The Swenglish Home

From Santa's work shop with love...

Dear readers,

In my last blog entry, I hinted that I was busy, busy, busy with creative tasks, and to those of you who may have wondered what could possibly have made me abandon blogging for a couple of weeks, I thought I'd invite you to a little peak of what the Swenglish home looked like yesterday...

Yesterday afternoon, our house was transformed into a 'one-off Christmas shop', where my hand-crafted items were offered to some of the ladies in the local community. It is always a little scary to do something like this, as I can't help but worry that people will think it is a little " look at me, look at what I can do" - in fact a little bit like blogging, which seen through a certain type of 'glasses', could appear "show-offy" in a way that was never intended. However, it turned out to be a very nice and sociable evening, and quite a few ladies left with smaller or larger bags and what looked like a happy shopping smile.

These photos were taken before it all kicked off, so you have to imagine the flickering candles and the scent and taste of the ginger biscuits (Swedish recipe, of course) offered to the browsers... 

This year I confess to have been a little trigger happy with letters and stamping, as well as using my photos in a number of ways - anything from covering match boxes to transferring them onto candles, wooden tags and, perhaps the rather obvious, making them into greeting cards. The confidence to use my photos so 'promiscuously', I have you blog readers to thank for, as your kind words about some of my photos have encouraged me to trust them to be good enough.

Fluffy fabric hearts were a 'best-seller' at my first craft sale two years ago, so there were several baskets bulging with cuddly hearts in various different fabrics.

In order to keep enough room for people to browse easily, the conservatory was also used to display the stock, particularly bulkier items like cushions, etc. 

... and in the land of tea drinkers, a perhaps obvious "best seller"...:

In this photo of the fabric and wooden bunting, an unusual detail is visible in the background... that white, fluffy stuff is not something we are terribly used to in this area, and funnily enough everybody seems to feel a need to talk to me, the "snow-experienced Swede", about its existence and effects... But I confess, I am enjoying the snow, every tiny scattering!

The Union Jack has been a grateful pattern in the last couple of years, and it is a trend that seems to be unwavering, as all my flag-patterned items disappeared faster that you can sing 'God Save the Queen'... 

So there we have it, a 'show-offily' modest or modestly 'show-offy' display of what has been taking up most...correction: ALL of my time in the past few weeks, and now, now I hope to return to a world I have missed, the blog comunity. A few times I have peered into some of your beautiful blogs, and have found Cosy with capital C, in the shape of Christmas and candles and warmth-inspiring decoration, despite outside temperatures hinting the opposite.

See you all soon!