Rembrandtpark Festival, Amsterdam

Hi you! Did you miss me? I'm sorry I've been AWOL for the last two weeks, but here I am again! Time can fly when you're busy, right? Let me show you what I've been up to!

 

Last week I had a craft fair in Rembrandtpark.

 

We were so lucky with the weather, as it had been postponed one week due to the rain.. Can you see the sun shining while I'm setting up?

 

Making Birds with Sand and Stones

Hello you.

I took this class a while ago, making birds with sand and stones!

 

So.. the ideas was to find a bird cutout that spoke to you., and fill it with colorful sand and stones.

 

 

WiP WednesDay!

Happy Wednesday! I'm so happy we're halfway through the week. Last couple of days have been a bit chaotic and I'm hopeful that from tomorrow, life will be a bit more mellow..

Since I last blogged about my "beanie-block", I decided to just give it a go. I just picked a pattern and I started hooking! And with some bulky yarn and a 10mm hook, it's working up fast!

 

Sorry about the blank-face pic, but I really didn't like the ones where I was smiling.. Let's move on quickly!

My neighbour gave me this lovely booklet with cute mini crochet patterns, sweet huh? The title of the book is 'Crochet mini dogs and cats' and as I quickly started hooking, I realised that they weren't kidding with the term "mini"! The body of the cat-to-be in the picture is about 3cm. Teenie!

 

In other news, fiance had given me an incredible lovely set of dishes for my birthday last week.

And... he managed to break one plate almost immediately! Poor plate..

 

 

I told him not to throw away any of the pieces, since I heard about Kintsugi sometime in 2013... Kintsugi is the japanese art of "repairing with gold to create a perfectly imperfect piece of beauty." Here's an example I found on the internet:

 

"By messy mending you emphasise the marks and scars of a product giving it a new perspective and beauty while offer it longevity"

 

 

I am so going to do this with my plate! It'll be my way to say "Perfect is overrated" to myself, or "love yourself despite your flaws" whilst crafting and having fun.. Yea!

DIY Christmas Card Inspiration

A few ideas to inspire you to make your own Christmas cards (pictures only)
 

 

  

Do you make your own Christmas cards or are the holidays already hectic enough for you? ;-)

100 Ravelry Projects! Give Away!

I didn't even see it untill today! But I have 100 ravelry projects! 4 WIPs + 5 froggies + 7 hibernations + 84 FO's = 100 Ravelry projects! Yay!

Is that cause for a give away or what?! Since it's nearly December, I thought the give-away should be a little bit Christmassy, no? For a little bit of last-minute Christmas crafting? I like it to be a bit of a surprise, but here's a sneak-peek of a few items that will be in the give-away!

 

 

As I said, those are just a few items that are in the give away.. If you'd like to enter please leave your email in the comment! You don't have to be on Ravelry, and I don't mind where it's being posted to so don't worry about that!

Give-away closes on December 5th!

DIY Gift Bags

Hi All!

Since I've been putting together a Christmas package to send to my family overseas, I've been looking for creative and cute ideas to incorporate into the package! I wanted to make some goodie bags and found this awesome tutorial!

Using my own paper, I could easily add "Dutch" details to the Christmas package! Here are my goodie bags!

Remember, you can use any paper you want, so it's really easy to adjust to your own theme!

The Christmas package is almost ready to ship! Exciting!

Wishes for our beloved

It's still November but I like to send my christmas cards before the "busy period", especially when I'm sending internationally. This year I've decided to send something a bit different.

I found this lovely quote via Pinterest, and I love it so much I've decided to share it with my family overseas.

Since it would be to heavy to send a block of wood/stone, I've re-made the quote on my computer and used one of my old picture frames so they can easily put it on their fireplace or another place in their home. Little will they know that they're a picture of me and my beloved inside! (hopefully they will one day open that picture frame!)

Here's a free printable of the template I used (just save and print!) (:

Making a Button Tree!

One of my favourite to-do's on my fall bucket list is "decorating the living room" for fall, because it's something that can be a continuous activity throughout fall! And that of course gives me time and options to play creative!

I have made a money tree before, but as a fall piece I thought I'd make a button tree! You can make it in so many ways, but here's my version of the button tree!

What you'll need:
- a blank canvas
- some oil paint
- glue
- buttons

Unfortunately I don't have a hot glue gun so I just used a "hobbyglue". And I went to my local craftshop to buy buttons. They always sell their left-over buttons for cheap (i.e. a can containing 20 of the same buttons for 1euro a can) so I bought 5cans of buttons in several sizes and color!

Before I started painting, I dropped some of the buttons on the canvas and started playing with them, and imagined the tree I wanted to paint.

Make sure you let the paint dry before you start glueing on the buttons! Now comes my favourite part: putting the buttons in place! I first placed all the buttons on the canvas before I started to glue. Of course that's a personal choice, you can also start with one button and let your creative forces flow!

Again, don't forget to wait for the glue to dry! Then find a nice spot in your home where you want to display your tree! (I decided not to frame my tree, but of course that also an option).

And voila! There's my button tree!



Fall's here!

Today it's officially fall! The trees are already changing colors and leaves are starting to fall down. And have you already made a to-do-list for this year's fall? I have!

I was inspired by this list and several other lists, but I adjusted my to-do list as we don't have hayrides or pumpkin fields in the Netherlands :(