two years in Yonder

It is celebration time in Yonder! Together with you I have reached the two year anniversary of this blog, and I am so happy that I began writing two years ago. It has been such fun to get to know everyone through this internet based world. You have been there with me through my crafting endeavours, giving me compliments when you liked what you saw, encouragement when I lost faith in a project, and good advice when I got stuck. Thank you!

I’m celebrating by baking cookies and doing my first give away. Sign up for the give away by leaving a comment on the post I wrote on Tuesday the 21st and let me know where you’re writing from. If you win you will get this French book about softies that I used to make the blankie bear (you can see another photo from the book here).

In addition you will get this softie kit from Tilda, which comes with everything you need to make this beautiful vintage angel.

Mønsterbok fra Island - Pattern book from Iceland

Dette er den siste boken jeg viser frem for denne gang i serien "mønster bøker jeg har lånt på biblioteket". Det er enda ikke noen som har meldt seg på for å vise bøker de har funnet på biblioteket, så jeg får gå mer direkte til verks og utfordre dere en for en ;-)

Jeg har alltid likt gemoetriske mønster og disse er ikke et unntak.

This is the last book I will show you for now in the series "pattern from books I have borrowed from the library". No one has signed up to show books that they have found in their local library, so I am going to have to use a more direct approach and challenge you one by one ;-)

I have always liked geometric patterns and these are no exceptions.

Først av alt; Kajsa gjorde meg oppmerksom på at den første korsstingsboken jeg viste dere faktisk er svensk og ikke norsk slik jeg trodde. Jeg måtte se på innsiden av permen og der fant jeg ut at boken er oversatt fra svensk til norsk. Neste gang jeg er på biblioteket blir jeg nødt til å finne en autentisk norsk broderi bok.

Boken jeg viser dere bilder fra denne gangen er også svensk. Jeg falt pladask for den med en gang jeg så forsiden. Gult er en fantastisk fin og frisk farge. Jeg klarer ikke å finne ut når boken ble gitt ut så hvis noen av dere tilfeldigvis vet det blir jeg veldig glad om dere legger igjen en kommentar. Boken har nydelige alfabet og border slik at man kan personliggjøre hva man enn måtte ønske.

First of all; Kajsa has made me aware of the fact that the first craft book I have shown you is actually Swedish and not Norwegian as I thought. I had to look inside the book cover and yes indeed, it is a Norwegian translation of a Swedish book. So next time I'm in the library I have to find and authentic Norwegian craft book.

The book I have posted photos of today is also Swedish. I fell in love it once I saw the book cover. Yellow is such a catchy colour. I can't find the year the book was published so if anyone knows I would love it if you left a comment. The book has lovely alphabets and borders so you can put a personal touch to just about everything.

Ut i verden og like langt - Across the world and back again

Noen ganger må man reise bort for å se hva man har hjemme. Og sånn har det vært med meg og hobby blad. Det siste halvåret har jeg kjøpt en drøss med fine japanske sy & broderi blad. I den siste utgaven av idées er det mer tydelig enn før at vi er midt i en skandinavisk broderi og korssting trend. Enkle mønstre brukes til å lage de søteste zakka-ting. Skandinavia og Norden møter Japan. Så slo det meg plutselig: er jeg virkelig helt nødt til Japan for å oppdage alt det fine vi har her i Norge. Svaret er ja.

Som en konsekvens av denne erkjennelsen dro jeg til biblioteket i dag og fikk den stakkars bibliotekaren til å bære med seg alle bøkene hun maktet opp fra kjelleren. Ja for de ligger bortgjemt i kjelleren! Jeg kunne selvfølgelig ikke ta med meg alle hjem (- du kan tro jeg hadde lyst!), men jeg fant tre bøker som fikk plass i veska og som ble med hjem. Tenkte jeg skulle dele disse bøkene med dere de neste dagene. En er norsk, en annen er svensk og den tredje er islandsk.

Samtidig ønsker jeg å gi dere en utfordring. Hvis disse fine bøkene fantes på mitt bibliotek, tenk da på alle de fine bøkene som kan ligge bortgjemt på ditt bibliotek. De kan ikke ligge der alene og glemt. Utfordringen til dere blir derfor å ta en tur på biblioteket finn 1-3 håndarbeids bøker, ta noen bilder og del bildene med oss. Legg en link til bildene dine (flickr) eller bloggen din på denne siden slik at alle lett kan finne frem til de bøkene du har funnet. Tar du utfordringen?


Sometimes you have to go away to see what’s at home. And that is how it’s been with me and craft magazines. The last six months I have bought tons of nice Japanese craft books and magazines. In last edition of idées it becomes clearer than ever that we are in the middle of Scandinavian embroidery and cross stitch trend. Simple patterns are used to make the sweetest zakka things. Scandinavia and the Nordic countries meet Japan. Then it hit me: do I really have to go all the way to Japan to discover all the nice things we have here in Norway. The answer is yes.

As a consequence of this epiphany I went to the library today and made the poor librarian carry all the books she could manage up from the cellar. Yes, because they are hidden in the cellar! I could of course not bring all of them home (- you better believe I wanted too), but chose three books that fitted in my purse and that came home with me. I thought I should share these three books with you the following days. One is Norwegian, the second one is Swedish and the third one is Icelandic.

At the same time I wish to give you a challenge. If all these nice books were to be found in my library, imagine all the books that can be hidden in your library. They cannot continue to be hidden and forgotten. The challenge I give you is therefore to visit you library, find 1-3 craft books of your choice, take some photos and share them with us. Leave a link to the pictures (flickr) or to your blog so that everyone easily can see the books you have found. Do you take the challenge?

Godt å være hjemme - Good to be home

I am home for the weekend. After ten days away from my man, it is good to be home.


Imagine my excitement when I found out that I had two packages waiting for me in the post office! One was with books I have ordered from Yes Asia. I finally received the Idées book number 5. This series is my absolute favourite among the Japanese craft books. I find them so inspiring and I never get tired of them no matter how many times I watch through them. I´ve posted some other craft books I have too.

The slippers book has different types of basic patterns. The details are up to each and everyone.

The second package was with fabrics from eBay. A nice stash of wonderful fairy tale fabric! I have thousands of projects in my head and on my “as soon as I get the time I will do”-list. Some of this fabric will be used for a fairy tale quilt that I want to make for my future children. I have this idea about reading books to them while we lay either under or on top of the quilt. I hope they will grow to enjoy books as much as I did when I was a little girl.

I love this little red riding hood fabric on dotted backround.

A work sketch for the fairy tale quilt