Summer bracelets DIY

When M. came home from her camp with school, she showed me this yellow bracelet she made with 'scoubidoo' strings. One of her friends taught her how to make these and of course I wanted to have a go at it too. Instead of scoubidou string I used strips of fabric for one and leather - what did you think?!- shoelaces in offsetting colors for another one. I believe both resulting bracelets look really nice. The possibilities in terms of material to braid with are endless. How about tall beach grass or just hemp cord?

So, in case you 're in need of a fun summer project here's a how-to in 16 pictures with a short description below. I could probably have done with less photos - it's just that I had fun taking pictures...



This is what you'll need for an adult size leather bracelet. (You might have to adjust depending on the material you use, so make sure to do a try-out before cutting ends.):

- a 52cm long strip of fabric or leather shoe lace
- a second strip of fabric or leather shoe lace of approximately 95 cm
- a big-eyed  needle
- a cylindrical object to hold the loop so your project stays put while braiding (the neck of an Elmer's glue bottle works just fine; when out on the beach, the finger of a helper's hand might do the trick as well)



Steps:

1. Fold both strands in half and place the shorter one on top of the longer one as shown in picture 2.
2. Start braiding as shown in pictures 3 through 8, making sure to pull the strings evenly - I made my bracelet really tight but you could make a looser version by pulling less on the strings you braid with.
3. Continue like this until you reach the end of the strands you're braiding with.
4. Hide the loose ends in the braid as shown in pictures 10-11, using a big-eyed needle.
5. Tie a overhand knot in both remaining loose ends as shown in pictures 12-14 and here.
6. Put it around your wrist, pull one of the ends through the loop and  (have someone help you to) make a double knot and your bracelet is ready to wear!

This is the kind of craft you could easily do with kids - have them cut strips of fabric, no need to worry about the strips being straight and regular, and teach them how to braid. It's a good exercise for fine motor skills, and because it's repetitive it's very relaxing too. Use the resulting braid as a bracelet, anklet, key chain, headband... Once you've got the hang of it, or if you want to take this project to the next level, slip some beads on the longest one of your strings before you start and braid them in by slipping them down one by one as you go.

With special thanks to my little girl M. for teaching me how to make these...

On a stick

It's back, with a slightly bigger feather this time - to be found // here //.

I never thought I would use little H.'s sticks one day as props to photograph my necklaces. That and the half-a-tree-trunk base from our last Christmas tree, which has shown up in quite a few pictures lately. It has a hole in it, just the right size to hold the two sticks. I must say I kind of like this "natural sculpture", with and without the necklace... I've been wondering if it would work to build a free standing light fixture with. Which brings me to this totally awesome tutorial at Poppytalk from Bookhou for a woven lamp. We still have plenty of bare light bulbs hanging in our apartment...
Wouldn't that make a nice project for our summer break?

Tonight was a good, good night

Those trees do not belong to our courtyard, unfortunately, but to the Parc des Sceaux...

We just spent the most wonderful evening. It's been a busy day and a busy week for each one of us and the weekend won't bring much of a change. But tonight we had the most relaxing time imaginable, thanks to one of our neighbors. She came up with the brilliant idea of having a picnic in our downstairs courtyard.
In the middle of Paris, in a neighborhood, on a block, on a courtyard, on a small patch of green, tonight, a couple of families sat down together and shared food, drinks and ice cream. Kids played and got themselves dirty, while parents celebrated the beginning of summer with wine, stories and laughter. It was totally improvised but so much fun. It made me forget about all the things which remain to be done for tomorrow's party...

I gotta feeling tonight was a good night...
I gotta feeling tonight was a good, good night...

Baking

Summer has finally started over here - for real this time, I hope, as I would like to wear this pretty flower on my dress.

I still sound like Marianne Faithfull on a really bad day. I hope my voice will be back by Saturday, because that's when we'll be having M.'s birthday party here at home with her friends.

Birthday party means birthday cake, which means baking. She knows exactly which cake she wants. She liked that cake after all - the whipped cream she'd put plenty of on top made it really rich - the next day she ate it without the cream and loved it...

H.'s birthday falls during summer vacation. All the summer birthdays will be celebrated in class on Friday...which means baking. The first batch of chocolate chip cookies is cooling - one more batch to go.

And on Monday, M. has her end-of-year "spectacle" at school followed by a "goûter" for the kids and their parents, ...which means even more baking.

I guess I know where I'll be spending the next couple of days...

How about you?

Ruffles for the beach...

Take me to the beach...

White leather and natural leather shoelace string.
Turquoise beads and ruffles, both hand sewn.
Brass lobster clasp, and a brass chain for extension.

You can find this one here.

A wonderful day!

Sunday was a wonderful day - and I'm not talking about the weather here, which was pretty sad for the time of the year!
I met with my girlfriends here in Paris and we truly had a great time. We went to the Musée Rodin, walked and talked, went for lunch, walked some more, sampled some macarons (we wanted to try the ones at La Durée, but the line there was surreal, so we settled for some Paul ones instead, which were surprisingly good by the way), we walked and talked some more, ...

I woke up with a sore throat yesterday morning, and by the time everyone left I was literally speechless - a bad case of laryngitis, the doctor told me tonight...

But, sore throat or not, I had a great time!
Thanks girls, for this lovely day!!

xo, P.

Asymmetry

I like a little asymmetry. I think it adds something. Makes things more interesting.
Hence, an asymmetric ruffled necklace.
The turquoise beads add a nice little touch of color against the dark brown leather.
Ruffles and beads are hand sewn.
This necklace can be worn as a choker or slightly longer.
It will be added to the shop on Monday.

Father's Day

Big girl M. is back and it sounds like she had a really good time in the Camargue.
One and a half more week of school and then Summer vacation begins. No sign of Summer yet, however, as it's been really cold around here over the last couple of days.

Tomorrow it's father's day in France - which has to be taken literally in our case, as I'll be gone the entire day with my Belgian girlfriends who'll be in Paris for just one day, leaving daddy home alone with the kids. I'm sure they'll have a great time, as will I!
Happy father's day! And no, we didn't get him the above skin care kit, but a pile of books instead and the latest issue of The New Yorker...
Happy reading!

All new!

A new prototype has rolled from under my presser foot! And I like this one a lot - to the extent that I might do a tutorial for a light version if there's enough interest (and if I can find a spare couple of hours, that is).

I started this bag two nights ago, with no particular plan in mind. I cut a piece of fabric - I didn't even bother to take out a ruler or measuring tape, I just cut! And the rest just happened...

What I like most about this bag are definitely the handles. I saw this very minimalistic approach to handles - unfortunately, I can't remember where - a while a go and I decided I wanted to try a version of my own. Hence, I punched a couple of holes in the leather straps (with my new 4 EUR hole puncher, my new best friend) and sewed them on by hand (so much easier than sewing them on with my stubborn machine, it turns out). I added the little leather patches on the inside to give the tote a finished look there as well, and to add some extra support to the fabric - I must say that I really, really like this little detail.

All that remains to be done now is putting the bag to the test. I just need to make sure the handles will hold up well enough before I take this bag to the next level...

Shop update!

Thank you so much for your supportive comments, e-mails and suggestions on this post here where I was lamenting my bad sales figure...

I chose the worst of all moments to start my Etsy shop - the end of school year is traditionally loaded with activities and parties and it ain't different this year. On top of that I had to get things ready for my oldest one who left on a trip with her class. Needless to say I didn't even make it to the store front of my very own shop or did any promoting. And I didn't make it anywhere near my sewing machine, either, to sew new bags which has left me a little frustrated, to be honest...

However: I didn't have time maybe to sew, but I managed to make some jewelry instead, last weekend.
I made a slightly altered version of the ruffled leather necklace from a while back, which has become a favorite accessory of mine.
And this one will be is available in the shop!

Single...

...child for a week.
Big Sister M. left on Saturday, with her class to the Camargue for a week.
We had to deal with some tears last night. Little H. missed her big sister's company when playing in the courtyard. She stayed up late, and made portraits of us, which she'll send to M. ...
It fills my heart to know they love each other this much...

And then there was chocolate cake...

I meant to write about chocolate cake and raspberries tonight, but instead we went through a little scare here at home. Little H. had an allergic reaction. To be honest, she hardly ever gets these, and they're usually very mild, but tonight's one was a bad one.

When I got home from picking up M. at gym, K. immediately asked me where I had put little H.'s new medicine, because she said she was itchy and he noticed she had some rash in one of her arm creases and at the back of her knees. I immediately checked on her, and saw she was having hives indeed, not too bad, but clearly hives. So, I gave her her new medicine. The hives in the arm crease faded almost instantly but the ones at the back of her knees only got worse and continued to spread out. She was really itchy now and crying. We gave it a little longer, I checked in with the pharmacist, but eventually we decided it was probably better to go see a doctor.  (Note: all she had were hives on arms and legs, she didn't have any respiratory discomfort.). So, at 10:00 pm the four of us took the car to go to the nearest children's hospital.

To calm down little H. a little, I started to tell  her how one night when she was a tiny little baby, we had to take her to the E.R. too because she'd been crying hysterically all night, with what seemed a very bad tummy ache and which was very unlike her, and how on the way to the hospital she eventually fell asleep in her car seat. Almost at the E.R., we turned the car and drove back home, with a happy, peacefully, sleeping baby.
One of us slept in her room that night just to make sure, but little baby H. seemed totally happy and slept through whatever was left of the night until the next morning.

By the time I finished my story, little H. announced she wasn't that itchy anymore. We checked her legs and indeed the hives were almost gone.  
And hence we turned the car and drove back home, with a happily talking little girl in the back...



Now, in case you were wondering: the chocolate cake has nothing to do with this story nor with any of the described allergic reactions or trips to the E.R..
The thing is, little H. didn't like the cake; birthday girl M. did like it but only so, so ( the glazing on top made it kind of rich); K. doesn't eat any cake; and I? Well, I loved it! But I'm not supposed to have any (but I did have some - shhtt! don't tell!)...  Result, three days after the party there's still plenty of homemade chocolate cake left in the fridge...

A piece of chocolate cake, anyone??

Triangles and polka dots

I gave some hints last week about 'something' I whipped together for the birthday girl.
Since she's officially ten now, and all the presents were unwrapped and all ten candles were blown out last night (the cake we still have plenty off, but that's a story for later),  I can finally show you some pictures.
As some of you already guessed, I made a flag garland.

I used whichever fabric I had available from my failing bag business. Well, that's not entirely the way it went (for the colors, I mean - the bag business is failing, LOL! A bag anyone??).
Let's say that I found some of these colors to go really well together, so well that I had stacked them that way last time I cleaned up my crafts closet.  So, when I started on my flags all I did was take out the entire stack and cut triangles. The big surprise, however, came after I finished the whole thing. That's when I remembered my leather polka dot garland from a while ago. A perfect match color-wise, as it turned out, but I especially like the repetition of the polka dot pattern in one of the fabrics I chose for the flags - it happened totally unconsciously, but it's there and I like it!

Now, if you want to try this, all you need is fabric in a couple of different prints and/or colors, cut to triangles (I used the same size triangle for all flags, but you could vary sizes if you like, or even combine different shapes), some biais tape and thread. 
Since I didn't have any biais tape, I used twill tape, which I folded in half. To make the sewing easier I pinned the flags in between the tape. Limited by the length of my twill tape, I didn't leave space in between flags, but you could of course space them out a bit. I threaded my machine with two different colors of thread. Also, since the twill tape was rather on the narrow side especially when folded, I used a zig zag stitch, just to make sure the triangles got caught in between the folded twill tape.

For the polka dot garland, just hop over here to find a short description.

Wishing you a good week!

xo, P.

TEN!

That was then...




and this is now...



The same sweetest girl on the planet,
only much, much taller...

She's turning 10 today.

Happy birthday, my sweet baby girl M.!

Summer's here

...and this means my seasonal allergies are back too! I've been sneezing all day, and the few moments I wasn't sneezing I was blowing my nose. My eyes look watery, like I've been crying all day. I look all pale except for the area around the nose which is bright red and feels chafed.
I hope I'll feel better by Sunday, as we have a picnic planned...

Wishing you a great weekend!

xo, P.

I finally got ...

... labels!



Simple, very simple. Very low-profile too. Grey on white. Woven.
I might consider a bigger print next time I order, but I like them. Also, when I ordered I couldn't make up my mind on where to put capital letters. B? B and L? B, B, and L? Eventually, I went with the way my blog title is printed.
The abundance of //'s may be misleading but the bold ones are for cutting - there was no way to get around these, so it got me all worried that my order would get misinterpreted. But all went well.

I bought them here, still one of my favorite merceries in Paris, though I began to like the mercery around the corner too, recently.
I did check out all of your suggestions (thank you so much!), but decided to go locally in the end.
Faster and also cheaper, because I could order in small quantities...


Now that I have labels, I should start on a new project, don't you think?!

Yellow, the sequel

Glass beads from here, strung on gray viscose ribbon - which wasn't the best choice maybe. I had to iron it once the beads strung and the color is a bit off in my opinion... We'll see what will happen to this one...
This one, however, has become a true favorite!

Almost ten

Our weekend and the beginning of the week didn't go exactly as planned health wise. I ended up spending most of the weekend in bed with a bad migraine and on Monday little H. came down with a mild case of gastro. But we're both doing much better now, to the extent that little H. was feeling like doing some crafts this afternoon. And me too!
With big sisters' 10th (TEN!) birthday coming up next week we could think of a couple of projects easily. You won't get any pictures for now for obvious reasons, except for the one at the top of this post - a little something I whipped together this afternoon, with twill tape and pieces of fabric. No more details, though I'm sure some of you might know what I'm hinting at...
My almost ten year old happens to read my blog from time to time so ssshhhttt! Let's keep that our little secret a little while longer...

Wishing you a great and healthy week!

xo, P.