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Candles for Christmas

16-Dec-09

This year has been tight on the budget when it comes to Christmas presents. So, I have decided to make the presents this year, I feel that I am comfortably enough with my creativity so make this happen. I had a lot of leftover candles that I got from my mom and collected myself. Johnny and I burn a lot of candles and they never burn to the end, so we are always stuck with leftovers.

I have described the process in an earlier post: Making Candles. This post is just the show off ;)

Unlike last time, I decided to decorate them. After all of the candles were completely done, I did some decoration. Some candles I just simply dipped in a different or same color, half way or all the way. The candles with the dots were done with a toothpick dipped in wax and then applied to the candle. The vertical striped candles were painted with wax. The horizontal stripes/splats were done by having a spoonful of wax and then gently dripping it on the candle while turning the candles to the side. And thats that :)

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Geoff Berner at The Cove

14-Dec-09

On tuesday, 8th of December, Johnny and I went to a small and intimate concert by Geoff Berner and more.
I meet Johnny after work in Gamla Stan, and we went for something easy to eat. And went looking for the place the concert were supposed to be, The Cove, Stockholm. It was hard to find, but worth it! This was the third time Johnny and I went to a concert with Geoff Berner.

We arrived quite early, the band members of the other band playing, were still practicing a little. But we still sat down and ordered a Kilkenny each. We got to talk to Geoff, which was awesome. He is little guy with a fun appearance.

More people showed eventually up, and we took a seating in a comfy sofa. A while later, The Magnificent Seven started playing. They were great! Playing on accordion, violin, saw, melodica and a cello, and a nice vocal. We chatted a bit with Geoff, he sat next to us during the performance from The Magnificent Seven. The Magnificent Seven will release an album during spring of 2010, and I plan on buying it.

Then it was time. In this tour, Geoff had with him Wayne Adams and Diona Davies. Wayne played the drum and the occasional cymbal. Diona played violin, she was great. And Geoff had of course his accordion. The whole performance was great :)

3 watermark 320x240 geoff2 Geoff Berner at The Cove

Geoff Berner is an awesome live performer. He gathers the whole audience and make them sing along and buy him whiskey. For after all, he is the whiskey rabbi. There were many great songs, some sad, some happy and some which made you want to dance like a crazy little monkey.

The concert at The Cove, was the last place to play on the “Drunk and Dancing Europe Tour”. I will look forward to the next time he plays somewhere near me, and I will be sure to be going there!

4 watermark 320x240 geoff3 Geoff Berner at The Cove

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Filed in Concert, General | Tagged Concert, geoff berner, the cove, the magnificent seven | Comments (0) »

An Etsy store with Perler Magnets

12-Dec-09

I have loved going to Etsy for a while, and I came over MagnetGames. She sells fridge magnets made of perler. And inspired by this, I decided to make my own designs for some of my favorite characters.

I decided to make Tux (the mascot for the operating system Linux)

34 320x240 perler 01 thumbnail An Etsy store with Perler Magnets

Pedo Bear (from 4chan)

37 320x240 perler 04 thumbnail An Etsy store with Perler Magnets

The smiley from 4 chan

35 320x240 perler 02 thumbnail An Etsy store with Perler Magnets

and two guitars from Guitar Hero

36 320x240 perler 03 thumbnail An Etsy store with Perler Magnets

If you did like the magnets, they are for sale at my etsy store at Snirkelina, also if you say that you were directed from this blog, I will give you a 1$ off :)

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Filed in Creative | Tagged 4chan, guitar, guitar hero, magnet, pedo bear, perler, smiley, tux | Comments (1) »

Tiny Needle pillow on glass

10-Dec-09

I recently bought myself a sewing machine, and among the things that is necessary for sewing, is the needle pillow. A friend of mine, Hanna, said she had the idea of a needle pillow on top of a lid, and then you can store other sewing supplies in the glass. I thought this was a cool idea, that way I could hold all my needles/safety-pins in place. I had a tiny jar, that had once held honey from Germany, but now it was empty and screaming to be put in use.

46 320x240 ngp1 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

First you take a circle of fabric, the diameter of the circle measuring about four times the diameter of lid. My lid is 4 cm across, therefore my circle is 16 cm across the diameter.

47 320x240 ngp2 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

Then you stitch long stiches along the edge of the fabric, double stranded!

48 320x240 ngp3 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

49 320x240 ngp4 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

Then pull the threads carefully. While the opening is still a bit big, stuff it with filling. I used some filling from a cheap pillow I once bought for this purpose.

50 320x240 ngp5 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

51 320x240 ngp6 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

Pull the threads shut. Tie a knot. Should look something like this:

52 320x240 ngp7 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

53 320x240 ngp8 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

Glue the ball stuck to the lid with hot glue/glue gun.

54 320x240 ngp9 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

Then glue (hot glue) a ribbon on the bottom, covering up the rim of the lid, as well as a bit on the fabric ball, making it look smoother.

55 320x240 ngp10 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

And you are done, and can enjoy your handy little work :]

57 320x240 ngp12 Tiny Needle pillow on glass

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Filed in Sewing | Tagged cushion, needleglass, no sew | Comments (0) »

Peanut Butter Balls

08-Dec-09

Unlike last year, this year I have a lot of time on my hand to make christmas appear to be a childhood dream. This year it is time to make christmas candy, ornaments, cookies/cake, candle and everything else one need for a perfect christmas. And I decided that there is no better way to start a good christmas tradition than by making peanut butter balls.

First I found the ingredients:
50 g butter
250 g peanut butter
500 g confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Then all you have to do is mix everything, do not, NOT, melt the butter, you are supposed to kneed everything together. Till it looks like the picture below.

Then you have to pinch balls together, just take a bit in your hand and squeeze until it is a firm ball. Like so.

Put your balls to rest in the fridge or freezer until hard. Then carefully insert a toothpick till it is stuck.
Melt a lot of chocolate, probably around 300 g, in a double boiler. Add about 60 g of paraffin wax (the kind you buy at a grocery store, I know it very well exists a lot of places :p). When the chocolate/wax mix is melted, dip the peanut butter balls in the mix, cover entirely.

For a better result, hold one peanut butter ball on a stick in one hand, while dipping with the other to allow the first one to cool, almost, completely. Place on a sheet of baking paper.

Carefully pull the toothpick out after a little while, while everything is a bit soft. Then put store in a cool place in some sort of container. I made some cute paper containers which I will show soon.

Enjoy :]

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Filed in Candy, Christmas, General | Tagged Candy, Christmas | Comments (0) »

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Candles for Christmas

Geoff Berner at The Cove

An Etsy store with Perler Magnets

Tiny Needle pillow on glass

Peanut Butter Balls

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