a written one that I came across) but when I at last understood how it was ment it was easy. I'm very pleased with the result and think that these must be Sunday socks only.
In our old house there are wooden floors that tear a whole lot of socks and this pair are too nice to be worn out in a hurry.




In the picture above they don't look nice at all.








They are very fun to knit and I'm sure I will do it again.

What do you think?
You can find the pattern here

Good luck if you will try to knit them!

Catalog # 130 pattern # 18

Colours right now

In our local shops right now.

The other day I was out looking for spring inspiration in our local shops. A lot of new things to observe. I love shoes and have to show you some images. Otherwise the colours are pretty much the same as every spring. I should ofcourse have been in some of the many "flowerlands" but I wasn't.

What have you been up to lately?



Wish you all the best!

The postcard swap.

These are my first five cards that arrived.

It has been so exiting checking the mailbox lately. Each card ment something special when they arrived. I was far from knowing how exiting this really was. I'm still waiting for my last card and I'm really glad that they didn't come all at once. This way the joy last a little longer.
This was my first swap ever and now I have a whole lot of ideas how to create more cards.



Today has been like a real summer day where I live. We have really enjoyed it. And yesterday I came across a new sock pattern that I just had to try. They looks great. I'll show you when I'm finished.

Wish you all a happy Easter and my hope is that you all can enjoy suitable weather.



Have a look at my swappers blogs!

Lis here
Moira here
Ninette here
EWian here

The fifth one didn't name her blog, if she has one.

A nice trip to Bjødnaliå.

We do have a lot of nice recreation areas in our surroundings.

My husband, Sandra and I had a nice trip to a place called Bjødnaliå. To get there we have to walk through a scree. It's a very nice place and some of the original oak trees are still there.
We park our car in a little forest and start our walk by a water called Taksdalsvatnet. Sandra and I posing in front of the water.



A bit further up from the water you can see the scree we have to walk through. One have to pay attention to every step while moving here. The stones are often slippery and not easy to catch an eye of the safe ones. As you see in the image a lot of trees are growing there and it's a perfect idyll. The whole landscape is more or less covered by moss.
It's a challenging route and it takes some time to pass through it.



A bit of climbing is included in this route and I couldn't resist showing you this picture of Sandra sitting on a branch of an old oak tree. I really do hope this area will be protected and looked after so that we all can enjoy it for years to come.
When in Bjødnaliå we have a rest and something to eat before we leave and choose another way back home.



Whis you all the best.

Sock knitting.

I,ve seen a lot of sock knitting lately.

It seems there are a lot of people knitting socks. Several blogs are showing socks knitted toe up. I have never tried that and to be honest I really don't understand why it's done from toe up.

Right now I'm knitting socks without a heelturn. Have you ever tried that? Personally I prefer socks with a heelturn but I'm knitting for a youth in my family and he won't wear anything but MY socks without a heelturn.
His mum told me she has tried for years to make him wear knitted socks in winter but he refused. Now however, he won't use anything else than my socks.

They are really easy to knit.

You have to cast on a number of stitches dividable by three. Then knit 3 purl 3 for 3 turns. Start next turn by moving the first stitch to the previous needle. Then knit 3 purl 3 and thats the way it goes untill the decreasing of the toe.

I've made him a lot of pairs and often I use a couple of colours and have a colourshift every third round. They are really easy to make and one get a more even wear and tear since there is no signs to up and down.

For this pair I cast on 60 stitches and knit 40 rows (3 turns in each row) since this boy has quite big feet.

A gift and a challange.

On the wall?

I made this "mandala"-like painting for a friend of mine. She payed me a visit and I gave her one of the bookmarks that I made. She liked it so much that she would hang it on her wall. I asked her to leave that thought and I would make her something else instead.

Something else is this little painting.

I was a bit uncertain whether it would work well with a white flower and the white background, I think it did when I made some lines in the petals and did differ the size on the dots at the background.
In beforehand I had told her that it wouldn't hurt me if she didn't like it, so she could feel free to let it go.
Well, she didn't she really liked it. I knew that she is a great mandala-fan so that's why I made it this way.
My surprise was that she is going to hang the bookmark on her wall as well. As she said, they looks great together. Yes they have the same shapes in them but a bookmark is still a bookmark in my opinion. But she is ofcourse free to do what she like.



The challange.

I made another mandala and cut it into four pieces. My intention was to let the three of them stay together as "normal" and the last one I would turn upside down.
The challlange is that my husband is such a symmetrical man and I would like to see if he reacted to it. ( wasn't a badly treat, was it?)
As you can see the result differ a bit from my intentions. It didn't look good at all, the way I had planned. And that way I was in no need to "irritate" my husband. It would have been smart to make the black dots last thing I did but that was too late to think of when finished.
I like it as it is now, something quite different.



Wish you all a very nice and creative day.

Some initials I've been painting.

I've been painting these initials lately. These were the letters I was learning to write when I started school. It's sad that I've not been paying it enough attention to keep them up in my writing.

I am thinking of making the whole alphabet but I put it in between other things. The flowers has names starting with the actual letter. It was hard to find a Norwegian name to a flower with the letter C so I chose an emergency solution.

There might be several to twist my brain on but I'll work it out. Not sure what to do with all of them but I think they will come to use in some way or other.





This weekend Sandra is coming so perhaps we will do some drawing, painting or other fun stuff together. It might be crocheting.

Have a nice weekend everyone!!

Not exactly what I had in mind.

I lost it when I started sewing.

I was thinking of making shadows that gave the image some depht, but I got lost in stitching. (I'm a dressmaker you know) These sthitches facinated me so much that I threw overboard everything else I had in mind. You have to agree that my thread dealer has a great variety of colours. He he...
My goal was to get depth in here but it seems that height is the most accurate word.
I can see that the petals are sort of higher than the rest but some wrinkles in the background would give more of the right impression. My problem is that I don't know how to make wrinkles yet so untill I do this painting will rest.
Anyone who knows or can show me someone (a blog) who knows??



That's all for today, now the house need some cleaning.
Wish you all the best.

Something I'm working on.

This is a try to paint a quilt.

I'm thinking of painting the handsewn stiches around each petal. And at the same time add some shadows to make some depht in it.
I'm not at all sure I can do it but I'll have a try. Probably ending up ruin it but that dosen't matter. I'll have to see whether I can do it.



Quite another thing I've been thinking of mentioning to you all. Have you ever heard the name Ramon Isern? He was a great artist and he made some real good collages. He was born in Barcelona in 1914 and died in Trondheim in 1989. Check him out on the internet. I lived some years in Trondheim, that's why I know about him.
Some of his art are shown here. Enjoy!!

It's a really sunny day here now, hope you have too.

In my garden right now.

This is how my garden is flowering right now.

There is really quite a lot more but not in flower at the moment.
My rhubarbs are coming and I don't think our first soup are far away. There are a lot of tulips and other things but as said not in flower yet.


Perleblomst (Muscari armeniacum)


Hvitveis (Anemone nemorosa) this is a rear one.


Julerose (Helleborus hybrid "Atrorubens)


Primula (Primula juliae hybrid)


Krokus


Hvit kuleprimula (Primula denticulata)


Lilla kuleprimula (Primula denticulata)


Krokus and Russestjerne (Scilla siberica)

Wish you all the best!

Another watercolour painting.

I had to use this paper.

I had a leftover paper that I had to use. It's a very nice and thick watercolour paper and it would be a shame to throw it away.
This time I made one of my "don't know what it is" sketches and painted it with watercolours. I'm really in love with my watercolour palette.
The colours feels so "earthy" and real in a strange way. They don't feel syntethic in any circumstance. What do you think?



As I said I don't know what it is, just something that lived in my pencil and wanted to come out. I'm still amazed when I compare the painted sketch to the final result. It changes so much with these dots.
This time I chose to leave a space undotted and I think it works well. I will try more of that and perhaps just dot some spaces.
I've snapped photos before and after, to show you the differens. It's just like two different paintings, don't you think?




Best wishes to all of you.

From where do you get your inspiration ?

Quite often I'm asked this question.

It's a complex thing this. I think I was born a crafter, as long as I remember I have made things. I even can remember when I was three years old and saw some ladies crocheting and I stood in a distanse and practised the movement with my hand. One of the ladies said that it was important to practis in an early age. They probably had great fun, me standing there.

Another memory is how I used old schoolbooks (notebooks)filled with writing and filled all the loops with colour trying to make patterns. I really loved it if I could make a flower or a house or other things. Very exiting.
All these books are thrown away and that's really sad, I would have loved to have them today.

Another thing is that I don't allow myself "dull time" which means I always try to do something I like doing. If I'm in need of quietness I read or I walk in nearby woods, in the mountains or by the sea. Always trying to keep the spirit up.
My curiousity also help me moving on, whenever I see something new to me I wonder whether I can do it and I'll have to try and that leads to variety.

I strongly believe in variety because when one "thread" is close to empty I just follow another one. And when doing other things new ideas are coming to me. I've always been thinking of writing down my ideas so that I can go back and look for new things when needed but I never did. It seem new ideas are coming anyway.



(Sandra and I made these. Mine is called "watermusic" and Sandra called hers "space" I think they are quite inspiring. Sandra is 8 years old.) By the way, Sandra always asks me why I don't write Laila 53 years on my things. I'm laughing, what to say to that question? Well that's another issue.


But, what inspires me the most are colours. I have a lot of pens, watercolours, crayons and yarns. A glance at these things is what it takes to start the movement most of the time.

For many years I used to study all kinds of advertising stuff which came in my mailbox, just to learn about colours and my own reactions to them. Very interesting ting to do and I learned a lot about my own attractions towards colours. That's why I know that the colours are the main thing to inspire me.
And that's why I don't live in a "white house"(!) all my walls are coloured.
Every time I enter a "white minimalistic home" I don't feel the least inspired. That doesn't mean that those homes are not good or anything it's just that we are different as persons. I'm a colourful person!

That's what inspire me, what kind of stuff inspires you?

Have a nice day everyone!

Some Aboriginal-like paintings.

(or perhaps I should say dottings)

I've been trying a new tecnique.



These two blue ones was the first I made. I've used a white and a black pen and a little of a glitterpen. Ordinary pens won't show colour at this strong coloured paper. Most of them turn black or brownish grey. Best to use white or black or as I did, glitterpens.

The bookmark has several different colours made by glitterpens. The text says Good Book. While doing this bookmark some great new ideas came to me and I will try them soon.
When finished I felt like trying some more, and decided to make a painting (watercolours) showing the surroundings in where I live. I have seen a few original paintings and wanted to try it myself.

I did some sketching and started to paint.
And this is how it looked when the painting was done.



This is the point when all the fun starts.

First thing I did was to line out the frame, and then I started to dot. All the white ones first. One has to consentrate, all the dots as even as possible and the space between them even too. No rules here, so as good as one can manage. My next image shows the painting when all the white work was done.

Isn't it amazing how the white colour can lift an ordinary painting not to mention a dull painting. I think it's the light in the white colour that does that job. I can assure you, this is a very exiting way of doing things. I could have stopped now and let the painting be as it was but I wanted to do a "real" one.



I've used a lot of symbols to tell about my surroundings. I've even invented some new ones. In the sky I've made a lot of stars and a couple of 'copters. Well there IS a lot of 'copters nowadays. If you want the whole story just search for Aboriginale symboles and you'll find my story. I have to add that my use of symbols is how I understand them it's not nessesary the right way to use them.

What did I learn from this?

The first thing I learned was: always have a timer when doing this! Suddenly my husband was back from work and no dinner ready for him....Ouch.
It's so fun and also timeconsuming, but it's sooo relaxing. I don't need to meditate
nor do I need morning pages. This is a much more fun way of doing it.(just remember the timer though)
Next time I skip the symbols or I invent some new that feels more like me and now. I also learned that when dotting a coloured space the colour of the dots better be a little darker than the space itself. The more even the colours are the less the dots shows off. That's what I've learnt today.
What have you learnt today?

Here you are, this is my painting called " Where I live"

ENJOY and a very nice weekend to you all!

Remember the grey page in my journal?

I'll give you my version.

Let me start by saying that today it's one year since I started blogging. It's incredible I just wanted to see if I could do it and now I'm deep into it.
It has been a year with lots to learn and a very fun year too.

Now back to my spread. The grey page I had so much fun making and new things popping up all the time. There could be several ways to solve this task but this was my choice. When finished I stood back to study it for a while and saw some very different images that could have been done. What I learnt was to have a look in a distance before deciding what to do.

Now I'm curiouse, what did you see? Did you spot any of my images?

The other page became a try to make a collage but I feel it's more like scrapping. It was fun to make though and finding all the different things to use. Almost like a treasure hunt in my own home.
Some buttons from past times (mother of pearls) and the one that pops up. Anyone who remembre these? I think I've used them when I was a little girl.

The initials with flowers are originally made for embroidering but I felt they were suitable to this page and it's atmosphere. Back in those days they did mark everything this way. ( don't think they ever heard the expression: time is money. he, he, he) Mostly the work they did was delicate and well done.

Well, thats about it just want to wish you all a joyful day and tomorrow I'll show you some Aboriginal-like things I've made.

My journal again...

This is very facinating.

My first picture today shows a righthand side page. This is how it looked when I started to work on it. (painting already done) The colours on my photo are not good at this first image but what I wanted you to see is how the background looks like before I start my work. It is quite interesting to compare the finished result to the starting point. When you see my choices you can go back and consider whether you would have chosen differently.

Ofcourse, I can see things more clearly since I have the pages in person but when I show off a page before working on it I think it's possible for you to see what's in it. Hope you enjoy the possibility.
If I'm not wrong you might as well learn something from it. That would make me happy.

Please, use some seconds to figure out what you actually see in this page before looking at the next photo.





This was a very interesting spread to make.

In the lefthand side page I would keep a picture already in that page. The coalabears are so beautiful animals, and I wondered if I could work it well into the rest.
Well, to be correct the rest was worked into the existing picture. I'll have to try this over again and perhaps do a little planning before I start. As you see I couldn't resist making a little fun. ( quite typical me) It wasn't easy to incorporate existing picture to the rest. Perhaps another image could be easier.
I will definetly try over again some other time.

Now, lets have a look at the page that you've already seen. Did you see the "church"? I'm quite sure you saw the cross. The image was very clear so I had no choice other than make this. And the Pukumani Pole, very strange. In 2005 I spent my summer holiday in Australia and I visited the Australian museum. These Poles facinated me a lot back then and I had a close look at several at the museum. And now it showed up again.
If we compare that Pole to our headstones we see a huge differens. How colourful the native Australians are. (or perhaps have been) I'll give you a link here to have a look at the Poles.
The Pole that I made is just imagination, I had a look in the museum and I have used some of the patterns I saw there. For all I know my Pole tells that this person has been the King all over Australia. Just to avoid any problem I repeat, my Pole is pure imagination.
I tried to give the "church" some windows but it was impossible. Each time I tried something went wrong so I gave in. I'm very pleased with the result though, the whole page seems airy and clean. Couldn't do it any better I think. What do you think?



Best wishes to all of you.

Art Journaling, I'm on my way....

Some more pages from my journal.

Just want to show you my progress in journaling. If you have any comments, tips or good ideas they are very welcome.
If any of you think that I leave too much space in my pages, I have to tell you a little secret. When the photos are done I write in some more text, in norwegian.




The left side page does already have some norwegian text. It's about not beeing satisfied, that I'll have to mix the colours before using the credit card. Things like that.
This page didn't inspire me at all so the only thing I came up with was this doodling.
The other side though, inspired and thought me a lot. The first thing I learnt was that even if a page don't look that inspiring ( or destroyed) much can be done to rescue it. I could have repaint it but my aim is to do the most of what I have and that leads me to be even more creative. I didn't think much of this page at the beginning but it came out quite interesting to me. And at the end I spotted the message to myself.
The text was not written to match, but at the end I could read a message: Hear hear one step at the time. Had a little laugh when I spotted that.




Now we're talking...

I'm very pleased with the left page. The cold colours and the pale winter sun. The structure of the paper even looks like canvas.
I can see that I need to focus some more at the writing, and I would not have done the text like this once more. (easy to say though) Can remove it, you say, yes but I need it as a reminder to how I learnt this and what not to do. That's all.
This journal will be kept as my "learning journal" so it's important to me that all the "mistakes" are in there.

I'll tell you how I do this.

When the gesso has dried I "paint" both pages. Better to get the messy job done at once. When it's all dry I cover (most of the time) the right hand side with some old sheets and consentrate on the left.
The red side here, I didn't like at all because I so much wanted to do curved lines and this one didn't show a single curve. So.. I was not looking forward to do this page at all.
But as you can see it came out " not that bad." I simply love birds and this was a great idea I think. The image of the parrot was in this book in the first place and I really wanted to use it. So all in all this became a very fun page to make.

Have a really nice and creative day everyone.

Journalpages, what do you see?

Isn't this amazing?

Have a good look at these pages. Especially the grey one is exiting. Can you spot any images? I can see a lot of things here.
I see Mother Theresa or one of her sisters, I see trees and gras/soil, a man with a big hat and a walkingstick, a hippopotamus, a roof with a chimney, a lion, a coffeepot and even a few more. On the red side I see a child walking to school with the schoolbag on his/hers back. That's the clearest vision right now. I'll wait untill tomorrow and look once more in daylight.



Do me a favour, write down your own list of images and we'll see at the end what comes out. I was planning to do a collage on the grey page but I can't do that with all these visions. Wow..this is over the top exiting. Try it yourself, paint and one old creditcard. I never know how or what comes out.
Wish you all a nice evening/night.

Some more doodling.

These are some new doodlings

I felt like doing something else a couple days ago.
The first one I made using some colours and it worked well, but I think perhaps the rose has a colour too prominent. I'm thrilled about the V-shape and will try some other things with that later on.
I bought some greys too and they do a big differens. The drawings get a whole new depth. Very interesting to play with I think.
I had to add a little yellow ghost too, I like ghosts. ( friendly ones that is) :-)




The second one was a try drawing a rope. Funny thing this, it seems to always fit with one over and one under as long as start and ending point are joined. Always the same. I've tried a lot of times now and it works every time. Let me hurry to tell that math isn't my force. ( must have something to do with math.)

When the rope was done I felt like filling the loops, and then I stopped. I really like this one, it feels airy and tidy which I like.
What do you think?