Tea!

Anyone who knows me even just a little, knows that as a true Scot, I do like my pots of tea. At uni, my flatmates, friends and I could get through many pots each day, and the consumption increased in proportion to the looming deadlines.....
Since I met my husband, his tea consumption has gone from zero to at least 3 cups a day.
Tea, of course, proper tea, in my humble opinion should be preferably Scottish Blend, or even Yorkshire Tea, and drunk in good company (either with friends or a book!) and never hurried. Take the time to warm the pot. Put the milk in first, as my nana used to say, otherwise you get redhaired children. Not true, she had beautiful red hair, I have red tints, and our 3 macolsson children all have a slight reddish tint.....
Anyhow, to fully enjoy tea, you must have a nice tea cosy. And therein lies the problem. Sweden just does not have tea cosies! You can buy beautiful Marimekko teacosies in the Marimekko shop, but they cost a fortune. I have one, its been used so much that it just is worn out. So, I decided I need to revolutionise Swedish teadrinking, and introduce these Nordic types to the joys of gorgeous teacosies.
And to go along with these teacosies, an ode to tea, thanks to my dear triplet friends LJC and JC. We sang this many a time at our triplet sleepovers....


I like a nice cup of tea in the morning
To start the day, you see,
And round about eleven, my idea of heaven,
Is a nice cup of tea.
I like a nice cup of tea with my dinner,
And a nice cup of tea with my tea,
When its time for bed,
There's a lot to be said
For a nice cup of tea!

Easter!

I found a really nice crafting magazine in our local supermarket - in English! It had lots of gorgeous scrapbooking,sewing,crochet,knitting idea, and I just fell for this Easter Hen. It was so easy to make from material I had at home, so decided to make a couple more and try to sell them on tradera.com. As always, mr mrsmacolsson is the photographer.

I was in Finland a couple of weeks ago with my lovely motherinlaw, and we spent a long time browsing in bookshops, as we are both bookworms. I found a great hobby bookshop, where you could sit as long as you wanted, drink tea (free!) and browse. Perfect on a cold snowy day, and got lots of inspiration, spent quite a few euros on a gorgeous Cath Kidston book. Am actually really glad I don't live in Britain now - I reckon all my money would disappear on her fabrics.

Shabby Chic is very trendy in Sweden right now - seems like every new shop which opens caters to this. Hmm, should I hop on the train? Well, with three little macolssons at home, shabby works, definitely not chic, as it seems to entail lots of lovely pretty things guaranteed to appeal to the little macolssons!

Have a nice week. Oh, and please leave a comment so I know if someone somewhere reads me.

Moomin

Moomin or Mumin is part of our everyday life in mrsmacolsson's family. The kiddies have duvets with Mumin on, their favourite dvds are Mumin, I have a Muminmamma on my keyring and suitcase, mr mrsmacolsson has Muminpappa on his suitcase. We have little Mumins, even had a Muminmobile over the cot, which is now hanging in the playroom. Mumin plates, Mumin cutlery, and a HUGE collection of the beautiful Mumin mugs from Arabia.

So, I suppose it wasn't so surprising that in the middle of my crochet development, I wanted to crochet a Mumin. I tried to find a pattern, but in the end combined feet from one pattern with a chubby body from another and worked on my own head pattern. The result was this blue Mumin, known as Snork, only because I had run out of white!
My friend Fiona suggested I sell on etsy.com, and the other day I received an email from a Children's Books Publisher in the US, wondering if I would like to write an article for them on how Mumin has inspired my crafting! The Publishers had googled Mumin, and found my Snork! Of course I am going to write the article, and there will be a competition to win a crocheted Mumin on their online magazine for kids. How fun is that? In fact, it has inspired me to crochet another Mumin, this time it will hopefully be Muminmamma, since I aspire to be more like her - always happy, completely unfazed by the tricks her family gets up to, and happiest making saft or in her beloved garden.