Bubbles and Brushes

My aunt turned 60 this June, and for her birthday we decided to give her a painting course together with her family. The course is in water-colors, and we are served champagne and canapes, and the mood and surroundings are really colorful and inspiring. A local artist, Magny Tjelta Jaatun, is the course-holder, she's very calm and really a very good artist.

Our task for the day was to paint a parakeet. First, we doodled it on a piece of paper with just very soft touches of a pencil.

We had instructions and help through the entire course, and the artist helped us improve our own individual style and product. What really is very great about this course, is that anyone can do it, even if you never painted before!

We had a "lunchbreak" inbetween the layers of paint, in order for the paint to dry. We were served homemade canapes with roastbeef, salmon, cheeses, shrimps and other fancy stuff, and homemade chocolate mousse on lovely plates and cups for our tea or coffee. My sister also brought homemade carrot-cupcakes.

Afterwards we continued painting, adding more layers and outlines, adding details and really creating our own "impression" in our painting. What is really funny is to see how all of us can have the same starting point, and see how different it all turns out!

I am happy with the outcome and I can't wait to frame it and hang it up somewhere! 

Click here if you want to know more..

Here is a collection of all our paintings!

Cement in a pot

Today is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday, mom! <3
I like to give homemade gifts, especially to the people in my family because they appreciate homemade things very much, and that makes me very happy. So this year, I decided to make my mom a homemade flowerpot from cement. I had seen this done on Craftgawker before, and it looked awesome!

The actual process of making it, however, was not quite as expected. Though, it might have been due to lack of the right equipment...

Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the process of making it, but I'll tell you what I did..
First, i had to get the cement. Easy peasy, I thought. Evidently not. shops close early so I cant get in to buy it, and some stores that should sell cement, well.. they don't. So I found at last, on Coop Bygg.
Just add water, the guy said. Nice, I thought. Adding water was the easy part. The mixing was hard, without a cement-mixer or an electric drill. So I was mixing by hand, and after I had blemishes on my fingers and cement up under my nails. And scratches up to my elbows. The floor was full of cement and so were my clothes. And, by God, mixing cement with your bare hands is tiring work!
I had the cement in a big bucket, and I put a smaller bucket (covered in vaseline) in the middle. It dried pretty fast, but then came the removing of the casts (aka the buckets)
I had to smash the inner bucket to pieces because it had got stuck, even if it was covered in vaeline. And then I had to bang the entire outside of the big bucket with one of those soft-like hammers. and turn it upside down, and jump on it.. And I got it out! Woho! It's HEAVY!

But all in all, it turned out pretty great! And my aunt and my moms two friends were impressed so I guess it was all worth it in the end.
Lesson learned, though; buy something to help mix the cement next time.

Short shorts!

I haven't been the most persistent of bloggers as of late. Mainly because I have lacked the time to do creative stuff, and also the lack of a sewing-table (Which I now have. It's mall, but i have one! Go me!)
I have been very inspired lately, but can't always see through all my plans.. 

Anyway, one day I stumbled across this on pinterest, and I wanted to make my own short shorts for the summer!
Just on a sidenote, to all you who seek inspiration for things to craft or decorate or whatever, you really should visit pinterest and craftgawker. I LOVE those sites!

So, I made my own shorts from some old drapes I bought from my local second-hand store (Fretex) a while back. It wasn't very hard, the hardest thing was to get the measurements right so that it would fit (I have little experience in sowing pants, and making my own pattern wasn't as easy as I'd have thought.. (Apparently my... backside.. is to big, so I had to add some fabric to the back so that it wouldn't be too low..

In the end, it didn't turn out half bad.. 

17th of May

Tomorrow is Norway's National Day, the 17th of May.
This year is special! This years, it's 200 years since Norway got it's declaration of independence.

I had some ribbons laying around, and I figured I'd try making my own jacket decorations for the special day tomorrow!


The materials are super easy! Ribbons, some old buttons, safety pins, a needle and some thread!

Project in the making

I took up working on an old crochetting project that I've been working with on and of for maybe 3 years. Mostly because I packed it away and forgot about it!

Now, I am making the last pieces of it, and finally! After all these years, maybe I will complete it!

Nerd Couture

For Christmas for my best friend, who also happens to be somewhat of a nerd (as am I..)
So I decided to decorate one myself! Because is looked like fun, and getting a blue XBOX-controller proved harder than expected..

The left joystick had started to loose it's rubber coating, so I took it all of and made a new button out of air-drying clay. Then I coated it with epoxy glue (which turns into "hard plastic" when it dries) to protect it from breaing and also from the fat and oil on our fingers. 

And if anybody is wondering whan an XBOX-controller looks like in pieces, here you go!
Lots of small parts and buttons. Putting it back together is like a jigsaw. But aso very fun.

Vanilla Lavender Hand Soap

Sunday the 9th of February was Mothers Day here in Norway.
I was away for the weekend, and would be home in the evening that sunday, so I figured flowers would probably not be the easiest thing. But, alas! My mother likes homemade stuff, so I decided to make her something of my own!

Making soap is not hard! All you need is some ingredients and a little time.

Here is what I used:
-Transparent soap base from Panduro

-Vanilla soap scent
-Vanilla stick, chopped
-Dried lavender

Melt the soap base in a water bath, and add the other ingredients.
Pour into your desired shape and let it dry.

I packed them in plastic foil and then i ripped out some pages in an old book i got in a second hand store, and wrapped the soapes in that.