In two weeks and a bit I'll be off to England! And I'm going ALL BY MYSELF. I will be visting my sister in Oxford, but when she works I will be spending a lot of time on my own as well. I'm so excited and a bit nervous too. A whole week without my little family... how will it all go? Perfectly fine, probably :)
I've been working on a few cushions for quite some time now. These days my sewing projects are taking a long time to finish. Hopefully I'll be able to work on them in the next couple of days!
We had such a nice and relaxing Sunday. Autumn really was at its best today.
We decided to cycle to the heath. Two bikes, five people... so cosy. The sun was lovely and warm.
At the heath the children ran about; there was so much to discover!
We soaked up the sun on a small hill, enjoying it all.
Then we went home where we had hot chocolate and pancakes.
Right now Michel is cooking, the children are playing and I'm doing a bit of sewing... I'm happy!
I'm not a fan of autumn. Mostly because autumn means that winter is around the corner. All the cold, and the rain, and the dark... no, it's not really my thing.
That said, I must admit that autumn has its own specialities as well: the golden light, the colourful leaves and toadstools. And on our walk on Sunday we had a bit of all that.
But this little fellow was definitely the most gorgeous thing we found. Pure perfection if you ask me.
There were many other gems to be found as well.
The secret garden.
We love this place. And are certainly grateful that we can step right out of our door into this lovely bit of Holland.
I discovered this really fun website today where you can give your photos a poloraid-look. It's very easy and sooo cool! As you can see I had a lot of fun with it :)
It's Simon's 5th birthday today.
I still remember and cherish the day that he first entered our lives and five years on I so love being on this life journey with him. This boy moves me deep in my heart, he really does.
We had a great day.
Some highlights:
Early morning presents
Treats in the classroom
Poffertjes lunch with his best friend
Phonecalls from his aunties in Australia, Burkina Faso and England
My lazy bum cake that he loved
Happy birthday, Simon!
Over the weekend we were invited to a party, which was held in the most beautiful surroundings and with very fun company. And we were able to leave the children at home with the grandparents, so it was a very succesful adult outing for us :)
Obviously, we didn't want to come empty-handed, so I decided to make a cushion. A cushion is always good, isn't it? And I reckoned even if they didn't like it then they could still let the dog sleep on it. I tried to keep the colours as neutral as I could, but being the bright colour fan that I am, I'm afraid it still turned out a little bright.
The cushion is nice and big (60x60 cms). The inner cushion was thick already, but since I used batting as well it became even sturdier. The back closes with velcro.
The receiver managed our local bookshop for many years and so I came up with a design that -with a lot of imagination- looks like books on shelves.
The present was well received, which for me was a reminder that handmade not only is 'good enough', but even better than a shop-bought present (I hate to admit that I need that reminder, but I do...).
A lesson learned and a wonderful party... that was quite a successful Sunday, I'd say!
I thought I'd post one of my golden olden crafty projects today. This was from before I had a blog... I'm talking September 2005!
Good friends of ours were getting married and I wanted to give them something special and unique. So I decided to make something myself. At that time I was quite into making mosaics (which I still love, but it makes an even greater mess than sewing), so wanted to make a mosaic. Something that would appeal to the both of them. So I contemplated about what they loved: for him that was Elvis Presley and for her that was horses.
And so the Elvistaurus was born!
I had no idea whether I'd be able to pull it of, but with Michel's help I made a sketch, which I then transferred onto an old notice board. After that it was just a matter of gluing the pieces of tiles on and later grouting it. Ofcourse it was quite a lot of work, but the result was certainly worth it.
I really enjoyed working on this project and it was very well received as well. I remember it was quite a hectic, but special time then. We had just gotten the key of our new house and we only had one month to make it livable, which was definitely a challenge. Our little Simon, who was about to turn one, was forced to spend hours and hours in that traveling cot. Luckily, the weather was brilliant for the whole month of September. Thinking back, that time in my life seems definitely more relaxed than my life now... sigh.
Anyway, I quite like digging in the past, so you might see another retro piece here soon :)
I finally got round to finishing the bag that was supposed to be a birthday present for Amber (her birthday was in June). It will be her ballet bag; I'm so pleased that I will finally be able to throw away her ratty old Barbie bag!
I used Beki's Short & Sassy pattern that she so kindly send me ages ago... thanks again, Beki!
I think that it turned out really nice. Sweet and girly... Amber gave it her stamp of approval ;) Doesn't it match up so well with the patchwork cushion that was a recent present from oma to Amber? The lucky girl is showered in handmade love!
My favourite bit is this pocket on the inside, which I can take no credit for since it already existed. The reason is that the purple fabric used to be a summer dress in a former life.
From dress to bag... not a bad life for this piece of fabric!
