what I like, what makes my happy

*To wake up and realise it's Saturday
*To wake up and see sunshine
*To have a long warm shower on a Sunday afternoon
*To sit inside and craft for a whole day, not being stressed by anything

*To recieve letters from my friends
*To read a good book
*To look at beautiful and inspiring photos
*Anything craft related ;-)
*To have a cup of tea and bread that just came out of the oven
*Flowers
*To be with my dogs

*To sit in my sofa with pillows and a blanket and the dogs, some good music, a cup of tea and write letters
*To give and to get small gifts
*When I get up in the morning the day after I have cleaned the flat
*The first snowfall when snow stay on the ground
*The first evening when you can smell spring is coming

*Chocolate
*To go to a café and sit and talk with old or new friends
*To see a great movie and be inspired by it
*My Magnus <3

... I could continue this forever I think ;-)

What makes you happy?

Children of the forest

When I was little my grandma had an old book that was used in school to teach children reading. It contained many stories and my favourite was the one with the children of the forest by Elsa Beskow.



I loved the illustrations with the children, all so small, living in the nature and of the nature. And I loved all the details, like the mushroom hats and how they played with the animals. I think I've always been fascinated by things that are small :-) and I used to imagine small people living in the trees when I was outside playing.



I was really happy when I found "Children of the forest" ("Tomtebobarnen" in Swedish) in the English Bookshop in city.




"Click" the images to see bigger versions.

***

I have told you before that my job and travelling back and forth takes a lot of time and energy, but the good thing about that is that I get so many good crafting ideas. I write them down on pieces of paper (my bag is full of them now ...) and I think I've never been this creative when it comes to getting ideas. The bad thing is, ofcourse, that I seldom have time to try them. I have made some necklaces - completely new style - but I have to work on them a bit more before showing you ;-)

~october~

It's October.

I've painted an old wooden box.

bird cards

I love paper with nice structure, paper that feels good to work with, to touch, to look at. I was happy when I found out that a "home decor shop" (I don't know what it's called, hm) had begun selling things for card making and scrapping. I found some great little cards with envelopes and got the idea of making bird cards with those little birds I had at home + aquarelle.



I like how they came out and I've added them to my shop.

stationary swap

I hadn't been swapping much at all this year, until June I think. Then I had had a period of hard work and little money so I decided to let myself in to some swaps over at Swap-bot ;-) I love the challenge of having a theme and finding or making things for a person I know very little - or nothing - about. That's the pleasure about swapping. But it's also a pleasure to recieve things from someone unknown in another part of the world, things they have put together to ME. I'm always so excited when swap packages arrive since I have no idea of what will be in them. Most swap partners are so generous and send the most amazing and inspiring stuff and I try to do the same when I send out packages (although it's always hard to know whether you succeed or not).

When participating in a swap you're aware of that you might get nothing in return. Things do get lost in mail, although very seldom, and some people do not send anything. It's the way it is and there's not so much to do about it. However, I was disappointed that it was so common not to recieve anything at all. Recieving isn't the most important part of swapping, but it's not something unimportant either. I started a swap at swap-bot, but I never got anything myself. I didn't care. Then I started another swap and this time I so much loved the idea of the swap that I decided everyone would have two partners to ensure they'd get something. I got nothing. And when things like this are repeating all the time it doesn't feel so fun to put effort to make nice packages so I took a break in swapping.

I decided that if I should send gifts to people but not getting anything in return, then why not sending to my irl and internet friends instead? I don't expect anything in return from them, but since it's people I like I know they'd be happy if I send something and that's enough for me.

(And of course I'm always up to personal trades with known and unknown crafters, but for me that's just another thing than swapping.)

However I had signed up for a swap at swap-bot some months ago and I had almost forgotten about it. This week I recieved this great package from Martha, filled with stationary, cards, pen, candy, stickers ... and more! It really made my day and it also put me in the mood for writing letters. Maybe swapping isn't that bad at all ;-)



A while back I bought a book for a blogging friend somewhere in southern Europe (I wont tell who) ;-) I'll show photos and I'll send it to her as soon as possible. I should have sent it long ago, but then I had visitors and put it on the book shelf and completely forgot about it!!

some hats

I have been into making hats lately, as you might have seen ;-) Knitting is easy to do on the train (well, when not sleeping ... which is what I do most of the time), as well as crocheting. Here are some hats I've made the last few months. Some of the hats turn out excatly the way I want them, some different, some better and some ... quite ugly, actually. Still, I think that's the charm with knitting. I haven't been knitting a lot and I still cannot tell whether my ideas will work or not so I just have to try and see.

This hat I made for a friend. It looks rather different when wearing it though.

bags, bags, bags

Yesterday I left work a little earlier and went to buy some blue fabric for a project I'm in (it's about sewing a picture for each month of the year and we begun in November so it's close to its end now). But then I also found a cute fabric with tea cups on and since I wanted tea cup fabric (and cup cake + cake fabric, but I haven't seen any yet) since a long time I bought some although I had promised myself not to buy ;-)

I begun making a bag out of it (+ black fabric) yesterday evening and I will continue today. It's just a perfect day for crafting, outside it's raining and I don't have to go anywhere (except for doggie walking).

Those bags on the photos are not made by me (hey, I'm not good at sewing at all, I make a lot of stupid mistakes all the time. But that's how we begin, right?) but by my friend Jenny. She's making wonderful bags that she's selling + other things such as hats and bracelets.

hat for grandma

hat for grandma
Originally uploaded by maria nenita.

During the weeks I think "soon it's weekend then I'll have time for this and that and this and this". I think I'm too optimistic about time and about my own ability, after all I also need time to relax and time to do the laundry, walking the dogs, cooking ... such things. I have some finished and half finished things, some photos but it also takes time to upload to flickr, to blog. I wish it was different and one day I will make it different.

Here's a hat I made for my grandma. The photo doesn't really do it justice. It's a soft & cozy hat, red, a little green and with small white "balls". For me it's a Christmas hat with snow falling ;-) And since my grandma loves Christmas she also loved this hat so I gave it to her. At the moment I'm knitting a scarf that'll go with the hat.