Rie Elise Larsen Julekugler

I will soon have to try this little tutorial from Rie Elise Larsen.

I love the result...and since tomorrow becomes windy and rainy, I will have the perfect reason to stay indoors doing a bit of playing with paper.

                          

Fir or wood??

I just love the sight of an Advent wreath made from fir, 4 white candles and 4 red bows.

It reminds me of my childhood and the feeling of joy and excitement, when my mother lit the first candle on the first Sunday of Advent. (And along with that day came another big thing, which I liked as a child - our town put up all the outside Christmas ornaments in fake fir(!) and plenty of white light bulbs all the way through the main street).

I almost wish that I wasn't as tradition-bound as I am, about how our advent wreath looks like. Because then I would absolutely buy this gorgeous one from Ferm Living...

Photo from Ferm Living

It's so cool! The wooden balls, the colours and the leather string - and when Christmas is over you can make it into a long row of pearls, which will look like a completely different candleholder.

Photo from Ferm Living

How about you? Are you as tradition bound as me with your Advent wreath??(Well, many of you might not even have this tradition in your country).

I desperately need...

...a new pair of glasses. For far too many months have I threatened myself to buy some new ones.  But somehow one day after another goes by, and I haven't gone to the optician's yet.

Maybe it's because I don't quite know which pair glasses I'm going to look at this time. I do have an idea about shape and colour, and I'm aware that I'm not getting red ones again. That's all.

But then all of a sudden I spotted the perfect ones this evening - in fact I saw 2 spectacle frames which were right for me. (At least I think so - one never knows before trying them on).

Source: katespade.com via Ulla on Pinterest

I just adore the stripes on the inside of the side bars. Elegant and dark purple on the outside and with a little surprise on the back.

While I studied I had glasses which were a bit similar to the ones below - I loved those glasses. But our acquaintace promptly stopped the day that I dropped them on the floor, and they broke into 2 pieces.

Source: katespade.com via Ulla on Pinterest

Both pair of glasses can be bought at Kate Spade - sadly they are only reading glasses!! But now I have come a bit closer to what I want...

Tankestreg dress

Another Christmas gift is done, a photo by lille-ursus on Flickr.

Another Christmas gift is done. Now I have two...and many more to go.

I finished the Tankestreg dress for our niece Sarah. It's made in size 6 years.
It has been such a fun and fast knit to make. Knitting stripes has always been a great thing for me to do, eventhough I know that many knitters find it boring.

Originally, I had chosen two shades of pink for the stripes, but after making the order at Geilsk, I recieved a phone call from the shop. They didn't think that the two pink colours would go well with each other, and wanted to know whether I wanted to change the colour of one the skeins.

At first I had picked colour 32

Photo from Geilsk

and 33 in Geilsk Tynd Uld,

Photo from Geilsk

but I ended up using 32 and 30 - a dark purple.

It was nice of the shop to call me, but I think that I want to try my original mix sometime. For another Tankestreg.

Hopefully Sarah will like the dress in these colours. i think that it will be so nice to wear over a longsleeved t-shirt and some tights.

I'm waiting for Tusindfryd dukker

These days I have been thinking a lot about Wenche. The sweet, sweet woman who has the much inspiring blog Tusindfryd, and whom has made a deep  impression on me with her caring and heartwarming personality.

She's a very talented dollmaker, and has just had her first book about dollmaking published. In fact it was released at Klematis the other day, and that's the reason why I have had her in the back of my mind lately.

Photo from Klematis

I'm so happy for Wenche - to see one's hard work and beautiful ideas in a book, must be such a fantastic thing. I know that she will have done her utmost to make the book, so it will present itself in the very best way - both for the eyes and the mind.

I have already ordered my copy of the book Tusindfryd dukker - I couldn't wait until Christmas!
And I'm convinced that we can learn and enjoy from the minute we turn the first page in Wenche's book. I can hardly wait...

Something old and something new...

The other day Anne-Sophie and I went to our local thrift store. We didn't find any treasures like this one, that day besides an old Christmas curtain. I only bought one of them, because I'm not going to change my curtains for Christmas (!)
I fell in love with it due to the neat and lovely x-stitch pattern on the curtain. Soon, I will write down the positions of each stitch on squared paper, so I can embroider the star (or snowflake) on to a crisp new piece of linen.

The same day my fabric order from the USA arrived. Pieces of cotton with bikes and circles printed on to them.
Somehow I must have a partiality to red-ish patterns at the monent.

Fabrics haven't been on my shoppinglist for a long time now, and that suits me just fine. I need to use some of the many metres from my stash instead.

Have you heard of Coupé Couzu?

My excitement was huge when I found a - for me so far unknown - French shop with sewing patterns.

The same love I have for delightful and elegant French patterns for children, is like the one I have for similar patterns for adults.

Clothes which will never grow too old and become out of fashion in my eyes. Well, it can get washed-out in time and be suitable for the bin, but that is a whole different matter.

I bought myself 2 new patterns. They are both for tunics which I can wear on weekdays. And that's excactly what I need these days. A lot of my tunics are with short sleeves, and even though I'm not a freezing kind of person, it's still nice to wear long sleeves when temperature is low.

One of the patterns is Blue Light Blouse. The neckline is the reason why I chose that pattern - I like how it's lines go.

The other pattern is Blouse Attache Moi. Tie-strings in front of a blouse or tunic have always been something which I'm fond of. I like that you can make it look more casual in this way. And pick cool fabric for the little bit you use to make the tie string. Making the right - and daring - choice, can make a tunic change it's expression in a second. I love that!

A few of the patterns were actually also available in children's sizes.

Finding the Pochettes patrons collection from Copué Couzu was so nice. Now I have signed up for their newsletter, and will know when they send out more gorgeous patterns in the future...

First a fine necklace...

...and then a lot of beautiful felt and some gorgeous buttons.

I can hardly believe the luck I have had lately.

It was at Jeanette's blog that I won the fine the necklace - and a lovely pair of earrings which she added in the package.
Jeanette creates jewellery and buttons herself in all kinds of shapes, patterns and colors. She uses polymer clay for her work. I have dreamt of making buttons in polymer clay, and I remember buying premade rolls, which I just had to cut into slices to make buttons. (It sounds simple but somehow my buttons turned out very poorly. I have no doubt that I was to blame and not the clay!).

So isn't it wonderful that people like Jeanette can create beauties in polymer clay for us to buy?

Photo from Katja's blog

The beautiful felt and the buttons, I won because of an idea I left in a comment at Kajsa's blog. You all know that I absolutely adore Kajsa's work - her ideas and the way she chooses colours for her amazing quilts and little Tomter.
Kajsa's sponsor Kirsty at Big Fish had generously donated the fine things for a give away, and to enter the contest one had to describe what one would make with the materials.

And fortune smiled upon me.

It almost feels a bit like Christmas...

Dotty tree

I couldn't help showing this fine little tree from Pinterest...I know that we haven't entered December yet, but I promise that this will be the absolute one and only Christmas thing for now!

Putting on the many tiny dots of felt doesn't demand much, and I could easily see this as a project for tiny hands...

Source: giverslog.com via Malena on Pinterest

Update on the poncho pattern

Do you remember this??

Yesterday I got the English version of the lovely red, white and blue knitted poncho from Dutch Recht & Averecht.

The designer of it, Marijke Lennards, was so kind that she suggested to translate the pattern into English, if I wanted to buy it. I happily accepted and now I have it here in my briefcase full of future projects.

I could have bought a whole kit including the needed yarn, but I want to use some from my own stash.

In my 1st post about the poncho some of you were interested in the English version as well. Good news for you too - if you follow this link, you will get to the shop and the pattern.

For only 25 Danish kroner

...you can buy the new 2012 calender from Skals - Højskolen for design og håndarbejde.

Photo from Skals - Skolen for design og håndarbejde

It's always a highlight to me, when their calender gets revealed. And I truely enjoy having the calender, and it's numerous beautiful photos and recipes, hanging on my kitchen wall throughtout the year.

The calender can be bought directly at the school for 25 Danish kroners, which is about 4-5$. To that you must add shipping costs as well.

I'm recycling a layer cake

For quite a long time I have been making a jacket for Agnes.

It's the kind which has a thin layer of warming cotton batting in between the 2 layers of fabric. A quilted jacket - something which is used by both children and grownups here in Denmark at the moment. And years back too. I have always loved the look of these particular jackets.

I got my pattern from the book Børnetøj du selv kan sy, and when Anne-Sophie was little I made her a jacket from the same pattern.

The fabric for the outside is two shades of grey and with tiny flowers. The linning is striped and in two shades of rose. To keep it simple I chose some fabrics which were not that busy, but still I don't want the jacket to be too boring. So that's where my recycled layer cake comes in.

For at least 5 years ago I embroidered the little cake, and put it on a bag I knitted for myself. But since we are having a major clean-up and move around due to Emil's new room, I threw out the bag, which had become tired and strange. 

However, I didn't have the heart to throw the layer cake embroidery in the bin - it has taken far too many hours to make - so I removed it and saved it in my sewing desk.

Today I found a new way of using it and soon it will be placed on the back of Agnes' jacket.