Silly faces

I'm proud. In one afternoon I made this apron-dress for our little girl. A big project for me as an untrained sewer. The pattern is from this japanese book. The model was a bit rebellious, so the pictures aren't the best ones ever.

Sand everywhere

Spring is on it's way. Time for playing outside. Building castles and baking cakes in the sandbox. Afterwards the sandbox-toys were spread all over our hallway. We needed something to store them. This big reversible bag was made of Ikea-fabric, but combined with the linnen handles it almost looks like Marimekko.

Small world

My own porcelain tableware! Not yet finished but I'm very content about the shapes. I'll have to work very hard to get them ready before the end of the course. And guess who's also in my course: Nina from Nina in vorm.

Draadjesvlees

For €0,25 the pot-holder at the thriftstore was mine. Knitted in a dirty green colour, but very handy. I tried to translate the idea of the pot-holder in this fabric prototype. There's still some improvement necessary in shape and production process. But for a first try it came out quite ok.

Vision

This lovely silver necklace on the left, with a little flower,an open heart, a pink pearl and a tiny golden J (for Janne), was the birthday-present from my parents to my daughter. Specially made for her. Made by the ladies of galery Zigt. They specialise in making modern jewellery with old, inherited, pieces without melting it down. So beautiful! Just tell them where you were thinking of and they'll make a design. The medaillon on the right was made for me (by Zigt) when my youngest was born. This side shows my little girl, her big sister is on the other side. 

The golden necklace used to be my grandmothers. Let me tell you my little 'miracle' with this necklace: It is heavy gold and there's a big cross hanging from it. Not my style, so I had never worn it since I got it after my grandmothers death. But then one day I had to go to a wedding and just before leaving for the ceremony my eye fell on the necklace and I decided to wear it that day. Later I told this to my mother. She said that this day was exactly the 100st birthday of my grandma. Wonderful, don't you think?

Quid est, Cornelia?

Crafting with friends is the best. It is not easy to find a moment in our working-moms-agendas, but when we do we enjoy it very much. And every time we say "we have to do this more often". This time we made breadbaskets for easter-lunch. We used my fabric basket tutorial, but then twice as big. Carola and Lisette, I'm already looking forward to our next get-together.

Survived

7 sweet girls, many lovely presents, 7 little aprons, a lot of pancakes, 7 mirrors painted, playing outside (the sun was shining), 1 birthday-cake, 7 pairs of hairties, 6 (ssssst) kids in one car, 1 very tired, but satisfied birthday-girl, 1 little sister asking 'when is my party?', 2 exhausted parents. We had a great time!

Keychain tutorial

Yes, I'm crazy. I made 30 of these keychains for my daughter to treat at her school. Took me far more time that I thought it would. But the result was worth it. And the kids in her class liked their little present. If you are crazy too or want to make just one of these, here's the tutorial.

Cherry on the cake

Today our firstborn turned five. Five!! She was very excited and enjoyed every minute of it. She loved the beautiful presents she got but I think she liked the personal attention even more. I love seeing her develop into a independent, creative person. I sometimes even get a glimpse of how she will look like when she's 16. Now she's sleeping like a baby, tired from the busy day. Reloading for tomorrow: birthday at school.

Hema-fan

Marieke from MieKks commented on my experiment using plastic bags for crochetting. She told me about another way of using plastic bags: fusing. It is merging plastic layers together with an iron. I had to try this. The second attempt resulted in this material. And of course I made a basket out of it. Tutorials for fusing plastics here and here.

Many hours of work

This is one of the things I'm looking for when I visit second-hand-stores. Vintage embroidered tablecloths. Two! So beautiful for lunching outside on a warm summer day. Or for feeling a little bit of that summer inside the house when the rain is pooring down outside.

Hooray for printers

Soon my daughter will give her first real birthday-party. Invitations had to be made. A drawing of her scanned into the computer and printed on a blank card resulted in these lovely cards. Last weekend she handed them out to 5 of her girlfriends ("boys are stupid").

Experiment

I always take a grocery bag with me when I go shopping, but somehow I still end up with a lot of plastic bags. I don't know if or where I saw this but it popped in my mind that it could be nice to crochet something with the cut-up plastic bags. This basket is the result. The colours were not selected, nor the quality of plastic. It is not beautiful but it gave me ideas for future projects.

Warmth

Yesterday a package from Lisette dropped in the mailbox. It contained two pairs of fingerless mittens. I always have very cold hands at my work and she knit these for me. One pair in architects black and one pair in colours that fit perfectly with my grey coat. Lisette, thank you for this wonderfull warming gift!

Auntie Till

My almost-5-year-old daughter decided she wanted a bunting with hearts on the wall for her birthday-party. This weekend we made one. Together with her friend Sara (and her mother and little brother) we painted hearts cut from newspapers. It felt good to paint all those articles about the economical crisis pink! Here you can find a tutorial for this project.