Big girl, small shoes

Amber has achieved something that took many months (years?), tears and a whole lot of courage.
For that she deserved a reward...




















Tiny shoes that are impossible to walk on!
She was like Cinderella's step-sister trying to wriggle into these, but you should see how happy she looks when she has them on :))

Now what was the big project that we finally managed to tackle? She now sleeps without a nappy (diaper for you Americans) and that's a BIG deal!
It's been a long road for her, but apparently the time was right now. It's been more of a mental struggle than a physical one; she was just scared to go to sleep without a nappy.















However, on Monday morning -after another dry night- she earned her final sticker and that was that.




















We're so proud of you, little big girl!!




















Simon fell out of the tree... does he care? No way!




















And how do you like my new sunglasses? These were the only remotely normal ones that I could find!! Michel now calls me Queen Bee Bling Bling. Well, this will be the summer of the bee then :)

This 'n that

The past three days have been filled with cleaning, sorting, biking, sewing and not thinking about chocolate. To begin with the last, the diet is going very well... -4,5 kilos already! I'm proud to say that I've been very strict, not even licking my fingers when I made sandwiches for the children.

Ofcourse I've been trying out my bike lots. On Sunday we went for a proper tour. I started out with Simon in front and Amber behind, later Amber switched to Michel's bike. Man, it feels good to be cycling again... I even used it to do the weekend shopping!




















And I can't tell you how much fun it is to have Simon so close to me. I never had that with Amber, she was always sitting in the backseat.
The only thing was that when we got home the children were very cold... luckily they defrosted over a cup of hot chocolate. Sorry babes, we'll put on more clothes next time!















The bit of sewing that I did was a new blanket. We needed another one, because Michel and I kept fighting over the one we had.




















I haven't been able to take decent photos of it, because there was hardly any light and the blanket was already wrinkled from use. I love the colours though, nice and bright and hardly any orange or yellow in it ;)) I will add it to my collection.
I wished it were this easy to transform my sofa!



And last but not least, have you heard of MOO yet? They make mini-cards that I think are supercute! I just ordered 100 using my Flickr-photos and I can't wait to get them!

Crafting with Amber

Amber and I have done quite a bit of crafting lately.

Our latest project was this string of lampshades for her room. She got the box with all the material from Sinterklaas, all we had to do was put it all together and embellish it the way we liked.

They're now finished and I think they turned out pretty cute. I would like to put them around her mirror.

Another thing we made the other day was a calendar for December.

Amber loves to countdown the days when there is a special occassion coming up (e.g. her birthday or a holiday). Usually we just use a sheet of paper on which she draws and I write the days in squares, so she can easily cross them off. This December, however, is so packed with special days that we decided to do it a little fancier (just a little!).

Basically I just covered a big piece of cardboard with red fabric while she cut small bits of blue paper on which I wrote the date. We placed these on the board with colourful thumbtacks and after a bit of golden ribbon was added we were finished. So simple, but lots of fun to make. Now Amber enjoys crossing off each day and it's easy for her to see what exciting things are happening in the near future (Sinterklaas, Christmas, staying over at the omas, Laura coming to Holland etc).

Tonight we're going to buy and put up our Christmastree... we're all looking forward to it! Ofcourse, these will also find a pretty spot in the tree.

Sick babies

Like last year... poor little 'uns.

But we're not the only ones feeling poorly... good luck all you mamas and babies!

Meanwhile, I finally switched to Beta Blogger. What do you think; a bit too bright (you all know I like it colourful :))? It's very user friendly though. I think I'm happy with it; I just need to change the banner a bit.

Ok, caring required... bye everyone!

Sewing partner

I've found myself a crafting companion:




















Be still my proud motherheart!
Amber has been showing interest in sewing for quite some time now, but I just never found the time to sit down with her and show her how to do it (yes, terrible, I know). Until we were on holiday in Germany, where we had plenty of quiet moments together.
I was amazed at how quickly she picked up the stitches. She could blanketstitch after just having shown her once! The only problem is that after a little while she gives up and I have to finish the rest. However, for now I'm just happy that she shows any interest at all and that she learns some basics.




















We made these decorations yesterday. She cut out all the rounds and she sewed a bit. Right now we are making stars.














My plan is to put together a little sewing basket for her for Christmas. I just wonder what to put in it, because it needs to be safe for a 5-year-old. But e.g. blunt needles don't sew as well as sharp ones... any tips on that?!
Well, better get back to those stars before we start making the dough for the pizza... this a GOOD saturday :))

Just some things I love

The most beautiful double rainbow that I've ever seen (on our anniversary no less)












My chocolate mousse (and so easy to make)

Amber happily modelling her new dress

Our first piece of real art (but that deserves a post all to itself)

Have a good day all!

Beauty & the beast

This horrendous creature is my husband on his 30th birthday (yesterday). Welcome to the club, darling!!
I believe they say that men grow more handsome as they get older... let's hope so!!

Party pillow

Today our little cousin/niece Sarah is one year old!
Happy birthday!















Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the party today, because I have to work, but I will add to the heap of presents with this cushion I made.















Green and blue are the colours in her room, so that's what I used.
I bought the fabric from the back for a summerdress for Amber about two years ago. Shame on me for not having made a dress yet... there is enough fabric left for the dress, so next spring I'm definitely going to make one :)
















I hope Sarah likes the cushion (doesn't a one-year-old like anything that's wrapped in pretty paper?!) and that she'll have a great birthday today!

Peace bringing angels

Hello folks, I'm back!



We enjoyed a lovely quiet holiday in Germany.
We did exactly what we wanted to do and so we relaxed like there was no tomorrow. And I'm so happy to say that it all did us worlds of good. Michel and I were both feeling exhausted and unwell when we left and the children both had an awful cough. But after some much needed sleep, our health improved and our heads cleared. I really feel energized enough now to face the busy times that lay ahead of us.

Anyway, I'll write some more about our holiday soon. I just want to show you the crafting that I've been able to do. At the last minute I had packed some felt and embroidery thread not knowing what I was going to do with it. However right on the first day I knew I wanted to make Christmas decorations, so that's what I did.



I made 12 Poppe-angels that will probably go in the Christmas tree when it's time for that (seems such a long time from now!).
They were so much fun to make and I really enjoyed the freestyle- embroidery I did. I really don't know how to embroider at all :)

I want to keep these little dolls as remainders of my peaceful time on holiday. Hopefully I'll be able to recapture that relaxed feeling even when things start to become more stressful around here.
And just to proof they really are angels (or half-angel/half-fairy as Amber states)... they have wings!

Yet another milestone!

Some weeks we have so many milestones to celebrate that it overwhelms me a bit. The children seem to be particularly clever/witty/grown-up/sweet etc. lately!

This Thursday Amber went to her first swimminglesson, something that she'd been looking forward to very much. This is her and her friend before the lesson with the fish they just picked out (pink naturally). This 'rainbow-fish' will be gradually filled with coloured scales as they'll be preparing themselves for their diplomas.



The lesson started off swimmingly (sorry).



The girls dived right in with the other children, but after about 30 minutes Amber suddenly started to cry saying that she didn't like it and didn't want to do it anymore. Oh dear! I'm still not quite sure what was wrong, but I suspect it's the teacher who has quite a loud voice and an American accent. Even when she's giving out compliments, she sounds as if she's angry. Nevertheless, I managed to calm her down and the rest of the lesson went fine.

Here is Amber showing off the fish with their first well-earned scales while Simon is playing hide-and-seek in the lockers:



It was disgustingly hot inside the pool while we were watching the lesson. Poor Simon had to be still and quiet while we were there. At one point he got so bored that I caught him chewing Amber's fish... he actually took little bites of foam!! We distracted him with a chocolate-drink before he was able to eat the whole fish :))

Time-out

I can't believe a week has passed without blogging. Life seems to be racing by at the moment and I'm running to keep up. More on that some other time, or not... perhaps if I just ignore it it will go away.
(Nothing serious going on by the way, just T.O.O. much!)



Nevertheless, today was a good, relaxing day. I decided to leave the household-mess for another day and spend some much needed quality-time with the children.
Nothing too exciting, but very valuable: shopping with Simon, some time spent in the garden, and in the afternoon we went mushroom-searching in the forest. I'll show photos of that soon.



Simon had a great time picking all the remaing tomatoes of the plants in our garden (he was allowed :)) and Amber and I arranged them nicely and took photos. The result is lovely, don't you think?



Take care everyone!

PS My first package arrived, yay!

The rounds

Do you have a strict routine surfing the internet too?!

Bloglines is my starting page and after scanning that quickly I then open my e-mail.
I have three different accounts for different purposes. I *heart* getting mail; unfortunately I've also been receiving lots and lots of spam recently.

Then I go to Flickr. There is always so much to do there!! First I read the new comments. Then I check my views, the new photos of my contacts and my groups.
By the way I just started two new Flickr-groups: Placemats and Tissueholders. Come and have a look and join if you like :)

Whilst checking e-mail and Flickr I'm also reading the new posts of my favourite blogs and leave comments as much as I can.

These are the three most important things I do on the internet. But ofcourse there are many other places that I like to visit, such as here (for the latest news and weather), and here (for the best laughs), and here, and here.

A website that I also really love is Craftygirls. If you're interested in Dutch crafty life then this is the place to be. Here you find crafty projects, links to crafty people/shops and ofcourse there's the forum where I like to hang out :)
There is also a monthly goodiebag for sale with promotional mini-items. The next will be up for sale tomorrow 20.30h and I've donated some goodies too this month!

All this checking on blogs and websites keeps me content and occupied for a long time. Sometimes so long that Michel gets irritated and asks me: What on earth are you doing all the time?! To which I always answer: Oh, just doing the rounds!
So I'm just going to do a quick last round and then I go downstairs to my lovely hubbie who waits for me with tea and chocolate!

Just a photo of some fun we had today. Is Amber wearing her pyjamas in the middle of the day?! Well, yes she is! I tried to have her take a nap, because she's been quite tired these last days, but ofcourse she wouldn't sleep!

Cushion extravaganza

This weekend I finally finished the three cushions that I started oh so long ago!



I had some doubts about the colour-combos and wasn't sure whether they would turn out to my liking. Suddenly I realised what they needed though... a yellow border.
Now they are as bright and cheerful as I wanted them to be. And they make my shabby sofa not look so shabby anymore :))



For Simon's birthday I just had to make him a cushion as well. Why? Because I made one for Amber's birthday too, of course! Michel was a bit worried that I was going to make a girly cushion for him, but he can relax... this cushion is perfectly suitable for a boy, isn't it?!


I wanted to make an I spy cushion, because Simon is really starting to talk (a lot!) right now. He is literally learning new words and sentences everyday. He is able to identify all the images on the cushion... even if it is just broom-broom and clack-clack sometimes!


By the way, almost all the fabrics I used I received from Amy a couple of months ago, for which again I say thanks!


Until so far this cushion extravaganza, but since I LOVE making cushions, I'm sure there will be new ones in the future!


For other people's cushions see the Flickr-group.

And a good time was had by all

(I love his little hands on this photo!!)

It was a glorious day yesterday.
The wheather was beautiful and warm.
We had lovely guests, who brought many gifts.



There was robotcake



And frog decoration



And most important of all... the birthday boy had a wonderful day!!



Some more photos here.