karkovski

Like I Really Need a New Hobby....

I recently bought some new paint. See I've been using the kids poster paint and it is not good! The paintings I already made looks awful now...bah! I also got some new canvases and took a look at my Great Grandpas old paint box - isn't it marvelous? A lot of my ancestors have painted at some point in their lives and my Grandpas brother was living as an artist - I like that, I'm very intrigued, but I don't really need a new hobby, now do I?

(The "owl-Christmas-tree" print is made by Elisabeth - I SO, so love it! I will buy a black Ribba frame for it in IKEA and hang it on my wall - can hardly wait!)

(Odd) Corners of My Home (Outside)

 

Kids Rooms a la karkovski

This is a corner of my sons room. I love the furniture: The old dog-hair-cutting-table (yes we have 2 of them), the old chair that came along with the tables, the IKEA PS cabinet and the thrifted toys.This I found on the desk. The very white wall will (eventually) be covered, with the Garfield wallpaper I've had laying around since March!

For even longer, I've had this floral wallpaper laying around for my daughter. It won't go on this - very white - wall above, but in the opposite end of the room. She had Barbapapa above her headboard for a day, but since our walls are very rough, it wouldn't stick! I'll put it back up, when I get around to wallpapering. The bed used to be our sons and after a few coats of pink: It's super girly! At the end of her bed, she has a Pippi doll house. Gotta love Pippi.

Craft Room Visit

We have lived in this house, for  little over 3 years now and my craft room has moved around quite a bit. I started in this room, which is downstairs and served as our bedroom when we first moved in. When upstairs had a bedroom, the kids and shared the room downstairs, until they took over the entire room and I was left to find other solutions, around the house.

Now that we finally have our own space to sleep in and the kids have their own rooms upstairs, I have moved back into the first craft room I had, BUT I still have to share it! This time I share it with the whole Family's clothes, as we are planning for it to fit into our mudroom (in the making), later this year. Wouldn't it be nice to have all the clothes right next to the washer? And right next to the bathroom? I think so.....

So here are some corners of my craft room at the moment:

More corners here.

More Moomin More Corners

More Moomin craze from Paivi! She sent me 3 dishtowels - Little My included - and I just couldn't bare toweling of my dishes in such prettiness, so I framed one and put it on my wall.

Little My

We have been away since Friday, visiting my Mother-In-Law for a "Work Weekend" together with my husbands brother(+family) and sister(+family). We had a wonderful time hanging out, working, eating and sleeping together. The kids really enjoyed being with their cousins, especially since they don't get to see them that much, being scattered all over the country.

As for 10::10 Sunday, I made another giraffe similar to this one.

Going Down....

10::10 Sunday

My 10::10 project of the week was Bird Cards. I haven't done that many through time and the ones I have made have been either sent or given away.

I originally had 6 cards ready to stitch, but 2 got messed up in my machine.

The pink one below is one I made a while back and its been hanging in our living room, but when I found some pink frames, I decided it should be for my daughters room.

See the pink Russian Doll hanging on the white frame? Sabine sent it to me, as a neat surprise. The pink elephant is from the sweet Alicia.

"The Four Seasons" poster in the white frame, was made by Dorthe Mailil.

Green House Effect

Our Green House

Things are looking mighty fine in our green house right now. We got lots of flowers ready to plant outside and soil ready for "food plants".

We thought my funny looking old olive tree, was dead at one point. It looked dead. And one of our cats had scratched it up silly. I guess they don't give up that easy?

One of these days we will be planting tomatoes, cucumber and bell peppers. We had sooo many of them last year and they're sooo yummy. To top that off, we also have a variety of fruits around our garden: Strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, raspberries and elder. We've also planted 2 tiny apple trees (last year), that we hope to see apples on this year.

And of course we have herbs.

Last year we had a huge bunny. Now, its old house looks a bit empty. We've been talking about getting a new smaller one. Well lets see about that...

Now I keep saying WE, but actually my sweet husband is the gardener here. (And the one talking about a new bunny.) I have nothing to do with the garden. At all. Maybe I should give him a hand this year. Yeah, that'd be nice. He has practically done the whole garden by himself and I probably don't say it often enough, but I really appreciate all his hard work and all the wonderful fruits and vegetables we reap. Wouldn't you?

Now take a guess where he went to work this past weekend? I'll give you a clue: I would be wearing a lot more clothes than THAT! Oh and he lived there for 2 years as a child. And Laila can't participate!

Nook Sleeping

Emma suggested that I actually SHOWED you guys the pillows already I made! SO since I made the last one today (for our bed), I thought you'd like to see a peek of our nook. I used all vintage fabrics for the front and linen for the back. I did 2 types of closures. 2 in envelope style and 1 with ribbons at the bottom. The quilt is handmade and a thrift store steal at $10,- Love the colors.

The cat is for tomorrows 10::10 project (see the back of it here). It's made of Moomin fabric from a pillow cover, that Paivi sent me, among other goodies I'll show you later.

After seeing the pillows, my son stated that he wanted pillows "with something on them!" Hmmm....no solids? So he's been browsing my fabric stash for quite a while now. Wanting a mix of EVERYTHING. Mama doesn't approve, but want the kid to express himself. I'll "guide" him a bit in the right direction though. His pillows will be up next.

Found some inspiration in an issue of selvedge, from Poppy Treffry (loving her name). Check out her shop if you are into embroidery.

LOVE these pillows!

Garden Knitting

I've been knitting in the garden today, finishing up my  puppy. We've had the most wonderful weather this weekend and have been enjoying it to the max!

We've been in the garden, rearranging a few things to make it more "kid friendly" and pleasing to the eye ;o) First we removed a huge pile of dirt from our backyard to our front yard. Not a pretty sight, but we actually just piled it on top of the existing pile, that is helping our house to look like shite.

This is our new and improved bonfire place, the kids playhouse (which we moved quite a bit!), their slide in the background and the "tree house" my husband built for our son - baby sis can't get up in it.

We also moved this beech, so now we're crossing our fingers, that it doesn't die....

Oh and I sent this sweetie to Elisa in Italy, who is having a baby girl! And as you might remember, I sent some wooden dolls for Carols Made For China project and LOOK, the little girl is holding my dolls!!!

Also, I applied for Plush You 2007 and Kristen returned with this post - do you think I'm in?

Easter a la casa karkovski

I want to thank everybody, for all the wonderful comments you give me! It is so uplifting and means a lot more than I can say in words. I'm sorry that I don't get back to everybody - I try - but at least I get back, if you have questions etc. Please know that all words are valued ;o)

On the some what same subject: My email situation is a bit weird at the moment, as I have changed address - karkovski(at)mail(dot)dk - but some mail end up in my husbands in-box! Other mail, that I was gonna get back on, is hanging in my Hotmail and other old address for now. But I'm working on it though. So if you were expecting to hear from me - don't give up!

Very Easter like - wouldn't you say?

We are usually not a family that is busy, but since Friday it's been NUTS around here!

• Friday: School Party at my sons school
• Saturday: Copenhagen - My husband and my Mom took the kids to the zoo, while I helped my Sister In Laws Mom decorate her pet shop windows(big fun). Afterwords we went to my Sister In Laws birthday and took their car back home
• Sunday: We had a friend and his daughter over all day, ending up in a barbecue - yes we start early on barbecues, due to my over enthusiastic husband!
• Monday: The kids and I took my brothers car to visit my husbands Mom and her husband. She took the kids to the beach, while I went shopping for a Spring jacket for my son.We stayed over night
• Tuesday: We got home around 3, my husband came home and took the kids to McDonald's, while I returned the car. My Dad picked me up and I went home with him and had dinner with him and his wife. Took the train and got home around 10 at night
• Wednesday: Was a blur
• Thursday: Relaxing, my husband and son went fishing, my daughter and I did Play-Doh and now we're making cup cakes

Gotta go - time for frosting.....

Sundays Paper

Last Sundays paper had an interesting article on Wall Stickers. I must say I love this idea, as they come of easily. And we ARE in the middle of rearranging our house, so the kids gets their own separate rooms....

The article featured 2 Danish company's - Ferm Living and Boligtrend - which both has some amazing stickers. I've only been familiar with Blik, Barbapapa, maybe a few others and of course wallpaper by Inke.

(These 4 are by Boligtrend)

Go check out Ferm Livings more natural stickers, like branches and flies. Of course my son wants the Water World ones. He thinks they will go quite nice with his Garfield Wallpaper. I dunno. I was going for a more ME, retro, seventies kinda feel to his new room, but he gets the last word. It's his room. Now my daughters room, that's a whole other story. She gets the Barbapapa sticker and of course the flowery wallpaper I got for her last year......

Corners of My Home

My Sweetie Pie's kitchen, for Corners of My Home in our kitchen/dining room. She makes a lot of coffee for her dog Maya here! I love having all those colors - it's really fresh - and she's so close to everything, when she "cooks" as it is in the center of our house. The kitchen, dining room, living room and hall meets here.

The top shelve from the left:

• Painting my Mini Sis made ages ago.
• Photo of Sweetie Pie and frame made when she was in Daycare.
• Matryoshka Dolls by Run Amok.

Bottom shelve:

• Bear by daigadaigaduu from my friend Annu.
• Moomin cards also from Annu.

And of course my Flensted Prize Hen.

I got stuff

Got some new boots on killer sale. I'm not as tall - as Camilla!

Got my new knitting bag from Shinzi Katoh.

Got a new cool chair from my Sister in Laws parents. My SiL just KNEW I would love it. She was SO right. It has been a part of her childhood home - her Dads chair even! It's Danish design and part of a set with another chair and a sofa....sigh....wish they didn't have room for that either!

My daughter got a Laban & Labolina shirt for Christmas, from her 2 cousins and my Sister and Brother in Law. They bought it in Göteborg (Hi Camilla!) and told me I would LOVE the place. They just KNOW me...being the ones to give me my new chair.

Christmas Eve Table

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, with 8 guests - we were 12 people all together - for dinner, dancing and singing around the Christmas Tree and opening a bunch of gifts. The dinner table was set with little Lucias/Angels, hyacinths, clay cut-outs (made by my son), vintage (and some new) Christmas Tree "balls" (what are they called?) and tiny candles. All the colors were very bright and summery - hence they had to go with our dinner ware!!! We all loved it anyway ;o)

We are all enjoying the next few days of peace, with my husband at home - yay! - then comes New Years Eve at our friends house, Husband returning to work and a few more days off for my son and then everything will get back to normal....whatever that is!

A Little Craft Corner

I have occupied a little corner of our dining room. I was tired of having my sewing machine on the dining room TABLE. Luckily this beautiful table was given to me, by my sister in laws parents. Her Mother used it as a "hair cutting table" for dogs years ago. We got a smaller one for my son, he uses it a desk in the playroom and it is terribly messy - all the time. The other day he asked me, if I couldn't have it cleaned up by the time he came back from school! Uhm....no. He made the little angel and the cones in the window. I made the mushrooms out of hobby clay.

This is Me & my Poncho. I found it at the thrift store for $ 6,- I was SO happy, because I really wanted one and had thought of knitting one myself....even though I still haven't finished the shawl I started in the Spring!

This is some W.I.P.. They are for the Christmas table, inspired by Alicia's Lucia's.

Crafty Friday

Friday my friend - Laila - and I had a craft day with the kids. It was such a great day, with lots of fun crafts, kids playing, eating *aebleskiver* and ending up having traditional Christmas eve dinner. My Dad even showed up. (I think he could smell the roast pork with crackling rind!)

I made these 3 angels. The first 2 are paper with felt wings. The third is fabric with feather wings.

Close ups here and here.

I found this photo on line of *aebleskiver* - yummy - and this Aebleskive kit! Go ahead guys. Make aebleskiver.

Around the House

I got my Soft Trees up, my Medusa snow globe, 7 little Babushka-like Santa's I got last year, the Rudolph I recently made and tiny candles.

Windows in the living room with fresh flowers, the "JUL" candle holders from last year, my Babushka Santa and (what looks like planted) mushrooms!

It looks like I took these during the summer, huh? Not very christmassy! And now it's raining.

The Babushka Santa.

Cards by Aunty Cookie. Vintage angels skiing. I found these thrifting last week, as I did with everything in the photo to the right - even the candle! It has little hearts on it, so I don't mind it isn't straight!

This beautiful Nativity Scene by The Toy Workshop is my Christmas purchase! I just got it today and it is absolutely wonderful. Great colors. Well made. And a whole lot LARGER than I thought! (I just saw it at Target.)

My tiny blog break has been due to some terrible stomach trouble - for me - but it seems to be gone now. It DID last a full week though. Bummer.

I like it raw

This is our entrance and staircase....well actually the first photo, is what I see when I sit at the toilet, with the door open! (Which happens quite a lot in a house with little kids.)

In the second photo you can see a hole in the wall (upper right corner) - that is too bring light into a small and dark room. We plan on putting an old window in there at some point. Aka when we're done using it at the bathroom!

Craft Room Lost

I've lost my Craft Room :o(

The kids have taken over the entire room and I have been thrown out! Now I have stuffed my goodies in all kinds of places around the house.

We have 2 old trunks in our dining room/kitchen, that I got from my Grandparents, they now hold all my fabric.

Inside the chalkboard closet, I have my sewing machines, buttons, paper, craft books (I don't have that many, now do I?), various paper, scissors and other "stuff."

Underneath the windows (still the dining room/kitchen area) we have 2 IKEA PS cabinets, which have locks that comes in handy, as I keep paint, finished products and other stuff to *Keep Away from Children.*

Sneak Peak.

Manda's Corner:

Please notice this W O N D E R F U L quilt, that Manda made for my husband and I for our wedding. I SO SO treasure it. She's just amazingly talented.

And then there's my Knitting Area (scroll down). Inside the chest of drawers I have my yarn, knitting needles, stuffing etc.

Well that's my *Studio.* I seem to get a little done once in a while though. Here's my W.I.P. at the moment, with my newest possession: A Danish-English dictionary. Finally. I'm making a pattern with instructions for a project I got involved with, so I SERIOUSLY needed it.

*Playing House*

A little inspiration before todays chores.

         

After cleaning with my daughter, our house looks pretty neat.

:: P A R I S ::

Thursday morning on September 7. at 7:30 CET, Steen and I will fly off to Paris - AGAIN - for FOUR days....without the kids! We have then known each other for 10 years and felt it was appropriate to celebrate!!!

OK, so since this is the month of September, I would like to share my Camilla/Ana/Sabine wall, because it's my fave month in Camilla's calender and it'll be my contribution to this weeks Corners of My Home.

See ya all next week ;o)

I'm back with more whining...

....my weblog is SOOO exiting!

And now I'm totally rhyming.....sorry about that.....my brain is all clogged up, because I've got a cold ;o)

Well my husband (the breadwinner), is working his butt of these days, working evenings, weekends and double shifts!! So I'm pretty much left alone with the kids and my cold. NO... I'm not feeling sorry for myself, just telling you that, I'm a little out there and all my great crafting and re-decorating plans, are not moving a long as fast as one would like. I did manage to bake these super healthy biscuit's today, that the kids hated! Aaaaahhhh....now I have them all by myself and a nice cup of decaf-coffee...(don't wanna hang around too late...)

I also went through all of my son's old clothes, to find something to fit my daughter and to save some baby clothes for my brothers baby  Pablo ;o) Well that's the name my husband came up with and the name we root for. Go Pablo!

I'm gonna have to speed up, with the bedroom for the kids. My daughter sleeps with me, but she really needs her own bed and to find a way to go to bed, that doesn't take up 2 hours of Mommy's evening!!

My son made this mask in kindergarten. He's made some more at home. A wolf for my brother, a hamster for his girlfriend and a tiny dragon for their baby. Oh and a tiger for his Grandma. So creative he is - my son.

And FInally....tomorrow this package will be posted! I have been waiting for these to arrive for Cassidy and it just took forever. I KNOW she'll love'em ;o)

Next I'll be up to a swap with Blair and a magazine swap with Fiona....yay! And of course get my shop up and running. I've got paper all over our dining room table and I'm finishing 2 dogs!

Kiddie Craftin'

My son has signed up for The Mini Swap and he is very ready. Ideas are flying around here and it was real hard, getting him out of the door this morning, to go to kindergarten. He only *chocked* a little bit, when I told him, that he might be making and receiving stuff from a GIRL! Oh....but what do they like? What can they make? I calmed him down, by saying that they like to draw and make stuff, just like himself - phew - he's still game!

Well...my game is on to: I'm doing paper cuts like crazy here. Here is our dining table all set up for today's cutting.

   

I just ordered some more paper, that I found at Moods - I'll be cutting away these next days, to meet my deadline: Beginning of February! I also found some lovely fabric last week, when I went *Thrifting* and I can't wait to put it in to use.

Corners Of My Home Thursday.

Corners Of My House

Yay - a new great way to peak inside peoples houses and a wonderful new Flickr Group to join. Amanda - lovely idea! Very inspiring. I have many corners to show - some I have all ready posted here, here and here.

This is the corner where I knit and do other "hand projects". It has the best light, because the mobile is right next to the window. There are more details here. The photo on the shelve is of Me, my Great Grandma (Olga), my Grandma (Inge) and my Mom (Susanne). My Grandma passed away a few years ago and I miss her terribly. We were very close and it makes me feel very sad now, thinking about her. But I love this photo and it fits right in, to this months theme at SPT.

The sofa is from IKEA and it's very stained. I really want a new one, but then I stumbled upon this place and they have all these slipcovers! I don't know how to choose? I think this one here is  awesome...

 

(Oh and check out Stephanie's "Chickmobile".)

I have a few minutes to blog!

(*Note: or an hour!?*)

Sooo... I couldn't resist buying some Christmas stuff at the shop I work in!

It's a Medusa Christmas tree along with a snow globe I got a few years back.

AND as you can tell: I got my owl print from my swap with Jackie and it's really pretty - I can't wait to frame it and hang it on the wall....sigh...

She also included the 2 tiny figures, standing next to my (new) candles and babushka Santa Clause that I got last year. On the opposite photo, is a candle light holder spelling out "JUL", which means Christmas in danish.

Getting in the spirit here...huh?

Peeping Friday

I'm joining Camilla's peeping - what a great idea. I'm sooo nosey!

So here's my bathroom cabinet:

(I don't use a lot of stuff, huh?)

And here are the previous post's that I missed.

Our fridge - inside'n out + my very empty closet:

The "Royal Red" is beer, otherwise it looks surprisingly healthy...;o)

The sweater hanging at the door is from Vanessa Bruno, I just love her clothes!

See more of her here.

Getting settled....

....craft wise ;o)

I really can't do any crafting without  the proper space, just for me and my stuff!

Sooo... here is my 2 tables with sewing machines and various projects in the making:

• My daughter's skirt.
• Funny ladies paper cut-outs.
• A new embroidery project. (Not sure what it'll end up being?)
• Knit practicing!!

Well, it's actually all ready much more cluttered, since I realized I need a little something for my needles. I also took out my cat project again, because I've been drawing different cats to make and I'm looking through my fabric stash to find some matches.

I better get to it then!

RED.

What's with all the red in our house?