10!

Since L is going to be 10 next week, invitations had to be made for her party. L has planned to go jumping with her friends. So she made small matching drawings, that I made even smaller.

Only hope that the weather will be ok...

2016

It's a tradition on this blog to end each year with an overview, to remember things. Although there's few nowadays, I do my best to keep you posted when there is something coming out of my hands. The good news is that at the very moment some projects are in the making.

Thank you all for dropping by and leaving your sweet comments. Hope to see you again in 2016!

Baby for baby

Our youngest L goes to the 'Vrije School' (like the Waldorf schools). The last three years she had only one teacher. Next week she will have to get used to her new teacher for the following 3 years. Often some problems occur with changes in L's system, so I'm extra awaken.

Her former teacher left her class with a little baby inside her. I made this little baby gift. Look for more great doudou's at the blog of our doudou queen. She made like 30 pieces. This one is my very first :). But a piece of cake, so do follow me!

Neeltje

My friend K. give me this totally great piece of fabric for present, just out of the blue. Her talented youngest daughter Neeltje gets all credits for the mermaid drawings. And K. gave us all on her blog this lovely idea. Hard to resist to try!




Two pouches, one for L's friend Grietje, who's having her birthday and inviting all her friends to the zoo. And because L loved it, one for herself. A surprise when she comes home from school. With content that is.

Tray tables

When I had my birthday this year, I decided to organize a little party. I made a plan of how my friends would stay in our living and decided that some side tables were missing. To avoid spending a lot of money, I came up with the idea of using the two baskets, that we use as storage for yarn etcetera. Storage is still in function, while two aluminium Moroccan trays were added on top. I did some effort to paint them nicely.
During my search for the right trays I was lucky: I measured the diameter of the baskets, which was 46 cm exactly. In the Moroccan shop I found these trays with a sticker on them, mentioning 46 cm :).

Magpie

Rasmus is like a little magpie that loves to find and collect small antiquities. Yes, he's special and having his birthday party tomorrow. L is invited and she will bring this naturel leather pouch, not for his pens but for his finds.


The leather is bought last Saturday among a lot more beautiful pieces. Thanks Kristel, for the great day! And say congrats to me, making something out of it this soon ;).

Like a goose and giveaway

Almost a month ago L turned 9. Our house is perfect suitable for a Ganzenbord (or the Game of Goose or Goose board) birthday party, we thought. We have so many stairs and surprising nooks and crannies. The idea is that all around the house are numbers, from basement till the upper room. We made 63 yellow envelopes, some of which are yellow bags. L helped a lot and loved to write the numbers. Inside the envelopes the kids found an instruction to do or make or guess or play or collect something. Apart from the instruction they found some supplies as well inside the bags, like a tapeline or some goodies. For this birthday party L had to invite eight friends, to be able to make three groups of three kids. With one dice for each group off they went to be occupied for many hours. The kids loved it, it was a big hit! And of course especially our basement filled with clutter was the most popular place to be.

For the Dutch readers among you: nu liggen de tasjes en enveloppen hier en, omdat de voorbereidingen best veel werk kostten, vroeg ik me opeens af of ik misschien iemand met dit feestje blij kan maken. Laat maar even weten in de reacties. Bij meerdere reacties zal ik iemand trekken.

Wanna throw a dice?

Is 'Ganzenbord', or the Game of Goose or Goose board, known all over the world? This game we played with eight friends of L, that she invited on her birthday party. How I will tell you next time (and if you, Dutch speaking blog readers, are interested: I will giveaway this birthday party, so please come back later!).
Together with L we made these invitations, with all we had already around. We even made the yellow dots ourselves. Just because it was raining outside.

Melted

When I saw the doll that a friend had made for her daughter, I melted. These days sitting on the couch, doing some crochet and avoiding complex thinking, are best for me. But I'm not experienced in crochet at all. Apparently that doesn't matter with this free pattern. You could give it a try too! And mind the other ones, that are great as well! Everyone who knows Ravelry, knows these dolls. But I didn't untill now...

This one is a birthday present for L.

As in my mind

Some weeks ago I was attending a dentist visit with my youngest, and while waiting I was flipping through a magazine. When my eyes fell on the picture above, I knew all of a sudden how L's birthday dress would be. And this idea was there to stay; the egg hàd to come out soon after.

At first I was thinking about the fabric. It had to be cotton and stepped or at least have some embossment. As our fabric shop only sells polyester lining fabrics, I considered to buy and use this coverlet of Ikea. Finally I decided to make the stepped cotton fabric myself, and was able to choose color, thread and topstitch.
A relatively thin fiberfill layer was added between lining and outer fabric. I first cut the pattern pieces, as used before and found in this book, and then topstitched horizontal in the color of the fabric and on 60° with yellow thread.

The circular skirt I turned inside out to avoid a seam at the bottom of the skirt. After finishing the body piece, I measured it's bottom line to be sure about the size of the circle I had to cut out of the skirt. How to make the cap sleeves I found as well on Griet's blog.

For the accent edging I chose yellow and a salmon pink in the color of L's cheeks. As you can see I wanted to avoid a shoulder seam in the yellow part of the edge.

About the topstitching a final note: my head wasn't able to finish this laborious job. I decided to decrease the number of yellow lines of the skirt. And I was happy about that: the handmade look of the fabric is more obvious now and I like the change of embossment, something you might not see at once, but only when you look closely. This kind of perception on different scales is my cup of tea.