Welcome!

Dear friends, family and fellow crafters,

Another year has nearly come to an end. Can you believe it! 2011 has flown passed and so much happened in the last year...

I'm really looking forward to 2012. I feel many good changes and exciting thing will happen in the coming year. Many projects, plans, things to eat and places to go...

As you might have noticed I've taken the change quite literally! I wasn't too impressed with my old blog anymore so I'm now a blogger too! Natty is back... bigger, better and most of all faster. I tried my best to transfer as many past projects as I could for future reference. I can tell you, it cost me blood, sweat and tears! At least if this doesn't work out I might be able to make it in IT;)

As for the traveling, I'm actually in Bangkok right now joining my husband on a trip. Thailand, still one of my all time favorite cities always gets me excited.

Anyway, the dinner is booked and my dress is ready. I hope you guys have a fantastic New Year's eve. Let it be the start of a great year to come...

I'll keep you updated on my fabric and craft hunting here in Bangkok.

I wish you all an inspirational 2012!

Regards,
Natty

Merry Christmas!

                  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

Christmas goodie bag

Finally! Two days to go and I just finished my last presents... Today I went for something edible. As Christmas is a time for treats I made them something sweet. Technically I didn't make it themselves...

My goodie bags consist of two items. The first one is Natty's cowboy girl cookie mix. The jar comes with the cookie cutter and all you need to do is add the butter, a little vanilla and and one egg and you're good to go!

 














The second present is Laura's hot cocoa mix. It is my favorite one I have to say... Not only because I love hot chocolate with marsh mellow but also because this snow man soup comes with a nice text:

Snowman soup
When the weather outside is frightful,
Snowman soup can be delightful.
May it warm your spirit and your soul,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
When you feel a little chill or brrrrrrr,
Use the peppermint stick to stir.
Add hot water and sip it slow.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!


 










I packed both presents in personalized paper bags. Let's hope they like it!

 
 

Snow globes

For some reason my Christmas ideas keep pouring into my mind this year... It’s probably also because I’ve been reading lots of blogs these days made by people who have even better ideas than me.

Prudent baby for example... I am a great fan of Jaime and Jacinda’s website. These 2 ladies are real crafting prodigies and oh so inspiring! Last week they discussed these really cute snow globes. Martha Stewart makes them too. I thought they’d make a really nice Christmas present...

My initial idea was to try out the proper snow globes with water and glitters. As I soon found out my jam jars were leaking water I decided to go for snow globes without water...

For the snow globes you’ll need: jam jars, glue, Christmas ornaments, Christmas ribbon, fake snow and paper letters. Make sure the ornaments actually fit inside the jar (Yes I did it, dah!)...

Organic rose body scrub

Girls always like their smelly stuff... That’s why I’m so fond Martha Stewart’s organic body scrub.

You can make your body scrub with either sugar or salt, with larger or smaller grains, whatever floats your boat.
I prefer to make mine with cane sugar as I like the size of the grains. You can also use white sugar if you prefer a softer scrub.

Here’s what you’ll need:

500g of organic cane sugar
125ml of vegetable oil
food colouring
essence oil (I use rose)

Mix the whole lot into a bowl and pack into jam jars.
The finishing touch are cuttlebug made tags.

For the oil I personally use bio body oil cause I love that one. If you use vegetable oil then buy the high quality one as they don’t smell. Don’t use olive oil unless you want the scrub to be olive flavored.

 
Now scrub away...

Dear Santa...

 Dear Santa,

I know this is a very busy time of the year for you. I hope however you have a minute or two to read my letter...

Even though I have been a bit naughty at times, I ask you to consider making my dream come true.
 
I promise I will be a good girl in 2012.

Santa, I know I’m asking you again for this amazing Brother 1500D sewing/embroidery machine with all its Disney features but only because my machine is almost falling apart (and I really want it!). I would be so grateful...

 
You might not have heard yet of this machine Santa. It’s a die cutting machine great for home decoration, scrapbooking and crafting. It has a USB port so you can import designs. It’s really cool!

 

Colette patterns make some of my favourite patterns. Now they brought out their own book with extra patterns inside. Maybe I can even make you something... What about a Negroni shirt for you Santa?

 

Here’a another book Santa. Burdastyle (my favourite website) have just published their book too. Full of tips and inspiration...



Please Santa, think of me when you pass by Dubai. And don’t forget to pop in for a glass of gluhwein...


                                     Natty

Cath Kidston Christmas tree

Those of you who read my blog from time to time will know I’m a big Cath Kidston fan. I love anything shabby chic, much to my husbands annoyance. At first I was to keep the vintage style to the kitchen but according to him it’s spreading throughout the house... What can I say, a girl likes what a girl likes!

So as a shabby chic Christmas tree would have pushed my husband over the edge I made my own Cath Kidston version for the kitchen.

Again using the decoupage technique I this time used Cath Kidston Christmas napkins. The actual Christmas tree I bought in the craft store...

Christmas brooch

All you crafters out there will know there’s nothing nicer than making your stocking fillers yourself. I started off today by making some Christmas brooches.

I choose some Christmas decorations which are quite light as they hang nicer on your clothes. 

You’ll need ornaments, superglue and metal brooches.

 
Et voila!

 
PS: Greetings from Rudolph...

Utopia top

Let me tell you, 10 years in Dubai and I still haven’t got used to the idea of celebrating Christmas with an outside temperature of over 20 degrees celsius... Believe me, there’s nothing Christmasy about it! If it’s not snowing the least thing it should be is cold. I would even prefer miserable rainy weather to perfect beach weather at this time of the year. I dream every day of cuddling up in bed with a nice hot cocoa (or preferably some glue wine) a nice book. Right now I’m reading A Christmas Carol, the ultimate Christmas read...

I do get really excited though when evening are cooling down and it actually gets a little chilly.
As I don’t have a lot of long sleeve garments I really wanted to make myself a top which I can wear during daytime as well as on a night out.

This Simplicity 2270 1940’s peplum pattern just had my name written all over it: long sleeve, peplum and with a nice bow at the back.

I went for version 1 and made it in Italian lightweight wool. I had to adapt the seize quite a bit as a 1940’s size 14 seemed way to small (what!!!!). To give the shoulders some more shape I used small shoulder pads.

Santa, I’m ready!

Noel

I found these wooden Noel letters last week in the craft store. The craft store I usually visit (Creacorner) sold a selection of different kinds of letters: solid wood letters or the laminated wood ones either in natural colour or white. I ended up buying the solid wood ones for the simple reason that the 4 Noel (Christmas) letters came already pre packed. I also just wanted to place them on the mirror frame in our hall so it didn’t matter that they were slightly heavier than the laminated ones.

 

To decorate the letters I once again dug into my Christmas napkin collection and ended up going for the mistletoe design...

 

                              Two weeks to go....!

Gingerbread house cake

Today I made made a gingerbread house cake... Very  easy to make and oh so easy!

Ingredients:
    6 eggs
    200 g  light brown sugar
    100 g  superfine caster sugar
    300 g  self rising flower
    210 g butter
    1 packet of vanilla sugar
    3 tb spoons of speculaas spice
    2 sliced apples

The speculaas spice can be replaced by:
    2 tsp ground ginger
    1 tsp cinnamon
    1/4 tsp ground cloves
    1/4 tsp nutmeg

Preheat your oven on 170 degrees centigrade. Mix the butter, egg yolks and sugar. Lightly beat the sieved flower and the beaten egg whites through the mixture. Add the spices and apples to the dough.
Butter and flower a Christmas mould and pour the mixture inside. Bake for 1h15-1h30.

  







 
                              Yummie!

Decorative apples

Can you believe it... It’s almost Christmas again! Yes, time flies when you have fun they say but I definitely have to make a start to get this year’s pressies ready in time.

It’s still a bit early I think to start transforming the house in one massive winter wonderland but there’s no harm in putting a few Christmas knickknacks around the house. I usually start decorating after Saint Nicholas (which we celebrate on the 6th of december in my home country) but as there’s no sight of the long bearded man over here in Dubai I thought what the heck...

 
This idea is actually one I stole from a Belgian Christmas magazine. I thought the apples looked so Christmassy, decorative and delicious all at the same time I just had to make them.

The concept is very easy: you need apples (preferably red ones) and icing sugar. The ready to use sugar from the supermarket (or lazy girl’s icing as I call it) does the job perfectly fine. Decorate the apples to your liking and they’ll look beautiful in a bowl on your kitchen table.


Now let’s see how long they’ll stay on the dining table before someone munches them away;)

Vivienne jumper

Baby clothes are just my thing! Quick, easy and you can let your creativeness go wild... Over the past few months I’ve tried out a few Oliver + S patterns which look so adorable I sometimes wish I could wear them myself!

I’ve had my eye on the Vivienne jumper (downloadable from www.burdastyle.com ) for while now and when I bought this nude colored lace fabric I just couldn’t wait to sew it into a vintage mini dress.

 
I used a matching colour cotton voile for the lining and 2 original vintage glass button which I purchased on ebay. Oh so cute!

Dear cinnamon

Cinnamon... You either love or hate it! I happen to be part of the first group and I love to sprinkle it on pretty much everything! I add it to a cake, stir it in my hot cocoa and even dare to mix it in my curry.

I particularly like cinnamon sugar. It’s not always easy to find in your local supermarket (especially when you live in dubai) but you can easily make it yourself. On top of that, if you do decide to make your own you can make it organic for the health conscious ones... And of course it makes a great homemade present for your fellow cinnamon lovers!

So what can you use the cinnamon sugar for? I love to put mine on some buttered toast but you can also put it inside your hot chocolate or even in your coffee. It’s also a very nice baking ingredient...

What you need is:

                    450ml jam jars
                    superfine organic sugar
                    organic cinnamon powder
                    organic cinnamon sticks

Fill you jars with the superfine sugar until approximately 2 cm from the top. Now add one heaped teaspoon of cinnamon to the sugar, close the jar and give it a good mix. If you want to give it as a present you can decorate the jars with jam jar covers and finally use up all those scraps of fabrics that have been hanging around forever!

                                   Enjoy!

Getting barbie ready...

Summer is officially over! The temperatures have finally dropped below 30 degrees and the evenings are cooling down, perfect for a barbecue gettogether...

 

So,I’ve been busy...Even though our garden looks beautiful (courtesy to my husband), I thought it could do with a bit of glamming up.


Over the last few days I’ve been busy sewing a new tablecloth with matching placemats. I made the tablecloth in oilcloth as I thought it would be more practical for the garden.I rimmed the tablecloth with 2 different ribbons and I also sewed on some crocheted flowers (with I didn’t make myself). For the placemats I used silk which I bought from jim Thompson’s outlet store in Bangkok. I love the  lime green colour, it really freshens up your day!

 

 








And then there’s my finishing touch... I finally had my leaf garlands hung up and they are... amazing!!!

It was love at first side and I really had to get my hands on these lamps! As our shade sail is quite large I used 2 strands to cover every side.

And here’s what they look like at night:

Lamp shade makeover

When you want to do a lamp shade makeover Ikea is the place to be, not only for their wide range of lamps but also for their variety of shades which you can mix and match.
Usually there’s something for everyone, regardless of your taste.

Not this time though... I thought most lamps were either boring or screamed “kitch”.

I did find one in the end and ended up buying this:

 
A little plain you might think... Well, that’s exactly what I thought too but it makes it perfect to makeover!

I decided I wanted to go with a pastel yellow as it looks nice and fresh in the kitchen. And God, what  meter of left over lace can do!

 
Lamp Bran 14,95 euro and shade Jara 7,00 euro
                            all from ikea.