First drop for the Toy Society

Yes, I joined the Toy Society and made my first drop. I made a happy monster, gave it a tag and letter and off he went. I know, I am belgian and he was made in Belgium, but theis weekend we were in Rijnsburg, Holland, so I chose to drop him near the sea, since my husband comes from this part of Holland.
I dropped him in Katwijk, as you can see from the church in the background and he was left at a pole near the beach.
When I came back to check on him, he was gone, so I hope he found a good home.

Wanted: coffee addicted swappers

I admit it, I am addicted to my coffee. Not so much as I used to but still. I need my cup of coffee in the morning, noon, after lunch, in the afternoon, after diner, ...

So after the succes of the cupcake swap, I would like to organise a coffee swap. For this swap you must make at least one handmade item related to coffee, a miniquilt, a cup stuffie, a painting, etc. and some other coffee goodies.

And because I am quite busy myself, I suggest we swap at the end of april. Who´s in? I think this could be a fun theme for a swap, and I know I am not the only addicted to coffee.

Mushroom swap

This morning I went to the post office to pick up this parcel. Because we weren´t at home when he came by there was a note in the mailbox. It said a parcel for den Heijer, it didn´t say a forename. So this morning in the postoffice, the lady behind the counter refused to give me the parcel, because she said that it mentioned den Heijer on teh note. And my maidenname is Aerts. But on my ID card, it said Aerts, married to den Heijer. But she said that is was cleraly a parcel for my husband, and that I couldn´t pick it up... so I went home quite frustrated...

My husband went to the postoffice and showed the note and the lady left the counter and somebody else helped him out. What turned out? It said on teh parcel Margy den Heijer... so she gives the parcel to my husband who says, I am not Margy den Heijer, as you can see on my ID card. My wife was in here fifteen minutes ago and she was refused the parcel...

The lady said nothing and justed handed over the parcel. So I am no going to write a complaint... I am fed up with Belgian Post.

But the parcel is lovely. It was form Maria who was my swap parnter in a mushroom swap. She made three mushrooms for each of my sons. Thank you very much Maria, the boys love them.

Christmas preparations

Friday was the last day of school this year and the boys wanted to dress up. Since they are going to an uniform school, dressing up is what you see on the picture above. They both looked cute, they had a great time. And now they are on holiday.
Normally I also would have these two weeks off, but because it is soooo busy at work, I was asked to come in on Monday, so I will visit two more clients and then my holiday starts.

Peter made this christmas tea lite, which looks great and we will lite it on christmas night. I am very proud of him, in those two months that he is going to school, he is doing very well, except for the potty training. For some reason he still is to late telling his teacher that he has to go to the toilet. Are there any mums that have tips?

My mum made us this wonderful christmas table decoration. She also made us a wreath for the frontdoor. She is so great with flowers and plants.
My dad on the other hand is fantastic with glass and he made this father christmas glass decoration. It is a lamp, so at night we turn it on.

Myself... I haven´t been that creative, it has been so busy at work, that I came home late a couple of nights and the other night I am too tired to do anything... so, nothing to show from me.

Martha

Look what arrived today!!! The Holiday edition of Martha Stewart, wow, a friend on mine sent it over from the States, thanks sooooooooooooo much Bonnie, it is wonderful. You couldn´t have made my weekend better.
I can´t wait to sit done with a good cup of coffee and some Speculaas and start looking at all the fun projects.

Week 47

First of all, this arrived back in my mailbox this week. It is my parcel for Sara for the cupcake swap. As you can see, there is no 'to' address and no return address and still they managed to get it back to me. I didn´t manipulate this picture, this is the way it was sent back.
And the most curious thing is, I sent this parcel from The Netherlands....
So I have contacted Sara and will try again, since she says she still lives on the address she gave me... But someone put a sticker on the address and wrote ´return´ ... Strange.

Since Peter is a part of the 'Chicken' class, all classes are represented by an animal, so they can put tags on their schoolbags and stuff. And because they are the youngest in the Chicken class, I made him a small chicken keyring. I think it is cute.

I also started working again, so that is great, as I have never been away. But I knew the feeling, after the forth time... So it is great to be back at work. And now I will endulge myself in watching the X-files movie and crocheting.

Toadstool bun

Nic made this little bread mushroom in school yesterday. They are learning about autumn, so toadstools are part of that.
They made bread dough and baked the bread in a small plantpot. They also put some jam and chocolate dots on there to finish the toadstool. It looks great and tasted very nice. Well done Nic!

'Dutch' Cupboards

When I was decorating Ruben´s nursery, I asked my dad to make some 'dutch'themed cupboards. So we did some research, dissappered in his atelier and started working. This is my dad making a window for the cupboard.
And this is the result:
Three small cupboards in the shaped of old Dutch grain houses. I think they are wonderful and I can´t thank him enough. This will be something that will be treasured in our family.

At home Kinderen

The new Ariadne - Athome kinderen is available in Holland. It is a great magazine with all sorts of goodies for kids and a lot of home make ideas. I place some sneak previews.
I love the cupboard in the above picture, it is made by a dutch artist. Isn´t it wonderful?
Since I love this magazine, it appears twice a year, I will give a copy to my cupcake swap partner. OK, the magazine is in Dutch and so are the patterns, but I will assist if you need translation.

Present

This present was made by the children of Nic´s kindergarden class. It contained a bib for Ruben. I am really proud of all the children that worked together to make this nice little cardboard suitcase. Thank you very much.

Cupcake swap

I would like to organize a cupcake swap. Are you interested in joining, please contact me at denheijer00(at)yahoo(dot)com.

The swap will consist of something handmade and/or bought and the theme is cupcakes. The cupcake you see is crocheted by myself and I think is quite sweet. This maybe an inspiration.

So, please let me know if you want to join, I will allow one month to make something, I think that will be enough, if not, let me know. At the moment we will have a send date at the end of October. I will let you know when I assign you a swap partner, but it will be no sooner than the end of October.Please provide your name and address and likes/dislikes (e.g. colour) and your blog-addy.

Once I have the swap partners I will give you all the information and the due date. Spread the word around on your own blog, the more swappers the merrier.

If you feel you can´t make the commitment, please do not enter.

An apple a day...

I made this happy apple of a kit I bought from Sewing stars.
I think it worked out pretty well, the apple loofs great and is a happy camper between the other granny smits. Fun kit with a nice pattern and enough fabric to make a green and a red apple.

Weekend

This weekend we went to Rijnsburg in Holland. It is a town near Katwijk, which is a small sea side town. It is not very crowded in the summer time so it is very relaxed to go to the beach in Katwijk. Some of our friends were also at the beach, so we and the kids had a great time yesterday. It was not to hot but it felt great.

We left around 5.30 pm and by the time we packed all our stuff, Nic was gone, we couldn´t find him anywhere and the beach was not very populated, so for a moment my heart made overtime, all our friends helped looking for Nic and finally he was found by the site of the road where we agreed to meet with the car... For some reason he understood that we were leaving and started the walk to the road, and both Niels and I missed that he left... It happened in less than a minute, so this was a great lesson for us.

We agreed to go to the beach today as well, but it rained, so we drove back home. When we arrived back home, I found these packages in the mailbox...

And this is what was inside. Nita, I love all your stuff, it is all so cute. My DH liked the bunny very much. Thank you very much, it is gorgeous, and I will find a nice place for it in the nursery.

Nita made Ruben a little cushion with a R, a toadstool rattler and a cute little bunny. Here they are with Ruben.
And the previous post was my 150th, and since only two persons gave a comment I will make them both a lottle something for my giveaway. Can you both please given my your snail mail addresses? You can mail me at: denheijer00(at)yahoo(dot)com.