Saturday, 8 June 2013

Jeans Bracelets









I made some bracelets with leftover jeans fabric and anything I could find basically. Still hanging on to my bright colors for the summer I started to roll up a piece of jeans an wrapping some colors around it.

I made some step by step pictures with one of them, here is what you need:



Some colored threads any type will do, wool, embroidery thread, cotton. 
Metal wire if you like.
Little beads to decorate with and a bigger one to close it. But buttons are really nice too.
Plastic thread for the smaller beads.
Needle, metal ring and pliers.


Start by rolling the jeans up and secure it by wrapping it with one of your threads. Depending on the jeans it will still be flexible. I used the metal wire and some blue to wrap around. Sew the beads with the plastic thread. I used a bigger bead as a closer, made a little loop to go over it. The bead is connected so the loop will stay over it, my mum used to call it  "button on a stick" that means there is still some room underneath the bead. If that makes any sense to you…


And then made a little tassel to jazz it up a bit like so:



The tighter you pull it in the middle the better, depending on the type of thread you use you can pull to hard and weaken it, or break it. Not that this happened  to me, like 4 times. If you use embroidery thread you can brush it with a comb to make it more fluffy! Use a small ring to connect the tassel, mine is on the loop.





And then you end up with something like this.

As usual I like it to look chunky and not to machine made






There you have it, Recycle is the word!!


Wishing you all a " Gappy " weekend Chicas! ( that´s spanglish for Happy )

Besitos,




PS.  my photo editing skills are finally improving as well!
and I am making notes too ;-)

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

5 Minute Ring



Rings made from metal wire and buttons.

These are not made to stay with you for ever and ever, but they are fun to make and you can make them fit any outfit you have.


All done in 5 minutes


Look for some button combinations that you like with two button holes

Wrap some metal wire around a, let´s say a watercolor brush, but you can use anything you have that fits your size

Leave enough to wrap around the ring shape and pull it tight

Slide the buttons over the extra wire and these ends around a pincer

Make sure the buttons are secure but don´t pull it to tight……
With mother of pearl you need to be a bit more careful!





Experiment  with different ways to secure the buttons
Or use some beads.
I tried to give it some more color with adding nail polish to the metal.


Again these are not gonna last forever! 
But they are so easy to make and all done in 5 minutes.


Have fun Chicas!


Carol XX





I love to hear from you and let me know what you think!



link up:


Tuesday, 26 March 2013

KITTYCATBED


My dear old cat Lucky has a new bed!




She needed a new spot to hang out during the day now the sun is back. 
So I made her this cute little bed out of a fruit crate.
Painted it grey, stamped it and added handles.
Gave it some feet made from drawer knobs and made a little mattress and pillow,
all washable.




She hopped right in and started grooming, a good sign!



Purrrrfect!



Thanks for stopping by!


Friday, 22 March 2013

* Fashion Friday *

holland america line   

I bought this  simple sweater today for more then one reason

1. Love the color
2. Love the sweater style

2 reasons that attracted me to it, but on a closer inspection it has a sentimental reason.
The text on it: Holland America Line on top
and Rotterdam Amsterdam on the bottom

Many, many years ago my mother, father and brother left Holland, Rotterdam with this Ocean Liner on a trip to Australia. It took them about 6 weeks to get there, my brother was 2 years old.
My parents started a new adventure on the other side of the world.
7 years later I was born.
Yes, I was born in Australia, in a small town called Whyalla, Adelaide the closest big city a day traveling away.
2 years after I was born my Mum, brother and me headed back to Rotterdam with this same Ocean liner.
My dad took an airplane back to get back early to get everything organized.
My father got homesick and wanted to get back.
I know absolutely nothing about this trip but this sweater is a big part of my family history
and I just had to have it!


Have a FABULOUS weekend Chicas!


Friday, 15 March 2013

*Fashion Friday*





see a bit more of this here



In  the light of the Craft Challenge over at Craftbotic
I started a little project that I had on my mind for a while now.

But although it is not the same as one of the contesters PJ from Planned in Pencil 
It has the same starting point….Part of an old pair of jeans

So started to look for something else and turned to internet for inspiration.

And lately starting to wonder about this, maybe it´s time I start with looking everywhere BUT internet.
Because there are some AMAZING people out there.
They make it look so easy to make your own stuff or just pimp up a t-shirt or a pair of jeans!

here are 2 of my favorites


&



But be warned!
EVERYTHING that you ever could think of these girls have already done and then some!

And that right here is the problem with internet for me at the moment.

What ever you have dreamed up there is somebody out there who has already made it, took pictures and put it on the World Wide Web it seems.

I am making a promise to myself to try to keep it as authentic as I possible can. Staying true to myself and try to make the things that I come up with a bit sooner then I do at the moment.

So it´s back to the drawing board  for me and hope that I will come up with something else,
SOON



Hope you all have a great weekend!



Friday, 8 March 2013

*Fashion Friday*


Missing pieces



This week has gone by sooooooooo quick! I can´t believe its Friday again.

And somewhere around wednesday I noticed that I completely forgot to post for 
Fashion Friday or What is she wearing!? last week.

We had a lot going on at the house this week, lots of people, lots of rain, lots of storm
and because the last 2 we were without internet for 3 long days :-(
And while not having internet my blog was full of spam comments :-(((



Here are three looks I really like!
And the fun part is that yesterday I bought the Denim Shirt, the Grey Sweater and the White Jacket.
And this are some ideas of how to rock them!
Since I not heard a single peep out of the folks and Object I turned to H&M this time ;-)
To find more details you can look here





Denim Shirt
Denim Shirt

grey sweater
Grey Sweater
White Jacket
White Jacket

The only three things that are not so easy to find are the black little clutch in the top one, the mustache ring in the middle one and the striped top in the bottom one.
All the other stuff I already have somewhere in my closet or are not that difficult to come by.

Next week when I drop of HB at the airport I will be on the look out for the missing pieces.
I make sure I have a list to not get confused and come home with something  different….

Hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend, may the sun shine upon you all!

XX Carol 

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Pinterest Moment

Today day when I was flipping through a spanish magazine called ENCASA, not reading mind you, but flipping!
 I came across this step by step picture in true Pinterest Style.
I kinda liked it so I thought I´d share it with you. 

Because I can not Pin it, 
I scanned it, cropped it and uploaded it….
What did we do before Pinterest?

The quality is a bit grainy because of the many edits it´s been through but you get the idea, right?




It´s in an Spanish magazine, and because you do not 
understand, speak or read Spanish you do not look at them. 
I am ( almost ) the same as you.
But because it´s what I see in the shops I buy them anyway. 
And then go to their website and look at the pictures which you then of course can PIN.

Maybe if you look at  ENCASA  you will find this picture and you can hit the pin button, just like that!

Or PIN this one right here….

Another route you can follow is to go to here and REPIN
( yes, I had to publish this post, pin it myself to link you to my Pinterest page and then update this post)


Or just follow me here
I love to have you over and start sharing and REPIN with you!

Now about this orange peel rose? What do you think?
I think it looks kinda cute and I will try it myself, someday, like true Pinterest Style….

xx

Friday, 15 February 2013

* Fashion Friday*



Here is a little bit of a color inspiration for you!




ton sur ton

ton sur ton van hibiscuschica


blue ton sur ton van hibiscuschica


Have a great weekend Chicas!

Carol

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Crochet Rug from T-shirts



The fun part of reorganizing my craft room is making these little projects from left overs that I just can not find a place for any more.
The weird thing is that I have saved all this stuff up to make projects with and now I am trying to find a place for them…… It is getting a bit ridicules to be organizing projects I want to make, some day?
Why not do it NOW?
The organizing is taking a so much more time like this but I feel the need to clean every thing out and make room for new ideas. I am a bit smothered with "old" ideas that never came to live.

So with the T-shirts I saved up I made this rug. It will return to my room but no longer is taking up space in a box. It is now going to be on the floor underneath the table, and add a bit of color to the room.


It took me 19 T-shirts and 3 nights to make this one. It´s just the simplest stitch there is and there is no special pattern for it. I just started with no plan of how big it was going to be. 
The colors are also very random and I cut up a T-shirt when I finished another. 
I started cutting at the bottom (took off the seem) and going a bit diagonal all the way up till the armpits.  It´s  an about 3 cm wide strip and pulled it and then rolled it into a ball. I just went with the new color as I would have if it was one "thread" so I used a needle and thread to fasten the loose ends underneath.
And used a hook which says 9.0 mm. ( but its from a china store, so it could be any size!)
It is a bit of hard work with the ones that were a bit old and stiff. So my thumb and index finger nails are a bit sore but I love how it turned out.  It´s heavy and sturdy.




I  still  have a few T-shirts left….





So started a new one. It´s gonna be made of 8 T-shirts so half as big as the other one but in my favorite color combination, pink and blue. 
I have a thing for this color combo, I don´t know why, I always want to touch it whenever I see it somewhere. And if I was all by myself I probably would have it everywhere! But I do not live by myself so…… Just this little rug in my room is going to have to do.
The sacrifices a girl has to make :-)

Do you have the same interior that you would have if you would be living alone?



linked up to PolkaDot Pretties

Monday, 10 December 2012

Felt Slippers


I´ve made me some felt slippers!



I love how the turned out and it was really easy!
I have a bought pair similar to these but I was on the look out for some new ones, just incase.
I do like to have a back up of the stuff I like, and these slippers are my :
  "go to the toilet at midnight slippers"

Yes, I need to pee like three times at night people! 
( that makes sleeping over at friends a bit difficult, I tell ya)

The marble floors are FREEZING during the night and when I go to pee without my slippers I can not get to sleep when I get back in bed, times three.
So now you know why I need to have a back up pair.

It´s my first time working with felt and it is fun to do. 
I LOVE quick projects!
I do not have the patience for  projects that go on for days….I love the fact that you do not have to do something with the edges on a sewing machine and you do not need any other crazy expensive tools for this stuff.

 I ordered some different thicknesses and different colors just to check it out. 
I am currently OBSESSED with a bit of neon color so I choose some bright colors and some black and greys.
And this is what I came up with, it took me about 2 hours from start to finish. But if you are like me it will take a day :-)) Always doing three things at a time here. 
The pattern took a bit of time to figure out, but once I had it, it was pretty easy. I used the old slippers as a template.

I think I will make some more for guests that stay over. I am thinking: put their name on or the name of the house. And they can take them home after as a gift. 


NOW… I started this project out with some planning of taking pictures in the different stage to be sure I did not forget anything afterwards….and doing a sort of tutorial. 
So I took these for example:




When you are familiar with working with felt, you are probably smiling ( behind your hands…or not..)
Hahaha, I did when I started the cutting!
 No way I got the scissors through this stuff, the tool to make small holes was a total waist of space in this picture as well.

So I used these:



Yes. that is rust on that disc… one of the fun parts of living so close to the sea. I forgot I had this knife so did not protect it. But it has been dealt with, trust me!

And also preoccupied with taking photos I made a small mistake…. yes, you may smile again if you really need to…..out loud if need be :-)



I messed up people! I had NO intention of making them different…

Good thing is I use them to go pee in the middle of the night….

I still love them!

If you want to make them and trust me enough to help you out, let me know! I promise I will not confuse you with the left and right stuff.

Saturday, 11 February 2012

A new look



This is the new look in the downstairs hallway.




I´ve had the little cabinet for YEARS, as a matter of fact, it was my very first thrift buy.
I bought it together with my first boy friend at a huge indoor thrift market in Rotterdam.
We had to carry it all the way with us in public transport with a stopover, and then walk with it.
It probably had just about every color there is in its life :-) 
After all these years it found a house where it fits perfectly

Just recently it looked like this


Here it is without its little marble top. 
The same marble we have on the floor through out the house.
It looks just about the same as the mirror used to look. 
The mirror came from a favorite store, Xenos in Holland.
I matched the cabinet with it.

Recently I am obsessed with chalk paint and with the color grey so these 2 are the first to get the new look.

On a photo technical note:
As I am practicing my photo taking skills.
 I have another shot to share. The only decent one among the 2000 or so I took….
Still not perfect but the color and sharpness FINALLY both right in the same shot….
I did not do to much to this one afterwards :-)

I got the birds via rebeccascapriochos

In the same hallway there is this little corner
Funny how this chair takes up so much attention is it?
This chair came with the house. It is a stunner, but far from comfy to be honest.
So in a perfect place here.



Leaving you with this shot, with a little more detail of the hallway with the "wall of fame" where my mum is slightly tilted, opposite the mirror.



Tuesday, 5 July 2011

SUMMERTIME
in La Herradura 2011