Finally some sewing !

So, I have been busy but what's new ?

We are enjoying very good weather in Belgium, jippie ! So everybody's mood is rather bright and sunny.

Annika had school holidays but they end tomorrow, so on monday back to school.

So although she was home for two weeks, I managed to do a bit of crafting.

First let me explain: Generally, I'm all into what I call "lazy" crafts and activities. I discovered baking cookies is much fun. Especially when you can just buy a mix, add water and butter and voila, you're on a roll.

Luckely, I am not the only one. There is a whole market for people like me. Take this candies, we made ourselves.

I ordered the melts and molds from "Bake it pretty". You just need to warm them in the microwave, put them in a mold, tap a few times and you have the most delicious and prettiest candies. They taste like white chocolat. I took them with me when we went visiting a friend and she thought I was a master chef. So, that's my kind of cooking, obviously.

I also managed to do a bit of sewing. As many people know, I am a big kawaii fan. So I made some cushions, a little one and a bit larger. I used some digital scrapkits, I printed some background papers on fabric and this came out.

I don't do digital scrapbooking but we use it for printing on fabric, making stickers, friendly plastic, ironing on t-shirts, magnets. So again, lazy "art". Print and cut.

The prints on these cushions come from the very talented Miss tina . If you like kawaii and clipart, you should check her blog. Another favorite of mine is Nancy Kubo .

As you can see, I also made a pair of dolls, little one and his mummy. If you like to make one yourself, I purchased the pattern at "You Can Make This.com" .

So that's all for now. Will be back later !

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

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 ?