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!

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!

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.... Spring colours!

I didn´t make it to join the creative space the last two weeks, but now I´m back with some colourful, springy pictures! I can feel that spring is on its way, although we still have snow – with night temperatures down to -7 degree it takes time for the snow to melt, but we´re getting there....

Luckily we have our conservatory, and I spend as much time as possible there working on my projects. I have bought primula in bright colours, daffodils and muscari to get the right spring-atmosphere:

Even my creative projects are inspired by the colours of the forthcoming spring and summer. I made a prototype of a new necklace design in vibrant colours, combining crochet, vintage buttons and vintage bakelite flowers:

And I finally finished the commissioned wristlets for Rainey from the Josie Baggley Company:

A couple of days ago I received this yummie yarn in the mail, it´s pure cashmere from recycled sweaters and the colours are simply gorgeous, not to mention the supersoft luxury quality of the yarn.

I´m looking forward to turn the yarn into lightweight lacy summershawls on my knitting machine, right now I´m working on a lace shawl in a pale limegreen shade:

On a more sad note, my old cat Frasse hasn´t been well lately.... I had him checked a couple of weeks ago and he seemed alright, but now he has lost his usual appetite and quite a bit of weight, so I have him checked with blood tests and everything again on friday. He is almost 15 years old and I know he won´t live forever, but he was always very agile and fit for his age and I can´t bear the thought that his time might have come.... He was the first pet we got together and has moved with us through the half of Northern Europe, from Germany to Denmark to Norway and back to Denmark - a trustful and dear companion. So I have been a bit tearful the last couple of days, especially because our dog Snuff is very old, too, 13 1/2 years, luckily still very frisky and cheeky, but it just reminds you that their lives are so much shorter than ours.... it´s sad!

So please, cross fingers that Frasse soon is his old self again as in this picture:

See you, thanks for stopping by, and to see what´s going on in other bloggers creative spaces please take a look at Kootoyos blog!!

Springtime

I think it´s time for me to write on my blog again - I´ve been so busy in the garden I haven´t had time for much else really. We have a huge cottage garden with many roses, hortensia, mixed borders, fruit trees and a big potager where I grow our vegetables, so there is plenty of work in the spring - but I love being out there digging, sowing and planting! My granny had a big garden and I loved being there as a child, the garden was next to a big field full of pansies that belonged to a nursery nearby, and pansies still are my favourite spring flowers.


Every spring I´m so looking forward to see the fruit trees in full bloom, and I especially love our old japanese cherry tree with the beautiful pink flowers that look gorgeous with the ferns in the border in the background.


My next garden project is getting chicken and building a little hen house, I think it´s so cosy with chicken in the garden but we have to build a solid hen house and chicken yard as we have many foxes around.
I even want to show you a picture of our three horses, they are grazing on the little field by our house right now, but soon they are going to their summer grazing - I´ll miss having them so close and looking at them while I´m gardening.


Although I have been very busy in the garden I managed to do some creative work, I´m still working on the Marie Antoinette theme that is going to be exhibited in the summer. The first piece is a pendant, made of vintage lace, tulle and applique, some of them hand dyed, and embellished with pearls from a vintage pearl necklace, glassbeads, a mother of pearl flower and hand embroidery. I´m not sure about the chain yet, might be either vintage lace or beads and pearls - I have to play around with some ideas!


I also made this neckpiece, a combination of vintage lace and a beautiful hand dyed vintage applique adorned with lots of glassbeads, pearls, sequins, mother of pearl buttons and hand embroidery.


A couple of days ago, something really exciting happened! During the summermonths I have a little shop in our old train carriage where I sell my craft work, vintage dresses, vintage china and tablewear and things from the garden - flowers, jam etc. When I checked my mobile, there was a message from an editor of the Danish interior and lifestyle magazine "Isabellas".


She asked me to call her back because she had found my website and asked if I could supply her with some pictures of the shop as she was writing an article about craft- and vintage shops in the countryside and wanted to include me!! I sent her some pictures of the shop and my work and now I cross fingers she really writes about me - that would be so fantastic as it is a great mag and would give me some extra customers!

Last not least I was awarded the lemonade award by lovely Nicki from "Curious Me" (http://nicki-curiousme.blogspot.com/) - check her blog, it´s full of gorgeous pictures and beautiful crafty things! It´s my first award and I´m really happy about it - thank you, Nicki!


A Lemonade Award is given to bloggers that you feel show a positive attitude and/or gratitude. Here's how it works:

1.Put the logo on your blog or post
2.Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude.
3.Be sure to list and link your nominees within your post.
4.Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5.Nominate your favorites and link to your post.

These are the blogs that I want to nominate:

1) oldflowers4me (http://oldflowers4me.blogspot.com/)
2) The Silly BooDilly (http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/)
3) Hens Teeth (http://hensteethart.blogspot.com/)
4) Boboho (http://tracy-boboho.blogspot.com/)
5) Roses Radishes and Rubbish (http://rosesradishesandrubbish.blogspot.com/)
6) Edera Crocheted Jewelry (http://edera-faerie.blogspot.com/)
7) Kaylovesvintage (http://kaylovesvintage.blogspot.com/)
8) Katinka Pinka (http://katinkapinka.blogspot.com/)
9) Babaprincesse (http://babaprincesse.blogspot.com/)
10) Sticky Kitten (http://stickykittenz.blogspot.com/)

Well, I´m off now to do some gardening ;-)

Waiting for the spring....

I am so proud of myself - spent the whole afternoon yesterday cleaning our lovely conservatory and getting it ready for the spring.

We don´t use it in the cold wintermonths as it is very expensive to heat, but from the middle of march the sun is powerful enough to warm it up and we put the floor heating on, too. So I spent a wonderful sunny afternoon getting everything ready, I haven´t put the blankets and cushions out yet as it is still quite cold and I don´t want them to get damp, but apart from that everything is ready. I´m so looking forward to sitting out there drinking tea or a glass of wine, it´s my favourite room from march to octobre where I spend most of the time when I´m in the house and not in the garden. If you want to see more of our conservatory and the rest of the house, take a look at boboho where our home is featured and take a walk around our Danish farmhouse ;-)

The other thing I want to show you is this - I love flowers, so what more can I ask for?

I bought this gorgeous bracelet and the matching earrings on etsy from moonlilydesigns and oh how thrilled I was when I opened the parcel this morning!! Such delicate beadwork! Check out her shop.

So - I am definitely in the right mood for spring!