The Bell-Fairy-Tree

See my latest doodle: A Bell-Tree! Can you find the hidden fairy(s) in it?

A bientôt,

Jane

Leporello

When staying in Germany some weeks ago, we had a week of vacation with all my family (parents, brothers and their families) on an island we have been many times when I have been a child. Unfortunately my very old grandma can't come with us any more. To send her some nice photos of my family and of spots that are familiar to her, I crafted a leporello. I thought this is more funny than a normal album. She can put it on her sideboard and see the photos all the time. 

It is the first leporello I made and I really like it. Won't be my last one!

A bientôt,
Jane

Too many Bags

My plans for yesterday (Friday) have been only to tidy up my sewing room that is also our guests room, as friends are coming to stay over at the weekend, and to bake a very big jummy cake! 

And what did I do yesterday? We woke up very early in the morning by the sound of running water - a leak in the tube for the lavatory downstairs. The water had been already down the corridor and to the kitchen and dripped into the basement. Sucking up about 100 liters of water had been quite quick, but the rest of the day I have been sorting out the basement, drying things, cleaning (even clean water can make a mess in a dusty basement), throwing away wet cartons, drying more, .... also I had a job to do at the school (fr: Sou des Ecoles - en: booster club?) ... and of course I started the cake and tidied up the guests room. 

It is good to have overnight guests from time to time, otherwise I would get lost in all the fabrics and stuff I spread out in that room. It's getting more and more difficult to find places to store all my things. Especially finished products taking too much space. My finished bags are hanging from the ceiling now:

Below the bags is the stack of shirts waiting for ironing.

This are too many bags! Already since a while I want to start selling my stuff over internet. I just have to register before to the french system of freelance work (auto-entrepreneur). Since beginning of the year I am reading about it and looking in the internet at the inscription forms, but I am pushed back by the bureaucratic french language and the fear of signing in to something about what I haven't read (and understand) all small-written paragraphs. I really need a kick in the bud and get it done!

Announcement: in two weeks I will have filled out the papers and send them in!

But today I will just relax and get a big piece of cake and a good conversation with our friends!

Bonne weekend a vous aussi!

A bientôt,
Jane

Easter bunnies everywhere

This year I didn't had much time to put out Easter decoration. But as it is already late in spring there has been lots of flowers in the garden and I put little vases everywhere. It is so lovely!

Saturday my elder son and me made some biscuit bunnies. They are cute and tasty!

I didn't close the box very well and now they are everywhere, trying to hide. I caught some with the camera though!

Hope you had a happy Easter with lots of bunnies, chocolate eggs and fun with the family!

A bientôt,
Jane

Felted slippers

Method: knit it - felt it!

The only crafting I did during my two weeks in Germany has been knitting two enormous slippers. Obviously they didn't fit my (also big) feet:

They are out of felting wool. I read several instructions to find out how to make them. With a mixture of all this advises I started, quite curious about the result. I am not very talented for knitting, but simple plain or purl stitches I can do. Even more simple with thick wool like that and needles in size 8mm.  

For the felting there have been even more differences in the manuals than for the knitting. I tried out the french way and put two jeans and the slippers together into my washing machine and washed them with normal program and normal washing powder at 40°C. I waited anxiously until the program finished and took out two nearly perfectly fitting slippers! Yeah!

After a day of drying, I can now wear them.They will keep my feet warm in the evenings! 

I have to add a sole to use them in the whole house. Otherwise they will get holes in the heels too quickly, as the socks my grandma is knitting for me do. There are several possibilities to make a sole: either I can sew on leather soles, or try out with latex milk (liquid rubber that you can add in several layers to make an elastic and perfectly fitting sole), or just gluing rubber dots under. If I can get the latex I will probably try out that method.

Je vous souhaite une bonne weekend de Paques!
A bientôt,
Jane

The birds are out

While gardening and getting stuff from the basement out on the terrace, I also found my wooden birds I made last summer and I let them out to fly in the sunshine:

Already in the year before the last I made some wooden birds/ducks, but they can only sit in the flowerbeds. They are already out since early spring, and when returning last weekend I had trouble to find them in all the green. 

These are the two last ones I have, but I made several more that are now in new homes. I also made a weathercock, that is outside the whole year. He can turn with the wind on a fence pole in our front yard and is watching everybody who is entering the garden.

All the birds are cut out with a keyhole-saw (right word?) of a 17 mm thick board and they are painted with acrylic paint and a brush and they have a finishing cover of clear varnish that is UV protecting and waterproof. 

They are looking happy in the sunshine, just as I do!

A bientôt,
Jane

Return with new material

Hey there! I am back from two weeks in Germany. I saw nearly everyone of my family, visited familiar places, ate too much, had a week of typical north German spring weather (from fog over rain and storm to sunshine and back) on our families vacation spot, drove 2500 km and I did some shopping!

Living in a very expensive french area with few shopping possibilities for crafting or sewing supply around, makes me see Germany as a cheap shopping heaven!

This are my purchases: grey oil-cloth with stars, black-gray woolen fabric for an over-the-trousers-skirt for next winter, lots of different leather pieces (they are rests that are sold by kg), a few ribbons with mainly boys motifs on it, about 20 m of endless zipper in different colors and rubber blocks for carving stamps in bigger sizes! 

I know I need all those things, but I don't know with which project to start first. Actually I am back since Sunday evening and haven't been near my sewing machine at all! Incredible? Yes, but the house really looked messy and we had kind of a green explosion in the garden - so lots to do! But I will be back soon with something nice. Hope you visit again!

A très bientôt,
Jane

Stone Patchwork = Mosaic

Finally I don't have to wait any more to give my mom her birthday present and to show you some photos of what I crafted mainly in march! 

My mom has a beautiful garden with plenty of flowerbeds and lots and lots of different and sometimes rare plants. So nobody will step on a plant when weeding, she puts stones in her large flowerbeds to put your feeds on. Now I made some stepping stones that are also decorative!

Therefore I collected old porcelaine and my kids had fun to smash it:

I told them to wear glasses to protect their eyes, but they chose their dads helmet!

I later found out, that smashing plates and boles to little pieces is hard work. It took longer than expected to have enough little pieces for making a mosaic.

I put a plastic foil in an old tarte form, cut chicken wire in the right size for stabilisation and asked my husband to make beton. Then I put the porcelaine pieces on top. They didn't sunk in very far, just enough to connect with the beton. After drying for a day or so, I used joint plaster to fill the gabs between the mosaic fragments. 

As I had to do it step by step, it takes quite a while to finish 5 stones. But have a look at them. Aren't they nice?

I like number 4 best: The man who are in a hurry to come in his garden! 

I am sure my mom will love them and I hope they will be as practical as I imagined. This is how it looks from the side. You can see where is beton and where the plaster. I hope the plaster is not coming off when using.

My three boys and me are now off for one week of vaccation with my whole family!

SU soon!

A bientôt,
Jane