Some lovely things Mafalda made and sent me in the craft swap at purplepinkandorange.com

Two hearts, one with lavender in and one with cloves.

This is what I recieved in the secret santa swap on the soap list. Beautiful and good smelling soaps, tea and candy/chocolate <3 The brown soap to the right is with a dog on it and it smells ... chocolate mousse!! I love it :-)

This is what I sent to San in a secret santa swap in a soap list. It's mostly "soap things", but also a candle, chocolate, cards, tea and christmas stickers.

Vintage/60s and 70s Swedish Christmas gift tags (stickers) and Christmas stickers. I found them at a thrift store, more than I could ever need, so if anyone is interested I've made some bunches of them that are for sale. 20 SEK (porto inkluderat) or 3 USD (postage included) or something (you suggest) in exchange. There are 18 gift tags and approximately 6 stickers in each bag. The motifs might be a bit different, but very similar to the picture above. This picture was scanned and my scanner takes pictures just a little bigger than A4 size so then you can figure out approximately the size of the tags and stickers :-) If you are interested, email me at info@sweetdaisy.se or leave a comment here (with a way for me to contact you).

In action

I'm home and I'm sooooo tired. This weekend I've been in Stockholm selling my crafts & soap etc :) It was so much fun, although I really didn't sell so much. I'll tell you more later, but now I really have to sleep.

I'm to the left and AK from imoku.se is to the right.


(Ps Mafalda, if you see this, I had the box you sent me for keeping the money in. Several persons said it looked so nice, and one even asked if it was possible to buy it! - and ofcourse it was not.)

Winter, winter

I'm back. And I'm sorry I haven't updated here or in the Craft Challenge blog, but a lot of things have happened lately, both the really good ones and the really bad ones. I simply didn't have any leftover energy for blogging :-) Well, I guess that's life ... ;)

Winter is here and this morning is about -8 degrees Celsius. The photos were taken yesterday between two and three in the afternoon.

On Saturday and Sunday I'll be selling my crafts (mostly soap and other bath products) on a christmas fair in Stockholm, Street (http://www.streetinstockholm.se). I will share my table with Imoku (http://www.imoku.se). They have really cool stuff, I will show you photos later! In any case, I have a lot (I mean A LOT) of things to prepare for this weekend, but hopefully it's going to be so much fun!

When I'm back I will continue updating with pictures of crafts. And again, I'm sorry for the silence (but believe me, I had good reasons). And I also want to say THANK YOU for all the kind words about our engagement.

Engaged

Magnus & Maria. Rånäs castle 5 November 2005.

Craft Challenge

Well, have a look at this:
http://craftchallenge.blogspot.com

I decided to use a blog since I'm in the middle of changing webhotel at the moment. But it seems to work pretty well so far :-)

Zam is curious - what's this? It smells really nice.

Snack swap (via purplepinkandorange.com) from Francesca in Bologna! Oooooooh! Lovely!

More good post - from Albert in Canada! Tea to accompany me while making this year's Christmas cards :)
I love getting this kind of post, to come home and find a letter and - until seeing the handwriting - not knowing from whom it is or what's in it :)

Craft challenge update

Tomorrow is 1 November, last day for the craft challenge. I've recieved the most lovely crafted things from Amy, Sofia, Jenny, Helena, Giao, Annika and Michelle (did I forget to mention someone? Tell me!!!) and I'm so impatient, I want to show it to you NOW! *lol* But I will wait a little longer, until I've heard from more of you. I know one of the participants was really busy at the moment and will be a little late, but how are the rest of you doing? It'd be really nice if you could drop me a line and tell me if you have sent or when you're expecting to send so that nothing will get lost in mail while I'm not even noticing it ... And as I said before, if you get stuck, just tell me and I'll try to help :) Any questions? Ask! :)

Crafting

Except for the soap stuff I haven't been crafting much lately. But I've made four cards and stationary.

Bokbyte update (in Swedish)

Hej alla bokbytare!
Jag skickade ut adresser till er för kanske en vecka sedan. Om någon inte fått adressen till den du ska skicka till, hör av dig! Och glöm inte att skriva en rad till mig om vilken bok du skickat och varför du valt den.

One might think it's my favourite chocolate from the bakery "S�trabagarn" close to where I live but no, it's my new soap :) It smells of mint chocolate. I had a hard time not to eat them while making them.

The arabian spice smelling pink&purple soap in a black packaging.

ÄRTANPÄRTAN

Fillan and her friend is working hard on their webshop :-) The final shop isn't ready yet, but their lovely jewelry and christmas cards (and there are more things to come, I'm sure!) can be seen and bought at their blog ÄrtanPärtan.

Ärtan Pärtan are two words beginning a Swedish child rhyme. Ärtan also means "the pea" and as you see they've choosen a cute little pea as their symbol :-)

BBM2

A while ago I signed up for Blogging by Mail 2 over at Samantha's. I sent my package to Italy and I was to recieve a package from Hawaii (from Reid). The Hawaii package seemed to be somewhat interested in travelling and even retured to Honolulu before it decided to go to Sweden. Well, it was well worth waiting for because it's such an awesome package. I feel really spoilt. So many hawaiian treets.

There was Hawaiian flavored tea, three different flavors of which I tasted "Malama" yesterday. (So intense in smell and taste and I can hardly wait to taste the other teabags.) There was Passion Fruit Butter which reminded me a bit of homemade lemon curd (however a bit more fluffy) with a passion fruit taste instead of lemon. There was macadamia nuts covered in rich dark chocolate (aaaaaw). There was Maebo's One-Ton Chips. I've already eaten half of them *hrm hrm*. They reminded me a little bit, but not fully, of the "sombrero 'chips/hats'" you can find here. And there were those lovely cookies with the most detailed square pattern. I love them. Well, I love the whole package. Thank you Reid, you really made my day. And the day after. And perhaps the whole week :-)

Thea-crafting ;-)

Little Thea is visiting her aunt and, of course, we're crafting ... hehee ;-D. With the help of her mom and her aunt she made aquarelle footprints on nice aquarelle paper to give away for Christmas. And after crafting grandma helped her taking a bath :-)

Bokbyte (in Swedish about a pocket book swap)

Gillar du att läsa romaner? Och tycker du att det är kul att ibland läsa något som du kanske inte hade valt själv, bara för att få ta del av någon annans favorit och därmed kanske också få en ny favorit? Då tycker jag att du ska vara med i Bokbytet! (Det är ju det jag säger, jag får alltid en massa idéer när jag skriver tenta ...)

It goes like this ... Köp en pocketbok som du har läst och som du tycker mycket om eller som betyder något särskilt för dig. Skicka den sedan till den person du fått adressen till och motivera också varför du valde just den här boken. (Skicka även titel, författare och motiveringen i ett mejl till mig så ska jag skriva en sammanfattande text om Bokbytet efteråt.) Och strax därefter få ju du en bok i brevlådan av en annan bokbytare :-) Intressant? Go on reading ...

För att vara med skickar du namn, adress och mejladress till mig. Antingen ordmejl eller astrud242004@yahoo.se. Skriv också om det är någon genre som du absolut inte vill ha, till exempel om du tycker att det inte finns något värre på jorden än deckare, eller fantasy, eller romantiska komedier. Sedan lottar jag fram vem som ska skicka till vem och så mejlar jag er med info om den ni ska skicka till. Din adress kommer alltså BARA att visas för mig och för den som ska skicka till dig, inte för någon annan. Du skickar därefter en bok till den person du får adressen till. Du kommer också att få en bok. (Vill du skicka bok till mer än en person får du förstås göra det, då kommer du också att få mer än en bok. Skriv det i anmälan i sådana fall.)

1. Anmäl dig, genom att mejla mig, före 21 oktober (nästa fredag).
2. Du får adress till den du ska skicka till inom några dagar efter det datumet.
3. Du skickar den bok du valt före måndag 7 november. Du mejlar också info om den bok du valt (titel o förf) samt din motivering.

Boken ska vara ny eller i nyskick.

(Frågor? Fråga!)

Yeeee! Bokbyte!!

Lily of the valley fizzing bath melts, Good morning sunshine fizzing bath melts (and under those: mint chocolate fizzing bath melts).

And what's this ...?

A purple-pink soap with arabian spice smell (Magnus' favourite so far) and maroccan rhassoul clay.

Orange&cinnamon soap. I was working hard yesterday ;-) More pictures to come, but it seems I'll not have an internet connection today - so, later!

craft challenge update

It's October. The tree outside my window is yellow (well, the leaves only ...). It really is not summer anymore.

The Craft Challenge is closed and I think everyone has recieved a package from me by now. If you haven't, tell me!

I hope you're enjoying the challenge :-) but if you by one or another reason get stuck, just drop me a line and I'll try to help.

****

I have recieved lovley things from Amy, Sofia, Helena and Giao. Pictures will be posted as soon as all of you are finished.

Mini book

My altered mini book is back home!

Mikas Dream Frequency.


Laurina's spread


Laurina's second spread


Kari's spread


Deepa's spread.

And even if I'm not knitting or sewing or altering stuff I'm always in the "soap-bathroomstuff-business" ;-) I love it, still I forget it's actually "crafting" too ... So there are very few pics. But here are some Valencia Meringue Bathfizz (smells of orange).

Sometimes I believe I'm busy ... and not crafting. I forget that even if I'm not making anything complicated I still do the small things. Like this birthday card.

And while I'm studying and not crafting you can have a look at Thea, 4 months to be (2 Oct). (Thea's my sister's daughter, for those of you who perhaps are "new" to my blog.) 

Fillan sent me the little mouse and a story she had written about how the mouse is looking for a friend. In the end the mouse gets a friend, a soft and kind rabbit. So, I couldn't resist making the rabbit for Fillan ... (It's cold, the story tells, that's why they have scarves.) 

Before. (Before felting) 

After. (sorry not so good photo) 

A dog picture? Why? Isn't Maria crafting this weekend?
Well, yes, I am. I've made something for Fillan, and I'm making something for Hope. But I cannot show it yet ... All I can say is that both things are soft ... And so is Zam who took a nap with Magnus yesterday when I was trying to understand our new printer. The old printer-scanner-etc committed suicide yesterday, but then he was indeed rather old and had stopped scanning in a good way over a year ago. So, yesterday we bought a new one :-) 

i love green

In the evening, after going to bed, Magnus use to read out loud to me (H.P. Lovecraft's stories) while I knit. This is what I completed the other day (or should I say night?). The beads along the edge are almost not visible ... But it doesn't matter :-) 


This is the cover of my board book "the handbag of Alice", a round robin in ABEurope on the theme "Secrets in my handbag". 


And this is the first spread of what's in Alice's handbag. The little "friends book" up to the right is for people to sign in, and in the envelope is a little note about what kind of things Alice like to keep, and not to keep, in her handbag. She's not the lipstick&cellphone kind of girl, you know ;-) There are also small notes, a coin, a piece of a map - things she likes. 

Four cards (with matching envelopes) I made today. I sew fabric, fiber and a stamp on the cards. The fourth card, with the tree, is felted wool that I made two weeks ago. The paper of all the cards has a very nice structure :-) 

Snail mail

Today I got two packages from Cindy (snail mail swap). She's really so kind and generous and I love all the things she sent me! I've got several *small* ideas of what to sew, but haven't really made up my mind yet. But isn't it a nice feeling to touch the fabric and ribbons and think "I'll create something out of this, I don't know what - yet - but ideas will surely come"?