Updating your Expat CV and Autumn is upon us

Seeds of thought for the Future....

I love to grown and collect the seeds of this false Physalis which seems to love growing in the sandy soil here. They reflect my thoughts here at the moment, looking to the future...

Updating your CV 

Never a job for the faint hearted, with plans afoot to return home after more years than I care to remember away from the UK, it was time to get out my CV and update it. I have seen a few jobs recently that were attractive, but when I looked at the person and job specification it was clear that times have changed since I last looked, and I had no idea how to put down what I had to offer. 

It seemed all the more difficult when recent work experience has been "out of country" following career paths that I hadn't exactly planned on... 

I trawled the internet, pestered friends for inspiration and examples and came up with the following tips that can help if you are faced with the same challenge: 

Take your time, have a clear head ( usually after a good dog walk or similar!) and find some space and peace and quiet, or as close as you can get to it.... 

• The first page of your CV is the most important. Most selection panels only take 30 seconds looking at your application before going onto the next, so you have to make an impact! Work out what are your strongest personal qualities and put them in a list. This will form the headline/ first part of your CV or Personal Qualities statement. Try to get as much information in as succinctly as possible  
• Using this list for inspiration, note your skills and achievements. Highlight specialist skills here too and sing them out loud! This will form your second section: Skills and Achievements. If you are an expat worker take the time to think about all the challenges you have handled, the networking, communication and negotiating that goes on every time you move, not to mention logistic skills! Group skills in the same activity area together, for example training achievements together even if they were at different times
• Education and Training comes next
• Work Experience in date order with most recent first. Use of bullet points and semi colons to list experience takes up less space 
• Check your grammar, keep the tenses the same, so work in the past is written in the past. Obvious I know, but it can get tangled up 
• Think about the language you use, keep it sharp an focused, every word has to earn its place in your CV. Always double check and proof read it
• Send it out to those you trust for genuine feedback   

I put off doing this little job for ages and finally completed it this week. It has been a really positive exercise, and I wish that I had done it ages ago! It has been a great way to boost confidence and look ahead with relish. 

Autumn Gold

Autumn colours are taking off here just now, and last week we went out on the bikes and collected beautiful leaves on the turn. Mr C is part of an online photo club and he had the bit between the teeth to get some good shots. I was really pleased with what he came up with. 

 

Stencil Wood Sign

I've still got the Cameo Silhouette cutting bug, and I picked up this scrappy piece of wood on the beach a while ago that I thought would be great for a stencil cut using the Silhouette. I wanted to use an extract from the poem written by Bessie Anderson Stanley in 1904 called "Success". I worried that it wouldn't quite fit, but it did in the end thankfully! 

I used the tutorial on the Silhouette site to work out how to make stencil letters without the middles falling out of the "e" and "o" s etc. I know it isn't exactly perfect, but I think I like the look. I used Acrylic paint and finished it with lime wax for a soft shine. 

I have lots of ideas to make some more, and sitting in the garden, stencil brush in hand, is the perfect place to be at the moment.  

    

Swedish Summer Craft Fairs and Papier Mache Dogs

Papier  Mache Dog 

Dog Obsessed as I am, imagine my delight when a friend turned her eye from painting landscapes to making Papier Mache animals and posted them on her facebook page. You can see more at her facebook page. This chap is a Cocker Spaniel, and he is looking for a home. I can see him ending up in our house    (no food needs, no vet bills, just a go over with the vacuum cleaner every now and then, sounds ideal!), I will keep him away from the real Cocker though. 

It set me looking for ways to make my own hounds, and there are loads of tutorials on the web, but I could see me ending up in a glue-ey messy heap, so better to leave to those that can I think. I did come across this lovely Irish Wolf Hound by Lorraine Corrigan at Hounds of Bath . A different style, but still pleasing. 

Swedish Summer Craft Fairs

There is a saying here... " Ah yes, Swedish Summer, the best day of the year". Usually that is true, but this year we have basked in the clear blue skies of Sweden for, oh at least three weeks ! And that means it has been great to get out to the Handmade Craft Fairs without wellies or waterproofs. Last weekend it was the 

Falsterbo Handmade Craft Fair  and being local we could cycle there - Brilliant! 

Here are a few of the gems I spied. 

    

Beautifully made and crafted folk art dolls and marionettes by Christina Meisolle Hoi who is from Denmark, but who lives in Skane now. 

Needle Felted animals, including, you guessed it, a dog....  by Annemarie Horve of Filterier who runs courses too.  

  

Heavenly bodies, in female form, and ceramic birds were found  at  Maria Thorlund and you can see more at her facebook page

 

Finally, the trend of the moment, Text based work by Mellow Design this one is called "Friends are like stars.. you don't always seem them, but you know that they are always there..." aah. 

So thank you makers who showed there, you made a great show ! 

  

Springtime Picnics

New "Grab-it" Button for my blog
You may have noticed that I have increased my focus on updating this blog, and putting a few gadgets to make it easy and fun to use. Well, I have long admired the "grab-it" buttons  on my favourite blogs like My Repurposed Life and today I learnt how to make one. I would not have a chance without good free online tutorials like the Code It Pretty blog - Thank you Karen ! 

Picnic, Bucket and Spades....

Blue skies at last, and a bright ( if not warm) sun bring everyone out of doors, clearing the garden, dusting off the garden furniture and even heading for the beach ( here are least). Which brings to mind this lovely print from a French Women's Magazine from 1949, that I found at a French Brocante last summer.  I just noticed that the magazine was for the month of July... oh well,  there's no harm in hoping is there...  

If this inspires you to get your picnic kit ready, I have founds  a few great free tutorials to make vinyl backed blankets at The Cottage Home and super stylish picnic baskets by Juneberry Lane  which are otherwise so expensive to buy. Happy Picnic-ing.  

Fasterbo Handmade Craft Fair

   What a wonderful Saturday.... the sun was out and about all the day, and the ever present breeze was taking a vacation too, or s it seemed. To top it all, the creative folk in Fasterbo organised the first summer craft fair on the green by the old Station. The only criteria for entry was that all items for sale had to be hand made by the stall holders themselves, so no scope for commercial mass production here. (Mr C helped with these shots as ever)... 

Paintings inspired by the beach....

Hand made clothes.. I used that material to make a skirt last year, but think this coat and hat set looks the best!

Traditional Skane clogs

Here's hoping that the organisers and stall holders get together again for another event next year....

And finally, not at the fair, but at the near by Second Hand clothes shop... I couldn't resist snapping these shoes and boots....

The only down point on an otherwise wonderful day was that as we left the scenic and pretty  village of Fasterbo, the car exhaust chose to drop off the old Volvo landing us back to earth  and reality with a bump. 
                 Coming soon. my slowest upholstery project...

Autumn Arts & Crafts

After the languid slowness of August when many are away and the bright ( or at least bright-ish) blue skies, fine sand and gentle sea make me more than just a bit lazy. Grand plans to explore Sweden outside Skane recede to be replaced by trips to the Tirups Herb Garden to buy some wonderful Eau de Cologne mint ( before it is too late to plant) and produce and enjoy a coffee and cake on the way, pausing briefly to admire the garden sculptures and make a mental note to do the concrete sculpture class there one day....

 Autumn is in the wings, and with it the arrival of craft and art events here and further afield. This weekend Malmo City will host both a Handmade Craft Market and late night gallery night. On this weekend, the old centre of the city will not close down at 3 or 4 O'clock as is the norm in these parts, but instead galleries and some museums will throw open their doors. I tried to get to the event last year, but howling gales and rain kept me away. Fingers crossed for this weekend.  

On the home front, Maggie the cocker is settling in well, growing in confidence every day, so much so that she runs up and down wooden planks in the "agility dog park" and allows us to photograph her wearing her beads.. 

Spring chicks

A lot of people I know seem to have two things in common. Firstly, they keep chickens in a whole variety of sizes and breeds and therefore get a fair number of eggs that they kindly pass on to me. Like the chickens, the eggs come in a range of sizes from tiny ones nestling in your palm to large ones that would make scrambled eggs for two. Secondly, these same people are usually in the process of renovating or rebuilding an ancient stone building that one day will be a cozy and welcoming home. In the meantime much work, creativity, ingenuity and humour is needed to get the job done. Usually when I visit them I hear the latest tale of "adventurous renovation" and it might end up with one of those old sayings like.."well it was cold and drafty when we took the windows out last winter, but you can't make an omlette without breaking eggs" or.. "we thought we had finished, then we found the dry rot in the basement, only goes to show you shouldn't count your chickens until they've hatched"... pause for an uncomfortable silence...

Anyway, I had the idea of making egg cozies for these good friends to say thank you for the eggs when it occurred to me that they might enjoy the humour of having these pithy sayings embroidered on the soft felt outside.

Materials

The soft felt is from remnants that I think were used for coat interlinings -they are very soft. The patterned linings are from my scrap back, all cotton. I used the same pattern for inside and out. You can make the cozies to suit the eggs you get!

I've given a few away, I think they like them.... but I am running out of chicken / egg based sayings so any new sayings are welcomed.