Friday Finds

Can you believe October is almost over? My goodness. In two weeks Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands already. It's crazy.

Do you need holiday season gift making inspiration? I found a great site with many ideas. I browsed through all 20 pages of the sewing and quilting area and came across a few things I might make as a gift. Of course I can't tell which one as people might start guessing what I will make them. But go over there and do you own browsing. They also have a lot of paper craft ideas and kids crafts. Oh and don't forget to see the cute tags they have up there.

Website: FiskarCrafts.com

2 bags and a song

A few weeks ago I placed this Dutch post about a PIF. I received a gift and had to find 3 people to send a gift to. Only Carolien entered and I sent her and Jantina who sent me her PIF each a handmade by me messenger bag. I made it out of a burda pattern I had laying around.

I asked both of them the color of their wintercoat. Carolien has an army green coat so I made her the left bag out of a pretty coupon I bought at Nijhof. . Jantina has a grey coat, so I could use the cool plaid fabric I found in a thrift store a while back.

And since some people now might hit themselves in the head for not entering, enjoy this uplifting song that always brightens my day.

Linking this to the following party:

Me as a vampire zombie

We don't really celebrate Halloween big time over here in the Netherlands. But I could not resist the Halloween gadget on Picnic. Just go to the website, upload a photo and click on the create tab. Have fun! And don't be shy to share the result please...

Healing heart

This was lesson 2 in the course about drawing white on black. Where lesson 1 was about finding your inner light, lesson 2 was more about letting that light work for you. At least, that is how I experienced it.

A great insight was that the course leader told us that to draw light, you normally leave parts of your drawing white. You don't use any color there, socalled functional white. But when you draw on black paper, you actually have to draw the light using a white pencil. So the experience is quite different.

For this drawing we put our hands on the paper and traced them. I had the palms of my hand facing up. I connected my hands with a heart that shines a bright healing light. The name of this drawing is healing heart. That goes two ways. First of all it is all about healing my own heart and second it shows how I heal others with my heart when using my hands to take their pain. That is why I used the spirals of the chakra's to overlap the heart chakra.

I am giving this one a special place on the wall of the room in the house I use for my healings. I think it is great in both technique and symbolic behind it.

Owls and things

This is a picture of what I sent to Hoodwinked on a profile swap following up on the swap-bot meeting we had. There's a FQ of fabric, a tissue case holder, a little stuffed owl and a leather agenda I painted with white paint.

It was the first time I tried this, but I really like the result! Too bad I had already bought myself a 2011 agenda when I made this, or I would have kept it to myself ;-)

The pattern of the owl is available for free on Robert Kaufman. I made the small one, but I am sure the bigger one would make a great holiday gift as well.

Linking this on:

Friday Finds

Pretty, right!? It is easy to love with my passion for the mandala, but even if you are not into that, this is still a stunning piece of art.

Look at the vibrant colors. This is some inspirational art! It is made by Anahata Katkin. She makes collages just like the ones above. I find it so inspirational and jaw-dropping stunning.

You can buy some great things in the shop her mom runs for her. I would love to get my hands on to some cards or a 2011 agenda. But for now I will stick to browsing through her blog and allow myself to be inspired by all the beauty she makes.

Family Fun Sunday pictures part 2

Juri and me and my messy hair thanks to the wind.
Sister love! Hard to see but I am wearing a dress full of owls. The cutest thing really.

Family Fun Sunday

So, last Friday was my birthday. I never really celebrate, but I always invite my family over for an afternoon and than we eat together and they head home again. They live about an hour and a half drive away, which for Dutch is a long long drive. (I know for Americans that is a piece of cake..).

I live across a small lake with a beach and my 4-yo nephew Jamy always insists on going there. So, the whole family put their coats on and to the beach we went.

Pictures say more than 1000 words right? Well, meet my crazy family. The above picture is the result of playing on the beach.


Here's my sister Joyce and her family. She has 2 beautiful punks and it is simply impossible to take their pictures.
Here's my baby sister carrying her baby. She and her boyfriend are expecting their little kid in January. See....nut-cases as well.

Both brothers-in-law goofing around.
And then....the parents. The example to us all... And no, they did not fall into the water thank goodness, but they were close and we were all screaming.

Ashley is waving at her crowd.
Jamy loves to play Juliana Jones (Indiana Jones...) on the Wii.

And I now realize that the picture of Juri and me is on my sisters camera, so hold on tight for that one, but don't hold your breath..

We had an afternoon of great family fun and I can't wait to turn 29 for a 5th time!

A Brand New Purse

In my Google Reader I ran into a tutorial on Sew a Straight Line of a 'purse' I immediately wanted to make. I was looking for a new pattern to make a bag for myself to match my black winter coat.

I had this funky IKEA fabric hanging around in my fabric corner. Isn't it just perfect for this project? I love the colors on it.

As a liner I used this dots in green soft, a little shiny cotton fabric. I like my liner in a light color so I can easily find my things, even in a darker place. And see how I inserted a zipper? That's not in the original tutorial, but I used my Bag Making Bible to help me get this job done.

All in all this was a great tutorial to follow and including all the cutting and inserting zippers (I did the optional zip pocket inside as well) it took me approximately 6 hours to make. I guess my sewing skills are improving, as my summer bag took me 10 hours. But I used it day in day out for the past 3 months and I am planning on same for this brand new bag.

Friday Finds

Through the blog of Heidi I ran into this amazing owl lovers calender on My Owl Barn.

A dream I hope will come true

Tomorrow is my birthday. Proudly turning 29 for the 4th time;)

Summer of 2009 I went on a creative/yoga holiday in France with 2 friends. We each picked a different kind of art to do and I worked with clay. I had a rough period behind me with examinations to see if the cysts on my ovary were standing in the way of becoming pregnant.

It turned out they did not, so I was very VERY happy and relieved. I wanted to get rid of the belief that the cysts were in the way, so I needed something to visualize myself carrying a little baby.
This was the project I made myself do for a week. Needless to say I went through a lot that week besides the fun and laughters with friends.

But the clay had to be heated in an oven when I returned from France and I had no suitable oven. So, the sculpture was in a corner waiting and waiting.. until about a month ago I had a client for a healing and she turned out to be an artist working with clay, having an oven! And she lives in my town. So I asked her if she could bake my sculpture for me.

Last week she phoned. It was ready. And somehow it finally feels something is closed and now manifested. Will I get the best birthday present ever this month? Because all year I can let go and trust, but every year when I turn a year older, it feels the clock starts ticking faster.

On my birthday I wish I may give birth one day. Let's go out and buy birthday candles to put on my cake.

Crafting failure

A few times a year I have a date with 2 high-school friends. Last Sunday they came to my house. After tea we went for a nice loooooooong exhausting walk in nature. It was fun, we felt old, so I guess we really pushed ourselves.

Back home and after some more tea, I took some FIMO clay out that I recently took bought. I just wanted to try it once. We tried to make hangers, but.....I guess we really pushed ourselves here as well.
S. went purple and green where M. picked up the yellow and suddenly had sort-of-birds instead of flowers. I took whatever blue she had left to finish my pinkish flower-wanna-be. Can you believe we all followed the same pattern?
Need I say it did not quite turn out as expected? I am sticking to sewing and drawing again from here on.

Flickr Favorites

1. Giethoorn Nederland

2. #811 Beekhuizerzand (NL) - Holländische Wüste
3. Laagstaande zon. Bijna avond aan de Knardijk
4. Zuid-Limburg

Every week I play along with Mitsy to show some of my favorites over on Flickr. This week I choose a variety of Dutch sceneries. We are thinking of going away for 1 night in our own little country just to escape a daily routine for a bit. Okay...and to escape my birthday end of this week to be honost.

Isn't it amazing that in a country 300km long and 100km wide there are so many different types of landscapes? And I did not even add the seaside yet, the windmills and our beautiful old cities. Too much to choose from. Where to go for one night?

The lady and her apron

Once a month on Saturday I teach 2 mandala classes in the Dutch town Roosendaal. It is about an hour and a half drive from where I live now, but it is the town I was born and where my whole family lives.

Classes there are packed this season. The location where I used to teach (a building in my parents backyard) is now too small so I am hiring space in a community building.

Last Saturday was the first time I was there. When I finished at 4 pm, an elderly lady and her husband were standing at the door. They must have been in their eighties. They told me they were coming to set up a crafty market for the next day. Seriously. A crafty market. I was amazed. The lady started telling me that she started a crafty group 41 years ago. In their best days there were 30 men and women there every week sewing, crocheting, knitting and chatting. But she said she was sad to see that now there were only 4 of them left. Most moved away, stopped crafting or even died already. With pain in her heart she decided to stop the group and sell all their works and left over supplies in Sunday.

I stayed a little to make them coffee and tea and to chat some more with the lady. She was amazed that I said that the other day I had 20 crafty girls over at my house and that we sew, crochet and knit. Her face changed from tears of pain to tears of happiness. She could not believe it! She thought that crafting would die with her generation.
I asked her to show me some of the things she was going to sell next day as I would not be able to come but I love quality handmade things.


She walked over to one specific box and told me how she has been making aprons for 30 years. How in the old days aprons had only one big pocket and how she came up with putting 2 pockets on them and how women LOVE that. The glow on her face was beautiful. She pulled an apron out of the box and I was amazed. Not only because it was sewn with so much care, but because she also had these hand embroider ribbons on them. And when I said I definitely wanted to buy this particular one from her she said it was Eur 6,50. And right after: cheap isn't it?

I could not buy that for 6,50! I gave her the ten I had on me and I told her that I still think it wasn't enough but basically it was what I had left in my wallet. She said she was very sad that her group stopped and she asked me if I would think of the old lady I bought the apron from every now and then. I assured her I will and that I can only dream that I will still be hand making things when I reach her age.

After that I went to visit my sister and her two punks. The youngest is a 3yo girl, Ashley. We share a love for drawing and crafting. I hope she will keep crafting until she is 80 as well. This this time she wanted to bake pancakes with me. I said that I would, but we would have to wear aprons. So, here we are. She is wearing an apron I brought her from Spain this summer. And she kept pointing her finger at the little embroideries on my new apron asking: what's that? Because what 3yo these days knows what a coffee mill is...

New baby lamp

My sister R. is expecting a baby in January. The baby room is frog themed and she asked me to change the fabric on an IKEA lamp she had. I found the cutest little piece of frog fabric, but not nearly enough for the whole lamp. When I say frog, you say green, right?

Not the best picture as I took it at night with my phone and I was so enthusiastic giving it to R. that I forgot to take a decent shot with a decent camera. But I think it turned out great! And more important, so does R.

I am linking to :
Craft Schooling Sunday at Creative Jewish Mom
Link your stuff at Annemaries breiblog
Making Monday Marvelous

Hey, that's mine!

I was reading the blog vanMarieke and I clicked on the re-bag link she had there. And what did I see? The top left picture shows my envelope and the top right picture shows the fabric I sent in. Remember? That was fun to see.

Friday Finds

I found this morning verse on the blog of Twig and Toadstool. I love it so much! I added the verse to this picture by iFreeze.

Great intention to start your days with. And same time a tip for a great blog to follow. Two birds with one stone. Happy Friday!

Garden life

Last Sunday was a beautiful day. And since I do NOT like gardening, I have been neglecting the growing weeds for several months. So, Sunday was the day I had to get over it and make the garden ready for winter.

I was not alone. Besides the bunnies, this little birdy cutie pie came to eat all the time. Birds are the only reason I like my garden. We have so SO many birds in the trees. And they all sing loud. So loud my sister sometimes suspects I have a bird sound CD on when we phone.

And another reason I like having a garden is that sometimes I manage to grow a pretty flower or two. These are now in a vase in my house. I took the last bit of Indian summer into our home. But really...if only I could afford a gardener.

Flickr Favorites

1. Friendly smile

2. Hey Mom! If I came across a guy that catches my attention is it ok to give him a gentle smile like this one?
3. A Friendly Smile
4. Friendly smile

This week Mitsy from Artsmind gives a theme to work with on the flickr favorites. What touches your heart?

A friendly smile does. A simple thing as an upright friendly smile by anyone. A stranger in the street, someone in the elevator, your partner when you come home after a long day of work, your nephew when you pick him up from school. There are so many smiles that can touch my heart. But the ones from strangers are rare unfortunately. I believe they could be more. What's hard about smiling to someone and mean it? Make the world a little prettier and warmer. Smile at the people you meet today.

New bunny villa / World animal day

Poor Barry. Locked up. But that is only how it seems...
Prince charming does have a new hobby. He puts his little bunny feet on the black step and he sits there like he is the king of the world.


Frank just likes his peace and quiet. Preferably with a view so he can dream about wide open fields with green grass.


And often they seek each others company in their new house.


Or should I say villa?


We had to get them a new house because Frank is getting old. He has back problems and the stairs in their old house was to steep for him to climb.

But here they will live happily ever after I hope.