Another inspiring trip

I have been away again. We have visited Äppelviken (The Apple Bay), the place where we are going to spend our future Summers. It is also dad's hobby and passion. This is Villa Agnes, built by him on a big stone. The Swiss flag was hanged to greet my sister and her boyfriend when they came over from Switzerland this Summer :) The plan for next Summer is to move an old log house there, which will become our Summer house. My dad bought this piece of land two years ago (or is it three already) and he and mum have worked really hard to make it an oasis for the whole family. They were planning to build a new house, but got the offer to save an old house instead, which thrills the Ethnologist in me, of course :)
This is little e tasting the harvest. The sweetest carrots ever! Which reminded me of a carrot pouch I made a long time ago.
Sunday was spent at the Autumn fair at the outdoor museum Stundars. On the picture I'm posing with Ms Hedgehog, an American quilt blogger who happens to live in Vaasa (the town where my parents live). I was so happy when she showed up, I have been waiting for one of my blog contacts to turn up, we had a very nice chat!

We had the best sunny weather so I very much enjoyed myself chatting away with happy people. I particularly remember a lady in her 60's who stopped at my stand and looked at everything and said that " I wouldn't know what to do with all this stuff, but this is CREATIVITY".
Talking about creativity - on the way home we stopped at Malakta, an amazing place in the countryside some 40 km from the nearest town. A young couple, Maja and Jukka, has created a creative oasis in what used to be a dairy. We arrived in the middle of a cake party (I regret that I didn't take any photos inside), everything looked delicious! There also was an exhibition space and a little shop with new crafts and thrifted goods. I am very happy to announce that my cards are now for sale in this shop!

I was talking about a give away in my last post- here it comes to celebrate post 166, or was 167! Just leave a comment on this post and you will be in the draw for a little something made by me!

Summertime

vinden drar, originally uploaded by -syko-.

We are back home after a wonderful Midsummer with good friends in the archipelago. The exhibit is now hanged so I am free to move on to the next (secret ;) project. The kids are home so I will try to take some time off too, the best way to relax is to get away from all projects. Today I hit the Summer sales with little E and we had a really nice time. Big E turns six tomorrow so we got her some nice clothes. We stopped at a café for a snack and took the bus home (taking the bus instead of the car is a great adventure for the little boy!).

I have posted more pictures of the exhibition at flickr. I am sorry that I did not take any close-ups of my mums work! The actual hanging was more challenging than making the big quilt, I thought, but I think we finally managed to hang everything quite nicely. The mostly white backgrounds of our textiles look great against the old logs.

I got the opportunity to exhibit at Pellas because I worked there as a museum guide 10 years ago when I studied Ethnology. Since that the house has burned down and been rebuilt again! The fire was a great tragedy in the small community and it feels very good to see the house rebuilt again. This year it is open to the public again and I am very happy to be part of it!

Greetings from Switzerland

I don't feel like being on a break anymore so I think I'm back! I went to Switzerland alone with my two kids last week to visit my sister. It was an exciting first flight and trip abroad for them but everything went fine and we had a great time. I can highly recommend Zürich as a safe and nice place to travel with kids. Two big toy stores, zoo, trams, water and big green parks. AND they have some great souvenirs to take home. I chose a SOUVENIR as you can see... I also found a treasure box full of buttons at the cleanest thriftstore I've ever visited. More pictures from our trip here.
I am happy to tell you that I am a proud owner of this teacup print by Seealso. It is the first in a collection of etsy teaprints I'm planning to get for our kitchen wall. Any suggestions or any tea-art of your own to offer me?

I'll be back soon with a little new crafting. I'm working on a big wedding gift, three more weeks to go...