Billy times three

This was the first in a series of 'limited edition' Billy bookcases; meanwhile we made three more.
And two for the girls' bedroom.

One for the boys' bedroom.

I venture to say I am an expert now. Everybody who hesitates to make his own version I would say: just do it!
It is fun, easy and the result is stunning.

I assemble the whole cabinet (do not nail the backpanel to the shelves), and mark the desired height of the shelves. Remove the backpanel, cut the fabric at the correct size. Prepare some white glue (schoolglue, or woodglue) by mixing it with water until it is a watery solution. Somewhere between 1(water)/1(glue) and 2 (water)/1 (glue).
Now comes the secret trick: soak the fabric and wring the fabric out; thus you avoid squander your glue mixture (you will need less glue mixture if you wet the fabric beforehand) and it will be easier to apply the glue. Place the fabric on the appropriate spot and apply the glue mixture.
Let it dry, put the backpanel back in the cabinet frame, place the shelves and ... admire your new piece of furniture.

My day #4

A little bag to store kitchen tools appeared to be too small for its purpose. So it got transformed into a marble bag. Fifteen minutes later we have a second marble bag, because today we are not in the mood for Double Trouble.

My day #3

Last bit of handwork is finally done. 

Easy things definitely tend to take more time. As much as 9 weeks between cutting the fabric and the completion of this project. 

No more daylight left for the remainder of the day. Hopefully tomorrow more luck.

Decoration

Slowly we have started. The boxes are all being emptied. We do not yet have a new couch but a new pillow case is since this weekend a fact! 

It felt glorious to finally make something for myself. I hope it survives at least a couple of pillow fights.

Limited Edition

I sincerely think our local Ikea branch has a stock problem. The staff denies with a smile; but where are the nice pillow cases, napkins, and gadgets in bright fashionable colors? The only thing they have a load of are Samla storage boxes, they are exposed at every corner.

The ‘Limited Edition’ version of the Billy bookcase –the one with the turquoise inside and white outside- that I had in mind for the boys bedroom seems to be sold out.

Out of sheer necessity I bought the normal white version. Back home we made our proper ‘limited edition’.

The bookcase was temporary assembled to mark the height of every shelf. Consequently the fabric was cut to size and glued to the back of the cabinet with some homemade modpodge (I just mixed white school glue with water). Our homemade Billy bookcase!

I do not like the idea of fabric and glue; because if you do not like your project after gluing it all together you cannot recycle the fabric anymore. Nevertheless in this case necessity knows the law.

Luckily the boys, myself and even our dinosaurs are happy with the result …

Couch decoration

This week we used the delightful Daisy Chain fabric from Prints Charming again. I used the orange/pink version before to make a schoolbag. This time around I used the green/turquoise/grey version to furnish E her new white couch with two pillows.

One pillow is finished with apple green piping and the other one with turquoise piping. 

The zipper is invisibly incorporated in one of the seams.

I made the pillows when I had no access to the internet, so I wasn't  able to consult the worldwide web for assistance and had to figure everything out myself; nevertheless this is a great tutorial for adding piping and this might be useful to attach the zipper in a nice invisible way.

Happy Bday Oma

Our blogpost today is dedicated to OMA (my mother, and so the grandmother of our kids).

Happy birthday oma! I know that since early this morning you are expecting a phone call from your expat daughter. I know that by now you think I most have forgotten that it is the 2^nd of February today –just like I did the last 10 years or so. I also know that your eldest granddaughter called you today, to congratulate you, because I was standing next to her –although she kept that hidden from you.

I kept you in suspense the whole day, but this year I did not forget your birthday! A present has been shipped to you, but it will not arrive in Belgium on time, so you can unwrap it here digitally.

The bottom.

The top side and a glimpse of the inside.

The front side.

It is a gift with handles.

It is … a fabric shopping bag.

Have fun and enjoy the last hours of your birthday!

Green fabric: Kona of Robert Kaufman bought @ Classic Quilts & Quilting.

Red flower fabric: I bought this ages ago in Parijs, in a shop very close by the Sacre Coeur.

Patroon: Zo Geknipt, the book that will be put in the cicular again, as there is that other book from which I urgently want to create some items.

Queen of all runs

4h29’30” it took us, V and myself, to run the Dubai Standard Chartered Marathon.

V raised the idea to run the marathon, queen of all runs, about two months ago. I love a goo challenge so we eagerly subscribed ourselves.

Because of lack of time (training for a marathon just takes too much time) and a bunch of other lame excuses we nearly didn’t train.

Friday everything ran smoothly: misty weather –so thankfully not too hot the first part of the course-, we had ‘good legs’ and I had a motivated partner to pep me up. We ran the whole marathon (not even walked once) and are pretty proud of our time.

To all the other marathon runners a genuine sorry: we laughed with your clothes, the color of your running shoes, the way you run, your coiffure,… there was no other way, as we would never have finished without having a laugh with all of you.

A genuinely amazing experience! Burj Khalifa was sitting by and approved our performance.

  

After reaching the finish line I finally took the time to draw the names of the winners of the Petit Pan GiveAway. Congratulations to Storm & Co and Het Meisje van de Zeppelinfabriek, you both won two meters of Petit Pan fabric.

And in the flush of victory we launch another fabric GiveAway; two packages with each 2 meters of Michael Miller’s Little Chef fabric.

Thank you Tahir!

You can participate by joining/following this blog and leaving a reaction at this blogpost. Once there are 339 followers, on the English and Dutch blog altogether we will randomly pick two winners!

Good luck!

Crown with chalkcloth

Here you could already see a glimpse of him! Our birthday party crown. 

We made it easy on ourselves by copying this model for our version of the crown.

Just like her we like continuity and even more we aim for sustainability. So we made a crown that can easily be reused.

To avoid ‘last minute’ unpicking of wrong numbers, followed by sewing on the correct one, we attached a small round of chalkcloth on the crown. So we only have to write down the correct number on the fabric with chalk or a chalkboard pen and after the party you can just remove it with a damp cloth. And … ready for reuse.

Some of the rounds were attached following her guidelines to make ‘Rrrounds’ and other rounds of chalkcloth were just sewed on with a coarse zigzag stitch.

The crown is also reversible; a nice scrap of fabric either side, a round of chalk on both sides and now visible seams unless the purposely colorful ones to attach the chalkcloth. At least our birthday party pictures will vary a little.

The elastic at the back ensures the crown fits the head of all our kids, ranging from 18 months till 9 years.

When I make something and I am happy with the result I tend to make a couple of them in series; a matter of always having gifts at hand.

Jade proudly presents you her favorite specimens.

And then she had enough of it!

The giveaway has come to an end and Saturday we will announce the winners and the next giveaway is ready to be launched, so join this blog if you want to give it a try.

'Architextures'

A short post about a pencil case ...! I know it is not the most creative item as many pencil case posts in blog world have preceded this one.

Nevertheless I want to show you this particular one, in the front of the picture. 

I bought the ‘Architextures’ fabric of Robert Kaufman as my sister and brother in law are both architects.

As the fabric itself is very sober, I decided to use the printed side of the fabric showing the manufacturers information as a decorative element.

A simple pencil case and the ‘Architextures’ is nicely accentuated by the fluorescent stitching all around.