Wednesday, July 25, 2018

THREE LAYOUTS AND A CRAZY STORY

As a New Years resolution I promised myself to make at least two layouts per month for the whole year. I've been falling behind on those layouts during the spring months, but I've spent the summer catching up. The Summer of Sketches class at Studio Calico has been a great help to get me started. 

I've been working with the Expedition scrapbook kit which is the last scrapbook kit ever from Studio Calico. :/ The travel theme went well with my detail photos from my trip to the Finnish island of Åland in May. To add to the touristy feel I printed and cut the photos as faux Polaroids. I used pops of blue to tie the different pieces of the layout together. The title was supposed to say ÅLAND but as it turned out the L was missing from my chipboard package. It turned out to be a happy accident though because I like this title better, with the veneer globe for an O. And Studio Calico has sent me a replacement package, so it's all good!



One of the reasons I like layouts is the opportunity to add enlargments of favorite photos to my album. This selfie was taken when me and three friends went to see Stina Wollter talk about and sing songs from her new album Garden Songs. Stina is the blond at the bottom of the photo. She is a Swedish artist, feminist and body activist. She's an amazing person and I was SO happy to get a picture taken with her. Check out her album at Spotify, both the lyrics and music are beautiful. 


At the end of June I had the majority of my hair trimmed off! It was super scary when the hair stylist brought the trimmer out but I am SOOOOO happy with the result. This hair style is so versatile and it's been amazing to barely have any hair during the crazy heatwave we've had in Sweden this summer.


In my last blog post I promised to share another pocket page and a funny story to go along with it. I now have permission from everyone in the photos to share it, so here it is!


Me and my collegues from school had planned a picnic to send off one of the teachers who was retiring. That's her holding the glass of bubbly in the bottom picture. We were meeting up at an old 18th century mill by the stream a few miles outside of our community. Everyone brought dishes for our potluck picnic plus blankets to sit on, games to play and whatever we were drinking, so there were lots to carry. 

We weren't all that familiar with the surroundings so we didn't know a good spot to sit. We started on to the path lugging all of our stuff. We walk through the woods, over the stream and then even further into the woods. 


It was a little chilly in the shade plus lots of mosquitos so we were looking for a sunny spot. The only sunny place we found was up a steep hill of gravel. And it was steeeeep! Like I said there was lots to carry, plus two collegues had a hard time walking and climbing because of injuries. It was a tough job but we got up there!


When we get up the hill there's a wire fence. Turns out there's a current in the wires. Ouch! We have to lie down on the ground and roll under the wires and shove our stuff under too. Finally there! It's a beautiful sunny meadow and we start unpacking the food. Lots of food! Pies, salads, bread, fruit, wine and cheese. When all is unpacked three horses come running. They try to run on to the blanket where all the food is. Our gym teacher picks up a branch to chase them off but they're not having it. Our principal is terrified of horses so she runs off. Another teacher bravely packs up all the food again, with the horses charging in on her while all the rest of us are cowards and roll under the electric wire fence to get away.


So, down that steep gravely hill again with all the bags and blankets and our two injured friends. We find a shady glenn with a firepit just below the hill. It will do!  We start unpacking. Again. That's when one of the 3rd grade teachers yell "SNAKE!" And oh yes, there is a viper slithering off into the bushes. Pack up again, back through the woods, over the stream and back at the parking lot where we started.

There's a lawn right by the mill and we're super hungry, hot and tired so we just unpack everything right there. We ended up having a lovely picnic and I'm sure our retiree will never forget this adventure!


I'll be back tomorrow sharing my pocket pages from our family trip to the Swedish west coast a few weeks ago.

See you tomorrow!

/Magdalena

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