Airplane in the blue hour

I’ve been hibernating after twisting my ankle two weeks ago while escaping huge icicles falling off a rooftop on a narrow medieval street paved with cobblestones. Lets just say that there’s a whole lot of things I’d rather do than walk with crutches in snow and on ice.

It’s interesting to see how much comes with the role of “being injured”, at first I was so surprised when someone offered me a seat on the bus and then I remembered oh yes, I’ve got these crutches. People can see that… Then again, this is a role I’ll soon be able to step out of, and I’m so grateful for that.

This whole thing has been a drain though, so things have been quiet round here. But enough with the drama!

I found a desktop wallpaper with Forsythia, that somehow didn’t make it into the move to WordPress, and re-released it. I hope it brightens your day with thoughts of spring to come!

These birches grow in the park behind the bus stop. It looks like the branches are sugar-coated! Although it was dark I had to pull out my camera. The photos are in colour but the landscape is in black and white. Monochrome. This scene makes me think of woodblock printing, linocuts, engraving and etching. And again, I’m inspired to create patterns for fabrics.

Scottish Fold

And now there are more kittens in the litter. Pleased to introduce this marmalade tabby, an illustration of a  Scottish Fold.

Expanding, meeting new friends, participating in group projects and finding inspiration. Closing in to focus on personal projects and deep connections with both online and offline friends and loved ones. And to swing back and forth between expanding and finding focus. Last year was an expanding year for me, this year I intend to be focused and yet open.

This extraordinarily snowy winter we’ve been giving different kinds of snow names. Feather snow, icing sugar, ice mist, castor sugar, sea salt flakes, snowball snow, movie snow… It’s been playful and imaginative.

I enjoy studying thoughts and ideas, the origin of words, to broaden my knowledge and explore the background. This winter I found out that it’s it’s a popular urban legend that the Inuit or Eskimo have an unusually large number of words for snow. And here I’d been saying “did you know that the Inuit have lots of words for snow!”…

It’s like someone powdered the trees with icing sugar. Or dipped them in a bag of sugar. Or poured a bag of flour over the landscape. Or something like that… And it’s breathtakingly beautiful!

Turkish Angora

My main focus for January is to create my first design for fabrics based on the Full Cold Moon. I’m so enthusiastic about the whole project and I’ve got such a terrific feeling about it! I’d got the fabric samples and colour chart just before Christmas and only need to transfer the design to a curtain format and adjust the colours so they work for printing on textile before I can have the first sample printed. I don’t know about “only”, but still, I’m so close to being there, and so I was very surprised to find resistance within me! What am I afraid of? The technical process that I need to learn? Getting the curtain dimensions wrong? Is it about putting this project out in the world? Is it about completion and what to do next? About the possibility of failure? Or success? I don’t know. All I know is that these ultra cute cats emerged, at this very time of the process.

They’re terribly cute, kawaii, as sweet as sugar, and really not what I consider “my style”! And yet here they are. I thought about it. Then I decided to just let them come. They’re fun and playful and perhaps they appear with ease because I have no big dreams or strong emotions attached to them?! So I’ve been making more friends for the first cat. A family. A collection of cat breeds. They could be a collection of icons or they could be a set of prints or illustrations in a children’s book. Cute as a Button. That’s it, that can be the name for this cute crew!

I’ve been spending more time offline, unplugged. Batching my internet activities three times a week. It’s bliss. Now if I only got round to sorting out my mailbox too!

And I’m looking for a good recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon for my birthday dinner. I’ll be serving it either with potato puree or Potatoes Boulangères and a green salad. Not sure what the desert or starter will be yet. I’m thinking of trying Delia Smith’s recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon but I’m interested to hear if anyone has any other recommendations?

Christmas Crackers

We had a wonderful Christmas and are now enjoying “mellandagarna”, the days in between Christmas and New Year’s. Peaceful days for contemplation, cosy days at home, long walks in the snow.

Before I return to my new book, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, and painting software Art Rage 3 I wish you a “happy continuation”, “god fortsättning”, as the Swedish greeting goes.

Firefly lights and a sunset view from the studio.

In the winter, the sunset begins around three o’clock in the afternoon, and then it goes on for an hour. I often think, these sunsets are the reward for putting up with the dark and short Scandinavian winter days. Photos rarely capture these sunsets and although I’m often tempted to paint them, the paintings would probably be considered garish, cheap, unrealistic and even cheesy!

Today we’re closing the studio for the winter holidays. I’m busy finishing my last projects before the break and preparing a holiday e-mail with limited edition desktop goodies exclusively for members of Club Marmalade Moon. I expect to keep on blogging throughout the holidays. We’ll open the studio on the 8th of January and look forward to starting the new decade in a refreshed and inspiring environment.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads my blog, my window from my studio and to the world. Your comments and emails have been so encouraging, appreciative, inspiring and supportive. I wish you all the very best for the holiday season and for 2010!

Back home with a cup of tea and a slice of apricot and nut bread after a day in this beautiful winter wonderland landscape.

Frozen Apples

The birds must be having a good year as there still are apples on this apple tree! Frozen apples. And finally a few photos of the Christmas tree at my local shopping centre before I get dinner going.

Frost Star

Finally some of the pieces for Christmas are falling into place. After many attempts, I found the right bulb for the new Advent star, it turns out it’s the same type that you use in an oven! Who would have guessed…

Advent star with window reflection.

If you’ve heard my laments about the lack of sunlight this winter, you can probably imagine how poor the lighting conditions are for photography. So I gave up on waiting for sunshine, and I also wanted to show you some of my Christmas lights, so I reminded myself of how much I love the spontaneity of lo-fi photography . The gritty grain, the distortion, the overload and the pastels. Like playing rock ‘n’ roll, like feeding the distortion of your electric guitar back into the amp, like feeling the base in your body before you let your guitar play the sweetest song. Raw emotions with a minimum of editing and styling.

Christmas lights on the balcony.

I’m so grateful for all the new online friends and acquaintances I’ve met this year. Carla, the creator of the wonderful iPhone app Gratitude Journal. The many brave soul seekers I met in the Unravelling course, and the inspiring, talented artists I got to know in Marisa’s fish bowl. Tracy, the artist and crafter of the Pink Purl. Jamie who created the Full Moon Dreamboards that it’s been so magical for me to participate in. Just to mention a few. You’ve all brought so much light to my life!

A pale pink amaryllis

Gefle Design

Lately, there’s been lots of work going on under the hood here at Marmalade Moon. Talented and friendly web designer Gefle Design have helped me migrate this site to the WordPress engine, creating beautifully compact code that makes the site load faster in the process!

Gefle Design also helped me to add some new functions to Marmalade Moon, I’d like to especially mention the handy, new search function located at the top of the sidebar, as well as a brand new RSS-feed, so don’t forget to change the address for the feed if you subscribe to Marmalade Moon’s RSS feed!

If you’re looking for a creative web designer, with a sense for style and Wordpress expertise, I strongly recommend Gefle Design.

A bare tree and blue sky.

There has been four hours of sunlight in November… no wonder I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather! I was sort of glad to get it in black and white today, just to know that I wasn’t imagining it! SMHI (the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) reported that so far, there have been four hours of sunlight in Stockholm during November. The average apparently is 54 hours of sunlight.

But today it was sunny and the sky was blue! So in one single day there was more sunlight than there has been for the rest of the whole month!

Tomorrow a rain and snowstorm is predicted, and the rest of November is expected to be scarce on sunlight, so of course I had to go for a long walk today! I took lots of photos with the camera in my mobile phone, most didn’t come out very well as I was perusing birds, and they don’t tend to pose and smile at the camera!

Today the French theme took off again. First a stop at the absolutely wonderful café and restaurant Petite France, (check out the baker Sebastien Boudet’s delicious blog Un peu, beaucoup, passionement, à la folie) for café au lait and croissants, Pain au Chocolat. Then past the City Hall, through the Old Town ending up at the cinema Victoria and Coco Before Chanel (to see a movie trailer click here).

What an inspiring day!

Yellow and orange leaves.

Returning from the café balancing feta cheese sandwiches and coffee for lunch, I had to stop and dig out my camera when I saw this hedge.