Red Squirrel (tiny fox)

Could that be why I love squirrels so much? Because they look like small red foxes?
Nah. I know why I love squirrels. It's because when I see them, almost flying between branches, I feel this powerful feeling of freedom. Being a squirrel seems awesome. You're small, fast, flexible, beautiful and free. I've never caught a red one very close on camera... until YESTERDAY that is! I love the top photo. I hardly had to touch it in photoshop... the colors where already perfect pastel and the fuzziness was just where it should be. And how cute is it that you can actually see her teeny tiny nipples on the second photo where she's all like "what, you looking at me?".
I should bring out the superheavy tele lens more often! I should also start lifting weights with my right arm... since it has gotten to put up with too much weight from the camera during the past week. And now it feels like it's rotting away.

Late last night Lollo knocked on our door again. Thank god! I had already put up notes all over the neighborhood and reported him missing to the police. He just looked at us like what? Have I been gone?

Where is Lollo?

It seems my cat has gone missing. Either he has lost his way or he has run away. I don't know. All I know is that he wasn't waiting by the stairs when I came home in the morning. And you might think that this is not strange at all. But it is strange! Because Lollo is a real sissy and he would never go more than 20 meter from the house. He has just dissapeared. I keep thinking I should call him and ask where he's at. And then I remember he doesn't have a phone. And also that he doesn't know how to answer a phone.

I feel like this bear. Except Lollo is my hat. And my neighbors are the animal that have no clue.

A whole lotta horse

I got a comment asking to see more of the horses. So here's Abe... or it might be Albert on the first photo.
Abe and Albert are their names and they are two very young friesian stallions. There is still a lot of work to do with them in order to get them...well..."tame"... I might say.
When they come out of their boxes it's like watching these pitch black oil shimmering dinosaurs come to life. Impressing and a bit terrifying. Once you're on their back it's not so bad. Size wise. But they are still more tricky to ride than other horses since they're so big and clumsy and stubborn.

And for those of you wondering, I am home again. I should be catching up on my school work but I'm just sitting and going through the photos from the trip. Always hard to get back to normal life when you've been on vacation. Especially when I came home to a very grey and rainy city.

Beautiful Lea and Tess

My sister has a cat named Lea (Maine Coon breed). She talks/purrs in a very specific way, and when she wants something she looks like a crazy owl. Also, if she doesn't get special maine coon food she eats like a hobo. While chewing her food it just falls out of her mouth and gets all over the kitchen.
Tess first cat that she bought in Italy is called Louis (I call him Lollo) and he lives with us in Sweden know. It occurred to us that Lea & Lui sounded like Lei and Lui, which means her and him in italian. 

Wind-up housewife

There are not as many food cooking housewives left in the world. Maybe someone just forgot to wind them up?  

My birthday

About this time last year I posted a post where I wrote
I went to the zoo today. They had tiny bunnies. I went crazy. I got so excited I got a headache. Then my mum got me a lollipop and it stuck to my lips and I panicked so we ran around by the bears panicking. My mom pressed her icecream(that wasn't so icy) to my face. It didn't help. Then she poured lots of water over my face. That helped more. I felt like I was 6 years old.
On saturday I'm turning 23, hard to imagine!


Life is similar today as well. I'm turning 24 today. And I got a cake with my circus fox.

Bottles

I went up to a hill next to the house, shot this picture (with bottles found in the old house that's being restored) and then I rested on my back and filmed the clouds that flew by super fast. I really like a dramatic sky. I also really like filming actually. I've tried to do a lot of it here. But not too much though... otherwise I won't have any space left on my computer for my pictures. My camera swallows just about 1 GB every third minute.

Gah, on the top picture, does the hand look strange? I might change to another picture without the hand. Ooooooooor, should I?

Italy, day 3

Look what I found in the stables! A super lovely drawing. I love the way children draw animals legs. I wish I did this. It makes everything so much clearer, don't you think :)

I didn't get to ride my sisters horse, but before the rain came we squeezed in my first lesson on the back of a donkey-look-alike pony. His name was Hocus Pocus. I think his magic trick was stopping even when I didn't want him to.

The day got really windy and really wet. I stayed inside in front of the fireplace for the other half of the day.

In the morning we visited the house that my sisters boyfriend is having restored. It's a really big and a really old house so they're is ALOT to be done. They want to be able to move in after two years... but I'm not so sure. I know how long these tinges usually take. When it comes to building things, it always takes 20 times longer than you want. 

Italy, day 2

After breakfast we went to buy mozzarella in pignola and then we took a walk in a nearby forest. We picked some flowers and I found some interesting looking pine.

I looked closer at the pond in the garden because I want to take a picture there, but Lapo wanted me to look a bit more at him instead.

I really like all the old doors on the buildings here. Especially when they're all tiny and really scruffy in the edges.

It really sucked, but the weather wasn't good enough for riding today either. But after nagging at my sister for a while we drove to the stable to clean the horses a bit and released Abes braids.

These three were so sweet and friendly. You could just sit down in the hey and the would cuddle with you.

Strawberries with milk is the best lunch :) My sister prefers salad with lemon though.

And this is where I'm staying! I'll see you tomorrow.

Italy, day one

Hello, I thought I would give you a little more documentary view of my days in Italy. I hope that's all right! I have a few more proper shoots in mind too, but I want to show the feel of Potenza as well. At the beginning of the day we went to the stables where my sister has her two horses. More pictures of them will come.

In the stables, this isn't one of her horses. But it was so beautiful with the smoke :) Unfortunately we couldn't ride today because the ground was too muddy so the horses could get stuck and hurt their wrists.

We went to visit the sheep and Tess dog Lapo got super exited.

The sheep didn't find Lapo so interesting however so they ran away.

At the market I was super lucky to find my favorite beans. Called pig beans in Latvian and Farmer beans in swedish.

BÄÄH design

Last year I got a super fun assignment. To photograph sheep for the homepage BÄÄH design (Bodils Bod). When I get assignments to take portraits it can be fun and challenging, but photographing animals is ALWAYS fun :)
Especially when you get to head out of town and visit a real farm and meet kittens and angry turkeys. They've updated the homepage now and a whole bunch of my photos are there. Also I am a BIG fan of wool :)

Let's hope I'll get to do more shoots like this in the future.

Wooden owl

Little wooden owl (or il gufo) has joined our wooden animal collection at home. Some of the sculptures I've made for my dad and some are to no one special. Two of my favorites that aren't here are the rabbit box I gave to my sister and the vasaräv I gave to my mum. I'm realizing that I should probably make as many animals I can before school is over and the workshop won't be open for me anymore.

Lollo is starting to adapt to Roberts apartment. He actually ate from the plate today and didn't have to be fed from the hand. He also rubbed his ears against out feet this morning (that is, he left his safe place from under the couch voluntarily).

Now I'm going to wash my hair, pack my bag and then I have a plane to catch!
I hope you'll have a wonderful tuesday ♥

Changing homes

A little village I doodled on while listening to the rest of my classmates bachelor presentations. Not finished yet though.

I'm going away to Italy next week so I have to leave Lollo today at my boyfriends place. Lollo is so nervous so now I'm SO nervous that he will get so nervous. I really hope he won't pee his pants and hide under the bed for one week. Stay strong Lollel. (I am talking about my cat for the ones that don't know)

puzzled s[h]elf

I've been looking forward to share my bachelor project with you! After all, I have the luck of having the nicest followers that always support my work :) You have no clue of how thankful I am of that.
As some of you might remember, I started out this project with what I call a dreamspace and I looked into how people cleared their head and sort of freed their inner child. From that I was thinking about a babies first creative toy; the cubes (or maybe some call them blocks?).

Then my project stumbled into how we interact with furniture. What furniture we touch and interact with every day and what furniture or objects we very seldom touch. I also looked into what objects our guests touch and things they wouldn't touch (like opening our private drawers or looking inside our bathroom cabinet). I thought the privacy behind doors, however small or big, was interting. And what would then happen if you put something playful on a door? Would visitors allow themselves to open this door because it invites to play?

What symbolizes a closed door more than a key? And isn't it interesting how we guard the keys themselves behind doors? I wanted my playful puzzle door to act as an abstract message board. And since I wanted it to guard keys and to be the first and last thing you saw when leaving your home, I thought I would be clever to make it into a hallway furniture.

When leaving our home we are often stressed by time. We're running of to somewhere and trying desperately not to be late. I feel however that we're often watched by our clocks. They're these big faces looking down at us from high up on the wall. Are we really looking at time or is time looking at us? 

In my furniture I wanted a friendly little reminder of time. I put in a vintage little clock (from a wristwatch) on the lower part of one of the doors. This way you have to bend down and really chose to see the time. Because my project is a lot about finding that playful mind of a child and children really don't stress about time the way we do. 

I was really stressed during my presentation yesterday. I was presenting by the end of the day so I had time to stress myself to max during the day. I prefer to present my things first because then I can stay confident while I speak. But the longer I have to wait the worse it gets. So when it was my time my throat has so dry I could hardly speak. I also got what we call in swedish a lid in the ear, I don't know how you say this in english. But you know when one ear closes and you can hear yourself in your head while you speak (going crazy confused)? So there I was, couldn't really hear myself and couldn't really speak. Luckily I think the teachers liked my project anyway.

One day left

On wednesday I'll finally present my bachelor project and start to wrap this thing up! I still have to finish the report and fix last corrections given from the teachers... and prepare for the exhibition in june... but the big part will be behind me. Now we just have to write a report for another class and then start the management class...puhha.
But I am proud of myself because I did make it in time even with going away to Lofoten to teach for a week in the middle of everything. I'll post photos from the project after a few days!

I hope everything is well with all of you! And that even if you're stressed with work, school or other projects - you know summer is coming and things will end up great.

Tutorial: Braid Tiara

I'm not sure tiara is the correct word for this braid, but I couldn't think of anything else.
I think this braid is so great because you can sleep with it and then it looks even better the next day. And since I've grown out my bangs I love to keep my hair away from my face like this. It's super simple to make but I thought I could make a tiny tutorial and explain anyhow.

Wash your hair and make the braid while it's still a little moist. This helps especially if you have fine "slippery" hair. Might not be necessary if you have dry colored hair. Divide the front hair that you want to have in the braid (and add hair behind the ear) and put the rest of your hair in a bun so it's out of the way.

Start behind one ear and make a dutch braid (like a french braid but inside out). Keep your hands strong and make the braid tight. Finish it behind the other ear, close to the neck. If you finish just before the ear it will look bad. Either braid it a little further down or strap it with a thin elastic band just behind the ear.

Let the rest of your hair dry and then curl the upper part of your hair. I have very thick hair so it takes ages to curl all of it. But I usually just curl the the top hair and then comb it out so that the hair feels more flowy. I don't use any products for this. If I curl my hair directly after I've washed it, it stays flowy for two days. I usually like this hairdo best after I've slept with it one night. Then the braid isn't so strict and the curls are much calmer.
If you have natural curls you're lucky and you can skip this last part :)

Happy easter!

Hello all you wonderful ones!
Gah, I know my blogging has been down lately but next week I'm presenting my bachelor and after that I'm hoping I'll have a lot more time for ME ME ME and doing the wonderful things I love like photographing and drawing :) Off course I'll show my bachelor as well, I'm just gonna put together a stop motion of it first...

Today we "colored" the eggs with onionshells. One favorite was definitely with feathers and tiny silk-fabric cow prints. I asked my dad if he didn't have a silk tie laying around that he would never use. And look at that, he had a red one with cows and chickens (which he never has and never will use), so we cut it up and got these hilarious little prints. We especially liked how the cow got stretched in different ways depending on how the fabric lay.

Now I have to get going to the next easter gathering!
Happy easter everyone, and I'm so happy so many of you are trying out the onion thing, it really is fun. It's like developing your own film. You're not sure of how it will turn out!

Easter tutorial: How to color eggs with onion shells

My favorite holiday is coming up so I thought I would re-post this tutorial from last year. For me, this is the only way to color easter eggs! With flowers, leafs, feathers and onion shell. Most people I meet have never heard of this method (unless they're from eastern europe that is). So I thought I would share it with you.

This is what you need! Flowers, leafs, string, eggs and onion shell. The bigger onion shells the better. Just go to the supermarket and dig around in the onion box. You'll find quite a lot!

Moist the egg and the flowers/plants with water, that will make it easier for them to stick to the egg. Don't put flowers over the eggs stamp, that will make it stick out..and you want to hide that ugly stamp. I recently discovered that putting a little feather makes a beautiful print!

Moist the onion shells and wrap it carefully around the egg. Don't move around the flowers. Red onion shell colors much much more than yellow. But it can color too much. It's beautiful when you put little pieces of red onion shell around the egg though.

Wrap the string tight around the egg. String that's wrapped around sloppy will fall of when it's cooking. Also, use a lot of string. The tighter you spinn the flowers and onion to the egg, the better prints you'll get.

Put all the eggs together with the onion shell leftovers into a pot. Cook it for about 15 minutes. These eggs are supposed to be eaten and not hung on branches!

Rinse the cooked eggs in cold water and wrap the string and onion shell carefully of.

This beautiful print was made with a little white swan feather. The reddish tone on the right is from red onion shell.

Rub the eggs in bacon or some other grease to make them shine even when they're dry. You don't have to do this but it gives them a extra nice appearance!

Go outside and find some nice moss, the eggs will look beautiful resting on it :) Good luck! I hope you try this during eater. If you're not an onion fan you can always give it a try with silk otherwise!  Here's a tutorial on how to do it with silk ties.