Art, art, art

 Hello!

Today I thought I would show some art that I like, some thrifted, some from my talented relatives, but the first one I bought this summer at an art exhibition in a really cool and different setting. I might have to write a separate post on that...

Just look at this cute band I got it wrapped in. It is made by the same talented artist that drew the print I bought:

This is little Miss Pink by Stina Wirsén:

I guess it is supposed to be for children, but I don't care! I will have it framed and hang it somewhere, probably in the living room next to this:

This is a painting I did about one year ago, I love flowers and really enjoy mixing colcors together, seeing how beautiful things can appear from the basic shades used for mixing. I don't claim to be good at it, but I truly enjoy the process and often more so than the finished result. This is hung above our "sofa" in the living room and really needs som company as you can see here:

The "sofa" is actually a spring matress that we had over and move into the living room for last Christmas when we were going to have a lot of family over for the holiday and needed more seating. I has staied since because we really like it so we plan to add sides to it so it turnes even more into a sofa and there needn't bee such a pit of pillows to rest nicely in it. I guess it will happen one day or another. 

The cute birds above was found in a thrift store and I just love how cute they are and that they seem to be talking to each other. I wonder what they are saying!

At the same time I found this girl:

It is a print from one of Carl Larssons paintings and I love them. I really like how he has captured his childrens caracters. I also just love how carfty and geniously his wife Karin decorated their home Lilla Hyttnäs in Sundborn, Dalarna.

This above was stitched by a relative to me, have to ask my mother who it was since I have managed to forget. During my last visit to my parents house, I asked if I could have some of the laces they have had taken from sheets and other items that I know they had and that I thought would be lovely to use for some projects in the future.

While looking through the drawers we found the one above and the leaf below which was stiched by my grand mother. I plan to paint the frame above and thinking above a frame for the one below. I wish had remembered that at the thrift store during the weekend, they had so many frames!

At my parents house I also found this (sorry for the rotation, I had rotated it, but it didn't follow in the upload, have to try to figure it out):

Also this was stiched by a relative on my mothers side. The style, both pattern and colors, is special to the district in the south eastern part of Sweden where my grandfather came from from the beginning. I absolutely love it! It such a nice feeling when loving what is made by family and feeling that it fits into a modern style at some way at the same time! I like to have a modern hpme, mixed in with different styles from the past, most of the time midcentury 50's and 60's teak furnitures, vases, glass bowls etc. will post pictures later on.

As I told you I loved those colors and that is shown in the picture below that I found thrifting. Sometimes this gives me a feeling of happiness and light, but other times there is something darker and deeper in it and I wonder if I want it in my home. I will paint that frame if not replacing it by something more refined and add it to a context to see if I still like it. 

I think, looking back at this post shows I have an addiction for art right now and I guess I should stop buying more before hanging the ones I already have. I think I have blames it all on all the redecorations and renovations we are doing so when the living room and hallway are back to more normal states after chnging front doors and adding a window and door in the living room. I can tell you it is soooooo much better after these changes!

Love A

I'm back!

Oh my, what a long time it has been since my last post. I have seen all the lovely year reviews around all the other blogs and it started me thinking aboutn 2011 for me. In so many ways it was a good year, especially craftyness and also changing job was sooo good for me. However personally it was a lousy year for our small family and that has participated in me not writing for quite some time. I have missed it though and really fulfilling my intention to focus on the beauty in life no matter what it throughs at us. Today I have one really beautiful flower bouquet to share with you.

These were the ones I bought so we could take it with us to our host for the New Year celebration. My husband was supposed to wrap them so they would survive the trip and errands we had to do before we arrived to E & J. To top it up I have forgotten the flower to them ones before, SORRY!

I actually love the different orange colors in these. There are 2 kinds of roses and both of them wary in different shades of orange. In the first photo I was using flash and the second without just to catch all the beauty. I hope you enjoy!

Thrifting for the kitchen it turned out

Hello!

Today was such a glorious autumnal day with sunshine and quite cold but lovely clear air so I felt like going for an outing. Last Saturday I went to the yarnstore here in my city and the lovely C there told me about a large thrift store I had not known about, how could I have missed it? So today it was a perfect day for a visit and again how could I have missed it?

It was a huge store with a barn full of furniture and another large building with paintings, clothes, books, lamps, electronics and everything in glass and ceramics for the kitchen, so what did I get? This:

Not exactly what you would think of for the kitchen, I could just as well come home with some bowls because they had lovely bowls in the 50's glass type that I love (will show you my stash another day). I found this painting that I kind of liked, I didn't have a plan for it, but liked the colcors and the frame is really great!

  

So how did it end up in the kitchen? Well I had this wall with really mixed prints and postcards that I did about a year ago. I was not completely satisfied with it and looking at I wondering I found two faults, one the almost even bottom of the collection, not good with a strait line (it actually looks halt decent in this photo, but worse in real life). The secont thing is that it is too similar, how? I have mixed different colors on the frames so that is ok, but they are all new and the postcard and prints are all newish too and printed on "shiny" paper so there is no depth to it. I do love that I dared to start this wall and hang paintings and things. It is always hard to make holes in newly painted walls...

The buterflies I had in the bedroom and they moved out here when we started to renovate the bedroom, I don't know if they will move back or get to stay here.

Back to my new painting. I entered the house with it in the hallway painted the same wall color as in the kitchen and it just was beautiful together! The blues match and the orange made it all pop. So where would I hang it?

No, didn't work, the other paintings were so small so this made things really tight, what could I do?

Ahhh, much better! Did you even notice the empty wall space there above? No not really me either. I guess I have gotten used to bare walls, we have several since moving here, but on this wall was an ugly old hole where they had had something heavy hung in the plaste so when I turned around and saw that, I just knew!

I really like the way it turned out! I did more really good finds so more post will follow, I will also trace back because I have done a lot of thrifting since moving from my parents house and even more since moving to this house.

Have a lovely evening all!

1 person inspiring 100 000!

Hi!
I have had such an inspiring week at the office where it started in a not so good way on monday with stomachace and feeling slightly like a chemical plant. At lunchtime on tuesday a major reorganization was announced and everything about it pointed towards it being perfect for my line of work. Today there was an information meeting with 1000 persons in a small and confined space and the CEO spend 5 out of 30 minutes to talk about how much better everone needs to be in what I do in order to please him. I love it and wanted to dance a little jig right beneath the stage then and there to celibrate!

I have worked for 5 years almost in what has on many occasions felt like sailing against the wind, and now.... Love it!

Tomorrow there is a steering committee meeting about the project we want to start and I guess there will be no objections now, but the scope will have to change when the new organization settles a bit.

Right at the point when I had started to give up, it all turned and people will start to realize that what I am doing is one of the highest issues on the agenda by the most important person in this huge company!Must say it again Love it! Love it! Love it!

I had to share it since Mr B is on a business trip and I feel like I am about to burst out of excitement. Got to sleep now so I can get into the office to get more info tomorrow, there will be more information meetings and of course the steering committee.

Thank you who ever invented these blogs, it is an amazing out let of feelings and also an extremely good way to document what happens in life. I am so grateful for this! (Only wished that all the stay at home moms didn't have time to make so many beautiful and crafty things so I get all envious all days, but I do love you sharing so thank you for being there!

/Mrs B

Start of a day in an optimal way

Today I will give you some photos from my walk this morning. I had to work from home today to receive a delivery so I took the morning walk a bit later than usual when the delivering company had been able to let me know almost when they were going to show up.

Anyway it was one of those gorgeous late summer days with a briskness in the air, but the sun warming you and your heart. It was soo lovely!

We live close to a lake and on the top of a hill so when the down hill road starts we have the most exciting view as the houses clears from the way and you can see what mood the lake is in that particular day. Look at today! It is not often that it is this still with almost no creasing of the water at all.

Did you see? There are some gigantic trees along our walk to as you can see in the photo above. That is a huge oak, it must be hundreds of years! I hope the people living or moving into the houses around has the nerves to keep them. This was one of the reasons why I love our area so much, the trees everywhere and that we almost live next door to the forrest. Unfortunately some of the trees are damaging the houses or are a bit too old orr they have been left to grov too close to each other. Almost all of these resons we had moving into our house. We had like a wall of trees between our garden and the next house to one side and only a few nice trees to the other side together with a large cherry tree.

We started by clearing out some of the trees that were planted too tight together and kept the ones we like such as 2 large birches, 2 pines and some that I don't know the name of. After that I have in other places replaned trees to always have a frame in the garden. I love trees and this year I have started to have the curage to plant them in the garden. I guess that I had to get to know it and learn how we use it before making those investments. I planted a lot this spring and will show you another day. Back to my walk! 

As we are in september the water was quite cold due to the cold and rainy wether we have had here so when the sun came up and started to warm the water there was the beautiful fog rising from the surface! I saw this in many places, but the above will represent that.

In this spot I just wanted to take a dive into the water until I tried the temperatur, I have to realize that that season is passed.

Just such a good start to this day that will end in a similar good way by saving the feelings here.

Js baby blanket

I crochet a lot and last year when our good friends E and J was expecting their number 2 I crocheted a blanket for the baby. It was a he and we got the honour to be his god parents so he is special to us and in two days he turns one, the big boy!

E, Js mother is an artist and nurse who loves color! It was the greatest thing to composing this blanket for her baby boy. I from the very beginning felt that I wanted to use a lot of color and found this cotton/acrylic blend that I actually liked (I usually favoure natural fibres) and that comes in great colors!

If I remember correctly I used 13 colors and I made a pattern that I repeated 2,5 times. I made two granny rows out of each color and it was so easy! It was a really TV project since I didn't have to wath where I entered the needle since the gaps are large enough to feel.  

THis blanket was hugely appreciated and used all the time which to me is the best grade! I was also asked by one in Elins crafting group if I could make one more, I was however busy with another baby blanket that I will show you at another time.

Baby blanket to N

One of the baby blankets I made last year in sort of a frenzie was this ripple to our newest neighbour and youngest daughter of C and M. It is almost finished in the photo, only one end left to fasten.

N that got this blanket is a bit special to us, I got to see her the minute they came home from the hospital and since living so close by, we have seen her a lot during the year that has passed. At least for a while she was more comfortable with me than her granny, I was her first babysitter when her mother was in a rush, I was also babysitting her and her sisters when she took her first steps and we can get her to smile eventhough she has a really bad day. It is so wonderful to have those little ones so close!

Some details about the blanket, I used the same cotton/acrylic blended yarn as in the J baby blanket. I think I used 4 colors and changed the width of the ripples as I felt like. It was so lovely to crochet this and wonder who it would belong to, how fast it has gotten for us to get to know her parents, how amasing it is to live next door to someone that you like to talk to so very much and how awesome it is to have the best neighbours in the world!

Be patient!

Hello and welcome if you visit! Please be patient with me and return another day if you want to read more from me. Since I am new to this I am still working on improving the design of the blog to make it more appealing to you as a visitor.

I have also so many Ideas of what I want to show you, but believe I have to take it a bit slowly, otherwise I will have posted everything the first day/week or something and don't have anything to say. I have goodies coming....

Patience, patience, patience