Today

Nothing is coming out of my fingers, but this is made by my daughter and her papa today! Their many hours of relaxed playing gave me some rest.

Sick again...

Actually I'm more or less still sick.

Let's diy!

On special request I made you a stick horse tutorial. If you like to read more about these horses, just go here, here and here.

This is what you need to make one of them:

1. (old) sock, big mensize  
2. 2 buttons in a bright color
3. 2 small (black) buttons
4. quite a lot polyether stuffing
5. strong white thread
6. strong dark thread
7. extra long needle
8. normal needle
9. thick woolen yarn for the manes
10. leftover wool to embroider
11. cotton rope to secure the sock to the stick
12. piece of (imitation) leather or about 1 meter of leather strip 2,5 cm wide
13. about 1 meter of thick natural or polyester rope for the rein
14. felt for the ears
15. punch to make holes in the leather strip
16. 2 key rings diameter 3,5 cm
17. 2 bells
18. (old) broomstick (not pictured).

Gaia

Since two years already L has a best friend, who was born three days later than L. They're such a sweet couple! For Gaia I made this bag. L added a piece of her chocolate letter, a leftover from Sinterklaas. Thanks Anja, for photographing.
This weekend I went to Ikea and bought a pile of great fabrics. So this bag might be continued in new looks...

Smaller one

I tried to crochet this pattern. Great to do, but after a while I decided to quit. In this case the pattern is too open looped and too cold in my opinion to wear on a colorful dress with short sleeves like this one. So I started again and knitted a smaller bolero version, this time with needle 5 and this yarn.
What do you think? L likes it.

Detail

For the bedroom of our youngest I made this washed woolen, uni colored curtain, matching the color of her wall perfectly. The fabric doesn't need to be finished, which I like in this case. Nevertheless I made some decoration. On that side of the curtain where we push it, I sewed a nice edge made of different kinds of fabric remnants. (Hopefully the pics are clear enough for you...)
A little secret is the aluminium strip I pushed in the edge to keep it straight.

This is M

For M's eighth anniversary I have been working on this project (yes, it was a kind of project because it took so long...). Next summer she will be ten, so I'm talking about a while ago. We have a digital camera since the birth of L. Selecting about 1500 pictures out of all our digital pics took me several months! Then some more for layouting pages in InDesign. But it was a great job to do! The books measure about 30 to 30 cm and got a hard cover, which I covered with felt. Yesterday evening we browsed through one of the books again instead of reading a book. We love to do this once in a while.
Now it's going to be L's turn. To finish it in a year I better get started soon ;).

Yes, five fingers!

One last post about L's birthday. Here she is: our five years old little princess, gracefully walking the stairs this weekend. I like to show her to you but not without a story. Little L is like all little ones still that honest (no, not ungrateful!) to let me know she liked the dress and all, but also was a bit disappointed. For in her view it was not a real present. I know now that she expected something to play with. Like the Sinterklaas presents, she explained to me. Plus, she told me when I kissed her goodnight on her birthday, she doesn't like the red color very much. Oh, this is so me! So critical, so confident about what she wants! It reminds me at the very first moment my boyfriend brought me flowers and I didn't like the color. That was long time ago. And do you know, there was a moment I wanted to change the dress, because I knew it. I know her, she's like me...
Plus dear mama -I'm talking to myself right now- for the next time keep in mind that your two daughters are not the same! Not at all.

Riding horses

Last Wednesday L's birthday party was finally celebrated. I did my best with my flu! But it was so nice, her friends embraced the horses right away and embroidered their names in the halter with M's and our help.

They played in the castle and did some games too, like running a trail. They had such great fun! Please let me know if you would like me to do an easy tutorial of a stick horse for you. I have no pics of the process, but could explain the different steps using detailed pics of the result.
Of course the kids took their horses as a souvenir. After we had delivered all friends at home, I got such sweet sms-messages. Thanks moms!

Addition: just click here for the stick horse tutorial.

Again five fingers

This was L's school treat, four days later than planned. Again the piece of board with random holes was our servant, this time to serve cookies, sugared in different ways. We started with 5 cookies for each one, but it would have been far too much for those little bellies.

Matching bag

The final accessory matching L's dress is this bag, which you saw before, but this version got even more love. I like it that the style of this bag is so completely different. To be honest the Ikea fabric is still my favorite, but now we're talking about a bag for a princess. The crazy thing is that the application idea excisted in my head already when Kristel posted about these beautiful bags. I told you she and I have a lot in common!
By the way, with the tiny flower on the bag the record of the smallest Mme Zasza flower is broken, I think ;). Handsewing it reminded me at my childhood, when I also loved to make things in a miniature version (and for instance knitted with cocktail sticks...).

Necessities

Princess L can of course not live without these accessories. First of all a matching hairband. And shoes, that I bought just because they are glittering (and therefore L's dream) and flat (mama's dream). Just added the flower again to make the set complete.

The flu is very slowly leaving my body but not yet gone. Thanks for your sweet words! I'll try to continue the posts about L's birthday, which is a bit strange because everything is history already. But now I know every self-made present was worth the effort :).

Sick...

Work in progress

Tomorrow L's birthday party was planned. M is having her birthday in summertime, so we always let the children spread their wings outside. Now we can't let the friends of our winter girl play in the garden, so we have been thinking of something to play with inside our house. Although M is our greatest horse lover, L was enthusiastic about our plan to make stick horses for her friends. So we did. Inspired by this post written by Esther of Babyccino they are coming alive at the kitchentable right now. We have to make only five of them, so it's done with pleasure. Do you see those leather strips with holes? They are meant for embroidering names during the party. Luckily all names are having no more than four characters!
Sadly L is sick at the moment, so the party is one week postponed. But she's running with the firstly finished horse through the house already.

Addition: just click here for the stick horse tutorial.

Mia

For a long time already I was in love with this Tutoleo of Eloleo. In between busy preparations for L's birthday I did this sewing try-out last Saturday. And again I learn some new things (to make and attach piping and to write letters by sewing). About the buttons: I happened to be in Delft last week and in a super small shop packed with tiny things (and people at that moment!) I found these buttons, partly covered with dust. The thought that they were on this spot in this shop for decades made me smile.
The bag is now Mia's, our little girl next door who was born two years ago, a few minutes after the new year started.

Being a princess

I told you before about the dress I made for M. Now it's L's turn. She will for sure love to be a five-year-old princess (or lady, or wherever her fantasy will lead her). One thing about L's dress: it had to be blue! So, on an afternoon before Christmas Erika and I sat down together to sew dresses for our daughters. Thanks so much, Erika, you gave me some fruitful sewing lessons!
This week I did some handsewing: for the flower I used this sunny tutorial of genius Mme Zsazsa. And made a simple and matching necklace. Not to be forgotten! And quickly done with organza ribbon.