Canadutch » Artsy Fartsy

KreaDoe 2011

Breigh — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:41:20 +0000

This weekend I went to a giant craft fair with my two friends Penny and Genevieve. It’s a yearly fair that takes place in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht and you can find supplies and workshops for pretty much any craft you can think of. Of course, I had my trusty little point and shoot along with me!

If you were looking for stamps, this was the place for you! I’m pretty sure I saw about four million of them. There was a lot of stuff for card making and scrapbooking as well, with quilting and other crafts thrown in the mix.

I found that after going through about half of the place I started getting a feeling of seeing the same things again and again. As I was walking I was thinking “Oh yay, more stamps” or “Bleh, more card paper”. Granted, I’m not into stamping or making my own cards so perhaps for those that are, it’d be heaven! Just, most of these stands had all the same things. It was worth it for the odd stand that did have something different, like the guy with the plastic candle things that ran on vegetable oil (that I STILL wish I had bought), or a man from the UK that had really awesome cross stitch patterns (again, wish I had bought one).

It’s definitely worth the visit, and if you can afford it I’d suggest doing some of the workshops. We went just to look around and check the place out, and we had a really good time. I think next year I will visit again but I will sign myself up for one or two workshops ahead of time, I saw some really cool stuff going on there.

Afterwards we went into the city center of Utrecht and had some food and did a bit of shopping. All in all a really fun day out with some really great gals!

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Xander’s Robot Love Mug

Breigh — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 07:44:33 +0000

I wasn’t sure what to get my husband for Valentine’s Day, but when my friend Barbara asked if I wanted to go paint ceramics again I decided it was a good opportunity to make him something!

It wasn’t hard to figure out what to do, as my husband really loves robots. I found a robot design that I thought was really cute! It was already Feb 10th by that time and we wouldn’t be able to pick it up for two weeks but I knew that Xander wasn’t fussy like that. He wouldn’t mind waiting a bit!

Thank god the pencil disappears during the baking process. What a mess I’d made!

We had a really good time that afternoon. I had been there once before but it was our friend Vinita’s first time.

While Barb and I dug into our projects the lady who owns the shop (on the right) gave Vinita a few tips and showed her the ropes. That lady is so friendly and what an awesome thing she gets to do every day!

Unfortunately Barbara had to remake a project she’d done previously. Before Christmas she’d painted a cute little dragon for her son, but it broke while it was being baked. So the lady gave her another one for free so she could remake it. These things happen… I’d have cried if my robot love mug had broken though!

Yesterday when we were out for Dim Sum she brought me the mug, as she’d gone to pick up all the projects earlier. I didn’t even realize that the two weeks had gone by that fast, but was pleased to finally get my hands on Xander’s Valentine’s gift! He was sick yesterday and I was hoping it’d make him feel a bit better. Gifts usually do that for me!

He loves it! When I got home and gave it to him he ooh’d and aaaah’d over it while I stood there pleased as punch, all tickled like a six year old who just gave her dad his first wonky clay ashtray!

He went straight to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee to drink out of it. I’m glad I made the smaller snob coffee sized mug, because he drinks that wretched espresso and it only requires a small cup anyway.

I already have ideas for what I’m going to make on my next trip! I’ll keep ya posted!

If you want to paint some ceramics yourself, have a look here for a Color Me Mine location near you!

Rom’s Frogsmoker Mug

Breigh — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 06:17:14 +0000

As you’ve seen from previous posts, part of my plan of attack for this past Christmas was to make as many homemade gifts as possible. When my friend Barbara asked if I wanted to paint ceramics with her and some other friends I was all over it, because it gave me another opportunity to make something for someone.

I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to make for my father in law, as I’d made the Christmas Stars Throw for him and Jenny as a combined gift, but I wanted to get something small for each of them as well. When the ceramic idea came up I knew exactly what I was going to make.

Well no, not really… I couldn’t decide between two things, a mug or an ashtray. He loves his coffee and his cigars so I knew either one would get used, but seeing as he really only smokes outside and uses mostly covered ashtrays to protect from the wind. I went for a mug!

I know, my ceramic painting skills are fantastic, aren’t they? This actually took me frigging ages and it still came out sort of looking like a preschooler did it. Still though, it was a gift with a personal touch and it’s not exactly like you can find things with Frogsmoker on them in the shops. I knew he’d like it regardless!

You see, he also writes a blog called Frogsmoke, where he discusses all sorts of things about the French. He is Frogsmoker. He and Jenny have lived in the south of France for years now and from what I can tell from our visits, and his blog, the French provide a lot of subject matter for a blog like his! He has another blog as well, Bouguereau Remastered which has some pretty comical examples of photoshopped paintings by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. I’d never heard of him before seeing my FIL’s blog, but I get a big kick out of the photoshopped paintings.

Of course I made sure to put his name and the year on it so he doesn’t forget. Not that he’ll forget his name, from what I can tell he’s still many many years away from that… but it’s always nice to see your name on something, isn’t it? Plus, you’re probably less likely to find the name Romke on a mug than you are Frogsmoker! Unless you are shopping in Friesland, perhaps.

Oh, and I know you are all in awe of my mad artistic skillz but please, don’t flood me with emails. I’m afraid I won’t be taking orders. I know it’s disappointing, but you’ll have to get over it. You can always paint your own mug, or pretty much anything else ceramic that you’d want, here!

Rom & Jen’s Christmas Stars Throw

Breigh — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 07:00:45 +0000

After finally finishing my mother in law’s Haruni shawl while I was in Canada I was ready to get started on my next project. It was timed quite well as the project I had in mind called for yarn that I’d have to buy in Canada, so my mom and I hopped in the car and set off to get my supplies. She liked the project too and got yarn to make the same thing for my sister for Christmas.

The project was Red Heart’s Christmas Stars Throw which I made for my father-in-law and his wife. I started it in October in Canada and finished it almost two weeks before Christmas. It took longer than I expected because of my unexpected surgery and a few other things that had come up that distracted me.

It started by making the diamond pieces that make up the stars. They weren’t difficult, just time consuming and it took a while to get them all done.

Once I had all the diamond pieces made, over 180 of them, it was time to start putting them together. This is where things started to get difficult.

The pattern says to start from the top right hand corner of the blanket when putting the pieces together. This turned out to be confusing and frustrating. It wasn’t so bad in the beginning but once the blanket started getting a bit bigger, it was hard to tell where I was. There turned out to be more than one five-sided star that needed to be taken apart and fixed, and a few swear words to go along with it.

Hoping she’d learn from my frustration, I advised my mother to put hers together differently, making the stars first and then putting the larger pieces together. It seemed to take her less time and caused her a lot less grief, so the pattern instructions could really do with some changing. I don’t think there is any real purpose for them saying to put them together in that specific order.

She did say it was still a pain to assemble, but not as bad as it would have been trying to do it piece by piece from the top corner as I had done.

I think doing the border was probably the easiest and most enjoyable part of the whole thing. That was probably because I started seeing the finished product. That’s the best part of any craft project, I think. No matter how much you pull your hair out while making something, it’s ALWAYS worth it, especially if it’s a gift.

I was really pleased with the finished product and was glad that I went with more everyday colors than the full on Christmas red and green like the pattern called for.

Oh, but the assmeply aside, ya know the most frustrating part of the whole thing? The fact that it didn’t get to them in time!

During my recovery from surgery, I worked day and night getting the blanket done so we had enough time to get it sent out before Christmas. It was going to France so we figured a week to ten days would give us enough time. It was mailed out on December 17th and arrived in France on December 21st. Sounds good, right?

WRONG!

It arrived alright, at a drop off point in a village 25 minutes away from my in laws. Even that wouldn’t be so bad if someone had bothered to let them know it was there, which they didn’t. So their Christmas present sat in a tobacconist over the Christmas holiday. Nice.

When it hadn’t arrived by Christmas, my husband looked it up and saw that it had been dropped there on the 21st. There was collective swearing among us all at that moment. So now my FIL and going to put in a complaint on his end, as we will do on ours.

Oh well, they did end up getting it eventually and that’s all that matters… and that they liked it, that helped too.

Mom’s 60th Birthday Afghan

Breigh — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:02:23 +0000

In the spring of last year I had been talking to my mother about knitting, and we were sharing photos of things we liked. She saw a photo of an afghan on Flickr that she really liked and I noticed that the lady was nice enough to link to the pattern! I immediately set out to try to find some yarn that I could make it with!

It was a bit difficult as I hadn’t really bothered with specific types of yarn before, I’d just buy some and make something. This was special though, I had to get it just right! I found a great shop in a beautiful little village just south of here called De Schapekop where the ladies were incredibly helpful.

They helped me find the perfect yarn for this project! It’s called Drops Muskat and came in a wide variety of colors, which gave me a lot of options. I chose to go really colorful and bright, as the colors just made me feel happy and I hoped it’d do the same for mom.

The beginning of the process was making hundreds of these little circles. I made multiple sets of every possible color combination using the seven colors I had chosen. This got somewhat monotonous after a while but it wasn’t difficult, just time consuming.

I used a long knitting needle to hold them as I didn’t want them all over the place. I knew myself better than to think I wouldn’t end up losing one or two along the way.

This also made it easier for me when it came time to rearrange them, as I was sure that I had all of the colors where I needed them. I almost drove myself insane trying to make sure that the colors weren’t clustering too much!

Once I had the colors in the order I wanted them, they’d go back on the stick to wait to be assembled with the white yarn. This is when it really started to look like something!

The more the blanket started coming together, the more I loved it. I worked on it on and off from April – September 2010. This blanket really was a pleasure to make and I may even make one for myself at some point.

It was all totally worth it too, especially when I was in Canada and got to watch my mother open it! I was hopping in my seat waiting for her to get to my present. Which somehow got saved for last, so by the time she did open it I was practically squealing!

It lives here now, in my mother’s living room. Hopefully it will help keep her warm on some of the cold winter evenings and she will think of me! I was thinking of her every minute while I was working on it.

Love you mom!! xoxo

By the way, if you like this afghan or just enjoy crocheting with really vibrant happy colors, make sure to check out Attic 24, she has a lot of really awesome projects! I’ll definitely be making more of her stuff in the future.

Christmas Gift Project – Haruni Shawl

Breigh — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 07:39:31 +0000

Yay, I can finally blog about one of my Christmas gift projects! Remember the Mystery Project? My mother in law phoned us today to let us know that her package had arrived in France (whew! I was getting worried!) and she had opened it already. Tsk tsk, naughty! That means I can blog about it now!

I made her a Haruni Shawl, which I can safely say is the most difficult thing I have knitted to date. It required massive amounts of concentration and a lot of time. I even took it to Canada with me to complete because I was so afraid I wouldn’t finish it in time to begin my next project.

I chose a really soft Alpaca wool from Drops, it was so lovely to work with. I can’t wait to make something with this wool again! I loved the color and my husband and I were sure that it would look beautiful on my mother in law.

Starting out it really didn’t look like much of anything. I was knitting and paying strict attention to the pattern because I was so terrified to make a mistake. The process for making the shawl is knitting it, then soaking it in lukewarm water, and stretching it out to make the shape. Before stretching it out it’s really difficult to see if the pattern is forming properly, which rattled my nerves something fierce!

There were a lot of stitches involved, towards the end there were over 500 and I had to count each and every one again and again because I was so afraid I missed one or added another along the way. Part way through I went and bought some stitch markers and that made life much easier. I still counted obsessively but I was a little more confident while doing so.

I wish I’d taken more photos during the process but I was so busy working on it and trying to get it done that I just didn’t think of it.

While I was in Canada I took advantage of the space in my mother’s house and used the rug on her dining room floor to stretch and pin the shawl. I also had her to help me, which made it a little easier. I could have done it on my own but it helped to have my mother there to tell me it really does look the way it should.

Yeah, I’m needy like that.

As I started stretching it out and pinning it, I saw the pattern starting to take shape, which was a huge relief. It was like the moment of truth after a month of working hardcore to get this done.

This is the final product! YAY! I was so proud of myself when I had it all stretched out and saw that I actually did do it right! Wahoo! The color is different in this photo because I had to use the flash, the first two photos are a better representation of the lovely purple color.

When my MIL phoned this morning she said she loved it and was wearing it around all day yesterday. I was tickled right down to my toes! This was such a big project for me and was such a learning experience, it makes me really happy that she likes it and will wear it.

Even though it was difficult, I really enjoyed making this shawl. I think it’s something I would definitely do again, either this patterns or others like it. Especially in the alpaca wool, that stuff is awesome.

Merry Christmas, Nicole! I’m so glad you like it! xoxo

Only Three Months Till Christmas!

Breigh — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 07:53:38 +0000

Oh come on! You knew it was coming! You should know me well enough by now.

After a rather expensive Christmas last year and a rough year financially, I’ve decided that this I am going to make this Christmas as much of a homemade Christmas as possible, which means busting my ass doing crafts and trying to figure out what I can make for all the people in my life.

This is the mystery project I am working on at the moment, and I can safely say it’s the most difficult thing I’ve tried to knit yet. It requires a lot more concentration than anything else I’ve made and I worry that it’s going to take up so much of my time that other projects won’t be completed. I’m staying positive though and spending a lot of time at home with these knitting needles in hopes of getting it done as soon as possible so I can move on.

Only problem is, I keep making mistakes and having to slowly pick apart 1-2 rows to get back to a place where I know I was still doing it right. Oh the joys of knitting! I prefer crocheting because it’s so much more forgiving and much easier to correct if you make a mistake, which I do fairly often.

I can’t believe that three months from today is Christmas day. I can’t believe that one month from today I will be packing to come back to the Netherlands as my trip to Canada will be over. Where is the time going?

I am pretty sure that people are going to think I fell off the face of the earth over the next few months, because I am going to be squirreled away in my house surrounded by knitting needles, crochet hooks, yarn and cross stitches.

Hopefully they will all forgive me on Christmas when they receive their gifts!

I’m Twelve Again

Breigh — Tue, 25 May 2010 07:59:52 +0000

One day I was looking through some craft websites and saw these friendship bracelets. Suddenly I was 12 years old again and itching to make some. I thought back to the day when I was a kid and making bracelets with gimp was all the rage, man I loved that stuff.

I decided to start with an easy pattern to learn how to make the knots. I had all the materials needed since I have plenty of embroidery floss sitting around. I don’t think it came out too bad for my first try! I’d like to make one with a few more colors that is a bit more intricate. Maybe one for 1-2 of my friends if they don’t think they are too lame to wear :P

I don’t think I’ll be going crazy with this or making tons of them, but they are fun to make and it’s nice to know how. Makes for something easy and enjoyable to make while sitting out on the balcony in the sun.

They even have turtle patterns, you know I’ll be making one of those!

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Baby Bobble Afghan Completed

Breigh — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 19:57:12 +0000

Today I completed my first craft project of 2010. It’s a Baby Bobble Afghan I started a while back from a pattern by Bernat. Now I just have to get it packed up and sent off…

I’m a little sad in a way, I quite enjoyed working on this and I learned quite a bit as it was only my second crochet project ever. I did make one mistake in it but I try to remember something I read once about not stressing too much about mistakes when you are a beginner because it gives your work some charm and gives you something to look back on and see how far you’ve come.

I do hope the person who receives it enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it for them. I think I enjoy crocheting more than knitting, at least for now. It’s easier as you only have one stitch at a time and if you drop one it’s so much easier to pick back up than if you are knitting. I have no idea what I am going to work on next but my plan is to try to complete all my unfinished projects before starting anything new. That should keep me busy for quite a while seeing as one of them is a fairly big quilt that has been stopped and started many times over the last few years and still has a lot left to be done.

Maybe I’ll try to complete my X-Mas Wish BOM to make sure it’s ready to be put up before next x-mas. Regardless, there are no shortage of projects here to keep me busy!

Someone’s Trash is My New Treasure

Breigh — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:32:50 +0000

You know how they say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure? I’ve been learning the validity of that statement ever since a second hand shop moved in across the road from our house. Every so often I pop in there to see what’s new or if anything catches my eye and more often than not something does.

I keep seeing signs that I am becoming more and more Dutch. Whether it’s a change in attitude in regards to the way they do things, learning to appreciate riding a bike or saving a few pennies, over time I’ve truly become Canadutch. Neither purely Canadian nor purely Dutch, but an odd mixture of the two.

Today I almost squealed with glee when I found this little gem.

It’s a wicker suitcase. Looks pretty boring huh? Just all wicker and… wicker. Don’t be fooled though, when you open it up it holds a surprise!

A cute red gingham interior! I don’t think this would be entirely difficult to make if you had the suitcase, some fabric and a glue gun, but this was already made. Someone else did the work and it could be all mine for the low price of €1,50! How could I resist, it was BIJNA GRATIS!! See, there’s that Dutchie in me sneaking out again, that means almost free. If I had clogs I’d be dancing in them!

The minute I laid eyes on it I knew exactly what it was meant for. What it’s purpose in my life would be…

CRAFT CASE!!! Omgomgomg! How cute is this thing?

As we walked home I explained excitedly to my husband how it can accompany us on all our travels, stuffed to the brim with crafty goodness, just waiting for me to crack it open and start working on something new. It’s going to be like my very own crafting TICKLE TRUNK!! If you weren’t a kid in Canada somewhere between the 60’s and 90’s, click the link. Don’t get excited, it’s not as dirty as it sounds.

It was definitely €1,50 well spent!