It's not a box...

It's Noah's Ark!

Not a Box

This is such a gorgeous childrens book (really wonderful for young and old!).
On the first page it says: ''To children everywhere sitting in cardboard boxes''
It's all about everything a cardboard box can turn in to... And amazingly enough the main character is a cute little bunny-you will understand; therefore Hazel loves it even more!

If you ever bump in to it, please get it. It's a must have!

Nijnkel!

Hazel is totally in love with Dick Bruna's creation: Nijntje (Miffy in English!) She can't sleep without her Nijnkels-that's how she calls them (two of them...) she only wants to wear clothes with Nijnkel on them and she askes me to draw her Nijnkels all the time...


And there again the cardbaord box is a favourite! Man, I wish we had a house filled with cardboard boxes, they can turn into absolutely everything you want :)

For sure I will have a little Nijnkel-dress in my Etsy-shop soon... Dedicated to Hazel and her love for bunnies. It's probably all in her name. Hazel in Dutch, comes very close to the word we use for hare...

First braids!

Hazel came home from school today with two tiny little braids... Incredible how her teacher (Patience:) managed to make them?! Especially because I already have to fight with Hazel to get her hair brushed in the morning!
I wish I took a picture as well after taking them out (Hazel didn't want them anymore...)
- our Monkey looked as if she put her fingers in an electric socket!

Pretty shadows...

Thank you Love!

Hazels Palace!

The magic of a cardboard box...
Hazel's big brother, Basti helped to turn this cardboard box in to a little play house.
Hazel absolutely loves it and doesn't want to get out at all. When you knock on the door she will open, just a little bit to giggle and then close again. If she could she would stay in there the whole day! Love to see how a little one can create a whole world in and around something as simple as this!

Some new stuff...

I have been playing around with Shweshwe fabric, beads and... plastic animals!
Not with a specific plan, but just with whatever i could find in the house...
I'm mainly thrilled with the idea of getting some of the prettiest little animals that I can find cast into bronze, so it will create a bit more of a ''mature'' object. I love to wear the thingies that I made above, but some people will think of them as more suitable for children. I really hope that I will keep a little part of the child I once was alive inside of me forever. But that can be expressed in different ways as well...

AppleHeart

Yesterday Hazel fell in love with a cute little hairband... Which turned out to be ridiculously expensive - so I decided to make her one myself! It turned out to be this simple little felt appleheart. I did try to add beads and all sorts of other things, but in the end I liked it best on its own :)

South African birds

Just playing around: Shweshwe fabric, scissors and my Moleskin notebook - filled with new ideas!

A winterday in Durban...

A relatively cold day (18 degrees) at the Durban beach front... Delicious! See here our darling daughter and sweet sweet dogs (Tickle [the small one] and Rosie!). We got broken into this weekend again, for the third time in five months - and the dogs didn't do a thing! (they are obviously just tooooo sweet!) - but it doesn't keep me from loving sunny Durbs (and my dog's)!

Look at this!

Hazel decided to like the Nelson Mandela dress! I hope that's a good sign? :) And I hope that (just as when my sister was a three year old baby...) she will already be able to tell people who is on her dress: MANDELA! What an incredibly amazing man. I just read his auto-biography and I can absolutely recommend it to everyone!

The Mandela dress...

A new ''vogelki'' creation: the Mandela dress :) Now I see the picture again I realise you do need a little girl to really show how cute it is. So tomorrow I will try and find one... Mine only wants to wear the most ugly t-shirts and pants that are in her cupboard! And even when the ugly stuff is dirty she prefers to wear it in the shower, instead of making it disappear into the washing machine! I'm afraid that the Mandela dress is gonna be far to pretty for her :)

For my Mom...

Happy Birhtday Mama! This ''vintage'' plate made me think of you, because it's got horses on and you love horses...and it's three of them - which is your lucky number :) And isn't the whole image gorgeous?!

Shwe Shwe

I'm excited to be able to tell you that tomorrow I will put some first products on my Etsy shop made from the traditional South African Shwe Shwe fabric... The name Shwe Shwe comes from the sound that the fabric makes when it's moving... Both these patterns are a design of ''Tree Cats" which produces a 100 % cotton product. These two specific designs are a limited run; they won't be mass produced! Here in South Africa they are mainly used for clothing... I have a baby dress with the Mandela print coming, and also cussion covers, using the Mandela and Obama prints...