January gone.

First month done.

It's unbelievable, but now we can look forward to more light during the day. I can already see that our days (light) comes earlier and lasts longer. This morning we had a beautiful sunrise too. All the smal birds singing and preparing for nesting. This photo got me thinking of the folks that knit one row a day and use the sky as colour chart. Not much grey in the sky this morning.



We have a tiny layer of snow now and that's alright. The howling storm we had last week seems to be gone and that's a relief. You know the feeling, when heading outdoors and it's bitterly cold. Your bones are freezing and that cold won't let go for awhile. Those winds from east bring us a taste of Siberian frost. Good then to have a warming place to be.

I was thinking of doing a monthly collage this year, and here is my first one.

Have a nice day and take good care everyone.

Look what I got in the mail today!

I was soooooo excited.

I decided at once to delay the opening moment. It's so nice to know it's finally here, yet still I want to delay. Tell myself to wait at least another hour and then be able to feel my resistance melt like butter. It's quite interesting to observe oneself in those situations.
I have to touch it once more, feel it, and think about what it has been through. All the way from The US. Perhaps I should just open it at once? No....., I make another turn around in the house trying to think of other things. Impossible, all my senses know about that envelope.

The struggle between me and my will lasts for 20 minutes. I melted alot faster than expected. Do you ever do things this way?


Look at this beautiful artwork. It's called "The long way home" and it spoke to me the minute I saw it in Heathers shop. Now I'm the proud owner of it and will use some time to choose a proper place to hang it.


The one below is so sweet, and I immediately thought of Sandras room when I first saw it. I think that will be the right place to hang it.


As if that wasn't enough Heather had made me a handmade card as well. A beautiful and handwritten message inside.
This has been such a lovely experience, now it remains to see if my envelope to her will turn up safe at her place. I keep my fingers crossed for that.


Thanks alot Heather, this has been so much fun!!

Have you ever worked on a theme?

I have been working on a theme lately.

I don't know where it came from but lately I've been working with the Gothic style arch kind of thing. In the city of Stavanger (which we speak of as the city) we have the old Cathedral. The oldest still standing Cathedral in Norway. It was built in the first half of year 1100. This Cathedral has some Gothic arches and windows. You can see some photos here. Sorry there is no english text but the photos are worth looking at.

It started out when I was making those cards. The first photo shows my first one and that is just a sketck.

When I had come this far I saw that this could be something to continue working on. I think I'm going to make several variationes of this, untill I can find excactly what I'm looking for. Then it's worth painting on canvas I think.
Below I've added some more colour, but I'm not sure whether to keep them in.


Well, I sat down with this new idea of mine and started drawing. What came out wasn't at all what I had in mind. I call it another sketch.

With this new sketch I wanted to try using my old fashioned penholder and nib. And that's what I did. I like the way the ink appears. Some places very dark and much lighter other places. And, I love the sound of the nib. That got me thinking of the times when all books was handwritten.

I'll continue this work and see how far it takes me. Today I've done some other painting but the ideas keeps on coming. That's a blessing.
Below my last sketch is done, it is quite fun to see how different things can appear from one idea.

That's what I'm going to work on next week.

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone.

Crafty evening

We had a good time.


I asked them to use the photos in my blog and didn't hear any serious protests, so I recon it's OK.
We had much fun and I always end up thinking :why don't we do this more often. We started up eating some fish soup and then moved into the livingroom. I did some photographing during the meal too, but you know eating and photographing isn't a good match.

Always much to discuss when we meet and yesterday was no exception in that matter. The first photo shows Sissel and Hege. Hege (right) is my close friend and we are training pals. She is working on the most beautiful embroidery, and each stitch is tiny tiny. Hege is the master of patient, she don't hurry she enjoys. Her job is social worker, and they're lucky to have her. So am I!!



Sissel (left) has her days similar to mine, homeworker. She is a ceramist and makes rough and humorous items. Her work is really special and most important, typically her. Once, she gave me one of her famous birds. Her birds can be like : jailbird, pearl hen, song bird and as mine Summer bird. The summer had been wet, wet, wet and Sissel created her summer bird.
Notice the rain hat and rubber boots. All her birds are so fun.



Next photo shows Marit. She's such a funny and impulsive girl. There's not a thing in the world Marit couldn't do. She's not amongst the most eager ones in crafting, but our meetings wouldn't be the same without her. It's so fun to be around her. Marit is a primary school teacher, and when I first saw this photo I noticed that she must heve the most shiny hair ever.


The last two are Aino (left) and Elisabet, shiny cheerful girls both of them. Aino is a teacher in her day job, in her spare time she is running her own Yoga studio teaching people to train Yoga. I haven't tried but people tell me she is a wonderful Yoga teacher. I know she is a wonderful person though.
Elisabet is a wonderful person too. She's an engeneer in her day job and she spend most of her spare time learning alternative treatment. She is already quite skilled, and our meetings always include some treatment from her. Elisabet was born and raised in Iceland, and I'm always so facinated when she speaks Icelandic.

Well then, now you've met my crafting friends. I was behind the camera and that's the best place to be. :-)) Two girls were missing this evening. It don't suits everyone every time.

Thanks for a wonderful evening girls, looking forward to next time.

That's all for now, take care everyone.

My creation for today.

I've had such a lovely day.

Today I've made a postcard for a Russian friend. In fact I started yesterday by making the surface to paint on. I had some old cardboard that I glued cut up bookpapers on. When they was almost dry I laid them with pressure on over night. I made five.
At the back I used a thick sheet of paper, glued it down and then used my sewingmachine to sew around the edges. After the photographing I sprayed a coat of varnish on top of the front.


I'm quite pleased how it came out. It's called "Sisters" My thoughts are that we are sisters in Postcrossing. It was through postcrossing I came into contact with this girl.

It could be called " The first two members of Round Faces" too. I have been laughing/smiling all day of that possibility.


A small update on my training.

I'm sorry to say that something is wrong with my knees. I tend to believe that my runningshoes have to be replaced. So tomorrow I'll buy some new ones. I haven't been running for 40 years so that may be part of the problem too. At least I'm going to be careful, I don't want a long period of
inflammation. I have several types of cream to treat it with and be sure, I'm smearing.
Tomorrow it is time to run again but I think it's better to go for a quick walk.

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All my crafting friends are coming tomorrow to the first meeting this year. I'm really looking forward to that. If I'm allowed I'll show some pics.

Take care everyone.

Todays card.

Have you ever heard of Postcrossing?
I'm a member of postcrossing, I send and receive postcards from all over the world. It's so exciting to open my mailbox every day to see if there are any cards and where they're from.
Yesrerday I made a sort of arcive to store my cards. I used a shoebox and some cardboard to write the country names on. That way it's easier to find a specific card.


I've got some lovely cards and today I found a very special one in the mailbox. That one was sent from Finland (Suomi) and it looks like this.




This card gave me some new ideas on what/how to paint. Some of the details are just a sight. Very nice card.

Today I'm going to make a card for a girl in Russia, she fancy the hand made cards and I'll make her one. Always a joy to sit down and try to make something that suits the recipient.
I really recommend you to try Postcrossing. It's free (well, one have to pay for the cards/ stamps) and the speed of it all one decide for oneself.
One of these days the Postcrossing system will turn 10 000 000 received postcards. Isn't that something? I've added their blog to my bloglist, go have a look.

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The runningbusiness was a COLD affair today. We have a few minus degrees and it's windy. That makes it cold. But, we did it and that's the main thing.

For the time beeing I'm doing some crocheting. Something I wanted to try because of a comment I left on a blog. Have to see that my suggestion will work. :-)

That's all for now, take care everyone!

Playing together is fun!

We had lots of fun.

Happiness is, amongst other things, to have good friends to paint and play with. We spent some wonderful hours together. We just had to pour some coffee into Margit at once. Margit is my friend since highschool and now she is jobing nightshift. She had not slept much and therefore she was a bit tired when arriving. But as always, coffee came to rescue.

Yesterday I made some "sheets" for us to work on. I used cardboard and glued some cut up bookpages onto them. That gives a nice and textured surface to work on. Mine is the one below, the other two didn't have time to work on theirs. They brought them back home and will work on them there.

I didn't have any plan when doing mine, just worked on intuition. For a while I thought of making a dinner plan, lets say for a month, but didn't. This could be anything, another good idea that came to me was to write down all the special days of the year. You know, all those days from old times that, according to old traditions, made weather signs and so forth. One side for summertime, the other for winter. In Norwegian that is called Primstav and was a sort of calendar. Perhaps I should make one. I'll think about it. In any case, my sheet isn't for anything special just a suggestion to what could be done. (for my friends)


Here you see Margit in action.

Margit says hello.

Astri says hello too.

Astri is my cousin and we've had a lot together. She is new to this kind of work and she liked it alot. We agreed on getting out buying some suplies together. I've found a shop that are willing to order things for me and I think it's fair to help them sell stuff in return.

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Speaking of suplies, today I ordered some twinkling watercolours. I have been reading the blog Dion Dior and it's so inspiring what she is doing with those colours. Today was my day, they were in stock and I ordered. Yay!!
I also got an e-mail from my trading friend saying that my stuff is on it's way, I can hardly wait for it to arrive. Double yaaaay!!

Early this morning I also was out running, I'm so proud of myself. My training friend works nightshift too and we're training right after she leaves job. Then she goes home for sleeping and I go home beeing proud of myself. After one week training I really believe that this is going to work and that we are going to continue.
Not bad if one has passed 50 and not been running since one was 15.

Life is good to me!!

Take care everyone!

Watercolours are fun!!

I have been playing alot lately.

Since I'm writing this post you understand I did survive my training on Monday. :-) It was hard but easier than expected, I haven't been joging since I was 15 and that's a long time ago. Coming Thursday is next time, early in the morning. Later that day two of my friends are coming over and we are going to paint and make some art together. Looking forward to that.

Isn't it fun to work with watercolours? I've had some ideas that I wanted to try out but ended up just playing instead. The ideas have to wait until later. These are my watercolours. The brand is Pelikan, and I really like this palette. One can mix alot of different shades with them and more or less water make different shades too.

I tried out different things on this one. It's always such excitement to see if the skyline/horizon looks like it could be true, and yes, not bad.

The element of flowers I used as a fill in. And I wanted to practice shading. I did paint the shadows at first but in the end I did them over again with one of my pens. I wasn't planning to, it just happened before I became aware of it. :-(

What are you doing? I have to prepare something for Thursday tomorrow, one of my friends is new to this and I think she would like to try some art journaling.
It's so irritating, I was at LuminArte home page to have a read about their colours. A phonecall made me shut down the page and at the next entry they didn't have anything in stock longer. Arrrrrr...

Well, I'll have to try again tomorrow, perhaps they are updating their site.
That's all for now, have a good time and take care everyone.

We had a good time.

This weekend Sandra and I was creative.

Sandra made some fabulous paintings this weekend, and I made something special too. In the end of 2011 I made a decision to either trade or buy artwork from my fellow bloggers. My intentions are to do this once a month in 2012. And I'm lucky to report that my very first trade is ongoing right now.

One of my fellow bloggers was interested in my potholders and we agreed on trading. So, this weekend I've been crocheting, painting and writing a tiny bit. My package are ready for shipping first thing in the morning, well first I have my very first training hour to do.

I'm sure you understand why I can't show any photos of my "doings". That would, of course, spoil all the fun for the person who is waiting for my package.
I'm so excited about this, she had some very likable drawings/paintings to trade and I just can't wait to see them in person. What exciting times!!

What I can show you is some of Sandras paintings.

I so much fell in love with these two. I should have taken some photos of them before she painted them, just to show you how fantastic they were. With paint some of the clarity disappears, but I still like them. You really should have seen them in person. And you should've seen Sandra too when she got this idea. She was so eager and didn't have any questiones on how to.
Lucky me to take part of all this.

The text top left says Boy and top right Girl and they are in love as I understood it.
She wasn't quite done when I took the photos. She did a bit more on the eyes and added some more color to the letters on top.
Here's a close up.

I hope you all had as much joy as me this weekend.

Making postcards.

I'm off to a good start.

As I told you in my last post I wanted to try making paintings as postcards. I asked you, dear friends, how you thought of it and you was so cheering. Thanks alot, that made me more sure of my decision.
I have start the process of painting, but I find myself judging all the time. Why is that? It's no good doing so, I know for sure but why is it happening? I think perhaps the reason is that postcards is ment to be sent to somone and that increases the pressure. Do any of you feel like this?

I think I will try to paint 10 different images, and then pick out the best 5 of them to be printed as postcards.
Don't be surprised if I ask you to pick your favs.

Here are my two first. I'm a bit uncertain whether to use the first one, nothing wrong with the mushroom or tree trunk but the surroundings looks a bit odd. Well, the choosing is far ahead.


The next two. I'm very pleased with both of them. I couldn't help adding "Eddi" at the last one, I felt I had to add something humoristic. That suites me well.


At the reverse side I will write the Norwegian and Latin name of the mushrooms. Yesterday I researched the possebility to get my own stamps. Stamps with my photo on them. I had much fun thinking of my own handmade cards, handwritten on by me and stamped with my photo.
Me, me, me, me........................

Well, I would love to recieve a card like that from one of you.

This weekend Sandra is coming and we shall enjoy painting together. It's so much fun with Sandra, she always surprises me in one way or other. She has a good relation to handyman too, and the two of them often can agree against me if I'm too strict. I always have to laugh then, two pair of eyes looking strait at me and don't agree. It's so much joy.

Have a really nice weekend everyone!!

An outdated book.

I've had this book for years.

This book was outdated from a library years ago. I was the lucky buyer and have thought of painting the mushrooms ever since.

Every image in the book is handpainted and then photographed. It's a great inspiration. The book itself was ment for mushroom pickers, but new knowledge made it nessesary to make a new edition.
Yesterday I saw Geninne in Geninne's Art had painted a mushroom together with her lovely birds and that got me to remember my book. Have a look at the images, they're so beautiful.


In my studio today.

In my studio today I wanted to paint some of the images. I've been painting with my watercolours lately and I like them alot.
I came up with two images and painted them. But, something was itching my mind.


My paintings are sized like postcards and I have decide to try painting these as postcards. Do you think they can be used for that purpose?
I do send quite a few postcards during a year, and some of the recipients do want handmade cards. The only thing I need to figure out is how to make a nice reverse. It's not a problem but I want something special.

I have a friend with good connection to get stuff printed so perhaps I should get them printed. Well, let me paint them first. :-)
I'm so happy today because the sun is shining. Everything seem easier then.

Have a nice day and take care!

Make patterns and get peace.

Training ? Me?

Yesterday I had a phonecall from a good friend of mine, she was so caught up with a new year and new habits. Did I want to come along training, she had found a new GOOD trainingprogramme. We had been speaking of doing something for a while so I thought it would be reasonable to say yes.

Training, me??? It sounds like I'm telling myself a joke, but why not give it a try. We'll start with 4 weeks and then see. Could be something I enjoy doing...........
The programme tells that one in 4 weeks can reduce the size of our pants with 2 numbers. Easy to promise. Well, lets see. I'll keep you updated on the issue.

A new pattern.

This morning I made a new pattern. I love this kind of lines. I'm not sure that I like the white dots in the blue though. I very much like the "dry" expression of this one and am a bit unsure whether the white ruins that feeling a bit.

The differens between my two photos is a lightbulb. The one abowe is just like I see it in person, the one below is without the lightbulb close by.

The one above doe's not have any warmth in it, and the warmth makes the whole differens to me. I could easily have used this on one of my walls if I could find it as wallpaper.
Have you ever tried making patterns? It's so relaxing, peaceful.

How?
First I did a colourwash with watercolour, then I drew the pattern and coloured it with my pens. The white on the leaves is done with water and a tiny bit of acrylics.

Have a nice day everyone, and thanks for stopping by.

New week and new opportuneties.

Birthday over, and a little more.

I had a nice day yesterday. A lot of greetings on facebook and on the phone. And some knocked on my door.
My yongest brother came to visit and told us about his vacation in the Arab Emirates. It sound like a fairytale. They've had nice and warm weather and everything felt good.
Later on a good friend of mine came by and gave me these lovely flowers. Lucky me!!


The glasplate/dish (what's the correct word for this??) beneath is over a hundred years old. I love that one. Several years ago I bought it in an antiquefair and have never regret that.


This is a closeup to show you all the beautiful details.



I sat down in my studio this morning, grabbed a pencil and out came these little folks. After finishing them I've been in the phone.
Many years ago I saw something similar to these drawings, it might be that that lead me to do these sketches. They are fun to make and I can easily imagine some storys where they take part.

I tried to paint something yesterday but it didn't work out, so I'll have to try over again.

Enjoy your week everyone and take good care.

A creative Saturday.

Me making patterns continues......

I made some more patterns today. The first one is some of the elements from yesterday. I think I'll have to do them over again, because I'm not happy about how the colours came out and there is something else that don't fit either. Can't excactly nail it but something don't suit me.
I'll try it again, perhaps I can find a better combo, and the process is so fun that it don't bother me.


The next one I made reminds me of a wallpaper I once saw. The paper I use is not ment for watercolours so it's not the best. I think I'll have to use one of my selfmade books for my patterns, they are made with good papers.
I wasn't quite satisfied with this one either so I tried over again and the next one was born.



This one is starting to look how I wanted it to be. I would love the red to be a little brighter so I might try to change that. Isn't that a lovely black? By the way, this one is made using acrylics. I start with a layer of gold and black with a tiny bit of gold in it on top of that. In person you would see that the small dots are made with a copper glitterpen.
Even that I'm pleased I probably want to work a bit more on this pattern.



I will try to make it simpler without loosing the spirit of it. And I want to make it a bit more accurate. I have a niece that are making (gyldenlær) don't know what that will be in english but she is painting on leather. First layer is pure gold flakes and then colours. You know, the kind used for chairs and religious ikons.
Perhaps I should ask her to learn me the process of that.

Take good care everyone!

Today Christmas is over.

Quite a job.

It's quite a job to put all the Christmas stuff away, and I always feel so sad when I have to. But, today was the day and now it's all gone.
All my tablecloths have been changed, no more red. Now they are white/offwhite. The diningtable has a pink tablerunner on top of the offwhite and the coffeetable has a springgreen runner on top. That leaves me with some colours and I'm pleased. Now, when everything is back to normal it feels good.

I'm back in my studio too, and right now I'm hooked on making patterns. I've just started and I don't know how long it will last but it's fun and relaxing.
First I paint with watercolours and then pens. Below is the first one I made, I love the colours on this one but the patterns are a bit messy. (too many at the same sheet.) I really like some of the elements here so I'll have to try them out seperately.


This one is a bit more calm. I like the way it turned out and I like doing this. I think I'll experiment with different shapes and see where that will lead me.
As I told you I've not made any "promises" on what to do this year other than create a littlle every day, and so far I've done that.
I used a bit of white acrylics on this one. Made some "wide" white vertical stripes and then used my pens to add the new colour.


Have a nice weekend everyone, I will. It's my54th. Birthday on Sunday and birthdays always make me feel good.

What, blacksheep...............ME???

Remember I told you about recieving a lot of yarn?

I have this good friend that donated me 3 sacks filled with yarn some weeks before Christmas. She has been my friend for more than 30 years and we always give oneanother a little present for Christmas.
This year I was given a key holder amongst other things. It's so cute that I have to share it with you.


If this is an image of all the yarn she gave me, she has to be the sheep giving the wool. Well, then I'm the blacksheep!???
I'll have to ask some questions here, I feel. :-))


I finished sewing the clothes yesterday and today I've been painting a bit. Not much, but it's a start. Tomorrow will be the day to put all the Christmas stuff away.
We still have this mild weather and no snow in sight. That makes me happy.


I visited a friend today, had to see her Christmas-tree before she put it down. Beautiful tree!

My mother is leaving for Mallorca again coming week so I had to visit her again today too. She is so looking forward to leave, the weather down there is so much warmer.

I wish you all the best!

Just a quick entry.

A slow start of 2012.

I've had a slow start to this year. Jan. 2nd I made a potholder and yesterday I made a postcard. I spent much of my day yesterday together with my mother shopping clothes for her. She needed to upgrade her wardrobe and I had to help out.
Today I'm going to adjust some of the clothes she bought, never fitting at once.
I'm planning a workshop together with some friends and perhaps today will be the day for settleing a date for that.
Do you often work together with friends (in person)? I love to do that, always learning something new and get inspired to continue on my own afterwards.


I have a basket full of cottonyarn for these potholders so it's easy to continue making them. This photo below make me stare, something about the colorcombo.

Well, I better start my job with the clothes, no reason to sit here to avoid it. It's such a dull job.


Have a nice and creative day!

New year.

Happy New Year everyone!

This brand new year filled with new possibilities is starting today. I have decided to be open to what may come my way. The only promise I've given myself is to be a little creative every day, whether it is fiberwork, fabricwork, drawing, painting, photograph or other things.

One week from today is my birthday and with that day done I always feel so free. When I was a child I always wanted to keep the Christmastree on my birthday. That's no longer a desire of mine. What traditions do you have on how long the Christmas lasts? In my parts of the country it lasts to January 6th. (The 13th day of Christmas) In other parts it lasts to January 13th. And how do Christmas end for you? According to old traditions we're eating the Christmas out of the house, well together with removing all the Christmas stuff. January 6th. we're supposed to eat the same kind of food that we started off eating, for us that will be porks rib and cabbage à la norvègienne. And that's the end of Christmas for us.
How do you do it? Is there any traditions on this subject where you live?

Today the New Year Concert from Wienna is shown on TV and it has become another tradition of mine to watch it. Lovely music, lovely preformance, lovely dancers and a lot of lovely flowers. It was my mum who always had to watch this show, and as youths we always laughed at her because of it. But now, I love it myself.


I don't think I've shown you my selfmade star. In an earlier post I was talking about trying to make a star and perhaps fill my house with stars for Christmas. I made a star, but only one. It was not the easiest task, but I like it and it will probably decorate my window next Christmas too.
Below you see two sisters, my mum (left) and my Moster. We invited them for dinner Dec.26th and we shared some memorable hours together.

I wish you all the best for 2012!