A good day.

It's amazing how little it takes to get the mojo running.

I'm sure I could paint 10 cups a day right now, but I don't. Instead I'm going to try making some background papers or paper for later use. Todays cup is finished but I can't show off a cup a day for 50 days so I'll wait and show them together later on.
I told you that I asked my facebook friends for photos of their cups. I had a pretty good responce and am of course greatful for their help.
Right now this is how my workingspace looks like. It's pretty cool to make something that actually is nothing, just  let the mind rest and work with whatever the hand can reach. Listen to the radio and be glad to stay indoors. As my mother always says, there is good weather outdoors to stay indoors.

It's pouring down today which is a good thing right now since we did plant alot of bushes some days ago. That means we don't have to water them.
Handyman is calling for me, we're going out to buy him somthing for his coin collection. Well, I better go before he looses his mood.

Have a beautiful day you too!

Starting today. 1/50

The challenge 50 paintings 50 days.

Day one.

I did some thinking last evening on how to do this challenge. Should I do themes lasting one week, no theme at all or perhaps a theme for all 50 days? I made myself a list of themes, whether I'll use it or not remains to see. That list contains alot of good ideas so I'll keep it anyway.
 This first week I'll paint cups, in fact I'm so inspired that I feel I could do cups all through.
I've even asked my facebook friends to send me photos of all their favorite cups. I have enough cups to cover this weeks work, after that I'll have to visit family and friends to gather more ideas.
This was such a great idea and I can already tell that this will be something I enjoy to do. Thanks to designmadde for launching this idea!

My very first work is showing my favorite morning coffee cup. I'm recycling empty toiletpaper rolls, so they are my canvases during this challenge. I chose to mount my painting onto a fabric, and probably I will do that with each piece.  I have alot of ideas on how to do it.

Have a nice day everyone!

Some paint and a challenge.

Today I did some painting, but it's hard to start after beeing away from it some time. I did a couple of trys but didn't know where to aim.
They're not finished, the first one is a playful drawing I did and I want to develop it even further.

The one below is made on top of a "velvety " paper ment for pastels. I used acrylics and ink. Don't know how to continue so I'll have to put it aside for awhile.

I did some blog reading today and found this blog which challenged me to make a painting a day for 50 days. I will! It's a great way to get started. The size will be something like 14x10 cms. Small and quick done is what I think right now. Starting tomorrow. If you need a kickstart, play along too.
Design Madde is planning to bind a book of hers, but I'm thinking to make them individuals. Now I'm looking forward to get started.

Best wishes to you all.

White ink.

I finally got the white ink I ordered some time ago.

Our guests are out for the day and that gave me an opportunety to test my new ink. The idea to paint some leafes came from Gennine. I saw her do it some time ago.
I'm planning to use the white ink on top of drawings, to make them sort of lighter. Black ink can't do that.

As long as handyman still are free from work I can't find the time to sit down to make art. The days are not the same as when I'm alone. Instead we do alot of things together and that's very nice too.
I started another painting of our son but have not done anything on it yet. Yesterday I started wondering if I ever showed you the photo I painted him from the first time. I'll add it here to be sure.

 He was two years old here. You can see my final reault here

We're enjoying having our guests, they're so nice people. Last evening we had some wonderful hours together. It's Handyman's sister and her husband, they're living in the south parts of our country.

I hope you are having fun too!

Not much going on.

Some leafes and an old face.

I've made some sketches after returning from our vacation. I saw alot of different foliage but didn't photograph it. We didn't carry our camera each time we went out so........
The yellowish leafes was made using my new pen nib, a tiny one. It's a whole process to get used to use ink, for left handed people it takes alot of awareness. As you see I didn't always remember.

The lower set of leafes was inspired by someone I saw in Mallorca. The pink one in top is not yet unfolded. The pink colour is like a skin that is falling off when the leaf unfold. The leafes on this bush was very shiny.

Right now I'm preparing for a visit to the dentist. OUCH!!!!! Full of fear each time I have to visit there. Otherwise I'm preparing for some houseguests arriving tomorrow. There is this yearly food festival in Stavanger they want to visit. It'll be nice having them.
I hope you enjoy summer!

Back from a week in Mallorca.

We've had a wonderful week in Mallorca. 

Sunbathing and swimming all day long. Sandra swims like a fish now and she spent the whole week under water more then over it. She befriended a Sweedish girl and the two of them played so well together.
The weather was too hot even for me. Late evening and 34 deg. C without air condition of any kind. It felt good to return back home to more normal temperatures. We even experienced  a bush fire very close to our house and it was quite scary. The fire lasted for three days, planes and copters worked hard to pull out the fire. Some locals told us that there was 12/13 fires started and that they were lighted on purpose by someone.

One day Sandra was unlucky enough to lock our keys into the apartment so the care taker had to climb the balconies to get in and unlock the door. Luckily nothing happened to him. It was a dangerous task.

Above Sandra swims with her head over the water, mostly she was below the waterline. All in all we had a wonderful week, but it's good to be back home.

Fruits in the garden.

 

It's always exciting to see how much fruits each year brings.

This year our walnut tree won't have much nuts. This tree is very large, the hight is something like 10 meters.
Have you ever smelled the foliage of a walnut tree? It smells like apples. The nuts grows mostly 3 and 3 together. I have often wondered which colour they would give if I used them to colour yarn. Most likely I think it would be some sort of brown. My hands turns yellow when peeling the outer layer off the nuts though.

 Gooseberrys, yummi! These are an old sort too and tastes very sweet. We just pick and eat them, not cooking anything of them.

 Plums this year too. They don't become as sweet as they could be because of too little sun. But we use the ones we can reach. The apple trees seem to have lots of fruit this year. We have 6 apple trees and enough apples to share with the birds. Many years in autumn our trees are loaded with apples but no leaves. It's quite a special sight. The birds enjoys all the leftovers.
We also have a red currant bush. We pick and eat and the rest is for the birds. Sandra does pick and have milk and sugar on them. When I was a kid my mother ( and mothers) always made syrup of the berrys. I don't have any black currant and I really miss that. Perhaps this year is the right time to plant one.

In addition we also have the vegetable garden. This year we grow : Swedish, onions, peas, potatos, strawberrys and carrots.

Flowering right now.

The big Alliums are flowering now. The small ones are done. These are good to keep during winter. They dry up nicely and are very decorative in a vase.

UUUPS..... these white ones are weeds. Horrible weeds, but then again they're so beautiful. Together with the peonies they look like queens lace. I have to admit though that this photo was taken OVER the hedge. They belongs to our neighbour. Enlarge the photo and see how much they reminds of snowflakes.

This one is a very useful plant in our garden. It grows up like a hedge and stop much of the insight from the road outside the garden. The flowering dosen't last long but their foliage lasts long. Aruneus dioicus. We call them Skogskjegg. Very very very freely translated that means wood beard.

A closeup.

A couple of lillies. The yellow one is a day lilly and smells goooood.

This bush lives in the shadow and dosen't like it. It should flower richly but dosen't.

The gigant bells. I have no clue of what the correct name on this plant is. It has just started flowering and looks beautiful, even in late evenings with no light it shines.

 This is from the jasmine bush. Right now this was the only flower but it will flower richly this year. The whole bush is filled with buds. Many people love the smell from these flowers, but I don't.  It's too much for me.

Wish you all the best!

A few roses in my garden.

I don't have many roses in my garden. I can't get them to grow properly. I only have a few that have proved themselves to be strong willed.
The first one here is a wildrose ( dog rose) and it gets beautiful nibs in autumn. They (the nibs) are both beautiful and tastes good. Back in time it was the branches from this bush they used to make teeths for their rakes. It's very hard wood and are especially suited for that purpos. Below one of the flowers is about to unfold. In this stage they look pale pink.

Unfolded and almost done, in this stage they are white. I especially love all the darker spots towards the middle. They sits on long stems and it looks like they are dancing.

This next one is a Rugosa. Around here they grow wild too. Close to the shoreline there are plenty growing wild. Both dark pink and white ones. You probably know the good smells froom these. I love all the flowers that have a good smell.

The last one is a very old rose bush that smells heavenly too. Unfortunately they are no good in vases. Falling apart at once if I try to pick them. We call these roses Prestegårds roser. Freely translated it's something like The Vickers rose.

This one bloom every year even though it's very stepmotherly treated. Poor thing!

Well, that's my roses. Have a beautiful day!

In the middle of mess.

I have changed my doings to crocheting. Needed a break from painting and I always seem to crochet during summer. Much more easy to carry with me wherever I go or sit. Right now this is my workingspace.

The photo dosen't show the whole truth. It's quite messy around me when I work with crocheting, at least when I'm going to experiment.  I started these handcuffs today. Perhaps not the best colourmix but these are just a test. I had to try out the pattern.  By the way, do you like my turtle pinholder ? I made it many years ago and have been using it since then.

Below the cuffs on my arm. It's this Christmas marked I'm thinking of. Well, I'll have to see if I want them to come. These days I'm on the yearly biking week. My friend is back home and we start each day by biking for an hour or so. Depends on how much we pause.
 

What are you up to, enjoying the summer?

Have some beautiful days anyway!

About languages.

I've had some complaints

 because I write my blog in english. Why don't I write in my own language? Nothing serious or rude, just telling me that it would be much easier to read if I use norwegian instead of english. When I decided to start this blog, one of the main reasons was to write in english. I wanted to maintain and perhaps even increase my english vocabulary. It has helped, alot. Wether I always am writing correct is quite another issue. Many times I have trouble finding the words to describe what I intend to say and therefor I often simplyfi my language. I shouldn't be doing that, it dosen't help me learning more.

Compared to english, norwegian is a language of few words. But sometimes we have a specific word for things that english doesn't have, for example we say  DØGN which means 24 hours/ day and night. It always amazes me when I find words that are "missing " in english. But then again, perhaps I just can't find them. I find it very facinating with different languages, that I can speak another language and be understood in a foreign country.

Of course it helps me alot to read other blogs. Blogs where the author is using their own language. Not only do I learn new words but also how to use them. Reading blogs is the closest one can get to the daily use of a language, except of living abroad of course. Newspapers uses a far more correct language but bloggers shows me the daily use. Very helpful, so thanks alot to all of you.

 Thank you also for beeing so patient with me. I know I'm not always writing correct but I try.

Have a super day!

The last ones.

I promised to be back with a photo of my last peonys.

 Here they are. The first one is a simple but beautiful one. I was told it's called Sara Bernhard but I'm not sure.

This is Bowl of beauty. It's so beautiful that I could stay awake the whole night just to admire it as long as it lasts.

 I usually pick a big amount of flowers to give to a person. This year the person was MEEEEE. Peonys are such lovely flowers, but they don't last long. Now I'll enjoy my bunch the rest of the day. A friend is coming for a visit so we'll catch up.

 Enoy!

A little morning play.

I had to try my new things from yesterday,

so I've been playing a little this morning.
Of course no one had white ink in stock. I can't understand why. Luckily they offered to get me a bottle. The black ink dries up to be waterproof and that's a must when I'm using ws crayons. The mandala below is made without any guidelines. It was made because I wanted to try the ink. I bought a tiny tiny tiny nib too. Very good in use and I already feel it will become a favourite tool.

Below is another thing I made. It became a flower and I cut it out and glued it onto one of my book covers.  Nothing special but a good test and a good way to become familiar to the new tool.

Today I'll pay my mother a visit.

Enjoy your day too!

The final result.

Today I'll be out shopping some more frames. I've been making more eggshell paintings and they need frames. I buy them at Ikea. Perhaps I'll look for inks too.
Last evening I thought of painting cats. We have all these cats visiting our garden. There is the Opera cat, the shabby one and a beautiful grey and white one. They are hunting the birds which are swimming in a big bowl I have given them for that purpose. I don't like it at all, the cats hunting the birds, but it's their nature.

I just wanted to show you the final result of my painting today. The frame was made by Handyman and I'm very pleased. Now the painting hangs on my sons wall and he was pleased too.

I wasn't aware that the background became so much alike the colour of the frame but it works well. When I called it done I hurried to varnish the painting to avoid temptation to fix even more. I miss it on my wall so I started a new one the other day. Not sure I can do another one, but I'll try. That will be for me though.

Now I'm off together with a friend to spend the day out. Have a nice day you too!