Elderflower

Ever since I discovered elderflower on my first trip to England (2002!), I have loved it. This year I decided to try my hand at making gelée, thanks to a very simple recipe provided by a friend of mine.

It was very little work despite the long process - the flowers need to infuse for a whole 12 hours! And the result was great! I just need to improve the gelée aspect. Mine isn't quite as firm as I would have wanted it. 

Still, I am proud to present my very first batch of Elderflower Gelée!

 

PS: I can hardly get T.'s nose out of the jar when I put it on the breakfast table :) That's the greatest compliment of all!!

Pretty present for a new home

Friends of ours have just bought themselves a flat and have renovated it. They have moved in their new home and have invited us and another few friends to celebrate with them. I thought of bringing them a nice bunch of flowers (pretty common present here in Germany for all occasions! Even babies get flowers for their birthday!), but I am not sure whether my friend does have vases or not. So I went hunting for a pretty one today and got some shiny marbles for the bottom.
It is pretty enough by itself, but I thouht it was lacking a little something, a little bit of ... hmmm character maybe?

So I cut a small length of adhesive lace and put it around the base of the vase. A small discreet touch, a little bit of personalisation. Do you like it?

And the final touch was to write with porcelain pens at the bottom of the vase. It won't be seen by anybody but the owners when they clean their vase, but I wanted to write the date as a small reminder of when they moved in their Home.

We will get the flowers tomorrow and we are very much looking forward to visiting our friends tomorrow :)

Mealtimes and organisation

Been busy last night and today. My children are 2,5 and almost 4yo and they are starting to dislike wearing bibs at meal times. Even the ones my mother made that look more like napkings with an elastic band do not satisfy them entirely.

We also don't have that many "grown-up" napkins, so I decided to make a few. I have enough fabric for that!

I decided to make them a little over-sized to be able to bind them around the children's necks: 50 x 50 cm.

I now have SIX more napkins.

Four with Winnie the Pooh

Two with garden themed motives

 Now sewing new napkins is fine, but there is one thing that is currently driving me mad and it was high time I did something about it: the bibs lying around on the ground because somehow they can never be put properly on the chair or the table.

So in addition to the napkins, I made little pouches:

I will make two more but without Winnie the Pooh since they will be for my husband and I  ;)

Material used: denim fabric, cotton fabric, machine thread and KAM press-studs. It would have gone quite quickly without my little ones running around, switching off my machine every now and then, fighting, asking for things etc... but on the whole I'd say it was still a good work for the day. I will try to finish my task tomorrow. If they are worth it, I'll even show them to you!

Have a lovely evening!