A Saturday in November

A day can very easily be described in only 4 parts:

• I finished embroidering the bouncing footballs.

• Anne-Sophie delivered her adventcalender to her boyfriend (the little notes are hints on what to expect in the gift of the day)

• A kit for a stripy zebra-ko (zebra cow!!) went home with me from a local knitting market.

• Christmas came into our house - the poor candle almost crumbled (around December 22th, 23rd and 24th!) as I was trying to make it stand....

And tomorrow comes a new day with other things to do...can you tell that I was SO tired while I was writing?? ;0)

Ehhhhmm - where??

A couple of weeks ago I was looking through some knitting shops on the internet.

This model came to my attention. It is a pattern from Marianne Isager - at least that's what I remember from the text below the photo....and it's a sweater for children.

I think it would be great for Emil. Maybe he would love to have one in green colours...?

Now my problem is that I can't remember where I saw this beauty!!! Have you come around it on your shop surfing here in cyberland?

....................................................

UPDATE

Ta-dah!!! I have found the pattern!!!

The most embarassing part of it all is, that it was in a shop which link I have on my blog!!

All of a sudden I thought that I could have a little look at the list, which shows all the webpages we have visited days or weeks ago....Oh, so many webpage adresses - but finally at the bottom of the list - under the letter "T" - I found the shop Tante Hanne.

So here you go: where to buy the pattern made by Charlotte Tøndering for Marianne Isager! :0))

I feel so lucky...

I feel so lucky..., originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

...to have received this wonderful Christmas ornament from the sweet, sweet Amy, who lives in the USA and whom I have gotten to know through flickr. (I have already written a mail to thank her a million times, but she still deserves a hug and loads of "thank yous")

All of a sudden it was delivered by our postman yesterday - it completely took me by surprise! And what a gorgeous surprise... It really made me happy, that she wanted to give me a gift - and every time I see the strawberry I will think about Amy.

I have never ever seen Christmas ornaments like this before and I know for sure, that I will be the one who decides where to hang it on our Christmas tree ;0)

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday, originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

I just joined a wonderful flickr group with a very obvious name.... Mosaic Monday

I know for sure that it will introduce me to lots of inspirering people!

Sewing by hand

I'm doing work by hand these days....it suits me very well to do it this way.

I sew a bit and then leave it all for a good while.

I'm embroidering footballs on a little boys' blouse in flax.

Giving felt cakes lots of sprinkles.....

....in new colours.

And finishing trims on a Christmas dress.

Tournesol

Back in October our very dear friends Håkan and Lotte invited us out.... We were not to know what it was all about. That was a surprise. Christian and I spent many hours pondering about the surprise. What could it be?? Various proposals were tossed in the air, but none of them came close to the actual event. Finally the day arrived....we were going to a concert!! Christian and I both love music, and especially live. Sadly Liselotte was taken ill and couldn't go with the rest of us.

These fellows were the ones which we were going to see and hear in concert....

Tournesol

Neither Christian nor I had heard about this band before, but now we will never forget them. Actually we hear their songs rather frequently - and loud - at the moment (Anne-Sophie and Emil have even gotten to know the lyrics and sing along).

We were not many people at the concert, but placed in a fairly small room with round tables and chairs, we atttended the best intimate and personal concert ever.

The music was simply brilliant and the band was amazing. Two guitars and a singer...you wouldn't believe how well they performed.

I can only give Tournesol my best recommandations and you should really go to their website and listen to "Weekend Superman"...Or even better attend a concert of theirs!

I do however think that the best part of all this is, that we fell so lucky in our little family to have friends like Liselotte and Håkan and their children. It's so fantastic and heartwarming that they wanted to give us such a wonderful evening.....I hope we will be able to surprise them in the future!

PDF what???

Well, this might not come as a surprise to any of you - and you might even laugh at me - but I think that I have found a super smart way of buying written stuff, which I knew absolutly nothing about a few months ago: the PDF file!!

The other day I bought these fine little tags at Maria Lunate - and even though I usually am a very patient person by nature, I always like to get things I buy or order fast...very fast.

That's excactly what happens when you buy something as a PDF file...no posting tiny parcels from some where in the world - in this case Argentina - and receiving it 10 or 14 days later. No, I only waited a few hours for the sweet tags to arrive in my email. And I can print it out as many times as I like....isn't that just fabulous??

This lovely hat is another PDF file I bought a while ago at Mkccarroll. I can just imagine how wonderful this hat will be.....I might add a little something to it to give it a personal touch. But the pattern is so elegant that it can easily stand alone.

In the foresee-able future we are all going to replace our old 2008 calenders with new 2009 ones.....I will buy this one

that's for sure - but I think that this one

will be my next PDF purchase. The smart thing about this one from A little Hut is that you can choose your own background on the big letters....

What will be your first - or more likely - next PDF purchase??

Hyacinths

Finally it was time to bring out my glasses for Hyacinths...

Every morning I'm met by the wonderful scent which these flowers send into our livingroom....

I have 2 Hyacinths at the moment, but I know I will get many more to decorate my window-sills.

This or that?

If I could decide - and didn't have to take any notice of Christmas wish lists what so ever - then I would buy most of my presents on gorgeous etsy....

This wonderful birthday set made by Middleburg would make a mom of small children happy.

A bird mug would be a perfect gift for a grandmother, who loves coffee. This one is made by Catherine Reece.

The superhero bag from Helisengezer would be just fine for a sister's purse and other handy items.

A little cousin would enjoy pulling the flowery elephant from Matsutake up and down the living room floor.

This amazing ring would charm any girlfriend - and if you want it then go have a look at Touchthedutch's etsy shop.

A dad could very easily keep his change in a nice little tin like the one you can find at Silverymoonart. Eventhough I wouldn't advice him to carry it around - what a noise that would make!

If any of the receivers didn't like their gifts, it wouldn't be a problem at all - I would gladly take the gifts back and keep it all myself!

Luckily I am not to decide what my family write on their wish lists. How boring and impersonal it would be, if I was to choose all the presents without thinking of their wishes.....

More tidy

During the weekend I worked on getting my sewing room and fabrics more tidy. So when I sit behind my sewing machine I can see this:

I sorted out my fabrics and the ones I know I will never use, I put in a bag. Then Emil can take these fabrics to school - they are always happy to get some fabric to use in crafting lessons.

I do however have some fabrics left and I recently made this little apron out of some of them.

This side can be used while baking the Christmas cookies...

And the other side is for everyday life....

Knitted and felted

Remember how much my daughter enjoyed knitting??

The black poncho is all done...and has been so for many months. I really love to see Anne-Sophie wear something which she has made all by herself... Since then she has made a purple scarf and recently she began another knitting project.

She has decided to make a pair of knitted and felted slippers. The pattern was found on the very inspirering website made by DROPS. This is how they are going to look like, when they are done. The yarn she is using, is a fine shade of green and 100% of wool - Natur Uld. With this project Anne-Sophie has gotton around to use various knitting terms, and she's getting the hang of it, if you ask me.

The slippers are not for herself...they are a part of a advent calender she is making for her boyfriend. And he loves homemade slippers...that she already knows!

So....

this is where I make stuff

like this

and sometimes eat sweets like these....

Apron dress

Do you remember this kind of apron dress??

I certainly do...my mother has kept a tiny apron dress in white and blue stripes and with a little red ric rac trim. My sister and I wore the apron when we were kids.

The model has always been a favourite of mine - I adore the crossed pieces at the back - by up untill now I haven't been able to find a pattern.

But now I did! It's from a wonderful French sewing book I have - it contains patterns for the kind of childrens' clothes which I love.

All the models in the book are elegant and very simple looking - not too many things to disturb the eye. That's an important thing for me when I make clothes for children. I think that too many details and too big motifs on the fabric, make the child, who wears the piece of clothes, "disappear".

I made the apron dress reversible and with a pocket on one side. Reversible in order not to have loads of bias tape on the dress.

It has red and white stripes on the other side, and if you want to see that, you can have a little look at my flickr photostream.

I sewed on the 4 buttons on the shoulders in the same holes...2 and 2 (I hope you know what I mean by that - I don't know how else to explain it!!)

More apron dresses to come in the future...that's for sure!

Homemade

I find it very nice and heartwarming to recieve a homemade present (just got one yesterday) And since we are getting closer and closer to Christmas I think it's time to decide which projects and presents you might want to make yourself. (Maybe you want to buy them instead and that's just fine as well) :) Never mind if you don't usually sew...Help can be found!! Here for example:

Just take a look at these wonderful jackets in wool from Små Tekstiler - perfect for someone who really wants to try to sew and wants to surprise a family member or a little friend.

You don't have to trace a pattern, add seem allowances or cut out the pieces of fabric - everything is prepared for you.

"All" you have to do is sit by your sewingmachine and sew the pieces together. How to do that, is carefully described in the sewing instructions which comes along with the fabric. You also get a roll of sewing thread to match the jacket...

BUT maybe it's not you who is going to do the sewing, but instead it's your child.

If you have a look here you will find SO many wonderful things for your child to make. Who wouldn't want to make a grandmother happy by giving her a fine new brooche or some fine, little birds to hang in her window??

Last year Emil and I made some of the brooches....

I know by experience that you will get a very fine and good product when you buy things at Små Tekstiler.

Recently I found another funny shop which have the same "mission"....to make it easy to sew a wonderful piece of clothes.

It's called Bymom.dk .

You can choose different models, fabrics and colours. Fine projects to make....like the little blouse you can see below.

According to me it's such a wonderful feeling to have made something with your hands....and I'm sure that someone else might think the same way, if he or she is the lucky person who has gotten a homemade present from YOU.....

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this fabric

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this fabric, originally uploaded by lille-ursus.

More people

Having found my missing pattern again, I have been able to knit a bit on my cardigan with people...

Still a very S...L...O...W project!!!!

And now with an angry, bald man....

A wonderful surprise

When I saw Emil through a window of ours, on his way back from school, I could see that he was carrying something precoius and heavy....he was hiding it under his coat. I could tell from the look on his face, that he was anxious to show what it was.... He barely entered the frontdoor before he yelled "mom, I have something for you and dad. It's an early Christmas present."

Emil very gently moved his coat aside and this is the wonderful treasure he revealed:

He had made it in an art lesson at school and he wanted us to have the bust now, because last year he gave us a present made out of clay as well, and it unfortunately had a bit broken off when we opened his present. Emil wouldn't risk that happening again - I totally agree! There's no need to risk such accidents by wrapping the bust for Christmas....

Now our gorgeous present is standing in our window-sill - it goes so well along with the clay flowerpots.

Every time I look out the window while sitting at the computer, my heart melts when my eyes meet the bust.....what a wonderful surprise.

Tiny hats for Haiti

I have always been fascinated by the work of charity I have met through blogging - especially in the USA. It's an amazing way to assist people who need a helping hand in one way or the other. For a long time I have thought about joining a charity project, but haven't found the right one untill today....

At Cathy Gaubert's blog I read about the tee to cap project, in which you make caps for newborn babies in Haiti from your t-shirts or any kind of cotton jersey. Amanda from Soulemama was the one who came up with the idea to make these tiny caps. If you want to know more about making the caps have a look at this... I will hopefully soon be starting and after a good period of time I ought to have some caps ready.......ready to fit tiny heads in Haiti.

When will we ever learn??

On a beautiful, cold and sunny day like this our family almost feel dragged into the wood. We know how many tasty mushrooms which are standing in the forest floor in large quantities, just waiting to be picked into our baskets.

And we know how clear and fresh the air will feel, when we leave the car to walk on the colourfull carpet of leaves - and how the combination of it all will give us the sweetest feeling of tiredness.

So into the wood we had to go.

We found loads of mushrooms - and I really mean LOADS!!! We filled our baskets 4 times and there were still many left.

We all love mushrooms in my family, so whenever we saw some of the kind we like, we picked some.......but unfortunately we all forgot that they have to be carefully cleaned and brushed when we get home!

EVERY single mushroom. When will we ever learn??