Family weekend

Every two years, my DH´s family gathers together for a family weekend. This time we spent it near Nieuwkoop, a small village in the middle of Holland.

We rented a big house, we are with more than 90 persons, so it is a big house and it takes a lot of organizing. We would like to thank everybody that made this possible.

We arrived on saturdaymorning and left Monday afternoon, and we had a great time, doing games, talking to family that we don´t see very often, we also did some games in the meadows, as you can in the pictures. I managed to finish a dotee doll, for my cousin that is getting married in two weeks. So it was a nice and relaxed weekend.

Finished dolls

Even though the weather is great and we are outside all day, I managed to finish two little dolls, one is a mermaid after a pattern of Anapaulaoli. Her etsy shop is full with cute crochet patterns.

The other doll is a crochet as you go along, so I didn´t use a pattern for her, I just made her up. I think she is kind of cute, but not what I intended to, so I will try again and this doll may stay in my matroyska doll collection.

A pirate girl

A friend of mine asked if I could make her daughter a doll for her birthday and I know that this little girl loves pirates, so I gave her a gilrie pirate look. The doll is made with a Wee Wonderfull pattern.
Yesterday we went to Goes, which is a small town in Zeeland, Holland were we did some grocery shopping, since we had a public holiday in Belgium and most of the shops were closed. After having lunch we drove to a small beach and look for some shells, which I tied around her neck as a real pirate necklace. The pearl in het ear was my husband´s idea. Today we will bring her to her new ´mum´, I hope she likes her.

4-season quilt swap

Look what the maillady brought to my house. It is a gorgeous spring quilt made by Wendy. I really love it, the bright colors are so fun and springy. This little quilt will get a very nice place in one of our rooms.
Wendy also included a heart yo-yo maker. i have never tried making them, but now I will have a go with them. Maybe something fun for the new baby.

Cakepan

A colleague´DH had to be in the States for business and he brought me a WS cakepan. It is the train exclusive and it looks great. The boys really like it and yesterday evening we made some cakes. This was the result before I cut off some excess cake.

And this was the result after we turned over the cakepan. They look gorgeous. OK, I will admit that they will look better decorated, but I didn´t have anything at home, so it is just cake. They boys took the cakes with them to their daycare mum to share with the other kids.

Lotte

So we know now, the pink quilt it is... Lotte is born, she is a beautiful little girl with red hair (doesn´t really show on the picture). This picture shows her and her proud mum. We brought the quilt last Sunday and hope that she is cosy underneath it.

They arrived !

This morning when I looked outside to the mailbox, I saw something sticking out. It turned out to be the envelop with my fabric blocks that I ordered from the Fat Quarter shop.

The fabrics are gorgeous and I can´t wait to start a new project. But first I have to finish my spring quilt for the 4 season quilt swap. At the moment I am quilting it, so it shouldn´t be to long before I finish it and it will be on it´s way to it´s new home.

Doll swap

Through the website of Ravenhill I found out about a doll swap that is organised by Chloe of Meecrafty. You can go over to Chloe´s blog if you would like to sign up for the swap too! Signup closes on Saturday, April 19th. I think this will be a great swap.

Finished !

I finished my two baby quilt, one for a boy, one for a girl, since we don´t know the sex of the baby for who this quilt is intended.

The blue one is made ofall different blues and greens that I had in my stash and the back is a white with blue flowers kind of Delft´s blauw kind of fabric.

The girl version is pink with greens and the back is an orangish pink with fabric flowers sewn to it. I think they both turned out OK and now we have to wait until teh baby presents itself.

She arrived!

This lovely little lady ws waiting for me when I got home. It was a long day at work and paid a visited to my parents who returned from a trip to Germany after work, so I came in late.

And there she was, wrapped in a nice little parcel. The colors don´t do her justice, but she is wonderful. I bought her from Rosehip. Beata from Rosehip makes wonderful matroyshka dolls.

And this little lady is very welcome in our home.

Fabric

Today I was inspired by Erleperle´s blog. I saw the gorgeous Swell quilt that she made and I went over to the Fat Quarter Shop to order some fabrics. So I ordered these packs:

I think I will make a quilt for myself with the Flirtations fabric, I like the red, pink and brown combination. will have to wait until they arrive at my home. But I think you can make a great quilt out of these fabrics. Since I am making teh baby quilts I am inspired to quilt again. It has been since I made Peter´s birth quilt, but I have found back my inpiration, so I will try to continu this moment.

24 weeks and going...

This week, we pasted the 24 weeks mark. The baby is moving quite strongly so that is a good sign. I had a glucose challenge test done this week, to see if I have pregnancy diabetes, will know if there is a problem next monday, but I think everything is OK. So I am not expecting a phone call from the doctor.

Work is keeping me very busy, so I haven´t found time to do much craftwork. Yesterday I put the binding on the pink and green baby quilt I started last weekend. No time to soon, because the due date of the baby I am making it for is next tuesday. Hopefully it is a girl, other wise I have to make a new one... We will see. But yesterday afternoon I started a boy version with blues and greens.
Helas, for some reason I can´t seem to download pictures from my camera to my computer, so I have no pics this time, will have to see what the problem is. When I can I will publish pics of my latest achievements.

WIP

Today I am making a babyquilt with greens and pinks. I really like the color scheme, although this is not of my best pictures I admit. Which brings me to another thing I want: a new digital camera. Mine is still 4.1 MP, which is not the best reolution, so I really would like a new one, I will have to get informed on what is on the market.
When I finish the quilt, I will post some (hopefully) better pictures.

Peter = 2 years

Today Peter turned two years old. As you can she, his daycare mum made him a beutiful big crown, which he refused to wear, so that is why I took a picture of only his crown.

I made little ´bug´ shaped cupcakes which the other kids liked. And as you can see, Peter likes the attention he gets from the other kids.

Easter + snow ???

OK, so I had a great idea. Yesterday morning, the sun was shining so I thought it would be a great idea to go to the Blijdorp, the zoo in Rotterdam, Holland. When we arrived the sun was shining but it looked like rain.

So we took a little train that brought us to the other side of the zoo and by the time we got out, it started snowing a little. We decided to visit the reptile house first since it was inside. By the time we got outside, well let the pictures speak for itself:




So this was the Easter weekend here in this part of the world. Nic was happy to see this spider´elephant´ since he is a big fan of spiderman, even though he has never seen the movie. But Spider man is cool... according to my 4-year old.

Tea cosy arrived !

This package was waiting for me when I arrived home last thursday. I could write about it sooner, since we had a power failure during the night of thursday to friday and our modem burned through. So we are still waiting for a new one. So we have no internet since friday morning.
When I opened this nice package it was the tea cosy I ordered from Dutch Sisters. So it was in time to be placed on our Easter breakfast table. Isn´t the cosy great. It looks wonderful with my pink china.

Matroyshka´s

I made this little lady for a Matroyshka magnet swap on swap-bot. I haven´t finished her quite yet, and I first have to figure out where I can buy a small magnet... But I will do so next friday, when I have more time.

And these two ladies also found a home her in Schilde. I purchased them from Sew sew suck ur toe. The larger of the two ladies is quite big, I guess about 22 cm and she has her little girl nice and comfy in her apron-like skirt.

Quilt giveaway

Would you like to win this quilt? Go to http://www.oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/, Dana is giving away this gorgeous quilt.

Nic´s birthday

Today Nic turned 4. Yesterday night I made this Beehive cake with my WS cakepan. I think it turned out petty well. I made it so Nic could take it with him to school to celebrate his birthday in class.

And as far as I can see it, they enjoyed the cake, because nothing came back and it was a 1 kg cake...
As you also can see, the kids wear uniforms to school here.

When Nic came back from school we also had some pastery ready to celebrate his birthday at home, including the 4 candles which he blew out in one go. good for you Nic. And to top off the day, he and his brother are now spending the night at bomma and bompa (my parents).

Weekend

DH arrived back home on Saturday after spending some time working in Ghana (Africa). SO this relieved a bit of the pressure of taking care of the two boys of me. They are sweethearts, but can be very demanding in the attention (read MY attention) area.

So today I could make the two presents I wanted to. Two girls in Nic´s class are having birthdayparties, so I made them these little handbags.

I hope they like pinks, but most girls do, so we´ll see on wednesday. I only have to finish the lining, will probably do that tomorrow evening. I don´t feel like it at the moment.

I also was awarded a partner for the Spring quilt swap, so I must start thinking colors and theme. Oh well, I have some time left.