Homemade christmas ornaments

This is what I have been making in my free time lately. Homemade christmas ornament. I making a lot of different ones. Some are to be gifts for my family and friends and some are to be sold on a local christmas fair. The are so totally fun to make! Too bad my free time is pretty limited and it feels like time goes on fast forward as soon as I sit down and start sewing.

The other thing I like to do in my spare time is reading, now I have started to read manga in japanese as a way to complement my japanese studies. Chi's sweet home is soo fun and cute! :)

In the forest

We took a trip to the forest, me,my cat and my fiance. It was a wee bit chilly but the air was crisp and refreshing. I love the colors of fall and how vibrant the nature looks. The forest floor was really wet with little puddles everywhere but it didn't rain. Our little kitty really enjoyed playing in the puddles and drinking the fresh water. We found a little hill and the view was really beautiful from up there.

Swedish little christmas hearts

Today I made some little red felt heart for a local christmas fair I'm going to be selling on. I embroidered merry christmas in Swedish on them and put magnets or brooch pins on the back. I will be making these for etsy too some with swedish text and some with embroidered patterns on. I will make som for my friends and family too. Simple and cute to put on the frigde or on a bag or hat or anywhere really :)

Tomato harvest

Today I harvested some fresh tomatoes from my garden. Home grown organic tomatoes taste so much better than store brought ones! Some of them are still green but they usually get red after a few days indoors. Due to our Swedish cold weather I had to pick them all before we get below freezing temperatures.

Red little amigurumi kitty

After a somewhat long break (I drowned in studies) I'm back here at my blog again. During the little spare time I have had lately I have been trying to at least make a fraction of my creative ideas come to life. The rest of the will have to wait until I somehow get the time to make them, but they are safely sitting in my scetchbook for so long. One little creature that I've managed to create is Little Amigurumi Kitty. Posing proudly next to my cat calligraphy painting. (Though the calligraphy is not made by me even if I wish I were that good !)

Secret World

My dear hubby wanted us to have something we can do together at home so he bought us two accounts in the MMORPG Secret World. I'm really thankful to him as the game is heaps of fun! I don't really know how to explain the pleaures of running around in an alternat reality killing loads of zombies, but it's really super fun. I nthis game they have also limited the PVP to the arena areas so there is no need to worry about being ganked while running around doing my zombie killing and mystery solving business. I also like how they have integrated the problem solving from adventure games into this game. Here a pic of my hubbys character while he is runnig around in the zombie filled town of Kingsmouth.

Homemade chili flakes

Chili flakes are easy to make at home. I first thought I would make it solely out of my homegrown chillies but I didn't have enought of them to fill a small jar. So I bought a bulk bag of dried thai chillies and mixed them up with my homegrown dried chillies.

 First I removed the stalks left on them then I put everything in the blender and crushed them up. Note to myself for next time: Don't inhale any chili powder that rises from the blender unless you enjoy a runny and sore nose for the next hour or so ! 

Here's the result:

Shorts and curtain equals skirt

 Shorts + Curtain = Skirt. Crazy maths eh??
In the world of sewing it's totally possible though. It's getting close to my mums birthday and I wanted to surprise her with something totally unique. I also have been cleaning out some things that we never use that have been cluttering the apartment. And there happened to be a pair of way too big white shorts and a pretty light pink flowery curtain that had lost it's companion. Suddenly I found my self doing this crazy math cutting up the shorts and adding a piece of curtain and a strip of lace. And the result : This skirt!
I will be giving to my mum for her birthday, so if it looks a little too big on the photos because I'm modelling it and I'm a pair of sizes smaller than my dear mum.

No more closet panic!

As a fashion maniac who is the owner of way too many garments I often have BIG problems about  deciding what to wear. To begin with I have 3 wardrobes tightly packed with clothing, and secondly I often like to change my outfit at least once a day. Unavoidably sometimes when the schedule is tight and I need to make quick decisions I panic. My hubby is now very used to it so he doesn't fret when he hears me go through the wardrobes like a tornado while cursing loudly :P

This has been so annoying an selling half of my clothing is not an option since I already sort out all clothes that I don't love anymore on a regular basis. (Gotta love second hand, both shopping and selling!) So there needed to be another solution and after some thinking I came up with this idea.

I compose a variety of ready to wear outfits and hang them in a separate wardrobe!

No more closet panic and I can focus on the fun part of fashion instead. It does get a little bulky so a few outfits at a time is enough, and I can always refill with new outfits as the need arises. It's not perfectly organized and color coded but I'm not the neurotic order freak anyways, a little more boho is my personal style. ^^

Kitty sleepmasks

Yesterday I decided to have a try at making som cute sleep masks. I already have one that I bought that looks like a panda but I have used it so much that the elastic is soon worn out. So whynot making my own new ones? I used a striped jersey scrap and some batting and made a little felt decoration on each one. I made one with two elastic loops to be put behind the ears, thats what my store brought one has and I also made two with the elastic to be placed behind the head which seems to be the more popular design. Which one do you prefer?

This is what my sleep masks turned out like.

 The nice patterned background is from my new ironing board the I bought from: http://www.rorets.se/se/  this model is called Chrome Line and I'm really satisfied with it!

Trial and error

I am by no means a photoshop pro but my goal is to master it well enough to be able to make my creative visions and ideas reality. For now I'll have to make do with my very limited photoshop skills. My labels turned out to be FAR from my original idea. I know it sucks not being able to accomplish ones ideas, but pouting doesn't do anyone any good so here goes:

At least it's readable :P

The syrup turned out to be very tasty though! I guess this bottle won't last for long in this hot weather. Now I'm off to sew some sleep masks instead, hopefully the will turn out more as I wish them to look than this silly label. It will hopefully be funny memory of where I started off from when it comes to photoshopping!

Berry picking in the sun

Today me and my friend Theresia went to her fathers place to pick some berries for making syrup. We had been waiting for all the raspberries and red currants to ripen and to day finally the were ready to pick. The weather was really good too sunny and some light gusts of wind. Before we started the twigs were heavy with berries like this:

Yum Yum ^^

After we were finished some bushes were almost empty and others still were heavy with berries but our bags were full and we decided to call it a day. Now I will get started with the homemade syrup and designing of some nice labels to put on the finished bottles of syrup. I will update with pics of the end result later :)

Here is our happy little (or big) helper Theresias golden retriever Rufus !

Say hello to my new blog!

At last I have decided to open a new blog focused on the creative things in life. NekoShop- life blog almost has the same name as my etsy shop. Why I added -life is because it will also offer bit and pieces of my everyday life. Here I will feature things that makes me happy and inspired. I will include lots of photos of which many are aviable at : http://www.etsy.com/shop/NekoShop. And there will of course be a fair deal of cat related posts. There is a reason why I chose the Japanese word for cat as a part of my shop and blog name :)

Until next post please enjoy mum's happy kitty basking in the summer sun!