Weekend Germany

This weekend, we went to Germany, near Cochem and the Nurnburgring (for car fans). We visited a local ´Wild park´ and saw a lot of deer (even a white female deer, but she was very shy) and wild boar, OK there we didn´t get out of the car.
The deer are to shy and don´t normally come close to people, but we had an exception, see the pciture below.

And yes, our youngest son in tiroller outfit... He has a matching set.

And offcourse, the pretzel could not be missed, this is a sweet one, so it tasted a lot nicer that the salty ones. We also visited Cochem and I got a present, two nice tableclothes for Christmas, one white with red cross stitch figurines and one red and white checkered with red deer on top of it, very nice, I will have a nicely decorated table with christmas.

We had a great weekend and the food was wonderfull. Thank you very much Rik and Irene for giving us this weekend.

Aren´t these fantastic?

Aren´ these acorns the cutest? I really love them, they are so nice, they are from truLuxe. She sells them in her etsy store.
They represent eveything autumn I think.

Sunday market

This morning we went to one of the typical Belgian sunday markets where they sell small animals, fresh fruits and other foodproducts and of course bric a brac. So I found a nice green woll sweater that I felted and my mum also had one in her cupboard, so I can make some more felt stuffies.

Noy much else going one overhere. The weather was nice this morning but now it is grey and cold so I will take my cross stitch and watch some Martha...

The kids are in their playroom playing some videogames, so I will have to pull them from the TV in a little while.

Mittens

Yesterday I made this mittens from an old sweater of DH. I felted it and attempted a pair of mittens.

I think it worked out fine and I will give these mittens to my partner in the Roses swap I am in. Hopefully she will like them.

I can tell you that they are very warm and comfy. So this is an easy re-use of an old garment.

Yesterday evening I had diner with some friends in an italian restaurant and I could have used some of these, since the table we had booked was still occupied when we arrived and we had to wait 45 minutes before we could be seated...

But the food was delicious, and the company good, so all in all, a great evening.

Autumn

Autumn is definitely here and the boys collect a whole lot of chestnuts, I think that is the name in english, we call them ´kastanjes´. So I decided to make Creme des Marons so they wouldn´t go to waste. Yummy on pancakes or better crepes.
The smaller ones I threw in the garden for our squirrel who is is also stashing nuts and stuff in our garden. Every morning I see him/her frantically stuffing stuff in the ground, knowing that he/she will never find them again... funny, and our garden gets planted with all sorts of stuff.

Keeping busy

I made this siccor fob (is that what you call it?) for a swap I am doing. I think it worked out fine, the size is OK and I like the rose fabrics. So I hope my swap partner also likes it.

And the post before this was my 300th post, so will Vintage Violet from Maximum rabbit designs contact me with her address? I will send you a nice something for my 300th post. Congratulations.

Who can help?

Who can help me finish this tin. I thought it would be a good idea to make it a little treehouse, so I finished the bottom part but I don´t have any inspiration for the top. Whos was a good idea to finish this tin?

Handmade mushroom swap ! - CLOSED

Who is in for a handmade mushroom swap? Since it is almost october and I saw the first red and white toadstools appear in our backyard, I think it is a good idea for a swap.

Let´s say we send our parcels out October 31st. If you like to participate you must be willing to send out international. We will make at least 1 handmade toadstool with a total of three items ( must be mushroom related, fabric, stamp, etc...). You can buy 2 and make one yourself or make them all handmade, it is up to you.

Please make it a nice parcel so it will be a real treat receiving and opening it.

If you want to participate, please mail me (denheijer00 at yahoo.com - the two 00 are zero´s) the following information:

- Name

- address

- color preference

I hope you all want to participate, the more the merrier...

Wedding

Two of my friends got married last weekend, to eachother ! Evelyn I know since kindergarten and Jeroen was one of my roommates in college. They met and history was made.
Saturday they got married and the bride looked fantastic, so did the groom. We had a lovely time having brunch with the newly weds and later at night at diner and the evening party.
We wish you all the best, Evelyn and Jeroen.
At the end of the evening the groom gave me a big present and this was what was inside...
All things mushroom, I just love them all, aren ´t they lovely?
The bracelet I bought myself two weeks ago from Mukkepuk, I love the combination red/white and Delfts blauw. So I had to show it off in this picture.

Walking with dinosaurs

This afternoon, we took son#1 en #2 to ´Walking with dinosaurs´. They loved it, it was a bit scary, but just enough to show that they were though.
If you have the opportunity, you should see it, it is amazing to see the technique that is necessary to make the dinosaurs move. The babies in the beginning are cute and it must be hard for kids to understand they they are robots and not real animals.

The show is really worth watching and OK, it was a lot of money, but I am glad we got tickets. ANd no I didn´t use a flsah to make this pictures. I know that that is very annoying, so I used the night scenen mode of my camer, no flash.
And now, we only have to convince son #2 that the T-rex is not real...

WIP + giveaway in the near future

So this is what I have been working on the last couple of days. It is a christmas gift for my kids daycare mum. I haven´t made the progress I want since this week I had two parent-teacher meetings for the start of the new schoolyear...
Yesterdaynight I had a hennight for Evelyn from Eve´s little things , she is getting married next week. So we had a wonderful evening, but nor much crafting.
I have been looking through some craft books to get new ideas for my rose swap.

Concerning the giveaway... I will have a giveaway for my 300th post, which will be in the very near future - no, I am not posting 2009 at th emoment, but close. The third person to comment to my 300th post will receive some nice fabric. So check regurlarly and comment to my posts. I will make it worthwhile.

Fimo

I made this little hanger for a mum at Nic´s school whom is a photographer and who invited me to have coffee tomorrow at her place. If you wonder what the little black thing in the middle is? It is supposed to be a film roll...

Back to school

And the boys are off, back to school.

We´re back

We are back from our summer holiday to Spain. The castle was our first B&B were we stayed on our way to Spain. The boys had a bedroom in the tower, so they were verey pleased with sleeping in a real castle.

We didn´t do that much during our holiday. We stayed near the beach at the Costa Brava, so the first week, we spent most of our time between lying on the beach, swimming in sea or in the swimming pool.


The second week we did some trips to different locations that are of interest. So we also paid a visit to Empuriabrava, which is called the Venice of Spain, with 34 km of canals... We rented an eco-boat and made a trip through the canals. Great fun also for the kids.

Although we had a great trip, personally it was too hot for me in Spain, so next time we go in a different month or in a airconditioned space, I don´t care, but August was too hot. I didn´t even get to do some crafts, also not because there was too much dust everywhere...

When we drove home from one of our boat trips, we passed a field where a lot of people where waiting for something, so we parked the car and took the kids with us. Afterwards, we realised that there were no small children there, but that is hindside.
When we got to the fence, there was nothing until they opened the door of a cattle trailer and this bull emerged.
And guess what... within a minute he broke through the fence, luckily on teh other side and a lot of people jumpedon the bull and the managed to get it back within the fence, but then we realized that is was more dangerous than we thought...
But the boys loved the bull and the sight of guys running away from the bull, boys... I think it was Jim Carrey that said ´ if it doesn´t kill you, it is hilarious´ , I am starting to believe, men think like that.

But as you can see, the kids loved it and we are happy to be back home with all the home comforts and crafts, LOL.

Holiday!

I am packing the suitcases and bags for our trip to Spain. We will be staying in France for two nights before going to the coast in northern Spain. If there is internet, I will post otherwise I will be enjoying my holiday with the family.
And as you can see, this is what the kids want to take:

They are my really old nintendo games. And my new nintendo game... I found the old ones and bought some batteries and to my surprise theys till work...

Have agreat holiday!

goodies

My friend Evelyn from Eve´s little things came over yesterday with her family to have a family BBQ. She brought the hostess some goodies, being me... Lovely little goodies for my collection.

We had a nice and quiet BBQ. Oh, the notebook, she made herself.
Today, we have a guest. Son #1 has a friend over from school, so it is quiet busy with 4 boys. It is really hot here, so I reside under a big umbrella and I keep busy with my Rocket quilt.

Lego

My dad mades this train table for the boys. It folds away into a small cupboard, so it will not take up too much space in the play room. I think he made something ingenious again. He asways comes up with the greatest ideas for the boys. This way they can really play with it, the train used to stay in a box and wasn´t played with, now they love it.

Vacation !

Yes, tonight my vacation officially started... We won´t leave for Spain for another 10 days, but my vacation started tonight at 17.30. I picked up son #3 at my parents place after work and son #1 and 2 will be brought by my PIL tomorrow morning.



And this is what I made last night. The middel pea is supposed to be spiderman. Does it look like spiderman? I was inspired by a picture on etsy when I was looking for spiderman fabric.

No luck

This weekend, I was planning on doing some craft shopping. I needed some Gutterman pink tread to finish my girly pink quilt.
I also needed some white fabric to finish a red/white quilt and some blue fabric to start my rocket quilt for Ruben. But no luck, I went to three different stores and neither had the fabric I wanted. And I forgot to look for the Gutterman tread three times... Is this getting older?

So I ended up starting some crochet. I want to try to crochet a tree like something around a cookie tin. Will show pics if I succeed.

But this morning my mum called me to tell me me she found some Spiderman cotton handkerchiefs, so I asked her to buy them and then I can make a Spiderman quilt for son #1. He asked for a Spiderman quilt for months now but Spiderman fabric is hard to find here in Belgium and The Netherlands, so this will be a start.

birthday party and new family member

Son#3´ birthday party was a success. The weather was OK, we only had to run inside two times. SO that was not to bad seeing how the weather was early this week. He got great presents and a lot of new clothes so he was spoiled.

My brother and sister in law also spent the weekend over at our place and they brought a fish tank and some fish, but now water plants. So this morning I visited the pet store for some decoration and plants and look what I saw...

Isn´t he great, I bought him and will let the boys name him, but I think Bubble suits him well. What do you think?

T-shirt for the birthday boy

I made son #3 this T-shirt for his upcoming first birthday party. Next sunday we are having a BBQ for friends and family and I thought it was cool to get him a personalized T-shirt since he doesn´t like to wear a crown or anything on his head.
I used some left-over frog fabric from the Frog quilt and I think it worked out OK.

Present

This is the present we got Ruben for his first birthday. I think it is so cute, when I saw the little piano I immediately thought of (I think it is Linus) from Snoopy. Ruben loves his piano and plays it very well. He is especially very interested if you play a little tune.

The picture is courtesy of son #1.

First birthday !

Today is a big day - Ruben turns 1, how fast time goes, I can remember myself going into hospital exactly one year ago. And not being suprised it was again a boy, I always for some reason knew it would be a boy again...

We will celebrate his birthday later this month because his godmother was not avaible next weekend and DH is on a business trip this week, so we will have a gardenparty in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the weather will be better than it has been the last couple of days.

The boys took cake and small presents with them to our daycare mum so they will have a party at her place.

Ruben, your dad, myself and your brothers wish you all the best and a wonderful birthday with lots of presents.

And no, the picture is not mine, I did some creative photoshopping. The cupcake is an idea from a designer called Beert van Stokkum. I think they are wonderful. If I had known them earlier, I would have bought one as a baby bath. Are they the cuttest? I also absolutely love his curtains, the one with the cowpainting.

And I see that blogger still says it is wednesday, but for us it is already thursday morning July 9th.

Looking for dr. Seuss fabric

I have no luck finding dr. Seuss fabric on the internet. I don´t like buying of ebay, so the choise is limited. My kids love the dr. Seuss books and I would like to make them a quilt.
Is there someone out there that has a piece of dr. Seuss fabric? Does not have to be the one in the picture , that is just an example. I would prefer swapping, just let me know what you are looking for. Or does anyone know where they still sell dr. Seuss fabric?
And while I am at it... also looking for star wars fabric. For DH...

OK, I say this on the Martha site: the petticoat skirt, they are gorgeous, OK, that is my thought. I made a small one for a baby a while back again, but I will attempt to make one of these. The link on the marta site is a video which shows you how to do it.

I think they are lovely, don´t you?

Last day of school

Tomorrow is the last day of school, so it is time to finish the gifts for the teachers. Because of my business trip to Spain, a lot of time slipped through my fingers but I managed to get everything ready in time.
This is the label for the frog quilt for juf Hilde, son#1´s teacher. It was my first attempt on printing on fabric and I am impressed.
And this is the Frog quilt I made her since she is teacher in the ´frog´ class.

Next is son #2´ teacher, who teaches the chicken class, hence the chicken. The label is a drawing son #2 made for an international contest. The drawing is on the internet, so I got it overthere and printed in on fabric. Son #2 recognized his drawing immediatly, so he liked it.

I think I made some nice gifts for their teachers because I want to thank them very much for taking very good care of my sons, the both love their teachers and the goodbye tomorrow will be very hard.

Marriage

A friend of mine got married yesterday and we were invited to the party which was held in a small village near Brussels La Hulpe and this is a picture of teh chateau were the party was held.
This is a very nice location and even Hubbie made plans to have our weddinganniversy in this place.
The weddingcake was delicious and the people great, so we had a great time. But we had to drag our butt out of bed because it is to time to pick up the kids...

Men and shopping...

OK, this is what DH came home with yesterday. I told him in the morning that we neede to buy a new ironmachine, but he went to the store with the boys and bought this ironing central... This is what you get when men shop.
The ironing board can blow air or pull the board vacuum for better ironing results. OK, sure, I will give it a try I guess.
It is so heavy that I can barely lift the thing, but as you can see it has wheels...

Belated post

Summer is here! Last weekend we went to the Valkenier, after I arrived back from Spain. OK, the weather was not so good then, but warm enough to walk around in a T-shirt. The boys took advantage of the situation and asked for all kinds of sweets, which is OK by me, if it is occasionally. The theme park is great fun for kids between 3 and 10 I guess.

On Sunday when I wanted to iron, the ironmachine died on me... not good with 5 people in the household.

Spain

OK, I am in Castello, Spain, a town near Valencia for my work. I come out of the hotel and what is there in front of me? A quilt shop…. Need I say more…
Unfortunately only few Spanish people speak English, so that makes shopping a bit tricky. But my Spanish is improving since I could pay the backer with the right amount just by hearing the amount. I am very proud of myself, LOL.
Life here in Spain is so different from where I live… People take time to have lunch and coffee breaks. Tonight we will go to the beach to have a typical Spanish diner, so I am looking forward to that. One more big difference is the time they have diner here, the hotel starts serving diner at 9.00 pm… I normally go to bed at 10.00 pm, so that asks for a bit of adaptation, but I´ll live, LOL.

Coffee swap

This morning my neighbour brought me this package... It is for the coffee swap I did with Marieke.
She gave some lovely gifts and I especially like the handmade buttons and magnets and the little fabric bag, I will put to good use. Thank you very much Marieke.
Hubbie and the kids were already looking at the chocolates, so I think I will have to defend them or take them with me to Spain. Oh well, I will share them with my family. I think it is too hot in Spain anyway.
The weather here is terrible at the moment, it is pouring, so not much fun for the kids. But great weather to quilt...

Found !

We are back from our trip to Centerparcs and I found out that my toy for the toysociety is found. He now lives in Germany. Great news, thanks for letting me know.

We had a relaxed week with a lot of swimming and even more rain, so that was not so enjoyable, but OK. And guess what, the sun started shining the day we left.... Talking about Karma.

My boss let me know that I have to work in Valencia, Spain this coming week, so I will probably place a post from sunny Spain next week.

I also saw that my coffee swap package arrived at Marieke, so that is also great news.

We're off...

Yesterday, the boys had a big school party. This is done to show what the kids have learned the past year and to get some cash into the till of the school. Unfortunatly the weather was terrible and it poored, but the kids did their song and dance in the rain. I was surprised that my camera could get so wet and still function. So this is the result: son #1 in his frog costume and son # 2 as a clown with his little green hat.

At the moment hubbie is loading the kids into the car and we are off for some days well earned free time.

Coffee swap

This package is on its way to Marieke. I hope she likes the things I made for her and I now realise that I didn´t make a picture of the stuff inside and that I forgot my letter. So Marieke, if you read this, I will mail you and can you please make a picture?

Cupcakes

Today we had a public holiday, so we spent the time useful, this morning hubbie, my father and the kids stacked all the wood my dad collected in the wood shed for the winter.

I on teh other hand spent my time experimenting with Fimo clay. This is the result: some cakes and pies and a red and white cup of coffee for my coffee swap. I also backed some real cupcakes for a friend we visited this afteroon.