Spring has come.... at last!

I´m sorry for having been absent for such a long time, but things have been crazy around here for a while... Thank you all again for the good wishes for my old cat Frasse, but sadly he didn´t make it and had to be put to sleep.

But on a more merry note, spring has finally come and the garden is beautiful right now, so I used the blossoming fruit trees as a backdrop for some new shawls:


Here some more photos of our spring garden, taken a couple of weeks ago. This is our beautiful old beechtree with a flowerbed with lady´s mantle and roses in the foreground:


And here a peek into the vegetable garden with the greenhouse:


I´m happy to tell that my train carriage arrived a couple of weeks ago and was sound and safe put into place between the horse paddock and the beech hedge. It´s going to house my summershop and gallery, has direct access from the street and I´m sooooo looking forward to move in with my stuff - but there still is some work ahead before I can do so ;-)


The proud owner in front of her "new" vintage train carriage!


Along with the train carriage came a nest with 5 young blackbirds.... unfortunately without their parents.... we started to feed them with earthworms immediately after we had discovered them, but the next morning they had left the nest. We found one dead on the ground that hadn´t survived the jump, one in the nearby rapeseed field and another one in the shrubbery nearby the train carriage, the other ones we couldn´t find. We took the two birdies in, but the one we found in the shrubbery died later the same day. The other one is strong and healthy and we have nursed him for two weeks now, so he is rather tame:


We take him out in the garden every day so he has the possibility to train his flying abilities, and he takes a round or two and then comes back to us.... very cute. He has started to look after worms and insects himself when being outside, so he is soon ready to be released into freedom. Here he came back from one of his rounds to sit on my knee:


I even did a couple of exhibitions and markeds, the exhibition in Germany was great fun and I´m going to tell more about it next time and show some pictures. Last weekend I did a garden festival, and although the setting was beautiful and everything was well organized, it was disappointing...


The first day it was so windy that my little tent was almost blown away, my shelves and rack for my shawls fell over many times and I spent most of my time either chasing my stuff because it had been blown away or collect it from the ground.... The next day it was raining (heavily raining!!) all day, so there weren´t too many visitors. My stall looked good I think, I had really made an effort to create the right atmosphere:


A big problem apart from the weather conditions was the fact that most of the visitors were simply not my target group, the audience was slightly older and I didn´t even break even (the costs for a stall were rather high), so I spent two days in wind and rain and cold for nothing...
But you have to try things, and soon I´ll open my summershop for the summer season which I´m really excited about!

This post is linked to the creative space group, and if you want to explore other Bloggers creative spaces please go to Kootoyos blog!

Hope you´re all well and enjoying springtime!

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!

My Creative Space

I´ve had a quite productive and busy time since last week´s post and have many things on the go! I have a couple of commissions I have to finish, and one of them is a scarf made of doilies. It is amazing how the doilies change character when you dye them and use them in another context! Take a look at two scarves I made earlier before I show you the commisioned piece in progress:


This scarf is made of rather big cotton doilies, hand dyed in purple and pastelgreen and embellished with a crocheted edge in pink. I love the colours, the make me think of the spring we´re all longing for!

This is a more delicate piece:

Filigree doilies in a lacy quality have been dyed in a pale peach shade and embellished with a crocheted mohair trim in cream with a thin gold lurex thread.

The customer who commissioned a doily scarf wanted it in hues of off-white and cream and with two rows of doilies. I´ve started to crochet the trim around each single doily using organic cotton yarn:


I have actually dyed the doilies in a in a pebble beige shade but they still vary slightly in colour which I like. I´m going to use 22 doilies for this piece as she wants double width, and I think the finished piece will look quite elegant yet with the right twist of shabby chic!

I even have another doily scarf on the go, cotton doilies in a flower shape, hand dyed to a berry shade and embellished with a pale pink trim in organic cotton yarn:



This is another commission, for my Irish friend Rainey from the Josie Baggley Company:


A generous but delicate wrap in the most delicious laceweight kidmohair yarn with a dainty handcrocheted trim, here a little close-up:


The crocheted trim makes the wrap really special, but it´s driving me crazy - the wrap is 220 cm long and crocheting the trim takes longer than knitting the whole wrap, lol. Luckily I´m half finished now and I hope Rainey will love it ;-)

And, as I promised last time, a peek of my throw - I´m getting there! (And the colours look fresher and happier as in the pic which doesn´t quite do it justice ;-(. )


The pink-peach-red cushion is not finished yet, but you´ll get to see the finished piece next week! And - if you would like to see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .

Before I let you go two pictures of my domestic universe ;-) You´ve met our funny and highly strung border collie mix Gustav before - here he is again, in one of his rare completely relaxed moments, together with our cat Frasse, while I´m working on Raineys wrap:


Yes, our pets are allowed to lie on the sofas and sleep in our bed and we actually like it! Nothing more cosy than a dog or cat to warm your feet in a cold winter night!

I wave you goodbye with my rather cheaky new ostrich plume duster, given to me by my mum - dusting is suddenly more funny and you almost feel like a Moulin Rouge girl, haha!


See you next week and thanks for stopping by!

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´ve been slowed down by an awful cold this week, so there was a lot of computerwork going on while I was sitting with my herb tea next to the logburner ;-)

One of the news I was going to tell you is that I was accepted by the British based craft and design platform Not Mass Produced, so I opened a wee shop there! Take a look, there are lots of talented people from the whole of Europe offering their work. One of the items I´ve listed there is this delicate lightweight shrug in a beautiful lavender shade with crocheted lace details I finished last weekend:


I also finished two of the items I showed you last week, the quilted scarf now is embellished with a pale yellow crochet edging:


Keep an eye on my Fleur de Bohème Etsy shop if you like it as I´m going to list it there soon.

And the pale pink ruffled purse with doilies is finished, too:


This purse is almost completely made of recycled vintage materials and I´m really pleased with it. I haven´t listed it yet as I might spare it for the summershop, but if you´re interested just contact me!

And of course a little update on my crocheted throw! It´s coming along well I think as I crochet a bit every night:


I even started on a matching cushion cover in a zig zag pattern:


Other news include my new Fleur de Bohème Facebook page where you can sign up and follow what´s going on in my webshops and summershop. I´ll even use it to keep you informed about sales, special arrangements and give aways so if you use facebook regularly anyway it might be a good idea to sign up.

Another thing I want to tell you about is the Fleamarket Floozies group on facebook. We´re a group of European girls who are participating in the Dottie Angel challenge where we have challenged ourselves only to buy second hand or handcrafted for our house and wardrobe for a whole year! On the facebook page we barter and discuss and have lots of fun! Take a look and sign up, there are some really nice things up for swapping already. You simply list what you want to barter in one of the categories under "discussions" and upload pictures - it´s quite easy!

The other exciting news I promised to tell you is that I managed to find and buy another vintage train carriage!! Solely dedicated to my summershop!!


This is a picture from the one we already have, but I couldn´t use the whole space for my summershop as we needed some of it for storage of garden equipment etc, so I had been looking for over a year after a new one as they´re quite hard to find. Another thing is that transporting them is very expensive because of their size and weight, so you have to find one rather nearby. The one I bought is exactly the same model as the one in the picture, from the 50ies, and it´s going to be put up right by the road so the shop becomes more visible and people won´t have to cross the courtyard to get there. I´m planning to build a little terrace outside the entrance where I´m going to sell seasonal flowers (for the right atmosphere) and display my stuff of course.
We fetch it in april as we have to build a foundation first and this can´t be done in the winter, but I certainly keep you updated!

See you soon - and remember - to see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces 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?!)

Happy New Year.... ;-)

I know I´m a bit late , but not too late to wish all you guys a Happy New Year I hope! Bjarne was visiting his parents in Norway and I was in charge of the whole pet menagerie all by myself.... We have four horses....feeding, carrying water and mucking out .... plus walking the dogs - very time consuming, especially in this cold weather.... The horse droppings were rock-frozen to the ground so I had to bash them loose with a spade before I could shovel them into the wheelbarrow.... No time for blogging guys!! Luckily the cats only had to be fed....! Well, my man is back now and I have more time again!

Okay, let´s start with all the gorgeous Christmas presents I got this year!

Before Christmas Bjarne and I decided to buy this painting as a joint present.


It´s made by the lovely Rainey from the Josie Baggley Company and I simply love it!! It´s called "Alice`s White Rabbit" and contains steampunk elements & vintage ephemera. Make sure to visit her blog and website, her paintings and steampunk jewellery are gorgeous and both her blog and website are a fantastic visuel experience! Here you can see where I put it up:


Another present I´m very happy about came from my man - he gave me the delicious body powder "Pretty" from Elizabeth Arden. What a girlie-glamorous-daily luxury, and on top of it all it looks gorgeous on my vanity dresser!


Here you can see all my nice gifts arranged on the table in our conservatory. The Dita von Teese book was actually my present to Bjarne, but I enjoy it as much as he does - Dita is amazing and the photos are fantastic, she looks like a goddess from the 40ies.


Of course I made some things, too. I wanted to crochet a lampshade for our bedroom for ages, and finally, I got around to do it. Gives a very cosy light but is still bright enough to read a nice bed-time story ;-) The vintage porcelaine lamp foot is a fleamarket find.


I also made this scarf and matching brooch for my mother-in-law, it was her birthday at the beginning of January. I have used a technique where you arrange different kinds of yarn and fibres between layers of water soluble fabric and quilt the fibres together with the sewing machine. You never quite know how the result is going to be before you rinse the finished piece with water, but this one turned out nicely I think.


Last not least a little update from my Fleur de Bohème Etsy shop! I have just listed this merry crocheted Flower Necklace and matching bracelet - makes me think of a nice spring day!



I´ll be back next thursday with a Creative Space posting!