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...

Bird lover's birthday bag

Another birthday invitation for Gaston, another gift project for Mom...

The bag measures 23 x 29 cm (9" x 11.5") with 40 cm (16") handles

This time the invitation came from Fabio, a quiet boy nexdoor, who just turned 6. I was planning to go to town and find a nice book on nature, his favourite subject. But in the few days I had before the party there was no opportunity to go book shopping so I ended up making another tote bag.
Yes, I know, Fabio is a boy, but if Tinky Winky from Teletubbies can have a bright red feminine purse (vintage even), then a boy can have a nice book/gym shoes tote.

Unlike my son, Fabio doesn't care much about dinosaurs, robots or big construction machines, but he does like birds. I used the printed canvas with birds and branches from Ikea and cut the pattern out so that I got a bird on the front and solid black colour on the back (I used another bird print on cotton for the lining). I then machine embroidered his name in red thread and used red cotton rope for handles. At the end I hardly had time to take some pictures before I had to wrap the gift and off we went.

Fabio loved the bag. And he got enough books from other children...

Charly

This is Charly - a present from me to my baby girl for her upcoming 1st birthday. He is super soft and cuddly and the two are already inseparable - I mean it, kids today have mountains of plush toys and it takes a special someone with whom they really bond. Charly seems to be The One (he might be given a different name later, so far he goes by his tag name).

He comes from a distinguished German toy manufacturer Steiff and their stuffed animals are very high quality. They better be if Lily intends to take Charly with her all the way to college...

A book-carrier tote

Next week a son of a family friend is turning 4. I thought a story book would be a nice present but didn't quite find the right wrapping paper (boys are very specific about these things). So I quickly sewed this tote which can hold a few of his favourite books when he packs his things for a sleepover at the grandparents.

I used some soft, structured black&white cotton chenille and a piece of vintage denim to make the iron-on design stand out (Lightning McQueen, who else!). I added some multicoloured ribbon and used a light printed fabric to line the tote.