Merry go round

Every last friday of the month, I jump on the 'Merry go round'. What is the Merry go round exactly? Each month, a group of craftswomen from around the world join together and give their reponses to the same question/challenge.
This month, we had to make something for someone else and we would receive a surprise ourselves.
My surprise came all the way from Singapore. Lily Pang is a very talented artist. She makes illustrations, paintings, lap top skins, art pendants, magnets and stationary.
I was very happy to receive this gorgeous print and I apologize for not having it framed yet.
The colors will fit perfectly in my studio and I'm thinking of having it framed in a bright orange frame. Or would a dark wood colored frame be better, what do you think?
I found this months 'challenge' a bit hard because I only joined this group recently and don't know much about these sweet people yet. However, I was happy we had the names in time so that I could go sneak around on her blog to get to know her a bit better. I send this off to Sara and I was jippetyjappety happy she likes it. :)
Please bear in mind that the members will be posting at different times of the day, depending on which world time-zone they are in :)

Alison at Tweed thoughts
Kim at Vilt a la Kim
Sara at Saras Texture Crafts
Fabienne at Easterya Jewellery
Mariana at Florcita
Agathe at Le Bar du Vent
Lily at Lily Pang Art and Design
Ruth at Birdland Creations

My creative space

My creative space is being on the road a lot today. Bit boring perhaps? Not for me!
I'll be visiting my friend Mariana from Florcita and together we'll eat pie, chat, go supply shopping and perhaps squeeze in an exhibition or a walk in the woods.
I have postponed supply shopping for too long and I am in desperate need of some clay and other goodies. Can't wait!

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun!

New apron

Ahh, I'm really liking my new sewing machine. A while back, the straps of my apron broke and I've been keeping 'em together with a safety pin because I was too lazy to handsew 'em. Besides, the apron is so old that it is nearly falling apart in the first place so I decided it was time to make myself a new one just like it.

Since I have no notion of sewing, I just did what my brain thought would work. I made a pattern of the old apron from newspapers, placed the pattern on a piece of linen and cut it out.
After making sure the edges won't go wonky, I folded the edges and sewed along it.
I sewed on the pocket with an overlock stitch and made sure it was nice and lime! :)I love my new apron already even though I know it's not perfectly sewed together.
The linen and lime are so me that I will wear it until the threads fall apart...

Flickr Favorites

1. When life gives you lemons, take photos of them (4), 2. meyer lemon semifreddo, 3. Meyer Lemon Pie Mini, 4. lemon pie

I think my neighbor would not agree with the title of the first picture... She would say: when life gives you lemons, make lemon pie. When we bake, we often bring a piece to each other.
So the past weekend a wonderful piece of chocolate pie arrived on a sweet plate.
She told me that it should have been higher but she made up for that by making it wider. Hope she realises that all that pie makes us wider too. :)
I never return the plate empty so I will make a lemon pie. It's one of those pies I've been wanting to make forever so I looked up some recipes and hope it will turn out good. I'll post the result and recipe in my blog next sunday.

My favorite mosaic from last week was very festive! :)

If you like to play this week, make your mosaic and add a link to your blogpost (NOT your blog please) or Flickr in Mister Linky (click on the button below and fill in your name with the link to your blogpost or Flickr picture)...

Secret Spring Fairy

In case you don't know, I'm part of the European Streetteam on Etsy. An amazing group of like minded people. Twice a year, a swap is organised by someone from the team. The past few years, I matched all the people and got to know all the secrets but I retired after the last swap.
The new swap-chief is, Judit from Vadjutka so this time I could participate. Yeah!
Thanks so much Judit for mixing and matching and organising this wonderful swap-event! You're a perfect spring fairy! :)

Even though I knew I'm in a swap, I was still very surprised when the mailman rang the doorbell. My secret swap friend was Inger from Ingermaaike. Inger makes the most amazing, mindblowing felt creations and I'm superhappy to be the proud owner of my very own Inger-wrap! :)
Look how lucious the wool & silk looks and it is mighty soft too!
And sweet Inger also made me a lovely felt flower - equally soft and what an advantage: I never have to worry about watering it! :)
Thanks so much, Inger, I love the secret swap gift you made for me.
Don't forget to check out Inger's lovely shop, filled with magical felted goodies! :)

Show and tell

At last I have what has been on my wishlist for the past few years: a sewing machine! I still remember one of my former co-workers saying to me 'my daughters will not leave the house without knowing how to use a sewing machine' and at that time, I thought it was funny and sometimes I wonder if her daughters know how to sew now. But she was right 'cause everytime I have something that needs to be stitched, I go by my mom and she fixes it all. About time I start doing it myself I thought. The lady in the shop already gave me my very first lesson and I'll go back for a second one next week. I suppose I know the basics on how to use this Brother Innovis 10 for now.
I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get the 'Sweetie Petite' out that Lisa from the Red Thread send me ages ago. Looks like an easy and fun project for a beginner. :) Lisa's instructions are super clear so I knew it could not go wrong.
First of all my apologies for the bad quality of the pictures and for my dirty fingernails! I made this at dusk after working in the garden. :)

Cut out the sweetie on the dotted line.Cut out the back on the dotted line too.Align the raw edges of the ribbon at the centre top of the Sweetie Petite.
Lay the front piece right side down on top of the back piece.
Pin it together.Sew less then 0,5cm seam all around, except for the feet.
Make small V-shapes cuts around the curves.
Turn it inside out.
After stuffing it with polyfil, sew the opening shut by hand.
Here are my sweetie petites! :)

Ginger is beautiful, isn't she? You can get her and the other gorgeous Sweetie Petites here.
Guess what I'll be doing today? Happy sunday! :)

Weekly happy stats

Things that made me happy last week:

• Eating ice cream
• Gallivanting around on a flee market
• Getting my plant pots filled for the garden
  
• Buying my very first sewingmachine
• Getting 3 bouquets of Gerbera's for the price of one

image from ArtMind

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Kentucky bride

Look what fell in my mailbox last week...Never thought that these would ever make it into a weddingmagazine...Oops, I see Misty instead of Mitsy... but I'm used to that happening a lot.

Jacki Allen's Kentucky Bride is a very classy magazine for those looking for wedding ideas big and small. I was pleasantly surprised to see the that the content was 'real' with 'real' people and 'real' stories. Not just the model-type-bride that you often see featured in magazines like these. I also love it when magazines are a joy to touch, and this certainly is.

Thank you, Julie for loving them and for sending me a copy.

My creative space

I have been taking things a bit slowly lately. Blame it on the good weather and me wanting to enjoy every bit of it. I tell myself it's OK not to have to do stuff all the time. It was hard in the beginning but now I can get used to that.
I decided to make some more wall art and I'm prepping ceramic canvasses for that. If I want to apply colored clay slib, they need to be leatherhard to be able to do so.
I have been sketching bits and pieces and even though I'm a bit afraid of blank canvasses, I can't wait to make 'em 'real'.

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's! It's fun!

Pet pebbles

Porcelain pebbles.

Pet pebbles.
:)

Flickr favorites

1. brocante de waterloo, 2. flea market delight, 3. ', 4. Antwerp

The past weekend we went to a flea market. The weather was perfectly sunny and I just loved strolling around with the feeling having too little eyes to see it all. I had hoped it would have been a bit more brocante with more old stuff but it was a lot of junk.
How I'd love to rummage through a box of old thread, find a fab bird cage or buy an old fashioned alarmclock so we could give it to our neighbor who treats us daily with her loud alarmclock at 6am. We did find some old tin plates for next to nothing - yeah - we'll be melting them and re-use the tin.

Last weeks favorite mosaic brought me to one of my favorite places...

If you like to play this week, make your mosaic and add a link to your blogpost (NOT your blog please) or Flickr in Mister Linky (click on the button below and fill in your name with the link to your blogpost or Flickr picture)...

The art of talking crap...

So no, I didn't make it through the preselections of the Canvas collections.
Am I dissapointed? Nah! Not at all, it was fun and exciting.
It did feel like I didn't talk enough crap as you're supposed to do in events like these apparently. If you have 10 minutes to explain what your work is about, you should talk into thin air for about 9 minutes and come to the essence for about 1 minute.
Jury's love that. The feedback of the jury seemed sincere and honest but when I heard a little bit later that they said exactly the same thing to other contestants, I kind of knew it had been chit chat in the first degree! They practised and refined it! I certainly need to practice on my 'bullshit talk' if I ever participate again! :)
Afterwards we went to a brocante, had a lovely beer on a sunny terrace and went to my favorite icecream place in the whole of Belgium! Yeah, now we're talking, and not bullshit! :)

How to make and use batwash?

When I first bought my kiln, I knew the shelves needed to be protected from future glaze marks with som batwash. Batwash is a substance you can buy ready made in ceramic supply shops but it is very easy and much cheaper to make it yourself. I thought I'd share the recipe with you.
Here's what you need:

A container to mix the batwash in, a jar to keep it in, a sieve,

a spoon, a paintbrush, aluminium oxide, quarts, china clay and a scale.You need 60% Aluminium oxide - I use 180grams.

You need 20% China clay - I use 60grams.
You need 20% quarts - I use 60grams.
Add water until the substance is quite liquid so you can spread it out easily.
Put the substance through a sieve so that there is no chunks in the substance.
Normally, kiln shelves look like this.
Mine look like this:
I get the old batwash off to apply some new one. I do this about twice a year but it depends on how much you glaze and how the state of your shelves look after firing. I feel very confident that my shelves are protected and I don't have to worry about dripping glaze on my shelves.Looks much better - now it's ready to apply new batwash.You'll find that as soon as you put the brush on your shelves,
the substance will get sucked into the shelves.
Apply in the same direction and let it dry.
That's why I do this outside when it's sunny.When it's dry, apply another layer in the opposite direction.
Two layers will do fine unless you want to be absolutely sure, apply another one. And look how clean my shelves are now...

All ready for many new firings - yeah! :)

Weekly happy stats

Things that made me happy last week:

• The fruitblossoms in the area
• Sanding outside in the sun
• Going to the movies
• Getting featured in a Bridal magazine
• Catching up with doing nothing
  

image via ArtMind

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Some blogs that I love...

/ / Between the lines / /

Handmade charlotte

Tokketok

And if you have a 30 seconds to spare: flip through five and pause at 20 seconds!
I'm REALLY excited about this! :)

My creative space

My kiln shelves need a new batwash and I prefer doing this outside, when the sun shines so that it can dry naturally. I'll be making a tutorial for this and will share the recipe of how to make your own batwash. Keep an eye on my blog on sunday.
I love being outside nowadays and sneek out whenever I can.

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun!