Blogger craft club re-usable grocery bag

Last week I was much to tired to sew anything. This week I tried to make my very first tutorial for my dutch budgetting website. It had to be something simple, inexpensive and of good use. I decided on a re-usable grocery bag. I don't like grocery bags with short handles I love one that I can carry on my shoulder instead of killing my fingers.

This is the end result: I have to say I am quite proud of it :-D

Happy crafting everyone I am going to spend some time with my dh it's his b-day today!

Blogger craft club

Just a quick upload of my first Blogger Craft Club project. Lil man took the pic so it looks a bit odd LOL Will try to post new pics later this week :-)

ETA: Thanks ladies! I think these are called madras check in english, in my homeland these fabrics are used for pangi's (decorated fabric wrapped around the waist) and anisa's (headwraps). My mom send quite a few of these fabrics and I decided to use them to make day to day items so everytime I see one I think of home.

Examples of pangi's

Lady decorating a pangi by hand

Source

Have a beautiful week!

Lasertherapy, weightloss and crafts

Still not completely recovered even though I am feeling much better. Apart from not being able to lift up my left arm further than my chest and the irritating spontaneous fevers I am doing okay. The hospital called and they asked me if I would like to participate in a experimental new therapy that includes lasers. The tricky thing is that I because it is experimental my insurance won't pay for it. This will cost me about 220 euros monthly for I have no clue how many months. I have decided to go for an intake and see what the doctors say. If they think that the illness is to far progressed I won't be able to participate, I am praying that this will be the answer to my problem. I refuse surgery because it is mentally killing me! In the last 10 yrs I've had around 60 operations all with total anaesthesia. I have memory loss due to this and it also gave me agoraphobia (which in the last year I have been fighting with great result) because my whole life was indoors either in the hospital or at home.

I can't wait for my skin to ease my friend asked me to join her and her sis for aqua jogging and I really really would love to do this! My body needs to tone up! I don't want to loose weight right now because I am hardly moving and that really shows every ounce lost is turning into flabby skin YUCK! So no more weight loss until I can do my Pilate's, yoga, walking and aqua jogging again. It is hard not to loose weight because I am not hungry at all due to the painkillers and fever. Last night dh went and got me "patatje oorlog" that is what the dutch call fries served with mayonnaise, peanut sauce and onions I know it sounds disgusting and I usually think so too but I ate it LOL all in the name of staying at the exact weight I am in now. It was really sweet of dh seeing that he is still master cleansing and was drooling all over my fries. Today is day 10 of his master cleanse and this man lost 22 pounds in 10 days!!! Starting tomorrow he will be breaking the fast and he asked me to make one of his favorites stir-fried noodles with paksoi and ginger on wednesday when he is allowed to eat normal again. He demanded that I make the exact same dishes in the following days so he can eat what we ate while he was suffering LMAO!

I started working on one of the projects for the Blogger Craft Club okay I am not going to lie I actually finished one of the projects I know I know we weren't starting till Monday but I was bored! Really, really, really bored! But that is okay because I was so drugged up due to the painkillers I made a million and one mistakes! My lines are quite crooked but other than that it's wonderful ;-P.

Okay I need to get ready to go to the market with dh and lil man (the big lil man is at a soccer game) we need to get oranges for the breaking of his fast and some other veggies and fruits. I am going to get some fabric for my niece her birthday gifts (apron and chef's hat and I will add a set to bake cookies and some cookie recipes my kids like) she's going to be 3 and she is as cute as a button LOL I am praying that I will make it to her birthday party this year caus I haven't made it to any yet!!! My first niece ever and I haven't attended any of her b-day parties! Every year around her b-day I am too sick and need to be hospitalized. Not this year I will go no matter what!!!

Okay I really need to go now I am leaving you with a pic of my lil one and my niece. They are not only cousins but best-friends too :-D

Blessings,

Craft club anyone?

Hadias over @ A day in the life of... started a "blogger craft club" she posted links to free crocheting patterns but since I can't crochet (nor knit BLUSH) I decided to find some sewing patterns and join in on the fun ;-)

This is the purse found @ kwik sew I will be making, click for free pattern.

This is the apron I found @ barij.typepad.com & the free pattern (I have been wanting to make one of thesee for the longest time! )

Ah yes the scarf found at Amy butler designs & the free pattern

and last but not least the tote found over at u-handbag.typepad.com & free pattern.

The craft club will start on January 28th hurry up and join, it will be great fun!

Blessings,

YEAH I finished my yoga bag....

.... but now I am too tired for yogaclass :-( I am going to cook and than take a nap perhaps I can recharge and go show off my bag LOL

Ok this is just a really quick post caus I need to start cooking!

The bag modelled by my big lil man ;-) Don't ya just love purple and pink :-D

Idle hands are the devil's playground.

Have you ever heard of http://www.ymib.com/? If so you are probably just as hooked as I am. Since discovering YMIB it has become my lil sanctuary online. It's THE place to find inspiration, relaxation, information, support, beautiful passionate natural living sister, it is my home on world wide web.

I never thought of myself as the creative kind, never had the patience to create. Visiting YMIB has put me in touch with a whole different side of my being. A side that loves making life beautiful, see the sisters @ YMIB enjoy all aspects of living. Cleaning the home, cooking dinner they have simply made an art out of every day otherwise trite activities.

Creativity not only feeds the soul it also doesn't give the devil time to put insecurity and fear into my head. Being stressed out about the lil man being ill, and being home with him 24/7 put a lot of fear in my head. I was so scared that there was something horribly wrong with my baby. I needed to stop doomthinking and needed something to concentrate on.

My cousin was here with me and since we were not able to leave the home and do any outdoors activity (read: shopping) We decided to try collaging. Well it certainly stopped me from doomthinking caus I was getting frustrated as h*ll with cutting out and glueing tiny pieces of paper. Creativity cannot dwell in the same place as perfectionism I soon learned. It took me 6 hours to finish my collage in between taking care of my son. I love the end result but was pretty sure I would never ever do that again.

About a week later I found myself by the phone staring at it wondering when it would ring. My lil man was feeling much better and wanted to go to the daycare. Dh had just brought him but I was worried sick that it might be to soon and stayed staring at the phone just in case they would call to tell me to pick him up. Devil was putting all kinds of horrid thoughts in my head again and I needed to shut him up! I decided to go to my online sanctuary and read some. Suddenly the urge to create was to hard to resist, and I decided to make another collage. While searching through magazines, cutting pictures, words and quotes my soul was easing a bit. My brain stopped the negativity and I was truly enjoying myself.

Thank you YMIB for teaching me patients to create, for helping me let go of my perfectionism and for giving me the tools to exorcize the devil ;-)

Blessings,

Chayil

Yoga bag drama...

Okay forget about all the other projects I told you about ;-) I started yoga and being me, having a yogamat (cute pinkribbon yogamat) in a large shopper that says intertoys, cramps my style LMAO

After searching for a yoga bag in all (3) sport related stores in this lil village and having very odd stares and a few recommendations for a large sportingbag to fit my yogamat I decided to continue my search online. I found one fell in love and after noticing the price fell back out of love real quick! Bagprices ranged from 45 euro's and up!!!

I decided that making a yoga bag would be a great challenge and project and would test all my new sewingskills. I searched all over the net for a free yoga bag pattern and found one

This project was turning out to be much much more challenging than I imagined. First of all all the measurements are in inches and my tapemeasure is in cm, so I had to start turning all inch into cm wich was horrible caus now I was left with measurements like 75.8 cm :-(

Than I discovered that I needed lining for the inside of the bag. Since I didn't have that either I decided to make the bag without lining. So far so good I cut out all the patternpieces and started assembling my bag. Only to discover that I cut the circle (bottom of bag) and added seem allowance wich wasn't nescesarry caus it was already in the pattern LOL So I had to trim some off didn't want to go back and remeasure so I just took a guestamate. Because the original patterns and explanation expects me to use the lining I had no idea how to attach the strap neatly. See they made it disappear somewhere in the lining. Well I did the best I could improvising and eventhought the bag is cute I will not take it out of the house LOL So now the bag is used for hanging the mat on my door for @home yoga.

I started making a new bag lining and all even cut out all the pieces but I want to adjust the pattern just slightly so the bag will close with a drawstring. Back to the drawingboard. Will keep ya posted.

Here is a pic of the first yogabag (modeled by dh) always great for a chuckle or 2 The fabric kind of sux but it was the only suitable fabric I had in the house. (fabric by ikea) The next bag will be dark purple with pink trimmings :-D

Blessings,

Chayil

As promised

a picture of my vest. Now keep in mind it's my first project in 15 yrs ;-)

The front & The back

I haven't found any cloth to upholster my chairs yet so I decided to make a lil top instead.

I downloaded a free pattern for this top yesterday and I am going to make it from an old headwrap wich I can't wear anymore because it dries out my locs

I have really rekindled my passion for sewing, lovin' it!

Blessings,

Chayil

Finally an update!

I still enjoy sewingclass a lot I have finally finished my vest and it looks cute but a bit boring. I think it's the colour I chose (gray) so I will be thinking of ways how I can pimp-my vest :-P

I brought it home today (sewing lessons are now on wednesday's) and dh thought it looked really pro haha

I am going to try and make some time to go to Ikea to get some thick cloth to refurnish my chairs that will be my next sewingproject :-D

I just love my sewingteacher she has given me all kinds of great ideas on how to revamp clothes and she even offered to help me shorten the sleeves and legs of an pantssuit I bought but never wore cause it's to long.

I will post a pic of my vest asap

Help, can't find the right cloth!

Okay for some reason it is impossible to find the right cloth for my vest! I am getting a lil annoyed I called just about every clothstore in the vicinity and YES, they do have the cloth but NO not in that width ;'-( I think the project is going to have to wait another week so I can go to Amsterdam or Utrecht to find the cloth. Next sewinglesson I will bring all my pants and jackets that need to be shortened will save me a lot of money and it will give me something to do since the vest is on hold.

This is the vest:

First sewinglesson...

YEAH my sewinglesson was a great success! I was somewhat nervous stepping into a strangers house and having to stay there for 2 hours LOL I like to meet people and observe them from a distance not that outgoing I guess. Once I know someone it gets better but I am not the kind to open up to strangers. The lady was really nice and young (I know age should not matter but I live in a small white dutch village and well the elderly are not to eager on meeting foreigners or "allochtonen" as they refer to us here) and she lived in Amsterdam for several years wich made her more worldly (read used to black folks lol) than most.

At first I was a bit apprehensive about choosing a project so she encouraged me to flip through some sewingmagazines to get ideas. My eyes were caught by a beautiful white wrap vest/jacket it was beautiful and elegant and simple in it's design. I wasn't to sure if it was do-able for me as a first project but she seemed confident enough for both of us. I traced the pattern and even though it was quite tricky following the right lines for my size etc within minutes it felt as if I had been doing this for years. The time flew by and I can't wait till monday for my next lesson! This weekend I will be on a mission to find the right cloth for my vest, it's great to feel passionate!

Blessings!

Passion

As a young girl and teen I was very passionate about several things: my favorites where definately sewing and dancing. Due to all lifes challenges I lost my passion for these things and decided that it is about time that I demanded my passions back! This year I took Salsa lessons with my dh, it was great fun and it was a great way of getting closer to each other. Since dh does not have a lot of time on his hands for salsa due to personal goals of his own (wich I fully support him in!) we have put salsalessons on hold.
I did decide to take sewinglessons again to find that passion again. I haven't touched a sewingmachine for over 15 yrs except for the time I hemmed my curtains ;-) so lessons are definately a MUST!
This monday will be my first lesson and I am so exited! I feel like a lil kid waiting for the first day of school! I have so much ideas going around in my head of things I want to make I should make a list to see wich ones will be less challenging and therefor best to start with.

That's it for now!

Blessings!