Thursday 28 August 2008

Material Obsession


I'm started with a new quilt. My daughter like to have one for on her bed. She has a orange wall and we bought a lot of bright coloured fabric. I'm making a quilt out of my new book; Material Obsession and it's named Annie's Garden. It has a lot of flowers and love hearts. This is a easy applique quilt, but with a lot of work involved. The result is worth the effort.

It is a good quilt to make in the summer, you can sit outside in the sun and make a new flower.

But first I have to prepare all the bits and pieces so it will take a little while before I can sit and make a flower.

If I look at all the fabric and the colours, I start smiling. They make me happy!

Thursday 21 August 2008

Souvenir.


On our trip to the South Island a few weeks ago we made a lot of pictures from different mailboxes. We made a great print of it for the wall in the living room. We had a lot of different colours for the background but red was our favorite, exactly the same colour red as our bookcase. It looks great and every time I see it , it remind me of a great week. We had a lot of fun making all the pictures on the most difficult spots to stop a car. But we did it. I think it is the best souvenir ever!

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Almost spring!!







On the first of September we get spring in New Zealand. We didn't have a cold winter but is was wet and windy. So spring is more than welcome. It feels if we had already a spring day today. The sun was out and it was nice and warm. I've been in the garden planting my summer seeds. I put some giant sunflower seeds in the back of my veggie garden against the garage wall from the neighbours. I can't wait till the are there. They are real summer for me. Pumpkin seeds from our own pumpkin from last year and poppieseeds from the neighbours are in little pots now. My mini glasshouse will give them some extra heat and if I give them every now and then some water they will absolutely grow under the warm NZ sun.

My second daughter made some nice jewellery and likes to sell them in my Etsy shop. As a proud mum we made photo's and put them in the shop. Hopefully she will have some good luck.

Thursday 14 August 2008

Kitchen craft




The weather is terrible at the moment, rain, hail, thunder and wind. But never mind it's winter, better times coming soon.
We are still busy renovating the kitchen. We took an old wall out and make a new wall. By the time we wanted to paint we discovered a leak behind the new wall :(
I can tell you that doesn't make you happy. Andre fixed the problem so we could start painting. That part already looks great now. I made a drawing of a bench and shelves that Andre is making at the moment. I really like the decorating part so I made cushion for on the bench and from the leftovers a love heart. I can't wait to put it on and have our first breakfast in the "new" kitchen.

Friday 8 August 2008

Little girls room.











Lieke has the smallest room in the house so we had to create space for her to play. We gave her a bunk bed , it's easy to have friends over to stay the night. Kids always love to make huts and tents so I made a tent for her to put in front of her bunk so she can play there when she wants. For her it is the perfect spot to hide her toys and clothes when I ask her to tidy-up her room. I made flower pots with flowers and made felt flowers around the window and gave her a little curtain what she can close( if she wants to hide something).
I think it looks great and I love to sleep there once. Maybe I can arrange a sleepover with my little girl.

I made for all of the girls a personal chair with there name. For Lieke of course in pink and red. And she made a name tag for her door all by herself.

Wednesday 6 August 2008

A little corner.


Just a little peek into my house.

A little corner.

Just a little peek into my house.

Tuesday 5 August 2008

Great books.


I bought 2 great books in Nelson on our last holiday. One craft book and one family book. The crafty one is a quilt book ; Material obsession , by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. It is a fantastic book with lots of inspiration. The two girls are the owners of a popular patchwork shop in Australia. Have a look on http://www.materialobsession.com/ and you will get lots of inspiration.The second book is a Pippi Longstocking book, our Hero. We love that little girl. We've been to Sweden ones and saw "her" in real life. I try to collect everything from her. In Holland one of the girls had a real Pippi room. The book is illustrated by Lauren Child a great illustrator.
I like to introduce you all to a new blogger.
Her name is Lyndele and you can find her on http://www.creativeliving-lyndele.blogspot.com/ . It would be great if you visit her once.

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.