To rattle

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

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'

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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!