Monicas Creative Room

Spring is almost here!

12 April 2023 by Monica Björk

A few days ago we chipped away the ice closest to the house so we could set up a couple of chairs. Afterwards I took a well deserved break in the sun.

Today I have carried all my plants out to the greenhouse and started replanting them in larger pots. I haven’t been growing as many flowers as I used to, because I usually end up with way too many plants.

I also saw that two of my tomato plants have started to flower! 🙂

We still have cold nights with several degrees below zero. That’s why I have a thermostat controlled fan heater in the greenhouse. The potatoes will be planted in about five weeks. By then all the snow will hopefully have melted and the soil will be warm enough.

We still have a lot of snow on the ground! It is not yet possible to walk around the house because the snow is too deep!

The cucumbers I sowed at the beginning of March are thriving indoors by the living room window. I will be able to harvest the first cucumber within a few days! Yay!

/Monica

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Painting dahlias

5 February 2023 by Monica Björk

I have been painting my cast dahlias for the past few days. It’s so fun when you see all the colours and how they harmonize with each other. Sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way I want, but then I just paint it over and try a different shade. I love these shimmery metallics and pearlescent colours.
In the spring I will also clearcoat them, but I will do that outdoors because I use a solvent-based spray varnish. Right now it is far too cold and too much snow outside!

You can put these flowers on a rebar because there is a hole in the bottom of the flowers. Just push the rebar into the soil and place the flower on top. They look so beautiful in the garden!

/Monica

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Knitted mittens

27 January 2023 by Monica Björk

I’ve started knitting Lovikka mittens, and it’s so much fun! The design was created in 1892 in the village of Lovikka (not so far from where I live, it takes about three hours to go there by car). The Lovikka mitten has a double collar and a pattern border embroidered at the wrist, often with different coloured crosses. They also usually have a braided cord with a tassel, but I have skipped that part.The Lovikka yarn is a soft thick loosely spun wool yarn.

I have an old antique wool carder I use to brush the mittens with. The mittens become so soft and nice after a soapy wash and carding. I also card the inside.

I’ve knitted three pairs in women’s size and right now I’m working on a smaller pair. I’m going to knit two pairs in men’s size as well, but I’m waiting for more yarn to arrive.

/Monica

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A new card is uploaded!

29 December 2022 by Monica Björk

I just stumbled upon a card design I made earlier this year and then forgot about it. It’s a gate fold card with lots of snowflakes on it. I don’t know why I forgot about it but I’m glad I found it now and not during summertime. 🙂

The design is quite delicate and you need to be careful when lifting it off the mat and weeding it.
You can find the new design here.

I wish you all a Happy New Year 2023!

/Monica

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My new paved corner!

12 September 2021 by Monica Björk

Last summer I was casting oriental paver stones like crazy. This summer I have finished the paving and built a nice working bench.

First I removed the grass from the area and filled it in with fine-grained gravel to get a flat smooth base to put my stones on.

Then I started to fill up the area with my beautiful stones. This went fast but I lacked five stones in the end and had to cast them to be able to finish it.

To keep the stones at the edges from sliding, I hammered down some rebars all around. I also put extra rebars outside the paving to reinforce the string of concrete I put around the edges to even out the level between the grass and the paving.

Now I wanted to build a working bench. I edited a drawing that I found on the net and started sawing up the wood I needed for this. After removing all the saw dust from all over me, I finally could start building. This was fun and I’m amazed that everything fitted without modification, except for the hole for the sink!