For spring

from Psalm for the January Thaw by Lucy Shaw

Glory be to God for changes. For bulbs
breaking the darkness with their green beaks.
For moles and moths and velvet green moss
waiting to fill the driveway cracks. For the way
the sun pierces the window minutes earlier each day.
For earthquakes and tectonic plates—earth’s bump
and grind—and new mountains pushing up
like teeth in a one-year-old. For melodrama—
lightning on the sky stage, and the burst of applause
that follows. Praise him for day and night, and light
switches by the door. For seasons, for cycles
and bicycles, for whales and waterspouts,
for watersheds and waterfalls and waking
and the letter W, for the waxing and waning
of weather so that we never get complacent. For all
the world, and for the way it twirls on its axis
like an exotic dancer. For the north pole and the
south pole and the equator and everything between.

Thanks to Deborah for introducing me to this poem

something to share

I forgot that this might be worth sharing with you

-but a few weeks ago I made it to the front page of Etsy! 

I never thought I'd end up there - Very fun indeed!

This is a screen shot of the front page.

hopefully now some sales will come trickling in...

Sewing!

So I need to bring you up to date on some of my creative endeavors the last few weeks.
A lot of the sewing has been of the make-do and mend kind and not really very inspiring.
But I have also had a chance to try out my sewing book for kids from the 70s. Very fun!
Here are a few of the results:

This is made from an vintage duvet cover from the market 

and the trim is vintage Laura Ashley given to me by my mother-in-law.

This summer dress is made from a vintage cotton table cloth from the market

and the neck line is trimmed with Liberty Tana Lawn bias tape.

Next on my list to make:

A pair of flared overalls!

My treasures

While I don't like yellow -at least not walls of it -there is something about mustard that is so golden, warm and inviting. Look what I found in mustard!

My treasures

Here are some of my etsy finds for those of you who are getting married this year

-or just like pretty things like I do!

What I'm reading now

Two 1/2 days a week Stf looks after Aline while I do some PhD work.

I will not bore you here with what I'm reading about for that... (though I must admit I find Aquinas very fascinating)

On the bus however I'm doing some lighter reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.

As it makes my eyes well up with tears every other paragraph it does make my bus rides a bit awkward -but it is so so worth it!

She writes beautifully in the voice of an old vicar about the beauty and importance of the mundane things in life. 

You need to read this.

You do.

I'll make you a cup of tea and you can sit down an enjoy it!

Sometinhg in the house that inspired me today!

So Aline didn't sleep last night... two teeth are coming through. 

This morning calls for coffee and appreciation of something in the house to keep me from loosing my mind.

First coffee:

 

For Christmas I got a set of Orla Kiely Mugs -they make me happy. Thanks to Stefan, the Amlie/Fisher siblings and the Boothroyds for providing me with simple joy in the morning.

Now appreciation:

This lovely book of patterns for danish children's clothes from 1977 is delightfully retro and inspiring!

Thanks to my mother-in-law from Stord this came through the door on my birthday last week -it was very exiting! Together with the generous stash of fabrics my other mother-in-law (yes I have two *wink* both very lovely!) gave me for Christmas I have hours of in-house-fun ahead of me!

This is what I'm going to make first:

And I must not forget to show you the fabric I found last Thursday at the market -vintage Liberty Tana Lawn - that's going to be retro on retro. 

Aline -pls don't hate me for taking you back to the 70's...

New treasurys!

Etsy is has so many amazing craftsmen that sometimes it hard to know where to start!
So let me share some of my favorites with you:

First one up

A productive saturday!

Yesterday Stefan looked after our wee one so I could get some of my sewing projects finished!

It was so great! (thanks Stf xx)

I halved the repair pile, finished of some retro baby hats (and listed the first of them on Etsy) and finished the "Play, eat, sleep, poop" embroidery + sewed it on to the cashmere sleeping bag (coming on Etsy soon!). Here are the results:

 

You can find the free pattern for the embroidery here.

What have you been making lately?

Winter magic

our winter garden

Stay warm and cheerful!

 

Baby food

Weaning is well under way here - 

Our little poppet is enjoying her food, especially egg, mushy peas, fish and oranges.

It's so handy to have food at the ready so I've been making various simple purees (i.e. peas and spinach, Carrots and pumpkin, apple and prunes) that I have frozen in ice-cube bags so you can mix and match flavors on the go. 

Aline loves joining in, holding a wooden spoon and taking in the action.

One big challenge however -how get the puree into the ice cube bags... 

Yes, If I have an enormous freezer I could use ice cube trays -which would be easier -

but I don't.

First I tried spooning it in - messy, not worth any further mention.

Then I tried a funnel, but the puree was too thick and it kept on leaking out of the top of the bag.

Then I had an idea -and I'm sure someone has had this idea before me and that there probably is a contraption out there that does exactly this, but I thought I'd share it anyway...

I used my big icing syringe! 

Instead of attaching a nozzle I attached the ice-cube bag and just squirted the puree into it.  

Use a rolling pin to gently push the puree to the bottom of the bag and be careful not to use too much force or the bag might burst! 

Then just stack up and pop in the freezer and defrost a cube or five as needed!

And yes this is an "unedited" post with appalling photos- our really life mess! Embrace it.

May you live until you die,
Linda


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beautiful things

My friend recently introduced me to Made!

It is amazing -so many lovely things and not too expensive either.

This is one of my favorites "Giant Brooklyn Floor Lamp" (my friends just got theirs for their library corner):

It might look like an ordinary desk lamp -the twist is the size. It's 172cm high!
An other favorite is an oak table with legs to slot in place -it's not been made yet hence no photo. But you can find it in the vote section. Why don't you go and take a look at it?

Made

And for those of you (family and friends) who are wondering what to get me for my birthday a giant Brooklyn floor light in white or a stroller walnut desk in white is fine by me *wink*

Stitch time

After yesterdays productive sewing it is Sunday and time for tea and embellishing.

I made this to stitch on to a cashmere sleeping bag:

 

What do you think? 

Feel free to use it in your own (private) stiching projects *Wink*

If you do -let me know I'd love to see.

If you need the Pdf just leave a comment with your e-mail and I'll send it to you asap.

In anticipation of your valued response,

Linda

Spring will come

After Christmas a little part of be starts thinking winter is over 

-and every year I discover we are only half way through...

Spring is still awhile off -but it will come!

No matter how dark, wet, gray and drizzly today is.

There will be days like this again:

What are your top tips for enduring the last stretch of winter?

believe it or not I'm tweeting!

*Tweet tweet*

As part of my getting out in the crafting & etsy world I'm now tweeting

-who would have thought?!

Picking a tweet name was tricky.

Mundane and Beauteous was too long.

So was MundaneBeauteous.

I could do MundaneBeauteou -but that's just silly!

So as I'm tweeting to let people know about me and my Etsy shop I ended up with:

LindaOnEtsy

I was worried at first that it sounded a little bit pretentious -I'm by no means the Linda on Etsy -but I am Linda and I am on Etsy... 

I'd be delighted if you came and followed me at LindaOnEtsy

And then I can follow your tweets too!

tweet you later

First week or so of the new year!

How are you finding 2011?

For me it is proving to be packed with opportunities, new directions and posibilities. 

Very fun and also a bit daunting.

One of them being Jo from Darn it and Stitch asking me to do a dolls making workshop.

It's going to be a two day workshop for a parent and child.

On the first day we are making dolls and on the second we are making clothes.

How fun is that!?

So this week-end I was pattern drawing and sewing -this is what we will be making:

The workshops will be on the 12th and the 19th of March.

Want to join in?

Sign up with Jo as qick as you can -there are limited places.

Hope to see you there!