Iceland

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!

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

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

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

Did it again

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?

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

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

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!

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:

1. a big bag flat (without nuts) m&m's
2. small letter stamps
3. a decorative stamp like in this nice stamp box of Djeco
4. an ink pad
5. colorful threads
6. 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.

Just couldn't stop...

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