Happy Halloween

Found these triplets 2½ week ago close to where I live - right next to the sidewalk so phone camera captured these guys.

A weekly local newpaper featured them a week ago - Halloween is for us an American tradition that has been adapted to be part of the fall vacation time for school kids here in week 42, where are Tivoli Garden gets dressed with 40.000+ orange pumpkins.

An then there are those anti-everything-American and think it might have been some of them, who vandalised these three pumpkins last weekend - why can people not let things be instead of vandalising them?? Makes me agry as they created a lot of smiles on passers-by.....anyway

 

Happy Halloween

Happy... Mischief Night

 

Well learned something new by participating in Anything Goes - October Holidays card swap over at PaperCraftPlanet.... first time I heard (actually: read) about Michief Night.

 

Who can persuade anybody to stay away from doing mischiefs??.... Oh wait - what if one of Santa's elfs dropped by and reminded you about a certain Nice or Naughty List ?? :o) Sent this of to Monique hoping it will create a smile on her face.

Sailing Sclerosis

The Sailing Sclerosis project got a logo a few weeks ago - a logo that I hope a lot of Danes will recognize and support during the next couple of years, but also inspire MSers in other countries to organize/launch projects like this

Well I have already revealed, that I hope to be one of the many MS sailors on that trip so will use some of today's hours sailing with fellow MSers even though it is October - all the practice I can get is welcomed and I enjoy every minute spent on the sea.

Happy... Punk For a Day Day

Punk for a Day Day - Who invented that day? Somebody that wanted to reveal the inner punk? Somebody who wanted to use a punk costume before Halloween?

Well all I know is, that I created the card using a digital stamp from Birdie Brown (sadly closing her store soon *sigh*) as I am participating in the October Holidays Card Swap over at Paper Craft Planet's Anything Goes Group and mailed above card to Angela.

Granny Squares - A New Beginning

A couple of years back, I crocheted my first attempt at a granny square, but never made any other squares after that..... until recently where I spent a Sunday learning the granny square from basics at a course arranged by one of the local night schools.

 

The middle red square was the first square to get a grasp of the basics before starting using multiple colors and we learned how to stitch the squares together with a needle. Wondering if I could use the above to create a pillow cushion cover, where the back is one big, or several small granny squares in the dark grey yarn?

Could actually be cool to take it a bit further one day and combine knitting and granny square crochting technique to make something like this.

Starting Now

What if your new life is starting now? If you just lost your job while you thought you were on the upward career track? That you realised that you have sacrificed everything because you thought you were doing the right thing?

 

Libby Morgan is suddenly in that situation, and one of the things she reconnects with, when it happens, is knitting. Especially knitting hats to pre-mature born babies (premies). That leads to a friendship with the yarn store owner Lydia Goetz, and meeting the teenager, Ava, who needs help in a lot of ways. The knitting of bulks of baby hats, leads her to volunteering at the local hospital rocking and singing to the babies and even to a romance with Dr. Stone.

 

But what happens if old parts of your life wants you back?

 

Love the idea of Libby knitting hats for premies, as I did that myself a few years back. When I had my first MS attack after being diagnose, I remember having what-if-I-loose-my-job thoughts - came to the conclusion that crafting could reduce some of the situation's stress and perhaps spur more ideas when jobhunting or figuring out the future. It is as if the crafting is like an anchor that keeps you close to reality when everything else might seem surreal.

 

If you need a feel-good moment and like to creat novels with craft people, then I suggest you pick up Debbie Macomber's "Starting Now".

Scream and Spooky

Second post today - well Saturday was not only about sailing this week but also making cards :o) Usually I am soo exhaused from sailing and goes directly home to nap, but not so much this week - guess that body is adjusting more to the work on the boat.

 

Beccy's Place October Challenge - an anything goes challenge with the requirement of using a digital image from Beccy's Place.

 

 

Well I used two instead of one, as I think they are meant to be together - and everything around here is dressed up for Halloween despite it not being a Danish tradition, but an imported one. We are not a pumkin country by tradition, though a couple of pumpkin farms have made a nice living since Tivoli Garden needs at least 40.000+ pumpkins every year for the Halloween theme during fall + the pumkins needed for making a smiling Jack.

 

Made two identical cards which are now enroute overseas to receivers that have grown up with the tradition - digis are colored with COPICs, the purple paper is actually cut out from a paper table runner so a soft touch and the pumpkin design paper is "Plenty of Pumpkins" from Panduro Hobby.

 

Tuesday Trigger - Inspiration to a card

The current Tuesday Trigger (at Moxie Fab World) is inspired by this photo:

It is from Sarah London's blog - from where she sells classes in making this pattern - must admit, that I am very tempted to buy it, as the patterns is very intriguing, but I have way too many ideas and works in progress, that I think it would just stress me to have another thing on the list.

 

The pattern inspired me to create this card - I took a bunch of magazines with glossy paper and started using a Martha Stewart punch with a stamp shape and just gt carried away (now with a surplus that will be kept for other future projects and dded to cardstock with double adhesive tape. The orange paper with a stitch is homemade paper brought home from India and the colored digi is a Fairy Bird from A Day For Daisies made to match the pattern's colors with my COPICs.

 

The bird has already flown away to a receiver :o)

There Is Pumpkin In My Risotto

Sometimes a little push is needed when you want to break out of your comfort zone - I have wanted to cook with pumpkins for a long time but Sandra Juto's blogpost persuaded me to take that jump. The risotto is actually the 4th dish I have made now using pumpkins and the recipe comes from here. Risotto have always been one of my favourite dishes and I am happy that I used longer time than usual on a meal, as this is by far the best risotto that I have ever tasted.

 

The dish deserves a place next to my candle pumpkin Jack (made of clay) as a reminder of what happened when I bought an orange pumpkin at a local supermarket. A little boy came up to me and asked "Are you also going to make a Pumpkin Man?" with me replying "No I am going to eat it". Two seconds later the boy ran screaming to his mum "She's gonna eat the Pumpkin Man!!" with disbelief all over his face and tears running down the cheeks.

The mum got busy telling the boy, that one is actually playing with food when carving a pumpkin Man - See what I told him, was in his world just as bad finding out that Santa Clause does not exist (wait he does not??!! LOL ;o) ) as we have in the past been primary a potato nation and Halloween is something imported from the US.

 

Whenever I make that dish in the future, I think that the incident with the little boy will jump into my head and make me smile.

 

Prisoners

This is not the usual choice for me when going to the cinema to see a movie - I had not even watched the trailer when I Went to the cinema for a pre-view of the movie. With a cast counting Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Maria Bello I was looking tforward to a surprise-me experience as I had absolutely no expectations to the movie. I only knew the above names of some of the cast and had read a 3-lined synopsis about the movie.

 

So was it worth the the 2½ hours?

 

Yes. Suspense, drama, surprise elements (twists), thriller.... the list of keywords could continue, but the majority of comments I overheard after the screening were all positive... and the Hugh Jackman's beard help him giving his character a stonger part in this movie, where you forget about him being eye-candy but gives him the extra punch to play his character to the fullest. Seriously without the beard, I do not think I could have taken his role as serious  as I did.

 

I found myself trying to play detective while watching the movie: What really happened? Who done it? But just when I thought I had guessed it - WHAM!! the story made a twist, and then another one... and I forgot about the detective urge and just let the movie surprise me... love when movies have that surprising element over it - not all directors can handle it, but this movie works.

 

The trailer pretty much gives you an idea what the movie is about, but I wont reveal more than that other that it is worth watching ;o)

September Tea Swap 2013 - Part 2

Received my swap from Susan a couple of days ago along with tea and some scrapbooking cut outs to use on some of my future cards. Suddenly realised that I purchased a bunch of Christmassy cut-outs some years ago, but have never really used them - maybe this years Christmas cards would be the perfect chance to use them?

 

Once again a card received in a swap spurred some creative thoughts while sipping the enclosed tea - aftereight black tea - yum, why have I not encountered this before? :o) That is some of the perks being in tea swaps: you get to taste new teas.

 

Thanks Susan for being my swap partner :o)

Dreamcatcher

 

Even infants were provided with protective charms. Examples of these are the "spiderwebs" hung on the hoop of a cradle board.These articles consisted of wooden hoops about 3½ inches in diameter filled with an imitation of a spider's web made of fine yarn, usually dyed red. In old times this netting was made of nettle fiber. Two spider webs were usually hung on the hoop, and it was said that they "caught any harm that might be in the air as a spider's web catches and holds whatever comes in contact with it."

Above are the words of Frances Densmore in her book "Chippeva Customs"

 

The dreamcather on the photo is my first attempt at making one. SMYKS had a jewellery course in how to make dreamcatchers - this is a bigger one intended for a neclace and once we had the touch she suggested that we will continue making smaller ones for ear rings etc. Me, I opted for this to hang next to a dreamcatcher above my bed which I purchased in the US years ago.