Playmais miniature pumpkins

{ a rainy day activity}

We recently bought some playmais in preparation for less warm days and more days spent indoors with a slightly bored three and a half year old.

If you have playmais at home you can help your little one make some mini pumpkins for decoration or garlands for Halloween.

To make one pumpkin you’ll need three orange, three peach and one brown playmais pieces.

Squash each of the orange and peach coloured pieces on once side only. Wet on of the sides and stick together to make the pumpkin.  Roll the brown piece between your fingers until it becomes half size in length and width. Wet and stick on top of the pumpkin.

 Love,

Irina xx

Being frugal

{and the felted jumper}

I bought this jumper a couple of years ago for Lovely Husband. It is 100% merino wool and I quite liked the colour. Only after a few months in shrunk in the washing machine and became mine. Well it shrunk again and than it found its self in the pile of clothes destined to the local charity shop. 

 

I have been wanting to make something using felt for ages and so I decided to recycle the jumper and make something for Lovely Little Daughter.

I found the inspiration between the pages of Marie Claire Idees – I love those little cardigans…

 

I wasn’t sure about the quality of the felt and how it is going to turn out, so first I made a jumper for my girl's little teddy – which in her case is a giant mouse.

 

Well, you know I am not good at making clothes but the result was actually not too bad.

 

I made my own bias tape and if you haven’t got a bias tape making tool than I suggest you to get one – it is easy to use, the tape is done in no time and I love the fact that I can use any fabric…in this case some Liberty prints would have been great but sadly I had none left.

Both Lovely Daughter and Lovely Giant Mouse were very pleased.

Wishing you all a lovely week!

Love

Irina xx

P.S. Off to clean my sewing machine now as felt leaves so much fluff, it’s unbelievable.

A post in between

{ Goodbye summer, hello the 'Bers}

Well it is official …the summer is over…until next year! We went to the park last weekend to collect conkers and acorns and the ground was covered with yellow leaves…

We had a nice summer! Not as many sunny days as we would have hoped for…but many nice days spent in the park, meeting friends, enjoying the little girl who is growing up by the minute, turning into this amazing little person, and trying to take pleasure in life and see the world through the eyes of a three and a half year old…

So here it is…in as fewer words as possible…our German summer…

At first we were all anxious and waiting for it…

Than it was suddenly here…but not as we expected it…Lovely Little Daughter didn’t seem to mind…only her mummy did...

  

We had lovely time at the Baltic Sea ( Ostsee) with the parents in law and we had the most delicious home made smoked fish…

 

We enjoyed nature…

 

Than the summer was suddenly back in all its sunny glory…

Back in Frankfurt we attended our first craft fair…the whole family was there…

 

And than there was more summer…

 

Lovely Mum visited from England ...and we also did the tourist bit and went to Heidelberg to meet some lovely friends from London...we also had a surprise visit from Lovely Best Friend and her husband…

 

                 We had a fabulous summer…

                                                                  Hope that you all had a great summer...

                                      Welcome autumn...

Love

Irina xx

Home Made Craft Labels

{ or labels on a budget, or in the last minute}

I would like to share with you a great idea for DIY labels that I found many months ago. It is so creative and clever that I wish it was mine, but I actually saw it here, at the lovely blog Patchwork and Pottery.

You’ll need the following:

T-shirt transfer kit

Twill tape

Printer

Exacto knife and board (this one is optional)

Scissors

Iron

 

I used the Avery T-shirt transfer pack, and I bought the one for white t-shirts, as my labels are white. I know that they have a kit for dark t-shirts. I am sure you can buy a cheaper version. I bough mine on Amazon.

Yes, you will need to reverse your image, so when you iron it, it will show from the right side!

Here are the steps you’ll need to follow:

I have undated the instructions since I first published this post as many people e-mailed me with questions:

Download the free software Avery Design Pro 5.

Link for PC here.

Link for MAC here.

Open the software and select the blank page just below File. From the list of templates choose the number of your product - T-shirt transfer. If you are not using Avery, than look for C9045. And from there on it is like using a word document.

Remember to leave spacing and also make sure that the height of your labels is smaller than the width of your ribbon or twill tape.

The good thing about the Avery Design Pro Software is that you don't have to worry about reversing your image. It will know that automatically because you have selected the T-shirt transfer template. Clink of Print Preview to check this. Do print out a couple of test pages. Once you are happy with the colour or the spacing than print it on the transfer paper from your T-shirt transfer kit.

Another tip is to check the settings of your printer. Many modern printers have the “Reverse image " option in the printer settings. If you have this option, than you can use a Word document to create your labels and use the printer settings to reverse the image before printing.

After you have printed your labels on the transfer paper use an exacto knife a board and a ruler to cut strips of your labels. If you do not have an exacto knife, than you can use paper scissors.

Once you have cut out your strips, you’ll need to iron them on the twill tape. At this point you will have to follow the description of your T-shirt transfer kit – but basically use hot iron, no steam and leave the labels to cool off completely before peeling off. A tip from me - try to press your labels, it works better than ironing.

 

When completely cool, peel off the paper and cut your desired labels. Ready – your very own, hand made labels in less than an hour!

 

 

 

 What I love about this way of making labels is the variety - you can choose any colour of twill tape, use colourful writing, personalize your labels or even have little images like flower or butterfly. Or you can make a continuous label tape.

And while I was waiting for the  labels to cool down, I made this absolutely delicious Italian herbs and parmesan bread. OK it took more than 5 min, but the bread is very quick and easy to make. I found the recipe here. I also cheated and used a packet of brown bread mix and the flavour is still amazing.

Have a lovely weekend!

Love

Irina xx

Letter Cushion

{ P for Paula}

Just wanted to share a letter shaped cushion I made for a little girl called Paula. I haven’t made P before so I am quite happy as to how it turned out. I hope Paula will like it too! Her mummy gave me the fabrics but I am not sure the photos do justice to the lovely denim, combined with white stars on the side and the contrast with the pink piping  – oh,  I love using piping…it gives an object this slightly more sophisticated look…

Hope you are all having a creative week!

Love

Irina xx

So exciting

{ a blog award}

Oh how exciting, the lovely Angela from Bingecrafter has decided to give me an award…thank you so much Angela, you are so sweet!

 

 I am not entirely sure what to do, but I guess I can use the occasion and answer a few questions to help you get to know me a bit better:

1. Favorite color: anywhere between brown and tobacco green (although lately I have gone out of my comfort zone and ventured into reds and yellows)
2. Favorite song: Oh, so many – my husband and I spend endless evenings in front of YouTube, taking turns to select favourite songs and to ask “Remember this one…?”
3. Favorite dessert: Pavlova anytime
4. What upsets you at the moment: rudeness and ignorance
5. Favorite pet: that would be my mum’s cat Richie
6. Black or white: black
7. Biggest fear: that something bad might happen
8. Best feature: I am quite straight forward ( not sure if that is not worst feature actually)
9. Everyday attitude: positive
10. What is perfection? Something that gives me a lot of hassle…I wish I was less of a perfectionist
11. Guilty pleasure?  Champagne
12. When I'm upset... I call my mum or my husband or my best friend – and usually feel much better afterwards

And here are my nominations:

Rachel at Four Wise Monkeys
Astird at Red Red Completely Red
Janine at Heidi in Lederhosen 
Suzitee at Stitch Scrap Sew 
Gabi at Good luck - its me 

Love,
Irina xx

Classic Cheesecake

 { an attempt at German baking}

Before I moved to Germany, I never came across a baked cheesecake. I love blueberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, even tried making a chocolate and raspberry cheesecake ( very nice!), but they are all no-bake-leave-in-the-fridge varieties.

So I really wanted to make a baked cheesecake and after finding what seem to be (and indeed is) a very easy recipe, I gave it a go. Well, I used quark rather than creme cheese – note to self: stick to cream cheese; and I think I could have separated the eggs to give it a more fluffy texture. One thing is for sure, I will make it again, and hopefully one day it will reach the ultimate stage of cheesecakeness (that is not really a word, is it), and also that golden brown colour usually featured in the nice cook books. Some how mine turned a bit more on the brown rather than on the golden side.

Flipping through the pages of the latest issue of Marie Claire Idees definitely added an extra flavour to the cheesecake.

More on food - Lovely Little Daughter usually eats well, but even she has her phases, and sometimes I am not ready with dinner until 6pm, by which time I have a tired toddler and I need something quick and nice for here to eat. So lately she has been dining on cocktail type food, with a lot of colours and always featuring some of her all time favourite foods like olives, feta cheese, bread, tomatoes and eggs…

Wishing you all a lovely Monday!

Love

Irina xx