Howling at the Moon

The other night I saw a friend of mine posting a little picture of adorable crochet baby sandals on Facebook,  with the comment that she would love to have those for her baby girl. 'I can make them for you', I posted on her timeline and we had a deal. So today I made the little sandals. A small project with great looks, I think. Hope she will like them, too.  The little loop at the front sits around the middle toe and the strings are tied around the ankle.  Besides the sandals, she asked for a pair of crochet Cowgirls Boots, so now I'm busy making boots, too.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net

Irma la Do Pencil Skirt by Wheels and Dollbaby WANTED Don't you just love this skirt?!

When we were in the Czech Republic we went to  Český Krumlov  almost every day. To have breakfast, to get groceries, to have diner, to do some shopping. As an old medieval town, the most prominent marker  of the town is  the castle, which has five courts. In one of the courts was a little market every day and that was where we found this awesome hand made oil lamp, formed as a dragon.  The wick sits in its nose, so when you lit it, it looks  as if the dragon is spitting fire. So great!  The lamp sits on the table in our living room and the dragon doesn't only spit fire, but also soot and to protect the table from gathering black spots all the time I made a black doily for underneath the dragon, so the soot spots aren't visible. I found the pattern at Le Blog de Anne. www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ This week my Speculaas Recipe was featured by Rooted in Thyme ! So nice an authentic Dutch Recipe is liked by people from other countries. Than

School began this week and because my oldest had her birthday during this summer vacation, she wanted to treat her new class to some sweets as well. For her old class I made cupcakes, before the summer vacation, as you may remember. This time I made Fake Ice Cream Cones. I found this idea on Make It and Love It . When I first saw the cakes, I knew I would make them someday and that day has come now! Here and there I altered them a bit, but the idea stays the same. I bought ice cream cones, put cake batter in them and after the cones came out of the oven I put marshmallows on it (that had to look like balls of ice cream) and poured a little melted chocolate over them. To finish it of I put a little ball of marzipan on it. That's all it took. And this is what I made before summer as a treat for my daughter's class: www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ This week my Birthday Crown was featured by Trendy Treehouse ! Thanks, Tara and Jamie!!

Dietrich Swing Trechcoat by Collectif WANTED Great Coat for every Dress!

When I was on vacation I brought some books with me, of course. One of the books was 'Flight Behaviour' by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my most favorite authors. The book tells about the monarch butterfly, also called King Billy, named after King William III of Orange, who reigned not only England, Ireland and Scotland, but was also Stadtholder of some provinces that belonged to the Dutch Republic (now called The Netherlands, the country I live in). Since I read the book I'm a bit into butterflies, so when I saw this cute cross stitch patterns, I couldn't resist temptation and had to buy them. Both butterflies aren't monarchs, but as soon as I found a monarch pattern... www.betweennapsontheporch.net

This week we will celebrate my daughter's birthday. Apart from the usual cakes I made some things for the kids, things that my daughter picked out herself and asked me with emphasis to make this for her party, please. And I did. Of course.  I made Marshmallow Sticks.  And I made Chocolate Spoons.  And that was not enough, my daughter wanted other things as well, but after a whole day of baking I've had enough. Rest of the candies will be from the store.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net

Aloha Shoes by Miss L Fire WANTED Best Shoes I ever Saw!

Of course I brought some souvenirs from Bruges. There are a lot of artisanal shops around town, most of them making chocolates. In one of the many little narrow streets I found the most adorable bakery, that sold not only my favorite Dutch pastry called 'speculaas', but also the moulds to make speculaaspop-cookies.  I saw the same moulds a couple of weeks ago in another store, in a Dutch open air museum, but then didn't buy them and have regretted it ever since, so this time I bought them right away. And now I'm going to share the recipe for speculaas with you. I know, it isn't really the season for speculaas yet, because people normally eat speculaas in autumn and winter around here (that's The Netherlands), but now that I finally have the moulds I want to try them immediately, of course! What you need:  * 200 grams flower * 100 grams butter * 150 grams dark sugar * 150 cc water * little salt * 20 grams speculaas spices (a mix of cinnam

As I told you in my last post this weekend my husband treated me to a couple of days in Brugge (Bruges in English), a little town in Belgium that still looks the same as how it looked in the Middle Ages. There live only 20.000 people, an amount that's exceeded on any given day by masses and masses of tourists. Nonetheless it's a beautiful, beautiful little town and I loved walking around in it. Here are some pictures that I made. My camera is broken so all pictures are made with my iPod and are a bit dark, but I guess they are clear enough to get an idea of what the town looks like. www.betweennapsontheporch.net

For our sixth anniversary my husband is treating me to a weekend to Bruges in Belgium! I'm really looking forward to it, because we want to go to this little city for so long now, but for some reason it never happened.  Anyway, because of this and the children's holidays and some guest that we will have this week, I don't have enough time to realise a DIY project before saturday (I post projects on tuesday and saturday, as you may have noticed). So, I will show you an oldie (but a goodie, that I haven't shown here before).  This dress I made for my youngest daughter when she became two years old. At the time I didn't blog yet, so that's the reason I didn't show it before, but now it made the blog anyway! Althought the dress is about one and a half years old now, I still love it! But I'm a sucker for gingham, so this won't suprise you. It's a bodice with a full circle skirt that I finished off with bias band in a smaller gingham patte

Esther Williams Bathing Beauty Emerald Green WANTED 'Cause you know how I love green!!

A little late (late in that normally I post my finished DIY projects early in the morning on tuesday or sometimes in the evening on monday), but I'm having some troubles with starting up crafting again after my vacation.  But..., my daughter's birthday party is coming up real quick now, so I have to go on with the birthday projects if I want to have it all done before the day is there. Today I made The Crown.  I made it out of felt and you can close it behind the head with a satin string. It's a variation on crowns I made before.  here here here But this Birthday Crown had to match The Birthday Dress, which I think it does.  What do you think? Now only the cookies and the cakes (I will do them the day before the party of course) and the pinata and that's it.  You know what? I will skip the pinata. It's the friends and family party and we will celebrate the birthday in a park near us, where's a big

Just got back from holidays this morning, feeling a bit groggy because of the long drive back overnight and the being awake since yesterday morning, but I had the most wonderful time and made great pictures. I will show some here on my blog. I went to the Czech Republic, but as I live in The Netherlands myself, it's not as far as it maybe sounds to some of you. We stayed in South Bohemia, a beautiful region of the Czech Republic, with large woods, medieval towns and castles everywhere.  Above: Cesky Krumlov Above: Ceske Budejovice Above: Mural near our vacation house Above: Landscape, seen from the car Above: Tabor www.betweennapsontheporch.net