I don't have time for writing anything more because this is what my home looks like today. Tomorrow I will have about the same mess, but in another flat ;)

Scrap bag

Today I went to Ljunggrens in Stockholm (www.ljunggrenspapper.com), it's a little shop full of high quality paper and everything you need for card making. It's not the most cheap place but everything is oh-so-beautiful :-) At the moment it's their 15-years anniversary and they had many nice offers ... I could resist most of them ... *good girl*. I bought some cards and envelopes etc for my sister's wedding and for myself I bought this "mini scrap bag" with japanese paper. I don't find it so "mini" actually ... there were A LOT of goodies. But since we're moving on Friday there'll be no time for crafting for a while.

Journal

Next week, on Friday, we're going to move (only a change of flat, still in the same town) so I don't create so much. I decorated this journal the other day though, inspired by a feeling I got by reading a novel.

The necklace is made by my friend Martina.

Spring was on its way - finally! - and it was raining for a couple of days, but before all snow was gone ... it begun snowing again. I started to read Joleen's blog because it's so colorful and cheer me up. It's like spring feeling on the internet :)

Lübeck

This weekend Magnus and I went to Lübeck, Germany, since I had found a cheap trip and we wanted to relax a bit.
I did see one or two craft material shops there, but unfortunately (or luckily - for my economy) they were both closed when we passed by.
There was also a puppet theatre museum in one of the old houses and we stopped for a little while in the museum shop to look at the puppets that were for sale. So beautiful and inspiring. I think I'll try to make one myself one day.

Except for the puppet museum, Lübeck is famous for "crafting" in marzipan. They make amazing fruits and animals and ... "statues" etc out of marzipan. It's hard to eat something that's looking too nice ... ;) So we went to a café to have marzipan cake!


In a book shop I found the most beautiful journals and I fell in love ... So nice design, so good binding, so nice and high quality of paper ... aaah! I bought one with an interesting binding and a chinese painting and blank pages. It'll be a book for drawing etc. I bought another, smaller, one which is lizard green and almost magic in its colors, pattern and design. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Have I always been crafting? ;-)

Since I a) had a lot of magazines with inspirational pictures and b) am going to move and don't want to carry too many thing I decided to cut out the most inspiring/nice/etc from the magazines, glue them in an "inspiration book" and through away the rest! At the moment I'm working with the flower/gardening section in the book. I cut very fast, I don't have time for details now, but I still think it turns out pretty nice. I hope to show more spreads later on :-)

Beautiful necklace from Erin (junk drawer) that I recieved in purplepinkandorange.com jewelry swap in January.

Can someone *please* send me some spring weather? With an exception of a ~two days in the end of January we've had snow since December!!! Guess if I'm fed up with it ...

The other day I made some body cream to add to my shop (sweetdaisy.se) and I also tried making a bath oil with different colors.

Stephanie (from Nifty Tifty blog) sent me this the other day. I love Stash Tea (except for the decaf ones), but cannot buy it here and it was very sweet of her to send me so many kinds of tea + some material for crafting :-)

Francesca has sent me a lot of lovely things, but I was lazy with my camera and now I've spread the things all over the flat. But here are some of the things she sent me :-) (She also sent me candle lights, glitter confetti, nice paper for crafting, tea etc etc.)

Beautiful and inspiring things from Carrie at Believe magic.

Back home

I've just come home after being two weeks in a small village about 2-3 hours from here. I've been knitting a little, but most of the time I've spent working/studying.

On the photo (taken by Sune) is Zam playing in the snow with his friend Cilla. He's so happy when he finds someone to play with since Ia (my miniature schnauzer) is 13 years old next month and not at all in a playing mood :-)

A is for age: 25. (Until 7 May ...)
B is for book of choice: I love reading children's books and my favourite is Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren.
C is for career: I'm still a student for a few more months ... At the moment, I'll be happy if I get a job connected to my studies :)
D is for your dogs' name: Ia and Zam
E is for essential items to bring to a party: A couple of friends :-)
F is for favourite song at the moment: I don't know ... but today is the day of birthday songs ;)
G is for favourite game: As a child I loved Pictionary, but I don't know which one is my favourite now.
H is for home town: Växjö
I is for instruments you play: I've played the piano.
J is for jam or jelly you like: Strawberry. Hjortron (vad heter det på engelska?).
K is for kids: No.
L is for living arrangements: In a small (but not too small) flat with Magnus.
M is for a movie I like: There are so many I like, but at the moment I cannot remember any titles in English!! Gah!
N is for name of your crush: Magnus!!
O is for overnight hospital stays: 1.
P is for phobias: I don't have any.
Q is for quotes you like: This isn't really a quote, but ... When I was a child I used to lay down on my parents bed and read the names of all the books in their bookshelf. One book was called something like "Feel the fear but do it anyway" (I'm not a good translator, but I think you get what I mean). I often think of that book title when I'm a little scared of something and want to escape it. Doing it, instead of escaping, makes me feel good. And the title reminds me of that.
R is for relationship that lasted the longest: The longest one is the one still going on - with Magnus :-)
S is for sweets you like: I'm addicted to chocolate ;)
T is for time you wake up: Since I'm a student ... it depends. But never after 9.00 (with an exception of when I'm sick or when I've done something special the other night, like being to a long lasting party).
U is for underwear: Simple and not too much decorated.
V is for vegetables you love: I love so many vegetables ... it's hard to choose.
W is for weekend plans: It's Sunday afternoon already, but for the rest of the day ... I plan to relax, eat good food, have fun.
X is for x-rays you've had: Teeth.
Y is for yummy food you make: I love cooking and trying many new kinds of food, as well as the grandmother kind of food. Especially I love vegetarian food.
Z is for zodiac sign: Taurus? Is it called that? I'm not sure ...
Å är för åt dem som du vill skicka listan vidare till: No one special.
Ä är för älsklingstrend: Pysseltrenden är bra för det ökar tillgången på pysselmaterial ;)
Ö är för en önskan just nu: Att få ett jobb. Att Magnus får ett jobb. :-)

Today is Magnus birthday (32) and we'll go to a restaurant and maybe also to the cinema this evening :-) Grattis på födelsedagen Tok!

Spring

Snow, snow, snow ... I want spring! I want green grass, tulips, birds singing!

Luckily I've got a boyfriend who's giving me tulips in various colors. I love tulips and I love the sound when I touch them *smile*.

Crafting at the moment: I'm working on the gift for my sister and her husband 2B. I cannot show you any pictures because I'm not really sure of whether she's reading my blog or not ...

Sweet Daisy

My new webshop is now open! www.sweetdaisy.se

I wanted an opening with a lot of nice handmade things, everything working perfect ... etc ... and weeks went into months and I realised it's better to open the shop even if I'm not really satisfied yet because me knowing people are looking at the things might make me work faster *lol*

There aren't translations into English everywhere yet ... and also I will add prices in USD. But if you have any questions you can always email me at my webshop address: info@sweetdaisy.se

Oh, and there's a kind of lottery going on in the shop as well, with a secret handmade gift! Check it out ;)

knit, knit

I haven't been very creative lately. I've made a couple of necklaces, a few simple cards, sewing a little, the invitation cards for my sister's wedding ... but not so much more. However, the other day I felt my creative mood return! :D I knitted a bit, made a new necklace, bought material for the gift for my sister and her husband 2B and begun working with it, finished a spread in an altered book etc.

Have a look at the craft challenge

I've been busy ... good things, bad things ... Well, I'm back now :-) And I'll try to update more often. This morning it was sunny, snow outside and - 19 degrees Celsius. A perfect day for ... being inside creating, right? *lol*

And have a look at the Craft Challenge! (The headline is a link or go to http://craftchallenge.blogspot.com)

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.