Weekly happy stats

Things that made me happy last week:

• My nieces who decided to change my hairdo.
  
• Fresh flowers from the garden
• Cooler weather
• Enthusiast guest bloggers (hopefully still after they read the how-to-blog @ ArtMind)
  

Random happy pic by Attic 24

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

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.The question this time was: How much, if at all, does your geographical location affect your art/craft.

To tell you the truth, I don't know really. In Belgium, kids start school usually at 2,5 years old. It's not obliged until 5 years old but most kids go to school that young. So I was cutting, drawing, glueing and shaping stuff at a fairly young age as that's what you do a lot at pre-school.
After that, in my free time, I went to children's art school one day a week until I was about 12 years old. As a teenager, I remember I loved art classes at school most but somehow I got distracted with teenager stuff back then. But I kept on cutting, drawing, glueing and shaping stuff up until now.I suppose that being given the opportunity to be able to do all this crafty stuff as a kid has affected me to who I am now. I strongly believe in the fact that if you are given the tools, ability will grow on you. A bit of talent may help too though. The fact that I was encouraged to be creative made a big difference too.
So I feel lucky and grateful to have been born in Belgium where all the tools for a creative life are available at a very young age.
I wish this would be balanced a bit more throughout all parts of the world...

Kerrin's (Sigmosaics) kiddies at play by ArtMind

Want to know what the other merriers think about this theme? Hop over to their blogs. 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

Today I have a lot of computer work to do. It's always risky as I tend to dwell off to more interesting places like Twitter, Etsy or my blogger Dashboard.
But stuff needs to get done so I better not dwell today.
Note that I'm an avid Azerty-typer. My partner is Dutch and has a Qwerty-keyboard which totally freaks me out if I have to type on it.
Are you a Qwerty or Azerty-type(r)? :)

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

Wanted: guest bloggers

image via Amber & Adolph

I try to blog daily. I like blogging. No doubt about that.
You wonder why?
The fact that the things that keep me busy on a daily basis, are all in one place.
A place where I can 'keep' stuff and 'share' stuff.
A place where everyone is welcome.
Even without knocking.

Blogging has been a learning curve.
I've learned to enjoy making pictures and stories to share.
I've learned that sharing gives joy.
I've learned that joy makes me look at things from a different angle.
I love to look at things from a different angle.

image via clumsy bird

I also love the support from all of you who read this blog.
I appreciate the comments, opinions and feedback.
Be it anonymous or not.
I feel good vibes coming from this place.
It makes me jippety jappety happy.
It would not be the same without those vibes and they are coming from you so, thank you!

I sometimes wonder what this blog would look like if it was written by my readers.
I'd like to know so let's try, OK?
If you are interested in writing a guest blog post, please contact me via e-mail: mitsy@artmind.eu
I'll send you an invite and some guidelines to 'blog@ArtMind' so you can prepare your post.
I'll copy/paste it in my blog on the next 'free' blog day.
I'm not setting a certain 'guest-blog-day'.
Just whenever someone feels like sharing something.
'cause nothing beats an unexpected surprise.

image via Littleputbooks

I'm open to any ideas.
Be it an image you want to share.
Or perhaps something crafty you're working on.
A recipe that you think everyone should try.
Your worst nightmare.
Your favorite poem.
Your most cherished book.
Or just random, happy thoughts.

I'm so excited about this.
I hope you are too.

Note about the guestblogging after reading the comments and feedback:
The idea is to try and post one guest post per week, sometimes two, depending on my own blogging schedule.
I have no means of letting this blog become a guest bloggers-blog.
I will continue posting my own work in progress, flickr favorites, my creative space, crochet doodles, merry-go-round-posts, happy stats,...
I merely want to give readers a chance to post something they would like to share on here.
So, on a blog day, that I have not planned a post, I'll post a guest post.
I'd like to give back to the blogging community as I have received so much from it.
I hope this works and that you will all enjoy reading what the guest-blogger 'on duty' comes up with.
I'm sure you will get to know a lot of awesome people this way.
That's a promise!

Flickr Favorites

1. waiting for the wind, 2. note to self #8,
3. Tuesday morning, scripted, 4. Guarding the past

When I saw the picture of the macro dandelion, I knew I wanted to built a mosaic around it. Everything is perfect about this picture.
I love it. I think dandelions are great.
And nothing beats the art of nice handwriting, a talent that I do not posess so I greatly admire it.

Next week is a themed mosaic week. So if you care to play by theme take your favorite destination and built your mosaic around it.

Last weeks favorite mosaic brought back lovely childhood memories. :)

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)...

Happy package

First of all: thanks so much to all the people who send me a pimped feeling postcard. I love 'em all & I'm so happy that lots of people voted for their favorite.
And jip, we have a winner...

And this is the winning card:Congrats Veerle from Nevousinstallezpas!
An ArtMind happy package will be send to your address soon! :)

Second, I also received a happy package last week. Nicole from Babongohome send me this beautifully wrapped gift.
She somehow knew I was in need of a pincushion as I'm a beginning sewer, so she designed one especially for me.
She added a lovely, handmade porcelain button made at my Etsy craftparty. YAY!
So happy to see all the finished products with the things made at the craftparty. :)
It beautiful isn't it? Thank you, Nicole!

Granny chic

Still working on the granny chic project...
I think I will actually finish this one before the summer ends.

Weekly happy stats

Things that made me happy last week:

• This inspiring quote on a fun blog (sorry it's Dutch)
  
• Seeing the progress on the EST granny square blanket (thank you, Baahar!)
• Crocheting my heart out
• a visit to IKEA with a friend
  
• Surprise packages in the mailbox! Thank you Sandra & Nicole! :)
  

Random happy pic by Ben Heine

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Note to self

Do you write notes to yourself? I hardly ever do because I dislike my handwriting, even if it's in capitals. But I think I should start doing it as nothing beats a little reflection to keep sane...

My creative space

The past few days I have been doing preparation work in the feeling factory. I made bases for my feelings and smoothened them out. Now the fun part begins: making an actual feeling from it. I always have a list of feelings to make and I always start with the easiest ones...
Do you do that too? The easy jobs first? Sometimes I think I should do it the other way around as by the time I'm starting on the last ones and I think it's nearly done, it always takes me forever...

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

Typical Belgian

It's Belgium's independence day today.
Time to treat you some of Belgium bestest...

Rain

Taalstrijd (battle of languages)

Pensenkermis (public eat party's)

Fries

Roadworks

Beer

Eddy Wally

Chocolate

Hellend vlak van Ronquières

Waffle

Manneken pis

You're probably sorry you're missing out on a few of these...
I bet I can count on one hand which ones those are...

Flickr Favorites

1. Keri 2. Crikey O'Blimey

I like this quote.
I like fluffy clouds.
I think we should be in stand by from time to time.
I think we should look at the clouds pass by.

My favorite mosaic from last week contained some lovely links... you must check it out! :)

Oh, and it's the last few days you can vote for your favorite pimped card. Please do so if you haven't already - I like to shake up the poll to make it exciting. :)

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)...

Hungarian relative?

What a fun surprise when Judit from Vadjutka send me this picture. Apparently she found my cousin in Hungary! I didn't know I had relatives there and they only need to work a little on the color scheme of their sign! ;)
If you ever see other ArtMind signs, don't hesitate to send me a picture! :)

Party incognito

My 2 nieces and 2 nephews are on summercamp. They love to get mail while they are there so I always try to send 'em something. I never send them a regular letter but always try to think of something fun. This year I found inspiration at Tara's blog. Tara, also known as Mamachee, is my crochet teacher in Alaska. Jip, weird but true. She taught me how to do it when I made my first pair of slippers.

Anyway, Tara has a fun blog called 'easymakesmehappy' and that is exactly what it does to me: it makes me happy! A while ago she posted a PDF-file on mustaches and I made one the other day to take to a party and it was a big hit.
I decided to make a party-pack with lots of party stuff and I included a mustache for my nieces and nephews. I hope they will love it & will move about incognito at the summercamp! :) Give it a try, it's really fun to make!

Weekly happy stats

Things that made me happy last week:

• Camping and spending time with friends
  
• Learning something new
  
• Reaching 700 Etsy sales
  
• Relaxing in general
• Eating fresh vegetables from the garden

Random happy pic by bart

Happy weekend, everyone! :)

Surprise...

... packages are the best!
When I openend my mailbox last monday, I found this lovely package from Veerle from Nevousinstallezpas in there.
It was the box I wrapped the beads in she made at my craftparty so I was surprised to see it back. I loved the card with the poem that accompanied the box.

Een pakje met de post

Iemand heel ver hier vandaanheeft aan mij gedacht:
heeft iets in een doos gedaan ,
naar de post gebracht.

De doos is met de trein gegaan,
de trein ging door de nacht
en vanmorgen kwam het aan.
Wie had dat gedacht?

Willem Wilmink

Sorry, I can't translate it as it will loose a lot of it's charm in English.
I find poetry very hard to translate as my knowledge of the English language is not large enough to use words like poets do...

The package contained a lovely key holder made out of extraordinary crochet work and porcelain beads that she made at my craft party. The crochetting is done so fine and is just amazingly beautiful! I feel spoiled!
Thank you, Veerle! :)

My creative space

A little while ago I've been asked to make some special porcelain beads. So today I'm taking out the porcelain and decided to experiment a bit. It has been a while since I've been experimenting. I'm determined to work with thread and I'm dipping it into porcelain slib and twist it around paper beads. Don't know where this will lead me and if it will work out but that's why it's called 'experiment'... I also have a few other ideas I want to give a try and it's heaps of fun to experiment!

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

Sewing: my first garment

Apart from sewing the drawstring bags for my baking pearls, I never did any previous sewing. I only recently bought my sewing machine and the lady in the shop where I bought it told me to practise sewing on paper.
But being me, I just dive into it and decided to make a garment.
A bit ambitious perhaps? Well, so be it!
Anyway, I got me a pattern and decided to give it a go. It took me an entire afternoon and evening to finish it but I did it. It is not perfect at all but I'm so proud that I finished it. This is the pattern that I chose to make:I should have taken an easier pattern to start off with but little did I know. And when fitting it on while making it, I felt choked by the high cut of the dress so I made adjustments to suit my taste. I made a lower cut and decided to adjust a bit of the sleeves too. Of course that takes away all of the charm of the '60's dress but do I care? Nope! It's too freakin' hot for sleeves anyway! :)
And I'm not a model, so posing is really hard for me... but I tried and felt most confident doing it headless! LOL Thank you too for all the opinions on what I should make out of the fabric I showed a while ago. Since I made a dress, I'll be making a skirt soon - I think I like sewing even though it is taking me forever and I still have to learn loads! :)

Flickr Favorites

1. Japanese Paper Flower, 2. Rich Paper,
3. Foaming YUZEN (Japanese Paper), 4. japanese paper

First of all, thanks so much for all the themed quote mosaics from last week. It was so fab to see what you all came up with and all of them were awesome. I also feel wiser now. :)
I had a very hard time choosing a favorite one. So I cheated and chose two...
One is a quote I need to frame, the other one made me laugh out loud! :)

I typed 'Japanese paper' as a search tag in Flickr this week. I love paper. I wish I had more time to play with it. The colors and patterns on Japanese paper are divine. It makes me happy just looking at the pictures...

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)...

Weekend impressions