More goodness

Yesterday I received a truly wonderful package from Kristy.
Just look how lovingly wrapped up everything was!
















Amber was home from school and we each unpacked one of the
pretty bundles.
Now see what was inside them...
















Aren't they just Sweetness itself?!
Thanks again, Kristy! Your bunnies have been lovingly adopted by the whole family...

Just a short post today. It's been a loooong day and I really want to sit down with a cuppa.
I'll leave you with Amber's latest masterpiece that she brought home from school today.





















It's called "This is me", since they've been doing a project on the human body.
I especially like the feet :)





















Have a good weekend!

Swaps

Today I've sent out two swap-packages and another one will be in the mail tomorrow.
I love the concept of swapping in crafty land; it is such a wonderful way to receive things that you cannot get in your own country. Even better is getting things that other people made themselves; that is just so special. And I love getting mail!
While I was wrapping up my package for MommyCoddle, hers arrived!
This was what was in it:
















She offered a piece of this fabric on her site and I was one of the lucky ones to get it. I believe it's Marimekko even!
I see this becoming a bag actually. I see so many people making fantastic bags here there and everywhere, that I really want to make one for myself now!
There was also a lovely card; thank you so much Molly!
















Took some photos of a box full of my kissbees. Don't they look snug together?!
Except for the one at the back... he is not happy being squashed!





















Just read this... tears in my eyes (of laughing that is!). That site is hilarious!

Continuing story of the zipperbag & photos of the royal family

Judith has kindly sent me photos of her mother's zipperbags.
They were made from this book which was published in 1999:













Judith's mother made three bags; the fabric is handwoven. She even used straw for one of them; aren't they great? Thanks for the photos, Judith! Your mother is a real crafty girl!






























So do you think that these guys in Camden Town really believed they made something unique?! Oh well, let's give them the benefit of the doubt...
(because I'm still very fond of my new bag :))

Crafting is going well now that I do my sewing downstairs. Here's the pink princess showing my new glitzy kissbee, which is actually hers to keep.

















I also want to thank everyone for their well-wishes for Simon!
The poxes are not completely gone yet, but happily he's back to his old funny, cheery self. Look at him go...

...King Simon dressed in his smartest robes (borrowed from the pink princess) :)

Impressions of garden on sunny Sunday

Since we've only been living here for six months all these crocuses were such a surprise! I really wonder what else is going to emerge from the soil.













Bare wall in bare backgarden.
It will need a lot of work, but it has so much potential!













Michel wants to build a treehouse on top of that treetrunk and then attach the slide to it. The swing is also supposed to go there and of course we'll have playsand. It will be a place where the children will be able to play as much as they like!

This little fellow has found a new home in our garden. Michel made this some ten years ago and since then it always stood in his father's garden. Now that we have our own, the penguin (yes, that's what it is) has come to live with us. It fits in perfectly!

I'll end with a photo of the lovely fabric that my mum gave me yesterday. Check out the shirts and lightbulbs!

A dragon, kissbees and a linguistic problem

I know everybody else in blogland has already written about it, but I just needed a little more time to decide that I'm also going to commit myself to Use What You Have Month. My mum gave me the last push when she brought a bag full of lovely fabrics today. These fabrics alone are almost enough to entertain me for a month and of course there is my STASH.
Great idea by Simple Sparrow!

I made this on thursday:





















It's some sort of a hanging bag with pockets for softies or other stuff... What do you call something like that in English?! Help, native speakers!
I bought the fabric a couple of weeks ago in a thriftstore; it's quite sweet I think. I just want to add a pompon or something on the bottom.
















We bought the dragon when we were on honeymoon in Prague; isn't it cute?!

I also made two more kissbees. One of them is not so happy about its life as you can see :(





















And oh, apparently the zipperbag idea isn't as innovative as the sellers made me believe. Judith's mum made one ten years ago! Do you have a photo of it, Judith? I would love to see it!!

Productive day

I'm sure all you mothers out there know how hard it sometimes is to find a little time for yourself when the children are around. For me it's a reoccurring dilemma.
Today I was smart and dragged the sewingmachine and all neccessities downstairs and worked there while the children were playing and napping. I really got quite a lot done, so I think this is something I'll do more often.
















I have to admit though that everything was already cut and ready for the doll and these cushions, so today's score is a bit flattered!

Of course it's a bag!

The riddle wasn't difficult obviously... Kristy got it right straight away!

But isn't it a cool bag?! What a great idea to create a bag out of a zipper!
The man that sold us the bags (in Camden Town) told us they were designed at an artschool in Portugal. I'm curious whether I'll soon be seeing these bags in Holland as well.
















I just have a tough decision to make... Only one of these bags will be mine, the other one is a present from my sister to my other sister. I'm just unsure which one I prefer (although technically I paid for the green bag)!

Riddle

Who knows what this is?!



Hint: think beyond zipper!

Mild crafting

With a little sick chick and a slightly bigger one that also wants attention, there wasn't much alone-time today. Still, I got some mild crafting done.
I finished this cushion. It actually already was almost finished, but the true satisfaction comes only after the last stitch, doesn't it? Also made two dolls faces; it would would be great if I'd be able to make a doll tomorrow...
However, I have to work (my other job) and after that there is some bike-buying to be done (for me!). Perhaps tomorrow evening then.


I received a lovely package again today full of cute fabric from Laurie. We're doing a little swap, but I'm afraid I'm a bit behind everything. I will get it done this week.
Right, I'm going to spend a little time with Mich before we both collapse of fatigue (it's a little hectic here, did you notice?!).

Home sweet home

I'm back home.
Back at the nest where other than lots of kisses and cuddles also a lot of chickenpox awaited me.


It's awful to see him like this!

I'll just quickly say how I spent my two last days in Oxford.
On Friday we went shopping, had tea with Laura's friends and had an -again- lovely dinner at The Nosebag. After that we went back to Laura's room and watched Monty Python.

On Saturday we started of having lunch with Laura's friend and then went to the Pitt Rivers Museum, which turned out to be a very special place. It's an anthropological museum and has cabinets completely stuffed with curiosities. When you enter the museum you can ask for a spyglass and torch, which you might want to use to read the hand-scribbled tags attached to most items; those tags alone were wonderful enough to be exhibited!
If you're ever in Oxford make sure you visit this museum; it's absolutely worth it!
(and it's even free! Isn't it fantastic that all museums in Britain are free?!)

And guess what I bought in the museum-shop?! Fabric!
I didn't expect to find any affordable fabric anymore, but suddenly it was there. Why I don't know... it just said made in India.
There are 45 blocks of different fabrics, ready to be used and it cost only 3 pounds!



My favourite are these cute elephants.



We then went to Jericho, visited some more charity-shops (expensive!), bought some presents for the children and then went home and had pizza.

Yesterday morning I had to leave early to catch the bus to Victoria, missed it, caught the next one. Took the bus to Stansted and then the plane to Amsterdam. After 45 minutes on the train and a short ride in the car, I had used almost all forms of transportation in one day. But I made it home alright!



What was waiting for me was a little present from Joanne from Stardustshoes. It's lovely and beautifully made. If you want to make one for yourself look here!

The excitement continues...

I'm still having a wonderful time here in England, although I realise that I'm starting to miss my family more and more. My mother-in-law sent me some photos of the children today and I could have sworn that they have grown! They looked older!
Also chickenpox seem to be appearing on Simon, which is another reason to want to go home.
So yes, I think I will glady go home on Sunday, bit until that time I'll just soak up as much of England as I can; who knows how long I will have to go without it after this trip?!

We've had another great day in London yesterday (eventhough it was freezing!).
We started in Camden Town. I had been there before and it was still as lovely as I remembered. We saw lots of great things, but bought just one thing. I won't tell you what it is right now, because I really have to post a picture of it. It'll have to wait until I'm back home, I'm afraid!

After Camden we went to the University of London where we had an absolutely delicious lunch. I would really like to state that I've had the best lunches and dinners here! I think I should say this because the British have such a bad reputation when it comes to food; unjustified in my opinion...















The went to Covent Garden next where we walked around and listened to a very amusing music-group. After that it was just shops. First Oxford Street and then all the designer shops in Bondstreet. Laura's friend egged us on to actually go into these shops as well... I always feel intimidated by the pricetags on the clothes and the staff in particular. Although I tried to ignore it I still felt very out of place. I liked some shops, such as Burberry, but thought that Dolce & Gabbana's clothes were just downright ugly. There's no way I would ever buy those clothes, even if I had all the money in the world.

When it was time for dinner Alan took us past The Ritz to a very posh-looking building. It turned out to be the Royal Over-Seas League. It was a really special place. First we had a drink in the cocktailbar, then dinner surrounded by old people. It was fun and the food was good and not even expensive.
On the way back to Oxford we all fell asleep on the bus; we were so tired!

Today I've been seeing more of Oxford, but I'm too tired to write about that now.
Just one more photo...

A day in pictures

It was a beautiful sunny day















I had a frappucino & an interesting read at Starbucks
















We took a wonderful walk to the river and back
















Had lunch on a bench in the Balliol grounds















Bought new boots (!)




















Climbed up Magdalen Tower















From where we had this view















Then watched Brideshead Revisited and had dinner at one of Laura's friends

All in all, a day very well spent!
Tomorrow another day in London...

Cookie talk

Just a quick bit about a cookie...

At lunch with my sister today I suggested we'd pick some Cadbury's on our way back to our room. She said she knew something better...
We took a short walk to a lovely mall with wonderful shops. All of a sudden I remembered a shop in Brighton where I would always buy cookies (this was when I worked as an au-pair). I loved those cookies soooooo much!! They had all these different kinds with nuts and chocolats, but the best thing was that they were still warm inside.
So I asked my sister whether she remembered this shop of her visit to Brighton and did she recall what it was called?! Yes she said, Ben's Cookies.
While I was going on and on about how lovely those cookies were and how I would love to go back to Brighton to buy them again, she was leading me somewhere and then she told me to look. And it was the shop! It was Ben's Cookies!
Isn't that strange, isn't that weird?! I couldn't believe it!
But I do know that I really enjoyed my cookies (yes, TWO cookies)!
Here is a photo of one (the other was already eaten):



I just found out from the website that this shop in Oxford is actually their original one.