Autumn is here!

 

After having mourned the loss of my summer it was kind of nice to wake up to the realities of the British autumn. While at this time 2 years ago I was lighting fires and brushing the frost off my bike in the morning, now  the leaves are barely yellow.. 

So today Lus and I put on our knitwear and scarves and took a walk through the streets of Maidstone, on a quest for "red berries". 

 

Aside for the pride I feel over my child's newly acquired skill of swinging, I also feel hopeful that I'll get my autumn doorway done this week! It's a small thing but you know what they say...it's the small things in life. (They also say the devil is in the details, but I'm ignoring that for now! Vanity, here I come!)

 Some days ago we made some tin-lanterns and now the rowanberry-beads will join them. 

Tin lanterns were a lot harder to make then they look! It was supposed to be mine and Lus project but after possibly even a minute my husband had to step in and be manly with a hammer...slight set back there..but it turned out to be a lot of fun. In the end we made a star, a heart and a pumkin-face.

The rowanberry-beads were a lot easier. Lus deemed them useless and juicy. For now they hang around in the window...

Now all I have to do is steal that chair in the garden and claim it as mine! and possibly make a pillow and a rug rag.

Lastly, you know that circus picture? yeah, this is what's up with that: I recently got my self some old-lady rollers because, you know, I'm 27 it's time for a change. I wet my hair and put them in... I expected a 40's look..but I looked like those early 20th century carny girls I've seen in Carnivale and Water for the Elephants more than anything. So until my hair grows out, I'm just going to go for that! It's kind of a cool thing anyway and I need to practice my flexibility... Tomorrow the rest of my red silk sheet will become a 30's circus girl dress. If I don't get arrested for assault at the parent-teacher meeting that is (the best I can possibly say about the teacher is that she has a lose grasp of the obvious). Let's hope not!

Red-lipstick-kisses x

Dreams vs. Responsibility

Let's just be serious for a moment. What is the right thing to do? Yesterday I realised that now (this is way too soon!) is the time I should start to teach my son about the rules of society versus the right thing to do.. and today it was brought up about my own life. 

I'd be a very different teacher!

Haven't I given enough? Haven't I been strong enough for now..? I want to follow my own dreams now. I want to be free to be weak and do the impossible. I want to follow my domestic and artistic dreams.. 

Then my friend turned to me and said, " I wish you could be my child's teacher. You have such insights when it comes to children and these things, you should really think about it."

And I knew it would be the right thing to do.

Damn that right thing!

For now I am going to make a selfish decision ..as far as I can..but it will haunt me to now do the right thing..

Christmas fair in the air!

So yes, even if it's still a long time until Christmas I have this idea: I want to go to a Christmas fair. And not as in just going and freezing and looking and buying a lollipop (yes, that is my usual experience) and then go home, I want to be one of the people who sell stuff. 

I know I have never been much of a sales person..God knows I hate grumpy costumers and smiling..but I'm going to now wonder, MAYBE I hated it so much because I had to. Maybe it was the angry people I couldn't understand, early hours in a cold shop by my self eating dry bread and carrying things almost my own weight just to make enough money to keep my one room and buy my dry bread. It was the best I'd had at the time, but maybe... Maybe now it would, like so many things, be like a different world all together? 10 years and new countries make a lot of difference.

What I'd really want to do is have my own fabric and costume shop and live on top of it..already have potential places picked out..but for now I'd absolutely love to be at a Christmas fair!

Just a working title, but you get my point

I did go once with my mother in law, but I think I could do better a second time. It's not as easy as it sounds in my head unfortunately. Right now I'm still looking for different fairs, building up the courage to call/e-mail people and figuring out how to get around without a car. Hopefully this is early enough..

The easy part about this is what to actually sell if I get out there! Aside for the little dolls I already have I want to make the street children I've had in mind now for a while.. and of course, there is my fascination for making adult clothes in children's sizes and all things Victorian. 

Right now though I feel a bit like a Cinderella looking out through the window dreaming ridiculous dreams..

Here's to hoping!

Groundwork and Birthdays

I can't say I've ever really been that good at the ground work of things...it's time consuming and monotonous at best and pealing the skin off my fingers at worst. BUT! the best things are set on a good ground, I can't deny that, so this week I did some ground work! 

Firstly there's the pillows. In true bohemian style I like to do things in a sort of poor decadence.. which in many cases mean buying something very cheap and basic and/or second hand and making it into something extraordinary. So inside covers made of second hand fabric from across the street ( it was adorable!) are ripped up pillows from Wilkinsons. And they are...awesome. Just awesome. Now I can continue to work on the pillowcases and duvet covers. 

I have actually decided to buy the fabric and just sew it all my self from now on, partly because everything are sort of weirdly sized now..but mostly because, for some reason, the British lie to sleep on polyester. Everywhere I go I see "cotton sheets- 45% cotton 55% polyester". THAT'S NOT COTTON!! I said in Asda yesterday morning... So now I'll only be keeping my sheets brought with me from Scandinavia and the ones I make my self. 

It might seem picky..but my bed is my shrine. If you know what I mean.

I love it when people know me

Secondly (and with a proud smile), I made a bag for my hair rollers. I made it with my hands! All except the last bits are entirely by hand to the sounds of Midsumer Murders. And my fingers might never forgive me. But they probably will. They are fingers..

But now, to continue my Victorian education..and celebrate my 27th birthday, I will take a long bath with my birthday present: "How to be a Victorian".

Last but not least I want to share something I watched this morning. It is a story about a man who left the 20th century behind to live in the 18th century...ish. This could so be me if I didn't have my beloved family...but I'd be more historically accurate...hopefully.

Ghosts and other gouls

 English autumns are different then Nordic autumns. I'm not in any way surprised that this is the country with the most ghost-believers in Europe. This is a country that in many ways lives with one foot in this world and one foot in the past..for both good and bad. It's damp, dark and still kind of warm...The stone and brick houses become grey and dripping with fog and the streets are dark and narrow. It's just on the edge between inviting and scary. I watch the flame dance in my oil lamp. My feet are like England's... one foot here...one on the other side. 

Ghosts are a subject that, unsurprisingly, always comes up more often in the autumn. It's the old age of the year, if you will. And everyone should know by now, one is never more alive then at the sight of death.

Now people wait for Halloween (or all hallows eve, as some "Christians" like to separate them selves here...I don't get it. Surely we're all Christians?) and the end of this year. My son started early and asked for a ghost costume weeks ago, so I did already make a ghost costume. When it was done it looked so cool I almost thought about making one for my self as well... I might still.  Although I hear most ghosts just wear white and look a bit grey and that look wont be hard to achieve!

The ghost costume I made is actually supposed to be a mix of Casper the friendly ghost and the Ghost of Christmas past. He couldn't make up his mind. So it's basically a long white dress with hood and wings..sort of. And it has a drawstring in the hood  with room for glow sticks. So for Halloween all I need to get is some white face paint to do the ghost face!

 Although there is a risk he'll just be spiderman. Those fickle 5 year olds!

Costumes aside though, ghosts has always fascinated me..I'd like to read the book "haunted Maidstone" to see where I might run into some, but to be honest I doubt one should look for them. And also..a good ghost story should always be told, not read. It sometimes makes me a little sad how people seem to want to connect ghosts with evil.. I have never truly been that scared of them. In my mind they are all just people left behind. They were all people once with their own stories and lives and struggles..Just thinking how much we could learn from the stories of past people if they could tell them...if they even exist..One day I might wander trough this house as a grey shadow my self. And I doubt my ghostly shape will mean any harm.

Last of all, I cant talk about ghosts without mentioning the Tudors and Hampton court palace. There is something ghostly over the whole Tudor period. I'm sure everyone by now has heard of the  door-closing skeleton on film, but I'm putting it here anyway. 

 When I went to Hampton court I almost hoped to see my favourite ghost of all, Anne Boleyn. 

One of the best compliments I have ever had was that I am just like her. One can only hope though.

Happy haunted autumn to all.

Because this is all I have to say today

To be continued..