Here I share my passion for crafts, especially all things leather, painting, sewing; my thoughts and every day experience.
Family and relatives are very dear to me, hence I will also have it about them and gardening, food, herbs, my environment and images illustrating all this.
School has started for a while and we got our children or grand children all kinds of stuff to stay organized. It is time we are thinking of ourselves and get our handbag or pouch organized. I made cute little business cards holders and a leather "envelop" to protect bigger cards or other stuff.
LoveLea's red leather card cases and envelop
The business cards holders, I made them open so you can easily take 1 card out. In a case your cards stay fresh and clean and you don't have to be embarrassed when handing 1 out. One I hand stitched with white linen thread, the other one with black linen thread and this one is less striking. I use linen thread because I just hate it when the thread starts fraying, this won't happen with linen thread.
LoveLea's card holder, red leather, white stitching
LoveLea's card holder, red leather, black stitching
And I made an envelop out of the same leather to hold cards to take note on or any stuff bigger than business cards. So you have a little set in your purse.
LoveLea's red leather card holders&envelop with hip pouch
LoveLea's red leather card holders&envelop
Myself I use a hip pouch a lot when doing small shopping: you have your hands and your shoulders free and of course when travelling.
Me and The Secret
Books like The Secret or A. Hicks predicate that you already know everything you need to know, but you have to look INSIDE. That's true. I knew about the vibration stuff before all the fuss about it; I knew but didn't understand it. When I was young, a teen, our whole world evolved around school and exams and later on about getting a job. When I was taking an exam and I didn't FEEL anything, had no sensations, I knew it was not going to end o.k. If I felt "nervous" I knew what I was about to be on, would be o.k. Same thing when applying for a job. At that time, nobody talked about vibrations but I recognized the feeling in my guts. It felt then more like "seeing" my future than "creating" my future. I have to find the way to get in that high vibration state again.
Teaching my daughter needle works
As I have had many uses from the needle works I learned at school, I wish my daughter too learned some needle work skills at school. Alas, that was not on school programs any more. I took it upon me to teach her how to knit, but to no avail. Now, so many years later, I think she didn't want to learn knitting and that's why she kept messing up things until out of frustration I gave up.
I also showed her how to sew on a button; myself I have a very strong aversions for sewing buttons on but if you have a missing button, someone has to do the job. I gave up on that too and thought inwardly: wait till you live by yourself and have a husband and kids, I got you! You know what: it's her husband who sews on the missing buttons! have I ever.
What lesson do I get out of this:
never think YOU ought to do the boring stuff out of a sense of duty; if you won't somebody else will do! I should turn this into a nice quote by next week.
A made another very nice quote, but somehow Canva didn't work properly and I can't download it. Maybe by next week I'll have two quotes for you!
Finally my faux fur handbag is done. It has cost me blood, sweat and tears! I had to remind myself constantly that I am making a prototype. It looks rather plain on itself but with the right outfit, it will get allure and give allure. If you use it with a basic outfit like a pair of jeans and a white tee or white blouse, your handbag will get all the attention. Worn with a plain black tee or blouse would give it the right "spirit" without looking ordinary.
I may make 2 alterations. I had figured out an original way to close the bag, but FORGOT about it! I'm figuring out if I can still implement a closure without being obvious that it is added later. And maybe I should or could add some tassels but removable ones. I thought of using chains to make the tassel but am afraid either it will mess up the faux fur or it may scratch the leather. And how will I attach them if I don't want to use a key ring?
LoveLea's Faux Fur handbag fur side.
LoveLea's Faux Fur handbag leather side.
Two tales of Synchronicity
A couple days ago, I had some situations I wanted to have more insight into and clearness in and I used a deck of butterfly oracle cards that I got from my sister. She is a butterfly fan and you'll learn why! Last year she lost her husband. She lives abroad and we spoke on the phone but I wanted to have her something tangible in her hands. I went through my stash of greeting cards but nothing caught my eye, nothing seemed appropriate. 3 Days later, I went again through my cards and choose a pastel colored card with some flowers and 2 or 3 butterflies on it. It took me 1 more day to write a nice and comforting copy before I sent it.
About a week later, my sister mailed me thanking me for my words and especially for the butterflies, since butterflies are messengers and bring us messages of our passed on ones! Honestly, I had no idea that butterflies carry such a meaning. This kind of things, me being a vehicle for a message, gives me goosebumps!
Back to my card session: while shuffling my deck, 3 cards sprung out that I put aside. One of these cards was about Signs from Heaven: butterflies are signs from heaven that we are not alone and heaven is watching is, but feathers have the same meaning! The day before I consulted my cards, a rather big down feather had landed right into my husbands garden shoes at the back entrance of the house! I had pointed it out to my husband and had remarked: look at this big down feather, must be from a big bird.
And the next day I learn it is not only a feather but also a big reminder that heaven is watching over me and this gave me a lot of comfort. I fancy it is my mother who sends me messages, but if not, I am happy with a sign from heaven, this IS big enough. I plan on laminating the feather and leaving it around my computer where I'll be bound to see my sign from heaven.
Traces from the past
A couple days ago we went to visit a beguinage church in ruins. As you can see in the picture the church is in Early Gothic style and the first stone dates from 1245! It must have been a very beautiful church but totally ruined now. Only the outer walls remain erect. Back home I wondered what happened to the church and googled it; to my big surprise, the church burned down recently: in 1976!!! How is it possible that they couldn't master the fire in 1976. I assumed the church burned down a 200 or 300 years ago. Here are some pictures:
Tienen, Belgium: Paterskerk
It must have been a lovely church, not too small and not too big, with traces of pink and blue colors left on the walls; means pink was hundreds of years ago a color en vogue for females.
Tienen, Paterskerk, courtesy S. Ozonder
Way back in the Middle Ages, what is called the "dark" ages, they were concerned with widows and gave them shelter in an enclosed housing unit, a beguinage; each beguin had her own little or bigger house. No men ware allowed inside. They made vows but less significant than monastic vows. If not everything was cake and egg between this gathered females, at least they had no loneliness problems!
If you enjoy this small sightseeing reportage, I'll include more next time.
My new quote for you!
Hope you enjoyed my new quote (hover over the picture to Pin it) and this post; see you next week!
My mother used to make bread when she was older and most of her 7 children gone! At that time I didn't think big of it because I hadn't experienced it myself. And then I used to make bread, mind you! using my hands, not a bread machine! I like diversity but 30 years ago, I could find only 2 or 3 types of bread at our baker. So I made all kinds of bread: with eggs, with raisins, with onions, chestnuts, braided bread with pine- apple. And I loved making the age old gestures and motions, I felt as a link in an old and long chain, I felt a small part of a bigger whole. I baked bread for years but then we moved house and we did not make time to bake bread at home.
Recently I read the labels plastered on the plastic bags filled with bread; I was horrified: the ingredients had nothing to do with bread or nutrition but all with aspect and outlook. So we started making bread again. Now we eat "clean" bread free from additives, colorants, preservatives, we eat real wholemeal bread not bread colored to look wholemeal. I add some olive oil, sesame seeds and the exotic tasting nigella seeds.
To put all the advantages in a row:
you are a small indispensable part of a bigger whole
you continue a tradition
you know what you eat
you eat healthy bread
you can smuggle in ingredients that difficult eaters wont take in otherwise
you decide about the amount of fat in your bread
you eat bread and not air
a home baked bread stretches longer than a bought one
you add whatever taste, seeds, grains you fancy at that moment.
your house smells deliciously of warm bread
you can treat you and your family to a buttered slice of warm bread, sprinkled with a tiny bit of salt and/or black pepper, heaven!.
Lesson from my body
Saturday in the afternoon I was going upstairs rejoicing in the fact that on Sunday we would visit an old Art-Deco chocolate factory restyled into housing units. An old timer exposition together with craftsman showing their artifacts, food trucks and many more would be on the grounds
.
The next moment, an excruciating pain: I had bumped my right foot's small toe against the wall! I hurried downstairs to apply arnica ointment to relieve the pain, prevent my foot from swelling and blood deposit. Then I continued my day: my first thought was that I was somehow "punished" for wanting to visit the chocolate factory. Only in the evening, when my foot was swollen, almost black and my little toe twice it normal size, I got it: my body tells me to slow down and take a rest. From that moment on I sat with my foot elevated for most of the time; I slept with a cushion under my foot and in the morning my foot was a lot better. I had applied my arnica ointment almost every hour and that helped too.
On Sunday, I said to my husband: we can still go, I'll walk very carefully and slowly! he said: no problem for me but it is your foot.So wisely I decided to sit with my foot elevated and let go of the factory. My doll of a husband did all the cooking, prepared the table etc. When I said: nice to have everything ready made for you, I got only a grin.
I had all the signs lately: I felt tired, my shoulders and my shoulder blades ached, my neck was cramped and I ignored all this signs! I just went on like a bolted horse and I am paying for this now.
What I learned is that I should never ignore the signs but take care of myself, love myself enough to heed the signs and let myself take a rest or a big enough break. I should by know know my limits and not exceed them; after all I am bored to death now that I am immobilized!
However there is an advantage to my new situation: I can't sit all day, doing nothing and when I decide to do something, I think very carefully how I can best organize myself to do as much possible with the least of movement! It obliges me to consider the whole of the process I am about to undertake and I am becoming more efficient!
More leather glam bracelets!
Browsing Pinterest I noticed lots of chunky chains and chunky chains are sported and loved mostly by elderly woman Remember my windfall in July when I bought 4 bobbins of chains? I have plenty of chain left to experiment with! I designed a bracelet and a neck lace for myself and it is real pleasure to wear them: chic and glam and very passe-partout. They look well dressed up (not too well dressed up since they're only colored metal) in fancy cloths, with a summer dress, with denim; both the bracelet and the necklace will upgrade a casual outfit. French riviera style is popular this summer and fall AND I love French riviera Style and pictured them with my favorite cardigan. I used black leather for the necklace and navy leather for the bracelet. I pictured them together for convenience.
LoveLea's leather&chunky
chain jewelry
Lovelea's leather chunky chain bracelet in navy
I also made a leather bracelet in a lovely very dark chocolate brown with 2 tassels to add a playful accent.
Lovelea's dark chocolate
leather bracelet with tassels
Detail of dark chocolate
leather chunky chain
bracelet's tassels
A wedding anniversary
And we have a wedding anniversary: my daughter and son in law are married for 13 years! Sometimes I have a hard time to believe I have a son 41 years old and my daughter married for 13 years. I still remember her quest for THE wedding dress, their quest for a suitable location, preparing the list of guest, it seems like yesterday. I know it sounds cliché, but it IS this way.
My daughter and son in law the day of their marriage.
I know, again nothing from the faux fur front. My foot hurts when doing stairs and I have to do 2 flights of them, so I took it easy this week. But I am tending myself carefully, diligently and I hope to be recovered by next week.
Nothing much came out from the creative side this week. My faux fur tote is realizing slowly with lots of difficulties and unexpected problems and I have to remind myself constantly that I am not making a tote but a prototype.My work desire is seriously damaged. What do coaches say when you have a setback: what is the lesson in this? (😠😩😞😒). Now that I am venting my soul, the lesson idea comes to my mind, but really, seriously? I guess I can blow steam but in the end I'll have to reconcile myself with this situation, accept the fact and while ironing (👸☺) hopefully I'll find the lesson.
BUT I created a cute heart shaped adornment in red leather that will brighten up every room or closet, hanging from a key, a closet button or on the back of a chair. It looks equally well on a white background as on a dark one.
Leather hart, light surface.
Leather hart
How or when to use this cute little heart.
The heart is a real chameleon: it is made so that you can change the ribbon easily according to the season: change the ribbon to a green or tartan one and you have a Xmas adornment; you could even hang it in the x-mas tree; a gold ribbon to enlighten New Years Eve; give it a yellow ribbon and use it for Easter, a white ribbon in summer time.
Here is my workspace:
Way back, in January I posted about my work table. If you visit this post you can see a picture of my table in the space upstairs, in fact the attic that I share with my husband. (He is an author, composer, song-writer, plays the guitar and sings.) OMG, the attic, my table t are so empty, very minimalistic. I love minimalism but in other people's houses. I love stuff, I need it around me.
Anyway, the attic has changed since then. I needed storage for all my crafts supplies, my leather scraps, tools, fabrics, yarn, cotton yarns, books etc. Since a week my cabinet is finished. It took quite a while to finish it, largely due to the carpenter's full agenda. I still need to arrange my fabrics neatly, replace the ugly orange box with a cute one, find more cylinders in the right size for storing the big chunks of leather.
The white and empty space in the middle section is in fact a seat that I use when sewing. I lose some storage space, but I gained space in the room. If I would use a chair or a small stool, the table would have stood at least 40 cm more to the center in the room.
My work space and work table at the attic.
On the left side of the cabinet are my fabrics at the bottom, my yarns at the top, in between my sewing supplies in boxes. In the middle section on the top are my big chunks of leather rolled and stacked in cylinders (no pic). To the left of the cabinet are my knitting and sewing books on top, below them skins that don't fit in the middle section. In the transparent boxes are my small scraps of leather and at the bottom are my files, art books and writing supplies.
Right side of my cabinet
Left side of my cabinet.
How I designed this structure?
My son has very good and logic ideas, but he was too busy and I was on my own; but I had pinterest and at that moment I only pinned work spaces and cabinets styles. I studied all the images and there was 1 thing constant: the triangular formed spaces for yarn. I want my sewing machine ready to use and there was only 1 possibility: at the right side of the table. To save space, I wanted a seat in between the 2 closets. You have to ponder how you want your things organized: by color, size, material? When I made up my mind, I called the carpenter and I explained what I wanted and that the closets should be open to see at every moment what I have and keep the inspiration flow open.
Luckily the carpenter made lots of shelves and this enabled me to expose my skins horizontally 3 or 4 at the same time (to the right); my medium sized chunks of leather are rolled up and exposed perpendicularly next to each other by color (to the left). The scraps are in transparent boxes, sorted by color.
By listing what I wanted to craft in my work space and inventoring my supplies, with looking at lots of images, some advice from my carpenter and the big amount of shelves, my cabinet came to life.
Deatail of my cabinet
My table looks like a mess but I assure you, everything has it own place and I know my way blindly.
My work table at the attic.
What tourists don't see.
My sister emailed me this video: Free running in Bruges. Breathtakingly gorgeous! And it is true we 'll never see Bruges from this point of view. I love Bruges because it is my late mother's hometown and it is a gorgeous, old, historical city. Enjoy the video!
If you ever come to Belgium, check out Brugge or Bruges, an old and historically important city. Take out at least a whole day: wander around, taste the atmosphere, listen to the carillon, watch how bobbin lace is made, visit impressive churches, the belfry,the chapel of Holy Blood, rich museums and many more.
Taste the real french fries, eat them with mussels or the authentic way: out of a point bag with mayonnaise, not ketchup. Eat a waffle (I use beer in the recipe, delicious!), drink a trappist (beer brewed by Cistercian order of monks) along with cheese and mustard and have something chocolaty as dessert!
And visit the beguinage, where widows stayed and no men were allowed till 1929! don't forget the Minnewater or the Lake of Love. Brugge lives up to its second name: Venice of the North.
By next week, I hope to have better news from the faux fur front!
If you enjoyed the video, please leave a comment, I like engaging with people and accidental encounters!
Last Friday my husband and I went to my daughter's place for the weekend. It was good to see them and to learn about the grand children new schools. They have been to school for a week by now.
My grand daughter of almost 9 loves horses; she has been riding for a couple of months and now she wants a horse. She is saving money to get her own horse. Counting her savings she realized her horse was still a long way; to speed up things, she contrived to sell her old stuff on the street. Her mom recently sorted out her clothes and shoes, plenty of stuff to sell.
She dragged a small table outside, displayed 3 pair of used shoes, some T's, a paper saying for sale and that was it. I suggested a chair would be comfortable, so 2 small chairs were brought down and outside. She wanted me in it because she is not yet very good in subtracting big numbers, I was a good asset.
My grand children selling stuff
Her older brother joined us, yelling: stuff for sale. In the distance we saw a bicycler approaching and yes! he didn't turn left but continued his road. My grand son had stopped yelling, my grand daughter went white with embarassment, almost froze and I hissed: think of your horse; that helped. The cyclist was going to ignore us when my grandson yelled again: stuff for sale. He stopped, turned back, had a look and said smiling: those shoes are too small for me and went on. I suggested: maybe you should enlarge your shop's choice! That was the sign to sell different stuff. My daughter had a couple of things she wanted to get rid off and this was the moment!
20 Minutes with nobody passing by, my granddaughter sighed: this is difficult! Yes, it is difficult: we all want big things to happen with the least of effort. This selling "game" confronts them with an unknown aspect of life and this is excellent:
it gets them from behind their screens
it teaches that if you want something, you have to do something to get it
it shows that what looks easy, can be quite hard
it takes them out of their comfort zone
into a real life situation
Sadly they didn't sell anything. I hope they'll try again. Next opportunity, I'll teach them the value of making an intention!
My first benefit of being 65!
On Saturday night we, the two of us: my daughter and me, went to the movies (Book Club, hilarious); queuing for tickets I saw that they had reductions for seniors! This is the first time my age is saving me money! I was surprised how good this felt, indescribable! It is also the first time I thought about it; well, I didn't think about it but I was reminded of it! I should pay more attention. It IS a neat idea: the fact of BEING 65 will bring me all kinds of benefits, suffice it to think about it.
Like for Lyne Slator, her age works in her favor. Of course she had a rich life before she was an accidental icon and without that she wouldn't be the icon she is now. It is very stimulating to discover that life can take a turn like this when you are 65. I never thought that being retired would be the end of my life, to me it was a kind of slowly rolling to my end. This new icons open up a whole new world, give me a new perspective, excite me to a higher level.
Faux fur and leather
3 or 4 years ago, I bought a scrap of jersey faux fur. I had destined it to be a bag or tote in my head. Countless times I had the scrap in my hands, looking at the piece for inspiration, but nothing happened, no spark, no light bulb went on! Last Tuesday I pampered myself with some magazines. And what's in fashion for the coming season: leopard prints!!! Wow, just what I needed to get started.
A couple hours ago, I went upstairs to my studio, found the scrap. I don't want to use the whole scrap for 1 tote and will combine it with leather. I found 2 pieces of nice and sturdy leather that stays up; I don't like slouchy bags; they look nice enough but not a bit practical when searching for something in your bag. I have to wait for daylight to be certain about the color.
I opened my design notebook and brainstormed my bag: how will I stitch leather and jersey together??? what size? the length of the handles? the inside of the bag... and so on. My bag is realizing at least in my head and on paper. The most difficult part of a project is the start.
LoveLea's faux fur and leather waiting to be "tooled"
I choose the black leather; it is a very nice leather and goes nicely with the faux fur; you have to be careful with leopard prints; they easily take a vulgar look!
A new Quote!
So you wont leave your hands empty, I wrote a new quote; hover over the picture to pin the quote to your pinterest account. It is a Self-Help quote and it germinated out of my own experience! Here it comes:
LoveLea's quote
In the next post, I ll keep you informed about my bag's progress, among other things.
In my first post of July 2018, about my 65th birthday celebration, I told you about my highly pregnant niece. She delivered begin July and we feted her baby boy last Sunday. It was a gorgeous gathering: they hired an old but modernized pastor house for the day, midst a big garden, with giant trees in the back of the garden for the bigger kids to play, the weather was perfect, the sweets were tasty and coffee and drinks in abundance. The baby slept throughout the whole event, just woke up to be fed and was then hold by all the mothers who wanted a tiny baby in their arms once again. And we became acquainted with her husband's family and they have a great grandmother!
Around the church, as was the custom, were the graves of the villagers. We had to get past the graves to get to the house. As my husband said: life and dead are one next to the other. Isn't it that when an older person dies, a couple months later, there is a new born. We lost my mother in May and the 5th of October my grand daughter was born!
The family at the baby shower
Why I like boring household chores
To me, doing the wash up, ironing, cleaning and the like are boring chores. They don't need a lot of attention and worst of all, you know that maybe one hour later, all your work won't be visible any more but you still have to do it. I don't mind cooking because you can be creative, use your fantasy! There is only 1 way you can iron a shirt and that's it.
You may say: I listen to music and it's not boring any more. I used to do that too until I discovered: you can THINK while you do this jobs! Before I retired I was a teacher and most of my lessons I prepared in my head while doing household chores. Whenever I have a problem to solve, I use this time to find a solution, any kind of a solution from what's for dinner the next days to what kind of closure could I use for this necklace... I don't like all this chores, but they have a double utility: the chore AND the free thinking and pondering time.
Organize your purse
Summer almost over means schools are open again. Everywhere you see satchel ads and pencil cases. It gives me an organize fever. If you like big handbags, an organizer is a must. I've made some handy organizing items out of leather for myself. This way I find my stuff easily, a small leather card case that fits about 10 cards; 10 is enough, after all, you don't dole out your business cards and I carry earphones in my bag.
LoveLea's leather business card cases
Lovelea's leather card case.
When I do my errands by bike, I use a pouch bag and in my pouch bag I use a leather envelop to protect small papers whenever I need to carry them; this leather envelop protects any papers or other stuff that I take with me. The envelop is a no sew and easy to make.
LoveLea's black leather envelop!
How to make a no sew leather envelop case
Make your pattern
Take a paper envelop the size you want and carefully open up the envelop: here is your pattern. Make sure you choose an envelop that is not too big for your leather scrap.
Tracing and cutting the pattern
Check your leather scrap for beauty flaws. Place the opened up paper envelop on the wrong side of your leather scrap; if the wrong side has too much fibers, use the right side. Trace very carefully around the envelop with an erasable pen. Check out before use of the pen if it erases without leaving a trace. I use spittle to erase the ink.
Equally carefully cut out your envelop; I used fiskar scissors. Now comes the most tricky part: close your envelop by bending 3 sides to the middle, the corners are overlapping each other, and crush the sides lightly. I did this with a non-metal hammer and protected the leather with a cloth. It is tricky because 3 corners have to meet precisely in the middle. Check with your paper envelop which corners have to meet.
To close the envelop
According to the way you want to close your envelop, punch a whole through the 3 layers of the gathered corners to use your metal button stud. It comes in 2 parts: the part with the screw comes underneath, inside the envelop, and the round ball-like part comes on top; your leather sits in between the 2 parts of the stud button. On the 4th corner of your envelop, make a slit to get your button through. Carefully consider where to make the slit. According to the size of the button, decide about the length of your slit, 1 or 2 mm more than the circumference of the button.
Or instead of making a slit in the corner, make 2 horizontal wholes a bit higher up (have a look at the picture), make a loop out of sturdy elastic, the color you want and paste a piece of leather to the inside to hold your elastic in place.
If you choose very supple leather, your envelop might stay close without any button by stuffing the flap into the envelop.
What's the epitome of abundance?
Right: a bunch of grapes! and I have this epitome right in my city garden, something to be grateful for.
Grapes in my city garden
That's it for this week; I hope you enjoyed the tuto; if you have questions, ask them by mail.
See you next week! the tomatoes might be ripe, ready to eat by then.
I am a hoarder, I can't throw away, I keep almost everything, one day you'll use it. I may have an item for several years and when I throw it away, I assure you, within a week I am in a situation that I could have used the thrown away item.
I saved a cotton blanket that my mother in law was discarding because it had holes in it. It was of good quality with a nice pattern and a couple of wholes doesn't frighten me. I have had this piece for years and a month ago I had use for it. It was my daughters birthday and I invited her for the weekend because of the rock festival. I needed 4 blankets because of the hot weather, but had only 3. This is the moment my old blanket comes into the picture.
One of the holes in my cotton blanket
The picture above gives you an idea what the blanket looked like with an odd 8 more holes; the pattern and quality are visible.
How to easily cover the holes.
With my erasable pen, I traced a shape around the whole, mostly squares, a couple triangles. I measured the tracing, cut a patch of the same size and shape out of a nice contrasting cloth and sewed it on with a fairly tight zigzag.
The hole covered with a patch, wrong side
I messed this one up a little bit but this doesn't matter. Anyway I want a reversible blanket so I will cover this patch with another patch on the reversed side. I choose 2 fabrics with red in it and used red thread to sew them on, this way the stitches will be less obvious on both sides.
Blanket with patches on 1 side
One side is finished, all the wholes are covered. Remains the other side. This was a lot easier and quicker done: no deciding how big the patch should be, triangle or square. The only thing to do was to measure and cut out the new patch, pin it to the exact place and sew the patch on.
Taking pictures
There is a lot of wind lately and it was impossible to take pictures outside. I tried inside, laying the blanket flat on a bed, but I didn't like the result. I was trying to figure out how to get good pictures of the finished product as the grand children were staying with us for a couple of days. I asked them to sit for me with the finished blanked; they agreed but didn't want to show their faces. Both of them just grabbed a stuffed animal and held it before their face. Isn't that cute how they solved the problem! no how are we doing to do this..
Grandchildren showing off my finished blanket.
You need a break from your kids
as much as you love your children, you still need a break from your kids sometimes. You need to spent time with your spouse, just the 2 of you. My daughter needed such a break and that's why she left their 2 kids with us. With this arrangement they are happy and we, the grand parents are happy. The grand children mentioned a couple of times they missed their parents or the dog or their favorite games but we compensated this with riding their scooter in the neighborhoods skateboard playground, baking cookies, decorating their own pizza (with chocolate!), playing mikado, uno and master mind.
Cookies made with grandma
Making (chocolate!)pizza with grandpa
New type of bracelet
Again, rummaging through my things, I found a set of components for jewelry making like chains, brooch settings, metal parts. Decades ago, my husband made jewelry for a while. A couple of metal lace looking medallions took my attention. I put them aside and as I did for my vintage buttons bracelet, applied my proven working method. The dark green leather looked striking contrasted to the almost white metal of the medallions.
LoveLea's green leather bracelet with metal medallions&tassels.
LoveLea's green leather bracelet close up.
And I continue creating bracelets with vintage buttons; I had put aside a big button but with an odd reddish color and didn't quite know what to do with it. I came up using the vintage button, not as an embellishment but as an essential part of the bracelet: I used the button as a button and created a leather loop, made a bit frivolous with wooden beads, vintage mother of pearl buttons and other vintage material.
LoveLea's dark green leather bracelet with red vintage button.
LoveLea's dark green leather bracelet with red vintage button.
Slowly but steadily my vintage button bracelets collection is growing.
If you want more explanation about my revamp project, email me.
That's it for this week! Hope to see you next week, dear reader.
