Sewing on Saturday: Workshop celebrating the launch of "Naaien & Stikken"

Do you have them? Those days that are packed with those favourite things like sewing, having coffees, laughing out loud and learning something new all in the same day? A day you just wish does not end. Last Saturday was a day just like it!

I was invited by publisher De Fontein|Tirion to join a workshop together with 14 other bloggers to celebrate the launch of a new book called "Naaien & Stikken". It is the Dutch translation of that wonderful book accompanying the even more fun BBC series "The Great British Sewing Bee". The new series started last Tuesday, 9.00 pm, and I enjoy watching it so much!

But back to Saturday. The workshop took place at Texielstad in Tilburg. It was like walking into a candy store, so many lovely fabrics, pure happiness! And not only do they sell fabric, also every accessory you will need, zippers, buttons, thread, needles and complete sewing machines.

We could all make something out of "Naaien & Stikken". Most of us made aprons, which was so much fun! And I even brought my own sewing machine, so I could get started immediately.

I learnt a lot and enjoyed meeting the women behind several of the blogs I like to find inspiration such as the one of my friend Maaike from creJJtion. Also the ladies behind some of the web shops I go to, to buy my fabrics and haberdashery like VanMarieke and SewNatural were there. It was like meeting someone you already know, I so love how that works. And to my surprise several of them said that they have read my blog or follow me on Instagram, yay!

At the end of the afternoon we all finished our projects and everyone really loved the results! 

I will post more on the book in a few days, including a more elaborate show & tell of the apron I made. If you want to have a look at "Naaien & Stikken" click here. I can definitely recommend it, even if you don't sew, because the pictures in it are so beautiful!

Thanks again so much to the De Fontein|Tirion team for inviting me. Hope to see you soon!

Xoxo, Maartje

Makes and Bakes for a little girls third birthday!

This weekend was one big celebration. Our little girl L turned 3! Oh how time does go by so fast. It feels like only yesterday when she was born! 

On Saturday we had her birthday party. Our house filled up with family, friends and lots of children and she enjoyed it all so much! My mom baked her famous apple pie, especially requested by our girl. And I did some baking and made her a birthday cake which was delicious and I totally forgot to take pictures of it ~oops~. It was a delicious recipe and I will absolutely bake it another time (and remember to take pictures). To give you an idea, I will try to describe it for you. I started with a biscuit base, cut it into two slices and I filled it with raspberry jelly and butter cream, a red fondant topping and some whipped cream. Hope you can picture it in your minds eye ~smile~.

After a good night's sleep it was time for some Makes and Bakes! Our girl was celebrating her birthday at daycare on Monday, so something had to be made for that.
L really wanted me to Bake Carrot Cupcakes. I had never made them before so after some online studying, I decided to use a straight forward recipe. It basically was just 240 grams of flour, 240 grams of sugar, 200 ml of sunflower oil, 300 grams of finely grated carrots, 2 tsp of cinnamon, 3 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.

I gave it a "Bakes by Maartje" twist by using self raising flour and leaving out the baking powder. And instead of using regular sugar, I used dark brown sugar. And I must say, they turned out to be delicious! I packed them into lovely boxes from Hema and that was that!

And then it was time to do what this blog is all about. Makes!
This time I made little drawstring bags and filled them with a little cake tin, six small crayons and a matching coloring book.
Our kids are both in the same play group at the daycare, so I asked for a list with all the kids names on them. All in all there are 18 kids (11 girls, 7 boys) including ours, so I decided on making separate bags for the boys and the girls.

I chose two canvas type fabrics and used navy blue Hoooked Zpagetti to make the actual drawstring for the girl's bag and a similar type string in grey for the boys' bags (not the one shown in the pictures above).

I used this tutorial (in Dutch) and adjusted it by first ironing the fabric and creating the tunnel for the string to go through. Then I sewed that part, and used a safety pin to pull the string through. Then I folded the fabric, right sides towards each other and sewed it, turned it out and then I was done!

My girl really liked the little presents and she had a great day today! The kids all loved the carrot cupcakes and I will probably make them again next month, when our baby J will turn 1!

Would love to hear what you think of my Makes and Bakes, so if you can, leave a message.

See you again soon!

Love, Maartje

Long time no see!

So... Hello you!

It has been a while. Unintentionally almost nine months passed without any blogging... ~oops!~

That does not mean nothing creative was going on, although I must admit the creative process has been slow in the past few months. Some sewing here and there, some crocheting as well, but nothing special. Did a lot of frogging in the crochet area ~LOL~! Still learning, but there is some progress ~smile~

During the Summer most of my time was spent in taking care of my family. And I love that so much. Adjusting to life with 2 kids has been about finding new balance in everyday things. And there was also my knowing I would not return to my former job which was a blessing on one hand, and a burden on the other. What was great about it, was being able to enjoy my kids so much, especially my baby J. Having him home for over 4 months straight after he was born, was such a joy! And when he started daycare I had some time for myself, which was also very nice.

Simultaneously, my new job and I found each other quite quickly after J was born, so that was such a nice surprise. After lovely summer holidays and after not working for over 6 months (including maternity leave) I started a new job in September. Starting a new job and settling in took more energy than I anticipated and at the same time, I wasn't surprised at all. And I am enjoying it all so much.

That being said, I found myself wanting to get behind my sewing machine again and finding the time to sit down and blog. And all in all the sewing started again when I also took on my new job. Those of you following me on Instagram (@maartjelinnea77) have seen some crafting, creating and crocheting but the blogging was a different ballgame.

So what better way of just starting today. Picking up where I left off. During the next few weeks I will have a show and tell and catch up with you.

Well, I guess that's life for you there and making do with whatever it brings. Have a lovely weekend and hope to see you back here soon!

Love, Maartje

Create 'n Date Late

Hello to you!

Even though it has already been over a week ago (oh how time flies), I wanted to share a little something about the wonderful Sunday I had in Amsterdam at Create 'n Date. This creative event was organized by my dear friend Maaike from creJJtion.

The day started at 10 am and ended at 14 pm. In those 4 hours 45 women (bloggers and Instagrammers (IG'ers)) came together in Amsterdam to enjoy latte's, lovely cakes, fabulous lunch, lovely sunny weather and we were able to partake in 3 different crochet workshops!

One was by Annemarie from Annemarie's Haakblog and her workshop was about making a lovely flower.
The second one also was a flower, by Saskia from Haken Bij Saar en Mien. Biggest difference to Annemarie's flower, was the use of the magic loop.
And last but not least, Claire from Haken en Meer, did a lovely bracelet in her workshop.

As it turned out, the weather was wonderful so we sat outside in the sun all morning and afternoon. It was absolutely amazing to meet a lot of people that I see and read about in cyber world (blogs or through IG). The atmosphere was amazing and it felt like we had been sitting on that Amsterdam terrace every Sunday for the past years, like old friends, crocheting our hearts out.

Result for me was practicing my crochet abilities again as I had sort of neglected them and was afraid to get started again. With help from Claire, Saskia and And I ended up with the cutest bracelet! And I took up my crochet project which I started a long time ago, which is a shawl for my daughter.

As for pictures... I hardly took any as I was so caught up in chatting and crocheting ~smile~ Create 'n Date was fabulous and I will definitely be at the next one!

Love xoxo,
Maartje

Packages and presents - winning the Ladybug & Co Give Away

Hello again!

Picking up where I left you in yesterday's blog post, there was not just 1 present in the envelope I opened, but there were 2!

Not only the lovely blue and white Audrey Pouch with Flower, but also the package contained a present with Annemarie's Give Away in it!

Because it had been a while since I entered her Give Away, and another winner was announced, I did not quite know what was in it anymore. 
But then a while later, the original winner did not claim her prize so she announced a new winner, ME! How great is that!!!

I opened up the package and in it was a lovely fabric envelope! Again a lovely and very stylish creation by Ladybug & Co! On the outside a lovely blue polka dot and on the inside a pretty flowery lining. Inside there were 4 pieces of fabric, 2 of them were used to make the envelope. She also added a bright pink polka dot and a blue flowery fabric. I LOVE all of them. My mind immediately went crazy thinking of things to make with these lovelies!

Here are the pictures of my prize Give Away, I could not be happier with it! So Annemarie, thank you so very much for this double treat! Will keep you and all of my readers posted, so you can see what I will Make with these pretty fabrics.

And to my readers make sure you check out her blog Ladybug & Co (in Dutch, but with a translate button ;-) )

See you again soon and have a lovely weekend!

Love xoxo,
Maartje

Packages and presents!

Yesterday the doorbell kept ringing here. Several packages and parcels were left with us for our neighbors but also there were some for me! How I love getting packages through snail mail ~smile~
I hoped that at least one package would come for me, as Annemarie from Ladybug & Co posted a message on Tuesday that 4 out of 5 parcels from her Pay It Forward (PIF) in April were sent that day. 

When Annemarie posted her PIF blog post I thought it was a very nice idea! She said the first 5 people to leave a message on her blog would receive a present via snail mail over the course of the year. I saw there were four responses already and immediately left her a message. So yaaayyy, I was no. 5! And yesterday our mailman delivered it to my door, yaaayyy again!

The package in itself was already a present and I was quite surprised to find not one but two presents in the envelope! Not only did she send me the PIF present, but also her give away, which I also won as the primary winner did not respond to her winning (aren't I the luckiest one ~smile~). More about the Give Away package in tomorrows blog post!

So this is what it looked like an what was inside, the cutest little zip bag for make-up or other small stuff. It's an Audrey Pouch and I totally LOVE the colors and style. And most of all, the flower she attached to it, can be taken off and used as a pin to liven up any jacket, shirt or dress!

So Annemarie, thank you SO MUCH for the present! You are truly a very talented woman. I would seriously consider buying the little bag if I saw it in a shop!

And I will also start a PIF, so stay tuned, because more is coming!
Have a lovely day!

Love xoxo,
Maartje

Inspiration for future projects

So hello stranger, how have you been? 
The past three weeks went by so fast, I cannot believe it! When the weather was good, I took our little guy outside and enjoyed the sun while it lasted. So no sewing, a little bit of crocheting, but mostly I spent my time reading, catching up and finally sitting down with a huge pile of magazines and some lovely books I bought myself as well as reading up on my favorite blogs and web shops.

And while reading, making a list of new Makes to be done in the next few weeks/months to come.

So stay tuned for some skirts and dresses for my girl, some pants for the little guy and I want to make a cover for the bouncer chair, so our little boy is totally snug and comfortable.

See you soon!

Love,
Maartje