Owlet knits

Dress to impress

2011-01-26T01:07:00.001-08:00

So. I'm probably the last person in the world to find out that just like fashion fabric has seasons and therefore extreme discounts when those seasons end.

But now I know, hurray! I want to make the girls a few dresses, pants and skirts to last through the coming months. They both have grown a lot so they need new clothes and this way I only need to raid the Hema for basic shirts, tights, socks and underwear that will fit with all the dresses, pants and skirts.

Look! 16 meters (17 to 18 yards) of fabric, ready to be prewashed. Today I'm going to find some embellishments and I still need to find a way to go to ikea for some solid colors.

These two are allready waiting to be used and hopefully the pattern for modkids Kyoko will arrive soon. I'm thinking of making both girls a Kyoko and a Sydney dress from Modkid, each an Insa skirt, Dortje pants and perhaps some simple dresses like the one Mme Zsazsa shows here.

Sadly I've decided to not participate in the monthly bag challenge. After reading the book I realized that all the bags I like take up a lot (and I mean a LOT) of materials. Even if I would only use fabric from my stash I would still have to buy a ***load of interfacing, zippers, buttons and thread. For bag that I probably won't use that much.

I'm still planning on making one or two bags (Cosmo could come in handy like I wrote before and Blossom still looks like the right kind of handbag to fit my wallet, huuuge Flow-planner, keys, phone, etc.) but only after the girls are dressed and ready for spring :)

Monthly bag challenge

2011-01-05T02:01:00.000-08:00

The past holidays I've been staying over at my aunt's house a few times. Now that de girls are getting bigger a simple diaperbag isn't big enough for all the stuff we need to take with us!

So I've been looking for a big yet stylish bag to replace the big but incredibly UNstylish shopperbag that is currently doubling as a grocerybag and a travelbag.

I think I've found the perfect bag: Amy Butler's Cosmo Bag from her book Style Stitches. And since I still had 20 euro's worth of bol.com gift certificates the book is now on its way!

Thrilled with the idea of making my first Amy Butler bag I did some googling and I found something to add to the fun.

JemJam is hosting a great monthly challenge using Style Stitches so I've decided to participate. I will try to make all the bags from the book in one year. That's one bag a month. Isn't that fun?

Cosmo is the first bag of the challenge so as soon as the book arrives I will be raiding my fabricstash. I think some of the heavy fabric form Ikea will be perfect for this bag.

Oh, and 4701? I know you are huffing and puffing right now. I now you don't like fabric laying around and a the sound of the sewing machine and all that. And I know you will do your best to keep the huffing and puffing to yourself. So I will do my best to keep the sewing within your working hours. Deal? ;)

For sale!

2010-11-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

I need to gather some funds for something so the last babycarrier I made can go to a new home.

It is a wrapconversion, meaning that it is made using a wrap. In this case a didymos calendula. Because of this it is more soft and supple than a mei tai made from normal fabric.

The body is lightly padded and then quilted, making it really comfy.
It has a rounded neckpiece that gives support to a sleeping head but can also be folded down to support a (newborn) neck.

The straps are 12 cm's wide on the shoulders but flare out to wide "wrap style" straps than can be used to give more support. Just like a wrap but without all the hassle!

The straps are 180 cm's long which is a bit on the short side if you are plus sizes person and you want to wear a big toddler on the front. It is, however, perfectly fine for a backcarry for all sizes and front- and backcarry for smaller mama's and papa's.

I.e. I wear a size 14 (us) / 44 (eu) and I can just squeeze in a wrapped front carry with my two year old toddler, tying in the ends of the straps.
A backcarry uses less fabric and so does using the straps not spread out.

In short: if you are wearing a size 14 (us) / 44 (eu) or larger and you want to wear your baby on the front then this is perhaps not the right carrier for you. If you are wearing a smaller size and/or you want to wear your child on your back then this carrier will suit you just fine!

I know that most mei tai's are not recommended for newborns or very young baby's but this one is extra wide. In combination with the wrapstyle straps, the padded body and the necksupport you can easily position a newborn in it.

Because of that extra width it is also very comfortable with a two year old!

I can haz sandwich?

2010-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

The backing taped to the floor, batting and top rolled out on top.

I never taped the backing until I saw Elisabeth Hartman's tute and now I do it every time I need to make a quiltsandwich. It is so much easier to remove all the wrinkles this way!

The completed sandwich. Pinned and ready to be quilted. It took 80 pins which seems like a lot but I rather put in the extra effort now instead of having a nasty crease in the backing later.

I'm curious as to how the batting will hold up in wear and washing. It is 100% wool which will hopefully make for a warm and soft quilt. I don't think it will crinkle as much as a completely cotton quilt does though...

happy birthday gran!

2010-11-12T02:39:00.000-08:00

See that cute little canvas tote bag?

This was in it:

A prepacked kit to make moda's "cherish nature" quilt. I was baffled by the way the kit looked. Not only did it came in a bag, it also contained labels (washing- and namelabels) to mark the finished quilt with AND more than plenty of all of the fabrics.

It was such a gift to open and even more of a gift to make!

You might notice that the fabrics are way outside my comfortzone when it comes to color and design. The reason for that is that this wil be a gift for my Gran and she is more into sober colors. This teal, brown and green design seemed a great cross between her taste and mine!

She also used to talk to me about birds when I was a little girl. I would sit on her lap and she would read to me from Rien Poortvliets book, the highlight of those occasions being counting the birds on the first page. Oh such sweet memories!

I just finished the top of the quilt. It had to be adapted a bit since the pattern is for twin sized quilt and I want it to be a cribsized lapquilt. This way Gran can use it while knitting on cold winter nights ánd I can use the rest of the fabric as a backing.

Off to sew the backing, see ya!

The food of love

2010-10-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

The title is a bit melodramatic and the drawings are not the most refined. But I was once again stricken by this slideshow.

http://www.thefoodoflove.org/breastfeed-in-your-sleep.htm

It shows perfectly the difference between the first year with my first daughter and the first year with my second daughter.

I remember waking up every night at least once but usually two, three or even four times. I would breastfeed my baby sitting up in a chair or in my bed, desperately trying not to fall asleep and praying that my little girl would not wake up when I would carefully and sloooowly put her in her crib.

I would then tiptoe to bed for an hour of sleep before the whole circus would start again.

IF I managed to stay awake, that is. Most of the time I would just wake up cramped and cold sitting up with my sleeping daughter on my lap.

It is a miracle that she never fell of!

I think most parents can agree that nights like this will make you cranky if your lucky and plain miserable if your more like me. It sucked, it took all the fun out of being a mother and it made me doubt my parentingskills since *this* couldn't possibly be how it was supposed to be!

Her and my sleepingproblems were resolved when we, out of sheer desperation, stopped trying to get her to sleep in her own bed.

Seeing this we tried a different approach with our second daughter. No more separate bedroom, not even a crib! We took a hensvik crib form Ikea, removed the front panel and tied it to my side of the bed.

And you know what? We slept like babies (no pun intended)! I would breastfeed little Avalon to sleep and if I didn't fall asleep myself I would gently slide her a few inches to my right, into her own part of our bed. If she would wake in the night (IF she would wake at all, my direct presence was often enough of a reassurance to keep her asleep) I would simply pull her closer to me without completely waking up and in less than a minute we would both be fast asleep again.

It is unbelievable how much of a difference this made. Even though she was a *very* fussy baby that cried a lot during the day the solid nights of sleep made it all so much better to handle.

My heart aches if I hear fresh parents complain about sleepless nights and or fussy babies. Sure, cosleeping isn't always the answer and every parent should do what he or she thinks is best.

But boy, it can make such a difference!

If you want to read more about cosleeping, its advantages, some safety guidelines and other interesting stuff then I suggest you pay a visit to dr. Sears's website.

The result

2010-10-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

See those Dala horse appliques? It took some SERIOUS selfcontrol to put the pink one on the purple suit and the red one on the pink suit, I'll tell you that! But sometimes you just have to let a four year old decide what she wants to wear.

Especially if it is probably the last year she will let her momma put her in a hippie-like coverall.

(Believe me, I've been there. Love your taste now Mom. Didn't when I was the one in hippie coveralls!)

me-time

2010-10-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

After weeks of feverishly working on several custom orders (two wintercoats and a mei tai) I'm in desperate need of some me time. The girls room needs to be finished and laundry needs to be done but today I'm not going to worry about any of that.

I've done the groceries, drank coffee with a friend so our children could lose some energy together and I've even straightened out the livingroom.
Dinner is as prepared as possible, my eldest is watching some television and my youngest will go to bed for her nap soon.

In other words: time for me to get the sewingmachine and make something fun. No worries about what the customer might think of not-so-straight stitching or colors that I find super together but are generally considered mismatched.

Just me, my sewing machine, some fuchsia corduroy and the cutest brown cotton lining with tiny blue flowers that was hiding in my fabricstash.
Oh, and this great little book that my mom used to make clothing for me and my sister in the early eighties:

I'm thinking about this coverall, with a pixiehood and elastic at the wrists and ankles.

Does anyone have a idea for a fun applique?

Merel

2010-10-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

I love to sing this for the girls when they need to fall asleep and it is on my list of songs to play on my funeral. Not that I'm planning to have to use it that way soon, but it still doesn't hurt to make a list of appropriate songs!

The song is from the Dutch Sesamestreet, sung by Frank Groothof who is one of my childhood heroes.

The only way to listen to it online was through the flashplayer on the site of Sesamestreet but after a few tricks I managed to first download it to my pc and then upload it to youtube.

Enjoy!

Done!

2010-09-17T11:50:00.001-07:00

Birthday boy

2010-09-16T03:06:00.000-07:00

My little nephew is almost one year old. I can't believe a whole year has passed since I was doing some nervous shopping while talking to my brother in law through the phone, hearing my poor sister in labor on the background.

You can't imagine the phone bill of that month, my sister living in Denmark and all that!

I never knew it is possible to love someone else's child as much as you love your own but it is. Too bad he lives 800 kilometers away...

This special birthday boy deserves a special present so I, again, dug up some matching fabric and stuff out of the craft cabinet.

I'm not sure what it will be, he is a bit young for an awesome cozy car caddy so I'm leaning toward a rollable storage-/playingmat with different six pockets with different methods of closing.

What would you make?

Project bedroom, part 2

2010-09-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

With still a few euro's left from selling all the grown out clothes I went to the last 'stoffenspektakel', here in Gouda.

Given the fact that my daughters are not the kind of girls that leave decorational objects in their original place or state I thought that a quilt would be the perfect way to give some color to their bedroom.

However, there is at the moment neither time nor will to assemble a whole quilt (let alone the fact that this is supposed to be a low budget project!) so I cheated and bought this cute fabric.

It is 260 cm wide so a cut of 180 cm long will (turned 90 degrees) make a nice cover for the bed. Without having to worry about putting smaller piecer together.

All it needs now is some backing and filling.

Simple red cotton and some leftover polyester wadding will work great for a light bedcover.

I'm in no way an expert on quilting. I like making blankets and covers and in some ways it resembles a quit but I also like to cheat and use methods or tools that are probably considered sacrilege to *real* quilters.

Using up the whole floor of our livingroom (which says more about the size of the room than of the size of the quilt) I put the three layers of upper fabric, polyester wadding and lining on top of eacht other and pinned them together.

It is now waiting for me to first baste them together and then machinestitch around all of the printed squares on the fabric, making it look as if I worked hard and made the whole thing from scratch.

So, if you are a real quilter I apologize for using the word quilting for something that is probably nothing more than a simple bedcover.

But then again, my fingers will not hurt from sewing millions of tiny stitches by hand, I will not have to pay a hundred euro's for designerfabrics and I will still have time for other projects.

Don't be hatin!

Bright light, a tutorial

2010-09-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

So. Want to see how to turn a ugly old nicotinestained lampshade in to a bright new fancy one?

Just follow along!

The wall arm is at my mother-in-law's, waiting to be painted a bright applegreen so you will have to wait for pictured of that. In the meantime we will fix the shade.

Look at that! Brown, smelly, so old it disintegrates when you touch it. This *really* needs a make over. I grabbed an arm full of scraps off the fabric shelf, not sure what I would use.

I guess any fabric will do as long as it isn't too thick and/or too dark. It still need to let some light shine through.

It also might be wise to stay away from fabric that is easy flammable, for obvious reasons!

I also found some ribbon in my craftscupboard. Ribbon doesn't only look nice but it also is a great way to hide stitching or other irregularities, making it easier to fix the fabric to the frame without worrying about neat seams.

First we need to strip the old fabric of the frame. As with all re-upholstery it is always easiest to use the old fabric as a template so make sure you rip the seams carefully. A seam ripper (tornmesje) is a great tool for this.

I gently ironed the old fabric.

Please put a towel or something like that between your iron and the old fabric as you have no way of knowing if the old fabric isn't made of some icky synthetic fiber that will melt to your iron.

As you can see my shade was made using two pieces of fabric. Some shades are made of one piece, some are made of six or more pieces. Anything is possible, I guess!

You now have to decide how many pieces you want your shade to be made of. The easiest way is to check your frame and see how many ribs and facets it has. I find it looks best if the seams between seperate pieces of fabric fall right on top of the ribs so every facet of the shade is made of a smooth piece of fabric.

My shade has six facets and I choose to use three pieces of fabric, each one spanning two facets. I could alsof have used six pieced of fabric, or two. Just use the old fabric as a template and make sure to incorporate a seam allowance!

If you look closely at the pieces of old fabric you will probably see a crease or some discoloration where the fabric was stretched over the ribs. You can use those lines to cut a template for your new fabric.

Again, make sure to check your seamallowances! If you just use the old fabric as a template without altering it in any way then you don't have to worry about it since the seam allowance is allready incorporated. But otherwise you have to put a seamallowence on the sides which you have cut.

I used the template made from the old fabric to cut three pieces new fabric. I cut it on the bias which is just a fancy word for the way you cut your fabric.

Normally you use fabric in such a way that the individual vertical and horizontal threads the fabric is made of go from top to bottom and from left to right.

However, if you cut on the bias you make sure that the threads are placed diagonally.

This gives a nice stretch to the fabric and in the case of a lampshade it can help the fabric to stretch smoothly around the frame.

If, however, you have a scrap of fabric that is too small for a bias cut or you just don't want to bother with it that is perfectly fine. Your shade will still look lovely.

I pinned and stitched the pieces together, right sides facing each other. After that I went around all the raw edges with a zig zag stitch to stop it from fraying. Please don't skip this as you will later stretch the fabric over the frame which puts a lot of tension on the seams.

After stitching and zigzagging (or serging if you are a lucky guy or gal!) you'll end up with a miniskirt for your shade.

Put it over the frame and see if it fits. It doesn't have to fit really tight since it will tighten a lot when you fasten it to the frame.

Fold over the upper edge and pin it in place.

With a double thread of yarn stitch stitch around the edge. I used a simple running stitch. If you plan on using lace or ribbon or any other form of decoration around the edges then it doesn't matter how the stitches look. Otherwise you might want to put some consideration in color and form of your stitches.

Do the same for the lower edge, this time making sure you stretch the fabric.

Now comes the fun! Using a proper glue (I used a hot glue gun) adorne your shade with ribbon, lace or anything else you like.

Voila! More to in a couple of days, when I'm going to paint the wall arm.

Project bedroom, part 1

2010-09-10T06:58:00.001-07:00

We are a co-sleeping/bed-sharing family but now that our youngest daughter is growing towards shorter daytime naps and longer nighttime sleep and our eldest has started school we feel the need for another bedroom.

My goal is to at least give them to opportunity to sleep in their own room if they want to and I want a place where I can nurse the youngest to sleep while 4701 is bringing the eldest to bed.

But since both girls will probably sleep with us for most of the time the next couple of years I would really like their room to also serve as a guest room.

Bunk beds would probably be the most logical option but since our girls are used to sleeping close to their parents and each other I opted for a "twijfelaar", which is 120 cm wide and 190 cm long. Perfect for two girls but big enough for a parent when needed or adult guests with or without children.

Our budget for all of this is tiny (read: non-existing) so I need to find other ways to fix it all. The walls and floor are in good condition and there is a wall wide shelf unit so the only things needed are a bed and some decoration.

First step was to make some money! I've sorted out all of our clothes (finally, I have been dreading that for years!), threw out two thirds of it and sold the other third. So now I have a tiny budget which I think is awesome because it makes you think in creative ways instead of just going on a shoppingspree (which is also nice, of course ;) )

I've found a really nice bed at a local thrift store. It is standing in my mother-in-law's garage at the moment so I can paint it without the children running in to it. I've allready picked out a nice grannysmith-green for it. Lovely, I like it when old furniture has a modern color!

I also picked up a really horrible looking wall-lamp at the thrift store because the style fitted the bed perfectly.

While the style fitted the bed, the color didn't. But now it does! Want to follow along to see how I did it? I'll make a new blogpost for it

SSC's

2010-06-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

Een tijdje terug had ik een droom. Een droom van een lief winkeltje vol met kleurrijke kinderdragers.

Na maanden van uitzoeken, tekenen, proberen, uithalen en opnieuw naaien werden de eerste vier Roversdochter SSC's geboren.

En toen ging ik twijfelen. Inmiddels twijfel ik niet meer, ik weet het zeker: een eigen bedrijfje is niets voor mij.

De vier pasgeboren dragers liggen nu dus in de kast want hoe graag ik ook met een SSC draag, vier exemplaren is wat te veel van het goede.

Dus mogen ze verkocht worden. Hopelijk kunnen er toch nog vier dreumesjes en peuters vrolijk gedragen worden met deze vierling!

Model Casper:

Model Bruno

Model Luanne

Model Camille

En wat losse foto's:

Banden kunnen ook kruislings gedragen worden:

Veiligheidselastiek:

In hoogte verstelbaar borstbandje en extra lange koordjes voor de slaapkap:

Kenmerken:

-Zeer geschikt voor kinderen vanaf negen maanden/een jaar (afhankelijk van de grootte van je kindje) tot in de peutertijd.

Het lijfje is namelijk lekker lang en breed (zo'n 35 cm breed en 40 cm lang)

-Door de extra lange heupband (80 cm op zijn kortst, 135 op zijn langst) ook geschikt voor ouders met een maatje meer.

-Gespen en band zijn speciaal ontwikkeld voor het dragen van zware lasten. De heupband is gevuld met hetzelfde materiaal dat ook in trekkersrugzakken wordt gebruikt. Hierdoor is de heupband stevig genoeg om de last goed te verdelen over je heupen maar soepel genoeg om zich enigzins naar jouw eigen vorm te vormen.

-Alle gespen hebben een extra veiligheidselastiek en alle losse banden hebben een handig elastiekje om ze op te rollen en vast te maken.

-Alle dragende stiksels zijn minstens drie keer gestikt en de heup- en schouderbanden zijn onzichtbaar aan de binnenzijde met stevige X-boxen vastgemaakt.

-De drager kan zowel op je buik als op je rug gebruikt worden, met rechte banden én met gekruisde banden.

-Het borstbandje is in hoogte verstelbaar

-De slaapkap heeft extra lange koordjes zodat je hem makkelijk omhoog kan doen en hem precies zo kan knopen of oprollen als je zelf prettig vindt.

-Uniek handwerk, elk exemplaar is uniek en zal ook altijd uniek blijven. Omdat het uniek handwerk is kunnen kleine onregelmatigheden in bijvoorbeeld stikwerk voorkomen. Dit is echter minimaal en bovendien is het absoluut niet van invloed op de veiligheid van de drager

Omdat ik nog niet ben toe gekomen aan het maken van een gebruiksaanwijzing en dit een uitverkoop zonder terugname is mogen ze weg voor een prijs die veel lager ligt dan de eigenlijke vraagprijs: € 99,-

Inheritance

2010-06-25T02:21:00.000-07:00

A little while ago 4701's gran passed away so now her children are cleaning out her house.

Yesterday my mother in law brought me something she found in the garage.

I'm so flattered that she thought of me!

These will fit perfectly with the rest of my collection and the fact that they were used by my grandma in law makes them even more special.

Now I only need to find a matching "rekje" (what's the english word voor that?)

And the winner is.....

2010-05-29T12:22:00.001-07:00

Poppies!

The above picture is still one I nicked and then rehosted from the webshop I ordered my bike from.

Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures the weekend after this since 4701 will be picking up the yet-to-be-assembled bike June the 5th.

Cool huh?

2010-05-29T12:09:00.000-07:00

As you can see I've added a twitterwidget to the sidebar of this page. For months I have been refusing to join in the hype that's called Twitter but one day I decided to check it out and of course now I'm hooked.

Feel free to follow me if you like although I do think most of my tweets will be in Dutch.

Input needed

2010-05-27T01:59:00.000-07:00

So, for the few people who are *not* sick of my constant blabber about the bakfiets I am not-so-patiently waiting for: I need your help.I'm so excited about this whole bakfiets-thing that it is almost sickening, but I just can't help it. I mean, it IS exciting. And stupid, because it is still not even sure when exactly we will be able to order. Could be this month, could be next month, could even be the month after that.

So, while I am sitting here behind my fourth oh so needed latte (the youngest duckling has been keeping us up all night with her coughing and constant nursing) I'm contemplating the different ways to personalize my bakfiets.

Painting would be the most straightforward way I guess, but I rather not do that since I'm not sure how it will affect the warranty. Not that there is any way that a lick of paint will effect the safety or something like that but you never know what a factory will use to get out of a claim.

Those huge stickers that are made especially for bakfietsen are a better option. But what to choose!

I like theses ones:

(Wrong shape, I know. Stickers for the type of bakfiets I'll be buying will be bigger and kinda squareish)

This one is also a possibility:

Doesn't that one make you all happy inside?

But then I thought.... why not get some self-adhesive foil and make my own design. And why not match it with my precious (ghehe) collection of old brabantia kitchenwear.

Wouldn't it be cool to drive around in one of these:

I guess this is the point where I'm loosing the few of you that were still reading, but for those that are still here: what would you do? Or what do you think I should do? Do you think self-adhesive foil will stay pretty in the direct sunlight and rain?

To do list

2010-05-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

I've been kinda busy with nothing lately. Do you know that feeling? The feeling that there are not enough hours in a day but when you look back you have done surprisingly little.

I guess it is the warm weather, combined with a toddler who goes through a fase of refusing to go to sleep.

At the same time my hands are itching and my mind is running on highspeed like that golden retriever in the movie "Up" (look! squirrel! point!), I really NEED to get crafty en creative.

I guess I could knit another pair of socks again. Or crochet another grannysquarepillow. Again.

But not this time. This time I'm going to sort out the big storageroom first, god knows that I have a truckload of materials ready to be processed.

And since I'm doing some serious saving of tha moneyz in order to buy a cargobike I refuse to buy anything craftrelated. Not even a button or thread. Nothing.

This is going to be fun!

Stuff I would really like to do in the coming weeks:

-nuno felting

-making another waldorfdoll

-knitting something completely oversized. Like broomstickoversized. Maybe a footstool or something like that?

Gruffalo chorus

2010-04-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Please click and try it out, you'll be humming for the rest of the day!

Hoot!

2010-03-10T04:07:00.001-08:00

In my neverending search for something to combine two thing I love: owle and crafts I stumbled upon this site. Isn't it a hoot?!

http://www.macrameowl.com

Uh oh!

2010-01-08T09:52:00.000-08:00

As Daan was so kind to point out, I still owe you some pics of the lovely things Pien made for me in the latest swap.

I told a bit more about it *here* but I still had to upload the pics.

So here they are. Am I spoiled or what?!

Thanks, Pien!

Think pink

2010-01-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, no pardon me: more then a year ago I had a bad fit of pregnancy nestling urges. I wanted everythink clean, tidy and white.

white

WHITE

What WAS I thinking? For the love of God, why didn't anyone stop me? Why didn't anyone say 'Owlet, you know you are going to regret this. You have never ever had a white wall. Your various rooms have always been red, pink, purple or any other color except white. Or blue.

Stop it right now and go knit something cute and pink'

But nooooooo... everyone was smart and stayed safely away from the pregnant lady.

So up until this morning the walls were white. And dirty looking because nothing in this house can stay white for long.

Every morning I would stumble to the livingroom and cringe. How could this have happened? This wasn't me, this was grownup and boring. Boooooooring.

beloved toddler had decided that one of the walls could serve just fine as her own private canvas which made the cringe-effect even worse because now it did not only look boring but also neglected and dirty.

Time for some change!

This morning I digged through all the leftover paint

buckets and came up with a bit of white, some pink and a tiny bit of stone red.

Just enough to first give the drawings a coat of white, then paint the whole wall pink and last glaze it with a diluted wash of red.

I like it! Even though the drawings came right through the paint... It is warm and cosy and oh so more ME.

The christmastree (look at all those birds, my eldest picked them all out herself!) all of the sudden looks like it belongs there, I think I will water it and keep it a bit longer.

I finally rememberd that I still had some wallstickers from Ikea waiting to be sticked on to the wall so my eldest and I took turns sticking the flowers to the wall. Fun!

I'm pretty sure that my little sister will now sigh and declare that it will never be possible for me to have a "grown up house", as she calls it.

Well.... screw that! I don't want to be a grown up if that means I have to live in a white house.

Amen.

And if I ever get pregnant again,

please lock away all paintbrushes or wallpaper. Unless it is PIP wallpaper, then go right ahead and help me plaster it to the walls!

Conversion

2010-01-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

I've made my share of meitai's and podaegi's through the years but I've never made a wrapconversion before.

But there is a first time for anything and when one of my handdyed wraps for some reason didn't sell I offered to turn it into a meitai.

And voila, ten minutes after I made that offer someone was interested.

So here it is: hoppediz casablanca, handdyed in a hot pink to soft pink gradation and converted in to a maitai.

It has padded straps, padding where the legs of the baby rest and a formed sleephood. All in all a very comfortable carrier and I'm more then tempted to keep it.

Let's hope the person who ordered it likes it as much as I do!

And nooooo that isn't a real baby strapped to the chair. It is weighted doll used for babywearingdemo's ;)

Pien!

2009-12-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

I'm terrible, I know! I recieved your swappresents more then two weeks ago and I still haven't blogged about it.

/shame

It was such a lovely parcel and what was inside was even more beautyful! The chocolate lasted for a whole whopping night, orange and dark chocolate is just too tasty a combination to be saved for later.

The little knitted envelope was immediately confiscated by my eldest, who decided she really needed her own wallet. "but it is no problem if you want to put your money in it, mom".... yeah...right...!

The pièce de récistance was a lovely notebook. I love your style, Pien, and I hope this little book will be filled with drawings of the children, my own doodles, cut out recipes and so on.

So that my girls can open in later and roll their eyes over a mom who still used something made out of paper instead of pixels.

Thank you very, very much!

The pictures will follow later, right now there is a little girl wracking my livingroom since her food isn't coming fast enough...

Flannel

2009-11-14T11:04:00.000-08:00

I's getting colder and colder so it is time for some flannel pj's. We all have them, even 4701, and on those sparse weekenddays that have nothing to do (like today) we lounge in them all day. They're warm and cosy, especially when combined with a hot latte and a handfull of pepernoten.

So today we did absolutely nothing and it was bliss.

4701 played his world of warcraft and some funnylooking onlineshooterthingy. I replayed Zelda Majora's mask after I finally found a wii-compatible copy on the brittish ebay.

And the ducklings... well... they did nothing what normal, healthy children should be doing. They didn't play outside, they didn't build legofortresses and the didn't play with dolls.

Instead they mimicked their parents and did absolutely nothing. The eldest watched some nick jr. And some more nick jr. and after that even MORE nick jr. And the

youngest took a real long nap and topped that off with another long nap.

Aaaahhh... weeeeekeeeeeeend!

But tomorrow is a different day. Probably not for 4701 and the eldest duckling, I guess they will just hang in front of different screens all day and eat fishfingers.

But the youngest and I will be in the train to at an ungodly hour so we can man the stand of LaLecheLeague at the Ouders Natuurlijk fair. Feel free to come and say hi if you're there!

BTW. See these two cuties? The rascal on the left is our youngest daughter, the timid angel on the right our eldest. Same flannel PJ's, same age, same face. Totally different girls though!

4701

2009-10-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

4701, love of my life and father of my children, etc. etc. etc., has written a bit about the stuff we went through last week.

You can read it *here*

I would like to thank you all for the kind e-mails you sent. /kiss

Kruidnoten

2009-10-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here eating kruidnoten and flipping through ravelry.
M. is on his way to his parents house after a call from his brother. My father in law, who is very ill is having trouble breathing and the future doesn't look good.

So to take my mind of of things I'm looking at knittingpatterns. Silly how they can always calm me down. I guess it is the preciseness of the way stit

ches come together

to form something.

While browsing my eye fell on this stunning beauty:

You can find out more about it *here*, it is a kit from knitpicks

OMG! Isn't that lovely? I'm glad it is a bit too expensive at the moment 'cause otherwise I might be tempted and that would be a bad thing since a) a bag like this would be a waste with all the kiddystuff that would find its way in and on it. And b) I don't have the quiet time at the moment to knit something that requires this level of precision.

But gosh, it sure is stunning.

M. just texted: he has arrived at his parents house. I think will go to bed now, who knows what tomorrow will bring...

Swap

2009-10-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

*She* is organizing a swap and *she* has been chosen to be my swapmate.

How exciting!

My head is going buzzbuzzbuzz with all the ideas flowing and growing. My heart is going pitter pat with the great feeling of sort-of-strangers making something for each other. And my hands are finally motivated to clear out the crafttable and free my sewingmachine and knittingneedles.

Thanks, Guusje!

BTW, have you seen the name of her daughter? I had exactly that name in mind for my youngest but M. vetoed it. I got to keep Juniper as her second name though!

These boots are made for...

2009-09-29T04:16:00.000-07:00

...walking, dancing, parading, admiring, stroking, running, cleaning and everything else. I want to live in them, devoting my entire life to gently polishing them while neglecting my hungry children.

How come I have such strong feelings for a simple pair of boots? I'll tell ya!

For the last ten years I have tried on every pair of high boots available. Every season I went to the citycenter with high hopes only to run back frustrated. There simply are no boots that fit my calves. None whatsoever. And that sucks because I think that a nice pair of high boots compliments almost every shape of leg, perhaps especially the short and stubby ones. Like mine.

But thank the goddess for my sweet aunt with whom I share a footsize ánd a calvesize.

She bought herself a pair of duo boots only to find out that they give her a backache. So now they are mine mine mine! have I told you already that I love them? The walk live heaven and the best part: they zip up cleanly around my calves.

If you don't mind I will now go back to the mirror to admire my boots. Thanks.

Shame

2009-09-29T03:27:00.000-07:00

I'm ashamed to admit it but I think I really want a cargobike. *runs and ducks for cover*

I know, I know... I've always said that cargobikes were only for perfect mothers in Amsterdam who want to be hip while blocking all the traffic with cargobikes they only use for showing off.

But you know what? I've changed my mind.

We don't own a car so I drive around town with two children on my bike a lot. Most of the time there are not only two children strapped in a front- and backseat but also two bags filled with groceries hanging from the steer and a bag filled with all the stuff that somehow need to accompany a baby and a toddler in the front basket.

That makes for a kinda wobbly total. And I don't mean the kind of wobbliness that also seems to come with having a baby and a toddler.

No, while I'm bravely risking all three our lives in the less than friend

ly traffic of our hometown I look like I've hit the sherry a few hours to early. Which I might have, being the desperate housewife that I am, but that is a whole other story.

It comes down to this: a cargobike would really be an improvement. It would be saver, more practical, better looking and yes I admit waaaaay cooler.

I mean, look at it! This is a version that would fit our narrow storage room but it still has enough room for two children and the groceries. It is a bakfiets.nl and as far as I know this brand is durable, safe and not as crappy as some of the cheap chinese cargobikes that are being sold.

But the price....the price.... Even combined with trading in the bike I now have and/or buying a secondhand cargobike it is still a huge amount of money to spend. Oh well, I guess I will just have to start saving so I can buy one by the time my eldest will start attending school!

Wealth

2009-09-21T03:16:00.000-07:00

Fantastic!

2009-08-18T12:37:00.001-07:00

I like big butts and I cannot lie

2009-08-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

Well.... THIS kind of big butt that is!

The kind of big butt that makes you want to run over and smack it just to hear the owner of the BB giggle like crazy.

Disposable diapers just don't give that kind of satisfaction if you know what I mean.

Don't

get me wrong, I understand all the reasons why you would want to use diposables. My eldest daughter has been wearing them from birth, apart from a very short per

iod in which we used washables only to run screaming back to the pampers and huggies.

All that rinsing, washing and drying... All those smelly diapers everywhere... the leaking, the terrified baby's who are completey immobilized by their huge bums... No sir, that sooo NOT my cup of tea!

But then I discovered that the diapers I tried out were kinda...you know... oldfashioned (sorry mom!). They were made of 100% cotton with a poor fit and a huge seperate cover that leaked like crazy. They also looked really boring. I know that's one of the most stupid reasons to like or dislike somthing that is made to be covered by clothing most of the time and that is also used to absorb POO. But hey, I'm a sucker for anything colorfull and I hate anything white and boring.

So after daughter number two suffered from her weekly severe diaperrash topped off with her fourth painfull yeastinfection I decided to give the new generation of washables a try again.

The plan was to use a few every day and to combine that with disposables for the night and the trips outside the house.

It only took a day or two before she was in a washable diapers24/7.

Forget the endless soaking and rinsing. Forget the endless lines of drying diapers. Forget the boring white babybums. And most of all: forget the huge amount of disposables that you are carrying into your house every week, only to carry them out a couple of days later.

I'm not really an environmentalist (not that I don't care about the environment, I'm just not that much of an activist) but It really shocked me to see the huge decrease in garbage we throw away every day. Most of our trash consisted of diapers, think of what a HUGE pile of smelly filthy trash that makes in a year... Let alone all the diapers of all the baby's in this country...

Through the months I collected 30+ diapers from several different brands. Most of them are secondhand, some of them brandnew. All of the are extremely easy to use and best of all: my little girl hasn't had a single sore spot on her bum.

Yesterday I realised that the complete diaperstash was clean and dry, apart from the one that was on my daughters smooth and painfree bottom.

So I let my eldest daughter sort and stack all the diapers (she had so much fun) and I took a picture to show you how colorfull diapers CAN be!

See those polkadotted ones on the second pile from the right? Don't you just love those?! They are ittibitti's and they are made of a very soft minky/plush fabric. My daughter is wearing a pink one in the top picture.

I know, I know.... I can almost hear you thinking: "yeah, those are cute as a button but they still need WASHING!!!"

Yes. They do. But since having two children gives a huge pile of laundry even without the use of washable diapers I almost never have a complete machineload of diapers. I just throw the used diapers in the closed pail in the bathroom (no soaking, just throw them in dry after shaking out the poo in the toilet) and everytime I load up the washingmachine I throw in a couple of diapers. Only the real dirty ones get a washingcycle of their own.

If I'm lazy, like I am most of the time, I throw them in the dryer but I try to save a bit of money and some trees by drying them in the sun outside.

Most of the diapers we have are pocketdiapers which means that they consist of a waterproof layer on the outside and a fleecelayer on the inside between which you can place an absorbent inlay made of microfiber, cotton, bamboo or hemp.

Because you seperate the inlay and the outer diaper both of them are dry in a couple of hours. I put the inlay back in the diaper and then they are ready to use again.

It might still sound like a lot of work but the truth is that loading and unloading the washer and dryer and restuffing the diapers only takes a couple of minutes every few days. Not more then it would take to pick up, store and throw away a pack of disposables.

If you are interested in trying out washables for yourself, Twinkleontheweb might be a good place to start. They have a survey you can fill in to see what kind of diaper might suit you and your family best. There are also some dutch store selling washables but unfortunatly diapers are considered a luxury here in the Netherlands so they are incredibly expensive compared to diapers (or should I say nappies!) bough

t in the UK.

One last pick to win you over!

yum

2009-08-11T01:28:00.001-07:00

No turning back

2009-06-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Look at this! Isn't it one of cutest things? The song is stuck in my head, occasionally bubbling out, causing the ducklings to subconsciously dance a little

It's too hot for a post of my own...

2009-06-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

...so i'll just quote something!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34654-2004May17

An Idea Still Looking for Traction in Kenya

East African Women Vote With Their Feet Against Baby Strollers
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 18, 2004; Page A08
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Irene Wambui can't imagine why anyone would buy a baby stroller. She says she sees it as a cold cage filled with useless rattles, cup holders and mirrored headlights. Imagine children being stuffed into such a contraption and pushed around town like some kind of pet.
Yet here she is in the middle-class Westlands shopping district, trying to sell her store's newest merchandise, the four-wheeled plastic and metal tool of modern motherhood. But so far, strollers have been a flop in Nairobi, an affront to a time-honored tradition.
Across Africa, women can be seen carrying sleeping or sometimes giggly babies on their backs, swathed in cloth. The babies move to the sway of their mothers' hips, synchronized throughout the day, bending with them as they collect water or sweep the floor and rising again when the women stop to rest. They hang on as their mothers sell food in the market or pray at a church or mosque.
The introduction of strollers and baby carriages, both known here by the British word "pram", horrifies traditionalists, even someone such as Wambui, who sells them. The stroller is appearing in major cities around Africa, but so far has not been a hit.
"It's not so wonderful. In Africa, we just carry our children or let them roam. They can't sit like lumps," said Wambui, 24. "Besides our roads aren't even good enough for these devices. If everyone had a pram it would cause jam-ups in traffic. Then we would be bad to our children and bad to our roads."
Irene's boss and manager, Zara Esmail, was pacing back in forth in front of the strollers one recent day. She said the store had sold only one baby stroller in two months, and that was to a visiting U.N. worker from Britain, who complained later that she had been disappointed by the small selection.
"In general, I thought they would sell far better," Esmail said. Perhaps, she added, it's a question of directing more advertising toward middle-class, working moms. "We thought these modern ones would be a hit."
The stroller has sparked debate among African pediatricians who think the device -- first crafted as a labor-saving tool for the European middle class -- may damage the relationship between a mother and a child.
"The pram is the ultimate in pushing the baby away from you," said Frank Njenga, a child psychiatrist in Nairobi, Kenya's bustling capital. "The baby on the back is actually following the mother in warmth and comfort. The baby feels safer, and safer people are happier people."
In the United States and Europe, strollers have long been controversial. Recently, some doctors and child psychologists have blamed them for everything from pediatric obesity to low self-esteem later in life.
Jane Clark, professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, said there is concern that Americans are overusing strollers for older children, causing toddlers to be less physically active. A growing movement among child advocates promotes the idea of carrying babies more and getting them out of their strollers.
At the same time, Web sites and magazines in the United States and Europe dedicate a lot of space to the subject of choosing a style of stroller or carriage -- front-to-back or side-by-side, a jogger or a sleeper, with or without a lightweight titanium frame, pneumatic tires, rear suspension, mud flaps and/or battery-operated blinkers. Some European-made antique carriages are status symbols for celebrities such as Madonna and Celine Dion, who spent $2,600 on the classic Balmoral Pram, described by some Web reviewers as a tiny Humvee.
Africans consider the traditional method of toting their children the only true version of day care. When it's time for feeding, the food is right there as a mother shifts her child to the front of her body, nestling the infant to her breast. The baby stroller could change all of that. But many people here said they thought the devices would be just another instance of Africans adopting the worst habits of industrialization.
"There are customs from a hundred years ago that are not relevant today for Africans. Our challenge is to pick the good from the bad," said Carol Mandi, managing editor of EVE, an East African women's magazine. "But carrying on your back, well, that is just a wonderful custom that keeps the baby emotionally stable and lets the mother feel bonded. We can't stop being African women just because we are suddenly thrust into the modern world. What next? They will tell us to stop breast feeding in public? No way."
Some women in Africa at first apparently hoped the stroller could help reduce the physical exhaustion suffered by mothers, the backbone of Africa's labor force in both domestic duties and small-scale businesses.
But because the pram is not only socially unacceptable but expensive, merchants are finding they aren't selling. The average pram, though far cheaper than some car-like U.S. models, still hovers around $60, at least half a month's wages even in Africa's most successful urban economies.
At the baby store in Nairobi where Wambui works, dusty models sat untouched.
"We've never used a pram. They are a bit pricey," said Nellie Mwanzia, who was shopping nearby while her husband, Roy, carried their 20-month-old son, David. "Just carrying the baby is no bother. It's more personal."
Mary Mwanzia, 32, a mother and part-time government secretary, popped into the store to buy baby bottles. Esmail corralled her potential buyer over to the strollers. But Mwanzia, even with her modern job and her braided red hair extensions and bell-bottom jeans, found the baby buggies "oppressive."
Esmail suggested a test drive. Mwanzia was not having it.
"It's just not Kenyan," she said. "For the child, the love will not be there if the child is cooped up in such an antisocial device." She purchased her bottles and left.

For Sale

2009-06-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I have a handdyed wrap for sale. For easy display I have given them their own blog : http://vanrozetotgroen.blogspot.com

Doe maar

2009-06-12T14:08:00.001-07:00

I hate Doe Maar. Their music.... their clothes... the way the allway remind me of the horror of the 80's... But I do love green and pink, so despite the fact that I will now look like I'm stuck in the era of shoulderpads, dynasty and powerdressing I *had* to do a green to pink gradation.

I used a natural Bebina for this one.

It came out of the dyebath looking like this:

There are some lines but not too many and as you can see they disappeared after resting a bit, fixing with soda ash, rinsing and spinning:

It looks like a bunch of leeks!

The pink dye looked too light in the tub but it turned out to bre pretty balanced with the soft green color.

I'm pretty satisfied! There are no lines visible, the gradation is smooth and even. I wish I had more natural wraps to dye, it is addictive!

There is still a blanco didy indio hemp in my cupboard. Waiting forever until I get inspired to dye it. I should sell it after dying though, there is no point in adding yet another wrap to my stash.
What do you think, would a raspberry chocolate gradation be nice?

Ah yes.... yes yes yes... that would be quite nice!

vroooooom...

2009-06-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Glendora and Barber are moving in to their new appartement this weekend. Or so they say.

My eldest daughter is not so sure about that, according to her "sankenlaures" are living in our legobox, from where they cruise around the livingroom a couple times a day in their brand new convertible.

Zsazsa

2009-06-04T02:24:00.000-07:00

We made ourselves a Zsazsa DIY!

Have you seen this?

2009-05-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Amazing Mae show a way to make a cute toddlersized skirt out of a napkin.
Such another great way to get rid of all those scraps of fabric lying around!

*click here for the whole tutorial*

Have I told you lately that I hate you?

2009-05-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

Not you, dear reader. Never you.

But you! YOU! YOU crappy scrappy fabric. It took me a few days to transform a bag full of IKEA fabricscraps into 400 perfect 6" squares. I think it was around square number 120 that the hatin' begun.
Thank the goddess for my good old rotarycutter otherwise I would have stopped then.

The result was rewarding though: 400 squares of heavy quality fabric. Too heavy for a supple bedquilt but perfect for the kind of quilt that I need: small, easy to wash and extremely cheap. Quilts that can withstand two leaky children, a hairy dog and two drooling but semi-hairless cats.
I think these will. They still need backing, binding and quilting but I'm really looking forward to doing that.
I was a bit worried that the big bold designs would disappear after the cutting and I although I tend to consider myself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to designing and colours I couldn't imagine how all those different squares could fit together.
So for the yellow/red/orange one I decided to just use random simple squares in order to make the most of the print on the fabric.
For the blue one I decided to see if I could work with a bit more structure. I made nine identical blocks of nine squares each. Then I cut the blocks in four and sewed the four blocks together in a shifted order. It gave the quilt a nice "order in the chaos" pattern. I like it.

I started hoarding ikeascraps so I could see if quilting really is as cool as I though it would be. So far, it isn't. It is waaaaay cooler!

I think that from now on I will be making this small quilts everytime I need a present. They are fast and easy to make (except for the cutting, but that is what the precut charmpacks are made for, baby!) and the small size is perfect as a playblanket, footwarmer, lapquilt, wallhanger, etc.

By the way, it is blissfully silent here. Officeman (and again: he specificly asked that I call him officeman online) is away for a two days and both children are asleep. I should go to bed but I just can't pull myself away from the washinmachine in which a silk indio didymos is rinsing after a shoking ping aciddyebath.

Oh well, I better go and leave the rinsing for tomorrow. Goodnight!

How now nekkid pfau

2009-05-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

Remember how I told you about the wrap I love most of all: pfau?

I managed to get my hands on another one of those pretty birds and to make it into the ultimate summerwrap I decided to play around!

Ingrediënts:

One purple didymos pfau. Washed and not dried:

A big plastic, heatresistant tub (I choose one that has a lid so the heat and fumes stay inside), a smooth wooden spoon, rubber gloves and some dylon color remover. The tub is placed on a woolen blanket so it will stay warm as long as possible.

I dumped in two buckets of boiling water, stirred in the color remover, said a prayer or two and then put in pfau.
Immediatly the color started to change:

It went from purple to a soft lilac in a couple of minutes.

After half an hour it had turned to grey:

The water slowly went murky and grey as the wrap got lighter and lighter...

After a while there didn't seem to be much change anymore so I put pfau in a bucket, dumped out the water and started to warm a new batch of water with a new pack of color removing.
While in the bucket pfau changed from grey to beige, probably because the grey waterresidue could drip out.

It stood for an hour more in the fresh solution and by then it was as light as I think it can get. I took it out, washed it, dryed it and wrapped it. I love it, it's perfect for summer!

It lost about half an inch in width but that stretched up after wearing it. It is allready as supple and soft as my old pfau, stripping it hasn't changed the texture at all.

Summer, here we come!

Calvinistic cooking

2009-04-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

I made roasted garlic mashed potatoes two days ago and while I was working the whole (dutch) stick of butter, the whole package of cream cheese and a big splash of cream through the mash I was wondering what my grandma would say of the huge amount of fat that was slowly giving the mash its soft and velvety yummyness.

She probably would say something like "ja zo kan ik een drol ook wel lekker maken", which roughly translated into "with THOSE ingredients I can make a turd tast nice". I hated it when she would say that.
There is this big taboo here in the Netherlands when it comes to good food. Especially if it takes a bit of fat to make it good food. And even worse: at the same time they stuff themselves full of stuff that has loads of hidden fat in it.

So please, stop the hypocrisy and cook real food. With real ingredients. And if that means a bit of fat here and then, than by all means have a balance day or two. I bet that throwing away the artificial sweetened, transfat-laden snacks and instantsaucepowder will do more for you than banishing the butter and cheese will!

Now go and make that mash, you know you want to!

Kiind.nl

2009-04-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

A new dutch online magazine about parenting is born.

kiind.nl

Doesn't it look lovely? The articles are really nice too, focussing on those aspects of parenting that are never mentioned in the heavenly sponsored paper magazines.

And even better: they are giving away a free meitai.
See their blog for more info about the contest :)

scallopini

2009-04-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when children do this:

parents can do this:

(notice the weird way I cut out the photo? that's because there was no way to get our haphazardly served chicken scallopini NOT to look nice like barf on the photo. But it tasted great and it didn't look anything like barf in real life. I swear!)

DO RE MI

2009-04-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

How come that stuff like this brings tears to my eyes?

DIBS

2009-04-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

Look at what this lovely lady loaned me:
An Ellevill Zara red white! Crappy photo, I know, but such a nice norse design. I'can only say one word:

DIBS!

Facts of the day

2009-04-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Sun

2009-04-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

The ducklings, pardon me as I borrow the name OfficeMan gave them, got new necklaces. Amber is supposed to help with the pain of teething but even if that doesn't work (and in the case of the big duckling it is not really an issue anymore), I think they look absolutely stunning on little children.
And on big children, and grownups and old people and dogs and cats and on about everyone.
Amber is just reeaaalllyy pretty. It's distilled sunlight, that's what it is. It makes me feel all warm and happy and seeing my children wear it makes me even warmer and happier.

For those of you who are easily worried (hi Officeman!): the necklaces the ducklings wear are especially made for childrens. They break easily in case of an emergency and all the beads are seperated by individual knots so there will never be more than one stray bead in case the necklace breaks. It is also too tight for them to get their hands caught.

We had a blast just sitting in the first real rays of sunlight of this year, reading a book, making pictures and tickling the little duckling while she tried to nurse, laugh and roll at the same time.

Silent Saturday

2009-03-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Not mush wrapping going on today: twenty minutes of tibetan rucksack with ulli, ten minutes of FWCC with ulli and a bit of lily on the hip. No pics, sorry!

Forgotten Friday

2009-03-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to tell you about the wraps we used last friday!
Well, wrapwise it was a boring day to be honest. We used Ulli (see a few posts back for pictures of the most beautiful colored wrap there is) to bring the big sister to the daycarecenter and after that it was lilylilylily.
On my hip with a slipknot and as rucksack.
Love that wrap. Love it love it love it!
Sorry about the fuzzy picture. I'm still struggling with the small mirror that also hangs a bit too high.
One day I will find the perfect spot to take a picture using the selftimer. A spot without a thousand toys, fighting cats or pencilstained wallpaper in the background!

Thursday = wrapsellingday

2009-03-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

We started this day with Indio Primula. As you cannot see in the next picture because of the lack of light. But hey, it was the best picture of the sevenhundred I took so bear with me.
The little sister is all wrapped up in a double hammock carry. Pretty comfy and very wiggleproof!

We had a very wet and active walk outside to get the big sister to loose some energy and when we got back the mailman was just arriving with a lovely present! Nice and thin and even fresh from the box super supple so perfect for a simple hipcarry with a (surprisingly small) slipknot.
And since I have the policy that if I want something new I have to sell stuff to raise funds I have a few lovely wraps for sale:

From left to right on the picture:

Ellaroo LaRae, 3,80 m.
She's lost the typical ellaroo-crispness. Nice summer wrap and perfect to throw in you (diaper)bag for emergency-toddler-renstraint rucksacks. (ask me how I found that out *sigh*)
€40,-

girasol # 2. I just mesured it at 4,40 m.
Old weave so really supple and flannellike soft.
€40,-

Hoppediz La Paz, 4,6 m.
I love this wrap for my heavy toddler. It is sturdy and a bit wider than most wraps. Nice papa-wrap!
€45,-

Medley Rio, 4,10 m. on the short rail, 5,50 m. on the long rail.
€30,-

Prices are ex. shipping from the Netherlands. Non smoking, petfriendly household. I can wash and iron before shipping if preferred.

cool

2009-03-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

We had another pfaumoment this morning when we used the violet-white goodness to bring the big sister to daycare.

Look at that little bonnet, isn't it cute? I bought it *here*, so the little sister would look all cute and rosy at her great grandmothers birthday. And at the same time would be a bit sheltered from all the cheekpinching and commenting seniors. A hat really helps with that in my opinion.

It does look like a pretty simple knit so I guess I will make a few of them out of the spare hanks of cotton that are occupying my stash.

The little sister is still a bit under the weather so for most of the day she nursed herself back to health in zinnober, using "the coolest hip cross carry" with part of the wrap pulled over her head for warmth and support.

Zinnober... oh how I love thee Zinnober... Soft and cuddly and cosy. It is the ultimate comfortfood in wrapform.

Now I'm off to enjoy the few spare moments of silence while the big sister is at daycare, office man (yes, he insisted to be called this way online) is at work and the little sister is sleeping. Dinner is cooked, the room is as clean as I want it to be and I have a full archive of pioneer woman's blog to read. Yum!

I love pioneer woman. I want to be her, marry her, be her daughter and cook with her.
Since that's not really possible I'll settle for her blog and so should you. Go read it. Now!

Edit: We also had a bit of Ulli today, to try out Jordan's back carry.

Bohemian Wrapsody

2009-03-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Just as the song is made of a big jumble of words that don't really mean anything my girls and I have a big jumble of wraps and other babycarriers that we use almost every day (hows THAT for a bridge!).

Want to follow along and see which ones we use each day?

/insert Jeremy Clarkson's voice:

Some say she is more of dishcloth than a wrap. Others claim she is just a big PLO scarf.
All we know is that she is called.....

PFAU!

And she has nothing to do with the PLO but can be pretty handy when it comes to doing the dishes.
But only to keep you children out of the way, of course. There will come a time when my girls are too big to be constrained with a mere wrap. But hey, then they're probably big enough to do the dishes themselves!

Both girls are battling a bit of a cold, making them extra cranky. So for almost every minute of this day one of them has been safely wrapped up to keep them from hurting each other and giving them the opportunity to get some rest without having to lay down which would cause them to cough.

Pfau is such a great wrap. I wasn't too sure about the design on the swatch or at pictures (uhuh, it does look a tiny bit like a dishcloth or a PLO scarf, doesn't it?) but in real life it looks just drop dead gorgeous. And it wraps really, REALLY great. If you have the opportunity to get a pfau I would suggest you give it a go. You won't be disappointed!

I wonder what lovely piece of cloth we will be using tomorrow!

Peace

2009-03-09T09:09:00.001-07:00

According to zuster Klivia (I'm sorry, this is kind of a dutch-readings only thing), peace would come when everyone would pick up knitting.
Wouldn't it be nice to see all the people in parliament working on their socks, shawls or sweaters while discussing all the important stuff?

I thought I'd heard most of the songs from Ja zuster nee zuster but this one I never heard. It's lovely, not only because of the lyrics but the music is pretty sweet too!

Speaking of peace and pretty sweet things: look at this!

Pretty sweet man, pretty sweet song and even prettier: look at him wearing his son!
It makes me kinda sad to think about how a man who could make music as lovely as this just isn't here anymore. How stupid is that, I wasn't even born when he was murdered and it is not as if there isn't a ton of music to listen to. I guess I've always had a soft spot for the beatles!

wrapheaven

2009-03-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

This week I'm in wrapheaven. I sold a wrap (didy waves sinfony 7), giving me the resources to buy one back.
I also had one of those impulsvictories where you check the wrapsection on german ebay out of habit, see a limited edition wrap that will auction off in two minutes and think "what the heck, I'll just make an absurd low offer".
I ended up being the highest bidder so that was wrap number two for this week.

And to top it off, M.'s grandma send me some money for my birthday and combined with another birthdaygift I all of the sudden could buy myself a brand new, crisp out of the box wrap.

I swear, I giggle everytime I think about all those nice fluffies coming this way. Is that childish? I guess it is.
But hey, at least my collection is there for a good cause. The youngest daughter is a happy, smiling baby but only when she can be very *very* close to me for the biggest part of the day. Otherwise she panicks.
So she is in a wrap or sling for hours every day and she sleeps next to me so she can nurse when needed. Not that she does that at night, to my big surprise. I guess that the possibility for her to do so and the knowledge that I'm that close to her are giving her enough confidence to sleep until morning.

Having to babywear though most of the day makes it necessary to have a few wraps and/or slings. To exchange in case of babyspit, the need for another method of wearing or just because you would like another color for the day.
Wraps are more like clothing to me than most of my clothing is, at the moment, so I'm happy with my stash of fluffy goodness!

Anyway (can you see that both children are sleeping, there is nothing better to do that sit quietly and ramble away on my blog!), Storch Ulli 4.6 (yes!!!! finally!!!) and impuls didymos indio tulpe 4.2 are on their way.
Didymos woolen indio in the yummy color zinnober arrived this morning, together with eldest daughter's first didymos wrap. You can never start to early, eh?!

To quote her: "a parcel, a parcel, a parcel, a parcel!!!! I think it is for me, mum!!!! It is NOT a wrap! it is for ME and it is NOT A WRAP"

oops.... I think she's a bit sick of parcels that contain those boring wraps instead of nice presents for her!

But unfortunately for her:
However, the disappointment was gone when it turned out that there was indeed a present for her!

Her very own didymos katja dollwrap. Don't you just love that colorway?
The best part for me, however, was the lovey soft and squishy wool wrap inside the box.... Oh man.... it is every bit as wonderfull as I hoped it would be.

Thin and supple, yet supportive. And it has that great ability that wool has of being warm and cosy without being too warm. Love it!

It was really hard to get a nice actionpicture since both girls were screaming their lungs out so this will have to do ;)
The color is hard to describe. I thought it would be either a horrible shade of orange or very salmonpinklike so I planned to dye it pink.
But it is just perfect as it is, a lovely earthy reddish orange.

Wish I may, wish I might..

2009-02-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

Wishlists. They feel greedy and wrong and I hate making them.
But since a few people asked me to make one decided to try real hard to find a few thing that I would really like to have and that for some reason I won't buy myself.
Either because they are too expensive, stupid and boring to buy or because I just keep forgetting them.
I guess those are not really great reasons to put stuff on a wishlist since I don't want people to feel obligated to buy me expensive and/or boring stuff! Truly, I don't want people to feel obligated to buy me anything at all but if people really want to buy something it is nice for them to have at least a bit of a clua about what I like.

So here we go!

Storchenwiege Ulli 4.6 meter. It is "just" a storch but I can't keep myself from drooling over it. It would look so good on me and the girls and breaking in a new storchenwiege is one of the most rewaring thing to do.

natural, undyed Bluefaced Leicester wool, Aran weight. Mmmmm.... Scrumptious!

Nigella Lawson: how to be a domestic goddess. I can't stand her fake fridgegrazing. No woman looks that sexy while plundering the fridge or cupboard for food. No way. But her cooking is lovely and I like reading recipes.

addi click set . Yup, I'm a knittinggeek. And a knittingsnob as well, 'cause Addi is the only brand of needles that I like (and who doesn't, really).

lusherdelushlush. Anything that doesn't involve a bathtub will do

aga cooker (Told you so, expensive! But hey, just in case one of you happens to stumble upon a biiiiiig pile of money I better put it on the list ;D I really miss the aga we had when I was a kid. It got sold when my parents divorced, blugh.)

Senseo-thingy to use two pads at the same time. Yeah, yeah.... I drink the dreaded senseocoffee. And even worse: I like it :P I do however dislike the tiny portions. I want big mugs full of coffee and using two pads at the same time will make it possible to have something that comes close to a buig mug full ;)

load and reload van metallica. Major trip down memorylane!

Robin Hobb: Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's fate. Paperbacks please :) I'm rereading the whole Fitz and lifeshipscycle and since I borrowed the books the first time and they moved with my sister to Denmark.... I guess this is one of those boring gifts!

Enough for now, I feel bad allready although it was quite fun to actually try to think of stuff!

Happy birthday to me!

2009-02-27T01:33:00.000-08:00

I know I said that I would stay away from the personal stuff on this blog but since this is an easy way to reach the people I want to reach I hereby make an exception to invite anyone who wants to come to my birthday sunday march the 8th.

Showtime

2009-02-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

Daughter 1 shows her new toy (and my new obsession, I've knitted quite a few loopers and I guess more will follow, they are addictive):

And daughter 2 shows our new Manduca:

See how comfortable she's napping there? We are still fiddling a bit with the different straps so her ideally her knees should be a bit higher and a back a bit more rounded. but still, it is extremely comfy and very easy to put on.
I always prefer the versatility of wraps but if you want to wear your baby without the need for meters of cloth, please consider a soft structured carrier like this one (or an ergo, yamo or any of the dozens of other brands available) instead of those horrible babybjorns. Please, spare your and your baby's back!
If you want to read more on how to wear your baby anatomically correct, there is a nice article on the Didymos website.

Yesterday this:
Became this:

The flash doesn't do it justice but it is almost as bright in real life as it is in the picture. 3-ply light fingering yarn, perfect for a shawl or wrap. I hope a certain someone is going to be happy with it!

And last but not least, happy late valentinesday! (oooh that horrible flashlight again!)

Coraline

2009-02-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.coraline.com

I wonder how long it will take before we will be able to see the movie here in Holland!

Tapas

2009-02-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow 4701 and I will go to a small luchparty. The theme of the luch will be tapas and everyone will bring something. Funny how in english that is called a dutch party while here in Holland it is referred to as an american party!

Anyway, I love every opportunity to cook something more exciting than familydinner so today I went al Nigella and prepared four different dishes.

The secret to cooking in a kitchen as tiny as ours is to keep the dishwasher open on one side and a bag for garbage on the other side of the kitchen. You can also keep the garbagecan open if you like but I prefer not to smell diapers or yesterdays dinner while cooking!

So, a fresh plastic bag and an open dishwasher. That way you can clean stuff up right after using it thus keeping a tiy workspace.
I actually had to giggle while writing "tidy workspace" since at the moment the kitchencounter is probably the only tidy place in this household....*sigh*

The first thing I made were small tartelettes with red onion, chilli, pinenuts and pesto. The spicy chilli give quite a nice contrast in flavour and colour to the sweet purple onions.

Oniontartelettes:

8 sheets of thawed puff pastry
200g red onions, chopped up
1 red chillipepper, chopped into fine rings, I like to keep the seeds in to add tiny bits of hotness in the sweet onions but you can ofcourse remove the seeds
2 tablespoons red pesto
25g pinenuts

preheat the oven to 220 celcius

Gently simmer the onions and the pepper until they are soft but not brown. Add some salt.

cut the sheets of puffpastry in four, creating 32 small squares of pastry.
Using a cookiecutter or a glass, cut circles out of half of the squares. Discard the cut out circles (or use them to make lovely crackers with a bit of salt, cheese or herbs on them) and put the pieces with a hole in them on top of the other squaresm creating 16 small pastry cups.

Fill with a bitt of pesto, a spoonfull of the onions and a sprinkle of pinenuts.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

The second dish also involves puffpastry.

Chorizopuffs

preheat the oven to 220 celcius

12 sheets of thawed puff pastry
250g chorizo
250g pistachio nuts
2 eggs

finely chop up and mix the chorizo and the nuts.
Whisk the eggs and keep a small bit seperate. Mix the eggs into the chorizomixture.

Lay out the sheets of pastry and put small rolls of the chorizomixture in the middle of the sheets. Brush the edges with the egg, fold in half and brush some egg on top as well.

You can use some left over pastry to decorate, I used a cookiecutter (or actually a fondantcutter) to put tiny ivyleaves on top of the puffs.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

The third dish is such a fast, small but delicious dish... I cannot make this without tasting way too much right after baking.

Baconwrapped dates filled with cream cheese

1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half
1 pound pitted dates
4 ounces cream cheese

Fill the dates with cream cheese, I used a pipingbag.
Wrap them in the bacon and bake in a pan until the bacon is crisp.
I bet blue cheese would be nice as well!

The last thing I'm bringing to the party tomorrow is a batch of Chocolate Chili Bites. I got the recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini but I added quite a bit more chilli. I love the little hot kick that comes after the bittersweet chocolate.

3, 2, 1, GO!

2009-02-11T13:55:00.000-08:00

So... A fresh start... My old blog was fun but I've decided to keep my personal life a bit more personal and my not-so-personal life a bit less personal.
For the first part that means blogging only about my crafts, cooking, babywrapping and everything else that interests me without the diaryfunction that my old blog had.

For the second part it means that I will be using english instead of dutch and that I have switched from web-log.nl to the much more userfriendly blogspot.com
Don't you just LOVE how everything google-related magically works together?
Uhm...no. I don't. It freaks me out to be honest although for there is probably nothing dangerous or scary about it.

As far as the knitting goes: I've rediscovered the cuteness that's called mochimochi. Right now I'n working on Looper. Such a fun little project! A great way to get rid of some of the nasty synthetic yarn that somehow managed to work its way into my stash.
And I'm kinda obsessed with the way you can shape knitwork by using increases, decreases and shortrows. It makes my fingers itch and my head spin with all the designs that come up. If only I would have the patience to work them out... Oh well, someday I will!

I'm going back to looper now, perhaps I can finish him tonight so I can start with the stackable cats that are going to be someones birthdaypresent.

Oh, and I just HAVE to mention that I've the best valentinesdaygift ready for 4701. I'm not going to tell you what it is since he is probably smart enough to read this but I will post pics when he has opened it the 14th.
In the meantime you can read all about his World of Warcraft rehabprocess here.