Mother's day

I still didn't show you what I made for Mother's day! My mom never knows what presents she wants to have. Flowers are a no-go, she thinks they are way more expensive around mother's day. So I made her some flowers myself.





It's a design from an old issue of Cross Stitcher magazine, I think it's from 2006. She was very happy with it and it has been put on display rightaway! Which goes to show that moms like handmade presents, no matter how old the kid is.

Laptop on strike.

More new notebooks. The cherry is my favorite. They will be in th Etsy shop as soon as my laptop decides to cooperate.

New books

In one of my last swaps on Swap Bot, I made a couple of notebooks. In a current swap you are supposed to send somethingbthat you have already made. So I'm sending another ntebook. And suddenly, I am all inspired again. So I am making some new small notebooks with 40 pages. Zakka style. And in true Mjammie, Koekjes style, you can send them to someone instead of a card. They come with a matching envelope!





By the way, the ladybug cookies are done! I will send them to the first one of the three who guessed 15 that will email me at maaike@mjammiekoekjes.nl!

Dutch Swappers Advent Calendar snowflakes and giveaway!

This one is in dutch, sorry for all my English readers! But I am sure you will get the point!

Vandaag ben ik aan de beurt voor de Dutch Swappers Bloghop Adventskalender! Ik vind 'm erg leuk, ik hoop jullie ook! En ik hoop ook dat mijn bijdrage in de smaak valt.

En wat ben ik blij met de Nieuwe Truttigheid in craft-land! Want vandaag halen we de naalden uit het vet en gaan we lekker... Borduren! En dat dat niet alleen truttig en fout hoeft te zijn hoop ik te laten zien met mijn sneeuwvlokken moodboard!



Borduren hoeft niet alleen op stof uiteraard. Je kunt gaatjes boren in een plankje, prikken in golfkarton, of mooie naamkaartjes maken. In verschillende stijlen en technieken.



Voor de sneeuwvlokken gebruik je deze templates. Het makkelijkste is om ze uit te printen in het gewenste formaat en de template op je materiaal te leggen. Prik daarna met een naald of prikpen door de stippen heen door je materiaal. Gebruik een scherpe naald om met naaigaren of borduurgaren de ster te rijgen. Als je van puzzelen houdt kun je er voor zorgen dat de sterren aan de voorkant en de achterkant precies het zelfde zijn! Zo kun je er zelfs een slinger mee maken!





De kruissteekpatroontjes kun je op aida stof maken (dat is stof met hokjes, te koop in handwerkwinkels en de meeste hobbyzaken zoals Pipoos) of op evenweave (stof met draadjes die mooi recht ten opzichte van elkaar zitten), maar je kunt ook een ruitjespatroon prikken in een stukje papier of karton. Dat geeft weer een heel ander effect!




De patroontjes kun je maken met elke kleur garen die je wilt. Op elk gewenst materiaal. Of je naait een mooi stukje stof na het borduren op een mooi kaartje en hangt het aan he kerstcadeau voor je lief. Alles kan en mag!



En dan kun je natuurlijk ook "gewoon" borduren. Iedereen die mijn blog wel eens leest weet van mijn voorliefde voor scandinavisch design (ja, ook Ikea).



Geïnspireerd door zweeds handwerk tekende ik twee sneeuwvlokken die je gewoon op stof kunt overnemen en borduren. Gebruik je borduurring ook eens als lijstje!




Binnenkort meer toepassingen van de sterren. Ik ben er nog lang niet klaar mee!

Ik hoop dat jullie minstens evenveel plezier gaan hebben met de patroontjes als ik!

En voor degenen die bij deze enorm lang post het einde hebben gehaald... Mocht je een willen proberen te borduren, reageer dan op dit bericht. Op 14 december kiest mijn inmiddels beroemde Random Number Generator een naam uit en die persoon ontvangt een pakketje voor het borduren van alle bovenstaande dingetjes, inclusief patroontjes, stofjes, een setje naalden, borduurgaren en een borduurring!

The finished apple swap package

The package was sent, received and appreciated! I am so glad! This is how it turned out:



This is the back.



And this is the front. I designed the apple myself. I am proud of me. ;-)

By the way, did you notice that I am miserably failing my Drawing Lab Monday? I have discovered that the book has a lot of assignments that are hard for me to do with two little ones running around. Going to the zoo, finding live models, drawing in public and such. But I found another book that might just work... More on that tomorrow.

An apple for the teacher

Sone time ago, I initiated a swap, where you would make your swap partner something really nice, based on their profile. I got assigned to a teacher. No surprise that I picked an apple theme.





Translation: an apple for the teacher. I made it into a pencil case. I hope she likes it.

Stacked

Guess what this is...



It's one day of Mjammie cookies going in the mail tomorrow!!! So far, I have had at least one order a day, thank you all for that!!! And I am really glad that you like them!



And in the middle of mixing, rolling, baking, cooling, icing and packing, I have found the time to work on my swaps. I have to make something for someone who loves the eighties, so what could I make? How about a cross stitched eighties icon!!!





It's not finished yet, it will be a zippered pouch, and I will probably finish it tomorrow and send it out. I hope she loves it, I spent quite some time on it. I could not find black aida fabric, so I decided to hand dye white fabric. And then cross stitched all the aliens on.

Anyway, I rediscovered my first computer games. Anyone in for a game of space invaders?

New cross stitch creations

The cross stitched house was turned into a key-pouch today. This is what it looks like now:




I also made a cross stitch chart from my birdie logo! Do you recognize it?



And of course I made that one into a pouch too, but this one is for personal use. If you want one, I can make you one though.



I made a pink lining... I love pink!



And this one has been in my head for a very long time now... If you remember these, we are probably the same age!!! I used to play this on my nephews Atari... Don't know what I will make with this one yet! But I love it anyway!!!



Tomorrow another episode of... Drawing lab monday!!! Yay!

Zakka cross stitch

Since my last post I have been baking. A lot. Yay! Both on- and offline the cookies have been really popular, so now I have to go and get new boxes. It has been a real ego-boost to read the comments and hear them from all of you in person!!! New cookies are on their way as we speak.

Meanwhile I have also had some time to work on some other things. I have been doing some cross stitching to make more pouches. Like this.





I love the simplicity! Don't you?

Cross stitch pouches

I'm sorry I didn't do the Drawing Lab Monday assignment, but I promise that next week I will be back with that. The problem was that I needed to draw my pet. And I don't have any pets! So I'm trying to figure something out.

Meanwhile, I made something new.





I have been into pouches lately, because you can never have enough of those. They are so useful! This one I made with 100% natural linen, lined with cotton and embellished with a crosstitched heart that I did myself... I do love it, but I decided to list it in the shop. It will be there tonight, together with some other new goodies, so check it out!

Finished duvet cover

Finally, the duvet cover for my little pal Emil is finished! I hope he will have some really, really sweet dreams while sleeping under this duvet...




BTW, some of you asked me where I found the cross stitch chart with the munchkins. I found it in a cross stitch magazine that I bought in Spain when we were on holiday, a month ago. It's calles Los Labores de Ana. Too cute, huh?

Missing in action...

I was planning to finish the cross stitch duvet cover for my little friend Emil. But somehow the dotted fabric is MIA... I discovered that just after the fabric store had closed, of course. So it'll just have to wait... I can show you the finished cross stitch piece though!



While searching for the fabric I did find a project that I started some time ago, that was whispering to me, "finish me! Finish me!" in a very Alice in Wonderland manner... So I decided to finish that. It will be a quilt for the munchkin. Nothing is better to sleep under on hot summer nights!!!

Busy, busy, busy me...

Sorry that I have been shamefully neglecting you! I am so glad that you decided to visit my blog anyway... So I want to show you what has been keeping me so busy...

I am working on this



which will be combined with this



to make a gift, just like this



while working out what to make with these



and taking care of these



I'm also working on a tutorial on how to make the easiest cake pops EVER, with no baking involved! Right now I am trying which ingredients give the best results... While gaining ten pounds... :-p

So I hope you'll forgive me...