Shop Local Scandinavia

Shop Local Scandinavia on Etsy, originally uploaded by -syko-.

This is one of many reasons it's been so quiet here on the blog lately. I was asked to make a "Shop Local Scandinavia"-guide for the Storque, which is the Etsy blog. Click here to meet some great crafters from all over Scandinavia! The bags under my eyes tell the story about how many tomte people I have created during the last month. I have two craft shows coming up, the first one in two weeks and I've still got lots to do. Next year I will have to hire someone to help me cope with everything! I am also supposed to make a pattern for a book, a nice swap parcel and a few other things... I guess all this means my business is growing :) Which is a good thing, right?

For those of you who are in Finland - please check out my web site for information on where to find my Christmas stuff for sale.

More news soon! Hope you are all well! We've been coughing for a couple of weeks now :(

Crows, roads and leaves

My mum, Agneta Wikman, has opened up her own etsy shop! I have tried to persuade her to do it for a long time, and yesterday was the day! It's all about this crow with a lot of personality. The crow experiences things that are very typical for people in my family, but they have proved to be very universal :) This is my sister, my dad, me... I'm sure you will find one that reminds you of someone, or reminds you of you. You can buy the crows as postcards or art prints and you should be able to pick as many cards as you like to the same postage cost. There is 19 different motives. The crow above arrived together with a great (x2) cap for my birthday last year. Please take a look at mamma's shop and welcome her by giving her an etsy heart!

I've been working on a theme that has been dear to me since I was about five, I think (I admit having a 20 years break in between). I loved drawing cities with roads and houses and trees and when I do it today I feel I can still somehow connect with the thoughts that little girl had when she was imagining her city. This is the first road cushion I've finished, I have two more on the go. It is in the shop and sold with an insert this time. I am working on some more cushions with a rectangular shape and more "grown-up" themes. Even if I think this linen cushion would look as great on the living room sofa as in the kid's corners.

We've had some really nice sunny, but crisp Autumn days the last two weeks. We went for a walk yesterday and I had to run back home to fetch my camera, the colours were too gorgeous not to document! I hope the sun shines where you are!

As time goes by

Days just seem to go by while I am waiting for everything to get back to normal (school starts in two weeks). I am making very slow progress on my craft projects at the moment, some days I just choose to give up after 136 interruptions by needing kids. But hey, I wanted to have them so what am I complaining about! So then I just talk to my flowers on the patio instead and try to zoom in the nice spots in our cluttered home. And I go on to do all those things mums usually do while my head is boiling with new ideas (yes, it's been HOT here!).
I am very proud to tell you that Holly from decor8 has picked my shop for her Etsy Take Five Tuesday today! She talks so nicely about my work, thank you! Thanks so much Malka for letting me know about it! Malka makes the most amazing quilts from a mix of her own hand dyed and batiked fabrics and commercial fabrics. If you haven't seen Malka's quilts already you should move on to her flickr or her shop now! Just look at this Great Aunt Irma Patchwork Mini Quilt, I love the faded colours, but I also adore the lime green wall that she uses as background for her shop photos!

Follow your heart

One of my most popular photos over at flickr is the one of two turquoise linen dresses for little girls. I have been meaning to put the follow-your-heart appliqué on other things too. Orders, life and time has kept me from doing it, but today I decided to make some cushion covers for my shop. I just needed to follow my heart, instead of my to-do-list, today ;) There will be more cushions during the coming week, I'm off to shop some more linen now. Meanwhile I suggest you take a look at Sara Ahearn 's work, so beautiful!

Oh, and that chair, I know you are going to ask, is from Ikea. I bought it last Summer.

Original me

When I was young, sorry I meant younger, I used to try hard to be different. I had a strong belief that normal was bad (and deep inside I knew I was one of them...). Trying to be different applied to clothing and creativity as well. I wished to be creative, but since I had some difficulties with getting in touch with the deep suffering me, I could not make ART. Though I had read The Idiot by Dostojevski and a range of other Russian classics. The advantage of getting old, sorry I meant older, is that you start to understand the meaning of community and interaction. That people don't live in a vacuum, even not the very creative individuals. I started to think about this when I excused myself for jumping on the owl trend making this cushion a while back. I got another reminder of this yesterday when I received the etsy finds newsletter and found my house scarf featured in it. Hurray! In the newsletter Anda says: I'm an applique maniac (you can see my whole Etsy shop here, I used to sell full time back in 2006) and thought I was being original when I made some house appliques a few months ago...turns out I was tapping into another Etsy meme.

This made the deep teen devil on my shoulder crazy:
"-And you have been making pouches with house appliqué on today!"
"-You are just like everybody else!"
"- So what!" I replied. I love appliquéd houses and my appliqués look just as original as I am. And a lot of other people share my joy. Which makes me happy :)

Mailday

mobile for swap, originally uploaded by painted fish studio.

My mobile from Elsie Marley's mobile swap arrived the other day and I love it! I love the colours and the contemporary look of it and wish I had a beautiful burgundy wall like Jen (painted fish studio) to hang it against (see picture). Thank you so much, you made my day Jen! Check out the painted fish studio shop too! I especially love these block printed coffee cup cards: