Going home from Art Class

Guess what. I didn't get thrown out.

The class was a little bit awkward, because out of nine students only three showed up, including me. But we might get to join with an earlier group, so that there will be a little bit more lively.

This evening we only worked with charcoal, which I haven't touched in ages. Was messy and fun trying to just focus on colour values and not so much the end result.

I will now end the evening with some tea and working on the baby blanket.

Heading to Art Class

For the first time since high school I'm heading back to a painting class. I've done lots of art studies after high school, but this is the first time I'll be in a classroom where you'll get help and feedback from a teacher, which I hope will teach me stuff that I probably forgot during the years when I didn't paint.
I'm hoping to improve my colour theory/colour mixing, blending technics and finally to just get inspiration and force myself to paint more often. Without practice one does not improve.

Heading to this class I'm having lots of anxiety. What if I don't have the right supplies, what if the others are better, what if I get tossed out for not being good enough. You know, the usual panics when we try something new... I'll get back with an update telling you all about how they tossed me out on the raining streets and how the tram didn't let me on because my paint stained clothes made me look like a hobo.

Baby blanket

On my 30 before 30 list is a dreaded goal of making a crocheted blanket. I goal I almost completed before tossing a huge 90% finished blanket away, as I had grown to despite it. And have since struggled with starting a new, since I don't feel like such a blanket will fit in in my home.

But it had recently been announced that my brother is expecting a baby, so guess who will get a crocheted blanket for their birthday.

Went to Google for inspiration and found a supercute pattern using something called bubble stitch which was used to create different symbols on each square. I will keep it a bit simple and just use blank squares and squares with hearts on them. I will also make a longer square containing the name, which I think I'll find out before I'll meet the baby.

I think the colours for the blanket will be off-white, pale yellow and a pale forrest green. Would love to use some of the pinkish coloured yarns that I have, but since the gender is not known yet and since I don't think these parents will appreciate a pink blanket to a boy, I'm going with some more gender-neutral colours.

I've made a sketch of the blanket, to figure out where to place the hearts and what colour each square should have. It's still a work in progress. When it comes to the colours I'm thinking of having two colours for the squares and then the third colour for the name tag, making it pop more.

What I do know is that I have 51 squares + name tag to do. It takes me 1,5 hours to make one with hearts. And the yarn seems to be enough for 3,5 square. There's a lot of work ahead to finish before February.

The best party

I'm on my way home after a wonderful weekend in Stockholm. First on Friday was a crayfish party, a Swedish specialty, with lots of relatives. It was nice with lots of loud singing.

On Saturday was a full day of party at Linnéa's, celebrating her big birthday. We were welcomed by big balloons with horses on them, a fitting theme indeed. It was an absolutely wonderful day, filled with tasty food, wine, boardgames and good friends.

A little bittersweet as it made me miss having that kind of social life. Gothenburg is rather lonely and during my time there I haven't really had people over for boardgames or days of fun.

Sunday was a calmer day, with drop coffee and ice cream in the park before Rhys, the kitties and I had to start our journeys home.

Magical Birthday

I recently had the honors of having my Birthday. The day itself wasn't much to brag about, as it was just me, the kitties and Ben&Jerrys. But I had an amazing weekend to make up for that.

When I arrived the day after to Stockholm I got pancake dinner and a frozen chocolate mousse cake, accompanied by birthday singing from my parents.

At 5 AM on Friday I had to drag myself to the airport and to London, with a new found cold. But the day got a lot better when meeting up with Rhys, who had stolen cookies from Ben just for me. We left the airport, had lunch at out favorite Lebanese place Comptoir Libanais before checking in at this hotel where we got to choose between two different room. One had a big bed and the other had smaller bed but a shower in the room. We chose the shower, and I'm so sad for not having a picture of this room as it was rather funny looking with a freestanding shower in a corner of the room.

After a few cookies and some rest it was time for a big adventure that I had no clue about what it could be. Rhys kept on giving me clues, laughing a bit at my slow mathskills, as we headed out of the city center. I got the theme quite quickly, but had no idea what activity it could be with said theme. It's an understatement to say that I got excited when we arrived to the adventure. Warner Bros Studio Tour of the Harry Potter set. Holy smoly was it a fantastic day, fever aside. I remember being told in the beginning of things that would appear, but I forgot them quickly and every time I turned a corner I was amazed. We walked around for 6 hours and I filled my phone with photos and a few silly videos showing me displaying some behavior society might not seem fit of a 29 year old woman. However, I will restrain myself from sharing these things here, as I know of a certain someone reading this blog might want to experience this magical adventure for herself.

Thank you sweetie for this wonderful surprise <3 p="">
On the Saturday we started out a bit slow, perhaps it had something to do with me having a rather big cold. But after popping some paracetamol combined with caffeine we could get some adventures done. We decided very spontaneous to go and watch King Lear at the Globe which was really nice even though I didn't understand everything right away (someone had to explain a lot during the break). After the theater we went out for dinner, sadly not the Wine cellar bar we had planned and someone was filled with paracetamol. Instead we went to Pizza East in Portobello (it is so much better than the Shoreditch one) and had a lovely pizza night, so much yummy.

Sunday was a calm day mostly spent at Lush, whoops I might have bought some make up, and at Foyles, a wonderful and huge bookstore. We had a quick Meze platter at Comptoir Libanais before heading out to the airport.

And that's how my last 20-something birthday was celebrated. I've now started the countdown for the big birthday next year. Not stressed out about turning 30, but more stressed out by my 30-before-30-list of which I've only completed 10 task over the years I've had this list. But heck. I think I should be able to complete it all in the next 300-something days that are left.