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!

Frankfurt

As most of you know, I´m born German although I have lived in Scandinavia for the past 16 years, and my family still lives in Germany. So last week I went down to Kassel, my hometown, to celebrate my mum´s 70th birthday. And I even took a little trip further south to Frankfurt to visit an old friend and explore the city a bit more.

 The most distinctive feature of Frankfurt is without any doubt the impressive skyline of the city that is both unique in  Germany and gives you the feeling of actually being in America. The city is the financial Capital of Europe and seat of the European Central Bank, and most of the skyscrapers are inhabited by big German and international banks. What is more, Frankfurt is home to the second largest airport in Europe, so the population of the city is very international and you find lots of museums, exhibitions and cultural events of all kinds.

I wanted to explore the craft and design scene a bit, and found that Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen and the area around the Brückenstrasse houses lots of interesting small shops run by independent designers or art co-operatives. My favourite one is called "Ich war ein Dirndl" and offers a very interesting selection of handmade clothes, art, accessories and stationary.

  When I´m visiting shops like this, I´m always searching for inspiration of how to present my products. Whilst I feel I have developped my own very distinctive style over the years in my work, I still struggle to present it when taken out of the context of my own shop. The right packaging and presentation is so important to make the product appealing to potential buyers and make them pay the price you deserve for your handmade goodies, and it´s even important to tell the story behind the product.
 

I found these small notebooks made from vintage paperware very intriguing, nicely wrapped in compostable cellophane bags and the story printed on the sleeve. Well done, so I bought a couple of them, makers are called "June and August" and you can find them on facebook.

 I even liked these pictures from the same shop very much, a clever combination of vintage fabric and quirky print - just what I like! I´ll buy one of these next time I visit I think.

Another shop with a very interesting concept is Designe, Kleine! in the same area, where designers and makers can hire a box for 20 Euro per month to display and sell their creations. I might actually approach them and give it a try, just to test the German market!

 "Designe, Kleine!" offers everything from quirky stationery over textiles, jewellery, ceramics and glass in the shop and it´s in shops like these where you find the best presents.

After my little shopping round we walked along the river Main to the Liebieghaus, which was built in 1896 as a retirement home for the Bohemian textile manufacturer Baron Heinrich von Liebieg. The city of Frankfurt acquired the building in 1908 and devoted it to the sculpture collection. The museum includes ancient Greek, Roman and Egytian sculpture, as well as Medieval, Baroque, Renaissance and Classicist pieces, and works from the Far East. 

 You even find a very cosy cafe in the backyard, with a lovely selection of cakes that I can only recommend to visit should you guest the city. 

Well, that was all for now - see you soon :-)

Neglected Treasures

The birds are singing, the days are getting longer - spring is on its way!! Made me want to redecorate a bit, so I changed the outfit on my dummy:

I love the hat, it´s so springy I think, with the vibrant pink and the flowers! It´s a fleamarket find from Germany and it´s very small, so I only use it for decoration purpose.


Even in the garden there are signs of spring, I´ll have to give the garden a good clear up over Easter.




I still fetch fresh vegetables from last years growing season, mainly green cabbage and leek. They are great winter vegetables - I didn´t even cover them over winter.



But let´s come to the neglected treasures.I had a little raid around my favourite vintage shops on Saturday, and of course lots of things made it home with me!

Some nice tins (again ;-) - but can you ever have enough??), an old sewing box like the one my granny had, a charming old mirror, lace, fabric and some small bits´n bobs.

In the second shop I found a whole box of sewing equipment - thread, embroidery yarn, crochet yarn, needles, fabric and these adorable needlecases!

I even found some unused stockings from the 60ies with the most delicate pattern! So naughty ;-)

Isn´t that beaded lace gorgeous? And the buttons will make beautiful centrepieces for a brooch or a pendant.

The woman who owns the shop where I found all the sewing equipment, some nice fabric, buttons and the stockings told me it all came from the same old lady. She had stored everything carefully, neatly wrapped and put away, there had even been old fashion magazines from the 30ies and 40ies and vintage slips but they were sold already (AARRGH - how annoying!!!). And although I was ever so happy having found such beautiful and useful things, it made me sad to think about the fact that this old ladies life now was for sale in a vintage warehouse, that none of her relatives appreciated the treasures she had collected and stored so carefully for many years enough to want to keep them. Well, at least some of it found a new loving home!

Winter Days...

It has been really cold and stormy the last days, so I have been spending a lot of time in front of the computer listing nice things in my recently set up etsy shop. Nevertheless, being the lucky owner of two lovely dogs and three horses I couldn´t escape the elements completely - the horses need to be fed and Gustav the Border Collie mix needs his exercise (Snuff, our old dog wouldn´t mind to spend the whole day in front of the log burner!). Even the cats couldn`t be bothered to go out and had lazy days on the bed.... on the sofa.... or in my studio!

Today I received a parcel with bright colourful vintage buttons, and a couple of days ago I got my beautiful vintage rhinestone buckles found on ebay, and I have many ideas what to use them for. I have already crocheted a nice dusky purple belt embellished with mother of pearl buttons and glass beads, and it looks beautiful with the rhinestone buckle I think.


I even made a couple of bracelets from the last lot of doilies and lace that I have hand-dyed. I have started to use brighter colours in my work and I´m really happy with the results so far! Makes me think of the spring, birds singing, sunshine.... For the bracelet shown in the picture I have only used vintage materials. First I layered hand-dyed tulle and lace and burnt the edges of the tulle fabric for a rougher look. Then I put on turqoise flowers cut out of a vintage tablecloth. I handstitched the edge of the flowers with thick embroidery thread in different colours that I had been lucky to find in a charity shop and embellished it with vintage buttons and sparkly glassbeads. The bracelet is lined with vintage fabric in candy colours.

Finally got started....

So I finally got my blog started ;-) It took me a while to understand how things work, but from now on I am going to tell about my ongoing projects and artists/websites/events that inspire me.

The picture shows one of my current projects, I am working with vintage doilies and slips which I hand-dye, embellish with beads and vintage buttons and transform into something new! The turquoise slip is not finished yet, I have only pinned the doilies on so far and yet have to do the sewing and embellishing. I will keep you informed how things develop!