Sweet memories

Long time ago I made these series of photo books for M. Now L, who got 10, was really longing for a book with her pictures as well. So this was one of her birthday gifts. Such a joy to make! And in no time this time. I'm becoming an expert ;).
Because the book is about her being a baby, I thought a little rose for the inside of the cover would suit.

Different

As each year (2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2010) parents of L's class were gathering to make a Sinterklaas present for their child. The teacher asked us to make a pen case for their new fountain pen.

The teacher drew a typical model with a small flap on the blackboard. Not enough inspiring to me if I may say. So I made a different one.... Works perfect :).

Winter present

'Thank you for carrying the class!' A present for teacher Meike: a tiny item (only 7 cm high) that was missing on the season table.

Her idea

(Almost forgotten how to blog, but here I am again!)

Today M wanted only one thing: a new cell phone cosy. Since she lost her phone a while ago, she got a new one, the cheapest ever. But she is as happy as ever.
She told me exactly what to do. Making the tiny phone going upward by pulling the string or ribbon. So this is it, out of remnants of some former blogged items. Does any of you blog followers know which one?

Thank you!

L's teacher whispered in our ears that the class could use a strong new basket for wooden blocks. As L and other eldest kids are leaving her class after two years, we are going to give her such a basket, decorated with handmade flowers and butterflies. L and I based our creation on these flowers; we only made them a bit more colorful, in this case a better choice, I think. 

This week the other decorations will be added on the outside, and will it be filled with wood supplies for the hammer corner.

Miaow

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.

By hand this time

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?

Frosta for Rena

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!

Leaving

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!

Sofia is 10!

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!

In a shoebox

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.

Giveaway winner

For those curious ones about the second part of the giveaway: here it is! But for whom was it made? Oh, exciting... Today my Chinese colleague Tao chose a random number between 1 to 37. Congratulations Jennifer of Little Birds Fly, these two ornaments will be yours in a few days. Happy Christmas to you!
Thank you all for passing by and writing such sweet comments. My conclusion is that my first giveaway was a great hit!

First giveaway

I like to try something new. For no other special reason than soon having Christmas time (read present time), I thought it was time for a fast and small giveaway: two double sided ornaments. Just leave a short (and sweet ;)) comment and I'll randomly pick a winner next Wednesday already!
When you come back that day, I'll show the still secret second part of the giveaway just before closing time (4 p.m. Amsterdam-time), that looks like the Christmas variant of this ornament. The very same day I plan to send the post, hoping it arrives before the 25th. I will ship world-wide so anyone is welcome to enter if you'd like.

Another secret

Of course Sinterklaas visited school too. Yesterday all classmates of M received a felted pouch for their so called diatonic Choroi flute.
There's another Sinterklaas secret, this time for M (who I strictly keep away from my blog and I-phone these days): weeks ago I attended a parents evening where we were teached how to make a felted piece of fabric. This was a new experience for me and I enjoyed doing it a lot. We were asked to personally embellish and finish the pouch at home. Yes, I'll do, Sinterklaas said.

Less popular

Another toy (that my children unfortunately kind of leave on the bottom of the toy basket...) is this embellished glove. I think I better reintroduce it to my youngest.
To comfort me, do you maybe like it?

Old toy

Long time ago I made my eldest this ball. Especially the beams of the sun collected a lot of love!
Now I notice the ball is still choosen to play with. This afternoon I discovered a little hole in the felt and repaired it right away.

Uterus

Long time ago when M was born I sewed this felt cradle for her (without a pattern...). Actually it's just a simple rectangle or cube, with a bottom of thin plywood board between the two felt layers. I used two wooden sticks and felted cord (that we attached securely through holes in the sticks) to hang it. Sizes are about 80 to 45 cm.
In my opinion a newborn baby doesn't need very much, but warm and save surroundings are important. Our house is very open and the windows are large. For little L we found a temporary solution: in a corner of our bedroom we made this nearby mini nursery by surrounding the felt cradle with quite a thick felt curtain on a circular rail. I love the properties of felt very much: I punched little holes into the curtain and cut butterflies that seemed to be flying away... so beautiful when the sun came through!

New skates

My daughters got new skates. So we planned a few weeks later a skate birthday party for our nine-years-old. A tour around the peninsula we live on, with a contest, a treasure hunt, a trail on a small square and last but not least a visit to our local ice cream shop. For all their efforts everybody had to be honored. All medals for the ninth place finishers and only one for the first place.