These are the newest items in my shop! :)

Etsy kardemom

Last sunday, T and me were married for a year! We always joked that we tried to get to 3 months so this was quite something. To celebrate, we went to Limburg to walk abou the hills and drink lots of champagne.



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I mostly take pictures of food these days, for my recipes. I'm astounded how much a nature guide eats! When you spend 8 hours in the woods running around with kids, there's really no limit to how much you can eat. And on the other days I still work in the kitchen. Ah food, it's a good thing :)

On ym day off, I did what all longhairs like to do best: I took pictures of my hair! I wonder how long one would reasonably keep it and still be able to do sporty things? Waistlength at least I'd say but I'm not sure.

I have had many people compliment my blankets, quilts made of squares with all kinds of patterns and colours. So I collected a bunch of fabrics and put two quilt sets online! These sets contain fabric squares, underblanket and binding, and instructions, so everything you need to make your own blanket. We use ours in the winter on the bed, but also to go picnicing or to watch movies under, they're so super nice :)





You can find them here:
!

T and me made an effort to not be couchpotatoes and went about walking. We found this very weird forest full with stones and rocks and even old tombstones! And a good sunset.








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Today, I totally cleaned out my studio, tomorrow I'm handing in the keys. I think it's one of the best decisions I ever made, even though it was very hard to decide on. Upon closing the door, I just felt a bit more enthousiastic about life, about things in the future.

I've been sewing commercially since I was 19. It's a tough business to be in: competing with Chinese sweatshops and H&M prices, dealing with weird or non-paying customers, trying to find your "niche" and stay in it. Even when you're a very smalltime seller, it's so much work.

The hardest thing was that I relied on it for part of my income, so when times were slow I HAD to sew things I didn't really love, take underpaid commissions, or just force myself to make another dress because I "should" make a certain amount of clothes a month...


I'm very much looking forward to sewing for pleasure! Sewing fun things without thinking about taxes and profit margins and the price it should go for. I'm planning a gothy dress, I'm planning lots of quilt sets (you can see a few in these pictures). It was a big hassle getting everything out of my studio and downsizing my immense fabric collection, but it feels nice and clean now, ready for new plans!

Here's Fred, not helping at all:

Hey, something's wrong with my friendslist! It doesn't update any more, does anyone else have this problem?

I'm in trial period to be a writer for a vegan recipe website! Lately all I've been doing is thinking of food, making food, photographing food, jotting down notes in the kitchen. We eat the weirdest things and one time had lasagna 4 times in one week, lasagna is my enemy (it just doesn't come out right!) But recipe writing is soooo much fun! Also having a reason to cook and eat more is never bad :) Here are some food pictures just for fun.

Cornish pasties with pumpkin stuffing

Eggy tofu salad

Orange glazed beets and beetroot-leaf salad

Roast pumpkin, scrambled tofu

Try 984 of the lasagna, almost got it right this time! D:

So since my last update (in which many things happened,) MANY MORE things happened. I changed jobs, was a tourguide, started a newspaper thanks to government subsidies that I applied for, my old job won't let me go ('cause they love my so) and offered to pay for a chef's education... Hmm, no.

I walked on the bottom of the sea, it was low tide. We saw the sun rise.

(In the distance you see the first group leaving)

MY FRIENDS! I finally finished this motherloving hell-journey of a coat! Uaaagh I am all a-mess and don't know, I kinda don't love it, I think I have sewing burn-out! It looks kinda okayishly in pictures. I hate that it's finished in spring because I just want to sell it and get some money and pay my studio, so that I don't have to think about whether I want to keep my studio (at the same time, in the back of my mind, I see some fantastic amazing dresses that should definitely be made... I want to do some historically incorrect fantasy sewing!) Anyway, onwards, upwards, picture time!








(If you say "what the what?" I remade this coat.)

For a while now I have been blogging in Dutch about sustainability, zero waste, health, vegan recipes, and all hippie-like things. I never mentioned it here since it kinda looks like I'd be moving to Blogspot, and I promise you I'm not! But if you're a Dutchie and you like saving the world, go and check out http://koopweigering.blogspot.com.

These pictures were all taken for the other blog, detailing green smoothies, bread baking (olive bread, so delicious!) I weeded some weeds and they turned out to be carrots, also a body scrub made of lemons and sugar, that is super delicious :)

I was always very outspoken on the issue of copyright. Especially people who just scanned things or found things or pasted things together, I said, should not expect copyright to a picture. And is it not our task to send beautiful things into the world, instead of just wanting to be famous for some picture we happened to take?

But today, when I saw that like 8.000 people had reblogged my picture, I wanted to do little else but yell THAT'S MY PICTURE give me credit :( Haha and aww, then I found myself a little pathetic :) But I did gain more understanding now of people wanting to be credited for every small thing that send out on the web.

You don't NEED a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!

I've been neglecting this journal but I've been so busy, oh, it feels like my entire world is shifting. Spinning at double-speed. A lot of things are happening (but all good things!)


In May I'll be leaving my job as a kitchen assistent, because I found a new job (yes, I'm job-hopping in this current economical climate!) I will be a nature-guide, which I think is the best job ever. I'll be trailing the woods with a bunch of kids and make them look at animal poo learn about nature.


With temperatures below freezing point I can't use my studio, since it isn't heated. The problem is not the cold but that I keep slashing or pricking my fingers with pins, and only when I come home and wash my hands with warm water does it start to ache and bleed. Yuck, nasty. The COAT FROM HELL is nearly finished though!

Also, I started my own company. Not, as you might expect, as a seamstress, but as a writer and translator. Even though I love sewing, I don't ever want to do it for a living. I'm still making many plans though, I will not quit sewing or Etsy but I will change it a lot.

I think that's all? I celebrated my birthday:


With lots of tequila haha, it was a very good birthday party. I got a Flickr Pro account as a present so if you ever find yourself aching and longing to see my old lolita outfit shots (You might! Who knows) you can see all my pictures now, just click any of the above pictures and it'll take you there :)

Pictures for you in green and blue (I'm a little drunk and mis-typing horribly all the time)

I haven't bought anything in shops for so long, it feels really weird. Soooo expensive! I had to ask my friend if these trousers fit correctly, they felt really tight, but apparently that's how trousers are worn these days. I love them though, minty jeans are so nice!


I have many ridiculous fears, but one that's bothering me a lot these days is fear of flying. I've just read some Murakami, and then I read http://www.jamieism.com/, and now I really want to go to Japan. (Not to be a lolita on Harajuku, or to buy lots of cheap clothes, but just to experience the weird beauty of Japan, to see nature, and the way they put vegetables on rice.)

So my idea is to start with flying a little, and then go further away all the time. It will be an expensive sort of therapy!
-First I'll fly to Italy or Sweden
-Then to Russia or Marocco
-Then? I don't know, there's little inbetween
-Then fly all over the world, see China and Japan and the US and Australia, be magnificent.

Wondering why I haven't shown any new sewing projects in a looooong time? I've been trying to show this horrible coat who's boss around here! Argh! Well it's not that horrible, just that I want to get it exaaaactly right. Here's a sneak preview for you:



Of course I also spend much time obsessing over my hair. Here is my favourite updo, with a pen. Soooo comfy!

I saw my hair from behind for the first time, quite exciting!

I'm supposed to be translating some website and writing a cover letter and writing writing writing but I'm taking pictures of my hair!


For this picture I clicked the mouse with my foot. Skills, man!

I'm the Witch of the Sea!

I'm a bit late buttttt I wanted to do the book meme! I love books, books are my friends.

( Date a girl who doesn’t read. Find her in the weary squalor of a Midwestern bar. Find her in the smoke, drunken sweat, and varicolored light of an upscale nightclub. )

A bit ago I fell really hard with my bike, and I couldn't walk or bike for about two weeks, just sit with my leg up. A perfect time to see all 6 seasons of two and a half men en knit a lace scarf!



Knitting lace is nice to do, if you can count and you're not easily distracted. At some point I departed from the pattern because I totally lost count, and the pattern was repeatable so it was easy to figure out. The yarn I got from my mom, nicest colour ever!



HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

I work all of Christmas, ugh! But I'm off at Newyears which is nice I guess. My Photoshop was weird so I edited all these pictures in Picnic, which worked much better than expected!

I have some sort of manic-depressive problem with sewing: some days I love it, but most days I hate it. I hate to sit in a cold studio and sew things with flaws and try to sell them to reluctant people who haggle down the price and make impossible demands on delivery times. Most days I think of quitting my studio, and/or quitting my etsy shop. It's just that I'm very afraid, because it's the only thing I do, and I've been doing it for years.

Change is good though, right? I would definitely still make things, I might start knitting a lot or taking pictures, or staying with Etsy but selling different things. I just feel that sewing is such a dead-end, that you're always competing with Chinese factories or H&M and you can not ever win. Argh :(

These are pictures from my cool pink Holga, btw. It's properly light-leaky and it makes vignettes on it's own. Cool!

As a gift, T and me got to stay at a hotel at our favourite themepark and visit it for two days. It was so foggy, very beautiful, and they had a great new show with horses and dragons.
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I love grey skirts because they're so versatile, but my favourite skirt is getting a bit old. I was so happy to find this fabric, a heavy weight wool blend but very soft and supple. I will be well-dressed for winter!



(I'm wearing my shirt backwards! Quite versatile!)

Flickr seems to be down? Aaaaanyway here is new stuff I made! I listened to Alice Cooper so much these past days and only made black stuff, hahaha :D I'm easily influenced by things I guess.

Just wanted to share this cute picture! I asked T if he wanted to bob for apples this Halloween, and he said yes! I'm baking a pumpkin brownie right now, and then bobbing for apples, and watching a movie (maybe sleepy hollow? Night before christmas? That one movie with the three witches, one of which is sarah jessica parker? Advice?) I think this will be a good halloween.

I tried to take pictures of this new skirt and just kept racing about trying to catch some natural light! It was already starting to get dark at 5 :( I made this skirt and will be putting it on etsy soon.


I carved a pumpkin! So cool :)

At work, I love to casually tell the old ladies that I'm no longer in school and that in fact I'm married. They think I'm seventeen or so and freak out like nothing else. Then we play the guess-my-age game which is always good fun (I'm very polite and always guess them at 80, most of them are 92 to 98 or so :))

Lately my face has been getting rounder and my hair is fuller and lighter and I think I'm in fact starting to grow younger. Soy side-effects? Haha.

I don't know whether I've read too much Little House to be allowed to pick out my own clothes, or because the dress smelled kinda musty in that good way, like old books. Fact is, I bought a dress in orange and purple even though I didn't know whether it was nice or ugly. Now that I'm wearing it, I do like it! It has a very weird length but in some way it has charm, too.




(Also the front closure of buttons made for many embarassing moments when a button popped off while biking, I think that's why the previous owner gave it to the thrift store! I sewed all the buttons down so only the top few can open, and they won't accidentally make gaps and show my undies to the world, any more!)

The last of the tomatoes! The first and only pumpkin, that we weirdly grew on a very small strip of soil just in front of the house, but which did miraculously well! Making stew because it's really fall now, and stew is tasty when it's cold.


Weirdly, I found a bike. It was just there, no lock, no pedals. I bought it pedals and a lock and have been racing around the city, it's so much fun. I'm not really into sports but I LOVE going places very fast. I used to be a runner but bikeracing is very good also. Doesn't it look very cool and calm... I love this bike :)