moleskine love

In picking up the old Moleskine to do the collage in yesterday's post, I discovered some older collages and stuff I haven't shown before. So here goes:



A list of things that makes this the good life. Started it last October I think.



Random leftover collage. I make them a lot, it's a fun way of cleaning the desk. From sometime last fall.



Speaks for itself. Guess I was just happy. Last fall too, I should think.



A Christmasy collage from last year, using the paper I folded the envelopes for the Christmas cards (the dark blue on the left - it's a little lighter in reality) and a leftover Christmas tree I had on the cards, and as always, some random stuff lying around the desk. :)

It's weird to think that I didn't make any collages during all of spring. I was just so busy/ unhappy/ down. Things sure are changing around here now!

and yes ...

... my party on Saturday was quite a lovely party. I am always amazed that I can invite friends from completely different circles, sometimes people who know nobody but me, and still it's not quiet or tense. It's always so great. It just proves how nice my friends are. And they seemed to have a nice time, too. I am very thankful.

a creative retreat

I've been on a creative retreat in Linköping over the past couple of days. When my friend Karin started scrapbooking, she was the first scrapbooker I heard of who was: a student, without children, and had other hobbies (other things in her life) than scrapbooking. Which was comforting, and one of the things that made me start doing it myself. Anyways, we've talked about scrapping together for a while but haven't gotten around to it (as we live in different cities). Last week though, I read on her blog that she felt a little down, so I offered to just go up there to just hang out, do crafty things, and have a great time together. We have been scrapping NON STOP. (Almost - I made a couple of minibooks and a collage, too. I'm not into scrapbooking enough to let all my other creative habits fall apart, duh.)

And now I feel like I have loads of creative energy saved inside (which is good, because the minibooks I made I have to finish at home - didn't have that many photos with me etc., and a couple of layouts need more thinking). A creative retreat indeed. So recommended!



An interesting thing is that when Karin left (she had to leave for school early this afternoon, so I had a couple of hours before catching my bus back to Göteborg), I stopped creating. I couldn't think of anything else to do, I got restless. When we were both of us next to each other at the same desk (a rather long desk, I may add), there was some sort of creative energy going on in the room that kept us going. There were more and more ideas inside to use, all the time. But when I was alone the ideas vanished and self-doubt returned. Weird! Conclusion = I need creative retreats to function.

While on the bus home (a four hour ride) though, since I hadn't anything else to do, I came up with a whole new creative concept. But I'm not going to tell yet. Have to see if it works first.

School starts tomorrow, yay! I'm so excited to have singing lessons again. Ooh, I really have high hopes that this semester will be a great one.

a little bit of this and that ...

... and a couple of photos thrown in for good measure.

+ I got a question what I do to make photos look like this and the answer is, I use Curves in Photoshop (CS3). Mostly I just try changing the curves in every direction until I'm satisfied. Which almost always includes taking the blue out of the highlights, because I really love the yellow light that that gives. Other than that it's all trial and error :).



+ I fell in love with this little turquoise chair at Saronkyrkans Second Hand (I took the photo in the shop) the other day and immediately bought it. It looks like candy!

+ I've seen three movies over the past couple of days. Maria and I both felt rather lazy in Thursday night and decided to see High School Musical - mostly because we're both high school. movie nerds and we wanted to have seen it. It was the one of the WORST movies I have ever seen - yes, totally down there with American Pie, 40 Days and 40 Nights and How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days. Afterwards we had to see Clueless (which we've both seen loads of times of course), just to keep the faith in high school movies. It was really awful in every way.

+ Yesterday the boyfriend and a couple of friends and saw Mamma Mia. And honestly, I can't understand the hype (because there's a small hype here). I thought it was hysterical and full of ridiculous clichés. I, as a musical nerd, have a VERY high tolerance level for incoherent stories, but this one was just too much. And too loud.



+ It's funny living together. Funny easy. It's like the boyfriend says, "when you hear of someone else moving in together when they've only known each other for a short while, you think 'wow ... that's early'. But when it's us ... It wasn't early at all". We had known each other for a little more than seven months when we moved in together, and it's really working. I could wish for nothing else.

+ We're having a small and hopefully cozy party (those are my favorite kinds of parties) with lots of cakes and cookies this evening, to celebrate my moving in here. The boyfriend has been baking the whole week - dammsugare, mazariner, kladdkaka, hallongrottor, and a few others that I don't know the English name of either. :) Should be fun!

+ I've had a blessed long summer holiday, but now I'm ready for the real life to begin - the real life with school, dancing, choir practice, exercising regularly, friends back in town, all that jazz. I feel really excited about the autumn semester starting soon (next Monday).

some inspirations

(Dancers from the Ballet of the Gothenburg Opera performing a scene from Cinderella at Götaplatsen on Sunday) (Yes, I sat up close. :)) (Because I love dance.)


This is a bad and boring Tuesday. I'm at the first day of that time of the month which is sort of killing me. I've started the heavy ice cream eating already even though I'm only a little past breakfast. So in order to try and do something instead of just feeling sorry for myself (I am not in the mood to create something, which is what I had planned for today), I'm doing a little roundup of things that have been inspiring to me as of late (some of which has been inspiring to me for a long time).

BOOK - maybe the most amazing collage project I have ever seen. Ever. I keep coming back again and again. These guys are so talented. I could stop the link list here, BOOK could keep you busy all day.

Try Something Else by Maya Stein I know I have talked about Maya Stein before; maybe I've even mentioned this poem before. It is my most favorite one. It has saved days, for me. I printed it and put it on the inside of my door in my last apartment, so I could read a part of it every day before I went out in the world. It really is that good and strong.

Paul Costello Quite stunning interior photos.

the paper category at design*sponge I bookmark paper and/ or stationary sections at design blogs, so I won't have to waste my time with furniture that looks stylish but uncomfortable, and that I will never ever afford. Paper on the other hand is often affordable and always lovely :) Design*sponge has a beautiful paper section.

touch map by Keri smith - what if your hand could tell stories?

Tackle any issue with a list of 100 from Litemind

I'm off to eat some more ice cream. Wish me luck!

A couple of new scrapbook layouts.

You know what, I really don't like this attitude people are having that collage making or art journal keeping is better than scrapbooking. I don't really care what's considered the "most art". All I care about is that it's all a great creative outlet, and people should just let others be creative in the way that suits them better. Actually, I'll change that last sentence. I think people should try out what other's are doing. So many collage artists would do good with a little scrapbooking (and vice versa)! People are held back by so much FEAR! Let it go, people. Putting your life on paper - no matter if it's through drawing, collages, art journals, scrapbooking, photo albums, whatever - is good for you. Take my word for it.

So ... I started a little personal project the other day. I've made a spiral bound book (21 x 21 cm, my favorite format as of late) from patterned papers and brightly colored cardstock. Now I'm keeping a journal in it ... But it "looks" like scrapbooking. Or am I scrapbooking, but it works like an art journal? Who knows! I haven't figured out those details (and I sure hope I won't). The only rule I have is that the photo(s) I use have to be recent, as in, from today or yesterday. Which keeps me talking about the now. Which is what I want to talk about. So that's that ... I plan on showing you some pages tomorrow.

Also plan on making some stuff for this quite awesome olympics inspired paper craft challenge by Elise Blaha. And right now I plan on leaving this desk to go to the Monday's social lindy night. Off I go!

Oo, I forgot to tell you that I've opened an Etsy shop. I'll be selling art journals, prints, note cards, and original collages ... At least I will try, and if no one wants to buy anything, I won't be selling. :) It's all extremely expensive though, so don't go there! :)

Inspired by this beautiful post by Sandra Juto I decided to make one of my own and document a day in photos. Just like back in the day when everyone I knew had a personal homepage with a photo journal (that was before the word "blog" came). Those were the days ...!

Anyways, here's Friday. :)



08:05 Been awake for a little while, but can't gather enough energy to actually get up until now.



08:31 Breakfast is totally the meal I care most about. I want it good. This morning it's lättfil with grapes, sandwich (dark toast) with cheese and tomato, and a nectarine.



09:10 Trying to get the boyfriend out of bed (not because he has to go somewhere, but because I want company) by opening the blinds. Short tickle fight follows. I always win.



09:41 Starting this day's creative endeavors by reorganizing some recent scrapbook pages that had ended up in piles. The piles in the studio really get their own lives if I'm not paying attention.



10:16 Starting to go through the 1000+ photos I took of Karin's and Anders' wedding. Due to some computer issues I haven't even looked at them yet, and it makes me quite happy to see that some are actually rather good.



10:56 Taking a walk down to Fysiken to get my back exercises done. I've taken a loooong break from them (I've been away, had a cold, and then we got busy with the move) and my physical therapist won't be happy about that. So now it's back to three times a week again.



11:09 Soon there.



11:16 Warm up on the cross trainer. I'm in bad shape and sometimes I really have to force myself to not give up on the prescribed ten minutes in this ... Embarrassing! But well, I'm working on it.



12:26 Walking home again.



15:13 We've had the pleasure of having Christina, a friend of mine since eight years (time flies ...!) over for lunch. Afterwards we sit down in the studio to scrap a little.



17:07 Emtpying the dishwasher. this may very well be the best part of this new apartment. I LOVE having a dishwasher. It's doesn't even bother me that it's boring to empty it.



17:30 Doing a little balcony standing while cooking dinner. I started doing that last time I lived in this building and have quickly getting back into the habit. It's lovely to just stand here, breathe and be calm.



17:33 Ah, the fabulous dinners I make myself when the boyfriend is out! (I hate cooking, so it's normally he who does that. My lentil soup is better than his, but that's probably it.) I thought about not photographing this because it's not goodlooking or interesting or a very well-balanced meal, but what the heck ... this is what I eat, so why not show it. I LOVE korv med bröd by the way. (Soy sausages, whole grain bread and olives.)



20:07 Got bored and decided to cut my hair a little. (One of the benefits of often shaving it off completely - I dont have do care about what I do with it.)



20:20 Walking downtown to meet the boyfriend and listen to the concert version of West Side Story at Götaplatsen.



20:44



21:30 The music is great, but way too loud for my unfortunately very sensitive ears (it happens to everyone at the academy of music), so we walk around a little bit further away. This soon proves to be a bad back day (it hurts when I walk), so ...



21:55 ... we're soon on our way home.



23:13 Turning this lamp off is one of the last things I do every night. Goodnight!

a wedding

So - my dear friend Karin got married last Saturday, to her wonderful Anders. And it was one intense day, I tell you (and long - I got up at seven to be in Lidköping in time, and fell into bed at about four in the morning). I was the photographer, so I was there early to take pictures of all the guests (160 people - that took a little while). When we were all finally in the church and they came walking in arm in arm, I was on the verge of tears (like people on weddings in American movies!). It was so, so beautiful ... I think that was my most favorite part. They were positively radiant, beaming with happiness.



After the ceremony, we (the newlyweds, another friend named Katarina and me) went to a place near a special tree, where they wanted their photos taken. This was the best part of the whole day, for me. Being allowed to share their first moments as married with them, all alone, being able to actually talk to them more than what is possible during a party with 160 guests. And I just love photographing people - real, good people with beautiful personalities. Laughing together and just being happy. It was such a privilege, and I am so happy that they asked me to do this. The ones in this post are some of my favorites.



And then, the party. It all went by rather quickly .. so many people, so much good food, so many photos to take. I must admit though, is was a little hard being the photographer on such a close friend's wedding. I wanted them to have really good photos, so at times it was a little difficult to relax and just enjoy the party. But after a while I realized that I can't be a better photographer than I am ... that all I can do is do my best and no one is asking more of me than that.



The only bad thing about this lovely day was that I got really tired at the end. There were speeches and stuff until two in the morning, and I usually want to go to bed at about half past ten :) But well, of course I knew that I was going to be tired, and that it was going to be worth it anyhow, so I just tried to smile and take good pictures anyway ... :)

(I realized just now that there might have been one more thing ... that I got a quite horrible thank you gift :). It strikes me now that I probably shouldn't write this here if Karin should read it ... But I don't think she would have chosen something impersonal and quite ugly like that (a sort of silvery glass thing with "modern" Chinese-ish decorations), she knows me better, so I'm going to blame a parent or other relative for the gift-buying. :))



And now they're MARRIED. It's the first wedding I've been to that wasn't someone in the family, a relative. These are my friends, they're my age, and they're married, and it's all so beautiful. Just look at them ... that's love you're seeing, my dears. The real thing.

apartment love

Oh, admit it ... You want to live in our kollektiv (can't find a decent translation - it means people living together, sort of), too, so you can have big windows, a huge dinner table, a grandfather clock in the corner, and join in on our craft nights. Just admit it. You want to live here, too.

school talk

Disclaimer: this is a really long post containing lots of feelings about going back to school. Mostly very happy feelings. but if you're not interested in what I'm doing at the Academy of Music, you probably don't want to read this. I've trown in some pictures from my walk earlier today, though.

- - -

I went down to the school today to take care of some schedule stuff (since I had applied for a year off and sent in all the papers, I had to get myself back in the system now), and it just made me so happy. Going back now almost feels like what I felt when I first found out I had gotten in, two years ago. I could not believe it at first. I knew they only take two. Two! How could there not be two people better than me?

But I was good enough.

And today I got the feeling that I'm still good enough. And it was quite wonderful, I tell you. I feel giddy with excitement and I'm so very eager to make this a better semester than the last one. To keep my love of music this time. Stay happy.

I'll get my classical singing teacher back (anything else would have been a small disaster and I would have been unhappy, but I was quite sure I would get her - I knew she would protest, too, if they tried something else) and I'll get another, hopefully great, singing teacher in this new course I'm taking, jazz singing. I'm thinking and hoping it's going to be great. Hard work taking two different singing classes, but I feel so inspired!



Here's what I'm taking this year (all of these are mandatory except the jazz singing which I've chosen):

The two largest courses are what we call "reading courses" - you know, the ones where there's a teacher standing talking in front, and then you go home and read a lot in thick books. I guess this sounds a lot like the university to most people, but when studying music, these classes are really kind of rare. Actually it's rare that I'm in a class with more than five or six students. Anyways I read wuite fast and I usually understand and learn what I read, so I don't mind this kind of classes.

- Klassisk musikhistoria med musikantropologi (classical music history with music anthropology); this is rumoured to be the heaviest course of the whole education. Lots and lots to read.. But I think music history is fascinating. If only I could start studying in time for once in my life ...!

- Musik, genus och mångfald (music, gender and ... don't know what that's called in English), some kind of sociology thing, rumored to be hopelessly uninsteresting, but I don't like starting a new course thinking that, so I've decided to be super excited about it (so far not working).

And the more practical ones ...

- Klassisk sång (classical singing); nothing more to say than that I just adore my teacher. We've been working hard for two years and I look forward to being a lot more focused than I was during spring.

- Jazzsång (jazz singing); I haven't worked with this teacher before, but I heard she's great and I really want to be better at jazz singing.

- Kammarmusik (chamber music); if only I can get a good ensemble this year too (good as in people I like, not as in people who play well, because they all play extremely well), it's going to be swell.

- Sångmetodik (singing methodology?); it's been interesting before so I'm hoping it will be now, too. And I'll get to have a pupil of my own, which was lovely last time. Teaching singing is so much fun!

- VFU (practical training); a whole month (November) at the high school in Kungälv. My instructor/ supervisor (good translation for handledare, someone?) is amazing and feels more like a friend. I can ask her tons of stupid questions, and she really is a great singing teacher, so I know I have a lot more to learn from her. It's going to be hard to get up before six in the morning for a whole month to get there, though. (That may be the worst thing about the whole fall semester.)



And that's that I think. Doesn't look so much. But I know I have a tendency of burying myself in musts - there's always so much that seems fun. There's the lindy hop social night on Mondays, Tuesday night is choir practice, aerobics on Wednesdays, modern dance on Thursdays; three times a week I need to get to the gym and do my back exercises for an hour, some weekends I'll teach lindy hop ...

Why are there so many fun things to do - that will all become a burden if I don't take time enough to rest?

+ Yesterday morning I had an early breakfast date with Stina, a dear friend of mine that I first met in high school when I dated one of her best friends. :) She lives in Växjö now and we don't get to meet too often, so it was fabulous seeing her.

+ The boyfriend left yesterday morning. Not coming back until on Sunday. It's difficult being here, in this apartment that is not a home to me yet, without him. I'm feeling a little bit lost. I'm fine, but you know, it's just ... better with him.



+ Oh my gosh, I bought myself a new toy. I've been wanting one for months and I finally decided I want it bad enough :) It's a Canon Pixma iP4500 and just look what it can do! It makes me happy for real. The past few days I've been saying "oh, I'm tired, I have to print a photo or two". It works quite well as a treat. It just makes me childishly happy to watch as it prints my photos ... I know it's silly ... But it's fun! :)



+ Been into making collages with song lyrics on again, like I used to before. Before in that sentence would refer to high school, when I would spend late nights making mixtapes and drawing/ collaging the booklets. It's a great way of remembering what songs I really listened to. For some collages I just put my iPod on shuffle and use the first songs that came up (the one above quotes Kristofer Åström and Air), but I think I'm going to make a journal entry soon about some recent favs.

+ I saw P.S. I Love You last night and cried almost the whole way through. It felt wonderful. It happens (though rarely) that I cry when I watch movies, but only at sad endings or if they play very powerful music. During this one I cried more than I didn't and that's saying something - that it's a brilliant movie for when you need to cry a little. Recommended.

+ I'm not going to say anything about the Appalachian Spring concert except that I loved it. And I don't mean that in the American "I throw this word around when talking about anything I like a little" way, but in the Swedish way. Just so there are no misunderstandings.