Howling at the Moon

Today I started to make some decoration for New Years Eve. I've made this star before, but the idea to give it more resemblance with a fire rocket, I got from @kikalite.
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Made some Gingerbread Houses with my little girls and their friends.
I don't think I will do this again; what a huge amount of work! The dough had to be made the day prior to use. On the day itself I had to get up early to bake all the houses, one at a time, so it took a couple of hours to finish them all four. Then I had to melt sugar and glue the houses together. Still have some blisters from burning my fingers. After that we needed icing to glue the sweets on the houses. Only from then on the girls could do the rest. Next time I will buy ready made houses.



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Other news: youngest has a Bunny Hat, then oldest has to have a Cat Hat.

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My Little Mascot was featured by Scrapality and by USS Crafty!!


Thank you, Andrea and Tonna!

On Pinterest I saw these paper tree ornaments and garlands. Super cheap and very simple, but I just love the combination of the brown of the rough cardboard and the white of the chalkpaint.





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A T-shirt designer my sister in law is working for, wanted to have a knitted mascot, looking like herself, and asked around if someone could make one for her. I can knit, but it isn't an extraordinary skill I have. I can do much better if I can make a crocheted mascot. The designer was alright with that. Knitting, crochet, it's pretty much the same for most people, I guess, so I made up a little pattern. I didn't get much restrictions, it just had to have brown, curly hair, glasses, a gray shirt and a red skirt, so here she is!

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My Window Painting was featured by The Cottage Market and by Scrapality!!


Thanks, Andrea and Andrea!

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And my Alternative Christmas Tree was featured by Crafts a la Mode, by The Crafting Nook and by Across the Blvd!


Thank you, Linda, Cami and Beverly&Gloria!

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My French Lop Bunny Hat was featured by Scrapality and by Pieced Pastimes!



Thank you, Andrea and Suzanne!

For my DIY X-mas Tree I made some clay ornaments with embroidery. 


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From some left over white clay I made little stars for the kitchen lantern, which gets custom made decorations every season or holiday. 

Our X-mas Tree this year. Just wanted something different this time.
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As a welcome sign to friends (the only one's who come in to our back door, in the kitchen) I painted this on the window.
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First I drew a circle on the outside window, with a little help from a plate, so I had an idea where to paint on the inside window to get a nice wreath-like drawing. Then I started writing letters and drawing stars, snow flakes and holly leaves on the inside window. I drew something off the cuff, but you could also use a printable, stick it to the outside window and trace it on the inside window.
Very simple project with nice result!
I found this idea here.

I also did a window with X-mas ornaments.

 And some transparant glass tree ornaments.

For the Dutchies: Fijn Heerlijk Avondje!!
Simple recipe for Pepernotencake: 
What you need: Instant Cakemix Ingredients named on box of Instant Cakemix (usually butter, sugar, eggs, milk) Big hand full of Pepernoten 4 el Koek- en Speculaaskruiden
What you do: Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius Mix all ingredients named on the box plus koek- en speculaaskruiden Add the pepernoten and mix gently through the batter Bake for about 70 minutes
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 The little saucer I inherited from my grandmother (just wanted to show something from her). 
~*~ This is what I made with my daughter to pack the little present she had for her classmate for Sinterklaas. It's called 'De surprise' around here.
Not very original, because all the boys in the class of my daughter play soccer, so there were made lots of 'surprises' that had anything to do with soccer.
When my daughter told me she wanted to make a football, I thought 'Oke, that's easy and not too …

My daughter desperately wanted this little cat, so of course I immediately dropped the X-mas ornaments I'm working on at the moment and started right away (ha!). 

I just love his little upside down heart bead nose!
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Since almost a year we have a Flemish Giant, which is a very large bunny (large as in about 80cm head to tail). Although he's a bunny, his name is Haasje, which means Little Hare. My five year old has given him that name. She got him for her birthday, but of course mom's the one who takes cares of him. Not that I complain, 'cause honestly,  I'm mad about the animal. Didn't know I would say this about a bunny ever, but he's just great.

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Luckily my youngest loves him, too, since she is 'the owner' and that's why everything has to be bunny. From clothes to stuffed animals to socks to decoration. So when she needed a hat it had to be a bunny hat, preferable a French Lop Hat ( a French Lop is a bunny with loosely hanging ears). I made this:



The pattern I found here.

A very simple ornament to make for your tree:


Drive five small nails in a piece of wood
Wind metal wire around them in a star form
Take of the star from the nails.
Wind metal wire around the star to keep wire in place
Hang from a piece of ribbon
That's it!

A couple of weeks ago I came along a beautiful, thick yarn, but because I didn't know what I could make from it, I didn't buy it then. Last week I bought a sweater with a very wide neck. Looked nice, but made me feel really cold. A cowl seemed the answer and that's when the yarn popped up in my mind. Bought it and made this Dragon Wing Cowl with it, a pattern I found on Pinterest. The yarn matched the design of the cowl perfectly! I like the original a bit more, because it's more winglike, but for some reason mine worked out differently.
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You can find the pattern here!

This year I chose for an alternative tree. A flat one, against the wall, that doesn't take too much space. To decorate I used a lot of ornaments I already had from other years, but I made a lot of new ones, too. Today I show you the crocheted ones.

Ball (made up myself, just increase and decrease)


Star (pattern to find here)


Icicles (pattern to find here)



Tree (made up by me)



Another tree (pattern to find here)


And another star (made up myself)
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