KissKus

Brilliant book

The other day Michel came home with this funny book.
It has a hilarious ABC in it that's full of irony.

(A little essential info here: Quote is a business magazine. Every year this magazine publishes the Quote 500, which is a list of the 500 wealthiest people in The Netherlands. There is always a lot of controversy around this list)

I think it's funny that children simply see this as a book with nice pictures in it. Simon was telling me all about it today. They don't notice the double meaning of course.

Don't these pages have a vintage feel to it?

You can listen to the ABC here.

Eureka, a zippered tissueholder!

This was bound to happen... my old love for tissueholders combined with my new love for zippers makes a zippered tissueholder! This makes me HAPPY!

I can't stop zipping that zipper.

Also, I made this patchwork pouch. I do think it's my best so far. I love the blue, red and pink together. And gingham and polkadots!
It's lined with the pink fabric.

I.need.more.zippers.soon!!

And I had some wonderful mail today. Three beautiful cards from Marianne of Applehead. I have thoroughly enjoyed her "Small People" series and was more than happy when I "won" Leila recently. How lovely that Beth and Mabel were also included! Thank you, Marianne!

Doll quilt and two pajamas

Amber is a happy little mother. In the past three days her doll Vita has acquired two new pajamas, a quilt and a wardrobe (my precious red/white polkadot suitcase). Both girls are sleeping contently now.

Here's Vita in the first nightie I made for her. I just sewed something that I thought would look like a nightie and it turned out quite ok. Doesn't that pink match her violet eyes perfectly? When Vita came to live with us her eyes were blue, but a prolonged stay in the shower drained the colour from her eyes.

These are the pajamas I made. After a bit of thinking I came up with a pattern for the pants. They turned out a bit low on the hips, but that's totally now, isn't it?!

On to the quilt. I like it, although it's a bit wonky.

To make it I sewed strips of fabric together and then cut that new piece in to strips again. Put together they make small squares. I used a blue polkadot cotton for the back.

The pajamas and quilt in action. I suppose a whole generation grows up with the Duktig doll's bed. Nothing wrong with that, I think it's a great bed (it just lacks a quilt). I would just like to paint it, but I'm still negotiating with Amber. She likes it pink (naturally) and I would like it white. Until we reach an agreement it just stays this way.

So that's another couple of projects ticked off the list. I'm glad it's never ending :)

A lucky coincidence

Yesterday we had a big celebration at Amber's school (it was fun and Amber rode a camel, twice!). One of the the things the children could do was have their faces painted. After queueing for about 45 minutes and still 5 children in front of Amber, I lured her away from there by promising to buy face-paint at Hema so we could paint our own faces. That was the reason why we went to Hema this morning, otherwise I wouldn't have gone there.

Unfortunately they were all out of face-paint, however on my way to the zippers (!) I passed a table crammed with articles on sale. After a closer look I couldn't believe my eyes! There were such lovely things there and the prices were unbelievable!! I got all nervous and tried to put as many things as possible in my basket... I was sure that at any moment the other people would also discover this treasure table!
Here's what I picked up:

A magnet/pushpin board, a kit to make children's slippers ( 1 euro, it contains three large pieces of wool felt and pompoms!!), a lamp, magnets, three adorable bags, five cute bowls, magnets, decorations and photo frames. Prices varied from 20 cents to 1 euro!
The most expensive thing I bought was this lovely bench for the children (5 euros). How could I not buy it?!

Amber and Simon dragged it through the shop with them and whenever I stopped to look at something they sat down on it... it was so cute :)

Here Amber shows the bags... I love them. They're made of felt and decorated with fake flowers.

Do you notice anything different about Amber? Have a closer look...

After five months of having a wobbly tooth she finally managed to pull it out yesterday. It's funny, I remember exactly how that felt.

Do you mind if I show off a bit more? This is what I bought at the thriftstore this week:

Two large covers, two super sweet handmade embroidered apron and a Laura Ashley dress.

Well, I suppose that's enough shopping for me. We really should be saving our pennies, since our new car (and accompanying bill) is due in a few weeks.Luckily there's a saying in Dutch that goes something like: Who lives then, then worries. What's that saying in English?

Amber has ordered asked me to sew pajamas for her doll. I'm also working on a doll quilt, so I'd better get going. Have a lovely weekend!

Hello zipper, my old friend!

I think I've finally found a replacement for my tissueholder obsession: the zippered pouch!
Here are three that I made yesterday and today.

I have sewn quite a few zippers in my sewing career, but those were pure necessities. Sewing these zippers, however, is fun! I can't believe how easy it is, although I must admit that with each try they turn out a little better. Even more reason to keep on making these pouches.

The only thing is that I'm slowly running out of zippers. Where does one find a whole lot of zippers for a good price? I tried the thriftstore today, but no luck. Perhaps I should try E-bay.

Anyway, I suspect you will be seeing more of these...

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

We also went on our flowerfield mission again today. Amber had been collecting seeds for days and she couldn't wait to scatter them in the field. With Simon she had a great time playing hide-and-seek in the long grass. Unfortunately, my hayfever was getting seriously out of control, so we had to leave. We will be back soon though!

Simon is doing much better, by the way. I think the antibiotics have really kicked in and he's back to his old cheery self...so happy about that!

Sunday thoughts

We were visiting the graveyard this afternoon.
We brought some Lathyrus from our garden to Michel's colleague who died three years ago.

The children were merrily walking around and having fun. Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with having a little fun at a graveyard as long as you're not being disrespectful. For years we lived across a graveyard, where we would often stroll and enjoy the wonderful old trees and the quietness.

When we passed the little children's graves, Amber and Simon were very interested to look at all the decorations. Of course Amber started to ask questions. She seemed surprised that children could die so young and she thought that was sad. Simon said:"Het is niet eerlijk!" (it's not fair!). I couldn't believe how appropriate that was... it was like he understood what it meant if someone died.

We walked further and suddenly Amber called out:"Mum, this life has also died young!" She was holding a tiny tree that she had thoughtlessly pulled from the ground. We were stunned at how fast she had made the link between people and plants. At times like that I can only be amazed at the big and clear thoughts that go on in her head.

Children truly are the most precious people in the world. They should not die, but held close and be loved. I'm grateful.

Comfort blankie

A new blanket cover for my little sick man.

This quick and easy project was thought up this morning and made this afternoon. How wonderful to be so fast and efficient!

Because of the mild temperatures at night Simon is sleeping under just a fleece blanket. Without bedding, so with his bare feet touching the fleece. He himself has no problems with that what so ever, but I do! I can't stand it. So it was more for myself than for him that I whipped up this cover from a happy IKEA fabric.

However, I also wanted to make his bed extra comfortable, since he is truly quite sick. He has a bad throat infection and his glands are swollen beyond all proportion. The poor babe can hardly speak or move his head.

But with a comfy bed (including his kussentjes of course!), a little antibiotics and as many ice-creams as he wants he should be back to his old form in a few days.

Patting myself on the back

Reason # 1

I made a zippered wristlet!!
Just like that! No sweat, no tears, not even blood.
And I didn't even use a tutorial... I just used my brain!

Look at that zipper... it looks just the way it's supposed to look :)
And oh, the new scrappy possibilities...

And it was so sweet, when I'd almost finished Simon (who is not feeling very well) came have a look and he asked: "Can I have it, Mummy?" So I asked what he would use it for and he said to put his cars in. What a moment... my son wanted something that I made and he even found a good use for it!
So now he walks around with his wristlet in true 80s fashion.

Reason # 2

I send 10 envelopes out this morning, most of them carrying tissueholders. I still do not have everyone's addresses... so if you were up for a tissueholder and still want it, please send me your address!

Adding some colour

Just around the corner of our street there is a huge field. It's quite extraordinary that in our small, overcrowded country this field even exist. After all, how many houses could not be build on this piece of land? However, it's a beautiful place surrounded by old trees. It even has a decorative old fence!

It is very green though. And over the past weeks I found myself fantasizing about a little more colour in there. So I started collecting seeds from our garden and this morning Simon and I went on our mission to create a flowerfield!

He loved scattering the seeds everywhere and continually found a better spot. At some places the grass was so high it almost reached his face. Of course that only added to the fun!

We had lots of poppy-seed (we have so many in the garden) and these pink flowers that I don't know the English name for.

I expect we will be making many more trips to the fields this summer with fresh supplies of seeds. And then we'll have to wait until next year in order to see whether our plan worked!

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 :)