A Taste of Summer and Happiness

We´ve been spoilt with sunny days and warm weather the last couple of weeks, so what better thing to do than gather some friends and have a cosy meal under the blooming fruit trees in the garden?

Our friends brought their kids and our contributions were of a more furry character - Kveiting the Cat and Gustav the Dog who for the sake of the picture were allowed a place on the table, lol.

We had a merry afternoon with good food and much fun, many more to come this summer I hope!

I´m a bit obsessed with bunting right now and made some not only for the shop and garden, but also the chicken run. Together with some granny chic fake flowers my chicks have a rather stylish home now!

Our chickens are free rangers, but we keep them inside the secure chicken run when we´re not at home, as we live very rural with quite a lot of foxes around, and I can´t bear the thought of them being taken by a fox.

The tourist season is about to begin, which means I have started to keep the shop open.

Not many customers yet, but I´m hoping for a good season and the shelves are stocked with both new wares, like these cute prints on textiles among the vintage china.....

...... and fresh jam and preserves made from organic fruit from our own garden.

I hope you enjoy this lovely springtime as much as I do, and don´t forget to pop around my etsy shop for some summary loveliness like this Birdie Brooch!

Nothing is Forever

I´ve recently started to work with textile wallhangings again. This one is called "Nothing is forever" and was inspired by our beloved dog Snuff who sadly passed away a week before Easter, 16 1/2 years old. He had the most wonderful life a dog could wish for and had followed us since our student days through the half of Northern Europe as we lived in both Germany, Norway and now Denmark and we do miss him a lot. Here he is in a picture taken last spring:

On a happier note, spring has finally arrived after an unusually long and fierce winter. Lovely to be out gardening again, especially when you have furry and feathery company!

And after a couple of hours digging and planting, what could be better than relaxing in the conservatory with a cup of tea and cake.

It´s the best room in the house, especially in spring, when it´s often too chilly to sit outside. Filled with light, birds singing and watching how the daffodils and tulips unfold and the garden is getting greener every day.

I`ve recently bought the Dottie Angel book "Granny Chic" and I have to say it´s one of my favourite books as it is filled with happiness and crafty inspiration. Inspired by the book, I made this crocheted sling bag to accompany me to the fleamarkeds and carboot sales of the season:

I also made new curtains patching together vintage fabric, lace and linen, embellished with doilies and hand embroidery and finally I re-vamped a couple of old lampshades:

See you soon, enjoy this lovely springtime - and pop around my fb page if you like!

Hello 2013!

First of all I want to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year! Personally, I´m glad to be done with 2012, which wasn´t a good year for me at all. So I´m happy to embrace 2013 and hope it´s going to be a better one for me ;-)
We´ve had quite a bit of snow already, and I love our cottage covered in white!

Even the shop had got a little wintery - Christmas make over with fairy lights, candles and cuddly mohair scarves and wristlets for sale.

Unfortunately I haven´t had too much time latlely to create new things, as I´ve been busy listing and marketing my work on etsy, DaWanda and Epla because the tourist season here is short, the locals are not at all supporting my shop and I therefore need to focus more on selling my work online. I have also expanded my translation work to make ends meet, so if someone out there needs their website or other pr material translated to German, you know who to ask ;-) .

Anyway, I managed to work on a few new designs, partly inspired by some gorgeous vintage beads and stash I found at the lovely Paris Carousel on etsy:

I used some of these fantastic antique rhinestone beads in a vintage assemblage necklace, for sale in my etsy shop:

I really enjoyed working with wire wrapped jewellery again, so I also created this prototype of a new ring design, coming in more colours and variations soon:

 That was all for now - what have you been busy with? Oh, and pop around my pinterest and fb page if you haven´t been there yet, you´re most welcome :-)