Jewelry industry (or not)

From time to time, I play along with my beads. It has been more fun this summer, since my mother (and daughter) has been playing with me. :)

My mother bought a bracelet kit in a craft store, and I used the same technique for two bracelets. One in blue glass and waxed cotton cord.


And the second with freshwater pearls.


I am making a third one with tiny glass beads that I can wrap three times around my wrist. Takes forever, even for my skinny little arms.

I have a thing for green (and blue) (and pink) right now, so I also made this in macrame.


Oh, and I love all these glass hearts! A necklace is this.


And finally - yes! It worked!


I have made two so far but believe me, I will make more! I am so happy that I tried this.


Many more! I love felting and I love small embroideries made on free hand. So this is the perfect thing for me! So happy I tried it.

Extreme lamp make-over

Being the second child often means you inherit things. Everything is bought new for the first child, and the younger gets what is already in the family but nobody uses. So with my daughter. Or at least, so with the lamp in my daughter's room. An old thing with Garfield (the cat) from the time before marriage even. But not anymore!

I went on a hunt in our local secondhand shop, and I found this beauty.


Well, I saw some potential there. Proud that I remembered the before-picture by the way. Usually I'm to eager to get started. I went through our paint tins and found some white in the bottom of one. Great! But I really hate paint that has to dry 16 hours before you can add the second layer. 15 minutes is more my cup of tea. At least that gave me some time to work with the shades. Dug around in my boxes and found glass beads and some pale blue paint. This is how it ended up.


Strings of beads and a pretty bulb along with a little paint. That's it!


The new owner seems to like it. But we have to change the bulbs, they light up the room so much you need sun glasses in there! B-)

Now, run off and get yourself a lamp to remake! It's so much fun!

Outdoor crochet

The summer is amazing here, and I spend most of my time outdoors. My knee has been bad for a while, so I have been seated in the hammock or in a chair in the shadow. Today I finished a cover for this stool.



It belonged to my husbands parents, but when his father moved it became ours. I have painted it (finally, got started last summer) and now I have made this giant granny square rectangle. Thought a little yarn and color was needed.



I am thinking about making a second cover to use when this one is in the laundry. It is stationed in the kitchen, and I don't think it will be spotless for long... But for now I'm content with this one. I like change, making the same thing over and over again can really bore me. :) Probably not a lot of crochet tomorrow though, since we expect a sunny day and plan to visit a lake. Yay!

Needle binding

I have found a new hobby today. Not that I needed one... :) But I have been eager to try needle binding lately (nålbindning in Swedish) and thanks to my darling husband, today I could!



Look what he made me today! Wooden needles, and some buttons too. All made from branches from our garden. How cool is that?



This is me needle binding. I am making a small bag. My husband just had the great idea that I could use the lilac-tree buttons on it. Yay!



A close up, so you can see the structure. You kind of tie the yarn into whatever you are making. I use wool, since you have to use only a piece of the yarn and not work with an entire ball. With wool you can felt the ends together when you take a new piece. With non-felting yarn you would have to make knots. Google it if you want to know more, or ask me. But remember that I am only a beginner! :)

Felting stones

I was at a handicraft fair this weekend. So many beautiful things... and lots of inspiration too! I have so many ideas my brain is boiling.




This is what I've been doing this afternoon. It's a good thing I always buy a lot of material when I get the chance. This way, I don't have to wait to get the stuff since it is already in one of my boxes.



Yes, I have been wrapping wool around little stones, wet felting them. The idea is to make necklaces. We'll see how my idea works out. If you never hear about it again, it didn't work out at all. :)




Now, the hardest part. To wait for them too dry...

Done playing

Yes, I'm done. For now, at least. This was fun, and I'm sure I'll make more. I love these, and I've wanted to try this for a long time.



Do you like them? I sure do. A few plates, a candle holder or something else as a foot and some good glue. Love it! I bought the pieces secondhand, so the cost is almost nothing.

I promised to show you the crochet too. (Actually, the buns are knitted.) My husband played around too, staging this.



I have been working on these sweets for a little girl who is opening a bakery shop in her garden play house this summer. Her mum asked if I wanted to make some cookies and of course I did. They are delivered now, and I hope they will be played with a lot! And as a surprise, I gave her the two small cookie plates. Thought she needed something pretty to keep some of the baked stuff on.



So, now I am free to play with something else! :)

Playing around

Today I have been playing (and some crochet, show you later). I am giving you a glue clue, can you guess what I've made?

I will show you tomorrow, when it's all ready.

Sugar sweet

Hear, hear, there's a new girl in town! Or at least in blogland. Her name is Lena, and she bakes. And she makes the most amazing cake toppers in sugar paste. She blogs in Swedish, but pictures are universal. So go have a look! Her site is called sockersött wich means sugar sweet. Her blog is brand new, but in the gallery you can see some of her beautiful creations. I clearly recommend this blog to swedish readers, since you can order toppers and take courses. Now, go see her!

In the future, you can find her among the Blogs I like to read, on the left side of the blog. Wish I could have posted one of her pictures too.

Old lamp, new look

I have told you about not having enough inspiration or energy to create. Well, I guess the tide has turned! Suddenly I wanted to be creative again, and found that I had both time and energy. 

When my daughter was ill, we also tried out this tip I found on Pinterest. To mix glue and foid colouring, and paint jars with it. I intend to show you the result, but today I want to share a special creation. I had this old lamp in glass that I wanted to alter. I really wish I had taken a picture of it before... Anyway... The original idea was to crochet a cover for it, but I never got to it. So when we played with colour and glass, I remembered this lamp, and was really excited to get started. I mixed blue colour in the glue, and started painting. The result was much better than with the jars we had painted.

It looks almost turqoise. And suddenly I knew exactly what to try for the lamp shade that was stripped to bare wire. I dug out some turqoise, white and grey effect yarns waiting for the perfect project.

I cut off a piece of yarn, tied it to the wire and started wrapping. Round and round... The edges was tricky to start with, but I found a strategy that looked good and kept the yarn in place. The finished shades gives a soft light. I used a bulb that uses very few watts, to keep it cool. So cool actually, that I can hold the lamp in my hand even when it has been lit for some time. Since some of the yarns were a little fluffy, I was afraid that it might melt or catch fire if the bulb got to hot.

At first, I didn't know where to put this strongly coloured creation, but my daughter really liked it and was thrilled when adked if she wanted it in her window. So that is where it stands, in all its glory. Keeping here company during dark nights.

Playing with beads

I have tried to make this post once before, but the pictures didn't work with me so I trashed it. This time I accidently deleted one of the pictures, but nothing will stop me now! :) I use my tablet with touch screen, and some of the tools simply aren't touchable! Annoying, but since the blogger app isn't any better, I guess I'm stuck with it. But I'm telling you, it would be much more fun blogging if it went smoothly. Anyway...

Some weeks ago, I went to a blogg called pysselbacken to check it out. I found that she had made a fun and very colourful little bowl from melted hama beads. I had never heard about this before, and started looking around to see what was possible. As my daughter was ill a few days later, this seemed like the perfect thing to do together. The picture I deleted showed single beads placed on a baking sheet just like the flowers below. In the oven they went for six minutes in 200 degrees Celsius.The beads just flattened out, to beads perfect for bracelets.

To make the flowers, we simply put five beads close to a yellow bead. Put one on a hair clip, or where ever you need some happy flowers.

We also made bowls. Use a bowl that stands the heat of the oven. Grease the inside of the bowl, I used some cooking oil. It keeps the beads from melting onto the bowl forever, and it also keeps them in place during the process of placing them evenly in the bowl. The beads should cover the bottom, only one layer of beads. I put the beads with the hole up in my bowl. Very time consuming.

My daughter simply spread the beads out evenly, no matter what side was facing up. Much faster and it created a more interesting surface. I can really recommend this, if you want to craft with kids. Even fairly young children can spread out beads in a bowl. Give it a try, it's really fun! And since these beads are made to be melted together with an iron, there are no toxic fumes when they melt.

Spring wrath

I want to start this post with thanking my assistent. The first picture was taken by my daughter. Not bad, right?

I have been ill for a few days, and terribly tired. But now I'm back in the game again, and I even sat down by my crafting table today. Thought our boring door could use something cheerful. I had a slight idea what it would look like. And the finished wrath looks... nothing like that! :) But I'm used to it. I think I now what I want to make, but when I sit down with it then the materials and colors inspire me to make something different. At least it has flowers, just like my fuzzy original picture. 

I find it quite hard, actually, to stick to my first idea when I get creative. This lady who has a yarn shop in town, makes the most beautiful things in simple techniques just by mixing yarns in different qualities. I have gone to my yarn stash several times, thinking I would make something the way she does it. And every time I end up making something my way instead. Playing with colours rather than qualities. So I guess I am stuck with "my way". :) Not too bad, I reckon.

Yarn therapy

I am bored. After a period with lots of energy, I have been tired this last week. And it's getting boring. Haven't knitted in ages, and I would love to get started on a new project with the new yarn I won and never showed you. Sorry. But I want to make something special from it, and I have no ideas. Do you? It's pretty thin ( I am terrible at wpi and such) and I have 300 meters ofnit. Beautiful, handspun yarn from nitsirk.

I winded it today, to get to know the yarn better and to get some inspiration. Pure therapy! I have been thinking about stripes with some other yarn. Maybe I should bring it to the yarn shop and have a look around.

I guess part of the problem is that with spring approaching, all I really want todo is crochetin bright colours. :) Make bags. But I do want to knit something soft to wear with thisyarn. I'll probably end up making yet another shawl. But what I really should do is finish all the projects I have in my baskets. I just don't feel like it. And a hobby is supposed to be fun, right? ;)

Well time will tell. And maybe a new project could inspire me to finish the old ones? (Please, agree!)

A little something

Told you I felt a little creativity lurking in a corner of my mind. :)

My daughter needed a little something to protect her mobile phone. She chose colours and border herself. And I enjoyed making it! I hope she never gets tired of colourful, flowery homemade stuff! :D

Happy Easter!

How are you all doing? I'm having a quiet moment right now, so I thought I would say hi. This Easter is not a very quiet one, since my parents and my two youngest are here with us. But right now they are on a trip, so my family is chilling.

I spoiled myself with some fresh flowers this weekend. I don't do that very often, so I am really enjoying them. And do you notice the sparkling tea light holder next to them? My mum made it for me. I think it's so cute. A good thing domebody is crafting when I'm not. I know I don't have to, it simply feels strange that I don't. And I think I have figured out why. Crafting or needleworking was never a way to relax for me. It was work. Something that kept me busy, made me feel that I achieved something, and also a very intense moment when inspiration hit me. Now when days are full(er) with work and housetending, I'm too tired to be inspired. 

Life takes it turns, and I'm sure I will find new ways for my creativity to work. Actually, today I felt rested enough to maybe pick something up. Maybe. :)

A lazy day

This week feels like a success. I have worked, I have managed to do some cleaning and house tending on free days without doing too much. It's really easy to do too much on a good day, and so make the next day a very tired one... I am trying to get into some new routines, trying to get things done during the week so I can have the week-end off. A tidy house that I can relax in. Managed pretty good this time, so today has actually been a crochet day. It's been a while since I did this. More knitting than crochet  lately. 

There you have it. The result of a lazy Saturday. So far at least, I am counting on finishing the last piece too. I am making dishcloths today. I made one in linen a while ago, just to try it out, and I am loving it! So I decided to make some more. One in the rest of the linen skein, and then some in some left over bamboo/cotton yarn. Eager to see if they will work outjuat as well. Planning tomake some in cotton too. I honestly never thought a home made cloth would work out as well as it did, and it gets better the more I use it. It absorbs water and other messy stuff on the kitchen table perfectly, it is lovely to scrub table and work spaces with, and it fells much more environment friendly to have your own cloth that you boil clean every now and then, than buying new ones all the time when the old gets too dirty.

The book is for later. Did you notice the title? "A stitch in crime"... I just had to have it, it's about a crochet group solving mysteries! :) I hope it is entertaining, since there are more where I found this baby. Now I better finish this dish cloth, or I'll never get to read that book. See you all soon, I hope!