Soft book for my nephew

I needed a Christmas present for my nephew and what could be more suitable than a home made soft book. I went into a haberdasher's shop and got all sorts of ribbons, buttons ... and used the fabrics I had at home. I never realised how many different ones I keep!

Spring

 

Summer

Autumn

 

Winter

I hope he likes it. And I hope it doesn't fall apart!

Christmas cards

Now that all the cards are on their way I can finally show them to you. Made of balsa wood ...

 

... and embellished with some glitter left-overs that MiniMojcek Nr 1 needed for a school project.

I hope the wood didn't break in the mail!

So now the mystery is solved.

Feeling Christmassy

Getting in the mood...

Toys toys toys

You know that feeling, when you see something and you just want to have it? Eventhough it's not really ment for you? Eventhough it's just a toy?

But of course it's not just a toy, it's a Lego Atlantis temple. And you buy it because you want it. I got it some years ago but recently the kids - knowing that it was mum's - asked me if they could build it. I agreed but the temple remains mine. Mine. Mine. Mine...

Some people just never really grow up, do we?

A sneak peek

It's almost December and it's time to start thinking about Christmas cards!

You can't really guess what the cards will look like but I surely like these ... formations.

Hessian Tiger Vest

What do you do if a friend of yours is celebrating his birthday? Or at least you think he is...

You collect all the tiger scraps you can find in your house and make him a Hessian/burlap tiger vest.

What else, right?

Right?

Well, it turned out it wasn't his birthday at all. His birthday was in May. But he still loved the ... thought? The present.

Recently also MiniMojcek Nr.2 was celebrating his birthday and he wanted a "fruit cake with fruits and cake and cream and raspberries and mandarins and peaches and fruit and cake." So this is what he got!

And he got the truffles as well, although he didn't ask for them!

Update - C

C as cute, I guess :-)

As I already mentioned, we spent endless hours working on the terrace, making it watertight. And pretty. So we were extremely careful when applying the top layer to make the surface even, uniform and smooth. Which it was!

Until the next morning :-)

Update - B2

B as books.

Remember a few months ago I wrote about a book my mother-in-law was writing? Where I was the editor, photographer, page designer, pretty much everything but the author?

If you've ever published a book, you know how much work is behind it. If you haven't - you have no idea how much work there is behind a book. No idea.

So I'm happy to say that after all the work, the book is now here, in my hands :-)

I just love the smell of a new book fresh from the press!

Update - B

B is for baking!

I'm happy to say that the whole family is very inspired by The Great British Bake Off. Even the kids! So we've been baking a lot in the last few weeks. Some things were simple, some more complex and I must say that although Paul and Mary would have a lot to say, we enjoyed everything. Baking and eating.

Some of the things weren't caught on camera as they vanished within minutes :-) Some are here:

Chocolate fondants with raspberry sauce

Mary Berry's lemon meringue pie

Blueberry and lemon meringue roulade

And lots of different pastries, scones and breads.

My favourite is Paul's soda bread. Although we've made it (and its variations) numerous times, I still haven't got a photo. Who has time to take pictures!

Update - A

A as away

I haven't been posting much recently mainly because we were so occupied with the renovation works still going on in our house. We've got a new roof, we've spent endless hours waterproofing the terrace and ... we actually managed to squeeze in some vacation!

We've had our share of bad weather - just like everyone else being in Europe this summer. But we also had a bit of sun:

Farewell

A friend of mine passed away and today was her funeral...
About fourty years too soon...

On days like this one starts thinking about life, the universe and everything. About what is and what is not. About what matters and what doesn't. And you realise that pretty much nothing matters but a very few very precious "things": your family and your friends. The rest you can easily live without. Without them, you can't. And probably don't even want.

A very popular saying goes that you should live each day as if it were your last. Sorry, Marcus Aurelius, you got it all wrong. Last days usually suck. You should live each day as if it were your first!

Everyone should discover, observe, learn and love as you would on the first day! Well, maybe not on the very first day of your life but you know what I mean. Enjoy it while it lasts - one day it will all be over.

This one is for you, Renata, wherever you are!

Sour cherries

I haven't been posting that much recently - but that doesn't mean I'm not doing much. Au contraire.

Among other things, I'm doing some gardening. For the first time in my life, I've seen an aubergine or a watermelon blossom! And the sour cherry was ridiculously full so that gave us all a lot of work.

I'm so looking forward to a winter full of sour-cherry cakes, brownies, muffins, scones ...

Family history, again

My mother-in-law decided to publish a book on the history of her village and the people who lived there in the past century or two. And I offered help, as an editor and page designer. Of course there is much much more work needed than I imagined so this is basically what I've been doing the last couple of weeks.

Here is just a photograph of a house from the neighbouring village. Unfortunately, the house is now in ruins, overgrown with ivy ...

Beach tote, part two

Yes, my kids have a lot of teachers. So I made three more bags, these were all for teachers of MiniMojcek Nr.1.

The first one is for probably the best teacher in the world.

I just looove the fabric.
I also like the fabric that I used for the other two bags:

Not a perfectly matching pattern but good enough...

The teachers loved them!

Beach tote, part one

As usual, I'm in charge of the presents for the teachers. This year I decided to make them beach tote bags! And although I browsed through dozens of bag patterns, I didn't find a suitable one. So there I was, improvising without a pattern. Sounds familiar?
 
The first two were made for the kindergarten teachers - one girly and one bold. They had pockets both on the outside and the inside. I was just too lazy to add the zippers. Oh, well...

The first one is for a teacher, who loves butterflies. And pink. So pink butterflies she got :-)

Unfortunately, I don't know the second teacher that well, so I went for a generic striped funky pattern:

I think they liked them!

Things

This is going to be an extraordinary post. A post not about my actions or creations but a post about my thoughts. And things. Lots of things. All sorts of things. Things. Things that we own. Things that own us.

In the past weeks, months, even years, I've been going through ... things. My things, my parents' things, my great-grandparents' things, my great-aunt's things... lots of things! I've literally been enslaved by them. I needed to sort them, to decide what to do with them, whether to keep them, and where to put them. And I've thought a lot ... about things.

And I've come to the conclusion that we live in a way too material world. We work hard so that we can buy things and then we buy large houses to keep all the things and we have room for more so we buy more ... We feel bad throwing them away because someone obviously paid for them and we keep it just because maybe one day someone might need them...

I really want to break this cycle.

So I've decided to sort the things by three criteria:
1) do I need the thing?
2) do I want the thing?
3) it is valuable (material or emotional value)?

If a thing fails the test, I get rid of it. Sell it, donate it or throw it away. But I do not keep it - why would I keep something I neither need nor want?!?

I must say it really clicked in my head when I came to this conclusion. I feel like I own things and not vice versa. I feel liberated.

Now I just have to raise my kids in the same manner :-)

Harry Potter costume

MiniMojcek Nr.1 loves Harry potter books (and films) so this year he wanted to be Harry Potter. Since his wish is my command, Harry Potter he was.

I got a white shirt for a few Euros from H&M, but he still needed the cape and the tie. I made a very simplified tie from the burgundy fabric and painted gold stripes onto it.

 

The cape was done without a pattern and I just improvised with the hood. It does not lie completely flat on the shoulders but good enough for a costume. I of course lined the black cape with the burgundy Gryffindor fabric.

Oh, the white balance on this photo is a bit off balance :-)

Add a grey vest, glasses, an owl and the magic wand, a scar on the forehead and voila!

See you later... alligator!

This year MiniMojcek Nr.2 decided he wanted to be a cock/rooster. I didn't have time to make such an elaborate costume, besides, he was a parrot last year and this was just too similar. So I sent MrMojcek to talk him out of it and come up with something simpler.

He came back. The kid wanted to be a crocodile!

Sooo... off to H&M to buy some bright green leggings and long-sleeved T-shirt. I just made the head with the mouth and teeth:

and added the tail and the spikes on his back:

And then - he fell ill. So all the work was in vain.

Oh, well.

Homemade Angry bird - Blue tit

MiniMojcek Nr.1's best friend, albeit 8 years old, is a keen bird-watcher. He celebrated his birthday in the woods, watching birds with his friends.

Now, what could be more appropriate for the birthday present as an Angry bird? An angry blue tit, his favourite bird!

I fortunately had fleece in all the right colours at home but - I had no pattern and no sketch, just the photograph. Oh, did I mention I had no time?

 I just cut the fabrics... and hoped for the best.

It looks like a ninja-angry-bird :-)

I forgot to sew the eyes and the beak first so I had to handstitch them. Not perfect but good enough.

Two hours later the bird was finished.

  I'm actually quite happy :-)