The fun is in the making

While turning these wonderful fabric yarn balls above into a small basket I discovered something about myself. For me the greatest fun is in the making. It doesn't matter if it's crafts or cooking or even office work or breastfeeding. The greatest satisfaction for me is the process of figuring things out, how they work, why they work and how to improve them. You see when I wrote breastfeeding up there, I didn't mean it to sound like producing milk is super fun to me, but when I got hooked on the awesomeness of breastfeeding I wanted to know the hows and whys and I learned every bit I could find about it. If you are a new mom interested in breastfeeding and you ask me, you'll get a bio-chemistry lesson on the amazing world of lactoferrin and friends. I love to discover and learn and figure out how stuff works. That's true for sewing projects as well as science. But back to yarn balls from recycled t-shirts. I came across a bunch of shirts in my stash that had some prints and stains on them and I almost threw them out in a moment of spring cleaning, because I had forgotten why in the world I kept those. But thank goodness I didn't throw them in the trash right away because that is what some of them have become...

A scrappy fabric basket. And let me just tell you, it didn't involve any sewing or crochet... I pinned some rag rugs and baskets a while back, but I really didn't like the idea of monotonous hand sewing of long braided chains, and actually I preferred the look of crochet baskets anyways, but me and the hook never became friends. So I had some fun figuring out a way to make a basket that doesn't need any sewing or crocheting or complicated weaving... and no tools either other than a pair of scissors and a totally optional safety pin.

So watch out guys, I had some fun figuring this project out and I got some more ideas and variations in the works... tutorial coming soon.

French Memo Board

I found another use for my beautiful apple fabric that just makes me happy when I look at it: a French memo board for my kitchen. I used an old canvas, sewed two pieces of fabric together, stapled them on and added some ribbon. I hand sewed some buttons on and that's almost it... Now I finally have a place to put some of our pretty postcards and wedding invitations.
 

apples, gingham and big buttons, what more could one want?

The canvas I had sitting around was quite large, so I decided to divide it up a bit and add some handy features on the bottom part that are not typically included in the French memo board.... like a "clothes line" to hold some note pad or take out menus and stuff like that. It's just a piece of ribbon with some clothes pins on it. I stitched it through the cover fabric and canvas with  a large needle and tied a knot on each side of the line on the back of the canvas.

the "clothes line"

I also sewed two pockets on the gingham fabric efore stapling it to the frame, one I left as it is to hold some note paper and one I divided up in smaller sections to hold pens and scissors.

some pockets sewn on to hold pens and scissors

 And that's it - my new French memo board.

French memo board with some handy organizing features...



FREDERIKA

Source: ikea.com via Lydia on Pinterest

This is Frederika, she is Swedish, and she lives all around the world in IKEA. When I first met her, I loved her right away, she's so cheerful and happy and colorful. I had to take her home. And I did. I sewed up every little piece of her, I couldn't let the tiniest strip go to waste. From only 2 meters she gave us tons of pillow joy.

This is a large cover that is stuffed with 3 old couch back pillows.

It has an opening on the side so I can take it off for washing. It's basically made like a regular pillowcase, just with the opening on the long side, and than divided into 3 equal parts.

with the leftovers I made 2 cushions for little chairs...

I love how the large print works on the little square.

and the leftovers from that became little pillows - I mean doll size.

I like how the round one turned out. And some members of the family love the pillow fight quality of these.

My creative corner

i rescued this chair from the streets and gave it a new life...

...and made a matching sewing machine cover

it's a mixture of some of my favorite fabrics and colors

like some apple?

or a little strawberry?

i like the fresh look of my corner. and i have to do something about this pampers box. it holds a ton of stuffing...

7 happy things.

1. shadows on our ceiling

2. a gift for a toddler friend...


3. and what's in it... tea time! (yeah to having time for crafts!)


4. great stripes for little money in homecenter




5. a cup of wine with my dear husband, best friend and lover!


6. watching all 4 Pirates movies in 2 weeks and humming the melodies of the awesome music in it for days (no more pirates for one year at least!)


7. getting soaking wet from the rain on a summer day. in israel. it's a miracle!
no picture though :(

a new life.

we moved house last week. that was one month earlier than expected and it went by like a storm. I had started packing 2 months ago, but that went as far as 5 boxes of books and that was about it. than 2 weeks ago we found the perfect new apartment for the perfect rent! and within a week we moved. packing up like a freak with an ever unpacking toddler, who carried random items to random places and kept hiding things in empty boxes or trash bins... I felt lost. I didn't know where anything was anymore in 2 houses. that was when we already started moving the packed stuff and still living in the old place. terrible 5 days of transition. I almost couldn't bear it. but "tap on my shoulder *blink" this resulted in a unstopable unpacking energy. the house was set up within 48 hours after moving in. I am still in shock. to keep it real: there are no curtains up or pictures on the walls due to the fact that my husband is on a 3-day conference. I love the thrill of the drill but alone with a kid that gets scared from a vacuum cleaner I don't think that would be all that great of a plan. so what else to do other than blogging farewell to the old house? that's where we lived for the last 3 years...