Super Firemen

Fireman Sam is a favourite in my brothers house. My two nephews like to pretend they are firemen and put out fires together or rescue cats. So for Christmas we bought them each a firefighters helmet. Because firefighters are real life superheroes I made Tom and Sam a personalized Supermancape. Now they have a complete outfit when they get called out to the rescue! As a guide I used this tutorial .

                             

Recycle ring

 

A great way to recycle your plastic water bottle caps is using them as a base for a custom made pin cushion ring. There are different tutorials out there. I've put some of the different ways of making them together to come up with this result. The band around my finger is made out of an elastic band and is attached with glue and some small stiches (it is not pearced through the cap, but attached to the felt on the bottom). You can use either fabric or felt to make the pincushion ball. I've made these needle felt balls before and this is another great use for them.

 

 

 

Homemade envelopes

Shopping in Iceland is pretty expensive, but there was a Tiger store there which I read about in a magazine. It is a Danish retail concept and supposedly the most expensive thing in the store costs

20 euros. It didn't disappoint. I bought a lot of cool stuff like these plastic envelope templates. Nice, in this case, to use when you want to wrap a gift certificate a little bit more funky than in a normal white envelope. The paper was also bought in the same store (I just found out that in the Netherlands the stores go under the name Flying Tiger).

 

 

Back from Ibiza

We just got home from a week on the very popular island of Ibiza. You may have to try a bit harder  than in other not so overcrowded holiday destinations, but there a really some nice quiet (and not so commercial) beaches to be found. Nature is beautiful with its colourful flowers, sunsets and wildlife. See the real live flamingo in the last picture! When you are there don't miss Las Dalias, the hippy market, on saturdays. Here you have to look critically at the products that are sold (some are 'made in china'), but there are some gems to be found. Sluiz is also a nice little shopping center where prices aren't too steep. For dinner we went to the little town of Santa Gertrudis. You can find lots of different restaurants there around a traditional Spanish church square.


 

 

 

Stamp it up!

In what do you wrap up a book about a journey from Bejing to Paris in a 2CV? Yes exactly, in wrapping paper adorned by little 2CV's. I took part in a workshop by Vlijtig making stamps out of erasers a couple of years ago. There a lot of tutorials out there if you want to give it a go. If you are not really good at drawing like me, just look up a picture on the internet or in a book and copy it.You can also use the stamps to make patterns on fabric or just to make your look envelopes prettier.

Wonderful Iceland

 

This year our citytrip went to Reykjavik. It was always on the list of places we would like to go to, but this year my brother and one of our friends were running the Reykjavik marathon so a good reason to book the trip and cheer them on. Reykjavik is a charming city and for a capital a really relaxed and laid-back place. We were also fortunate to have beautiful weather! The main feature of the city is the Hallgrímskirkja which took decades to built because it was done by only one man and his son. From the tower of the church you get a great view of all the colourful rooftops. The day of the marathon (on which we crossed the city to cheer on our two special runners, who did really well) was also the opening of the cultural season with bands performing their music all over the city and beautiful fireworks to end the day. Oh, and I almost forget to mention all the lovely coffeehouses and craft stores you come across.

 

But if you go to Reykjavik it would be a shame not to see more of the country. Because our trip was only four days we had to limit ourselves to the highlights in our vecinity, but highlights they certainly were!! We took a trip around the Golden Circle which consists of the waterfalls at Gullfoss, the geisers at Geysir and Thingvellir National Park and visited the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa where we got lovely mudmasks. 

Sewing Bee, second edition

           

Like last year a group of seven women had a fun afternoon at my friends house to celebrate her birthday. First there were homemade sweets, the giving of gifts and one 'thoughtful detail' about everyone in the group by the host. Then edition II was about using wool to make pompons and/or tassels. And again we didn't go home without the lovely goodie bag!

Knights

When we were in Gent a couple of months ago we saw these crochet knights in a shop window. I still had some corks left from other projects so I searched the internet for a pattern and found it here. I did make some adjustments to fit the different sizes of corks and the fact that I used a different type of wool. A queen off course was needed to keep the troops in line. They are a present for Mats who turns 5 today. His parents are giving him a cardboard castle so he can play out lots of battles.

Homemade gift

Another memo board made by me using this funky feather fabric which I got from Van Marieke. It is ready to recieve lots of birthday cards, drawings, personal messages, photographs or whatever else you want to put on it.
                                                            Happy birthday Sam!

Mother's Day

                       A self made felt heart with pouch to put your Mother's Day message in.

I found the tutorial through Vlijtig (I'm a regular follower of her blog). To make it a bit easier for myself I put a little bit of glue on the ribbon so when you sew the heart together the ribbon doesn't move and stays in the center. The great thing about this heart is that the person you give it to can recycle it and use it again with his or her own message. You can also use it to give money in as an alternative for the 'envelope'.

Fire engine red

My two year old nephew got a new room with a tractor theme. On his wall are three tractor stickers in fire engine red and two shades of blue. I already made him this playrug for his birthday with minitractors on it.

His brother Tom has his name in wooden letters on the wall of his room, so we made some for Sam too. Here is the result. I drew a little rhinoceros on the letter M because he is really into them. He calls them 'neus' (a rhinoceros is a neushoorn in Dutch).

Own label

 

For my birthday I asked my friend to design me a header for this blog. She came up with two lovely options. I chose the one with the blue background, as you can see, but I really liked the other one as well. So I decided to use it on my own labels. Here is an easy description on how to make your own label by Elke dag zaterdag.You just need some twill tape, transfer paper and a printer. Although I have to say I had some help with the printing side of it :)

Half fabric, half knit

I didn't plan on it, but 2014 is turning out to be the year for finishing UFO's (UnFinished Objects). I cheated a bit with this one, because it was supposed to be a square pillow made out off little squares (8 knit and 8 purl). It turned out being a rectangular pillow with a back out of fabric instead of a knitted one. I ordered the fabric some time ago from Spoonflower, a company which makes it possible for people to design and sell their own fabric. The colours go well together, so I really like the end result.

Confetti

 

Photographics is what they are called, these lovely drawings on real photographs from de Verderkijker. I sent some actual confetti with this postcard (an idea I got from a friend)               

Happy birthday!



A new year

Out with the old.....

 

 

In with the new......

 

 

This lovely cabinet belonged to my parents-in-law. We decided to paint it a long time ago, but never got around to it. It was more work than we thought and it is always hard to imagine how the colour will actually look on the wood when you pick it out in the store, but we are quite pleased with how it turned out.