Pictures from March

I know March ended a long time ago, but here are some pictures from that month and my photo-project 365 pictures in 2011.

March 6th, 2011 – A poppy in my parents’ home

March 7th, 2011 – A sunrise on my way to work

March 10th, 2011 – Felted trophies

March 12th, 2011 – Lamps hanging in the ceiling of a Chinese restaurant

March 22nd, 2011 – Bird nests and a sunset on my way home from work

March 25th, 2011 – Detail from my Shipwreck Shawl
(that I wore for the first time)

March 26th, 2011 – Yarn from Fröken Garn’s booth
at a sewing and knitting show in Malmö

March 28th, 2011 – Cracks and shadows

Jessica Swift’s wonderful rain boots

I fell head over heals in love with Jessica Swift’s patterned rain boots as soon as I saw them.

Please click the badge above and read more about her project! I hadn’t heard of kickstarter.com before finding someone linking to Jessica’s wonderful rain boots but I’m really impressed with the idea of kickstarter.com. Cerative people try to get different projects funded within a certain time frame. As a funder, you can choose your amount and a reward to go with it. The rewards can be anything from a handwritten thank you-note to a print of a photograph to a copy of the documentary that would come out of the finished project. It’s all up to the person asking for funds.

I funded Jessica with $100 and am rewarded with a pair of rain boots. I’m sooo looking forward to wearing them!

(Don’t let the $100 scare you off. If you don’t want to, or can’t, fund with that amount, Jessica rewards any funder who puts in a$1 or more. She has excellent rewards that you’ll see if you click the badge above!)

Chocolate balls

I’m having three of my knitting friends over for a get-together tonight. I spent yesterday preparing some goodies for us to eat. One can’t meet to knit and gossip without having something sweet on the table.

A whole plate of chocolate balls rolled in coconut flakes and cinnamon

I made a frozen cheesecake (with lemon flavour) and chocolate balls! I haven’t made chocolate balls in ages but they’re lovely! They contain oats, butter, cacao, sugar, vanilla sugar and some coffee. There’s no heat involved in making them (no melting of butter or using the oven) so it’s just a matter of mixing ingredients, make balls and roll them in either pearl sugar or coconut flakes. Easy!

I added cinnamon to the coconut flakes to make them a bit more interesting. That was a first for me but most certainly not the last. (And yes, I know this from trying one of them yesterday. Or was it two? Or maybe three? 🙂 )

FO – Jewelry Rolls from One-Yard Wonders

 One of the Jewelry Rolls rolled up and tied

Pattern: This is a Jewelry Roll designed by Valerie Williams and available in One-Yard Wonders by Yaker&Hoskins.

Fabric: The main fabric with dragonflies comes from Blank Quilting and the green and gold used on the pockets is Outback by Jinny Beyer and RJR Fabrics. I don’t know where the gold-spotted black fabric comes from.

The two pockets and the ring placket with ribbons

Modifications: I used three different fabrics as opposed to just one (suggested in the pattern). I had seen other Jewelry Rolls around made in different fabrics and I really liked the look. I also made the ribbons for the ring placket 4″ longer as suggested by Melissa who had done a Roll for pinkchalkstudio‘s One-Yard Wonders Sew Along.

Detail of the lower pocket

Thoughts: I made two of these at the same time as graduation gifts.  They were fairly quick to make and I love the end result. I felt very proud giving them away and I know the recipients appreciated them a lot. After I had explained what they were for. 🙂

A detail of the dragonfly fabric. I totally loooove this fabric! 

As random as it gets

Hello!

Remember me?

I didn’t fall off the surface of the earth, but I drifted off for a while. A lot longer than I thought I would. A comment to my last post asking me if I was still in the process of making pancakes had me realizing just how long I’d be abscent from my blog. Thank you, Tina! 🙂

1. Creative roller coaster
This spring I have been struggling with going between periods of feeling very creative to stretches of time in which I’ve not wanted to do anything but eat, watch tv and sleep. I’ve felt very scattered and I needed to rest my brain for a bit by staying more focused.

2. Sewing
I have, however, worked my way through finishing that colourful crazy 9-patch quilt I was making for a baby’s name-giving ceremony (blogged here and here). I will show you the finished quilt as soon as the ceremony has taken place. I have also sewn two Jewelry Rolls (pattern from One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins) as graduation gifts for friends (posted here on July 2nd, 2011). There’s a Teardrop Bag (from Amy Butler’s Style Stitches) hanging in my craft room waiting to be gifted to a friend on her 40th birthday on Saturday. Posts on these projects will appear here.

3. Knitting
I have also been knitting a bit. You will see posts on my “process” in that area as well. I have managed to mess up a pair of socks by knitting the second one on needles that were too small. And I only realized after I had knitted the toe, the foot, the heel and the leg and was supposed to start the ribbing where the pattern told me to change to smaller needles…

I have started a ribbed sweater that just sucks the energy out of me as one of the sleeves is knitted with horizontal ribs. I knitted forever and it just didn’t grow…
I am currently knitting a Cornflower Shawl (after seeing Anna’s start of one over at garndrommar.se). I started over four times before I found the needle size that produced a shawl I was happy with. And I also changed around the main and contrast colour. Now, I’m loving it!

4. An end
My favourite yarn store is closing down in a couple of weeks. I’m really sad about it, but that’s me being selfish. I know the owner is happy with her decision and I fully understand her. And admire her for her guts!

 5. Photography
My distant ed photography class didn’t go well. I loved the first lesson. And I loved the second one. But it ended with an assignment I couldn’t do at the time. I needed to wait for an order from Amazon.com. And I needed to wait for sunlight… The assignment was about panning moving objects to create pictures that show movement. How easy is that to do in my parts of the world in early February? I left for work int he morning in darkness and came home in darkness. The weekends were snowy and cold. And I couldn’t do it.

And the teachers constantly told us to work through every class and assignment before moving on the next one. So I got stuck.

I still have access to all the classes online and will try to go through them over summer and fall instead.

6. Photo project
I’m still working on my photo project for 2011 (blogged here, here and here) and I’m really enjoying it. I’m way behind on transfering the pictures from my camera to the computer and to actually make the choice of what picture to name “Today’s Picture” but I’m not stressing too much about that one. Promise you’ll see some of the pictures here on the blog.

7. Earrings
During the spring I have pierced my ears. I had them pierced when I about ten but let them overgrow a couple of years later as the started acting up. I would put in earrings and my earlobes would get all red and swollen. This time around I went to a real piercing studio and had them done more professionally than I would’ve had in a beauty salon. I’ve decided to use earrings made out of titanium or sugical steel as they are better for sensitive ears. Wish me luck!

This has led to me being absolutely fascinated by earrings! I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that so many people around me use earrings. And good looking ones too. I love the look of dangling earrings and can’t wait to expand my jewelry wardrobe. I’m currently waiting for an order from silvermason over at Etsy. You will see a post about those earrings when I get them!

8. Health
This spring I decided to deal with the fact that I haven’t felt comfortable in my body and clothes in a long time. I joined Weight Watchers online and have so far lost 9kg/22lbs by eating more, more regularly and healthier; and by increasing my weekly exercise by taking more and longer walks.

I have spent more time preparing and eating food this spring than I have ever done in my life. And I enjoy it! I try new recipies and new ingredients. I have given up cheese sandwiches for dinner and try to cook something instead. Or at least make myself a plate of veggies and cold cuts.

I have signed up for a membership at the gym from July 1st and I’m looking forward to start building muscles. I’m in desperate need of stronger abs and chest muscles to keep my back and hips from acting up all the time. And I’ve proven to myself that working out at home isn’t my thing… The sofa is far more comfortable than the floor. 🙂

9. Writing
I haven’t written anything at home for the pure pleasure of writing in nearly 6 months now. I think about it a lot though… Strangely enough; that doesn’t produce readable text.

10. Change?
I’ve also concluded that some things never change. And I speak of myself.

I have this feeling, this urge, to start a creative business. I follow blogs on creative entrepreneurship and I dream. And I make plans. I have five options for names. And I sort of know how to brand myself. And how to keep things moving. And where does that take me? Not far. To be honest. ‘Cause I forget to specify what my business should be about and I forget to produce anything…

And that’s sort of the way I am. I know how to write a letter of interest to a publisher for the novel I haven’t written yet. And I know the pros and cons of different marketing strategies for the novel I haven’t written yet. And I also know [fill in the gap] for the [fill in the gap] I haven’t made yet.

There are more random stuff I could share. But why do it all in one post after such a long absence? Next time, you’ll get pictures too. Promise!

March 19th, 2001 – Pancake dinner

My boyfriend makes us pancakes for dinner. Swedish pancakes! 🙂

Pictures from February

Remember my photo project for 2011? I’m taking pictures every day and one is chosen to go in a picture book I will print.

Here are some pictures from my February:

February 3rd, 2011 – My cat JumJum up close

February 7th, 2011 – The crocheted budgie I made for a retiring colleague (you can read more about it here)

February 13th, 2011 – Frozen cheesecake in front of the TV

February 14th, 2011 – Looking at a Valentine-sky walking to work

February 15th, 2011 – Chocolate from my favorite chocolate shop in Malmö: Cacaofoni

February 17th, 2011 – Meeting friends for a “fika” and some knitting. The chocolate fudge cake was extremely lovely!

February 20th, 2011 – Taking a walk on a sunny Sunday afternoon

February 24th, 2011 – Sunset walking home from work

February 26th, 2011 – Clouds looking like cotton sweeping over the sky

FO – Child’s Messenger Bag from One-Yard Wonders

A bag for my niece

Pattern: Child’s Messenger Bag from One-Yard Wonders by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins
Fabric: Something I bought at Åhléns one or two or three years ago
Project time: Wednesday March 9th, 2011 – Thursday March 10th, 2011

With an open flap and a visible inner pocket

Ramblings: I thought the design was interesting with its bottom corners (see picture below). I’ve never seen a box-shape made that way. Don’t know how practical it is (I imagine dirt and stuff to quite eaily get stuck in those folds) but it looks neat.

One of the two bottom corners

I had some problem attaching the Velcro on the bag body. I didn’t think the measurements in the book made sense on the placement of them so I used my intuition and moved them up a bit. I should’ve used more of my intuition and moved them even further but I chickened out. And ended up having to rip the ones on the flap and move them down a bit. I haven’t found any errata on this so I don’t know if others have had the same problem or if I just didn’t understand how to place a rectangular Velcro-piece 10.5″ from the top edge…

Part of the strap and the golden fabric

Overall, I enjoyed the fast project. From cutting out the pieces (standard rectangles of different measurements) to having a complete bag only took about three-four hours.

The bag is huge (for its recipient) and I just hope my little niece don’t drown in it…