Busy week ahead...

Tomorrow is the end of my holiday, and I have a very busy week ahead. That's alright as long as I have the feeling of being on top of the situation. There is no way that our house can be totally organised, and to be honest that is also not something I am striving for. Activity is a messy thing...fine with me. But one area that has to be in perfect order and up to date is the calender and my desk ( which is actually just a couple of shelves in a closet...)

There are many ways to organize things... I like to keep it simple and flexible. I have a little metal tray that holds important papers just simply organized with clips and a little cream colored strip with the subjects that concerns our everyday life....

Examples are Freezer inventory, weekly baking recipes, meals, Seth, Dea, Work schedules, My cookbook, Stickers for Seth  ( Rewards...). In the bottom of the tray are extra clips and strips of paper.

At the wall we have a year planner, and a more detailed 2 week ahead plan ( that's where we put all plannings like what to eat, shopping memo and whatever is important to remember. At the end of the weekend I normally take a look at the week to come, and try to jot little things down

Thats really all... It is simple but it works

Colors...

Seth started school introductory course the first of April. Real school starts next week...

Most kids in Denmark go to public schools that has, or at least had a good reputation, but lately the smaller schools are being  merged into very big schools. Luckily we have a system in this country that also supports private schools that use a different way of teaching or have a special agenda  . Seth's school is a small private one. The whole school work on the same subject for a longer time. In my opinion it gives a feeling of being together working on something like in a family or even a workplace. When I go to the school I see older children taking care of the small ones and even being like a sister or brother. The school has 20 student pr class and 1 class pr age.

It was a big day and off course he got some new crayons and markers.

I made a bag for his new markers, and bought some real good crayons from Mercurius (Stockmar ). This place sells them in either packages of 12 or 24 and you can even just buy one in the color you like or if one got lost. I made an elastic band of an old belt to keep it all well together. Everything has his name on it. For the wooden crayons I used a burner to write his name with. I think it is quite important to teach children to care for their things and learn that its their responsibility....off course... 

One of the things that shows quality of different type of paint, crayons and markers is of course their intensity but also their color range. For me it is important that they are true to the color wheel. If they are not the colors will act strange and the red and the blue mixed together will suddenly have a brown tone to it...just not nice. All of Mercurius stuff seems to have this quality.

For watercolors to little children I have a little different approach and that is buy cheap and in tubes. The ones I got have strange colors. Some are opaque others aren't. The yellow is opaque and very weak which makes it a little strange when mixing. But with children I just find it better to give them a clean new fresh palette very often. I have a bunch of plastic palettes and When Seth is done with one he get a new one. I wash the palettes, put new paint on and they get into the everlasting circle of colors in our house.

It is no secret that I have a hard time to just sit down with my children, and (In my opinion... ) do nothing. I like to be productive, and I find it so much easier for me to do things with Seth that I also like. Making color wheels and building stuff is much more my thing than being killed (10 times...)  in a Star Wars fight ( While making dinner...)

These color wheels are so much fun to make, and we have made them with Seth's watercolors and with his Stochmar big giants. He also has some fine pointed crayons and I guess we should try it on those as well.

So much fun and so much learning...

Dinner tonight: pasta salad from yesterday. Added some celeriac and salad for crunch and some chopped olives to balance the sweetness of the roasted pepper.

Elderflower lemonade, rhubarb lemonade and family...

We don't have a lot of freezer space but we have access to cold storage in a basement, so canning is the right way for us to stock up on summer goodies.

We made rhubarb lemonade and elderflower lemonade. Rhubarb can be picked in spring and after giving the plant a break, once more in fall. Elderflower is really a thing where you have to pick all you plan for when its there. I made 6 liters which is not enough for us, and had plans for making one more batch.... Never happened ... something came in the way...i guess life. So next year pick it all at once...

My parents have this huge garden with an abundance of produce... It is really a waste to not use it all. So this year it is my plan to cherish and get to most of it.

My mother is the hardworking gardener who loves her hand tools and hates being in charge of anything machine driven. My dad is the one in charge of the machinery and all the technical stuff. For many years he was the one in charge of the workers in their nursery and he still likes to walk around inspecting and spreading good vibes.

In the middle of it all is John thinking...How the hell did I end up here?... He is the reflective one putting everything into perspective, and reminding us, that it is alright to take a break... Oh yes and he is in charge of the new device that puts caps on the bottles after the lemonade have been cooked in it for 10 minutes. Very safe storage.

Being The owner of a very good ice cream machine I always make my lemonade in the same water sugar  ratio that is required for a good sorbet. That way I just drop a couple of bottles In the machine and voila!...

An announcement...

For a while I have been thinking a bit about blogging. I truly love it but I am no writer. What I like is seeing the processes I am going through with my projects or some other aspect of my life, put down on "paper" in some sort of visual account or some words that are describing my ideas...but is that not writing ?... No not really. Writing is off course all the above, but also simple good writing skills, and an urge to write... I don’t really have that. I have an urge to tell the story but that’s not the same.

All this writing is a bit difficult and a time consuming part for me and it is not really my biggest talent. There are so many little things that I have wanted to "write" about but just never did ...it is always the thought about the actual writing that gets me down...So I will make a test.

In the future my postings will be more picture oriented with a more schematic record of my thoughts and the processes in a particular project or even some thoughts about life. It will be like notes for myself that I will try to make as clear as possible so others hopefully will understand where I going. Luckily what I am dealing with isn’t really rocket science so the task shouldn’t be so difficult...

Having a baby with colic...

I am so happy. We have the most wonderful healthy little baby girl. Being pregnant makes you worry... Will this baby be just another normal baby ? And of course she is just fine... BUT, She has colic...! The first three months was horrible, now it is tolerable, and it seems as if she is doing better every.

That's not really serious stuff, but it can make you rather insane. She has been crying in my arms a great part of the day.

That is quite a test for someone who doesn't like to get her mind and hands kidnapped ( If you know what I mean...). So how did I deal with that ? I got myself some earplugs since my singing would help not only Dea but also me to calm down. I tried using a sling but it still couldn't really free my hands since she moved too much around. so there was not much to do, I just had to accept the situation.

But I did find a way to cope with some of the boredom... My mood board... I simply put up little notes and ideas, make a couple of sketches and look at combinations of colours. Then when walking around I have this visual extension of my brain to look at. So I spend my time walking, organizing and planning what to do when life gets back to the normal. I change it all the time and let's just say I think my future projects will be very well planned...

Today I have to go out, get myself a pair of Birkenstocks to wear in the apartment while carrying her because my feet and legs are really hurting.

Something about taste...

I don't like dark chocolate... or let's say I used to not like dark choolate, but now I do... I guess it's what they call an aquired taste... We all know that it is important to let children taste a lot of different things, so they will develope their sense of taste. But really, it shouldn't stop there... I am 40 years old and I am still capable of aquiring new tastes... that's not a bad thing.

I am a coffee person but still I know that there are so many interesting tasty teas out there, and I would like to develop my tasteskills in that field. A good way to do that is to buy these little tins with just enough tea to get to know the taste.

And yes, the cans are beutifull and as empty, they are perfect for storing earrings.

So it WAS Christmas...

And what happened ? I guess December just goes by so fast. It seems the same thing is happening with the month of January, so who ever it is that has pushed the time accelerator, please slow it down...

I am not much of a Christmas decorator. I normally just put up some extra candles and light chains, and allow myself to splurge in fresh flowers.

But as we all know, kids love Christmas and they also love decorating, so I decided to put up a "tree" in the kids room. The idea was to make some ornaments with Seth and put that on the tree together with all the stuff he brings home from kindergarten. It was perfect. We only made what time allowed, and avoided any Christmas stress.

It started out with the mother approaching it the aesthetic way, and since she believes in not controlling kids too much, she let the child colour the leaves green, which of course ended with the child who( luckily has his own ideas ) went to get his other crayons and coloured them blue, and suddenly decided to draw some boats... I mean boats... just can´t seem to find the Christmas connection.... or is it just me...?

Now the "tree" has been taken down and a new year has started. Happy New Year everyone...

In the storage room we keep a giant roll of sturdy drawing paper, which is great for projects like this. I will let this be a reminder to never put anything on that wall, so other projects like making background for his kitchen/shop or theater will be possible.

So it is Christmas time again...

I am not a huge fan of Christmas decorations. Don't get me wrong, I love entering other peoples homes decorated with candles and ornaments, but in my own home I get frustrated, it gets in my way: I have to move it all the time to wipe the table or to get some space for work. And those fresh pine branches has a tendency to start looking very sad and dusty in few days. I would rather treat myself with more fresh flowers and leave the pine outside... preferable with snow on them. But then there are the kids and of course we have to have a calender candle for countdown to the big eve. very stylized and simple things don't seem to look good here anymore. Somehow it makes our home look like we need to clear the floor for toys, the tables for yarn, fabrics and other rather colourful things. So for the decoration to blend in it has to have some of the same ( rather casual ) feeling...




So, I took a trip around the house and collected one of the old red tea tins from the kitchen, some toys from Seth's room, and some porcelain mushroom and plastic berries, I had bought a couple of days ago.

That's when I had the idea. Maybe after Christmas I should keep the decoration things inside the tea can for next year, and since I have one more of the tea cans I could make one for Seth and one for Dea and let them have some of their small toys or even a pacifier that they don't use anymore.Inside the tin could also be a little piece of paper telling the story about each of the things. If I do that the same way every year they might get that sentimental Christmas feeling about it, and isn't that what it is all about...

This year it has a spinning top bought for Seth on a holiday in Sweden, a little wooden tree from his railway set, a green pipe cleaner bought for making his
costume last years local spring feast (Shrovetide), and a little snowman that was part of a snowman bowling set (sic!!) that came as freebie with his weekly Donald Duck.

Taking a stroll...

During the pregnancy, one of the things I was looking so much forwards to, was taking a stroll with baby Dea. I have such good memories of walking with Seth. It really feels good after all these hours, I have spend during my pregnancy, lying on the coach with no energy and the constant nausea... I always bring coffee, or (since this is my second child and time is not plenty) get a coffee to go and lucky for me, a coffeeshop making the best café latte ( Illy ), is just around the corner. Very often the destination is the local library. Often I leave home in the morning and return mid afternoon. Once in a while John calls me... "is everything all right ?" he says ... Oh yes, I am more than fine... He still finds it hard to believe that anyone finds walking to be such a pleasure... Some of my friends might be quite surprised if they read this as I am known for getting a little irritated when the `"lets take a walk..." thing comes up. But it is not really true. I realize now that normally I walk a lot while working in the studio and I often have my coffee outside, so fresh air and physical activity fills plenty in my life.




The pram is from an old friend ( thank you Kirsten... ) who bought it back in the 80´s for her son . The fabric of the hood had very 80´s like pastel coloured flowers which was not really my thing, so when we had Seth, I painted it and treated it with leather grease. It was fine, but after 3 years of intense use, it was not any more in a good shape. The colour had faded and it even had a hole in the hood. And this is how my brain works... off course I will just make a new one... How difficult can it be...? I will just take it apart and figure out how it was made. When one starts a project like this, you take the first step ( which in this case involved my father and extremely many tools... ) and then there is really no way back. At the same time I had the nausea to deal with. During a week when the nausea was not too bad, I finished sewing the hood. Then time went by ( with me lying on the couch ) and finally two weeks before due day it was time to mount the hood to the pram...




That's when the trouble started... Lesson number one... When one starts a project of this kind, finish it when everything is fresh in your mind and you can actually remember how to put this thing together. ... my father helped me, but all the time we ran into problems, most of them dealing with how to fix the fabric to the table when we were working on it. All the time my belly got in the way, I got frustrated ( read hysteric ) and we quarreled like fathers and daughters can do. At the same time we cracked up in a big laugh, since the situation was rather bizar...

All in all we succeeded. The pram looks beautiful and gets lots of comments on our strolls, but I am happy I don't have to do it again...




Now it is time for a walk...

Meet Dea...




Here she is 3 weeks old, and tomorrow she will be 4 weeks old. In one way it seems as if she was born yesterday and in another it seems as if she has been with us all the time.

She was born the 28 th of September, 6 days later than expected. Her weight was 4040 g. and her length was 55 cm.

This first month has been hectic. All of us are trying to get accustomed to the new situation. It sure feels a lot different to get the second child than the first one. This little girl has a very different temperament than her big brother, and as a baby, she demands a lot more attention than Seth ever did... But she is just so wonderfull. I still remember that moment two days after giving birth to Seth, when I looked into his yes and fell completely in love. The same thing happened with Dea.

I have spend this first month trying to fix some of those things that weren't taken care of during my pregnancy... and believe me, that's a lot of boring and not quite bloggable stuff... But I have to tell you that life feels wonderfull again. For the last months of my pregnancy the hyperemisis got really bad again, but that is all history now, and the coffee tastes good again, I can cook and is no longer haunted by strange smells.

Late Christmas gifts...

My parents Christmas gift this year was two sturdy pillows for using when reading in bed. Well, that's not the hole truth... On Christmas evening I gave them their gifts. Inside their package was a book ( for my mother a biography and for my father a book about growing and eating tomatoes ) and a little plasticbag filled with foam chips and a little card with an explanation...




That's not how it should have been. No, of course there should have been two finished pillows size 90 cm by 50 cm and two white sheets for each of them. But you see, I am always surpriced, Christmas month is not really a month, it is just 3 weeks... did you know that... so, I guess I was late and the pillows was finished today not more than 4 hours ago... so this is really breaking news, and not just the historic crafts journal that you have tuned into.




I am not that crazy about soft floppy bedlinen. I like the stiff hotel kind of bedlinen, all shiny and cool with the folding marks still showing. Maybe I am just getting old... It seems I have never really payd that much attention to mattresses pillows and stuff like that... I am also very konservative since I really only like white bedlinen, maybe even with initials but that would probably crash severely with the rest of our lifestyle.




The rest of the day was used helping my mother mending some of her clothes, a bit of altering and putting new elastic in her overalls. The ones she practically lives in during the summer, when she gets up at 6 am and goes straight to the garden. You see she doesn't do any sewing, she can't knit, but she makes the best puff pastry in the world.

I started making my own clothes when I was 13. I basically learned it by following the same principle as reading a manual. I bougth Burda patterns. They had this great magazine for petites. I am 163 cm and the patterns were for 160 cm but they had very small sizes and I was rather skinny. I just blindly followed every single instruktion without having any clue about the big picture. Sometimes it ended happily and other times, well...

My grandmother was very good on sewing and helped me a bit, but I wasn't really keen about getting help. I thougt it slowed down the process way too much. I wasn't so patient back then. My father also helped me a bit. I especially remember that time when I had just cut all the pieces for a pair of pastel yellow pants with big pockets, only to realize that I had cut the pocket out from the one of the pieces for the legs. I could get very hysteric and even cry. my mother was rather frustrated not knowing how she could help me and usually asked my father to try help. I don't quite remember how he solved the particular situation, but he did and he was always very good in trying to make me calm down and find the solution myself. Writing this I see that is in fact a pattern I have seen in my adult life... Not that I am proud of it. But what the heck, we all stay as kids to our parents, no matter how old we get.

A new year...

Once in a while my life feels like tons of little threads waiting to be joined into that beautifull strand of yarn. I start all these projects at the same time having the end result very clear in my head. But when the big picture, the finished project is a rather big one there is a flipside to it, one can get lost. I don't get completely lost but let's just say the room gets a bit dark and I have a hard time finding my way around it.



That's how this year has been for me. I have spend a lot of time building the greenhouse, and fully finishing the shop interior, and at the same time I have put a lot of energy into trying to simplify the practical part of our life, and finding a balance between work and family. Inbetween all this I have tried to steal some time to do a bit creative work in the studio. Now the threads are coming together and everything is a bit lighter and I am happy to say: I see the light...

November passed, December passed... What happened to Christmas? Well... We had a very nice Christmas, very mellow and warm.

I have a lot to show you, so if you wonder about fall pictures or even summerpictures on this blog the following month, here is the reason: This next month I have decided to show you all the things I never got to write about last year. No, it will not be the breaking news, but I need to show it all and to zero it all and not stay in the past...

Are you with me ?

A new year... a fresh calender... In my case three of them... One in my bag for private stuff, one at the studio for workrelated things and one in my kitchen for planning meals.

A fresh breeze into the clutter free apartment liberated from the sometimes strangeling cozyness of Christmas... and cleaning...

Yes cleaning... No I don't really like it but it certainly helps when you have beautifull brushes around doesn't it ?



The brushes are handmade by blind people
The dusting brush is nearly 1 meter long and it is great when you have a high ceiling...

Oh yes, at last but not least:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you...

Playing with kids...

All parents have a bad conscience about something. It is likely that in the evening after kids are tucked in, we get a cup of coffee and then the question "Am I a good mom/dad shows up?"
Most of the times we know the answer. We know that there are a lot of things we do well and some we can do better. In my case it is being able to sit down, be present and play. Even when I was a kid I thought playing was a bit boring. Nope, I built stuff, made plans (big plans) and it was always very frustrating when I had friends over and we made a grocery shop of a little table and all kind of weeds and roots on it that got washed to look like parsley and potatoes and then suddenly they started to play now I am the customer ( with a silly grownup fancy lady voice ) and you will sell me some potatoes... WHY ??... we were just having so much fun by BUILDING the shop - no play was necessary !!

Then you get a kid and you just want to be the best parent in the world, and trouble starts... But then there is Bilofix. Seth, my son is still too small for the little pieces, so I spend one good hour alone building the crane ( tightening all the screws very well ). When he got home, we played together pulling it around and moving all kind of things. I was thinking: How can we make it better and built more on it ? Seth was probably just excited about how it moved around on the little wheels... We had fun and I know that when we play the best it is when I play like I did when I was a kid. He loves it and I know we are going to have so much fun in the future making a lot of stuff, painting and building.

It really makes me happy when he grabs some pieces of wood lying around and makes it into a train... I really understood it and maybe we can find a big piece of wood that could be the engine and because I still want to be the best mom I say silly things like: "I am the engine driver and I have so much to do today, and a schedule Ho Ho"...

Suddenly he stops the game and uses a planter as hat and looks like a little but very surprised Chinese rice grower

All the fun we will have... I just love him so much...

I found the two boxes of bilofix at a thrift shop. All the bits and pieces are stacked away for when he gets older.

This place sells some really nise ceramic broches. These are made by Birgitte Winther. good website and a lot to see..

I saw these fine broaches at textilforum. It is hand printed silk. They are designed by Signe lybeck. They are just candy for the eyes

Just some funky round things...All the pictures are taken at Textilforum They are all pictures of old textile machinery, except the red moderne red fireextinguisher in the left uppercorner..

This leg of the activity rack is just so much more interesting than the things hanging on it. He spends a lot of time just moving it around.

This is a Skwish.. a faboulos toy from Manhattan toy that they have made in new colours.

The teddy beer in crochet hangs from and activity rack, it is from Sebra and the rattle is from Brio

A belt from one off my dresses, is a favorite. But he only gets to play with it when I am around...