Moving

And this is the cute little lady the hats from the previous post are for. Today my brother had his weekly daddy-day. I went to visit them. And since this sweety is a very quiet baby we managed to do a lot of work. My brother is helping me migrating my blog to another domain. At the same time as my 'zelfmaakboek' (diy-book) is launched you will find me in another place on the internet, where I will be able to blog, open a shop and announce workshops. I'll keep you updated. When leaving my brothers' house I snatched these wonderful flowers from their garden.

Two hours, two hats

Little cousin Wies is growing. She needed a new hat. I made two. One warm woolen and the other one in cool cotton. The colours will emphasize her beautiful blue eyes. Again I used this pattern (in Dutch) of Garnstudio. The label shows my new stamp-pattern. The priceless-stamp is available here.

Celebrate spring

Sunday afternoon friends came to visit us. The sun was shining and for the first time this year we sat outside to have cake and coffee. For the heart I used a recipe from Tessa Kiros. But I replaced the blueberries with strawberries and used black pepper instead of nutmeg.

Testing

I made another Asia-inspired stamp. Cherryblossoms. I tested it on fabric right away. I like the chinese lanterns from last time better, I think. I'm not sure if the ink I used is waterproof, but I will try this home-made ink soon.

So seventies

Clogs are 'cool' according to our 4-year-old. Actually I was looking for some sandals for her, but when I saw these...irresistable! From Pom d'api (search for Wood Tip Top). And she walks on them easily, as if it were trainers. I'm envious! Clogs are on my wishlist since I saw my friend A. walk on them last year. I only have to decide which ones from the fantastic Hasbeens I want to have.

Tutorial geisha keyring hanger

The girls and boy loved their keyring hangers. And many of you let me know they would appreciate a tutorial. So here it is.

Hooray for the new oven

We've done a lot of baking for J's birthday. Her favourite chocolate-cake (in Dutch) on her real birthday. The sour cream makes it fresh. Try it. A chique cake for her childrens-party. The two-layered cake inside was coloured pink and green. And a classic Dutch apple-pie, rhubarb-muffins with edible flowers on top (sweet violets) and yin-yang cookies for today, when the family came to celebrate her 7th.

Messages

Some small paper scraps and pages out of a magazine were quickly turned into lunchbox-notes for the girls. And they seem well appreciated. J. wrote these words on the back: "thank you for the sweet letter, xxx".

Felt friends

The Chinese party-concept became an Asian theme in the end. These geisha keyring hangers were in the bag from last post. Would anyone be interested in a tutorial?

Thank you's

Stamps are usable in so many ways. Basic printing. Quickly made (from an eraser). Makes simple drawings look more professional. These stamps were made for the packages the girls and boy will receive to take home after the birthday-party. The girl says: "thank you for being at my party".

Seven

The girl who made me a mother turns seven today. Congratulations, sweet daughter!

Probably Denmark

As usual we are really late planning our summer holiday. Probably because I like our vacation to fit the mood of the moment. How can you know what you want to do a year ahead? I know, it would be smarter... Right now our mood is saying 'Denmark'. Do you have any tips for a charming, preferably low budget, place to stay? In the pictures you see Mons Klint and the beautiful Louisiana Museum (with work of Giacometti). I would love to go there again.

Chinese lanterns

I admire those who are able to design beautiful simple print patterns. Like Lotta Jansdotter. I wanted to try myself, but never knew where to start. The Chinese themed party of our eldest did inspire me to draw this pattern. This stamp is perfect for postcards and packaging, but the goal is to make the design in Illustrator and screenprint my own fabrics.

Longing voor warmer days

I have used this pattern three times before. I just love the idea of an apron-dress. Imagine this one with a white t-shirt and light blue jeans on a sunny day. It is from my alltime favourite japanese craft book. But I googled a bit for an online aprondress-pattern and found one here.

'A kid can do the laundry'

During cooking, I tried out a technique I found in a childrens crafts book. I had seen a similar project earlier here and loved it. I took a box of waterpaint (Lyra, because of the beautiful colours) belonging to the girls and quickly made these postcards. Wonderful, don't you think? It took me only 10 minutes! Just paint a circle with a lot of water and let one drop roll down to the bottom by blowing or holding the paper up. When dried, add some details with a black fineliner.

Turning, turning, turning...

It looks so simple! When a master in glass blowing, Henk, with 33 years of experience shows you how to do it. Well, I can tell you, it isn't. I got this one-day-course as a present from my parents in law. A fantastic idea. Working with the hot glass (more than 1200C) is exciting. And the heat is sometimes frightening. But I felt really proud to finish my first piece (with a lot of help). I can't show you the results because the pieces take a while to cool down and have to be polished. I'm really looking forward to see my third piece with colours. I'll show when I have picked them up at the studio. A place worth visiting. So is the national glassmuseum nearby. Here you can see Henk making a piece for Walter van Beirendonck.

In the mailbox

Mme Zsazsa has written some wonderful tutorials on her blog. I had seen this vest-pattern there earlier and had plans to try it. But then I was so lucky to be one of the winners of a give-away on De Vossenburcht. Linda made a beautiful vest. The girls and I had just agreed that green was our favourite colour. So Linda made the perfect choice for the lining. Thanks!

Cookie from little red riding hood

Today the girls had carnival in school. I was happy I could persuade the youngest into wearing the little red ridinghood costume once more. The basket with homebaked cookies did the trick. I used this recipe and my favourite stamp set. But the recipe wasn't perfect for the purpose (but tasteful). Texts were hardly readable after baking. Do you know a good recipe for text-cookies?

€2,50 all together

Yes, thrifted again. Still no chairs. But don't you just love the red teapot? Well designed and in perfect condition, no mark though (do you know?). I really didn't need a teapot, but couldn't resist (again). And the egg cups, so sweet! I have the policy that for everything I bring into the house, something else has to go. That is the hard part...

Sailing

Our 6-year-old doesn't want to go to her art adventure classes anymore. Not because she doesn't like the lessons, but it's about the fact that it takes place every wednesday-afternoon. And she'd rather play with friends. Understandable. We'll see. I sure love the things she comes home with. This is today's result.

Retro

For J. birthday I bought a hippie-like tunic and I thought a headscarf would be nice to make the set complete. So I made one as a present for her. Using pieces of fabric from grandma's scarf, from her mothers' holy communion-skirt and graduation-dress and from her fathers' shirt. I did not use a pattern, but you can find headscarfs here, here and here.

Teamwork

Soon our eldest will celebrate her 7th birthday. She has chosen a chinese theme for her party. She created this chinese girl and I pasted some flowers in the background and printed the cards on our ancient printer. Which is fantastic because it accepts rather heavy paper. The rounded corners are made with a corner-cutter. I bought it in Etsy-shop WonderlandRoom, where they also have many wantable things.