Secret Santa

Last year, Meghan or Nitelily3 organised a secret Santa for European Streetteam members. I absolutely loved that! *big smile* The idea behind it is that you make something for a fellow teammember and that you also receive a gift from a teammember. It has been great fun guessing who's your secret santa too... :)
Since Meghan has become an honorary member, I want to keep this 'tradition' and decided to start off the Secret Santa thing. It will be so exciting & fun and there are already lots of enthusiastic EST members who send me a convo that they will participate. If you're part of EST and want to be part of this, please send me a convo and I'll get in touch with you after 15th of september. Don't we all want to be Santa? :)

Happy girl on holiday part 4

Did you know I'm addicted to playing boardgames?
This IQpuzzler is very addictive for all those who want to train their brain. This brainteaser has 101 challenges in 2D and 3D and is suitable from age 6+. I already bought this game several times to give as a present and now people keep asking me where to get it. If you live in Belgium, you can get them in De Banier. This one will be packed to go on holiday too! :)

Happy girl on holiday part 3

Today I received my little book that I got from darksiderules on Etsy.
I can't wait to read it but I'll put it away to take with me on holiday. It might be too scary to read in our tent though... Oh, and the little goodies that came with it will be eaten while reading of course! :)
Thank you Noah for sending it at the speed of light!

Happy girl on holiday part 2

I have prepared some more goodies to take on holiday.
Do you think I might need a holiday after this? :)

Happy girl on holiday part 1

In one week we'll be getting ready for our holiday. The destination is still not known and is something we will probably decide last minute. :)
We'll be camping so it doesn't matter where we pitch out tent, as long as the weather is nice, the scenery is good and the environment is interesting. I'm taking little goodies to craft while my partner drives to wherever our destination will be...
Guess what these are going to be? :)

Shop closed

Last year in fall, I decided to start selling my items on Dawanda. I was really excited about it at first but it never seemed really booming over there. The views were really low and the way things were set up somehow really confused me. I never had any sales there either but hey, I hardly ever listed anything after the first weeks so that's no surprise.
If people 'heart' me or my items, I get an e-mail notification and then I realize I'm never around. It's just not working for me I think. I think it's more fair to just close down my shop. I don't have the time either to really have two shops and I like Etsy better anyway. :)
So bye bye, Dawanda, thanks for putting up with me and if I have more time, I might be back one day...

Bee happy

I'm having an easy time while it's summer and only list challenges and custom work.
I love the challenges - so much fun!
This weeks boss of the challenge is Kraplap and she chose the theme 'wasps'. Yuk, I dislike those little buggers but I love the theme! :) You can see all the entries in her blog. Be amazed at all the great stuff that has been made by the European Streetteammembers.
This is my entry:

Magicien de la nuit

I have been wanting to make a plushie for ages but I never got around to do it...
A few weeks ago, Kreativlink started a weekly challenge on our team and I love it! It makes me want to try new things and make new items inspired by whoever is the boss.
This weeks boss is StaroftheEast and she chose a painting by Van Gogh. You can see all the entries in her blog. Be amazed at all the great stuff that has been made by the European Streetteammembers.
Here is my 'Magicien de la nuit' or 'Wizard of the night'...
I will try to get some better pictures tommorrow and list it before the deadline! :)

Etsyversary

One year ago in the beginning of August I found this really cool site called Etsy. I didn't sign up right away but it took me a few days to actually believe that it all this cool stuff was actually for sale. Then I signed up and started to browse more and more, adding favorites and hearting sellers.
I always loved creating and since I quit my evening ceramic classes, I thought it was time to fill up that time with something useful and wonderful: opening an Etsy-shop myself.
I put up my shop on the 24th of August and while I was listing my greeting cards, I got a request for doing wholesale. I was in shock I believe. :)
I had my first sale on the 29th. I was a very lucky and happy seller and still remember I couldn't believe I actually sold something. The person who bought my first item also happened to be the very first person who put me in a treasury. Marcela has a shop on Etsy too and we still convo each other once in while. She is a supersweet woman and great Etsian.
Soon I became addicted to treasuries and I found the European Streetteam that I joined right away. We chat in a forumthread almost everyday and it feels like they are all so close even though they live far away.
I have met so many kind and warm people through Etsy. It has brought the world right into my home and I love it! I'm still excited with every sale I get, just because I can yet write another envelope to some wonderful destination.
Just before reaching my Etsyversary, I also reached over 2000 hearts and 200 sales. YaY! :)

Welcome Aussies

Yay! Tommorrow our Australian friends Linda & Colin will be visiting us.
I adopted them as my Aussie parents long time ago while visiting Indonesia together. We have stayed in touch ever since and this is the second time they are visiting Belgium.
Can't wait to be a host, a cook, a driver, a guide and above all, a friend! So I won't be around Etsy that much I'm afraid. They will be staying with us from 11th of August until 16th of August. How fun! :)

deviantART

Oh oh, another site I could easily get addicted to...

Just because...

I have a little Etsy friend living in King of Prussia - to me that place sounds like a fairytale.
And I think my little friend is a fairy too!
She send me these beautiful cards - just because...
I love little surprises although it didn't came as a surprise since she couldn't keep it a secret - now how cute is that? :)
Stephanie has two lovely shops on Etsy:
cabbagesandkingsArt





















Vogonpoets















I love her designs: they are fun, colorful and above all great quality!
She's having a give-away at her blog so please hurry over there to win some of her gorgeous work & wish her a happy birthday! :)

ArtMind famous...

Seen on the road...
Seen in the museum of fine art...
Seen on Vogue...
Haha, I think these are pretty cool!
I saw them on the blog of Pillowmonster & I wanted to play too! :)
You want to play too? Go here!

Birdie stamp

I finished my birdie stamp! YaY!
I think it's pretty cool! :)
My niece (12) called it a chicken ... It is SO fat she said.
I'm slightly offended! ;)

Playing instead of claying

I planned to do some claying today but instead I have been playing with these lino cutters which I bought many moons ago. I'm making a birdie stamp just for fun. I'm using a kind of soft engraving material, it is supereasy to cut in. How fun it is to make your own stamps. :)
The picture is really bad as I took it tonight with too little light...

Life is uncertain...

I once read on a menu card: 'Life is uncertain, eat dessert first'
Now that is a sentence I clearly understand! :)
We had a street BBQ yesterday and I was on the dessert team. I made a sort of ice cake but since it was difficult to distribute if it was a cake, I put them in little glass cups. I'll share the recipe with you in case you want to try it out.
Ingredients:
* two packages of biscuits (ex. Petit Beurre 200g)
* 3 egg yolks
* 200g powdered sugar
* 3 sachets 'Klop-Klop' (this is a kind of whipped cream powder)
* 18 tablespoons of cold milk
The ingredients on this picture is 3 times the above ingredients. It makes for about 45 cups of dessert.

Roll the biscuits all flat so they become little crumbs and fill the cups with a layer of crumbs.
Mix the egg yolks with the powdered sugar.
Mix the Klop-Klop whipped cream powder with the milk until it is all fluffy. When that is done, you mix both together with a wooden spoon until it is one smooth mixture. Then you take a spoon and fill the cups half way.
Add another layer of biscuit crumbs and on top of that you add another spoon of the mixture.
Finish of with some chocolate beans and put in the freezer to set for 12 hours.

Since I had a lot of egg whites left, I decided to make some coconut-cookies too.

Ingredients:
* 2 egg whites
* 80g sugar
* 100g minced coconut
* 2 tablespoons of flour

The cookies on this picture is 3 times the above ingredients.


Stir on a low fire the eggwhite with the sugar until it turns white and fluffy. Add the minced coconut and flour. Put little bits of the mixture on a baking sheet and bake 20 à 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 175°C. Let them cool off and leave them in open air otherwise they will loose their crunch!

Hmmmmmmm, both recipes are heavenly! :) Enjoy!

Summer challenge

I just listed these bookmarks for the European Streetteam 'summer challenge'.
We try to have fun and challenge each other in our creativity.
This challenge was initiated by Nanouke and since she often talks about the beach, she inspired me to make these beach bums.
You can find all the items made for the summer challenge in Nanouke's blog.