How about a fashionable Easter handbag? Will we eat organic tomatoes and peppers this summer?

An Easter handbag

When I went visiting my daughter a couple weeks ago, we went to the leather shop and besides some hard ware, I bought 3 of the most soft and butter like hides in yellow, chocolate brown and in a dark brown hue with a metallic sheen.

I like vibrant colors, deep colors and warm colors; since I had 3 whole hides, I decided to make a bag. I loved the bamboo handle bag a lot and decided to make the same bag but slightly bigger because the handles I had were bigger too. It's all about proportion and balance! And I choose the vibrant yellow hide. This way, no worries or pondering the model or bothering about the pattern; I could start right away.

LoveLea's bamboo handled
 leather Easter bag

Before all, it is an Easter bag! the same color as daffodils! Who says daffodils says Easter and spring. And on top of all that, yellow is in fashion this year, so you could use the bag all year round. It is not a city handbag, rather for an night out, or when visiting, eating out or whenever you don't need your city bag, still big enough (33x30 cm) for your wallet, keys, sunglasses, kleenexes, a small bottle of water.

LoveLea's bamboo handled
leather Easter bag, close up.

If you like French Riviera Style, navy and yellow is a good match and the yellow  gives your outfit a contemporary touch.

LoveLea's bamboo handled
 leather Easter bag, French Riviera style

Denim is always a good background, almost everything goes well with denim, be it light or dark.
And below are the 3 hides that I purchased a couple weeks ago and are waiting to be turned into whatever comes to my mind.

my new leather hides acquisition

Organic tomatoes and peppers!

Our garden has kept me busy. Last year, we planted tomatoes in pots; they flowered all right, the flowers turned into green tomatoes  but despite 3 months oflast years hot weather, the tomatoes refused to turn red. We had 3 red tomatoes in October and I turned the green ones into pickles.

This year, this will change, won't happen again because we bought a small green house, 6 m²! We hired to guys to build the greenhouse and then it was my job to labor and till the soil, IN the greenhouse. It took me 4 days to till 6 m², an hour a day. It was real labor because the green house was, well hot! Meanwhile our tomatoes were hatched in the kitchen on the very sunny window sill and we planted them yesterday. There is some space left for the peppers they aren't big enough yet to be transplanted.

Tomatoes in the green house.

I really hope our effort will bare fruit and we'll have plenty of tomatoes to eat. No enough tomatoes to eat and to dry in the sun for eating in winter. Yummy fried and served with yoghurt and garlic.

I'll keep you updated! See you next post!

Sophisticated and big drawstring bag! My leather jewelry for men available offline!

I made my 3rd bag: the first one was a faux fur bag, the second a super cute bamboo handle bag and third is a big, sturdy yet elegant, sophisticated in it's simplicity drawstring bag.

I am aware that I still haven't made my own bag, a bag I thought out myself, a bag that is totally me! But I have been taking notes in my design notebook and a bucket bag is on it's way.

The pattern of this big drawstring bag is out of a Japanese book: Leather Bag Lesson 1, 2 by Yoshima Eduri. I had to go through a lot of trouble to get the book. Somebody suggested the book but it took me a while to find the book on the internet: either the book was way too expensive or the site's message was: sold out. Finally I found a book at a good price but the firm didn't sent to Europe. Luckily I have a sister who lives in the US and I could use her address.  I did so because another sister was going to the US and was willing to take the book back to to me.

About 4 months after ordering my book, I could leaf through it. I immediately fell in love with a big drawstring bag in black leather and blue stitching. I have been waiting to get my hands on a piece of leather big enough for a circle, 50 cm in diameter and a length of 85 cm for the draw strings. Mine is in a brown-grey leather and has black stitchings: 

LoveLea's leather drawstring bag; pattern by Y Eduri.

The book is entirely in Japanese but if you know a bit about sewing, have done some bag sewing you can figure it out. The book features about 15 different, unusual and genuine original bags. All the patterns are on a big sheet, pell-mell but still clear. I love Yoshima Eduri's efficient, a bit minimalistic approach. If you love to sew bags, as I do, and you can lay hands on that book, just get it.

Since it is a drawstring bag, it can take different forms, large and rather flat or narrow and high, depending on what you stuff it with. Shown here, the bottom is about 22 cm measures and the sides are 15 cm. You can style it dressy with a scarf, leather mittens and a trench coat. Will look equally well casual with denim, or for an evening out.

LoveLea's leather drawstring bag;
pattern by Y Eduri

The bag's nice and the very neutral color gives you plenty of styling possibilities.

LoveLea's leather drawstring bag;
 pattern by Y Eduri

Physical store for my Men's Leather Jewelry, yeah!

My skull bracelets for bikers, my cowhide bracelets and fish skin bracelets are available Jeans Station, Tienen, Belgium.

Lovelea's leather men jewelry
 available at Jeans Station, Tienen, Belgium

Thank you girl's for doing a good job displaying my leather jewelry. Since I took  this picture, a price list has been added.

Overall view of Lovelea's leather men jewelry
 available  at Jeans Station, Tienen, Belgium

I went to visit my daughter last week and when returning home, we went to the leather shop and I got out with 3 hides in terrific colors and some hardware. I'll show you the hides next week! See you then.

Kufu and the revamping project.What does spring do to you? Spring=creation time. Enticing Mood Picture!

Kufu and Revamping.

Last week I showed you a picture of my to be revamped blouse. I spent about 1 hour searching the lace fabric I had in mind but found only a small part. While contemplating the piece of lace in my hands, I remembered I used a big part of the fabric for a cushion for my grand daughter. The 50 cm² I had in mind has become a small scrap, significantly smaller then I remembered; I have only 2 whole "flowers" and 3/4 of a flower left.

The scrap of lace that is left

See for yourself, the fabric is super cute! I made a T-shirt out of it when lace was in a couple years ago. Here you see the flower in detail.

Detail of scrap of lace

Kufu

And here is where kufu comes into sight: kufu is a Japanese conception, you could even say "a way of life". It is the art/ability of getting along and doing with what you have; you use your imagination and your creativity to solve a problem without buying or acquiring new stuff, you fall back on what you have.

In my vision the back of my blouse was scattered with about 5 or 6 flowers randomly sewed unto my blouse. I have a whole closet full of fabrics, remnants, remainders of wool and cotton (with them I could crochet small doily-like patches), it would be a shame to go out and buy another piece of lace or fabric. This is THE moment to apply kufu. What I thought would be an easy project will take me a whole lot more of time.

Spring 

2 weeks ago, nature teased us with 4 days of super nice weather: 15 à 17° in February! We payed dearly for this extravagance with a week of forceful and frightening blows of wind a bit everywhere on the Northern side of the globe. Luckily we don't have any damage but my sons' roof has missing tiles and it is raining on top of all this.

Spring is coming alright, I do feel it in my body: a big urge to create! I started a couple projects all at once  and I have to tell myself: hey first finish the projects you started up. Could also be the influence of the new moon on the 6th of March. I started a handbag that I can't finish now because I don't have the right tools; I discovered those giant flowers or bouquets functioning as wall paper on Pinterest and want to put my hand on a scaled down project. Those wall papers are copies of the very dark still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age. I love this baroque style. (And I listen almost exclusively to baroque music.)

Jan Davidsz de Heem Stilleven vaas met bloemen 

I already sketched some flowers on paper. My first attempt won't turn out this grand; I refuse to be intimidated by focusing on the result, it is the doing that counts and doesn't practice make perfect?

All this beside, I have to channel all this forces in me, they should not overwhelm me; a good plan and a firm follow up might do the job.

Mood picture of my latest creations for men.

Another side effect of spring is the urge to clean and declutter and I mean a deep cleaning, the ideal way of inventoring what you have. I took pictures of my latest creations and made this mood board!

LoveLea's mood picture of men bracelets.

And here is the version my hubby made:

Moodboard made by my hubby.

He picked out a very nice green as background.

I am proud and happy with this mood pictures. Next week I 'm planning on showing my leather jewelry to shops in my home town and the mood picture is the way to create the right setting. I'll keep you updated. See you next week.

Revamping a new and cherished garment!

It sounds silly to revamp a new and cherished garment. Why would I want to revamp a new garment?  My favorite cream colored linen blouse, its back in polyester with a big pleat to give the blouse ampleness and freedom of motion needed refreshing.

Linen takes some skill and diligence to iron and wrinkled polyester too so I decided to iron the blouse while still wet. I plugged in my iron, put it on the lowest grade and started ironing; all well and then the iron didn't slide smooth any more and the next second: I had a whole the size of an egg.

See the hole? I am not overstating, sadly.

O.M.G., (big panic!)I have a hole in my favorite blouse! My eyes didn't want to believe what they saw: a hole. I DON'T WANT TO THROW AWAY A NEW and FAVORITE BLOUSE. What can I do? Immediately my brain went to a lace fabric I bought years ago, about the same color of my blouse. It has roses or flowers made of layers of organza-like fabric, the motifs rather big. I could use this fabric to cover up the hole and sprinkle some more flowers on its back so it isn't obvious that I am covering up  a hole.

Detail of the hole.

Plan de campagne

Knowing your problems is a first step when starting your project and at the same time it gives you a reasonable knowledge of the time you need to finish our project. What are possible problems?
 
Problem #1: where is this fabric? did it go through my fingers when I stuffed my fabric stash into my new closet? I can't remember. If I can't find it in my closet, I have to search through several boxes of fabric. But I can ask for help: Etem Dede. He is a real help in time of despair. I told you about him in an earlier post. He is amazing! Just try it out: copy the words on a piece of paper, keep the paper some where at hand and when something gets lost, say the words and start yoyr quest. You'll find your object in no time.

Problem #2: how will I attach the flower to the big hole? Do I need additional supplies?

Problem #3: after covering the real whole, how will I spread the other flowers convincingly.

Now that I know my problems, I can make my "plan de campagne" with easy steps to finish this project well.

I'll keep you updated on this revamping project. See you next week!
.

Yes! I manifested, yeah! To blog or not to blog?

I manifested! 

and the truth is: I wasn't even aware of it!

Some time ago I went with my sister to an exposition. We would have lunch together and we found a restaurant that advertised "ray wings" as today's special. I dote on ray wings and it was delicious. Back home I googled ray wings and read that they are in season till the end of March.

We decided to go to the seaside, have ray wings, stay 1 night in a hotel and take some fish home. I found some nice hotels with parking but my husband kept saying: let's wait. When my husband says: let's wait, I know he has feelings that something isn't right so I didn't insist and put all fish and seaside ideas way back in my memory. And what happened: tooth problems! My husband spent about 3 weeks going back and forth to the dentist.

Last Monday, early in the morning my daughter phoned. The weather has been incredibly nice the last days and she had a very strong desire to see the sea, feel the wind, walk barefooted in the sand, let the dog runto his fill. But her husband had a meeting and couldn't go so she asked if we would care to go. We had nothing to do and  she picked us up and we drove the 150 km to the sea. It was low tide and we walked about 500 m to the waterline; the sea was an incredible nice blue!

My daughter and me walking to the sealine.
Courtesy of hubby S Ozonder

a picture to remember this beautiful day
Courtesy of hubby S Ozonde

 the water was very cold, even the dog jumped back feeling the cold  water. The beach was almost empty, 2 little girls in pink dresses playing in the sand, a dozen people walking their dog and the 4 of us: my daughter with dog, my husband and me. Filou who has macho character traits, was led by the nose by a very fast female greyhound; they ran rounds and rounds of big circles till they were exhausted.

My daughter with dog Filou.
Courtesy of hubby S Ozonde

The short walk made us hungry and within 5 minutes we saw a restaurant that permitted dogs and had "ray wings" as today's special. Was I even lucky! The 3 of us had ray wings in butter sauce with capers; Filou is a terrible beggar but the running on the beach had exhausted him and we ate in peace.

Ray wings at La Mangerie, Oostende, Belgium
Courtesy of hubby S Ozonde

Lunch finished, we went to the beach again, did some walking and returned home. Short but we returned loaded with energy and a head full of nice ideas.

It is only  3 days later that I had my aha-moment: I did manifest! I went to the seaside and had ray wings! Lesson to learn: when you give up on something, when you don't push, your dreams come true.

To blog or not to blog!

as I wrote a couple posts ago, this blog leads to nowhere. I spent a lot of time and effort and I don't get what I want. Comes the question: should I stop or should I continue? I got paper and a pencil and asked myself questions: what happens if I don't blog? what happens if I don't Pinterest? and the answer is: nothing will happen and what's more: I 'll have freed  time up to do other things. Not only will I have more time to BE, but my head will be cleared of all the rumble around it.

Making this decision was scary: a jump in the unknown! Immediately I felt better, relaxed and now that I am writing about this decision, I am asking myself: what was so scary? what was I scared of? the unknown is the answer!

I might continue posting pictures of my products. I have to take pictures anyway so I might as well do something with them.

So my dear reader, thank you for reading my posts, supporting me thereby. If you're interested in pictures of my creations and some anecdotes, keep looking out for my posts.

Have a look at my new jewelry line for men. Have a sacred grounded object! And have a Sister Day!

Fish skin for men jewelry.

In my last post I have a picture of the fish skin I ordered. The skin is not very supple nor flexible or bendable, almost brittle. I should have thought earlier on to make a small bracelet for myself  and test out how flexible or supple this skin actually is. I can still do this of course. I guess I was too eager to create something new. What I did is making a regular bracelet and embellished it with a strip of fish skin. Since I claim to make unique pieces I have to be true to my word and I made 3 bracelets in size S, M and L (I looked up on the internet what is a standard measure for men wrists) in different leather and with separate strips of fish skin.

Lovelea's choice of
leather&fish skin bracelets

This style of bracelet would suit a dressy outfit perfectly as a more casual one..

Lovelea's leather&fish skin bracelet

Your sacred grounded object

Negative thoughts attract negative thoughts and once you are in a negative mood, you get more and more gloomy, dreary and somber. But how do you get out of this spiral?

Jen Mazer has different ways for you to do this:  whenever you catch yourself having a negative thought, "Focus on what makes you feel good— on what you want to attract", says Mazer, Jen. Manifesting Made Easy: How to Harness the Law of Attraction to Get What You Really Want (p. 145). Adams Media. Kindle Edition. It is obvious that negative thoughts in itself or not to avoid, see them as an opportunity to refocus on what you really want! Just don't get caught in a downwards spiral of negative thinking, do make an effort to get out!

A second thing you can do is to "find an opposite statement". Change f.i. “I have so much work to do” into “I’m so lucky I have a thriving business and get payed well". Mazer, Jen. Manifesting Made Easy: How to Harness the Law of Attraction to Get What You Really Want (p. 146). Adams Media. Kindle Edition.

A third way is "to choose a sacred grounding object that will remind you that your dream is on its way". Mazer, Jen. Manifesting Made Easy: How to Harness the Law of Attraction to Get What You Really Want (p. 146). Adams Media. Kindle Edition. Language is very powerful and your mind believes everything you say, so pay attention to what you say and how you say it!

What does this mean? How do you do this? Find an object that talks to you (jewelry or a stone, a shell) that you can carry easily; hold it in your hand and envision your dream manifested. By doing this your stone or piece of jewelry that you have chosen becomes sacred. Now it is not a random stone anymore, at least  to you but a stone with a meaning, a sacred stone. Use this sacred object as a reminder of your dream or a reminder to be in a positive state of mind. Your sacred object takes you back to a better state of mind and grounds you to this state of mind.

Until now I have used a tree. It works splendid, grand. I only have to close my eyes and look at my tree and I feel instantly better. I didn't want a physical object as a sacred grounding object because you need a pocket to carry around an object. While I was writing all this down for you my reader, a thought came into my mind: I'am carrying my alliance all the time, I could use my alliance as a sacred grounding object; you could use your alliance or any other ring or necklace you wear all year round as you sacred grounding.object

Sister Day in Lille, France.

Though we saw each other during the family weekend (read here and here), we held a sister day. The reason is that one of my sisters lives abroad and it was now or next year to come together just the 4 of us.

4 sisters in Lille, France; second to the left is me.

We chose Lille/Rijsel because of the nostalgic attachment we have to this city and to see the amazing scenery painted on the walls of Lille-Europe Station.

Wall Paintings of Lille-Europe station

This pictures are huge and cover several m²:

Wall Paintings of Lille-Europe station

Our family is native of the Lille/Rijsel region, the same region where the movie Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis.takes place. You might not know that this city ones was part of Flanders till 1667 when Louis XIV conquered the city. My grand mother had her dressmaker in Rijsel and occasionally she invited two of my brothers and sisters to come along. Even though we had to wait a long time while my grandma's new clothes were adjusted, we loved to come along because we could have a drive in her car, a fabulous dark gris Citroën DS with ultrasoft cushions (few people had a car at that time) and once my grandma's business finished we had hot chocolate and croissants in a pastry shop. 55 Years ago, only in France did they have croissants, now every bakery makes them.

We agreed to visit The Museum of Fine Arts. It is housed in a very imposing building and is said to be the second best or biggest I can't remember after The Louvre. I' ve never visited the Louvre, but this museum is huge, chock-full of paintings, sculptures, faience etc. We started out at ease before noon with the Antiquity - (a summary section) and Middle Ages section but realized soon that the museum was unexpectedly big and huge and immense. We had a good look at paintings of Brueghel and Bosh, The impressionist were located in a corridor and I could examine and marvel at all the brushstrokes right in front of me of  Manet, Monet, Turner, Goya. The Renaissance section was visited swiftly and at last galloped through the Modern period because at 14.30 your brain can't take any more in and your body is craving for food.

We tasted a local dish with maroilles, a kind of cheese as lunch and decided to have our coffee at Meert's, Lille's most famous, most visited, popular and stylish patisserie since 1761. Compare it to Florian's in Venice. Meert's  is not very big and there was a waiting line of 10 people, waiting time: 30'. I asked for and got the permission to take a picture at least.

Inside of Patisserie Meert, Lille, France

Meert is a beautiful jewel in a  jewelry shrine; please admire this facade!.

Facade of Patisserie Meert, Lille, France

Thus we strolled through the small and meandering streets of the old center. My sister had a must see address: la droguerie with beautiful yarns, cute buttons, special sewing haberdashery. I bought an interesting and tasty round goat cheese and  very tasty running Corsican herb cheese at Fromageries Philippe Olivier;

Anneau de Vic Bilh, Goat cheese from
 Fromagerie Philippe Olivier, Lille, France

 by the way, we past by a lot of small "fromageries" with very mouthwatering looking window displays. We visited the bookshop Librairie Furet du Nord where my dad used to buy the very good Michelin Road Maps. The last place we visited was "la vieille Bourse" a magnificent building with a superb inner courtyard full of stands selling old books, old prints, postcards, maps before heading back to the train station.

Book stalls at Vieille Bourse, Lille, France

Why having a sister day

or a friends day: what counts is that you are together with people you love and can trust totally; people you know well and who know you well and you can say all you want without holding back because your sisters or friends know it is you speaking and know what you mean. It is very refreshing and liberating and leaves you full of energy. A sister day is like a hot bath on a cold day! Organize your own sister day!

See you next week!

Happy Valentine Day to everyone! Family Weekend Update with pictures! Fish leather you said?

I wish all my readers a Happy Valentine Day. May we use this day as a reminder that we NEED love in our life. Let's start with giving Love and thus make space for getting love in return! Not only today but for the rest of our lives. Remember: Love is the absence of judgement!

Day 1

My last post hadn't any pictures because my laptop was in the shop. Again the battery caused problems so either I replace the battery or I get a new one;  my laptop surely is 10 years old. I refuse to use Cloud; I know it is handy but I don't want to give out of hand the little control that is left to us, end consumer.  All is well now and I have pictures for you.

Let's go 1 week back in time. My big brother would get the keys of the ex-hotel now gite around 4 pm on Friday February 1;  we had a save drive through a snow landscape and on arriving 10 people were already there. We brought the food we were responsible for to the kitchen, choose a room and I made the beds right away; nothing more awful than you want to crawl into bed, drunk with sleep and your bed is unmade.

More and more people dripped in and around 8 pm we were "plenary", 29 in total. We had decided on a potluck dinner for the first evening and it was fun to discover what was displayed on the table: mostly cheese, cold meats and soup. I had brought  an avocado salad and a dry pea soup; pea soup is just what you need when it's snowing outside. My nephew you can see in the picture is ALWAYS in shorts, inside and outside!

Discovering our Potluck Dinner.

My sister-in-law Gudrun (Concept Smalle) made a doodle and we signed up in advance for 2 corvees and food for 15 people for Saturday and Sunday; on the spot everybody knows what she/he has to do and once supper over clearing the tables and doing the dishes went smooth and the kitchen was spic&span in no time and we could start our games, play pool or just talk and catch up with family. I played Cluedo with my sisters, a  niece and my goddaughter; then we played Codenames with my nephews and around midnight I went to bed.

Young and old playing games, no generation gap.

Day 2

This 3 nieces slept in one room, did something with Musically until after midnight and were out of bed at 6.30 am eager to make their slime:

3 nieces making slime

After breakfast the next morning, we left the hotel for a walk monitored by a guide. He showed us a beaver dam, traces in the snow of a badger, a wild boar and deer. The children walked along bravely without complaining, we only heard their cries of joy when seeing a field covered with untouched snow; in no time a small snowman was made!

Assembling before the walk.

That noon, my husband and I had signed up for preparing lunch. Luckily we had prepared our bolognaise sauce at home, it is a nuisance to cook in an unknown kitchen; my sister Lieve made a salmon sauce and Catherine and Mieke  a Far Eastern type of noodles. The young ones were hungry after the 5 km walk and were first in line to serve themselves heaps of  pasta and went back for more before everybody else was served.


In the afternoon, we visited the city, La Roche en Ardennes; some of us went to the WWII museum, I went with my nephews to visit the local castle built wholly with local schist stone. Sadly it was closed by the time we got there so we went for a hot chocolate.

For Saturdays supper, we catered; we did some speeches and I took word to tell that this year I had presents for all the guys: a little pouch or a memento mori for the bikers. Supper finished I took my box and let them choose a pouch or a skull bracelet for the bikers. They all loved the idea of the memento mori. That evening, the ladies occupied the pool room and my brother in law started dancing later on. I am self conscious but between family I feel secure enough to dance.

Day 3

My second brother is born on December 24 and my mother used to adorn the Christmas Log for his birthday with a marzipan baby Jesus. He continues this tradition and got us special breakfast bread with little pink Jesus'es.

After breakfast on our last day, we walked the 2.5 km to the castle; one of my nephews, who is an architect, told us that he is "going through a medieval period" and he was very excited to finally visit the stronghold/feudal castle; very impressive with its courtyards, cistern, prison, guarding towers.The building was started in the 11th century and is entirely constructed with shale held together with chalk and sand. It is built on various impressive rock formations. The structure is visible in this picture.

Below an overview of the different courtyards and defense tower with the semicircle of the cistern visible in the foreground.

My sister in the foreground, my daughter on the right and my niece with boyfriend are enjoying the view.

Family members enjoying the view

We stayed at this ex-hotel

Gite Les Merlettes, La Roche en Ardennes, Belgium

At noon we had our last meal together: a delicious chili-con-carne and when the kitchen was tidied up, we left. 

And this is the youngest of the family, Gust with his grandpa, the second eldest of my family. 

little Gust with grandpa; courtesy of S. Ozonder

Fish leather!

I love to try exotic food: fruits, vegetables, meat, the more exotic  and strange, the better! That does not include insects and the like. Not surprising at all that one day on Pinterest I saw a pin about fish skins: flexible enough to be used in jewelry! Last Monday my trout skin in dark chocolate arrived in a big box. Despite the good care, the skin was bent and did not straighten out. I thought about ironing the skin but my gut feeling told me it wasn't o.k. so I emailed the company about it. I got a mail back in a couple of hours: especially no ironing, just put a heavy book like a dictionary on top of it for a couple days. What I did and here is the skin:

newly arrived trout skin in dark chocolate

detail of the trout skin.

It is a lot more brittle than expected so I'll have to do a good thinking session what I can do with the skin. One thing I know: it will be jewelry for men. Jewelry for men is doing very good on Pinterest, so I 'll follow this lead. The biggest challenge will be to protect the edges from crumbling or so I think, I might be wrong. 

Anyway, if you are curious about this fish leather, don't miss my next post, I'll have more news for you.

Have a nice Valentine Day, keep away from judging and you'll be loved by everyone.