Who loves zipper pouches?

I DO!!!  They are so practical to have around to carry all those little things that tend to get lost in the big bags that are now so trendy. Ladies and girls alike (and boys, too - think Legos...) can never have too many zipper pouches!! Which is why I've been busy sewing some for my Etsy shop and to start stocking up for Christmas, because we all know that it will be here before we can say "Boo" (wait that's Halloween...well, they do put Christmas stuff out in the stores at the beginning of October now don't they?!?!)!!

These pouches are the perfect size for travel-sized toiletries, a do-it-yourself card kit for a child, pens and a small sketch book... the possibilities are endless! 

If you find you have a few minutes, check out the rest of the bags I've made in my shop! More are cut and in my "to do" pile and will be listed as soon as they are completed. 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

J xx

DIY Gift Wrap Kits

Happy Bird-day!

Summer is over (it was over before it began in Zurich...rain, rain go away!!!), school is back in session and it is time to get back to work! I'm excited to be back in my office and working on some new DIY Gift Wrap kits to sell in my Etsy shop.

I don't know about you, but I just love receiving a gift that is in a pretty little package. There are so many amazing ideas on Pinterest that I am always pinning (see my packaging ideas board), so I decided it would be fun to use all the bits and bobs lying around my office to create little kits so you can also make beautifully packaged gifts for someone special in your life.

Here are a few of the packs I've come up with so far. I plan to have them in my Etsy shop by the end of the weekend :-)!  Each kit will come with the following:

• 5 handstamped paper bags
• 3 meters of twine
• 5 tags (of varying designs and styles)
• 3 wooden clips
• 3 white paper doilies
• 5 different buttons 
• variety of punches (butterflies, bunting flags, flowers)

A little bit of Paris

Sunshine on a bike

I'll post the finished packs once I get them loaded to my shop! 

Happy Wednesday and see you soon!

J xx

A bit of this and a bit of that

Hello! I've been wanting to post some of my latest adventures over the past few weeks but as I sit here attempting to clean my office (that I could no longer stand to step foot in due to the extreme piles covering EVERY surface...), I realized that life has been so crazy that I haven't blogged anything in almost a month. So, this is going to be my "catch up" post to let you know what's been going on!

We had fun at our Summer Market on 6 June, with several people popping by in the morning to see what all was on offer. Here are a few pictures!

One happy customer :-)! 

The weekend of the market was my daughter's 8th birthday. I still find it hard to believe that my baby is now 8 years old... She is a child that is generally always on the move (currently using stilts she received for a birthday present to walk all over the house and beyond...) and is always being silly and trying to make people laugh. It was only fitting that she wanted a circus party! I ordered some amazing invitations and printables from Carla at Paper and Party Love and we had 10 little girls running around our house like circus clowns.  We had a photo booth and various carnival games that the girls seemed to go through in record time (Note to self for future: organize party elsewhere so someone else can entertain and clean up!!). Here are a few photos of the highlights (you can also check out Carla's blog to see the invitations and printables more clearly).

Miss A wearing her new flip flop shirt handmade by Luz Maestro!

Clowning around

Table decorations

Walking around the house on her new stilts!

We've also been taking advantage of the beautiful weather in and around Zurich by going to the Sihltal to play along the river, pick strawberries and cherries at the Sunnehof farm and go hiking with Daddy on Father's day in Brunni. I have to say that I am exhausted and it is not even summer yet... Three more weeks of school and then the real fun can begin!

I wonder why it is that we can never get a picture without someone being silly?? Hmmmmm...

We met a friend along the trail

Panoramic view from top of our hike

She ate too many cherries while picking them and they started growing out of her...

Perfectly ripe and ready to make jam

Hope you are having fun too!

J xx

Birthday craft morning

This year I decided that in lieu of gifts for my birthday, I wanted to do a little something special for my friends. So, we had a crafty brunch in the middle of the week! We enjoyed good conversations, homemade bircher-muesli and cinnamon-raisin buns, frothy cappucinos, and then a bit of creative time making tags and decorating IKEA notebooks with washi tapes, scrap papers, punches and whatever else they could find in my "goodie box". It was a great morning and I can't wait to do it again! I think we need to make it a monthly or bi-monthly date...! 

Thanks, ladies!! You are the best!

J xx

Custom order baking kit

Hi there!

I just wanted to share with you a custom order I finally completed this week. It is a baking kit for an 11 year old girl who also loves horses. My dear friend, Barb, gave me permission to use a print of one of her incredible horse paintings and I love how well it goes with the colors I chose for the box. I hope the new owner of the box finds it as lovely as I do!

 

Enjoy your week!

J xx

"Little birdie" gift bags

In preparing for my upcoming events, I am making some things that have been on my "to do" list for quite some time! I was rummaging through my scrap fabric and found a few pieces that had double-sided fusible web on them and decided to use them to make some cute little birdie gift bags (they are somewhat similar to the cards I made here). I love the colors and the uniqueness of using the same fabric torn into strips for the ties. And...of course there has to be a hand-stamped tag on it to finish it off! The bags are gusseted at the bottom so you can put all kinds of fun little gifts or party favors into them.

What do you think?

J xx

The joy of boxes!

I love boxes! You can use them for so many different things - decorating a room, storage for special treasures (and those things that are not so attractive...), organizing all that stuff that we continually must have... you name it, you can put it in a box!

For my upcoming Summer craft market, I made some fun gift boxes that I would like to share with you.

The first set of boxes are Scrap Fabric Paper Doll kits (of course, I found this idea on Pinterest...! Thanks to "This Mama Makes Stuff" blog and her post found here). I decoupaged the outside of the boxes and added some adorable little pom-pom trim to give them that extra something special. Inside, I made instructions for use and included:
- 4 templates of paper dolls
- bag of scrap fabric, buttons, ribbons, flowers and any other little bit that I found laying around my desk
- glue sticks
- scissors (2 so the child can do this with a friend)
- example paper doll made by my kids

The boxes above came in a set of two, one large and one small. I used the smaller size for the doll kits and now have the large ones that I can play around with. As many of my friends and family know, I love to bake and make those baked goods pretty, so I have all kinds of cupcake paper liners and sprinkles. What do the above make when one adds a pretty decoupaged box, some flower cupcake toppers and a flag bunting that can go onto a cake?? Why a BAKING KIT in a pretty box, of course!

Hope you like them!
J xx

DIY Tag tree: 40 Reasons why you are...SPECIAL!

One of my dearest friends in Zurich celebrated the BIG 4-0 last week and because she is such a wonderful, caring person who would do ANYTHING for ANYONE at ANYTIME, we wanted to do something extra special for her to let her know how much she means to us.

Being the crafty one of our little group of gals, I thought it would be fun to make 40 tags stating all the reasons why she is so special to us (of course, we could have come up with more but thought we should restrict it to 40 for 40!). Over a coffee and chat, we had fun stamping, punching, stitching and gluing tags with what all we came up with. Then we rummaged through my house for the perfect vase (that just so happened to have perfectly matching sprays of fake flowers), added some curly hazelnut branches from lovely Nicole's yard, tied all the tags to the branches, added a bit of burlap-type fabric around the vase with some coordinating ribbons and VOILÀ, here's the result:

Yvette was so happy with it and she told me today (almost a week after receiving it) that she still hasn't been able to read all the tags because she gets too emotional! 

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends here in Zurich since our families live more than 4500 miles away. Thank you to all my lovely ladies for your kindness, help in times of need, and also all those enjoyable coffee mornings that we couldn't live without!!!!  May God bless you all!

J xx

Birthday bliss

Happy Monday to you all!

My birthday was last week and I have to say that it truly was one of the best birthdays I have had in quite some time! I think I enjoyed it so much because at the heart of it I knew that this year would be a year for doing all the things I love to do - cooking, stamping, sewing, spending time with family and friends and taking time to enjoy life!

We celebrated with good friends by eating Wacky cake that Miss A helped me bake topped with fresh berries and freshly whipped cream (you can find the recipe below) . I love this cake recipe as it is SOOOOOO easy to make and tastes SOOOOOO good!

The next day was a coffee and cake morning with friends. I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time ever and they were delicious! As you can see, we made quite a dent in them, however, I did manage to save some for Miss A and Mr Z for their dessert after lunch.  Recipe came from Fraulein Klein website (unfortunately it is in German...) and was much simpler than I thought to make. Of course I had to decorate both cake and rolls with a little bunting banner made from wrapping paper and twine :-)! Tis the little things that make it all extra special!

Wacky Cake Recipe

(serves 8-9 people)

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Place dry ingredients in baking dish and mix with a fork or spoon until completely blended and uniform in color (no visible streaks of white).

Pour on water, vanilla, oil and vinegar and stir until completely blended.

Bake for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Completely cool on wire rack. Top with powdered sugar, freshly whipped cream or your favorite frosting recipe!

For cupcakes – this recipe makes 12 standard cupcakes; bake for 22 minutes.

Have a terrific week and I'll be seeing you again soon!
J xx