A caged 'eggventure'...

The egg race is on.

Supermarket shelves are sagging under the weight of oversized chocolate eggs, interior shops offer explosions of pastels with eggs and bunnies, and my fellow bloggers are presenting their beautiful and freshly crafted Easter eggs. Egged on by all of this - pardon the intended pun - I found myself covered in découpage glue last night, and much to my own surprise, with a couple of floral eggs as a result.

This particular one seemed to look best levitating inside my favourite bird cage, but looking at the pictures here, I am worried it looks like it has been left hanging in a rather unhealthy way... My intention was to let it float freely, the cage door open with an invitation to fly into the world when hatched and ready...

Lovely Hanna at http://hannasform.blogspot.com/ had a wonderful idea to put together a collage of lots of blogged eggs and you can see the crafted cavalcade on her blog. (Looking at it now, I see that some recently added photos there show eggs most likely made with the same napkins I used for my caged offspring!)

I have a feeling there will be more eggs popping their little egg heads around here on the blog in the next few weeks, but for now, have an eggstra - sorry, I just cannot seem to stop myself - lovely day...

Ett tack and a thank you...

Thank you.

Thank you to those of you who visit my blog regularly and leave kind comments. Every little message is like a gift-wrapped present, waiting patiently for me to impatiently unwrap when I return to my computer.

Thank you to those of you who take the time to send me lovely e-mails with heart-warming words. These may be brief encounters, perhaps just the two e-mails exchanged across the globe, but they are all precious. Being seen is nice.

Thank you to those of you who find my blog interesting enough to become a follower of it. Nice to meet you. Enchanté. Trevligt att träffas!

Thank you to those of you who simply pop in for a quick look, perhaps by mistake or on your way somewhere else. It is nice to see you here. Do stop by again if you want.

The world of blogging is a strange and splendid one. I still feel like the new kid on the block. I have just moved in, and every now and then I say hello to a neighbour and stop to admire their curtains, or perhaps their lily pond. Every day is an exciting new day in this unusual little micro cosmos and I am intrigued. Delighted and intrigued.

Thank you.

Curvaceous and setaceous...

I like a bit of yin and yang in my life. Sometimes we may feel like we are stuck with an awful lot of yin and only a neglectable amount of yang, but on occasion, it is all there, in exquisite equilibrium.

Looking around us, we will most certainly find nature seeking the same balance. Whether man-made or "naturally" conceived, different shapes and textures contrast with one another, thereby enhancing each other and offering a visual fiest of variation. On a walk the other day, this little chapel in a village close-by drew me nearer, inviting me, like so many times before, to admire its shapely, curvaceous roof.

And there, just in front of the softly curved craftmanship: some of last year's weed (?), stout and setaceous, prickly and proud.

A bit of nature's yin with some man-made yang.

I've got the blues...

...but in a good way!

Wishing you all a terrific Tuesday!

Rule Britannia...?

Naah, my soul will most likely always be Swedish, I'm afraid. However, the beauty of living in foreign land is that you are able to pick the raisins out of two cakes. In some respects, the UK seem to have got a far nicer way of doing things, and in other areas, Sweden wins hands down.

With the latest trend in Union Jack decorating details, a sewing Swede gets a chance to honour her host country. No, I do not yet master making shoes and phone boots, but hearts and tea cosies seem managable.

Conservatory

- as English as kidney pie?

First of all, Happy Mother's day to all you UK mums! For a foreigner, it is very confusing trying to keep up with these celebratory parental days, as they fall on completely different days in Sweden and the UK. But today I was celebrated in style, with flowers and hand-made cards, handed over by four proud little hands. And right on cue, I went all soft and gooey inside and attacked the card authors with so many kisses they fled across the room to their father to be rescued. Mums have to do that sometimes. Kiss their boys until they beg for mercy.



The time has come to visit our conservatory. Before moving to the UK, I had not realised what a conservatorial country this is, but soon saw how these glazed extensions stick out like shiny appendixes wherever you look, in every neighbourhood. And after my first long, wet and windy winter here, I definitely came to understand their beauty. Regardless of weather, it is the one place in the house that is always bright. It therefore quickly and quite naturally became the playroom, where to date uncountable space rockets have blasted off into space, train tracks have negotiated the green round rug and small and big people have tumbled around and been lost in mountains of cushions.

This youthful living has taken a toll on the room, whose walls are in dire need of new (and I hope different coloured - ) paint, whose armchairs have such big fabric wounds that they can barely be covered up with blankets any longer, whose toy baskets are falling apart by the minute, but whose purpose is still a well-suited canvas for imaginary play of the most inventive kind.

Space journey, anyone?

April fools...?

It is only mid-March, but today the Wiltshire weather was in one of its cheekier moods. One minute the sun gave a peak performance, only to then turn around, wave goodbye with a sly smile and run to hide, while the wind and the rain took the stage and showed us what they were made of. Then followed an encore by the sun, and a competitive dito by the rain. I wonder if anyone else felt like I did, fooled by weather gods playing hide and seek with us mortals. Tricked as if it were already April 1st...?




Having just returned from the garden centre with some pensies and violets for my outdoor pots, I abandoned the idea of getting my hands in the soil today (or there would have been a very wet and grumpy Swede writing to you now), but I could not quite stop myself from messing about a little indoors.

As for my new gardening tools...I have got a feeling they might never make it outside to fulfill their duties. They are simply too cute and may just have to be upgraded to the stable of decoration pretties...

Wishing you a lovely weekend, whether covered in compost or snow, seeds or dreams!

Where Winnie the Pooh meets Desperate Housewives...

The TV-sofa. The old, worn slouch-couch where it is virtually impossible to sit properly, and whose tired cushions will assassinate your posture for good. But it is also where it all happens. Where celebrities meet cunning crime investigators, where we are brought to tears and laughter and where Fireman Sam saves the day, all while we happily subject ourselves to some serious slouching.

Built-in cupboards under the stairs host TV, stereo and other unsightly technology, while book shelves are waiting to be put up on either side of the mantel piece. The books have been lurking upstairs for far too long and are itching to come downstairs to where the action is. Soon, soon.

And above it all, like a waterfall of light, a delicate paper skirt, the other of my two designer items: Midsummer Light by Tord Boontje. To me, this light is fun, funky and it has got the "feel good" factor needed in one of the darkest rooms of the house.

And it feeeeeeels good. Tadatadatadata.

Looking the other way...

Play with your food...

Psst, don't tell my children, but when they are not looking, I sometimes leave the fridge door a little ajar, just to see if there is some freedom-seeking fruit or a wicked vegetable wanting to come out to play. Fancy that, who would have thought grapes strive for such symmetry? I suppose it is because of that bunched-up lifestyle they generally stick to...

Psst. Watch this space. Next time it might be a pepper ending up in a pickle...

On their last leg...

The ageing theme continues, and this time we turn to the flagging grape hyacinths. With the eucalyptus wreath also beginning to look a little tired, it felt like high time to organise for them both to flourish just a little bit longer in the company of each other and that of some other dear friends.





On a less morbid note, I would like to draw your attention to the delicate little lantern with the inscription "Coté Campagne". Tiny, yet so sweet. Fragile, yet a perfectly adequate bearer of light.

My little spot of green and white feels, for now, just about right...

A suitable case...?

This black beauty just sat there in the second-hand shop the other day, looking very black, very beautiful and as if it had more than one captivating story to tell. As I happened to be in a story-listening kind of mood that day, I quickly decided that this suitcase, once the property of someone with the initials F.I., would accompany me on my journey home. Named journey is about a six-minute walk, seven if the wind is against you or you are distracted by the bakery on the way, but Black Beauty did not seem to mind the lack of exotic paths or bustling stations.

I cannot help but wonder, though, where it has been before. What has it seen, where has it travelled? Has it seen pain or just happy holiday makers on its journeys?





The Coronet Cine Camera (found among the heirlooms of the man in the house) seemed to enjoy shaking leather with somebody of a more mature composition. I then invited a pair of antique spectacles and a few old Swedish books, and the geriatric party was well on its way.

None of us are getting any younger, I suppose... But dear old Mark Twain made a beautiful point: Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been...

So, wrinkly greetings to you all!

Mmm....Muscari!


'

I know, I know, I have shown these glorious grape hyacinths before, but now that they have come out just a little bit more, they are even more irresistably scrumptious...

I hope your day is filled with light and the scent of spring!