Loop scarfs for loved ones

I somehow stumbled into November (or November happened upon me), and can't believe Christmas is actually almost there. Time to get ready for the coldest season. I've been making loop scarfs recently and am quite enjoying the results, as they're fairly easy to make and therefore so rewarding!

For her birthday I made A. one in rather funky colors (in remembrance and anticipation of our traditional New Year's holidays), lined with a cozy warm fleece fabric in blue. Of course we had to go outside and snap some pictures of it in the warm autumn sun. It's been spoiling us all weekend.

I assume autumn is pressing every button to make up for the rather weak and moody summer. Enjoy, until you'll have to go all onioning by putting on 3 tights and at least 2 cardigans! 

Belated Cotton Love

I had this post prepared such a long time ago. It was even before my harddisk died on me, and I am glad I had already uploaded this picture. I didn't want to post it too early, since I had planned to make one of these tote bags for my friend Syl for belayed Christmas (a habit we still pursue very much), and I wanted it to be a total surprise.

This bag is now about half a year old and my substitute for any handbag I had before. It's so practical, and always fits more than you think, without becoming a burden to your shoulders and back. I've been dreaming about making a few more of this style and open a little etsy shop. To share the love over handmade uniqueness.

So here's the original post:
"I'm a big fan of cotton tote bags. Not only does it keep my wastage of plastic bags to a minimum, it also adds to my individual style. After having tried out a few prototypes, I finally finished my first very own cotton bag.

Since the sourcing of darker shaded heavy cotton seems to be more difficult than I thought, I had to dye some beige cotton to get this brown color. I'm rather dissatisfied with the result, as it is quite blotchy. Hopefully I'll find a supplier of darker cotton or linen soon. Sadly Etsy is not the answer yet.

What I love most is the floral lining, which only peeks out a little if you're rummaging around for your things. I decided to go with the darker old rose ribbon, since it suits my scarf so well. But I'm planning to combine it with all kinds of colors, depending on the wearer and its wardrobe."

I've already made two more of these bags, always one of a kind. In the meantime I found a very solid brighter linen, substituting well for the brown shade. But I'm still hunting for a similar quality with darker shades since, well, these bags do live. And they will become a little blotchy and messy as you carry them around lovingly. But they'll always be unique.

Early autumn dress

It's been a little quiet on my blog front, I apologize. But do you know those times when you've got so many things at hand, you just don't know where to start?

Sometimes my creative vein is blocked. And then there are days when I take up three projects at once and literally run from one to the other. As if I needed more than two hands, and maybe another head even.

So here is one of my later quests. And I'll make every effort to share the other ones as well.

I found this adorable fabric a couple of days ago and instantly fell in love. I thought of making a cozy and practical dress. Something you can just pull on quickly while it still flatters your shape.

Since I had only 1,40m to work with (it was the last bit) I had to alter a pattern I made for another project, and insert some seams. But I think it still turned out beautifully. I know, you can't really see it too well there, but dusk was falling when I finished this dress, so it was the best shot I got. I promise I'll make some better pictures soon.

Some early autumn break music matches well with the seemingly ending summer and my new early autumn dress. 
Have a lovely weekend!

Day 2 - the healthy week project

I'm starting the day with a fruit salad. Do you remember my biggest fear I mentioned yesterday regarding this project? Well, it came true.

Getting up so early on a day off does have one disadvantage - it makes the day a lot longer. I only had to do some paperwork yesterday, and my biggest challenge was to find a store that sells still water in glass bottles, not plastic.

Rummaging through my papers, cycling around on my bike, writing mails and making a few phone calls lead to me having achieved my daily goal at around 1 o'clock. In the afternoon, mind you. Of course it's nice to have a lot of time at hand when usually we only rush through our days and wonder where time has gone. However, this made my healthy diet project into more than just a project. A real endeavour.

I simply had too much time all of a sudden, and that usually misleads me into having a few more snacks here and there. Bits of chocolate, maybe some pizza, lots of toast with whateverthereisstillleftinthefridge. What a trap.

Stuffing salad, fruit and vegetables into my mouth all day long can hardly fill the gap all those yummy unhealthy goodies left. I'm terribly hungry all day long. However I am positive my body will accustom itself to this change, but of course in its own time. If it was this easy, we'd all be eating a lot healthier, wouldn't we?

Day 1 - the healthy week project

Unfortunately I don't eat healthy at all. It doesn't show in my physique yet, thanks to my mother's genes, but I know it won't always stay that way.

Especially in the past months I've been starting to get all kinds of pain I actually correlated with the elderly. I caught myself complaining about back pain, its intensity depending on the weather (I always thought the weather-pain connection was just something to gain attention with), and a subtle chronic pain in my hipbone and knee have been spoiling most events I've been looking forward to attend at.

It frightens me that I speak about my body in this manner at this age. So today I started my little project, got up at 8 in the morning (yes, this is rather early for me, since I am not an early-morning-person), went running for a bit and got myself some fresh vegetables and fruit for the day. I'm already afraid I might feel too hungry to get through the project, since I am so used to munch some little (unhealthy) snacks all through the day. But I'm determined. And this salad up there is seriously delicious.

I hope your week is starting just as motivated and inspiring!