Pay It Forward

When I came home yesterday I found a big surprise in the mailbox. A Pay-It-Forward-package from Wendy. A really beautiful zippered bag, filled with crafting supplies and goodies for the kids. Thank you a lot, Wendy! Now I'm going to Pay It Forward:

If you want to join in this giving-fun, leave a comment that you'd like to be included. The first three people to do so will receive a gift from me sometime during the next year. In return they will post a Pay It Forward on their blog and send a gift to three people who agree to participate. So girls, I'm looking forward to your comments!

Vladimir?

This doll is for a baby-boy, who is expected to be born in september. His future parents came to visit us today. We had a relaxed time, having lunch and spending most of the time in the garden. The belly with the baby in it made my elder daughter wondering. And after the couple had left, she popped the big question: how are baby's made? Luckily I have been expecting this question for a while, so I had my story straight.

The doll is made with the Black Apple Doll-pattern, but I changed arms, legs and hair.

Promissing

We are so enjoying our little kitchen garden. It is packed with fruit and vegetables. Too many of them on the tiny piece of earth, but still growing fine. Soon we will be able to harvest courgettes, blue berries, french beans and 'japanese wine-berries'. Can't wait.

Poetry

A little poetry-album for my daughter. Most of her friends have preprinted friends-books. But I like the oldfashioned album, where some creativity of the writers is asked.  For this purpose I covered a blank book with Kristin Doran-fabric. I had not enough left of the beautiful fabric, so I needed the blue-and-white fabric to make the cover fitting. I think the combination makes the result even better. Now I have to write a poem. But I'm better with the sewingmachine, than with words...

Appelhartje

A sneak-peak on a project I have been working on this weekend. An order to make a present for a little girl turning one. I had fun making it. I will show 'apple-heart' (my daughter is into giving names to all my projects) when the birthdayparty has been celebrated.

All-purpose-bag

Another sandboxbag (or beachbag, toybag or shoppingbag for his mother), as a present for Frans, turning three. Filled with some toys for in the sandbox. Like the first bag this Ikea-fabric looks almost Marimekko too.

Moving

I'm afraid of the dentist. Although I moved an hour driving away from Rotterdam, I still go there to visit my trusted dentist. Like yesterday. It is always good to be back in Rotterdam, to see the changes in the neighbourhood where we used to live and feel the dynamics of the big city. Unfortunately this time I didn't have the time to visit my favorite neighbour.

Edible Flowers

Recently I started a new blog about edible flowers and other gardening stuff: floweryfood. I'm doing some personal research for our kitchen garden and thought it would be nice to share my findings. Unfortunately for most of you it is in dutch. It takes a lot of time to translate the recipes into english and time is something I have to be economical with. For my garden en the blog I'm looking for the book 'De smaak van bloemen' (the taste of flowers and blooms) from Elisabeth de Lestrieux. It is not for sale anymore. So if you (or your mother) have a copy on your bookshelf and want to part from it...... You would make me really happy!

On this rainy Day

More sun-hats. For my daughters this time. They chose the fabric. It is reversible. The flowers are on pins, so they can be pinned on both sides of the hat. The pattern is from this book (isbn 978-4-529-04437-0). It is a pity that Yesasia, where I generally order my japanese crafting books, has almost doubled the prices since they have a beautiful english site. The book also has some lovely dresses in it. I bought it on sight of the dress on the cover. The flower on the left is made with this tutorial.

Orange Theme

This little softy is specially designed for a The Toy Society-drop. She was adopted right-away by my family and they could not understand why I was just leaving her somewhere outside. I had to promise my daughters to make them a 'little rainbow', as they called her, too.  This morning we dropped her. I was excited like I child doing something sneaky. I hope Little Rainbow finds a new home soon.

To the USA

Coolmompicks is a site where you can find lovely must-haves for mothers/parents. My stamps were featered there a few weeks ago. Since then I've been carving stamps almost every evening to follow up on all the orders. And in between the give-away-stamp for the winner Marie*Jolie had to be made too. 

Let the Sun shine

After a week without any sewing, I whipped up this baby-hat last night. The japanese book 'For Sweet Baby' (isbn 407246385x) provided the pattern. You can find reviews on Crafting Japanese. A reversible hat for a little baby girl we're going to visit next weekend. Now I have to think of something to make for her big brother.

Something I wanted to do for a long Time

A little while ago I was invited to take part in a new cookingclub. Once every two months 15 women cook together in a studio, guided by a cook who has worked in a Michelin-star-restaurant. Last friday we all met for the first time. It was fun, we learned a lot and I'm already looking forward to the next evening! 

The Girls love to pick Flowers

Now I know why a stigma of a flower is called 'stempel' (stamp) in dutch. It is perfect for printing. These notecards are printed with the stigma of poppy's. Every poppy gives a different print.

Rucola Flower

And then there's lettuce. A lot at the same time. Much more than needed for the every-day-salad. You can't preserve it very well. I read about lettuce-soup earlier, but the idea never attracted me. But now I tried it anyway. And it tastes good! Try it, you'll be surprised. You can send me an e-mail for the recipe. The bowls are from Ikea, designed after Sami-mugs.

For Ali and Pamela

Today Janne's teachers celebrate their birthday. We quickly (really, just 10 minutes!) made these paper flowers for them. The labels are printed with a stamp made after a drawing of Janne. I have been waiting for a reason to make these flowers since I saw the link to Martha's tutorial at Mikodesign. We didn't have tissue-paper, so we used crepe-paper, which worked out perfectly.

Little Red Riding Hood

I came across these wonderful ribbons and fabric in a small shop in Amsterdam called the Sprookjeskamer (Fairytale room). They also have a webshop. I don't know where I found the time, but I did and made this top for my youngest daughter. I like the folded front, but I'm not sure about the rest of the model. 

Winner

321 comments, minus some doubles and the random number generator chose Marie*Jolie to be the winner of the may-stamp-giveaway. Thank you all for your comments and I hope to see you back on my blog.