japanese cute zakka

It' s been a little while since I've blogged. Been very busy with a couple of things.

I just wanted to let you know that my dear friend Noriko has finally opened her shop.

She sells the cutest things, directly imported from japan. If you like the artist Shinzi Katoh, decole , knick knack, Alain Grée, ... , you should visit her webshop. But she has a lot of other cute stuff to. The site is at this moment only in english but when I've finished the translations it will be in dutch to. So go and take a look. (and no, I have no shares :) )

Preparing for halloween

So, yesterday we took our magnet board and changed it into a spoooky board. At Annika's school they very much like halloween and so all the kids are very keen on halloween, including Annika.

She has her mind set on going as a big candy at the halloweenparty but I explained that mummy just started sewing lessons so this would be a very good idea for next year.

I got the images from my favorite designer on etsy, Marieke Vermeulen . She has already a christmas collection as well, with very cute deers and houses.

I also did some crafting in the last week and finally finished this little bag.

I used my new stamp set from decole to print the fabric with little red riding hood. After fixating and ironing it, it should be wash-resistant. We'll see.

I also made some new stamps. A few weeks ago this book arrived at my house.

It's a japanese stamp book and it shows you how to carve your own designs from an eraser. It has many very cute designs in it. It has also many tips and examples on how to use your stamps (like printing on fabric :) ). You don't need to speak japanese to understand the instructions, because the book has step-to-step photos. If you like to get the book, theres a great seller at ebay, pomadour , who sells directly from japan. She is a very nice lady and she has tons of japanese crafting books, shipping free.

And this is what I made so far from the book.

As you can see, I just need to finish of the last one and than we can start with making our christmas cards. A little early you might say, but last year I had a million other things to do (can't remember what) so at the end, no christmas card left our house, what a shame.

Who's the lucky bastard ?

Surely, I am ! This morning the postman rang to my door. He had a big box coming from japan. So it was a bit of christmas at my home. When I unpacked (which took a while), this came all out of the box.







Noriko, you are the best ! Thank you very much for all the stuff.
Well I'll explain: We all know that finding stuff from decole and cute japanese stuff is really hard to find in europe or you must be willing to pay many pounds in England.

So, when Noriko heard that I like this stuff so much, she offered to bring me some (a lot actually) from Japan. I needed to do a bit of crafting today but no such luck, had to reorganize the house for my new stuff.

The good news is that Noriko is setting up a webshop for us europeans so we can buy this cute things ourselves. Let you know when the shop is open for business. Meanwhile, you can visit her blog here.

She will also sell products from Alain Grée, which she already sells in japan, look here

Time flies

Well time flies indeed, long time since I've blogged.

We were very busy, some good things, other not so good.

We finally set a date. From 19 september 2009, you may call me mrs. Muskee (maybe i'll keep van Waes, not sure about that). My kind of husband will become my husband and it will the most expensive day of our live (and hopefully also a happy one :) ). The only thing I'm sure about at this moment is that i want a dessertbuffet, and preferably an extended one. Lots of things to do but that's for next year. We also need to go in "ondertrouw" and that's a bit of a problem. We are the kind of people that intend to forget something like this so i' ll have to make a note. If not, we'll have a big party next year instead of a wedding.

On the home front we have BUGS in the house. They are called "motmuggen" and they breed like hell. Since about two weeks i'm a "motmuggen"-expert. These are tiny little flies that just sit at walls and ceilings. Apparently they come out of the basement, the cellar under the house.
We rent this house and were not aware that we have moist issues so ... bummer !
So I've called in reinforcements. Last week, the exterminator came by and sprayed all the walls in the house and "gassed" the basement. And bwooh, they are not gone. They die after a day but during that time they fly around, not good and they keep breeding, even worse. The exterminator will come back to look for a solution.
My friend are very sympathic as i absolutely hate bugs, sometimes in a bit of a freaky way. So now, I'm almost ready to be admitted for a few weeks to a psychiatric ward, that would almost seem like vacation. I have bonded with my vacuum cleaner (don't now if that is healthy anymore).
My kind of husband is in Africa at this moment (the lucky bastard !) so I await his return (which will be next week)

I would like to point out a very nice site, a print a day. Take your time to stop by, she designes very cool stuff. And she has a lot of freebies under "weekend downloads" which I absolutely love.

Hopefully I can get some crafting done this week and show you some pictures.

Busy, busy

So we were very busy last days. We always have a to do list when Jeroen returns of his rotation. Instead of rushing the days before he returns to Gabon, we now decided to work on the list immediately. Now, I know why we always wait so long. One of the nice things to do was to go and visit my friend Margy and see the new baby, Ruben. I made him these cars (searched the whole internet to find some squeezes but found them eventually here)

Signing for post packages can be very exhausting. When the postman rang and I saw the sticker of the japanese giftmarket on the box, I almost ripped it out of his hands. I would love to say that I opened the box with a nice cup of tea but that would be lying, didn't have the patience.
Would you ?

The box from little red riding hood contains stamps, they are really cute. I also bought some bento (lunch) boxes from decole and cram cream for Annika.

A while ago I ordered some japanese crochet books from yesasia. Indeed, they are in japanese, obviously, but they have schemes so we, crochet lovers, can make this cute goodies to.

This is the book

And this is my first project from the book.

And my last project for now was a "tableau vivant" (or sort of).

Last year I purchased through ebay some magnetic paper for the printer. So I made Annika a magbetic board with magnets. Marieke Vermeulen has a lot of cute prints in her etsy store. I printed them on sticker paper and then sticked them on magnet paper (my printer didn't like the magnet paper), cut them out and voila.

Don' you love the mushrooms and the deers ?

Scored in Breda

Wednesday, my kind of husband returned from Africa, where he works as a rotator.

So, in the afternoon we had a little party. He had also had his birthday while he was away, so double party with cake and presents. It is always difficult to find him a really nice gift because his greatest interest is about computers (I know zip about those things, I only know that they rarely do what you want them to do). So we got him a goodies box with all sorts of candy, his favourite drinks and so on. Annika had decorated the box and actually I was really taken with my idea.

But kind of husband decided on his rotation to lose a bit of weight and neglected to tell me so I have now a really great box with all sorts of yummy stuff.(of course I will share this with Annika, maybe :) )

Yesterday we went to Breda and I wanted to show you what I scored. I found this addressbook at V&D en this cute agenda. From now on I will make my appointments in style, not ?

Lazy day

So we had a lazy day around the house today. Love it ! Annika watched cartoons from Dora and I finished some projects that were lying around.

This is my second stamp.





I also had to finish a sewing project. I start sewing lessons in september but I'm already messing around with my machine.


Annika loves it. I found the tutorial here


Finally, I put a little crocheted purse together. The pattern came from little miss two on ravelry. I thought they are very cute and my daughter always needs little purses for her "treasures" (being snails, acorns, and all kinds of things I really don't like). I convinced her that this one is for the more "girly" things (like a nice flower or a necklace, ...). We'll see.

custom made stamp

Everyday I take a peak at this blog to see what's new in crafter's land. It's there I got the idea of making my own stamps. I got the tutorial here. I ordered supplies and I got started.

This is how the first turned out, not bad at all, I think.

We are on the way

Yes, it worked ! Maybe there's hope after all. We are on a roll !

Introduction to the world of blogs

Well, after reading and viewing several blogs, I decided to also step in the world of blogging.
So, voila, my first message. Let's see if it get's published like I would like (computers don't like me very much).