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.

2011

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

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

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!

Out of fashion?

Before I told you we had a Christmas dinner in style in the office. To be able to wear a sleeveless dress I was looking for a bolero in town. But, I was told, they're out of fashion and no more available... Mmm, what to do? I remembered this post and decided to knit one. Due to a lack of time I wasn't able to search for a pattern, so I just started to knit once I had bought the wool. Luckily the fit appeared to be fine, so it's no shame to share a tutorial. The bolero is made of exactly 3 balls of yarn of 100 gram each. I used this yarn, needle 8.
Here comes my very-first-can't-be-more-simple tutorial:

Addition: to see the kids version, click here.