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Look at her!

2012-03-13T18:47:00.000+01:00

I actually don't know why there was such emptiness on this blog. I mean, I don't know why nothing came out of my hands. I've no excuses, but only want to say: hi again!
And yes, finally I'm knitting again. About that later. First of all my daughter: she can do it! I'm so proud. And believe me, about 15 years ago there was a neighbour girl riding an unicycle. From the moment I saw her, there was a secret desire in me: to have a daughter riding an unicycle.
And this weekend it became truth! So happy and to see her happy.

A bridge?

2012-02-18T01:05:00.001+01:00

Yesterday M celebrated carnival in school. The theme of this year was 'Rotterdam', the city where we live in. So, I said to M, you may choose: do you want to be the Euromast, the KPN building or the Erasmusbrug? Full of enthusiasm she told me that she wanted to be the bridge! No wonder, because she is connected to this icon, passing it by bike every day a few times. But there was a request: mama, please make of photo of me by the bridge. And here she is. It's the evidence that a person can turn into a bridge! (What you see on her cheeks are some matching birds I quickly drew this morning.)

This week she worked hard every spare time she had: she designed, drilled, painted, fixed the cables and fixed the cars. Of course we wanted to be able to use the cars again afterwards, so we came up with a good idea: for each car two holes under two diagonal wheels were drilled. Then an elastic hair tie up through the holes and around the wheels. The pylons were made out of a double layer of light weighted foamboard and painted in our lightbluegrey wall color (now I realized that we have the color of the bridge at home!). The deck was made of thin plywood, that M finished in blackboard paint. To 'wear' the bridge M had to step in and then turn the bridge 90° around her body. This way she could carry it on her hips, but we added two shoulder straps as well.

After school we partly took the metro back home. M was very attractive under the ground as well as above; she got a lot of compliments of passers by! That's probably why she preferred to walk all the way back home from the bridge.

These are some pics at school and going back home.

Look at these creative Rotterdam buildings (Euromast, kubuswoningen, Potlood)!

For those insiders who are interested in L as well: she wanted to be a cleaner (to be more precisely: ours, called Maria) once again.

From now on I'm hip!

2012-02-14T09:33:00.001+01:00

These were born one year ago. But apparantly still are discovered and wanted... A while ago I was asked to contribute to a hip Dutch magazine. But I'm not hip at all, my objection was. Being published in Kek Mama will increase your 'hippigheid' (degree of being hip) at once, Diana assured me.
So there they went for a photoshoot. If you're curious like me, just buy the newest item that is available in the shops now. For those new visitors on my blog, here you can find how to make the stick horse that is published. Go ahead and enjoy!

Wash your hands!

2012-02-07T09:35:00.006+01:00

Let's talk about the smallest room in our house for a change. And washing your hands in there. I like to show you another cabinet that was designed some time ago, but that we enriched recently by adding some diy-music! Can you see it?

This basin unit was created in order to collect all needed items in only one piece of furniture, an all-in-one.

The inlaid mirrow above is as wide as the cabinet. The kind of used wood, birch plywood, is applied more often in our house, as you saw here, here and here. The wall lamp is this one. It's bigger brother you saw here and here already.
(Pics aren't fabulous, but you know it's wintertime...)

No time for crafting

2012-02-06T18:11:00.002+01:00

Last weekend we lived outside... on the ice! Look at this Dutch scenery, we enjoyed it so much!
Well done, M, on your new 'noren'!

For Rita

2012-01-30T18:27:00.000+01:00

This year no selfmade present for her little birthday daugther, but for my neighbour herself. She is so sweet... lately she lent me one of her beautiful necklaces. That's why she deserves a small surprise like this. I love the yellow of the beads, which is super intense and festive.
For those who want to give it a try: here is explained how to make it.

On the bias

2012-01-26T09:41:00.002+01:00

Are you still curious after this post? To be honest, this dress was planned for L's birthday! Only the borders to go, I decided to quit this knitting to be continued after those busy days. A good exercise to let go!

Looking at the final result I was afraid L would refuse to wear it, but pfff, she loves it! She's wearing it now three days in a row. She may. It took quite some time to make it and you never know whether my youngest self-assured daughter likes or not, so I'm glad.
Thanks Saskia for the nice stay in your small shop and for inspiring me. Browsing through different kind of knitting books I really fell in love with this dress in this book. I used this affordable yarn. But my bag was filled with more...

Some changes I made: the description for the borders was way too complex, so I decided to do it my good-old-way. And I changed color on an even number of rows to take along the waiting thread and thus to avoid weaving in ends. Here I found the perfect rose pattern...
In my opinion the dress is a tiny bit too long right now, but she'll grow!

Sam and Julia

2012-01-25T08:30:00.019+01:00

This is M, reading a book to her sister in the train last Sunday.
After our Christmas diner in the office we were invited to shop for a book in one of the meeting rooms: a Christmas present. Such a great idea. I chose some books; among them was this one: 'het Muizenhuis'. It's a book to be recommended and the Mouse Mansion is becoming a worldwide hit indeed! It's L's favorite.

Last Sunday we had a day off trip to Amsterdam. For M we went to see the Anne Frank House. To do L a favor we went to see another house: het Muizenhuis, exposed in the public library of Amsterdam. I'm talking about a sort of giant dollhouse, but populated by mice families and used as a scenery for the mentioned book. Look at this, get inspired by googling 'het Muizenhuis' or watch this video. This you can read on the blog of Karina Schaapman, the author/designer/creator:
'The Mouse Mansion - Sam and Julia' is based on The Mouse Mansion. An art project created by myself to form the scenery of this book, and many more following. The Mouse Mansion is made out of cardboard boxes and papier-mache and all kinds of waste material. You can actually walk around The Mouse Mansion because it has a front, back and side. The Mouse Mansion counts more than a hundred rooms, alleys and outdoor spaces. The story is written by myself and the mice are also created by myself.

When you are in the neighbourhood, you should go and take a look. We spent much more time then planned staring into all rooms filled with tiny details. Amazing!

M too

2012-01-23T16:55:00.004+01:00

Sometimes M can be jealous, even when it's about a quite childish subject like this bag...

I studied Industrial Design, which is about designing serial products, but please don't ask me to produce products in a serie, even not a small serie. I don't like serial production (except for birthdays!). So I suggested M to sew this bag herself.

Last week after school she really wanted to and when she does I put all my own plans aside to be at her side. I always want to encourage her in making things. She chose fabrics from my stock and started. And finished that same afternoon! (She only asked me to sew the bird in white so it would be a bit embossed.)
Now her softy horse - what else? - can be carried with her. Compliments M!

Balloon peep

2012-01-20T18:23:00.000+01:00

Today we had a lot of laughter with the camera. L asked me to make a photo of the high peep sound of a still-laying-around-balloon. Of course I did. Then we made these series.
No craft post this time (although M has been sewing in the afternoon), but just a funny post :).

Quickly

2012-01-15T21:03:00.003+01:00

Just before F would bring the kids home from school for L's cats birthday party, I had some little time left to paper cut these whiskers. Inspired by this very often seen image on Pinterest.
Unfortunately no image with cats cap (see last post) and whiskers...

More fun!

2012-01-14T08:34:00.019+01:00

We had such fun with the kids on L's cats birthday party! After putting these caps on their heads the kids immediately changed into cats, that means that they behaved like scratching cats and made a lot of noise together.

But after some games the caps were too hot to wear... Didn't mind, they looked like cats anyway during their milk licking from a little plate, climbing in a tree called F, testing their sense of smell and testing their cat ears, searching for another singing cat somewhere hiding in our house (a YouTube song on an iPhone...).

Sewing these caps reminded me of when M turned 6 and I sewed (very simple!) pink dresses and light blue blouses for all girls and boys on her birthday party. The pink insides of the caps are a fabric leftover.
Btw, I used the pattern of the hood of this coat.

Fun!

2012-01-12T23:18:00.003+01:00

F has given L a pulley as a birthday gift. And she's loving it! It suits our house very much as we have a high void next to our stairs.

During her birthday party all kids tackled their presents to L. Here you can see them at work. Do you see M's head upstairs?

Miaow

2012-01-10T13:34:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow L will have her third special day: she invited her friends to come to her cats party. This theme idea I found here.

We organized it our way using the play capacities of our house. Tonight I'll finish sewing 7 furry cats caps! Hope all girls will enjoy it very much.

To rattle

2012-01-09T10:32:00.002+01:00

Today L was giving her treats to her classmates. Lucky me was there! Thanks neighbours for all collected toilet rolls. We had a great family craft afternoon yesterday. L helped a lot, something I'm very glad about. The paper rolls were covered on the inside with bakery paper, that we also used for bottom and top. Different kind of nuts, some covered with chocolat, were put inside, so the kids were making some music together.

(As usual finished at darkness, so pics with flash.)

Paper for L

2012-01-08T08:46:00.006+01:00

As I told you L turned 6 last Friday! For this special day I suddenly came to this paper design. Wanted to use it for her treats in school (see later), but also used it for decorating our hall ...

... and wrapping her presents.

Solving a 'problem'

2012-01-07T18:51:00.002+01:00

Yesterday L turned 6! But today she was invited by her 3-days-junger best friend Gaia. We were a bit in a hurry to leave for her birthday party due to a discussion of mother and daughter about choosing cloths. I wished her to wear her new checkered dress, but L had problems with the waist width. Very quickly solved this (during my morning coffee) by crocheting a chain.
To achieve the desired color with available materials, a thick dark pink and a thin red thread were mixed. Mmmm, pink with a touch of red.

2012

2011-12-30T22:30:00.001+01:00

Dear all, this year my blog has been my favorite hobby, because of you! I loved to read your comments with sweet words. Especially the stick horses have been spread over the www. That's how it ment to be. And so many followers (what a beautiful amount on the end of the year!)... it makes me shy. Thank you all for appreciating my posts and please come by and join me again next year!

A happy 2012!

Work in progress

2011-12-27T22:35:00.004+01:00

It's wintertime. In need of plenty of rest I'm sitting on the couch and knit. Striped and on the bias. It's my cup of tea at the moment.

The different pieces look like tea towels but will be ...

Tradition

2011-12-25T00:42:00.004+01:00

This 'Linzertorte' was made by F, something he does every year in December. A tasteful habit from his German roots. This week he baked one for school, one for today and one for tomorrow. Mmmm... For today's diner in our house F will make an appetizer, M a soup, I will prepare a quiche and L is going to make her first dessert.
May this year's Xmas taste good to you all!

Temporary dress

2011-12-24T23:04:00.002+01:00

Yesterday morning all school tables in M's class were set with tablecloths, candles and lovely food. To let the breakfast taste even better all kids were asked to dress theirselves in Christmas style.
For me these days before Christmas were crazy busy in the office. Gives me double feelings: exhausting on one hand, but on the other hand I'm grateful, because compared to other architectural firms suffering huge crises in the Netherlands, we must be glad to have such a full portfolio right now. Thursday evening I attended a great Christmas diner in the office (like last year). Late in the evening I suddenly remembered my promise to M: turning a shiny skirt of mine into a dress for her! So back home at midnight the sewing machine quickly did his 5-minute job. Used stitches are long so I'll be able to turn it into a skirt again easily. But not before Christmas is over, M assured me.

What to be?

2011-12-13T09:48:00.000+01:00

Together with other mums I have been sewing capes for each child in L's class. Thick old velvet curtains and Ikea cotton velvet were used. Then later on during a parents' evening we all embellished them with gold ribbon and buttons, so they really got a royal look. These embellishments are really shiny, unfortunately not well shown on the pics due to cloudy weather. Last week the kids found them in their shoes in school.
L loves to wear it. Last Sunday the whole day through. As soon as she does she turns into a king, a queen, a Sinterklaas, a princess and maybe in a month into one of the Three Kings!

Donald

2011-12-06T11:05:00.003+01:00

When Dutch kids no more believe in Sinterklaas, so-called 'surprises' are made for each other. Here you can read more about this tradition. M was randomly assigned a classmate, to whom she anonymously gave a selfmade gift on the 5th of December. Somewhere inside this selfmade thing a small present is hiding. The boyish girl in her class wrote down what she likes: hiphop, gaming, athletics, reading Donald Duck comics and more difficult interests to base a surprise on.
Thus more than a week ago M was brainstorming with both her parents and an idea came up. F and M made the first surprise ever made in our house.

She got a little help of me during the painting, which is allowed when it's your first time, don't you think? M, well done!

Wobbly tooth

2011-12-04T20:32:00.004+01:00

M's dentition exists till now of 4 teeth only. She's ten! Recently F visited the dentist with both girls. I'm so glad they both have strong teeth (like their grandmother and mother).
Last week L showed me her first wobbly tooth. After it was fallen out we kept it carefully in F's wallet. Sint wanted to add this tiny present (according to another great idea of Vlijtig) in the 'zak'. But apparantly did L need something to put her tooth in today already! So she got this present this morning.

Btw 1, the paper label was covered with transparant adhesive foil to keep it clean.
Btw 2, the bottom is covered with a small part of Hella Jongerius' fabric, that lovers of her will maybe recognize ;).

Btw 3, L went to bed early tonight with a high fever. Hope she's better tomorrow to celebrate Sint's birthday...
Btw 4, wishing you all a cosy Sinterklaas!

L too

2011-12-03T22:28:00.001+01:00

L wanted one too as I told you. And she sure will take good care of him because she's loving these stuffed animals.

This time I padded the bag to make it 'stand'. And I stitched the Ikea print in red...
The only thing that still has to be done is making up a story about how come it's in the 'zak van Sinterklaas'...

Japan

2011-11-30T09:18:00.000+01:00

As a decent blogger I spoiled myself with washi tape for the very first time, ordered right here. Happy!
L finished her present this way.

Doggy bag

2011-11-29T10:18:00.001+01:00

This idea I found on my friend's blog some weeks ago. Perfect for our birthday girl next door. On her party last Saturday L gave the oh-so-soft little dog and on Sunday we gave the doggy bag.

Head over to Vlijtig for your quick handmade Sinterklaas and Christmas gift ideas! This doggy bag fits L perfectly too. I'll make her one later on, so she will find it in the 'zak van Sinterklaas'.

Friday song

2011-11-22T13:44:00.000+01:00

Last Friday L was singing this song all the time after school. Spontaneously and simultaneously these drawings were made. L taught me the words. It's about a tuber that has to be pulled out of the soil with a lot of men and animal power.
Now the singing is still going on. To remember these fine moments I reduced the drawings and put them in little frames of 10x15 cm. A small present for Sinterklaas evening.

In her new mama-made-coat

2011-10-25T08:58:00.008+02:00

Yesterday's photo shoot at the lake. Couldn't choose, sorry...

Lovely autumn light, isn't it? Lovely child, isn't it :).
(Btw, did somebody notice her hair is short? A little story about that: she did it herself a few weeks ago! Together with her neighbour girlfriend, who cut her hair away in the front! L did it aside, but a real lot! Later she said she actually wanted to cut the other side too to make it neatly. And big sister M said: oh, L, you cut it really straight, well done! Our hairdresser fixed the model in a creative way and now in the end we actually all are happy that L used the scissors.)

To warm my daughter

2011-10-23T22:54:00.005+02:00

Just did it slowly. Searching a pattern that convinced me to give my daughter enough warmth during her cycle trips to school, passing the river and bridge, catching a severe winter. This one (see page 6) did: a hooded, zippered, high closed, simple designed one with nice long cuffs. Then reading the pattern again and again. I'm not a very experienced sewer; making a coat is a far away story for me! But at the same time an everlasting wish-to-come-true.

I decided to change the pattern, because of course it had to be lined. Plus the pockets had to be changed. Making these was also my first time and it felt quite exciting. But I just took it slowly as I said and considered everything I did as an autodidact sewing course. That helps.

Then looking around for the right fabric: preferably natural materials and perfect colors. After a long and critical search and some doubts it resulted in this green washed woolen fabric with soft olive green lining. Totally happy, but I wasn't finished yet, did the lady in the fabric shop tell me: I needed an extra third layer to keep the wind out. Ok, a common padded fabric was added. Don't start doing this to save money. I think this is the most expensive coat L ever had! As a matter of fact did I find in the same period a beautiful second-hand coat for L, so doubts were there again. F convinced me to go on and finish sewing. So did I.

It took me some evenings sewing the outer coat, then the inner coat and finally assembling these two, especially because I had to do a lot of thinking as applying a lining was not described... The cuffs were made in double fabric. The front, back and hood three-layered and the sleeves two-layered. Everything is ready in time to go back to school again after holidays.

Really, every step I loved, including the exciting beginners moments. I'm so happy now! The finishing touch was inspired by this great lady. Btw, the one and only button hole still has to be made. My simple sewing machine is not able to do a job like that :(. I'll ask my neighbour to use hers.
Curious how it fits L? Come back later!

Being pampered

2011-10-04T00:21:00.012+02:00

Back home from Denmark, very satisfied. Here's a brief summary for you. We went with 20 interior architects to see the factory of Fritz Hansen, a brand you all know from Arne Jacobsen's Egg and 3107. Right above the seat of the 3107 is being born.

Legs of the 3107.
A workshop: upholstering a Swan with leather.
Eggs in the office of Fritz Hansen.

Immense stockrooms with Kvadrat fabrics, paradise for me!
The Danish were super friendly and pampered us with delicious food and lunches (they enjoy extensive lunches every working day their selves). Note the healthy nuts next to the coffee cup, the fresh carrots and cut in half bananas.
Even this random color composition of fabric rolls was a feast to the eye.

We were invited in the product development rooms of Kvadrat, where we got sneek previews of new fabric designs of productive Patricia Urquiola. Top secret, so not pictured!

My first time in Louisiana, I loved to be there, the weather was perfect... This artist, Yuyoi Kusama, made an impressive mirrored installation that made us happy as kids.

Last but not least we had a guided architecture tour along beautiful buildings including this masterpiece of Bjarne Ingels. Really go and check out the BIG site; it's amazing what they do!

By hand this time

2011-09-28T17:01:00.005+02:00

This week I will be visiting Denmark. I'm invited by Kvadrat to enjoy three days of esthetic delight, full of design, fabrics, architecture, interiors, art...
The felt for this bag I bought already some weeks ago. The yellow strap is like here a thrifted judo belt. It's clear that last weekend a Kvadrat bag had to be made to accompany me to Denmark.

On the outside felt of Wernerkinck, on the inside a mix of fabric samples of Kvadrat: the traditional Hallingdal, Stripes of Paul Smith, Layers Vineyard of Hella Jongerius, Happy of Tord Boontje. I'm happy to carry all those great designers along.

Today I used the bag for the first time. A new project?, a colleague asked me. Yep, just finished. To be honest, it's wasn't a simple process. But it is what was in my mind. It's made all by hand, because I preferred to sit on our couch :). The stitches are done as invisible as possible (but very visible in strong sunlight!). It appeared to be easy to get the needle through the felt layers. Luckily the fabric samples already had overlocked edges. I'm not fully satisfied with the snappers. These are of Prym (I thought a trusty brand), but I think they snap not strong enough. Anybody better alternatives?

Bye Melissa

2011-09-25T21:28:00.000+02:00

L's teacher asked us to bring a flower for their intern tomorrow. Didn't matter of what kind, a real or crafted or drawn one. L and I discovered the fine crafting-with-kids possibilities of YouTube. My daughter of 5 liked to scroll, pick a flower and watch the video again and again. This pink one she liked most.

Making this post right now I discover the site of this amazing origami man, where he explains how to fold excisting flowers.

Pancake house

2011-09-20T17:35:00.000+02:00

We Dutch love pancakes. Imagine: every Sunday we bake a whole pile. From now on M is into baking too. Here she is doing the job with lieve Lieve.

Hometowngirl

2011-09-19T23:57:00.002+02:00

Last Saturday I bought two (!) new dresses. The silk one above (which is consiously shown unsharp ;)) is designed by a for me up till now unknown hometowngirl: Monique van Heist. After some research on internet, I discovered she's kind of spectacular in the fashion world: she won several awards. I can imagine, because I'm so happy with this dress!

Then a question. In my favorite fashion shop in Rotterdam I was recommended to wear my low boots with bare legs to a wedding which I attended Saturday evening. I felt quite comfortable, but what do you think?

Finally, the beautiful body on the right is certainly not mine. The bride's sister was wearing this dress. A better look at her dress brought me to the idea to sew copy (new English word?) this model some day. Of course I'll keep you posted.

Lieve Lieve

2011-09-14T09:25:00.003+02:00

This sweet (her name translated, I so love her name...) friend of M (and daughter of my friend) had her birthday party last week. She loves to craft, so we made a variation on this theme.
As you can see the stamps were still laying around! The stamp effect is everytime surprising to me. Now the ink liquified into the unsanded wood, which was really great. I made her a pincushion too, by hand this time. M said she really needs one :).

Nice to meet you!

2011-09-11T12:46:00.007+02:00

About nine years ago we designed and (some later) built our own house. People tend to say: your house will be perfect. I always answer that the house is not perfect, and that I'm neither stuck to it for the rest of my life. To be honest, I'm more stuck to our neighborhood. We have such nice people living around us, and then I'm talking about 10 families with their young kids. In our backyards they all play together on a save, harmonious way.
Today our neighbor twins and neighbor girl turn 4. Because I pick up the trendy word 'personalized' all around, I thought it would be nice to make them a bag that looks like them!

Here the finished bags are shown by L, before they disappear in wrapping paper. Note the yellow straps: a while ago some old judo belts were smiling at me in a thriftstore. Irresistible color to me! And don't you like the beautiful fabric samples of Kvadrat I used? I'm happy and love to give the presents in a few hours. Congrats, fresh 4-years-old!

Iceland

2011-09-08T22:33:00.005+02:00

Two weeks ago my boyfriend F was on beautiful Iceland. During his holiday he sent us pictures and films, which we could view via Dropbox. Imagine: M and L had to go to bed. But ok, it's nice to view papa's pics. So we sat down behind the screen, mama and a sweet girl on each knee. Truly hundreds of pics of nature, nature and even more nature came by. F was rarely shown on the pics. I would almost say, that's boring for kids! But... after seeing all of them, M had a deep sigh and said: Oh, I wanna go to Iceland too!
Now happily he's back home. Look what he brought for M and L: a wonderful collection of amazing stones, many of them lava. L loves to sort and play with them for hours!

This was one of the mini films. So we knew already what presents he would bring back home!

Wrap it!

2011-09-06T13:42:00.004+02:00

Last weekend I had a full program. On Saturday afternoon our neighbors gave a really great party, so many people enjoyed our common garden. Then there was Rena's party and at night (till 4 a.m., that's late for a brave mother like me) I loved to join all neighbors and a very big crowd at De nacht van de Kaap. I like to mention this, because it's to be recommended!
This present was for sweet Rita and Jack. Here are the ingredients for wrapping a present like this: cheap brown wrapping paper, nice stamps (I used these, like I did before), and adhesive textile tape (found at Xenos). I stamped on the uncoated side of the paper. More stamping fun is following...

Frosta for Rena

2011-09-04T23:30:00.008+02:00

Sometimes people are that sweet, you just want to bring them self made presents. For Rena I did before. And I loved to see that this former present was even in use yesterday!
She gave a housewarming party. To make her spacious new living a bit less empty I thought it would be nice to bring along a small piece of furniture.

This great styled idea inspired me. The felt was bought at Wernerkinck in Delft in thicknesses of 5, 3 and 1 mm. Colours were chosen in combination with Rena's Eames' chairs. The legs of an Ikea Frosta were shortened to make it more suitable for little kids. One of them is growing in Rena right at the moment :). An option is to reassemble the legs slightly inwards, I might do that next time. The thread of the crosses went all the way through drilled holes in the seat (thanks F for doing this drilling part of this little project). There was no need to use adhesive foil to fix the seat cover. The funny part was Rena's reaction: Oh, I know where to put it! And she placed it next to her red rocking chair right away.
There're so many possibilities to design such a stool. Go ahead and make your one! It gives you energy!

And again

2011-08-22T23:13:00.002+02:00

Yes, I like this fresh, summery one too! I'll use it to cheer up my quite greyish wardrobe :).

Did it again

2011-08-21T22:10:00.003+02:00

Went to Amsterdam again. Bought some lovely red and white beads. Here's my new red necklace. The white one will be created soon after.

If you want to make one too, you could use my tutorial.
Now I changed something at described step 3. I noticed one's getting a more jumpy effect, which I wanted to achieve, by crossing the wire in front of the wire you're holding sometimes before the bead and sometimes after the bead. (I hope it's clear what I mean. Maybe someone wants to correct my language?)

Garland?

2011-08-15T23:56:00.005+02:00

Hi! Nice to be back again. Just like last year, we combined cycling and camping during our holidays. Not so many kilometers a day, because L (5) persisted to cycle herself. I so love the forests of the Veluwe in the central part of the Netherlands. Near Putten, you really should go to see the huge and fairytale beech trees!

And the beautiful heath fields nearby.

The weather wasn't great, adults said. But kids, especially mine, loved to be in the rain and took advantages of the situation!

What better to carry on a three weeks cycle trip, besides a tent? Right, a crochet hook! This is my work on progress, an ode to my all time favourite crochet lady: Emma Lamb. These motifs appeared to be a nice play element during camping. L loved to sort them in all possible ways.

What the final result will be is not yet landed in my head :). Keep you posted about it.

Taking some rest

2011-07-22T08:24:00.004+02:00

Packed my holiday present. I'm ready for it.
Wish you all a great summertime and like to see you again in a few weeks!

Update: Suddenly saw the color similarity with my header :).

Leaving

2011-07-21T12:37:00.002+02:00

My colleague Roel is leaving us. He likes this blog, so I gave him a self-made souvenir. I used this good old tutorial of Vlijtig. Took the sizes slightly bigger for the iPhone 4 model. And demolished a small, cheap coin purse of Hema to get a spring-fastener.

Roel, all the best!

Just giveaway m&m treats!

2011-07-12T09:30:00.008+02:00

Please take notice of this (earlier mentioned) great idea of Peppermint Plum. I like to share with you how to make a slightly different version: this stamped m&m treat necklace. If you like to read some more about this m&m treat, just go here, here and here.

This is what you need to make about 40 or less :) pieces:

a big bag flat (without nuts) m&m's
small letter stamps
a decorative stamp like in this nice stamp box of Djeco
an ink pad
colorful threads
colorful ribbon, 3 mm wide

And 4 large paper sheets of traditional Canson Mi-teintes. I used two pieces of light yellow for the backs, one green and one magenta colored sheet for the fronts.

Ok, get started. Draw plenty of circles on each sheet using a cup with a diameter of about 13 cm. Then stamp with the small letter stamps in a serial process text on one sheet.

Now add the decorative stamp: not exactly inside the circles, but crossing the lines. In my case a part of the stamp was inside each circle three times. It works best when you lay down the stamp on the table and push the inkpad upside down on the stamp each time. Repeat this for all sheets.

This part of the job takes quite some time depending on the amount of treats. First cut all circles roughly, then each one more precisely.

You'll get this result on and underneath the table.

Use different colors for your upper and under thread in your sewing machine. Sew two circles together, in the beginning fixing a double folded piece of ribbon of about 70 cm (or some longer). Leave an opening of about 3 cm.

Add about 25 m&m's in each pouch. And close it by sewing another circle just roughly all around.

Make some more by repeating step 6 to 8.
Enjoy! How the kids will open it is up to them...

Just couldn't stop...

2011-07-07T22:41:00.005+02:00

.... photographing (because these, M's treats in school, are photogenic).

Talking sticks

2011-07-06T08:15:00.011+02:00

She loves Indians. Sadly I haven't found some time yet to make M a costume. But I know, although she's already ten, she will still love it when I make her one. Hopefully in the near future.
We discovered the Island of Brienenoord some weeks ago. It's such a strange and great place to go! Last wednesday the weather suddenly turned out to be beautiful! We cycled with the girls, who were invited to M's birthday party (and proud M on her brand new bike!) through Rotterdam, passing by an industrial area. Directly behind too many awful buildings, you can find a small bridge, leading to this green island. (Het doet me denken aan Pluk van de Petteflat :))
No, no costumes nor feathers on their heads, that's too childish. But yes, our Tipi tent (which I btw really recommend to other camplovers), a campfire and talking sticks.

Little F was there again, sitting on the ground during the party preparations, peeling off branches.

After cake and presents the girls decorated their sticks and added their stories, told by little drawings.

Then we all went to explore the island, enjoying the quest F made in the early morning. During the trip all experiences were drawn on the sticks, so that their stories could be told to their parents afterwards. And the parents liked it!

Festive

2011-07-04T19:31:00.006+02:00

Our eldest daughter M got ten years old this week! We had such wonderful days and weather! Our teenager woke up, surprised by this birthday dress.
Reading blogs can make you enthousiastic. When you mix this incredible Boleo, this wow skirt of Oontje and this horse dress, you can imagine I came to this result. I loved the idea of buying a duvet cover of Ikea to use for sewing cloths. You can wait for some more items, since these's a lot of fabric left.

Thanks Sanne of Eloleo for the great pocket idea! It was great to puzzle how to make it.
Don't you think it's a stylish girl with the matching treats for school? I'll write about that later. Just let me know if you would like to know how to make these treats!

Jump over fire

2011-06-24T22:18:00.004+02:00

Today we had a lovely day. Year's best feast in school was celebrated: St. Jan.
Flowergarlands on kids' heads, everybody dressed in white or light colors.

Sweet games in the forest, eating cherries and pancakes, singing songs, making music and above all jumping hand-in-hand over (and through!) a burning fire. To seal friendships. Between schoolfriends and familymembers. Once a year, so special.

Almost 10

2011-06-23T22:24:00.005+02:00

Sweet M is going to be 10 soon. Today she invited her friends to join her party next week on the adventurous Island of Brienenoord.
We did a stamping job together with small letterstamps of great HEMA. It's clear that we couldn't find any numberstamps, but in the end the yellow numbers worked out just fine.

Some time ago my eye found this stunning idea here, which I saved on my Pinterest boards. I so love the combination of the neutral colored wrapping-paper with the colorful thread and sweets.

Published again!

2011-06-16T08:02:00.003+02:00

Some weeks ago the great editors of a German family magazine called Nido gave me an assignment to contribute to their magazine. The job was hard to fit into our busy schedule, but finally it turned out great to do! By taking a quiet day off to exclusively make a sweet stick horse, together with plenty of step-by-step pics to show all crafty Germans how to make a horse like this. With a little help of F's mother tongue a German how-to was added.

Now finally the June item of Nido is published and arrived in our mail box last week. May all readers increase the stick horse family!

They planned to publish a large picture of M or L too, so that's why we had a photoshoot in our hallway, just like I was asked for. But hey, I'm not a photographer! Sadly for M and L the editors preferred to redo the shoot in Germany, so there the stick horse went by post.

This time the result was a slightly improved stick horse, note the bridle. Here are my girls, playing with the new member of our horse family.
Last Saturday all stick horses went for another photoshoot, this time for a Dutch magazine. To be continued after summertime.

Horse

2011-06-14T11:14:00.003+02:00

Actually I tend to buy kids clothes second-hand. This principal of buying, wearing, selling, wearing by other children and so on, feels good to me. I like to discover nice pieces and love to combine them. Second-hand means more clothes in a financial way, another advantage :).
My daughter M loves it when I make her something. This year it's going to be a birthday dress, in the early morning of the big day hanging on her closet. I really haven't got a lot of experience, but just tell myself I can do things like that. That helps. This one is a test dress.

The simple fabric was found on the market, which I combined with an experimental sewed drawing...
It fits fine. M is happy (so me too).

Sunday morning

2011-06-13T16:51:00.002+02:00

Sunday morning M only wanted to sew more and more, immediately after getting out of bed. And what would you recommend to make as a first sewing thing? Right, a doll's skirt.
So here it is. And she wants to make more. Yeah!

Father's day?

2011-06-12T14:28:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I told you about the sewing enthousiasm of M. She couldn't leave the sewing machine that evening, coming home from Sofia's party (where all girls made their own skirt!).
There was a remnant of felt still laying around. This is what she made. For papa. After drawings and brunch were given, my mother called and did we discover that Father's day is not today but in a week... Could have known, on a 'Pinksterday'.

Sofia is 10!

2011-06-11T16:47:00.004+02:00

Sofia -some of you might know her- is enjoying her sewing birthday party at this very moment. M, a ballet friend of Sofia, is having fun too learning some sewing basics from Erika.
My eldest is no big crafter. What she does like very much and prefers playing for years already is horse-riding. But she sure liked to be invited to Sofia's party, who is a talented teenager with a sewing machine. For the wrapping of her present (an easy sewing kit) M had her first sewing experience today. Look at it, we think it's a great result!

Update in the evening: M came home with the sewing virus! She only wants to sew. Thanks Sofia!

The Universe

2011-05-16T17:38:00.004+02:00

Wow, this was not ment to be a month with blogsilence. It just happened to be. No craft came out of my fingers!
But certainly there was a lot going on. For instance the organisation of a feast in school with this theme: the Universe. Together with another mother we made a design for the schoolyard, just sitting half an hour on a bench watching our kids playing there. But how to realise it? I made a list with 40 tasks on which parents could enter their names. But none of them did! So one week later I just added their names randomly myself. And guess what, all parents were in!
For me there was some sewing to do: silver curtains for the stage background, to be painted black curtains after the gate and a rocket... I'm not a rocket expert at all, so I drew a simple one on a small piece of paper, based on standard fabric width to make it easy and asked our little boy next door if he liked it. After his approval I went to the market, bought an impressive amount of fabrics by meter and made this 8 meter high rocket! Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday were planned around this so-called Springmarket and we were having a great time.
Thanks F for being responsable for the ropes, fixed on two facades on a distance of 26 m, the bounderies of the schoolyard. You're my hero!

Pif

2011-04-17T21:35:00.005+02:00

When M and L were newborns they wore this very cute hat in a beautiful green color. A former colleague did crochet it. Kristel of Vlijtig is another former colleague. She paid this hat at least 20 times (!) forward to several aftercoming babies.
Making a crochet piece of work myself was probably more than 25 years ago! But I wanted to pay it so much forward to one of my nowadays colleagues, who's becoming a father of a little girl. The other one will be given to some other sweet newborn in the future. The blue yarn appeared to be a very fine crochet yarn, but really every yarn will suit you. For today I like to posit following thesis: everybody older than 8 can make a hat like this. So if you like to pay it forward too, get started with an average crochet hook like 4,5 mm. Find a similar pattern via this link.

Catching up

2011-04-16T15:12:00.002+02:00

It's quiet on my blog, I know. I'm quite busy both professionally as privately. M and L are into a lot of activities: yesterday we all attended M's circus performance, this morning she was playing her violin in a childrens orchestra. It was the first time for M feeling nervously. Furthermore I'm organising with a group of parents the so-called Springmarket, a feast in school on a Saturday in May. We made a design for the schoolyard, but to get it realised we need a lot of hands... I'll get you posted about the result in a few weeks.
A few weeks ago I got an invitation to contribute to a German family magazine called Nido. It's my first time this is happening through my blog. This week I took a quiet day off to get the work done. Of course it's still top secret ;), but in a few weeks I'll get you posted about that too.

Ordering

2011-04-09T21:42:00.008+02:00

Our kitchen has a high ceiling. While sitting here behind the computer, you can look into the kitchen, smell the cooking and ask for a coffee easily :). It's a great spot to make pictures during birthday parties too.
Actually this furniture consists of three parts: a cabinet you see in front, a tabletop and a floating cabinet above the tabletop. Because our house is our own design we made the opening in the wall as wide as the tabletop we had already. This week we mounted the floating cabinet again. For years it was standing on the ground, filled with Lego. As our girls are no Lego lovers, we decided to use the cabinet again where it was designed for in our former house.

Furthermore I made new labels for the folders to make them a bit more attractive. Covered each paper label with adhensive foil, slightly bigger than the label itself and sticked them to the folder. I'm happy, because it took some time to administrate and order the folders. Now it's up to date again, pfff. The view on the folders will hopefully stimulate to do the administration on a more regular base.
Btw 1, do you see that hole in the side of the cabinet? It's made for the printer, which is housing together with the hard disk inside the cabinet. And btw 2, do you see that little hole in the corner of ceiling and wall? I'll write about that later...

Well done!

2011-04-03T23:07:00.001+02:00

Here I met some family members of the stick horse:

Well done, isn't it?

Keep on trying

2011-04-02T21:35:00.007+02:00

Yesterday evening I was exhausted from work. Once I had decided to make a bag for my birthday neighbour I got soon in a better mood! I loved to combine different fabric samples for the front. The small stripes are Paul Smith's. The bag was almost finished, I thought.
Today only the zipper had to be added. Do you recognize this: party started at 1 p.m, would last till 5 p.m. I, again, 'only' had to add the zipper. But actually I didn't know how to. And, as a like-to-be-autodidact, just started and tried out. Due to timepressure it didn't work out. In the end I searched for a how-to on internet. Still, at 3 p.m. I sadly declared this bag for failed. And quickly went for a cold glass of white wine in our common garden. Dear Cariene, please be patient. There will be an improved one soon. Wine and food were delicious.

Trula

2011-03-27T22:08:00.006+02:00

And (after Tord) do you know Trula? Oh, I would like to meet her! She's having a great blog straight from Barcelona. Look at her pics! When she posted these, I was in love.

Lucky ballet dancer M. To be honest, I didn't like to make this tutu and it wasn't simple. I made six layers of supple bridal tulle (2x white, 2x beige and 2x black) and a lycra band and waistband. These unnatural materials are not ment for me. It takes a lot of time to cut them straight and to control their slipping.

Mama, it works! Then she disappeared to play outside with tutu and summershoes.

My sweet niece

2011-03-21T10:08:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in my sister's sunny backyard. Every year when my niece Janneke is having her birthday, there're plenty of first sunbeams. What a gift to let all the kids play outside and us lazy sitting in the garden!
My niece turned thirteen. In this age there's no more playing, but more hanging around. It's was quite hard for us to think of a nice present. So I sat down and started to sew. I changed this free pattern a bit, one of my saved tutorials on Pinterest. I'm quite satisfied with the result, especially how the striped piping detail turned out to be. Striped fabric is from Ikea. M+L added drawings they made for Janneke in the bag.

Tord

2011-03-19T08:27:00.001+01:00

Who (except the Dutch among you) knows Tord Boontje? He's a Dutch designer, known for his floral designs on textiles, furniture, tableware and so on. If you're triggered you could go here to read more about him.
In the office I often use his floral textiles by Kvadrat, but I'm not an overall admirer. We have one little item of him in our sitting room: this long metal garland of flowers that is wrapped around a light bulb. You buy it as a flat metal sheet in which the garland is punched. We had to break it out of the sheet. Love this genius idea, so great job Tord!

Good-looking

2011-03-16T21:59:00.009+01:00

Wannahave-beads are best found in a not-being-internet shop. I think you should feel beads in your hand to make the right choice. And nosing around in beads shops is a feast to the eye! This tutorial brings you to a necklace to show the beauties you've bought.
If you like to read more about pictured necklace, just go here. And if you like to read about different possibilities, just go here, here, here and here.

This is what you need to make a single wired necklace.

a handful of beads you have fallen in love with
wire. Length, thickness and color fully depend on your personal preferences. The wire I used was 3 meter long, estimated 0,5 mm thick and green colored. You could even lengthen the wire during the process by connecting one wire to another, using a tiny squeezable metal ring. You can get the tiny ring out of sight by positioning it inside one of the beads.
a small lock
2 tiny open rings
2 foldable end pieces.

In case the length of the necklace is that long that you can put it over your head, you don't need the tiny pieces mentioned at 3, 4 and 5. All you need then is one tiny squeezable metal ring to attach both ends of the wire.

Get started. Stick a little piece of painter's tape to the end of the wire. Add another larger one on top, facing sticky sides. Stick this set to your table.

Make a loop. Now you should do this: enter the end of the wire through the loop and then cross in front of the wire you're holding.

Actually this necklace is all about this last action. You should repeat it all the time in exactly the same way. Be aware of keeping the loops always on the left, so don't rotate your work. Add beads once in a while and just keep on repeating the described action.

When nearby, let your child choose the next bead. Go on and on, but also plan ahead: measure roughly the desired length around your neck, devide through the number of beads and check every 10 or 20 centimeter if all planned beads will fit.

Something like this is what you'll get.

When you have reached the desired length it's time to finish. Add the end pieces on the beginning and end of your wire: first fold one side, then the other using needle-nose pliers. Press firmly and cut leftover wire as close to the end piece as possible.

Attach tiny rings and close them with needle-nose pliers. Attach the small lock on one side. You're done.
Try it on and look in the mirror!

This tutorial is for personal use only and may not to be used commercially.

Published!

2011-03-15T18:36:00.004+01:00

Today I got a special email: my blog is mentioned in the April issue of an Australian lifestyle magazine, called Home Beautiful. How about that?!

Nails

2011-03-14T21:50:00.002+01:00

We have this nail wall in our house. It's ment for temporary expositions of pictures and drawings. The first years we lived here, we did change the wall on a regular base. You can see that it has been quite some time now! But these pics are still so precious to us.
The idea was so incredibly simple: just make a grid with nails (can you see it?) on an empty wall, to hang wooden boards. I promise you the realisation wasn't that simple. The nails couldn't be hit into the concrete wall just like that. At first we drilled holes in the wall, entered plugs inside, hit the nails and plastered the rest of the holes around the nails. Long time ago...

Wannahave-beads

2011-03-11T19:48:00.009+01:00

Too much sewing around here lately. I like it that the tags on the sidebar show me that it's time for something else, something down in the list, for instance jewelry! That's why I visited this shop in Amsterdam selling a great collection of beads. There were just 5 minutes left before closing time and I hardly managed to select a handful of beads.
Today I wore this at the office. I'm not yet finished experimenting, but for this basic model I could do a tutorial. Would you appreciate that? Maybe you're aware of plenty of such how-to's on internet. To be honest, I didn't check myself yet... I told you before I was inspired by my neighbour's necklace some time ago.

Another apron

2011-03-09T11:13:00.003+01:00

My eldest daughter M is a horse lover, I told you before. She attends a riding school every saturday and hardly wants to leave there after the lesson. Although she's a very girlish girl, she liked to idea to go like a blacksmith to school carnaval. Our neighbour had a gold painted horseshoe for her, which made the idea even more attractive.
She knew that her best friend, of course a horse lover as well, would be a horse riding teacher. But what wasn't agreed on was the very funny purple horse, made by her mother and that her friend brought along. The heavy horse was best carried by both girls. M was happy indeed to give it some horseshoes!

This year's carnaval

2011-03-07T23:23:00.002+01:00

Making a costume for only one special day at school? I doubted it, just like every year. But on the day itself we use to wonder why being doubtful after seeing those happy faces. This year's theme for L is 'metiers'. She really loves to assist our cleaning help, so this is what she wanted to be.

She could clean the whole house right away! To start with the mirror...
Tomorrow is school carnaval. She insists on taking a bottom of soapy water in the bucket. I decided to go by car and not by bike...

Part two

2011-03-06T10:34:00.004+01:00

You won't believe it. Just after launching last post, I realised the reversibility of the bag all of a sudden! A second photo-shoot followed.
This bag is multifunctional, that's clear!

No plastic please

2011-03-06T09:39:00.005+01:00

In general I dislike the use of plastic bags. A very few are such beauties (like those from museumshops) they excape from this rule and are treated like treasures. No way I would consider to give them to somebody who suddenly needs one ;).
When F and M+L leave in a hurry to attend viollin-lesson, they use to grab an aweful plastic bag to carry the music books. You understand this should be ended. Here's a new bag for all the stuff, including the new ring binder. Because in the end I was disappointed about the width of the bag, I added two snap fasteners. They reshaped the bag fairly well, I think.

Stave

2011-02-27T22:25:00.005+01:00

Lately loose music paper was laying around. It's so easy to make M happy: I bought a basic black ring binder and she showed it proudly to her father in the evening. This made me wish to make her happy again...
Yesterday F, M and L left for a short holiday, leaving me at home because I can't stay away from the office this week. Today it was raining, this morning was a lazy one and during the day I decided to make my daughter this cover. I loved to use my piping cord experience again. Please tell me if you're interested in a how-to. I made some pics that I could share.

Fake braids

2011-02-24T18:26:00.001+01:00

Another carnaval costume I made before. M wanted it so much, because we were into the fairytale period. I used a real pattern, even in English, which was quite hard to understand. The cape is made out of woolen fabric, the color of the lining is purple. The evening before a little drama happened: she yelled disappointedly that she looked like a witch! The cape turned out to be far too long. You understand I was busy till late that night to correct it.
She especially loved her fake braids at that time. How could she know about her beautiful real ones of today?

Yellow flower

2011-02-22T00:12:00.002+01:00

Allthough especially the south of the Netherlands is specialist in celebrating carnaval, I made several costumes for school carnaval in the past. I'll show some of them for inspiration. Here you see M and L, four years old and dressed up like a flowergirl. Pictures are taken with an interval of 4 years: last year and 5 years ago. Everything is made of transparent curtain samples, no more of use in the office. The skirt has transparent and solid layers. The wings are made by covering a flat brass frame with transparent fabric.
This week we are thinking about this year's costumes. Maybe you too?

Sorry for the dots, they're just added to protect M and L.

Local inspiration

2011-02-20T22:38:00.002+01:00

Our eldest daughter M is (like so many other children in Rotterdam) a member of Circus Rotjeknor. This sunday afternoon we went to the theater to see and enjoy the acts of the most talented kids of this youth circus. And...
Last sunday we visited Villa Zebra. The kids did a workshop making a shoebox scene about their parents, so about us. One of my birthday presents was this book, which I recommend, at least to all Rotterdam based mothers who want to spend crafty afternoons with their children.

Livingroom fragment

2011-02-19T22:01:00.001+01:00

This week I posted about the vase of Hella Jongerius. The sunlight on the day I made pictures was so beautiful, I couldn't resist making some more pics. After all I promised to write about our interior too.
I designed this cabinet a long time ago. It's made of solid maple wood. Do you see how old-fashioned we are? No LCD TV on the wall! With such a blog life there's simply no time left to watch TV. So why buying a new one ;).

Those are mine

2011-02-17T19:19:00.004+01:00

Since we haven't got beautiful name labels for our daughters, I'm used to mark their eurhythmy and gym shoes this way. Buttons are from HEMA (sparkling stones are just laying around in our house, don't know from where). Maybe a tip?

Great woman

2011-02-15T20:44:00.001+01:00

Last Friday I visited the very popular exhibition of Hella Jongerius in Boijmans van Beuningen, the main museum in Rotterdam. Ad, a dear friend, knew he had to take me with him. I so loved to be there! Little L too, she had to search for our vase!
Hella is fabulous with designs and colors. I couldn't resist to make these pics and to buy her corresponding book. After all it's my birthday today ;). But when you click on this link you have a very fine and much better overview of her work.

Back home I finally embroidered her Ikea vase.

Dull bag

2011-02-12T16:34:00.009+01:00

On a second-hand market in school I bought this bag a little while ago. Because it was hanging quite unattractively on our mirror I decided to cheer it up a bit. Without any plan I just started making French knots and this is where it ended. To cover all threads on the inside I made a lining too.

I'm so glad I'm back with you again. In the meantime the stick horse flew into the world. Special thanks for featuring and visiting my blog! You came with so many via One Pretty Thing, WhipUp, Craft Gossip, Kireei, Modern Parents Messy Kids and other sites. It's not my intention to talk big, but having 4,500 pageviews a day is a new experience for me!

Today

2011-01-30T22:00:00.001+01:00

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...

2011-01-29T19:58:00.001+01:00

Actually I'm more or less still sick.

Let's diy!

2011-01-27T22:36:00.015+01:00

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:

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

Get started. Cut the broomstick, not on the rounded side, to the desired length. Make a ridge on a distance of 30 cm from the cutted top.
Fill the sock with stuffing.
Attach the manes, starting from the heel of the sock, down to the opening for about 15 cm. Tie up with double knots. Be sure to attach the manes in a row close to each other.

Attach the eyes, take care to attach them symmetrically. Take a long and strong white doubled thread, make a knot and start on the spot of eye 1. Go with the long needle to the other side, attach with a normal needle a colored button and a small button on top (eye 2) and go backwards to the knot. Attach eye 1 the same way and go back. Attach eye 2 for a second time and go back. Attach eye 1 for a second time, finishing with a knot under the button. Cut.

Make the mouth. Take a long and strong dark doubled thread. Go with your long needle right through the sock, go again in the same direction through the sock on the same spot, then again for a third time. Pull for shaping a mouth and make a secure knot. When finished just rotate the thread in order to vanish the knot from sight. The knot is now into the sock. Pull the mouth a bit down to get a better result.

Cut quarter circles of felt, taking two colors and two different diameters, in my case 18 and 14 cm. Fold and stitch across to shape an ear. Attach the ears to the sock, be sure to do this symmetrically.

Cut with a metal ruler a leather strip of 2,5 cm wide, 1 meter long. Hold the key rings on both sides of the head and measure the length needed for the top strip, which is about as long as the under strip. Cut top and under strip 5 cm longer than measured. If you like to, you can punch holes in the top strip to embroider a name afterwards. Attach bells to the key rings. Attach top and under strip to the key rings, by sewing a cross with the strong dark doubled thread. Put it on. Measure from one key ring, down to the lower side of the manes, back to the other key ring. Cut a third strip 5 cm longer than measured (in my case 50 cm). Attach this strip the same way to the key rings and under the lower side of the manes. The manes will hang over this attachment. Attach rein to the bridle.

Put the stick into the sock, right up to the sock’s heel. If needed add more stuffing. Go with a needle and a strong dark doubled thread about 2 cm from the opening of the sock. Turn around the stick a few times, securing the thread through the ridge. Go back to the outside of the sock again, turn around the sock a few times and tie securely. Tie now (on top of the dark thread) with the cotton rope like in the picture, starting by turning around over the beginning of the rope as tight as possible and ending by pulling the rope with the long needle under all strings. Cut.
Call your child!

This tutorial is for personal use only and may not to be used commercially.

Gaia

2011-01-25T22:00:00.003+01:00

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

2011-01-23T21:17:00.001+01:00

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

2011-01-22T19:34:00.004+01:00

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

2011-01-19T22:54:00.003+01:00

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!

2011-01-17T23:01:00.002+01:00

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

2011-01-16T00:15:00.013+01:00

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

2011-01-15T00:08:00.004+01:00

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

2011-01-14T10:02:00.006+01:00

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

2011-01-13T21:33:00.002+01:00

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...

2011-01-07T17:53:00.001+01:00

Work in progress

2011-01-04T18:11:00.004+01:00

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

2011-01-03T08:10:00.003+01:00

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

2011-01-01T08:51:00.004+01:00

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.

2011

2010-12-31T16:58:00.003+01:00

Dear all, when I started blogging in September of this year I didn't had a glue of what impact it would have. It has indeed! I'll tell you that blogging is fun to do and kind of addictive too. Your comments just make me keep on posting! Thanks for your sweet words and please drop by again.

Wish you all a happy new year!

Almost five fingers

2010-12-27T21:45:00.017+01:00

L is having her birthday next week, so be prepared to read some posts about that special day. Preparations are started over here!
So sweet, she wants to invite four friends for her very first birthday party. Today we cosily made invitations. Firstly L started to make drawings for her friends and others, invited for her 'adults party', but it appeared to be too much work for her (she's that precisely, it would have taken the whole day). She ended up adding her name at the bottom... No need to mention that I was inspired by stamping Kristel (here she is again :)). Last time HEMA was my eraser supplier, this time it was V&D's turn (another Dutch warehouse).

In a shoebox

2010-12-25T00:48:00.004+01:00

This stable I once made by covering a little shoebox with felt and cutting a little cross to fix a twig. M and L are always a bit disappointed because for them it's necessary that Maria is wearing a red robe with a blue mantle and Joseph should have been dressed in brown. But their mother longed for a more stylish nativity scene... I want to and don't know why, but every year before Christmas I fail to make some more felt figures. It doesn't matter, as long as we enjoy Christmas. And we did this afternoon, sledge sliding down the hills in the beautiful woods of Breda. I wish you a happy Christmas too!

We do use real candles in our Christmas tree and lighted them traditionally yesterday evening, followed by singing songs and M playing her violin. And no, we don't agree that the burning candles are dangerous.