Soul Glo

This weeks challenge is CRUSHES:  Who or what does it for you?  What makes your pressure go up and gives you passion? 

One of my most favorite is blogging.  I always wanted to be a writer and blogging is pretty much as close as I am going to get to it.  I can communicate with other people and still maintain my privacy and distance if I choose.   Another thing that does it for me are old things   but especially cans.  .  I had no time for looking at anything, letting alone breathing back in Joisey.   I met my bästis friend, Jeanette because she made a card thanking our employer for taking the staff out to dinner.  That card blew me away and I KNEW that I wanted to learn to do something like that.  Luckily her english was great and we hit it off immediately!  I was then invited to her home where I saw ” the room”  that is affectionately known to us as  ” The Pyssla Palace“.      Check out the warehouse she has going on in there!  This room is certainly one of my crushes!   As anytime we spend in there is guaranteed to be fun, productive and entertaining!  J is most certainly one of the most artistic and talented people I know and I am proud to call her friend!

Mail Art… I don’t know where I have been but I received my first piece of art mail last month, and I am in love!  I even saved the envelope and forgot to open it because I loved it so much. Here is my most recent delivery!This beauty came from Susan and contained several lovely items that I purchased from her Etsy shop!  If you are looking for wonderful hand crafted with care items, PLEASE check out the shops on ETSY.   These folks are realy talented and if you want unique professional and affordable, please support the artist through their individual shops.  ( Can you tell I heart Etsy, too!?).   Then there is my off the chart radio with the fantastic stereo sound that I can plug a memory stick into or  MY IPOD!!!!!!  I just have to be conscious of turning down some of the stuff, LOL!

Last of all I crush all of the friends that I have made out in the cyberworld…I want to have a party and invite all of you to visit as just the contact with you has enriched my life immensely!  I am learning to trust my artistic spirit, take risks and enjoy the simplicity of my life.  For that gift of creativity and hope, I will be eternally grateful.

I went into the city last saturday and held one of the twins hostage with me…

I drug his little behind all over the place and he wanted to go home so badly with his new Sony Erickson telephone…but alas, Mommy was on a roll and there were sights to be sought… First!   a lovely childs dictionary from 1945.

Then there were these lovely pressed flowers ( all the rage since Uncle Carl Linnea´ turned 300 this summer…

Then there were these lovely metal plates that I won on Tradera!  only $20 bucks!!!!  I am doing the Church Lady dance over these!   Then there was this old scale at the flea market on Thursday that I scored for $3.00!!! All I need is the weights and this was only 20 kronor but what the heck!? 

There is this lady called ” The Bulldozer” .(  Jeanette actually nicknamed her that), because we believe that she has a resale store somewhere in Stockholm and she sucks up all of the fine things in our little community so that she can mark them up and resell them in her store.   Anywhoo, it has become a contest of sorts to see if you can take something that you would not necessarily buy just to deprive her of it… That being said, she and her husband run around the shop gather up as much as then can then set it baskets with other baskets covering it until they have time to “sort” though it and decide if the item has  value to them or not…if you have an hour or so to kill,  you maybe able to outwait them so that when they get ready to put the things that they don’t want back, you may get something nice.   This is wrong on so many levels, but as a lover of vintage things, I find that torturing my spirit keeps it alert.

A tag I have done for the MMAN group.  We swap art every 2 weeks, through a challenge called the Weekly Uniquely and it is SO much fun to see what everyone is doing and share techniques for improvising and creating…I cannot believe that I had to move to another continent to learn about something that has always been a part of my life.  I dropped out of over 13 groups and mailing lists and the Bot-Swap is next.

I’ve still got one RAK floating around in America…or at least I don’t know if it has been received :(…  Off to visit other’s blogs! 

Over the summer we had the time to do a little exploring in the area where we purchased the Stuga.  FuluFalls is one of the most famous sites for hikers in Sweden and is located in Dalarnas Land.   The Falls just became a national park in 2002 in a dedication ceremony hosted by the king of Sweden, Karl Gustav  XVI.   Sweden is divided into  21 “regions”  and 290 “counties”.   It is quite complicated in a land mass the size of California with only 9 million residents ;  But that means that we have more “space ” per person than many other places. 

The park is situated just over 30 kilometers from Särna ( Sar-na) and it covers over 380 square meters.  There are lots of pine forests over all and lots of  very undisturbed natural areas.  It is  categorized as a biotope: … literally an area where life is living. More precisely, biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals *.  For us that means the area is left in it’s natural state for the purpose of public enjoyment and preservation.      In the park’s central core, no activities are permitted which might disturb the character or the experience of nature. Elk-hunting, fishing, and the operation of snowmobiles on designated trails are permitted in certain sections of the part. Lakes are treated with lime for the benefit of fishing.     It is prohibited to break branches, uproot plants or otherwise disturb the area.   There are hikeable mountains and even with a bad knee it was doable for about 30 minutes.  The highest point is Slohangflöjet which is almost 1,044 meters high.    The waterfall is named Njupeskär and is one of the most popular sights in the park!  There are several great photo locations but the closer you get to the falls.  My husband  and I describe it akin to a jet engine roar.  You can literally feel the power of the water as it hits the earth.  One of the most fantastic things I have ever experienced. 

My son went near the bottom about 5 meters away and his clothes began to balloon and I was certain he was a goner…He said the power of the fall was magnificent.  I would love to go back and go closer but I’m such a chicken, I think I like the view just fine where I was!

* per wilkipedia

Normally, prices don’t scare me but since we purchased the vacation cottage ( that sounds SO much nicer than the Swedish word: Stuga ( stew-ga) which means: cabin). 

Take a look at this refrigerator.     39,000 swedish kronor for what?   That is $5,794 dollars, but then again, it does come in red or white… I left a  green 2 door ice and water serving model in the house when we moved out from NJ 5 years ago…Little did I not know that we would never be reunited with a refrigerator door serving cold water and icecubes…sigh.

I cannot tell you how many times I purchased Calphalon cookware and ended up taking it back, because I could not really cook well enough to justify the expense…well guess what?    Now I can but a caribbean blue Le Creuset for only 1,149 kronor or roughly $170.72  .  It is available on Amazon dot com for 79.99 .

I was logged on to Golden Paint and was buying some black gesso, medium gel and heavy gel along with 5 tubes of acrylic.  I get ready to check out and bingo.  They only ship to America and Canada.   Dick Blick wanted  45 dollars to ship 44 dollars worth of product…I could go on, but  I need to chauffeur the car to a birthday party. 

Last but not least…there is my wishlist item the Robo Craft machine and the works…only going for a measly $533.00 with out the spare parts…

Craft Robo carrier sheet Carrier sheet är den som du kan sätta fast ditt papper på. Förpackningen innehåller 2 st ark.Pris: 145,00 kr Craft Robo cutting mat Skärmattan är den svarta tejp som sitter fast på maskinen där kniven skärobs! tas hem på beställ… Pris: 135,00 kr Craft Robo extra kniv obs! tas hem på beställning Pris: 250,00 kr Craft Robo maskin, ny version Plotterskrivare med kniv istället för bläck. Skär ut vad du vill ur papper. Mer information finns på… Pris: 3.500,00 kr

I heard a song, ” This is why I am hot”.  My version is ” This is why I drink”.

The altered book swap went well and was graciously received!  This was a fun, but time consuming project but live and learn!  RAK’s went out to Tel Aviv and Canada and one to the States…I realized that I had purchased 2 copies of  an altered art book from Amazon, so I sent one off and a Signo white Uni;  some other things to help thin out my excess stuff and a lots of little odds and ends ( my personal favorite!) .

The chicken pox kids are wearing me out!  Everyone is almost dried out and will definately go back to school next week.

 Those stamps that I made by heating old seat cushion foam ( I believe they are sold for gardeners knees, too) became not only the ATC background but I started painting the suitcase a white and will be stamping the rose pattern inside ( camera batteries are dead and recharging so hang on , lol!)   And that altered book I had been working on ( Thank’s to Sharon and her kids project AND for the stamp idea!) is FINALLY finished!  It was only 8 sides, but it takes me a long time to work out patterns and backgrounds.  I just don’t have a natural artistic groove like others…or maybe it is the twins sucking out all of my brain energy chasing after Kung Fu uniforms and bike innertubes.  These are the first 2 sides using some old celebrity playing cards, vintage french post card pix and writing on the back and an interesting envelope that had postage stamp mounts on it.  The cool thing is that you can embellish as much as you want, the book dosen’t have to close flat.

Have a great and artfilled weekend everyone!  We are off to the cabin to drop off some things we purchased but as soon as the school begins monday, I am back at my desk ( I hope)!   Lastly:  Does anyone recycle mailing envelopes?  I feel so cheap painting and decorating over them, but it seems like such a waste to purchase “clean” mailers when they end up being decorated anyway.  Just a thought…