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.

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.

Made in school

Look what L made in school!

A wooden cooking spoon was turned into a puppet theater doll.

And she's (and we are) so glad with her creation!

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?

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.

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 :).

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.

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.

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.

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?

Precious

One of the first well-beloved items I made for baby M was a mobile, which is nowadays still hanging in her room. It is made by wrapping handspun wool around a wire. I added some green felt leaves and made some spirals of green wire. The little wooden gnomes are simply dressed in felt. A cristal is hanging in the middle, like a treasure of the gnomes, that is breaking daylight and can make beautiful light projections on the wall.
By the way, these lovely chubby little arms are belonging to baby L.

Dear Molly of Remedial Eating, I hope you enjoy this post :).

Me too

The leftover thread was laying on the kitchentable and suddenly was into my good old scarf. To make it more easy I quickly handsewed the ends together with a colormatching sewing thread. The crosses are less easy to make than you would expect. To get a neat result on both sides you have to take a look on either side of your work to control where the needle is coming out. The circular scarf can be wrapped two or three times, depending the cold outside.
Now M and I are a visible set too!

Little feet

When our little girl next door was born I wanted to give her something self-made. On several places on the internet I was triggered by these little booties and this link. When you go to Flickr you see hundreds of exemplars to inspire you. So it's a piece of cake! Nevertheless I tried to be original. If you look closely you'll notice I used in color changing DMC yarn.
The joke is that for this healthy baby the booties were made to small. So I made a second pair and the first pair is now belonging to Zusje, the doll of L.