VILLA BETULA

WHAT’S UP

20/10/2017

I just shipped the original painting ‘Notice Resistance’ to one of the most stunning homes on this planet. Seriously. Want to know where? Have a look here! I have wrapped and wrapped…. and wrapped… To make it ready for its journey. It makes me feel so humble. It’s the best word for it. I sell my work! Someone loves what I do, how amazing isn’t that!? Yesterday I started a new painting… Hated it so much that I painted black over the whole thing, that made it look better, I think. About to continue now before I’ll go to my hairdresser.

Because I need to feel comfortable with my hair before the big day, which is Wednesday. Then it’s photoshoot time in Villa Betula. Have no idea where it will be printed, but hopefully somewhere sometime. And right now it’s two hours before my hairdresser appointment, and I’m suddenly considering to go for a whole new look. Why am I freaking myself out with this idea this late?!

So to make the stress a even bigger mess, I decided to buy a ‘new’ old sofa (read: sofa that came with six chairs!) since we just got five sofas already… So now there’s sofas everywhere, and I h a v e to sell one before Wednesday. One of my favorites actually, because of the size. Fancy taking over some salmon red velvet? What I found was another one in red velvet… But older and with tons of tassels. Everywhere, on every chair – top and bottom. It’s a stunner!

And to finish this post off I want to say thanks to everyone who are so excited and supportive because we bought an abandoned property in Czech Republic! How many lovely comments and engagement, even from the well know and super sweet Swedish Sofia at Mokkasin who made it a part of her ‘For the Monday Coffee’, thanks! And even though 99,5% percent is positive, I can not help to mention that we’ve also received this comment “(censored start) …you don’t have the energy, time or money it takes to do something like that”. So “sorry” if it makes you bitter and provoked that people “like us” (read: artists with very little money but full of dreams and guts, who also choose to be open about my mental health issue) can achieve things more amazing than you who makes lots of money and stuck in your busy unhappy life. I have no doubt about who I am, or who I would be if I could choose.

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NIGHT LIGHT

16/10/2017

I feel like I let you down. I guess it’s myself that I let down the most. When the days are running and the blog is always behind I get dissapointed. ‘Cause in front has there been a little more emotional than I can handle in a constructive way, again. I know it’s my life, and I’ve had the longest balanced, harmonic and controllable period ever so far this late summer and autumn. So I don’t complain, don’t petty myself and I try to keep the bitterness and anger away. Well, I don’t run away from it. I notice it, still learning to accept it by letting go of resistance somehow. It’s quite a job and it’s complicated.

This post, however, was suppose to be a very quick one about lamps. Actually just about the star lamps. But then I turned on a playlist with rain and thunder sounds on Spotify for the first time (didn’t even know those things existed!), and as I’ve written about earlier, water is such a clear symbol of emotions for me. That’s probably why I rambled on, not realizing…

So the star lamps got up in the hallway tonight! I have not showed you yet (but I will), but the hallway is like a hundred percent mulberry now! Everything except the floor, which is grey. And I’ve dreamed of some lovely star lamps for ages, but they are so very expensive and hard to get. So last spring I bought some Christmas paper stars at a sale, thinking they might end up in our studio. They did not. So this weekend I sprayed them gold, and my very helpful husband changed the white plastic wires for som textile mulberry wires. Expensive you must think… I would have thought so, but it was a bargain – I gave 9 NOK (less than 1 GBP) at Ikea. I bought five, ha ha 😉 If you see a nice wire at sale in almost identical colour as your wall you have to grab it. It’s a Villa Betula rule sincee you’ll most likely never find it again.

The other lamps is the chandelier we made a year or two ago, but I wanted to show you how the evenings looks like right now. That’s typically where we sit with the Mac (blog, pinterest, Instagram, reading blogs, writing) or play Chinese Checkers or Yatzy. Always candle lights. Drinks tea. Trying to avoid chocolate…

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PATTERN CRUSH

12/10/2017

(This is not a sponsored post). One of the sweet people in my “Instagram-world” is Anna Hayman. First she captured me with her super inspiring home, and then I realized she followed her passion, which is patterns. And people who follows their passion get a gold star from me! Her patterns is lovely and different, both as fabrics and wallpapers. She makes lampshades witch is utterly stunning – handmade by herself with her own designed patterns and fringes to them. I promise one of these is at the top of my wishlist!

I ordered a sample of her rather new pattern called Siouxsie (the first two photos in this post) – velvet (!), gold, black and dark blue, topped off with passion – what more can you wish for!? A bird whispered that it will soon be available as a wallpaper too, and I’m dying to put it somewhere in our house (well, don’t know what to call it yet, you know the abandoned property we just bought in Czech Republic?), though I dream of putting it up as a fabric… you know… velvet walls… but for so long I will swoon over my pattern samples and future velvet wall dreams and keep this sweet note book in my atelier. Thanks Anna! Visit her webpage right here, enjoy!

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NEW PRODUCTS IN MY SHOP!

11/10/2017

Last night I finally made it and re-launched my itsy-bitsy-tiny artwork shop here on the blog! All the files that have to be correct and ready for the print shop and make sure I’m writing the right dimensions and prices takes a lot of concentration…. phew! Not my favorite activity, but to offer you new prints, new prices and new shop design I can like a lot! I can also whisper a little quiet that I woke up to a mail with an order that made me very happy!

Several of you have been drooling over ‘Sideshow’, and now it’s out there! In six different sizes, wow! The three biggest one on canvas, and the three smallest on matte paper. Also the newest painting ‘Notice Resistance’ (named last night!) is ready, both with and without the illusion of having a vintage gold frame to it (and the original is also available, contact me if you’re interested). I really look forward to see these hanging on some of your walls! Too much rambling here, I can feel it, so just let me finish and say: head over and see what I got for you!

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I STARTED AND I FINISHED

06/10/2017

Third portrait-kind-of painting I do, and I guess my signature is collars… All of them wear collars (as you can see here and here)! And there’s always some gold. There can be many interesting interprets and ways to analyse it, so feel free and go ahead! 😉 My daughter (9) said something that really got into my heart the other day: I don’t like things that feels sad, mother, except from your paintings. That gave me tears in my eyes.

About this process I don’t have much to say except I started, and then I finished. Just took a couple of days and no planning. I like to do. If I were to spend much energy on planning I wouldn’t get much done since my energy is rather limited. And I need to be a doer! It’s important to me, it keeps me feel very alive. Another thing that makes me feel alive is my last post, to actually be nuts enough to buy a totally worn down property in another country, not just keep on dreaming. But don’t stop dreaming, that’s not my point… just push them further, out of your comfort zone. More about that another day, but for now please follow my new Instagram account @villabetuladream for the visions, plans and reconstruction of the property! Have a nice weekend!

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WE JUST BOUGHT AN ABANDONED PROPERTY OUTSIDE PRAGUE!

02/10/2017

These are my cobwebs, my dirt, my worn doors unable to close. Roofs with holes, some even collapsed. My bird’s nest inside the hallway. The raw attics and stairs leading to no floors, and the door on first floor with no balcony to it. My uneven and twisted floors. Vaulted ceilings and tiny windows in the stable, maybe it will the kitchen some day? Here I can make a tasty soup and bake bread and apple pie while looking at the stone barns. And the garden will be alive, full of dahlias and welcoming nooks, string bulb lights and coffee cups from the day before. A place like this can never be perfect, and that’s what I think is so perfect.

This is a castle to me – this is what my castle looks like. And the price was lower than an average car. It has no water, no sewage, no electricity. But it has soul, heart and possibilities. It had to be saved.

In time this is where I want to greet you creative people. Make a quiet place for you to work for a week or two. Draw back from life and concentrate on your writing, painting, photographing, music, whatever you need. I want to have that place for you. An own apartment for guest and plenty of room for your activity. Maybe workshops and retreats too? A recording studio, a photo studio just consisting of natural light that you can use, or I can work in for you. An atelier where there’s room to work on a dozen massive paintings at a time. Maybe some exciting collaborations? The sky is the limit.

A tiny village in the Bohemian Uplands where no one speaks English will be our second home. Just an hour outside our favorite city, Prague, and even shorter distance from the airport. A little farm built of stone where they dried hoops for beer long time ago. The original equipment is still there, and it makes my heart soft. Our closest neighbor is a collapsed castle from way back in time. I’m glad someone already has planned to rebuild it. There’s a total lack of photos from the outbuildings and exterior of the main house since I was totally overwhelmed seeing one massive building after another. Walking around thinking this might be ours if we had the guts.

I will tell and show you you much more later, and I will share our journey with you as we go. This has changed my life, and it will also change the blog. This is a life long project and things will happen when they’re suppose to happen. But for now this property just needed to be saved. So we fully embraced it and are waiting impatiently and excited to get the key. At the same time I feel calmer and more peaceful than ever before.

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THE DAY BEFORE THE BIG DAY

01/10/2017

I’ve been absent lately, but I got my reason! Something special has been going on, making me both excited, tired and sleepless at the same time. Remember this post almost two weeks ago? Feels like this uncertainty has last forever, but it landed somehow on Thursday. So tomorrow, Monday morning, I will be sharing what my life has been all about lately. And you won’t be able to guess it… I think… You can aways give it a try in the comments of course 😉

Well, while doing some celebration and planning, I decided to change the frame for one of my favorite artworks, ‘Pipvalsen’, by lovely Swedish Jennie Blomkvist @kollijox (you must look at her shop here). It’s a limited piece I bought it a few weeks ago, and I absolutely adore the mood in this work. The golden vintage frame from a flea in August is also a stunner, and I think they’re the perfect match. The smaller artwork with no frame yet is also by Jennie, called ‘Moonfish’. I’m in love! Anyone noticed this part of the hallway has turned mulberry as well?

See you back here tomorrow?! About 9 a.m. While you almost die of excitement, ha ha, you can have a look at my mini house tour videos at my instagram stories, enjoy!

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I WAS GUEST BLOGGING FOR NICOLA

21/09/2017

I was asked to guest blog on Nicola Broughton’s blog, and in mid August she posted her choice of photos from my house together with my text. My only guideline from her was it should be interior related. I love it when I can be so free, and I have to admit I was a little nervous when I mailed my guest blogpost to her, as it was a little far off a typical interiors post. I also have to admit I’m having trouble catching up on her quite new blog, witch features a lot of my Instagram friends and favorites, because Nicola is way more effective in me! She writes and fix faster than I can read, haha! If you want to see Nicola’s choice of pictures (which I always find interesting when someone gets tons to choose from), have a look right here. Anyway, here’s what I wrote:

Hi Everybody!

This is Maren Ingeborg Gråblomst from Villa Betula (villabetula.com, @villabetulablog) who’s speaking from Nicola’s green sofa! Not literally speaking, unfortunately, but to be a guest blogger on here is not bad either, thanks for inviting me Nicola.

There’s much you can say about interiors, in my case dark interiors, and you have probably “heard it all before”. So where should I start, and where will it end? It’s not about trying to copy a fancy catalogue or trends or friends – it’s all about creating a feeling, a mood. Moods capture me, both in good and bad ways, and my main goal when I photograph our home is to capture just that, and to pass it on to my readers and followers.

I want my home to bring me closer to my dreams and longings. Dig deep inside of yourself and find big pieces and little fragments of yourself which you can use to create an environment where you belong. It might sound abstract, but I think interiors is so much more than furniture and decorating. The atmosphere comes from within, and there is no way I could create a lush and comforting home or music, paintings or photographs without using my emotions as my most important equipment.

The best thing: we all have the ability to do just that, because we all have emotions and can use them for decorating, how great is that? There’s no magic wand, there’s no right or wrong! You are you, let it shine through and trust your guts, and you are probably more brave and bold than you think. Go for it! It takes much more energy and time to do it your way, it’s not a straight line, but I dare to claim it’s much cheaper and much more interesting. And when you start to figure out how you do it, it will give you energy as well!

I would like to give you an example from my latest project to make my abstract rambling more clear: we had one room left on ground floor which was not transformed into anything good. Since it wasn’t nice, it turned into a storage room where the piles of things we had no idea where to put, grew. It turned out really bad, and the little 10 m2 room with no floor space left, really stressed me. For quite some time I had wanted an atelier where I could make paintings in peace and quiet, and we decided to transform the storage room. I longed and dreamed of a huge atelier in an old stone castle, so instead of limiting myself in this tiny room I thought big. I was thinking like I was inside of the stone castle of my dreams, and created a “dark old castle bohemian look”, and I feel like I pulled it off!

Others can disagree of course, but I know I have created that atmosphere for me, because that’s the vibe I feel in here. Mission completed with very little planning ahead. I usually don’t plan much in here, that would be wasted energy, I think. I create with emotions as I go, and I think more people could do that.

Don’t take it too seriously, and if it doesn’t turn out good, it can always be re-done with some paint and thrift findings. It’s not rocket science. If you want to know more, see more or ask questions, you’re always welcome to ask, post your comments here or at villabetula.com, or my instagram account or get in touch via contact@villabetula.com.

All the best, Maren Ingeborg Gråblomst

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