Mid July images

Tags

dog, flowers, garden, summer

Investigating other forms of plant “dyeing”.

I don’t eat fish balls in a tin, but they are excellent for teaching dogs to follow scent trails

Face wash coming right up

The garden has been overflowing with various poppies this year

Dog proofing my new fig tree, birthday present from my Mum

Plastic vanes suck.

Tomatoes coming along, but slow getting red. Again. Although some are black!

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El niño Chico

Tags

cute, dog, pets, puppy, relax

Yesterday a break from my usual projects to meet my new model. My mum has been aquired by a small lapdog, currently 9 weeks old. Smaller than my cats! And very, very happy.

Watching paint dry

Tags

colour, country life, DIY, dog, tools

Literally. Is what I was doing yesterday.

First, I forgot to give my boards (for the painting wip storage thing) their last coat of paint the other night, so I had to do it early morning (6 hours’ drying time). The garage is too cold and messy, so I’m doing this on my dining work table in the living room. Which means, cats are going to investigate – so I had to sit and watch (until I quit, locked them in the kitchen and went for my shower).

Then I wanted to try matching the wall colour where I’d filled in holes. Most of the holes were only pin pricks from nails, but you know, even if you wipe, some filler gets onto the wall (structured wallpaper). I was a bit scared to use black in my mix, so I definitely did not get it in first attempt even if I tested on a small portion elsewhere – must have faded a bit there. Each time I tried a new layer, I made the circle slightly wider, to blend it in a bit, right? Not. So I ended up with multiple large splotches on the wall in varying shades of “cream”. I’d like to renovate the room whole house and just paint it white, but that was not today … Of course we all know that most colours dry up a bit darker, so I was having a hard time containing myself from trying new layers and also anxious to know when I’d hit the mark. Perhaps it dries a little faster if I keep an eye on it? I did, just in case. To the point of burning my omelette – which I had to go eat in the bedroom would you believe it, because the cats were very much asking for a third breakfast if I tried to sit down.

Molly can’t sleep without rearranging the entire sofa. I didn’t have the heart to wake the old girl and tidy up before taking a picture. It looks like this all the time. Now you know.

Anyway, I eventually broke out the black and it went a bit better. I can’t match the gloss, but it would be nice if it’s not the first thing you notice about the room. I even resorted to using “glazes”. And now it simply has to be good enough. Most of it will be covered in pictures anyway, which was the whole point of the board exercise: To be able to store, dry, hang various small paintings out of the way, to be able to move and rearrange without making new holes every day, and make it slightly decorative as well.

The idea is to hammer nails into the boards instead of the wall, basically. And not have to measure the height every time, just the three options, take it or leave it. I couldn’t find my box of little nails for the purpose, so I have yet to show you the finished result.

G casually asked me if the house is going to end up looking like hippies live here. I didn’t have a definite answer. It’s very much a Danish thing that you should conform, the norm is good enough and no reason to want or be more. While I’ve never really conformed, I have felt restrained at times, both physically (tiny house) and otherwise.

Well, I’m fed up with being less than me. It has nothing to do with feeling better than others, simply that I want to be all of me. Not just some parts of me, the acceptable ones, the managable ones, the inconspicuous ones. And if being me right now involves turning this tiny house into a workshop with looms on the wall and arranged for storage space rather than a modern show home, so be it.

Spotty

Tags

dog, inspiration, quote

Pia's Photos

Be weird, be random, be who you are. Because you never know who would love the person you hide.

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Activity?

Tags

blogging, colour, creativity, dog, dogwalk, forest, intention, knitting, reading, snow, spinning, winter, wool, yarn

So I promised this would be knit-week and then I haven’t had any more show and tell here. Such is life. I did knit, but not as much as I hoped. To prove that I have indeed been doing something, I’ll share my tada! list with you:

1. Got the plant dyed yarns out and started on the first planned project – using the oldest ones since the new ones really should sit until next year so I can see how much they fade in storage.
2. Finished priming one of my homemade sketchbooks, working away on the others, one 2/3 done, one just started.
3. Started doodling in the sketchbook.
4. Did some painting 2 days in a row even.
5. Read some books, some nonfiction as well as “The Sunne in Splendour” by Sharon Perman
6. Walked the dog in the forest quite a lot, as per request. AND tested the pocket camera I was given.
7. Started spinning some fiber I dyed last summer, just recreational spinning, no project in mind. Another one lined up for a challenge.
8. Made a few stencils out of laser transparencies which I was given a whole package of (100). The circular cutter came in handy among other things!
9. Baked swedish buns “rågsiktskakor”. Yum.
10. Woven almost half of the ends on my sweater dress and wore it.
11. Decluttered my desk.
12. Found a foam block and the fiber that I wanted for some needlefelting.

Aktiviteter

Jeg havde jo lovet at holde strikkeuge, men det er ikke meget jeg har fået rapporteret her. Jeg har strikket en smule, men ikke så meget som planlagt. Så nu vil jeg i stedet kede jer med ugens tada! liste, ikke at jeg holder op i weekenderne, men jeg trænger til at lige huske hvad jeg egentlig har nået.

1. Rodet lidt i mit plantefarvede garn, taget et par nøgler frem til mit første planlagte projekt og strikket nogen prøver.
2. Færdig med at grunde den ene af mine hjemmekogte notesbøger, 2 mere på vej.
3. Skriblet en smule i bogen.
4. Malet en smule, endda 2 dage i træk.
5. Læst et par fagbøger færdig og et par romaner, “The Sunne in Splendour” af Sharon Perman og “Taxo Luma” af Lars Muhl (meh).
6. Taget på hundeture i skoven og testede det brugte lommekamera jeg har fået.
7. Begyndt at spinde noget BFL jeg farvede i sommer, ikke med noget særligt formål, bare afslapning. Og fundet mere uld frem til en udfordring på Ravelry.
8. Kreeret skabeloner af overhead folie som jeg fik forærende, cirkelkniven kom lige til god anvendelse igen.
9. Bagt svenske “rågsiktskakor”.
10. Syet nogen af enderne på min sweater, damn det er kedeligt….
11. Ryddet op på mit skrivebord.
12. Fandt en skumblok og de fibre jeg vil bruge til mit første nålefilteprojekt.

Talking in BIG letters

Tags

cat, cats, dog, intention, pets

Dalton would like me to make him a snuggly man cave, pls.
Dalton kunne godt tænke sig en hyggelig hule at putte i.

Molly says I should take her to the woods instead of cramming horsefeed into her travel compartment.
Molly siger jeg skal fjerne mit skrammel og hestemad fra hendes kupe og køre hende en tur i skoven.

They always talk to me in various ways. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I’m just daft.
Mine dyr fortæller mig mange ting – nogen gange lytter jeg, andre gange er jeg bare fatsvag.