Merry December

Hello, dear friends,

There are few weeks left till Christmas and I hope your feet are staying warm, your mind calm and your spirits high!

November came and went, together with my birthday, first 25 cm of snow, cold cold mornings with ice covering my car, our cat Luna walking around with a satellite receiver around her neck (at six months it was time for her sterilisation) and times spent nursing one or the other family member that got sick.

December started with children rushing downstairs every morning to open another little surprise box in their advent calendar, I am making my last custom bag for this year, also finishing up little holiday presents for the family and the children are helping me with Christmas decorations.

And tidying up my sewing supplies gave me an idea to offer something new in my shop: keychain tassel ornament or purse charm, made from different ribbons, trims, handmade beads and metallic charms from my collection. The tassel is lovely to look at, to touch all the different textures and to hear it jingle between your fingers - yes, there is a little jingle bell attached to every one of them.

Veseli December

November je mimo (prvi sneg, moj rojstni dan, mačka Luna s satelitskim krožnikom okrog vratu - čas je bil za sterilizacijo, negovanje prehlajenih članov družine...), zdaj je čas za bolj prazničen december, odpiranje predalčkov v adventnem koledarju, izdelovanje božičnih okraskov z otroki, šivanje še zadnje torbice po naročilu za letos in tudi nekaj novega se je znašlo v trgovini - pisani trakasti obeski za ključe. 

Easter eggs

I am loooonging for spring, so much more since mother nature sent another shippment of snow when we were all ready for flowers instead.

I started with Easter decorations this weekend, I blowed out some eggs (for the very first time, turns out it is very easy) but wasn't sure how I wanted to decorate these empty shells. At the end I decided to leave them naturally brown and make some paper hangings instead.

A while ago I picked up a couple of old, yellowing books at the local antique store. For paper Easter eggs I ripped out some pages and leaving them together, drew my egg shape in pencil and then sewed down the middle with my sewing machine. The thread kept tangling up so I ended up piercing only the holes with my sewing machine's needle and later sewing the line by hand. (Needless to say, pardon the pun, I had to replace my needle later as paper sewing damages it too much for fabric use).

Once the sewing was done, I left a longer piece of thread on top to attach the egg and then I cut the shape out. I carefully folded all the pages up and sorted them evenly around the centre. One may use more sheets of paper to create a thickly layered egg or use less and glue them together alternating between top and bottom to get the accordion effect.

The three paper eggs hang from our dining table pendent lamp and the three natural egg shells ended up  in a little wire basket, on top of some paper straw and cuttings from the same book pages, accompanied by a pink pot flower.

Happy decorating!


Velikonočna jajčka
Že kar meša se mi od pričakovanja pomladi, zunaj pa spet nova pošiljka snega! Kljub temu se ne dam in sem se prejšnji vikend lotila velikonočnega okraševanja jedilne mize. Na visečo svetilko nad mizo sem obesila tri papirnata jajčka, izrezana iz porumenelih listov stare knjige, zašitih skupaj, izpihane jajčne lupine pa sem položila v žičnato košarico, postlano s papirnato slamo in izrezki iz iste knjige.
Veselo okraševanje!

December

Busy, crazy and fabulous december is here and I am sorry it took me so long to find time for this post.

I had to prepare the advent calendar for the children - we made the frame last year so I only had to find interesting little surprises (that were not all chocolate) to put into the red paper bags. Besides that there was a lot of snow shoveling going on, this week we've had 30 cm of fresh snow and it is still coming down strong, they are predicting another 30 cm over the weekend...

My instagram gallery shows the begining of snowy season, the view from my window is much whiter as I write this post. Tigrou the cat likes to play in the snow to a certain point (the snow now reaches up to his ears) but once his paws get cold he is happy to spend the next few hours sleeping by the fireplace. And there is nothing better than watching the snow outside while enjoying a cup of coffe by the cozy fire - it is very hard to find motivation for anything else...

 This week we started decorating the house, we put up our little Christmas tree and hung a simple branch on the wall which I then decorated with little metallic bird ornaments - I like the simple, clean look and we might keep it the whole year round, perhaps changing the ornaments each season.

Have a nice weekend!


December

Nori, besni in krasni december je tu in čas mi polzi skozi prste. Prejšnji konec tedna sem pripravljala adventni koledar za otroka - leseni okvir z mrežo smo naredili že lansko leto, letos je bilo samo treba najti dovolj zanimiva mala presenečenja (ki niso vsa čokoladna) za v papirnate škrniclje. Poleg tega skoraj vsak dan besno kidam sneg, ki ga je v zadnjem tednu zapadlo že 30 cm in še toliko ga bo menda preko tega vikenda... Moja instagram razglednica kaže šele začetke sneženja, zdajle je slika že precej boj bela. Mačku sneg sega do ušes in rad se igra v njem, a le dokler ga ne zazebe v tačke in potem gre oddremat eno rundo pred kamin.
Ta teden smo začeli z okraševanjem hiše, postavili smo malo smrečico in na steno obesili vejo, ki sem jo odrezala v bližnji giščavi še preden je zapadel sneg. Nanjo sem obesila kovinske ptičke in rezultat nam je vsem zelo všeč - morda vejo kar pustimo za stalno.

Imejte lep vikend!

Christmas tree

Last week my children and I started to decorate our appartment - I pulled a big box, labled "Noël", out of the closet and they happily took out the ornaments one by one.

We wanted to make a Christmas tree but there isn't enough room in our flat so I decided to use a big fir tree branch that I took from my mother in law's garden (thanks, Michou!) and put it in a flower pot on top of our new side table; I wrapped its bottom end in a plastic bag, filled with moist paper so it stays fresh for as long as possible. Since the branch is too heavy to stand on it's own, I tied it's tip to a hook in the wall.

We didn't use many ornaments, soft little branches couldn't take much weight - but we are happy with the result.

Now we have to hang some twinkle lights and put presents under our tree!

Bird music

On daily walks through Pontarlier I try to explore my new hometown as much as I can.

I have already found my (so far) favourite chocolate shop where they sell delicious macarons, a crèmerie, where they sell fresh milk (you bring your own bottles) and some lovely home decoraton shops that make me want to live in their shop window.

Sometimes it is not what the shop sells that interests me, but how they decorate their wondow. It is easier when all you have to do is arrange many attractive items together, but so much more difficult when you want to presend an abstract, intangible thing.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find these happy birds in a window of a shop that sells concert tickets. The musical birds, not two completely alike, are made from what looks like polymer clay and their colourful wooden houses make a perfect background.

I like the red&white polka dot house with a blue roof best. Which one is your favourite?

I'm back!

Herz Jesu church, Augsburg

We came home last night, it was just after midnight when we stopped in front of the house - the ground was covered with first frozen snow and the air was icy cold. We had to carry two sleeping children inside, wrapping them up in blankets so the cold wouldn't wake them up (not a simple task in the age of safety belts and special car seats. When I was a child, the car safety ment you made sure you didn't run out of gas in the middle of nowhere and everybody had to learn how to change a flat tyre...).

The house was in the same state of chaos we left it ten days ago. We always pack in such a rush, me stuffing all the essentials in suitcases and the children pulling them out again behind my back. They call it "helping", I call them my "non-assistants".

Today, after sending Gaston to kindergarten in the back seat of his father's bicycle, Lily and I set off to clean the mess. For the next three hours we were vacuuming, dusting, arranging the toys back in their boxes, the books back on their shelves, unpacking the suitcases and even managing to cook a simple lunch. It took Lily five minutes to fall asleep in the stroller afterwards and as soon as we were back in the house I sat down with a glass of latte macchiato and rewarded myself with some yummy home made cookies my mother gave me before we left. Phew!

While I was away I made some sketches for new handbags and bought some new fabric I'm itching to try - I will soon post pictures of my work in progress!

And another thing: my Sales Fairy has been busy again, bringing me another Treasury West feature - this time it was Maria from HeartshapedCreations that sellected my decorative heart for her Christmas inspired sellection. This makes it a third feature for my Open your heart ornament in one week...

Thank you, Maria!

Bloggers ornament exchange 2009 - update

My ornament exchange partner Donna of Brynwood Needleworks has already received her ornament (wow, that was fast, five working days from Germany to Florida!) so this post won't spoil the surprise. I can't wait to get her handmade creation...

I was glad to take part in this exchange (you can see more participants HERE), it was great fun designing a simple, but elegant christmas ornament. I wanted to make more of them and offer them in my shop in sets of two, that is why I asked my blog readers to help me decide which messages to put on (thanks for your help, the winners were joy and peace).

But I have been so distracted lately, the news that has been official for some time has only now reached the top of my mental to-do list: early next year we are moving to France!

I will tell you more details when I start the serious preparations for our move; at the moment I am dealing with the boring stuff, like cancelling all sorts of contracts and notifying everybody about our departure. The day after tomorrow we leave for a 10-day visit to Slovenia and in the second half of December we will try to enjoy our last Christmas season in Augsburg.

Moving with the whole family is a stressful business but I am looking forward to making a home on a more permanent location and settling down with my husband - five years, four appartments, three countries and two children later it is the right time...

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...

Felt flowers

I've made these felt flowers for my daughter's mobile last year - I've attached them to strings and let them hang over her bed. They are about 7.5 cm/3 inch in diameter and made of felt, stuffed and embroided with colourful yarn.

As soon as she could stand up and reach the flowers, I had to take them away. Now they are waiting to be a part of another project - any thoughts?

Seagulls

I started planning my seaside holidays today and this pillow by Olive seemed just the thing to put me in the right mood. I love the colours and the details - you have to look closely to see what I mean... You can check out these seagulls and other fun stuff at her Etsy shop.