With Easter just around the corner...

... and my Easter project Penelope-style (crochet, unravel, crochet, unravel, crochet, unravel...) still far from completion (that’s a euphemism),


... and my other secret project (so secret it cannot be mentioned), which I haven’t even started on yet,

I decided to try out some of the cute purse frames that I’d ordered at Tall Poppy Craft and which arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. The result is my loveliest failure to date.



It would be absolutely perfect (I am quite proud of the wee bird) were it not for the fact that I gambled wrong on the ‘does this pattern include seam allowances?’ question, and the luverly purse does not fit the luverly frame. In fact, despite my attempts to stretch the fabric, bend the frame, etc., it keeps coming loose somewhere. I've given up on it. What is one to do with a frameless purse?Crafting_

Comments

Since you people are too shy to post your comments on the blog (instead, most of you use e-mail), I shall be so bold as to rephrase some of your best finds and upload them myself.

Aniko said about this post that the picture of Michael and the glacier made her think of the gnome in Amelie. Because of the way he leans in (... the self-assured bewilderness on his face... and the hat of course, again the hat!). I tend to agree. What do you think?

On Hold

I started on this embroidery project long (much too long) ago, but it seems to have somehow stranded. Part of the problem is that it was meant to be a recipe-book cover, and I'm completely stuck as to how the rest of the cover should look. Any ideas? Please to help.Crafting_

Shoebox Sundays

I got this fabulous idea from Stephanie, who sometimes posts old family photographs (even though hers usually appear as part of her Self-Portrait Tuesday series, so they inevitably tend to include her, but still, that's where I got the idea from).

A year ago, as part of a massive (still unfinished) spring-cleaning spree, I finally went through the two large crammed cupboards that contained all the photographs amassed over the years, and threw away anything not deemed worthy of keeping. I now have one small-size shoebox. It was an exhilarating feeling, to have distilled the essence of life past in this manner, and the nicest thing was that I started looking at old photographs again, on a regular basis, which I hadn't done in ages, due to feeling terribly daunted by the two crammed cupboards.

I think the time has come to share, so as of today, Sundays will be 'Shoebox' Days.

If anyone who knew me at anytime has any objections, they may voice them. Voicing is good. Voicing is really good.

For the first instalment, one of my personal classics: this must be 1986-1987?, the place is some B&B in England (you can tell, can't you!), so it must be one of the summers we spent driving around the UK, the three of us, my mum (the nose), Michael (those of you who claim Isabelle does not resemble her uncle, please take a moment to reconsider) and I. In our dark-blue Golf, with my imaginary horse, Cocotte, running alongside the car. I took this picture early in the morning (well, before 10 am...), always a very frustrating time for me, because of waking up early and being much to shy to go out on my own. I usually ended up staring them down until they woke up (Marc says I still do that) (you know, Bridget Jones style...), which was not appreciated... Or I read books (no wonder I'd read so many by the time I hit secondary school...). Anyway, on this day, I took a picture. Quite a good picture, retrospectively.Shoebox Sunday_

Early Sunday Morning

An apple blossom, a splash of sun, an ancient orange monkey who sings a song nobody else knows and Virginia Woolf's Street Haunting: some achingly hmmm things in life...

(soundtrack: Inessa Galante's rendition of Caccini's Ave Maria)

Blueness

Marc’s camera was having a blue day today... either I didn’t get the settings right, or the camera is sad because Marc hasn’t been taking too many pictures lately, and it’s missing its master...

Still, I hope you will not let this minor inconvenience distract you from the following goodies:

Isabelle


Isabelle’s today’s drawing


Isabelle’s new poster (poster not so new, but framed and hanging as of today)


Isabelle’s new rabbit blanket (part of evil ploy to get her out of our bed) (incidentally, ploy has failed utterly so far, she was perfectly happy playing on her new bed all day, but when it came to sleeping, she was adamant, her place was WITH mama and IN mama’s bed) (note that her NEW bed is Marc’s EX-bed, and since he can clearly not claim it back at such a delicate stage of the negotiations, we are now sleeping all together in one bed with an empty side-car on our left) (cosy but presumably quite uncomfortable, I’ll tell you all about it in the morning...)


PS: the hair is mine

Isabelle’s future bench (as soon as I decide which of my lovely new fabrics to use for the upholstering)


And last but not least, the bathroom tiles of Isabelle’s future doll-house (as soon as I develop a passion for interior design in miniature)

Fantaisie (by Marc)

Figures...

Isabelle can only count to eight. For most people that means being able to count to one, to two, to three, to four, to five, to six, to seven AND to eight. But not for Isabelle. She can ONLY count to eight.

If you ask her, 'how many fingers on my hand?',
she says 'ééntweedrieviervijfzeszevenacht'.

If you ask, 'how many eyes does Bambi have?',
she says 'ééntweedrieviervijfzeszevenacht'.

There is a nursery rhyme in Dutch, that goes like this,

'Één twee drie vier, hoedje van... hoedje van...
Één twee drie vier, hoedje van papier...'

Or, in our local rendition,

'Ééntweedrieviervijfzeszevenacht, hoedje van... hoedje van...
Ééntweedrieviervijfzeszevenacht hoedje van papier...'

Bathtime (by Marc)

Tonton

... is hiking at the ends of the world, among the glaciers of South South South America. He is sending us fantastic travel reports to which Marc and I are already completely addicted, together with breath-taking pictures.

Isabelle's comment when she saw it:

Kijk! Tonton! Mooie muts! Mooie jas!
(Look! There's Tonton! Beautiful hat! Beautiful coat!)

(Small pause to give you time to wipe the tears from your eyes...) Seriously though, look at this...


I've never seen anything like it...

Hier is ie Bambi!

(no mouth yet, no tail and a few spots missing, but who's counting...)Crafting_

Isabelle and her ribbons (by Kenzo by Maman)

Kriskras...

... is the name of the second-hand children's bookstore I've been meaning to go to for some time. Turns out it's just another one of those places I'll have to avoid when the funds are low (i.e. most of the time). Amazing finds! I'll just show you one, to wet your appetite.

Well? I know, I know, and the owner is truly friendly. Arghh! If I were a rich woman...

'Hide and Seek' Isabelle Style

Papa even hier toppen!
Papa hide here!
(...while holding the bedroom curtain aside so that Marc can see the exact designated spot)
Ikke zoeken...
I search...
Waar is ie nou papa?
Where is papa?
Onder bed? Neeeee.... (... looking under the bed)
Under the bed? Noooo...
Bij de deur? Neeee.... (... looking behind the door)
At the door? Nooooo...
Onder Lipekot? Neee.... (... trying to lift the poor cat)
Under Likkepot? Noooo...
Daar is ie papa! (... moving the bedroom curtain aside)
There is papa!

Bambi

Considering Isabelle's undying devotion to this particular bit of Walt Disney production (of course, we only let her watch the first twenty minutes in which a) there is not a trace of violence or pain and b) the world is a matriarchy), it was rather unavoidable, so Bambi is on his way...



... though not quite ready yet, to the great disappointment of the clamoring troops.

Once finished, he is supposed to come close to looking like so:



Taken from this book,



... which has been photographed so many times for so many blogs, I almost didn't dare to post it here, but I'm sure some of you haven't seen it yet... and, it's my very first Japanese crafts book, I mean one that I actually own, rather than download pictures of. And it's much much more marvelous than anything those downloads ever prepared me for. I am in heaven. Thank you YesAsia!Crafting_

La visite de Mamie V: Running and Resting

La visite de Mamie IV: Hortus Botanicus

These plants are fantastic, I've been meaning to post some pictures of them for a long time, but never got round to it. I find them exquisite.



My mother finds them horrible. We have agreed to disagree.

Rain and poetry

It's raining really hard. I just found this poem I'd written a while ago. It's about my little writing/sewing room. It's also in French.

La chambre étroite d’où j’écris
est la proue de mon bateau,
avec la tour de l’église comme tous les phares du monde,
et le petit coq doré toutes les lumières,
et les vagues de maisons,
de pigeons,
de nuages,
viennent s’y écraser au fur
et à mesure qu’on avance,
m’éclaboussant au passage.

Le nez collé à la vitre, plus devant que tout le monde.

J’ai toujours rêvé d’être conducteur de bus, d’avion, de métro
(voir la cinquième ligne du métro de Paris, qui elle n’en a pas),
ni pour la vitesse ni pour le contrôle,
mais pour la vue,

le nez collé à la vitre, plus devant que tout le monde.

La visite de Mamie III: To cut or not to cut

Of course we didn't manage to go ENTIRELY without shopping. Still, I am proud to announce that we managed to limit ourselves both in time and in money spent. Most of what we bought came from my favourite second-hand clothing store, the "Appel & Ei" (Apple & Egg) in Leiden.

Here are some 'Self-portraits wearing new old finds':

Amazing summer dress

Very hip retro top

Charming detail of very hip retro top

And this is where it gets funny...

The thoughts of a normal person in the Appel & Ei:

"hey, that's a beautiful blouse. What nice fabric. Not really my colour though, pity... and it's probably too small,... well, I'll try it anyway... look at that, it's a perfect fit!... and the colour is quite flattering after all. What luck! I'll take it"

Véronique's thoughts in the Appel & Ei:

"hey, that's a beautiful piece of fabric. Just what I need for that linnen bag I wanted to make... and it's a blouse, so that's perfect! Since I don't wear blouses anyway,... and it's not my colour,... and probably not my size either... no qualms about cutting it up... still, I'll try it on, since I'm waiting anyway... oh no! it's the right size... and the colour ain't half bad!... man, just my luck!!! how can I cut it now? This is too bad... Well, I'll take it, and I can always decide later whether I want to cut it or wear it..."

Latest news report: still utterly undecided...

La visite de Mamie II: Workshop

As a birthday present, Marc and I sent my mum to a silver workshop this past weekend, and this is what she made:


Gorgeous or what? See, now you know where I get the genius from...

La visite de Mamie I: Le Magasin

Since last week, Isabelle owns her own business. A tough job, but at least you're your own boss (and, in her case, everybody else's too).

It's early days yet, so business is on the slack side...

though she can always rely on her one most faithful customer...


... and the customer in question can count on the cakes being fresh...


And this is the most important bit, making sure the finances are in order (any day now, she'll be able to take over our household budget...(hopeful sigh)).

Of course if you know Michael (my brotherlet) or rather if you knew Michael (still my brotherlet) in the early 1980's, this photo series would send you straight down memory lane. I'll try to unearth the relevant pictorial evidence in Montpellier this summer and post it here for comparison's sake...

Emilie

I had a vague suspicion that my mum's visit this week was not going to be particularly auspicious in terms of blog and/or craft activities, so I worked like crazy to finish what I'd started on.

At 1am on Friday the 24th of March 2006, Emilie was born...


She is simply adorable, I can't get enough of her. And Isabelle was delighted to find her in our bed the next morning...


We happen to think she's MUCH prettier than her model,


... which came from this book:


So obviously, the rest of the morning was spent kissing and rejoicing...


(which explains why we weren't quite (ahem) done cleaning the house by the time my mother arrived)Crafting_

Naptime work

Crafting_

Sammy

Once upon a time there was a Spring,
and with the Spring came Sammy,
and Chagall's painted ceramics, and bluebirds singing,
and lots of laughs,
and some really good cries,
and the feel of wet green grass between our toes,
and a finely embroidered smell of happiness.

Noone knew whether it was Sammy or the Spring,

so we waited...

... and the Spring wilted,
while Sammy got larger,
and happiness quietly grew...

Home-made Zakka

I solemnly promise that this is the very last picture of this bag that you will see
(this month that is :)))Crafting_

Isabelle's dream

... een klein beertje, en die had een héél klein bed, héél klein bed... en beertje had één papa, en géén mama... ik één papa en één mama, beertje alléén één papa... en papa van beertje een lamp in de maan gedaan... lieve papa van beertje.

Ik ook lieve papa.

(a little bear, and it had a very small bed, a very small bed... and the little bear had one papa and no mama... i have one papa and one mama, little bear only one papa... and papa of little bear put a lamp in the moon... sweet papa of little bear.

My papa also sweet.)

Finally

The little off-white pseudo-felt bag is getting a proper lining...


There! that's better!

Crafting_

Upcoming

I have a new project, I don't want to reveal too much at this point, but here are some hints...



Crafting_