C e n t i L o n g

E n g l i s h - b e l o w 

Jeg har klippet og klisteret på det seneste. De smukke mønstre fra CentiLongs nye e-bog skulle samles, så jeg endelig kan komme i gang med de fine modeller.

CentiLong består af Christina fra Rappedikke og Lis fra Karlsons Kludeskab. Begge vanvittigt talentfulde og dygtige kvinder udi håndarbejdets verden. Jeg ynder også at følge deres ord og billeder om livet i det hele taget og føler mig stort set altid inspireret og ikke mindst menneskeligt beriget.

Jeg ved jeg har nævnt det før, men jeg holder ufatteligt meget af mønstre som er enkle og elegante, og som alligevel har helt deres eget cool udtryk. Det formår CentiLongs modeller. Med skønne flæser og små detaljer.
Mønstrene kan laves i str. 1, 2 og 3 år og hvor er jeg - endnu en gang - glad for at vores lille niece Agnes kan agere aftager til tøj i mini størrelse...

E n g l i s h

Lately I have been cutting and pasting. The beautiful patterns from CentiLong's new e-book had to be put together, so I finally can start sewing the lovely designs.

CentiLong is Christina from Rappedikke and Lis from Karlsons Kludeskab. Both extremely talented and skilled women in the world of crafting. I also like keeping up on life in general through their words and pictures, and I almost always feel inspired and not least humanly enriched. 

I know that I have said it before, but I'm incredibly fond of patterns which are simple and elegant, and which have their own cool expressions anyway. CentiLong's designs succeed in that. By gorgeous frills and little details. 

The designs can be made in the sizes 1, 2 and 3 years, and oh how I'm thrilled once more by the fact that our little niece Agnes can act as user of clothes in mini sizes...

For marks and x x x x

Once more Maileg has come up with new and wonderful things for those of us, who like the whimsy stuff.

I might have to get myself one of their new calenders. It seems as if each month and day have plenty of room in which we can write down the plans and appointments of our family. That is indeed a necessity, because I have become so forgetful over the recent years. 

I haven't seen the whole calender yet, but from the photos I'm pleased with the fact that Dorthe Mailil's  characteristic figurines have made their entry in there as well.

So now we wait for 2012 . . .

She's back!!

It was with much joy that I read this post on Ida's blog Midtimellem . ( An inspirering and wonderful blog by the way).

Because Ida had fabulous news to tell about the illustrator Karina Bækkelund, whom I admire tremendously for her brilliant work.
A while ago Karina closed her Amio shop and I thought that it was a huge shame, but I'm sure that she had a good reason to do so.

Photo from Karina Bækkenlund's Amioshop

BUT now she has reopened her shop! I'm really delighted that Ida told about it on her blog, because I have been keeping an eye on Karina's shop for months, but at a point I stopped checking it out.

Today it was time to act immediately before all of the beautiful things were sold out. So hopefully these 2 fine angles will hang in my home in a little while.

Photo from Karina Bækkenlund's Amioshop

If you like Karina's gentle angles and gorgeous squirrels, you have the exclusive opportunity to win some of her work in the giveaway, which Ida is having at her blog at the moment. You can enter the competition right here...

I still LOVE...

Photo from Kate Wilson

..the way Kate Wilson's little birds keep on exploring life - always looking so chic.

Rie Elise Larsen Julekugler

I will soon have to try this little tutorial from Rie Elise Larsen.

I love the result...and since tomorrow becomes windy and rainy, I will have the perfect reason to stay indoors doing a bit of playing with paper.

                          

For only 25 Danish kroner

...you can buy the new 2012 calender from Skals - Højskolen for design og håndarbejde.

Photo from Skals - Skolen for design og håndarbejde

It's always a highlight to me, when their calender gets revealed. And I truely enjoy having the calender, and it's numerous beautiful photos and recipes, hanging on my kitchen wall throughtout the year.

The calender can be bought directly at the school for 25 Danish kroners, which is about 4-5$. To that you must add shipping costs as well.

No words needed...

...the beauty of the paper from Minimega speaks for itself. Underneath you can see the paper on a beautiful photo from the shop, since my photo was taken at night time, and I don't think that it does justice to the actual colours of the paper.

How can I ever have the heart to use such pretty paper?

Photo from Minimega

I wonder where it has been??

On a little Sunday trip I bought this cardboard box. It has 2 sweet girls drawn on the upper lid - the kind of drawing which makes me have a second look at it, whenever I see something like it.

The girls reminded me of some paper cut out dolls I had as a child. And actually I expected to find that kind of dolls in the box when I opened the lid.

Instead it revealed 2 pieces of lined writing paper...with tiny dolls walking across the buttom of the paper. Perfect for the kind of letters only a child can create - and which I love.

I wonder who put the paper in there? Maybe a girl who wanted to save the final pieces of paper for something special - but who never got around to using them anyway.

Now, the paper wasn't bad either. And the box has already pleased my eyes several times. It only cost me about 7½ $. What a cheap pleasure...

My intensions were good...

When we packed our bags to go on holiday, I also prepared a fabric tote and a plastic bag with items for all the crafting I was going to do in the cottage we rented at the North Sea.

I brought linen, embroidery floss, cotton yarn, the 2 new embroidery kits I recently bought, more yarn, hooks to match the yarn, a pair of scissors, large pieces of extra thick carton and 2 different knitting books.

As usual my husband laughed at me when he picked up my stuff, and put it in our car.

But I knew that I would get to make loads of things from all my supplies, so I didn't mind him laughing...

However...

The things you see in the photo, are what I got around to making in the 7 days we were there! 3 lousy attempts at crocheting cirlces and a tiny pile of carton hexagons for a patchwork blanket.

Never before have I made ​​so little handwork during a holiday...I wonder what happened?

Well, I know the answer to that question myself. I simply enjoyed being with my family  (I always do that!)  playing, talking, bathing and all the other lovely things you make with your loved ones, when everyday life has been put on standby for a while.

And I loved it - SO much.

I have bought myself some Forest Hearts...

...and also The Singing Tree.

It's for my wall collection which I'm working on. It's going to become bigger and bigger as time goes by - full of beautiful and unique artwork prints from various artists from all over the world.

Photo from Arts & Ghosts

The artist who made the 2 new ones is Louise Robinson from the UK, who has the shop Arts & Ghosts. I have admired her work forso long, but I have really had a hard time deciding which ones to get.

There is something special about her work. She manages to combine beauty with something a bit scary. And I just adore her use of colours, and the fact that many of her pictures  have a fragile and misty elegance.

Photo from Arts & Ghosts

Waiting for some love-love-love

As I have mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of Helen Dardik and her fantastic and happy illustrations and paintings. I love how her lines are soft and curvy - how the colours she choose and mix, make me amazed and full of joy. Her whimsy way of looking upon the world is just how I like it.

I have some of her work already - among other things this great embroidery book - but the last month I have been returning to her etsy shop over and over.
There are a least 8 prints which I would happily put on my walls if I were a millionaire, but particularly one print has been popping up in my mind's eye.

The one called LOVE.

Photo from Helen Dardik's etsy shop

Now I'm waiting for it to arrive, and in the meantime I check out which spot in my house will be the best to put a little extra love...

I need to invite The Jet Set Pets

Mibo has done it again! This gorgeous little group of animals - ready for vacation - is more than welcome to come to my house...

And I don't mind if they bring along the funky Fox Tea Towel!

Making flags for Emil's party

These tiny flags are to be used for Emils confirmation. They are so simple to make - masking tape is absolutely a gorgeous thing!

They are going to hang on branches - without leaves - which we will spray paint white and put in vases on the tables. Along with the flags the little skateboards are going to hang there as well. That is if it all looks all right together...

We are having quite a few red-letter days this summer. This Monday I turn 40, the following Friday it's Emils party and in the end of June, we can celebrate Anne-Sophie when she becomes a student.

My birthday will be oh so quiet. That's just how I like it, and for now I find it a lot more important to use my energy on preparing a wonderful day for Emil.
And when things settle down again over summer, then I might do something about the fact that I no longer are in my thirties (age has never been an issue to me before, but all of a sudden I think that 40 years sounds different in the wrong way!)

I'm off - more flags are to be made...

Anne-Sophie's old invitation

Anne-Sophie's invitation, originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

While looking for a certain type of paper in my drawers for Emil's invitations, I found some of the elements we used for Anne-Sophie's invitations 5 years ago.

The photo and the the dotty cardboard were the outside and the red paper with the white flowers was the inside of the invitation.

We wrote the text on a special kind of paper, which was a bit transparent, so one could see the red paper underneath it. And we attached it inside the invitation.

I remember that it took a whole lot of time to make them, but Anne-Sophie was very happy about the result, so it was worth the effort.

Now we only need to finish Emil's...(can you feel that I'm kind of beating around the bush with that one?)

Dear Sylvia is on her way!

I have always loved the work of artist and illustrator Kate Wilson. Ever since I started going on flickr, her work has been a joy to follow. She makes me smile ever so much with her art, and at the same time her talent is an object of my huge admiration.
The way she portraits everyday things is so good, and her use of colours keep amazing me time after time.

But most of all I love Kate Wilson's birdies. Birdies with a huge love to fashion, shoes, delicious food and candy. How can that ever be a good combination you might ask yourself? This should convince you...and do remember to click next to see all the rest of the 22 chic birdies.

And now I thought that it was time for little fancy Sylvia to come to my house.

I have looked at her and her little tea bag bag so many times - I know that the look of her hanging on my wall, will make me happy every single time I pass by her...that sweet Sylvia.

I have decided that I would like to have many more of Sylvia's friends framed and hanging on my wall in the future. And finding new and precious ones, will not be a problem at all.

I spy with my little eye...

My view from our computer, originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

...all of these little things, when I sit at the computer.

We have recently finished the noticeboard on the wall around our computer / desk.

Picking out the fabric wasn't easy - because we wanted something simple, but still it couldn't be boring.

We tried a paleblue linen, a lightgrey linen and something with lots of color. No good none of it. So white with dots it was.

Now I need to change the look of the table itself. At the moment it has a surface covered with this and that has actually been a fine solution for a while. But the oilcloth wasn't that durable. So we have decided to paint the table top in a lovely color, or cover it with beautiful paper similar to wall paper, and lacquer it afterwards.

To make it all a bit more personal and cozy I have hung some of our favourtie knick-knacks on the noticeboard. I especially love the tiny man playing a guitar. Emil made it as a selfportrait when he was little...

If any of you have a fabulous idea how to make a table top beautiful, then please let me know!

2, 2 and 2

Just a bit of dreaming - from my point of view - of different lovely things.

2 fabulous pieces of fabric from Liberty, which I would love to add to my stash - soon.



"ELIZA'S OWLS" from Malika og Rosa




And another Liberty fabric from Malika og Rosa: MITSI PINK/ORANGE


Of course the dreaming has to include 2 new books as well. These are about embroidery.




Embroidery With Ann Estelle & Friends. I found it on Amazon.co.uk

 


Fun with Stitching: 35 Cute Sewing Projects to Turn Everyday Items into Works of Art. This book has not yet been released, but will be so on the 25th of February.


And finally 2 cards from one of my favourite card companies. It's French and is called Atomic Soda.



I already have this card with the rabbit...




...and this one with a bunch of gorgeous people and animals.

 (But one can never get enough of these beautiful cards).

I know from experince that I will save the cards a little while before using them.

Actually I dream of buying myself one of these stands from GO-CARDS, so I can have all of the cards I love in my very own exhibition.





Little Mibo friends

I love these little creatures from Mibo. Especially the reindeer I'm about to glue together...

These Christmas ones have been lying on my computer for a long time since I bought them...(and so have the Easter ones). Finally I got them printed and cut out.

Soon the mouse, the icebear, the reindeer and the birds can stand on our wall and look at us during the holidays. I know that I will look back at them ever so often...

A little bit of etsy love...

I would have loved something like this when I were a child. Something to cut out and glue together. And play with afterwards...

It's called the Candy Cane Gingerbread Cottage Playset and only costs about 18 Danish kroner!

A perfect little present for the young children's advent calenders, if you ask me.

It's out!

The new calender from Skals Håndarbejdskole is here. I always look forward to see which ideas they have come up with, and somehow the year doesn't start properly, before the old Skals calender has been replaced by a brand new one on my kitchen wall.

For as many years as I can remember, we have had that calender. It was my mum who introduced me to it, and she still loves it as much as I do. Way back the shape was different - longer and slimmer. Perfect to hang on a doorframe, and that was excactly where it hang in my childhood home.

And all those lovely ideas and patterns, which the calender contains every year, have been treasured. I keep all my back issues of  the calender in my grandmother's old, white chest of drawers. Like a big treasure of brilliant ideas and beautiful photos and drawings.

Can you believe that it only costs 25 Danish kroners??