Herero Woman

Well at least she has sun to enjoy ;-) and doesn't she ;-)

She is nearly finished,

oil painting on canvas

40x50x2cm

time for tea towel

Isn't this just so utterly something that should be in my kitchen?! The dots, the colours and the fun. I BIG thank you to twospunkymonkies who made me this towel. I received it today as well as a cute card and a calender with beautiful photo's of her area. This towel is so me! Oh and I appreciate the time going into the blanket stitch, is very special. I'm honoured to be your first swap partner ;-) Well done!

CM Tea Towel Swap

We had a tea towel swap at CraftyMamas in October. I had fun with a plain (bought) tea towel. I've used flowered and fun buttons, retro dotted fabric, Japanese fabric and golden ric rac. I'm always nervously awaiting feedback on the swaps (hoping it is satisfying). So today I got a pm that the package has arrived:

"Monique I received my tea towel today - Thank you so much!!! It is really beautiful - I know you said you were only new to sewing, but you did an amazing job - I really love it. I almost appliqued cupcakes on yours as well, but changed my mind at the last minute. Great minds think alike!! Once again thank you. " No, Thank YOU lol 2spunkymonkies!

crowns, high heels and grand dresses

We are going to a birthday party in a couple of hours. It is not just any birthday so the gift had to be special too. It is the first birthday of my friend's first child: the most cute little girl!

I wanted to make her something and then got inspired by my dd of 5. She draws the whole time (with glitter gel pens) queens with high heels, long dresses, long hair and crowns. So one of the pics (lying all over the house) caught my eye and I've decided to use it.

I've used cute Japanese fabrics, Dutch Folk prints and very retro dots to sew this little queen. I've added a lot of tags (made one with her name on) and buttons (which I've sewn so that she'd never get it into her mouth) for the fun of it. I've painted the faces with textile paint, using white glitter textile paint and lilac. I've called in my little girl for the honors of drawing the faces herself with textile pen. She decided to draw a princess and 2 cats on the "awake face". Very cute and she's as proud as a peacock! I've stuffed only the head and the body. Will definitely do this again and make it into a pyjama bag. I also have to use my other dd pics to make another version.

I've deliberately sewn the high heels facing the same way as in the original painting ;-) She is 55cm from crown to toe and 29 cm at the widest part of her dress. The only important part I didn't add to the doll was the long hair. Maybe next time!

Never trust Wild horses

Yes, another horse in the topic. This one was ordered by the innovative Crafty Mama (herself). It was a lot of fun to paint and I couldn't wait for her to receive it....

and I couldn't wait for her to receive it....

and I couldn't wait for her to receive it....

and I couldn't wait for her to receive it....

and I couldn't wait for her to receive it....

it seemed like ages

I've posted her the same time as another swap order in Australia and that one did get there quick(the tiger one). At first I didn't hear a word and thought both were gone with the wind but then it seemed that the poor mom was so swallowed up in mom stuff that she just forgot to let me know.

Well, at last the horse got to the intended stable and I got a very nice reaction:

today 23rd Oct

"Today we received the bag that Mon painted for my dd. It is truly stunning...Mon, you are gifted. DD loves it so!! Thank you! "

Well thank you Cin! I wish dd lots of fun times with that bag ;-)

Enter in the Fall giveaway

Hello,

I've joined the Fall Bloggy giveaway

I've you like to make a chance of winning this tea towel I've textile painted just add (below this post)

1. your name,
2. why you'd like to win the tea towel and
3. a way for me to contact you when you're a winner!

• The towel is heat set and washable at max 40degrees.
• I've written a recipe for pumpkin caramel cookies on it.
• I sent internationally and the shipping charge is for my account.
• I'll draw a winner in the 1st weekend of November
• I'll contact the winner and If I don't get a response within 5 days I'll draw another winner.
  
• If you'd like to enter at more Fall giveaways, take a look here

Giveaway is closed the winner is Alyson

a horse called Bea

The past 2 days I gathered all courage and tackled a farbenmix pattern, the 2nd one, called Bea. I embelished it with crocheted flowers at the back and one at the front I made while watching the girls play on the beach at the Rhine river this past Summer.

If you don't know if you'd try out the pattern yourself, please don't base your decicion on my version of it. But have a look at Peppels Design 's. Hers is absolutely adorable. I've made a calculation mistake and a common sense mistake. I've cut 2 right pockets (don't ask) and trying to right my wrong I ended up with 3 right pockets (don't ask). That left me with no pocket at all! And no fabric left to make the utter cute hood (snif!). I also cut 2 right arms (don't ask) and ended up cutting 4 front arms so as to still make it work....

But in all of this decided that as a beginner I can't suspect miracles where I'm concerned and that I just get back on the horse after every throw. Poor Horse Bea, it is not her fault. Her stable mates: Sscissors, MeasureTape and SewingMachine were silent witnesses and could just shake their heads and avoid eye contact. Well, the story does end well. Nobody got hurt and DD7yrs loves it. DD5yrs cried because I didn't make HER one too....
I think we may be looking at a sequel here.

Meet Patricia, Katerina, Pernilla and Alexandra

This weekend we went to Ikea for a bright flowery fabric I saw and gotta have. Didn't find it though it was in the latest folder, but came back with a couple of others. Quite a contrast ;-)

Get your copy now!

Ok I've been fooling around with flickr

mushrooms,hedgehogs,berries and leaves

The girls and I made hedgehogs, leaves and mushrooms with DAS clay. These are my creations, theirs are at theirs school as a part of a Autumn table.

It was really fun to make and to paint with Acryl paint.

I took the photo in our garden an for additional colour I added some picked berries(they're real!).

Today I saw the most awesome gathering of mushrooms.

I was on my way with my dd of 6 who fell in gym class on her mouth...

one broken tooth, one milk tooth the dentist had to remove and 2 huge cuts in her lip. From 5 places blood came and I can just say it looked like a slaughter.

She's ok now but it will take some days to heal and she's eating difficult at the moment and can't pronounce the letter "p". Next week she'll go again to the dentist to fix her broken tooth.

Anyway I was on my way from the dentist to the doctor with her and we took a short cut. Oh my! we saw these huge red mushrooms with white spots. The bigges I've ever seen. Oh so beautiful!

I just know them as "the red mushrooms with the white spots"

but this afternoon my 5 year old came home and told me she knew their name: "vliegenzwam" in Dutch

anyway if I translate it direct it is fly fungi I think. Well so now I have to go and surf and see what it is called in English. Oh I see in English it is called fly mushroom. So now we know that too and the name coms aparantly because it is used for killing flies.

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Tigers and Butterflies

This butterfly bag was a lot of fun to make. I tried something different and it worked. My oldest daughter said it looked like a butterfly garden. The friend ordering this bag really loved it...me too...wanted to keep it ;-)

This tiger bag was a swap order: I've painted this for a CraftyMama in return for craft magazine and lovely soaps she make herself. She loves tigers and asked if I could paint her a tiger bag. Please visit her site here. (Spoil yourself with her fragrant soaps)

Catty pyjama bag

One of the girls had to go to a birthday party. I wanted to make something for the birthday girl. I stumbled across the plastic bag idea to make a pyjama bag. So the birthday girl can stuff her pyjamas under the kitty's dress, the kitty stays on the girl's bed and so the pyjamas are neat and easy to find when it is bedtime.

I had fun making the kitty and decided to give her two sides: so on the one side she is sleepy and on the other side she's wide awake. I've used the modern dotted fabric and the purple fun fabric (Violet's suprise gift to me) to make the kitty cat. The girls love her and want their own. Chanah wants a puppy so I'm definitely going to make her again with a few adjustments.

Read more about pyjama bags at Woof Nanny's blog.

I had a handed down(from my aunt) pink cat with a broken zipper