November Tea Swap - Part 2

 

Living in Denmark and loving snow, a lot of winters are actually dissapointing as we do not get much snow despite being a country of the north - when we do get it, we get lots of it.

 

However white frost (rime) is very common and can make a lot of things look stunning. Wonder if Merle knew that, when she sent me the November swap? Just look at that edge of the papers.... getting the frosty feeling, ehh??

 

 

Second tag makes me think of some of those red Christmas flowers available - here framed by that frosty feel again..... Learned something new today, never thought of Hawaii getting any snow at all, being situated in the Pacific Ocean, but some online news articles proved me wrong as some of the islands high peaks does get snow.... my little winter universe just got improved with that new knowledge.

 

Tea from the Hawaiian Islands Tea Company - one of them a new flavor for me: strawberry lychee, looking forward to taste as lychee tea is not new to me, but this combo is.

 

Merle, thanks for being my swap partner in November:o)

Friendship Bracelet

Let me reveal something: friendship bracelets is about knots. Lots and lots of knots......and keeping those strings of embroidery yarn straight. Did not finish a bracelet today, but I did learn how to do the left and right turns and grasping the essential of THE ARROW pattern - consider above as my training piece, as there are some mistakes to be spotted. As soon as I get the Christmas cards needed this year finished, I will start making what should hopefully end up as my first friendship bracelet :o)

The National Museum of Denmark is currently hosting the exhibit POW WOW and had invited Helene from SMYKS to hold this course (she was also the instructor on the lucky bracelet course I went to a couple of weeks ago). We were a little group of five, and I seem to be the only one signing up without the intention of being able to learn kids how to do this - but it was interesting to hear about their approach to a course like this, as their daily professions are so different from mine, an still we were all eager to learn something new.

Holidays Are Coming......

Received this season's first Christmas card today, so what better than mentioning a nice holiday read.

Pre-ordered this book, so received it in my mailbox on publishing day, and could not wait start reading it. It should come with a bit of a warning though, as you will find scrumptious recipes for Christmas bakery that will fuel cake cravings while reading it.... but help is not far away if you have the ingredients needed, as it is packed with recipes.

 

Austin is going to New York pursuing a good work opportunity leaving Issy in London, where she is considering her future: Should she remain in London with her beloved Cupcake Café that she has worked hard on creating or should she pursue new dreams in New York as surely, they need cupcakes too in the big apple.

 

One ca not help thinking about the phrase: "The grass is greener n the other side" - which you can encounter if you change jobs. You might get that strange feeling and thought "Did I really make the right decisiom?"

 

All this, recipes and then preparing for Christmas you have a story entertaining you for hours :o)

November Tea Swap - Part 1

 

 

What no card this month?! When Fran called the November swap it was not with the task of creating a card to the 2 teasamples, but 2 holiday tags. Once again time to go out of my comfort zone and create something new for my swap partner this month, Merle.

 

Santa used on left tag is from Birdie Brown's Happy Santa Set - love at first sight spotting that stampset - colored with copics. Snowflakes on right tag are created with some SIZZIX dies from Tim Holtz. Paper and ribbon used is from Panduro Hobby.

 

My "usual" tea pouch - all papers matching the two tags. Red and white are considered to be Nordic colors - but also happens to be my favourite Christmas colors.

 

Had to make a card - could not resist - playing with the different papers again and adding some bakers twine. Know that the swap has arrived at Merle's house so I can share my creations with you.

America Speaks

Newspaper frontpage fom Election Day  2008.

Today America (US) decides, if Obama should be re-elected or if it is time for a change. Hopefully those who are eligible to vote will cast their votes no matter if they have picked their candidate or casting a blank vote.

 

The front page above is from 2008 where I was in the US on Election Day, interesting to see how campaigns are run, as they are so different compared to my little country. The election has been covered by local news for months now, and one of our news channels will more than likely be dedicated to the US election all day.

Something New

In the pursuit of regaining my creative mojo, I stepped out of my comfort zone again - so yesterday I created this:

According to the instructor, this is a Cinese style lucky bracelet... hmm lucky: will that help me get the mojo back? :o) During the first hour, fingers on hands were all thumbs - then they started to co-operate and the process were suddenly fun. If I had not been way behing with the Christmas cards needed this year plus the birthdays coming up, I just might have considered taking some more courses, and done some extra homemade gifts this year.... But alas that is not going to happen.... but maybe next year.

 

Intrigued by the pattern you can make with some string and learning something new is always fun - and you get to meet others that are crafty too - you may never see them again, but during a few hours creative ideas were shared.

New Nordic Knitting

New Nordic Knitting is apparently popular amongst a lot of knitters - it makes me smile, as I remember Nordic knitting patters being very popular in the 70s, but if you were wearing it in the 80s and most of the 90s you were anything but hip.

A couple of years ago, the designers Arne & Carlo got an order for knitted Christmas ball, that were sold at a ridiculous high price in Japan, so they published their book 2 years ago i Norway, and it has later been translated to several languages - the knitted Christmas balls are now inspiring a lot of knitters. The motifs on the knitted Christmas balls are inspired  byold Nordic knitting patterns.

I went to a work shop a couple of weeks ago, where Arne & Carlo talked about their life and creative visions - they are hilarious and time flies by listening to them. They inspired me to go home and try to knit the first Christmas ball in the book:

Cupcake Heaven

Just turning pages in that magazine makes my fingers itch to make some cupcakes... some of them are really mouth watering to look at... but here is the funny thing about me and cakes.... the might look scrumptious and tempt me.... but I can never eat much cake.

For me, most of it is the actual process making a cake/cookie... and sometimes friends persuade me to bake for them..... next year I am going a little further as has signed up for some classes :o)

Just What The Doctor Prescribed

OK so she prescribed medicine - antibiotics to handle pneumonia and frontal sinusitis at the same time. That was last week..... two weeks ago: attack medicine since the MS started acting up.... this week medicine again as I got the yearly flu shot + blood tests.....

But she also "prescribed" creativity, so I could get my mind off everything related to doctors.... I took the easy way out and bought a pack of pre-cut paper for weaved hearts.... not the colors I would normally chose, but it did help me forget real problems whe doing something a little crafty... also starte to gather a big bunch of weaved hearts that will be posted on my weaved hearts blog really soon....

 

And my eye just caught an error with one of the hearts *tut sigh* the middle one in the lower row.... guess I have a little way to go in order to fully regain the creative me which is needed to get started on those Christmas cards.