Lots to do

Wow, I realised that it has been more than a week ago since I posted a message here.
Busy with christmas dinner and market at school, going outside and enjoying the snow, making some more christmas decorations for the tree, sending out lots of orders, meeting friends......
Found back this garland I made last year (easy to make, see instructions here):

Used some berry branches to put in my Anne Black vases:

Made this paper garland from origami paper for our christmas tree (like I made this one before with recycled paper):

Found 10 of these cute little candle holders (with candles) for only 50 cents in the second hand shop:

And since this is most probably my last post before christmas I would like to wish you all a very good christmas time together with your family!

Going to be a white (and red) christmas

Less than 2 weeks to go until christmas.
Making the house cosy with candles and christmas decorations.
I love using red and white for christmas, quite traditional. I made these two candle holders from felt and red/white stars ribbon. Very easy!
The ribbon is also for sale in the shop and if you buy for at least for 15 euros in the shop (until december 31), you will get one metre for free. Also great to use when giftwrapping your christmas presents.

Spoiled

The boys have been spoiled by Sinterklaas. They thought the "marble race court" was the best present they got, I like it too by the way... It is very relaxing to watch the marbles roll down ;).

I made some more notebooks as a present to give to my brother in law and to my dad. This time I use the iron-on velours on a Moleskine notebook, it worked very well (even better than with the one for Teun).

Preparations for Sinterklaas

While the boys were baking "pepernoten" with my mum and dad, I was making Sinterklaas presents.

A little boek for Teun to make drawings in, I made letters cut out of iron on velours and ironed these onto the book. A little experiment.

Clay stars for my mum and sister, cut out with a cookie-cutter. Already a bit to come in the mood for christmas with the red and white stars ribbon.
And now, I am off to the city to do some Sinterklaas shopping!

And the iron on vinyl goes to.......:

Number 6 (drawn with the random number generator, but I do not know how to get the picture in here), that is Riet from Levenmetliv. And if the number generator didn't come up with Riet, I would have given her the price anyway, because she is trying to make a bananabox/cover/thing whatsoever, and her trial chronicle is hilarious to read (and she made a tutorial for the most beautiful aeroplane spoons). Congratulations Riet!

Little Give Away

Time for a little give away!
I noticed that a lot of people are curious about the new iron on vinyl in my shop, so I am giving away 0,5 metre of the vinyl of your choice (it comes in gloss and matte). Or if you like you can have 0,25 metre of each.
All you have to do is leave me a message before sunday 29 november, telling me what you would make with it. On monday 30 november, I will draw one lucky winner.

Stumble upon

I got this internet tip from my father (thanks dad, it is really timewasting!), the website is called Stumble upon. You can add your interests and it brings you to random websites with very different contents. I think it is funny. I found this movie, which made me smile!

Busy

With making these goodies for the goodiebags of Tresj (for Flavourites live) and Doekjes (for a christmas market).

With making these accessories for the Textile Shop (in Textielmuseum Tilburg). They are going to sell them there, I am excited!

With making this onesie for my sister. She is pregnant from her first child. I am excited too and going to be a real aunt!

With testing this for the shop. It is called iron on vinyl and you can use it to laminate your fabrics with. Great for bibs, placemats, coasters etc.

Inspiration

I am fully enjoying autumn so far and I really do not want to think about christmas yet, but when you receive these magazines, it is hard not to think about it.....

Full of beautiful pictures (some even with snow) of christmas decorations, trees, candlelit houses and some recipes as well. The BoligLiv magasin is Danish, I got a subscription to it for my birthday and I really like the Scandinavian style.

Stamp

Normally, I send my orders in plain white envelopes. A little while ago I bought some brown ones, because I thought they looked more sophisticated, but they turned out to look kind of boring. Luckily, I have this book, which inspired me to make a foam stamp to decorate the envelopes with. Together with a name stamp from Little Z they look quite sophisticated, don't you think?

Vintage Finds

When I am in a second hand shop or at a flea market, I always like to browse through to books they have. Hoping to find books that I am already looking for for years (no luck yet). And always looking for books with names, of the kids, friends, family and myself. I was very lucky to find these two, with nice retro pictures as well!

Ribbons

These lovely new ribbons arrived for the shop last week. Other exciting stuff for the shop is coming my way too, but I have to be patient (and test some things first).... and waiting is not my strongest side!

Award

I got this award:

from Nicollie.
There are some things that go with this award like saying thanks to the one that gave me the award: Thanks Nicole!
And telling 10 things about myself:
1.My parents were going to name me Joris if I was a boy;
2.I hate light softdrinks because of the awful sweet aftertaste;
3.I studied Food Technology (do not do so much with it lately);
4.I don't watch much television, but I really need to watch the detective each Wednesday night;
5.I like wearing dresses;
6.I am a lazy sewer, I do not use pins if possible and I try to avoid zippers, pockets and strechy fabrics....;
7.I like to eat raw puff-pastry;
8.My favorite shop is HEMA, I also like IKEA a lot;
9.My favorite colours (at the moment) are purple and aqua;
10.Gerberas are my favorite flowers.
So, here you have some totally useless facts about me, haha!
And the last thing that goes with the award is to pass it on to 9 other people. I am not going to do that, because I see it already everywhere in the blog world.

Necklace

Finished! This is the result.
Since I cannot crochet nor knit, I tried something else with wool, I used a knitting bobbin (punniken in Dutch). I think it turned out rather nicely and I like the autumny colours of the wool a lot. To make it a bit more special, I attached matching fabric covered buttons to the necklace. I feel another crafty addiction coming up!

Five

This little baby turned five Today!

And Today it is also his birthday at school. Very proud (and a bit shy) he went to school to celebrate it with his little friends. Singing, blowing candles, standing on the chair, making music and of course giving treats. Popcorn and a little autumn themed button.

Market and more

The Textielmarket was just awesome! I met lots of nice people, had many enthousiastic customers en had very goods sales. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to look around myself and I almost forgot to take pictures...
Here is one of my booth:

Here is one of me in my booth (taken by a photographer of Tilburg.com, you can find more pictures of the Textiel weekend there):

And here is a picture of one of my Autumn projects, a necklace (by the way it is not finished yet and has nothing to do with the market, but I liked to share something new with you):

Textielweekend

Next weekend it is "Textielweekend" in Tilburg (South of the Netherlands). During this weekend there are all kinds of activities around textiles. Workshops, expositions, lectures and also a market where textile designers sells beautiful things like scarfs, jewelry and bags and where suppliers sell wool, felt, yarn, fabrics and notions. Guess what? I was invited to be part of the supplier market and will be there on the 3rd and 4th of October! Working very hard at the moment to make buttons, iron on velours sets, cutting fat quarters and more (I will show pictures later this week). If you plan to come to Tilburg next week, I would love you to come and say hi to me!

Air Transport by Night

Eloleo, you won the give away! This fabric is yours!

New, new, new.....

I have done a big shop update in the last few days and added new ribbons, appliques and fabrics (already some christmas items as well) and again, I love them all!
These two fabrics are my favorites:


And if you tell me what your favorite fabric is and why, you might be the lucky one to win a fat quarter of it! Just leave me a message before Sunday night and I will draw a lucky winner on Monday...

Sweden

After a few days in Denmark, we went to Sweden for two weeks.
First one week close to Uddevalla on the west coast (above Goteborg).
The campsite was situated close to the sea where the boys spent lots of time throwing stones, shells and branches in the water (good opportunity for me to read some books!).

On our way to the second place in Sweden, we visited Boras, the capital of textiles in Sweden. We went to the textile museum, which is located in an old industrial building and explains how fabrics are made. They also show work from textile artists and students from Sweden.

The second week we spent on the east coast of Sweden, also on a campsite close to the sea (more stones in the water...).

We all really liked the visit to Garpen, a beautiful small island with a few houses and a lighthouse (which I didn't climb, my legs shaked after a few steps on the stairs).

Denmark (1)

Already a week ago, since we got back from our holiday. We went to Denmark and Sweden and stayed in four different "Stuga's" (small cottages on a campsite).
We started in Denmark, on a campsite close to Legoland. And of course, we visited Legoland.

It is really worth a visit! We all enjoyed it and almost every attraction is accesible for young kids.
It is not only good fun, but the houses, cities and monuments built from Lego bricks all are very beautiful to look at.

Winner!

We are back from a relaxing and inspiring holiday in Denmark and Sweden (I'll tell you a bit more about it later) and now it is time to draw a winner! A big thanks to you all for your sweet comments via my blog and e-mail, it felt like a little home coming present. So, enough talks, I used a random number generator to draw the winner and Meisjesmamma is the lucky one! Congratulations, the price will be on it's way to you very soon.

Give Away

Yesterday, it was my birthday! A good opportunity for a little give away....
I will be giving away a set of iron on velours in all the colours that are available in my webshop including the new silver and pink glitter foil (size 10 x 12,5cm each). Perfect to cheer up a shirt, bag, jacket, etc with your own design.
All you have to do is to leave a message on this post or send me an e-mail before the 31st of August and I'll draw a winner (no problem if you live outside of the Netherlands).

Tutorial: How to make / sew a marble bag

I promised this already a long, long time ago and now on special request here it finally is: the marble bag tutorial!

If there is anything unclear, please leave a message and I will try to clarify it.

A marble bag is a very easy thing to make and it is a great gift for your kids to give to their friends at school or at a party and they can also be used to put in other stuff (jewelry, little cars, cards etc.)…

What do you need (Materials):
- 2 pieces of coordinating or contrasting cotton (not too thin) fabric, 17x23 cm (± 6,7x9,1 inch);
- 50 cm (20 inch) cord (3-4mm thick);
- coordinating thread.
If you want a template to trace your fabric with (very easy if you make more than one bag), you will need a cardboard piece of 17x23cm.

Tools:
- Pinking shears;
- Ruler;
- Pen / Fabric marker / Fabric chalk;
- Sewing machine;
- Safety pin.

*Note* Wash and iron fabrics before cutting. Use 1 cm (½ inch) seam allowance throughout unless otherwise stated. Seam allowance is included in pattern pieces.

1. Measure and cut your fabrics with the pinking shears. If you like to make more marble bags, you can use the cardboard template to trace your fabrics.


2. Pin the two fabric pieces with the right (printed) side together. Mark a 5 cm distance below the top of the 23cm long side of the fabric.


3. Start sewing 5 cm (2 inch) below the top to leave a space for the cord later on.


4. Sew around the 3 edges, leaving the 5cm space open, sew the other side till the top and leave the upper side open.


5. Fold the fabric (on the 5 cm/2 inch open side) to the inside (along the seam) and topstitch 5 cm on both sides.


6. Turn the bag right side out.




7. Fold the fabric on the top side to make a tunnel for the cord (3 cm/1,2 inch), stitch around 2 cm/0,8 inch from the top.




8. Pull the cord trough the tunnel and make a knob on both ends (you can use a safety pin to attach the cord to and pull it easily through the tunnel).


9. If you like to fasten the cord, you can make a few stitches in the seam.


10. Finished! Attach a nice label to the bags and they are ready to give away!