wood and felt

oke...much going on in my life right now. we just found out that we have to move (this summer!!) we will stay in sweden, but will have to find another house here....and since we already made plans for the summer it is quite a challenging thing! we will work it out, but I needed a small project to clear my mind. made this necklace for a friend's birthday. combined wooden beats with felt.

big one

a friend asked me to make a very big cushion. quite a challenge to find a cushion which would fit the size of the embroidery.....so i decide to make the cushion myself, by attaching two ikea head pillows (can tell you that was a messy job). so happy i know now this is a possibility!

fluteman

together with a Finnish friend I composed this bag. so nice to do the start up of a project together. for the first time I made a big bag with a leather back...she was very happy with the bag and so am I.

sevrige

life in sweden! we celebrated 1 may here

fabrics

yippeeee! fabrics from the states arrived...and no disappointments, bought them via this site

for juul

we will miss my niece's first communion (i don't know if this is the right translation from dutch). the disadvantage of living abroad is that we won't be able to be at every special family occasion. i made her a case for her new ipad mini. she bought it herself with money she saved and it's so nice that she and stije skype a lot now a days....and they have the best conversations!

my little artists

a week of easterholiday and my mum was visiting, but guess what I got sick, high fevers etc... so not much fun. by the end of the week when I felt a little bit better i decided to do a simple task. making pictures of all of the children's drawings. I always do this after a term is finished but I was running behind. so it was quite a lot of work....but when I loaded the pictures in the folders it looks so beautiful! happy I did it again.

auction

very exciting. I won my very first bidding at an auction. here in stockholm we have bukowskis market. you can visit the place and see all the stuff and then place your biddings on internet. i found this nice piece of art of stig lindberg, he mostly designed for gustavsberg. so happy with our new piece of art!

spring where are you?

let the spring begin!

together

together with madeline from POM-amsterdam  I organized a sale at our place. it was a lovely sale and very busy. when everybody was gone, we sat in the sun (with a big wintercoat!) and enjoyed some rest ;-)

thriftstores

in sweden the thrift stores are great! this time i was lucky to find a whole lot of dmc thread and a delft blue pottery, which matches my small collection of delft blue potteries perfect. and some wooden beads always useful.

with the dmc thread I tried to make some friendship bracelets with this tutorial at honestly wtf. jilles wanted the colors of the dutch flag and orange...happy he still feels so connected to our home country.

moose from sweden

this thursday i will have a sale at my place together with a friend, she sells beautiful shawls from POM amsterdam. very excited about it. so i needed to make some more stock and examples. most of my embroideries come from france, but every now and then i find one in sweden. this moose was a lucky find!

blue birds

last week i didn't feel well and because of that i didn't have the energy to do much. today for the first time I felt better and more energetic. I finally finished this blue bird cushion for yeliz! hope she likes it.

for kris

a friend organized a great ladies dinner! it was so lovely to have a night with friends. thanks kris. I made her this zipper bag. for the first time I sewed with the leather my father gave me. I combined it with linen and it came out surprisingly well.

cheer up

oke...the weather here in sweden is something special. after living here for almost two years I understand why the swedish people love to talk about the weather. latetly it has been only grey skys, no sun for three weeks now, the same grey sky every day! and i can tell you that doesn't help for a good mood. so I decided to cheer up my day by making a new keycord and a matching bracelet. the swedish dalahast on the ribbon makes me smill every time I use my keys now.

happy birthday boy

yesterday we celebrated stije's birthday with his friends. he was the happiest boy on earth, so great to see. we did lots of games, they made a big drawing of a zoo together and I face painted all the children. what more can you wish as a six year old boy.

working on assignment

I just love making something on assignment. Sarah picked these two embroideries and together we decided what shape and color. the "peacock" and "lady in love" are now on it's way to their new owner.

only one

it wasn't difficult to pick a winner for the felt basket, because there was only one response ;-). so, Ingrid, the felt basket is yours and i very glad that it will get a good destination at kindercentrum mergelland! can you please mail me your address at vanflora@hotmail.nl?
at vlijtig i found this great tutorials to make all kind of bracelets. since I am not so good in crochet, knitting or anything else with threads and making knots, this macrame bracelet was a big challenge for me. it turned out way too short, but never the less i am happy i was able to make it proper.

felt basket

Do you have a purpose for this felt basket, measuring 11 cm wide and 9 cm high? please let me know and maybe you will get this basket. I made it from a piece of felt, which I had made a long time ago without any purpose. making this basket, made me realize that I don't have a purpose for the basket either ;-))....so that's why I would love to give it away! leave your comment before 10 february and I will announce the winner 11 february.

doggy bag

this cute dog kept staring at me, from the floor in my studio and I was fascinated by the look in her eyes and by the pink ribbon in her hair. I decided to make a small shoulder bag with it. a friend saw it and wanted to buy it immediately for her daughter. happy she found a new home straight away..but also a little sad she is leaving, after being on my floor for a long time.

trying

I always get a little stressed when I see all these blogs of mums preparing their child's birthdays months ahead. here I am, only 3 days before my little boy's birthday, thinking what quick solutions I can find to cheer up this day and make me feel less guilty ;-)
I asked him what theme he wanted for his birthday and he first came up with dinosaurs, and this morning changed to animals (in general). but i already made a dino stamp. well dino's are animals as well and we will make it up to him with the party for his friends (which i planned a little further away, to give me some more time ;-))....

I made the felt birthday hat a long time ago, but in a mysterious way i didn't make a six (and we definitely celebrated my oldest 6th birthday)...anyhow, I quickly made it and thought while making it, i also have a 9 now, so no stress for next year ;-)... napkins are also ready, now I only have to bake a cake..

hello hugo

we finally met our new nephew hugo. made him a stamp to let the world know he is here!

swedish boats

for a dear friend who left sweden to move to munich, i made this bag with an embroidery from france with swedish boats on it (you can tell by the flag on the boat) amazing don't you think? to find something like that in france.. I gave it a swedish look with the flower lining.

gipsy lady

I love making products on assignment. this gipsy lady will go to new york! I recently expanded my website with van flora create, where you can pick an embroidery and together we will mix and match and decide what to make with it.

birthday

els celebrated her birthday, we made a lovely winter hike and had some tasty dutch "worstenbroodjes" my!! was that a long time ago since i had those! as a present I made a small zipperbag with some beauty products in it. the boys made lovely drawings to complete the gift.

warm gifts

found these really beautiful and warm gifts in my postbox. thanks kirstel from vlijtig, you cheered up my week!

moose

since we live in sweden at the moose lane. the moose is a big topic in this house. stije made such a beautiful drawing of a moose, I decided to make a stamp of it.

baby mattrass

happy new year everybody! I wish all of you a happy and creative 2013. I always like sorting out our stuff in the beginning of a new year and i came along a baby mattress, which we still use once in a while for small visitors, but figured out we could use it more than occasionally. found this cool fabric at ikea and made a cover. it is now in the boys reading corner upstairs. big hit!

namebaskets

a dear friend asked me to make four baskets for her daughter and her friends...it was a hard work to finish them in time...and luckily i didn't forget to make a picture before wrapping them. i like how they turned out. the girls found their basket filled with "pepernoten" the next day with their shoe by the fireplace ;-)

darker days

once in a while I organize a crafting day for some dutch friends. talking, crafting and preparing for the darker days. so much fun doing this together. we made some felt hearts and canlights.

france

me and the boys will visit my parents in france during autumn leave. to thank them for all the lovely embroideries they found for me I made them two cushion covers from this embroidery. it's a view of a town close to my parents house. hope they like it.

almost 8

my big boy is turning 8 soon. together with a friend in his class he will throw a lego party. my birthday boy is the ultimate legoboy. he can build what he sees or what he has in mind. keeps amazing me. I made them this inviation. both boys loved the "talking" lego puppet.

welcome

I promised myself not to make anymore of these garlands, because it is so much work. but this little boy made me make an exception. and luckily it was a short name ;-)) welcome little boy!

brids

on one of my latest visits to the thriftstore I bought a necklace with lovely wooden bird beats. tried to combine them with felt balls. have lots more birds...lets see what else I can make with them.

restore

people keep asking me to restore trousers and of course I love to help them. but in the meanwhile my pile of trousers which needed restoring kept growing and staring at me. finally today I forced myself to do it. otherwise trousers wouldn't fit anymore...

ljus

days are getting shorter and darker quickly here...neighbors moving (so sad!), made them this light (ljus) in a box.

autumn

last year vlijtig made a beautiful autumn garland. by the time I had the time to make it, it was too late....so i decided to give it a second change and because autumn is so short here I had to handle quickly...and yes! this year our hallway is all autumn! and I could use the yarn I bought in the thrift store...finally a good destination for that, only still about 100 meter left ;-))

amazing

on our trip to the states we came across this amazing exhibition of a crochet coral reef. it was so impressive. it was made by a group of women for a good cause...was happy to donate for this cause! seeing this made me realize I really want to learn crochet...i tried once, but have to be persistent i think to make it work.

some unique pieces

The making of the creations with vintage embroideries always takes me a lot of time. not the actual making, but the process of combining, picking the right piece...that's what takes the time. sometimes i put down a combination in my studio and it needs to lay there for a while before I allow myself to make it. it just has to feel right, the combination, the colors. one's cut, i can't change it anymore... but my new mini collection feels good. they are available at my shop now.

saying goodbye again

was so happy we had a reason to visit one of my favorite thriftstores in stockholm. kate is moving back to austratlia, which is the sad part! but eline and i had a good reason to take her for a last visit to one of our thriftstores. found such a nice silver necklace and beautiful thread and some nice books...have to go back soon! but unfortunately without kate!