Muffins and More

My very first quilt wow

2011-10-25T14:06:00.000+02:00

Maybe some people remember that I shared some

a LONG time ago.

When I say long, I REALLY mean long! ;-)

The blocks were supposed to be for a blanket for my little boy and I actually intended to give it to him for his first birthday.

Which was last year!

So this year when his second birthday came up I had just gotten a new sewing machine - which I had to test so I would know whether I want to keep it. And really really wanted to get this whole thing finished.

So I did!
YEAH!

Well, not quite yet. I could not quilt the blue squares yet, because some little ~~bugger~~ sweet boy ;-) stole and hid my blue quilting thread.

He really seems to like all my crafty tools and material ... maybe I should just give that to him instead of a quilt ...

Now I gotta order new one - cause he does not tell me where he put it - to get everything done. *sigh*

Also I do not yet have a real clue how to finish the binding. I was thinking to just use bias tape - the slightly wider variety.

Can anyone tell me whether this is a really stupid idea?

To be honest, I really have no idea what I am doing here. I have read quite a bit about it ... but everone seems to do the binding differently somehow ...

*

And I wanna add a big thanks to

CARE from Obsessively Stitching!

Without you, I surely would have never ever even thought about making a quilt.

So that I made this - and I am freakishly proud of myself that I did! - is pretty much thanks to you.

I know, it is not an I-spy-quilt. But now I know I can do it. And the I-spy-squares are still waiting to be used. ;-)

Enough of the quietness - and Fairy birthday inspiration

2011-10-12T17:43:00.000+02:00

I have not posted in soooooo long!!!!

And to be honest - there was not really a good enough reason for such quietness on my part. After the last post things got busy. But not more than usually. And I was used to going back and forth between times of business and times of more quietness ...

So I waited for the more "quiet" time to start.

And waited ... and waited ... and waited ...

Weeks passed and I realized that this is not a busy phase ... this is it! It kinda freaked me. I missed posting here. But I hardly managed the German blog ... and everything else. I kept telling myself ... oh, I will write something next week. But that never happened as there were new things always going on ....

So, all I can say - I have missed you guys! Seriously!

And I am sorry for being so quiet for so long!

And especially thanks to some of you who checked in ... will get back to you!

I will try to start up again and write here. I love this blog of mine and I love hearing from you guys! I miss sharing things I make with you. And I also miss reading all your blogs.

I will not be able to write as often as before and to be honest I still have no real plan yet how I will do it - maybe I try a "once the week" post or something. Not sure yet. I will have to figure it out along the way.

I just realized if I wait until I have a plan ... it will never happen! *laugh*

So today I will start off and share a few of the things I made for the fairy birthday party of little bear (which was in summer).

First of course there was a huge

fairy castle cake. :-)

And for the kids party there where

toadstool mega-muffins

And I had acutally sewn

leaf shaped pillows

to sit on!

Talk about crazy and having no time! :-)

My daughter had wished for a

birthday crown

So I made her one out of felt ... decorated with some handmade heart-buttons:

"Feenkrone" is fairy crown in German. :-)

One of the buttons:

And last - but not least - there was a

fairy! ;-)

I made her the

fairy dress

according to her instructions!

And believe me - a six year old can have surprisingly precise ideas about how her fairy dress has to look!!!!

I love her so much!

And huge thanks to Lorraine for helping me with making the dress!!!!

Your input was unbelievably helpful!

WINNERS

2011-05-28T23:55:00.003+02:00

It is already very late so I am going to make this very quick. The two winners of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway are

Kelly

and Laura

Congratulations!!!!

I have emailed both to let them know that they won.

There were so many comments ... I appreciated each and every single one of them!

And for all others that might be interested in my buttons:

To all orders that are placed until the 15th of June I will add a free toadstool button or toadstool sewing pin - your choice.

You can order buttons via my store Cutelicious - just send me a message and tell me what you like if it is not in the store right now.

Or by emailing me directly

cutelicious-shop [at] web [dot] de

I do realize the postage is quite high just to order some buttons. I am already only charging the actual postage price - nothing for wrapping or anything. If you like you can combine orders - maybe in your sewing groups people are interested? I can mail ALOT of buttons for that prize. :-)

Thanks again for playing along! :-)

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

2011-05-22T21:26:00.002+02:00

I know I am posting this early ... but I figured rather too early than too late ... :-)

So finally it is here again - the Giveaway Day!

As you read this I am probably sitting comfortably and checking out all the other awesome blogs and giveaways. :-)

I have been waiting and looking forward to this for quite some time.

So ... as I know that you have many more blogs to visit I make it really short and easy this time.

What can you win?

A set of costum-made buttons made with love by ... ME. Of course. :-)

You choose the design or color or whatever you wanna choose. And I make them.

The set will include four buttons.

They could look like these ....

but they could also look totally different.

Up to you!

Well, and me of course ... ;-)

If you are curious and wanna see more buttons I have made - or even wanna place an order - you can

check out my store CUTELICIOUS

check out the button pics on my blog

you can look at my BUTTON PHOTOS on flickr

or you can just email me: cutelicious-shop [at] web [dot] de

What do you have to do to win?

Easy - just leave a comment telling me what buttons you would like to have.

I did not want to add this at first ... but here it goes:
If you just tell me "the buttons are nice" or "I wanna win them" it will not count for the giveaway!
I think it is only fair to those people that actually read the post and entered! If it makes you feel any better of course you can change your mind if you actually win. I just would like you to think just for a minute about what buttons you would really love to have ... and maybe I get some new ideas out of this, too! ;-)

Could be some you saw in my shop or on my blog ... or just any other that come to mind ... maybe something you have been looking for but could never find ...

I will draw a winner with the help of random.org.

One entry per person!

If there are more than 100 comments I will draw a second winner.

I leave the giveaway open until the 26th of May (German time).

EVERYONE around the world can enter!

You do not have to be a follower of my blog - but of course if you like what you see you are more than welcome to become one! :-)

And when you are done commenting hop on over to

Sew Mama Sew

to check out all the other giveaway goodness!!!

Good luck and have fun!

Oh, and if by any chance you are German ... check out my German blog Cutelicious ... :-)

How to crochet a portable doll crib

2011-05-06T12:19:00.002+02:00

After the post on the

fabric yarn

I have been asked whether I could give some guidelines on how to make the

crocheted doll crib thingy

above.

So here are some of my thoughts on it.

This is not going to be a tutorial or pattern as I have made the thing quite some time ago and do not have enough time right now to try to recreate it. These are just some basic guidelines how I went about - you will have to figure the rest out for yourself. :-)

Hope this helps a bit though.

1. I worked the whole thing in single crochet. I like to do it that way as it will give the "stiffest" result. I am not sure whether double crochet might also work though.

2. For the base of the doll crib I just crocheted a rectangle. I basically started at one of the shorter sides. I crocheted a chain as long as I wanted this side to be. (Get the doll that is supposed to sleep in there and use that as a "measure".) Then I just added rows to this until the rectangle was slightly "longer" than the doll supposed to be in there.

3. Then I added the sides of the crib. I simply did it by starting to crochet the sides directly to the rectangle base. I just started to single crochet into the upper loop of every single crochet around the whole rectangle.

(Does that make any sense to you?)

Make sure that you do not increase at the corners - or anywhere else for that matter - as you want your sides to go "straight up".

You could probably also just crochet rectangles again to make up the sides and join everything by sewing it together. I suppose that would work as well.

4. The handles - well, I made them with a certain technique that I had read about. I have no idea what it is called. Basically I crocheted a chain as long as I wanted the handle to be. Then I turned the chain a bit and crocheted single crochets into the BASE loop of each chain. (You usually do not crochet into that loop.) You can add a second regular row - or as many until your handles are "wide" enough. By doing it that way your handle will not be just a narrow rectangle but it will curve slightly - which I liked.

But if that description does not make any sense to you, you could also just crochet narrow rectangles and use these as handles.

I just sewed the handles to the sides.

And that was it!

It cost me the most time to fiddle around to get the base rectangle to the correct size ... the rest worked up quite quickly.

Hope this helps anyone a bit.

If you are making a doll crib - please let me know. Would make my day! :-)

And if there are any other questions just ask! I am happy to answer.

And if it takes a bit - I am sorry. I try my best to not take TOO long ...

Custom order of buttons

2011-05-05T12:33:00.006+02:00

Just wanted to share a custom order of buttons I did before Easter.

(This has already been sitting in my draft folder for days ... almost forgot about it ...)

EDITED: After the first lovely comment I realized that I did not bother taking any pictures with a coin or something to show how big these are. These are actually not tiny at all. They are quite big ... I think about 3,5cm in diameter. Is that about 1,5inch?)

The first button is my favourite. I almost "forgot" to package it up when I got the order ready to send ... ;-)

The mane of the horse is made out of white polymer clay with glitter.
Unfortunately one can not really tell from the photo.

These are the other big buttons I made.
They are for decorative purposes only and are gonna be sewn to the fabric at the side.

A soccer button.

And another one ... this time it glows in the dark. :-)

A pirate button. Also glow-in-the-dark.

And another horse - in pink and with glow-in-the-dark mane.

Some ghost buttons ...

and some birdhouse/ cuckoo clock buttons.

Cause little bear had seen the horse buttons, I will have to make some more. She already wanted to keep these and when I explained to her that these are going to be sold she said
"You can sell all the other ones. These are mine."
Well ...
I did have some explaining to do until she understood that this is not how custom orders work. ;-)

Sharing this with these fun parties

Sewing an Unicorn

2011-04-26T22:22:00.011+02:00

Or how to make a 5year old happy! ;-)

When I asked my daughter a few weeks ago what she wanted for Easter, she said

"An unicorn. A white one with a pink horn and a green saddle."

Well ...

I actually already had other plans ... but why had I asked?!
My own fault!

So I ended up ditching my plans and making a unicorn:

I used the pattern for a stuffed horse and added the horn.
I am really happy with how it turned out.
And considering that I have never made a stuffed toy with a sewing machine before I was quite impressed with my own work. :-)

I made the unicorn out of white corduroy-velvet and used pink cotton velvet for the ears and the horn.

The bridle is made out of beautiful ribbon.

And of course it can be taken off.

The nostrils are embroidered pink flowers.

I made the eyes out of polymer clay. Kinda like buttons.

Instead of white dots I made tiny pink hearts and added them to the pupils.

After all it is a very special magic unicorn. ;-)

The saddle is made out of thick green felt with some ruffles around it.
I actually had planned to add some flower-heart-garland kinda embroidery to it as well ... but simply ran out of time.
But maybe it was for the better. I quite like how it looks now ... maybe it would just have been too much. Or I would have messed it up after all. ;-)

The saddle of course can be removed as well.

Little bear LOVED it!
She was so happy! Which again made me so happy!

Because in the end I did spend some hours on making it ... and the whole time I was worried that maybe she would not like it.
She seemed to have a pretty clear picture in her head ... What if the unicorn I was making did not live up to it?
So I was relived and happy to see how she would not just smile but drag the thing everywhere she was going! :-)
Am so happy that I did not stick with the initial plans ... :-)

And another funny thing:
When she found the unicorn - of course it was hidden by the easter bunny - she instantly turned to me and said "You sewed that!"
I mean she knows that I sew ... but still. That instant reaction ... I was puzzled. She did afterall still believe in the easter bunny. Why would she think that I had made it?
So I asked her. You know what she said?
She pointed to the ribbon that I had made the bridle out of and said "That was in the living room"
Yes, I do store my ribbons in the living room. I never thought that she would pay any attention to that. And NEVER would I have thought that she would remember a particular ribbon!
I was speechless!

Hope all of you guys had a great Easter!!!!

Did you make any of your Easter gifts?

I am sharing this post with these parties:

12% discount in my shop - TODAY only

2011-04-15T13:36:00.001+02:00

If you have been thinking about getting some fun buttons from my Shop ... TODAY would be a good day. ;-)
Dawanda is having an extra sale through the week and today there is a 12% discount on material - which of course includes buttons.

So go HERE if you want to check out my store.

But the dicount is only valid TODAY (German time!)

Edited: I just realized that one of my products is featured on the English front page of Dawanda
WOW!
If you order something from me and tell me which product was featured you will get a free sewing pin of your choice!
(Of course a decorated one. Not a regular one!) :-D

And as I do not like to have posts without any pictures ... here are some buttons I made that I still have to put in the store.

Cats and Dogs :-)

The cats have glow-in-the-dark eyes - just like real cats.
Kids love that! :-)

The sausage dog is not varnished - that is why it looks different in the photo to all the others. But I kinda like it that way ...

I have to say it is surprisingly hard to take good photos of black shiny objects! *phew*

Hope you enjoyed the pics anyway!

Information and Tutorials on Fabric Yarn Crochet Projects

2011-04-12T23:16:00.002+02:00

I was asked a little while back to give some more information on the crocheted rag rug project.

I digged in my bookmarks and searched the net and found some tutorials that I had used back when I did the first rug.

Here you go - general instructions on how to crochet a rag rug:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Ruby Glen - Round crochet rag rug

How to make a Jean Rug

The vintage chica

The Sunroom - Circular crochet rag rug instructions

Sugar Bee - Rag Rug Tutorial

By looking at all of them ... and there are many more out there, just google ... you will soon see that there are MANY ways to do this!

So I encourage you to look at a couple tutorials and just figure out what you like best and what would work for you. At least that is the way I did it. :-)

Here are some more or less random bits of how I do it:

MAKING FABRIC YARN

In order to make the yarn you can cut your strips which ever widths you want to. Just experiment a bit!
If you cut them wider - use a bigger hook! If you cut them narrower - use a smaller hook.

Also keep in mind the wider you cut the strips the thicker and more stable (and less soft) your endproduct will be!
(And the harder it might be to crochet.)

Also if you have cut your strips too narrow you can still simply use two strands instead of just one.

Some people cut their fabric with scissors, some use rotary cutters, some rip it. I have to say that I like to use scissors - that makes it easy to do even while watching kids or a movie or something ...

It DOES take quite a bit of time to cut up enough fabric!!! Most likely it will take WAY longer than you think. :-)

Also it does get a bit messy depending on the fabric ... as it usually does fray while cutting.

When you have cut your fabric you most likely end up with different bits. So how do you get a continuous strip?

There are several methods explained in the tutes. Some just knot the strips. That is fine - but you might end up seeing the knots and it might be a bit "bumpy" for a rug. You can sew the strips together. But that was NEVER an option for me. Way too much work. :-)

I have found the "cleanest" look with little work is achieved by knotting the strips in a special way.

I did not have the link anymore to a tutorial that explained the method I use ... but ... for you guys I would do almost anything right. ;-)

So after A LONG time of googling - and some very odd search terms! - I found one: :-)

*drumroll PLEASE*

Tottie talks craft

WHAT MATERIAL TO USE FOR FABRIC YARN?

Well, any really! You will find that some material works better for some things than others. But if you are just making a rug I think anything should be alright. Just adapt the widths of the strips according to the thickness of the fabric.

(So if you use a thicker and a less thick fabric together - cut the thicker one narrower.)

For rugs I like to use cotton fabrics that I can wash on hot. Just simpler to clean. But you can make other things than rugs ....

I have made this tiny cute bag

and this doll crib to carry around

I would love to make some "boxes". As the fabric "yarn" is rather thick the crocheted product has a nice "stand".

Also I found out that fabric that I would not like to use for sewing - like artificial stuff - works great for crocheting. And do not worry if the fabric frays alot while being cut. That actually might end up to give a fun fuzzy look to the end result! :-)

If you want a more "clean" look jersey is a great option. So save all those stained shirts!!!

But if you are going to make a rug you will need LOTS of them. Seriously!!!

With the big rug I made I used bed sheets and I needed SEVERAL!

Okay, I hope that kinda helped. Feel free to ask any questions!!! Am happy to answer! :-)

Sharing this here:

Easter buttons

2011-04-11T13:19:00.005+02:00

Last week I was sick - just a cold, but a bad one - so all the plans I had for posting (and some others) went downhill.
Also at the weekend I was shocked when I realized that Easter will be in two weeks! *scream*
I have not even started on any Easter presents or decoration ... also I had not even put all the Easter buttons in my store yet. I did that at the weekend and thought I show them off today. :-)
Hope you like them.
They are ready to ship immediately and since it is already quite late for buying Easter buttons I though I offer a discount of 10% on all the buttons you see in this post.
If you are interested just put "Easter discount" in the message when buying or send me an email and I will adjust the price before you buy.

(You can click on the pictures and it will take you right to my shop CUTELICIOUS)

My faourite are the Hen and Chick Buttons ... :-)

Hope you like them ...

If you are interested in any custom-made buttons just send me an email.

cutelicious-shop [at] web [dot] de

And if you would like to see more buttons I have made, you can check out my flickr-account.

(Sorry, I am in the process of reorganizing my flickr-photos ... it might take a bit. At the moment most of the buttons are under "Polymer clay")

I am sharing this post with these awesome Link-up Parties:

Make & Share

Mr. Mouse

2011-04-01T13:18:00.005+02:00

May I introduce ... Mr. Mouse!

After I made the rabbit-mouse I had to make one "proper" mouse. I love the fabric I chose. White curduroy and red checked cotton. Both are bits from old worn-out and/or cut-up clothes.

Oh, and I added a heart, too. :-)

I have to say - I LOVE how Mr. Mouse turned out.

Well, guess that is no big surprise ... I totally love everything corduroy and everything checked ... :-)

And as I loved the pattern for the mouse at first sight ... no big surprise I love the outcome I guess.

And I have to say I like handsewing ... It is quite nice to be able to do something that you can carry with you easily ...

Do you do any handsewing at all?

Do you have any free patterns or inspirational links for it?

And just in case if you are wondering ... no, Mr. Mouse is not in my possession any longer. He also got stolen away by little man.

AND little man insists at the moment to go to bed with his regular stuffed bedtime pal "Gepard" (German word for cheetah) AND the rabbit-mouse AND Mr.Mouse.

I guess I should stop sewing stuffed animals - or hide them better before he sees them - otherwise there soon will be no more room in the bed for him!

I am sharing this cutie here:

Make & Share

Sighting Of the Very Rare Rabbit-Mouse

2011-03-28T22:57:00.004+02:00

Have you ever wondered what a mouse with rabbit ears would look like?

Come on! You know that you want to know!

I can help you!

I have seen - AND photographed - the very rare and hardly ever seen rabbit-mouse!

Wanna see?

But no laughing!!!

Or you might scare it away!

Or hurt its feelings.

Or my feelings for that matter ....

So you are wondering how it comes that I get to see such a rare creature???

Really wanna know?

Sure?!

Well, get ready for some really stupid creativeness ... on my part ...

So it all started with this

cute and totally adorable mouse pincushion pattern by Bustle and Sew.

Photo from Bustle and Sew

It is CUTE!!!

So yesterday we had such a nice sunshiny afternoon that I thought it would be stupid to spend it inside the flat behind the sewing machine.

Still I felt kinda like DOING something ... with my hands ... so I thought I might handsew a cute little mouse.

I even had some scraps from cut up fleece sweaters from the kids lying around ... perfect!

While I cut out the pattern I got this ~~STUPID weird strange~~ tempting idea.

What if I could make a bunny instead of a mouse?

I just had spent the morning thinking about Easter presents for the kids. That might explain SOME of the weirdness of the idea. Not all. I know. Guess it is just me.

So instead of following the pattern I started drafting some rabbit ears ... and cutting them out ...

I cut out the fabric pieces and spent a nice relaxing afternoon in the yard handsewing my softie-pincushion-thingy.

Everything was nice and peaceful.

Until I added the ears to the ~~mouse~~ rabbit!

That was when I realized changing the ears to rabbit ears will NOT make a rabbit.

It will make a mouse with rabbit ears! :-/

Yes, I know. You probably would have figured that right from the beginning ...

Well, apparently I did not.

I was bummed. I did not know what to do.

I tried to make the face of the ~~mouse~~ rabbit a bit less pointy ... but it still did not look like a rabbit.

I was thinking about undoing the ears ... making them into mouse ears.

But somehow I could not do it. Do not know why.

So instead I finished up the ridiculous looking rabbit.

And that is how it happened that I got to photograph the rare rabbit-mouse. :-)

Well, I guess not all projects turn out well. And it was my own stupid fault.

To be honest - I feel kinda attached to the rabbit-mouse.

It kinda looks like it needs an extra-portion of love.

And the funny thing:

Little man - who instantly stole it away -

He LOVES EVERYTHING soft and cuddly! Seriously! He stole a tiny pillow I was making before I could even close the hole from turning!

recognized it as a RABBIT!

He looked at it and scrunched up his nose and made a sniffing noise. Which is his "word" for rabbit!

Yeah, he is not too talkative yet! ;-)

Okay, then again he has just passed the stage where every four-legged animal is a dog.

Now there are cats in his world, too.

So MAYBE - just maybe - it could be that pretty much EVERYthing with long ears to him is a rabbit. But I chose not to think about that too much ...

So I guess we are just gonna have a rabbit-mouse living with us from now on.

But the next one will be a mouse! Just a mouse!

So, have you messed up any crafting projects lately? ;-)

Sharing my crafty mishappening here:

ABC-board thingy ... with tutorial

2011-03-23T22:47:00.020+01:00

As promised finally a proper post again. I am sorry for so much quietness. After my last proper post first my little one was sick. Then there was so much to do that there was hardly any time for blogging at all. And then the Japan-thing happened ... and I felt so weird. Whenever I sat down to write a post I could not ... somehow whatever I was going to write felt so unimportant ... I guess I was just in a very strange mood.

I actually got a few things that I wanted to share already for a while. I war not quite sure where to start ...

So first I show you something that I made for my daughter.

She is 5 and she know all the letters already for a while. She just started to read properly a bit ago. But even though she knew all the letters she could never remember the alphabet. I was not too worried about that - but still I figured if I could make something where she could SEE the alphabet that might help. She has an alphabet poster ... but I wanted something that would show the alphabet in a row. So I made this quick and fun project

I made an ABC -board

Or what would you call it?

A rail? Or ... I am a bit lost about a name.

Anyway, it was fun. And quick. And you do not need much. And - it worked. Ever since I hung up that thing in her room she knows the whole alphabet. In order! :-)

Am so proud!

And happy!

So if you happen to have a kiddo that is about to learn the ABC and want your own ABC board thingy ... I wrote down how I did it.

This is what you need:

- wooden letters

- acrylic paint

- a long wooden board

- glue

And this is what I did:

1. I used really cheap self-adhesive wooden letters that I scored in the 1Euro section of one discounter. But you can of course use really fancy ones, too.

If you use big letters I would recommend sanding them. But to be honest - I did not do that. Do not tell on me!

2. After you did - or did not - sand your letters ;-) you paint them. Easy! And fun!

After you put a coat of paint on them let them dry.

3. If you like your letters that way you can already hop on to step 4. But I wanted to make mine a bit more colorful so I added some more paint and ended up with this:

That was SO MUCH FUN!

Let dry again.

4. Get your wooden board and - depending on what it looks like - you might want to put some paint on it, too. After it is dry you glue the letters in place.

And that is it!

DONE!

Admire your work a bit more .... ;-)

By the way, this project is really easy to customize.

You could hang the letters pretty much any other way you can think of.

I actually had this idea that you could make letters and put them into colorful circles to the wall. Kinda randomly scattered around. It would of course not help with learning the alphabet - but it would sure be a really cute decoration! If you like letters that is.

I do! :-)

And you could play "I spy" with letters ... I figure that would be fun ...

Oh, and here is another treat for you. I found this a while ago and thought it was cute.

Printable ABC-Poster

To me it is not much use yet as my daughter is not learning English yet.

But once she is I think I will print it. So cute!

Hope you enjoyed this!

Have a lovely day!!!

I am sharing this here:

Buttons on their way ...

2011-03-21T22:47:00.008+01:00

Yes, I am still alive! :-)

Just a very quick stop-by to say "hello" and sorry for not being around. Will explain later.
Just wanted to show off some buttons that are on their way to a hopefully happy recipient ...

I will post again this week!

Promise! :-)

So tired right now - am off to bed ....

I am sharing this here:

Crocheted Recycled Rug

2011-02-28T18:15:00.002+01:00

Don't you love it when you tidy up and you find a project that is almost finished but not quite ...

But it needs just a bit more work - and you are done!

You get this awesome feeling that you have finished something even though you have only been working on it for a little bit.

I LOVE that.

Happened to me with this rug. I started it a long while ago and it was supposed to become a BIG rug. *cough*

Well, a girl can dream right?!

After a bit I ~~gave up~~ changed my mind.

"Really? Why?"

I decided it will become a small rug. :-)

And what does it get used for?

Perfect for tiny feet ...

;-)

Tiny feet in the bathroom!

Oh, almost forgot. It is made out of cut up shirts! Just cut them into strips, join the strips ... and you have yourself some nice "yarn" that you can crochet into some nice rug with a huge crochet hook!

It is FUN!

"Hey Mommy, could you stop taking photos and play with me?"

Sorry, gotta go ...

Edited:
I completely forgot ... I have made a similar rug before. The one I have made before is circular and bigger. You can see it HERE.

Tea Time Buttons

2011-02-25T23:19:00.001+01:00

I actually wanted to write a "real" post today. Not just buttons.
But blogger is not my friend today. It takes forever to load and uploading photos is just ... well, no fun.
So, just buttons today. I will write a proper post at the weekend! :-)
But at least the buttons I am showing you are kinda special ... to me at least.

I am LOVING them. :-)

You know that I love everything tea-related. I can not believe how cute these turned out ...

I did put them into my SHOP. But you know ... I think I could live with it if they do not get sold. ;-)

I really would love to sit down and make a whole bunch more ....

Tea anyone?

Love ...

2011-02-24T23:13:00.000+01:00

I can not tell you how much I love these two!

I am in a strange mood right now. Feeling so thankful for my two kids. Feeling rather inadquate as a mother. But still happy to have the chance to try my best ...

I better do not write much more today. Otherwise you will think I was drinking or something ... :-)

Which I was not! Just so you know!

Oh, and by the way. Not as cold as the last couple days ... but still cold over here. :-)

More button goodness coming up tomorrow ... and hopefully some crafty bits, too.

COLD

2011-02-23T22:10:00.001+01:00

It is REALLY cold overhere.

The strange thing is - the skye is blue.

Wonderfully blue ... and there are only few cute white clouds.
And the sun is shining.

But still so COLD!

FREEZING!

I made these buttons after having been outside for one of my walks with little man. I do not know why ... but somehow I had to make clouds ... :-)
They are in the STORE now.

PURE fabric love

2011-02-21T08:51:00.000+01:00

I guess you all know that

I love fabric.

Well, most of us do, right?

But a few weeks ago this fabric love peaked into something ... NEW to me. :-)

While browsing through the word wide web I stumbled on a sale on

All above fabric.

I went to check it out - even though I did not intend to order anything.

I mean it would be kinda crazy to order fabric from the US when you live in Germany.

After all ... I would have to pay high postage and costums ...

And I spend too much money on fabric already especially since I have so much fabric that I have not used yet.

But when I saw the fabric - and the prices - I could not resist!

I started calculating like a maniac and arguing with hubby and myself.

Actually hubby said I should just order! So I was kinda arguing with myself most of the time ... :-)

It took me a whole evening to actually decide to just do it!

Oh, and I can only highly recommend All above fabric if you want to buy fabric online.

AWESOME costumer service!!!

Seriously!

As I was really unsure what I was getting myself into I contacted Melanie via facebook and asked about the postage ... and how much I could buy for it. She got right back at me with really helpful answers.

Wanna know what I got?

I ordered this beautiful printed dark brown botton knit that you can see on top of the bundle.

Love it.

Yet, have no idea so far what to do with it.

Maybe some cute dress type of thing or top for my daughter ...

And you can already see what else I ordered:

It is some of the PURE fabric by Sweetwater.

You have to check out their blog by the way ... It is called

Make Life Sweet

and wonderful!

To be completely honest I never really understood how people could be so much into fabric from certain designers.

When someone on a blog asked for your favourite designer I simply drew a blank.

I did not have one!

I know if I like fabric when I see it. And I guess I have a certain "type" of fabric that I like ...

But a designer? Nope.

Until I saw the fabric line called

PURE

It was love at first sight!

Seriously!!!!

I am not kidding!

I had no idea a person could love fabric that much!

So when I saw that fabric at All above fabric - and when I saw that it was ON SALE!

I kinda felt like the stars aligned to TELL me that I HAVE to order it!

I HAD NO CHOICE! :-)

It was meant to be!

When the package arrived a bit later - I was so so so so happy.

Even though I ended up having to pay customs fees I still had saved about 50% compared to if I would have bought the same fabric here in Germany.

(Which I would have never done. WAY too expensive!)

AND I just love it! It is so pretty!!!!!

I hope you are not getting sick of the pictures by now. I know they all look the same ... I could look at them for hours! :-)

But now the question is - what to do with it???

I can not seem to be able to come up with a sewing project that would seem worth the fabric.

Does that sound odd?

I do have a project in mind which is not sewing related at all.

Which would only use a some small bits of each fabric.

And when finished I could enjoy this ... project ... :-) all the time ...

Still, I would have to CUT it up. *ouch*

How can I do that????

I think I seriously need help ...

A little midnight "hooooooot"

2011-02-19T00:11:00.001+01:00

Tomorrow I will have to put the new owls in the shop ...
But now I really have to go to bed. Otherwise I myself will turn into an owl. ;-)
Good night!

Look at my new bag!!!

2011-02-16T00:15:00.000+01:00

A while back I won a handbag from Johanna.

Her blog is called

Jona & Lili

and even though she is German - she writes English, too! :-)

So go and check it out!

Especially if you are into handbags and/ or quilting! :-)

But I am digressing. I wanted to show off what I won. I was allowed to choose a bag - any bag - from her store.

What a treat!!!!

Look what I picked:

I am loving the fabric. So fun!!!

And the bag itself is just gorgeous!

It has the right size.

Is roomy.

It has a long strap so it can be worn across the chest.

Did I mention I love it?

I did not take a photo of the insight - the bag is surprisingly big so there is alot of my stuff in there!!!! :-)

But the bag is lined with a beautiful red fabric with white dots! So pretty!!!

Thanks Johanna - for making that beautiful bag for me!

Another tiny pincushion

2011-02-13T13:19:00.006+01:00

Maybe you remember this tiny pincushion in a nutshell I made and posted about here ...

I made another one with an owl. Not sure yet whether I will add this one to the shop. The one above is already in

my shop.

Feel free to go there and have a look around ...

I also made a whole bunch of new buttons yesterday. Will show pictures soon ...

Have a great Sunday!

I am linking to these parties

Folded stars

2011-02-09T23:11:00.002+01:00

January is over ... and I have not even posted ONE

repurposing project!

Bad!!!

So here it comes ...

I actually made these already a while ago. But somehow finding the time to type up posts becomes harder and harder.

Well, just shortly before Christmas ... and during Christmas actually ... I learned how to make these folded stars.

They are made out of square papers and are just folded - and stuck together.

You have to fold 30 pieces of paper.

In Germany they are called Bascetta-stars.

Anyone can tell me whether that is the same in the rest of the world?

This one is a star made out of special paper that has different prints/ colors on both sides.

It looks really pretty, don't you think?

After I had made this one I was out of the pretty paper ... and I figured I could ge a bit inventive ...

So I ended up using this:

This is a rather old book with musical notes.

I love musical sheets.

So I had to try whether it would look good. And this is how it turned out:

I totally adore it!

And as you have to cut the pages to squares there is always a paper strip left over. So what did I do?

I cut squares out of the left over bits ... and made a tiny star:

Here you can see both together:

This was so much fun!

I am actually working on another recycled star.

No musical sheets though ... curious? ;-)

But it might take a bit until it is done ...

The folding and the putting together is really relaxing ... but the cutting of the squares is simply booooooring! :-)

Need your help - WHAT are bean bags good for?

2011-02-04T22:15:00.001+01:00

When I put up the post about the washable bean bags that I had made with hubby for Christmas Papgena from Papgena made it asked a very interesting questions:

What are they good for? What can kids do with them?

To some of you this question might sound strange.

But not to me - I totally understand.

There are no bean bags around here in Germany.

And apparently also in other european countries.

Before I started blogging I had never heard of them. And when I did hear of them - or rather read about them - for the first time I had exactly the same question.

What are they good for?

They are just a little cushion thingy with beans - what can they be used for?

Why would kids play with them?

Now I really love them. I like that they are so called OPEN TOYS - which means that they can be used for ANYTHING a kid can think of!

Of course they are awesome for throwing!!! :-)

And - the mommy likes that - they can be heated up and used for tummy aches! Much better than those big water bottles!

They can also be used for pillows ... but also for things like pretend-playfood for example.

Yes, I KNOW it does not look like play food.

That is the PRETEND part in it! ;-)

And it is good for kids to actually USE their imagination ....

Anyway, there are soooo many things that they can be used for ... so guys, help me out here and comment and tell what uses you can think of or your kids have shown you. Also of course if you have made beanbags before or know a link ... please share!

I hope we get a nice collection of uses for bean bags together to convince all Germans/ Europeans that they are an awesome toy and start a new trend overhere! :-)

Stickhorse Pattern and Giveaway

2011-02-03T14:03:00.000+01:00

Remember Marzipan the stickhorse?

Did you like him?

If you want a chance to win a handmade stickhorse

which is even cuter than Marzipan - but do NOT tell him, he is gonna cry all week over that!

go on over to

IKAT BAG

and enter her giveaway.

You have until Saturday! So hurry!

Sorry that this comes so late. I meant to post this earlier ...

But even if you miss the giveaway - head on over anyway, as she has a pattern and AWESOME instructions on how to make your own stickhorse.

So even if you do not win you could have your own.

Or a whole stable full! ;-)

Finally my store is open to EVERYONE :-)

2011-01-29T22:20:00.031+01:00

Yes, I finally set up my online-store that everyone - okay, at least everyone reading English - can understand the article descriptions and also there are shipping prices to everywhere in the world. So if you are interested you can check out my store by clicking here:

Cutelicious

by going to the link MY SHOP on the left side of my blog

by clicking on the cute little button that says CUTELICIOUS on the top right hand side of my blog.

So many options! ;-)

Unfortunately shipping from Germany is not exactly cheap. However, some commenters have encouraged me to set it up anyway as there might be people living outside of cities and even some "not cheap shipping" might still be less than having to drive for hours to get what they want.

So, I kinda hope that many of my readers live in remote areas! ;-)

Edited:
Also I can fit quite a few buttons and pins in a box for the shipping stated in the article descriptions (up to 500 grams). So if you want to stock up or buy together with some friends ... maybe that would make it more affordable ...

I just added some new things to the store and also will be adding more things in the next week. So come by and check it out.

And if you have questions or any suggestion or would like to buy something else --- just email me!!!

cutelicious-shop [at] web [dot] de

Some of the new items:

Cute chocolate candy buttons

Chocolate heart sewing pins

Loveletter buttons

Tiny penguin sewing pins - with hearts! ;-)

To be added during the next days:

For the love of buttons - button ;-)

Owl pinecone

A cute pair of penguins

Mini-nutshell pincushion

I am loving the pincushion. It is so tiny.

But I find it quite useful for keeping some special needles handy - like my hand sewing needles that always get lost when I put them together with the sewing pins.

Of course one could also use it to simply show off some especially cut sewing pins ... ;-)

And there is more to come ...

Hope you like it!

And am happy about any feedback!

I am sharing these at the following link-up parties:

Spring Challenge

2011-01-27T11:24:00.000+01:00

A while back I send those pictures from the apron skirt photo shoot to participate in a

SPRING CHALLENGE

I thought the bouncy picture looked kinda "springy" ... in a word-play-kinda-way. ;-)

Anyway, all the photos of the contestants are up at

Two Peas in a Pod

- which is such a beautiful blog by the way. So go over, vote, and have a look around!

I am just loving this beautiful scarf tutorial.

And to all those waiting for an email from me ... Little one was sick again. AGAIN! Last couple days I was just exhausted, tired, sad, ... It just felt kinda too much. So I was not on my computer alot. He is feeling alot better today - so I am hoping to get back to "normal" soon.

And hoping that "normal" does not involve pediatrician visits on a daily basis! ;-)

Christmas gifts for my kids - part 4: Bean bags

2011-01-14T23:11:00.001+01:00

I guess one of my resolutions ~~could~~ should also be

"Write shorter blog posts"

Starting now! ;-)

Last one of the Christmas presents I have made -

BEAN BAGS!!!

Well, or bean bags, rice bags, and dried pea bags. :-)

They have

removeable covers!

YEAH!

I have been thinking about this idea since little man was born - so now more than one year!!! Took me forever to come up with a good idea. Yet, it is SO simple!

I have to admit something though. I actually did not make these. Hubby did. All that I did was make the pattern and sew on the applique bits. I was so keen to try some free motion embroidery. Is that even what it is called?

It is certainly nowhere near good enough to start free motion quilting or anything. But I suppose it could be worse. ;-)

I am planning to make more, take pictures and put up a tutorial on how to make them as I only have found two tutorials on how to make bean bags with removeable covers:

This one uses a velcro closure.

This one uses a button closure.

They are both great tutorials. I just was ~~too lazy~~ not keen on sewing velcro or button holes. :-)

So I came up with an option that uses NEITHER! :-)

Will show you ~~soon~~ most likely after Valentine ...

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you!
Making bean bags is an awesome RECYCLING project. You can use pretty much anything made out of fabric for them. ;-)

Christmasgifts for my kids - part 3: The Hooded Scarf

2011-01-11T10:10:00.001+01:00

I can not tell you HOW proud I am of this.

Check this out:

I made this! :-)

I had seen some hooded scarfs on the internet and the idea really appealed to me.
It does look cute!

And little bear ALWAYS forgot to put on her scarf in kindergarten.

ALWAYS!
No matter how often we talked to her about it.
I was really worried cause I thought sooner or later she would catch a bad cold ...
For some reason she never forgot to put on her hat, though.
So I kinda figured making her a hooded scarf instead of a hat and a scarf could be a good solution.
With a hooded scarf when she put on her hat - she had on her scarf as well.
Nothing to forget anymore!
Sounded perfect!

But I did not find a pattern that I liked and that I thought would fit my daughter.

So in the end I decided I am going to make my own pattern!

YES. I made my own pattern!

*insert-amazed-AHHHH-from-readers-here*

Okay okay, so it is ONLY a hooded scarf.

Still.

I MADE MY OWN PATTERN! :-)

And, boy, now I do know why buying patterns can be the better option.
Even though it is "just" a hooded scarf it took me quite some time to get it right.
And some luck, too! :-)

Also, I cheated a little.

I used a hooded cardigan from my daughter - with a really cute hood - and drew around it for the hood pattern.
Then I made the hood out of really cheap - and ugly - fleece I still had lying around to see whether it would fit. After trying it on my daughter
- with her eyes closed as it was going to be present!!! -
I made alterations to the fleece hood.

Then I stopped working on it for a few days as I did not have time.

And completey forgot about my alterations.

Next time I had a bit of free time on my hands I cut out the fabric -

without ever making those alterations to the actual pattern!

I only realized that AFTER I had cut out all the pieces I needed. *argh*

Including one rather expensive cotton fur stuff.
(The whitish lining you can see sticking out.)
For the outside I used some fleece I still had left over from that swirly shirt I had made her a while ago.

When I realized my mistake I was devastated!

But then I pinned it all together and figured maybe it was not as bad after all. As the fabric I ended up using was much thicker than the one I had used for the "try-out"-version and as I also planned to make a thick lining out of furry fabric it seemed that maybe the un-altered pattern could work after all.

So I left it. And while sewing it together I really really hoped it all would work out!

I sewed the hood and the lining together and tried it on - and the fit was PERFECT! Seriously!
I know I can not really take credit for it as it was more luck than anything else.

Also I totally adored the pointy bit of the hood. In the original hood there was a knot there - but my version somehow was not long enough to knot it. So I just left it.
But I think it looks really cute sticking up.

Then I wanted to sew on the scarf - which basically was just a folded straight piece of fleece.
Now there was the next problem.
When thinking about how to make this I just figured that I could sew the scarf bit into the hood while closing the lower seam - the one that would sit right above your neck.

However, it turned out that

five layers of fleece plus one layer of thick furry stuff

is not something my sewing machine is able to handle!!!
I did not even try as I had no idea how to fit it all under the needle!

I am not sure - there probably is some way how one could have done it with the machine.
But I really did not want to take any chance!
Now that the hood had turned out so perfect
I did not want to mess the whole thing up with the "should-be-easy" scarf bit.
So I simply sewed it on by hand.
I know. I chickened out.
But who cares - it turned out awesome!

I could not be happier with it!!!

And the best thing!

When it is cold my daughter IS actually wearing it!

She DOES love it! AND it works!!!!

Since she has the hooded scarf she does not forget to put it on and finally I do not have to worry about her being cold outside anymore!
SCORE!!! :-)

Resolutions AND repurposing LINKY PARTY

2011-01-10T14:04:00.002+01:00

Last week was kinda rough and posting slow ... hope it will get a bit better again this week.
But on the positive side - I had just an awesome day yesterday!

So I feel ready for a new week! :-)

I actually wanted to FINALLY post about the

cute hooded scarf

I made for my daughter for Christmas. The post is all ready to go.
But I still have to take a good shot of her wearing it ...
So need to wait until she gets home from kindergarten this afternoon.
Hoping it will not be too dark then to take some photos.

Until then I figured I might chip in a quick post about

New Year's Resolutions.

I know it is a bit late. But I figured better late than never. ;-)

Last year I had so many resolutions. Too many. I should have known. Anyway. I did quite well on some. Not so well on others. This year I want to make it easy. Of course I have many goals and things I wanna try, do, make better ...

But I will only have ONE resolution. But an important one.

GET RID OF THINGS!!!!

When trying to find our Christmas boxes and the next size of clothes for little man I once again realized we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!

WAY too much stuff!

And since we might be moving sometime this year - and if not this year then pretty sure next year - we have to reduce it! A LOT!

And when I read this nice post at Somewhat simple about how she sorted out her clothes I felt kinda inspired. :-)
Thing is I find it really really hard to get rid of things.
I can not throw things away that are fine. Even if I am not using them (anymore).
And with most things I think - I can reuse it, recycle it, make something else of it!

I might need it some day!

The really bad part of this is - I am often right!
Which of course makes me more reluctant to get rid of things.
But the other side is of course - trying to reuse all things that we have accumulated this far would take FOREVER! I simply do not have that kind of time!

So, this year I will try to get rid of as much stuff as possible.

Including reusing as much stuff as possible in projects.

(And try not to get new stuff!!!!)

I figured in order to stick with it I will try to post some recycling projects I did each month.
I first thought I will try to challenge myself to one project a week.
But life with two kids can get quite stressful at times. So I do not want to put that much extra pressure on myself.
But I will try to post - let us say - at least 3 projects each month.
It is not that much - but it is something.

Also I figured it would be nice to have resource for recycling projects and maybe other people are doing similar things throughout the year ... so I decided that I would create a

repurposing linky party

where
you can add all your
recycling
or
repurposing
or
reusing
projects!

I will leave it open all year so you can come back and check it out as it grows ... and of course come back and link up new projects that you are doing!

I will put it on an extra page HERE - so it is easy to find and always "on the top" :-)

Now, I have to tell you I am SO excited! I have been wanting to do a linky party for a while now ... but did not have a great idea. And I feel a bit nervous now.

Please do not disappoint me - and LINK UP!

Old projects are very welcome as well as new ones!
Would be sad to party on my own. :-(

I will also feature projects from that link more or less regularly.
Oh, and I will also create some cute buttons. Just might take me a bit ... will let you know!

Also - any ideas for me on how to make it easier getting rid of stuff without repurposing?
Please share them in the comments!!!
They are HIGHLY appreciated!

Christmasgifts for my kids - part 2: Meet Marzipan

2011-01-04T20:45:00.000+01:00

Hello!

My name is Marzipan.

I am a cute ~~little~~ big stickhorse.

And I have a VERY long nosy nose!!!

It is kinda scary when this nose comes right at YA!

Watch out!!!!

It is perfect for kissing though ....

I have pink ears and hair!

And big EYES!

And I am CUTE!!!!

Oh, just in case you wonder ... I am named Marzipan because my favourite food are marzipan potatoes. :-)

BTW, did I mention that I am CUTE?

***

Okay, I think I better take over from here ... otherwise this silly horse is going to keep talking about his cuteness until our ears fall off!

You guys have no idea how thrilled and relieved I was to see that little bear LOVES Marzipan!

Because on her wishlist to Santa there was one of those expensive and horrible pinky plasticy and ... mommy just does not like it ... horses that you can sit on.

I really did not want to buy one of those!

And I really should remember to throw out those stupid toy catalogues that put such stupid ideas in her head!!!

Anyway, as I had already planned to make her a stickhorse for her birthday but did not get to do it back then - I figured I could do it now.

I was inspired by the awesome horses and unicorns Lier from Ikat bag made.

And after Lier shared some true wisdom with me - you have to cut open the pant leg you are using in order to sew on the ears and the hair - it really was not that hard to make.

Yes, I could have figured the cutting open part myself ... if I had been THINKING instead of just SEWING. ;-)

Sewing on the ears was actually the worst bit. I broke 3 needles while doing that! Argh!

But even with 3 broken needles still cheaper - and ALOT more fun - than that ugly pink plastic thingy ...

Mission accomplished!

:-)

Wanna learn how to sew pockets?

2011-01-01T13:21:00.000+01:00

Then check out the

pocket tutorial series on Ikat Bag!

You already know I love her blog. Now there is one more reason to check her out.

Like you would need another one. ;-)

Photo from Ikat Bag

A whole series of tutorials just on pockets!

I love them!

So far I have only used one kind of pockets when I had to because I did not really know how to do other ones and was too scared to try. Now I know where to go to find all the information I need.

And she made a teaching quilt for how to sew pockets that she is giving away:

Photo from Ikat Bag

Is this amazing or what?

I love that it is all different shades of blue!

I think it would make an amazing organizer for some of my crafting stuff ... if the kids do not get it first and drag it off to their room ... :-)

If you want a chance to win it go to this post to find out the details.

But hurry! It is only open until tonight!

Btw, she did a whole series on

pattern drafting, too!

Just in case you are interested ...

100 free tutorials and patterns

2011-01-01T13:00:00.011+01:00

Thanks to Purpe Photokitty I was able to fix the problems I had with formating ... at least for now. Thank you so much!

****

for sewing, crocheting, knitting, crafting ...

Wow, so here they are!!! All the favourite links from the commenters to my Sew Mama Sew giveaway.

Okay, I did enter 4 myself. As some links came up several times there were 96 links all together. I just thought 100 sounded better. ;-)

Thanks to all you guys who entered and put in a link!

And sorry, I meant to use pictures ... but then there were so many comments and so many links to copy and paste and edit ... that I simply did not bother about the pics.
Hope you are going to forgive me!
In the end I figued the post does however need at least one picture - so I decided I am going to put up the picture from that post that came up most often: :-)

It was the
gathered clutch tutorial from Noodle head

Photo from Noodle head

But now go off and check out all those link goodies ... and feel free to share a link to this list on your blog if you want to. I really enjoyed putting it together!
The more people get to read it - the better!

SEWING BAGS (21)

How to make purses, wallets, pouches, cases
Casserole Carrier Tutorial
Clermont Farms Quilted Tote Bag
Toiletries Pouch Tutorial
Bicycle Frame Lunch Bag
The Un-Paper Bag
Tatanne Bag pattern
Zippered bag
Laptop bag tutorial
Anthropologie-inspired bag
Cinch it tote bag
Sew a gathered clutch
Loop bag tutorial
Itty bitty bag
Messenger bag tutorial
Stylish pen case
Tissue case tutorial
Handbag tutorial and pattern
Perfect box pouch tutorial
Several handbags and purses
Purses, bags, etc. on Crafster

SEWING OTHER THINGS
- meaning not bags - (44)

Authentic Toddler Wear
Cute pincushion
Owl pattern
Charm pack dress tutorial
Crop Circle Tablerunner
Quilted notebook cover
Winter caroler tutorial
Make your own cloth napkins
Creative Party Dress
A string quilt block tutorial
Quilted table runner
Infinity dress
Charm square quilt
Machine quilting tutorial
Cathedral window quilt tutorial
Jeans cuff wallet
Patchwork dress
Rice pillow neck warmer
Wool felt stuffed elephant tutorial
Seahorse
Hot pad
Turtle pincushion
Embellished pencil case
Pillowcase dress tutorial
Recycled toddler pants
Car seat cover tutorial
Counting bean bag tutorial
1-hour kaftan tutorial
Baby sunsuit
Superhero cape tutorial
Scrap ribbon camera strap cover
Fabric basket
Pirate hat tutorial
Lazy days skirt
Summer dress tutorial
Double oven mitt
Peasant blouse
Toddler bucket hat
Personalized placemats
Bundles of Joy Quilt
Tutorial to make a kids camera strap and to make yoyos
Slippers
Felt food
Sock Monkey Tutorial

CROCHET (4)

Bead rope
Little hearts
Baby booties
Coffee cozy

KNITTING (2)

Itchy fingers longies pattern (on Ravelry) from http://artistjess.blogspot.com/
(there are links to more free patterns on her sidebar)
Supercute knitted scarf

CHRISTMAS - STUFF (7)

Inchie ornaments
Handprint snowman ornament
Space invader xmas crosstitch pattern
Felted Christmastrees
3d paper stars (Fröbelstern)
Bacon ornament
Monogrammed family ornaments

OTHER HELPFUL LINKS (12)

How to buy fabric
Button Hair Tie Tutorial
Pocketin Board Tutorial
How to store fabric
Free yearly BOMS
How to make your own patterns
How to make a felt flower
How to make a flower brooch
How to emboss velvet with rubber stamps
Some up-cycling tutorials
Ice cream recipe
How to make cake in 8 minutes

BLOGS or SITES with many different Tutorials/ Patterns (8)

U Handbag
Film in the Fridge Tutorials
SewCalGal
WeeFolkArt
How Tos on Atkinson Designs
One Pretty Thing

And here are four more sites added by little old me:

Craft
Craft Gossip
Ikat bag
Obsessively stitching

Okay, now I have been writing on this post for almost TWO weeks!

That is it now! :-)

Here you go - have fun with it!

***

And Happy New Year to all of you!!!

***
And if you have a suggestion or wish how I could make this list more manageabe for you just tell me ... would you like other categories? More? Alphabetical order?
I just was not sure what would be most helpful so I left it at that. But if you have something that you think would work better, just leave a comment - and I will do it. :-)

Christmas gifts for my kids - part 1: The Apron Skirt

2010-12-29T22:44:00.000+01:00

Some time before Christmas I was lucky enough to be allowed to test a new pattern from Little Lizard King.

The Apron Skirt

So I thought this would be an awesome gift for my daughter. Look what I made her!

And I even finished it in time for Christmas! *yay*

I love love love how it turned out! Seriously. I can not believe I made this! :-)

As I was testing the pattern I tried to do it all like you are supposed to do it.

I even ironed all the seams and stuff before sewing.

I know that you should always do that! But I usually have no time ... and I really hate ironing ...

And it was SO worth it!

My daughter LOVED it!

Boy, that made me happy.

With little girls that are completely into pink and princesses ... you just can never be sure ...

(Well, unless you are using only pink fabric with princesses of course ...)

I wanted to do a photo shoot out in the snow. But it was really freezing here.

And as little bear was sick at Christmas I did not want to let her outside in just a skirt. So instead we had a fun photoshoot on her brand new big-girl bed that she got for Christmas!

So now you know what that weird quilted-looking stuff on the floor is. :-)

I love her face in this photo!

Well, I guess jumping on the bed is always fun - no matter what you are wearing.

But see how nice the skirt flies ... :-)

Oh, I think I have not said very much about the actual pattern yet ...

well, I love it! :-)

How could I not? I mean look what I made with it.

I made this.

Yeah, I know ... you would think I would be over this by now ... ;-)

Anyway ... the pattern has great photos for each step and is very well explained ... it talks you trough the whole process so easily. It was really great! And Little Lizard King has other cute patterns as well. And some sweet free tutorials on her blog, too.

So go check out her site and say hello!

May your days be merry and bright ....

2010-12-24T13:34:00.001+01:00

I am wishing you guys all a

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope you have some good days in whichever way you spend them ...

I am looking forward to church today and to my kids unwrapping their gifts!

And then I am hoping for some quiet moments doing nothing ...

just me some tea and my family!

Okay, who am I kidding. I am not going to survive doing nothing more than a day ...

But a girl can dream, right? ;-)

Love you guys!!!!

Photos of the gifts I made and some tutorials and the big tutorial-link list coming up sometime next week!

Until then - take care!!!!

P.S. What do you think about my tiny mange in a nutshell? Comments welcome! :-)

WOW - twice!

2010-12-23T22:26:00.000+01:00

Okay, I know it is not very nice to praise oneself ...

But I am SO excited. My Christmastree pillow tutorial got featured on Craft Gossip!!!!

I mean - CRAFT GOSSIP!

WOW!

Check it out here

http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-fleece-christmas-tree-pillow-toy/2010/12/22/

When I found out I was almost dancing ... almost! ;-)

And another WOW- moment for me. Well, kinda. Remember the swaps I did. You HAVE to go and see what Lier from IKAT BAG made out of the fabric I send her

standup bean bag dolls

EEEEEK!!! So cute!!! I love them!!!!

Seriously, you gotta go check her post out. More cute pictures there. She even made little sleep bags for the dolls! It is killing me ...

I have a bit of that fabric left myself ... I know what I will make with it. ;-)

Homemade Snowglobes

2010-12-21T13:33:00.000+01:00

Yes, you guys were right!

A penguin snowglobe!!!

I love it!

This is the one I made. It is teeny tiny. I will show you again when it is finished. Have to harden it ... and put it all together ...

But wanna see what my daughter made?

Remember, she is only 5 years old!

I think it is completely amazing!!!

And I swear - I did not touch her stuff once!!!

She did ask me how to do things and I would say stuff like "Try to make a ball first and then make an oval" ... or stuff like that. But other than that - she did it ALL BY HERSELF!

I love the bird she made!

And the sweetest thing ever:

She told me that she wants to give it to her little brother as a Christmas present!

She is such a darling!

Well, back to frantic sewing. Finished a skirt! Hooded scarf almost done. Stickhorse still to be made. Think am going to skip the owl mobile ...

Now I KNOW why it always sais "Santa and HIS LITTLE HELPERS ..."

How on earth did I think I could pull off making presents withouth them????

Also still baking and cleaning to do.

Note to self: Stop thinking!!!! You are just gonna freak! SEW!!!!!

Wanna know what this is?

2010-12-20T22:29:00.000+01:00

Well, apart from "an out of focus picture" ... ;-)

Check back tomorrow ... (hopefully) ...

Cute Christmastree Pillow for Little Ones (Tutorial)

2010-12-19T20:30:00.001+01:00

When I was thinking of presents to make for the kids for Christmas I found it hard to come up with something for my little boy. He is just one year old. He will play with anything, really.

But what would be kinda special to him?

So I tried to come up with something that would go well with things he likes ...

He loves to cuddle! :-)

He will carry around stuffed pets and cuddle them. Steal little bear's - my daughter - tiny pillow. Try to haul away the big bear that is almost his own size ...

Also he loves to play with small things. Take things apart. He especially likes when taking things apart is accompanied by some noise.

And he is totally fascinated by the Advent calendar I made for little bear some years ago.

SO ....

This is what I came up with:

A soft cuddly pillow in a Christmastree-shape with Christmas baubles that attach with velcro

and therefore make that odd ripping sound when you pull them off.

He is going to love that! ;-)

And I figured maybe you also have some little guy - or girl - at home that would like one. So here is a tutorial on how to make it.

Sorry, I should have included more photos. But I was kinda hurrying to get it all done ...

It is easy though! So I am sure you can do it even if there is not a photo for each single step!

Here is what you need:

- fabric for the Christmas baubles - I made 6 baubles and used 6 different cotton prints

- green fleece

- matching thread

- paper for pattern

- scissors for cutting your pattern

- fabric scissors or rotary cutter

- velcro

- stuffing

1. Make your pattern

This is really easy. All you gotta do is figure out how big you want your pillow to be and draw a simplyfied treeshape (triangle with a stem) on a big piece of paper. I used some wrapping paper and newspaper.

When you have your treeshape figure out how big your baubles should be (all the same size or different sizes) and how many you want on your tree. Make a pattern (or several patterns if you want different sizes) for the baubles, too.

2. Cut your fabric

Cut two pieces for the tree out of green fleece. Remember to add your seam allowance!

Cut two pieces for each bauble you want to make out of your cottons - or whatever you use for the baubles*. Here also add your seam allowance.

3. Make the baubles

Take two fabric circles and sew the hooks of the velcro to one fabric circle.

Then sew the circles together with the right sides facing each other - leave a hole for turning!!!

Turn the bauble and put some stuffing in there if you like. Close the hole by top stitching around the whole bauble!

Now I have to say I was VERY surprised how hard I found it to sew small fabric circles like that! My seams turned out quite crooked. (As you can easily see in the photos.)

I was not too worried this time as I figured little man simply will not care at all about the seams. ;-)

But I figured if I wanted the baubles to LOOK more pretty I would have used fleece for them as well instead of cottons.

* With fleece you could just cut two circle shapes, sew on the velcro and sew both shapes together left side on left side! So NO TURNING. Just cut the fleece close to the seam - and that would be it!

Repeat this step until you have all baubles finished.

4. Make the tree

Take your tree-shaped fleece and play around with your baubles to figure out where you want them to go.

Pin the soft side of the velcro in place. (I used the soft side of the velcro on the pillow rather than on the baubles as I figured it would be less scratchy if the kids happen to cuddle up with it withouth the baubles attached.)

Sew the velcro in place!

Then put the two fleece pieces together right side facing each other. Close all seams - but again leave a (generous!) hole for turning and stuffing!

Then turn inside out and it should look like in the photo above.

Stuff the tree and close the hole. I did this by hand. At first I wanted to topstitch the whole tree but decided against it in the end.

Now you can admire your Christmastree pillow and play around with the baubles. ;-)

Have fun!

And I would love to know if you make one! :-)

P.S. This pattern is for personal use only. Thank you.

TWO WINNERS

2010-12-18T22:20:00.000+01:00

Random.org has spoken.

The buttons will go to commenter number 36

JESSICA from Quilty Habit

And the tiny Christmastree sewing pin will go to commenter number 56

CARE from Obsessively Stitching

I love her blog, btw. But I guess I have mentioned that before ... ;-)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I will be sending both of you an email.

And to all others - thank you so much for playing along!!! It was so much fun reading all your comments! And thanks for all the links. I am trying to answer at least all the comments that were not "no-reply" comments and I am putting the list of tutorials and patterns together.

I am not sure how long it will take me though as I am trying to make all the Christmas presents for my kids and so far I have finished ... ONE!

*shriek*

I have started almost all of them though ... but still ... LOTS to do.

But I am ~~planning~~ hoping on being able to publish the list sometime during the week after Christmas.

I guess noone has enough time to read through a list with

105 free tutorials and patterns

*wow*

before Christmas anyway ...

RIGHT?

So come back to check it out!

P.S. Anyone can tell me how I get blogger to write numbers in front of each comment? You know, like a numbered list ...? Would be REALLY helpful for giveaways ....

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

2010-12-12T21:51:00.001+01:00

Welcome my lovely readers and also welcome to all of you new ones coming from

Sew Mama Sew!

I am SOOOOOO excited to be part of this!

(Especially since I almost missed it.)

I will try to make it short as you guys probably have many more blogs to visit.

So here is the deal.

You can win some Christmas tree buttons handmade by me:

You will win a set of four buttons.

You can choose whether you would like them light green or dark green or a mix.

If there is more than 100 commenters I will give away one of my Christmas tree sewing pins as well.


Just in case you are wondering ... those are regular sewing pins. The flower pot that I used to make a pincushion is REALLY tiny!!!!

Just so you can see the size ... I do realize that most of you guys use inch and this is centimetres. Sorry, but it was the only photo I got.

Now that you know what you can win - here is HOW you can win:

To be in the draw all you have to do is comment below this post with

a link to your favourite free sewing pattern or tutorial.

Edited:
Sorry - as pointed out correctly by one commenter not everyone might sew ...
If you do not sew you are welcome to just leave a link to a free crochet or knitting pattern! :-)

It can be anything!
Even from your own site! Or especially from your own site! ;-)

Okay, I know that is more effort than just writing "Count me in" - but wait!

Here comes the good part:

At least I figured it would be good!

I will put together a post with all the links to free patterns and tutorials!

So if you come back in a week or two you will have a collection of a whole bunch of free sewing stuff right at your finger tips!
I figured this way we are all winners, right?!
*insert-nodding-here*

If you do add a link from your own blog/site would you please let me know whether I am allowed to use a picture from your blog when adding your link to the post?

One comment per person only!

All double comments or comments that do just say "Count me in" or something similar ;-) will be deleted.

(Sorry to be the meany. But it is just fair to the people that actually read my post and do put up a link.)

You are of course welcome to follow me as well if you like what you see on my blog.

I will however not push you into doing it ... so even if you just want to play along for this giveaway you are welcome!

The party is open to all!

Please make sure that I have a way to contact you!!!
If you are a no-reply commenter or do not have a blog please leave an email-address where I will be able to reach you!

The giveaway is open until the 17th of December.

The winner(s) will be drawn randomly.

I will of course ship internationally - so everyone can join in!

(The prices will be mailed out at the 20th if I have your mailing address until then.)

And just in case that there are some German bloggers stopping by ... feel welcome to check out my German blog

Cutelicious

And now hop on to all the other giveaways on Sew Mama Sew

Strawstar Tutorial

2010-12-10T21:51:00.000+01:00

As promised - FINALLY - here comes a tutorial on how to make these strawstars.

These stars are a traditional decoration here in Germany and they always remind me of my childhood as I was making them as a kid with my mother.
I love decorating with them!

By now you can buy them for little money over here in many stores. But the bought ones look slightly different ... and also ... well, they just are not homemade.
It is different to have real homemade ones!
I am still dreaming of one day having enough time to make so many that I can decorate my whole Christmas tree just with homemade straw stars and lights.
Well, maybe some gingerbread, too.
But that's it! :-)

So if you want to try to make some, too, here is how to do it:

What do you need?

Not much.

- straw for crafting

- thread
(I like red or silver one, but really any color is fine)

- scissors

If you have bought (or only can buy) straw that is still "round" - not as in the picture above - then you need to prepare your straw before you start with crafting.
If you have flat strips of straw you can just skip ahead to the actual making of the stars.

Okay, so if you still have the "real" straw what you do is
-slit the straw open with a sharp knife
-let soak in water for about 15 minutes
(I however had to soak mine alot longer. Do not know why.)
- then iron the straw open

You should end up with strips of flat straw that probably have varying width.
You can make the strips narrower if you want to just by cutting it with the scissors.
I do not find this step too much fun, so I would recommend buying the flat strips if you can.

Now making the stars.

Of the flat straw strips cut 4 pieces to the same length.
If you have never made strawstars before try to choose straw pieces that have roughly the same width. That will make it easier.

Then you make an "x" out of two straw pieces and hold it between your thumb and index finger.

With the other two straw pieces you make a "cross" and put the "cross" above the "x" as in the photo above.
Do not let go!

Now it will get a bit complicated. But once you have mastered this part you are almost done!
With (a long piece of thread) you weave around the middle of the star as shown above. You have to be careful to weave in a way so the star will not fall apart.

This is hard to explain in words - but you will know what I mean when you try it. For example the thread should not be UNDER the top straw piece but ABOVE it - like seen in the photo - otherwise the star will fall apart once you let go.
You can click on the photo above to make it larger and see more closely where the thread should go.

Do not let go before you have knot the thread! ;-)

I always weave one round and knot. After that I weave a couple more rounds but that is ALOT easier cause the star can not fall apart anymore.

This is what your star should look like from the front if you have weaved around the middle once.

This is a photo from the back of the star after weaving around the middle a few times.

Now comes the really fun part.
You gotta cut the ends of the straw to make a star.
You can do this any way you like ... round, pointed, ...
And then you are done!
Yeah!

Wasn't that hard, was it?

Of course you can vary the look of the stars if you want to. You can user longer pieces of straw or shorter ones. Or both together ... You can make really big or very small stars. You can put two stars on top of each other to make one fancy one.
Here just a few photos for inspiration:

A smaller and a larger star put on top of each other.

A very basic star.

Star made off narrow and wide straw strips.

A very small star. My favourite! I would love to make a whole bunch of these! :-)

Just a photo so you can see how small it is.
(Of course you could make even smaller ones.)

And just so you see that it is not THAT hard - this is a star that little bear - my 5 year old daughter - made with a little help with the weaving.

Well, and while making some stars I wanted to try something new ... and tied a button to the middle of a star.
So this is the first button-strawstar I have ever seen. :-)

I do kinda like it.
I think it would look really awesome to have a bunch with red buttons. Unfortunately I was out of red buttons ...
Maybe when I have more time on my hands I will try this.

Now what do you do with your stars?
Well, you can put them ANYwhere.
On a tree.
On a wreath.

This is my wreath in our living room.
You could also use them for gift wrapping - very cute!

I hope you will have fun trying this!
Let me know if you have any questions!!!!

Advent wreath ... errr ... box ... kinda thing ...

2010-12-07T12:28:00.001+01:00

Sorry, I completely forgot that I had said on Sunday that I would show you more photos of my beautiful Advent wreath on Monday... which was yesterday ...

But here they come. The photos of my Advent wreath.

Which really is not a wreath at all ... but anyway ...

I actually do not know whether this is a German thing or whether other countries do this, too. Here traditionally people have an Advent wreath which kinda looks like this.

Basically a green wreath with four candles.

It can of course be decorated differently. This is the wreath I had two years ago. Very basic. Not much decoration. Just some hand decorated candles - which I totally loved!

I had made the candles myself.

*proud-look*

Each Advent-Sunday you light one more of the candles ... so the first of Advent one candle is lit, the second two ... You get the idea.

I totally love this tradition. But this year I kinda gave it a new twist.

Instead of the usual wreath I used a box. So this is my Advent box.

This box actually has several advantages over the usual wreath - apart from being ... well ... UNusual! ;-)

1. You can move it EASILY around. Without any needles falling off! Major advantage if you have small kids around!!!

2. It is put together VERY quickly. Okay, if you just buy a regular wreath and only put candles on it - then the wreath would be quicker. But if you decorate a wreath it will most likely take longer than decorating the box.

3. You do not have to buy a wreath. So if you missed buying one ...

Which of course would never happen to me! I totally did not buy one on purpose! *clear-throat*

... THIS is your option! ;-)

I totally love that I did not have to buy a single thing to make this. I just worked with everything that I had at home:

1 small fruit box thing (the one that tangerines come in)

red paint (white one would work, too)

moss from the yard

pinecones, nuts and stuff that we collected on our daily walks

4 candles - which luckily I still had from last year

SCORE!

I also added some paper snowflakes that I made with a snowflake-shaped hole punch. I would like to glue some of those to the outside of the box but did not get to it yet.

What do you think?

Cute?

Or crazy?

Do you have an Advent wreath or something similar to this?

St Nicholas

2010-12-06T14:23:00.000+01:00

The 6th of December is St Nicholas Day here in Germany. I love that day as it actually goes back to a real person who gave to the poor.

The tradition is to clean your shoes at the evening of the 5th. During the night St Nicholas will come and put something in your shoes ... if you were a nice person! ;-)

Do you celebrate St Nicholas Day?

Picture from PunktPunktKommaStrich

This beautiful picture is from the German blog PunktPunktKommaStrich

I am not really a heel person - or shoe person for that matter. But I am totally loving all those different shoes and how they are drawn!

Too cute!

Thought you might enjoy it, too. :-)

Second of Advent

2010-12-05T22:33:00.000+01:00

I hope you guys had an awesome day!?

I did!

And I finally took some pictures of my Advent "wreath" :-)

More photos of it tomorrow ...

Have a good night!

Button thread rolls and ... MUFFINS :-)

2010-12-04T22:17:00.003+01:00

I made some new buttons that I wanted to share.

First - those yarn rolls. I so loved the idea of making them ... and in my head it seemed easy enough. But when I actually sat down and worked on them ... well, let' s just say it took a bit of time until I figured out a way to make them that I could at least somehow live with.

Edited: As correctly stated by one commenter these are of course not rolls of yarn but rolls of thread. I am sorry. I guess my English language processing capacity really decreases the later it gets in the day. And usually I post rather late at night ... so ...
Thanks to you lovely readers and commeters who help me out!!!
Guess I will need you in the future, too. At the moment it is either posting late or not posting at all. *sigh*

I was however totally happy with these cute muffins I made. I will have to make more!

Someone else also seemed to really like them. Little man kept trying to sneak them away while I tried to photograph them ....

And a couple more toadstools.

Add caption

And please excuse the horrible horrible pictures. Somehow I took the photos with a very long exposure on a tripod as the light was so dim even during the day and I thought it should be fine. Then I mailed the buttons off .... just to figure out that the pictures are really very ... blue!

Oh well ...

Lesson learned: Check photos before mailing off object to be photographed!

Snow, snow, snow ... snowflakes

2010-12-03T22:55:00.001+01:00

We have SO MUCH snow at the moment - it is unbelievable!

So here comes a snowy activitiy ....

Yesterday my daughter's Advent calendar said that we would be making paper snowflakes. And just in time I saw this post on how to make perfect paper snowflakes the day before.

Great!

You gotta check out that post if you want to make some. I have never before made such cute snowflakes! And she recommends using coffee filters.

I actually even had a package of coffee filters from some previous - well, VERY previous - crafting lying around and was VERY happy to use that one.

I am always happy when I can use something up that I already have around. Especially if I do not need it anymore anyways.

There is another tutorial - for square paper - on Martha Stewart.

We did not make quite as many as I would have liked ... but I would really LOVE to attempt this snowflake curtain. It looks awesome!

Ours looks more like this ...

Btw, you would not believe how hard it is to photograph these little suckers!

I hope to add more during the next days.

Once I hung the snowflakes little bear seemed to get much more excited than in the beginning. :-)

At first she was kinda like "Oh no, I don't wanna do this. This is boring."

Well ... and I thought I would hear stuff like that when she is 14 ...

Welcome to the real world! ;-)

Btw, you can also use these paper snowflakes to decorate your gifts! They would look awesome on some solid colored gift wrap or even some brown paper packaging ...

Christmas Book "Advent Calender"

2010-12-03T12:54:00.000+01:00

No, I am not done with all the Christmas presents yet. ;-)

Not even close actually. :-(

These are not the presents - even though little bear thought they were and got REALLY excited when she saw all the packages.

These are all our Christmas books wrapped up for a book countdown until Christmas.

This is a sweet tradition I have been wanting to do already during the last years - but never did! This year FINALLY I managed to get all the books together and wrap them up. I mainly used old gift wrap that I saved last year (it really does not matter if it is a little crushed or torn), old gift bags, newspaper and old catalogue pages. Then I just put all the "packages" into a big box and each day the kids are allowed to take one that will be read. I sneaked one new one in this year, too - so I hope that will cause some excitement. :-) As I love books I totally LOVE the whole idea of using them to count down to Christmas!!!

Well, apparently I am not the only one who loves it ...

Yesterday little man got REALLY interested in the packages and almost managed to open a few ... had to save them ... :-)

Another tiny button

2010-12-02T12:32:00.001+01:00

I almost forgot to show off another creation I made. I had bought this dress already a while ago and had in mind to customize it for a little girl I know. (Not my daughter!)

When I bought it I actually had some kind of applique in mind ... but in the end I decided to embroider her name similarly to the big sister shirt I did last year. I love how it turned out!

When I was stitching I thought that a button instead of the dot on top of the "i" should look cute ... so I made some tiny heart buttons to play around with and ended up using the one in the picture.

I think it is sweet!

Of course now little bear wants a dress like that, too! *sigh*

Cute online advent calendar for kids

2010-12-01T22:34:00.000+01:00

If you need some things to do during advent for your kiddos - check out this

cute online advent calendar

Each day you open a door and it leads you to fun printables, craft ideas and such. I am sure I will not do all of them with my daughter. But definitely some. Today there is a cute snowman "find the difference" picture which I know little bear will love. There is other stuff, too!

I know where I will be clicking each day ... ;-)

Quick Advent Calendar Tutorial

2010-12-01T12:48:00.002+01:00

So today was the day when my daughter was allowed to open the first door of her Advent calender. Or rather the first sock. ;-)

If some of you are REALLY late with their calendar - well, here is one that you can do in almost no time! At least if you do have enough socks around. :-)

You need:

- 24 socks

Preferably sock that are too small for your kids - otherwise someone might be searching for them ;-)

Babysocks look REALLY cute!

- 24 wooden cloths pegs

- some type of cord or string
- optional: number stickers or paper, to write numbers on

I guess you know what to do now?! It is really esay :-)

Fill the socks with whatever you want and put them on the string/ cord with the pegs. Add some numbers if you want to. Done.

For the numbers I simply cut out stars with a hole punch and wrote the numbers on the stars.
~~(You can not see that in the pic above as I took the photo BEFORE I finished the numbers.)~~
I just added another photo below WITH the numbers ...
I added the stars to the sock and cliped it all together with the cloths peg.
You can leave off the numbers if it does not matter in which order the socks are emptied.

My kids are not getting any chocolate or candy in their calender. Each sock holds a paper slip which has one activity on it. My daughter loves it! Last year’s favourite was
"Have hot chocolate with whipped cream"
:-)

Today the slip read "Write down a wishlist for Santa Claus"
You know what my daughter said after hearing that?

"I can not write that list today. First I have to finish looking through all the toy catalogues!"

Well, that much about making an informed decision ... :-D

If you need some ideas what to write on your paper slips there is a whole lot out there in blogland. If you are interested I can also post the list I have accumulated ...
Just let me know.

Wishing you a great 1st of December!

First of Advent

2010-11-30T13:01:00.000+01:00

I hope you guys had a nice first of Advent?!

I did have a good day - rather unexpectedly I have to say!

(Needless to add that little man got sick again on Friday so we kinda hat to change all our plans ...)

We went to a itty-bitty tiny Advent market at the castle in our village. It was nice. I actually much prefer the small tiny markets with the kids. At the big markets they just get totally over stimulated and in the end there is not much more for them to do anyway. Most stalls are for grown-ups. So the tiny market was perfect.

Little bear went on a carrousel ride and on a pony ride! That was her highlight of the day! :-)

And she was allowed to pick some sweets.

I got myself a candied apple and some hot mead (I hope that is the correct translation. I am talking about that honey wine ...) - which little man, who I carried in the baby wrap - was REALLY interested in! He was very determined to taste it - I did not let him. But he definitely was determined to try ... Luckily we had his waterbottle with us and could trick him into that.

Then we went back home and ate some cookies. Only storebought ones as I did not have the time yet to bake some myself. But it still was quite nice. Oh, we did have some homemade ones actually. My sister visited us and brought some! Lovely!!!

And we also made some straw stars together!!! FUN!

So watch out for a tutorial on straw stars coming up during the week! :-)

I actually wanted to show off my advent wreath - which is not a wreath at all actually. But the photos I took look horrible. So I have to take some again ... Stupid dark winter light! *arg*

Another swirly shirt

2010-11-27T13:55:00.001+01:00

Finally another shirt for my daughter. I love how it turned out. And it is out of fleece ... so suitable for the cold weather right now.

I wanted to add something special. First I wanted to add pockets ... but I felt it would not really fit to the pattern.I liked the pockets I added last time. But as the shirt is very wide I decided that next time I would not add some.

So I just added this cute little heart button.
Little bear likes it!
However, if it would have been her choice she would have added ALOT MORE buttons!
Do you think that "button addiction" might be inheritable?
;-)

Owls and magpies flying to Australia

2010-11-26T20:57:00.000+01:00

Finally they are done!

Will put a coat of varnish on them at the weekend ...

... and then they will fly off to a new home ....

... far far away ...

I hope they will have a good trip!

:-)

I also finally took the time to draw a new second winner - as the one I drew never responded to my emails.
So the new second winner is number 111

and that is

JOHANNA

I actually DID COUNT to check whether that is really number 111!
It is.
And that is really strange because - I know her!
She is my first costumer in my new dawanda-shop!
And I just finished her order.
Sometimes randomness is just a really weird thing, isn't it?

Off to write her a surprise-email ...

The (almost) year long swap :-)

2010-11-25T21:41:00.000+01:00

So about a year ago a good blogging friend of mine - Lier from Ikat Bag - asked me if I would like to join into a swap that she planned to do with a friend of hers living in Japan.
***
Btw, if you do not know Ikat Bag - which I highly doubt, but just in case - go on over NOW!
You can finish reading my stuff later anytime ... you HAVE to check out her blog. Seriously! You do not know what you are missing!
***

If I would like to?

Are you freaking kidding me!?

I was totally thrilled!

So the three of us decided to do a swap and started planning. As we are all moms we said that we would take it slow .... But the last deadline, after postponing it a couple times ;-) - was the beginning of October. So in October two beautiful packages arrived at my house - one from the US and one from Japan! Curious what was in there?

I would have shown you guys earlier but did not want to post anything before my packages had arrived as well. The one to Japan arrived rather quickly. But German post outdid itself once again - am not a huge fan of German post - and the one going to the US took more than FOUR weeks! I was so scared that it might have gotten lost!!!!!
When I finally got an email saying that my package had arrived I was almost happier than when I had received mine. :-)
Well, almost. ;-)

First the package from Japan.

It came from Christine - her blog is called Origami Mommy.

There was fabric. I love fabric! :-) Yes, you knew that already. There was a lovely quilted fabric with chili print. Am loving the print. I have no idea what to make out of quilted fabric - but I will come up with something. That print is just too cute!
Then there were some precut cotton fabrics. My favourite was the apple print. Sorry, you can not see the rest as the rest is UNDER the apple print fabric. I realized that when editing the photos ... And this cute shiny fabric! Oh, and those cute tiny crocheted flowers! They are just adorable!

This cute craft kit for kids. I think my daughter is gonna love it.

Some japanese masking tape. Again - I only realized that you can not see the pattern on the tape when editing the photos. But let me tell you - it is lovely! :-) And you will get to see it once I ~~have~~ take the time to actually do some projects with it.
Also some fun pencils and a beautiful japanese brush. These I will give to my daughter as well.
Some fun sticky tape thingies that I will keep for myself. I love using these in craft or cooking books to mark the pages of the projects that I would like to try. I have never come across such cute ones with pictures on them.

This awesome craft book. I am LOVING it! I have looked through it already many many times. There are so many projects in it. Many sewing projects with patterns. Really cute ones for kids. But also ones for women and for home stuff. But there are also other neat projects. Can not wait to try some.
(Am kinda hoping that it will not be too hard to figure out japanese patterns ...)

So this was the first package. It was awesome wasn't it?

Thanks so much again - Christine!!!

***

Now for the second package which came from Lier in the US.

So what was in there?

Adorable sewing ribbon (the two black ones).

I love ribbon!

Fun toys!
This is something I have never seen before and did not even know it existed. It is a paste that you put on a small straw and then you blow and you end up having a ... balloon!
Crazy stuff!
I have not yet tried it. Will also be a present for my daughter.

Some fun stickers.

This cute strawberry.
Strawberries are my favourite fruit!!! I love it.
And it opens up to be a bag! I try to always have it with me so in case I need an extra bag I have one. And it is so much cuter than just stuffing an extra bag in your handbag.
Also in our house it doubles as a baby toy as little man totally adores it and plays with it when he gets fuzzy in his buggy while we are outside for a walk.

Another fun thing that I have never seen before.
It is out of paper and has a hole.
And look what happens if you blow into the hole ...

Totally cute!!!!
I am so loving this. There were two in the package which I hung above what kinda is my work space in our living room.

(Where I never ever work but rather kinda dump all projects that I am working on ... but that is a whole different matter I guess.)

I love the way they hang in the air. It kinda looks as if they float ...
I loved them so much that I thought it would be really neat if one could hang a bunch under the ceiling ... kinda like a mobile.
I was thining maybe one could craft some?
I am not sure. I have not found any tutorials yet. If you guys know of any please send them my way!

But imagine my surprise when during the last couple days I was flipping through a new toy catalogue that I had ordered and found EXACTLY the same paper balls! And for a really affordable price! I am going to order a whole bunch!!!! :-)

I am wondering whether it would be safe to put them over a chain of lights?
Does anyone know?

But if someone has a tutorial - I would still like to make some. The ones you can order all have the same color combination.
And as fun as this is - how amazing would these look if they would be a kinda dark transparent red?
Or white with some writing on it ...?
Oh, many many ideas flowing in my head ... must stop thinking about paper balls!

Btw, our mobile-fanatic little man of course loved them, too.
He loves EVERYthing that hangs in the air and moves if you blow at it.
I had to rescue the paper balls from his hands as he really wanted to cuddle them once he got his hands on them.

Some batik fabric.
I am not sure what to make out of it. At the moment I am just kinda looking at it and enjoying the fact that this has traveled all over the world to me! :-)

More cute ribbon. Loving the sweet little flowers.

Yes, I know you can not see what the ribbon looks like.
But the photo looks kinda funny!

So, now you can see.
I love the tiny cute top stitching.
I really should start making something where I actually use some of the ribbon I have collected.
I have not that much really ... but still.
I am loving it so much that I never use it!
Is that crazy?

These are white fabric roses. They are still in their packaging - that is why the photo looks a bit odd. They are very beautiful and I plan to make something for little bear with them.

A giant seam ripper!
YEAH!
It is not that I like seam ripping alot ... but I still have to do it quite often so this is going to make it alot easier.
And now each time I have to rip a seam apart I will have to think of a friend living on the other side of the earth ... that will make it a bit more pleasant! ;-)

I included a photo together with my regular seam ripper that came with my sewing machine. The new one really is a lot bigger.

Mod Podge!

We do not have Mod Podge here in Germany and everytime I read about it I was wondering what it is about it. Also lately I have seen other brands of glue around here that to me seemed similar to Mod Podge. But as I did not know Mod Podge I could not compare. Now I can! ;-)

And I will let you know! :-)

Oh, and it is not just ANY Mod Podge. It is GLITTER! Oh, little bear - who I should probably rename for the time being into little pink princess - will be THRILLED!

There also were some really fun (and funny) pens and erasers in the package. I am sorry to not have a photo ... as soon as I unpacked the package I took them and hid them so little bear would not find them. Well, turned out I hid them quite well. When I took all the photos I could not find them. :-(

Meanwhile I have found them again - *sigh* - and even given one of the pens to little bear as a treat cause she had to play alone so much while little man was sick. But I did not take any more photos ... I hope you will forgive me.

And there also were two Family Fun magazines in there. These were scattered in our apartment while I took photos as I like to keep something to read everywhere right now as I have to run after little man all the time. I used to carry something to read or to do with me ... but got tired of doing that. Now there is basically something to read or do in every room and where ever I am I can do something while watching little man ...

Thank you so much again, Lier!!!

Who knew how much fun can fit into a package? ;-)

This was really awesome! Apart from the I-spy-Swap I had never done a swap before.

I loved it!

If postage would not be such a bitch

(sorry for my language, but it really is)

I would be doing this all the time!
:-)

First snow ... and handwarmers finished

2010-11-24T22:47:00.000+01:00

Today we had the first snow. I think by now it is already gone again and it was not much. But little bear was delighted!

And little man was quite stunned when he looked out of the window this morning. I realized then that this is the first time that he sees - I mean really sees - snow!

When we went for a walk he was in his buggy. I gave him a bit of snow to touch. He was quite startled about how cold it is.

He still wanted to touch it again. But after two times he had enough. ;-)

But he did seem to quite enjoy how different the world looked.

I know - this photo does not really look too wintery. But I loved the red on the black-ish ground. It looks so pretty.

And wanna know something great?

Okay, if you do not wanna know you will have to stop reading here ... as I will tell you anyways.

Just in time for the really cool weather I finished my handwarmers yesterday. FINALLY!

Remember that I did not know what to do - whether to undo the first one or not because the bind-off I had tried looked so ruffly ....

Sometime last week I decided that I would HAVE to finish them now.

I really needed to finish something as the whole lot of projects going on had kinda brought my mood down.

So I picked up the almost done second handwarmer and started the bind-off. I figured even if it is ruffly and not perfect - better than not having any handwarmer at all.

But you know what happened.

The second one did not turn out ruffly AT ALL!!!

It looked gorgeous!

So, it turned out that I must have done something wrong the first time I tried this bind-off. As I did not even know WHAT it was that I did wrong I did not even have a choice but to undo the first one - unless I wanted to have to handwarmers that did not match.

Unpicking the first one was quite a pain. Luckily a handwarmer is not that big! I finally had it all undone and did the bind-off. And it turned out as beautifully as the first one.

So if you want to finish some knitting with some beautiful picot edge - go HERE to read how it is done.

I am totally loving my new handwarmers. Especially since I can wear them three different ways. With thumbhole - without - and folded over. They always look cute.

And FYI - no I do not always wear pink glittery nail polish. This is actually the second time since about a year (?) that I wear any nail polish. (The first time it was black.) And in my defense when I bought that nail polish last week it looked like a dark red in the bottle. I was just a bit shocked when I got home and showed it off and my daughter screamed

"My favourite color!"

And my only thought was - no, it is NOT PINK!

Well, I was very tired when I bought it ....

But you can tell from the pictures that it is true - me not regularly wearing it. I mean apart from the fact that it is probably not very well applied ....

Hubby was apparently so stunned by the look of nailpolish that he managed to photograph my polished nails ... and kinda forgot that the purpose of the pictures was to show off my handwarmers and the cute picot edge ...

Oh well ...

Awesome sugar cookie bars

2010-11-23T20:35:00.001+01:00

I wanted to share this recipe with you already a while ago. I did not forget. I just did not get to do it. But here it is.

If you like cookies that are quick to make and make a big batch - check out this recipe from

Munchkin Munchies!

There you can also find really pretty pictures of the bars! Not such a lame one as mine. :-) And a recipe for some forsting. I did not use frosting simply because I do not want little man to eat so much sugar. Feel bad enough about giving him cookies .... But when he is older I will definitely try these cookies with frosting, too.

They might not look totally exciting.

But believe me - THEY ARE GOOD!!!

I made them twice already and they are awesome. The dough comes toegether really quickly!

And then all you need to do is slap the dough onto a baking sheet! That is it!

No dropping spoonfuls of dough ... no rolling and cutting ... just put it all on the sheet. And then sprinkle whatever you like on it. I love the chocolate sprinkles - of course. :-)

Little bear loves colorful sprinkles. The more colors the better!

I try to give little man pieces with almost no sprinkles. Btw, he goes totally crazy when hes sees the cookie bars. He LOVES them. Okay, he pretty much loves everything edible. But still ... he seems to REALLY like these.

The bars are best when they are still a bit chewy - so be careful not to overbake them.

The only drawback - even though the recipe makes a very generous batch - they do not last any longer than the usual recipes ... :-(

Cutest Free Sewing Clip-Art Set

2010-11-20T20:41:00.000+01:00

Picture from Tricia Rennea

Is this cute or what?

If you like this - or my blog banner - you have to go and check out

Tricia Renneas blog.

She has all sorts of cute printables on her blog. And she offers many of them for free. Like the set above. (It is available in another color scheme, too.) So go on over and check her out!

She has not only cute clip-arts - there are also coloring pages (little bear loves them), templates for sewing or embroidering, paper dolls ... I am loving the patterned papers, little notes and labels. If I had a color printer ... well, I would be printing ALOT off her blog. ;-)

I may be a bit biased as she made my lovely blog banner - which I still adore after so much time! - but you have to go and see for yourself. If you do like cute little images you will certainly not regret it!

Have a great Sunday!

Wishing all of you a great fall weekend

2010-11-13T22:26:00.000+01:00

Something like this maybe ... ;-)

I know all around blogworld Christmas stuff keeps popping up. Even I already did one post. But to be honest - I do not feel at all like Christmas yet!!! It feels much more fall-like to me ... So I am trying to enjoy this feeling for as long as possible! :-)

Btw, you know what I did today? I managed to get myself a blister in the middle of my left palm!

How you do that you ask?

By working with polymer clay!

And - no, I am not kidding.

Unfortunately.

It does kinda hurt!

And it is VERY inconvenient for keeping to work with clay ... *sigh*

Now does that mean that I am incredibly stupid for getting myself that blister - or am I just really serious about the clay business ...

And no, you do not have to answert that! ;-)

***

Have a good weekend you all!!!!

No blisters for you!

Get inspired for Christmas

2010-11-09T23:44:00.000+01:00

Just a really quick post ... if you want to get into the Christmas spirit

- I know it is early. But you gotta start early to make all those presents! -

go and check out the

Inspired Ideas Christmas E-Magazine

I always love things with pretty photos. And there are many of them in there! And a whole bunch of cute crafty ideas with instructions! I really had fun going through them and can not wait to actually make some ...

Muffins and More

My very first quilt *wow*

Enough of the quietness - and Fairy birthday inspiration

WINNERS

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

How to crochet a portable doll crib

Custom order of buttons

Sewing an Unicorn

12% discount in my shop - TODAY only

Information and Tutorials on Fabric Yarn Crochet Projects

Easter buttons

Mr. Mouse

Sighting Of the Very Rare Rabbit-Mouse

ABC-board thingy ... with tutorial

Buttons on their way ...

Crocheted Recycled Rug

Tea Time Buttons

Love ...

COLD

PURE fabric love

A little midnight "hooooooot"

Look at my new bag!!!

Another tiny pincushion

Folded stars

Need your help - WHAT are bean bags good for?

Stickhorse Pattern and Giveaway

Finally my store is open to EVERYONE :-)

Spring Challenge

Christmas gifts for my kids - part 4: Bean bags

Christmasgifts for my kids - part 3: The Hooded Scarf

Resolutions AND repurposing LINKY PARTY

Christmasgifts for my kids - part 2: Meet Marzipan

Wanna learn how to sew pockets?

100 free tutorials and patterns

Christmas gifts for my kids - part 1: The Apron Skirt

May your days be merry and bright ....

WOW - twice!

Homemade Snowglobes

Wanna know what this is?

Cute Christmastree Pillow for Little Ones (Tutorial)

TWO WINNERS

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

Strawstar Tutorial

Advent wreath ... errr ... box ... kinda thing ...

St Nicholas

Second of Advent

Button thread rolls and ... MUFFINS :-)

Snow, snow, snow ... snowflakes

Christmas Book "Advent Calender"

Another tiny button

Cute online advent calendar for kids

Quick Advent Calendar Tutorial

First of Advent

Another swirly shirt

Owls and magpies flying to Australia

The (almost) year long swap :-)

First snow ... and handwarmers finished

Awesome sugar cookie bars

Cutest Free Sewing Clip-Art Set

Wishing all of you a great fall weekend

Get inspired for Christmas

My very first quilt wow