Random buys and my first wholesale order...

I'm now on the craft show circuit until Xmas and something I like to do is buy a souvenir from each craft show I do. The first is a cute little ceramic bird that I couldn't resist, bought from pottery artist Majlis Elgåker at Konstfest Spinnet, Habo. He now resides on my bead-room window sill:

My neighbour at the YMCA craft show last weekend in Bankeryd Carines Virkade Kakor sold gorgeous crocheted cakes. I had to treat myself to the most Swedish of cakes, a princess cake:

On another note, my first wholesale order has now been delivered to Fröken Frö, Habo. I'm so excited that my jewelry is going to be sold there! The shop has now moved to the high street in Habo so the address given on her website here is the old one. Here's a little taster of my items:

Craft Show at Spinnet 2011

It hardly seems like a year since I did my very first craft show, at the old wool mill in Habo, Spinnet. Now I'm there for the second time. Such a lot has happened in the year that has passed and my full-time bead business and jewellery webshop joony.se are now officially up and running!

Here's a little taste of the photography and jewellery that I'm displaying this year. And if you are in the area, you're welcome and take a look in person. Carina who runs the café makes a great apple cake, so it's worth making the trip for that alone! Konstfest runs until October 9, 12pm-7pm every day.

Back to school

This weekend was the official opening of the huge new primary school that they have built down the road from us. They had an open day for the general public to come and have a look round. It was very impressive and miles away from the dingy primary schools I remember from my childhood. I snapped some photos on my phone.

The art gallery-like main entrance

 No narrow, dark corriders here

Each class had its own entrance and each classroom had a door out to the yard, with benches and tables so that the children could work outside.

The whole school was decorated in fresh lime and white. Even the kitchen staff all had matching lime t-shirts.

 Many classrooms had smartboards

 

I have never been in - or worked in - a teacher's room this big! And every teacher's room had a little kitchen. And a kettle!

The main building is shaped like an E, and at the end of each of the 3 blocks there is an after-school club. At the top of these stairs.....

 ..... was a chill-out area for the kids.


The best bit of course was the yummy carrot cake on offer in the cafeteria

 

Dear Acorn

Thanks for making such a satisfying crunch when I step on you when out walking.

Like this? Then here's my inspiration.

Freddie M

Today would have been Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday. This year in November it's also 20 years since Freddie died. Unbelievable. So here's a tribute to the greatest showman and performer ever, IMHO.

The day after.....

Saturday night we had a barbecue to celebrate Mr. M's move into my house in Habo. I was planning on documenting this occasion with my camera, but people started to arrive, the wine started to flow, the chicken sizzled on the grill and all thoughts of photography went out of my head. It was a lovely warm evening, with great company and we sat out well into the night.

These are scenes taken on Sunday morning, when we woke up to the rain and a bit of a hangover to be quite frank........

Gällstad

Alice and I took a trip to the outlet town Gällstad last weekend, to buy jeans, and discovered this sweet interior design store called Hemma Hos Haglund. Their blog is well worth a visit too as the photography is great.





These tin signs got our attention. I especially liked the 'Mirror mirror on the wall, what the hell happened?' one!







But in the end we went with these: Alice bought the top one and I bought the Shoot for the moon one. It is going to hang in my workroom and remind me to aim high in my new business venture.

Market day

I have done a few craft shows now, but never a market. So when I saw Mullsjö market advertised a couple of weeks ago I rang up the organisers and booked myself a spot. As I don't have a huge inventory (I usually make to order) I quickly got to work, to get my stock levels up.








The day before the market things were NOT looking great weatherwise. It rained non-stop all day and was windy and cold and I was seriously thinking over if I should even take part or not. But Saturday's forecast was better, so Alice and I drove up there Friday evening to pitch the (specially purchased) tent in the cold drizzle. It was going to be an early start Saturday so I figured this would be one less thing to do.



Finally the thing was up, after a bit of swearing and some frazzled nerves. Unfortunately, due to storm winds during the night the thing blew down. But it didn't take us long to peg it down again with the help of a couple of burly male stallholders on Saturday morning. Soon my stall was set up and people started to come:





That's me!:



There were a lot of visitors, especially during the morning and I was fairly pleased with my sales. It also gave me the chance to plug my up-and-coming-and-opening-soon website joony.se to all customers! In the afternoon it brightened up and when things calmed down and people started to leave, I left my trusted assistand Alice in charge of the stall (working for me for 10 percent commission I may add!) and took a few general snapshots.

All these photos were taken on my phone, so not great quality.





This is not something I could do regularly! But now and then it's a lot of fun.

Raining dogs and cats

Here's something for all animal lovers. It gets funnier every time you watch it.

I also found a feline version on YouTube by the same poster. Almost as funny I think.....

A good day

This morning I had my first ever meeting with a local retailer who is interested in stocking my jewelry. It was a lot of work beforehand putting together a presentable collection and working out terms, prices etc, but it paid off, as she is going to be selling my range from October! Chuffed to bits! Will keep you posted.......

On the grill

Saw a recipe in a women's magazine for grilled tortilla wraps that I had to try out and I loved them. As always I 'tweaked' it a little to adapt to what I had in my fridge. Ingredients for 4 wraps:

tortilla bread
1 avocado
half a red onion
mozzarella cheese
grated cheese
mache lettuce or rocket/ruccola
cherry tomatoes
fresh basil leaves
lemon or lime juice
salt and black pepppar

Chop all the ingredients and lay them on the tortilla. Sprinkle with lemon/lime juice and season with salt and pepper.



You may want to put a little less filling in them than I did!



Roll them and secure with a couple of toothpicks and lay them on the barbecue for a few minutes each side until browned. Keep an eye on them though, as they don't take long.

The mozzarella melts and becomes lovely and gooey.....