The gift of self..

I have a couple of special 'THANK YOUs' to two of

the awesome girls I have met through the world of blogs. 

Firstly, dear & gorgeous Lotta Helleberg of 'Inleaf Design'.

Swedish born Lotta is an amazing talent and a lovely friend.

Inspired by her passion for gardening, nature and her seamstress

mother, she works as a textile artist and designer. Her works are

hand-crafted and hand-printed onto natural & organic fabric using

a technique called 'Leaf Printing'. All inks & dyes are water based

and non toxic, and most often Lotta also uses organic and locally

made supplies - all to ensure minimum environmental impact.

Her designs are as beautiful as Lotta herself, and her big heart

shines through in her work that includes a range of items such

as bags, pillows, quilts, purses, textile collages and much more.

I am in awe of this beautiful woman's talent and enjoy following

her life and creative journeys via her blog, and my heart leapt

when the other day I was tagged by Lotta in this posts.

The tag ritual is so much fun, and calls for the selected people to;

1. open their first photo folder on your HD
2. scroll to the tenth picture in this folder
3. post the photo and the story behind it
4. tag 5 more people

So here we go, here is my 'no 10' in my most recent picture folder..

Meet my son Oscar. It is not the best picture of him but it is

indeed the 10th one in the first picture file on our hard drive.

The photo was taken whilst enjoying the second lap of the 

Ferris Wheel at the famous 'Luna Park' amusement park here

in Sydney. Having recently been to Sweden where we had an

early celebration of his birthday and similarly were showered

in presents over Christmas, we felt that a 'fun-filled weekend'

was an appropriate gift for his recent 7th birthday. Oscar quickly

invited his best mate Felix for a seep-over weekend that included
an early evening swim followed by pizza on the beach, breakfast
at his favourite cafe the next morning, followed by a trip
to Luna Park. The latter was an intense but fun 5 hour ordeal that
made us so exhausted that we nearly overslept on the Monday..

See the dimples in his upper lip.. He gets them when he is
particularly pleased or happy with something.. I love them!!

I also love those amazingly blue eyes of his - they are not an

ordinary blue but rather a rare shade of deep blueberry blue.

My husband and I both have green eyes, and nobody in our

immediate family have this particular shade of blue eyes... so

I put it down to having had some serious (!) & consistent

cravings for fresh blueberries whilst pregnant with Oscar!  :)

I love my little man and am so grateful & proud to be his mother! 

 ..and now before I start crying tears only a proud mother can shed

I'd like to ask Monika, Leigh, Maria, Rachel and Donna to share.

Dearest girls, consider yourselves tagged! x

Tusen tack igen Lotta! xx

*****

Now to the amazing Donna, who since 2007 has run a

brilliant blog called 'A Perfect Gray'. Our paths crossed only

recently and I am so glad they did. I read her blog every day

and love her take on design, style and life in general. She not
only writes well, she is warm, funny and has wonderful taste!

A lover of antiques and vintage quirkiness since college, she went

from being a professional antique dealer to collecting for herself.
There are snippets of her home on her blog, and from what I have

seen it is an amazing place full of her creative talent and traces

of the loving family she is part of. So many great things Donna!!

You will LOVE this post about her amazing antique panels with mirrors..

..and this post about the knobs in her kitchen!

..and how clever isn't this!!? Another of her great achievements!

When she is not searching the corners of the world & web for the

one perfect shade of grey wall colour, she cycles, raises money for

 hospice care (care for the terminally ill), creates stunning growth

charts with her son, manages to always stay personal and in touch,

whilst continuing to create post after post of fabulousness on her blog!

Apart from personally not finding David Letterman sexy :), I
pretty much agree with everything else this woman says & does!

Donna knows I love candles and casually mentioned that she'd
be posting a 'candle post' this week.. Little did I know that this
post also included a nomination for a 'Beautiful Blogger' award.

Before I go on to the award I just also want to say thanks to the
woman who inspired Donna to start her blog, Mrs Blandings.
Without her we would not be able to enjoy A Perfect Gray. That
thought scares me so thank you Mrs B - I am so grateful!!
(P.S. Though I am not obsessed, I too love chairs! :) )


So to the award.

As with most of these blog awards this too is designed to bring
bloggers closer and to get to know each other better. And as
Donna so rightly said in her award post "The gift-of-self is the
best gift we can give". So here are some snippets about me..


1. I love candles...

via From The Bottom Of My Ironing Basket

..but you already knew that.
I light them morning and night at our dining table and
can't fully relax without them around the house.


2. I have a thing for sheepskin...
 

Particularly the curly grey ones like these. Photo by Stellan Herner

..and in our house we have a wonderfully thick sheepskin mattress
cover that makes the bed so fantastically cozy and soft. Actually,
even our cat has a sheep skin bed.. Truly! Both kids and I have
Swedish made sheepskin slippers (this despite living in the
country of Ugg boots..). I have a stunning grey sheepskin pillow
from divine Gotland on our sofa, a lovely sheepskin rug
that I use for a number of things pending the season..
I could go on.. you get the picture..  :)


2. I collect Dala Horses..

..since I was little, but the collection slowed down
for a few years until my husband and I decided to buy a
horse each time we visit Sweden. Though this only happens
once a year, at least the herd (or is it harras?) is growing again.


3. I love trees.

 Myong Ho Lee photograph. This is amazing!! 

I find them incredible in every sense and have since forever
loved photographing, painting, drawing, hugging & sitting under
trees every where in the world. I also love my big Birch Tree wall
hanging by Marimekko that I bought on the spot out of a shop
window in Sweden a few years ago. It adorns our stairway.


4. I adore Rodney Smith and find his work brilliant!

 Photo by Rodney Smith

This man is a genius in my book! Not only does he take amazing
pictures (with a conventional SLR!! I.e. not digital!) he also has
a fantastic take on life and expresses this so well in both writing
and in visuals. I have done a couple of posts on him before (1 & 2)
and highly recommend you to visit his site and to follow his blog!


5. I love books...

 'Reading Nest' book holder by David Design


...and bookstores but feel uncomfortable in public libraries.
Have no idea why because any other silent room full
of books and comfy chairs feel like heaven to me..



6. I love to paint.

Most of you will have seen the link to my other blog, and know
that I do art and styling for children. It is something that I started
for real after I had my first child and when I had made the decision
to leave a hectic career in brand-creation and marketing behind to
be a stay-at-home-mother. I have always painted, drawn and created.
It started at childhood and will continue until I die - it is part of me.

Now I would like to pass this award onto the below list of
amazing blogs. They are indeed lovely reads with even
lovelier girls behind their gorgeous blog banners.

I hope they all accept the award and that that we
will be able to enjoy their little 'gifts of self'.

 Belgian Pearls
Compulsively Compiled

Balsamo Antiques

Cafe Cartolina

Moss Eclectic

Blomsterverkstad 

Slumber Designs

The Botton Of My Ironing Basket

Beauty Comma

Linen and Lavender
Rajee Sood 
Malvini Belgium

Big hugs to all of you and thank you for

your amazing blogs and friendships!

*****
Thanks again to Lotta and Donna!

xxCharlotta