Fabric that inspires

About six months ago a did a swap with Hippyxic.
She was very generous giving me all kinds of lovely goodies and fabric. There was one fabric in particular that I liked and that has since inspired me to make three things with it.

First a holder for Simon's babywipes... it really does make cleaning yukky babybottoms a little less yukky :)



Then I made this bookcover for Michel.





















And a couple of days ago I made this cushion. I really like it and it looks very good with the others.



The good thing is that I still have some fabric left!

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!

Fingerfood

Last night I finished the last of these six tissue holders.
I love them... they're so quick, easy and fun to make!
And these turned out even better than the ones I made before.



All those happy fabrics and ribbons are really my thing. I really enjoy photographing them too, so I made a new set for them :))



We had a great time at the weekend. We went away with friends to a cottage.
The weather was still beautiful and we did lots of fun things like this:




















and this:




















Oh, and the lovely Miss Woolly did a little feature on me on her blog... check it out!!

*edit* I just saw this tutorial on Whipup; if you'd like to make your own tissue holders but don't know where to start!

Tidies

The last couple of days I've been busy working on the presents I promised in my 100th post.
I've finished 4 tidies (wall pockets).
They are made of green Italian placemats and I wished I had another one, because I need one more tidie for one of the girls. I'm just going to have to come up with something else!











I really enjoyed making these... picking out fabrics for patchwork projects is so much fun!!

Hopefully the girls like them (also the 5th one that I' m going to make). This weekend I won't be able to do anything because we're going away for a two day break, but it's my true intention to send out all five tidies by the end of the week. And at the same time I will be sending out some very long overdue packages to these girls! *blush*
Yes, that's my good intention for next week!!




















I just saw this on Whip up; apparently other people enjoy making them too :))

Have a good weekend all!

8 days a week

Shame on me... 8 days without blogging!!
I'm so behind with everything... reading blogs, commenting, replying to e-mail. But also: housekeeping, paying bills, cooking proper meals, spending time with the children. I suppose this is what it's like when you work full-time :)
I'm not complaining though, I know this is only temporarily and I'm still very happy about the new job.

Anyway, back to bussiness! Let me introduce to you Pandior, the beautiful BT3-softie that came in the mail last week all the way from Australia.



Isn't she gorgeous?! The detail is stunning, which is especially clever when you know that it really is a very small softie. She arrived carrying her own handbag with a tiny bunny in it... so very cute!

There were also lovely presents for me (I believe I'm now the proud owner of three wonderful pieces of Japanese fabric, yay!).

And even some for the kids. This was particularly sweet, since the package arrived on Amber's birthday. Again, look at the detail... it's absolutely stunning!

Thank you so very much for this wonderful package, Amber!! I'm so happy to have had you as my BT-partner :)) And I know you're bit worried about your little Pandior... but I can assure you that she's already feeling quite at home in her new country. Here she is cheering on the Dutch team in the football World Cup!


My own BT-package is still in the mail, but hopefully Jack will arrive very soon at his new home!

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.

---

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!

---

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 :))