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 :-)

Summertime

So I´m back....finally. I know I´d promised to update my blog once a month, but somehow this isn´t happening ;-) At least not during the summer when there´s so much to do with my shop, the garden and a house full of critters!

I can´t tell you how happy I am with my renovated train carriage! The space works perfectly with the combination of my own designs and the vintage stuff, and I get more and more people stopping by although I´m far out in the country.

 

I´m not as productive as I wish, because I keep the shop open as much as possible during the summer when there are lots of tourists, but I do manage to make new things of course. I´m very proud of this cushion featuring lots of handembroidery and vintage lace + doilies:

 This is another brandnew item, a very luscious flower made from distressed organza and tulle. I´m going to play around a bit and try out vintage lace and distressed fabric and various sizes, but I can see them worn as hair accessories, brooches, on fascinators or dresses.

 Unfortunately, the summer has been a big disappointment so far. Too cold, too wet, not enough sun at all. And my garden is invaded by slugs, but somehow the plants survive (at least some of them!) and my hortensia are fantastic this year - there are hundred of flowers on them and they´re not even in full bloom yet.

Even the veg patch looks not too bad, although the slugs have eaten half of my beloved dahlia. But there are lots oft soft fruit, cabbage, celeriac and courgettes. Not sure about the pumpkins as it´s not very warm. 

Despite the cold and rainy weather I try to make the most out of the summer - going for a swim in the sea, relaxing in the hammock on sunny days, having the occasional barbecue, taking bikerides with my dog Gustav.... I even managed to get away for some days and visit dOCUMENTA 13 which takes place in my hometown Kassel every five years. It´s the biggest exhibition of contemporary art worldwide and the city is full of life and interesting people and, surprise surprise, art! Of course I saw my family, and also an old friend I´d found on facebook after more than 20 years which was really fun.

Before I go, just a little picture of the newest addition to the family: four bantam chickens that I hope will help me keep the slugs at bay by eating the baby slugs and eggs. And of course supply me with nice free range eggs once they´re grown up!

We turned an old wooden playhouse into a henhouse and I painted it in dusky shade of duck egg blue, so they have a very cosy home indeed! Once they have settled in they´ll roam our big garden and the horse field, looking forward to see them foraging in the free!

Enjoy your summer and see you soon!

Merry Christmas

Just a few words from here to wish you all a Merry Christmas and give you a little update on how things are going around here ;-)

I´ve been far too busy lately but finally the right Christmas mood is sneaking up on me - I´ve decorated the shop and made it cosy with lots of my handcrafted cushions, candles and knitted scarves.



I´ve started to use parts of discarded vintage watches and combine them with vintage rhinestones and other jewellery to create necklaces. The first pieces made their way into the shop:


A few days ago I even managed to get done some Christmas decorations in the house, I love these fabulous purple glitter deers combined with the moss, hyacinths and shiny baubles. Glamour!!! Here in Denmark it´s common to use hyacinths in your christmas decorations, and I think it´s a lovely tradition.


Even the pets enjoy the cosy Christmas time, isn´t old Snuff just sooo cute taking his afternoon nap in the conservatory? He turned 15 in october and we´re so happy he´s still around and enjoying himself. He´s such a lovely dog!


Last thing I have to show you is my new tattoo - finally!!!! I´ve wanted it for so long but struggled to find a tattooer who was able to draw exactly what I wanted. But it was definitely worth the time and effort to find him - I love what he´s done! It is very personal and has exactly the feminine and vintage feel I had envisaged:


The picture was taken when it was very fresh, it actually looks more subtle in grey-tones now where it´s healed up.

Enjoy the holidays and have a wonderful Christmas! And if you´re Danish speaking, pop around my other blog La Vie Bohème!

Spring....

The last couple of days you really could feel spring in the air, so wonderful after this long and cold winter. I didn´t get much done last week, mostly due to my old cat Frasse having been so poorly. But I managed to finish this commissioned doily scarf:


I´m really pleased with the result, it looks gorgeous worn as a shawl as shown in the picture before, or as a scarf:


I really want to thank all of you who left a comment or sent an e-mail wishing my dear old cat Frasse to get better soon, and although we didn´t have much hope it seems to have helped, at least for the time being. He is much better, the blood test showed that there is something wrong with his liverfunction, but he is reacting well to the medication and has started to eat again and actually gained some weight, so we´re rather hopeful. Apparently the next week will be crucial, as his dose of steroids and antibiotics has to be reduced soon and time will show if he can cope with the lower dose, but they´re is quite a chance that he might be around for a while longer, so keep crossing fingers ;-) Here he is, enjoying the spring sun in the conservatory, I took the picture this morning:


I had some great swaps with blog friends lately, yesterday this bunch of gorgeousness arrived from the lovely Cat from La Dolce Vita - lots of fantastic lace, fabric and trims and one of her beautiful artworks, based on a landscape photography:


Already a couple of weeks ago I got a parcel from another blog friend, Alicia from Altered Bits:



I had won the beautiful Frida ATC at her blog give-away and swapped the rhinesone buckle, and she was so nice to add some more nice bits´n bobs! Make sure to check both Cats and Alicias blogs to see more of their fantastic stuff.

Before I go just a couple of spring impressions, the first flowers in the garden, winter aconite and snowdrops, we have them all over the garden:


And a spring wreath for the front door I made from hop and pink organza ribbon:


Enjoy springtime and pop around the other creative spaces, you find them at Kootoyos blog!

Train in Vain ;-)

I have been very busy the last weeks as I had to get everything ready for my summer shop in our vintage train carriage. I opened last thursday and I´m really happy with the result. I painted the table, bench and steps I use to display my bouquets of flowers from the garden in a nice lavender-blue shade to make it look cosy and inviting to visitors.


The rough style of the carriage creates a very interesting contrast to my handcrafted textiles and jewellery and the venue has a nice shabby chic feel to it.


My worktable with jewellery and accessories in the corner.


Vintage linen and tableclothes and in the mirror a peek of my vintage dresses.


Dainty summer scarves and my embroidered jewellery.


We had a heat wave the last couple of days, so there weren´t particularly many customers yet - everyone was at the beach I suppose, but I hope more people will come around during the next weeks. My summer shop was mentioned in one of the Danish lifestyle and interior mags, they had even put two nice pictures in, so I hope that´ll give me some extra customers.

I´m also exhibiting with three other artists in my friend Tracys gallery, I´ll post some pictures of that exhibition soon - the three other girls make fantastic stuff, too.

That was all for now - enjoy the summer!