birthday gift

This year I turned 35 (beginning of june) and dear friends gave me a piece of art, I could pick one from a friend's friend who is an amateur artist and I love his work (unfortunately he doesn't have a site or blog). I received this lovely piece this weekend, together with the sunshine it made my weekend. Thanks anne, san, chantal en daan.

welcome line

monday Line is born! the name sounds a bit funny in English, but I love it in dutch ;-)). welcome little girl!

cooperation

together with anne I made these boxes for the baby room of her little girl. she made the felt, I hand sewed the boxes. nice when things work out like this.

use everything

I don't like throwing things away. I made this key cord of left overs from the embroideries. I love using it.

it's not earth shocking but I'm very happy with the result. Since I couldn't find the duvet cover I liked, I decided to make them myself. The boys liked them too, fortunately they still don't ask for cars and spiderman duvet covers...but for how long?

see the head of stije behind the bed? that is his favorite hiding spot. I love our hundred years old house, especially the boys rooms, I will miss it once we've moved.

no more lost keys

my mother asked me to make her a keychain holder a long time ago. I finally made her one. the paper I used was a present from a friend it's from djeco.

old sweater

A friend gave me a very nice book, cool baby (in dutch). there are a lot of nice tutorials in it for making baby stuff out of old clothes. after cleaning up our closet I found this old sweater (the feabric was still very nice) and made this babypants and hat out of it. It's so nice to give new live to old clothes. I made it for a friend who is expecting a girl. I wonder whether it will fit correctly, I have no clue what size it is, but it looks very suitable.

parel

Saturday I participated in the parels project. fortunately not everyone went to the beach. It was very nice to see all my work together in this little exhibition. I gave some demonstrations and made a lot of little pieces which I want to combine in one big piece of art. (the pictures look a bit yellow but that is because of the big amounts of sunshine that day). After worths roel organized a birthday party for me, very nice to end the day with all my friends and family.

more preparing

besides enjoying the very nice weather with the boys I try to finish and make more pieces for the "parels" project tomorrow. I finally finished the leave bag and on the right is a new scarf made of chiffon and wool..

twin girls

someone asked me to make felt booties for twin girls. I redesigned this pair a little to make it more "girly". one pink pair and one orange pair (not in the picture, they weren't finished when I made the pictures ;-)))

preparing

I'm participating in a project in our neighbourhood called "de parels van bezuidenhout" (unfortunately they don't have a site). people from our neighbourhood exhibit their arts (music, paintings etc.). it's next saturday and I'm preparing to exhibit my felt pieces. So I made some new pieces. Today finished this envelope bag. I like the initiative and I'm curious how it will be.

time

after two weeks of holiday I finally had some time to make more embroidery products. love to make the combinations...see my shop for more new things...

geertje

today we celebrated my mother in law's birthday. She is very fond of the birds in her garden so jilles and stije made her a birdhouse on wednesday, when we visited the goat farm 't geertje. she loved her present.

laptop sleeve

Roel spoiled himself with a new gadget and asked me to make him a laptop sleeve. Since I had no idea what a laptop sleeve is, I did some search on the internet and made this comfortable sock for his new toy. he picked the fabrics and Josephine, he insisted on using the DC fabric you bought us ;-)).

lovely stockholm

no vulcano eruption this time...

crodino

I don' t know why, but I save all my crodino bottles after drinking. I'm still thinking about a good project for them...can't think of anything. Untill I found the brilliant idea I use them for flowers.

cactus

visited the other side of holland to spend a day with family. We did a dwarf walk in the forest with our two dwarfs. also visited a cactus museum (never knew there are so many cactus types, fascinating)

queensday

yesterday we celebrated queensday. In the rain we started our day, selling a lot of stuff from our attic (but of course the boys bought a lot of treasures, so our attic will be as full as before). in the afternoon the sun came out, so we enjoyed a visit to the parks near our house. in one park there is little Japanese garden, but it's only open a few weeks a year, it's so beautiful (the boys enjoyed the small bridges the most) and finally we (traditionally)walked by the queens palace (very nice to have her as our neighbor)

owls

I experimented a little bit more with the leftovers from the embroideries and made these soft toys. I like the green/brown one most. I don't know what's wrong with the blue one, but I think I will have to figure that out.

buttons

I asked my parents to search for buttons in france, they took that task very serious and spoiled me with a beautiful collection of vintage buttons....the washing and sorting took more time than expected, but the result was very satisfying and I found a few very nice ones.

little bear

this is a story about a teddy bear and me being a terrible mom. I needed filling for some felt toys so I decided to use a very large teddy bear the boys haven't played with in years. But as soon as I took the bear and put it in my studio, they started playing with it. When they both were away (this is the most terrible part of this little story!) I cut the bear open and used the filling. the leftover was lying on the ground and the big teddybear eyes were starring at me and I started to feel very guilty...

Then the idea came up to make a playing head out of the bear, the boys loved it. Even Roel was enthusiastic about it. the guilt became a little less, but then jilles started to ask me where he could find the teddy bear...oops. Think I will not do this again.

shirt transformation

Roel has a lot of shirts he doesn't wear anymore. A lot of these shirts I like too much to give them away. I saw this tutorial a long time ago and decided to give it a go. The weatherman promised a lot of sun this weekend so I hope I can try my new shirt...

experimenting three

I think spring wakes me up for experimenting. In this piece I combined felt with a picture I found in an article about outsiders art. I just love what these artists make, it's so pure. I'm considering attaching the two with some stiches...I'm not sure yet...so I just keep on experimenting..

brooch

made this little fellow with a piece of left over from an embroidery. I love how the colors change by using just a little piece of it...

stockholm has to wait

we planned a weekend stockholm with just the two of us, but because of the eruption in iceland no plane could take us there. because I already took the boys to opa and oma (before the planes stopped flying) we still enjoyed a few days together. sunday we spent with the boys and felt spring everywhere!

our weekend is now planned in may, any tips for stockholm?

huis van groen

yesterday was the first workshop at "huis van groen" Sandra and I did together. It was fun, good results and a lot of tea...

experimenting two

it's not new, but it is for me. I felted a bottle for the first time. It feels a bit like sculpting with felt...nice.

experimenting

Sometimes I have a total lack of creativity. I hate it when that happens, especially when I have time (which doesn't happen that much). This week I had such a day and I was totally blocked, after some repair work (a lot of damaged trousers of the boys), I decided to make something out of the leftovers of the embroideries I work with. Unfortunately I didn't have much time left. I'm not satisfied with this piece, but I like the idea and I see possibilities for other soft toys.

mickey

a friend asked me to make something for her newborn niece in singapore to decorate the wall. I had never made something like this, it was a lot of work but I'm happy with the result.

holy bag

liset found me this beautiful maria embroidery. I combined it with some birds and made this bag out of it. Since I sold the last embroidery item instantly from my blog, without even showing it in my webshop, I decided to put this one right away in the shop ;-)

celebrating spring

this weekend I spend with Jilles, just the two of us, we did a mini break. We slept in an old dutch farm and visited the "zaanse schans". we had a lot of fun. I have never seen so much wooden shoes, windmills and cheeses in one weekend.

fine flowers

among my collection of vintage embroideries I also had this very fine embroidery, it looks like it's made of silk threat. I like the thought that someone put a lot of effort and love in making this small piece of embroidery. It's strange to make something with someone I don't know.

looking for the right pattern

on our last trip I bought these fabrics to make jilles a bag for his judo classes, but I can't find a good pattern for a boys bag. any tips for me?

mountain people

very small mountain people have moved in jilles his room.

date pie

hmmmm...I just love dates, a good recipe on the bagels and beans site for this pie. It tastes so good that it was almost finished before I could take a picture ;-))

circles

I ordered some chiffon scarfs for felting at wollknoll (which is a very good store in germany). unfortunately one color turned out to be more yellow than the beige I thought I ordered. A good friend came to the rescue and together we made this scarf out of it. we covered it with a different kind of yellow. It's nice to do such a project together....and I forgot to mention it, but I'm preparing some felt workshops with her, there are still some possibilities to join us at 11 april, see my website.

painting

I'm probable one of the few people who hates painting and prefers wood sanding in stead. but for a good cause, a "new" bed for stije, I put on my painting clothes again.

vroem vroem and more

made some new products for my shop, no earth shocking news, but little things can make me happy....

tea for the teachers

today we celebrate the birthdays of all theachers at school...so a lot of nice games, songs, cake and of course gifts. I asked all the children to paint or decorate a small piece of paper and I made a jar of teacher tea out of it. I like how it turned out...but the honor goes to all children of course...

the card I attached is made out of fabric left overs sewed on paper...I saw the idea at twirling betty

candystore

visited one of my favorite stores today.