Christmas in my home already

Enough with the knitting for a while, I am working on a pair of mittens but since the light here seems to have disappeared totally, I'll have to wait with the picture. Instead I'll show you how my home (and my mothers) is slowly getting ready for Christmas!

This is a wreath my mother made for her front door (I keep telling her to have her own blog or at least a flickr...we'll see)

I bought this a couple of weeks ago and liked it so much that I decided to put it up already! These electric "candlesticks" are very common here in Sweden around Christmas time. We usably keep it in the windows to light up the dark afternoons and nights here. What is particular for Christmas time where you live ?

On Sunday the family is getting together to make Christmas decorations and candy. I'll have a lot to blog about next week! I think I'll have a little Christmas party every week here until we leave for Malaysia on the 20th!!!

Currently finished projects

Two currently finished projects are these two I blogged about here
Now they're both finished and I use them all a lot!

this was two self-striping projects and I like stripes!

And here it is on me, finished!

neckwarmer

My first knitting project, I started already in July on our interrail trip around Europe! This is the easiest project ever (and a bit boring). All you have to do is find a pair of suitable circular knitting needles and then you start knitting! Using only the knit stitch. I used three ball of wool for this. This was a perfect knitting project on the train watching the views go by the window and looking at movies on the computer. A good beginners project!

I now use my neckwarmer a lot at work and the pupils think it's a funny "thing" I have around the neck...:-)

The knitting season is here

The knitting season is here
Originally uploaded by Nifty loves crafting

and have been for a while. I've been knitting a lot this season and are still knitting a lot. Even though I never follow a pattern (I can't read them) and mostly make the same things. I now and then need some new inspiration to explore my knitting and take it to another level. Flickr is great for some new inspiration! Here's my latest flickr fav's:

The colours are pretty much the same since the last one I made....

Enjoy your Monday night!

cermaic Tuesday on a Sunday?!

This is a post that should have made it here on Thursday but my computer played some tricks on me...

I'm moving ceramic Tuesday to Thursdays...
These are some new jugs I made in my ceramics class (also made in the same porcelain clay) I think they are perfect for keeping our toothbrushes in...since they are a bit wonky. My teacher says I'll be treasuring these later and I'm not sure what she's talking about!

Next week is going to be all about knitting! see you on Monday!

Don't miss out on this offer! I'm in love with her houses!!!

Black & white

Finally the living room is coming together! All that's missing now is something on the walls and curtains in the windows! But that is the easy part (and inexpensive). The theme for this room is black and white but I want to ad another colour to it too. I'm thinking aqua or lilac of some sort...

If you look closely you can see the little soft trees I've been making. You'll see more of those closer to Christmas

I've been busy with the black paint and painted this old table I've had in the basement for quite a while now. Isn't the shape of the table beautiful?

Since I had the black paint out I painted some IKEA frames to show off my ATC's a little better

This is how the hallway looks at the moment. Here too, black and white is the theme...

mail again!?

It's a slow day here. I've just picked Picasso up from the Vet and he can barely walk and is still very sleepy. He insists on sleeping on me which makes blogging and crafting hard...

Here are some pic from our day so far:

the sky is grey and it's raining...

here I am, on the floor with a cat in my lap

sleepy cat...

I got a parcel from superbuzzy in the mail today. It was this order that sent me into these thoughts....

but still I loved the cute stuff they have! some retro fabric

and a cute Christmas fabric!

Now I going to try to put the cat down in his basket and get some things done around the apartment...Enjoy your Tuesday!

Mail goodies!

Being in both FAA lucky parcels group and PIF (pay it forward) makes my life a little more cheerful! The other day I got THREE parcels in the mail! It is so much better to get a craft supplies parcel in the mail than boring bills and other stuff...

We are entering the season for crappy photos so it's not the parcels fault they look like this:

I got three parcels in one day!

The PIF- parcel for october

The olive green & mustard yellow parcel

and finally the last white & neutral parcel!

I thought a head and took some better photos of my home this weekend and I'm showing them later this week! Tomorrow Picasso is going to the vet (to get castrated) tomorrow, so there won't be much crafting :(

baking...

I'm not so much a cooking kind a woman, that I leave up to my man. But on the other hand I like baking, preferable something sweet. But now and then something healthy sneaks into my repertoire. Here I have some nice food muffins made from spinach, chick-peas and carrots. They make the perfect lunch together with a salad!



8 1/2 dl wheat flour (or another kind of flour)
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoons of salt
3 eggs
3 dl water
1 1/2 dl natural yoghurt
1 dl olive oil
50 grams fresh spinach
1 big carrot
400 gram caned chick-peas
about 100 gram chopped cashew nuts on top

This makes for about 10 big or 20 smaller muffins. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then whip the eggs, water, yoghurt and olive oil together. Mix the dry ingredients with the egg mixture and blend it all together until it's nice and smooth. Then you add the spinach, carrots and chick-peas. Add the mixture into the baking tins and sprinkle the cashew nuts on top!
Pop it into the oven for a about 30 min on 200 °C or 392 °F

This is my first time converting a recipe from Swedish to English and do tell if there is something you don't really understand!

An unusual compliment

Once a week I go swimming and today was that day. (I figured it was ruined anyway since I had to work on my day off) Just after I got out of the pool and in to the shower I got to into a conversation with a little girl. She was about 3 or 4 and asked me all the usual questions like, if I had any children and if I liked ice cream. And the she stopped asking me questions and looked at me and said: You talk so nice! and then she walked away. That was such a nice and unexpected compliment! That conversation stopped me in my usual train of thought and really made me happy!

Night

day

Today I would like to show you the second thing that is finished from my ceramics class this semester (yes, I'm slow this semester) It's a little bowl perfect for a candle, also made in the new porcelain clay. This bowl is made with a technique that's called the thumb technique. It's easy, you just create the shape you want with your fingers! The clay is so nice to work with and you can get really thin areas where the light shows through!

A see, I created my first ceramic post in a looong time!
happy Tuesday!

Some reasons to why I didn't post so much this week:

1. Fika, I love the Swedish traditions to have coffee and something sweet and I guess we have it a lot...This time to celebrate Mårten gås! (This is supposed to resemble a goose:)
2. Our home looks like this! (view from the couch) We have so many project going on at the same time now and we never have time to finish them!
3. I had a migraine twice this week! I spent a lot of time on the couch with this little guy as comfort. Had to go home early from work one of the days...
4. We have ourself a new TV...and I've been looking at Pushing daisies! I love this TV show, it's the sweetest show I seen in a long time and I never wan it to stop! But TV takes up so much of the creative time....

But this week I'm back again and I'll even try to get back to some of you!!

Look here! They have the permission to use one of my photos for a Copenhagen on-line guide. I'm a bit proud! :-) The Rosenborg slot is my photo:-)

Happy Saturday!

It's November!

In less than a month it will be OK to bring out the Christmas decorating!

Photos taken by Mr J this weekend

The weekend was great (without me spending any money) and I loved reading the comments on my last post. To very smart blogging friends Karin and Babz gave their advise on the topic. They had many smart things to say and the two most important things that I'm taking with me is that guilt is never constructive (so right!) and the simple thing to think before buying!
And to just have someone else give some ideas about the etsy thing was so inspiring. I now have a list to do hopefully before the Christmas month is over...

I'm spending a few hours by the sewing machine today!