First Advent

Happy first Advent to you all!

Advent calendar

With the 1. December approaching quickly I am busy finishing my home-sewn Advent calendar.
I made this one for my parents. It's actually a relatively simple design. The ugliest part were the numbers which I tried to stitch with my machine. But they didn't really turn out very nicely. Maybe it would have been better to just draw them onto the fabric with a fabric marker or handstitch them.

Here are the steps how I made it:

1. Cut 2 rectangular pieces of fabric for the background (65X80 cm), cut 4 pieces of rectangular fabric for the pockets (22X52 cm), cut 4 pieces of ribbon in red (52 cm) and 1 piece of green ribbon (65 cm) plus 3 pieces of green ribbon (40 cm), cut 2 trees (16x16 cm) and 2 red ribbons for the tree decoration (16 cm), at last cut two hearts out of felt and 1 piece of red ribbon (24 cm); fold the 4 rectangles for the pockets in the middle facing inside out and iron, then sew the ribbon onto them approx 1 cm from the middle fold using red thread, then close the seams all around except one small gap for turning the inside out using white thread, stitch or paint numbers on the pockets using red thread/paint

2. Sew the ribbon onto the trees using red thread

3. Sew the green ribbon onto the background using green thread approx 5 cm from the top, then sew the first row of pockets onto the background using red thread approx 8 cm underneath the green ribbon using red thread, stitch the actual pockets vertically

4. Continue with the other three rows of pockets leaving 8 cm gaps in between the rows

5-7. Applique the trees onto the pockets/background as shown in the photo

8. Cut a rectangular piece of padding in the same size as the background and iron on

9. Stitch the two background pieces together using white thread and integrate the three green hangers in the top seam (one in the middle and the other two at 8 cm from the side), turn inside out and stitch the seams at 1 cm from the edge, sew the two felt hearts together integrating the hande in the seam and handsew onto the calendar whereever you like it

Now all you have to do is find a nice stick  and fill the pockets with little presents! Happy Advent!

My mother in law made this one for our daughter. It was a massive project with lots of hand stitching involved but the result is truely an eye-catcher! But the work was worth it as we can use the calendars for years now.

Gingerbread house

Today I saw this gorgeous gingerbread house in one of the Hong Kong shops. Now I really want to make one myself! Let's see if I will find the time. I am always tempted by all these wonderful Christmas crafts and cookie recipes...

And I already found instructions for how to make one here: http://globetrotterdiaries.com/recipes/lebkuchenhaus-gingerbread-house-eating-germany

Advent wreath

On Sunday it's already the first Advent. So it's time to get the Advent wreath ready. This year my mum brought a moss wreath from Germany with her when she came over last week. She also had the green candles in her luggage. So I only had to add the decoration. I decided to keep it simple with pine cones and little baubles in the shape of acorns. I finished it off with a green velvet bow and a finger puppet moose from my daughter's collection. Have a good first Advent Sunday!

It's raining and I love it

It has been so hot all summer long so when it started raining yesterday night I was so happy eventhough it was a little bit chilly in the bedroom tonight (because we are still sleeping with nothing but sheets). I want to get in the mood for winter and Christmas so the cooler weather is very much welcome!
Yesterday evening I arranged a little autumn/winter deco with physalis and oranges. The scent is fantastic!

IKEA christmas deco

Source: http://www.ikea.com

I found these adorable little toadstools at IKEA this week. I just had to bring them home. So they turned our living room into a little forest. Only need to wait for the deers now...

I also saw a christmas tree decorated with toadstools the other day at herz-allerliebst.de. It's so cute!

Source: http://herz-allerliebst.de/2010/12/23/weihnachten-ist-nah/

The guest room is ready

Just in time for my mum's arrival on Friday the guest room is finally ready. Originally I wanted to sew the curtains and experiment with Denim patchwork but due to lack of time and effort it's now IKEA velvet curtains. In fact they give the room a cozy luxury flair which is a really good compromise I think. Who knows how Denim patchwork would have turned out after all...

The little yellow dress

This project had been halfway done lying around for a couple of months. Now I finally finished it off and congratulated myself. I still like the yellow colour combined with crisp white. If you are interested in the pattern just leave a comment and I will add it later.

My new yellow bedroom

Finally my yellow bedroom is ready. Well it can always be worked on but for the moment I am quite happy with the result. The yellow is so fresh and downloading those images from my camera instantly made me feel good. Happy yellow weekend!

Christmas deco ideas

Source: http://dietlindwolf.blogspot.com/search/label/x-mas

Source: http://dietlindwolf.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

I started looking for Christmas deco ideas in the web and I came across these beautiful images! Love the styling. Can't wait to start my own Christmas deco...

The sand pit - modern & practical

Here we are. Our new sand pit is ready! It hasn't turned out as the ZEN version I had envisioned before but it's very practical with the lid. The rug serves as a comfy underground. Since it's polyester it should not have a problem to stay outside. We'll see in the long run. Our daughter totally loves it! Only problem the sand goes everywhere as she thinks you have to fill the bucket and share with everyone including sofas, tiles etc.