Halloween inspiration

This night a heavy breeze of colder air visited us, it was one of the signs that announce the arrival of autumn. I had to close the window to shut the moaning that prohibited my sleep. Another sign has been rows of canada goose flying to the south. 

To be honest. I have really enjoyed this summer, enjoyed my long holiday so much that I will miss these warm days with abundance of vegetables and berries from the garden. Luckily, this crybaby has adopted the Halloween holiday and embraced it with a passion close to madness, wich makes autumn something to look forward to. 

So, to prepare both myself and you, I'll show you how I survive in this desert of Halloween decorations called Sweden: By doing it myself.

This particular box was made for an internet/blog/facebook friend of mine at a Halloween swap last year. She lives in the US and should therefore be spoilt with seasonal decorations. Please check out her fabulous blog for garden, teaching, gothic inspo.

First of all, I bring out all my supplies that could have a match to something autumn/Halloweenish. Creative caos, that is. 

I use the Vintage moth as a supplier of vintage pictures. The candy bags in the photo below is made in photoshop with images from the mentioned blog. I print on ordinary printer paper, folding, glueing and cutting the edge.

This is a tin that usually contains mint pastilles. The scull head covered the text perfectly.

It contains a pair of ear dangles made of clock hands and chandellier crystals.

This blurry photo below is an ornament that could even work in a Christmas tree. The bulb is an old light bulb were I removed everything but the glass bulb. It contains black glass glitter and is embellished with a flower.

I never throw candle stumps away, I re-melt them to new candles. The lantern in the photos below was made of a small jar, it is filled with fragrant and re melted candle stumps. The jar was decorated with ribbons, lace and images. An antique chandelier chrystal is hanging at the bottom secured by wire. The wire handle and the chain is also made by me.

front

back

Heres another ornament, flip and front side. It is made of a bake form, chandelier chrystal, old images, black glitter and orange ribbons.

Everything was neatly packed in a box that used to contain hair products but is now decorated with bats and lace.

Everything of these are actually very easy to do. It's just a matter of the right tools, glue, hoarding stuff and imagination. I don't like kitschy, cheap looking halloween decorations, I prefer the vintage/victorian look. Even if my supplies are almost for free, I put a lot of effort to make it look luxurious or as if it's antique.

I hope that I could give you some inspiration and tips what you can do of scraps. See you soon, I hope :-)

My memory is on paper

My memory is made of teflon, it's a common disorder for people who are brain-workers. I forget meetings, reporting students on vacation, and all those small things I have to fix to make the world go round. A planner is essential for my daily life and I've concluded that google calendar doesn't work for me. 

To keep my stress level down, I use mini post it notes for "to do" tasks. I post them in my planner, and when I've finished each task I throw the notes away. I can also move the notes to another day if something more important comes up. That means I only have to focus on one day at a time, being present, carpe diem and shit like that...

The problem with prefabricated templates is that they sometimes doesn't fit your needs. My teachers planner worked just fine, but I thought it was a little bit boring and limiting. After some good advices from my sister in law who also is a teacher, I bought a planner from Simple stories in A5 size. I liked it because of the pockets, the dotted lining and the size. But the main thing is that the ring opener is making you able to personalize it more.

I bought mine from Skaparlusten. I can highly recommend any swedish people who likes stationery this shop, because I got my parcel within two days. And she called me the day after I put my order because one of the items were out of stock. I told her to change it with something that fitted the rest of my order and she sent me the clips and inserts for the planner. 

I wanted my week plan to look more like a schedule than the horizontal one that came with the planner. Publisher is an excellent office based programme that is easy to use, making templates. I kept mine simple because I'm supposed to alter it for every week.

If someone is interested, I have this template in pdf-format to send to you. Note that you print it on A4, divide the paper in half and make your own holes fitting your planner. Oh and if you like, I can change the days to english or change the fonts, easy peasy.

Nail art

I read a lot of books and work in front of the computor, that can become very boring, so in an attempt to cope with sitting still; I paint my nails. You know, nail varnish needs time to dry, right?

Inspired by Cutenails tutorials I tried nailart myself, an easy one. Well not very easy, my hands are a bit shaky and I will not show you the other hand that I painted with my right hand (I'm lefthanded)

I used a golden varnish as a base and black and ocra acrylic paint to make swirls and dots. The tools comes froma nail art box I bought at the local supermarket, nothing fancy. I used a dotting tool and a fine brush. 

Heres a video of some inspiration. This video is quite old but it's a good starter and she has developed her style tremendously since then.

Like this one

Time for digging down in my books again, while the varnish is drying.

Artful experience

Last week of my 7 weeks long vacation got more eventful than the rest. In the end, I became restless, bored and confused, so me and the boys went to my birth town to visit my mom and my siblings a few days. For once we went a little touristic. 

If you ever visit Dalarna in Sweden and pass by a small town called Avesta you should visit these two following places if you have the time. 

First, the European bison park. Yes there is actually a natural existing variety of the bison in Europe. It was nearly extinction in the beginning of the 1900's but the owner of the steel plant built a park for bison breeding for rescue and at the same time the bison became the mascot for the steel products. 

Today there are 3000 oxes and a European wildlife programme has planted a new herd of 20 individuals in the Carpatic mountains i Romania. 

This bull were very curious and came forward to check us out. It was a little scary to have a wooden fence and one electrical wire between us, something that this fella would easily break through. Up to 1000 kg are the heaviest ones.

Another one that has become big. My 15 year old has now grown beyond me and his father and is very energetic and tired at the same time (like most teens).

In my opinion the best attraction in Avesta is "Verket" were a huge art exhibition take place every summer. Verket is the old steel plant owned by the bison man. It's a beautiful old industrial building and it has most of it caracter left. The building and the exhibition creates toghether a inscrutable and rough atmosphere. Very little light fixtures are used and at some spots you walk in dark rooms only lit by uplit art.

Bea Szenfeld with her 3D paper fashion stands in the entrance. She's a fashion designer and artist that made outfits for Lady Gaga and Björk, for instance.

I love this heavy paper flower collar.

The mill is built of slagstone from the steel process.

Jan Stenmark again! He had a contribution with some of the original collages and the weird humour that I love. 

Translation: While the poster hung in the kitchen, she said nothing at all - but now, she suddenly tells me I'm sick.

In one of the halls were an amazing installation of glass art by Kjell Engman. The exhibition is called The White wife. The room is very dark only lit by the glass figures and surrounded by musical compositions by the artist.

A white figure is hovering over the pipes of the blast furnace.

Icy jaws of glass...

A row of bottles containing dancing figures with a face hiding behind it....Wait thats not part of the setup! It's a visitor, Alfons. 

A row of coal barrels in furnace hall. 

Along with the art, there's also an historical exhibition telling a little about the steel process in the mill. The man on the second row, on the left corner with a heavy beard, is my grandmothers uncle. Her father also worked at the plant but is not on this photo. The boys look like they are around ten years, same age as Alfons.

In the dark stands a small figure, looking at the huge photo.

 A row of empty children. This is made by Hanna Vihriälä and is called "More boys are born after the war".

This is whats coming up in my mind:"Are you my mommy?"

  In the end of the hall of the rolling mill stands a large organ that starts to play as you approach it. I didn't try but the music it plays should interact with the visitor by a mat and a microphone connected to the organ. We ran out of time one and half hour wasn't enough. I could have walked around here for hours.

 The entrance of the mill. The building is very large and stretches out with several halls behind this one. The complete process of steel, from ore to finished steel was once represented in this building. I highly recommend you a visit.

I finish with a photo of my mothers grapes, a lot bigger than mine.

Happy rabbit and a delivery from Aussie

Ursäkta mig för att jag är så usel på att besöka alla vänliga själar som är här inne och hälsar på, jag hinner inte surfa så mycket som jag skulle vilja. Idag fick jag ett mycket efterlängtat litet paket från Australien. Ett halsband jag köpte på etsy för ett par veckor sedan kom hem. Big smile!! Det ska jag ha på mig när jag ska vara riktigt fin. Rebecca heter hon som gör halsbanden av vintage smycken. Klicka på hennes namn så får ni se helt sjukt snygga grejer.

Im so sorry for being such a lousy visitor for all kind people paying attention to my blog, I haven't got that much time to surf around as I wish to. Today I recieved a very longed for package from Australia. A necklace i bought at etsy a couple of weeks ago. Guess if Im smiling!! I will wear it for special moments. Rebecca is her name, making those beautiful necklaces of vintage bijouteries. Just click on her name to view those smashing things shes creating!

Snön ligger fortfarande kvar och jag som trodde Wilma skulle vantrivas med kylan hade fel. Hon tyckte det var jättekul att gräva i snön. Det var svårt att få henne att sitta still för fotografering, lika nyfiken som ett barn minsann.

Snow is still there on the ground. I was worried if Wilma would freeze and be uncomfortable but I was wrong. She thinks its fun to dig in the snow and it wasn't easy to take a photo of her, just as curious as a child.

När änglatrumpeten kom in i värmen så skulle den blomma. I min målarverkstad står den och parfymerar luften. Terpentin, linolja och änglatrumpet, vilken kombination!

When my datura came in from the cold it started to bloom. In my workshop it scents the air, mixes it with terpentine and linseed oil, what a combination!

Gå med i Joli Paquet ni oxå! En liten pysselverkstad några talangfulla artister håller i fram till jul (gratis), klicka på bannern på sidomenyn.

Why don't you join Joli Paquet as well! A few talented artists helding a tutorial all the way to christmas, just click on the banner on the sidebar.

Teknik & Romantik

En ljuvlig kombination tycker jag. Romantik det kan vara så enkelt med en vacker tanke eller att göra vackra saker. Just nu håller jag på med julpynt i vintage stil, här kommer en liten glimt.

...That is a lovely combination I think. Romantique can be so simple as a beautiful thought or to make lovely things. Right now Im doing christmas decorations in vintage style, heres a little glimpse.

En annan vacker sak jag köpte för en månad sedan är det här ljuvliga halsbandet. Det är en otroligt begåvad kvinna som heter Beth Quinn och bor i USA, jag köpte det via Malin som har bloggen Älskar Sött.

Another beautiful thing is this lovely necklace, I bought a month ago. It is made by a incredible talented woman named Beth Quinn from US. I bouhgt it from Malin, having the blog "Love Sweets".

En annan inte lika rolig sak jag upptäckte nyss. Det räckte med en vecka, sen såg min byrå ut såhär. Tuli må se ut som en ängel men han är egentligen ett litet monster.

Another thing I just discovered, not so fun. It took only a week, then is my chest of drawers looking like this. Tuli may look like an angel but he is a little monster.

Ja det där med teknik då?? Nja teknik o teknik....en gammal caterpillar är väl inte så hitech precis men våran teknikgrupp var ute på en leråker i fredags och körde lite maskiner. Grävskopan var roligast. Jag är inte så glad på den här bilden, denna läcker olja på grenröret, därav dimman.

So what about technique then.... Well an old caterpillar is not som much hitech. But our technical group went o a event at friday. Trying different machines. The diggin machine was the funniest. Im not so happy on this pic because this one leaks oil, therefore the fog.

Emellertid /Mean while

Ville bara säga Häj!

Jag har inget skojigt att berätta eller roligt att visa just nu. Alla mina projekt är halvfärdiga. Min målarverkstad är knökafull med halvmålade saker. Kaninburen måste spikas klart snart, tösen fryser. Men igår kväll så började jag med ett nytt pyssel, jätteroligt och onödigt, hi hi. Medan limmet torkade så sydde jag märklappar på barnens kläder och styckfrös kakor som maken bakat (inte bara jag som är pysslig).

Det här är ett badrum i min stil! Jag hittade bilden på Country Living .

I just wanted to pop in to say Hi!

I have nothing interesting to tell or fun to show right now. All my projects are half ready. My workshop is brimfull with half painted things. The rabbit cage must be finished first, little girlie is cold. But yesterday I started a new collage project, so fun and so unneccesary, hi hi. While the clue was drying i was sewing namelabels on the childrens clothes and put the cookies in the fridge my husband baked (Im not the only one who is domestic).

I think this bathroom is so lovely. I found the picture at Country Living.

Badrummet finns i det här huset med provencalsk känsla. Men huset står i Texas. Skönt att se att hus med rostig korrugeringsplåt på taket platsar i inredningstidningar (tänker på mitt eget).

The bath room is in this house, with a provence feeling. But the house is situated in Texas. It is good to see that a house with rusty corrugated plate is fitting in a interior magazine (thinking of my own).