Creative week, part 4

Christmas is coming! I made a Christmas advent calender with love hearts.
Every year I try to make something different for the girls what they always enjoy.
This year I made a Christmas tree full with love heart made from felt with polka dots. You can fill the love hearts with a nice treat. That's the most important part ! I made some for the Arts trail as well and I put one in my Etsy shop.
My choice is the white with red polka dots but I also made one in pink with white polka dots.

Creative week, part 3

I made some pin boards as well, very use full for your Christmas cards, birthday cards or other things you want to show. My favorite is the red polka dot one.

It is really hard to show you everything I made for the Arts Trail, so I choose some items that I like. I made pouches in all different colours but this in my favorite one. You can use them for 1001 things . I like the colours pink and red together, looks happy.

Creative week, part 2

This is day two of showing you my work. We started the day very slow because my little girl had a teacher only day. It is great to spend some time just with one. She stayed in bed a bit longer than normal and we baked some nice cupcakes for afternoon tea together. She did the decoration part and I can tell you there was a lot of icing involved. But by the time her big sisters came home we she was finished and we had some nice cupcakes.

I made a lot of great gift bags, I saw the tutorial on Heleen's blog and they are really easy to make and are great for the gifts on the Arts Trail. Makes it more professional.
So thanks a lot Heleen for showing how to make these great gift bags.

I made a bag out of purple jute with vintage lace, it's a big bag so great so take all your stuff with you. It's made to sell on the Arts Trail but If I don't sell it I put it in my Etsy shop.
I like all the bags I made but can't keep them all so I have to make a good choice.

Creative week, part 1

Love hearts made from linen, with a button made from shells and a jute string.

We spotted a great letterbox on our walking trip.

I love letterboxes like this!

I like to organize a creative week. Close to the arts trail there is a lot off work to do and to finish. And I really like to show you all the things I made. So from now on every day another item. But I do more than only sitting behind my sewing machine. Yesterday we went for a big family walk. We parked the car on a parking place and made a great walk and we went back by train. Always a great experience for the kids because we never go by train. It was great and we had great views. I'm very happy to live in a beautiful country like this.

The first thing I want to show you are the linen love hearts with a button made from shells and a jute string. Very natural. I have to update my Etsy shop as well with new items , that's an other job on the "to do" list. Better go and do some work!

Arts Trail

The kapiti Coast's arts and craft exponents will open the doors of their studios to the public on the second weekend of November. The trail is open from 10am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday, November 8-9.

This is the biggest annual arts event on the Kapiti Coast. We have an incredible number of talented artist and it is wonderful to have this event to showcase them to visitors.

The arts trail ranges from Paekakariki in the south to Otaki in the north. The range of arts include; paintings,ironwork,jewellery,sculptures, mosaics, stone, pottery, quilts, garden art felting and much more.

We made a lot of things and love to give you a little glimpse of what we made. It was great fun making all the things and thinking how to display. We thinking of having a beach theme. So we went to the beach every night and brought back heaps of driftwood to display all the items.

So if you are in New-Zealand it's worth to come over and spent a great weekend on the coast. And if you are looking for accommodation you can stay the night in our Bed and Breakfast.

Your Welcome !!

Bed and Breakfast

You can all come and stay the night with us.
A little dream came true, we are having our own Bed and Breakfast: Lovely Living.

We live on the Kapiti Coast in a little town, Waikanae. It won a competition for the most beautiful small town from New Zealand (less than 40.000 people), I think it is absolutely true.
We are proud to live here, on walking distance to the beach and with great walking tracks in the area.
Waikanae is 50 KM from Wellington the capital City of New Zealand, it's a great town to visit with a lot of things to do and see.

We can offer you a nice little room for two, with two single beds and breakfast with homemade jam and juice from our own fruit. You can have your breakfast in bed, on the veranda or sit with us on the big family table.
There is a outside bath so you can have a romantic evening under the stars. With some good luck you will see a falling star ( and maybe all your wishes come true). But if you think that's too cold you can always come inside to have your shower.
We are surrounded by lots of fruit trees and a nice Private garden.

Do you think this is the place to be, send me a e-mail so I can contact you.

from old to new.

I had a little break again, we had more family over for a few nights. This is going to be a busy year. After 7 more weeks my mum is coming over from Holland, she is staying for 6 weeks. And when all the visitors have left, we are thinking of making a little Bed and Breakfast from the guest room.
I really enjoy having guest over and it is a nice little room so why not.

When my dad was here, he helped me with a old rocking chair that I've got for free from a nice lady in the neighbourhood. It was absolutely not a nice chair but now it looks great and it sits wonderfull. We bought a little fireplace on a garage sale as well . Both of them are standing on the veranda and we already had some great hours sitting out there in the evening with the little fire on. The girls enjoying their marshmallows and we our wine. Life can be so beautiful.

I'm back !!

Sorry for the absence but we had a very bust time. My dad was over from Holland and it was great to see him again. We did a lot of things together. In the weekend we spend time together with the whole family. After we brought him to the airport for his long flight back home, the kids started school holidays. You can imagine not much time for myself. The computer is never free and we are really busy making lots and lots of things for the Arts Trail. We are selected and we are looking forward. It's in the first weekend of November but for who are interested I will keep you updated.
Maybe you can remember that we where renovating the kitchen. I can tell you we just finished one part. We still have to do the other side but with more family coming over this weekend and over a few weeks, I don't know if we will start with that part. We don't want to have a big mess when we are having visitors.
But now we can have breakfast in the kitchen and I like it. We already spend a lot of time in our "new" kitchen. And we all see it as quality time!