Beauty, despite everything

The world is on fire and it seems that all we can do is hold our breath. But sometimes there's beauty amidst all fear and terror. Last week the picture below (on the right side) was in  De Volkskrant. Two helicopters loading water to cool down the nucleair plant of Fukushima.  It's like a japanese design.

 I just read about the charity auction Edition Paumes is having. I might send in this one. Go to omstebeurteennieuwavontuur for more information.

This week I saw/DWZI

..... een nieuw PR. Ik niet. Zo sportief ben ik niet. Deze is voor mijn man. Afgelopen zondag  liep hij een nieuw PR op de halve marathon in Den Haag (City Pier City).

...a new PR. Not me. I'm not not that sporty. This one is for my husband. Last sunday he ran a new PR on the half marathon in The Hague.

Lino cut

It's my dad's birthday today. Men's gifts, never easy. Last year we went to the Matthäus Passion. In a concerthall, which I highly recommend. It definitely beats sitting on a hard bench in a cold church. We'll go again this year, but it seemed a bit lame to make it his gift again. So I tried something new. Lino cut.  I liked making this very much and I only needed one band-aid...

If anyone wonders: this is the church of Wons in Friesland, my father's birthtown. We've talked about it lately and he was very pleased with the print. Unfortunately I got a flat tire on my way home. And guess what; I left my cell phone at home. Grr. 

The weirdest gift ever

This must be the weirdest gift ever. For his 38th birthday I gave my brother a crowbar. Seriously, it was on his wishlist... I went to the most serious hardware store I know, but even there the jokes were obvious. "Starting a new career?"  My brother asking for tools, because he wants to build his own shed, is hilarious, knowing him. I decided to stay on the safe side and buy him a demolishing tool, that must be something he can cope with. As a funny gift on the side,  I gave him a customized nail apron (until yesterday I didn.t know this was a word in Dutch, but is in English as well?) Transferpaper on suede made it look a little 'dirty', but I guess that's not a problem for a real handyman. Happy birthday, dear brother! I made a gift tag with an eyelet. A though look, I'm sure I'm going to use it again for future boy's presents.

This week I saw/DWZI

....nieuwe uitlopers aan de leilinde genadeloos sneuvelen. De eerlijkheid gebiedt mij te zeggen dat het perspectief van de foto van het werkproces op mijn tekentafel iets meer recht doet aan mijn achterkant dan die op de foto links. Geeft niks, de bikinidagen zijn nog ver weg....

....myself pruning the limetrees. In all honesty, the perspective from the picture on the right, the one on my desk, does my back a little more justice than the left one. No panic, bikinidays won't be here any day soon...

Magic book tutorial

Edit: A warm welcome to all of you who found out about this tutorial on One Pretty Thing and Whipup,  great sites for inspiration and ideas  for all of us crafters. Nice to 'meet' you here. 


When I was a little girl, my grandfather had a little book like this. He impressed me with this trick. First the twentyfive guilder note (or something in that style) was on the crossed side of the wallet and when he flipped it over, miraculously it changed to the other side. What a grandfather he was! My mother has made a few in the past as a little give away and now I've made my own. I'm probably trespassing magician rules by telling you how I did it, but I'll take that risk! So follow me please to the tutorial.

Little boxes

Maybe you didn't like the origami geishas as much as I did, but I stay a little longer in Japan, if you don't mind. Let's make little origami boxes. I've made a whole bunch of them as a project for the school of our children. Once in a while I help crafting at school, and although I'm very content with this school, I don't think very highly of their arts and crafts educationprogram! I don't know how things work in other schools, but once I open my big mouth, I usely end up with a lot of work...

So little boxes it is. (After reading this, check You Tube for the song Little Boxes, and you won't be able to stop humming it, at least that's my experience...) Masu is the name of this little origami box, which is really easy to fold if you follow this diagram. There's no need to buy special paper, anything will do, even magazine paper, cut in squares. It's nice to make something with the children to put in the box. I've made these little frogs. They can jump for real! The diagram was in the box where the daisy paper came from (Djeco), but I found it  here too. Six year olds can do this.

And how about a bear in a box? You should be a little over six to manage this ;-).

Courtesy to Rebecca Dautremer, Het grote boek van vergeten prinsessen/ Marit Tornqvist, Ik blijf altijd bij je and Jij en ik en mijn rode fiets, for the background of my pictures!

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...)