Poem

Last week I was in Den Bosch for my cake-decorating course at De Taartwinkel. An hour early, so I decided to take a walk to the city center. And then I ran into this poem, that was painted on the side of a building. I thought it was so sweet, I just had to take a pic and share it with you.



Translation for the non-Dutch:

THE INFLUENCE OF MEDIOCRE WIND ON YOUR CLOTHES

                             Are you going to the beach? When you
      get back, can I have the sand
                                                           from your shoes for

                         the bottom of my fish tank?

Last chance...

Today is your last chance to enter the giveaway! Leave your comment here to enter!

Cookie service

Today I finally made the cookies that I want to send in the mail. They are not as neat and slick as I usually make them, but they will serve their purpose. I decided to send them to myself for this test run, and to a friend who lives up north. I wonder if it will work! I'd prefer a box of homemade cookies to a card any day!



I also made a new clickable ad for the forum that I support. Guess who the talented hand model is!!!

The inspiration giveaway finale!!!

Now that the stamps are carved, all we have to do is choose a winner and pick a lucky voter!

But first, the fine print...

Please let me know in the comments of this message which stamp you like best. Just by voting you are entering the goodiebag giveaway!!!
You can't vote for your own suggestion. It's just bad sportsmanship. ;-)
The stamps are carved with the ideas in the comments of this message. The person who had the winning suggestion will receive a goody bag!
You can vote until friday, on saturday I will choose two winners: the winning suggestion and the winning voter!

These are your options:

The birdie


The little lamb


The kokeshi doll


The sun


The froggie


Let the voting begin!!!

The inspiration giveaway: birdie and flowers

The last one in the inspiration giveaway... The bird on a branch with flowers. I hope you like it! I will post a message on sunday with all the stamps so you can choose a winner...




I mounted some of my stamps yesterday. Now all I need to do is make more mdf blocks, so I can mount all the others as well!

Flip-flop season

We are having an unusually warm week. Yay! Finally the summer dresses and shorts are coming out and the thick winter coats can go to storage! This morning I even threw out all the summer clothes I haven't been able to fit in for years... But the best thing about nice weather is... Flip-flops!!! I bought a pair for the little man yesterday (now that he can walk, I don't think he looks like a baby boy anymore) and oh my god, are these adorable or what!!!



Hmmmm.... They do take some getting used to...


But I can get around in these just fine!!!


Oh my, isn't he just the most adorable little man you've ever seen???

Giftbag fun: the Flowers Giftbag

I promise you that this will be the last giftbag post... This time, with a small tutorial.

Fresh flowers make my day! Today I bought some really nice tulips, twenty of them, for only 4 Euros. Who can resist that! I decided to use them for my flowers giftbag!




They are easy to make in all kinds of paper!

This is what you'll need:

(I used the knife to crease the paper for the giftbags, since my paper knife seems to be MIA... You will also need scissors, but the munchkin decided to practice with the scissors during the making of this photo...)

Use the giftbag tutorial to make the bags, make sure you make them the right size for the plastic cups.



For smaller bags, cut a piece of the plastic cup so it won't stick out of the giftbag.



Fill the cups with water and place them in the bags.



Place the flowers in the bags and enjoy!

Make sure you water your flowers every day, the water keeps the bottom of the bag heavy so it won't tip over...!

Giftbag fun: the Travellers Giftbag

A nice gift for someone who plans to go far away for a long time. Fill it with goodies from the place he'll miss the most!




(of course I didn't use a real map, I'm far too uptight about my books... It's a photocopy...)

Next: the gift of flowers!!!

Giftbag fun: the Cupcake Giftbag

How about this for a fun treat! A giftbag in the exact right size of your cupcakes!




Next: the travellers giftbag...

Make-your-own-party-favor-bags tutorial

Do you love these?








And they are sooooo easy to make! The perfect way to upcycle your favorite magazines! I especially love Flow, since they use different kinds of paper. Brilliant! Are you ready for a long tutorial?

You will need:
a piece of paper three times the size of the bag you want, I would start with a4 for practice
A ruler
Glue (I always use the Pritt roller, it glues fast without a mess)

Lay out your paper.


Fold one side to apprx three quarters of your page.


Fold the other side so that they overlap about one centimeter. Glue them together.


Take your ruler and make a crease on about two cm of the side. I use a paper knife ("vouwbeen") for that.


Fold the sides up on the crease.


Fold the sides inward on both sides.


Make a crease on five cm of the bottom. Fold up.


Push in the sides with your finger and fold it so that the rim stays up.


Fold the sides flat.


Fold down the top flap, glue it to the sides.


Fold up the bottom flap and glue it to the top flap.


Open your bag and fill it with your favorite goodies!!!


You can play with the size of your bag, the sides can be two centimeters, but also three or four, to make a bigger bag. Just make sure that the bottom crease is two and a half times as big as the side crease, so you can glue the bottom!

Next: decorate and use your bag!

Taking shape

Even though there are a lot more squares waiting to be attached, and even more squares are waiting to be made, I wanted to show you the progress in the munchkins blanket. It's starting to take shape!





Next up: the make-your-own-party-favor-bags tutorial!!!

We're back!

Our brave little trooper is back home!!! On tuesday he started feeling a lot better, and he wanted to eat and drink by himself. So they sent us home. Good thing too, he was getting back to his destructive little self, wrecking his hospital bed...

So all is well again in the Hoppin' Up home. I did get a good start on these... What else are you supposed to do, sitting in a darkened room next to a sleeping baby boy...

Hospital...

I was planning a really nice post today, a tutorial on cinnamon rolls, but I never got round to upload the pictures. I do have a very valid reason though.

My baby boy has been sick this week, the same belly bug that his sister and me had. But today he started throwing up quite badly. So we took him to the doctor and he referred us to the hospital, where they decided it would be better if he was admitted and given fluids.

So as I am writing this, I am sitting on a fold-up chair next to a small hospital bed containing my little boy, asleep, with a tube sticking in his little nose. I feel so bad for him!

So I hope that you don't mind, but I'm a little preoccupied right now...

Even now he's gorgeous...



Be back soon!!!