KissKus

Seed pods: a study

Lathyrus seed pods on an Arcopal plate.

A warm weekend

It was a warm weekend, in more ways than one. We've been blessed with a beautiful Indian Summer and I've been trying to soak up as much as I could. I enjoyed the company of sweet people, good food, an entertaining book and some very colourful crochet (in reality it's a little less bright than on the photo, but only a little ;)). I really had a lovely weekend.

In other news I at long last decided to hop on the Pinterest train. If you like you can find me here.

Also, I really like this song.  

Summer crochet

When we went on holiday to France I came prepared:

Impressive, no?

I was glad I took such a stash, since it brought me heaps and hours of fun.

Some of the things I made:

Several blocks, which was a good way to try out different stitches. I have some more, I don't know what they'll become yet.

An impromptu birthday present. That violet jam looked gorgeous!

A stool cover, which I'll show some other time.

I also made some bunting, but I'll post a photo once I've sewn the flags to some biastape.

Oh, and of course this hat!

I think I can say it was a productive few weeks for me!

Dotty skirt

I've been wanting to sew some clothes for the kids for ages, but due to my sewing block it wasn't happening. However, Monday evening I made this skirt for Amber! It took me about 1,5 hours from start to finish, it really is super easy. It's an Ottobre pattern that I modified a little.

Don't you love this fabric? It has a really nice drape to it. I had initially bought it for myself, but my new motto is: use not hoard ;)

The best thing was that Amber was pleasantly surprised with her new skirt. She loves it so much that she is even wearing it two days in a row!

Oh, and I started a new Flickr group: Crafting for Girls

Garden Sunday

We worked in the garden for most of today. We eliminated the prickly bushes (they didn't go down without a fight!) and pulled weeds. I'm sore, but satisfied with the result.

Here are some images that made me smile today:

A new colour hollyhock revealed itself

Flowers given to me by Simon, which he picked them himself from oma's garden

A beautiful and curious double rainbow

Amber fresh out of the shower: hearts, apples and polkadots

I put some more photos up on Flickr.

New skirt

I made a skirt for myself yesterday. I used no pattern, I just measured my tum & bum and cut two A-shaped pieces. Sewed them together, put in some elastic and my skirt was finished!

For something that took so little effort it turned out really well. The fabric helped too. It's a stretchy synthetic fabric with a very busy print. Any mistakes (not that there were any ;)) are almost invisible.

You might be able to tell from this photo that there is a little bit of glitter on the fabric... nice!

At first I left the skirt long, ankle length, but when my Mum saw me wearing it she vetoed. According to her, it made me look like a deeply religious woman. Of course there's nothing wrong with deeply religious women, but that wasn't really the vibe I was going for. So I shortened it, which I must admit looks better. I'm now able to wear it with or without a legging.

My only problem is finishing the hem. Since I have no fancy sewing machine -let alone a serger-, I just don't know how to go about it. Any ideas? If not, then I think I'll just leave it like this.

I'm glad I have a new garment to wear... I hardly fit into any of my clothes anymore because I'm just so fat! I wished I could blame the pregnancy, but really that's only part of the problem. Chocolate and other unhealthy food are the real cause. I'm not very upset about this "new" fuller figure of mine, but finding clothes that fit properly (and still look nice!) is difficult sometimes. Also, I refuse to spend a lot of money on XL-clothes, because I do hope to get thinner again. Any tips on how I can work on my chocolate-addiction and get into better shape (without proper dieting because of the breastfeeding)? Any ideas on this would be very much appreciated.

By the way, I still have quite a bit of fabric left. Enough to make another skirt, except one is enough for me. Anyone else out there that can find some use for it? Leave a comment or send me an e-mail and I'll pop it in the mail!

One last thing... am I the only one that hadn't heard about Spoonflower yet? I must have been living under a rock! How wonderful to design your own fabric! I'm on the waiting list; I hope I get invited soon. There's a Flickr-group as well. Yummy!

The weekend has begun!!

It's Friday afternoon, so the weekend has officially begun!
And this is the first weekend in *five* weeks that I don't have to work... that calls for a celebration, doesn't it?!

I've got two days full of fun to look forward to. As soon as Simon wakes up from his nap, I will go and drop the children off at the oma's lovely chalet at the campsite. They've got plans to go cycling tomorrow. The weather is supposed to stay good, so I'm sure they'll have a lovely time.

While Michel will be working I will spend tomorrow preparing for Amber's birthday that's coming up this week. Although I've already bought a "just-in-case-I-won't-make-it-on-time" dress, I still would love to sew her something. Additionally I would like to make a smock for her doll. For the rest, it's my absolute intention to send out the tissueholders.

Tomorrow evening we are going to a wedding and then Sunday morning at dawn we'll go... up in a hot air balloon!! I'm so excited it's finally going to happen!!

Monday morning Michel's going to order our new car!! We made a test drive today and we decided to go for it... yay!

What are your plans for this weekend? Any exciting things planned or just relaxing at home? Have a good weekend!

*The photos were made on our most recent visit to Weesp and on the children's day out with opa*
*I also uploaded more photos to Flickr of the K.F. exhibition*