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.

You may kiss the bride...

Tomorrow I have a bachelor party and they asked met to make something so that anyone can see who the lucky girl is. And since I had a very busy week at work, I kept it simply, but I think you can´t overlook who the bachelorette is... Do you?

That reminded me that I forgot our 7th wedding anniversary this week... I rest my case, I had a very busy week and so did hubbie, hence, we did nothing, not even go out to diner. Oh well, next time better.
Today son #1 passed another swimclass (Congrats!), so next week we can sleep in because he is in a higher class that starts at 10.00. That is a relief until son #2 starts his lessons in September at 8.30... then we spent all our Saturday morning in the pool...
Afterwards we drove to Katwijk in Holland to visit friends that celebrated their little girls First birthday, then we had something for lunch with other friends and their two girls and then we all went to the next birthday of a big boy that turned three. He celebrated his birthday on teh beach, so that was great fun for all the kids and their parents.
We cut the birthday festivities short since son #3 is teething and he was enoyable, do I need to say more?

It´s a girl!

The Zoo of Antwerp is very proud of the birth of a little elephant. It is a girl and she is called Kai-Mook, what means ´pearl´ the same as my name, Margy.
She is the forth baby of her mother but they were all still-born, so this is very special. And this morning we went to visit the little baby. Since we have a year-pass we are allowed in an hour before opening, so it was still very quiet when we walked through teh park and you can see the animals getting fed.
We had to wait about 30 minutes before the doors were opened of the elephant enclosure, but this little baby was worth it, she is gorgeous and tiny.
Afterwards, we got ´suikerbonen´ which are traditional chocolate birth candies that are given here in Belgium when you visit a baby. It is nice to see that she is doing well and luckily it is a girl or otherwise she would have to move to another zoo with more space. Because they don´t have males in Antwerp since the zoo is rather small since it is a very old zoo.

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.

Cars Quilt

Long overdue, I finished son #2 's Cars quilt. I started it during my maternity leaver and somehow it ended up my WIP pile. But it did finish it and he loves it. The front is made from cotton handkerchiefs that they sold in a local discount store and the back is a panel and some chequered fabric I bought on internet. This way he can use the back side to play with his cars.

So now son #1 wants a Spiderman quilt. And since I have never seen spiderman fabric overhere, I will have to take a look on the internet. Does anyone have ideas?

Frog quilt finished

The frog quilt I was making for son #1´s teacher is finished. I finished the binding and I only have to attach the label at the back. But I will make a nice label since I have time enough. It will be his farewell gift at the end of the year for his teacher. I hope she likes it.
But I am sure she does, since she collects all sorts of frog items. The fabrics have been bought from etsy or given to me and even one was won in the great stash giveaway. Thanks again for that one. Here is a picture of teh fabrics more in detail.

The weather over here is very poor. Rain and wind, so indoor time. The kids are playing with the Wii together with DH and I will start on the binding of son #2´s Cars quilt. I have already attached it on the front so I will hand sew it to the back. When it is dry and son #3 wakes up, we will have a stroll through the park to get some fresh air.

And we are all looking foward to the short week next week, since thursday is a official holiday and DH and I are also off on Friday, so we will have a really long weekend.

Mother´s day

Yesterday we celebrated Mother´s day, although the official version here in Antwerp is in August, the kids brought home these wonderful gifts they made in school. Son #1 made a car with a lavender bag inside, for in my car and son #2 made a small cresson plant in a flower shape. I aslo got three wonderful pink rozes, for each of my pirates. EDIT: many people ask me where the pirated coats come from, they are Playama´s.

The sign says it all, 'my' motto. My mum got me this sign and I have to hang it in my kitchen, this is so true for our household, LOL.

Doll quilt

I saw this wonderful doll quilt/duvet on etsy How to. The example is a duvet, but I made it a little quilt. The sleeping animals are just so cute and peaceful.
Now I only have to find a little girl that needs a doll quilt, since my boys think this is to pink, I will make them one with a crocodile...

Tutu

My boss and his wife got a baby girl and I wanted to make something really girly, so what says more ´girl´ than pink, tulle and bling bling. So I decided to make their little girl a tutu onsie.
On thursdaynight Hubbie and I went out, since all kids stayed at my parents and when I pasted a fabric/notions store, I jumped in quickly and found what I was looking for. So this is the result. I think it looks very cutsie and I hope they like it to. This is the girliest I know, since I live in a male household, LOL.

Japanese magazines

A friend of my mum visited Japan and she bought me these gorgeous magazines. They are just wonderful. I can´t understand why they have such lovely magazines in japan and not overhere? These Japanese ladies must be very crafty to see the beautiful work, quilt, espcially the bags they make. I will make myself a cup of coffee and sit down in the sun and dream that I have the time to make all these wonderful projects. Thank you very much Marie-Louise.