While I was throwing this fabric in the air to photograph it in the sun, I started to think it's so pretty it should be made into a summer dress. But that's not strange, I guess. I see dresses in every fabric...

Anyway.

It's about time to make some curtains for my new studio. And even though I normally am not a big fan of making home decorations, especially curtains, when it's the studio I have to sew for even making curtains sounds like fun! I dove into my fabric stash and found this lovely soft and light yellow cotton. Perfect. I'm convinced yellow is the best colour for curtains ever. Even if it's freezing cold outside, when there is the tiniest bit of light outside, a room will look like a lovely spring day with some yellow curtains.

How pretty is that?

By the way, I can imagine all this 'new studio' talk can make one rather curious. So I promise, as soon as it's finished I will give a grand tour. Including the curtains (if I don't change them into a dress, ofcourse)!

Even though it has been raining like madness the last couple of weeks, and even though we are chilly and some of us are even sniffing and sneezing like it's the middle of fall, we are not quite ready yet to give up on summer.

Today on the local fair we made rides on the carousel and enjoyed some ice creams. And as if she felt the expectations of all those people there in our little town, the sun decided to show up and warm us with her beams.

I wish you all a lovely and summery weekend!

Chris and my dad were making fun of me big time, because of my clothes and especially my shoes during some helping I did in the new studio. Yes, I know. It looks out of place. But what can I say, I am a girly girl type of woman. Being raised by a dad who taught me women should be feminine all the time, no matter the occasion, and being married to a man who loves that aspect of me and tells me that every time again, makes that part of me blossom more and more through the years. I can't help it.

Just saying...

Almost, ALMOST, the new studio is ready to be decorated. Today, in between the puzzled staring that I did, feeling a bit bewildered with all this strange free time on my hands, my dad and I worked on the walls and the ceiling, preparing them for the paint of my choice. Now all we need are the window glasses and the last finishing touches and then the decorating can begin. And oh, how I am looking forward to that.

I painted pictures in my mind for ages now, of a studio, no, a creative dream space of my own. I imagined walls with shades of blue, cabinets filled with colourful fabric, flowers on the windowsill and light, a lot of light especially. I browse the internet looking for inspiration and find it in the most diverse places. One of those places is Clothkits and more especially their section of liberty biais binding on beautiful wooden spools. I think they belong in my new studio. I am certain I can make them feel right at home there. And if the rest of the decoration will have to be made to fit them perfectly, well, they are pretty enough to deserve that, don't you agree?

It's the end of the summer break. We had a wonderful time. Went away together and with family for weekends. Played lots of games. And even more games. We started the change of the garage into a studio. We built, with lego and wood. We lived outside, for most of the day. We enjoyed summer, with eachother.

Tomorrow school starts again. Lucas ofcourse is going back, but this time Sarah will join him. She looks forward to it, talks about being a big girl now and is excited in the anticipation of meeting new friends and learning about all kinds of interesting subjects.

I think she will love everything about it. And I think I will enjoy the extra time I will have on my hands when they are in school, to spend with little Olivier, but also to sew, take photographs, create. To be a bit more active on this blog again, too. Especially in the new studio that looks closer and closer to being finished every day.

Yes, I feel like I should be excited thinking about tomorrow and this new period to come. And I know I will be. In a little while. When I finally will be able to swallow the lump in my throat.

My little girl is going to school...

Generally I am quite organized. I like my surroundings to be clear and when I am working in my studio, I want to be able to grab anything I need without having to search for it. But when it comes to my purse, it unfortunately is a whole other story.

I start out organized every time again. Every once in a while I clean out all my purses and only put back the things I really, really need. But somehow, within minutes as it seems, little jim-jams crawl in, like pieces of paper with phone numbers I don't remember from who, packages with all kinds of snacks for the little ones for when we are on the road, pieces of jewelry, hair decorations that I am sure belong in Sarah's room, little cars that I don't remember playing with and all kinds of treasures I didn't collect, like stones, shells and beads. And these are just some examples.

So somewhere in this mess I have to be able to find my phone, my datebook and my keys. And even though I don't mind some adventurous grabbling from time to time, when I am in a hurry it's just not practical. So I decided I needed a key chain. Something that would make my keys stand out in my purse, so I can grab them quickly when I need them. Ofcourse I wanted to make it myself and, ofcourse, it had to be pretty.

So this is what I came up with, my key pendant. Lots of beads, ribbons and little fabric square and round pillows, decorated with some glittering sequins. It's colourful, it's fun, it's pretty and best of all: There is no way I will be able to overlook my keys when they are in my overcrowded purse anymore. Perfect!

For my parents' 40th wedding anniversary we, as their children, surprised them with a little getaway, together with the whole family. It was wonderful.

I did take my knitting needles with me. I did take a sewing book with me. I barely touched either of them. I even forgot about them completely. I had more important and fun things to do at that time: Playing games. Running through labyrinths. Cutting and folding paper into animals. Throwing stones into water. Admiring the enviroment and seeing the little ones be blown away by the beauty of things I didn't even see at first. And laughing. A lot of laughing.

How was your weekend?

On some days there is a lot you should be doing, or want to be doing, like painting the window frames of your new studio, or playing hide and seek with the little ones, or ironing your laundry (that's a 'should' obviously) and clean your bathroom (and there's another one). But still, on days like that, one can feel a craving for something baked, something sweet, something home made. For those days, the following recipe is perfect. It's easy, quick and simple and anyone can whip this up in less than ten minutes (minus the baking time). And so, while nobody even noticed you were gone, while you cleaned your house like you should have, or better yet, played with your little ones or chatted with a friend on the phone, all of a sudden there is this sweet, spicey cake for all to enjoy. It's like magic. And it's yummy!

Simple Spice Cake

Ingredients:

• 300 gr. self raising flour
• 2 tablespoons of the following mixture of herbs: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, white pepper, ginger powder, cardamom.
• 2 beaten eggs
• 225 gr. dark or light brown caster sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 100 ml milk

Preheat the oven up to 150° Celcius. With a mixer beat the flour, herbs, eggs, sugar, salt and milk. Grease the inside of a bread* tin. Pour the batter into the tin until it's filled up to three quarters. Bake the cake in the oven for about 80 minutes. Get it out of the oven, let it cool of and cut it into slices.

Bon appetit!

*Again the pie/cake/tart/taart confusion. :-) What we call cake here, is different than the 'cakes' in English speaking countries. Our cakes look a lot like little breads.

Ofcourse I'm not always in the mood for cleaning up after the little ones. Especially when it's evening, they are tucked into bed, and all I want is to have a cup of tea and do nothing for a minute. But many times, that same mess they left behind, can move me endlessly.

It's the row of little cars, perfectly aligned and parked on the side table outside, that kept Olivier busy for hours while I was working in the garden. It's the bicycle, thrown aside against a pole when Lucas heard his friend outside our gate and ran outside to play with him. It's the bucket with 'sand soup' that Sarah stirred in all day, asking us to 'taste' every time again to see if it was perfect yet. It was always perfect, ofcourse. But still she kept stirring.

Forget that cup of tea. I just want to run upstairs and cuddle with them right now.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend. I hope you'll create some precious memories.

I have had Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing on my shelf for ages now. Sometimes I flipped through the book, drawing inspiration from the beautiful pictures and telling myself I really should try out some of her patterns sometime. But I never did. Until today.

My friend is expecting her first baby. And not just A baby, but twins even. Tomorrow I am going to visit her and ofcourse I wanted to bring something to celebrate this wonderful news. But I didn't have a lot of time, because we were celebrating my nephews seventh birthday today.

So I wanted to make something simple and quick, but pretty ofcourse. Like the 'Kimono Top' pattern from Heather's book. It was simple indeed, sewn up in a heartbeat. I chose a soft, cotton green check as fabric and used a white biais tape as trim and ties. Since we don't know whether the twins will be boys or girls, I picked something I think will look cute on both.

Cleaning the house from top to bottom, celebrating a birthday AND finishing up two tops in one day. Sounds like a succesful day to me. And this makes me think I should more often actually use the patterns from all those books I have been collecting. Although I have to admit: Even only looking at them standing side to side on my shelves makes them worth their prize for me. Looking at piles of pretty books is inspiring in itself, don't you think?