Happy Valentines, treats for school

Tomorrow is valentines and since my daughter loves to hand out treats I made some healthy treats for her to hand out in class.

Simply cut out nice shapes from slices of apple, dry in the oven and place in a bag. I made some wrappers as well.

Nice and healthy!
*love*

2014; it's going to be my year!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my life. How I make choices and why I’m so afraid to try something new sometimes. I realised that I often act from being scared. Being scared of what others will think of me. Being scared not to succeed. When I wanted to start writing, I assumed that no one would want me to write, nobody would be interested in what I had to say. Because I had a severe burnout I still needed to write about my insanity and started a blog. I soon found that it was read. A lot. And people –even complete strangers- could relate, complimented me and kept visiting my blog. It was amazing and gave me the strength to write more. I’m now at a point that I’m no longer afraid to tell someone that I’m a writer. It got me thinking. If I had let my initial thoughts rule my actions, I would have never started to write. I would have never gotten published and I would have never received all those compliments. I would have been miserable. When 2013 came to an end I wanted to set myself a goal for 2014 and I soon realised I have only one goal; do what I like. That will make me happy, thus making me a better mom, wife and friend. Seems like a simple goal. Not for me though.

After years of doing what others expected me to do, it’s kind of very hard for me to choose what makes me happy. More often than I would like, I’m driven by fear. Fear of failing, fear of what others will think of me. This year I’ve decided to not let fear take the better of me. Every time I find myself thinking ‘Oh, I could never do that’ or ‘I can’t do that, they will think I’m crazy’, I’m just going to do it anyway! It won’t be easy, I’m sure of that but I’m really going to try.

Yesterday was my first conquest. Nearly every day I ride my bike (I live in Holland) a long a beautiful house. It’s really gorgeous and on the first floor they have the most amazing laundry room ever. From the street I can see how organized it is, beautifully laid-out and color coordinated. Every day I feel blessed to be able to enjoy that beautiful home, even if it’s just for a moment. Yesterday I suddenly realised that the people who actually live there, will never know how happy their house is making me and I got a little sad. While riding my bike, I fantasised about writing them a card telling them how happy they make me, just with their house. I laughed a little and heard myself say ‘don’t be silly, they will think you are crazy’.

So when I came home, I wrote them a card and put it in their mailbox that afternoon. It made me so happy! I wasn’t sure how they would take it, maybe they would really think I was crazy but it didn’t matter, I wanted to share my happiness with them, and I wanted nothing in return. It was the best feeling ever.

This morning I drove by the house as I usually do and guess what…they had hung a paper on the window of the room on the first floor, thanking me for the card! I had the biggest smile ever and now I know for sure; don’t be afraid, just spread the joy, the other people might just surprise you!

 

happy new year!

Also looking forward to new years' eve? Looking for a simple way to make the party a little more festive? Print these labels, punch a hole and hang from the (champagne)glasses. You could also glue them to straws or a string to make a simple garland.
Enjoy!

Free printable christmas flags

My little girl has her first official Christmas dinner at school this week. All the parents are supposed to make a dish. We were given the task of making some wraps with cream cheese. Not a culinary challenge unfortunately, so I wanted to make it a little more festive. I created these Christmas flags I'm going to print on labels, just cut and apply on a stick. Should look cute.

Feel free to use my labels! Enjoy.

Angel/fairy bag (easy DIY)

It’s my little girls first year in school and I wanted to give her teachers something small to wish them happy holidays. Of course I wanted to make the gift myself and while making a skirt from some light pink organza I got a cute idea. Here’s how I made a cute angel gift-bag I’m going to fill with some Christmas chocolates. Trust me, this is an easy project and you can get your kid involved as well!

First, I roughly determined how big my bag should be and then I drew some wings on a piece of paper. When they were to my liking, I transferred the shape on the organza. Just put you fabric on top of your drawing and follow your own lines. I made my wings with two separate wings, but you can do it just how it suits you best. When the line is on your fabric, just fold the fabric so that you end up with a double wing. Trace the lines with your sewing machine. Then cut out your wings, leaving a small trim. On the left you see the lines on my fabric, on the right the lines have already been sewed.

Now just cut two rectangle shapes at the size you want your bag to be and fold over one edge, leaving a hole for a ribbon later on (this will be the top of your bag). Pin your wings to the half of the bag. I had to fold them a little so that I wouldn’t accidentally sew them on the bag at the wrong places.

 

Put the other rectangle on the wings and sew the bag. When you turn it inside out and add a ribbon, you end up with this.

Now, just cut a round angel face with a small neck and some shoulders in order to hold the head in the bag. I’m going to let my little girl draw the angel face so that it’s a joint effort. I’m also going to add a small card with stars (colored by my girl) on one side and a text on the other side saying:

Dear teacher, enjoy your holidays and next year I’ll be an angel in your class once again!

 

Fill the bag with whatever you like, I'm going to fill it with some Christmas chocolates.

*Happy holidays!*

 

ps. I think these will make a great give away bag for a fairy party as well..... :)

DIY gift for a toddler

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to struggle to find a nice present for a kids first birthday. I don’t particularly like the bright plastic toys for these little ones and most toys aren’t suitable for babies. Since most babies don’t talk by the time they turn one they can’t tell us what they really want for their birthday. Honestly, that first birthday is more the parents’ birthday than the kids…

After my little girl turned one I have the perfect gift. She got a beautiful sketchbook with her own name on it. Naturally I stole this idea and give away this sketchbook any chance I get J! This is how I make the personalized sketchbooks;

Buy any sketchbook with blank pages and look in your drawers for fabric, ribbons and other nice stuff to sew on. Cut the fabric at the size of the cover of your book. Then write the child’s name on a piece of paper making sure the letters all connect. Cut the paper, turn the name around and transfer to some nice fabric. Cut the name and sew it on your cover fabric.

Add any other things you like on the fabric. I used some ironing pieces and flowers cut from fabric, but you can use anything you like. Then put double sided tape on your book cover and glue the fabric on the front.

Your present is ready! You might also like to add a ribbon or a button on the side of the book, whatever you like.

 

I also had a brand name on the back of the book and I wanted to hide that. I cut a smaller flower from fabric and glued that on the back, using double sided tape.

I wanted something extra for this gift so I took some felt and sewed a little envelope to hold some pencils I bought. Looks cute right? The little girl that got this present was very happy with the small envelope, taking the pencils out and putting them back in was her favorite activity J.

 

personalized felt garland

I’m always looking for ways to decorate my little girls room but most of the times the decorations you can buy in shops are way over my budget. I also like the personalized stuff. Today I made my girl a felt garland with her name. Easy to make and a great result. Here’s how I made it;

First I printed her name, cut the letters and transferred them to felt (I turned them so you don’t end up with felt with marks).

 

I then cut all of the letters and sewed them together. For this garland I combined her name with stars. Hearts would have been nice too but I already made her a felt heart garland in somewhat of the same manner. So I also cut some stars (just cut as many as you like, the more you cut, the longer your garland obviously will be) and sewed them together as well.

I then sewed a ribbon on the back of the whole garland, just to make it a little stronger and prevent the letters from pulling apart.

Voila, your personalized garland is ready to hang! I think this would also make a nice gift for a newborn or any birthday. Especially since you can combine the name with any figure you want and any color you want.