ART JOURNALING - AND VITAMIN D!

Hello out there!
Hope you have had a nice autumn, Christmas and a happy new year. May 2020 be a great one!
Despite the snowflakes above, there has been no snow at all in the part of Sweden where I live. Only saw snow once, in November when we were up at the cottage in the woodlands.

Nov 30th -19

Like everybody else I would love to have snow on Christmas Eve (which is the main Xmas day in this country), and Christmas Day. That would be enough, but it rarely occurs these days. Kind of hard to have a genuine Christmas feeling when the lawn is green...!

Well today is January 13th. A very good thing is that after winter solstice on Dec 22, the day has increased with 32 minutes - YAY! The light is coming back to the North! I really dislike when it's getting dark at like 3.30 pm. 
In all of November we only had like nine (9!) hours of sun in total!!! The last time I saw a blue sky was the weekend at the cottage in November. Was sooooo happy!  😀
I for one welcome the light - and spring!


Nowadays I craft most in my junk journal (JJ), or make things to put in my JJ out of old bookpages - and in my bullet journal (bujo) daily. 
Have done some art journal spreads since I last blogged (which was ages ago...).

The background is made by different shades of pink markers (from Netto), and then white acrylic paint through a stencil from Netto.

Same concept but it didn't turn ou that well - but sometimes we just have to experiment and play......

... and use what we've got!

Really like fall as long as the leaves are still on the trees! Tim Holtz stencil. The alpha letters are from Netto.

The cute animals are cutouts from Daphne's Diary. As a birthday present my lovely husband gave me a year's subscription of this fabulous magazine (of Dutch origin, but it comes out in different languages).

Third and last fall spread. Got the beautiful mask , 7 gypsies, from a lovely friend in Florida. I absolutely looooooove it! It's so usable. Have also used it for a subtle background in my bullet journal. The mask is sticky on the back so there's no risk it will move on you while inking your project. Great!

Every time we go to the cottage I always bring my pink mini suitcase with white dots, packed with crafty stuff. Well, in November I forgot it up in the cottage - including my bullet journal in it....! 😱😱😱 Unbelievable that both I & husband could miss this bright pink thing!!
Fortunately I had  Memory Books designed by Norwegian Vibeke Spigseth at home, and one was this:

Bought several memory books at Panduro some years ago, so glad I had one with a Christmas theme. Served very well as my bujo this December. Gotta' work with what you've got!

 The community of Röros is actually a Unesco World Heritage site

There are beautiful images in it. Thought I recognized this picture a little, and after commenting on a Poppy Design post on Fb, designer Vibeke Spigseth answered that this is actually from a community called Röros (Røros in Norwegian), and this particular house was in a winter scene when filming Swedish children's story Pippi Långstrump (Pippi Longstocking) during the 60's!! 
No wonder I thought it looked a bit familiar - ADORED Pippi Långstrump when I was a kid, I wanted to be her, haha ha ha!


Did very few cards this Xmas, here's one of them:

Trying to get an Aurora (norrsken) feeling in the background. Unfortunately you don't get this phenomena down here in the south of Sweden, it's much more frequent in the north.

On to a completely different subject! So I used to work as a nutrition advisor; 
If you take vitamin D, make sure to take it with fat and magnesium for a better uptake. I take my vit D-tablet while having dinner, together with a magnesium pill.
If you do NOT take blood thinning medicine (antikoagulantia, dvs blodförtunnande) you can also take Vitamin K2 for maximal uptake of vit D. Vitamin K2 is a bit pricey though, but if you really need vitamin D it might be a good idea to take K2 (as long as you're not on any kind of medicine that makes your blood thinner).

Here in Sweden we can't take up vit D from the sun until May (April if we're lucky). The sun has to be in a special angle towards the earth.
Since a lack of vit D can cause all kinds of negative things, including depression, I make sure to take my pill daily (until May)!

This pic is actually from February -18. Don't know if we're going to get snow here before spring will arrive.....

Wishing you all the best!  🙋

WHERE TO FIND INEXPENSIVE CRAFTY GOODIES!

Hello out there!

Daisies by our cottage

I hope you are having a wonderful summer. Thankfully it's not as hot here in Sweden as it was last year. The intense heat without any rain got dangerous for both humans and the poor animals. 
Of course I still go on changing water daily for "my" sweet birds in the garden. Will never get enough of watching when a blackbird is taking a bath in an old plastic icecream container.  😄 They look so intensively happy!

There're lots of digitalis purpurea (fingerborgsblomma) outside the cottage in June. I like having a coffe outside watching the bumblebees fly in & out of the flowers

Hope your summer is what YOU want it to be. I know a lot of people here don't like summer because they feel this time of year comes with lots of requirements. Like you "have to" be outside a lot, you "have to" go to barbecue parties, you "have to" go to the beach, you "have to" get a tan, bla bla flipping bla. Feeling guilty being inside if the weather is good.
Well actually you don't have to do anything you don't really want to just because the sun is shining. I'm way past this. If I want to sit inside crafting when it's warm & lovely outside, I craft! Only you know what makes you the happiest. Do what makes you happy!  💙


Speaking of crafting - this wonderful hobby that I simply couldn't live without. Made some bargains since I last blogged. Every year hobby store Panduro has summer sales. It started June 4th and lasts as long as they've still got products, but no longer than August 7th. About two & a half more weeks. On some products it's 70% off! 

Actually did not buy that much this time. Been quite obsessed with napkin decoupage, so varnish always come in handy  😊

Have also done a lot of stamping on old book pages lately, and then coloring the images. I really enjoy that, and love the look of the finished piece

June 20th, 8.30 pm outside the cottage

If you're thinking of starting a bullet journal, Netto has had a starting kit. My local Netto still has it. This might be a good idea if you are not sure you may like 'bujo' (bullet journaling), or if you're not sure you might keep it up.

The grey thing is the journal, A5 format with dot grid pages. The kit is 119 Swedish kronor, like 11.30 euro. 
Some of the wellknown brands that does bullet journals can be from 200 - 250 kronor. So if you're a complete beginner this kit could be a good start.

Bought this in Nettto a couple of weeks ago:

As I mentioned I'm a napkin decoupage fanatic...!

Really enjoy this beautiful book, has loads of flowers in different colors, journaling cards, lists, tag shapes and more. I will scan some of the flowery pics and print them out on thick watercolor paper. 60 Swedish kronor in Netto (€ 5,70).

My local Netto will be open until January next year, then unfortunately Coop takes over  😞

This was taken just after the Midsummer holiday, on June 23 at 9.40 pm

I finally did it; bought a copy of 'Flow book for paper lovers'!

It really is packed with goodies, that I'll be able to use in my current junk journal, and other journals to come! Flow is Dutch, but all words are in English.
Haven't watched the video, but I saw that there's a Youtuber that has done a video on this particular issue.
The book is really thick and contains beautiful paper, stickers of all sorts, stationary, labels and much more. It's a gem!

The Danish store 'Flying Tiger' is all over the place these days. To my big surprise they even had structure paste when I was last in there!! AND traveler's notebooks!! YAY!

Didn't buy the travel kit with all the tiny bottles in it to use for travels, but I wanted it as storage for some of my stickers! Very inexpensive!

If you're into junk journals like me, it's always a good idea to go have a look in charity shops. Found this gem in a Swedish charity store called Erikshjälpen:

Was actually looking for old music paper, but I kind of run straight into this! Brilliant for my junk journal!! You can either rip out pages from the book or scan them, and then use for signatures in your junk journal. Beautiful!

Have only been doing one single art journal spread since I last wrote - I'm so into junk journaling, and I also bujo.  😜

The girl & greenery on the left side is cutouts from a mindfulness coloring book, and 2 of the flowers on the right hand side is Paper Artsy stamps and the other 2 also coloring book cutouts.


There are so many great tutorials on Youtube it's almost crazy! Great place to go if you have lost your inspiration. No matter if you are into art journals, traveler's notebooks, mixed media, scrapbooking, junk journaling, cardmaking, bujo, doodling, altering, you name it - there are videos you can watch! And you can watch it any time of day. I think it's a fantastic source!

Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend, with some fun, opportunities to relax - and some creation!

Sunrise at 4.35 am the other morning

All the best to you!  💚

SPRING AT LAST & SOME CRAFTING

Hello there!
I hope there is spring where you are too, or at least that the sun is shining brightly on you - and all is good.

My favourite, have always loved Japanese cherry blossom trees. Too bad the blossoms lasts for such a very short time. They're a piece of art! AND they're pink! 😉

Jumping right into some art journaling spreads:

Yep, I'm very happy that awful January, February, and March is long gone! Loooove spring!
The pic of the bridge is actually a card my mother sent me some years ago. Birds & cutouts are from Daphne's Diary.

Had a 'spacey' day....! Background is gelatos

As I've told numerous times before I feed & water the birds in our garden. They are such a joy. Unbelievably cute! And what beautiful singing now at spring time - birdsong always makes me smile.

Have not used the shrink plastic as you're 'supposed to', just colored them.

Here I am earlier this Sunday, by the guelder rose bush (olvon). One of my favourite scents, aaaah! Sooooo lovely!
The little white thing in the background is a tiny bowl of water for the shy birds! Have two bigger ones on the lawn. 
Quite often a blackbird (koltrast) takes a bath in the largest. Cracks me up every times; looks like he/she really enjoys himself!

While this photo was uploading I actually went to make me a coffee. It's over 4 pm and I've only had one tub of coffee yet - how crazy is that?!
Again gelatos for the background. Cutouts from Daphne's D.

So this is a crazy spread. Many years ago I worked as an aerobic instructor and the fabric flower in the middle is made from one of my favourite 'leotard tops'!!

Just wanted to have a play, and also test out a new pink tempera color from Netto. The rainbow sticker is from Norwegian Vibeke Spigseth, her brand is Poppy Design, and she has loads of cute stuff on her website.

Stickers from Netto. Stems from a Paper Artsy stamp. Stencil from the Belgian company Artemio.

Last spread for now:

Played with distress ink refillers and sprayed water. Bought the big butterflies from Netto a long time ago.


Thank God that my husband forgot to buy cottage cheese yesterday, when he was making a lasagna (I'm a vegetarian)! I quickly hopped into the car and drove to Netto, one of our two local grocery stores. Well holy smokes, they have quite a lot of crafty things this week! YAY! I had to be quick (hubbie waiting!) but I managed to get this haul together:

The designer sheets are one sided, but there're 20 of'em. The white sticker alphas are in brush script. I'd love to learn how to write in my traveler's notebook and junk journal in brush script - it's so cool and beautiful.
Obviously Netto has got more crafty stuff, this is just what I got - verrrry quickly!

Oh, I must show you! Hubby has 3 sons, and they (plus girlfriends) came over for dinner at the Easter holidays. The middle son has a girlfriend who is studying to be a horticultural (we call it garden engineer), and she had made this flower group:

I was so happy, it's absolutely stunning! And of course pink is my favourite color! 
OF COURSE I'm going to use the paper that is wrapped around the pot for my craft - duh!

Seems like Danish Netto may shut down all their stores in Sweden.....😰 Oh noooo, very bad news indeed. Was in a newspaper a few days ago. What a bummer. There're 163 Netto stores in Sweden (mostly in the southern parts of the country), and apparently Coop will buy them. If that's the case there will be no more craft products.

Takes me just over 10 minutes to ride my bike to our local Netto

There are still German Lidl, but the closest Lidl store seldom has 'interesting' products.

Oh well, I guess it's a good thing for all the pure craft store owners. But the worst competition must be Wish and other dubious shopping sites like that. 
I've never buyed anything from Wish, and I sure never will. Find it quite unethical in lots of ways (and especially if it's true what I read; that lots of their products are based on child labor).

So I finally got around to stitching the first junk journal I ever made.

I did two mistakes making it. One was that the width (bredden) of the cover got to short for my (4) inserts (inlagor), so I had to make it wider. Did not have enough of that card stock, hence the pink wide glitter tape...!
I'm nowhere near decorating it inside, so more of this in future blogs.

Maybe you've noticed that I did not write a post since the end of February? Really did not know if I would continue to have a blog at all, but I guess I might after all!

Getting near dinner time, and then we'll probably watch the Netflix series 'Last Kingdom' and the Belgian/Dutch 'Undercover'.
Tomorrow is another episode of 'Game of Thrones' - yay!

We've been to beautiful Old Town Dubrovnik four times. Quite a bit of GoT is filmed in this gorgeous Croation town.


Take care out there!

     Meja