Wednesday 30 July 2008

Postcard.


Today everybody is sending post by e-mail. We do the same , it's fast, easy and for free, so why not. But I really love to send and get real post.

I try to make all the cards myself and most of the time they are made from paper with a picture . Now I made something totally different. I made fabric postcards. There is a flower or a love heart on the front and on the back you can right the message. And easy to send with the normal post.
With all my quilt scraps I can make 500 cards, but I don't' think I'll do that.
So if your birthday is coming soon, you already seen the card.

Monday 28 July 2008

I think I'm moving to my new house !







Last weekend we had stormy and wet weather , great craft weather!
I got a NZ Home and Garden from a friend and spotted lovely houses made from felt in there. I loved them so I went to the nearest craft shop to buy some nice colours of felt. A great material to work with.

The roof is made of scrap fabric from my Cath kidston quilt. I made 3 of them. Andre said that he would like to have a look inside and I would like to have them as my holiday home. I really enjoyed making them. I also made 3 houses for in my Etsy shop, and I'm thinking of making a real Dutch house group (in red ,white, blue and orange) and a Christmas group. When I'm finished with the others I'll show you. And when I'm being crafty at the big table, Lieke is always there to make something as well. She made a little cushion with a pink ribbon and a pink button.

Andre started with renovating the kitchen and the girls were helping to take the old wall out. Great fun! I always love it when we are renovating (if the mess is not too big and you can still find your stuff). I enjoy it, because you know that the result will always be better. Sometimes it's sort of camping in your own house. And I love camping, so no problems at all with me.

Saturday 26 July 2008

Spot the different.




As you know I like garage sales, and last Saturday I bought two little furniture items. But of course they needed a bit of my own touch. So I painted them white and made a new cover. Now you can spot the different. I thinks it looks much better.

Thursday 24 July 2008

A new Quilt is born.




My quilt is finished,and I'm happy with it. First I thought it was a bit too light but then I made purple love hearts all over the quilt and now it looks much better. It is now ready to go in the guest room. I machine quilted it and make some circles in the purple pinwheels.
Everyday I spot new blogs and I'm still surprised that there are heaps of nice crafty blogs.
Today I visited http://www.sewtakeahike.typepad.com/ and she is organizing a great give away. It's a great blog, so go and have a look.
Yesterday I have been with one of my girls to Cinderella on Ice. It was super!! So if you are in the Wellington (NZ) area, you have to see it. It is so great !!
Last but not least, I had my first sale on Etsy this week. I was very exiting and it gave me a lot of courage to go on with making things, for my little shop.

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Little gift.







Today I had a great day. The girls are back at school and Lieke is happy on her new school. Always exiting the first few days but she is a very social girl. The teacher told me everything is going really well.
It was raining almost the whole day and I had a big day in. I bought some furniture on a garage sale last Saturday and it needed a bit of paint. So I stared my day with a lot of white paint. In between I made some plum jam and I finished my little Christmas quilt that I already made for somebody to give away with Christmas. And last but not least I made a folding photo Album. We had guest over for a week and they are traveling now over the South Island. On the way back to Auckland they are staying for another night at our place. So I would like to give them a little souvenir to take home. I made a fold out photo book that needs to be filed with pictures, we made while they were at our place. We all can write something in it to make it a really personal gift. I love photo's you can never have enough of them. I'm sure they will like there little gift.

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Back to reality.









After a great week we are back home. It is great to go on holiday but is also great to go home.
We travelled a bit around the South Island and enjoyed the lovely mountains with snow on top. The girls had a snow fight. We had great beach walks on empty beaches and saw baby seals playing in the sea. The weather was perfect,a great blue sky every day. And of course we brought heaps of shells home with us. I took the book with me "crafty girls on a road trip". Andre was a bit worried to go into all the crafty shops but at the end he loved it. The girls were asking, "Mum is there another place to go out of your book". We discovered great coffee spots and qute art shops. And last but not least on our last evening we went to the Cinema to see Mama Mia. A must see movie!
I made photo's of a lot of great letterboxes we saw on the trip. They are so crazy sometimes. People put a lot of effort in them. We loved it.
The kids still have one week off and doing there thing. And after a long day of holiday washes, I'm busy finishing off my quilt for in the guest room.
And Andre promised me to make a start after the holiday with renovating the kitchen. I already have heaps of ideas in my mind, so lets start!

Thursday 3 July 2008

Holiday !!


Today is the end of term 2 and that means 2 weeks off school. We had a really busy last week, with lots of nice things but I'm happy that it is weekend now. And tomorrow morning we are of to the South Island. First we go on the ferry for a trip that takes 3 hours. We go for a little Tiki tour trough the South Island. Staying some nights in Golden Bay, the West coast and Nelson. On the way we will visit some family who is living there and we booked some great places to stay with the 5 of us. Hopefully we will get a great family time. We all looking forward.

And it was a bit of a sad week as well, because Lieke our little girl is moving to an other school after the holiday. So she had to say goodbye to her friend and teacher. But she organised a shared lunch on Wednesday for her and we baked some great cookies to shares this morning for morning tea. After the holiday she is moving to a local school . So we don't have to drive everyday 50 Km. We can go on the bike. Much better for the environment and the money. The petrol prices are not funny anymore. But the most important reason was that she can make friend in the area. Yesterday we had a meeting with her new teacher and Lieke is looking forward to go to her new school so that is great.

There is still one thing to do, packing all the bags !!
So I'm off to do that now before I pick up the girls from school.
I 'll take my Christmas quilt with me so I can finish it of and of course I'll take my sock-knitting with me. I won't be bored this holiday.

Introducing

This is the first time that I write in my blog.
I am Jacoline, me and my family emigrated to New Zealand from The Netherlands 3 years ago.
I can tell you, we went through some hard times in those 3 years, but we found our dream.

We bought a lovely home close to the beach. I spend a lot of time in our garden which has a lot of fruit trees, a nice vegetable garden and great flowers.

I love to shop in secondhand shops and garages sales are the best invention ever.
My days are filled with craft, cooking , baking and of course my 3 girls.
I try to have a beachwalk every day and on wednesday I join the quilt club.

We are still busy with rebuiling the house to make it a great home.
We like traveling and like to discover our new country.
I keep you updated with new stories, recipes, ideas and pictures every week.