karibombari

Just a picture

2012-02-23T03:46:00.000-08:00

Before xmas i made the Dos Family DIY lace lamp. I rehung it above our dining room, took this photo. I love the way it looks, like an egg shaped full moon. (it's supposed to be round but that didnt happen).
Best DIY idea ever!

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The tshirt lives on

2012-02-21T12:57:00.004-08:00

she had a growth spurt and her brand new tshirt was already too short. to make it last just a little longer I added some stretchy fabric and it became a dress. she loves it. and she loves wearing her new green Hennes sunglasses with it. what a match.

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Being green & mending

2012-02-21T00:39:00.000-08:00

Again i find a legging with a hole in it. This time, instead of throwing it away, i tried mending it.

Note: If you are adept at mending, look away now. It's my first time.

The hole in the legging, with the ladle in it.

The 'mending' box i found in a thriftstore.

Clumsy attempt at mending

The result. It, at it's best, looks 'interesting'

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2012-02-14T01:30:00.002-08:00

Happy Valentines Day

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Let's talk about food

2012-02-13T03:24:00.000-08:00

Ha, one of the comments i hear most from people who don't use social media about people who do is that Facebook or Twitter is only used to talk about homebakes or favorite recipes they cook. Little do they know and hey even if they would, tat's OK for me :)
i love peoples favorite recipes. i have to cook every evening and i don't have inspiration all the time.
I own a lot of cookbooks, i like to try out new stuff, and sometimes i like to talk about it.
Or blog about it :) Luckily i'm not the only one.

I wanted to share our favorite of the moment: Vispannetje uit de oven from Jamie Oliver (Sorry i can't find it in English and my cookbook is in dutch). I make it with salmon as that's what the kids like. I love fennel but even known fennelhaters love this dish. I've made it twice last week as i had a hunger for it. And i found the recipe, in dutch, here: http://judithrecepten.blogspot.com/2011/05/vispannetje-uit-de-oven-het-recept.html

This week i'm going to try and make the Country chowder from this book i've had for ages: The Mussel Cookbook. When i was in the States i loved the New England clamchowder, something we don't see often here in Holland. Over there you can get in cans in your regular supermarket but i've not come across it here. Even if, i love to make soup and it's so easy and comforting it's worth the 'hassle'. The above is made with mussels and looks easy to make. I'll put a photo of FB if it turned out well :)

Play house

2012-02-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

my son is home with mild concusion. hit his skull really hard on the ice then someone fell on top on same skull. such a fright when you imagine what could have happened. he was really ill but better now. lots of time to sit next to him and craft. not so much time to take photo's and blog.
but ...

these little people were happy to be driven to their home in this cold and snow

they had a great time catching up

Poncho and some DIY

2012-02-07T02:39:00.000-08:00

I made her a poncho. She loves it. It's nice and warm and i made it short enough for her to move and play in it. She did question why, if i made it for her to be warm, i put these non warm woollies in, meaning cotton. Okay 6 year old, you are a clever little one :)

Bought this scarf for her from the bargain bin at the market, 1 euro for a cute pink scarf, good deal i thought. Especially since we seem to lose scarfs all the time. Except when she played horse or pull the sledge using that scarf, so it became one long thin curled up unuseable thing. So i did what all you crafty mama's out there do, I pimped it.
I added a crochet edge on either side, making it wider and a bit heavier. And some matching fringe. Then added a yellow contrasting line to it and filled in some of the chevrons with colored thread. It's useable again, and much prettier and best of all, it only took an evening in front of the tv to make it.

Princess and the pea

2012-02-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

While i was writing my wild spark of a daughter has piled all the sofa pillows on top of a chair to build a bed with lots of matresses. She got her blanket and pillow from upstairs to put on top of it. She put a smaller chair in front of the pile of matresses on the big chair and a little step in front of that smaller chair to create stairs.
She then needed some help to get into bed, which she did as elegant as possible for a sparkly 6 year old.
I then put a frozen pea in between the matresses to check if she is really a princess, as she claims to be.
And yes, after she got down from the stack of matresses, she did have a real bruise on her hip (from falling over in the playground, ssst....). Which of course is real honest proof of her royalty. I bow to her.

And now you also know what that makes me. ;)

Bunny origami & thrifting

2012-01-31T02:55:00.000-08:00

What beautiful weather here in Holland. The sun is out and it's freezing cold which makes the light very clear and the air very crisp. It is lovely. We all hope for the ponds and streams to freeze over for some iceskating on natural ice. The ice police, or whoever does this kind of thing, are measuring the ice thickness to give it the all clear as soon as it's thick enough. 7 cm i believe.

Meantime i made an origami bunny because i wanted to know if i could and they looked very pretty in this photo i saw on Pinterest. It's from the origamispirit website which used beautiful paper, one side pink and other white. How i would love to find that paper and make some for the Easter table. Maybe i could even get Meisje M. involved as she's into folding at the moment. I keep on finding little envelopes with little scribbles messages inside everywhere in the room.
However, I only had pink and needed to cut it square, it's thicker than what they used so tougher to fold, my bunny isn't as crisp and a little rough around the edges. But it's sturdy and great to hold all those vintage buttons i found at a thriftstore some months ago together with the mending yarn. It would be great for doing this with if i could ever get myself to break the label.

Now it's time to get into that sun. xxx Karin

Sunday fun

2012-01-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

Our sunday was one with lots of rest, some nice food and walks around the dune lake near our house (forgot to bring camera, pffft). It was so beautiful, the light, the crisp air, the peaceful water and dunes.
The cold did us good but it was also nice to be inside and play games, off- and online and craft.

After we watched an epic game of tennis (Australian Open) the kids and the brit made the banners around our table to create an indoor soccer table where we played soccer (...) by flicking a pingpong
ball around the table.

Space

2012-01-27T05:20:00.000-08:00

Some would say, argue even, that our house is too full.
Too full of stuff. It is true, i do love a bit of stuff, new stuff, old stuff, toys and statues. Plates, bowls and baskets. I love nicknacks. I love the folklore dolls. I love old vases. But i never thought it was too much.

But lately i too have this feeling that there is too much. And it is all over the place because there really is no space to display it nicely. More and more cupboard space has been taken over by kids stuff. Crafting supplies, books and games. So there's not a lot of space to store the vases when i don't need them, or to circulate my beloved things. The vintage cute stuff i've been decorating their rooms with are slowly making space for DJ deck and games and Barbies.

One of the intentions for this year is to fix this 'problem', I just don't know how...

cherrypie pumpkin Pinpouffe

2012-01-25T00:48:00.001-08:00

cherrypie pumpkin XL pincushion, a photo by karibombari on Flickr.

I first designed this pincushion in 2007 as my other small pincushions kept disappearing under the fabrics on the table. This one is nice and big. I decided to call it a Pinpouffe as it kinda looks like you could sit on it and of course the french word for the dutch word Poef is Pouffe. Hence my own design Pin Pouffe was born. Way back in 2007!

Impressions of Meisje's 6th birthday

2012-01-21T00:59:00.000-08:00

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Unwrapping

Drawing the tshirts

Adding the tule

Dancing party

Thinking of leaving this all year around

How i love all things party!

The day after :)

2012 - just photos

2012-01-09T12:02:00.000-08:00

bye bye Xmas 2011, Hello new year 2012

my mum and me

new products in the store

handmade xmas 2011

2012-01-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

Elving, a term i'd not heard before but instantly liked, read on a blog i've been reading for years, SouleMama.
Of course elving means creating gifts like santa's elves and i absolutely love the term. We did some elving of our own again this year. And it made for loving, peaceful and creative (if busy) days , before xmas and during school holidays. Some things were wrapped and given away before i could take a photo. I'm a bit rusty after not blogging for so long. But here are some photo's anyway:

we loved making the snowglobes, the kids had friends around who made some of their own.

handmade packaging for meditation cd's for my more ~~stressedout~~ spiritual friends

and a sweet little doll blanket

lalaloopsie and her blanket

a DIY project (or two)

2011-11-30T09:31:00.001-08:00

Over on Facebook I said I would tell you about the Dos Family diy lace lamp i made. The tutorial on their totally fabulous website is pretty spot on esp. including to updates. I started out doing a different kind of DIY to test out how it was to work with glue and crochet doilys before i would start with the big project. I did this one but there are loads of tutorials on the www. I used wallpaper glue on some and modpotch on others and it worked equally good with the wallpaper stuff being the cheapest option. It was a easy, fun and slightly addictive diy to do.

Then I moved onto the bigger and more daunting project of the lamp. I do think the result does rely on which glue you use. I made the lamp using wallpaper glue but that alone isn't hard enough. It was simple putting the doilies onto the oversized balloon, but it took more time than i thought. If you attempt this diy it's important to overlap the doilys a bit more than you think as there's some shrinkage as the glue dries so if you only just overlap you will get ugly holes. Also keep in mind, and i'm probably stating the obvious here, that the doilys are probably vintage and if you treat them a little rough holes will appear. So far so good.

We hung the lamp to dry from the staircase in our hallway and woke up in the middle of the night by a weird crackling noise. Thinking it was our fireplace still going my husband jumped out of bed and ran downstairs only to find all was good and it was the shrinking balloon pulling away from the glued doilies.

The next day as i started putting extra glue, modpotch this time, on the shade i saw that where the balloon pulled away the lamp was collapsing. I popped the ballon and blew up the second one inside it as per DosFamily tutorial but as it was kinda wet from the glue i already put on it (not clever) it was a bit of a pallaver and i overstretched the balloon, making it bigger than the shade and holes appeared. Learn from my mistakes! So i patched that, mod potched the rest of the lampshade and let it dry again, then i used lacquer to harden it even more. So ends the story of the shade.

I absolutely love it. It's shape is very organic as it's a balloon/drop shape rather than round which i like and it's so fragile looking because of the doilies. I dont leave it on unattended as i have no idea how flammable it is and i still need to find a hanging system as i only hung it like this to take a photo. But it is very pretty and my thanks goes to the Dos Family who thought this project out.
xxx Karin

kitchen garden vegetable patch

2011-07-18T03:16:00.000-07:00

lots of words for what mine actually is, kitchen garden vegetable patch. as my vegetables grown in 4 boxes, inspired by Zelfgeoogst, a recyced former toybox, full of herbs, and 2 small strips of garden.

the idea of growing vegetables i had 2 years ago but it took all that time to actually doing it.
having absolutely no experience in growing anything i got stuck somewhere between preparing (the brit hammered some great boxes for me), buying seeds & soil and waiting for the right weather.
so eventhough i was prepared i still waited too long with sowing and now my vegetables are a bit behind on schedule. it doesnt matter. the whole experience is good fun, such good fun, i had no idea! it's nice to care for the garden, seeing the plants grown, and bloom and fruit. to eat something that you just picked out of your garden is amazing. because my garden is so small it's only handfulls at the time and by no means are we growing all our own food. but we have sugarsnaps, spinach, peas (soon i hope) and rucola and lettuce and lots of herbs. so the salad is accounted for :) the slugs ate the radishes and the carrots don't seem to be doing so well. and then there's the birds that like to snack on things here and there.

there is a very cute house near the tenniscourts where i play avid but very bad tennis once a week. they sell produce from their own garden. you never know what you'll find at their outdoor table. it might be broccoli or beets, the other day i bought a beautiful aubergine, prunes, apples, onions, all sorts. there are always nice fresh eggs however. thats because the boy of the house wanted a chicken for one of his birthdays, so when people asked what he wanted as a present he'd say a chicken. i guess a lot of people thought that was a great gift to give and he got several chickens. so many he sells the eggs at the outdoor table and so earns a nice bit of pocketmoney.
so i get my vegetables & fruits there. sometimes i dont know what to do with them, like the aubergine, the kids are not a huge fan of them, so then the ridiculous mountain of cookbooks comes in handy.
i make tea, get some chocolate out and pick 3 of 4 cookbooks, sit down and browse until i find the recipe i'd love to make. that in itself is a nice calming thing to do :) this weekend i made a warming soup because of the weather, what's with the weather?
so i made harira, because that's still exotic and a puree with the aubergine. oh and the fact i own many cookbooks doesnt mean i'm a great or established cook, unfortunately.
that's why it came as a great surprise to me (and possibly most likely not to you) that to transform those chewy or dry (when toasted) pitta breads into gorgeous dunking devices you simply brush them with oil and sprinkle them with cumin seeds and bake them in an oven.
the kids were particularly fond of those :)

Celebration

2011-06-13T02:02:00.000-07:00

To have the people i love around me is of the greatest importance. I love to welcome them in a clean and cozy home, and give them good food and drink. I want to create fun memories. I think i'm not the only one!
Last weekend we celebrated the birthday of my son.

The time i have to do this kind of thing is limited and i find myself stressing out in the days leading up to the day. Maybe i do have enough time but i want to do too many things, because my mind goes into overdrive.
So at a time that i have to tidy my naturally untidy house, clean the extra's and do a lot of shopping it goes like this: my mind goes 'hey what a lot of fun activity, let's make it extra fun' and then sneakes in the idea to paint the hallway grey because that'll make the entrance look even better especially with the new pineapple wallsconce. Then i can frame all the childrens drawings that are now tagged to the wall with tape. I could do that in those frames i have in the attic waiting for a coat of paint, so while i'm painting anyway ... etc etc. My mind goes on and on. Already on my way to the paintstore i stop myself and give myself a warning.
Because fun memories happen when people have fun, and with a stressed out me (and a house that smells of paint) that's not going to happen.
So instead i started baking.

2x Jamie Oliver's party cake, which is divine, easy to make and a good reason to buy lots of raspberries. Importantly it's also a great cake to eat the next day and after. Because if you make 2, there's going to be leftovers :)
and
since i have the 2 Hummingbird books we make cupcakes for every occassion. This time i made the coconut pineapple cupcakes, which are really really delicious. I'm already looking for a reason to make some more.

The brit and miss M. made some cheese straws and sausagerolls, they are getting really good at that to!

For dinner me and my dad made Delia's Basque Chicken, which i've made 3 times this month, it's so good. It takes a lot of cutting and frying to make it (it's a lot of fun to do together) but it's well worth it.

I can't believe it but unfortunately i've forgotten to take photo's of the prepared food to post. Must be because i'm such an infrequent blogger. Next time i will.

new things in spring

2011-03-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

it is exciting isn'it. the birds are chirpy and the smell outside is changing. i feel little waves of warmth out in between the still chilly morning air and am happy it's coming: Springtime!

Small pretty things i covet today:
this gorgeous sandal from Liwan
this beautiful wall sconce (which i've already bought :) from Caravan
and this Cheapo talking watch, i just have to decide on the color.

Also i made some iPhone cases, from a lovely blue stripey wool vintage blanket and retro applications i made myself. Let me know what you think!

*K

KARIBOMBARI give away - And the winner is .....

2011-02-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

In a sudden burst of energy and an attempt to lure more people to my webshop i started not 1, not 2 but 3 discount actions on Facebook. You may have seen them. I created a Winpage on my karibombari facebook page to make it all easier for people to know what wonderful action was going on. Not that making the page was easy for me! But with a little help from friends i came up with one.
Here is what is happening:
Action 1: discount when you register for the 'haphazard' newsletter (Nieuwsbrief in dutch) on my website, 2: 30% discount on the romantic feather headbands and 3: the Win-my-heart : were you can win a vintage wool heart of your choice if you Like my page or the top message on my page. Quite a few people entered that competition, so i'm pleased.
Today is the end of that last Win-my-heart free giveaway. So i wrote down the names of everyone that entered and put them in a hat. My daughter was going to pick the winner. Now i wrote down everyone who liked the heart, including family, being as honest as can be. So we put all the names in the hat, shook it about, did a little dance :) There goes her hand in the hat and out she pulls a piece of paper. So exciting! Opening it, it turns out my dad's name is on it, so he is the winner. What a coincidence.

Now i know you blogreaders are lovely and trusting people and you would quity happily let my dad win. But eventhough I love my dad very much and love that he likes what i make, my dad winning would look just a little weird :) So therefor we did it again, shook the hat, did a little dance. Her hand went in the hat and out came this 2nd tiny piece of paper and on it was the name of the true winner of the first karibombari facebook giveaway:

Linda Potharst! YaY :) Congratulaions Linda!
Please let me know which of the hearts you prefer and it will make it's way over to you!

Happy Valentine!

dag Sint hello Santa

2010-12-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

Half engels half nederlands zijn wij, als gezin. Een engelse pappa die ontzettend zijn best doet met Sinterklaas en een nederlandse mamma die enorm probeert te geloven dat Santa bestaat.
Het Sint festijn zit erop, het was spannend, en fantastisch om die blije gezichtjes te zien. De haard heeft nog lang gebrand op het pakpapier en overgebleven karton.
De Sinterklaas boeken zijn weer opgeborgen en de Kerstboeken staan op de kast. Ons Winterwonderland is gemaakt maar zal heus nog uitgebreid worden in de komende dagen. Allerlei kleine poppetjes die normaal overal in huis rondzwerven zullen een plekje vinden in de nepsneeuw.
We zijn het nog niet eens of er dit jaar een echte boom komt maar de boom die 2 jaar geleden bij elkaar gesprokkeld en in elkaar getimmerd werd door de Brit en F. zal zeker opgetuigd worden.
Ik hou van de rust na Sint en de aanloop naar de Kerst.

Dank aan de aardige Met melk en suiker voor een leuk stukje over mijn Santasokken. Het was een leuke verrassing.
Ook dank aan columnist Kim van Kimindepen voor het organiseren van een Santasok winactie. Die gewonnen werd door Maureen. Gefeliciteerd, de Santasok is onderweg!

Birds

2010-07-13T02:04:00.000-07:00

A little bit of news today:

we have a birdsnest in our garden. so cute. and how busy mama bird is. all she does is fly off to get food, fly back in a hurry to feed the little ones & off again - meanwhile checking if nobody is out to harm them - giving firm warning if she thinks there is danger. pfew does she ever sleep? if she doesnt need sleep she's very lucky :)

my little herbgarden is flourishing, i've got sage, coriander, chives, mint, basilicum, thyme and parsley. it's fun to go and cut some of it to use in tea or food. and small remarks from the kids like, hmm i smell peppermint when i've watered the herbs make me feel like a real green girl.
the tomato plants are doing well, little green balls are waiting to turn lushious red.

tuesday

2010-05-11T00:29:00.000-07:00

last week we took a long trip to a most beautiful place. we needed something new to look at and we got it. we got space and silence, even the kids, forever chattering away, noticed it.
the light was very light, that white light that comes from the horizon being far away, there was green,very green nature and the blue of water. but one of the best things was the wind, and i don't norally like wind, as it tugs at my hair and neck and ears, and make me feel restless. but this wind was something else. it was light, not warm, not cold, the kind that feels like it blows right through you. the kind that clears your mind, wispers to you, caresses and makes you feel soft. it made me feel like i could cry and it would clear the way for those dreams that seem so far away.
that wind i love, and i couldn't get enough of it. it was a happy time.

thrifting

2010-04-10T12:50:00.001-07:00

excited i take my bike and cycle to the place where all the goodies are, waiting to be touched and taken. the doors are still closed, the big clock has not yet chimed it's one chime, notifying the people it's time. a crowd has formed.
chatter and chuffling, some neck craning is done because part of the goods are displayed outside. the saugages are sissling and the poffertjes (those little dutch pancakes) are baking.
i recognise some faces from last year and we nod. i've got my route planned out, know where to go, know the people behind the counters. then the big clock chimes, cue for the people of this place to open it's doors. there we go, slowly, step by step, into this Aladin's cave, looking for those treasures that are waiting to be found. it's fun, it's exciting. i do my round and then i do it again. i go home with some fun things, a vintage suitcase, some duckegg blue wool, a box full of sewing bits, a beautycase with the words Bon Voyage under it's lock.
then i go back in the morning, with my little girl, she's got her boots on, her purse in her gold bag, slung across her shoulders and with determined tread. she knows, intuitively, that this is good, this is where it's at, and she wants a piece of it. she does her round, she finds her stall, she searches and finds her own little treasure. i smile, that's my girl.
i even find some more little goodies and then we cycle home, happy as 2 girls thrifting can be :)

of course i can't leave a thrift opportunity alone and since i got word of a nunnery having a jumble sale i take our car and continue my search for goodies. and found some more.

here's part of the treasure:

chase away the grey

2010-03-11T23:31:00.000-08:00

on this greyest of grey day i was happy to find the thumbnails of my Flickr to be brightest of bright.
my sweet contacts, who are know to celebrate life to the fullest, and who are crafty to the max, had uploaded very bright and cheery photos, some of them had exactly the same thought and posted some colorful, creative and happy bunting.
i love bunting or garlands as i prefer to call them, i even like the word guirlande for pretty flags that are a hanging.

so those inspiring images gave me the idea to hang some flags myself, today. the cheer up my day, and brighten up my house. for the fun of it. for the weekend. to chase away the grey.

thrift, granny square and repair

2010-03-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

....thrifty pickings are slim here in the nether lands, when you find something good, even with holes, you take it. seeing this lovely blue granny square blanket, big and long and large, i pulled it out, only to discover it had a few holes in it. but i loved it anyways and took it home.

we'd overlooked the holes for a few weeks and used the blanket to snuggle under, but of course the holes unravelled just slightly and started to unravel other granny squares.

what to do. here's a blanket that was lovingly made by someone, and having made my first granny square blanket last summer i knew just how much love and care and time goes into one, what was i going to do with it. i briefly thought to make pillows out of it but by this time we'd all grown to love the blanket, and i pondered if it would be possible for a novice at granny-ing to repair such a thing. i decided to give it a go.

so i started the repair. and this is what i do.
i fix the squares that can be fixed by handsewing seams and re-enforcing the original crochet.
the squares that can't be fixed are cut out and replace by squares made by me, using the original yarn as much as possible.

but in no way do i want to make an invisible repair. nooo, if i'm going to but in a lot of my time and love, i want it to show. i'd love for this blanket to end up like a collaboration over time, a bit of the original maker, and a bit of me and to look like a pretty mix of colors, some from the 70's and some from now.

remembering

2010-03-01T02:20:00.000-08:00

sometimes i remember that time spend in california, when i first heard talk of the universe and sending wishes into it to come true. most of the time i forget. not the time in cali but the sending wishes bit.

it always frustrated me just a little bit, because people were saying there was a technique to it. the technique of focussing on what you want, but not too hard, keep it casual. but try as i may, i never mastered that technique, why else did that spacious seaside appartment never appear, or the perfect boyfriend?

lately a lot of fabric & assorted fabric stuff has appeared by my side. and by a lot, I mean a LOT. bags and bags full, boxes overflowing. phonecall after phonecall of people asking if i was interested in leftover fabric. of course i was interested!!

i wondered about this very very lucky time in my life, where i got to do what i love best, rummage around in a treasure of fabrics, lace, doilies, vintage aprons, leftover bits of fabric from other peoplese creations. and i thought maybe unknowingly i did master that technique. just by doing what i love, placing it at the centre of my heart and cherishing it. ….oh gosh that sounds a bit gospel. so before you get all nauseated by my ramblings, i’ll get my backside of this couch and get on with my sewing.

i should remember that.

too fast (or me too slow)

2010-02-28T06:39:00.001-08:00

too fast (or me too slow)
Originally uploaded by karibombari

back again

2010-02-28T02:03:00.000-08:00

hello hello hello... it feels a bit echo-ee here. for a long time i didn't blog. i used to have one, named Flutterby, i started blogging on back in 2002. spending the hours my newborn snoozed to make contact with the world. and i loved it. i found very inspiring blogs by very inspiring people and it opened a bigger world to me. i felt that sharing my stories and getting reactions was very satisfying. later life got a little more busy, things happened and i started blogging less frequently until i stopped. never stopped reading other blogs though. and my favourites i even followed daily.
but now i'm back, harharhar. hope you'll find me. i sure would like to see you :)
*Karin