a cozy weekend

Last weekend we went to my parents cottage near Skálholt - it was wonderful... 

Our amazing view

my parents interesting stone-collection

another self-portrait :-) 

pictures of my mother art-work

I couldn´t believe it when I found some growing green kale, at the end of january - but I really did and made myself some yummi "kale-chips" in the oven

What a cozy weekend - can´t wait to go again...

Filters in Photoshop

I was playing around in photoshop the other day, testing different filters. 

I used a picture I took of Hallgrímskirkja at 101 Reykjavík on a beautiful&really cold day:

Before: 

 

cyan 70 saturation -100

deep emerald 70

deep emerald 70 saturation -100

red 35 - saturation -100

  

 red 50

 yellow 45, saturation -100

sepia 70

 

sepia 70 saturation -100

underwater 60

 

 warming filter 50

 

What a difference a photoshop-filter makes...

Yarn dyeing with kool aid & knitting for a baby

I´ve been knitting quite a lot for a baby that will soon be born

I started by knitting a baby-hat, using this pattern - it´s in Icelandic but there are so many similar patterns out there for free - but if you read Icelandic I really do recommend this one: it´s so simple, extremely quick and you get a beautiful, really practical hat for your little one. 

I loved this kind of hats when I had my two sons and think you just can´t have to many of those. 

For all those projects I used the same yarn: Trysil baby-yarn from my stash. I really liked working with it - it´s sooooo soft, light and wonderful - perfect for baby-clothing... so sad that we can´t buy this yarn in Iceland anymore :-(

For this one I used needles nr. 2,5 - that makes it a newborn-size

For those hats I used Trysil-baby-yarn I dyed with Kool-aid (keypt í Megastore), 

using this tutorial by Xandy.

Blue: red/blue/white Kool-aid (needles nr. 3,5)

green: lemon-lime Kool-aid (needles nr. 3,5)

red: cherry Kool-aid (in the small packets/bréf í Megastore - I didn´t get the same deep-red color from the one in a tub/dunkur í Kosti), needles nr. 2,5 (newborn size)

 I really had fun dyeing yarn with kool-aid and I really loved the way it turned out - I´ll definitely be using this dye-material more in the future. 

... just can´t wait to see those hats on the baby´s head :-) 

I also made a sweater - I really don´t like knitting cables, 

but I decided to try to get rid of my cable-phobia for this project. 

I used a pattern from the book "Fleiri Prjónaperlur"

about the pattern:

I really had fun knitting this sweater - I even enjoyed knitting the cables for the first time ever.

It´s a quick and simple knit - the only thing is, that I didn´t like the way the pattern is written and a beginner could have some serious problems getting through the second part of the instructions (lack of information and not very clear).

But I DO LOVE he outcome - and more importantly: the mother to-be did too :-) 

(even my husband said: can´t you make one for me, using the same yarn and pattern - only bigger?)

Yarn: Trysil baby-yarn from my stash

buttons: from my button-stash... got those from my mother and they where so perfect for this project  - it´s almost like they where just sitting there, waiting to get on this sweater!

I love knitting baby-things... so quick, cute and soft - instant gratification!

Weekend

Wisdom

I found this quote on a blog he other day and have been thinking about those wise words ever since.

I´m going to keep this in mind
when interacting with my children   

and of course people in general

simply wonderful

I felt so lucky the other day, when I saw this beautiful old Camera for sale on the internet (on facebook: "Háaloftið"). The shop-owners couldn't tell if it worked or not - but I decided that if if didn't work I was simply going to use it as a decoration. 

Yesterday was the day I finally got the chance to test it out - it was a beautiful sunny, snowy day at sunrise (11:30) - a real winter-wonderland - and I went to the old cemetery at 101 Reykjavík to take some pictures and asked myself if there was anything going to be on those negatives at all?

 

I just can´t tell you how happy and excited I was, when I picked them up today and discovered that my pretty Clack really had taken some pictures!! Isn´t it amazing? 

This really simple&wonderful camera, made in the 50´ies/60´ies still works (of course without a battery) and actually takes really interesting and pretty pictures!!

You can see those first pictures at the end of this post...

 

Details on the camera:

* It´s an Agfa Clack-camera made out of metal, made in Germany 1954-1960 - according to different blogs I´ve been reading, it was a popular family snap shot camera in the 50´ies and ´60ties.

 *It´s a medium format camera and you can use a normal 120mm film for it (that means: only 8 pictures on each roll). The exciting thing is, that since Lomography is so popular at the moment, it´s really easy to get interesting films! 

* One thing that amazed me was, that there are 3 different settings on this camera and it has an integrated yellow filter:

focus to 1-3m – f/8 (close up)

focus to 3m -infinty – f/11 – cloudy

focus to 3m – infinity – f/12.5 – sunny

you also have a specific setting depending on if you are taking pictures with a tripod (you can use a modern tripot) or not (B&M)

More information on the amazing Agfa Clack:

You can take a look at the manual here. 

Jim Grey (blogger)

Lomography-Magazine 

Elitismstyle ("If cameras could talk")

And here you have my first Agfa-Clack pictures - I discovered how important it is, to hold the camera completely still (the best thing would probably be to use a tripod) - only 2 out of 8 pictures are sharp so I´ll have to practice more... 

I used a color-lomography-800-film

I really LOVE my new/old Agfa Clack and I just can´t wait to practice 

AND now I´m hooked: I want more of those cool vintage-cameras!

Please click on the pictures to see them in full size:

the first one is my favorite... I really do love how it turned out: 

)

Not-so-sharp-pictures: 

Gifts

This year, almost every Christmas-gift we gave, was handmade by me :-) 

My goal was only/mainly to use things I had at home  (yarn, wax, paper...)

What I like about handmade gifts is, that you put so much thought into it - you can choose the perfect yarn, perfect color, perfect picture, perfect words, perfect button, perfect beads, perfect pattern, perfect herb-combination (salve) - depending on the recipient.

Unfortunately I didn´t make pictures of everything - but here are some of the things I made: 

This Pan-collar (my own pattern) was made for a little girl in Sweden 

yarn: acryl-yarn from Trysil (soft&shiny)

button: vintage button from my collection (yes, I actually have a button-collection)

I made this hat up for the same little girl

yarn: soft wool from Trysil

butterfly-pearls from Tiger (you could use them as buttons too)

 I made 3 of those in different colors. Once I started knitting this pattern, I just couldn´t stop making those hats :-) it was so much fun - easy, quick and so cute! It´s a really good project if you want to use up some yarn from your stash

yarn: Álafosslopi

pattern: Capucine by Adela, a free pattern found here

 I also made those candles - I bought big, white candles (ódýrust í Bónus), 

found some pretty pictures on the internet

found the perfect font on dafonts.com

used Illustrator for the rest (took some colors from the pictures for the letters and surrounding outside of the picture)

 The words on the other side of the candle mean:

friður = peace

kærleikur = love

styrkur = strength

sæla = happiness 

... and this is my wish for the recipient...

I also made some candles in a cup, slippers, another collar and more...
Did you make any Christmas-gifts this year???

creative with photoshop

 I've been working on my Photoshop-skills and having so much fun... the latest practice took me almost about 8 hours and I learned so much! 

I used this rather bad picture of my self - simply because it was the best one for this project (contrast and lighting)

I created an imaginary world inside my head, using this cool tutorial. I didn´t want my picture to look exactly the same so I used different brushes, elements from Illustrator and some fonts I found on dafonts.com. 

I´m totally fascinated by the magic of Photoshop...  the possibilities seem to be endless... 

(please click on it to see it in fullsize)

bracelets for boys

My boys decided they wanted to make each other brotherhood-bracelets and of course I had to fulfill their wish :-) I would never had guessed that they would have so much fun, for such a long time, making each other bead-bracelets - and I thought bracelet-making was something only girls would have fun doing... I was so very wrong! 

 

My older one, so very concentrated

My younger one, also very, very concentrated

 

Beautiful hands

choosing the right beads for your brother is really important...

I´m so glad they are such good friends.

  

Brotherhood