Felt food and another tea set

I try to keep making felt food, for my children, my nieces and for friends who ask for their children and relatives. It isn't always easy with my two little ones, especially since little N. tries to steal the objects as soon as I am done with them!

It is still a lot of fun to work with felt though, and I have big plans for the next months!

 I have re-styled my beans and tomatoes. I tend to prefer them like this, especially the tomatoes, they do not require any glue anymore!

What's your opinion?

Challenge: Un mot, des titres - Session 21

C'est à nouveau le moment d'écrire un article en français et de partager une lecture! Toujours avec le Challenge de Calypso, le mot ce mois-ci était: Pierre. 

J'ai choisi Pierre et Jean de Maupassant. Mon billet va sans doute être un peu court, mais ces derniers temps je ne passe pas beaucoup de temps sur l'ordinateur. Mais commençons déjà par un petit résumé de l'histoire.

C'est une histoire de famille, un famille qui s'installe au Havre. M. et Mme Roland ont deux garçons, deux jeunes hommes, Pierre, l'aîné, et Jean son cadet. Il semble toujours qu'il y ait de la jalousie et de la rivalité entre eux. En tout cas du côté de Pierre qui semble parfois à la limite de la haine vis-à-vis de son frère. Ils sont physiquement et mentalement très différents.

L'un devient docteur en médecine, l'autre devient avocat. Au Havre, Jean rencontre une veuve, Mme Rosémilly, dont il va finir par demander la main.

L'événement clé de l'histoire c'est le décès d'un ami de la famille, M. Maréchal. Celui-ci lègue toute sa fortune à Jean. Cela aiguise bien entendu la jalousie de son frère, et suite à plusieurs remarques de personnes telles qu'un pharmacien ou une serveuse, il va concevoir des soupçons quant à la légitimité de son frère. Pour quelle autre raison Jean recevrait-il un tel héritage?

Pierre va donc se mettre en quête de la vérité - sa mère est-elle une femme adultère? Comment son père a-t-il pu l'ignorer? Son frère Jean est-il donc illégitime? Et ce sont finalement ces questions qui vont le ronger, au point de peut-être même oublier la jalousie qu'il entretenait vis-à-vis de son frère.

 Je n'ai jamais été une très grande admiratrice de Maupassant. Je l'ai souvent trouvé lourd, sombre, difficile à aborder. Mais j'ai trouvé que ce roman se lisait relativement facilement. Je ne sais trop que dire de plus sur cette oeuvre, est-ce que je l'apprécie? Je n'en suis pas certaine, mais je la relis quand même parfois... Pourquoi? Je ne sais pas! Peut-être que les disputes et jalousies fraternelles sont un sujet que je connais ayant moi-même des frères et soeurs, et du coup je me sens plus proche des personnages? Je dois avouer que je ne sais pas expliquer mon attraction pour ce livre.

Je le recommande toutefois à tous ceux et celles qui liront mon article. Faites-vous votre propre opinion de ce roman et dites-moi ce que vous en pensez!

Felt Chocolate-Strawberry Cake

Back again with something new in my daughter's kitchen! I experimented for Christmas! Although she rather likes it and does bake a lovely cake now, I am not satisfied with it and will need to re-think my pattern and the way I make the cake. It is far too plump and the different layers do not sit nicely on top of each other.

I guess we all make mistakes, especially when trying something new!

To make a chocolate-strawberry cake, you need: a chocolate base

Then a layer of strawberry cream

Cover it with melted chocolate

And top it up with a delicious strawberry

Bon Appétit from N.' kitchen!

 I liked the idea of stacking elements on top of each other with velcro band rather than having the four cake pieces attached to each other. A little less stuffing will probably help already, and I am even considering replacing it altogether with a piece of foam. Let's see how it goes in the next weeks ;)

House-shoes

What would be Christmas now without my "famous" house-shoes? ;) My youngest brother was quite desperate, his house-shoes from last year were completely unwearable, he had used them so much that the sole was just a series of holes! So he asked me to make him another pair. And while I was at it I made one from the same fabric for my son who had outgrown his previous pair.

One is size 21 and the other one is size 32!!

 

  

One has anti-slide drawings, the other one not.

 

 It is always nice to see my lovely boys (brother and son) wearing their homemade-shoes, favouring them to the bought ones!

Baby Book - Finally finished!

The story of that books started in July 2011, if you remember I posted about it here and there. Then again I mentioned it in October 2012 in my Unfinished projects post. Now I am pleased to say that I was able to finish it and give for Christmas not to my daughter, N. to whom it was intended in the first place, but to my son, T. , who is will turn 1yo tomorrow. Both Little N. and Baby T. like the book so I am happy with it, but I swore to never make another of those books (... at least for now :-p )! 

It was a lot of work and my fingers got hurt quite a lot. It was my first book (probably my last) and I made several mistakes. The first and biggest one being the number of pages and thickness of the book!

The final assembling of the pages did NOT work with the machine, I had to do it by hand. Ooooh the pain when the needle goes deep into your finger on the wrong end (not the pointy bit but where the thread goes!)... 

Anyway, here are a few pics and a short video of my work. I am still quite proud of it ;)

Textures, colours and sounds. Everything is gathered to please the eye of a baby/toddler!

           

 Small word of advice: do not use hot glue on an acrylic mirror ^^ - if you pay attention in the middle the mirror has a defect - well that was the result of hot glue on the back of it!

Oh and I know that my lion isn't really great, but I didn't have enough of the fake fur to make it surround the head properly. I guess imagination can work a bit here ;)

Felt Christmas Decorations

Here are a few things I made before Advent started, my parents-in-law found them in their calendar while waiting for Christmas:

 I made two of each stars, the one with beads is my favourite. The picture does not really do it justice, but it looked just brilliant! It took twice as long to make it as it took to make simple decorations, but it was well worth it!

The candy canes are made of red felt and I used white ribbons around it.

What would I do without my biscuits cutter? ;)

And now something I found on Pinterest again! I found it really nice (although I prefered to change the colours to something a little more to my taste) and I am already thinking of making my own pattern for next Christmas. I made this for one of my sisters who now has her own small flat and no Nativity scene yet.

 I made a small modification to the original pattern: Baby Jesus can be taken away or put back on thanks to a small Velcro band.

This way, during Advent you do not see him, and on Christmas night you can bring him and put him in Mary's arms :) (it is a tradition in my family to hide Baby Jesus during the time of Advent)

Snow scenes

Last year I got to know Pinterest, and I must say that I am addicted now. Among the many things which I have seen and liked, there was a Christmas decoration which I absolutely had to make! Snow globes. Not the ones you take and shake to get the snow to fall, one that stays standing and looks pretty without shaking, without water. Here is the original, or at least the one I based myself on.

And here are pictures of mine. I made four of them, one for my parents, one for my in-laws, one for the oldest of my sisters and one for myself.

* Ikea brandy glasses

* Candles

* Four old CDs

* Four cork coasters

* Felt
* Some wooden characters

* Fake snow (I wasn't quite satisfied with the one I found but it did the trick nevertheless)

* Hot glue pistol + normal DIY white glue

 

I first glued a large circle of felt underneath the CD, then a cork coaster. On top of the CD, to mask the hole, a smaller circle of felt, and then I fixed the small characters. I then filled a bit the glass and used white glue around the glass rim (I tried with the hot glue pistol but it was cooling too quickly) and did stick the CD onto it. Turned the whole thing up-side-down, put a heavy weight on the foot of the glass and waited until the glue was dry.

One needs to then handle the decoration with care as only a very thin surface is glued, but the result was stunning.

I absolutely love how the CD gives an extra shine to the whole thing! and the small patch of felt in the middle just looks like there is a little bit of grass to be found under the cold snow.

What do you think?

Oh and by the way, all the wooden decorations used are handmade in the region of Germany where I live. I especially like the small deers!

I am finally back! Happy New Year!

Hi everybody!

  I am a little late but I wanted to wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and that you spent it with the ones you love.

Loads of posts to come and I hope to be able to get back to writing articles more regularly this year!

Enjoy 2014!