Presenting... Jack the BT-bunny

Meet Jack, a Dutch bunny that wants to go on an adventure. In fact, he is about to try his luck in America.


He's looking a little serious, because although he's acting really brave, he's quite anxious of the long flight that's ahead of him.


After the necessary photoshoot this afternoon he went outside and said goodbye to his homeland. This is him overseeing his land (the garden):


Well, I stuck to all the BT-rules: Jack is black & white with yellow as the additional colour, he has 5 buttons and bears the initial of the recipient (Michelle).


I really enjoyed thinking out how to incorporate all the rules into my softie. I liked making it very much. Tomorrow Jack will be on its way to his new home in America, where I'm sure he will receive a warm welcome!

And yes fellow Lost-lovers, when naming him I did have someone in mind... just look at his eyes, the resemblance is uncanny :)))

(Even more photos here)

Long time no talk

Lots of pictures to show, although unfortunately of poor quality. After the beautiful wheather we had a while back this week it has been like autumn outside. Lots of rain, wind and cold. The heating is on again!
It's been a busy week, but full of nice things.


I started working on my BackTack softie since the package is supposed to be in America before the 10th of June. I hope to be sending it on Monday.
The colour I chose to go with the black and white is yellow and I'm happy with the result so far.


I'm working on a cushion and doll for Amber's birthday, too. Also planning her party, thinking about the dress I want to make and all the other things that need organising for a birthday.

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I had some lovely mail this week.
My sister- & brother-in-law gave me a year's subscription to a knitting magazine for my birthday and this week the first issue arrived.


It has some wonderful things in it, like this cute doll.


And I love this teacosy:


And would really like to crochet a cushion like this:


First I have to learn how to knit though! But with my Stitch 'n Bitch by my side that shouldn't be a problem...

This morning I had another fantastic package but I think I'll save that for the next post... I don't want to bore you with too many photos!

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I signed my contract on Tuesday, so it's official now :))
I have an introduction-day on Friday and my first proper day of work is on Saturday. I'm going to be trained in Breda which is in the south of The Netherlands. It's going to be a busy time, but I'm still really happy about everything that's happening.

Amber is staying with oma at the moment, since she is off school (again!). I really think that Simon is missing her, so yesterday they had an essential brother-sister chat. Aaaaawww....

Well, back to the sewing machine before Simon wakes up!

Magazine holder

Colour is this week's theme for Whiplash.
It is the last week of the competition and it feels a bit funny to post my first entry only now.
This, however, is not because I haven't been interested before, but somehow I haven't managed to finish anything in time (for the chic to classic theme I came close -made embroidered letters and all-, but still was unable to finish it).
Anyway, I made a magazine-holder today where you can tuck away all those magazines that are littering your house (well, my house in any case). Doesn't this look a lot nicer on the coffee-table?!


It is colourful, which is just the way I like it. My house is full of orange, yellow and green. In the upstairs hallway we have six doors which we painted yellow, orange, pink, green and aqua-blue. I'll try to take a photo soon! Colours simply make me happy and personally I think you can never have enough of them :)


The holder is made of a pretty Italian placemat that was given to me a couple of months ago, some ribbon and a piece of Designer's Guild fabric with a cut-out mermaid on it.
This holder will be on its way to a mermaid-lover soon!




PS Thank you all for your kind comments about my new job! Some of you wondered what sort of job it is, which I will gladly tell you per e-mail. I don't know if you think I'm a bit paranoid, but I'd rather not have that kind of information on here :))

HAPPY!

I got the job!! I'm so happy :))))

I already called my current job to say that I'm leaving; in June I'll be working two jobs, but I don't mind that at all.
I'm going to sign my contract on Tuesday and then the week after that I have two days of courses and the week after as well. I'm so looking forward to it!!!

HAPPY!

What's wrong with you?!

Look at this creature...


Something is not right!

Eeeeh, it's a bunny without ears!!


And a very strange pointy head too!!


As you can see I made a Wee Bunny. I think this is the pattern I want to use for my BackTack softie (I have to get a move on with that!). It's nice and simple, which I think will go well with the patchwork I want to make.
I didn't forget the ears and they weren't bitten off by a fox or something, but I didn't really like them, so I thought I'd just see how it would look without the ears. A bit bald...
What do you call a bunny that has no ears and therefore isn't really a bunny?!
Another thing I wondered was whether it's head is supposed to look so pointy at the back?!
Here you can see a lot more Wee Bunnies.

About the job interview... it went very well!!
It was a nice and friendly talk in a relaxed atmosphere. We talked much longer than we were supposed to, but we just had so much to talk about.
The only thing that I found difficult was summing up some of my strong and weak points; that's so hard to say about yourself! But all in all a very positive experience and if I don't get the job then it will be because of the flexible hours they want me to work (which is hard for me because of the children) and not because I made a bad impression.
So fingers crossed... I think I'm going to hear something soon. If I get the job then they would like me to start the 1st of June!!

Wish me luck...

I have a job interview tomorrow!

(I never write about my work and I think that it's best that way. You never know who might be reading this and how things could be interpreted. This said, I'm almost completely sure that none of my collegues will read this. In fact I believe that only one of them owns a computer.)

I'm nervous, but not freaked out (good thing). I really want this job, but my life doesn't depend on it. I do need the change of environment though and I think this would be so much fun. I'm afraid the only thing that might be problematic is the kind of hours they want me to work... I hope we'll be able to find a solution for that.

I have very little experience applying for jobs and usually with these kinds of things the nerves get the better of me and I start to stammer and forget how to act normal. I hope I'm ok tomorrow. The lady on the phone sounded nice and I think the atmosphere will be informal.

Of course I had nothing to wear (I don't allow myself to buy new clothes until I loose weight...), so I had to buy something today. Fortunately the kids were angelic (yes, I had to feed them cookies and ice-cream ;)) and I actually managed to find something that I liked. Here a photo of the blouse:



I know you can't see anything :))))

And two photos of my little angels.
Amber had a playdate with two friends today and couldn't decide whether she was a princess, fairy or angel. Why not all at the same time?!


And Simon enjoying our first ever bbq in our OWN garden this weekend. It was delicious and wonderful!


PS Does your Flickr look funny too? I suppose they've changed it.

Krimpy dinky shrinky winky

Thanks everyone for all the good advice on my RSI!
I suppose the most sensible thing to do is go to the doctor, so I will do that... soon!

Just a quick post tonight to show you the krimpy dinky (or whatever they are called, I keep forgetting) pins I made yesterday. Michel is waiting impatiently downstairs with a new episode of Lost... we're at a really scary part!


So this is how my pins turned out. It was fun to do, but they aren't perfect. I don't really like the fact that the paper turned white, clear would have been nicer. And the black marker faded into yellow in the oven; I don't know why this happened. Also some of the bits look a bit overcooked :)
I need some markers in other colours too.
But all in all a fun quick thing to do.

Oh, and of course these new pins also needed a new pincushion, which I whipped up from the fabric I bought for BT3. The basis of the pincushion is made of a bottlecap, which seems to be the latest trend in pincushion land (I didn't use a tutorial but I saw a very good one on Flickr)!

Something I really don't want to talk about...

...but I'm going to admit that I think I'm starting to develop RSI.
I noticed it about two weeks ago. Pain in my wrist and arm and a numb feeling up to my shoulder. Of course I ignored it, what else I'm I supposed to do!
I took it easy on the the computer and then even easier, but the pain didn't go away. Finally I admitted it to Michel who told me to be very careful and not let this get out of hand.
However, what does this mean? Can I not use the computer at all anymore (please not that...) or should I just cut down on computertime? Will this pain (which also bothers me in other activities now) go away again and can I do something about it? Should I go to the doctor?
Even though I'm pretending that nothing's wrong, I am slightly worried...
Can anyone help me with this?

Well, after this bit of depressing talk a nice photo of a lovely package I received last week. It was actually a very special package because I'd won it!! Amy celebrated her 100th post on her blog by giving away a few presents and one of them was mine, yay!















I was so amazed when I saw what she put in it. A whole pile of wonderful fabrics which I'm going to make into concentration cards plus some goodies. Thank you so much for your generosity, Amy!!

And do you know what I'm about to do now? THIS!
I promise I'll show photos no matter how they turn out...




















Ok, just one more photo of one of the beautiful things that just grow in our garden... aren't we lucky?!

*going to give my poor arm some rest now*

Horsies

Yesterday we went to see friends who live quite far from us (in Dutch terms...). They are going to move houses soon and that's why I made them a present. I'm always admiring other people's shadowbox collages and until recently it never occurred to me that I could make something like that myself. However, the other day at Ikea I bought two shadowboxes and decided I would give it a try.
So this is my first attempt at making a paper collage; it represents their old (left) and new home (right).


The photos aren't brilliant, so here's a close-up of both houses.




I'm happy about the way they turned out. I even think that they show my style: happy and colourful. I would like to make some more in the future!

Anyway, we spent a fantastic day together here. Amber had been looking forward to riding a pony since we made this appointment four weeks ago. She was so excited that she could hardly sleep. We had our very own pony for the day which we took everywhere with us, also to the cottage we were allowed to use for the day (our friends arranged all of this).


First Amber and Simon rode the pony a bit and then Mich and I both rode a horse for the very first time in our lives! It felt so much more relaxed and natural than I thought it would be!


In the afternoon there was a dress-up-you-pony-contest, where Amber and her pony came in fourth! She was so proud.


After a bbq and some more playing we went home. Very tired and very dirty, but very happy.

Perfect day

Tuesday was a great mix of sunshine, shopping, food and just walking around without having to worry about anyone but myself.

The main reason why I wanted to go to Alkmaar was this shop:















Although of course the town itself has a lot more to offer than just Oilily.















Look at this fantastic shop we passed...















But yes, I had a good look around Oilily; both the normal shop and the outlet store. And came away with quite a lot. Of inspiration.... Because there is just no way that I could afford shopping there for the children and quite frankly I think a lot of stuff is overpriced (although the materials used are undoubtedly high quality).

Nevertheless, I did buy something (and it's May, so I'm allowed!!) :))

A shirt for Simon (chosen for the frogs... he LOVES frogs)




















And a pair of trousers:















This great fabric:















And this pretty fabric, which will become a birthday dress for Amber.















After all the walking around we had a picnic at the beach. It was a wonderful day.
Yesterday we picked up the kids again and now everything is back to normal. The wheather is spectacular, so we are soaking up every bit of sun we can. We need it so much after this looooong winter!

Childfree

The children are staying with grandma and Michel took two days of work... bliss!
Today the wheather is bad so we're using this day to sort out all the mess in the attic. Well, all the mess is impossible, but we've already achieved a lot. It might still look as messy as before, but now the piles are actually sorted!
Despite the crappy wheather we're going to get a yummy ice-cream after dinner and then watch Lost, which is our latest addiction.

Tomorrow the wheather is supposed to be very nice and I really would like to go to Alkmaar. It's a lovely town, but the best thing about it is this. I haven't been there for such a long time, so I would love to have a look around, especially at the fabrics.
After that I've planned a nice walk on the beach, but our plans might change completely tomorrow. Which is fine, because we have the whole day to ourselves!

The only not so good thing about today was the fact that our car broke down. It's in the garage right now and it's going to be really expensive to repair. It's money we don't actually have, but I really don't want to be without a car!!

The photos are of a doll I made on Friday. I made the patchwork first and then cut out the pattern for the doll. I'm quite happy with the result. I think I'm definitely going to use patchwork for my BackTack softie.


Oh and my new course started today! At last I'm going to be a good housewife :)))))