internet loveliness

My, I feel lucky! I just returned from a lovely week in Maine, to find not one, but two packages waiting for me! The first was from Elise, who had a giveaway recently when she launched her website. I was lucky enough to win the hand-bound journal, and this was inside my package:

Be still my heart! So pretty! I love the print, and I love the look of hand-bound books, so this was a good deal all around. Elise is very talented, and I’ve been a fan and a follower of her blog for a good while now. I especially like her approach to scrapbooking – use what you have, make it messy if you want, and just create.

Opening the book was just as exiting as opening the package! I got a balloon-postcard as well, and her business-card, which I think is just so well designed. She wrote about the different ones she has had here, including a picture of the backside. Just as pretty as the front, which is a feat in itself. And – notice the teal-colored stamp? It says “This book belongs to”. What a nice little touch!

My other package was tiny – a free sampler of business cards from MOO. Yep, ten free business-cards, that you can design just as you want! I thought it was a good deal, despite the little black banner they stick on the bottom. I might be cheating them out of some advertisement by trimming it off with an x-acto knife, but I won’t hesitate to do some word of mouth for them. I chose the “green” paper option, recycled and chlorine free, and I think they are just lovely.

Recognize the images? One is from the header, and the other is me being cheeky while wearing my dress pants. The pictures are a little pixelated, which is all my fault for using images that were a little too small (MOO told me they might turn out pixelated). Every step, from designing the cards, to the email updates and the package I got, was easy and full of niceness. So, I like MOO.

god jul

This year, my Christmas preparations have been scant. I have no tree, no advent-candleholder, no tiny red wreaths around red candles, and no frankincense (or kongerøkelse) spreading smells of cloves, orange, lavender, cinnamon – and whatever else is in that magical blend that makes Christmas instantly. All the same, the small things help:

This past Sunday was the fourth Sunday of advent, which also coincided with winter solstice this year. We celebrated with tea, gingerbread cookies, and having all four candles lit.

I love wrapping presents. This year I went to a recycled gift wrapping event where businesses had donated old posters and blueprints – lots of lovely colorful things!

Oh wait, we have a tree! The fireplace with some tea candles made up part of the makeshift Christmas-tree this year.

This pepperkake smells so good. It only gets to decorate the mantel for a couple of days before I eat it all up!

Happy holidays to everyone!

tidbits

This year, September brought me a new area of study, a new school, a new city, and a new country. Like every year, it also brought me my birthday. The celebration was quite limited, since the boy and I were in the middle of apartment-moving, but we did manage to have a little party of two at a coffee shop, and I even had some presents to open! A special mention of the wool I got sent from Norway, all carded and washed and ready to be spun – I have plans to make a drop-spindle, and then turn that lovely wool into lovely yarn. I can’t wait!

At school we have delved right into projects, papers, and quizzes. The first project to be completed was in a fashion design class, looking at the elements of design – texture, color, line and form, and designing a garment based on each of those elements. Here I am in the process of water coloring my color-design, with the actual fabric above, and my sketchbook to the right.

Moving apartments was a time-consuming little project, and we’re still getting installed here. Spending a Saturday hitting up rummage sales, church sales and garage sales, we found some essentials for the apartment, like an unopened Trivial Pursuit, ca 1981, and this Japanese metal box, which goes so well with our found lamp:

Thrift-stores seem quite more equipped and much cheaper than the ones I’ve been used to, and I have to show off my most recent find. Naturally it was the color that caught my eye first – how could I not check it out? Next I looked at the label, which read merino wool, viscose, angora rabbit hair, and cashmere. On top of all that, it was ‘everything half off’-day, so the two dollar price tag turned into a one dollar price tag! One dollar!

Coming back from the test-run of the cardigan; The boy and I had a date at an Italian pizzeria, and we sat outside. Though it wasn’t an horribly chilly night, the cardigan certainly kept me toasty and happy. Approved!

seamstress on the move

This is my sewing machine Earl. He is a Bernina 707 minimatic, and we’ve been sewing together for, oh, some two years. I bought him in a sewing shop one sunny spring day, and meeting up with a couple of friends right after, he got his name by Tina, who thought he looked like an Earl.

I will soon be packing up Earl in a carry-on suitcase, and taking him with me as I get on a plane to move across an ocean. And therefore, I might be a little absent from the sewing for a bit, while I get settled in.

The sewing machine is coming along since I am starting my second bachelors degree! I will quite soon be studying Fashion Design at Columbia College Chicago. I don’t know if I’ll be a typical Fashion Design student or not – I assume they come in all shapes and colors like every other student – but for now, I don’t have any grand plans of becoming a fashion designer, in the designing sense. My heart has always been with the making, in almost all kinds of handicrafts. If it involves using my hands and ending up with a palpable result, I’m in!

With this degree, I am really looking forward to finally learning all the nuts and bolts and gritty details of constructing patterns, grading them, textile properties, tailoring techniques, draping, and generally all I need to learn to make really well made garments. And I hope to have lots to show for it while I’m learning!

So – if you’re living, or travelling through Chicago, feel free to drop me a note! We can make soap while watching Project Runway or something.

arrived: a package!

I was lucky enough to win a give-away over at Made by Petchy a little while ago – I was thrilled of course! Solveig has a great aesthetic, so I was really looking forward to what might come my way. Packages in the post are usually fun, but fellow crafters sending you stuff is a little bit like having a birthday.

Looking very promising and exciting indeed!

A vintage sewing pattern! And look how funky and fabulous this dress is! I am looking forward to making this dress, and I’m also really liking just looking at the envelope and enjoying the illustration. It’s taken me some years of sewing to get around to wanting a fantastic vintage pattern collection of my own – I’m very happy to have this in my collection!

It also seems like Solveig has noticed my like of aprons (which is a like we share), and this vintage apron was also in the package. I love the print and the color, and I’ve already rolled up my sleeves in anticipation of making something or another.

I’m impressed by how much it seems like Solveig thoughtfully hand-picked these things especially for me – she certainly hit the spot! Thank you so much Solveig, I adored it!