From all of me to all of you...

...a very, VERY Merry Christmas!

Goodbye yellow brick wall...

Going, going, gone...!

... is the yellow wall in the conservatory, and welcome 'Natural Hessian'! Some may find this colour a little bland and boring, and would perhaps even miss the sunny yellow that previously shouted out its loud message to the world here. I agree that the yellow was a happy and sunny colour, but it had somehow done its job for me.

Do you ever notice things in your own photos you were completely unaware of at the time of taking the photo? Like a long piece of wood on the ledge above, ready to be made into hearts, but certainly no added value to this photo...?!

And from that to something completely different...

Zinc and Norwegian loveliness

Even though I do find zinc a rather 'cold' material, like - in fact - all metals, for some time I have found myself hopelessly drawn to it. Looking around the house, I see evidence of this love story here, there and everywhere... The 'number plates' and the heart above (note the gorgeous "diamond" crown detail on the heart, half-hidden by the ribbon) increased the "love factor" in the Swenglish home massively, when they -together with a lovely mix of little decorative items - arrived yesterday in the post, all the way from Norway!

Anette, or Guttemamma as she is known, is a warm, bubbly, creative 'blog sister' with a lovely home and an equally lovely blog. The blog universe is an amazing place, and holds in its embrace so many friendly fellow bloggers and a wonderful virtual 'living room' in which friendships can grow. Thank you, dear Anette, what a wonderful surprise Christmas gift!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend! I wonder, will you be humming "Seven more sleeps to go, seven more sleeps to Santa..."? I can't seem to get it out of my head!

A modest accusation...

Dear blog readers,

Do you, like I, sometimes find yourselves panting a little faster, starting 37 projects at the same time and wonder why you can't finish them, pant yet a little faster and then find yourselves balancing a bottle of glue on your nose, as both your hands are full of craft material you can't put down, because you can't find an empty space on the table...?

Well, I am afraid I blame you! Yes, you. You who offer an endless stream of crafty ideas, a fountain of inspiring projects, stunning photos and decoration galore. How is a girl supposed to find the time to write her Christmas cards, or tidy up at least to create enough space for Father Christmas to find his way to the Christmas tree, when you can't seem to stop feeding me all this inspiration? Well, I suppose that was a bit rude. Thank you for all your inspiration, is a little more appropriate. So, thank you. But perhaps you could slow down just a little, just so that I can sweep the chimney? We wouldn't want a certain well-rounded man to get stuck, now would we?

Today, instead of attacking a long list of important things to achieve, I felt my hands reach for some small, old clay pots, some other bits and bobs and four hyacinth bulbs... oh yes, that was the idea, but as the Swenglish house experienced a severe lack of hyacinths today, four pine cones would have to do.

A few long cinnamon sticks, two bargain candle sticks from a car boot sale ( £1 each!) and the NOEL letters I cut last year from some left-over floor boards - and the little cone quartet can enjoy their new, sleek attire together with some appropriate company, and hopefully some seasonal spirit to go with it...

 

Wishing you all an inspiring week, and thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last blog entry - you make my day!

Mr Blackbird vs decorating Swede: 1-0

Last year I thought I had a brilliant idea about decorating the front of the house with Christmassy apples and, yes, just like so many years, moss balls...

There was just this one little glitch I had not considered. My plan did not include greedy, even if understandably hungry, blackbirds. Let's just say that there was a lot of 'topping up' needed on the apple heart for a few weeks leading up to Christmas! 

Well, perhaps it could be seen as my Christmas gift to some feathery fellow beings in need...

As for the wreath... well, a pine tree-hungry Swede not finding a single pine tree to maim in the name of wreath making, can easily turn into an unstoppable Swede on a mission. After driving around for some time, I ended up outside an industrial estate with the most pine-resembling trees around, galloped into the reception of the nearest company and begged to grab a few twigs, promising it would not show at all... The manager must have realised a 'no' might have resulted in tears or worse, so there we are, chop-chop-choppety-chop followed by a wreath and a happy Swede.  All in the name of Christmas decoration...

The entrance door is in a part of the house that was extended years before we bought the house, where whoever did the - I believe it is called - pointing (I call it grouting, but perhaps that is just with tiles?), must have been under the influence... please look away from that, if you can...

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

A postcard from the land of gingerbread cottages ...

I drove through our neighbour village Biddestone today...

I think Hansel and Gretchen would have a difficult time 

choosing the yummiest house to nibble on...:

Perhaps they would go for the slightly larger model...:

... or perhaps the white "biscuit" with the chocolate details below...?

 However, a smarter choice might be the one below, 

as it is for sale and they could move right in and kick the nasty witch flying through the snow!

As for me, any one of the above would do nicely, thank you...

Psst, Santa, did you hear that?

Ama-thrill-is...!

Despite having bought budding white amaryllis bulbs the other day, I simply could not resist the fresh, long stems of their red cousins in our local florist's. They stood there, seductively pouting their red lips, like a fifties actress, and I swear I heard one of them hum " I wanna be loved by you-oh-ooh-popopidoo"...

So here we are now, loving each other, my amaryllis and I, in a seasonal and platonic way. Below I let it take the throne in an attempted seasonal arrangement, which was quickly dismantled after the photo was taken. Perhaps it is the apple crate that does it, but this arrangement, like some I have made in the past, felt too much like the interior of a florist's shop, just a little bit too staged... 

I would like to thank so many of you for leaving such kind and encouraging comments about my craft sale the other day. I cannot tell you how much your words warm my heart. Thank you so much! I am still slowly catching up with visiting you all, but I will get there in the end!

Thank you also to sweet Dila from Made by Dila, who has kindly given me an award. I pass the award on to all of you lovely bloggers out there.

 Wishing you a thrilling day, hoping you too have an amaryllis singing to you...!

Nuts about moss...

It is no news that I am nuts about nuts...

... nor that I am a massive fan of moss...

So what better way to embrace the season and welcome the snow, than to let the brown sing with the green, a festive little tune of Nature and her wonders. And then, as I sit for a moment on the comfortably warm skin once having hugged a woolly friend, I say a little prayer to the weather Gods to remember to save some of this white fluffy loveliness to be scattered in around twenty days or so... I'm dreaming of a white (and green, brown and rust coloured) Christmas...

 Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

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!