I´m finally back....

Almost two years ago to the day since my last blog post.... I gave up my part time job and took the plunge into being totally self-employed, which has meant lots of work and even less time than before. Of course I´m still creating and I run my shop in the summer, and I´m also working as a freelance translator, so if you´re in need of a skilled German or Danish translator you know whom to get in touch with!

I will continue to write about my craftwork and little shop, my passion for vintage stuff, our life in an old farmhouse in the Danish countryside, my big cottage garden and our efforts to live a sustainable lifestyle.

Today I want to write about my chickens. We´ve made some additions to our flock recently and currently have 9 hens and a rooster. Most of them are bantam breeds, but I also bought two Easter Eggers, and look what beautiful eggs I get from them!

I love my chickens, and everyone who has the possibility should consider getting their own little flock. Chickens are entertaining, lovely to watch when free ranging in the garden, the amount of work they cause is manageable and nothing can beat the fresh eggs from your own hens! My chickens often wait by the front door begging for treats (oatmeal or sunflower seeds are very popular), which is so cute and makes me smile every time.

I believe that chickens should be allowed to free range under controlled conditions - ours have a safe run where we keep them when we´re out, but they roam the garden and horse field when we`re at home. This arrangement seems to work well and we haven´t lost any to predators yet, although we live very rural. Here you see them foraging on the horse field - this is how chickens should live in my opinion.

At the moment we get around 5 eggs per day from our 9 hens, as the bantams are not high perfomance layers and some of them are 4 years already so only lay every couple of days. The Easter Eggers are laying every day, so eggs in pretty shades of turquoise, olive green and cream are piling up in my kitchen.

And sometimes, you can be really lucky and get a double yolker - our Easter Egger Emma is laying them from time to time, not unusual for young hens who have just started to lay.

Do you keep chickens? I would love to hear about your flock then, so feel free to leave a comment!

Busy times and new opportunities!

I´ve really been busy these last weeks! My parents visited us last week, which was really nice. I had such a great time with my mother, she is a creative mind too and we made jewellery together, went shopping and chatted a lot. And she ironed all the clothes and linen that had piled up for weeks in my laundry basket.... Here´s a picture of us, doesn´t she look gorgeous? She is 66 years old, who would believe that! Hope I have inherited her good genes!!


I´ve been stressing around a bit, I have to deliver my work for the first exhibition on friday, I open my own summershop in the train carriage the 1. of july (and the carriage still has to be cleaned, some of the furniture I use for displaying my work has to be painted and there are some reparations to be done on the boards of the carriage) and then there is also the exhibition at my friend Tracys gallery....

Anyway, I managed to finish two re-vamped vintage slips and made a couple of headbands using some of my vintage millinery flowers.


I even found the time for a little brocante tour last saturday. Here are some pictures from the first place we visited, an old farmhouse that used to be a pub in a tiny cosy village - so typical Danish!



They had mostly old china, glassware and silverware, but I managed to find these beautiful old tins and the funny small forks.



We decided to have a cup of tea in Ebeltoft, a small town nearby, and popped around another antique store. As you maybe can see in the picture, it´s quite a shabby venue, but packed with all kinds of vintage stuff.


I rummaged through a basket full of all kinds of small items and found these nice old pearlnecklaces, beads and jewellery findings. Great stash to re-use in my work!


After that we went to the café, and on the way I discovered that in one of the old warehouses someone had opened a combined studio and vintage clothing shop. Of course I had to check it out, and I found a nice black dress from the 50ies, quite hard to find in bigger sizes so I am really enthusiastic about my find!! The owner, who is a painter, actually recognized me, she had been at my summershop. We started to chat and she asked if I was interested in doing a vintage fashion show with her at the local festival the last weekend in July and I said I was indeed! We agreed we would show both vintage dresses, my re-vamped vintage slips and tops and my handcrafted textile jewellery. Quite exciting, I´ve never tried that before.

And, there are more good news: she actually rents the studio for a very reasonable sum and told me the owner was interested to rent out more of the space, so I´m going to meet him on thursday to discuss the possibilities. My plan is to gather four or five artists/crafters and use some of the space in the warehouse as a combined studio and shop. By sharing the rent we can keep the costs low, which is important, because Ebeltoft is heaving with tourists from June to September - but the rest of the year it´s more or less dead, so you have to earn your money during the summermonths.

Well, as you can see - lots of things going on at the moment - I´ll keep you informed ;-)

Oh - about the peacocks - they actually belong to a farm outside our village, the people haven´t had them long and obviously the peacocks decided that it was time to take a closer look at the surroundings ;-).