This evening we got home from a perfect sunny family weekend in Southern Jutland. Now, the children are in bed, and I’m seated in the couch with my laptop. I thought I’d tell you about some of the things I’ve made recently. I have made most with the help of tutorials, so I have some nice links for you as well.

This first one has become a favourite of mine already. I used a tutorial from mmmcrafts for a basic messenger bag and this tutorial gets my best recommendations – it’s as good as any pattern you can buy. Thumbs up, Larissa!

My inspiration for my rendition with the bias tape around the flap came from this beautiful version that she made herself. I widened the strap a bit to make sure it’s comfortable to wear, and I used sew-in interfacing to add body to the bag. I’m not too sure about the flower on the flap, but it’s a bit too late for that now. We’ll see what I come up with next time I make this.

This is a bag I will be making again for sure!

So second up, I made doll diaper bags for Ronja and Frida. It all started because I had promised Frida to get her new diapers for her Baby Born doll – I got her diapers for premature babies, because they are much cheaper than the ones in the toy stores. When I got home with the diapers, it quickly came up that she didn’t have a diaper bag to carry them in. Sooooo, I promised I’d make one for her. Ronja heard. Ronja hardly ever plays with that kind of dolls anymore, but if I was making a doll diaper bag for Frida, she needed one as well. What can I say…

I made these two diaper bags in an evening following the Pretend and Play Diaper Bag tutorial here. The girls picked the fabric themselves. The construction of these bags is slightly different compared to the messenger bag above, since the shell of the bags is quilted with batting, which is also what gives them kind of a diaper bag “feel”. The bag has one big room on the inside, and a small pocket on the flap. The tutorial doesn’t mention measurement and placement for the pocket, but I measured the feeding bottles to get it right. Make sure you don’t place the pocket too high, though – you don’t want it to go reach to the top of the flap.

I was planning to make some other stuff as well, changing pads and sewn wipe cases with fabric wipes in them, but I was called to the kindergarten, because Frida had fallen over and hit her head pretty bad. So I spent my afternoon in the emergency room where Frida got stitched up, but at least, when we got home I could cheer her up with the new diaper bag. Both the girls love their bags, so they were worth the effort! And Frida’s head is fine as well.

The latest thing I made is an iPad sleeve.

I actually treated myself to an iPad 2 two days ago (LOVE), and I wanted to bring it with me on the family weekend, however I didn’t have anywhere to put it. I whipped up this sleeve in just under an hour (well, that’s quick for me!) based on this tutorial.

The tutorial is great, I followed her measurements exactly, and the result is good. However, the fit is a bit too tight, and if I were to make this again, which I just might in order to get it quite right, I would take out half a centimeter from the fleece lining compared to the outer fabric on each side. I made the fleece the same size as the outer fabric, and it’s just a little bit too bulky on the inside which means it takes up room that was meant for the iPad. Also, I would add an extra centimeter to the length of the outer fabric. If I make this again, I will let you know the measurements for the iPad 2 that I find to be the right ones.

As usual, I try to gather the tutorials that I like right here – you might find something you like as well!

It truly is amazing – everybody around here is saying it at the moment, but I’m just going to go with the flow, because the weather is incredible! It’s late April, and usually we would be far from summer temperatures, but this year, Easter is like mid-June.

I promised you last year to let you know what happened when we went out and got ourselves a boat in September, so read on if you’re interested – I’ll try to keep it brief.

Since we had Ronja in 2004, we have enjoyed to go on charter trips during our summer vacation, and mostly they have been really successful. However, these past few years, our charter vacations haven’t felt quite as relaxing as we thought they should, and last summer was an eye-opener to both of us. We spent a week in the beautiful Spanish Island, Mallorca, which we have visited once before and were looking forward to visiting again. So… though we did have a trip with many wonderful moments, we both thought that it wasn’t quite as relaxing family-time as we would have liked it to be. Every place you go presents new temptations to the children in the form of candy, icecream, toys, entertainments etc., that basically leave you with two choices – either you give in or you don’t. Neither one of your choices is the good one, and since a huge part of the offer in places like these are based on temptations for the children, we just never quite got the sense of harmonious vacation that we were looking for. Aside from our trip to beautiful Deia, which was pure bliss (can I please live there when I’m old?).

So last year when we returned from Mallorca, we had planned to go canoeing in Sweden with the girls. Tent and all packed, we were ready to go, and when we got to lake Immeln which we had chosen for our trip, it rained. We waited for an hour, had lunch, waited a bit more – but the rain went on. We decided to put on our rain coats and head out in the canoe, certain that it would stop sooner or later. It didn’t. It kept on raining. And the eye-opener was this: The girls sat between us in the canoe, taking turns with a paddle, “fishing” in the water – and singing! They got cold, quite a lot so eventually, but they were happy, gliding through the water, talking to each other and us. We found a place to make a camp, and it was just pooring, so Mads and I got up the tent as quickly as we could, put them in their sleeping bags with crayons and paper, and they warmed up and had fun.

So just to sum up; we had loads of rain the entire time we were there, and we ended up going home one day before we had planned to, but in spite of piles of wet clothes, we had almost no complaints from the girls – quite the opposite. And that was when we decided to do something else with our vacations. Mads and I both love sailing, and in September we bought Anna – our Shipman 28 from 1975.

She has been up during winter, but we had her put in the water again last weekend, and with the weather we have this Easter, today was a brilliant day to go sailing.

Loving, loving, loving it!

The girls were below deck some of the time relaxing together or individually with their Nintendos, but everyone thought we had a wonderful day. Today we came from Hundige Harbour where we usually have our boat, to Køge, which is much nearer where we live, and where we hope to have her by the end of the season (we’re on the waiting list). We’re spending the night at home due to the low night temperatures, but tomorrow we’re taking her back to Hundige – our first real back and forth expedition. Almost.

There you go – this is why we made the rather sudden decision to get a boat, and I personally cannot wait to go on summer vacation in Anna. No charter trip for the girls and us this year.

Christmas Eve came and went. The pixies have been up since December 1st, and the girls have each counted down by opening a small present every day. In case you don’t all know, in Denmark we celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th, which was yesterday. In spite of the vast amounts of snow that doesn’t make crossing the country (or the continent) any easier, the whole family managed to get here - our mothers, my older brother with his family, my younger brother, and Mads’ sister. Mads had prepared the bestest Christmas dinner, and everybody ate way more than they could, which is exactly the way it should be. We lit the candles on the Christmas tree, danced around the tree singing Christmas songs, and presents were distributed generously to the great (over-)excitement of the three children. I think we had a wonderful evening.

Today we went for a walk – not a long one because it is sooooo cold here at the moment. We have been down to minus 18 degrees Celsius which is around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and though it’s not quite that cold now, it’s still freezing outside.

Now everyone left, we almost have the house back to normal, and Mads and I are enjoying a quiet evening. And I want to show you my new SEWING ROOM. At least that’s what I call it. It’s been work in progress for a little while:

So, check out my new hide out!

The entire room, which will be serving as our bedroom as well. The new cabinets are all IKEA kitchen cabinets.

My table – my sewing machines are still under the table, but that is just because I haven’t used the room much yet – we only finished it a bit more than a week ago, and it’s been Christmas, you know.

2.7 meters of oak table top – I got this from Homeworks.dk, and I’m actually quite happy with their service. Most of the places that sell table tops the measurements I needed, are considerably more expensive.

Room for my patterns and sewing magazines.

Full closet for fabric, tools and all kinds of stuff that I need for my sewing.

I really love the room, and I can tell I will be using it a lot for all kinds of stuff – Frida has already spotted the opportunity to come sort her mother’s stuff, while I’m working with something else in there. LOVE it! I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present.

So there it is – A Very Merry Christmas to all of you guys out there!

During 2009, my brother Jakob and his wife Jolanda who live together in Amsterdam, went to Mongolia for a wedding celebration. They spent some time travelling around the country, and when they returned, Jolanda brought with her a fascination of the delicious felt products that were produced by locals in the country.

She has now started a business called Esgii (‘felt’ in Mongolian) and a very nice looking webshop at Esgii.nl importing felt products from Mongolia, produced by individuals and small businesses, using the principles of fair trade. A large part of the population in Mongolia is still living below the line of poverty, and Jolanda’s initiative means that she and her customers will be contributing to a positive development in Mongolia.

It has taken a ton of work on her part, and the thing that carries her is that she is passionate about the products, the way they are produced, and sets high standards for how she wants to move them along.

She currently sets up stands in different markets around Amsterdam, while taking care of the webshop at the same time, so if you live in or near Amsterdam, I can only tell you to go get those gorgeous things. Take a look at the pictures here and her site, to see what you should be expecting. But for now – mostly for the Dutch visitors.

Here’s to hoping she’ll go international before long – I can definitely find a few things that I am adding to my wish list.

When you look at my blog, it does indeed look like nothing much is happening. However, going through my recent calendar, and my recent pictures you would be getting an entirely different impression. I was just checking to see what should be included in a much needed update, and from that, I can totally see why I haven’t had time for blogging.

I miss my blog, my blog reading, and all of you guys out there (if anyone’s left), let me just say that first. However, these past few months work has been terribly busy and quite energy comsuming, which is good because I love what I’m doing – it just takes a few sacrifices. And as if business at work wasn’t enough, we also took on a project in our family – more about that further down.

I’ll give you a picture wrap up – so let’s see what we’ve been doing the last few months.

So – briefly:

Mallorca in July

Canoe trip to lake Immeln in Sweden in July

Ronja starting school in August

Ronja’s 6 years birthday in August

I made these adorable goodie bags from Minimega’s printable pdf for the occasion when the class was visiting – just had to show you!

And now in this look-back we’re approaching September, and of course, in our family we just always need 2-300 things keeping us busy, so we started looking for a sail boat (this is the project I mentioned at the beginning). Our new love will be a separate post (or several, of course), now that I hope I will keep up the posts just a little more than I have the past 3-4 months.

We spent all of our spare time for a month driving around the country (and southern Sweden as well), dragging the children onto all kinds of sail boats that were more or less fit for a family of 4 – in all kinds of weather. Which is a lie, actually, ’cause it was raining almost all the time. We finally found the boat model Shipman 28, which is a good Swedish design by Olle Enderlein from 1969. It seems to live up to the things we were looking for in a sail boat, that is meant to host future summer vacations, and numerous sails during the sailing season – within the price limit we were willing to spend. So check this out:

We named the boat ANNA after my amazing grandmother who died 4 years ago. She was a woman who radiated warmth, wit, interest, and just a presence that anyone around her felt and was struck by – she always had a strong ability to gather the family. So those are the qualities we humbly want our new love to possess – or perhaps rather the name stands for a lot of positive things that we want to carry with us when we are sailing and spending time on the boat.

We have spent quite a few weekends with her by now, and we all love it. The girls are getting used to saling step-by-step, and we cannot wait to spend a summer vacation with Anna.

On to the next thing:

Frida’s 3 years birthday in September

All these things have put quite a strain on the calendar, and remember, this is without the stuff that has been going on in our work lives, which at least in my case has been quite a bit. And did I mention we started renovating the bedroom?

This post reflects very much my need to do a wrap-up before I can move on to the next blogpost. It may seem like nothing, but this is just not really what you want to be doing when you have a blog – you want to write whatever enters your mind at the moment, right? Not much crafty stuff here, and the time-issue is in part an explanation for that, but I have been doing minor things. I’ll let you know more soon.

Pappersbruket is just a 5 minutes drive away from Denningarums Gård, and we arrived there after a brief afternoon detour into the woods for a geocache. It was somewhere around 4 in the afternoon, and we had plenty of time for a shower and some clean clothes before dinner. Jessica who runs the place together with her husband, greeted us and showed us to our room.

As soon as you set foot in the hallway of the hotel, you cannot help but know a lot of love went into the creation of the place – it’s just really beautiful and filled with atmosphere! After we freshened up, we went downstairs and had a look around before dinner.

Every detail in the pretty hotel has been tended to carefully – from the beautiful wallpaper panels to the furniture and the colours. After looking around on our own for a while and being shown around by Peter, Jessica’s husband, we sat down for dinner. Though the host couple were totally sweet with the children, it didn’t take Mads and I long to agree that this would probably be a place we would be more likely to go without children. The girls loved the acoustics and space of the hall and the restaurant – does that tell you anything at all? Calming them down was rather difficult – good thing we were the only ones in the restaurant that evening… Dinner was amazing, by the way!

The girls fell asleep late, and Mads and I stayed up talking, seated in the soft couches. Next morning we had breakfast before Peter took us on a tour of the rest of the site which is used for events of different kinds, and it just showed us once more that everything is so well accomplished it’s hard to believe. It would be a truly great place for a company event of some sort or a large party.

After the tour we borrowed a canoe, so that Mads and I could take the girls out for a little while. We both weren’t too optimistic about how that would work out, expecting the girls to not be able to sit still for more than a little while. We were soooo proved wrong. After a little while the rain started pouring, and we got out the raincoats for both girls.

At this point things could have been way more challenging than they were – the girls were singing most of the way, and in fact they just seemed to really enjoy our quiet trip down the stream – and so did their parents. Mads and I have been canoeing in Sweden quite a few times before we had kids – now I think we may just try a few days trip again soon.

When we got back, Peter was there to meet us with umbrellas and while we got into some dry clothes, Jessica made us a cup of tea. After that we said goodbye and went back to Denningarums Gård to have lunch.

Finally, we were all tired and ready to go home after a great weekend of Swedish impressions – this cool bus is what you see close to the town when you go there – but don’t believe what it’s saying (Helvetets Port = gateway to hell), because Östanå definitely has something to offer.

And now, we’re so off to Mallorca – see you when we get back!

After a two hour drive we arrived at Denningarums Gård in Skåne. The sun was low in a blue sky, and everything looked wonderfully idyllic! The girls immediately ran off to the nearby playground, and Mads and I were welcomed by the friendly host couple of the farm. They showed us to our cabin, a primitive wooden cottage with four bunk beds, facing the stream. We unloaded our luggage, and while we had a look around the place with the girls, they lit the barbecue and brought us baskets with barbecue-ready meat, salads, drinks etc. – mmmmmm.

We had a delicious dinner on the cabin terrace in the evening sunshine.

It sounds almost over the top, I know, but it was great. The girls left the table to go play when they had finished, and Mads and I enjoyed the tranquility of the place. After a while of playing by the stream, we all went to bed early after a long day.

Next day after breakfast we went out on the stream on one of the roofed rafts. We brought a basket with coffee, cake, and juice for the girls – Ulf (the owner) gave us brief instructions, and then we took off down the stream.

We were out sailing for a few hours and it was absolutely brilliant! The girls brought sticks and spent a lot of the time “fishing” – actually, come to think of it, they spent most of the day splashing sticks into water someplace or another.

The rest of our Saturday there, we did nothing but relax. The farm has pet rabbits, emus, llamas, pigs, ducks, and besides all the animals they have a very impressive fruit and vegetable garden. The girls loved the place, and really it’s just a great place to get into a slower pace than what is usual for a family with children like ours.

So far the weather had been slightly chilly, but still very nice. However in the afternoon, when we had gone out for a walk, it began to rain, and as the girls were also starting to show signs of tiredness, we decided to say goodbye to Ulf and Karin for that day and head on to Pappersbruket, where we would be spending Saturday evening and some of our Sunday. More about that in my next post.

The girls had a pool in the garden – they started out like this, and then they ended up soaked, jumping around in the water with absolutely no inhibitions.

Nelle, Frida, and Ronja at dinner in the garden. Nelle’s parents and her younger brother were there as well, and we had a real summery evening, barbecueing in the garden in the warm weather.

That’s just not possible this weekend. It’s been raining pretty much since this morning, and the guests we had over for dinner this evening just had to stay inside and imagine a summery dinner at the garden table. We had a cosy evening all the same, and Mads made some yummy lamb shanks for dinner.

Next weekend we’re going to Skåne in Sweden – my family and I have been invited by Tourism in Skåne to try out some of their offers for tourists, and of course we had to happily accept. Mads and I have taken a number of canoe trips in Sweden years ago, and we generally love the Swedish countryside, so it was an easy call to make. We will be going to Pappersbruket, and Denningarums Gård (sorry, no English version for that last one, but I hope it’s as beautiful as in the pictures – see “Bilder” in the menu on their website). I’m really looking forward to it!

Pappersbruket

Denningarums Gård Surroundings

Tomorrow, however – we will just be relaxing at home. Which is needed after a lot of running around lately – let’s hope for a bit of sunshine.

]]> http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2010/06/12/rain-rain-rain/feed/ 4 http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2010/04/04/rainy-easter-sunday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rainy-easter-sunday http://www.connectingthedots.dk/2010/04/04/rainy-easter-sunday/#comments Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:21:50 +0000 Astrid http://www.connectingthedots.dk/?p=1253

Following a marvellous day yesterday, Easter Sunday has been rainy. We were planning to go somewhere, light a fire and make twistbread with the girls, but with the weather today, it just wasn’t possible – or at least it would have been rather wet.

Instead we painted Easter eggs (better late than never), and had good friends over in the afternoon.

Tomorrow is my last day off before I start my new job – and Ronja’s last day off before she starts in the after-school centre. She will be going there full time as kind of a transition period, until she starts school for real in August. What a big Tuesday for this little family.

Maybe tomorrow we will have weather for twistbread…

Happy Easter!

I made a Lickety Split bag for spring a while ago as a gift for a special blog-friend. I didn’t show you then, but it’s more than appropriate now, because I think I can say with confidence, that spring is finally here!

These are pictures from yesterday afternoon, when the girls and I enjoyed the sun in the garden. Mads was out with his friend Martin and thousands of other motorcyclists celebrating the annual opening of Bakken Amusement Park – the oldest amusement park in the world. (If you’re curious, the first to paragraphs here explain the event rather well.) I do believe they enjoyed themselves as well!

So now that I’ve proved to you that spring is really here – this is the Lickety Split in my dotted spring-version.

I made it just the same way as usual (previous versions here and here) – followed Rae‘s pattern, and added sew-in interfacing to give it a touch more body and a magnetic snap. I’m really fond of it, and I think the recipient was as well.

And speaking of Rae – don’t forget that her awesome Spring Top Week is about to begin. Tops can be entered from March 30th, and all the details on how to participate are on her blog. Even if you don’t participate, the amount of inspiration found in the many contributions is amazing – and that will be revealed over on Rae’s blog in the beginning of May.