Another layout!

I found a challenge att Månadens utmaning. I was inspired by the colors of the picture, and this is how my layout turned out:

It's a photo from this summer, when the weather finally was nice enough to hop into the boat and go for a ride. We have a tiny little boat in the creek, and it takes us less than ten minutes to reach the sea from there. Unfortunately, this was the only boat ride we did last summer, because the weather wasn't so great, and P worked all the time. Still, it was lovely. We found a small bay, with a small beach, which used to be very nice, according to P, but it was totally overgrown now, so we couldn't go for a swim there. It was perfect for a picknick, though. P is the one who's familiar with the area, and I wouldn't dare going out there by my own, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to find my way back home among all the reed in the rivermouth. Still, maybe this little captain could learn to find the way better than me some day.

Skating

We're so lucky to have our little farm. It's amazing in the summer, with the rolling green hills, the creek, the woods and the sea so close. Not to mention the wildlife - the buzzards hovering over the fields, the fox slipping away through a gap in the bushes, the nightingale singing its heart out at dusk, and the roe deer grazing gently outside the kitchen window. The farm is also truly amazing in the winter, with the perfect slope for sledding just outside the front door, and the cozy fireplace ready for warming you up afterwards. It's not always snow where we live, but we've had our fair share of it this winter.

There is also a field nearby, belonging to a neighbor, which almost always gets flooded in the autumn, and when it freezes, it's perfect for skating. We went skating there a couple of weeks ago. The weather was perfect, and I snapped quite a few shots of the kids and the girls next door. We looked for animal tracks in the snow, and we found tracks from both fox, deer and several birds. We also found some very mysterious tracks, which turned out to be from a Saab...

What's so great about that field  is that you can be out in the nature, skating, and not having to worry about falling in. There's no water underneath, just a meadow.

I made this layout from the February sketch from Lillblomman. I tried to stay true to the sketch, but I think I strayed pretty far away from it in the end.I hope some elements are still discernable, like the tag (which in this case became three...), and the placement of the lace and the flowers.

This is, like, the first layout I've made in ages completely without patterned papers. I went a bit crazy with my Sprinklers on the background, and there was no room for papers once I started putting it together. Most of the supplies are from my second prize from last moth's sketch at the same site. I got this most adorable little package from sweet Ulrika the other day, whith some lovely doilies, flowers, lace, and other goodies. I just had to use some of it right away. Thank you so, so much, Ulrika! I loved it!

Ok, well, I think I had better go blow my nose and head back to the couch to get some rest. Sinusitis really sucks, don't you think?

Happy Valentines Day, everyone!

It's starting to look like a proper home!

This will not be a scrappy post. Last weekend I finally put together the couches for the living room, and finally, it turned out just as cosy as I wanted it. So I wanted to show you a couple of pictures of it.

 Here are the sofas - two Ektorp from Ikea. The table was already in the house when we bought it. I just painted it white. The curtain rods are quite funny. They were used for drying hay back in the old days, and I have a barn full of them. So far, I've made these curtain rods, a ladder for hanging blankets and a tepee for the kids from them.

 I managed to squeeze in a little writing corner next to one of the couches, too. The window is standing there waiting for a fresh coat of paint, and then to be put back where it belongs - in the skylight in one of the rooms upstairs.

I have to show you a photo of my little girl from earlier today too. We took a walk along the Blekinge hiking trail, which passes just a few meters from our place.We went all the way to Järnavik, which is about three kilometers from here, had a picknick on the cliffs high above the sea, and then we went back home to the farm again.

Can you imagine - this little one didn't complain once during the walk. She was too busy exploring different kinds of trees, ants and butterflies. We think we saw a buzzard too, which flew up from some trees just as we passed, but we didn't see it all that clearly through all the branches, so we're not sure. It might have been a kite too, because we've been seeing a few of those around lately.

Have a nice Saturday!

Creative Scrappers #165

So, as boys grow to be men, their toys tend to grow too... anyone recognizing this? This here is P's new toy, a backhoe for his tractor. It's a dead ugly piece, worn and rusty, but apparently tons of fun to play with. LOL. And, in his defence I must say that it will come in very handy when we will be digging for the new boiler room, and when we are going to extend the house. And all other things you need to dig on a farm. Also, it was most convenient for taking away the protruding and most irritating rock in our driveway, as you can see. So, dad got a new toy, I got rid of the rock and all is well at the farm :)

A layout just because

This layout is made for no particular reason at all, no contest, no challenge, no nothing at all. I made it just because, and that's really refreshing sometimes, isn't it?
The photo is of me and my sister Anna on a midsummer's eve a long, long time ago, and these papers from Inkido are truly perfect for the occasion, aren't they?

So, tonight I'm finally online here at the farmhouse, for real. I just tried out my superspeed internet connection via iPhone, and works. YAY! We just got back from a walk, trying to sneak up on some roe deer on the meadow by the creek. We saw one, but the kids didn't manage to be quiet for very long, so it set off into the woods, barking like crazy. That's OK though, we did get to see it for a short while, and it will most likely be back tomorrow. I just love this place!

Take care, everyone, and have a great weekend! I know I will.

Maja Design Lantliv

Lantliv is Swedish for country life, and that sure does suit me well at the moment! Our farmhose is slowly getting the way we want it to be, and we are starting to spend more and more time there. We aren't going to move out for quite some time, because there is an issue with the heating that must be dealt with first, but now, in the summer, it's perfectly fine to stay there over the weekend, or for a couple of days every now and then. We have only a few more rooms to finish up indoors, and now I'm going to spend some time renovating the windows. They are the only thing left of the hideous 70's renovation that still aren't dealt with, and they are still brown on the inside, but I'm going to paint them all white, and that will take me quite some time, I guess.

Sometimes people ask me what on earth we are thinking, moving into this tiny little house, with its tiny little rooms and low ceilings, when we are living in a good-sized, airy, modern, and very functional house as it is. I get the feeling some people even think we are a bit crazy. Maybe we are, but for me, moving into this house is really like getting back to my roots a little bit. I grew up in a house on the countryside, not entirely unlike this one. I was used to having privacy, minding my own business, and having fields and meadows around me. Living the way we are now and have been for so many years, cramped up between all these other houses, knowing that people around us mind how we mow our lawn, cut our hedge, and tend to our business is slowly eating me alive. That's not me, that's not how I want it to be. That's why I'm leaving it behind. And there's no feeling quite like the one you get walking across a field, or in the woods, knowing that the land you walk on is yours and you are free to do whatever you like with it.

So, the farmhouse it is. OK, it is quite small, and the ceilings are really low, but that doesn't matter when you open the front door and the sky is so high, and there are fields, meadows and woods all around. So what if the house is small? We are adding to it in a few year, when the sloped ceilings upstairs are becoming too low for our growing children. Until then, we'll be fine.

Tha collection Lantliv, or Live in the Country, from Maja Design couldn't have been more perfect for a layout about our farmhouse, now our summer paradise, but in a not too distant future, our all-year-around-paradise.
I've also used it for a layout about strawberries (yummy!)

All the supplies for these two layouts can be found at Scraplagret.

A perfect day

Some days I wish I could just fold together neatly and make a keepsake of to keep forever and ever, just to be able to pick them out and relive them over and over again. One of those days happened a couple of weeks ago. My little brother paid us a visit, we took a walk in the woods and had a picknick on our dear island. The weather was perfect, the scenery was wonderful and we had such a great time together. Moments with my little brother are very rare these day, since we live quite far apart, so we all cherished that day a little extra. I took a lot of pictures, obviously, and this is far from the best one, but it is perfect in a sense that it shows just how silly we were and how much fun we had. In a way, scrapbooking does just that. It tucks away days to be remembered and relived over and over again. I know now for sure I will never forget this day, because I will forever have it
hidden away in my albums.

Upcycled ribbon spool and thank you-card

I had this old wooden spool, that had ribbon on it when I bought it, in my stash, and I thought why not turn it into a candle holder? So I did. I used some really cute papers from Primas Reflections line, and some wire to form a candle ring, which I then decorated with some cut-out butterfly, pieces of lace and baubles.
All the supplies are from Prima, and can be bought at Scraplagret.

I've also made a very simple little card with the same line.

Otherwise, things are really moving along at the farm. The kitchen is DONE (huge sigh of relief, it turned out pretty OK, will show you photos later), along with the bedroom and dining room. The hall is almost ready, and yesterday, I ripped out a dark red, smelly and incredibly dusty carpet from the living room, and thus, that room is on the way too. And then there is upstairs left. But maybe, just maybe we will be able to move in before this year ends, at least. There's just so much to do, and so little time. And still no prospect of a scrapstudio of my own, there just isn't enough room in the house, and converting one of the outhouses...well, that's just too big a project to land.

Anyway, today I'm going to forget all about renovations fo a while, attend a birthday party, and spend the evening cropping with friends and getting busy with my next DT-kit from Scraplagret.

Hello sunshine!

This beauty greeted me the other day, as I got out to the farm. Isn't it just gorgeous the way it opens up to greet the sun, and reflects it with it's bright orange pistil?

So, I guess most of you already know I wasn't asked back by Graphic 45 for another year. After spending a month on the Steampunk Mansion, and another month on coming up with brand new, never before seen, final round projects, I thought if that, and everything else I had put my heart and soul into this last year, wasn't good enough, I really must suck as an artist.

I lost a lot of inspiration there. Mr Mojo took his stuff and got out of here, so to speak. However, I cleared out my scraproom completely, and lo and behold, there he was, crouching behind all the Steampunk stacks, with my brand new DT-kit from Scraplagret in his hands, and quite a lot of stuff got done over the weekend. Unfortunately, I can't show any of it yet, but pretty soon I guess I will have this blog flowing over with new, lovely Prima, and some Crate from the last Nook kit, not to mention brand new Echo Park loveliness, which I already have some of, and which will also come in the next Nook kit, due on my doorstep any day.

So, all is well, Mr Mojo lingers, and I create for my own pleasure. And as my ever so cleaver little boy put it: "Mom, even if someone else didn't like what you do, I think you do nice things, and I like everything you've made for me. " And that's what matters, isn't it? He loves his Steampunk Mansion, and that makes it worth all the hours I put in.

But I'm sure as h*** never going apply for a second round of the same DT again. It really sucks knowing what you are missing out on!

Farm update!

It takes time. It takes an awful lot of time. But slowly we are getting there. Life gets in the way, work gets in the way, and that's just the way it is sometimes. I can't wait until the day we can finally move into our little farmhouse, but that day most likely won't be here until sometime next summer.

We are, however, pretty close to finishing the bedroom! Everything has turned out just the way I wanted it, and it will be fab once it's done. This is the wall we covered with new panelling, and here is also the door that we found in the barn, now with a fresh coat of paint and that distressed look I love so much. This door will eventually serve as a headboard in here.
There are a few things left to do - put up cornices, build in the new IKEA cupboards, put in a new door and fix a curtain rod (I'm thinking of maybe using one of the old rods we found in the barn, previously used for drying hay. I think that would look really cool.) Oh, and I think I am going to write something on the panel wall too- a poem or something. I just haven't figured out what yet. Maybe I'll cover a wall with old dictionary paper. I have tons of ideas, and I am so anxious to get started on all of this! But, like I said, it all takes time.

The difference of paint.

We are slowly making progress on the farm. The barn and outhoses are really run down and worn, but the good thing about that is that every little improvement you make looks HUGE. Like this one. Take the garage, add some paint and voila, it looks completely different!

Before:
After:

And then you will have to imagine what it will look like once the barge board on top turns white. Huge difference, huh?

Here's another wall that needs painting... But that will be a later project. I just have to show you the cute old chair P found beneath tons of old dusty straw on the hayloft. There was one more, unfortunatly too rickety to use. It might not be very wise to sit on this one either, but at least it's good for holding a flower pot. And there might just be a table to go with it, tucked away in one of the sheds, but that shed is very much inhabited by mice, so I have no intention to go in there and check... ugh. I'll be back soon with some scrappy projects, promise :)

My little big project ♥

This is it. This is the reason my blog has been silent-ish lately. This is the big project I am going to dive head first into, accompanied by my family. This is our dream, and it has finally come true. This is our new little countryside farmhouse. It is true, one can fall head over heels in love with a place. This house isn't special in any way, it's pretty small, old (100 years old, to be precise) and not very nice at all inside (renovated in the 70s... you know, orange carpets, brown window cases... ugh). We have driven past it a thousand times without really noticing it, never thinking that it would be a nice place to live. And then it's suddenly up for sale. We check it out, and kaboom. We just know. This is it. This is where we are going to live. Eventually.

And you can't have a farmhouse without a farm, can you? Barns, sheds, fields, woods, meadows... We have the lot. Although... it's not in the best of states. Not by far. But I kind of like old ramshackle barns, and I like the look of old weather-worn wood. Too bad we can't keep it like this for ever. The barn would eventually fall if we tried. There will be new planks replacing the old rotten ones, and there will be paint... a lot of it. We will be busy, for sure, I mainly with the inside of the house, and P with the barns, the woods and everything else. And we will be happy taking care of this old place. And no, I do not intend to turn this blog into one of those interior decorating blogs, even though I love looking through them. This is, and will remain, mainly a scrapblog. But don't be surprised if I sneak in a few photos of our projects every now and then. Consider it altering. I've altered houses before, just not big ones. I'm leaving you today with a detail of one of the windows of the barn. Don't you just love it?

//Jenny