I'm totally overwhelmed by the amount of comments on the giveaway! Thank you all for those friendly words....
It is May giveaway Day at Sew mama, sew. Here you can win a handcarved stamp in a handsewn giftbag. The winner can send me a photo and a name and I'll make a personal stamp of it. Leave a comment before the 31th of May. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner. My giveaway is open for everyone from everywhere.
There was a open house at my ceramics course. Interested people could come and see what the possibilities are. My husband and the girls also came to see what I was doing. Janne didn't want to go home and stayed with me. She made her own sculptures. A little bowl, 6 baby-birds and a mama-bird. Yesterday-evening I glazed them. We're looking forward to the final result when they will come out of the oven.
Rhubarb-chutney this time. With hot peppers. We'll have to wait a while till the chutney reaches its full taste. A month or so. 
I had this bag planned for quite a while. But every time some other, more urgent project came up. It is for taking my lunch to work, together with all the other stuff I carry back and forth. I'm almost looking forward to go to work tomorrow.....
Last weekend the quiet, candlelit evenings in the tent were filled with reading an interesting book about the Dutch origins of New York written by an American ( The island at the center of the world - Russell Shorto). And filled with carving some more stamps. The week before a lot of orders came in and this was good time to catch up.
We're just back from a long weekend in the country. In a tent where we had to cook on a stove and where we had no electricity (Boerenbed). We stayed at a farm that specializes in forgotten, old vegetables, De Historische Groentenhof, close to the river Maas. A very nice and quiet place. When we asked the girls what they liked most about this short vacation the answer was: chasing and catching the escaped rabbit together with farmer Jac.
Tried a new recipe for preserving rhubarb. Rhubarb-marmelade with oranges and lemon. Sour, sweet and bitter, yummie. If you would like to try, send me an e-mail and I'll send you the recipe.
Some weeks ago my daughter was in the fabric-store with me and she wasn't enjoying herself . 'Mum, are we going home yet?' To give me some more time to look around I told her she could choose a piece of fabric for a new skirt. The plan didn't work out very well for me: it kept her busy for half a minute. Far less time than it took me to sew the skirt.
Recently Janne got an bug-box with a magnifying glass on top. A very good present, because since then she, and her sister and many kids from the neighbourhood, are searching for little animals to put in the box. Sometimes I pitty the little creatures, but I'm happy to see them interested in the beauty of nature....
There are a lot of pregnant people around us. These reversible apple baby-shoes were made for friends living abroad to congratulate them on their pregnancy. Check out the tutorial here.
Yesterday we ate the first vegetables from our little kitchen garden. Salade with young mixed lettuce and a compote from our one bush of rhubarb. Very tasty! A great place to order biological seeds for your own garden is De Nieuwe Tuin, unfortunately only in dutch.
This is one of the things that make your life as a sewer much easier. You don't know what you've missed until you have one. The turorial can be found at Keyka Lou. Today I saw another great tutorial for a pincushion cuf in the shape of a watch on Whip Up.
Recently we decided that we want to give our daughters a piece of art on every birthday (next to something they can play with). So they will have their own collection when they leave the house at eighteen or so. The pieces don't have to be expensive but unique, they need to tell something about our daughters in that phase of life and they should be likeable for kids and adults (you don't want pink princesses on your wall when your grown up). This are the presents we gave them this year. Neeltje got the girl with the bike from Kiki and Polly. Janne was given this mysterious print from Ah-Yi. 
When I came home from work yesterday there was a surprise-package for me. Out of the box came these two plates for my daughters. Can you believe it, so beautiful! They are made by Anna Ruth from Knofje. Thanks, Anna Ruth, for this wonderful gift. The girls said that they want to eat from these plates every day. Luckily they are diswasher-safe :).
Some time ago my brother sent me a link to a competition. You had to come up with a 'green' idea for in and around the house. I entered my fused plastic baskets. And I am one of the winners! 15 m2 of wooden floor for a terrace, made from bamboo. A beautiful green product from Boodeq. Now we have to look for a way to use it. Our new garden was just finished.....
Nicole from Nicx invited me for a swap. Am I lucky! She makes stamps too, but in a totally different way. Nicole asked me to sent her a design and she made this fantastic stamp from it. Perfect for stamping business cards. And that's what I've been doing all yesterday evening. Thank you, Nicole! Also for all the lovely extras.
Why is it that I can be so proud and happy about bringing sewing projects to a good end? I was thinking about that. Probably because I am completely autodidact in this field. The fabric for this skirt is from Ikea, the pattern from a japanese book.
At the local market I found this lovely fabric. I used it to make a new duvet cover for my youngest daughter. She preferred pink and I liked the one with the white background most. We were both satified with the compromise.
