By shear coincidence I found some sewing inspirations on instagram when I came upon the hashtag “Mend March”, invented by Kate Sekules of Visible Mend. Her mending project seams to have been going for a few years, and it reminded me of reviewing the splendid book Mending matters, written by Katarina Rodabaugh. I loved that book, and the many wonderful ideas in it. I also love the idea of having a special month where we concentrate a bit extra on our pile of clothes and items that needs mending, patching up or simply some TLC. So I joined in and posted a photo of my jeans. And I wrote: “March ..read more

I want to share something that is a bit tender to me. It is one of those precious idea babies you think about for years and years, and when you finally do them you surprise yourself. Did I actually finish that thing that lived in my head for so long? Yes, now your idea actually, finally, exist in the world. You made something out of nothing, and that thing that lived in your head is “out”. This time it’s a small, short film, but in any case, it’s done. It’s about winter, one of four seasons of Sweden. “Winter” is a short I have filmed over several years, in little snippets at the beginning me ..read more

I just finished my first serious try at a “cinematic short film”, and I feel nervous to share it. It’s about Winter, one of four distinct seasons here in Sweden and it’s been in my head so long that I also needed to write a bit about the inspiration behind making it the way I did. I separated this my “thinking on paper” from the actual short film, but of course I hope you’ll watch that in the end. But first, why seasons and why film and not a series of photographs? It’s just nature after all… The image in the mind’s eye. For me it’s where the obsession began. It’s what keeps me going, it nev ..read more

My best advice for becoming a creative person is always to do something creative, as often as you can. Start small and build on that. This is true whether you are a crafter, artist, writer, blogger, scrapbooker, youtuber, photographer, knitter, or you’re like me, dabbling in a bit of everything. Personally I believe this is easiest if you can aim to do that “something” every day, because that builds momentum and you don’t have those breaks from your daily routine. But of course that is hard, and even us hardcore Creatives that thrive through making stuff, are sometimes forced to stop or take a ..read more

Today two quick things I really enjoy: Looking up a new to me word and some very late happy mail in the inbox! All this because a very bulky and quite interesting looking envelope arrived… By the way, do you know what the word “lagniappe” means? I sure did’t know until just now, when I googled it. Envelope with postal sticker that say Return to sender because proper customs form is missing. Lagniappe (pronounced lan-yap) is a noun that is used mostly in north America and it means “something given as a bonus or gratuity” (tip), a little extra. noun: lagniappe; plural noun: lagniappes. It is n ..read more

When you have to create something on a deadline, sometimes you feel stuck and can’t move forward. We sit and stare out in space and forget that we are allowed to find inspiration from others, especially with something so simple like the DIY Postcard Swap that I host (you can still join this entire week). That’s why I have curated yet another five inspiring DIY Postcard videos today! If you haven’t joined the swap yet it might be time to get busy! And if you have already started creating postcards (perhaps inspired by me or any of the previous 5 postcard videos that I shared), then why not tak ..read more

I have an idea of what I want to create for my DIY Postcards this month, but I am not sure I will have time to make them and film the process (as well as photograph, edit, upload and blog about them) so I might not even try that endeavor this time. However, I have been binge watching YouTube lately, mostly because it’s been raining this entire week here and I can’t deal with how the sky is making me feel. So I dive into other people’s creativity, beautiful writing and inspiring tutorials on YouTube. Today I will share a few videos that could inspire you to create DIY Postcards for the swap if ..read more

Every autumn I host the DIY postcard swap here on my blog, in hope of bringing art and joy to the homes of all participants! And so far it’s been working great! Firstly you get the joy of creating handmade postcards for ten people and then the joy of seeing those postcards being delivered all over the world! And of course the joyful experience of receiving your own happy mail! So. Much. Joy! If you’re interested in joining the swap this autumn head on over to the information page and click the button “join the swap” where you then pay the small fee and finally also fill in the address form ..read more

It’s a bad business, this writing. No marks on paper can ever measure up to the word’s music in the mind, to the purity of the image before its ambush by language.  Mary Gordon Sometimes when I find great English blogs or articles I feel a great sadness that I can never write like that myself (in English). It’s not my first language and I lack the knowledge of its grammar (and these days the will to learn beyond trying to look up new words which I do constantly). And of course in novels, which I often read in English, but with longer texts I find I often get so caught up in the story I ..read more

What is Magazine Harvesting? What is “magazine harvesting” you ask, maybe because you are not that into YouTube videos of people working in their glue books and you haven’t heard the term before? So, let me explain. It is not a YouTube thing, just a term I have found used there a lot. It is a creative thing, for those of us that can’t help ourselves but to save images to use “later”. A human instinct (to gather and save), after all. It feels a bit like cleaning but of course, in reality, I’m making another messy pile of unsorted ephemera. iHanna Harvesting is the process of gathering a ri ..read more