new home

I'm silent here ... it's because we're moving next week (8.3), and because the baby is soon to come (~25.3) and I'm soooo tired. When moving, we might be without an internet connection for a while. But I'll be back. Later :-)

A needle felted dog, and a real one

When I saw this book I immediately knew what to answer when Magnus' mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Needle felted dogs, that must be the perfect craft project for me ;-) The more so since it was a miniature schnauzer on the front side, just like my little Ia. But before making a schnauzer I tried making a dog of no specific breed, just to try. This is how it turned out.

And then ... my little Ia died. She was almost 15 years old, but it's still very sad. It's a week ago now.

what I've done lately

Now I haven't posted for a while. But I have been crafting when I haven't been busy working, visiting the doctor or buying a house ;-) Yesterday I made a new blanket for Zam, you can see more of it here and on Flickr. It's not a very beautiful thing, but he so needed it.

I tried a bit of embroidery. It's not what I'm best at, but it was fun. I haven't finished it yet, it'll be something for Magnus. If I was a clever girl I could give it to him on his birthday this month, but ofcourse I couldn't keep quiet so I told him everything about it ;-) Cross-stitch embroidery isn't really my thing, I thought, but since I'm always keen on trying new things I decided to go for it and I found out that I liked it. It was nice to sit in bed, concentrate and count the stitches to follow the pattern.
One evening when I was tired I also made three atcs. They are no beauties, but I wanted to do something simple with paper without having to think too much.



A week and a half ago I tried making a dotee doll following the instructions by Dot herself. It didn't turn out too pretty ;) . But it was my first try. Maybe I'll do another one, maybe not. When I made it I got the idea to needle felt a doll instead so I made this one:



Here are a few things I've finished lately. One of the purses (this one for Elena):


And the soft soft super super soft scarf for a swap:


An acrylic painting:


I also made a necklace (quite a while ago though, but haven't showed you yet). It's for a swap for knitters. You can see what I sent here. My photo is quite bad, but it's a ball of yarn with two needles in.

I love Blue Sky Alpacas organic cotton. I think this is a nice color combo: chocolate brown and minty blue. I bought them at KnitLab, a place that is very dangerous (in a very nice way) to visit because you can't leave without something ;-)

Angel

This cute little angel has been flying around in my home for a while, but I've forgotten to show you. It's made by Maria Öqvist Öhman. You can find her blog here and all the things she's making here.

This week

This week I have been working a lot and crafting almost nothing at all. Oh, and look what I recieved in FAA Secret Santa parcel! It's from Namolio. I love every bit of it, but my favourites are the three animals above.

I have been knitting. I have been baking. And that's it, I think.

Pink apron

Today I found a piece of pink fabric and a pink iron-on cupcake. I recieved them in a swap and they're pretty, but I'm not a pink girl. Instead I sewed an apron for my niece Thea's doll. I hope she'll like it.

Making mistakes

Sometimes when I look around on all beautiful stuff on crafty blogs and on Flickr I wonder if I'm the only person making mistakes and messing it up. I use to answer myself "no, Maria, you're not alone, it's just that they don't show you their mistakes". It might not be true, but I feel a little bit better thinking that ;-) Above you see one of my mistakes. I've been working on this quilt like ... forever? So it seems. And I make mistake after mistake after mistake. The last one today when I was about to sew a straight line. It turned out being not straight at all. To my defense the quilt is thick, and I've never made a quilt before. Except for the one I made in school long ago. Which, actually, looks better than this one. Hrm.

Creative the first week of 2008

Yes, I think I have been creative every day so far. In one or another way, at least. I've been baking. I took some photos (on my Flickr or my other blog). And I've been knitting a little bit almost every day. Above you see a mitten for my niece. It might be too small, but I haven't met her for several months so I cannot remember the size of her hands. If that's the case her little brother can perhaps have them. Here are some other works in progress:



I made some simple covers for cds in a kind of cd swap/trade. I used paper that I folded, some pictures from a magazine, glue and my sewing machine. Very easy.



No, it's not for Zam. But he was the only photo model I could find in my bed room ... I'll make another one soon.



This will be a sock.

Creative Every Day?

I found a great project through Jes blog called Creative Every Day 2008. I'd love to join, but as I'm getting bigger and more tired for each day I'm not sure how it'll go (the more so since I still work full time). I'll give it a try though :-)

Jes and some other blogging friends asked me about the pregnancy, but I never got around writing any emails (yet). I'm in week 29, only ~11 weeks to go! The baby is supposed to arrive around 25 March. I have no idea whether it's a boy or girl (I want it to be a surprise).

a crafty christmas gift

Magnus and I got this one from my mom. It's handmade and the landscape with the black cat watching the birds is made of wool.

Inside you're supposed to hang you keys. It's good for someone in this house who often asks "where are my keys?" ;-)

the softest scarf

As it's getting darker and colder I'm knitting myself the softest scarf ever. I found this (the white) yarn on sale the other day and it is sooo soft, I couldn't resist buying it although white isn't my favourite color.

More Christmas cards

I've recieved several creative and beautiful Christmas cards this year. Do I have to tell you I love it? ;-) I have so many talented friends!

This one is made by Helena:


And this one by Therese:


Go here to see some more.

Christmas cards

Three handmade Christmas cards that arrived today. The tree is made by Susanne, the sock by Cecilia and the third card is made by Lina.

it's all about knitting

... and I planned so many things to write about, but I'm too tired so I'll only show you some pictures without the text.



Works in progress.


Aren't those needles adorable? They're handmade by a girl in Australia. I'll show you more, later, of what I've recieved from her.


This is the last gift from my secret friend and I loved it as much as the other ones I have recieved from her. The yarn is so soft, blue. I also got chocolate (we've already eaten it ;-)). I'll knit this for myself, (as well as the socks), after all the Christmas-gift-knitting is over.

Now I'm really too tired to write. Here's one reason:

Necklaces

I've made necklaces ... a few ... ;-)
See more of them on flickr or here.

a little bit of everything

I want to learn how to knit socks, I told myself. I found a yarn that I really like, I was looking around for an easy pattern and ... I told myself to wait a little. I don't know why, but I'm glad I did. Because look what my secret pal sent me! EXACTLY that yarn I wanted to buy, needles and also a great tutorial on how to knit socks (not in the photo though). It was just the perfect gift. THANK YOU!



Yesterday it was raining all day. When I got up this morning it was eight degrees colder than yesterday and now the sun is shining in our frozen garden. It'll be a great day, I'm sure.

I'm thinking of houses. I'd love to live in a somewhat bigger house, a house that is ours and not rented. It wont happen now. Until that day I enjoy other kind of houses, like those adorable houses on a hill and sew nancy also has houses on her mind.

I made this dog, inspired by the dogs in the Tilde book, for my friend's new born baby.


A crafty projekt (in Swedish).

(sorry, a post in swedish)

Att skapa och att vara kreativ, vad innebär det? Svaret kan bli mycket olika beroende på vem man frågar och i vilket sammanhang. För någon är det detsamma som att måla tavlor och göra skulpturer, för någon annan kan det vara att hitta lösningar på problem eller att göra lyxiga chokladpraliner. Skapande och kreativitet är och kan vara så mycket. Trots det delas det ofta upp i olika intressekategorier: de som stickar, de som fotograferar, de som skapar musik. Varför inte samlas i ett gemensamt kreativt projekt? Ett tämligen fritt projekt, men med vissa ramar.

Du kanske målar, virkar, bakar, lagar mat, syr, stickar, skriver dikter och noveller, pysslar med papper, spelar teater, fotograferar, kladdar i telefonblocket, gör hemsidor, tillverkar godis, trär pärlhalsband, skapar i lera, planterar blommor och binder kransar, inreder ditt eller andras hem, snickrar, klipper och klistrar … eller något helt annat som du tycker är pyssligt, skapande eller kreativt? Kanske ägnar du dig åt en enda sak eller så tycker du att det är kul att prova på lite av varje. Vill du vara med i ett kreativt projekt? Det är öppet för alla, nybörjare med skaparlust och professionella. Det är inte någon tävling (även om jag därmed inte vill utesluta att vi har små tävlingar ibland, för de som vill) utan bara ett sätt att utmana sig själv inom sitt område och att lära och inspireras av varandra över ”ämnesgränserna”. För visst är det mycket det kreativitet handlar om, att se och hämta inspiration från annat håll, att prova det beprövade för att lära sig och att tänka nytt för att finna glädjen i att ha skapat något helt eget.

Vi har en gemensam blogg där vi visar vad vi skapar och där vi också kan diskutera eller tipsa varandra om sådant som känns intressant och relevant (och vi har högt i tak). Alla är välkomna att bidra med egna idéer och förslag. Varje vecka (eller kanske har vi längre intervaller?) har vi ett tema att skapa utifrån. Temat ska inte vara alltför komplicerat eftersom vi ägnar oss åt så pass olika sorters skapande. Inte heller behöver man vara med varje vecka, utan delta när man har tid, lust och inspiration. Vi visar varandra vad vi skapar utifrån temat, vi får mer än gärna kommentera och diskutera med varandra. Självklart får man skriva om och visa sådant som inte hör till temat om det kan vara av intresse för de andra deltagarna (och det tror jag mycket är), dock är det inte meningen att man ska visa precis allt man skapar i den här bloggen (till det är det bättre med en egen blogg ;-) ). Om ens skapande består av att man skriver långa noveller eller romaner kanske det räcker med att man publicerar vissa stycken här och länkar vidare till en annan sida där texten finns i sin helhet. Tillsammans får vi arbeta fram ett koncept som fungerar för oss alla :-)

Ditt första inlägg här på bloggen ska bestå av en liten presentation av dig själv. (Gärna med foto, men inget som helst måste.) Berätta om vem du är och vad du skapar och också gärna vad du har för förväntningar på det här projektet. Sedan är vi redo att börja skapa!

Vill du vara med? Skriv ett mejl till astrud242004@yahoo.se med ämnesraden ”kreativt projekt”.

Har du frågor? Kommentera på http://kreativtprojekt.blogspot.com, eller mejla till ovanstående adress.

New necklace

A necklace I made for myself the other day.

Jewelry inspiration

Next weekend I'm going to a party ... the week after that to a dinner ... one and a half week after that, another party ... then it's Christmas, New Year ... Today (or tomorrow) I'll be sewing myself a skirt. Or ... well ... I'll try.

But I do need a nice necklace and/or bracelet. I was looking around on the internet for some inspiration. Jes is, as always, making wonderful jewelry. Have a look at this:

But I also found a new talent out there ... MarMalaid! Her style is different from Jes, but also very beautiful and elegant. She has a blog too (in Swedish). Look at this: