On our big trip, we stopped in Tokyo for a couple of days – luckily for us, we left again just before the earthquakes and the following devastation in northern Japan. I like souvenirs that can be used and for me that often means craft stuff; fabrics, beads, feathers and scrapbooking supplies. This way I get to shop for my favorite things while abroad – often a fun experience – and then use them or even wear my mementos around with me once I get home.
On this particular day we had figured out where the cinema showing films in English was located (the sixth floor of culture and theatre complex Bunkamura, not far from Shibuya station) and were navigating the streets with the aim of seeing a few blocks of residential streets before reaching Tokyo Hands, a huge department store. Just walking down the street we found a nice looking shop and went in to investigate, and just a few steps in I realized we had by pure accident walked into a scrapbooking shop =)
It seems that France, and Paris in particular, is a trend in Tokyo at the moment. Bags, gloves, socks, mobile phone adornments etc can all be had with typically french motifs like the Eiffel tower and french poodles and quotes of “Oh la la!”. This fad also extended to the craft shop and thus the cards I made with the stamps and tape I bought in Tokyo has a certain French flavour. Like the rest of the world they also seem to have embraced the vintage/retro trend, resulting in a lovely retro feeling in many of the stamps.
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Two new little people have seen the light of day in our immediate family the past few months, two little girls with given names beginning with E.  First out in defiance of the harshest winter was Eira, firstborn daughter of  dear friends Y & K, and with the first songs of spring came niece Emilia, daughter of David’s brother & sisterinlaw and with two older brothers. As D was down with some kind of bug this past weekend I got some time to make cards for them.
The baby clothes line stamp is from Panduro and the letters are from two different sets of Letterprint clear stamps. I love the card stock, both the butterflies and the glittery green are from the same series but unfortunately it’s so long since I got them I can’t remember where they are from :-/
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Ha, you thought there wouldn’t be any more wedding stuff on this blog, didn’t you? You were wrong. I have one or two things left, for example our wedding rings.
They were, like our engagement rings, made by Lars Torvaldsson in Stockholm and designed by us and him. David fell for some unknown, strange and wonderful metal called Tantalum , a very dark, blueish-black oily-looking metal that Lars had in his workshop, while I opted for classic gold. Mine has seven brilliant cut diamonds in different colours in a round flush setting and D’s has three Ds in a starshaped flush setting because of the strange Tantalum’s qualities.
We haven’t gotten them engraved yet – so far we both remember both the date, the year, and who we got married to.
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Here they are, on top of the lovely fire engine -red “la Cocotte”-pot my parents gave us for our engagement.
January 10, 2011 – 7:25 pm
Happy New Year! 2011 has started, I celebrated it with a horrible cold and spent most of the holiday days snug on the sofa with fever and coughs. I guess this year can only get better!
New Year’s eve was celebrated in a rather non-glamorous form in our household this year – last year we had a new year’s ball, dress code tuxedo – with home made pizza, one dog who is very scared of fireworks and 5 dear friends visiting and playing Sing star on Playstation 2 until late at night. A small festive step was a cake and some sweets I made while my darling husband did all the actual tidying up of our home.
First, there’s the cake.
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I know, it’s turqoise. Cake colour is difficult for me, all white cakes look like wedding cakes and all other except for chocolate ones look strange. It’s, um, wintery…it’s hexagonal due to all the cakes in the massive cake decoration book Royal icing my parents-in-law gave me for xmas being hexagonal, it looks more fun than just an ordinary round one. It’s covered in butter cream, a first for me, who always cover my cakes with sugar paste. Both cream and paste are a little too sweet for my taste, but I haven’t found anything better so far. Inside there’s a vanilla sponge and a layer each of chocolate and cassis mousse.
The small sugar paste roses are made from chocolate sugar paste, the small ones just by cutting a 15mm wide ‘ribbon’ and ruffling one edge with a ball tool (or a tea spoon) and rolling them up, scrunching them a little while rolling. The slightly larger roses are made with the help of a rose shape cutter, and the dotted lines with a piping bag.
I also found some really cute, seventy-style chocolate dipped marshmallows in one of my books and as I happened to have mini-marshmallows at home I speared some of them on tooth picks, dipped them first in chocolate and then in different kinds of winter decorations. They are displayed in small sherry glasses filled with dragéed sun flower seeds.
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December 24, 2010 – 8:27 am
Naturally, most of the christmas cards were made, enveloped, stamped and carried to the mail box before it occurred to me to take any photos of them, but here are a few that lagged behind and got caught on camera!
Paper and envelopes are from Ljunggrens pappershandel in Stockholm’s Old town and the xmas stamps are Reprints christmas clear stamps from swedish online scrapbooking shop Scrap & Hobby i Sävedalen.
The physical cards are on their way to recipients out in the physical world but this is also my christmas greeting to you, dear readers!
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Merry christmas!
December 20, 2010 – 8:25 pm
For a few years, I’ve make a xmas necklace for myself at this time of year: 2008 it was Silver chain and xmas and 2009 Christmas love. This year the xmas necklace is, surprisingly enough, not red in any way but silver and two shades of pink! It all started with the ornamental filigrees that I originally had plans for in my wedding necklace.
I matched the already owned filigree’s colours, Ruby and Rose Water Opal, with faceted rounds and a De-Art pendant from Swarovski elements and tiny 2mm silver coloured metal beads. All the stuff except the silver beads are Swarovski and the whole lot are from my favourite online bead shop, french Perles & CO that I’m sure I’ve mentioned before. They have pretty much the entire Swarrie elements line at good prices and the shipping in Europe is next to nothing!
The necklace is strung on clear nylon string and secured with silver crimp beads. If I’d had some crimp bead pliers or crimp bead caps I’d probably secured the string on each side of the filigree, but as it is I chose to pull the string through them instead which makes them a little bit crooked if you watch closely. Advice – get crimp bead pliers. =)
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December 14, 2010 – 8:16 pm
This wrap-and-tie bracelet is made of washed silk that I’ve rolled and stitched. If possible, try to find ready made silk ribbon, as stitching the slithery material can take a while.
After completing the ribbon I made lots of little “pendants” to put on it of wire, beads, pearls and crystals. Here you can also learn something from my mistakes – put them on flat or round headed bead pins, don’t make the pins yourself from wire. Making them yourself usually in some way involves bending the wire at the end, thus creating a tiny hook. This hook will get caught in everything you wear and there are lots of them, so don’t be lazy, go and buy some or order them on the ‘net.
Shape the other end of the pin into a loop, and attach it to the silk ribbon with jump rings. I chose to knot the ribbon here and there to give it some structure.
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Wrap it around your wrist and tie it. I’m considering adding a proper clasp and ring closure as the silk is so silky it sometimes gets untied.
November 29, 2010 – 7:50 pm
These freshwater pearls are topdrilled, which, if you like and they stay where they are supposed to, gives the necklace a zig-zag look.
Between each pearl I have put a larger seed bead in clear glass with a black center, and also behind the neck since I didn’t have enough pearls to get the length I wanted. I’ve added a few burgundy ones to all the metallic teal ones to give it a little more life. It is strung on nylon and has no clasp.
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November 22, 2010 – 8:13 pm
This necklace is quite long and dangly and flappery, it falls down to below my waist if I don’t tie it up in a knot. It’s mainly plastic beads as I find glass and crystal gets too heavy when a necklace is made from so many beads. I think only the misty beetle green are glass and a few of the jet blacks are onyx.
It is designed in short symmetrical series where 5-9 beads follow a pattern that then changes. This makes the long string look neither symmetrical nor just thrown together without thought. It also makes a change so that you don’t get bored while stringing it.
It’s strung on nylon string that is tied and the knot secured with crimp beads – it is so long and heavy that a knot in the nylon did not suffice, it came undone after a few hours of wearing it the first time.
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I love the soft sheen of the misty green together with the almost matte black and the iridescent clear facettes.
November 22, 2010 – 7:49 pm
Welcome to  [...and harmony]‘s new home! The old address was a bit dodgy, and it’s not my main domain anymore and so here we are!
I hope you’ll find it just as easily and that you enjoy the new theme that I found, called A Bus Full of Hippies! I have not quite finished the design setup admin as you can probably see, and most of the old pictures are still located at the old site which may cause your browser to react. No worries though.
On the main domain, stavegard.se, you can also find David’s blogs All about the package and All about David, and our travel blog which is in Swedish.
