DIY: how to make a lace doily lantern

I must admit, I have a thing for lace-doilies... when I go to thriftstores I always keep my eyes open for them and often they follow me home, even if I don´t know what I´m going to do with them. They just look too pretty to leave them there!
Last winter I went to a kind of fabric-factory-outlet and found some really pretty ones and I decided I wanted to make some lanterns with them... well... one year later I finally did it! And that´s what I did:

You need:

1. Lace doilies...

I used those:

2. Hot glue:

3. Jars:

What to do:
This is so simple everyone can do this... you should try it with your kids!!! Well, after you´ve cut the doilies to the right size, you hot glue it to the jar. It´s enough to put only 1 vertical line of glue on the jar to make the ends stick to the glass...


1 doily was so thin I had to use 2 strings of it to cover the glass... I made it stick with 2 lines of glue... a horizontal around the glass and 1 vertical line:


This is the result: we love, love, love it...

Crochet flowers

I´ve been practicing crochet lately and since I don´t know how to read a crochet-pattern I´ve been using youtube... It´s amazing what you can learn from youtube! The possibilities for the use of pretty crochet-flowers are endless... as a decoration for hats, mittens, headbands, sweaters, handbags, a mobile...

I started with this very, very simple, small and cute flower by using this great tutorial. It´s so easy that even I, a total beginner can understand what´s going on...

nr. 1:

For those cute flowers I used my own, handdyed lace-yarn (einband, rhubarb and crowberries). For the hat I used kambgarn, needles nr. 2,5. The pattern is a bit modified one, from the book "prjóniprjón" and for the mittens I used this pattern by "handahlaup":

The tutorial for second flower I made was this one. It was very easy to follow as well and I learned a lot...

nr. 2:

The next flower I made was a bit advanced, but I had learned a lot, making the other 2 flowers, so I was able to do this one as well. Especially since this step-by-step tutorial, part 1and part 2 was very well done and also easy to follow. I really love, love, love this 3D Gardenia and I have about 1001 idea how to use it:

nr. 3:

At last we have my first, very own creation. Unfortunatly I don´t speak "crochet-language" and therefore can´t write a tutorial on how they are made (yet)... but I can tell you this much: if I am able to create my very own flower after making those above... you can do it too!

I used some of my own, handdyed yarn for those - left-over einband (lace), dyed with Rumex longifolius and rhubarb:

Rumex longifolius:

This is what I´m doing with them... I have about 32 to go... ;-)

Cinnamon rolls

Don´t you just love cinnamon rolls? I think this is a perfect baking-project for parents to do with their kids - at least my boys love to make those... and eat them!

I got this recipe for cinnamon-rolls with apples, many years ago and I love it just the way it is - there are only 2 things I have changed... the first thing is the way I make the dough, since I have a breadmaker now which makes the whole process even more easy! The second thing is the topping... the original recipe doesen´t have any topping, but I often use a delicious toffee-topping-recipe a friend of mine gave me...

I have to admit, that I don´t know where I got this recipe... but I have it written down by hand in my recipe-book where I keep my favorites all together...

Cinnamon rolls - the dough:
3 dl milk (lukewarm)
3 tsk dry yeast
50 g butter
25 g sugar
1 tsk salt
1 tsk grounded cardamom
400 g flour

Filling:
1 grated apple
1 tsk cinnamon
25 g sugar
25 g melted butter

Toffee-topping:
50 g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup
1 tbsp water

What to do: (if you don´t have a breadmaker)
1. Mix the yeast and the milk together. After that: add sugar, salt and cardamom.

2. Melt the butter, and add it together with 2/3 of the flour to the milk-mixture. Mix well and let this very wet mixture rest for about 40-50 minutes.

3. Add the remaining flour to the mixture and knead the dough until it feels manageable, soft and doesn´t stick to your hands anymore.

4. Roll out to a size of approximately 60x30 sm:


5. Filling: mix everything together and spread on the dough you just rolled out...


6. Cut the dough-roll into pieces and place them on your baking-pan. Let them rest for at least 30 more minutes under a dishcloth... then they should look like something this:



7. Topping: I sometimes just spread a stirred egg over the cinnamon-rolls before I put them in the oven. Or you can use the toffee-topping-recipe above... you just mix all the ingredients together in a pot and stir for a few minutes until it is thick, sticky and looks yummi like this:



You spread the topping on the cinnamon-rolls after they have been in the oven for about 5 minutes (take the rolls out of the oven - spread the toffee-topping - put them back in and bake until ready)..

8. Bake for for about 15 minutes (180-200°C) ... and enjoy!!!

A new year and changes

a walk on the 1. january

I've been thinking a lot about the new year and some changes I would like to make regarding my blog. I started thinking, why do I love reading some of my favorite blogs? I came to the conclusion that the following things are among the things that keep me coming back:

1. When I read other blogs, I really like it, when creative people show us what they are doing, and how they do it... for example in step-by-step-pictures.

2. I also like challenges, for example 7 pictures in 7 days, 10 hats in 10 weeks or something that...

3. Nice pictures (like rodprjonar or knittingmydayaway) and diverse content (like "systraseiður")

4. I also like theme-days, that is... doing the same things on certain days like Cheri does on her blog "iammommahearmeroar": "wake-up-wednesday" or "sunshine sunday"... I´d love to find something similar for myself... maby something that has to do with goal-setting, food and creating things I haven´t done before... we´ll see...

Having realized this, I´d like to keep these 4 things in mind this year and start with a step-by-step-post tomorrow about something very tasty and an exciting challenge after that... ;-)

Regarding good pictures: It can be a bit hard, getting good pictures in Iceland at this time of year, since we only have about 5 hours daylight, but I´ll try to use those few hours wisely to get good pics...

I have enough ideas to keep the content of my blog diverse... I´ll just have to DO more... perform more...

I wish you all a happy new year, filled with a lot of love, peaceful moments with your beloved ones, creativity and joy!!!!!!!!!!!

Cowl-mania

In the last few years, I´ve made a lot of mittens and slippers for my friends and family at chrismas. This year, I really wanted to make something totaly different AND I really wanted knit most of the christmasgifts... I ended up by making a lot of cowls/eternity-scarfs (and of course, some mittens and slippers too, for those who haven´t got that from me yet ;-)

I started by making a popular cowl I found on Ravelry called "Gap-Tastic-Cowl", using icelandic wool: lopi (hespulopi). After that I made them all up, playing around with colours and some knit/purl-patterns, using lopi (hespulopi). I was really happy with all of them - but one of them in particular... for that one I´m going to release my first pattern in january... so there are more cowls to come...

Gap-Tastic-Cowl for Lóa - the first one...

Gap-Tastic-Cowl for Lóa - the first one...

Gap-Tastic-Cowl for Lóa - the first one...

My own modified version of the Gap-Tastic-Cowl: for kids (made 3 of those)

My own modified version of the Gap-Tastic-Cowl: for kids (made 3 of those)

My own modified version of the Gap-Tastic-Cowl: for kids (made 3 of those)

My own modified version of the Gap-Tastic-Cowl: for kids (made 3 of those)

Cowl for Hanna - my own creation
Cowl for Hanna - my own creation

Cowl for Hanna - my own creation
horrible picture of a great cowl (so sorry, but it´s the only one I have) - my own creation

Felted...

Ever since I saw a post about felted balls and got some great ideas on what to do with them, on the very fun blog:
"systraseiður",
... I´ve been wanting to make my own felted balls.

I asked my very good friends Google and Youtube for advice and found this:
1. Youtube: making feltballs with Rachel Greenland

2. Martha Stewart (btw: you can find just about everything there... I just love this website): "how to felt balls"

I thought this would be a fun project to do with my boys, so I picked them up early from Kindergarten last week, and we got some wool (ullarkemba) together at the wool factory-outlet Álafoss. The two of them (and me too ;-) had so much fun all the way on this felting-journey... picking the colours and the wool, rolling the wool between our hands and dipping them in the soapwater. The whole thing had a very calming effect on the us and we listend to some nice christmasmusic while rolling and squeezing the wool... we love the result... this is such a great way to spend some quality time with your kids!



Something green...


Something red...


Experimenting...


My white ones...


Something purple...


Some more experimenting...


Creative Freyr...




Creative Bidenam...

The versatile blogger award

I was happy to discover, that I´ve been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by KnittingMyDayAway! The feeling is mutual, since I love all of Johanna´s designs and am always waiting excited for her next post! Thank you so much Johanna!

The rules for the Versatile Blog Awards are:

Nominate 15 fellow bloggers.
Inform the bloggers of their nomination.
Share 7 random things about yourself.
Thank the blogger who nominated you.
Add the Versatile Blog Award picture on your blog post.

Here´s a list of the blogs I read, some of them are in Icelandic (sorry for those who don´t read Icelandic ;-)

1.RodPrjonar: comes from Chile, but lives in Iceland. He creates beautiful things (mostly knitting) and makes wonderful pictures. Reading his blog is a joy!

2. I´m momma hear me roar: this wonder-woman must be one of the most creative bloggers of all times... this lady seems to be able to do almost everything! Love love love reading her blog and everything she does for her two little boys since I have two of those myself! You can find some really nice tutorials on her blog, I really recommend...

3. maya*made: is a creative lady who creates wonderful things, has a lot of good ideas and makes beautiful pictures...

4. Ragnhilds cubicle: lives in Norway, and her blog is mostly about crafts, restyling, cooking and life in general... she also makes wonderful pictures!

5. Skreytum hús: Dossa is a very creative, wonderful, icelandic lady. She makes wondeful things, decorates, restyles and always has some good ideas... it´s really inspiring reading her blog!

6. Handóð: comes from Iceland and she loves everything that has something to do with crochet and I really like the things she creates. Her latest post is a free pattern for a lovely blanket...

7. My Sparkle: does a lot of different things and has some really nice patterns and tutorials on her blog! My favorite one is the "how-to-rolled-flowers-tutorial"!

8. Annekata: a creative blogger, who always has something interesting to show or tell us... she has some nice patterns and tutorials on her blog... my all-time-favorite is her tutorial on super simple Paper Stars.

9. Paper Raindrops: another creative blogger on my list... she makes interesting, humorful pictures, does some nice things and what I really like about her blog is, that she likes to show us WHAT she is creating and HOW she did it!

10: Barbietec: icelandic blog... I find her blog very inspiring... she writes about nutrition, sports and cooking.... after reading her blog I always feel like running, swimming and making some changes to my diet!

11. Made By Rae: sews and crafts wonderful things... she has some wonderful patterns and tutorials on her blog! Love her big butt baby pants sewing pattern...

12. Made: this creative lady sews, cooks and crafts... she has some wonderful patterns, tutorials and recipes on her blog...

13: Strikkelisa: a knitter who creates beautiful things! This wonderful cowl is my favorite...

14: Allerhand Wundermurmeliges: lives in Germany, always has some good ideas and lovely pictures!

And now, 7 random things you might not know about me:
- I have always LOVED owls... and butterflies... since I was a young child ("butterfly" was one of the first words I learned in english)
- I have a tatoo on my back, between my shoulder blades: a black, tribal butterfly
- I lived 10 years in Freiburg, Germany
- I really love everything Astrid Lindgren has ever written
- I have a thing for organization and use my own version of SCRUM at home...
- I really love origami
- I like drawing, especially cartoon drawing.