A new bear and a new born in town!

Is het geen schatje? Al zou ik dat zelf niet moeten vragen, want ik heb hem gemaakt!
Met hulp van Rosabears' Marja bij wie ik een geweldige workshop volgde met dit resultaat.

Isn't he cute?
I really shouldn't ask, as I made him!
With a lot of help of Rosabears' Marja, she did the outfit too.
I did a bear making workshop at Rosabears'.
I (mmm we) made this cute little guy in two lessons (2 x 4hrs).
Marja and I were talking all the time, so I sure needed some help to speed up the process.
Marja is an excellent teacher and if your considering bear making I can really recommend her workshop.


Het linkerbeertje maakte Marja, ik maakte de rechter. Marja geeft heel duidelijk les en vertelt je precies wat je moet doen, maar laat je genoeg vrijheid om je eigen beer te maken. Knap is dat. Ik vind ook dat beide beren duidelijk hun eigen persoonlijkheid hebben. Marja, ik wil je hartelijk bedanken voor alles! Ik heb deze beer in 2 halve dagen gemaakt, het was ontzettend gezellig. Ik kan iedereen deze workshop aanraden!
Bear made by Marja on the left, bear made by me on the right.
Marja teaches you exactly what to do, but still you make your own bear and not Marja's bear. How clever is that? As you can see both bears have their own personality and their makers' signature. I had such a great time! Having my first internet date with this result! Marja, I want to thank you for everything!

Last Sunday we visited friends to see their newborn daughter Erin.


Dit weekend gingen we op kraamvisite bij Erin en haar familie. Het geboortekaartje ligt linksboven.
De felicitatie, rechts onder, maakte ik geïnspireerd op dat kaartje.
The birth announcement card is top left, the card I made to congratulate them is bottom right.


Het cadeautje zat in deze bewaardoos: een oude laarzendoos beplakt met behang met de achterkant naar voren. De tekening maakte ik met viltstiften.
I decorated an empty boots box just like the birth announcement. I used the backside of a very plain wallpaper to cover the box. I made the drawing with felt pens. Luckily I have miles and miles of ribbons, so the red gingham was in my stash.


Ik voerde de doos met een rood ruitje en daarin zo'n heerlijk meiden pakje, je zou zo opnieuw beginnen ;-)!
I lined the box with a red gingham fabric, just like the ribbon on the announcement. For the little one we tucked a cute outfit inside.

Sugar and spice
All things nice
that's what girls are made of!

Thanks for your visit and happy Thanksgiving to all my American blogpals!
Bedankt voor je bezoek! Mocht je ook Thanksgiving vieren dan wens ik je een heerlijke kalkoen toe!

xoxo LiLi M.

A new bear and a new born in town!

Is het geen schatje? Al zou ik dat zelf niet moeten vragen, want ik heb hem gemaakt!
Met hulp van Rosabears' Marja bij wie ik een geweldige workshop volgde met dit resultaat.

Isn't he cute?
I really shouldn't ask, as I made him!
With a lot of help of Rosabears' Marja, she did the outfit too.
I did a bear making workshop at Rosabears'.
I (mmm we) made this cute little guy in two lessons (2 x 4hrs).
Marja and I were talking all the time, so I sure needed some help to speed up the process.
Marja is an excellent teacher and if your considering bear making I can really recommend her workshop.


Het linkerbeertje maakte Marja, ik maakte de rechter. Marja geeft heel duidelijk les en vertelt je precies wat je moet doen, maar laat je genoeg vrijheid om je eigen beer te maken. Knap is dat. Ik vind ook dat beide beren duidelijk hun eigen persoonlijkheid hebben. Marja, ik wil je hartelijk bedanken voor alles! Ik heb deze beer in 2 halve dagen gemaakt, het was ontzettend gezellig. Ik kan iedereen deze workshop aanraden!
Bear made by Marja on the left, bear made by me on the right.
Marja teaches you exactly what to do, but still you make your own bear and not Marja's bear. How clever is that? As you can see both bears have their own personality and their makers' signature. I had such a great time! Having my first internet date with this result! Marja, I want to thank you for everything!

Last Sunday we visited friends to see their newborn daughter Erin.


Dit weekend gingen we op kraamvisite bij Erin en haar familie. Het geboortekaartje ligt linksboven.
De felicitatie, rechts onder, maakte ik geïnspireerd op dat kaartje.
The birth announcement card is top left, the card I made to congratulate them is bottom right.


Het cadeautje zat in deze bewaardoos: een oude laarzendoos beplakt met behang met de achterkant naar voren. De tekening maakte ik met viltstiften.
I decorated an empty boots box just like the birth announcement. I used the backside of a very plain wallpaper to cover the box. I made the drawing with felt pens. Luckily I have miles and miles of ribbons, so the red gingham was in my stash.


Ik voerde de doos met een rood ruitje en daarin zo'n heerlijk meiden pakje, je zou zo opnieuw beginnen ;-)!
I lined the box with a red gingham fabric, just like the ribbon on the announcement. For the little one we tucked a cute outfit inside.

Sugar and spice
All things nice
that's what girls are made of!

Thanks for your visit and happy Thanksgiving to all my American blogpals!
Bedankt voor je bezoek! Mocht je ook Thanksgiving vieren dan wens ik je een heerlijke kalkoen toe!

xoxo LiLi M.

Amor vincit omnia!

Weten jullie nog dat ik mijn favoriete quote gecalligrafeerd door Karen Harvey Cox kreeg?
Amor vincit omnia betekent liefde overwint alles. Die quote geldt maar weer eens in het volgende verhaal over Shannons poppen.

Remember that Karen Harvey Cox sent me my favorite quote? 'Amor vincit omnia' meaning love conquers all. Great work Karen, I still enjoy it every day, thanks again! This quote is so true and therefor my favorite. It brings me to a story of one of the most amazing women I met through blogging; Marie Antionette.

In one of her blogposts Marie, or Toni as she is called by friends, told us about her friend Shannon. A few years ago Shannon died of a heart attack, at age 56 and left a large doll collection.


Shannon in the 60-ties.
Dit is Shannon een vriendin van Toni in de jaren '60. Zij stierf nog niet zo lang geleden en liet uiteindelijk haar hele verzameling poppen na aan Toni, die ik ken van de blog Marie Antionette's dolls. Hoewel Toni wel een poppenliefhebster is houdt ze net zo min als ik van souvenir poppen en helaas bestond de verzameling voor een groot deel uit die poppen. Nu wilde Toni die poppen niet zomaar aan de straat zetten, maar zocht ze een goed tehuis voor die poppen. Zo kwam ze bij mij. Ik had aanvankelijk ook zoiets van: wat moet ik hiermee?

Some of these dolls were gathered in that era, or even before, when Shannons' father was sailing through the world and took souvenir dolls for his daughter. After Shannons death the dolls were somehow neglected, until Shannons husband gave them to Toni. Though Toni was quite desperate to receive such an enormous pile of much neglected dolls, she was determined; she cleaned them and she wanted those dolls to have good homes.
Now that is what I call friendship: even after her friend died, Toni cared about the dolls. She knew I love dolls too, though as Toni, I am not particularly fond of souvenir dolls, so she sent me a few:


Maar het idee dat je dit doet voor je overleden vriendin sprak mij toch aan en daarom heb ik een 4 tal poppen geadopteerd.
And that was not all, the lovely lady from the south really spoiled me:


Niet alleen stuurde ze me de poppen, ze maakte er een heel feest pakket van! Bedankt!
She didn't only take care of giving those dolls a new home, but she sent me all kind of lovelies, see for yourself! Now that is friendship or loving your friend even after she's gone. Not throwing away precious possessions, but taking care of them, even if it's not exactly what your cup of tea.


De poppen in hun nieuwe huisje, om mij eraan te herinneren dat er mensen zijn die vriendschap koesteren ook na de dood. De ware betekenis van Amor vincit omnia.
That is also the reason why my home is a foster home for these 'orphans', to remind me that there are some great people here, who really know what friendship is all about, thank you for teaching me Toni and thanks for all the goodies you have sent me!

Deze ligt momenteel op mijn kussen, de nieuwe Artful blogging!
Now blogging brings me all kind of lovely things, sorry now I just have to toot my horn!
Remember Natasha Burns' revamp challenge? I revamped my espadrilles for that challenge and there is a before and after photo of them in an Q&A with the talented Miss Burns in the winter edition of Artful blogging!

Of course I showed off here too, sorry I cannot help myself. I showed the article to my neighbor Z. and told her that my resolution to crochet in 2009 wasn't a very large work, only the flowers on the revamped espadrille:


Herinneren jullie je de revamp challenge nog? Het Amerikaanse tijdschrift Artfull blogging besteedde er ook aandacht aan en publiceerde in een vraaggesprek met Natasha Burns voor en na foto's onder andere van mijn espadrilles. Hartstikke leuk natuurlijk! Ben natuurlijk trots! Ik liet het artikel gelijk aan mijn buuv Z. zien. Ik vertelde daarbij dat mijn goede voornemen voor 2009 om weer te gaan haken voorlopig alleen nog maar geresulteerd had in deze bloemetjes. Waarop Z. snedig opmerkte dat ik in ieder geval kon zeggen dat al mijn haakwerk van 2009 was gepubliceerd!
Z replied: at least you can say that all your crochet work of 2009 was published! XD!

The other day I heard my husband yelling to our son:
'I just knew it, your mother is a murderer!'
We are redecorating and decluttering the childrens' bedrooms, so these were in the laundry basket:

Wij zijn de kamers van onze kinderen aan het veranderen en er wordt vooral heeeel veeel weggedaan.
Hoor ik ineens mijn hubby tegen onze jongste roepen: Ik wist het! Je moeder is een moordenaar! Moet je nou eens komen kijken^
Hihihi. af en toe kun je echt met hem lachen! Bedankt voor je bezoek weer, tot snel!
He is such a funny guy!
Thanks for visiting me, xoxo LiLi M.

Amor vincit omnia!

Weten jullie nog dat ik mijn favoriete quote gecalligrafeerd door Karen Harvey Cox kreeg?
Amor vincit omnia betekent liefde overwint alles. Die quote geldt maar weer eens in het volgende verhaal over Shannons poppen.

Remember that Karen Harvey Cox sent me my favorite quote? 'Amor vincit omnia' meaning love conquers all. Great work Karen, I still enjoy it every day, thanks again! This quote is so true and therefor my favorite. It brings me to a story of one of the most amazing women I met through blogging; Marie Antionette.

In one of her blogposts Marie, or Toni as she is called by friends, told us about her friend Shannon. A few years ago Shannon died of a heart attack, at age 56 and left a large doll collection.


Shannon in the 60-ties.
Dit is Shannon een vriendin van Toni in de jaren '60. Zij stierf nog niet zo lang geleden en liet uiteindelijk haar hele verzameling poppen na aan Toni, die ik ken van de blog Marie Antionette's dolls. Hoewel Toni wel een poppenliefhebster is houdt ze net zo min als ik van souvenir poppen en helaas bestond de verzameling voor een groot deel uit die poppen. Nu wilde Toni die poppen niet zomaar aan de straat zetten, maar zocht ze een goed tehuis voor die poppen. Zo kwam ze bij mij. Ik had aanvankelijk ook zoiets van: wat moet ik hiermee?

Some of these dolls were gathered in that era, or even before, when Shannons' father was sailing through the world and took souvenir dolls for his daughter. After Shannons death the dolls were somehow neglected, until Shannons husband gave them to Toni. Though Toni was quite desperate to receive such an enormous pile of much neglected dolls, she was determined; she cleaned them and she wanted those dolls to have good homes.
Now that is what I call friendship: even after her friend died, Toni cared about the dolls. She knew I love dolls too, though as Toni, I am not particularly fond of souvenir dolls, so she sent me a few:


Maar het idee dat je dit doet voor je overleden vriendin sprak mij toch aan en daarom heb ik een 4 tal poppen geadopteerd.
And that was not all, the lovely lady from the south really spoiled me:


Niet alleen stuurde ze me de poppen, ze maakte er een heel feest pakket van! Bedankt!
She didn't only take care of giving those dolls a new home, but she sent me all kind of lovelies, see for yourself! Now that is friendship or loving your friend even after she's gone. Not throwing away precious possessions, but taking care of them, even if it's not exactly what your cup of tea.


De poppen in hun nieuwe huisje, om mij eraan te herinneren dat er mensen zijn die vriendschap koesteren ook na de dood. De ware betekenis van Amor vincit omnia.
That is also the reason why my home is a foster home for these 'orphans', to remind me that there are some great people here, who really know what friendship is all about, thank you for teaching me Toni and thanks for all the goodies you have sent me!

Deze ligt momenteel op mijn kussen, de nieuwe Artful blogging!
Now blogging brings me all kind of lovely things, sorry now I just have to toot my horn!
Remember Natasha Burns' revamp challenge? I revamped my espadrilles for that challenge and there is a before and after photo of them in an Q&A with the talented Miss Burns in the winter edition of Artful blogging!

Of course I showed off here too, sorry I cannot help myself. I showed the article to my neighbor Z. and told her that my resolution to crochet in 2009 wasn't a very large work, only the flowers on the revamped espadrille:


Herinneren jullie je de revamp challenge nog? Het Amerikaanse tijdschrift Artfull blogging besteedde er ook aandacht aan en publiceerde in een vraaggesprek met Natasha Burns voor en na foto's onder andere van mijn espadrilles. Hartstikke leuk natuurlijk! Ben natuurlijk trots! Ik liet het artikel gelijk aan mijn buuv Z. zien. Ik vertelde daarbij dat mijn goede voornemen voor 2009 om weer te gaan haken voorlopig alleen nog maar geresulteerd had in deze bloemetjes. Waarop Z. snedig opmerkte dat ik in ieder geval kon zeggen dat al mijn haakwerk van 2009 was gepubliceerd!
Z replied: at least you can say that all your crochet work of 2009 was published! XD!

The other day I heard my husband yelling to our son:
'I just knew it, your mother is a murderer!'
We are redecorating and decluttering the childrens' bedrooms, so these were in the laundry basket:

Wij zijn de kamers van onze kinderen aan het veranderen en er wordt vooral heeeel veeel weggedaan.
Hoor ik ineens mijn hubby tegen onze jongste roepen: Ik wist het! Je moeder is een moordenaar! Moet je nou eens komen kijken^
Hihihi. af en toe kun je echt met hem lachen! Bedankt voor je bezoek weer, tot snel!
He is such a funny guy!
Thanks for visiting me, xoxo LiLi M.

Queen for a day!

button courtesy and design by Shin

Welcome everybody! Iedereen hartelijk welkom!
(een vertaling van deze blogpost staat helemaal onderaan)

Welcome to this surprise blogparty in honor of the very talented Susanna Gordon.
If you know Susanna because of her great photography and her winged messenger guerilla art, please continue to read. For those of you who know her but just cannot think of what at this moment: just look here and here. For those of you who are too lazy to follow a link; I will shortly explain what it's all about.


Me holding a winged messenger

Susanna Gordon is a very talented artist. I especially know her from her winged messenger project, so I will stick to that in this post. Susanna makes these beautiful pieces of art; paper winged envelopes with hopeful lines written on them, to leave them somewhere for somebody to be found, hoping that the message is an unexpected, but very welcome surprise.


My line 'You really are a friend' on top, Susanna's line 'Share your dreams with someone' on the bottom

Soon after she started, those little pieces of art were sent around the world to be spread by others. Now that is where I come to this stage; I was so lucky to be one of the people who were given one envelope ready to be spread by Susanna, the other given to me was blank and I could think of a line myself.
I made dozens of photos, in my hometown Dordrecht as well as in Rotterdam, finally leaving the messages in Rotterdam, you can read all about it here.

A little while ago, I was contacted through email by Angie Byers, who had the fab idea gathering the women, who were involved in Susanna's winged messengers project, to do something back for Susanna, as we all had so much enjoyed being part of this project. We decided to have a blogparty in honor of Susanna Gordon, Shin designed a blog button and while Susanna was sleeping I was writing this post for her.

In this post I'll show you some more photos I have taken for this project but which somehow didn't make it to the selection, which of course were not that many photos. It also reveals some of my thoughts of why these photos shouldn't be in that selection. Hope you will have fun!



This was the very first photo I made for this project: The winged messenger on a 19th century fountain, which wasn't working at that moment.
In this country we almost always have to deal with wind, so the wings were moving and making it harder to have photos without unwanted shades. I already knew that I don't like these kind of photos of a detail, it's not my style. For this project I wanted the message to be clear too:



In Rotterdam I started with this photo. Message clear, but again what are we looking at?



Next shot ^; I think it is just too bad that you don't see this:



But now^ you cannot read the messages anymore...:-(, actually you hardly see them.
There is always something wrong!



This would be better, you even see the famous dice houses from architect Blom in the background, as well as his 'pencil' building.



Here a shot in the courtyard of the dice houses. My lovely assistant had to go upstairs to put the winged messenger against the gate, then run out of site and hope that the envelope wouldn't be blown away by the wind, which happened, she had to run down, up again and that several times. while I was trying to make a photo. Thanks to my assistant too! These photo sessions wouldn't have been possible without them and a lot of chewing gum holding the wings in their place (credit chewing gum idea:the assistants!)



On other photos there was so much to see that I doubted whether the messengers would get enough attention.



I thought that the winged messengers were best in my photos of small things. But boy did I have fun trying things and walking and enjoying all comments of passers, who were all surprised by the messengers!






Maybe this^ one for Christmas?






I spent two days having so much fun, enjoying every minute of it, thanks to Susanna!
Thank you for letting me take part in this wonderful experience. And I love this blogparty in honor of you. I hope Susanna likes to have this little addition to the photos she already has, as well as an explanation of why I choose the photographs the way I did. These photos as well of all other participants should be in our Flickr group, the URL follows, sorry for that.
Do you want to visit the other participants just look at my blogroll to see whether their posts are up yet. Thanks to Angie and all participants for making this happen.
Thanks for visiting me, and a very special thank you for doing that to that lovely artist:

Susanna Gordon!

Even een korte vertaling voor de Nederlandstalige lezers;
Welkom op de blogparty ter ere van fotografe en kunstenares Susanna Gordon.
Ik schreef al eerder over dit project, waar ik ook bij betrokken was.
Enige tijd geleden werd ik benaderd door Angie Byers om gezamenlijk met alle vrouwen die bij dit project betrokken waren 'iets' terug te doen voor Susanna, omdat we allemaal zo van dit project genoten hadden en om haar te bedanken. Uiteindelijk is dat een blogevent geworden. Aan de rechterkant van mijn blog heb ik een speciale lijst gemaakt van deelnemers aan dit blogevenement.
Ik heb nog eens een greep gedaan in de foto's die ik nog had voor dit project, het project van de gevleugelde boodschappers. Kijk en oordeel zelf of het terecht was dat deze foto's de selectie niet doorstonden, ik vond het ook een zeer leerzaam project! Wij hebben als groep ook een Flickr album gemaakt, misschien ook leuk om eens een kijkje te nemen, veel plezier!
Bedankt voor je bezoek!

Queen for a day!

button courtesy and design by Shin

Welcome everybody! Iedereen hartelijk welkom!
(een vertaling van deze blogpost staat helemaal onderaan)

Welcome to this surprise blogparty in honor of the very talented Susanna Gordon.
If you know Susanna because of her great photography and her winged messenger guerilla art, please continue to read. For those of you who know her but just cannot think of what at this moment: just look here and here. For those of you who are too lazy to follow a link; I will shortly explain what it's all about.


Me holding a winged messenger

Susanna Gordon is a very talented artist. I especially know her from her winged messenger project, so I will stick to that in this post. Susanna makes these beautiful pieces of art; paper winged envelopes with hopeful lines written on them, to leave them somewhere for somebody to be found, hoping that the message is an unexpected, but very welcome surprise.


My line 'You really are a friend' on top, Susanna's line 'Share your dreams with someone' on the bottom

Soon after she started, those little pieces of art were sent around the world to be spread by others. Now that is where I come to this stage; I was so lucky to be one of the people who were given one envelope ready to be spread by Susanna, the other given to me was blank and I could think of a line myself.
I made dozens of photos, in my hometown Dordrecht as well as in Rotterdam, finally leaving the messages in Rotterdam, you can read all about it here.

A little while ago, I was contacted through email by Angie Byers, who had the fab idea gathering the women, who were involved in Susanna's winged messengers project, to do something back for Susanna, as we all had so much enjoyed being part of this project. We decided to have a blogparty in honor of Susanna Gordon, Shin designed a blog button and while Susanna was sleeping I was writing this post for her.

In this post I'll show you some more photos I have taken for this project but which somehow didn't make it to the selection, which of course were not that many photos. It also reveals some of my thoughts of why these photos shouldn't be in that selection. Hope you will have fun!



This was the very first photo I made for this project: The winged messenger on a 19th century fountain, which wasn't working at that moment.
In this country we almost always have to deal with wind, so the wings were moving and making it harder to have photos without unwanted shades. I already knew that I don't like these kind of photos of a detail, it's not my style. For this project I wanted the message to be clear too:



In Rotterdam I started with this photo. Message clear, but again what are we looking at?



Next shot ^; I think it is just too bad that you don't see this:



But now^ you cannot read the messages anymore...:-(, actually you hardly see them.
There is always something wrong!



This would be better, you even see the famous dice houses from architect Blom in the background, as well as his 'pencil' building.



Here a shot in the courtyard of the dice houses. My lovely assistant had to go upstairs to put the winged messenger against the gate, then run out of site and hope that the envelope wouldn't be blown away by the wind, which happened, she had to run down, up again and that several times. while I was trying to make a photo. Thanks to my assistant too! These photo sessions wouldn't have been possible without them and a lot of chewing gum holding the wings in their place (credit chewing gum idea:the assistants!)



On other photos there was so much to see that I doubted whether the messengers would get enough attention.



I thought that the winged messengers were best in my photos of small things. But boy did I have fun trying things and walking and enjoying all comments of passers, who were all surprised by the messengers!






Maybe this^ one for Christmas?






I spent two days having so much fun, enjoying every minute of it, thanks to Susanna!
Thank you for letting me take part in this wonderful experience. And I love this blogparty in honor of you. I hope Susanna likes to have this little addition to the photos she already has, as well as an explanation of why I choose the photographs the way I did. These photos as well of all other participants should be in our Flickr group, the URL follows, sorry for that.
Do you want to visit the other participants just look at my blogroll to see whether their posts are up yet. Thanks to Angie and all participants for making this happen.
Thanks for visiting me, and a very special thank you for doing that to that lovely artist:

Susanna Gordon!

Even een korte vertaling voor de Nederlandstalige lezers;
Welkom op de blogparty ter ere van fotografe en kunstenares Susanna Gordon.
Ik schreef al eerder over dit project, waar ik ook bij betrokken was.
Enige tijd geleden werd ik benaderd door Angie Byers om gezamenlijk met alle vrouwen die bij dit project betrokken waren 'iets' terug te doen voor Susanna, omdat we allemaal zo van dit project genoten hadden en om haar te bedanken. Uiteindelijk is dat een blogevent geworden. Aan de rechterkant van mijn blog heb ik een speciale lijst gemaakt van deelnemers aan dit blogevenement.
Ik heb nog eens een greep gedaan in de foto's die ik nog had voor dit project, het project van de gevleugelde boodschappers. Kijk en oordeel zelf of het terecht was dat deze foto's de selectie niet doorstonden, ik vond het ook een zeer leerzaam project! Wij hebben als groep ook een Flickr album gemaakt, misschien ook leuk om eens een kijkje te nemen, veel plezier!
Bedankt voor je bezoek!