This week I saw/ DWZI....

...een oud idee in een nieuw jasje. Wat goed is, blijft. De tekening links maakte ik voor de zevende verjaardag van Valentijn, nu drie jaar geleden. Oh wat was hij dol op het jackie wat hij daar draagt. Hij heeft het gedragen tot de mouwen tot halverwege zijn armen kwamen. Daarna heeft zijn neefje het afgedragen. Van sommige kledingstukken is het lastig afscheid nemen. Rechts zie je een detail van een kussen dat ik voor het zoontje van mijn beste vriendin maakte. Hij vierde gister zijn eerste verjaardag.

...re-use of an idea. Sometimes an three year old idea still holds its value. The drawing on the left I made voor Valentijn on his seventh birthday. The jacket he's was an all time favourite. He wore it forever and after that my nephew did. Some clothes are hard to say goodbye to! On the right a detail from a pillow I made for my best friend's son who celebrated his first birthday yesterday.

Valentine's garland

Do you celebrate Valentine's day? We don't, really. Although I like to be given perfume, chocolate and flowers. Little boxes from my favorite jeweller are even better. I think my not-so-secret Valentine knows these things, he also knows I like these things all year.  That sounds greedy, ha! Back to the simple things in life.  I thought it would be nice to 'pink' things up a little. I'm fed up with grey clouds and rain, aren't you? I made this little garland and wrote  a tutorial for you. Click here for more.

To do

This weekend I visited the 'Berlage Totaal' exhibition in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. My eldest son wants to become an architect (he's 11 now...) and decided to write his paper for school about Berlage, the famous Dutch architect. The Gemeentemuseum happens to be one of my favorite museums, so this was a good opportunity for the both of us. We had a lot of fun together. Sometimes it's nice to do something one on one. It's a pity the weekend is so short. Saturdays go up in smoke watching them play soccer and field hockey, so there's just the Sunday for this sort of things!

I also finished my Sheherazade quilt. Apparently it works for me to publish a to-do list here!  Well, one of the to-do's on my list is concerning our other son. He wants me to make him the same bag I did for Casper. So I ordered fabric at Spoonflower again. To be continued...

Deze week zag ik/This week I saw....

...oude en vergeelde foto's van mijn familie. Ik wil een soort collage aan de muur maken van  oude foto's en een paar cyanotypes (blauwachtige afdrukken) waar ik erg van hou. Dit kleine bordje van porcelein kocht ik via Etsyshop van Sometimes She Does en dat brengt de kleuren mooi bij elkaar. Ik wacht met spanning op de post. Zelf probeerde ik nog iets illustratiefs te doen met de foto's. Mijn schoonvader (boven) kreeg en passant een ander kapsel (zeg nou zelf) en mijn beppe (het kleinste meisje onder) kleurde ik in zoals het ongeveer geweest moet zijn. Deze foto is op Koninginnedag genomen. Koningin Wilhelmina vierde Koninginnedag in augustus en de meisjes dragen oranje sjerpen om hun witte jurkjes. Deze foto is denk ik uit 1912. 

... old family photographs. I like to make some sort of collage of old pictures, together with some cyanotypes (blueprints) I love very much. This little plate I bougth at the Etsy store of Sometimes She Does will bring both colors beautifully together. Just waiting for the mail to bring it to me! I tried to do something creative myself with those pictures of my father in law (upper) and my grandmother (lower). This picture is taken on Queens day, the girls are wearing orange sashes on their white dresses. It must have been 1912 or so.

Pillow

In an earlier post I told you about opening a little shop. I did, but I'm having some problems to solve with IDeal payment and other boring stuff.  In the meantime I put a few things in an Etsy shop and that was so easy, that I can't remember why I thought having my own webshop was better. Please have a look, if you like. I wasn't planning on making stuff for a shop though. What I would like to do most, is to make something special, as a commission. Just as the presents I use to make (and will continue to) for my loved ones. If you're interested, please send me an e-mail.

Last week I made this pillowcover. I started it a month ago as a present for a friend of Lauren, but I was to sick to finish it by then. The applique was inspired by the illustrations of Okamoto Kiichi. We bought her another present, but I finished the cover anyway, so I listed it in my shop. Hmm, I like the sound of that!

Circusbag

And this is how the bag looks! I've read about fabric overloads here and there, and I sure recognize the 'problem'. It feels satisfying  when I don't have to buy anything, no trims, no magnets, no interfacing, no pretty fat quarters at all, and yet make something pretty. But on the other hand, sometimes I play around with the fabric in my closet and suddenly know why it's been there for years. So I'm pretty sure my fabric-buying-addiction will not disappear any day soon. The red and white striped canvas has been there for ages. For the bag it might have been prettier to use smaller stripes, but then I would have gone out to buy some. And if I  had some lighter blue starry fabric I would have used it, to avoid any similarity with the American flag. The inspiration from the circus  is still going around in my head, so maybe I'll make another circusthemed item soon.

Deze week zag ik/This week I saw...

... the greatest show on earth. Op mijn bureau. Ik dacht na over een ontwerpje voor een circustas voor mijn nichtje die zondag 3 wordt. Deze potloden zijn de meest geweldige uitvinding sinds het wiel! Luminance van Caran d'Ache, ze kosten een klein fortuin maar ik heb nog nooit zulke fijne potloden gehad. Maandag meer over de tas.

...the greatest show on earth. On my desktop. I was thinking about a design for a circus bag. These crayons are the biggest invention since the wheel. They cost a small fortune, but I never had better ones. Luminance from Caran d'Ache. I'll show the bag on Monday.

Little red riding hood

When I was working on this doll, I asked my children what she should be. Aurora, the sleeping beauty, Rapunzel or little Red riding hood. I've to admit they rooted for Aurora, but once I made the hair, with the kind of oldfashioned Germanstyle braids, little Red riding hood was born. By the way, I think she got Bette Davis eyes, don't you? .

At the end of the week the shop will be opened and she's for sale! I'll keep her for a few days to  enjoy the result of my 'hard work.

Deze week zag ik/ This week I saw...

.... de kleine tekeningetjes die ik maakte tijdens onze meivakantie in Zuid Frankrijk, tot een boekje worden. Elke dag tekende ik een blad vol met de dingen van die dag. We gaan al een paar jaar achter elkaar naar de Esterelkust en iedere keer was het prachtig weer. Met dit 'micro-klimaat' lokte ik mijn broer om ook met zijn gezin die kant op te komen. Deze keer regende het bijna iedere dag zure appelen, met een enkele uitzondering. Het woord  'micro-klimaat' heb ik nog vaak moet horen. Ik heb nu een fotoboek gemaakt bij de Hema met deze dagboektekeningen en de foto's van die vakantie. Vandaag kan ik het ophalen! Ook heb ik een jaarboek gemaakt met alle foto's buiten de vakanties om. Ik vond het zo zonde dat die andere foto's maar stonden weg te stoffen op mijn harde schijf. Toen we nog rolletjes ontwikkelden, zochten we een bankje voor diezelfde Hema uit om de foto's te bekijken. Die hooggespannen verwachting mis ik wel in dit digitale tijdperk.

... the little cartoonlike drawings I made in the holiday we had in May 2010, turn into an album.  I made a sheet full of these little sketches a day,  when we spent our springvacation in the South of France. Unlike other years it was raining cats and dogs and that while I persuaded my brother and his family to come too, luring him with this 'micro-climate' on the Esterel coast... The word 'micro-climate' keeps coming back ever since.  I've made a photoalbum at Hema with these little drawings and pictures, which I can collect today! I also made an album for 2010, for all of our non holiday related pictures. I missed having photoalbums since the digital camera found its way to our home! In the analog days we picked a bench in front of that same Hema and went through the pictures that were just developed. In a way I miss that sense of expectation.

Sherazade quilt

Happy New Year to all of you! I made three New Year's resolutions. The picture above implicates the first two.  Finishing some projects and not being such a perfectionist. So I  show you a poor picture of a quilt that isn't finished by far. 1001 Nights I named it. I considered other names lately, Who's afraid of Arabism might be a good one, as my own little civilian protest. Or Sherazade to emphasis the importance of telling stories. I embroidered the hand of Fatima for no other reason than being in an embroidery mood. When I thought of what to do with it next, these bellydancers came up. I made them from little scraps and fixed them with vliesofix. I stitched a small line with chainstitches along the edges of the fabric. The white threads you see are just for 'sandwiching', getting the top, the back and the layer in between together. I'll remove them when I'm done quilting. And please remind me of showing you the finished quilt regularly!

My third resolution is to finally open my shop! This shop is an answer to all those people who said to me "You're so creative, you should do something with that". Making gifts is apparently not 'doing something with it'. I love making things, I love making beautiful gifts for other people, so a shop might be a good idea! Just a couple of days and Vervlogen Dagen de winkel, will be open!