Flowers!

It´s so nice that finally spring has come! I´ve been out gardening every day for an hour or so the last couple of weeks, with a garden the size of ours you need to be out there by now otherwise you´ll never catch up! And I enjoy it!

Even my creative space has been dominated by flowers this week. First I made these waterlily brooches, they feature burnt organza, taffeta, handdyed lace, silk and pearls.


Next project were some crocheted flower-hairpins in merry colours. I first crocheted lots of tiny flowers:


Then I embellished them with small buttons and seed beads and attached them to the pins:


I´m going to list some of them in my shops soon, if anyone should be interested ;-) And - it was so wonderful sitting in the conservatory making these colourful brooches and happy little flowerpins while the birds were singing outside!


And of course I had to try the new stuff on - remember always to wear flowers in your hair!


I made the little scarf last year and I simply love its colours, just the right thing to wear on a chilly spring day!

I´m also very happy because I´ve been invited to exhibit in Germany in May, so I´m going to be rather busy the next couple of months!

Last thing for today are these pictures from my spring garden, lots of snowdrops where the ground in the summer is completely covered by ferns:


And these small beauties that resemble snowdrops but they aren´t! I tried to find the English name, but I couldn´t - in German we call them "Märzenbecher" and I love them!


Have a wonderful Easter and don´t forget to pop around Kootoyos blog to visit other Bloggers creative spaces!

My Creative Space...

Welcome once more to my creative space! I´m still doing quite a lot of crochet work at the moment, unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of my throw, but I´m happy with the way it comes along and post a picture next week! I also started on a new crocheted cushion in fresh hues of pink, red, peach, yellow, orange and green to match my round sofa cushions. Apart from the yellow and green I found all the yarn in charity shops, so we´re really talking about a recycling project here!


Have you noticed our white cat on the sofa? You can probably understand that visitors sat down on him a couple of times because they thought it was just a cushion - or they didn´t even realize he was there ;-) In the next picture you see how the cushion has come along so far:


I have also made this rather glamorous scarf in shades of turquoise, seagreen, reedgreen and silver.


I have again used the technique where you place yarn between layers of dissolveable tissue, quilt the fibres together and then rinse the piece. This is how the yarn looked before it was turned into a scarf:


I have some of it left and have an idea on how to use it for flower brooches using the same technique... let´s see if I can show you something next time!

It´s Valentine soon, so I have listed some nice Valentine gifts in my webshops. Let´s start with my NotMassProduced shop where you find these:

Crimson Daisy Earrings

Candy Girl Button Ring

And in my Fleur de Bohème Etsy shop you find this delicate embroidered brooch:

Marie Antoinette Brooch

Talking about Valentine - please, take time to stop by my friend Ivy´s blog Edera Jewelry , she makes the most intricate vintage inspired jewellery and has a gorgeous Valentine give-away:

Bonbon Necklace Giveaway

If you want to see my latest gorgeous vintage finds pop around my other blog Extravaganzza Vintage Treasures - I have just updated it and I promise lots of vintage eye-candy!!

If you want to see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces please visit Kootoyos blog!

My Creative Space...

I actually realized this morning that the creative space group first starts posting again next week, but I´d taken all my pics and I have soooo much to show you.... many different things on the go.... so I thought I´ll post anyway.

First thing I want to show you is this scarf:


I´ve used a technique where you layer yarn and fibre between water soluble material and then quilt the whole thing together. After having rinsed the scarf I´ve hand dyed it in a dusky purple shade. If you´re interested, you can find it in my Fleur de Bohème Etsy shop!

Using the same technique, I also made this scarf:


I somehow think it looks a bit "naked", unfinished - although there is lots of texture to it, so I´ve chosen some pale yellow yarn to give the scarf a crocheted edge all the way around.

Next project in progress are these two bags. They´ve been on their way for a looong time as I started them over a year ago, haha. I´d sewn the respective fabrics together with material that shrinks when exposed to heat, done the shrinking and cut out the bag shapes.... and then they´ve been resting on my worktable until now.....


...when I suddenly decided I wanted to embellish them with vintage doilies, buttons and beads. The fabric in the bag above comes from a vintage pillowcase and I think I´m going to make crocheted handles in one of the two yarn shades shown in the pic (it´s actually organic cotton). Maybe I´ll add more beads, too.


I certainly love pink, but decided to combine the very vivid colour of this fabric with vintage lace, a doily, and cut out tiny flowers all dyed in a dusky purple hue to kind of dampen the bright pink a bit and not have the finished bag look like a gift from Ken to Barbie, lol. I´m thinking of crocheted handles here, too, in the yarn shown in the photo. What I like about both bags so far is the incredible richness of texture in them.

Next thing:


This is a new brooch design, I´d actually made some similar ones some years ago, found one of them recently and was inspired to do these. They´re kind of baroque I think with pearls and sparkles of gold and silver, but still suitable for the spring and summer season because of their colourway. I haven´t listed them yet, get in touch if you´re interested!

Of course I have someting on the go on my knitting machine, too:


This is a new lace pattern I´m trying, very intricate, and it´s going to be a shrug....well, if the knitting machine decides to behave and not suddenly cast off the whole thing as happened before....

Last thing is a little cosy project for our own home, I´ve decided to crochet a throw out of the many yarn left overs that are piling up in my studio.


I only started yesterday, but I´ll keep you updated on the progress. It´s going to measure 130 x 190 cm approximately so it´ll take me a while...

So, you see, lots of things going on and even more ideas!! I always have to laugh if people ask me where I get all the ideas from.... getting the ideas is not the problem, the problem is more not to get so overwhelmed by them that you end up paralysed because you don´t know where to even start ;-) But you know that probably only too well yourself, haha.

I actually have some exciting news to tell you but that´ll have to wait until next time (always nice with a little cliff hanger, isn´t it?!)

Free Blog Give-Away and Delicate Crochet

I just realized this morning that I have to get my free blog give-away started because next sunday is the first sunday in Advent!

But before I explain how you can participate, I want to do a little feature on one of my favourite artists and dear blog-friend Ivy from Edera Jewelry. I met Ivy here on blogspot - or was it flickr? - and I was instantly fascinated by her intriguing jewellery.

Copyright Edera Jewelry

Ivy incorporates fine crochet and lacemaking techniques into her work and her sense of colours and textures is just amazing. Her jewellery collection is both elegant and romantic and she uses silk, gold and silver thread, embroidery, semiprecious stones, vintage beads, and handcrafted chains to create her unique and very feminine jewellery.

Copyright Edera Jewelry

Copyright Edera Jewelry

Copyright Edera Jewelry

But Ivy isn´t just a very talented artist, she is also such a lovely person and has provided me with lots of help and advice on how to promote my work on blogspot and especially etsy - thank you very much Ivy!

Make sure to visit Ivys blog Edera Jewelry to see more of her beautiful jewellery and even take a look at her etsy shop as until December 1st, she is having a 25-50% off Sale on select items!

Free Blog Give-Away

Now let´s come to the blog give-away! As I have announced earlier, I´m going to have a free blog give-away every sunday in Advent, starting next sunday. The first item you can win is this dainty Mohair Beauty Brooch in a nice pink colour - perfect to add a splash of colour to your outfit on a grey winterday ;-)


To play along and have a chance to win you have to do the following:

1) If you aren´t a follower of my blog yet, you have to join the follower list

2) Take a look at my Fleur de Bohème etsy shop and write a comment to this posting, telling me which two items you like best and why. You are even welcome to comment other things regarding my shop and suggest improvements concerning f.ex. my pictures or item descriptions

3) I would be pleased if you would heart my etsy shop ;-)

4) Make sure I can contact you in case you´re the lucky winner - if you´re not commenting as a blogger leave your e-mail address

The winner of the first give-away is announced on monday, November 30 and the next give-away starts the same day!

Last thing I want to tell you is that the first pair of wristwarmers made it to my shop!


I´m happy to make them on order in the colours shown in my last creative space post (the wool cones behind the knitting machine), for more details see my etsy shop or contact me!

I´m dreaming of knitted dresses...

Just a quick update after a very busy weekend where I laid hands on the last details of my order to Norway. I thought I show you some of my latest cuffs that are going to be send tomorrow.

A vibrant yellow-pink-orange cuff that was inspired by the dahlias in my garden.

The next two cuffs capture the more dusty still rich colours of an autumn day.

A glamorous version for the festive season – would even make a gorgeous wedding cuff I think.

I was visiting an old friend in Germany a couple of weeks ago, she is a weaver and designer and gave me some of the most gorgeous mother-of -pearl buttons she had left over. To be precise, she gave me a whole bag of them – thank you Brigitte! As you can see I made some rather glamorous rings with them.

I also created these rings, they are made of vintage bakelite buttons which are simply lovely with their subtle colours.

And here a picture of my "Mohair Beauties", sweet crocheted flower brooches just perfect to lighten up a grey winterday! Available in 8 colours in my etsy shop

Other news include the purchase of a knitting machine. I have thought about getting one for a long time but after having seen the film “Sequins” - french title "Brodeuses" - (which actually is about two embroiderers who are very different but make friends through the shared love for their craft ) I simply had to buy one! Why, you may ask, isn´t it about embroidery? Yes, but when I saw the green lacy knitted dress Claire is wearing in the last scene of the film I knew I wanted to make dresses and shawls like that!

Now I´m soon going to be the proud owner of a Brother KH 900 knitting machine (it is going to be delivered on Tuesday). I signed up for a course next weekend and going to keep you ajour with my lace knitting progress! And - if you haven´t seen the film go and get it! It´s so typical french with a good plot and it´s simply a feast for the eyes! It´s my favourite film ever, bien sur.

I´ll be back soon with a little feature about one of my dear blogfriends and favourite artists!

Busy Springtime

I can´t believe it´s three weeks ago I published my last post!! But it´s so much to do right now -my parents are coming next weekend, so I had to tidy up the guest room and I even moved some furniture around and re-arranged some of my still lives. Here you see a collection of ceramics made by a friend of mine (and my cat eye glasses from the 60ies - I love them!!).


I also gave my beloved collection of vintage jewellery a good clean up and picked some flowers in the garden - the result turned out nicely I think.


There is still a lot of work in the garden, although I have to say the garden really looks great this year, espacially my vegetable patch. Took this picture in the greenhouse today, lots of flowers waiting to be planted in my flower tubs.


I have been a bit frustrated lately because I can´t exactly say that I sell massively well on etsy... I really make a big effort to network, take good pictures and upload new items regularly, which is quite time consuming, because I both have to supply my Fleur de Boheme shop with my own work and my Extravaganzza shop where I sell vintage clothes and jewellery. I sold my first handcrafted pieces a couple of days ago to Canada, the lace scarf and matching brooch shown below.


Of course that was nice, and the vintage shop is doing slightly better, but still....
I find two things difficult, the first one is to get enough traffic on the sites and the second one is the fact that I live in the most expensive country in Europe (probably one of the most expensive countries in the world) and I feel I just can´t compete with American prices at all!! We pay 49% taxes in Denmark, the prices for food are hideous and supplies are expensive too! I like where I´m living, but I find the fact that everything is so expensive really hard to accept!

Anyway, I reduced the prices on most of my items on etsy a while ago to see if that would make a difference, and I want to ask you a little favour: Would you take a look at my shops and give me feedback concerning my pricing?
I booked a few showcase spots to increase shop awareness, and the storque and accessories showcases were quite successful and gave me new followers, whilst the vintage showcase was a flop I would say. I also tried two snatch a treasury many times now because I think that´s a good way of networking, but it just seems impossible!

My newest item in my shop are these whimsical flowerbrooches - they´re almost like butterflies and I really like the picture ;-)


Well, to finish the etsy talk - if anyone out there has more tips concerning how to become a successful etsy seller, I would be grateful!

Talking about my work - I didn´t get done too much but I finished another brooch and I am now working on a bracelet, both for my summer exhibition - that´s the reason why they´re not in my etsy shop yet ;-)


Last year I started an education in creative embroidery, it´s a mixture of short courses and distance learning and it takes three years. I did the second module a couple of weeks ago, and now I have lots of projects to finish before the next module in september. The topic of the last module was nature, and one of the pieces I did was this embroidery inspired by birchbark. It includes printing, different layers of fabric, machine and handembroidery. I´m not sure if it´s finished yet, I might embellish it with beads in some places.

I even saw a fascinating exhibition while I was away for the embroidery course. It featured the work of the Danish artist Marie-Louise Otte who creates the most scrumptious ballet costumes made of paper, gold leaf, svarowski stones and other vintage materials. I hope to be able to write more about her next time and to show you some pictures of her amazing sculptures - I´m waiting to get her permission to show pictures of her work here on my blog.

I can´t give you any update about the article in "Isabellas" yet. I bought the newest magazine and was sooo disappointed because there wasn´t any article featuring interesting craft and vintage shops in Denmark - until I found out that the article is first due in the next issue which doesn´t come out before july ;-)

So, enjoy this lovely springtime - see you soon!