Where could they be?

Yesterday I wanted to do some easter-decorating in our house, but I couldn't find the easter-ornaments. Stored them too well, I guess. Only the little things above were in the place where I thought everything would be. Luckily these are my favorites. A blossom baby made with a felt-package that you can find in this shop. On the right you see beautiful glass easter-beads. Dorith from Kralorium made them for me for a swap. In the back: a piece of art-work from favorite artist Cathy Cullis.

Relaxed

What a great sunday it was. Before lunch we visited a small museum about prehistory. The girls were impressed by the dino-models and enjoyed the search through the museum very much. In the afternoon we made these palm sunday-roosters (recipe in dutch). Later we crashed at the neighbours for a drink, while our kids played together. We also had a quick dinner together. For a day that started without any plans it was quite a busy and fun day!

Change of plans

The next birthday is coming up. Our little one will be turning four and going to school in two weeks. These last months she changed from a mama's girl into a confident know-it-all. She's even organised her own birthday-party. We, her parents, just wanted to have a party for the family. But last week I overheard her inviting some friends to her party. And she told me later that she had invited some other girls too. So, to make it official we made these invitations for her friends.

Love Skujeniece

I mentioned Mara Skujeniece before. I'm a big fan of her work. When I saw this porcelain spool-necklace I knew I wanted to have one. Being a sewer with a great interest in ceramics, it felt like she had designed it for me. Recently I discovered a place where I could buy one online. Just when I had a good reason to treat myself (I'll tell you more about that later)... Another daily treat: this delicious tea with rose, lavender and camomile from Pukka.

Unwilling model

Mme Zsazsa has given a really neat tutorial for a patternless skirt. Tried it right away, since I just bought this festive fabric last week. The little girl loves her new skirt, but I'm not sure. Maybe the fabric is too clownesque (and I really don't like clowns). The shape of the skirt is great, so I will give it another try with another fabric soon.

For Noortje

She's the proud owner of a pink sewing-machine. It is terrible to work with. But with a little help she managed to make a skirt for her favorite doll on it. Now she wants to make a skirt for herself. I convinced her that that would be better done on my machine.

Breathe in...

I just read that this is the warmest day in the last four months. A good opportunity to have lunch outside. First time this year. We're lucky to have a sunny, sheltered garden, so no coats needed. Such a joyfull half hour. And then back to school.

Eight baronesses

Party-time. The girls started with a lunch in victorian style. Then off to the castle where they got a guided tour and a little picknick in the gardens. When started it all went smooth, but I had to work against time before that. Two days ago the lady who agreed to provide dresses for the girls sent me an e-mail that the dresses were not available. That afternoon I bought 16 meter of fabric and yesterday I made eight (!) two-layered baroness-skirts. Yes, I'm officially crazy and very tired.

Love her so much

Today is the day. Janne is six years old. Not so little anymore when I see her walking around on her new red heeled shoes (don't worry they are just for dressing up) and hear her reading a book to me for the first time. But not so big either seeing her getting very shy when all the kids of her class were singing for her this morning.

Picture details: I learned to decorate a cake like this at Le Beau Gateau. The wooden candle-doll was made by me, but you can buy similar dolls at The Small Object. The red shoes were bought at Spaanse Jurk. The letterpress print is from Ana Ventura.

Kawai, don't you think?

I made her a schoolbag before. But since she's not very careful person (last week she spilled a whole cup of chocolate-milk over it), it was time for a new one. An extra birthday-present. For this bag I used a pattern from Amy Karols Bend-the-rules-sewing. But I changed the size, added a pocket (for her drawings) on the outside and added a clip to store her bicycle-key. The fabric is from Ikea.

It is a good day today

This morning I made a paper-bin-notebook for myself. A5-envelopes and a cover made from the packaging of cracottes. A very apt cover for this day. Our little one will turn 4 in april and today she went to school to practice for the first time. Luckily she liked it a lot. The cracotte box brought me back a few years. As a baby this little girl didn't want to drink from a bottle and didn't like to eat. When she was 15 months I stopped breastfeeding, because I was exhausted. And then for a few months she survived on just yoghurt and (guess) cracottes! She's still not interested in food (unless it is called 'frikandel'), but now, looking back, I realize the time of food struggle is definitely over.

Seven nights

She's going to be six, so she could invite six girls. Saturday we made a tour to hand out the invitations. Her own design scanned and printed on cardstock. Today I made some of these crepepaper pompoms for decoration. You can find a how-to at the site of Martha Stewart.

Snowdrops

During the nights the temperature is still below zero, but in the day we can finally smell a bit of spring. Yesterday afternoon this little girl shouted 'mama, the sun is shining', ran outside without her coat on and started to dance and sing a beautiful self-invented spring-song. I was in tears, proud to be her mom.

In the mailbox

A while ago I joined the Dutch group at Swapbot. And this is what I received in the first swap. Am I lucky! Roosje aka Catherine sent me the cute monster, little owls for my daughters and a beautiful button plus colouring book from this shop. But the best thing she sent me is the mini-museum in the picture on the right. She made the felt structure herself and filled it with cute things. I so enjoy looking at it and move the small objects around. Thank you, Catherine!

Growing

J's birthday is coming nearer. Just 12 nights. She keeps track of it. I've been working on the hand-outs for her classmates. For each child we made a little booklet with seeds to grow their own sunflowers. The booklet contains the seeds with growing instructions and two images of van Gogh's sunflowers (I can't help adding something instructive ). Together with a little box of raisins we put it in a printed paper bag, closed with a pin to put next to the planted seeds.

More for mom

Pictures taken in a hurry , so of bad quality. The girls made and gave these collages to my mother last week. The idea of the fabric dresses came from Joel from Made by Joel. A refreshing male blogger in this world of craft blogs. I'm completely in love with his doll- and playhouse.