On the move

We are moving to our new appartment this weekend so I had to put my Loddelina shop on vacation mode until we settle in, unpack all the boxes (one last time) and get an internet connection.

Hopefully it will not take longer than a week, reopening is scheduled for May 2nd.

I will not be able to post for at least a week from now so I leave you with this image of Home, Sweet Home I took in a small Slovenian village Stanjel.

See you soon!

Inspirations: Besançon restaurants

This week I intended to add another batch of zipper pouches to my shop - the fabrics have all been cut out, the perfect zippers, trims and buttons chosen for each colour; but when I started sewing, my machine made a weird noise and all the stitches came out crooked. I tried changing the needle, oiling the machine, I checked the screws and the settings over and over again, but nothing helped. After I unravelled the stitches a few times (oh, how I hate doing that!) only to realise they will not look any better the second time, I gave up.

I will have to take my machine to a repair shop (I have to find one first) before I can list any new bags. In the meantime I can show you a couple of interesting crafting ideas and inspirations I came across on my walk around Besançon last week.

This metal frame for a restaurant menu board is covered in old pieces of cutlery - odd spoons, forks and knives can be always found in flea markets and once polished they make great accessories. There are many shops on Etsy specialising in finding new life to silverware, I especially like SpoonerZ.


And I like this wall display (also in a restaurant - it was lunch time, what can I say), made of simple wooden boxes, painted on the inside with cheerful colours and attached to the wall. The boxes contained leaflets, tourist guides, books and other interesting information to leaf through while waiting for the table.

I will be on a lookout for some more creative inspirations next week - I might even make it a regular blog post...

Flashback Friday

With this week's flashback photo, a sweet souvenir of summer holiday by the Croatian coast a few years ago,

I wish you a wonderful weekend!

For those of you who wonder about the teddy bear in the picture: he was just minding his own business on the washing line, soaking in the warm rays of the afternoon sun, when I walked by on my way to the beach. The picture was taken in the beautiful village called Valun, on the Croatian island of Cres.

If you want to play along, link your own flashback post to Christopher and Tia's blog.

Front page features

My Malina furry purse was featured on the Front Page last week, thanks to Jetty from JKphotography - her beautiful treasuries often get chosen by Etsy admin, they are delicate and romantic as is her photo art.

While downloading a screen shot of the page from Craft Cult I noticed that a week before another Loddelina item was featured, this time it was one of the decorative hearts, chosen by paper artist Relydesign for her colourful sellection!
I completely missed it, I must be "Dans la Lune", as the French say...

Thank you for the features!

Free as a bird

My latest Pupa bag is called Free as a bird - another instant inspiration by the lovely metallic charms I purchased not long ago.

This one is made of black cotton denim and French jacquard in honey yellow that has a soft golden shimmer against the light. The front is adorned with a small bird cage charm and some freehand machine embroidery with cherry red shoulder straps and birds&flowers print in the bag's interior.

I love this bag so much I wanted to keep it but I guess it wouldn't be right so I'm setting it free - it is now available in my shop!

Flashback Friday

Venice, May 2004:
after meeting my husband earlier that spring, we spent a lot of time on trains and planes from France to Slovenia and back. We would try to catch a cheap flight with one of the budget airlines or the night train Paris - Venice which was fairly comfortable and not too expensive when booked online.

Fetching Arno from Ljubljana took only three hours by car and afterwards we would walk around the streets of Venice a bit before driving back. When it was my turn to travel I would arrive in Venice late in the afternoon and then waited for the train to depart at 8 PM. Venice has two train stations, one in the city centre and another in Mestre, well away from the canals. I always chose to wait at the main station, sitting by the busy Canal Grande, munching on my prosciutto sandwich and watching the lights turn on along the water.

On the first picture I am even wearing a Loddelina bag in bright red corduroy - that bag traveled quite a lot in the next two years and I kept it even after it officially retired from service...
When in Venice I always like to roam around the tiny streets, finding secret corners and neat little squares with hotel entrances, small shops and galleries - those are usually the places less crowded by the tourists .

Want to play along? Link your flashback over to Christopher and Tia's blog.

Girlying up a boys jacket

Spring is also the time to review children's warderobe to see what still fits and which items have to be replaced.
Passing clothes from brother to sister requires some creative recycling (don't ask me how it works the other way, with the mountains of pink and glitter one sees in girlswear these days...).

I wanted my daughter to wear her brother's old navy blue jacket for spring but she refused.
So I decided to girly it up a bit, replacing the dark blue zipper tags with a red and pink ribbon, embroidering pink flowers along the collar and sewing on little cherries, made of green embroidery thread and red & dark orange wooden beads.

Success!
In this picture she is matching her new jacket with her brother's brown pants but I think the butterfly cycling helmet helps finish the look...

New bag and more to come

I have just listed my new Pupa shoulder bag called Postcard from Paris. This time I used cheerfull striped upholstery canvas in bright fuchsia, spring green and orange and decorated it with a sewn-on "postcard", featuring a small metallic Eiffel Tower charm with rows of embroidered town houses underneath.

The inspiration for the Paris postcard came after I purchased some beads and metallic charms from yukidesigns. I can't wait to use them all so keep your eye on Loddelina shop, there will be some new bags coming soon!

Spring blossoms

The weather has cooled down quite a bit over the past few days and with all the rain we hardly noticed spring arriving in full bloom.
This morning I was posting some letters and just across the street from the post office there is a row of charming old houses with iron fences and window shutters, all decorated with blooming trees and hedges. Even with the gloomy skies above I just had to take some pictures!

The delicate cherry tree in front of this house is a perfect accessory to the pale green window shutters.


I like the balcony on this second house; the flower pots are still waiting for the fresh flowers to be planted but already they make a unique decoration - together with the litle flower pot guy, sitting on the window ledge.


I wonder what the summer vegetation will bring to the street in the next few months - I will keep you updated...

Happy Easter!

This week's Flashback Friday doesn't go back very far - it was last year at Easter that my son helped me decorate this tree; it took us forever to hang the eggs, apparently taking them down was as much fun as hanging them back on.

Little ceramic bunny from the photo didn't make it past Easter, but we had expected as much. Which is one of the reasons why we used plastic eggs...

If you want to play along, link your flashback post over to Christopher and Tia blog.