Excited to be part of Modamo.KreARTiva Concept Store.

On Wednesday night Modamo.KreARTiva Concept Store opened in Mostar and I am very excited to be a part of it. They are calling it 'a small shop, full of style' and that is what it is!

Everything that is for sale in the shop has been handmade in Bosnia and Herzegovina by young, up and coming artists and designers. They are selling everything from clothes, bags and jewellery to paintings and amigurumi dolls! And that is of course where I come in. I feel very honoured to have been asked to be a part of this new exciting adventure and to exhibit and sell my work alongside that of some very talented people.

It is great to see creativity being encouraged and celebrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I look forward to seeing how this adventure unfolds.

What do you see?

If you watched the video on my last blog post you may have already spotted some of these wooden dolls. They are so easy to make and so cute and effective. We made about 40 of them for our Street Art Day!

This is what they look like before they are painted. I buy these in a shop which sells building supplies. On the label it says it is a finishing piece for a column. I think it looks like the end piece for a curtain rail or maybe banisters. Anyway, a couple of years ago when we were looking in this shop for something we needed for our house I saw these things on a shelf and instead of seeing a 'finishing piece for a column' I saw a doll! (That probably says a lot about the way I think!) I decided straight away I had to buy some and use them for a craft activity. They went down a storm and so ever since I have been buying them and turning them into dolls at craft workshops. 

Next week we are going to camp. It is a camp for teenagers and the theme is 'Discovering life in an Indian way.' They asked me to run craft workshops, so guess what we'll be making?

Street Art brightens up the day!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since March! Well, I have a kind of excuse - I've been very busy running this street art project for young people. The project had it's grand finale on Sunday when all the art work was displayed on the street. Here's a video so you can see some of the highlights of the day. And here's a facebook link so you can see the photos. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time now to get back into blogging! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the video.

Still Enjoying the Snow!

We've been going snowboarding a couple of times a week. Yesterday we went to try out the slopes at Rostovo for the first time. I'm getting better everytime I go. Still not confident enough to go on the lift and snowboard down from the top, but that will come...

And in this week's news...

We went snowboarding again today and I really enjoyed it! I still can't quite believe I can do it - I know I'm not going down any steep hills or anything yet, but I didn't think I'd even have the guts to step on a board so I'm very happy :) This is a video of me today.

In other news, on Friday I bought some new shelves to try and bring some order to the mess in the craft corner of my bedroom!

And it's time to get busy making a Mardi Gras themed amigurumi for our Plush Team swap next month.

A Good Start to the Year

2013 got off to a good start. We spent New Years Eve in London on the Victoria Embankment, dancing in the street and watching the amazing fireworks.

Then we came home to Bosnia to 10 days of snowboarding. I had intended to just sit and watch the others as I was terrified of the idea of snowboarding, but somehow I got convinced to join in and after a day and a half I managed to snowboard on my own without holding onto anyone! I can only do it on a gentle slope, the idea of going to the top of a ski lift also terrifies me, but it's more than I ever thought I'd do and I've got the rest of the winter to improve as we have a ski centar just 30 mins drive from our front door.

And just to prove that I did it...

Summer fun continued...

Some of the finished articles from this week's creative workshops at Novi Most Jajce.

Summer fun

We've started our summer holiday programme at Novi Most Jajce, and this morning we had the first Creative Workshop. Here's some of what we got up to. The workshops continue tomorrow.

International Yarn Bombing Day 2012

It's International Yarn Bombing Day today, and this is what the main street in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina looks like. If you look closely you'll see that each street light has a stripey jumper!

Avant-Garde Jajce 2012

We did it! The art project for young people that I've been talking about on and off for the last month or so has finished. 

It was certainly a day to remember. It started at 03:30am with an armed robbery in the centre of town, about 2 minutes from our house. At 05:00am we left our house as planned to meet  up with the others to put up the exhibition around the town but we were stopped before we even left our street by a policeman telling us to go back into our house as there was a gunman on the loose and the town centre was on lock down. At 06:30am a SWAT team turned up with guns at the ready and searched all around the area around our house as we watched out of the windows. By 07:30am the coast seemed to be clear and one of the policemen gave us permission to start putting the exhibition up. I had to go to a friend's house to pick up some of the stuff as she hadn't been able to get into the town due to the lock down. I should add that we live in an old walled town so there are only a couple of ways in and out. When I got back to the town gate, the policeman there wouldn't let me back in and he got pretty angry when I tried to explain that I live in the town and needed to go home and to set up our exhibition. After and hour of waiting outside the town gate he let me in and we started to put the exhibition up! You can watch us doing it in the video above. 

As if we hadn't had enough to deal with already, there were two big thunder storms in the afternoon right when the young people were supposed to be performing outside! You can see some dancing in the rain on this second video which is of the performances.

Photo Challenge 3KCBWDAY2

This is Eco Bunny, and he, like me, lives in the beautiful country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately some of the countryside in this beautiful country is messed up by rubbish - plastic bottles, plastic bags and other stuff like that. Eco Bunny is made from and stuffed with plastic bags and is leading the recycling revolution in our neighbourhood. Here he is just across the street from our house in a pile of cardboard boxes.

Here he is again in the bombed out house across from our house.

And once again visiting another pile of rubbish. Unfortunately these pictures only show the bad things about Bosnia and Herzegovina - but for the photo challenge I think they work! But - please take some time to look at some of my other blog posts where you will see how beautiful the country really is, and if you ever get the chance, you really should visit!

This blog post is for day 2 of Eskimimi's Knitting and Blog Week.

To nominate my photos for the photo challenge prize please click here.

To see more photos from today's photo challenge copy and paste the code 3KCBWDAY2 into google.

And the waiting is over...

After our workshop on Monday the army of babushkas in my living room now have faces :)

Waiting for Faces

 There's a slowly growing army of faceless babushka dolls in my living room! Preparing for next week's workshops...

Projekat Avant-Guarde Jajce 2012

 The art project for young people, which I mentioned a week or so ago, is now well underway.

 There are lots of different workshops going on over the next few weeks leading up to the big day on 3rd May.

 Yesterday we enjoyed the sun while painting wooden dolls.

These dolls will be left around town on the big day as part of an 'Art Drop'.

Each doll has a message attached to it letting the public know that they are free to take and wishing them a nice day.

flowers in the wilderness

Something cute I saw in town today.

Maybe a sign that spring is on it's way...

A bit of colour in a greyish world.

Small beginnings...

I mentioned a week or so ago that we had a plan brewing for a big creative event for young people here in Jajce - the plan is still brewing and is coming along nicely. Today a group of us started limbering up for the big day. Small beginnings but hopefully the end result, when the day comes, will be fab!

Not the skull, just the pitcher and other stories...

Today's theme for Fresh Stitches Design Week is 'Trouble Spots'. Yesterday I told you that I am trying to make an amigurumi version of this picture for the current Plush Team challenge. I showed you how I'd done the skull and ended by saying 'next step - the pitcher'.

The pitcher is definitely a trouble spot! It's such a weird shape, it is going to be really hard to make it in 3d. Here's a sketch where I've tried to imagine it flattened out. I've only drawn 2 sides - the third side will be even harder!

 I've decided to start with the base as an equilateral triangle and build it up from there, making each side separately. Does anyone have any better ideas or other advice to give?

And in today's other news, the circus is in town! If you look carefully you can see a black blob to the right of the first megaphone - that is the backside of a monkey! Yes, a real monkey, tied to the roof of the van as it goes through town advertising the circus. I took the photo quickly with my phone as it drove by which is why I managed to miss getting all of the monkey. Some things only happen in BiH! (well probably other places too, but not any places I've been too.)

This blog post is for Day 5 of Fresh Stitches Design Week.

Youth Art Month

I just found out that this month is Youth Art Month in the USA. The goal of it is to emphasize the value of participating in art for children and young people. There are national, state and local events to celebrate it. Sounds like a great idea.  Here in BiH at Novi Most Jajce, every month is Youth Art Month in one way, as we are always doing new art projects with young people. But it would be great to have some bigger events to celebrate the work they are doing and the value of young people having creative opportunities. In fact,we have a plan brewing, not for this month, but maybe the next...Keep your eyes open to see how it all unfolds. The photo above is from our art session last night.

I love getting parcels!

I love getting parcels, and this one made my day! Those of you who have been following my blog will know that the pipes in our house have been frozen for almost 2 weeks now, and as a result we have been without a toilet and shower and all those other things that need water! As you can imagine this has been quite annoying, so getting this parcel today was even better than getting it on any normal kind of day.

What is it? Who is it from? you ask. This parcel is from the wonderful Abbydid who drew my name in the Plush Team leap year plush swap! When I saw her name on the outside of the box I was already excited about what would be inside... was I about to become the proud owner of a Wibbly Woo?

Yes! What is a Wibbly Woo? According to verified sources, the Wibbly Woo is a legendary creature located in the peat bogs of Northern England. Harmless, happy, helpful little scamps, they make excellent companions (especially at bedtime). Wibbly Woos have large, soft mouths perfect for safeguarding treasures. 

So I opened the bag and inside was not just a Wibbly Woo in my favourite colours - but also a little box...

And inside the box was all my favourite food! Wibbly Woo was hungry from the journey (it's a long way from Cincinnati to Bosnia and Herzegovina) so I let him tuck in.

There were also some very lovely promotional materials from Abbydid.

And two bags of fabric scraps which have arrived just in time for our Craft Party on Monday! Thank you so much Abby :)

And on the water front - we got a new toilet put in today (the old one had cracked because the water froze in it :/) and although we still don't have any water in the bathroom, we can use the toilet and use the bucket of water method to flush it! Today has been a good day.

Making hamsters

Some of the Hamsters we made last night at Novi Most Jajce. The pattern can be found in MollieMakes magazine issue 5 or here on the MollieMakes website.