First Home-Made Dress

Last week I bought a pattern, fabric and everything else I needed to sew a dress. I've sewn before, including lots of cushions, but never made any clothes, I always thought it was too time consuming and difficult. I was definitely wrong about that! I finished the dress the day after I bought the pattern. I think all in all it took me about 5 hours, and although there were moments when I felt like cutting it up into little pieces (especially while making the folds in the neckline), it was mostly enjoyable. I've already bought some more patterns and I really want to screen print a few dresses.

Cushions at Home

Some of my friends who bought my cushions, have been sending me pictures of them in their new home. I love seeing them in different environments, and here are my two favourites.

I'm just about to start printing a new batch and have put the ones that are left of the original batch on sale. They're now just €30/£24/$38

They're available here.

Sewing Project

My cousin inspired me to start sewing clothes. She makes most of her own clothes and it looks really nice. I definitely need some new clothes and I hate shopping, so I thought sewing my own might be a good idea.

I went to my local fabric shop, spent a good hour in there picking a pattern and fabric. The lady who owns the shop was very helpful and guided me through the whole process; explained which pattern was suitable for me and which fabrics would work. It really made me happy that I decided to buy it there rather than online - definitely worth the few extra pounds it cost me.

So I'm posting about it here, as now I'm forced to finish it! No excuses.

Celebrating Luxembourg!

Tonight I'm going to be celebrating Luxembourg's national day in style at the Luxembourgish embassy in London! I'm very excited.

The national day isn't actually until the 23rd and in Luxembourg a lot of the celebrations take place on the evening of the 22nd - but I'll be starting the celebrations a little early together with other fellow expats here in London.

I'm technically Danish, but I definitely feel more at home in Luxembourg, it's where a lot of my friends and family live and I love going back there. It's a great country; beautiful, historic and full of culture and art - I highly recommend it as a holiday destination. In fact, it was just listed in Lonely Planet's top ten hidden gems of Europe - (number 5).

Our Home

I've lived in Hackney for 10 years this summer, a decade!

I've lived in this flat for 7 years, in the building for 9 (I rented another flat before this came up for sale). I love it here and I honestly can't imagine living anywhere else.

The flat was pretty much a shell when I first moved in, a very nice shell though and through the years we've just added to it, my dad has done most of the work with some help from me. The building used to be an old shoe factory and my flat is in the old office part of it, which means it has some warehouse features, but still feels like a flat. It's South facing and has lots of windows, so it's nice and light here all day - perfect when you work from home. The living room and kitchen is open plan but is L shaped, so you can hide the mess in the kitchen!

I love seeing other people's homes (Ben is always telling me of for looking through windows if we're out for a walk), so I thought you might like to see some pictures of my home (it's on the first floor, so you can't peak through the windows).


My dad built those shelves and I love them.


We started off with a few but recently extended it to run across the whole wall.


This is where Ben works/dreams about snowboarding.


Kitchen and dining area.


Our bedroom. My dad built those shelves too (I keep him busy).


My office. I love my office. - It's not usually this tidy!


Spare bed/sofa in my office. I never ever allow myself to sit there and I think I should - maybe have my afternoon tea there while reading an inspiring magazine.


The bathroom, which still needs a little bit of work, but is almost done.


Hallway and view to the living room. And yep, my dad built that shoe rack/shelf too.


Front door. Blackboard artwork by Ben.

Screen Printing With Cousin Line

My cousin Line came to visit this weekend. She lives in Copenhagen, so we don't see each other that often and it was great to have her over for a couple of days to show her where and how I live. When you live abroad from your family these are the things you miss, just having someone over for a cup of tea in your home, or showing them your neighbourhood - simple every day things.

My cousin is a research scientist, but is also very creative, so we decided to have a weekend of making, which involved lots of screen printing! We pretty much spent the whole weekend at my studio and just came out for food and drinks!

It was great to spend some time in the studio just playing around, trying out new colours and not working towards a deadline or specific outcome. I think I need to do that more often.

Now I just need to visit her in Copenhagen and spend a weekend learning about her work - although unfortunately I think I'll probably need quite a lot more than a weekend before I can start curing cancer!

I'll post some proper pictures of the results as soon as I get my camera/iphone situation sorted out - it's getting really boring now.

Screen Printed Ceramic Transfers

I miss my camera and iphone camera! I actually don't miss the phone/text function or the instant emails, it's nice that when I leave the house I'm out and I can't get distracted. It's also nice that I'm not constantly checking something while watching a film or having dinner and when I'm traveling, I can spend time just looking out the window rather than writing emails and checking Instagram. I'm not sure how long this feeling will last though! And I do miss the scrabble games with my friends.

I'm going to try to pick up my camera from the repair shop today, but until then I've had to dig into my photo archives for blog posts...

At the beginning of the year I screen printed some ceramic transfers for an illustrator in Luxembourg - Pretty Forest. She made her own version of the traditional Peckvillchen (a bird shaped whistle), which is sold during the Easter Weekend. I had never printed ceramic transfers before, so had to spend a long time researching the materials and techniques - it seems like it's quite rare to print this way these days but in the end I managed to get hold of the right enamel, medium and transfer papers.

This is the A3 sheet I printed:


Linda from Pretty Forest then cut out the illustrations, transferred them onto the ceramic pieces and fired them in the kiln - you can see the tutorial on this over on Skinny Laminx's blog.

This is the finished result:

photo by Linda Bos from Pretty Forest

Barcelona

So this was supposed to be the post where I'd show you all my pictures from my lovely time in Barcelona. Unfortunately my phone got stolen while I was there, so I lost all of my photos! Being from London I'm always so careful with my belongings, but these guys were good, they managed to snatch my bag so quickly that I didn't even notice.

I didn't have my camera with me as it's being repaired, so unfortunately I don't have anything to show from my trip.

We did have a lovely time there though, the weather was warm and sunny so we soaked up lots of sun on the beach, ate good food in the evening and explored the city on rented bikes. The apartment we stayed at was great and I definitely prefer that to staying in a hotel, the location was perfect and it was nice to be able to save a bit of money on food as we didn't have to eat out all the time.

I'm going to try to pick up my camera tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to start posting pictures soon!

Summer Weather

I just saw this map of sunshine duration over on SwissMiss and after the weather we've been having the last week here in London, I'm very happy to be traveling to an orange area today!

We're renting a flat in Barecelona, right by the beach and I can't wait to go for a swim in the ocean - I love my local lido but nothing beats the ocean.

We've rented the flat through Airbnb and friends of friends of ours, are renting our flat here in London - it's a great way to make the holiday a little bit more affordable.

Brighten Up Someone's Day

On Friday I went up to Camden to have lunch with my friend Maria, we both started our businesses around the same time and we're both Danes living in London so have lots in common and a similar way of seeing things. It's so reassuring and inspiring to meet up with Maria, and it's nice to know that the fears I have, she has too - they're just part of being self employed I guess.

We spoke about how after having worked for yourself, it seems absolutely impossible to go back to working for someone else and that that is a frightening thought, because that means there is no plan B if my business doesn't work out. I suppose, in a way, this is a good thing as it means I just have to keep trying, keep working hard and keep believing that it will continue to work.

Our "business" lunch ended up lasting until dinner time and when I was cycling home I came across this message written in charcoal across the cycling path - it seemed to nicely sum up the afternoon I had just had.