Bring in the holiday spirit!

Christmas is only a week away. Time to bring in the holiday spirit!
I tried to do as much DIY as possible and I had a great time creating my own tree, decorations, wrapping labels and christmas cards.

Since I don't have that much space for a real tree, I went with a tree haning on the wall. I collected sticks from the woods. Picked out the ones with different sizes. Then i let them dry overnight and brushed off as much dirt as possible.
Tie them together with a piece of string and my lille tree was ready for a nice dress up. I tied together some bells with ribbon as main decoration. 

And for the evening christmas boost, I added lights. I misread the description on the package. So, instead of warm white lights, I was surprised to look up at a rainbow lit tree when I switched the lights on.
Well, why not!

These little crochet christmas stars are so easy to make:

1. Chain 6, slip stich together to form a circle.

2. Chain 2, 2 Double Crochet, *3picot (chain3 slip stich in first, 3x), 3 double crochet*, repeat the part between the *..* until you got five points.

3. slip stich in the second chain from the beginning and finish off.

One of my new year's targets is to bringback the fun of sending postcards. Hand drawn postcards to be more precise. Christmas was the most perfect (early) kick off! Since I had to make a batch of them, I went with less is more. Writing christmascards turned out to be the most perfect excuse to ask my friends and family's addressess!

I hope you have some great holidays coming up yourselves.  Love, laugh and light up the sky!

Let's talk bags

Some women like shoes, some like clothes and if you know me, you'd now I like bags. A lot. Maybe a bit too much. Since I have so many, I decided I'd swop the bags I already have a little more often... Somehow I managed to get myself two new bags this week...Now, let me explain this to you.

Impulse buy

I went out for my lunch break this week and I could not resist this off white bag from Sacha.I have to admit, the price tag of over 50% discount helped with that. In my defense I also like to mention this was a complete impulse buy. I actually went in search of a pair of ballerina flats (I left a worn out pair in London) that I did not find.

Ok, that's the part I spent money. The second bag did not come with such ease. I worked for that one. I crochet one. After I completely unraveled this first bag I made (it was too small, bulky and not really what I expected) ...

I came up with this bag: 

I would give you the advice, if in doubt on a chrochet project, let it sit for a few days or so and if you're still not sure, unravel. You might get something better back for it. I'd say I did for sure. I love this bag already.

Materials used:

• red/cream striped zpagetti/textile yarn from Hoooked. 
• grey Zpagetti/textile yarn I picked up at Blokker a while ago
• two belts I bought on sale at V&D
• four rings I cut off an old bag that I threw out, because it was old and broken. 
• old scarf I never wear anyway

I did not follow a pattern really. I wrote just wrote along the first four rows. Which were not really rows, but rounds really. But at least I can give you the starting chain and help start off, because once you've got yourself a bottom, it's fairly simple.

1. Chain 28

2. Double Crochet (US term) in the 4th chain from the hook. Double Crochet in every chain, 4 DCs in the last chain. Proceed on the other side of the chain and three DCs in the last chain. Slip stitch in the top three chain.

4. repeat two rows with Single Crochet and don't forget to decrease in at the last four stiches.

5. Switch to the main colour of the bag and DC around.

I'm not exactly sure of this description though. But my mom asked me to make one for her too, so I hope to come up with a proper pattern in time...

Lining the bag was quite a challenge and all thanks go to my mom and her sewing machine. I'm new to machine sewing. As in, I had my first try on one side of sewing the lining for this bag. The scarf fabric was not the best material to start of with though...

After a little inside bag was made, I pinned and hand stitched it to the bag. 

Attaching the belts was fun. I tried different ways and ended up with this, more or less by accident.

Lots of space inside.

Take care and have a wonderful week!

Scrapbook Saturday: DIY Memoboard Love

Saturday is a day for creativity. Painting, craft, dance, drawing, painting, design, photography or diy projects. I would like to share something creative for you. This week a lovely DIY memoboard.

 This memoboard might take a little more time (due to time to let things dry), but is quite rewarding (clean desk!).

You'll need:
* Wool / thread / ribbon  (I used a pastel pink wool I had laying around. It's going to be covered in (white) paint. so any light colour will do)
* Canvas (mine was 50x60 cm, but you can make it as big or small as you like).
* Gummiband (mine was 6mm)
* White paint (of course you can use another colour if you like!)
* Glue
* Scissors
* Paintbrush(es)
* Pencil
* White pins

Six easy steps

1. Lay out your word with the wool. Try out different words, sizes and writing styles.
2. When you've found your word and size, write with pencil. Then trace with glue letter by letter, and stick your wool to the canvas. Let it dry.
3. When it's dry cover in paint. I painted quite thick, so it needed quite some time to dry.
4. You could also do two or more layers.
5. Attach the Gummiband in any kind of pattern. First on the side(s)...
6.  then in the middle.

I like mine (It will also look pretty bare).