Saturday, June 20, 2009

Saturday morning

Saturday morning I like to get up early. I make myself a cup of tea, turn on the radio and then disappear in my craft room for most of the morning. When I'm lucky the sun shines in my room to give me this happy, relaxed Saturday morning feeling that I enjoy so much!

Well, the sun wasn't shining this morning and the little project I started on didn't work out the way I wanted it to at all! Luckily I threw the failure in a corner and started on something new. It saved my day because in the end I made these two sweet little birdies. And they definitely look like they are enjoying their Saturday morning in the sun, don't they?








First I drew the sketch, cut the single images out of nice and colorful fabrics and ironed them on to the background fabric. Then I stitched all the images just to give it a nice and frisky finish. I painted the branch and also stitched that after the (acrylic) paint dried. All just very easy to do.

I stapled the fabric artwork onto a rectangle canvas. So much fun if you have an electric stapler like I do. It gives me this 'Bob the Builder eat my dust' feeling! Whohoo...girl power!

And I'm so happy with the result as well.

Australian wildlife?!

Australia is home to a lot of strange and very beautiful animals, but not these obviously! Meet a few of my softies...




Thursday, June 18, 2009

Ot en Sien

I'm a very proud aunty of three beautiful kids... two girls and a litlle boy. I sometimes feel really sad that I'm not around to see them growing up. Luckily there is skype, so I can have a chat with them a few times a week. Well, it's not really chatting. It's more that I'm listening, and they tell me heaps of things. Then I nod and laugh or say.. 'that's great, auntie Monique is so proud of you!' Obviously most of the time I'm absolutely clueless about what they are on about, but it's just fun to see them and hear them getting all excited!

My oldest niece just turned four a few months ago (haha, my sister didn't sit still) and goes to school now. She tells me all about it. This week they had to come to school dressed in Ot en Sien style. Hmm, I hear you think...'what is Ot and Sien'?

Ot and Sien are the main characters in a series of Dutch children's tales that were very popular in the first half of the twentiest century.

Ot (short for Otto) and Sien (short for e.g. Francine) are two next door neighbors, a boy and a girl. Their illustrations were based on two children that actually lived in Holland. The stories are situated in Drenthe that was at the time the most impoverished province of the Netherlands where quite a few people were still living in dwellings constructed of peat and sods. The surrounding poverty is nowhere to be seen in the stories that depict a very idealized version of reality.

I must admit though, I have always loved the books about Ot and Sien. I especially love the illustrations and the childish simplicity of the stories.

So it was very nice to receive this picture of my niece dressed up as a little Sien of the past. Cute!


Monday, June 15, 2009

Woodies!

These are a few of the little wood projects I worked on when I was still living in The Netherlands.
I enjoy working with wood. The problem is that it takes so much time to finish a project...saw, sandpaper, paint, sandpaper, paint, varnish.... whaa! I mostly can't find the peace to work on a project that long.






Saturday, June 13, 2009

Happy sheep!



















The other day a book called 'learn to see creatively' caught my eye. It made me giggle. Not because I think it's a bad book or so. It's just the fact that sometimes I absolutely make myself go nuts.

The cause of my manic behaviour is the fact that I think creatively 365 days a year, 7 days a week and (almost) 24 hours a day. It's just something I can't control.

'It's a gift' some people will say. Yeah, I guess in a way it is. But believe me, if I lay in bed not able to sleep I sometimes think it's a curse.

Imagine me counting sheep jumping over a fence. Isn't that what an average person does trying to fall asleep?
Well in my case the sheep are not just white and fluffy. They're actually wearing cute little handbags in this amazing Amy Butler fabric design, Oh and look, there's another sheep, isn't she wearing that inspiring apron I saw in a magazine yesterday? And maybe I should decorate the little fence with Pips wallpaper so it's prettier for the sheep to jump over it!

Whaaaa!!! Has anybody ever heared of a book called ' learn how not to see creatively' or so? I need it!!!!

Well, here's some positive result of me thinking creatively. In this case I got inspired by this white plastic lace place mat (yeah, I also didn't get the fact that an actual place mat had holes, but I must admit, it looked pretty).
Obviously I didn't just 'see' a place mat. The contents in my head started thinking of possibilities to process the lace into my crafty projects. I ended up making this unique, cute shopping bag.

Tonight there will be a happy sheep jumping over the fence with her new, little shopping bag!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Cup Cake Celebrations!

Yay! My first post on my new blog. How exciting...

Here's some 'Cup Cake Celebrations' for my first attempt to share my crafting with all you blog readers!

They are actually little pin cushions. They look absolutely delicious, don't they?

I normally spend every spare minute on crafting. I like working with bright colors. Most of the items I make are childrens room decorations. Lately I have been sewing a lot, but my interests go far beyond just making softies, bags and aprons. I also love painting, paper crafts and sometimes working with wood (although our apartment with its tiny balcony isn't always suitable for my crazy ideas...)!

Anyway, inspired by friends and family I decided to create a blog. Maybe in the future I'll hire a stand on a craft market every now and then. Actually I have to, as my craft room is about to burst because there are to many handmade creations of mine lying around...

For all of you that are interested in purchasing items you see on my blog, just send me an e-mail (moncherry@live.com.au) and I'll get back to you with more information and details.

I hope you'll keep following my blog!

Monique