A tiny bag for a tiny girl

The bag is 18 cm wide and 21 cm high (7 x 8 inch) with 8 cm (3 inch) wide bottom and 28 cm (11 inch) handles.

I've finished a custom order today, a tiny little tote for a baby girl. Baby's aunt, a nice Turkish mama I've met at the kindergarten, wanted a really small and cute tote for Eylem Naz, who was born two months prematurely, weighing only half of what a healthy newborn is supposed to weigh.

So I've embroidered the baby's name in deep pink on a pale dusty pink linen-viscose blend and added a butterfly in multicoloured thread. For the lining I used a vibrant rose print to add some colour.

Eylem Naz is now past her official birth date and is growing bigger every day. For now she might use her bag to keep an extra pacifier - and later, who knows. Girls never need a reason for a new handbag.

The Christmas market

Augsburg, Rathausplatz, via Augsburger Christkindlesmarkt

Today I spent the evening at Augsburg's Christkindlesmarkt - the Christmas market with Gaston and Lily. Days are getting so short now that there is no point in going to the playground after four since it gets dark before we manage to get the children dressed and actually leave the house...

Augsburg's Christkindlesmarkt has a 500-year history and each year they try to think of new ways to decorate the city. The city centre, which is closed for traffic all year round, turns into a river of lights and little wooden stands where they sell pretty handmade christmas ornaments, toys and little gifts, with every fifth stand or so offering refreshments. The air smells of sausages and sweet&spicy Glühwein, warm wine that also comes in alcohol-free version for children.

B-day

Haha, I've just noticed this message - thank you, Etsy, it reads like a birthday card inscription...

And thanks to all of you who have sent me e-cards, sms notes and called me today with your best wishes! Thank you for the presents - et merci pour les roses, Chéri!

Damjana

Gloomy November

Augsburg, November

Tomorrow is my birthday and eventhough I'm not one of those women who deny these personal celebrations and hate being reminded of getting yet another year older, I never realy liked the season I was born into (sorry, mom, but you know how it is, being born on December 22nd yourself...).

I've always wanted to have my birthday in the summer, when the weather is sunny and warm and one can have a picnic outside and the day just seems to go on forever. Instead, my birthdays have been mostly gloomy, rainy days, sometimes covered in first snow, turning into slush under your feet. Once in my twenties I came up with the idea of celebrating half-birthdays, having a party in May instead of November, or to move to the Southern Hemisphere and enjoy the reversed seasons...

I came sooooo close to this last idea when my husband's job sent him to South Africa for half a year and we moved to Cape Town in June 2006. As much as I regretted leaving the European summer behind, I was looking forward to finaly having my birthday party outdoors the following November (South Africans love the barbecue, or braai, as they call it). But, because of some problems with our visa extentions, we were obliged to leave a few weeks sooner than we had planned and so we flew out on my very birthday - with all the packing and the new baby (Gaston was 10 weeks old when we left South Africa) there was no time for any kind of celebration.

Well, there is always the next birthday...

Free shipping for Loddelina woolies!

After redoing the pictures of my Sakado backpack purse (the old ones were too dark and with too much distracting background) I've decided to offer free shipping for all Loddelina wooly handbags. I've followed Etsy's instructions and added EtsyFreeShipping tag on those items, I hope they get some exposure that way.

So if you make your holiday purchase until December 11th, these four fuzzy beauties will be sent to you without shipping costs and I will gift wrap them at no extra charge if you so desire.

A windy day

Yesterday's windy day reminded me of my dog Žuža, a lovely Bernese Mountain Dog lady, who is no longer with us. Being a dog with thick winter coat she used to love going out on a cold, windy and slightly damp day, when she would sit up straight on the top of a small hill behind the house, lift her nose to the wind and happily sniff the far away smells it brought with it.

For Žuža, sniffing the lamp posts and house corners was like reading the printed edition of a local newspaper - one gets fed up with the same stories being written over and over again. But raising her nose against the wind was like connecting to internet - she could get a quick sniff of what was going on miles and miles away, but only for a brief time, which made the news so much more interesting.

I miss my dog, she passed away just a few days after my son was born so my children never had a chance to meet her. Since the babies came there wasn't much time or opportunity for a hairy addition to our family - but I've been a dog and cat person all my life so as soon as the children are big enough to understand the basic dos and don'ts of the animal kingdom, we will try to introduce a pet into their lives...

A gift for Sabine

The bag measures 23 x 29 cm (9" x 11.5") with 45 cm (18") handles

This is a small boy tote I made for Sabine, my lovely friend who has bought two Loddelina bags last week. We had a mamas-only dinner on Wednesday and to thank her for the purchase I've included this little bag for her son, Timo (although she liked it so much she might keep it for herself! Girls and purses, what can you do...)

Homemade Christmas tree

I love this homemade Christmas tree I found in one of the magazines.

It is so easy to make and doesn't take up as much room as the real (or plastic) tree.

This decorative ladder can be made out of a few branches you find on your walk through the woods or local park. Just screw the branches together securely before tying them with a nicer looking string, hang some handmade ornaments (you can find plenty of those on Etsy...) and attach some metalic candle holders you get in a hardware store (or simply wrap some simple all-white Christmas lights around the branches).

And don't forget the presents...

Lovely Clusters

Rachel, whose blog Lovely Clusters I enjoy very much, has recently given her readers a chance to create a cluster of their favourite things - you can pick out 9 items you think look great together and arrange them in a collage. It's like making a mini Etsy treasury without waiting for the free spot!

A few days ago I proposed my own 3x3 sellection, inspired by snowflakes - and it got published! You can see more of the reader-curated clusters HERE...

Cath Kidston, the creative force behind U-handblog, a place where you can find loads of fabulous& free sewing tutorials, has just published her new sewing book. You can sneak a peek and with a little bit of luck even win a copy of the book if you enter her giveaway HERE - but hurry, the deadline is November 20th!

Yey, another sale!

Last night I made a doubble sale on Loddelina - I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw two items dissapear from the shop and reapear in the Sold section...

It tourned out that a friend of mine from Augsburg has purchased the Ola wooly Christmas bag and the Ada harvest print tote! Next Wednesday we have our monthly mamas-only dinner party so I can bring her the bags in person...

Who says Friday the 13th is unlucky day?

Thank you so much, Sabine, Vielen Dank!

La vache!

Fancy a cow-tastic holiday?

I saw this set of luggage in one of the town shops yesterday and just had to take a picture...

Baroque Extravaganza

I made another Treasury last night - this time I collected the items around the slightly mischievous Marie Antoinette doll made by Heather Louise at thedollfarm.

The queen's name itself brought up tons of different items in the search and I used some additional tags like baroque, rococo and versailles to make the final selection. If only I had a picture of Kirsten Dunst in one of her court gowns from the Sophia Coppola movie...

2009 ornament exchange

Check out this lovely Christmas ornament exchange...

I'm in!

A double Etsy feature

Wow, Etsy admin just made my day - they have featured my Love Hope Peace tote in their gift guides under Fresh Emerging Shops and moments ago the tote also appeared on the Front page, again picked out by the Etsy staff. This is the second time Etsy has chosen that bag for the front page... Two features in one day, what an honour - thank you!

And the winner is...

I'm in bed today with a nasty case of angina so please forgive me for improvising a bit at the very end of the giveaway...

Last night the number of entries came up to 22 but there was another comment posted under the "last day reminder" post and since it came before the end of November 6th I counted it in which makes a total of 23 comments. I used random.org to select the winner and ta-naaan: it's Rossi at No. 17! Congratulations!

Thank you all for participating and thanks for the patience, I've learned a lot with this first giveaway and my second one should be a piece of cake...

Make sure you don't miss it, the prize will be another one-of-a-kind Loddelina design!

I'm going back to bed now,

have a great weekend,

Damjana

Last day to win a Strawberry heart

Hurray, we have 21 giveaway entries so far!

There is still some time left - the results will be posted tomorrow morning...

Another Treasury feature for Ola

My Christmas inspired wooly tote bag got featured in this festive treasury made by Rachel - her Etsy shop rachelwhelton is full of yummy Christmas gift ideas...

Thank you!

Bunny - the freehand machine embroidery tutorial

I' ve just listed my new Bella pouch. This time I've adorned it with an embroidered bunny and I wanted to put together a short tutorial - since I didn't have any water soluble film I used a transfer pencil to carry the drawing onto the fabric.

1

First I looked for a nice picture of a rabbit; I wanted a clear side view to make a simplified silhouette. I didn't want to just copy the image so I outlined the basic shape of the bunny in Photoshop, made its tail a bit more obvious and added another ear for more depth. I printed out the drawing and traced it on a piece of transparent paper - I could have also used a picture from a magazine or some other printed image and traced it directly from there.

2

Since I wanted my bunny to face right as it did on the original photo, I turned the transparent paper over to get the drawing's mirror image and drew over the lines again, this time with a transfer pencil, the kind that can be washed away later. I carefully placed the drawing on my linen canvas and ironed over it on medium heat. The transfer pencil left a visible enough trace - it was later completely covered with embroidery thread, otherwise I would have gently cold washed the canvas to get rid of the drawing underneath the embroidery.

3

I then fixed some tear-away stabilizer paper on the back of my drawing - I used tape but could have also used a more fancy self adhesive stabilizer. I adjusted my sewing machine to freehand embroidery (which means I dropped the feed dogs and installed a darning/embroidery presser foot) and slowly followed the drawing with my needle. I'm just starting to get the hang of this freehand embroidery so I like to go over the drawing several times to create a "hand drawn" look rather than trying to create a perfect silhouette. When I was done, I carefully pulled all the cut ends of threads from the front into the back with a don't-ask-me-how-it's-called-in-English tool and tied them firmly together so they don't unravel later. It is a boring task so I try to "draw" my embroidery in one piece (in this case in two, the eye was sewn separately).

In the end I tore the excess stabilizer paper away. Done!

4

Picture 4 shows how the bunny looked on both sides of the fabric...

...and this is the final result - the Bella zipper pouch.

Red&green Treasury feature

Maykela, an experienced Etsy treasury curator, has again chosen an item from my shop for her sellection. This time she included the Ola green wooly bag with applique and embroidery in her early Christmas inspired Treasury.

Maykela runs two jewelry shops on Etsy, the Maykela shop with unique precious and semi-precious stones and lavenders, affordable wire wrapped unique jewelry.

Thank you!

Extended giveaway deadline!

I've decided to extend the Strawberry Heart giveaway to Friday, November 6th- perhaps we can make it to 10 entries!?

A girl can dream...