We don't celebrate Valetine's day here like they do in some other places around the world but if you are like me browsing blogland it is hard to not notice all the red, pink, hearts etc... so I could not help myself and had to make this felt heart garland to go with my re-newed red doll set that will be in the shop from today! I used to sell a red doll set but this one is a bit diffrent and comes with a piece of fabric to make a Paris skirt & bag. Hope you like it!
Do you remember the book I showed you with all those lovely dress up clothes, I made a dress for Sofia and Mila for christmas based on a pattern in that book. The dress that they choose me to make was the dress of Peau d'Ane, it was quite some work, the skirt has 3 layers and the body is lined with cotton but the girls love them. I wanted to make pictures before but with the weather being so grey it's quite difficult to make good pictures. I also made a cape, not with fake fur (way to pricy) but with velvet that I had laying around for years, I lined it with taft and it was terrible sewing this, so slipery....but the look on Mila's face when she put it on was so worth it! Happy weekend!!
The last few months I have seen a lot of rabbits and dolls (sets) fly away to places all over the world ( and I would have loved to go with them ;-) I wanted to share some pictures with you of them in their new homes. I love seeing how the dolls and rabbits come to live and get their little outfits....I want to see more... so if you have made a rabbit or doll with my set please send me a picture or link so I could see it and perhaps share some more her on my blog! (if you made something with my screenprinted fabrics I love to see that too!!) 
I'm pretty busy sewing up these rabbits and dolls for a shop in Rotterdam, I took some pictures in the process and played around with arms and legs. While sewing these I'm thinking about a designing a new doll/creature I have some ideas already, now I just have to find some time....
As I showed you before we are busy drawing birds, yesterday Mila made these two lovely birds with black fineliner and aquarel paint, aren't these pretty! I can't wait to see what she makes next!
Look what the postman brought us last week, a lovely package from Joscha (Mus-blog) Sofia & Mila did a swap with her, they send her two handmade houses (like the ones from the wintermarket) and she made these pretty stamps for the girls based on the birtday themes. You can understand that we looovvve them and they will be used a lot!!
On friday our kitchen became a chocolate atelier, together with Sofia, Mila and a friend we made lots of diffrent chocolates as a present for my mother ( and of course keep some to taste...). For the packaging the girls where inspired by a very nice chocolate shop in Rotterdam called "de Bonte koe", I made the origami box and they drew the shop logo. The chocolates turned out great and taste even better than they look! 
I made a small tutorial on how to make this felt flower garland, to brighten up your day. I'm really enjoying making these tutorials and hope you do to!! You can find the whole tutorial here...
After gathering images from the internet and in our head it's time to start to put some things on paper. I made a little note book for Mila to write/draw all her ideas for her party, we started to draw birds & feathers and colleting bird related items we have in our house. We already came up with some possible activities for the party, a bird quiz, making a bird cage out of paper and making some sort of birdfood. Of course if you have any ideas we love to hear them.... ( click on the top picture to see it bigger so you can read what she writes...so cute)
As I told you I have a lot of scraps and I want to give them a good use. I'm very happy to read in the comments that I'm not the only one holding on to these tiny pieces and so great to hear all your ideas what to do with them! I've started an other project with my scraps and will make a tutorial for it. I will be making a hot water bottle cover, I have one already but it's quite boring. Intrested in the tutorial...I will post it in a few days.
I don't know about you but I save all my small scraps of fabric and put them in big plactic containers and my collection of scraps keeps on growing. So now and then I try to come up with big or smaller projects to use my scraps and make them into something. This time I made a blanket for my sister as a present for her birthday. Mila helped me to sort all the blue and white fabrics and I sewed big strips and sewed those together, for the other side I used a fleece blanket I bought, you can find similar ones at Ikea. What do you do with your scraps?
Some of you might know already that I love organizing & decorating the birthday parties of my daughters. Although it's still january we already started planning the party of Mila (23 of march), we started to talk about themes and came up with a vintage bird theme ( the vintage twist coming from me of course!). Mila's birthday is in the beginning of spring and Mila loves nature and animals and so we came up with the birds theme. We are now collecting ideas for decoration, food, craftprojects and games, a great way to start a party theme is to make a moodboard, not a real one but a board on Pinterest ( my new love.....), it's a great way to bring all the ideas/ looks that you find on the internet together. 
As promised here a small tutorial to make the paper houses, these are the same as the white ones but I felt I needed a bit more colour today as it's a very rainy grey day here. I used some paper of my favourite magazine (FLOW), you can find the whole tutorial here......
Yesterday evening I spend all night behind my computerscreen to give this blog a new look, I had this change in my mind for sometime and hope you like it too. It's not completly finished yet I have to add some things here and there. One of the reasons I changed the look of the blog is to make it more simple and useable. Under the header you find some catagories you might find interesting. This year I would like to start sharing more tutorials and want to give them a more visible place. I like the new look and hope you like it too! I would love to hear your what you think. 
I really enjoy baking cakes and will take any possiblity to bake one, a family favourite is this Hungarian chocolate cake called "rigo jancsi". My grandmother used to make this and we all loved it, my sister and I tryed to get her recipe by looking at her making the cake and lots of tasting and both came up with our own variation. I cannot wait for the day that Sofia and Mila will make this cake for their loved ones! The cake is for dessert tonight after our christmas dinner (the orthodox one, the girls love the fact of celebrating chritmas twice ;-)
I'm in love with houses lately....not normal houses to live in but minature, paper, sweet houses. I wanted to show you these white paper houses Mila and Sofia made for christmas, we put a fake tea light in the middle and that gives such a great effect in the evening. The felt garland they made for the wintermarket and in the jars are felt pieces and thread to make your own garland (little stickers are drawn by Mila) The houses are quite simple to make but if anyone likes me to make a small tutorial just let me know!
You know I love organizing the birthday parties of my two sweet girls ( we are already talking about Mila's 8th birthday party in March ;-) and when planning these parties I love flipping through my Martha Stewarts kids magazines, I love them so much and they give me so much inspiration. Browsing the net I found this magazine of Donna Hay, a special kids party issue, I think it looks great and I would love to get my hands on it, so if you are in Australia and have the magazine for me we could do a swap. Intrested? Please send me a mail or leave a comment and I will contact you! 
I'm busy tidying up my studio te get ready for the new work year, including sorting out my screenprinted fabrics. I love composing these remnants sets, I think they would be great to make into a cushion of use for smaller projects like needle books and key hangers. You can buy the sets here. I've also added some more kokeshi/babuska sets to the shop, you can find here.
Yesterday our kitchen became a little chocolate factory, together with Mila and Sofia I made all sorts of chocolates, some of them we packed in some origami boxes to hand out as teachers gifts. Now it's time to get back to work and blogging, it was so nice to have a little break but it also feels so nice to start again and start with a new fresh year.
