Star of the day

In Belgium the month of May, is the month of the first Communion. We already presented the gift bags we made as a keepsake for the Communion of Julie.

Today we show you the dress and gadgets we made for the Communion of Elise. The star of the day, choose Twinkle Twinkle in teal from the ‘Constellations’ collection of Lizzy House.

Elise requested some matching gadgets for her hair and a wristband. As I did not know if she prefers an elastic headband or a tiara we made her one of each.

The Curl Up model on duty looks a little glum, she thought the gadgets where looking good on her and she disagreed on sending them to Belgium.

The sister of the party girl also got a new dress. She chose a Candy Cane Bubble Dress and matching accessories.

The clothes were send to Belgium, and after a sunny day we received these pictures.

Both Elise and Isaline wearing there party clothes.

Pattern of the flowers: Zo geknipt

Star fabric: Twinkle Twinkle in Teal from Lizzy House, bought @ HawthorneThreads

Candy Cane fabric: bought @ Bambiblauw

Dress patterns: homemade by Curl Up

Cozette enlightens

Every morning at the crack of dawn, we enjoy the view of the tallest building in the world. 

The view on the backside of the house keeps us down to earth.

We rent a house that is perfectly sized to fit the whole family and a comfortable workroom. The only disadvantage –likewise most rental houses in the area- is the poor quality of the workmanship; topnotch Made-in-China.

Every week I have to do the tour of the house with hammer and screwdriver to fix broken door handles, to retighten drooping kitchen cabinet doors, to glue loose tiles, to replace broken lights,…

In some cases the repair works are more elaborate, for example that time at the end of 2012 when -in the middle of the night- the chandelier fell of the ceiling.

Not really funny as the thing came with the rental house and was –completely not according to my own style- made of glass beads who didn’t survive the fall.

Inspired by the lampshade we received from Cozette last summer, we made our own lampshade to replace the broken one.

Hanging a single lampshade was not an option as that does not provide enough light for the workroom. Consequently we made 6 lampshades with varying diameters.

We bought a couple of meters of electrical cord in this online shop with an extensive choice and great service!

Each lampshade hangs at a different height from the ceiling.

I got some help to attach the chandelier as I do not have a lot of confidence in the local electricity. To demonstrate why: this is how the wiring looks behind our house.

There are numerous online guidelines on how to decorate lampshades, but most of them describe to glue the fabric on the lampshade. The genius system of Cozette does not include glue only needle and thread. Consequently, the fabric cover can easily be washed or even replaced by another fabric. The used fabric can then be recuperated!

I will not write a detailed manual on how to make a lampshade, because, as mentioned before, it is her procedure. You are free of course to contact Cozette to follow a workshop and learn to cover your own lampshades, or you can just buy one.

Mini shopping bags

As a keepsake to her first Communion ‘Julie’ will soon distribute pictures to friends and family. The pictures are presented in a tiny, made-to-measure shopping bag.

On one side we embroidered her name, and the other side is made of printed cotton in a matching color.

Bags in all colors of the rainbow, for a colorful girl.

Congratulations Julie, and enjoy your day!

Oh deer flock

Homemade heat transfer design for Jade and Elias.

The idea for a fluorescent deer comes from Elias.

The red round neck shirt was purchased last summer at Hema.

The blue vest was purchased at Petit Bateau.

I really can’t tell you more about it.

And ... more Spring Fever

It wasn’t only time to clean out the house. We also clear some Curl Up stock. Since a couple of weeks all items are 35% off. Hope to see you in our online shop.

A festive garland to celebrate the Curl Up sales. Although… This might eventually turn into something different! Keep reading this blog to find out more!

Spring fever

We cleared out the whole house. Once per year we check all the cabinets, drawers, every box and shelf. This ‘spring fever clean’ session resulted in some colorful storage improvements.

I finally found a way to properly store our collection of washi tape; by using an old branch of the garden.

Conclusion I do not need to buy any more washi tape as I currently have enough tape.

The cones of embroidery thread finally got neatly arranged. We attached a wooden board on the wall the cones can be slide over long nails.

This is not an idea from pinterest, I saw it in the workroom of a local tailor in Sharjah.

We arranged our cones by color.

Visitors

We had a great start of the month April, we did a city trip (you will need some patience to read more details and see the pictures of our trip); followed by a visit of grandmother and grandfather, what a joy!

Oma, as usual impressed by the amount of colors in the workroom, commissioned me to make two beach bags. She listed that the bags have to be big enough to accommodate two towels, a magazine or a book, and some sweets or biscuits and if possible a compartment to stow away keys and glasses.

It took Oma 15 minutes decide on the fabric combinations; but according to me those 15 minutes were well spend as her choice is marvelous.

Lack of time made me decide to take the same pattern as we used here. The size of the bag was changed to make sure it was big enough according to Oma her wishes and we finished the corners differently to give the bags more volume. 

Nevertheless we still followed the work description from this book.

And … we even made Oma a compartment for her keys and glasses. We can’t wait till we spend the summer holidays together at the Belgian coast.

The green and red fabric are Kona Solids from Robert Kaufman bought @ Classic Quilts & Quilting.

The Atomic from Michael miller was bought @ Vermiljoenshop.

Feeling groovy from Michael Miller was bought @ NanaKidBoutique in Abu Dhabi.