Friday, April 27

knitting in plastic

I'm sorry for not posting in a while. I have a lot of things in school at the moment...But, just because I'm not blogging does not mean that I'm not crafting. I craft a lot in times when I should be doing other things! Now I'm knitting a lot, in plastic but also in yarn. I'm in the making of a sleeve for my green sweater, a dishcloths in the same green yarn and two out of five "walls" are finished for my plastic containers. It's a tedious and hard work, I get blisters on my fingers from knitting in plastic but I will finish it and even make more than one box.

This is from the book I got the idea from. They made a bag entirely knitted from plastic bags but I like the idea of a recycling container made from recycled materials more.
Here they are, my two finished walls!
It looks kind of pretty from a distance, the way the colours blend into each other!
I'm taking a break from blogging for a couple of days and when I come back hopefully I'll have some finished items to show you!
Have a good weekend and enjoy the god weather!

Ps. Our camera is coming home this weekend! I have missed it, not that there is anything wrong with my brothers camera but it's not ours..

Tuesday, April 24

Matchbox shrines

Two matchbox shrines are finished and sent off to their owners! This is just a sneak peak on how they look on the outside. I sent them off today so they won't arrive in a couple of days and when I know they have been received I'll post a pic of the content.

This one is wrapped in a purple Thai silk fabric with a big purple button. The card I made from one of my own photos in photoshop. The text reads, "Imagine living in a flower".
Hope she'll enjoy it!
This one is wrapped in paper ;-) with wooden beads as decoration. The content is all in the same colours as outside.
This was so fun to make! I have one more swap that involves matchboxes so now I'm hooked!

Sweater update

Here's an update on how my sweater is coming along. The back and front is finished and today I started on the first sleeve, it's going to be in a light green. It's a fun project when it's finished... Now it's just boring, that's why it's taking me so long to finish it. But I can't wait until I can walk around in a sweater I made myself ;-)

I like this green colour and I like working in this 100% cotton yarn but next time I think I'll make something smaller. Like dishcloths:-) Look at these, they are so pretty!

An artist in the kitchen

This weekend I've been in a cooking mood. I made pirogues, which are little dough dumplings filled with olives, spinach, cheese and nuts. Served with a salad and brown rice they are both tasty and healthy! Yesterday, we made cold cucumber and yoghurt soup with something we call falafel (made from chick- peas). I think I'll have some for lunch today too!


Enjoy your day!



Friday, April 20

Inside my brain

Yesterday Picasa2 was installed on my computer! This means that you will see a whole lot of different collages here instead of just single pictures. While installing Picasa I noticed that I have a lot of photographs and I don't use them more than once. This lead me to thinking that I going to introduce a new feature in this blog. A monthly summery of my crafts for each month. This way, I'll have a general survey of my makings.
I'll try it and see if it's a concept that works...
If I'm not constantly working on something or if I don't produce finished results my creativity can make me stressed or leave me with a unsatisfied feeling. And I wander around feeling lost and restless. To avoid these feeling I craft as much as possible and if I don't craft, I think about crafting!

This collage is a picture of what's going on in my head or in actual life. The family tree, the garland, the calender with birds and the paper folder are all things that I would like to make in the near future. As gifts for friends and family or as decoration for up coming party's. In the middle there is a bag knitted out of torn plastic bags. This is a big project that I have been working on for quite a while. But I'm not making bags but recycle containers to put cans, glass and other thing we throw out. I'll blog more about this when I finished with it...All the other things are also work in progress or as some call it UFO's. (Unfinished objects) ;-)


Have a good Friday!

Thursday, April 19

Frida came again!

When I got home at ten last night, fun mail was waiting for me! I got two pages from Moline/Yvonne with the Frida Kahlo motifs that I have been talking about! Jay!
They are really as beautiful as I had hoped for!
This is what I sent Yvonne s couple of weeks ago.
"I would have asked her in"
"His life has been extravagant"
Here's what she sent me! I love the card with the rabbi too;-)

Long Wednesday

Wednesdays are long days..I have told you before that I take two parallel courses this semester. And on Wednesdays I often have a lecture from my Art in school- course too eight a clock at night. Yesterday we when to an art exhibition in Denmark, at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. We went to see Cindy Sherman - 30 years of staged photography. It's a exhibition entirely with photos of the artist herself in different taken identities. Sometimes it's amazing how all these portrait of different women are in fact the same women, Cindy. It's a exhibition seen in retrospect, so it's photos taken from the beginning when she was an Art student too when she became an acknowledge artist. If you get the chance, go and see it and be amazed and a bit scared!
This is a view of the train station at Humlebæk in Denmark. If you ever want to go to Louisiana, it's here you should stop. I liked the evening light and since I had taken the camera with me, I should use it!
This is a three dimensional work by a Danish artist that I can't find the name on. I know it's a he and that he made this architectural thing for Louisiana. If anyone out there know more about this than me. please write me a comment. It stands at the train station in Humlebæk.

Tuesday, April 17

Ceramic Tuesday

I almost forgot! Yesterday I came home with a plate and a stamping thing. Non of which I'm very proud of. The original idea was good but the final product, not so much. I thought that a rough plate with the visible clay and in a strong colour would look good. I'll have to rethink the ceramic thing, many of my latest things has turned out nothing as I anticipated..

Here's a view of a corner on my balcony. A corner in which I think I'll spend a lot of time in this spring/summer.
Here's the wobbly hand made plate.
This is a funny thing! I made a stamp with a flower motif, I'll use it on paper but also on the clay. There won't be Ceramic Tuesday in a while, I'm taking a break from it and start again in May.

Flickr is such an inspiring place!

I visit flickr every time I need some new inspiration. The site offers so many opportunities to see others work and to get to know people from all over the world. I have had my own flickr for about ten months now. It's a free for the first 200 photos and then if you want you can buy a year account if not it will only show the 200 latest photos. I'm now thinking of buying a pro account so that all my picture will show there. Here are a selection of my favourites on flickr!

I'm always making hearts and hanging them all over the apartment. But yesterday when I was visiting flickr I saw someone making birds instead. So, I tried, but hers looked a lot cuter! This one looks a bit scary..
Here's he little birdie on my bedside table
This is just a pic of the flowers that have survived from the bouquet I bought on Friday. Now I'm off to do the laundry and then I'll be back this afternoon with ceramic Tuesday!
See you!

Matchboxes

Lately, I've been noticing a lot of crafts done with matchboxes and the miniaturist in me got inspired. So, on Sunday when I should have been doing something else (there is always something else) I made a princess and a bed for her to sleep in! it was so much fun! I even made her a bag, necklace and a tiara. In a couple of weeks i going to be in a matchbox swap, where we have to make a beautiful matchbox shrine and fill it with beads and buttons. This was practice for the swap!

The matchboxes look nice even without embellishment.
Here she is! Someone said she looked like a diva and she does, actually!
I couldn't resist making her a matching bag;-)
Here she is in her bed with a pink crouched carpet!;-)
This was so much fun, now I'm thinking of making her a whole room!

Monday, April 16

Carrot cake + knitting= sun bathing

Makes sense?
Ok, as I said I spent a lot of time this weekend in these:
Eating this delicious carrot cake! With two different kind of icing ;-) Mmm
While I was lying there I knitted on these;-) I know, it's not really season for knitting wrist warmers but I just figured out how and then I had to try. They are also saying that the temperature is going down in a couple of days. So, I might get to use them soon?
And I figured since I always loose my gloves and mittens, I might as well learn how to make a lot until next winter! This was fairly easy, next on the to learn list is the thumb!

Sunday, April 15

Dirty sites and sunbathing

This weekend the weather made it hard to study...so I spent a lot of time in these. Alternating the reading, crafting and sunbathing! I also took some lovely photos of my mothers garden that are exploding now! Look at the tulips!
I'll show you what I made tomorrow but first you have to go and look at this site.
So cute, but o so dirty! I want one! ;-)
I like the Just good boys get presents or I love porn t-shirts. Which one is your favourite?


Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what I made this weekend!

Friday, April 13

Friday the thirteenth

This day is mostly considered a unlucky day a lot of bad things has been known to happen this day. But for me, today is a good day! I got myself a job for this summer so that I can pay my rent! Yay! I'm going to work in a preschool of about 6-7 weeks this summer and the rest of the summer I'm free!
To celebrate this day I bought a bunch of tulips and a strawberry cake for myself.



It was delicious! I could have eaten two...
:)
Have nice weekend!

Thursday, April 12

Matisse with pre-schoolers?

All of the sudden I'm doing two courses at the same time at Uni and I'm swamped with work!
I don't get to blog as often as I would and find that I have to plan my blogging and that takes the fun out of it a bit. So, today I'll share what I'm working on in one of my courses.
It's called Art in school and as a final examination I have to do a art project with children in preschool or elementary school. I'm now planing to work with Matisse and some of his later works called cut-outs. He made them by cutting out shapes in different coloured papers and montaging them on even larger papers. Since he was really sick in the end of his life, it was not even himself that did the final assembling but his assistant. I find this really interesting, that this is called art and we pay a lot of money to go and see these extraordinary pieces and when children do the same thing we hang it on the wall and ask them what they are trying to depict? And since cutting out shapes in paper is a common medium to work in at preschools I think I'll first introduce the medium and let them work on their own cut-outs and after that I'll show them some pictures of Matisse and his work from a book I have. Then all I have to do is document everything we do and show it as a power point presentation at Uni. :) Do I have to add that this is still just a idea in my brain?!

This is one of the pictures I'm going to show the children.
The Snail, 1952. Gouache cut-outs, 286 x 287 cm. Tate Gallery, London
This is the book I got my idea from. Matisse: cut-outs by Gilles Néret, 2002, Taschen, Köln. Here's another book in the same theme that explains more about Matisse techniques.
This is what I had to do yesterday in class. A cut-out as a visualization of what I'm going to do together with the children. I thought that I could record the conversation and see what the children has to say about the difference in their own work and in Matisse and if there is a difference? My final purpose with this is to try defuse the concept of art in an early age. (illusions?)

If someone out there has something to add or ask or just a spontaneous thought about this, please do write me a comment. I'm not totally sure about this idea...
I would love to hear your respond!
Here are another site I found where you can create your own cut- out or with your children!

Tuesday, April 10

Ceramic Tuesday

There is still time for ceramic Tuesday. I just got home from my course and don't really have so much to show I made two more of the light holders and now I have three on the coffee table.
But I can show you the serving dish my mother made which look really good. She just splashed some colour onto it and it turned out great!



That was all from me today!
happy crafting!

Frida came to me from Mexico!

Since today is about getting lovely things in the mail I have to show you what arrived today.
The fifth and final page in the around the world group from flickr. It's from Mexico and it's with Frida Kahlo made by Yvonne or Moline.
I'm a big fan of Frida Kahlo and her artwork ever since I studied art history in New Zealand last year. I'm doing another swap with Moline and I'm getting two more pages with Frida Khalo motif but I think I've already bloged about that :) Can't wait until I get more things from Moline in the mail!!



Here they are all my beautiful pages. We are now starting a second round of this swap with kind of the same theme. It will be one nice book when it's finished!

Swap- bot

Flickr and Blogger wasn't enough for me I had to join swap-bot too. I love doing swaps with people around the world and now I'm in three swaps over there. My first one is called A cup of tea and a magazine page-swap. This means that I get one partner and I have send a page/article from a magazine and tea. I have sent a whole magazine since I couldn't just choose one article and I also sent my swap partner a article from a Swedish mag. The tea is from a typical Swedish blend called "The old south" which I really like. I just hope the one I'm sending to will like it!
Other swaps I'm in: Mixed beads matchbox and Pink and brown goodies
This is my first swap and I have heard that some people don't get anything...hope I won't be disappointed...
If you're not already in swap-bot, do join in! It's fun just to put a package together!

Friday, April 6

From coffee & tomatored to bronze & white

We've been busy this Easter holiday. We have repainted our kitchen since my dear partner splashed coffee all over the white kitchen walls... ;) He will hear about this one for a long time!
He was making espresso coffee on the stove and it was not working as it should so the coffee inside it exploded all over the kitchen!!!
So, we had to repaint and since we had to do that we might as well hang some new wallpaper in the hall. So, that is what we have been doing this past two days and I have to say we are very pleased with the result! Now all that's missing is a new carpet, we where thinking a rectangular dark brown one but we have not found one we like just yet.


I like this bronze coloured wallpaper a lot! Now all that's missing is doorknobs so that we can open our wardrobes and a nice carpet to walk on.
We bought some green coloured tiles from New Zealand when we lived there and now finally they have a place to hang. You really can't see them on this picture, but I'll tell you, they are beautiful!

Here's how it looked before...I liked this when I first moved in but you can grow tired of tomato red...

Happy Easter!

Quilted bag

My new quilted bag is finished! It took me about three evenings to finish it and I think I'm going to use it as a knitting bag. I made two pockets inside to hold smaller things so it will be perfect for knitting stuff. I liked the process of quilting and want to try it again but this time I want to make a blanket out of bigger squares.


This is the fabric I used for lining. It was once a kitchen curtain at my mothers... It recycling!

Wednesday, April 4

Quilting for real!

I have wanted to do it for ages and today it finally happened. I have quilted for the first time!
As usual when I'm sewing I was at my mothers...I really have to have a sewing machine soon! And I was looking at her fabric stash and noticed that she had a lot of little scraps of fabric in lovely faded blue colours. Since it was fabric from curtains from when I was little I just had to make something out of them. So, now I making a new handbag with the handles from the bag I bought at the flea market. I'm so happy about this as it turned out to be really fun to quilt and looks good too.

When I was on the floor making the squares for my quilt this little tiger was in his cage next to me and watching me. He is cute...
Here are the front piece for the bag. Tonight I only made the two fronts and later I'm using a transparent white fabric with stars on for lining. It's going to be a perfect bag for spring!

Tuesday, April 3

The world is coming onto my mailbox

I have a lot of things to blog about this week!
I have probably mentioned that I'm in a flickr group called Around the world- chunky pages.
We had to make five pages with a motif that was representing something from your country or region. I made Pippi-pages and sent them to five different countries and now the other peoples pages are dropping into my mailbox! On Monday I got these four, it's one from Iowa US, Mexico, Cambridge UK and Pasadena US. They are all really beautiful and I'm so impressed by their originality. I know that I'm getting one more from Mexico and then the first round is finished, we have been talking about doing one more before we are putting the pages together as a book. But we'll see..

Click on the picture to see the pages bigger!

Forgetful...

We made a trip to J:s parents this weekend and the weather was great! We went for walks in the woods and a trip to a country shop full with inspiration on how to decorate your home with old vintage stuff. I took a lot of pictures and even bought some things but we forgot the digital camera at his parents...and now I won't see my beloved (the camera) in more than a month!!!
So, now I'm using my brothers camera for a while but I'm not really sure how to take good pictures with it. But I guess I'll learn...

So, I won't be able to show the pictures of our trip but I can share with you my bargains at a thrift shop close to where his parents live. I bought lace to use in collages and a handbag that I'm probably going to redo and some beautiful cards. We also bought new wallpaper for our hallway. We are doing that in the Easter holiday and I'll post pic of that when we are finished. I have a lot to post this week!


Here are the hearts that I began working on before the weekend trip. Sorry about the bad pic..
A close up on one of the hearts
Here are my bargains!;-)

By the way, I did some knitting on the way up and now both the backside and the front of my sweater is finished! Jay! And as soon as I have had some help with how to make the neckline I'll also blog about it..And, let's just hope that we don't forget something else for a while now...

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