doubletee

Let's party

Thanks to these wonderful instructions on "How to make a party flower" - I finally found the perfect gift for my mum. Just her style. I started with one in red plaid silk. Instead of flower stames I used a silk

button for the center of the red silk flower.

It was so much fun that I couln't stop before I had made two more. 

I think I like the one in black slinky velvet best.  

  

cappuccino and shortbread

I love those little quiet moments in my day ... one of them is early in the morning when the older ones have left for school and P is still sleeping. I have some twenty minutes before I need to wake her up. And I can sit and enjoy my coffee and read the newspaper.  I love the peace and quiet in between all the rush of getting ready for school, making breakfast and preparing school sandwiches. 

And there is another moment in the afternoon - when they are all fed and have gone off to do their homework, practise their instruments or check their chat forums. Then I can sit down - maybe with a cappuccino - and do whatever I like. Read, blog, browse, whatever ...

And sometimes there might even be a sweet treat to go with it. Luckily there's one left of the shortbread I made with P yesterday.

P had to do a show and tell project for school - a little talk and presentation about Scotland. So apart from her making a big wall display and burning some bagpipe music on cd we also baked shortbread from this recipe. It's really delicious and so easy you hardly need a recipe at all: 

Shortbread

1 part sugar

2 parts butter  

3 parts plain flour

a pinch of salt

mix ingredients. the butter should be soft but not melted.

you can roll out the dough and cut into fingers or other shapes

we rolled it into sausage like cylinders of app  4 cm diameter, left them in the fridge for some time and then cut into thin round slices.

put on a baking sheet and prick a nice pattern with a fork

bake in cool oven at 150 C for app. 30 min 

the colour of the shortbread will still be quite light

sprinkle with sugar while still hot

leave to cool  before moving to a tin

I love getting mail ...

... I really do. With all the emailing going on very often there's only junk left in the mail. Or even worse - bills! But these last two days were spectacular. I got three wonderful little parcels. 

#1 was the beautiful little piggy-drawstring-bag that Jacqui from meeabee sent me. Thank you so much Jacqui - the real thing looks even sweeter than the picture. And P decided at once that she's going to use it for her PE kit at school.

Mail #2 was two editions of the mixtape maga(Zine).

 I'm so looking forward to browsing through them - just waiting for a little sun outside to sit out on the bench and read ...

Mail #3 was the book. I had read so much about it already, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Also the great interview with Heather Ross at house on hill road and Erin describing the projects she made from the book are so inspiring. 

I think I'll need a very quick project to get me started and I'll begin with  making this headband for P.

hurry!

There's a great fabric giveaway here at M&M Studio.

You have to hurry it closes today! But the fabric in that shop is worth a look anyway !

Lovely colours!

what to do?

Recently I cleared out my stack of tablecloths and I discovered this old one. Its some sort of loose linnen and the colour is a blueish grey or a greyish blue - whatever. It's quite faded and in some places yellowed from age. Not really nice enough to use any more. But I hate the idea of throwing it out knowing that my granny (whom I loved very much - I still miss her) embroidered with these lily of the valley posies. Being born in May those were her favourite flowers. They are called Maiglöckchen in German (little May bells). I am now wondering how I could use the embroidered pieces (app. 20x20cm). Still waiting for inspiration. 

getting there

Quilt #1 is still unfinished  - still struggling with the machine quilting bit since I do not own a walking foot (yet). But ...  

At least I managed to get some practise with the binding bit. My brother has a special birthday and him being my one and only and favourite brother I needed a special gift. So I just took some lovely soft blue wool fabric from my stash, felted it a little more in the washer and dryer and put some binding on:

Thanks to those great tutorials out there - here and here. I decided to hand stitch the binding although I must admit it did take me some time. But it was a good excuse to snuggle up and watch tv while stitching. The polka dot fabric is from Ikea btw. I love this fabric - still have to think of some other things to make with it. 

So now it's all ready to send - I hope he'll like it. Happy birthday, brother.

reused jeans

I just finished a project for P. After some spring cleaning and clearing out M's wardrobe there were these black Diesel jeans he had outgrown. Still quite new acutally and so I decided to reuse them and make a pair of jeans for P. Of course these needed to be more fitted and embellished - girl style. I even found a zipper which I had previously cut out of some other discarded garment. So the only really new and bought part of these jeans is the bit of fancy ribbon on the legs. 

  

It's not so easy to get a decent shot of black trousers ... well - I hope you get the idea. 

The other fabric is some black corduroy with a flower print that has been in my stash for ages (really ages!)

And this is what was left of the original pair of Diesel jeans:

wake up and be a winner!!!

What a great surprise this morning! After sending the kids off to school I checked my emails and there it was. I won! I won a lovely bag from meeabee which she generously offered as a Girl's Day giveaway. 

I love the little piggies. And P loves it, too. Lucky girl. Thank you so much, Jacqui!

birthday present

Sent this off to a very, very dear friend as a birthday present. Hope she likes it. I made the bag following this pattern and shoulder bag tutorial from tiny happy. Thank you, Melissa. The fabric is orange corduroy which I have had in my stash for ages and a newly bought bold and colourful cotton from Ikea. And I found a lovely vintage button in my collection. 

Still freezing cold outside (- 15 Celsius) but the sun came out so everything was glittery white and a clear blue sky - lovely. 

Just in time for our skiing holiday next week I finished knitting a pair of socks which I started ages ago. Luckily they still fit P. Just!

And here is my Thursday photo for yellow week. This yarn has been waiting in my yarn chest for inspirations about what to do with it for nearly 30 years now. Maybe a pair of yellow socks??? Ideas anyone?