Metrobloggen

Took a while, but it’s time for my blog to move. I’m not happy with this one and besides - I have english friends and this is a swedish page. Soooo...you can find my new (and prettier blog) at:

http://kamadesign.blogspot.com/

See you there!

Phew, how time flies. Can't say I'm enjoying blogging that much, but I do like to show you the things I've made. A lot has happened since my last post: I lost my craft-mojo and then got it back! I made a wonderful card (if I may say so myself) using a new technique I've been wanting to try. I have also started to scrap my pictures from my b-day trip to Madrid earlier this year. I thought it would be hard since I'm always so meticulous about every detail. But it wasn't, at least not yet, lol. I even cut in the photos! Yikes! That was a big no no when I grew up, so I'm proud when I dare to do it. The only thing I would wish for when it comes to my crafting is that I would go to my corner and actually do something - anything! Because right now I'm spending most of my time in front of the computer, doing absolutley nothing.

Until next time I will show you my prize in the challange contest I entered before. It's a wonderful little booklet, with embellishments, quotes and everything needed. I love these kind of little books and the theme is "you". Honestly, it couldn't have come at a better time because at this moment I really need to focus on myself :D (spoken like a true stamper, huh? I feel some "I-need-to-treat- myself-with-these-stamps vibes coming, lol. I actually have some in mind...)

Don't you just love the colors?

I got kicked out from a yahoo group and I hadn’t even noticed. So I signed up again and wrote a post that I was back. Shortly after I got this adorable card from Yara welcoming me back. It feel so humbled by the kindness of the people in this group. I concider them my dear stamping friends. Hugs to all of you!

I participated in a challenge for the first time ever and it was so much fun! I understand why people are so crazy about it. The challange looked like this: every day at 6pm a new challange came up. You then had until 5pm the next day to send in your project. Nice prizes were to be won of course ;) I participated for three days and won on the last day!

Here are my contributions:

First day: use the word "crazy" (galen in Swedish)

On the front it says "I am". I used the new hÄnglar clubstamps that came that day. I used my sophisticate qk alphabet that I absolutely LOVE. The word "galen" is made with Lucy.

On the inside it says: "CRAZY about you"

Second day: Make a project using the sketch:

I wanted to make a card for mom, but the Penny Black stamps were too big, so I decided on some kind of picture. It measures about 20x20cm (about 8x8").

The text says (it's my fav. mother quote): "Flowers have the sun, children have their mothers". I used a font that had flowers in the letters. The flowers have icicle glitter on them. It's not the best pic, but it's the best I could do. You'll just have to imagine the splendour, lol.

And the last day: get inspired by an ad (pic borrowed from  http://www.tjsrecords.com/)

My winning card:

The text says: "Too much of a good thing is still not enough".

This month I’m celebrating being without Coca-cola for a year! I know it might seem like a rediculous thing to celebrate, but I was totally addicted to it. I drank it even when I didn’t really feel like it, which made me realize that it had become an addiction. It’s still hard sometimes (especially when it’s displayed EVERYWHERE), but I’m trying not to fall down there again. I’ve also given up all sorts of sodas since new year’s. These days I just drink juices, red and green tea and lots of water. If I feel like sodas I buy carbonated water. That’s the nearest to soft-drinks I allow myself to get.

I’ve gotten more even in my mood since I stopped with coke and I’ve probably saved a bunch of money!

Can’t say I feel much difference from not drinking other sodas, but I know how much sugar they contain, so I’d rather eat all that sugar in my pastries and baking stuff! Do you know how much baked goods I can eat now that I’m not drinking sugar? A LOT, lol.

Next stop...my whipped cream addiction...

I got a couple of wonderful RAK-cards for my birthday and I just haven't thanked the people I got them from. I feel very ashamed and thought that the least I can do is to put them up here for you to enjoy aswell.

This one is from my good friend Patsy. I love the way she used a winter image and transformed it into a b-day one. The thing I love about getting cards from her is that she puts confetti into the envelope, so when you open it you get it all over you (if you open envelopes the way I do. Actually the confetti is flying around, hihi) It always makes me feel so special, like she's here with me throwing me a b-day party. Thank you friend. You mean so much to me

This last one is from my friend Coni. The thing I love about Coni's cards is that they are made like postcards. They are single, so you write the message on the backside. A great way to make a different card, but also to save your cardstock!

The text is a rub-on.

Thank you girls for thinking about me! You really made me smile.

The more I write on this blog the less visitors I get - at least according to my blog-counter. When I didn't write anything the bar was sky-high, but now that I've been updating it it's loooooooow. I'm not really after readers, I just think there's something fishy going on...

On another note: I've been playing with my cuttlebug today and I decided to make a layout about how much inlove I am with this tool. ;) The thing I love mostly about it are its dies. They have personality (the creature-dies) and the other ones are just so well made. Do I need to say that the embossingfolders are just brilliant? I even like the alphabets, even though I haven't gotten any yet. The ones I have are from qk.

I bought 7-8 packs of dies that I tried out today and I just fell inlove with them all. One of them are the embossing dog folders. Not that neccessary to have, but I just couldn't resist them. They are of a doxie, 4 different images. On one of the folders the pooch is laying on its back kicking its back-paws in the air. It looks adorable. The thing is that I've been doggie-sitting with a doxie and she does that exact thing! I didn't think of it when I bought the folders, but when I come to think of it: the person designing them must have seen a doxie in action. They are just so comical and amazing creatures!

I know, because for some reason I am constantly getting Viagra spam sent to my mail. It goes directly to my bulk, but since I go through it from time to time I have to see these mails too. The most interesting question to all this is: where the djuice have I been surfing??? I never get pornspam (fortunately), but a loooot of mails about where I can buy cheap meds and such. Do they know something about me that I don't?  Why are the voices talking to me? Or as one of my fav. funny quotes says: "You're jealous because the voices only talk to me!" LOL

Now I can finally show you a keepsake card I made for a friend. I was supposed to send it to her for her wedding in december, but I noticed I didn't have enough time to finish it properly, so I postponed 'til after X-mas. It has been done quite a while, but I didn't get around to sending it to her until now. She got it yesterday, so I can show the rest of you what it looks like. I wanted to send something more than just a "congratulations" card. I thought this one was perfect, making it more of a memorabilia, something they can keep forever, reminding them of their magical wedding.

Here's the front. The quote is from Penny Black and it says:

"May your life together be full of love

and your love be full of life"

The image is stamped on cream bling cardstock and colored in with pastel tombow pens. Then it's edged with a gold pen. The gold cord is elastic and holds the card together. The purple paper is some kind of mullberry.

When you unfold the card it looks like this:

She told me their weddinginvitations would be in white/cream bling cardstock, so that's what I used as a base. From scraps of the purple mullberry I made a little insert for the middle fold and cut out her, his name and their wedding date with a qk alphabet (Marissa).

I'm very satisfied with this card. It's not overdecorated, but it doesn't have to be. The design and folds of the card make a statement of their own.

I have a little counter with this blog so I can see how many pople visit it every day. I must say I didn't think I had that many readers, so I want to thank you all for coming by. I am trying to write and show you some projects, but I'd rather show you one project from time to time than write a lot of blah (kind of like this post ;)

Sping has definately sprung here and yesterday my stepdad invited me to smoke some fish he had caught. It was mostly flounder, but he also caught one cod. I'm normally not a fish-person, but this was delicious! So fresh and tasty. It was so good that, unfortunately, I didn't take any pics to show you. I thought however I would show you some springpics. They are from last year, but it looks the same now. The best part is that it has started "springsnowing" from those wonderful pink trees again!

These are the flowers I had on the balcony last year. They were so beautiful. At far left you can see my mini tomatos. They were quite delicious, but I'm a total tomato-holic, so there was never enough for me. Maybe I should plant the whole balcony with tomatos this year...hmmm...

Finally I managed to win a contest! Don’t know if there were any other participants, but I don’t really care. It was a lottery and they picked my name. YEY! I won a gift certificate worth $25 (too bad I just spent around $80 there, lol) Here’s the card I sent in:

Oh, I’m so happy! $25 worth of stamps, here I come...

I got the birdhouse stamp from a friend a couple of years ago. The image is colored in with water-pens (akvarell). I cut out the image and inked it with a purple pad. The text I printed out and cut out as a tag. I put in a silver eyelet and hung a heart and key charm on the tag. The glittery paper is light blue and see-through. I mounted it on a turquoise card to emphasize the blue hue. Finally I glued the image to the card and mounted the tag with 3-D tape to make it "pop".

Sheesh, who knew it would take so long to declutter? I'm still not quite done, but most of it is. I have rinsed out and rinsed out and rinsed out. AND IT FEELS SOOOOO GOOD!!! Just like my friend Coni I will only have things left that I like and want to use. I really think it's the way to go.

I have 2 more bookshelves to put up, one is already up - and filled up might I add . (I have to mount them together, IKEA-style). Some of the books and things I have in my small craft-bookshelf will go there. Which means that the 2 craft bookshelves I already have will only have craft items in them. I even have a special shelf for the cuttlebug. I've decided it's my new pet, so he needs his own space, lol. Maybe I should name him? What fits a bug? Any suggestions?

While decluttering I have found a great way to use my colored-in images. Sometimes when I'm on vacation I bring a bunch of images and color them in. Now I have a see-through box for the done images. I also have a box for half-made cards. If I have an image that fits with a patterned paper and an embellishment I put them in that box. Because I work like this: sometimes I can color images in for days and that's the only thing I will do. And sometimes I just like mounting colored-in images with papers and embellishments. When I'm in this mood cards get done quickly. Yesterday for instance I made three cards like this. On one night! I don't think I've ever done three cards in one day. Don't think I had even made three cards this year, let alone in one night. One of the cards turned out to be an easter card. I thought it was a bit unneccesary, since easter is over and all, but after a while I stopped stopping myself. I just had so much fun and found my way back to stamping! So I think this card might count as the earliest card done ever! Hopefully I will still think it's good enough to send out next year.

Everywhere I look in the apartment there are stuff laying around that needs to be looked through. I have so much stuff that I don’t know what to do with. Do others have the same problem as I? I have realized that the way to a clean place is to have a place for each item so you can easily put it away. But what about the stuff that don’t have a special place? Or even worse: when you don’t know what to do with the item itself. This applies to everything, but mostly my craftcorner.

Here are some examples of what I’m having problems with in general:

1. Old cards that are not handmade. What do you do with them? Where do you keep them? Do you keep the matching envelopes or not?

2. Clothes that you love, but are too small/too big (mostly too small, lol)

3. Clothes that needs fixing, like a new button, needs to be sewn together etc. And putting them around the sewingmachine doesn’t help. They just lay there for months, cluttering my craftcorner.

4. Papers, papers and papers. Old schoolnotes, grades, stuff you get from the government, articles you’d like to save, recepies you want to try, fun facts, quotes, and the list goes on...I just get tired thinking about it.

Things I have solved:

Old reciepts to keep for guarantees: I have made a little filefolder where I have the reciepts in different categories, like: electric, clothes, hobby etc.

Stuff around the computer, like batteries, earphones, USB cords: I put them all in a small box. Looks pretty and doesn’t get dusty.

Manuals: Put in a magazineholder standing in the computershelf.

Handbags that keep falling around on the shelf in the wardrobe: I have put them in a big plastic hamper. Very easy to take down and the shelf looks more "together".

The biggest problem is my craftcorner. I have so many hobbies so it leads to me having so much stuff! Actually I can’t craft anything because there is so much stuff around there that I get annoyed and distracted. Small pieces of paper, beads, little boxes to alter, paperbags, small items to glue on things, half-made cards, stickers that I never use...

I think the best thing for me to do is to ruthlessly just have a big pile with things I never use and give it away. But I keep thinking that how am I supposed to develop if I never use new things? Arghhh, it’s such a mess. Maybe I’ll deal with it after a nap...;)

There should be special craft-interiordesigners that fix stuff after your needs. I want one of those!!!

it was 24 degrees Celcius on friday when I went in to town. I had a new summerskirt and no pantyhoses. Try to do that here in Sweden in march without getting pneumonia!

...from my birthday trip to Madrid. I have mixed feelings about the trip, so can't say it was good or bad. The reason for this is that I got sick the night before the trip. I ended up staying in the hotelroom eating baguette with butter and drinking sparkly water my whole b-day. Very pathetic! Friday I felt slightly better (mostly annoyed that I couldn't sigh-see) so I went to Prado museum and saturday to Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia. In Th-B I got a picture of myself standing in front of an amazing Salvador Dalí painting. It was prohibited to photograph, but I thought it would be worth getting kicked out of the museum for. I am just so blown away by this genious. I'm writing a bachelor degree essay about Dalí and seeing his paintings makes me feel so inspired! I didn't get to enjoy his paintings as much on saturday since I started feeling worse again. On the way home I caught another bug and I've been sick again since I got home sunday. Hopefully it's starting to pass.

I'm so annoyed because I planned for everything to happen on my b-day trip except getting so sick I had to stay in. Darn it!

I have a philosophy not to brag too much about things that are good in my life. If I do it usually screws up one way or another. I just need to keep quiet about it. I swear thet if I hadn't shared this trip with you before I went I wouldn't have gotten sick. It has happened to me often enough before to convince me that this is how it is. For my next trip, I'm not telling you anything until I get back. Although I must admit this time I got so worn out I don't feel like going anywhere for quite a while. Maybe this means I'll get my craftcorner in order?

17 degrees celcius and sunny. Oh, I'm sooo sad. NOT!

You can not guess what happened since my last post! On the last post I wanted to show you what a cuttlebug looked like, so I searched the net for a pic of it. While looking for it I came across a shop that is nearby and that sells the bugs. The most amazing thing was the price. It cost the same as my qk squeeze and I got my squeeze at a 20% discount! So I decided straight away to borrow a car and go to the shop on saturday morning to pick up my own buggie. There was a salesguy that wanted to sell another machine called the DoubleDo. It seemed kind of OK, but it was almost twice the price and the main thing with it was a bit bigger than the bug and that you could use your brass stencils to dryemboss your cards. I didn't think it was worth that much, so I got my long longed for buggie! I've played around with it and I love it! I'm having trouble with a qk die, but the grand alphabet I tried works well, and also some of the other dies I have. I also bought an adorable cuttlekids doggie die and I really wanted to get a kangaroo, but that one will have to wait. I also had my mind set on a couple of dry embossing dies, but the ones I wanted were out of stock. They were almost half price of what I was going to pay in another shop!

But there has opened a new scrap-shop here in Malmö and they had a pretty good price on the dry embossing dies aswell, so I will have to pick them up there. I kind of think it's cheating because I have dry embossed by hand and here you can just twist the handle a couple of times and a whole piece of paper is embossed.

Oh, I also got 4 small dry embossing dies and a postage stamp die with my cuttlebug. With this little pack I can make my own "postage stamps". There are different themes: love, cake, uh...and then my memory fails me ;)

At the shop I also got pink and green mix big brads, two pretty stamps from inqueunique, tiny silver eyelets (the really tiny ones. They are so hard to find!), some papers and I finally got a new small cutting machine with a handle. I've been looking for a new one for years! This one is a bit bigger than the one I have, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It's one of my fav tools, so I can't make anything without a good cutting machine.

And finally a quote on one of the birthday-papers I bought:

As you get older three things happen:

The first is your memory goes,

and I can't remember the other two...

I hope that won't happen to me on thursday, lol.

Madrid update:

I have brought up my suitcase from the cellar. I have put a bunch of clothes on top of the suitcase. I have avoided packing for the trip...Like always. DARN IT! I still have another day tomorrow...

I just called Slagthuset and the "love is in the air" convention is cancelled. They had too few companies, sigh. Sometimes I wish I could live in the US. Imagine going to the CHA convention! It’s less than a week until my b-day and I’ve been promising myself a cuttlebug. I like my qk squeeze a lot, but I have a bunch of grand alphabets and a couple of the big dies. I also love the cuttlebug animal dies and the embossing folders. It will be mine someday...I guess I just have to wait a bit longer.

They have the cuttlebugs at a local shop, so I wouldn’t have to buy them through the net and pay 150 kr in shipping. But I got a bit insulted last time I was there so I don’t want to buy from them. I saw that they had cuttlebugs and asked how much they were. So she said: "they are about 890 something, so it’s not something you buy in the first place". I didn’t think about it then, but when I got home I got a bit annoyed. What if I wanted to buy it right then? Then I don’t want to pay "about 890". I’m asking because I want the exact price. It occured to me that she thought I couldn’t afford it. I don’t shop there much at all, maybe a paper or so every other month, so I’m not one of their best customers. But I still think she could’ve been a little nicer. I’d rather take my business somewhere else, even if I have to pay the shipping. They just lost a customer...

My prrrrreeecccioooussssss...

Except I can't find much info about it...

It's supposed to be at Slagthuset and it's called "love is in the air". It was originally supposed to be in the beginning of february, but it got moved. The only info is on Magnolia's blog and the only thing it says is the date and place. Not even Slagthuset has any info about that convention. Hmmm, I wonder when to get there on saturday? And how much it costs. Is it really on or cancelled? I really want a cuttlebug. I have 3 big alphabets and a couple of dies I can't use, since I only have a squeeze. And since my b-day is coming up I thought I'd treat myself with a buggie.

Yesterday I started on a couple of Easter cards. I made simple ones, just colored in some PB images and mounted them on patterned paper. Not really proper stamping if you ask me, but sometimes you have to be able to cheat ;)

Lately I have been baking a lot so forgive me if I seem a bit preoccupied. Right now I have some freshly baked, crispy, crunchy chocolate-chip-cookies in the kitchen. And I also made my "kladdkaka", which is a sticky chocolate cake that I eat with a lot of whipped cream. Yuuuuum!

Ok, so now I'm back with sticky chocolate fingers. Poor computer... I think I'll have to get back to you later. They are soooo addictive, lol.

Madrid update:  I have checked how much euros I have at home. I just have 50, so I will have to go by the exchange office some time this week. Other than that I haven't done much. Oh, I looked at the weather. 18 degrees in the day. YES!!!

...on my birthday.

I’m gonna have a party...

...not far from the Mediterranean sea...

(melody: "We’re going to Ibiza" by Vengaboys)

One week left to departure and for the first time in my life I’m going to celebrate my birthday somewhere where it’s not freezing, raining and icy on the streets. If you ask me how I remember my birthdays "freezing my behind off" comes to mind. I might freeze this time too, but at least I’ll be doing it abroad .

I’ve been wanting to share this info with you much sooner than this, but I never got around to it. So I thought I’d share my preperations this last week before I go. I never do anything sooner than a week before anyway. And then it’s early, lol.

I’ve never been to Madrid, so join me in my planning! I’m going to be there four days, so there’s a lot to see. I love art, so I will be spending thursday (my b-day) in the Prado museum, that has one of world’s biggest and best artcollections. If I could I would live there, lol. I think you should check out their website:

www.museoreinasofia.es/portada/portada.php

There are also two other art museums that I hope I will visit. One is where Picassos "Guernica" is shown (a strong reaction to the cruelties during the reign of Franco and the Spanish war). The other one is a big private collection that is now in a museum of its own. Hopefully I will have time to do other things than just look at paintings for four days. Might get a bit exhausting, or at least "square" .

Map over madrid and the things to see:

www.gomadrid.com/maps/tourist-map.html

Weather forecast:

www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml

Madrid update: I have borrowed some Madrid guides from the library. I have looked around at a map to see what I should visit. I have bookmarked a page that shows Madrid weather, and finally booked a laundry time for friday so everything is clean when I want to pack (usually the night before. But this time I WILL do it sooner...)

Sigh! I’ve been entering this monthly contest from time to time and I just can’t win! It’s humiliating, but I thought I’d share both the good and bad with you. I "know" the person who won from one of my groups, so I’m happy for her. Sometimes I think the other entries are better than mine, but this time my contribution was so great, even I was impressed (and I’m VERY hard on myself) What do you think?

www.rubberstampsclub.com/winners-january08.html

I don’t think anyone likes CSI Miami for the quality of the show. It has reached that point when they have to confuse you with flashy scenes so you don’t remember what a bad show it actually is. The big-shot "Mr H" as "pouty-boy" would say, is having the same pose and cheezy line in every single episode! I think he has started to mock his own character, because I can’t imagine how he could think the lines he has are well written. I’m trying to close my eyes when they get too corny, but unfortunately it means I miss half of the show closing my eyes... ;)

There are also some things I wonder:

Why do the girls walk around in see-through tops or tank-tops when the guys are walking in: shirt, west over the shirt and a jacket? Shouldn’t it be either too cold or too warm for one of the sexes? Yet they seem very comfortable wether they’re in the lab or out in Miami in the middle of the day.

How come the CSI’s and coroners walk around in white long pants around bloody scenes without getting a drop of blood on themselves? I can’t even breathe without getting my white pants dirty!

Why do the girls have their hair hung loose? Every person that has or has had long hair knows how impractical it is to do anything without a pony-tail. This also applies to action movies.

If a police did what Horatio does he would be fired and charged. You can’t make up your own rules as you go along, protecting whomever you like and setting up others!

How can they hand out their phone numbers to everyone saying they can be there for them "day and night"? What if people actually start taking them up on the offer? Bye bye personal life (if they have any at all that is).

And last of all:

How can they afford a new outfit every day with matching shoes, accessories and the whole shabang?

Penny Black is out with their new spring 2008 collection. Besides the cute critters they have, I also like the word stamps. I found a stamp of a hedgie that would work pretty well together with another hedgie I already have. Would be great to combine these two:

The older stamp

From the latest collection.

You can see the rest of the stamps here:

www.sirstampalot.co.uk/rubber-stamps.php

Somehow (I’m not quite sure how) I managed to click my way to some photos of Lindsey Lohan posing as Marilyn Monroe. These were the most boring photos I have ever seen! I like Marilyn Monroe a lot, have read some books about her and I feel that these photos are a sacrilege! Lohan has just put on a wig, pouted with her lips, showed a boob and thinks that’s all it takes. I have nothing against showing a boob or two, but if it serves a purpose. These photos have none of Marilyn’s charm, flirtatious look or anything resembling the bombshell from the 50:ties. The only thing in common is that they are both blond and half naked. I guess Tyra Banks is right: being a model isn’t as easy as it looks. But Marilyn did it splendidly.

So what do you think of the photos? Art or bad porn?

http://media.nymag.com/fashion/08/lindsay-as-marilyn/