Party Planning

In just two weeks our little man is turning one...! This first year has gone super fast and we've experienced so many milestones already...

For his first birthday I'm throwing Joshua a Whale / Under the Sea Party. He probably won't remember it when he is older, but I just love the idea of a themed party.
I'm trying to not make it too over the top, but I did start searching for idea's on Pinterest a long time ago and created a "Whale Party Idea's" board.

The invitations have been sent, but I won't show them, because I altered something that's sort of copyrighted.

Here are the idea's I'm using or thinking of using...

Source: parenting.com via Caroline on Pinterest

These lanterns are sooooo simple and effective. I've bought two cheap white ones to hang in the garden (if its dry when we are having the party...

Source: sweetandlovelycrafts.blogspot.com via Caroline on Pinterest

If I can find the time and energy to whip out the sewing-machine, I want to try if this actually works.
The only problem is, in Holland you can't buy rolls of streamers. Just the wedding ones, so I'll have to try it with strips of regular crepe-paper.

Source: somewheresplendid.com via Caroline on Pinterest

I'm making a cake inspired on this one. The bottom one will be a paisley-shape and the top one just a simple round one, as that one will be Joshua's smash-cake...!

Source: etsy.com via Caroline on Pinterest

These will go on top of the cupcakes Joshua will treat at daycare. I'm thinking of sticking on white sugar confetti for the eyes, instead of just a black dot with edible ink...

Source: etsy.com via Caroline on Pinterest

This shouldn't be too hard to make. I'm trying to decide between doing a onesie or a t-shirt. The whale will be felt, since that is easy to cut and hand-sew.

Source: etsy.com via Caroline on Pinterest

Not sure Joshua will keep something like this on his head, but it'll look soooooo cute... Haven't decided if I'm actually going to do this.

As for the party-food, I WON'T be serving anything fishy, since that goes against my principles.
I'm making some simple sandwiches, probably vegetarian.

These also look really good:

Source: clairebidwellsmith.com via Caroline on Pinterest

Spinach, feta and mozzarella stuffed in cresent-rolls.

And these are just too cute and fishy...

Source: comeonilene.com via Caroline on Pinterest

But I don't have a small fish cookie-cutter and I don't know if I can find the time to make one...

If you want to see more of what I pinned, check the board, linked at the top of this post (if you haven't already)

Love,

Caroline

Thrift Store Finds

We've been making (bi-)weekly visits to several thrift stores in the area for a while now and I have found sooooo many gems...
Half of them are already in use or put away, without taking photo's of them, but I do have some pictures from our last thrift store run...

I found a couple of Dick Bruna books, 3 in this picture, but I found more on previous visits. The book that says GROOT is a cardbord book with BIG animals. I love the whale that's in there...
I also found Sisters! by Mylo Freeman, I love her illustrations! I once followed a workshop by her...

A touch and feel book, Joshua is really into those at the moment.
A Bambino Loco pack with 2 booklets for just €1,50! In a normal store you would pay at least €25,-!
A book with fingerpaint idea's and  a tambourine.
And we also found a coat-rack for Joshua's coats and a National Geographic for Andries to read.

But the list goes on: Andries bought a marble run he saw last time. It didn't come with marbles, so he is currently in search of something that will fit...
A cute bird plate Joshua grabbed of the shelve and would let go of, Bob the Builder's Scoop and some Fisher Price toys.


Scoop is a gift for Sietse, if he doesn't have it already and activity blocks are a story in itself.
We bought one at a thriftstore near the bungalowpark we went on holidays at. We found another one at the triftstore in Almere. And ofcourse we wanted the third one too. We found a complete (damaged) set in Naarden. So we kept the non-damaged ones and the rest are on Marktplaats.
The same goes for the mini-bus...
Last but not least I found a Lego Duplo car an 2 vintage Fisher Price cars...
I've bought a lot of vintage  Fisher Price toys lately, I like them a lot better than all the newer FP stuff and they're also childhood memories for me...

I'll do a separate post on the FP soon...!

More of what I've bought lately:
- A canister for my Senseo-coffeepads
- More Dick Bruna books
- Lego Duplo Primo (figures, a caterpillar, train and building blocks)
- Wooden cars (dump truck, fire truck)
- Plant sprayer
- Ikea treasure chest
- FP boat and figure
- number puzzle I used to have when I was a kid
- Stockmar crayons
- shoes for Joshua
- sandbox figures and a watering can
- FP farm with Schleich farm animals
- a bunch of other books
- probably more, but I can't really remember

I seem to have a shopping-addiction (LOL ;-P)

Love, Caroline

Veggie Garden

It's been a while since I've written about my veggiegardenexperiment (nice scrabbleword!).

I've got a big amount of pictures for you. Some a big surprise, some sort of a big failure, but that's why it's an experiment. Next year I'm, obviously, changing some things...

Here we go:

Corn, only two seeds came up. I don't know what the
thing in the front is, but it doesn't look like all the other
weeds, so I'm leaving it where it is.

Currant, infested with aphids. Trying a natural repellant/
killer, using tomato leaves, I found on Pinterest tomorrow.

Grape. Not much to say, just happy it rooted.

Green chillies. I didn't thing these would work.
I planted them in a pot, 4 plants in one pot.
Not much earth for them, but about two weeks ago they
got flowers and now I have about 10 chillies already...!

Green peppers, same story as the chillies. Very surprised!

Herbs.
Left basket: Mint, parsley and chives. All doing very well.
Right basket: Oregano: doing well, dill: almost dead.
Basil: dead... A while already...

Right: Blackberry
Left: Raspberry being eaten, see picture below.
Under: Leftover Strawberryplants.
The Raspberry and Blackberry have a couple of flowers
at the moment, so maybe we'll get a little bit of fruit!

Close up of the caterpillars, can you see the little buggers?
Trying a natural repellant/killer, using garlic,
I found on Pinterest tomorrow.

Scallions, not a big succes yet, maybe if I disperse them,
they will be a succes.

Tomato plants. These are a HUGE surprise. Last year I had
one plant, which stayed small and gave two big,
green tomatoes that would turn red.
So this year I planted 4 sprouts, which grew into these
MONSTERS. And they are FULL.

Full of these: huge clusters of cherrytomatoes.
I'm already dreaming of loads of red, yummy, sweet tomatoes.
Of making fresh Pastasauce and Tomatoketchup, Jamie-style...  

Zucchini's. Green in the back, yellow in the front. These are
HUGE as well. Well, the green ones are, because I planted
them first. The yellow one was planted a lot later and
didn't grow as much.
I've had a lot of (baby)green zucchini's and I've seen a
picture of a zucchiniplant growing up, onto a support
of some sort, so they don't use a much "floorspace" as
they do now. I'm soooo trying that next year!

Appletree, we've planted it this year,
it has had three flower and it's growing three really tiny apples.
It's also infested with aphids.

Strawberries. Loads of them. Under the appletree.

What you didn't see in these pictures:
- The carrots that failed miserably, because I sowed them "under" the tomato-plants.
- The radishes I already harvested and were all kinds of weird shapes... :D
- Last years strawberryplants that didn't survive.
- The spinach which I still plan to test-sow in a pot, just to see how much space I'll need for that next year.
- The mulberry-trees. I actually have Mulberries, but I don't know what to do with them, so if anyone has idea's... Tell me..! Please...

As you can guess, I'm over the moon with my garden (which also has a lot of non-vegetable-or-fruit-plants in it).

Love, Caroline

PIF

I came across this topic on a couple of blogs I read.

PIF...
..
..
PIF?
..
..
PIF stands for Pay It Forward... Now that rings a bell...!

Remember the movie?
The idea is that you do something selfless for someone. That someone may in turn be inspired to do something selfless for someone else (or multiple someones...)

So when Rebekka asked if any of her readers was interested in a PIF, I didn't hesitate to respond...

Today I visited Rebekka (more on that in another blogpost) and I got my PIF...!
It is sooooooo gorgeous!
Rebekka knows we (Andries and I) love everything Whale and we love whaley-stuff for Joshua.
I could have guessed I would get a Whaley-PIF...

She made a Marble-bag with an embroidered whale. Inside was a felt whale which I can add to a shirt, bag or make a brooch from, a whale stamp, a stuffed whale (which Joshua LOVES! ! !) and a really cute small whale pin...

So now it's my turn to Pay It Forward...!
If there is anyone who is interested in receiving a small PIFpackage, let me know!
You don't have to have a blog to enter... You just have to like receiving a small gift and be open to the idea of maybe Paying It Forward...!

Love, Caroline

Loretta Grayson

I feel like such a copycat...

I while ago I came across this pin. After clicking and clicking and clicking some more I endend up on Loretta Graysons blog.
All those colors made me sooooo happy... I also found her "tutorial", which show het process of creating her artworks. 

I originally wanted to create something similar with scrapbookpapers, but since my craftroom is such a mess (I'm not even close to finishing the reorganisation) and I didn't want to make a huge mess on our dinnertable, I decided to try out my Derwent pencils on canvas.
So I made a sketch and started coloring...

I blended every block with white spirit, so fill the canvas and make the colors more vibrant. I think I succeeded pretty well...

I did fill the trunk and the branches of the tree with black acrylic paint. First the whole thing with just black and after that dried, I applied different shades of grey.

When those layers dried I did the bark like Loretta does, with a very thin brush I made sort of circular patterns...
I'm still trying to figure out how I can create a bit of a grungy rim around the outside of the circle, without ruining the pencilwork.
I'm thinking of trying watercolor on a testpiece...
This week I need to buy some goldpaint for the "star"details.
I thought af adding the stars by glueing rhinestones on, but that'll probably be to much.
I'll be doing a combination of both...

So... Not the whole "artwork" is copied, but I still feel like a copycat...

Love, Caroline

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