LeafGarland Tutorial

First off: I'm going to mention someone is this blogpost whom I have mentioned a lot...

I guess it's because we have so many common interests.
We share a lot of the same hobbies and the same idea's.

As with this one...

About a year ago, Rebecca created this tree. I had seen similar trees around the web, but in my opinion, they were all waaaaay to expensive.

So I asked Rebecca for the pattern. It had been tucked away safely in my agenda, but a couple of weeks ago, I finally found the time (and peace of mind, busy, busy, busy) to trace it and ask hubby to cut it out for me.

So while it was dark outside, he sawed away in out kitchen...

To be honest, we do a lot of DIYing in our kitchen during the darker evenings of the year.

Our shed is just to cramped and cold and we have a very patient vacuum cleaner.

So the tree has proudly been standing on the cabinet in our livingroom.

But with Spring coming and leaves starting to grow, I wanted a little decoration for my little tree.

That's when I thought of a leafy garland and made a tutorial as I went along...

Here it comes:

1. Cut some leaves from green felt. Mine are about 2cm long.

2. Pick a thread to stitch them on. I used DMC
embroidering thread in a color similar to the color of my wood.

3. Stitch the thread throught one of the leaves
and slide it to about 5cm from the end of the thread.

4. Stitch the tread back through the leaf.
Tie a knot in the thread, so the leaf hangs down.

5. Stitch through the next leaf and slide it
to where you want it on the thread.
I spaced them about 5 to 7cm a part.
Repeat step 4 and 5,
 untill al the leaves are stitched onto the tread.

6. Weave the garland in to the tree and VOILA... A Spring-y tree...

Love, Caroline

ThriftStore Finds

Last week I payed a visit to the thiftstore.
Finally I had a satisfied feeling when I left.
I'm always complaining that others find the cool stuff and when I'm there, there's nothing good...
Well, not this time!

A sugarshaker and a cafetiere for a friend.

A new suitcase for the class sleep-over bear.

A fleece vest for Joshua. Maybe add a whale on the back?

I also bought 5 kids magazines to copy from for school and a "Berenboot"-comic.


Love, Caroline

Taggies

Last week I made two taggies. The first one was a gift for a friend son, who is 4 weeks older than Joshua.

Joshua loves the rustling of plastic, so I put a layer of plastic in between the two layers of fabric.

It was a big succes with the little boy who I gave it to.

I also made one for Joshua with the piece of gnome-fabric Rebecca  gave me.
I added the clip she also gave me, so I can clip the taggie on Joshua's clothing or the walker when we go out.

I used a slightly thicker plastic for this one, but next time I'm using the thinner one again, since that rustles a lot more. I also didn't sew an extra line along the outside, but I'm adding that this week. I think it just gives the taggie a little more finished look.

Love, Caroline

Veggie Garden

Last years attempt to grow some vegetables, failed miserably.

We had about 6 radishes, 2 HUGE green cherrytomatoes and the peppers? Don't ask about the peppers.
The only thing that grew and produced something, were my strawberries and some of the herbs.

So this year, I decided a different approach.

I ordered a big pile of organic seeds from "de Bolster".
Hubby and a friend created about 2 m2 of veggiegarden where we used to have a patch of grass.
I also have a strip of usable soil in front of the fencing and so I started planning.

I'm planting sweetcorn, carrots red onions and spring onions in "the Strip". There is also a bulb of garlic which we planted last year in "the Strip", which unexpectedely came up.

In the patch that was created I'm planting spinach, fennel, green and yellow zucchini and radishes.
In a couple of large pots I'm planting tomato, red peppers and chilipeppers.

Last week I started the seedlings for a couple of veggies.
I found this idea on Pinterest (another addiction I plan to blog about).
So I started folding seedlingpots and hubby helped.
I started seedlings for (from L to R): sweetcorn, chilli, red pepper, tomato, fennel, red onion

After about a week and a half, this is what my seedlings look like:

Happy, happy, happy....

And it gets better!

After inspecting the pots in which last years strawberries grew, I discovered that the wallhanging tray is sprouting again!

The plants I didn't plant last summer but left in the plastic tray, are also sprouting!

Again: Happy, happy happy...

And it gets EVEN better! I did a great discovery at the DIYstore! 3+1 on all sorts of fruits (plants I mean, but you probably guessed that....).

I bought a blackberry, a raspberry, a currant and a muscat grape, for the grand total of: €7,50

They are now proudly planted in my veggiepatch...

Well, the grape and currant are and the raspberry and blackberry are currently in pots, untill I decide on the appropriate place for them...

And again: HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY...!

Last, but not least I wanted LOADS of herbs ofcourse... And since most of what I planted last year has been ruined by frost, I needed new herbs... Fortunately a couple of local supermarkets had organic herbs on sale.

I bought: Mint, chives ans pasley (in the square basket) and rosemary, basil, dill and oregano (in the round basket). The rosemary and basil are already almost ruined, but I still have hope they wil bloom...

I'll keep you updated on the veggiegarden-project...!

Love, Caroline

PS: As you probably noticed, not all my plants are organic, as isn't the base for my garden.

I try to use as much organic products as possible, but it has to be realizable within my garden (and finances ;-D)

Felt Party

A while ago Rebekka asked me if I was interested in going to a felting workshop, which would cost about 60euro's. I told her I'd love to, but only if finances allowed me to.
Well, I didn't even have to wait and see, because a couple of days later she asked me if I was interested in doing a workshop at her place, with a couple of her friends (and our colleague Elisabeth), which would cost 10euro's.... Guess what I told her? YES!
So I got invited to a "felt party".

We were all asked if we could bring something for lunch and she would provide the materials and teach us a couple of techniques.

So I went over on a Saturday, with a leak and cheese pie (recipe coming soon!).

Rebekka ordered loads of goodies at Meervilt.









We got started with wetfelting a ball. We felted around a foam stressball, so we had something substantial to start with.
I made a marbeled ball, on which I needlefelted stars after it dried.

After lunch, Rebekka taught us how to needlefelt.
I made a whale, ofcourse...

This is what we made during the day:

We divided the remaining materials between the 6 of us, so could make some more projects at home.

I already felted a little mouse...

Love, Caroline

PS: I shamelessly borrowed most of the pictures from Rebekka's blog...

Here's the link: Click

Organic Babyfood

I've been really busy trying out all kinds of organic babyfoods from the supermarket.
Why? That's one of the things that has been keeping me really busy lately, but I can't (won't) tell you why, yet...

What I can tell you, is that I've started making my own babyfood last week.
Joshua ate potato/carrot puree last week, but that was just because we ate "hutspot" and I held back a couple of pieces carrot and potato.

Today I made some things just for him.

We went to the local farmersmarket and I bought quite a lot of fresh, organic veggies. I totally forgot to take a picture, but I got lots and not really a bad price.

Fruit cooking away

I got:
- 2 huge pears (800gr)
- 4 apples (1kg)
- 4 tomato's (420gr)
- mushrooms (500gr)
- beans (180gr)
- a bunch of carrots
For just €14,-

When we got home, I peeled and chopped the apples and pears and cooked them to a puree in a large pot. It's reeeeeaaaally good and no additions of any kind.

Veggies

I also tried out the babycook I bought a while ago.
Peeled and diced a potato, a large carrot and a handfull of beans, put themm in the steambasket and steamed them for about 15 minutes.
When they were cooked through, I mashed them in the blender and I had a small jar full of veggies.

Joshua ate the whole jar and about the same amount of fruitpuree.
Succes in my opinion!

 I still need to fill a lot of jars with the fruitpuree, so I don't know how many jars I get from this amount of fruit, but I did get creative and made a couple of cute labels...

Love, Caroline

Finished puree

Labels

Ribbon Storage

I found this idea on Pinterest.
Storage for extra cables and that gave me a "lightbulb-moment"...

I can soooooo do this for ribbonstorage, or actually, to organise my ribbonstorage.

So I rummaged around for some cardboard and tape and a pile of toiletrolls.
This is the result:















































The top layer is nicely sorted, and when you take out the tray, there are rolls and bags, which were already nice and neat... I'm a very happy lady...!

Love,

Caroline

(PS: the next blogpost is already in the making, but my babyboy is crying upstair, so you can probably guess what has my priority...! ;-P)

Long time, no see

Sorry, I've made a lot of promises, I didn't keep... (Shame on me, hides behind couch)
Been REALLY busy, but I'm back.

First update coming in a couple of minutes...!