The one with beads and clothespins

The last DIY that appeared on this blog, was over three months ago. I think a new one might be in order by now! With these longer days, I feel more like actually doing things, opposed to those days in winter, that are mostly spend in couch potato mode. So prepare for more DIY posts! I love sending and receiving mail. The newest ones get displayed somewhere around the house, and I thought it was time for a little project involving mail. 

What I've used:

• 40 wooden beads (1 centimeter)
• 4 wooden clothes pins
• 75 centimeters of baker's twine 

Start with laying out your beads and clothespins, to see how they'll end up (especially if you are using beads in different sizes or different colours). I decided they worked best for me with 5 beads, a clothespin, 10 beads, a clothespin, 10 beads, a clothespin, 10 beads, a clothespin and ending with 5 beads again. 

Make a loop by making a double knot on one end of the twine, as pictured

Start beading away! 

The edge of the twine can be hidden in the first bead

End the same way you started, by making a loop

Et voila!

I was on a roll, and made a couple of these puppies. Have you made something cool lately? Please feel free to share a link in the comments below. More DIY's can be found over here.

The one with the things I liked this week (114)

 colourful flowers

 

 my bike and its shadow

 

 this lovely building

 seeing this red guy on a bike ride

 Seeing (and hearing!) Belgian band Oscar and the Wolf with friend L, they were really awesome and both of us had a great evening. If you get a chance to see them perform live, I can highly recommend attending one of their shows!

 Celebrating the birthdays of my aunt and uncle, this was what was on my plate

 Next door to the restaurant where we celebrated their birthdays, was this lovely looking place

The one with all the paint swatches

After four years of living in my apartment, a change of colours may be in order. The walls that are in need of a change are in the living room, and in the kitchen. Besides the curtains (picture number two), there isn't a lot of colour going on in my living room, so basically, any colour goes along with it. My kitchen is mostly white, so anything goes here as well. The swatch at the top right, is a metallic gold. I've never used metallics before, and I am curious about how a whole wall would look, my concern is that it might be too shiny. Painting is not something I'm particular fond of, so I do want to pick the right colour right away. The gold may be a big miss, but on the other hand, what if it's a big winner? Sometimes you need to talk some risks in life, but I don't know if those risks should involve paint! I am horrible at making decisions, so I'm in need of a bit of help. Do you have one or two favourites? Do you have any colourful walls around the house, or are you more of a neutrals fan?

The one with links to like

 source

The journey of a couture dress

I borrowed this one from Diana's blog, this is how Tim Gunn spends his sundays

Texts from dogs, I think these are hilarious! 

Playgrounds around the world

Classic album covers in Google street view

How about a cute floral notebook?

This weekend, I'll be making this

The one with the things I liked this week (113)

Seen on a sunny bikeride 

Thursday fries-date with friend E. 

Preparing an order of 15 totebags, they're on their way to England right now!

A surprise visit from Mandy at work, she got me this book filled with Karl Lagerfeld quotes, and homemade banana bread, that we enjoyed in the sun 

Cute tiles over at Atelier Luna

The one with all the stamping

Every couple of weeks I have a little get-together with friend L. and we spend an afternoon of crafting (good food is in on the party as well!). I forgot about these photo's of our first adventure of this year until I started organising the photos on my laptop last weekend. We try planning what it is we'll make, and that day we planned on getting some stamping done that day. 

Making potato stamps was on my to do list, but after the results weren't as good as I had hoped for, I started working with other materials, like rope and erasers. It had been years since I last made stamps (probably the last time was in kindergarten. A long, long time ago), and I had so much fun! 

I wrapped some rope around the erasers and secured the edges on the back with thumbtacks. Not very clear to see in the photo, but you could actually see the texture better on the stamped paper. I was pretty happy with the result!

Being a big fan of all things cross patterned, I wanted to make a cross stamp. I made a cross with washi tape and cut away the part of the eraser that wasn't covered with the washi tape.

My favourite part of the afternoon was that I had this whole plan in advance, ended up experimenting, and liking those results more. A reminder that sometimes things don't go exactly the way you planned it, but that doesn't need to be a bad thing. If you know what I mean :-)

Do you like crafting alone or with a group of people? Do you like planning ahead, or are you more of a fan of just starting and seeing how things will work out? L. also did a stamp themed post, and that's over here.

The one with two threes

Of the things I don't like, celebrating my own birthday is somewhere at the top of the list (not quite sure which one is the winner, but top contenders for the coveted number one spot are definitely my own birthday, getting up early, spiders, and winter). I do have mixed feelings about my b'day: on the one hand, I am grateful to be in good health and being able to add another year. On the other hand, I always feel that the year went by too quickly and I could have accomplished more. And 33... Does that sound old or what?

The day started with a morning walk combined with some grocery shopping (cheese! prosecco! pie!). I almost never buy flowers for myself, but I think I did deserve some on my birthday. So I treated myself to ranunculus, my favourite kind of flowers, next to peonies. I had some friends over during the day, and in the evening we had a snack food type of dinner.

Besides birthdays and spiders, I'm also not a big fan of having my picture taken. I did discover I made an accidental selfie though  :-)

How do you feel when it comes to celebrating your own birthday?

The one with the things I liked this week (112)

(finally) got some DIY-ing done!

 Can't wait for the temperatures to rise and eating lots of fresh fruits

 Mandy's birthday is the day after mine, and we always celebrate with a pre-birthday dinner

 with hot cocoa for dessert

  This post should be renamed to 'the food I liked this week', I celebrated Easter with lots of chocolate

I received this awesome card from Diane last week

The one with (more) doors

As you might know, I have a thing for doors. When taking little walks across town, I am always on the look out for pretty ones. I haven't done any door-post so far this year (I did a couple of them last year, here and here), so I think a post dedicated to the beautiful ones found is in order. Hope you'll love them as much as I do! 

Do you see the hands?

 

The above door is a winner, except for the hands, it has one more little surprise. I have seen quite the amount of door knockers, but I have never seen one that is shaped like a cow!