This kind of day...

It has been the kind of day to put on rainboots and stomp about in the puddles!
Yeah, it's great to be a kid! :)

Special day in sight

In about a week, we're celebrating a very special day: Julie's first birthday.
I can't believe how quick the year passed by. When I look back on it, my heart just swells. I can't imagine life without our little sunshine anymore. She's such a happy face that loves to give and get cuddles. This may sound cliché but nothing beats the moment when you wake up in the morning and see this tiny, little creature laying next to you waking up silently. And the moment when she opens her eyes you see instant smiles and misschief. The past year, she turned our lives upside down and gave it more meaning. Yet another cliché. Perhaps life with children is all about clichés? Haha!

Anyway, I decided to make here a little outfit for her first birthday. I used an extremely pretty piece of fabric made by my good friend Anna. And I made a matching crown to complete it.
We're ready to celebrate! :)

Back in the studio

Last Tuesday I started working again in my part-time job so I thought it was about time to set up my studio again too. The maternity leave passed by superquick and I thoroughy enjoyed every minute of it. The past months, I had lots of broken nights (and I still have) and busy days that I spent with baby Julie. We get to know each other so much better and every day we have new adventures ahead of us.
The good thing about working at home part-time is that I don't have to miss out too much on seeing our little girl grow up. I'm very happy about that as she grows superfast like all kids do I suppose.

Anyway, I started out with some porcelain work as that doesn't take up too much space on my table so there is still place for Julie and her play blanket & baby gym. It makes the transition to 'back to work' a little easier... :)

Part of something bigger - volume 2

Remember that I told you about lots of surprises for Julie in the mail and that is was part of something bigger?
Well, the mailbox got more of those and I'd love to share 'em with you. I still have not put together the entire poem as some words are still missing but I'm getting there. All of the gifts have a hanging tag and it will look so pretty when I will assemble the mobile. As soon as it's ready I will show you!
Anyway, here are some more words that came in the mail...

 Judit from Vadjutka (Hungary) send two times the word 'een' (means: a).

Anna from 'the house of mouse' (the Netherlands) send Julie the cutest sleep mouse. The mouse is holding the word 'slaap' (means: sleep).

Annemiek from TwoTreesWorld (the Netherlands) delivered her gifts in person. So nice to catch up with her. She made the words 'slaap' in the form of a flying porcelain sheep - cute! (means: sleep) and 'van' (means: of)

Anna Denise from The yellow umbrella (Belgium) drew something mighty cute - I love her drawings! Her word says 'reuzeke' (means: small giant)

Caro from Honoriginal (the Netherlands) made a supertiny & pretty book and a paper cloud with the word 'doe' (means: do)

Stephanie from PetitPlat (France) proves here that she can not only make tiny things, haha, she made a giant pea pod with the word 'reus' (means: giant)

Elles from Misusu (United States) send two intricately made patchwork pieces (amazing) with the words 'een' (means: a) and 'doos' (means: box)

Marijke from Sweet and simple stuff (the Netherlands) send a very soft and cute crocheted babushka with the word 'dicht' (means: closed)

And Kim from Viltalakim (the Netherlands) came to deliver her gift in person too. A cute felted heart with the word 'roos' (means: rose) and she also gave me a few tips regarding the poem.
Like that I was still missing about 8 words and that the poem consisted out of 8 lines.
Thanks Kim for clearing a few things up for me. I suppose that I'll be keeping an eye on my mailbox a bit more and hope that the mystery will be revealed soon.
Thanks so much everyone! You can't imagine how curious I am to see the end result! :)

Oh, and for those wanting to see how much Julie has grown, you can subscribe to my newsletter because I add images from her in there. We are a bit hesitant to post images of her on the world wide web...

Part of something bigger - volume 1

Last Friday, I received a package from Ama from Miss Minoes. I was very surprised and thought it was very sweet of her to send wishes and a gift for Julie. It was a text balloon that was made with wire and yarn. There was a word in the middle & I didn't really know what it meant but she wrote that the word 'als' meant dreams and fantasy but also that it was part of something bigger...

A bit mysterious to me and I actually searched the net to find if there was a meaning of the word 'als' but couldn't find anything really. So I let it go and reckoned that what Ama said would be true and I was happy with the pretty text balloon.

Today, the postman rang and delivered many packages from all over Europe. All from people that I know via Etsy. Hmm, I was very surprised and started with opening the envelopes from Austria. Baa from Baahar and Renate from Kreativlink send me the following: (the words mean 'a')

Then I opened a package from Belgium from Sandra from Zsazsazsu. The word on the hanger is 'small rose' accompagnied with rose petals and a beautiful, tiny, crocheted rose.

 

There was also a package from Germany from Ella from P8buttonart. It was a hanger made with buttons and the word says 'door'

Swee from Swiedebie (Netherlands) send two beautiful hearts and the words on there are 'as' and 'the'...

 

Inger from Ingermaaike send a mobile with a felted tree all the way from  Norway and the word 'as' was embroidered onto it.

Up until now I don't have a clue what all these words are trying to say but I suspect that there are more words on the way to complete it. After all, they seem to be part of something bigger...
I can't wait for the postman tommorrow. Thank you all for the sweet & very unexpected surprise for Julie!!

Art journaling

For years and years I've been frustrated that I can't draw properly. At least, that's what I tell myself. Of course I can draw but I don't think it looks really good. It doesn't look like all the artists that I admire in their drawings. But then, each has his/her own talent, right?
When I have an idea, I do see images in my head on how it should look but to transfer 'em onto paper is another thing.

I remember when I was in art school, the teacher insisted that I would draw my idea onto paper even though she already understood my idea while I was explaining what I was going to do/make. She said: 'if you can put it on paper, you can make it'  Hard work for me but it somehow forced me to pick up a pencil and draw...

I love seeing people's sketchbooks and art journals and I wish I had one of my own.
I must say that I often attempted to draw something and I have sketchbooks laying around with only one drawing in them. I always give up somehow.

I started another one, and I have a feeling that I will keep up with it as I want to do this for our daughter Julie. I plan to write & draw stuff about her and her little adventures that she will most definitely have. It's a challenge for me and I will have to learn to be satisfied by the fact that my drawings are not quite as they are in my head... but I still want to capture all these precious moments so I think it's worth it!

Do you keep a journal or have you attempted art journaling?

Welcome to the world little wonder!

Julie came into this world on Tuesday, 31th of July at 2:26pm.
She weighs 2760grams and measures 48cm.
Our hearts are bursting of LOVE.
Delivery was induced, without epidural, painful but reasonably quick (6 hours of labor).
We're over the moon with our little wonder!
I'm having troubles uploading an image of her on our Ipad but will soon show you how pretty she is!
Just didn't want to keep you in suspense any longer...

'till soon!
XO
Mitsy

37 weeks

The belly is getting big and as you can see, I'm counting the days... 21 more if our baby decides to come on the due date. YAY!
My absence on this blog will continue for a while I'm afraid. I'm trying to rest up as much as I can and focus on the next chapter in our lives and therefor I just have to put some things on hold.

Big hug

The other day, Nathalie from Pot en Papaver, pinned a fun idea on Pinterest that I just needed to make. My niece, Anne, (14) is on summercamp and loves to receive snail mail. But I usually don't just send a card or letter but always try to surprise her with something fun or silly. So when I saw the idea on Pinterest, I made my own  interpretation of it. I sewed a 'Big hug' scarf and added padded hands on the end. I hope she will love it! :)

Today I'm 30 days away from my due date but secretly I hope that our baby will arrive a slight bit earlier - just can't wait to meet, greet & cuddle. And really, for those who say 'enjoy your pregnancy while it lasts, you'll miss it once the baby is born'. Well, I can tell you that this last month is not exactly enjoyable for me so I rather have it over and done with. ;)
Unless you are willing to take over my numb hands, elephant feet and heartburn... But I shouldn't complain since these are really the only complaints I had during my entire pregnancy - I feel blessed!

Traditions

There is this tradition in Belgium that when you give birth, you have little gifts to give to the people who come to visit the newborn. It's usually a little box, jar or bag filled with chocolate covered beans. Beans stand for fertility and new life and this tradition dates far back in time as the Romans already used to hand 'em out but back then it were beans covered with honey.

Anyway, you can buy these gifts in many shops or make 'em yourself. As a maker of course, we make it ourselves. Obviously, you think there is about 9 months time to do so but really, in the beginning we didn't make it as things are still so uncertain, then halfway, the idea came to life but then you think: 'ahh, plenty of time' until about 2 weeks ago we realised things were going really fast. My partner made his share of the gifts. I made some samples but the mould I made didn't work properly so I had to make new moulds and they took a long time to dry. A bit stressful as I thought they would never be ready in time. But now all is in the kiln ready to be fired. I'm just finishing the name labels to hang on the gifts.

We've had a hard time choosing a name but we finally decided and since my partner doesn't know the gender, we have a boys and a girls name of course.  I'm glad I know the gender so that I don't have to make 2 type of name tags as they are quite a bit of work. :)

If you care to take a guess on the gender... :)

Growing a tiny human being...

As you noticed, I'm not able to keep up with blogging right now. There are so many things to wrap my head around at the moment, that for now I try to enjoy what's keeping me busy. Most of it is preparing for our little one that is arriving in August.
Besides that, my energy levels dropped quite a bit too in this third trimester. This results in taking it easy and letting my body work on the little human inside by taking lots of rest and putting up my feet.

Creating a little person does take lots of energy I suppose...

 

image by paigewatkins

I'm 33,5 weeks pregnant right now and I'm holding up quite some water which makes that I have very little feeling in my hands. This is really weird 'cause I can't make things as I used to do. My hands are a bit swollen and they hurt, just as my feet. I'm keeping a close watch on my bloodpressure too since I do not want to be faced with eclampsia. So hopefully you understand that right now, my priorities are at a completely different level. I do miss being creative and making/sharing things but I keep telling myself it's for a very, very good cause...

Troops

The troops have arrived in our home for some small renovations. We have this really cool 'hole' in our kitchen. In French it's called a 'vide' and it connects the kitchen with my former studio/ shipping room. To get to the 'vide', you have to climb a ladder and our cat loves it as she uses it as a scratching pole. So cute too to see her go up and down the ladder.
Since our family is going to expand, we need to close the 'vide' to make it child safe. Besides that, my former studio/shipping room will become the nursery now so it's time to say goodbye to the 'hole'. We loved the 'vide' for all the years that we lived in this house, it made it fun and different and we're all a bit sad it has to go. Especially our cat of course, she needs to find another place to scratch her paws Hope it won't be our couch or curtains.
But, we'll be getting an extra room plus a baby to fill it so I'm sure we'll easily forget the vide once he or she is here...

Seeing UFO's

I went supply shopping the other day and I couldn't resist buying more cotton yarn. And of course, I didn't know what colors I still had at home so I just picked some out randomly. When I got back home, I wanted to put my yarn away and saw that I still had SO many. Haha, I feel like a yarn hoarder now.
But it made me so happy to see all the colors and I came across an UFO (unfinished object) that I thought would be a good one to finish now.I started making these granny squares in November 2009 and somewhere along the way, I must have gotten bored of it and put it aside. All with untucked ends - yikes!But now I nearly finished tucking in all the ends and need to crochet a few more squares before I can finish the blanket. I can't wait to get back to my crochet hook and hopefully it will be finished by August so it can be a pretty heirloom for our baby.

1 + 1 = 3

1 + 1 = 3

I have some wonderful news to share with you all. It's been the hardest not to tell so I can't express how delighted I feel to finally spill the beans.
My partner and I are expecting a baby in August!
A summer child born in the year of the dragon! Can it get any happier? :)
We are without saying thrilled and can't wait to hold the little one in our arms.
Now you also know the reason why it's been a bit quiet on my blog lately: lots of energy went to the little us in my belly. The first trimester went smoothly and I'm feeling good and most of all very, very happy.
My blog does not really focus on my personal life but I just wanted to share our happy news with all you lovelies!

Happy weekend to you all!

Much love,
Mitsy

Slipper(y) sewing

A while back, I found a fab tutorial of Heather Baileys on the world wide web and I thought I could perfectly adjust it to my size. So I enlarged the pattern and it looked like this.I decided that I wanted an anti-slip sole so I used anti-slip material for the sole and soft towel fabric (don't know the word in English) for the inside.
Then I put my foot on it to see it doesn't work like this. I'm not blond but I just don't have cute little babyfeet... A whopping 39 (US size 9) is what I have so it didn't really work out the way it was in my head! LOL
But how cosy do they really look? I love 'em and I really wish I could find a fun pattern to sew my own slippers. These small Itty bitty booties will be for a special baby...So if you know any good slipper patterns that use fleece or other soft fabric, please don't hesitate to share as I really want to sew my own slippers. And who knows, perhaps I even make you a pair too! :)

Little babyfeet

Last week, we received the happy news that my partner's sister is going to have a baby in fall.
Of course I immediately started searching Ravelry for baby crocheting patterns. I wanted to make baby booties but didn't really find what I was looking for. So, I just tweaked the pattern of Mamachee a bit. I did break some crocheting rules perhaps but I think they turned out cute enough for little baby feet! :)