KissKus

Traditional festivities

I've already talked quite a bit about Sinterklaas on here, but there's even more to tell... I hope you don't mind ;)
Sinterklaas is a very old Dutch tradition that is fortunately still very much alive in Holland... and old traditions are something to cherish, right?!

On Saturday the good man arrived in our hometown and yesterday we celebrated Sinterklaas at my work. In between the children were allowed to set their shoes as I told yesterday. It was one big Sinterklaas celebration!

When Sinterklaas and all his helpers (Zwarte Pieten) arrived in our town on Saturday he was greeted by many excited children (and parents). Everyone was singing and cheering and all the children were hoping for a handful of pepernoten. Amber was lucky enough to get some.

The Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes) are Sinterklaas' helpers. They are black because they climb in and out of chimneys at night to put presents in all the children's shoes. They carry with them big bags filled with pepernoten which they scatter around them.

Sinterklaas has a white horse called Amerigo. At night Sinterklaas rides his horse on the roofs of the houses to distribute all the presents... no mean feat for such an old gentleman!

The reason why he hands out all these presents is that he celebrates his birthday on December 5th. That's the day that we call Pakjesavond (presents' evening) in Dutch. This year we'll be celebrating with Michel's family. For the adults we buy a couple of small presents and play a game, for the children we buy some presents for them to unpack. It'll be fun... it always is.

This last photo was taken at my work yesterday... spot the 7 differences with the other photos ;)

Read all about the Sinterklaas traditions here on Wikipedia.

Big or little?

Even though Simon is a tough and independent boy (ha! all within reason ofcourse...), he still needed his dummy * to fall asleep at night. He would also often call out to us when it got lost somewhere in his bed.
It wasn't really bothering us and we thought it was nice for him to find comfort this way.

However, recently we had an appointment with the counsel nurse (I have no idea how to translate it and it's too difficult for my vague head to try and explain) and she asked me whether he still used a dummy. This because Simon's pronunciation of the S sounds more like a SSHH (very cute now, but will it still be cute when he's 16?!).
Apparently the dummy's use is causing that speech defect... so the dummy had to go.

We came up with the perfect plan to get rid of it. Once Sinterklaas had arrived in our town, Simon would set his shoe and put all his dummies in there. We told him that we were sure that Sinterklaas would reward him with a nice present.

Simon agreed with the whole plan until yesterday evening when he had to go to sleep without his dummy for the first time. He pleaded with us to get it back. My heart almost broke when he said:"Mummy, I'm still a little boy, you know!" But after that he went to sleep and didn't wake up until the next morning. Tonight he didn't even mention his dummy! It seems our tactic worked!

And ofcourse Sinterklaas left a note saying how proud he was at both of the children and they were each given a present. They deserved it.

So any parents out there that want to lose the dummy... make a deal with Santa!

* A pacifier or binky or piece (North American English), dummy or comforter (British, New Zealand, and Australian English) or soother (Canadian and Irish English), is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple given to an infant or other young child to suck upon. (Wikipedia)

Shiny and new

Well, here it is at last... our new car!!

If you don't know how we came to own this car then read the whole story here.

It is a very nice car, very spacious from the inside and at all levels a big improvement to what we had. However, it was difficult to leave our dear, faithful car behind this morning!! We really believed that it sensed its fate, because on the way to the garage it refused to go!

Anyway, I have to go... I'm taking our new toy for a ride!

Paint by numbers: patchwork cushion

A little while back we had a 50th birthday to attend. The person celebrating his birthday is a painter who is a friend of Michel's. On his website here you can see the kind of work he makes. Michel and I both love his paintings very much.

Last year he was working on a book that shows an overview of his recent work. He asked Michel to write a piece about him (isn't that cool?!) en we helped him a little with the English translation of the text.
As a thank-you he gave us this:

Our first (and probably last) gorgeous piece of art... we think it's wonderful! This photo does it no justice at all, unfortunately. It is proudly hung in the livingroom. The children like it too, for the subtle details.

So we were invited to his birthday party. Coming up with an appropriate gift wasn't easy. Michel found a book that he thought would be appreciated, but I really wanted to make something myself. However, I found the thought of making something for an artist rather intimidating! Still, I put those feelings aside and started sewing.

I thought I would make a cushion for the sofa in his workshop. As a startingpoint I took Michiel's very own painting and picked out fabrics in the same colour tones as the painting. Then I cut small and wider strips and "randomly" started sewing. I did have some idea how I wanted it to turn out and I made sure the colours were spread the way I liked it.

When it was finished... I liked it! How I love a project that simply turns out the way I planned it!
But even better was that Michiel liked it as well. He was touched that I had taken the trouble to make something myself. And really that's all that matters, right?! As I've heard, it's now being used/displayed in his workshop.

::200::

I've decided that this 200th is my official housewarming post.
It feels good here on Typepad... I'm staying!

I had plans to host a tea party... set a pretty table and serve some nice food. But I must be realistic... organising it would stress me out and chances are it will never happen.
So I'm afraid you're going to have to bring along your own food and drink... it's what we here call an "American party" ;)

Blogging is still providing me with lots of joy and a great sense of satisfaction. I've been keeping diaries ever since I was able to write, but I think that this is the most regular that I've ever been writing. It makes me proud that I'm keeping it up, although it isn't hard. I love documenting our lives and it's wonderful to know that in this way I'm preserving  memories for myself and the children.

Of course, I also truly love the interaction with anyone who visits here. I'm still amazed that there are people from America, Australia and everywhere else coming here to read about my life. I love comments :)
As a thank-you I would like to give away two packages (*) to two people who leave a comment. I'll draw names on Friday. Lurkers, de-lurk!
Thank you all for making my blog feel like a place where friends can drop in whenever they want!

(*) The first package will contain a lovely handmade (not by me) apron and one of my patchwork pouches, the other will contain the cheery flowery bag and also one of my patchwork pouches. If you prefer one or the other, please say so.

A golden frame

Sorry to go on and on about Amber's birthday... this is the last post on it, I promise!
I just want to share with you another thing that I came up with for her party.
I liked Amber to give out a small present to all her guests and I came up with a frame that would contain a photo of Amber and her friends. I thought it would be fun if the children would be involved in making their own present.

So I bought cheap wooden frames from IKEA and small wooden cut-outs from Hema.

All children were given a frame that they could decorate the way they wanted. We helped them gluing it all together.

After spray-painting the frames golden, I jumped on my bike to get the photos printed.

I wrapped them up and added a thank you-card that I had made previously.

Both children and parents were very happy with this framed memory :)

Pre-party crafting

The days before Amber's birthday I spent many hours working on projects for her party.
I'm happy to say that I finished everything that I had planned beforehand!

First up were the treats she would hand out at school. I used the scrappy flowers that I made a little while back. There were still a lot of buttons to be sewn, but luckily my MIL's helped me with that. We then put the flowers on sticks. I bought small cakes and stuck the flowers in them.

The result was pretty and colourful.  Amber was very pleased with them and so were the children in her class... pfeeew!

Next up was the birthday outfit. This is an annual tradition (for myself!). From experience I know that sewing an outfit at the last moment can be an extremely stressful thing to do, so I was smart and bought a sweet dress from H&M. Nonetheless I did finish the outfit in time!

I'd been looking at all the lovely smocks that were appearing everywhere in blogland... I knew that that was what I wanted to make for Amber. This was the pattern I found. It looked much too small for Amber, so I just made it larger. I could only hope that it would fit, since trying it on would spoil the surprise. I made trousers to match.

The whole outfit was made from red gingham, blue polkadots and a little blue flower print. It all looked wonderful together (unfortunately the photos aren't great). The smock is completely reversible, something Amber really liked. I was so pleased that the outfit not only fit her, but also turned out exactly the way I had imagined!

I had also made two smocks for Vita, Amber's doll, from Kirsten's pattern. It worked very well, Kirsten, thank you!

Well, I have one more crafty thing to show, but I think I'll save that for another post... otherwise this one will get ridiculously long!

A neat present

A friend of mine has recently had her birthday and this weekend we'll go to visit her. What present was I going to get her? Always a tough question, don't you think? As I was thinking of what to *buy* I suddenly thought: why don't I *make* her something?!
Although it was late and I was tired (no excuse...it's always late and I'm always tired) I got going and in about an hour the present was finished!
Once you have plan and go for it then really is so little work, isn't it? And the result is so rewarding!

I made a pocket tidy. I made them before as you can see here and here, but never out of oilcloth. It's definitely a success I think. I want to make more of these... I must get more oilcloth ;)

I will just buy some coordinating lime green cosmetics to put in the pockets and add a matching tissueholder and I'm all ready for the party!

Small projects

I've been working on lots of small projects lately. Although I have a continuing lack of time for myself, my inspiration and creative urge are still very much present. Hence the small projects! First my My Little Window project. This was my prototype, I want to work on this more. Then a birthday present for my youngest sister. A little bag for the bikini we got her. Look at that bikini! I wanted to keep it for myself, but I knew it would look (much) better on her! Then my first attempt at textile stencilling...not perfect yet ;) And some aprons for the washingup liquid... Finally, my current -a bit more elaborate- WIP.

Labels: miscellaneous crafting, sewing

Moo's the best!

Today my mini-cards arrived!!! They are so cute, I love them :))) I picked out 12 different photos. Some turned out a little better than others, but I still think they're all wonderful. I'm already brainstorming of what I can  do with them other than using them as a tag on a gift or something.. oh the possibilities! Other great mail: 50 bundles of bias tape scored on Ebay. I can't help it, but this makes me happy! I'd better think of a good way to use up all that bias tape though ;) And and and, I made a new bib today. I finally managed to sort out enough space in my craftroom to put the sewing machine back in its place... I'm definitely on right path here! Oh AND! I've now lost 7 kilos!!

Labels: flickr, mail, sewing, us