i always said that, when i have my own christmas tree, i'm gonna decorate it with only handmade things. (except for the lights ofcourse)

i'm going for the traditional red and white-theme and i'm making knitted and crochet ornaments... i'm quite curious about how it's gonna turn out in the tree! we'll see in a couple of months!

crocheting some hearts and snowflakes here...

and knitting christmas balls here... i might design a few myself, too... something with letters and fun patterns. :) are you already thinking about the holiday decorations, too?

today's post is not about me, i want to tell (and show) you about my mom. she truely is a knitting miracle! i can vividly remember myself as a child, wearing the knitted sweaters she made for us. she also got paid to knit examples of sweaters, scarves,... to show in yarn stores! 

it has been about ten years since she finished her last knitting project, a fuchsia sweater for the 13 year old me. she has been secretly stealing my knitting works since then (i ask her to fix a mistake and then find her ten minutes later, with half the scarf finished), but no actual knitting project was started again. until a few weeks ago, when i found the pattern and yarn for a gorgeous shawl that was way too difficult for me to knit. so i asked my mom to knit it for me! 

it's finished only two weeks later! and it's sooo pretty!

i really love it. so does my mom, she's very proud of it. she's already asking me about the next project, i think she really rediscovered her passion for knitting... so i couldn't be happier! :)

i used to have this blouse that i loved wearing; it had such a fun print and my boyfriend bought it for me years ago when we were just dating. after all that time was almost falling apart, and when a colleague commented on a huge hole under my arm, i decided it was about time to let it go. saying goodbye to it was quite hard (i'm sentimental like that)... so i had the idea to save the fabric and do something with it. make flower brooches, for example!

 the purple brooch was the hem from a dress i shortened, so nothing goes to waste!

 

 i followed this tutorial! all you need is a strip of fabric, a gluegun and hands that love to do fiddly work. so simple but i love the result. 

remember this sneak preview? your guesses came veeerrrry close.

 

but! it's not a penguin... no, also not a duck...

it's an owl!

 

i made this cuddly fellow for my colleague, who recently gave birth to a baby boy.
we (my colleagues and i) were late for a present of her birthlist, so we bought a giftcard and tied that around his ear instead. we gave our present today and guess what; she loved it!

the pattern comes from the same book as the little elephant i previously made.

his ears aren't as straight as they are supposed to be and there are some stitches sticking out here and there... but isn't that the beauty of handmade toys. :)

fridaynight we got together for the third episode of Studio Noppie (that's how we are referring to the crafty club now)!
there was knitting and crocheting......home made cookies... (yum!!)
...some brand new books...
... a 4 year-old playing with the hats for the innocent campaign...
...and some unsuccesfull attempts to create a scarf. better luck next time. :)