Merry Christmas

Just want to wish all of you a merry happy wonderful Christmas! I´ve so much enjoyed reading your blogs and your nice comments and it has been a wonderful year in blog world for me! I´ve met so many lovely, excentric and inspiring people from all over the world that I didn´t even know existed! Getting in touch with you has been both a great source of inspiration and very encouraging, and I´m looking forward to see what you´re up to in 2010!

Here are some Christmas pictures, we actually have a white Christmas this year - wonderful!

Our Christmas tree with vintage American baubles from the fifties, crocheted flowers, Christmas owls and pearl garlands

Handmade cards for friends and family to give with their presents


Notice the angel - I made it when I was 5 or 6 years old ;-)

Vintage pink dresser with old birdcage, hortensia, fil de fer angel and candles, of course

In the evenings the conservatory looks like a place from a fairytale with lots of lit candles, shiny baubles and fairylights!

You can call this white Christmas I think!

Our train carriage in winter wonderland

Enjoy Christmas and see you soon!

My Creative Space.....

My creative space this week is not so much about my work but more about decorating the house for Christmas, because I finally got around to making some nice little Christmas decorations.
I have decided to abandon the classic Advent-wreath this year and instead use some nice trays to display my favourite Christmas items. Here you see the decoration on our dining table, I have used a vintage Russian tray and filled it with nostalgic baubles, golden deers, a hyacinth in a beautiful porcelain cup (Marco Friis of course), a cone in a little vase and candles.


A little close-up of the deers, I love them - they have just the right kitschy appeal!


Over the dining table we have a vintage chandelier and obviously it needed to be decorated, too! Opulent baubles and a little colourful Christmas owl! I have bought lots of these owls in different colours as they are going to adorn our Christmas tree this year, together with vintage American baubles and crocheted flowers (which I still have to make..... lol).



This is the decoration on our coffee table. Baubles, another hyacinth, a nice glass with a tealight and a little Christmas tree made by an English artist who turns scrap metal into sculptures and small pieces of art. I was given to me by my friend Tracy and I´m looking forward every Christmas to get it out of the cupboard and use it in a decoration. I´m sorry that the picture is so dark but the weather is awful again - no chance to get a decent picture!


To see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .


And then... slightly delayed... I want to announce the winner of the last give-away! The beautiful mother of pearl ring goes to...

Sandy Mastroni

Congratulations Sandy! And I´m happy she won as she is such a lovely person and makes the sweetest things! I bought this pillow of her recently, it is based on one of her drawings and features all kinds of vintage materials such as lace, buttons, trims and doily snippets. The cat in the little dress reminds me of my own cat Frasse, and I smile every time I look at it. Along with the pillow she sent a lovely bookmark and two postcards.


Please visit her Etsy shop and take a look at all the nice things she has for sale.

The next two give-aways are first taking place after Christmas as I´m simply too busy right now to keep on top of it all ;-)

Last thing I want to show you are these colourful brooches I made a while ago and which I´m going to list in my Etsy shop later this evening!


See you next thursday when I´m going to tell you more about the Christmas market I attended last weekend.

My Creative Space

My creative space this week is mainly about getting things ready for a forthcoming Christmas fair this weekend. It takes place at an old castle not far away from where I live and I´m really curious how it´s going to be as it is the first time I participate.

One of the big challenges when you go to those fairs I think is how to present your work in the best possible way. I´m really struggling to find a good way to display my rings and finally came up with this solution:


I have used a vintage gold frame bought at a local car boot sale, lined it with pale pink silk and voilà - a new display for my button rings. What do you think?

As I told you a while ago I got this big bag full of the most beautiful mother of pearl buttons from a craft friend in Germany, the soft and subtle colours and different textures are simply amazing:


I thought I create some more rings for the craft fair, as the ones I have already made are mostly vintage bakelite buttons, and here is one example:


The pattern and colours of the mother of pearl are so intriguing, and I´m sorry that the picture doesn´t do them justice, but after two beautiful days with frost and sun it is raining again today and simply impossible to get good pictures! So typical!

I even re-vamped some giftboxes to make them look christmassy with a hint of nostalgia, I had bought these oldfashioned labels a while ago (I´m not sure if you would call them labels in English but can´t find a better word) and now glued them on my boxes and sprayed the boxes with goldglimmer.


Now my wares can be giftwrapped in the right Christmas style and make their way under some nicely decorated hristmas trees I hope!

I´ll better go now - I still have to finish off some brooches, clean the shelves and tables which I´m going to use to display my stuff and start packing everything! To see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .


And, please, don´t forget this weeks

Blog Give - Away:

Another beautiful ring, three vintage mother of pearl buttons embellished with seedbeads and adhered to an adjustable silver-plated ring base.

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, join the follower list

2) Write about/mention my blog give-away, link to my blog and leave a comment here to let me know you have done so

3) 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

You can comment until next sunday evening. The winner of the second give-away is announced on monday, December 7, and the next give-away starts the same day. Good Luck!

And one last thing - pop around my new blog Extravaganzza Vintage Treasures dedicated to my love and interest for all things vintage, in particular fashion, jewellery and accessories. You will find beautiful pictures of vintage treasures as well as features about vintage related shops or topics and the newest items from my Extravaganzza etsy shop for vintage clothing and jewellery.

Blog Give Away .... Winner and New Round!

The winner of the first blog give-away has just been drawn and it is....

Vic from Punky & Me!!!

Congratulations Vic, the pink Mohair Beauty is going to be send to Australia as soon as you mail me your address.

The next give-away is this beautiful ring:


Three vintage mother of pearl buttons embellished with seedbeads and adhered to an adjustable silver-plated ring base.

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, join the follower list

2) Write about/mention my blog give-away and link to my blog

3) Write a comment to this posting to let me know you have done so

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

You can comment until next sunday evening. The winner of the second give-away is announced on monday, December 7, and the next give-away starts the same day. Good Luck!

Last thing I want to tell you is that I´ve started a new blog called Extravaganzza Vintage Treasures. This blog is dedicated to my love and interest for all things vintage, in particular fashion, jewellery and accessories and I also want to promote my Extravaganzza etsy shop for vintage clothing and jewellery. You will find beautiful pictures of vintage treasures as well as features about vintage related shops or topics. I would be happy if you would pop around, take a look and tell me what you think!

I´ll be back on wednesday with a posting about my creative space!

My Creative Space.......and Blog Give-Away

After a couple of days on the knitting machine I decided to work on a new design for earrings today.


For a long time I have wanted to create earrings with a vintage feel and incorporate crochet work somehow into the design, but I was struggeling to achieve the desired expression. But suddenly, a few days ago, just before I went to bed, a vision of these earrings popped up in my head and today was the day to try and see if my idea would work! This was the first pair I made (with two pairs of wristwarmers awaiting the last finish in the background):


I tried different types of yarn but ended up using the same yarn as for the wristwarmers - it is thin and delicate but also a bit fluffy, and I actually like the contrast between the dainty filigree flower charms, the smooth gemstones and the textured yarn. I´m really pleased with the results! What do you think?


I was sitting in the conservatory the whole day and enjoyed working on these earrings so much! It´s such a gorgeous place, especially now in the winter where there´s a lack of natural light inside the house. Great place to work!


To see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .

Blog Give-Away

Just want to remind you that I´m having a blog give-away every sunday in advent, and the first thing you can win is this this dainty Mohair Beauty Brooch in a nice pink colour:


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 on either this or the last 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

You can comment until sunday evening. The winner of the first give-away is announced on monday, November 30 and the next give-away starts the same day - so make sure to pop around on monday!

And..... make sure to pop around my etsy shop - I´m participating in the Etsy Holiday Sale and have reduced lots of stuff!!

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!

My Creative Space

Inspired by the lovely Ivy from Edera Jewelry I have decided to join the "My Creative Space" postings.

This week I´m busy exploring the possibilities of my new knitting machine. I´ve put it up in the living room on a vintage chest of drawers, a very cosy place overlooking the daybed (with Snuff taking a nap) and the woodburner in the background.


A little close-up of the kitting machine, some of my yarn and the dusky pink lace scarf I was working on when I took the picture.


So far I have knitted a couple of scarves and matching wristwarmers in a beautiful lacy pattern.



I´m sorry that the pictures are a bit dark and blurry but the weather right now is hopeless if you want to take decent photographs - it´s raining and dark all the time!

I´m also making postcards for a forth coming Christmas fair, my table is covered with paper, lace, beads, sequins, buttons, trims and all kinds of stash at the moment!


To get myself in the right Christmas mood I decorated a vintage Russian tray with baubles, candles and hyacinths. A little close-up of the postcards and the decorated tray.


To see what other bloggers are working on in their creative spaces visit Kootoyos blog .

I´ll be back soon with details about my blog give-away and the feature I talked about in my last posting!