Out with the old, in with the... old?

If you've read my previous post, this one might seem strange...

Yesterday was Queensday here in Holland. A national holiday with all kinds of festivities. Sort of a tradition for me, is to scour the "Vrijmarkten" (thriftmarkets) for all kinds of secondhand goodies.
Since we moved to Almere, the scouring starts the evening before Queensday, because the thriftmarkets start at 6PM here.
Queensday itself was spent in Harderwijk, where I grew up and my mom still lives.

Hubby went to Amsterdam with a friend and I hung Joshua in the ringsling for my shopping trip. He fell asleep after about an hour of looking at everything. So many new impressions...



















This is what I scored:


Almere

Harderwijk

As you can probably guess, I am veeeery happy... Especially with the storehouse in the first picture and the vintage Acitivity Centre. They were such great finds!
(Most of the books (except for the Dick Bruna ones) are for the bookcrate at work)

Now I'm of to the couch for some crocheting-time...!

Love,

Caroline

Spring Cleaning

Well, not really cleaning, it's more organizing and clearing out...

We live in a 3 bedroom, 2 storey familyhome. We don't have an attic.
Before Joshua was born we used the middle bedroom as our "office/craftspace/library" (I'm a huge childrensbookfan). The smallest bedroom was used as our attic, to store all kinds of stuff we didn't use often.
The room was filled to the brim, you could only open the door and take one step inside, the rest of the floorspace was filled up.

When I found out I was pregnant, we started clearing out our "attic". We filled a large container with waste and brought LOADS of stuff to the thriftstore.
Things we really wanted to keep found a new "home" in the officebedroom and in the cabinets my dad proudly built above our stairs (we now call those our attic).

I never expected to accumulate sooooo much babystuff and toys in such a short time, Joshua is just 8 months old.... And we really don't buy much things, because I really DON'T want to spoil him...
We started organizing our livingroom and needed to clear some thing out. "Just store it in the office, until we find a better place." is a phrase heard often in our home...
With the result that our office is completely filled up with clutter...

So yesterday I started organizing and clearing out.
Three weeks ago my mom helped me to put all my schoolpapers in the right files. So I would have some space in the bookcases.
Last week we went to Ikea to buy plastic containers to store craftsupplies in and to put Joshua's clothes (which are too small already) in. The clothescontainers will be stored on my moms attic.
(Thanks mom! I tried to not keep too much... Just "special" stuff...)

I've already put lots of stuff on Marktplaats (dutch E-bay), take a look if there's anything you might be interested in?
I'll probably be adding more...

Here is a before picture... (I'm really embarrased to show this...)


















The after picture is coming, I hope soon...!

Love, Caroline

Taggies

Last week I made two taggies. The first one was a gift for a friend son, who is 4 weeks older than Joshua.

Joshua loves the rustling of plastic, so I put a layer of plastic in between the two layers of fabric.

It was a big succes with the little boy who I gave it to.

I also made one for Joshua with the piece of gnome-fabric Rebecca  gave me.
I added the clip she also gave me, so I can clip the taggie on Joshua's clothing or the walker when we go out.

I used a slightly thicker plastic for this one, but next time I'm using the thinner one again, since that rustles a lot more. I also didn't sew an extra line along the outside, but I'm adding that this week. I think it just gives the taggie a little more finished look.

Love, Caroline

Organic Babyfood

I've been really busy trying out all kinds of organic babyfoods from the supermarket.
Why? That's one of the things that has been keeping me really busy lately, but I can't (won't) tell you why, yet...

What I can tell you, is that I've started making my own babyfood last week.
Joshua ate potato/carrot puree last week, but that was just because we ate "hutspot" and I held back a couple of pieces carrot and potato.

Today I made some things just for him.

We went to the local farmersmarket and I bought quite a lot of fresh, organic veggies. I totally forgot to take a picture, but I got lots and not really a bad price.

Fruit cooking away

I got:
- 2 huge pears (800gr)
- 4 apples (1kg)
- 4 tomato's (420gr)
- mushrooms (500gr)
- beans (180gr)
- a bunch of carrots
For just €14,-

When we got home, I peeled and chopped the apples and pears and cooked them to a puree in a large pot. It's reeeeeaaaally good and no additions of any kind.

Veggies

I also tried out the babycook I bought a while ago.
Peeled and diced a potato, a large carrot and a handfull of beans, put themm in the steambasket and steamed them for about 15 minutes.
When they were cooked through, I mashed them in the blender and I had a small jar full of veggies.

Joshua ate the whole jar and about the same amount of fruitpuree.
Succes in my opinion!

 I still need to fill a lot of jars with the fruitpuree, so I don't know how many jars I get from this amount of fruit, but I did get creative and made a couple of cute labels...

Love, Caroline

Finished puree

Labels

Sunday Recap #4

This week wasn't really eventful...
- Tuesday we had a study day at work. I spend the morning being absolutely annoyed, because I found out the "teachers" hadn't made any progress with teaching my colleagues AT ALL in the last half year...
I wasn't the only one who was annoyed, a lot of my colleagues thought the whole morning was one big waste of (very precious) time...
The afternoon was reserved for filling out reportcards, and since my duo and I didn't have to fill them out, we had a lot of time to organize other stuff.
(My duo did spend some time reading reportcards, since we do have to do the parent-teachertalks....)

- I had a really fun conversation with someone from HiPP's distributor. They sent me a big box of organic babyfood for a project I'm working on... I was almost literally jumping up and down when I opened the box...!

- I read about 60 pages in "Groen Doen" and was inspired to do some research of my own.
I'm bloghopping organic and ecological weblogs, which is an interesting experience. I discovered loads of handy things, but I also scratch myself behind the ears at some of the things I read...
Making your own toothpaste? Using reuseable ladypads for monthly hygene? Not really my cup of tea... But a showercoach and a standby-killer are more up my alley...
I also discovered lots of sites which seem interesting, but need some more looking at, before I "promote" them here..
Two I am already a big fan of are: BabyBeGood and EcoMama...

- Joshua started seriously rolling on to his side!

- I made a cute card for someone who needed a little support... You know who you are!

- I made hubby some birthday breakfast... :D

- I figured out I need a different strategy for my Sunday Recaps...
Up until now (including this post), I write my SR's on Sunday.
But a lot of the stuff that seems interesting during the week, has been forgotten on Sunday...
So coming week, I'm going to make small notes, which can easily be uploaded on Sunday. I hope this works a bit better...

So this is it for this week...

Love,

Caroline

Sunday Recap #3

This week:
- My monday at work was a very pleasant surprise...
My new duopartner prepped everything for me, so I could really easily start the week with my our kids. There was a nice list of important stuff, the craftsupplies were ready and she switched names on the tasklist for me...

- My new boots arrived. I was a little bit weary about the size, but they're okay. I do have blisters after wearing them for one whole day. The kids at school really liked them too.

- I made arrangements with Andries' parents, for them to babysit Joshua every monday. They offered a few times and I didn't think they were really serious but they were.
I'm soooo grateful that they want to do this, which means Joshua gets to grow up and spend loooots of time with his grandparents.
Now to figure out a way for my mom to spend more time with our little guy, but that shouldn't be a big problem...

- I didn't read any books, too busy with other stuff...

- Rebekka and Sietse came over for a visit. Sietse playes with Joshua's Fisher Price garage and house. And Rebekka and I talked about lots of things...

- I recieved an e-mail from the lady who sold me the bathseat last week. Her husband gave it away, so the returned me my money.
I searched for another one on Marktplaats and I found lots, placed a bid on a bathseat with more play options and the next day I recieved an e-mail that I could buy this one.
I payed immediately and this seat was sent to us.
The day it came in the mail, I put Joshua in the bathtub in his new seat and he loved it!

- We went shopping for some babysupplies to leave at Andries' parents. A bottle, a pacifier (I <3 oma), a bib (I <3 opa), daipers, a bottle of organic juice (diksap), some organic fruitpurees and some milkpowderjars.

- We did some more work on the bathroom. Still a WIP, so no pictures...

- We removed 6 of the glass shelves that were in our hallway and had our Citroën modelcars on it. I'm in the process of photographing them, so I can put them on Marktplaats.
We're just done with them...

- My mom was admitted to the hospital. She hadn't been able to eat a normal meal in about three weeks and kept throwing up or at least feel nauseous. She had a lot of pain in her stomach.
To make a long story short: they removed het gall-bladder this Friday. It was inflamed and full of galstones.
She was released today, and has to take it veeeery easy. But the pain is gone and she can eat again, albeit small portions...

- This afternoon Andries' parents came to pick up Joshua (they were in Almere, so it saved us a drive to Putten) and now it's just the two of us at home...
It's kind of strange, no evening bottle, no bedtime songs, no watching him sleep... Just quiet....
Andries has already phoned his parents to hear if the little man is settled in....

So, that was my week...
How was yours?

Love,
Caroline

PS I also had a conversation with someone over the phone, which I'm absolutely ecstatic about, but I can't give any details about...! You have NO IDEA how hard it is to keep my mouth shut... ! ! !

Sunday Recap #2 (on Monday)

Sorry for the delay, been sick...

This week:

- I started working again. Before the holidays, I already worked a few half days, but last Monday was my first whole workday since I went on leave in July.
I was fun, but I really need to get the hang of it again. I constantly have to look up what we're going to do at what time, which kid has which picto...
But I'm learning fast...!

- I picked up the stomach-flu at work... Nice... I got really sick Thursdaymorning and started feeling a bit more human this morning... I'm still super tired...

- I went to the doctor with the little man. His the skin on his head is really dry and red. I has been for quite some time, but he keeps scratching, so it must itch badly.
The doc said it's atopic eczema. Possibly caused by an allergy. It could be lactose intolarance, so we're changing his formula. No more standard1, but Hypo-Allergenic for two weeks. If the eczema improves, it's probably lactose intolerance.
Joshua is also getting a really greasy cream to help with the itching.

- I read another 40 pages in "Groen Doen".

- I ordered a pair of boots from Shoeline.nl

- Bought a really cool bathseat for Joshua on Marktplaats. I LOVE secondhand stuff... why pay full-price for stuff you only use for a couple of months. And besides, secondhand is a lot more environmentally friendly... If I buy something that's been used, it doesn't have to be made new...

- I didn't do any crafting, I felt too sick...

I hope this week things will be better, so I can do a more interesting Sunday Recap next week

Love,

Caroline

PS I still have to show you my ThriftStore finds from a couple of weeks ago. I scored LOADS of cool stuff at the ThriftStore in Harderwijk!

Some pictures of this week:

Sunday Recap #1

Starting today, I'm posting a recap of my week, every Sunday afternoon or evening... So here goes:
This week:

- I read about 50 pages in "Groen doen" by Marie-Claire van den Berg. I was amazed of how ingnorant and easily-fooled (most/some) people are when it comes to the environment (myself included on some parts). It's really easy to read and made me laugh on more than one occasion.

- Andries bought Joshua his first Lego. He also assembled it... LOL

- We started re-organizing our bathroom, but it's still a WIP, so no pictures yet.

- I went to "work". This week was the last week of the two week X-masbreak, so the kids were still at home. This gave me and my new duo-partner a chance to discuss how we are going to run our group.

- We ate pancakes at my colleague's place. Hubby helped her hubby with a DIY-job that wasn't really a one-man job...

- I got the "slofjes" Rebekka (the above-mentioned colleague) sewed for Joshua.

- My fabric from Spoonflower arrived on Saturday.

- We tried the Tripp-Trapp, but it's still a bit big...

- I sewed a seatcushion for Joshua's Tripp-Trapp. I still need to make a padded seatcover. (I also fixed hubby's shirt, pant-pocket and Joshua's Fant (elephant))

- I crocheted about 4 rows on my ripple-blanket and started on an Owl-beanie for hubby...

Ofcourse I did loads more, but these are the most "interesting things"...
Tomorrow is my first "real" workday since I've been on leave... Also the first day our babysitter is coming over to watch Joshua for the whole day... I'm a bit anxious...

Love,
Caroline

Some pictures of this week:

Daiperpouch

I was sick and tired of taking my huge daiperbag with me for Joshua, just going to the store for some groceries.
So I sewed a small daiperpouch, which fits in my handbag. It holds a sack of babywipes and 3 or 4 daipers. I could even fit a mouthcloth in there.

I used eloleo's tutoleo but pimped the outside a bit.

We are really into sealife, so I made a whale cutout on the front.

For the liningI used a cradlesheet from the Hema, which someone gave me But since I don't have a cradle and it doesn't fit Joshua's crib, I cut it up.
The outside is IKEA Aina fabric.

 I'm planning on making a messenger-style-bag for Joshua to take his stuff to the daycarecentre. And I'm using the same fabrics...

Hopefuly I can show you my progress on that next time, but I'm also doing loads of othe crafty stuff, so maybe I'll show that first...

Love,

Caroline

Two Boys...

I'm still on leave and Wednesday isn't Rebekka's workday, so I went over there for a visit...

Sietse was in bed when I arrived and Joshua was asleep too, so we chatted and crocheted uninterrupted.
About half an hour before I went home, Sietse and Joshua both woke up.
I changed Joshua's daiper and Sietse watched from a distance.

When I was done, Joshua started mumble and whine a bit, so Sietse brought him all kinds of toys to comfort him. Wooden cars and some pencils. He even wanted to share his Pepernoten.

When all that didn't help, Sietse did this:

 

How cute is that!

I hope to finish my scarf this week, so I'll show you when it's done...

After that I'm starting on a blanket, but I'm note sure which combination of stitches I'll use...

I'm trying to decide between this one and this one...

Which would you pick?

Love, Caroline

Busy week

I had a really busy week, with lots of crafts...First I tought myself how to crochet, but more on that tomorrow!

Wednesday I showed you I was going to see Rihanna...  Well that turned out to be a huge bummer...

Grandma came to babysit Joshua, so Andries and I could go to Arnhem.
It was really busy on the roads, with loads of small traffic jams, which was annoying, but not really a big deal, since Rihanna wouldn't start until 9PM.
We were in Arnhem quite on time, but all the parking spaces around the Gelredome were full, so we had te park elsewere, which meant a 20 minute walk to the stadium (but no parking fees).
When we finally got inside, the opening act (Calvin Harris) was just ending his performance. That was at 8.30PM, so we were on time to see Rihanna...

Well, 9 PM came... And went... 9.30 PM came.... And went... And the diva didn't start until 9.58PM.
And about the first half an hour she didn't sing much herself, but left most of the singing up to her backgroundsingers and the audience...
After those 30 minutes her voice seemed warmed up and that's when she showed what an amazing singer she really is... Eventhough she still turned the mic to the audience waaaaaaay too much....
I wasn't really too enthousiastic about the whole show, so I didn't take any pictures...
(When we came home, I read loads of rumours on Twitter that Rihanna was drunk and stoned, which would explain a lot, but makes it even worse... You're not really a serious artist of you drink and smoke weed before a concert...! The next day, these rumours were also all over the news....)

Before Andries and I went to Arnhem, my mom and I went to the thriftstores in Almere to see if they had anything good. I bought a shirt and a pair of pants at Tante Pollewop and a shirt, a Sinterklaasbook and two Heinekenglasses, at the big thriftstore. My mom also brought a vest I saw at the thriftstore in Harderwijk and didn't buy then and a really cool LiefLifestyle Wintercoat, which I bought of Marktplaats and was delivered to her house (the seller lives in the same street).

The day after the concert, my mom helped me to finish the bedspread I started on last December and picked up again in May/June.
The thing is kind of big and I don't have that big a piece of free floorspace in my house, so I couldn't lay it out completely. I sewed half of it together last week, on my own, but that took me just about the whole day. So because my mom was here anyway, I figured she could help me out...

The gorgeous pink and blue(ish), flowery, polkadotted bedspread in laying proudly on our bed now, and it's already keeping my feet nice and warm.
I can't wait for the nights to get reaaaaally cold, so we can use it over the whole bed...! Pictures of the beadspread tomorrow also...! I'm a bit lazy today and have lots to do... :-(

Love, Caroline

WW: Thriftstore Finds and Babyshopping

I went to the thriftstore in Harderwijk with my mom and found:

a (I think) HEMA Bathcape and a Boatshirt for Joshua

and a Memorygame, same as I had when I was a kid.

And I bought a scarf and a wintercap for Joshua at the Wibra

WW: Sleeping in the RingSling

Gifts

Last time I told you I was planning on making a gift for my materrnity help.
Well, I finished it last Tuesday and mailed it to her, together with two Delfts Blond mugs.
(Helma, if you read this and don't want to know what the mugs cost, don't click the link! ;-P)
Today she told me she got her gifts (and she loved them), so now I can show you what I made her.

I had quite a hard time packing it, since it turned out so great, I really didn't want to give it away...
Just joking....!
But I do love the result. It seems my scrapinspiration is back, because lots of other ideas are floating around in my head...!

For this project I used only October Afternoon papers, Report Card and Seaside to be precise. I love this brand and if my inspiration is truly back, I need to get some more ! ! !

Embellishments are: Creamotion, Amarican Crafts, Maya Road, Tim Holtz, Pink Paisley, Bo Bunny, Making Memories, Luxe Designs and Xenos.

I hope I'll have more to show soon, but for now I'm just trying to find a routine which allows me to be creative and maybe do some posts on more random stuff...

Love,

Caroline




PS: For some reason, I can't seem to get the lay out for this post right...
I gave up and this is how it turned out...
I decided to just go with it!

WW: Smile!

A little update

As you can imagine, caring for a newborn doesn't leave much creative time.Loads of idea's going through my head though, so I hope we can settle into some kind of routine soon, so I can get some stuff done...

First on the list is a gift for my maternity help. I didn't want to give her a giftcertificate, 'cause she seems to get those a lot..
I have the perfect gift in mind, but I need some pictures for that... So this week I'm ordering some prints, so I can get started. She's on vacation right now and I already let her know I'll send het the gift, when she gets back... So I have a little time...

Joshua is growing sooooo fast, it seems almost impossible to keep up with all the little changes...
And I do have something to show you. Our birthannouncements...

 

I designed these myself, using HEMA's design and printservice. A really cheap solution, as I think most birthannouncements aren't worth the costs.

I hope I can show you some more stuff really soon, but I'm not making any promises!

Love,

Caroline

Joshua Maik

Tuesday August 30th at 3.33PM (15.33u) he was there:

Our beautiful son Joshua Maik

MM: Can you tell..

This way you can't really tell....

But this way you can definitely tell...!

Just 4 more weeks to go....

Love,

Caroline

Raglan baby T-shirt

A while ago I borrowed a couple of Ottobres from my colleague Rebekka.

I found this great pattern for a T-shirt, that didn't look too diffucult.

And at the FabricSpectacle in Lelystad I already bought some cool kid knit-fabrics.

So I started on my first real sewing project yesterday.
Other than sewing straight lines on cotton, I have never sewn anything without my moms help... So I was really scared ! ! !

The pattern I picked, really wasn't too difficult. I ran in to a little problem with the cuffs and collar, but I fixed that rather nicely, if I say so myself...
You can see what went wrong, but for a first try, I really happy with the result!

Love,

Caroline

Celebrations...

We are celebrating the 5th anniversary of our school, so every classroom and the halls are decorated with all sorts of stuff...

I wanted to make a fabric flag-garland for a long time and last sunday I worked my ass off to fix it...

It's just short of 10 meters and hanging proudly in my classroom:

One of the thing we celebrate during the party-weeks is "meesters- en juffendag", a collective birthdayparty for all the teachers.
I got spoiled rotten by my kids. My class-mothers organised a collective gift, which consisted of a large daiper-cake, filled with little gifts the kids bought...
Here's the cake:

I got a few gifts just for me (some Rituals shower foams and a Toblerone-bar) and the rest of the gifts are for the baby. Socks, some cuddly-animals, rattling-toys, a few rompers, a couple of baby-pyjama's and lots more... Really cool stuff..
I won't bore you with lots of pictures of all te gifts so this is it for today...

Love,

Caroline