Step Two For Frida – And A Little Creativity

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I thought I’d tell you – we now have an appointment at the throat specialists, and it’s scheduled for Wednesday next week. We have been asked to practice using a nasal spray for Frida before the appointment, because that is how she will be anaesthetized, before having a small camera run in through her nose. We got a nasal spray with saltwater at the pharmacy, and it came as quite a positive surprise to me that she actually thinks it’s fun to use it – really! Who would have thought?  :)

Ronja's birthday with the family

Her birthday is coming up soon, and this year she will be celebrating her birthday during a weekend, with her friends from the child care, but without the nursery nurses or the parents (besides us) there. She is looking SO much forward to it, and she handed out invitations today – I wanted to show you, because quite frankly, I had a lot of fun making them.

I googled birthday invitations to find inspiration, and I came across these lollipop birthday invitations. I thought they were really sweet, and so I was on it. This is the result:

Lollipop birthday invitations

Lollipop birthday invitations

Made with cardboard, paper, ribbon, rhinestone, glue stick, and glue gun. The text is made in Word and printed on our ordinary printer.

Now, let’s just hope that all the little girls can attend. :)

End Of Season Dance

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This weekend, it was time for Frida’s End Of Season Dance. The little ones don’t have to wear anything special, but most of the girls wear a nice dress, and Frida and I decided together that it would be a good day to get out the bridesmaid dress once again.

The end of season dance is quite an event. Loads of children, parents, grand parents, and costumes all over the place. The air is tense with expectations, and there may just be more cameras present, than there is children. I’m personally not quite sure what I think about it – I love the dancing, music, energy, and joy, but I’m not crazy about some of the things that come with it. 9 year-olds that know more about how to look cool, and put on the right make up than I do. Or is it their mothers? And young women with so much make up on, such glossy hair, and such a fixed smile, you have to ask yourself if that’s the right way to show your joy for dancing.

However, this particular dancing school does amazing work with the little ones – their teacher has just the right balance between authority and warmth, and she never ever seems to run out of energy with the children. She is actually also the one that taught Mads and myself to dance our first dance at our wedding. She’s good! And whether I like the game or not, the children love dancing, and Frida was a joy to watch. (As usually, I’m biased…)

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

Strawberry Shortcake Dance

This last shot is from their Strawberry Shortcake-dance (Jordbær Marie for de danske læsere) – Frida is the little one in the front.

The Charlie Tunic

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There are quite a few things that I haven’t shown you during the time when I haven’t had time for blogging. I’m not here to make excuses, blogging doesn’t always fit in with full-time job and that’s just the way it is – however, I am here to show you some of what I didn’t get around to earlier. The Charlie tunic is one of those things.

Sisters wearing Charlie tunics

The pattern is from Made By Rae, and I totally love it. As always with Rae’s patterns, she takes you by the hand, and helps you all the way to the finished garment with different tips for finishing and altering the pattern included. This tunic is just adorable – one of those garments for your children that are great for everyday use, but with the little details that make it special. AND it’s great for boys as well as girls.

Charlie Tunic for Frida

The one I made for Frida was finished quite a while ago, back in November. For that one, I used kind of a light, soft denim quality fabric (not really sure what it is – has a bit of a viscose feel to it), and Liberty fabric for the facings. I have chosen the same materials for the one for Ronja, only with a different Liberty print from my stash.

Charlie Tunic for Frida - neck facing detail

Since then, Ronja has been on my back for making her one, but with my new job and everything else that has been going on, it was just difficult to find time and energy. Now, this past weekend, I got around to it. The pattern doesn’t go further than a size 5T, and Ronja is 7 years old, but not that big of her age, and quite slim. So, I took the 5T, added 1½ inch to the length, and a little less than an inch to the sleeves. If you do something like this, remember to work in the added length in the vent facings as well – I had to cut new pieces for the vent facings, because I didn’t think of that at first. So this is the result that I finished 2 days ago.

Charlie tunic for Ronja

I have to say, I didn’t choose the buttons. I was going with some wooden apple-buttons, but Ronja wouldn’t hear of it. So now it has pink heart-buttons. Not quite a match if you ask me – but oh well…

Ronja wearing her Charlie tunic

And now that I mention Rae, if you are not already taking part in her Spring Top Sewalong, get on it – it runs until April 22nd, so there is plenty of time to make your own top and enter it! The competition is fierce this year, and being one of the proud judges, I can safely say, there are no easy decisions this year! Click the banner below to check out how it all works.

Spring Top Sewalong 2012

 

The Wedding Post

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Our little family has been going through a summer marked by some great events.

It’ll come as no surprise to most of you, that many evenings and weekends have been occupied by wedding planning, and the making of the wedding gown as well as the bridesmaid dresses. Therefore it was a welcome break when we headed out to spend our first summer vacation on board our boat Anna – and then when we returned to Køge Marina we had two weeks to finish preparing for the wedding. It was a busy few weeks, but it was also the time when we most came to look forward to the wedding, and were able to relate to it much more than had been the case earlier in the year. A wedding is such a big event, and at least to me, it was hard to grasp until we were counting down the days by the use of two hands only.

When Mads first had proposed, one of my very good friends let me know that she would love to design my dress. So she has, and we have had so much fun making it. When all the details were pretty much decided, and the first versions sewn up in plain cotton, I went shopping for the fabric and other materials, and we spent a weekend together at her apartment, just cutting, sewing, adjusting, and having fun. We had the best time! I made the bridesmaid dresses, and my own clutch bag – I will put up a different post with patterns, fabric, and all that.

Besides this, I think I will let the photographs below speak. We had the most wonderful, loving day, and we so enjoyed having all of our friends and family around us to celebrate. Below is a small selection – you can find a larger selection of the professional photographs here.

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Our wedding

Photos by Klaus Hoberg Markussen, foto24.dk

Tropical Blend Dress

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We have weather for summer dresses here in late April. I can hardly believe it – 20 degrees (Celsius) during Easter holidays, isn’t it amazing?

It definitely makes me want to sew summer clothing, so yesterday I made another dress from the latest Ottobre – this time for Frida. I picked out 5 or 6 fabrics that I would be happy to sew it up in, and Frida made the final decision, which is a beautiful design from Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane collection.

Frida wearing her tropical blend dress

The dress is #18 (design B) from Ottobre 3/2011, and in spite of the simplicity of the design, it has the piping at the neckline and the bias tape at the hem to add a few nice details. I traced a 98 length and a 92 width, and it’s a perfect fit. The bias tape I used for the hem is Michael Miller gingham, and I used it for the piping as well, cut in halves. I even managed to find som matching daisy buttons for the dress – it could not be any more summery, and Frida loves it.

Tropical blend sleeveless dress - button

Tropical blend sleeveless dress - detail

I haven’t made piping before, and it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad either – I found it a little hard to work around the strap roundings, I probably should have stretched it a little more through the curve. Anyway, this is the perfect summer dress!

Meanwhile, it’s always hard to predict what will happen to the stuff you sew, isn’t it. Take the tulip dress – I almost had to bribe Ronja into modeling the tulip dress… Why? Apparently, it’s scratchy. If any of you guys have a quick fix for scratchy linen, let me know, because I’m afraid otherwise there is no rescue for the dress. But here she is wearing it – at least she looks content. :)

Ronja wearing her Tulip dress

Ronja wearing her Tulip dress

Lots Of Tea With Honey

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Bloggers Meetup - November 2010

Origami crane mobileMads is away for a few days, which means that tonight I’m home alone with the girls and a sore throat. I put the girls to bed a while ago, and Ronja actually lost her first tooth, while we were brushing her teeth – that is quite an event for a 6-year old, and she proclaimed she will be expecting a visit from the tooth fairy. I don’t remember tooth fairies from when I was a child, but I guess I should probably find a coin or something.

Today has been spent on the couch under a blanket, sleeping and drinking lots of tea with honey, and yesterday was rather similar. The next few days I am attending a conference called New Media Days that takes place in Copenhagen once a year. I love going there to expand my knowledge on current development and the future of digital media, and I am so hoping to wake up tomorrow just a little bit better.

It’s been a busy week, this past week. I spent a couple of days in London – it was work related, but we had time off as well. I like London a lot, and I would love to go back there before long. We didn’t overdo sleep, so Friday back at work was a long day.

The origami crane mobile you see on the left, are some that I made Saturday (if you want to learn how, you can find instructions here), when I went to yet another blogger meetup with the inspiring group of crafty, blogging women that I am lucky enough to be part of. Those days are great, and it’s always hard to leave – we spend an entire day talking, laughing, sharing, doing different kinds of crafts, enjoying snacks and great food – and well – joining in conversations about all the things that we have in common, as well as the things we don’t. Thanks, girls! The glass bead at the bottom of the crane mobile was made by Anne, who has taken on glass crafting – she makes some gorgeous stuff.

Origami crane mobile The week before this one, we went to a check-up with Frida. As some of you recall, she was born with a cleft palate, and had surgery when she was 18 months. We have been visiting a speech therapist to make sure her language would come along as it should, and also to determine whether she would need further surgery or not (elaborated here). Getting all the sounds right has taken a while for Frida, but we are so getting there. This time, visiting the speech therapist was just so much fun for Frida as well as her proud parents. She went through an entire book, describing what she saw in a bunch of pictures, and her pronunciation as well as her attitude towards the task was just a pleasure to witness. The therapist told us she had no reason to believe Frida would need another round of surgery, and I so hope she is right. We can do without. :)