flea market treasures

I like this vintage french version of winnie the pooh so much better than the disney one ...




thanks T. for taking me shopping :-)
 

delicacies

portuguese and french ones ...


apparently me and F. must've been the only lisboetas that had never been to this store. Even F.'s father, who lives in Coimbra, had heard about it, and T. knew it already, so I asked her to get me a few tins when she went shopping for X.'s gift.


and when you go to Dijon, you must bring back some mustard, right ?

thanks to whoever left a comment on my previous post about the bagel shop, I'm definitely going to try that ...

and C., the recipe is on page 228. For those who asked, the book is this one.

 

working space

sorry I haven't been updating this blog as frequently as I used to, but due to some recent changes at work I don't have as much free time as before, and I've trying to catch up on all of my late orders as well... so if you're waiting for an e-mail or a reply from me, please be patient and I'll get there, I promise. I'm still reading all the blogs (bloglines has its flaws, but it's still very convenient) but just haven't been able to comment as much as I'd like to.
These last 4 days were actually a bit chaotic around here. A. went to Dijon for a conference (seems like a charming place, I'll post some photos when he gets back) which left me with lots of time for crafting, or so I thought.


Saturday was actually a productive day, since the rain made me stay indoors. I worked on a few orders and started the new set of softies, and even cut the pattern for a blouse I've been meaning to make for myself. All that, and I even baked - a recipe for bagels that I found on our bread recipes book (I love bagels, why don't we have them here in Portugal ?)
anyway, the rest of the days I tried to craft some more, maybe even finish knitting my somewhat cowl, but we had such great weather that any excuse was good for leaving the house. And the free time I had was spent finishing my contribution for a publishing project, which of course I left to the last minute.



Also for this purpose, I had to get some photos of my working space .. the problem is, I don't really have a working space. Our appartment is so small that I just work wherever there's free space, usually the living room floor or sometimes the kitchen table. So for the last few days, this is how our kitchen table looked like ...

 

works in progress

and a few more items available for sale here









and these are going to be available at a crafts fair in Porto soon (May 5th - 7th) at my friend Winkiemoon's stand (together with a lot of other wonderful crafts and goodies by our talentend friends)
 

o meu primeiro livro de costura

first of all, alice would like to thank all who made such nice comments about her here and here ... she's still blushing from all the praise **
for those who have asked, I will make a couple of mousies for sale soon, and if there's enough interest I might think about making a few more.



and yesterday T. found me the most wonderful surprise at the flea market, a copy of one of my favourite books from childhood. It's called "O meu primeiro livro de costura", by Janet Barber ("My learn to sew book"), and browsing through it filled me with nostalgia. I remember I tried to make a Tina doll several times, but somehow it never came out well *sigh*. I wonder if I should make another try now ...






speaking about books, I've been stuck with the ones listed at the right for quite a while now. I've been sneaking lots of other books in between, but mostly chic lit or other comfort reading which is all my head can take right now ... I started October Horse while I was watching HBO's series Rome which was a great timing, and because I had enjoyed the previous volumes so much I thought it would be non stop reading (I stopped when Caesar was still in Egypt). And Philippa Gregory's latest just doesn't seem to be working for me either, so following Alicia's suggestion and a conversation over tea with T. yesterday, I decided to get a copy of Prep today at lunchtime which I started to read immediately and I guess will be my easter read.

also, my green and purple package from april's color-iffic-swaporama has arrived, full of bright and lovely items, all sent by Girafette



and a few more orders finished, here, here and here (little by little, things start falling into their place again ..)



 

my first softie

So I was feeling a bit ambitious this weekend, and decided it was time to tackle my first softie. Maybe in preparation for back-tack 3, but I kept thinking about it the whole of last week (drawing sketches in the subway, or whenever possible). I had this idea of a mouse pattern, but to make matters more difficult I just had to draw my own, which meant a lot of measuring and fidgeting with paper. In the end, this first attempt came out almost perfect, just how I had imagined it.

Her name is Alice, and she's a cute mousie who loves flowers, springtime, and having pic-nics in the park :-) My plan had been to give her to my friend's daughter who's turning 4 next friday, but A. insisted we kept her, so I guess I'll be making my second softie very, very soon.



 

pouches ...

I'm usually a sort of organized person, but somehow the contents of my handbag always seem to be out of control (very typical for a woman, or so my colleagues tell me ...). I sometimes take ages to find my car keys, my cell phone or even my wallet (very embarassing when you're at the supermarket line and everyone is waiting for you). In an attempt to tidy things just a bit, I took the habit of organising items inside pouches recently. Well, this means the clutter still exists, but at least it's hidden.



So, in tribute to these wonderful accessories called pouches I decided to make a few of them which will be available for sale at the online store (more designs coming next week)
 

cherry blossoms bags

a couple more bags finished and available for sale here

--------------------
and another order finished...


 

first kal

so I've joined my first kal (knit-along) at the sexy knitters club ... I guess the purpose of kals for me is to motivate me to finish whatever I'm knitting at the moment, and not to have (yet) another unfinished object around forever. So I've chosen the Somewhat Cowl pattern and started on it last weekend. Summer projects are so much more time consuming (smaller needles and thinner yarn) but so far it's looking good.



 

shriek

pattern: shriek
yarn: gedifra fashion trend
needles: 6 mmm


I had to change the pattern somewhat, due to the difference of needle size, but somehow it turned out OK. And I just needed 3 skeins to knit this, so I foresee a lot of similar vests in different colours to be knitted next winter :-)




DeStash - for those of you out there who don't know what to do with your huge yarn stash, take a look at this site
 

trades

some lovely trades came on the post last week, from two wonderful ladies: a gorgeous batik fabric from North Malaysia and a stone necklace from Bali, sent by Amy .. and a book swap from Li Li, to which she added the cute HK paper bags - thanks girls :-)



 

breakfast on pluto

this movie made me smile, laugh and cry at the same time ... it goes without saying that I loved it, and I can't get its soundtrack out of my head since yesterday (maybe I should've been born 20 years earlier after all)