My first meat pie

I was always scared of pastries, cakes and anything to do with oven baking.. until I saw others making them (my mum wasn't into that kind of thing, probably something to do with being Japanese and them not eating these kind of things) - then I decided to give it a try and.. it seems to have worked! First was the carrot cakes and banana loaf - which worked out with a 10/10 (if I may say so). And now this yummy pie!! Success!! YES!!

(before and after)

(and banana cake & banana loaf)

Amsterdam

Went to Amsterdam as a treat in the first long weekend of May. Not only visited Amsterdam but also Utretch, which is only 30 min away on the train and as lovely! We were so lucky - we stayed in this cool place decorated retro style.



And even though we've been there before, we managed to discover new areas a bit out of the tourists' track.

(typical house in Jordaan, with the bike at the front and the bench to sit down for people watching. They don't usually have courtains so you can see the cool interior design of the trendy "jordaanites")

Jordaan, the oldest neighbourhood that had modest background has become trendy and cool. That has brought cool chic boutiques and restaurants and there I discovered this a&c shop for babies that made me think of all of you, craft lovers.

(really liked this shop with retro style lamps in all shapes)
(if you have EUR 150 spare, you may want to buy this wonderful "tulip bag" - winner of many design awards. I totally fell in love with it, much better in reality than in this picture)

I also was so lucky to be walking around town on the day of the fabric markets. Yes, an entire flea market dedicated to fabric and sewing materials!! No wool though :-(

(in Holland they celebrate the births of a baby
decorating windows and the front of the house.
I saw many wonderful flowers, balloons and gifts
in display in various houses - I love the idea!)

Weather was also fantastic and there were plenty of flowers. I missed going to the flower massive place because, to be honest, I couldn't be bothered to organise myself to get the bus to get there.. and I truly enjoyed just walking around town. All worth it!

(click to enlarge)
(the city is full of exquisite Art Deco and Art Nouveau buildings)

Got myself some fabric, some new clothes and shoes! Lucky me.. and afterwards we stayed at the Hilton 5* where John Lennon and Yoko Ono made their interview from bed :-) The hotel was fantastic (obviously) - and we enjoyed chilling at the back garden, by the yatch marina of the hotel, where I started a knitting project. The hotel even had a soap menu in the bathroom - apart from the traditional pillow menu. Basically you could order a hand-soap of your taste for 17 EUR the piece....

Vintage buttons

Lucky me! my mother came to visit and she brought with her all my gran mother's old buttons!! She even separated them in bags per colours or material.. There are a few that are true antiques, made with baqulite! (bakelita) - some shapes and colours are unreal. Also, some have 6 holes?!

I feel so lucky!!

New resolution: I'm gonna make shopping bags as gifts

Everyone is on the trend of using tote bags to avoid discarding more plastic bags into the environment. This is just great and I think is a great excuse to make bags for a great cause. So, my first recipient was my friend Marwan, whose birthday I missed whilst being in Spain.

Is a serious bag, discreet and not on-your-face. I had to find a way to make a bag masculine enough but still interesting. Hopefully I got it right...

Once I finished it, I packed it into a piece of fabric, Japanese style.

Few things I've done last week

I've been pretty inspired and made a few quick projects. They all took me just a night (less than an hour per project perhaps). These are the results:

1 sausage-scarf
1 orange bag
1 red wine bag

Made with less than one skein (less than half perhaps?) with very big needles, in soft wool that I had left over from another project. And a few interesting silk yarns (for the ribbons), all I did is knit and reduce drastically every number of rows for the sausage effect. Then embellish with buttons for a girly effect. Could look quite fun in bright colours, making each "sausage" in a different colour, for kids :-)

And the bags

I'm so proud of these - I really enjoy making bags (which reminds me I must post a pic of my first bag, which I started in our first group session - stripes and dots, remember?). They are made with felt and inherited thai fabric that Mari gave me.

(click to see all steps to make this bag, easy and quick,
thanks to this easy pattern from Colorfull)
(forgot to add this pic, essential!! the bottom to keep the tote standing up - and give it more room and shape. Once you finish sewing it, is good to iron it to give it sharpness)

After making the orange small tote I thought 1/ is too bright and 2/ is bit small for my friend Mayo. So I went and made another one... which I plan to embellish with a flower brooch that she can put on or take off in the bag when she wants to use it on her jackets

Detail where you can see the "handmade" touch. The pictures don't reproduce properly the colour of the felt and the contrast with the apple green thread :-(
Is more like a bourgoundy red, warm and heavy.

On working from home

Working from home? yes I am ma'am! And many people ask me if I don't feel lonely, or if I manage to have the will power to wake up early and stay focussed. Well, I do! I can proudly say that I'm a very responsible person who (maybe out of guilt) manage to sit for +8 hours straight in front of this screen where I'm typing now.

Working for/by myself has many pluses:
- I don't talk rubbish with people I don't truly care about,
- I avoid the commuting, don't get other people viruses or
- I can have the temperature in the room to my taste (no more jumpers in summer! no more triple layers in winter!).

I sound like a "grumpy old cow" but no, I know I'm talking for many of you. I've improved my social life, I put more effort into it and have better quality time with my friends!

My workspace is decorated to my taste - YES I can have whatever momentums and personal items I want, thank you (I hate corporations).

Pluses also are that I have plenty of natural light and this brings me to the little anecdote I wanted to write about today: cheeky squirrels. Well, I was opening the curtains a couple of mornings ago and I saw this cheeky squirrel working through our rubbish. [note: it isn't actually MY rubbish but my neighbour’s, which actually is pissing me off cause they cannot be bothered to put it all inside the bins, below and hidden]. Anyway, to the point, so, I decided to take some pics cause it was all quite cute/funny. And then, feeling sorry, I gave her a bit of the yummy quiche leftovers from our craft sessions. That was even funnier, when she wasn't sure if I was trustable or not to come and approach me.. anyway - fun little break-times that can only happen when you work from home.

(click for a bigger view)

On the negative side of working from home is that the kitchen is right there! Few steps and is a heaven of food (and not-so-good treats too). So, as I stopped commuting, that means I walk a 5th of what I'd do in my office days and I am eating more. Consequences? you guessed it: bigger bottom!! So, I've decided to cut down on nasty treats (only buying dark chocolate now) and cooking healthy stuff. My mum would be so proud :-) I made a super healthy and yummy Japanese style lunch yesterday (cucumber & wakame salad with furikake + super food Kale and beans with rice and another type of seaweed paste). Pics don't make justice for taste!

oh! Another plus of working from home? I can have flowers around me all day long! (and.. not so glamurous but extremely practical.. I can do my washing whilst I work! no more late nights waiting for the washing machine to finish!!)

Simple brooch

Well, after seeing so many felt brooches, I had to try make one myself. So, who better recipient for it than Mari, who has already provided me with hours of pleasure (and exercise) with my new inherited bike! Anywhere here is my first attempt.. - colours were nicer than they appear in the photo, the blue is more of a turquoise, with a hint of green.. and the pink is a deeper pink. In any case, I had fun making it!

Just a quick one

Today I found this quirky thing. I love it!! Just cause it is soo different! What do you think? Corner frames from thorsten van elten!!

Third Session

Sunday was a very rainy day but the girls still made it to my place. We had new comers, which is always exciting: Rose, Carly and Caroline turned up to our 3rd session in London, N4.

I must say that I wasn't very inspired and for the looks of it, perhaps because of the weather (or maybe because of the previous late night out), we were all a bit less productive than usual on the craft side.

On the cooking (and eating) side, we managed to do so well!! Specially because the girls provided us with irresistible delicious treats. Caroline made an splendid and healthy quiche, Rose made her own version of Asparagus rolls with soft cheese (very tasty and with nice soft bread), Carly brought her latest addiction: cheese-non-fattening-pretzels (always loved their name, pretzels) and a super sweet and juicy pineapple, Helene spoilt us with a great selection of French cheese from La Frommagerie, accompanied by nut bread.. what else we need to be in paradise? oh yes.. my carrot cake!!

Half asleep I stumbled out of bed at 10 (after finishing our previous night's party at 3am) and made the cake. Just as I slided it into the oven I turned around to discover I forgot to chuck in the grated carrot!! Thankfully it still worked out adding them at this stage. And I followed Amy's advice and chucked in raisins and nuts (by adding my morning muesli).

Carly's capable hands serving up the yummy quiche

The day went well, with lots of gossip, background music (including Flight of the Concords), bit of crafts and the best way to spend a Sunday, with friends!

Anyway, this is what we worked on:

Caroline starting a knitted clutch, after deciding she will make some pillow cases
with her stunning kimono fabric (which I forgot to photograph!)

Rose decided to do an embroidery bookmark for her
granny, who apparently is a master embroiderer!
Here you can see her beautiful hands in action!
The beautiful necklace bases Rose found in a charity second hand shop in Islington, I should go try get some! They are so delicate and femenine, I cannot wait to see what she makes of them!Rose and Caroline in a thinking mood,

Helene is still working on her funky and original decoupage box (see detailed photo below)

My first attempt, I tried to make a cover for my nano-iPod but it just didn't work out,
I just couldn't see it... (note my new needles case, cute hey? from a matchbox)

Second attempt, more succesful, cute..
but I'm still not convinced... And I haven't got any pictures of Carly because she mostly did some repairing work on her clothes, which I envy cause I can easily list all the garments I got with about-to-fall buttons!!