Victorian little bits

Dried my tears after last post (yes, there were tears, a lot of tears, deal with it) and now it's onwards and upwards with some hats and stuff! There isn't really that much to say about it other then that I made some hats.. One red velvet bonnet, which I forced both my child and sister to wear before I came to the conclusion that I must have accidentally made a child bonnet ..or both me and my sister suffer from large headedness... either way. But I'm still pretty happy with it! I started it the same day as we went to Dickens World in Chatham (finally!!) so I felt inspired.. 

The other one I made that day too and is supposed to go with my latest Victorian dress and a jacket for the next Dickensian Christmas hopefully. It's really just Lus old upcycled summer hat but hopefully it will look like it fits in. I like that it's a bit torn, that's kind of the look I'm going for. I also really do like making hats because it's so easy, it's just stuff glued onto other stuff really. The only bit of sewing is inside and the back of the bonnet, that I did hand sew to make sure it fit.

This on the other hand requires much more sewing! I've started my next Victorian dress. It's going to be emerald green and dark grey. I found the green fabric in my next door charity shop and though.. "that looks like arsenic green!" so yeah, that's how I knew. We'll see how it goes...

 Because passion was never a weakness.

Ljusa kvällar om våren.

I was 4 years old when I first felt it. The unease. The longing for something unknown far away..

I sometimes wonder how much I have in common with my ancestors who emigrated in the 1800's.. It seems people don't really change that much on a personal level from century to century and even if the practical things are very different I can very well imagine they might have felt a lot like me. We mustn't forget that our generation is the first in living memory to have a darker future than the generation before.

When I first came to England it was a one way trip I didn't know if I would ever return from. Sometimes when I lie in the grass looking up at the trees I'm amazed at how soft it all looks and I think...that to my son this will be normal. That's a very divided feeling.

From the mid 1860's on there was a mass emigration of Scandinavians out of what was then poor developing countries because of lack of jobs, bad harvests and harsh winters that lead to mass starvation. My own grandmothers father left for America just like many others.. apparently there are about 8 million descendants of Scandinavians in America only and, to put that into perspective, that's about the whole population of one of the countries in Scandinavia. I find this really fascinating not only because I live with the legacy of that but because I made the same choice and it saturates my family and my whole being..

In the end the conclusion is always the same now or a 100 years ago: 

Våra barn ska aldrig känna längtans vånda och ve.
Inga klara syner från mitt förgånga ska doms se
De ska aldrig fråga sig om det knoppas eller blommar
I landet långt bort, och länge sen
Inte höra ljud av skratt i symmningen
Som ekon i från barndomsåren
Ljusa kvällar om våren

I still remember how that cracked road felt under my feet

 And it is more than worth it. 


For as an emigrant you get the best of both worlds. Life really is better. You get to live on and feel free with all the knowledge and experience it gives you while building something completely new.. And those memories of the cracked road under your feet will forever be perfect in your mind. Nothing can ever take my rose-tinted memories away with the flawed reality. 
I get to keep the beauty and forget the darkness.. So that is what I will share if my son ever asks if the place that once was my home is still there. Because in my mind the apples still hang on the trees..just waiting..

Jag är äntligen fri.

29.

This week when my sons friend asked me how old I am and his mother pulled him away and told him not to be rude I waited a moment..then I leaned down to him and whispered '29'. Even if I feel old and worn in many ways by now 29 isn't all that old, but it is old enough to be proud of!

When I thought about it it hit me..child sized me always thought that 30 was the year people were considered old and properly grown up and..my life is exactly as I imagined it..when I sat by the road side in the Swedish countryside..trough all the hardships and abandonments and uprootings...while meeting all these people that has made my life worth living. Seeing the beauty in the bad and experiencing the freedom of a new world.

During all the disbelief.

Sometimes I can not believe I made it.

 

Next year I will have lived twice as long as doctors once predicted..and man, has it been a cool ride so far!

 

 

Wands wands wands...

 I didn't have enormously high hopes that this would work even if I did find it on pinterest, but I though it was kind of fun and worth a try!

For the wand for Lus Halloween costume we needed chopsticks, hot glue, paint and some random beads and buttons. I meant for us to do it together, Lus and I, but I soon realised that letting a 7 year old use the hot glue gun might be a form of child endangerment sooo he had to stick to supervising and directing. To make it fair I got one wand and he got the rest. 

So! I glued on the beads and button and went on to make a glue base and pattern on the chopstick. Turns out hot glue really doesn't want to stay still so we had to blow on and spin them until it cooled down. Some of them got sprinkled with nail art sprinkles because..why not.

I must say though, it did look promising.

After it had dried we painted them in a base colour, 2 black a brown and a green one, and left them to dry. You can clearly see where I wussed out and held the wand in one end while Lus went all the way with the paint!

So finally I painted some details in different colours. I'm not sure if I like them more or less with the details right now but it does make them look more magical! And as long as the child approves that's all that counts. 

Now all that remains is a coat of clear lacquer to make sure it all stays in place.

Magical.

Alohomora!

*creeek*

So yes. This year I'm making a Hogwarts costume for my Lus and in true Lus-style he sides with the dark side so it will be a Slytherin costume. Of course it will. He does have a slight resemblance to Draco Malfoy, but not enough for dementors to search him out in the toilet, just saying! It has been a long few days at Hogwarts.

First I'll finish up the scarf and make these chopsticks into wands..

..then I plan to make the long black robe and possibly a broomstick. 

To be continued.

Period.

We need a book like this to exists.I played around with it and made this picture for fun but how awsome wouldn't it be if there really was such a book that came in that package you get when you turn 12 with pads and that one condom you never use since you're 12 after all.. Because tracking your menstrual cycle is really fucking interesting and I can't believe no one ever told me that! Omg it's amazing how much there is to learn!

Seriously. My mind is blown.

Welcome to the borrowers!

It took a while from the time when my Lus asked me to build him a house until we actually finished it. Partly because I find it difficult to make things based on someone else's imagination..and partly because I made it together with a very distractable 7 year old. But we did it!

 We finally decided on making a house in the way it would be if borrowers lived there. Remember the borrowers? The little people that live under the floors and take things humans no longer need or wouldn't miss..but it's not stealing, its borrowing. 

So all of this is made from things we already had around the house, but this time it had to remain looking like what it originally was which turned out to actually be really tricky! The paper walls and shot glass chairs and scrap blankets still look like all of that but now it's useful for a little one as well..

 

It was, after a while, a lot of fun doing things as a mother-son-building team. I would have never painted it yellow but it totally works. The slide down from the bed..also his idea. The matchbox table and stick-ladder are my personal favourites. And to finish it off he made a little doorbell.

Finally the little Lus shaped borrower got to move into his new home. Who knows, there might be more of them coming...

But for now, it's just little Lus and his pet frog, having a feast.