Still no sign!!

This sweet, fluffy fellow has unfortunately not returned yet - but we are still hoping a little bit....

We have talked a great deal about him though. We all think that it's nice to know, that he is able to survive in nature - all by himself. Perhaps he will even find a wife?

...treasures in my life...

Now it is time to put out my pale pink apples again after Christmas.

Inside of them I keep tiny, little treasures such as beautiful stones my children have found for me, coins from countries we have been to and small notes from my mother.

These notes are very dear to me, because one is written by her 6 - 7 years ago - before she one day got very ill by a bad stroke. (Today she is OK but suffers from the remains of the stroke, and can't use her right arm, right leg and uses a wheelchair.) One of the pieces of paper shows her - old - beautiful handwriting and the sweet words she always used to write to me and my sister.

The other note is a message she wrote to us when she was at "Hammel Neurocenter" for 5 months. Also a very sweet note from my mom.

It looks just as beautiful to me as the old one - eventhough the letters are a bit shaky - because I know how hard my mom had to fight to learn how to do everything now using her left hand....her new best hand!

Emil is very proud of his grandmother: she can do SO MUCH just using 1 hand.... She even knit herself a scarf.

Before her stroke she used to bring her knitting everywhere - she loves to knit!!

There is a whole world of difference between the 2 notes - both the handwriting and the many experiences my parents and the rest of my family have had in between them...

But I still see and feel my mom so much in both of them.

I feel so lucky to have all kinds of heartwarming and dear treasures to put into my 2 pale pink apples.....

Another DARK, rainy day. It's 4 o'clock and the advent candle leftovers have found a new place to shine in the dark. And so have the tiny candles from the Christmas tree (which didn't get to burn for a very long time, due to the hectic "present delivery" around it!)

All alone am I - Christian back at work for the weekend, Emil has gone swimming and Anne-Sophie left with some of the Christmas presents that needed to be exchanged into something else..... That gives me the chance to blog and knit a little.

I thought that I was going to start on the Cobblestone, but it seems to take a while before that can take place. So now I have started knitting this "while-Christian-makes up-his-mind-about-yarn-scarf". It is a pattern I recently found on ravelry, and it is quite funny and very easy to make. I think that lots of people have made it all ready, but to me it is new and different....

Since Anne-Sophie's birthday is coming up soon - the 12th of January - I really want to make her a lovely cake from this new cake book, that I bought on Amazon. I am so amazed by the cakes and cupcakes that people produce on flickr and in blogland. Especially the icing looks delicious. I really have to learn it! That is why the book had to be on my shelf... The only thing I have to do now, is to make up my mind on which one of the numerous cakes I want to bake.....

Outside the weather looks like in the picture - not exactly my kind of winterweather.... But never the less; perfect weather for indoor activities such as sewing, knitting and that kind of stuff. Lately I have made a lot of homemade Christmas gifts, and I have enjoyed to give them away. Especially the scarf in pastels for my niece, was received with such pleasure and heartwarming feelings, that it brought tears to my eyes....

Now I look forward to making things that have no deadline.... The Cobblestone sweater for my husband is my next project, as well as a new pair of trousers for Emil and perhaps yet another big footed bunny.

.....my lovely family for Christmas....

A very merry Christmas to all of you. I hope you will

have a wonderful day full of love and joy.... ( I know I will!!!)

.."discovered" blogging angels

Now I know: tiny angels do excist..... When I started blogging this summer, I was rather certain that it probably wasn't something for me to do. But I wanted to give it a try, because I had seen so many interesting and inspirering blogs.

I have always appriciated face to face relations with other people, and I actually didn't think that corresponding through the computer could bring me new and lovely contacts....

This point of view has turned out to be so wrong!!!

I have "talked" to so many lovely people during the last 5-6 months. All very caring, funny and nice and I love reading their comments on my blog (and flickr).

I do however think, that a few of them have said and done such heartwarming and wonderful things, that it really touched my heart....

These 3 caring angels:

Anne (is also the lovely angel "behind" the little angel in the picture - I told you!! They do excist),

Mette and Marie...

I'm very pleased to have "found" you in cyberspace!!

The lovely star and 6 more I got from a little Christmas swap with Anne. Now they are hanging in a long row in a red & white string, waiting for our Christmas tree to get indoor...When that happens, every single one of them will gently be put on the Christmas tree. I enjoy them so much and I know I will do so many, many years ahead.... The are made by this artist by the way!

Luckily I finished the scarf in time for Christmas. It is so soft that both Emil and Anne-Sophie have wanted to "wear" it quite a few times lately. ( I must admit I have tried it on too - maybe 1..2...3... times)

I made it in Rowan Cashsoft Baby DK, which is 57 % extra fine merino, 33% microfiber and 10% cashmere. It is definitely not the last time I knitted in that yarn!

To make the scarf a bit different I crocheted some flowers, and in the middle of these I put on some of my favourite buttons from små tekstiler.

The tiny bag above is for the cookies and the rest of the baking stuff for our cousin. All I need to do to finish the it, is to embroider her name on a little piece of fabric and sew it on to the bag. I'm getting there!!

I want these so badly. I finally saw them in the webshop Mille Mi - I have been searching for them for a looooooooong time.

I already have several pairs of the wonderful Angulus boots and shoes (i.e. the ones above in black) and they just feel so nice to wear.

Perhaps I just have to buy them in January 2008!!

Non fatning cakes

I'm doing a lot of Christmas "baking" right now. And it is SO much fun.... I actually think that I have to make more of this kind of play food later on. These felt cakes are a present to our little cousin. She is going to get an apron and other tiny baking stuff too. Last time I saw her, she was all into cooking at a play kitchen, so I hope she will explore the world of baking as well. I'm also in the middle of making a pair of trousers size 4 years, and I must finish a runner in linnen with an embroidered "something" on it! I wonder if I will make it before Christmas? I'm of to my busy day...

....Svupper to return

"If you see this lovely, fluffy rabbit then please let us know...."

That is almost what we wrote at a piece of paper, with a picture of Emil's beloved friend, Svupper. We put it at our local store.

Hoping that someone has seen Svupper and maybe caught it. I really, really hope so - Emil would get so happy....

...all of this from my crafting wishlist this year!

So many wonderful things which would do nicely in my sewing room..............

Don't you agree? I'm afraid my husband don't agree to the fact that I "need" more fabric (he thinks that I have enough allready!!)

But at this time of year I'm allowed to make wishes.....

...had a wonderful, embroidering grandmother

My father's mother was one of the most creative persons in my childhood (along with my parents). There was nothing she couldn't do - and she could make the most wonderful things out of nothing... I loved to go to my grandparents' house i.e. on holidays, and eventhough it was hard for me to be away from my family for 4-5 days (I was terribly homesick) I always enjoyed it. My grandmother loved to embroider - mostly cross-stiches, and she gladly taught me how to handle the needle and embroidery cotton. At my 9th birthday the present from my grandparents was a little drawer full of embroidery cotton, needles, embroideryfabric and patterns which she had torn out of magazins. I was so proud of my present and felt such a freedom to make everything I wanted. The embroidery drawer and the fact that my mother always gave me the opportunity to create crafts, such as knitting and sewing, meant the world to me.

I believe that it is essential to take a child's need to create very seriously. To show the child that it is a wonderful way to express oneself and get peace at mind. I try to give my own children the same possibility to be creative with their hands and their minds....maybe that is why I have heaps of fabric and yarn, beads, paper and all that stuff?

At the picture you can see what I have been embroidering lately. A heart with wings. A kit I bought a while ago from a company that unfortunately no longer exists: "Den Røde Tråd". The people behind the company are two fantastic women: Helle and Björk. Helle made this amazing book for children and this one about embroidery in a modern way. Björk is from Iceland and used to be my embroidery teacher at Skals Håndarbejdsskole's evening course.

Well, I had better finish my little heart. It is a present for a sweet and thoughtful woman....

PS. Talking about embroidery you should keep an eye on this website: www.nalin.is, which is an Icelandic shop/website. One of the women who own it, is the mother of a boy who used to go to my son's class. She is extremely good at embroidery and used to go to Skals Håndarbejdsskole and Textilseminariet.

Change of template - AGAIN!

Well, now I did it again: I changed the set up on my blog. I can't seem to get satisfied with any of them. None of them is really me - no matter how many times I change the colours and fonts. I am no good at adding lovely baggrounds or a beautiful blog header. Perhaps I will learn in the future....and who knows, maybe ( in my dreams ) they will turn out as lovely and personal as this one or this one !!!

I do know how to upload pictures though, so here is one of my pixies and a little fat Christmas pig on our kitchen table....

Hat for my daughter

Now I am actually crocheting.....I never thought that I would do that again, considering how lousy I was at it when I was younger!!! I always made it look quite odd, and square things always ended up being triangles..... So, may I proudly present: "Hat for my daughter". It is a circle AND it is MEANT to be a circle...... And she even likes it!!! I am so happy that I can almost hear the angels singing. Maybe I will even do some more of this kind of crafting. If I know Anne-Sophie right then she will soon be wanting more hats in different colours....

I am also soon done with the little white shirt I have been sewing for a 5 year old boy. He loves football and that is why I am embroidering 2 bouncing footballs in the colours of his favourite club - dark green...

Pebernødder and the weather!!

Here I am - watching - in our favourite place to spend the winter holidays: Lindvallen in Sweden. I used to ski but due to my very bad back caused by a car accident, I no longer can! It is such a shame, because I really loved it..... Luckily, I can still watch the rest of my familiy have fun on the ski runs, drink warm cocoa in the cold snow and eat hot buns with them at night in the lodge (wearing long johns and knitted socks.) And not to forget: buy lovely wooden birds!!

What I really wanted to say - before I got caught in dreaming about skiing holidays - was: where on earth is the snow in Denmark??Look at the trees in the picture - so beautiful and white of snow! Very Christmasy!! Now we are almost in the middle of December and here we still are - walking around buying Christmas presents in pouring rain....So grey and boring! But the weather is not going to spoil the Christmas spirit in our house. We have baked a whole lot of "pebernødder" - a kind of tiny, round Christmas biscuit. We (read I) put in just the amount of white pepper as written in the receipe - butttttttt, something went wrong. Our mouths were on fire after tasting them. At least they looked really nice! We need to make a new lot in a few days... How come it always goes wrong, when ever I take a lot of trouble over making cakes and food really well?

Wonderful things...

Wonderful things..., originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

Uh, uh!!! I just found out how to make mosaics and how to blog them. Big thing!!!

All of these wonderful things are made by very creative people from all over the world. They bring me much joy, smiles and admiration.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

A cobblestone pattern

For the last weeks I have been searching for the magazine "Interweave knits - fall 2007". That is quite a job I must say!! Everywhere all over the world(!) it is completely sold out - I think I have looked in at least 30 or 40 internet yarn shops, at e-bay..... So if you see it then please let me know - My husband really wants a Cobblestone sweater!!!!

So december it is

This lovely picture by marmeecraft needs to be shown on this December day. (She even sells her wonderful stuff on etsy). All Sunday afternoon we spent on decorating our house for Christmas. If you ask me it is a big and demanding task. All though things have their very own place year after year, I still believe that it is a bit tricky - but very cozy not to forget!!! The "skuffe nisse" (drawer pixie) was back and it reminded me of all the different stuff that has been put in his little drawer through the years. A lost tooth was put into it by the Tooth Fairy. In the morning Emil tried to figure out where on earth she had hidden it! It took him a fair amount of time to do that... I have also seen tiny dolls' shoes, chocolates, Lego - and you name it - in there. We have also put the nativity play in the kitchen. All of them was there: Josef, Maria, the 3 wise men, Jesus in his crib and the shepard with his 1 sheep and his 1 camel. Well, at least that is how it used to be.......Because yesterday I found out something very strange - Jesus had got a woolen blanket over his body!! And the sheep looked rather odd - that is, sort of like in 3 pieces!!!! Christian was also in the kitchen and heared my astonishment about Jesus' new blanket. He could no longer keep quiet and burst into laughter. All of a suuden I knew that HE was the scapegoat. He had dropped the sheep at the floor the night before and now he tried to explain to me that it was a sacrifice to the newborn Jesus!!! I do however think that it was rather clever of him to use the sheep's wool as a blanket.... I'm so sorry that the text is shown in a long row - but when I make loads of space between the different subjects, it doesn't show when I have saved!!

More birds

I miss the birds' singing these days. It means a whole lot to me to hear them early in the morning - I love it and it makes such a beautiful start of the day...

But when I can't HEAR birds then I need to SEE birds! Actually I collect wooden birds - like the ones in the picture. Brought home from Sweden from skiing trips and lovely summer holidays in one of my favourite countries. And what about blue birds - aren't they adorable? With their nice hats and dresses. They belong to this talented artist, Marmeecraft. I LOVE her drawings and wonderful expression..... Real living birds are sadly not an issue in our garden. Our cats have made that quite clear...I do however love to gaze at tiny birds eating seeds, while tilting their little fluffy heads or flapping their wings. To be able to do that again I think I need to get a new bird table. One of those that stick to the window glass in heights where cats can't go!!