men with style…

Tags

advert, Congo, guiness, happy, sap, suits, video, well dressed

… not sewing, not crafting, not even DIY or home improvement…

… but I can’t resist sharing this wonderful clip here, so many things that make me happy: bright colors; joie de vivre; people that don’t take themselves too seriously, while being deadly serious about a passion; people overcoming adversity to make the best of what they have; some smooth dance moves; and not included, but I know it is playing in the background, an awesome sound track of African music…

… enjoy, without moderation, I know I will be watching this many more times in the future…

super sweet blogging people…

Tags

award, blog, chocolate, questions

… I haven’t been around for a while…

… wallpaper scraper has replaced seam ripper as my tool of choice lately, I have spent more time in window dealerships than fabric shops and talking to electricians and plumbers rather than reading blogs…

… it was a wonderful surprise to log on this weekend and see that I have been nominated not once, or twice, but three times for the Super Sweet Blogging Award. The lovely Beata at Red Point Tailor, Michelle at Every Stitch I make and Heidi at My Sewing Factory all bestowed this honour upon me, so here goes…

THE RULES: Copy & Paste This Whole Post and Replace All Your Information — who awarded you, for example.

1. Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that nominated you.
2. Answer 5 Super Sweet questions.
3. Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award in your blog post.
4. Nominate a baker’s dozen (13) of other deserving bloggers.
5. Notify your Super Sweet nominees on their blog.

THE 5 SUPER SWEET QUESTIONS:

1 – Cookies or Cake? cookies, especially Jules Destrooper ones!
2 – Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate, but only good quality Belgian chocolate – I am not difficult!
3 – Favourite Sweet Treat? Apart from cookies and chocolate… fresh fruit smoothies…
4 – When Do You Crave Sweet Things The Most? Smoothies, after yoga, chocolate after dinner…
5 – Sweet Nick Name? None that I know of!

MY NOMINEES:

Where to start? In no particular order…

Sewalife, Seamless, dangerously alice, bouquet of buttons, Mercury – handmade fashion, the amazing adventures of taracat, sosewlovely, gjeometry, sewville, een nieuwe jurk, purls and pleats, clouds full of rain, no time to sew…

regaining momentum…

Tags

apartment, sewing, travel, zippered pouch

… May was definitely a sewing month…

…although I failed admirably at making any semblance of a record, photographic or other, I think I achieved and probably even exceeded my Me-Made goal of 3 items per week.

… I made 2 items for the Burda sew-along, and a few other projects I had been stewing in the back of my mind for a while, but nothing since my wax-backed t-shirt…

… I certainly remember that I wore my turquoise Burda top to a rather momentous occasion on the 31st… an auction in which I bought an apartment! That came around rather unexpectedly, and was quite a blur. My present landlord has been telling me he wanted to sell the place I am living in for over a year, and when I finally told him I was interested, he procrastinated and never came up with a asking price. When I pushed him, he back tracked and told me he had finally decided he didn’t want to sell… I had a half hearted look at announcements on the Monday, knowing I would never find anything that I would like as much as this, saw one place that felt like it might have potential, I visited it on Tuesday, fell in love and the auction was on Friday. It is a 1930s art nouveau building and the apartment was occupied by the same lady since the 1960s, so it is going to need some renovation. I dare say my creative energies in the coming months may well shift from the sewing machine to power tools!

… apartment bought and I was straight off to Serbia for a week – teaching yoga at the relatively new Bikram studio there, and discovering a new city. Belgrade is a lovely place, at the confluence of 2 big rivers, water plays an important part of life which is especially nice when the sun is shining. I spent a lot of the time I wasn’t teaching walking, cycling, eating, drinking and reading by the water and enjoying the warmth of the sun.

… and last night I suddenly remembered I had promised a friend I was seeing today that I would make a zippered pouch for her sister… so out came the machine, some waxed cotton, some left over polka dot fabric, a couple of zips and an hour or so later I had a pouch…

shopping – responsibly

Tags

etsy, holidays, responsibly, shopping

… looking for an excuse to shop? Wanting to shop responsibly?

…I don’t think I have ever hidden my love for etsy. My walls are adorned with art work discovered there; presents given are often chosen there; my wardrobe contains many items handmade by incredibly talented people from around the world found there; I have toiletries and accessories that I couldn’t resist there; even my favourite hot water bottle was bought there.

…but it is a labyrinth finding what you want there. I already mentioned the challenges of treasuries and followings, favourites and front pages… so a directory of (mainly etsy) sellers that have something in common with what you like – even if that something is a favourite blog – can only be a good thing.

… I don’t remember when I started following door sixteen, but it is one of the blogs I read regularly. Initially I loved it for the house renovation, which resonated with what I would love to achieve with a house if ever I owned one, but recently I have made recipes Anna has posted and even bought toiletries based on a D16 recommendation!

… I especially love Anna’s recent post on staying independent when doing your holiday shopping. But not only for the message which I fully endorse, but also for the invitation for independent business owners to list their shops in the comments… I have visited a few lot of them already – there are some really talented people out there, and a lot of beautiful things!

… I can only recommend wandering over and having a browse 🙂

some where to keep track of doings and makings…

Tags

intro, me

… job hunting keeps you busy updating CVs and sending off letters… but it also leaves you lots of free time waiting for answers and hoping for interviews…

… being jobless means watching what is spent, so regular trips shopping, to exhibitions or to the cinema are not really an option… long walks in the forest and reading only take up so much time, so I have been looking for ways to fill the spaces in my days with crafty and cooking projects; improving things around the home I may soon have to leave if a new job takes me to a new city and trying to adopt habits that will lead to a more frugal and greener life style…

… and to keep a record of how I have spent time, to keep a track of what I have done, I decided to join bloglandia… with no clear direction or objective yet, I hope it will become clear as I move forward…