My favorite market

Is in Amsterdam. In my favorite part of the city. The old city center, the Jordaan area. It's called the Noordermarkt (Northern Market) but also known as the Monday Morning Market.
I kept some time in my busy schedule to go to the market and i was so happy to be there again!


The Noordermarkt is basically all about fabrics and vintage items. Right up my alley!
I wasn't planning on getting fabrics since my suitcase back to NY would already be filled to the rim with stuff from my storage, but i couldn't resist these small flowers and typical Dutch images. I had the Dutch print on a vinyl blue and white fabric already, but this red version is pretty cute too!

I stocked up on some colored googly eyes. I haven't been able to find these here in NY yet, so i got a bunch at the market.
I think you can never have too many vintagy buttons. Seems i was in a blue/green vibe when picking them.
And i found some pretty vintage trims, can't have to much of those either.

They're tiny... and many!

Today my desk was filled with tiny fabric butterflies.
I don't know what it is, but things like this make me smile. They surely brightened up this cold day.

Needle Sun

Anyone else who can appreciate a new needle sun?

Yep. I long for the summer to come back.

I'm behind on my colors

Project Spectrum v2.0 is what i'm talking about. Last year i had so much fun participating and this year i signed up again with much delight. But i have totally not got to the first 3 colors in the first two months. Maybe its a combination of lack of time and it not being my fav colors. February and March were Blue, White and Gray months. Don't get me wrong i could have made something beautiful. I just didn't. Ooops. These next two months i promise to do better. The colors help: Green, Yellow and Pink. I can work with that. Can i cheat and put up the Green baby dress as a Project Spectrum project? Maybe. But i will also make something especially for PS 2.0.

Crafty supplies nearby

I've made a couple of crafty aprons. Soooo handy to have all your essentials nearby. Maybe they're a mixture between a tool belt and an apron. No more stopping midway to look for your seamripper or scissors. They're right there in one of the many pockets!
Of course I want to show them off, but well, they are hard to take good pictures of. Think of this post as sort of a sneak preview. I will make those pictures and post them here this week.

Squeak, squeak

Well hello there. If you go by my blog, it might seem like I haven't been very creative lately. Creative literally as in actually creating things. But luckily there are some things to show and blog about.
There are also a couple of projects which are nearly finished, but I've recently ordered some new woven labels and I want to put those on so I'm waiting for the mailman to deliver them and then I'll finish those projects too.
Uh, what's with the squeak squeak? It's the sound these round plastic "squeaky-sound-makers" make. hihi. Got to incorporate them in a cute plush toy. Probably an animal. A felt squeaky little mouse maybe?

New notions

I can call a bunch of buttons and some zippers notions, can I?
I'm learning sewing related terms in English lately. Since I haven't been sewing for more than like a year or so, I'm really just learning all terms in Dutch, my native language. But since I'm a citizen of this world, and I want to communicate, I need to learn the right words to describe certain things in English. I am always willing to learn. So if anyone catches me saying something stupid, making constant typo's, using wrong words, being confusing and all that, pls let me know! I won't be offended. but be gentle anyway... honest, but gentle.
I do know my English isn't that terrible. Maybe you would even call it fluent both verbal as well as written. But it's just not my native tongue. With every blog post there is a point of frustration because I can't find the exact words I want to use to get my message across. Ofcourse there is the beloved spellchecker and I love using it, but I not only want to know how to have something corrected for me, I want to know how to do it myself. maybe that's why there is always a paper dictionary on my desk.

Sewing Machine Maintenance Time

It all started with this squeaking sound... squeak... squeak... squeak...
Can't be good... My Sewing Machine is talking to me...
Next, the lightbulb inside decided it had given me enough light and quit on me.
Ohoh. Can't ignore it anymore, time for a sewing machine check up. Maintenance time!

Feeling a bit off

Ever since i got back to Amsterdam, i haven't really been able to get back into the swing of things. I constantly feel a bit off. And with that there are a million things to do. Plus i feel flu-ish all the time. I have squeezed in a little creative endeavor here and there, but no real time to blog about it.
I have taken a couple of days off from my freelance extra money gig to get things on track again. Another reason hopefully, is to spend a couple of days with my love. He is currently touring Europe and possible has a couple of days off to spend with me in Amsterdam. That would give me an extra boost of feel good. But i never get too excited before it's actually happening. Hurts too much if things come between unexpectedly.
But whatever happens, I've got some things to share and some time to put it online over the next couple of days. Let's get things flowing again!

Finally, Freezer Paper

I've been reading about the crafty wonders of freezerpaper online, but never exactly knew what it was. Even checked for it in the grocerystore, but they don't seem to have it over here. So, of course during my stay in NY i went to the supermarket and picked up a role of Freezer paper.
Got to do a search and find those online articles again to really figure out how to use it, but i know that if it works it will save me some $$ on transfer paper!
Added to my todo list: Read up on the crafty ways of using freezerpaper + Use freezerpaper to decorate some fabric! (I'll share my freezer adventures soon)

Creative Shopping

Yep yep. Did some creative shopping too.

The adhesive ribbons I've found at Target, I just couldn't ignore the brown with pink polkadots! Haha, I don't even know what "adhesive" ribbons are. Can I just stick it on somewhere, or should I iron it on? Haven't opened the package yet. But guess I'll figure it out.

I also made a trip into the city and esp the fashion district.

Oh how I love all the fabric stores! HEAVEN.
I know when I live here, I'll be spending a lot of $$ in that area. Won't be able to help myself...
Anyway, I went into M&J Trimmings. And oh, Walhalla! I needed a moment to catch my breath. Really. Walls and walls stacked from top to bottom with the most gorgeous trimmings. I didn't even know where to start looking. I wasn't planning on buying a lot since I can't do nothing without my sewingmachine. But hey, once inside, how could I leave without anything? I can take it with me in my suitcase back to Amsterdam right? Check out the cute ribbons I picked out! Can't wait to get behind my machine and make something using them!

Back to my shopping trip to Target. My hubby was with me and we walked passed the napkins and stuff. There were some great designs, so I had to stop to take a look. He was like, napkins? But he knows that I have to look at EVERYTHING that has a great print on it. So I explained the art of Decoupage to him and how you can use beautiful paper napkins to turn, for instance, old furniture into original new pieces. So he was like, well, then buy it! I took one of the small napkin packages out of the racks. He was like. Why don't you take the big one? So I took a pack of the guest towels. He was like, you better take two right? *love* So I did. One day I'll make him so proud by decoupaging these onto some project. Just don't know when or what, but at least I'll have the paper towels already! :D

The strawberry origami papers I bought somewhere in Chinatown. It has been a long time since I did any origami, but I think I'll have to start folding again! Or else I'll be able to use them in one of my paper collages or postcard projects. I'll find something to do with them.

M&J took my breath away

Look at what i got:

For no reason at all my mom gave me this small present. When i unwrapped it i found this little sheep which has a measuring tape as a tail! Sweet! When you press its belly the tape rolls back up in again.

And my brother was so sweet to give me this t-shirt of his group. Ofcourse his sis has to have the pink one! They print shirts by the hundreds, but he told me they had only printed 3 of these pink ones, 'limited edition'. But now i see them listed in their shop! Huh? hihi.. Well, I'll feel special nevertheless.
He also gave me a very large shirt of The Goodlife. That's the name of his record label/recording studio. I wanted a large shirt to reconstruct. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but when i do, I'll show the before and after!

A little bit of this and that

I'm doing a lot but still I don't feel productive. I'm not making any major moves right now and I'm getting restless. Maybe updating my blog will give me the feeling I have done something at least.

Last weekend I visited this small fabric and supply store, Boeken, in the city centre of Amsterdam. I have been to the shop a couple of times before, but it's always too crowded to look through all their goodies. This time i was in luck, there weren't many people inside so I could browse and treat myself to some beautiful new supplies.
Guess what my current favorite spring colors are?

In another store I bought these cute potholders for only .50 cents! They're small and pink with polkadots and cupcakes. How cute!

On another note, I'm still waiting for my personalized Ismoyo noodle bowl. First it was a 6 week delivery time, turned 9 weeks and now they informed me it had became 12 weeks! Patience is a virtue.

Oh yeah, almost forgot! I got tagged! Slateblu is sweet. I would love to answer the five on the fifth. But I realized I wouldn't know any five other bloggers who I should tag next. And not doing that is like stopping the whole tagging process, right? Hope Slateblu won't get upset. I won't want to upset a pregnant lady. (Your belly looks beautiful!)

Yesterday when I visited the market near my house I walked by the petstore and saw that they had cute baby hamsters and rabbits in the window. I just had to go in, when this little bunny got up to the window to play with me! Awww....

I wanted to take her home with me!