Good old Bjørn!

When I were a child we had some of Bjørn Wiinblad's plaques (like many of other children at my age had at home). Right there on the wall next to our dining table in the kitchen.

I remember how much I loved the women on the plaques. Their big dreamy eyes and their little pointy  noses, made me admire them whenever we sat at the table. I made up stories about them if I were bored, which happened once in a while, when I sat at the same table doing my homework.

What I didn't think of at that time, was the way the plaques could appear 32-33 years later.

This one below is from Anne-Sophie's kitchen. She has collected 5 or 6 plagues from thrift shops, and has added her own touch to Bjørn Wiinblad's people.

Source: Uploaded by user via Anne-Sophie on Pinterest

I like what she did. A lot. Somehow the black lines on the porcelain, invite you to fill out the spaces. To prepare them for a life in 2012.

How funny and wonderful that we both - with a time interval of 30+ years - got to look at the same kind of plaques in our kitchens...

For our hands - and eyes

Anne-Sophie has been busy with her studies for a long time, but she has spent some of her precious sparetime on making the most beautiful Christmas ornaments I know.

A whole bunch of Froebel Stars were among the things she showed me, when she was home this weekend. She's going to use the lot for a mobile. And the ones you see here are not all of them - many more were folded in her hands while she was here. 

It didn't take her many minutes to finish a star. My skills, on the other hand, are a different story. I'm not good at making the stars - they always tend to look inaccurate and somehow I manage to get the paper shreds wrinkled. As a side befinefit my temper usually gets the better of me.

Today we had a wonderful afternoon, playing with self-hardening clay and listening to so far unheard Christmas music from the radio. Both of us enjoyed it (apart from the music).

It's a magical feeling to mould the clay in your hands and get things to come out of it.We mostly made ornaments for Christmas, but also a bit of jewlry and some signs to put on jars containing flour, sugar and the likes of it.

Anne-Sophie didn't get to bring home her things made from clay this time. They hadn't dried up yet, and I think that the items need the night to set completely hard.

Maybe we are going to paint some of the letters which we put into the clay...and of course add some string in different colours to the ones which need that.

It's was almost too late to begin with the Christmas stuff, but we are absolutely not done playing with self-hardening clay.

Love these

All made by the Dansih artist Laila Stenderup - I bought the things on the market at Skals Håndarbejsskole.

I forgot all about it!!

That lousy little spot on my beautiful rosy coloured linen. It had totally left my mind, when I cut out the pieces for my new summer tunic.
Now it's placed as bad as possible; right at eye level on the tunic's front piece. How clever is that!

So I had to come up with something to cover it up, and thought that an old Danish china pattern would be great inspiration.

Actually I used the new version of the old Mussel pattern from Royal Copenhagen - Mega Mussel redesigned by talented Louise Campbell.

My version is drawn in freehand so it's not completely like the Mega Mussel pattern, but never mind.

I'm quite pleased with the interaction between the pastel coloured linen and the strong orange embroidery floss - it did concern me a bit when I started out the embroidery. But somehow the orange keeps it all from becoming too  fastidious to look at.

I hope to get the tunic done, so I can wear it when we go to Anne-Sophie's graduation in about 1½ weeks.

Buttons, buttons, buttons

An item which one can never ever get too many of.
A special and lovely button really makes the difference. Like these from Veronicabuttons on etsy.
Now I try to look for an excuse to buy them all...

Or another fantastic ceramic button like the big, white one you find here on Sort Lakrids.

Embroidered buttons definitely inspire me as well. I'm a huge fan of Birthine's buttons. They are little pieces of art each and everyone. You can also find them on flickr - she actually makes some from ceramic as well.

But I guess that the ones I love the most, are ordinary oldfashioned white linen buttons like the one you see below (from Stofstedet) .
Their simple look make everything look better, and I remember how I used to play with my mother's linen buttons. Maybe that's the reason why I love them so much...

At lightning speed

This fabulous cup would make me finish my milk - because I'm not fond of hot drinks at all! - in no time!

Milk, butter & sugar

From Sorbet Living

How great is that! I would love to keep my sugar in a milk carton...