This week I saw/DWZI...

... een heitje voor een karweitje. Onze kinderen hebben weinig weg van padvinders, meer van geldwolven, maar een heitje voor karweitje is wel favoriet tijdverdrijf in de vakantie. De jongens splitsen zich met twee vriendjes op in twee groepen (beter voor de omzet...) en brachten oud papier en flessen weg, veegden tuinen aan en lieten een hond uit (dat hadden ze zonder heitje ook wel willen doen). Onze dochter is nog een beetje te klein om de deuren langs te gaan om een heitje voor een karweitje te doen. En dat is maar goed ook, want dan was ons huis omgetoverd in een jachtslot. Een heitje voor een geweitje....

... bob a job. (At least I think that's the English translation, please correct me if I'm wrong.) Our children are not even close to being scouts, scoundrels is more like it, but 'bob a job' is their favorite way of being busy in a schoolbreak. The boys went door to door and took away old newspapers and empty bottles for recycling, sweeped front yards and even took a dog out (which they would have done for free too). Our daughter is a bit to small for these activities. And probably that's for the best. She would have come home with antlers. She calls it 'bob an antler'. In her defence I have to explain that in Dutch, antler and job are rhyming.

Duvet cover

 Making presents is what I like most. This was a commission for friend. She's giving it to her brother and sister in law who are celebrating their 12,5 year anniversary. I've made them a duvet cover. Or actually, I bought the duvet cover at Hema and sew on their initials, and embroidered names and dates. These pictures are from the pillow covers. I hope they like it.

Sakura festival

Longing for spring must be an universal sentiment. Every year in March,  they celebrate the sakura festival in Japan. Sakura means cherry blossom. I've never been there, but it must be great to be surrounded by a sea of pink blossoming trees. You might have noticed before that I'm hooked up on origami. I made my own sakura festival, although we have to wait a little while before the cherryblossoms in our street, which are in fact prunus trees, are blossoming. I used this diagram to make the cherry blossoms. The geishas I figured out myself. I could do a tutorial if you want to make some too, please let me know (I'm pretty proud that the faces and the hair actually look like real origami.) The beautiful cherry blossom painting was done by Casper, two years ago. And what did you do in the category 'totally-useless-but-so -much-fun'? I love to hear!

DWZI/This week I saw...

Crafting genes must be strong ones! My mother was and is always crafting, mostly quilting. And although I first had to become thirty and pregnant, I'm an addict too. Drawing used to be my big love, but when I got pregnant I made babysheets and blankets. Now I need to make something every once and a while. Our sons like drawing and painting too, but aren't so keen on the fiber department. Lauren on the other hand loves yarn and fabric. She spoolknitted a long thread and now she wants to make a bag for her doll from it.  Looks good so far!

She is a busy little lady anyway. While I'm longing for spring, watching the little snowdrops grow in our yard, she wrote a story about two kids who want to make a snowman. "Let's ask my mother for a carrot", "She needs the carrot for diner",  that's about me, I guess. Luckily the boy's mother is more flexibel. "Yes, now we can start to make our snowman". It was so nice to see how determined she was to type the words down herself!

Deze week zag ik (This week I saw) is an idea of Daan and Roos, you can find out more about how to join and who's already in, on their blogs.

For Valentijn

Yesterday was Valentine's day, but today it's Valentijn's. Our youngest son had his mind set on a spoonflowerbag, just as the one I made for Casper. I showed you the fabric before. I've finished the bag today and he's so happy with it. It makes me kind of proud that my sons, who are not so little anymore, still want to go to school with a bag their mother made! Casper is going to secondary school (college?, I don't know the proper English description) after the summer and I think homemade bags are over by then!  I feel it's my day in a way too. My notebookcover tutorial was featured on One Pretty Thing, so a warm welcome to all of you who visit my blog for the first time. I hope you like it here!

Notebook cover tutorial

It wasn't the best of weeks. We were sick and had to deal with unexpected disappointment and grieve. I'll spare you the details. This was my remedy! As always, crafting has a soothing effect on me. Being busy with my hands, no time to think.

I have this thing for notebooks. And pens too, by the way. The real ones, Waterman, Mont Blanc... And those two together can be so promising. Just writing down an idea, a song, a book you want to read. While writing you can fool yourself.

I love fabric covered notebooks (have you seen the ones //Between the line// made?). This is my version. I made a cover. You can shove in a new notebook everytime you need one. This is half an hour work. It took me more time to write the tutorial! Let me show how it's done.

Edit: I wasn't satisfied with the pictures I took. Here's a second attempt.(When will there be light again?)

DWZI/This week I saw...

.... deze paar maten steeds maar weer opnieuw. Niet omdat ik ze maar niet onder de knie kan krijgen, maar omdat ik ze zóó mooi vind. Hele films spelen zich af in mijn hoofd op het moment dat ik deze maten speel. Strekking; het komt weer goed, ook al denk je nu van niet. Echt hoor, dat hoor ik erin. Ook iets onoverwinnelijks.  En dan speel ik het nog eens en nog eens. Of ik zeg tegen mijn kinderen: "Mooi he, vinden jullie het ook zo mooi?". Ja, mooi hoor, mompelen ze dan. Als mijn man voorzichtig vraagt of er nog meer mooie stukjes zijn, weet ik dat het tijd wordt om door te spelen.

...these few bars over and over again. Not to study them thoroughly, but because they're sóó beautiful. Complete motion pictures in my head. All about: things will turn out right, although you can't see it now. Really, that is what I hear in these bars. There's also something invincible about it.  And then I play it again and again. And say to the children:"Oh, so beautiful, don't you think it's beautiful?". Yes, they think it's beautiful. When my husband kindly informs wether there are other beautiful pieces, I know it's time to move on.

Laughing lemon meringue pie

It's my husband's birthday today. Although it will be Sunday before we have everyone over, I thought it would be a nice gesture to make his favorite pie for dessert. It's a lemon meringue pie. With a laughing lemon in it..

Last year for his birthday, I made a drawing from him, from the back. This year I made a portrait upfront from myself. Although I like to be somewhat anonymous, I post a little picture of it. In the end, this blog intended to be a journal of the things I make. (And I happen to make a pretty good lemon meringue pie...)