Update

Really, not much is happening right now and I feel guilty about it. We have a potential buyer for our old house, but the price is subject of a discussion. My BF has landed at the point of just sell it at any reasonable price, while I'm busy to figure out the details on how to play it right so at the end of the ay we lose the house and not gain any financial trouble. Pfff...
The constant thinking makes me tired and I feel like I'm not doing much with my free time either. Except cleaning the house and working my way through a huge pile of clothes that need to be washed and ironed. Boring, huh? I just keep thinking, like the past few days I could have make a muslin for the Alma blouse or could have finish some painting jobs or done tons of other USEFUL things in the new house but I just didn't feel like.
Yesterday was the first sunny day in weeks, so I took my running shoes out of the closet and went for a 7.5 km run. It was good and it made me feel better about myself. No matter how much I hate it but due to a period of low levels thyroid hormones I still can't get rid of the extra pounds and as a result I can't fit in all of my clothes. Of course, I guess, this is one of the reasons why I'm not starting any new sewing projects right now.
Anyway, this week is a new week, there are new chances! Getting ready to finish some walls today and to get rid of even more dust (which somehow just keep coming back...)

In the meanwhile I watch things on the tv and wonder why they don't have series like this here? The British home, cooking and craft series are top!
Here there is a lot of explanation of basic sewing terms, a bit of history and it just makes you want to sew perfect, with an eye for details. Worth of watching! Hopefully the next episodes will land on youTube as well!

Heritage

Recently I've spent a short week in Hungary. As I'm always looking for stuff for our new house I spotted a few 'new' old things at my grandma's house. The old scale with a coupe of the original iron weights above was my great-grandmother's, just like the old wedding picture and the 30's Singer I've already got. the little oily was made by my grandma and the lamp shade was a gift to her from my mum about 50 years ago.

Kitchen almost ready

Finally, our Piet Zwart kitchen is almost ready! The countertops were installed today and in the meantime the downstairs toilet is finished as well. Soon we are 'moving' upstairs with the renovation project to get on with the bathroom...

Making a greeting card from scratch - involves sewing a button...

Well, this post at least involves sewing, as far as sewing a button goes.
Since there is not much time to sew I try to use my creative energy for other things. I made this card to send to our friends who just became parents of a baby boy.
There seems to be a baby boom amongst our friends and colleagues. I was bored with the store bought, expensive cards and wanted to find a way to produce a lot of pretty, but not too expensive cards to send. Something pretty, different and suited for both baby boys and girls. So I came up with these. By using two buttons it can even be used for twins.
(I've done the outlines almost free-handed, but made up a neat PDF pattern for the stroller and the heart. Scroll down to download it)

Materials needed: 
- a set of blank greeting cards with envelopes (doesn't have to be the best quality since they will be covered with wallpaper which gives more thickness)
- structured wallpaper (is much cheaper than structured craft paper!)
- gift wrapping paper (I've got one with small red and blue flowers)
- a thin, brown cardboard box (I picked up mine at the greenery)
- cute small buttons - pink or blue
- a thicker white or other colored thread
- double sided tape
- craft glue

How to:
- cut a stroke of the wallpaper that measures the height of the card. Then fold and tear the shorter sides to size
- glue the wallpaper to the outside of the card
- cut the outlines of the stroller from the gift wrapping paper and glue it onto the wallpaper
- cut the heart from the cardboard
- using a needle sew the blue or pink button onto the heart with the thread (the ends can be left as they are)
- attach the heart on top of the stroller with double sided tape
- done!

 



To download the stroller and heart outlines click on the arrow next to 'Scribd.' below:

Welcome Baby Card by doortje05

Dirty hands

Last week in a hurry we've managed to finish the downstairs toilet and the kitchen floor just in time! Yesterday I've done a morning shift in the hospital and after that I have crawled on my hands and knees on the floor for 4 hours to grout the kitchen tiles... Mr. X was very motivated to finish everything but all I wanted is to get some rest. My hands were swollen and dirty, pfffff.....
The toilet is not fully ready though, only the back wall is finished for 80%. I still have to grout the side walls, but you get the idea. Love the little black row of tiles!



Here is what the kitchen floor looked like today in the morning. We used dark grey grouting, hence my dirty looking hands in the first picture. I quickly cleaned everything one more time before the kitchen-guy got started:



And here it is, our 50's style 'Piet Zwart' kitchen! Actually, this design was the standard kitchen from the late 20's till the '60's in every Dutch home. We choose a brand new one. There is one kitchen maker who currently holds the licenses since most parts are handmade and painted in one particular fabric in the country. The sizing of these cabinets is still different from the standard sizing of the other cabinets, but everything is modified to fit built-in appliances, which was not the case 60-70 years ago.  I love the pale pastel green color!!!
(For once, after a bit of cleaning I don't have to do anything here today, just watch someone else doing the hard work! In the evening I start again with 4 nightshifts in a row, so that's enough for now.)

 

Work (still) in progress in the house

The downstairs toilet gets more and more a finished look! I'm really happy with the vintage styled black border and the small, rectangular wall tiles.

In the meantime: a before and after of the same kitchen wall. The kitchen is coming next week, the floor tiles still needs to be placed.





At last, the first sign of  spring in the  new garden (and it's snowing again...) We are having an unusual long and cold winter here.

Tiles

 

  

This week we made a start with finishing the downstairs toilet and the bathroom upstairs. (Yes, that's me on the first picture) We choose 50's style tiles for the toilet. On the right the bathroom - left the shower cabine and right the toilet with the same niches as downstairs. (although different tiles, a bit more modern)
It's nice to see the rows of tiles growing every day!