The secret Easter Bunny is very active...

This is the fifth and last part of the series of questions I asked the European Streetteam Participants on the Secret Easter Bunny swap.
The question this time was: which sports or activities you participate in?

It seems that lots of people have time to do sports beside being creative. These are the kind of sports that they participate in:

• running/jogging
• cycling / mountain bike
• walking/trekking/hiking
• fishing
• swimming
• diving
• fitness
• ice-swimming (Waaaaahhh, that must be freakin' cold)
• skiing
• horse-riding
• roller-skate in summer
• bathing + exercising in swimming pool
• badminton
• aerobics
• spinning
• pilates
• salsa/dancing
• Yoga (different kinds)
  

And of course, some people don't do sports and reacted kind of funny. There are also people who listed other activities that they do and might interest you:

• I’m lazy…
• I'm not a sport type...
  
• LOL...sewing is a sport???
• not yet, just planning too.....
• Window shopping is my main form of getting exercise
• art galleries, meeting friends
• Does WII Tennis count?
  
• Sometimes I join to charities by crocheted/knitted items
• being in nature
• going into the fields looking for fossils and dinossaurs
  
• craft making sessions

Cute pouches

Last week, I saw this pouch in Heli'S blog. I couldn't wait for her to list it so I could grab it. :)
Since I started crocheting, I gathered some hooks and needed a pouch so I would not lose them. I looked up patterns for crochet hook cases but I just don't seem to have the time to crochet right now. This is just the perfect pouch for my hooks! :)
It's so cute & well made that I will have lots and lots of pleasure of it once I have more time to crochet again. Heli also added a beautiful card of one of her handmade paintings.
Ohh, and when I looked inside the pouch...
I found a tiny handmade envelope-pouch.
With a beautiful handpainted dogbrooch inside.
Look at the teeny tiny sweet note Heli wrote!
Thank you so much, Heli, I love my new dog!! :)

While I'm very happy with this new pouch, I'm saving up for one of Heli's bags. I know what I want and I want her to custom make one for me... Her bags are superunique, different and fun!
Heli has a wonderful blog and every friday, she invites an artist to share their day with all her readers. I love the 'friday is my day'-posts among many others she writes.

Talk about pouches... look what arrived yesterday:
Another pouch, just for my measuring tape, scissors, needles and... yummy Italian chocolate to treat myself when I'm done with a crocheting project!
Dany from Happybee sent it to me, just because...
I love the precious embroidery of bicycles she made on the linen! She did it with her embroidery machine - that must be a great toy! The colors are so happy and fun that it just makes me smile! I'll be using it with lots of pleasure. Thank you Dany, I love your sweet gift! :)
Dany has been a bit naughty though as one of the rules of the secret Easter Bunny swap was not to sent me anything. So, she gets a punishment of course...
Dany, you must handembroider this line: 'I promise that next time I will read the rules of the swap game properly and I will not sent the organiser anything'
Now, that will keep her on the right track! ;)

My creative space

After two times firing the kiln, these mini feelings need to be re-made. Only 9 out of 99 is not bad I think. They look OK but they are not. What's wrong with them?
For the first three on the left, I used a different kind of clay because it has less chamotte in it so it would be easier to use the clay gun or carve into it. Apparently, the colordifference is huge.
I fired the blue one too high so it has 'bubbles' on them. I like it but it's not how it's supposed to be.
The 'woman'-like mini feeling lost a nipple while sanding - ouch!
The divided feeling didn't dry evenly so it's a bit crooked.
The invincable dragon lost it's tail before firing.
The empty feeling dried a bit crooked too.
And the feeling on the worktable is loosing it's bubbles 'cause I didn't attach them properly when making it.
So, actually only one firing-mishap (blue one) and all the others are just mistakes I made 'cause I'm only human...

If you like to play along and show your creative space, hop over to Kotooyoo and play! It's fun! :)

Five addictions & blog award

I have been tagged by GretchenMist to share 5 of my addictions.
Hmm, I never thought about being addicted really...
Being addicted for me means getting all nervous and anxious about not having something.
So I think I'm addicted to these:

My laptop - everyday addiction

Salty crisps - addiction
Want to eat them everyday, but I don't! Clay - everyday addiction
Luckily I don't have to dig it out of the river!

Mail - everyday addiction
I love snail mail so getting a postcard or a letter can just really make my day! :)

And I was lucky today...
I received this beautiful vintage postcard from Vadjutka
Thank you Judit, you made me smile!!! :)

Babuschka's - everyday addiction

It wasn't like that before but now, they seem to rule my life! :)

Now I am supposed to tag 5 other people to share their addictions.
But I won't do that! If you read this and want to share, please do so.
Leave a comment in this post that you did and I'll come and check out your addictions 'cause I'm curious that way! :)

Yippeee, I got this award from 21! Thank you so much! :)
I love so many blogs that I find it hard to tag a few in particular. Sometimes I wish I had more time to read all the blogs I love more often...
So, if I don't visit regularly, it doesn't mean I don't love your blog, it's just I haven't found the place where they sell time yet! ;)

And today's work in progress... sanding - SOOOOO boring!

How to make a stamp?

For my packaging, I needed a Babuschka stamp so I decided to make one myself.
I'm not really an expert on lino cutting and stamp making but since I needed it fast, I gave it a try. This is what you need:
a lino cutting set, a pencil, a drawing, a sharpie marker, ink and a gum.
Trace the drawing with a pencil.
Turn around the drawing and rub the drwing onto the gum.
This is how it looks after rubbing it.
Trace the outline with a sharpie marker.
Cut away all the gum besides the black outlines.
This is how it looks when the outside is done.
This is how it looks when the inside is done.
Put some ink on the stamp.
Press the stamp onto the paper.
Now you can clearly see that the stamp needs to be cut some more. All the black marks can be cut away.
You can use either the lino cutters for this or a little scalpel knife.
Repeat the process of stamping again to see if it looks better after cutting away some more gum.
After the second time, I cut away a bit more... and now I'm satisfied.Stamp a design on a piece of wood and cut it out with a saw. Glue the stamp onto the wood.
Now I can use it for my packaging. I went out to buy packaging material yesterday.
I'm nearly all set for my mini feelings to fly out into the world...

After...

Had to wait really long to open the kiln. A ceramist has to be really patient, and normally I am but this time it was really really hard.
A few accidents that happened before firing didn't come out right. The feeling invincable lost part of his tail before it went in the kiln and I fixed it but it didn't stay.
I fired the feelings quite high for durability and didn't realise the blue engobe could not stand that high temperature so I'll be re-making those two feelings for sure.
Just very, very relieved there was no explosions or damage to any of them.
I'm a happy girl now... :)

Thanks...

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