Some journal pages.

I have been journaling again.

I have been playing with my art journal some days now. It's fun to see how it changes. Mostly because of the way I do it. Right now I'm making some effort to collage but I'm struggeling to leave the raw edges into my journal. ( Can still hear my teachers saying: No no no it have to be neat) Well, I'll fight them back!

In this first page I was going to use some of my decorated paper and I have this old calendar with beutiful images on. The calendar paper is sooo nice too. Very "dry" or not shiny paper.

As you see in top of my page I've used my former decorated paper and it wasn't that bad at all. I was very exited to see if I could use some of them and I could. When finished I noticed that I should have coloured the background a bit more before writing so I'll write myself a note about that.
Mostly I use crayons to add a bit more colour towards the edges and then I use a rag to smear it out. That gives the page a bit more depht I think.

And then there is this issue about the spelling. I do not master the english language well enough to avoid misspellings. Stubborn as I am I don't use a dictionary except when I have no idea of a word. The result was that I spelled vegetable with a w. But I'm a pretty good fixer so it IS possible to fix a mistake afterwords. Did you notice my mistake before I mentioned it?




The next page showed me something unexpected. When I was decorating the papers earlier on I was not especially thrilled about the brownish one. But to my big surprise that was the easiest one to use. Most likely because it was the most neutral of them. The rest are very strong coloured.
At the bottom of this page I've used another one, and this little bit now reminds me of frogeggs. Well, frogeggs belongs to spring too so I used it anyway.
Bla, bla, bla to my old teachers!



At the beginning I did not really understand what this (art journaling) was all about but now I love it. It's a joyful way to create and at the same time all ones pages are gathered in a book and not as one and one sheet lying around. For me it's also interesting to look at my progress and this first journal is going to be my learning journal.

Wish you all the best.

It's about time to prepare the Bunad.

May 17th is coming up.

It's Bunad-preparations this time of year with May 17th right around the corner.
I like to let the Bunad hang out for a couple of days before use, and after as well. The shirt have to be ironed and looked over. The shawl and petticoat need a little ironing too and the silver need to be cleaned.

My Bunad is different from the most common Bunad.

I have a socalled "everyday"Bunad. A lot cheaper and almost not in use any more. It's made of cotton ( not as warm as the regulare ones that are made of wool) and I am free to do a little more variations. Not that many rules for mine. I like my Bunad and am proud wearing it. There is a lot of history connected to my silver accessoires.

My silver



First there is my neck-button. I bought that one in an antique marked and I'm not quite sure if it is a mans button. It don't bother me though so I'm proudly wearing it.
The next one is my main brooch (normally this should be a filigree broch) and I inherited this from my grandmother. She got it from her father when she was 14 yo. The broch is a framed silver-coin (2 NKR) wich was made to celebrate Norways independence in 1905. The frame is very nice and the symbols represent clockwise from top: The fishermen, the industry, the farmers and the shippingindustry.
My grandmother used this broch almost every day so all of the family recognize it as hers. I am proud to be the owner now and it's a treasure to me.

Next I wear a broch that belonged to my great grandmother. My aunt (sister of my mom) gave it to me a few years ago. Unfortunately I did newer know great granny but she was an exiting lady. I'm digging in the history.

On the Bunad itself there are 10 small heart eyes to tread the crossings across the chest. These are from my moms Bunad (wich she made herself aged 13) and are made of tin. On the "belt" (can't find the english word for it) there is 2 bigger hearts wich are hook and eye. These were made of tin too but the hook broke apart so I had to buy new ones and in silver. Tin is not in use any more and therefor out of stock. The spear in the end of the silk-string is made of tin too.



My cuff links was my fathers first. He got them aged 14. When he died I was the lucky one to get them. So as you understand I am wearing my family history each time I wear my Bunad, and people are commenting it all the time.



My Bunad

I sewed my Bunad in 2007 and have used it at several occations after that. People always come asking about my Bunad because it don't look like all the other ones. And I'm proud. I don't believe that all the women back in old days was wearing dresses that looked the same, all over. That's why I appreciate my own that much.





The last photo shows my handknitted shawl and petticoat. The petticoat is worn under the Bunad ofcourse. But when sitting it's peeking out and always leads to discussions. It's very practical to have the possibility to wear the petticoat because the weather can be really cold this time of year. My shawl is warming too and I use it if I feel a bit cold.




Well that was the storey of my Bunad, hope you have enjoied it.

A creative weekend for Sandra and I

We have been painting a lot this weekend.

Sandra always get inspired to paint when she look at my work. This weekend was no execption. She wanted to paint at old book-papers with gesso and all just as she saw I had done. Well, nothing stopped us and I prepared the pages.

Saving money.

Sandra has been very eager to save her money so that she could buy her own glitterpens and this weekend she brought them with her. Now she has decide to save for a white pen. I have promised her that we are going to make her her own art journal next time she is coming. It's important to let her try, and she has always been so fond of drawing and colouring. I think perhaps we'll make her two so that she can keep one here and one to bring home. That way she can make her own history from her weekends at our place.
If I show her several possibilities it will be easier for her to continue on her own.
This first photo shows her just starting the pen work.



In this photo you can see how proud she is. I think she did well and had all reasons to be proud.



Here is a closeup of her pages. Not difficult to spot her glitterpens but nice work I think.



This was her last page. She just fell in love with that cute little dog and we had to include it to her page. She learnt that things can be glued into the pages and I think she saw some new possibilities at once.
I am rather curious what this work can lead to. She is a clever girl and who knows, perhaps this can end as a lifelong joy for her.




The rest are some spreads I made. My pile is growing and it's soon about time to try some collage work. Perhaps coming week is the right time.





What have you been up to this weekend??

Some small cuties.

This is what I've been doing lately.

I came across a blog wich is called Peony and Parakeet. Probably the Peony-word that attracted me. This designer,from Finland, has a lot of good ideas and she makes some absolutely stunning folk bags. I really recomend you to have a look. She shares some good ideas on how to fill a sheet of paper with paint and doodling too and ofcourse many other things.
She has designed her own fabrics from knittingpatterns she has made herself. It all looks so great. No doubt she is skilled.
I got really inspired and saw very quick that small bags could be a good thing to make to minimize my stash piles a bit. I have "almost" decided to not buy anything new before I have used a lot from what I have.
I'm absolutely not going to make folk bags like her, but more like party-bags or stash-bags or whatever you want-bags.


Have a look here.



This was my first try, not perfect but good as a learner.

My second attempt.



With this one I thought of making a bag without all the colours I so often use. All the way from the beginning I felt this was a dull one. But when I at last added some colour to it, it wasn't that dull after all.


THE PARTY BAG!!

This is my favourite so far. This is the only one where I've knitted the body and that makes it a little flexible. I really like this one. New ideas and possibilities are flowing all the time at this point.
The size of this one are very good too. I'll have to decide on a more even size since all of them now are different. I use a DVD as a startpoint for the bottom of the bags and despite of that they are different sizes.
Don't know whether you can see it but the tiny lace is made of one-strand wool yarn. The laces are handsewn onto the bags so it's possible to remove them if they are not wanted. In this bag I needed some black and made this lace. I could ofcourse have made something else than a lace and got some ideas for that right now.



The last one.

Now, this is my last one so far and in this I've chosen all the matching colours. What I've learnt is that I should follow my feelings rather than my brains. This one IS dull even if it's coloured. The first one has colours a bit out of range but even so it's more like me.



These bags are all a bit romantic but I'll try to make some with another expression. Just can't wait to get started.

What do you think, anyone who could think of owning one?

Wish you all a nice and creative weekend.

The swap completed.

My 10th card arrived yesterday.

The last card arrived yesterday and with that the swap is completed. Anna Lena made this adorable card featuring her cat Lisko Jansi.
Anna Lena didn't leave me her blog adress.



This swap has been a wonderful experience for me and what an exitement!
Just want to say thankyou to all my fellow swappers and to Hanna ofcourse.

Wish you all the best.

These are my surroundings.

Today I'll show you where I live.

Our house was built in 1913 and is still a very good place to live. The windows and outside walls were repaired in 1984 and that did change the house more than I like. :-(( We were lucky enough to get some photos of how the house looked like before the repair, and my hope is that we one day can transform it back to it's former beauty.
We, my husband and I, bought this house in 2000.

I stand right outside our conservatory to get this photo.



As you can see we painted the house a very pale sand colour and all the decorations are white. Moss is a contrasting colour. This next photo shows the entrance wich we built new some years ago. The old one was soooo tiny and completely rotten. It is my husband who is the handyman.



Look at this beauty, this is the way it was from the start.



This photo shows our tiny little barn whic is no longer a barn but a garage. This house was completely out of shape when we bought the property. The question was if we were going to repair it or tear it. We did repair it and maintained the courtyard as it was ment to be from the beginning.



This photo shows the garage ( door, gate or whatever it's called) It was very important to us to keep the barns exteriour as original as possible and at the same time be able to use it for our times "horses" hehe. My handyman has his own place at ground level beside the garage where he is doing his magic with tools and other things.The barn loft is in use for storage.



This is a small outhouse and this were my garage when I still had my car. The rest of the house is for storage ( a million things we don't need) From the start this was a henhouse and it also contains the original pit privy. (three seats) Empty and not in use any more.
The wall in the background is connecting the two houses and makes a great space for us to stay out enjoying the sun.



Since this was ment to be a henhouse I thought I had to decorate the window with some hens. This display always leads to laughter and discussions and kids are always interested in the hens.



Behind the outhouse we have our vegetable garden. Uha... it looks so naked, we've just cut down all the hedges. They were 2 meters high and desperately needed to be cut back.



This is our conservatory. My husband built it using some very old windows we had here. The door is from one of our neighbours. Behind the house the hedge is growing and I really hope it shows up in a hurry again.




For many years I tried to get the birds to drink from this bowle but they never did, untill I filled the bowle with small stones. Now there are birds drinking and "swimming" all the time even bigger birds. They do "soilbathing" in the flowerbed behind it too and it amuses me to see.
The rest of my photos shows the garden surrounding the house and need no further comments. Notice the stone fence in the next photo, built almost a hundred years ago and still in shape.

A nice and warm shawl.

Knitted shawl.

I knitted this shawl as one of many. Today I had to put it round my neck because of some aching stiffness.
I've become addicted to these shawls in winter. They (I have a lot of them in different colours) are knitted from alpaca and are very soft and warming.
The best thing about them is that they are so easy to knit. One start with 3 stitches and increases 1 st every other row (one side only and always the same side)untill one have 130 st. Then decrease in the same manner as the inc.



It's decorative to use a contrasting colour and add stripes according to your wishes. On this shawl I used offwhite and made some french knots too. When I made the tassels (don't know if that's the right word) I had no more offwhite yarn left but some in work. I unravelled it and used it. To my big surprise it came out well and different to my expectations. The tassels became real full wich I like.
As a variation one can also knit some of the purl rows, and add some stripes that way too.