Crocheted girl slippers - Chaussons pour une fille - Virkade barntofflor

My kids have a tendency to take of their socks at home, and since it is getting cold I made them choose themselves what kind of slippers they would want me to make for them. 

First out is the oldest - my five year old girl. She got to look at my yarn stash and pick colors she liked and to choose a theme. Her theme for most things now a day is Elsa - la Reine de Neige, which I had banned this time, so she choose Flower. This is what it turned out to, and it does work - she use slippers more often now! The model is improvised in crochet.

Next up is the with of Lion slippers for my three year old - a challenge I hope to be able to achieve!

Activity Calender / Uppdragskalender / Calendrier de l'avent

This year I made a home made calender for the first time! I have been wanting to do it for some time, but never found enough time to prepare. Actually, this year I did not have much time to prepare either, but it turned out this is done pretty fast. I had already been saving empty toilet paper rolls for a while, inspired by all different things I had seen you could use them for on Pinterest. So I improvised, drawing numbers in different ways on all of them and hanging them up on a thread beneath our "Santa shelf". Good thing is that you don't have to be sure what to put in them until the last moment and improvise day by day. I do not want them to eat candy everyday (already a bit ruined though, since they also got a chocolate calender from their grandmother), and I don't want them to expect a gift every day and become spoiled. So our calender is a mix of sometimes small gifts, tasks, treasure hunts and once in a while a treat. For those of you looking for ideas, here are some I have so far been using:

- Put up Christmas window decorations in your rooms.
- Cut a snowflake from a paper and put up in your window.
- Make a drawing and give as a gift to your grandfather (visiting that day).
- Sing a Christmas song for our guests.
- Do something nice.
- Make a Christmasy pearl decoration for the tree.
- Treasure hunt. Map of the house with a hidden gift.
- Family hug.


In a few I have been adding small gifts, for example I found I package of ten finger animals at Ikea that fits perfectly, everyday there is a new animal.

Interestingly - they are as happy about doing a Family Hug, as they are for a treasure hunt leading to a gift!

 

My Bergen

I finally have finished the first sweater I ever made that I really like! My own Bergen, that I started already in May. It has been a bit slow, but lately I have been postponing putting in the buttons - partly because I was afraid that I would be disappointed by the final result. But no, I am not disappointed!! After blocking, it looks very nice and even, and it is so soft and warm! I think it is so nice that I don't dare to use it in case the kids come and drool and put their messy hands all over it.. :-) Love! 

Pattern: Bergen by Drops Design

Yarn: Drops Alpaca

Needle size: 3

  

 

 

 

 And finally, to visualize the wonders of blocking, a picture from before:

Ready for school! - Prêt pour l'école !

The school where my kids go wants us to bring a net bag that they hang on their hanger to put their slippers in. I made this one for my oldest daughter, and now it was the turn of the son to start school, and the result you see below. I have been using this free pattern for both of them.

Knitted shawl

Long time no see... Summer as just rushed by! Kids home every day, and a month long read trip to visit Sweden - catching up with old friends, seeing family. Busy busy! 

School started last week and life is getting into routines and I am hoping to find some more time for my own projects. What I have done this summer is first to finish the shawl I started in May. I had planned to give it to my mother so I hurried to finish it just before going, always good to have deadlines!

After blocking

Before blocking

In May I also started this sweater, which I optimistically thought would be for cool summer evenings. Well, luckily Sweden had the warmest summer in 40 years and no warm sweater was needed, and hopefully it will be ready in time for the autumn cold...

Lemon-Rasberry filled Cake with Almond paste and Choclate Cream

I know, it is getting repetitive, but I have made yet another cake. This time for my husband. It was really delicious, so I want to share! The cake is made from almond paste, with a filling of lemon cream and raspberries in the middle, covered with chocolate cream and decorated with blue almond paste and silver balls. Yum!

Strawberry Cake for Midsummer - Jordgubbstårta

Friday was the national midsummer celebration in Sweden. As an expat I like to keep some traditions, and to pass them on to the kids. So we made the same dinner as every Swede eat on this day: Herring, Boiled Potatoes, Egg halves, Cold chives sauce and Knäckebröd. Dessert: Always Strawberries! This time in form of a cake. If you want to make your own one, this is how it is done:

Start with making the cake:

(1 dl = roughly one cup)

50g Butter

1 1/4 dl Milk 

2 Egg

2 dl Sugar

3 dl Flour

1.5 teaspoons of baking powder

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Sugar (Change for Cacao if you want chocolate taste)

Melt butter. Mix Eggs and Sugar and add the rest of the ingredients. Bake for 30 minutes in 175 C.

Let the cake cool down and cut in two, horizontally. Add strawberry jam and vanilla cream (I use the labor and secret recipe of Mr. Likazo, so I let you find your own one or buy it premade) in the middle. Cover it all with whipped cream and put fresh strawberries as decoration and enjoy!

Necklace in crocheted silver

Two years ago I did this necklace, I was very happy about it (although I realize now that the photo I made does not make it justice). Since I had the material to do another one and my mothers birthday was coming up I gave that one to her. I never thought that it would take me another two years to actually make another one for myself. I guess I could not imagine that having three small children would be that time and energy consuming... so to have finally done this necklace is also a sign that our family has passed the hardest period and started a new phase in life! It is made by crocheting silver thread, continuously adding sea pearls. Simple, easy and elegant.

Full Moon and Development

Did you also see the fantastic moon this weekend? So beautiful and impressive, makes you put your small problems in perspective. 

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how I want to live my life. After getting three children I have started looking for a job this spring. I am very motivated to work, but a bit scared to loose my freedom and to get into the machinery of fitting all the parts of my life together. I want it all; family time, training, knitting, reading, meeting people and having a motivating and challenging work. Don't know if it is all possible. 

Without really taking any decision, I have found myself getting some small freelancing jobs. Some translations and writing articles and now I am starting to consider this as a future alternative. Don't know yet how easy it would be to actually make a living, but I feel excited about the idea to have my own business. For the moment I am looking into all the administrative parts around it, which is not all obvious when being in a foreign country. Task of the day: Register as Autoentrepreneur! This is supposed to be relatively easy and be able to do completely online. French administration without any papers, can that really be true..? Well, lets see!

Have you found your passion in life? Are you happy with your job, or would you like to change?

Birthday

My big girl just turned five, and I wanted to share ideas for a five year old birthday party with you.

The cake: Without having a real plan for the cake I bought pink sugar paste, and turquoise almond paste last week, knowing that if it is pink it will have success with a bunch of five year old girls! 

To make a crown I printed a nice picture from internet, cut it out, and used a knife to cut around it. Letters and number is also cut with a knife without using a model. The round are made from a bottle cap. You really don't need to buy all the expensive Scrap Cooking Tools to succeed!

I then used a Popsicle stick to make small wholes in the paste for the silver bullets to sit in. To be sure they would stay I put a tiny drop of water that I used as "glue". I also glued the almond paste parts on with water. 

I am still a beginner at cake decorating, but I think this one is the nicest one I have done so far. Sugar paste looks good and is easy to work with, BUT, it did not taste very good. I will probably look for another DIY solution next time.

Candy Gifts: We had bought candy that we wanted to give as small gift bags to the invited kids, but had not thought about how to present it. Since we wanted to avoid regular plastic bags, I went through the stock of tissues and ribbons I keep and  made some myself. Maybe the choice could have been a bit funnier, matching the cake, but as it was a last minute solution and this black was the only one I was willing to sacrifice in my small collection, we went with this. Still a bit Minnie Mouse about it.

It is very easy! Just cut the tissue round, put the candy in the middle, tie the ribbon around and voilà!

Party Game: To give the candy gifts we made a little game. It is a traditional Swedish "fishing game". Put up a blanket or a sheet in a door (see picture). Make a fishing stick with a clothes peg on the end and the kids get to fish behind the blanket. They love it! To spice it up you can let them sometimes get something less funny, like a empty plastic bottle, and you get to teach them that you should not throw garbage in the lake!!!

 

What did you do for your kids birthday party? Let me know in the comments!

How to grow Avocado

Inspired by my tomato plants, I saved the avocado seed from last weeks Guacamole, and after reading up on the correct way of seeding them, this is how you should do:

Put three toothpicks in the seed, and then hang it on the top of a glass. Add water so that it reaches the bottom of the seed and wait to see it grow. It is supposed to take 2-3 weeks. I will keep you updated!

Tomato replanting

Finally a weekend that start feeling like summer! I have taken advantage to move my tomato plants, that have been growing inside since the end of March, into the big balcony pots. They have not been well treated so far. The roots were very tangled into each other in the tiny plantingpots, and hard to separate, so some of them got planted together also in the big pots.

 

I also planted my Tagetes (Oeillets d'Inde) outside. Also not so well taken care of, but lets see if there will be some flowers coming...

 

As for the Basilic... not a great success.. the picture talks for itself.. Although, I still have supermarket Basilic that has been growing for 2 months now, so that is a comfort.

Please, if you have any advise how to succeed better with your gardening, leave a comment (in your preferred language)!

A week away

Last week we visited relatives in beautiful Dordogne, France. We stayed in my husbands cousin's house (which is also a gite that you can rent) in a little countryside village called Peyrignac. It was great to be in nature and silence, and it makes me want to find a house with a calm garden somewhere soon! Below I show you some pictures from the village with all its beautiful houses and castle, and further down some visits we did. We visited, for example, a prehistoric park in Roc de Cazelle, with a mammoth and some other animals from today, and the old city of Madeleine, that was built into the cliffs just next to the river. I recommend them both, they are suitable for bringing small kids and they have great picnic opportunities!

Preparing for Cool Summer Evenings

Will this be my first successful cardigan? I hope so! After a lot of browsing through different models and project on Ravelry I finally decided for Bergen by Drops Design (I know, most of my patterns lately are from them..). I then spent yet another day choosing what colors I would like. I am very fond of green, and I finally picked the mix you can see on the pictures. The Alpaca wool is nice and soft and I am well prepared this time: I have checked gauge (first time ever!), and I took all my measurements. Gauge was perfect and my measurements follows size M. 

Next week we are going on family vacation to a small french village full with relatives, where I hope the relatives will entertain our kids and I will get lots of time to knit!

New Project - Nouveau Projet - Nytt Projekt

Just a short post to let you know what I am working on. I have started yet another shawl, this time in Alpaca. It doesn't look so much right now, but it hopefully will..! I am following the Butterfly Dance pattern from Drops Design. To be continued...

 

Knitted baby sweater - Stickad barntröja - Gilet d'enfant tricoté

I year ago I finished my first ever knitted sweater. It was looking terrible, not fitting at all, not even on people of other sizes. I undid it, and have saved the yarn so far. I love the colors but the yarn, 100% cotton (Drops Paris) is a bit heavy and might be the reason for the bad fit. I also did not know about blocking at this time, and maybe I would have been able to make it look better by blocking, but I doubt it. Inspired by Bikettes sweater and using this pattern and old Drops Paris yarn I made this sweater for my youngest daughter (18 months). I show you it now, with loose yarn ends and no blocking, because I have again decided to undo it. It is too big by the neck and just doesn't look good. Any ideas of something to do with this kind of yarn, that will actually turn out good? I am thinking potholders, slippers, a rug or other things that will not be worn... To be continued.