Yashar, a Cool Weather Crafty Gathering and some exciting features

Look at this cutey!  He's grown so much.  I’m already thinking about what we will do for his third birthday!  I really can’t believe it.    When he was a baby I would ask other parents if it got easier and they would often reply that it didn’t!  That it was just different.  They had me a little scared!  I suppose that everyone’s experience is different though – because I have to say, yes things are different, but they are also a lot easier...and much more fun!  Phew!  Life is good.

I don't know about you guys, but now that the weather is a couple of degrees cooler I'm preparing for the cold winter ahead.  I bought this gorgeous hoodie on sale from Aunty Ollie (I'll be sure to take some photos once it arrives - the things at Aunty Ollie are so beautiful!) and I'm back knitting again already!  I have picked up knitting this scarf again for Yashar and I have lots more projects lined up!  So this week's Crafty Gathering is all about cool weather and keeping warm...because, if you are anything like me, you had better get started now so they will be finished in time!

The 'Baby Sophisticate' sweater from Stockinette.  I plan to knit this is a larger size for Yashar.  You can find the free pattern here.  Apparently it is a very quick knit - yay!

I love this Owls jumper from Needled.  You can buy the pattern here.  From what I have been reading the pattern for this is exceptional and gives a really good fit.

This scarf and hat are both from one of my favourite pattern designers Kirsten Kapur.  So cool!  She has a blog 'Through the Loops' where you can find the patterns and projects she is working on, lots of photos of her awesome and totally unique kids in them and also in their band The NowhereNauts.


The pattern for the Kersti Stripe scarf is free here.

The pattern for the Thorpe hat is free here and the changes for a baby version are  here.

 Also, I have been extra cheery around here because my sideboard before and after was featured on two sites I love -  Design*Sponge and Kirmizi Minder.  A big and very warm welcome to everyone new that has made their way over from those two sites and thank you so much Design*Sponge and Kirmizi Minder!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Process: I heart milk

I have had a photograph of this little girl above my desk for a quite a while now. And so when I was looking for my next project recently I turned to her.  I wanted to challenge myself – to concentrate on the face, and to play with how I coloured.

After a few warm up sketches, I drew this and then added a little colour…

Then it got to this…

Then this…

It is a bit of change and a push forward for me I hope. When I did the first sketch my husband said that it was ‘so you’. At each stage I felt like it was finished, but then I tried pushing it a little further to see what happened. I’m not really sure which I like best.  Maybe the middle one?

PS. I’ve been listening to the podcasts over at Escape from Illustration Island at the moment and have been really enjoying them... if you are after some illustration inspiration or are interested in what it's like to be an illustrator you might like these interviews.

Making Mondays: Deer Stitching and New Work

This is one of my current projects - an attempt at some embroidery! When I was younger I did a long stitch kit project of a scene with some rabbits in front of their cottage – I think it might have been based on a Beatrix Potter illustration. I loved it. It took me ages – I would work on it for a while then put it away and take it out again months or years later to work on it again. I was so proud of finishing it, and kept it away safely for many years…and even bought it with me to Turkey with the hope of framing it and putting it up in Yashar’s nursery (I still haven’t gotten around to that…) Considering that we moved to Turkey with only a suitcase of things each, it is definitely a treasured item for me.

Recently I bought an awesome young lady a pretty special embroidery kit for her birthday (which hasn’t happened yet, hence no naming who it’s for). It’s from Sublime Stitching – which has lots of modern and kitschy designs to chose from for super cool stitchers. I’m hoping she will enjoy it as much as I did all those years ago. Choosing it got me inspired to try some embroidery using one of my illustrations as a basis. I like the way embroidery gives you a chance to easily mesh notions of traditional art with that of craft.

I took this illustration and simplified it to outlines, printed it and then traced it on to a piece of linen. Then I centered it on the embroidery hoop and have been using satin stitch to fill the deer in. I used the instructions on Sublime Stitching for how to do satin stitch, although I have to say, I couldn’t quite follow about bringing the needle up in the same place (if you read the instructions and try it out maybe you will see what I mean?)

So I hope I will be showing you the finished piece soon! I’m not quite sure what I’m going to use it for once it’s finished…what do you think?



And some more making has been going on around here…I recently finished a commissioned illustration for a dear friend and very supportive customer. She commissioned it to give to some friends of hers as a wedding present. Their wedding was on the weekend and apparently they loved it and already have it hanging up in their house – yay!

You probably guessed that the illustration was inspired by the Lear poem The Owl and the Pussy Cat – very fitting for a wedding! The words are here.

This was a bit of a mixed media piece – I first used ink to draw it, then did some digital colouring, then finished it off with some pencil work. Prints of the illustration are also available now in the shop. Yay!

Crafty Gatherings Are Back

After a little Summer hiatus, crafty gatherings is back with cooler crafty crowd than ever.  Here is a small gathering of some of the most beautiful things to make that I have come across recently.

The first is this amazing capiz shell chandelier made using wax paper by Brenna for Design*Sponge.

And these Baby Kimonos designed by Maya*Made are so cute!  They are from the book Maya contributed to called Craft Hope: Handmade Crafts for a Cause which contains many beautiful projects that are perfectly paired with an appropriate charity.  What a smart idea!

This cheerful quilted playmat is so pretty (and I love that cupboard in the background too!).  It is from Molly's Sketchbook on The Purl Bee.

Happy making!

Making Mondays: Sideboard Before and After

Not so long ago I posted about some of the delicious redos around the place, and I mentioned some things I had my eye on at a local second hand place.  Well, I couldn't resist any longer!    This is one of the results (with another one to show you soon!)

We discovered this under piles of old clothes and got it a ridiculously cheap price (including delivery...those poor guys didn't know there was 5 flights of stairs to carry it up...eeek!)

I took a let's do this quickly as possible and see if it works out approach.  And I'm wrapped with how it turned out.  It definitely turned me into a second hand furniture addict ...umm, ok I think my Mum might know that I was pretty in to it already...and my poor husband sure does - he is usually the one sanding and staining and polishing :)    Here is the before shot:

This is what I did:

I gave it a good wipe, took the drawers out (the before photo already has the drawers out) and then I took off all the handles.   I didn't sand it at all.  I just couldn't be bothered and in the end it didn't seem to make any difference!  Yay! 

Then I painted it with white 'yagli boya' (which directly translated means paint with oil/oil paint - so I'm guessing this means enamel paint?)  It was shiny, thick and smelt pretty strong!

When painting over the detailed pattern parts I made sure that I didn't leave any pools or drips of paint.  Ummm, I wasn't so careful when I was painting the bottom edges near the sheet I had put it on.  It totally stuck and the paint went through all over the place on to the wooden floors.  Ahhhhh!  It literally took me hours to clean off.  

Anywaaay...I gave it three coats, letting it dry over night each time and I also painted the handles.

Once it was dry I put the handles back on.  Finito!

I'm sure that there are better, more thorough ways to do this...maybe sanding and a coat of something at the end???  But I was totally thrilled with the way it turned out, no more work necessary  :)

Crochet Blankets

You might remember a little while back that I showed you some of the goregous crochet blankets my mother in law had made and that I was putting them in the shop.  Well they sold quickly!  I was so excited for my mother in law Sevim!

And now she is busy working on a few custom orders!  The photos at the very top and below are of a quick swatch she made for one of the orders - isn't it gorgeous?  After some fine tuning, she's now making up the final blanket.  I'll be sure to show you it once she's done - its already look amazing! 

And here is the limonata recipe I mentioned last week, translated into English.  Yay!  I have been sipping away on this just about every evening here...soooo good.

- juice of 5 lemons

- half a glass of sugar

- 1.5 glasses of cold water

-7 -8 ice cubes

To prepare:

1.  Put the sugar and half a glass of the water in a small pot.  Stir constantly over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Turn off the heat as soon as the sugar has dissolved.  Leave the water to cool.  [I put mine in the freezer to speed things up]

2. Put the lemon juice, the sugar syrup and 1 glass of cold water in a jug.  Add about 7 - 8 ice cubes to serve.

Thank you so much to Hatice from portakal agaci for the yummy recipe! 

I used the above mix as a base and then added extra cold water depending on the tastes of the person drinking it.  I like mine in a glass with lots of extra ice and it's delicious served with some fresh mint in the glass too.  Some places here serve limonata garnished with a finely cut green apple.  It's a perfect combination  :)

New Prints!

All of sudden I have a lot of new prints for the shop!  These are some of them...

I got inspired to make these while I was designing the wallpapers a little while back.  The one above is 'home is where the heart is'.  I hope you like it!  I would like to do a similar one in another colour.  What colour would you like to have in your child's bedroom?

These two are name prints -Gentle Deer- yay!  I always love putting together the custom 'My Own Elephant' name prints, so I'm so happy to have two more name prints to add.  I think these would work for slightly older children too.

And there is also this Clouds and Doves print which I have made longer and thinner than my usual prints - I thought it suited the sky.  I don't know why, but whenever I look at these raining hearts I think of little jewels hanging down from the clouds.  This scene seems so calm to me - (which you probably know by now is my thing!) 

Making Mondays: My Website!

Well, this making mondays project is a little different than most of my crafty efforts...  I went and made myself a website (!) http://www.verityheysenkizek.com/

I have actually been working on this (off and on) since January.  And a couple of pages still need a little work, but it is at a stage now that I really wanted to show it to you!  And yes, I am slightly insane trying to build my own website I think.  I have to admit - at times it was a total pain!  I have no html knowledge so was just googling about how to do things...it took ages!  But other times it was so fun to see it coming together and now that it's almost done I am pretty happy :) 
 

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I wanted to build a site that would pull a lot of the things I am doing together in a (hopefully) easy to navigate way.  Over there you will find my portfolio (needs to be updated with the new work I am in the process of putting in the shop), links to my shop, my wallpaper designs and of course back here to the blog.

Eventually I would like to build a shop within the website - at the moment it just links through to my Etsy shop...all in good time though... :)    I also really wanted to have some clear and easy to navigate information about the custom work I do (and which I love doing!) - So there are now pages about Birth Announcements and Custom Thank You Cards, Personalised Name Prints, Commissioned Illustrations and Commercial Work.

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I guess you could still call it a work in progress, but it's getting there!  I hope you have a moment to check the website out.  I would love to hear what you think!

Sleeping on Clouds

 

Yashar's room is finally starting to come together a little - yay!  That has been on my list of things I want to do for a looooong time.  The room has a bit of a sky theme going on and so I whipped these cloud cushions up one evening recently.

I'm no expert sewer, but in case you are wondering, this is what I did:

For the grey cloud I used a fabric that wasn't going to fray much (felt would be perfect for this).  I just cut out 2 rectangles about 50 cm x  35cm, drew a cloud on one piece and pinned the two pieces together (right sides facing out).  Then I sewed (using a sewing machine) around the cloud shape I had drawn, leaving a 5cm gap open at the bottom.  I then cut out the cloud about 2cm out (a little more on the curves, a little less in the inner corners) from the sewn line.   I stuffed the pillow as evenly as I could, then sewed the gap shut.

For the blue pillow used part of an old cotton pillow case.  I cut our two rectangles about 30cm x 20cm, drew a cloud on one piece and pinned the pieces together (right sides facing in).  Then I sewed around the cloud shape leaving a 5 cm gap at the bottom.  I cut off the excess fabric and flipped the cloud inside out.  Then I sewed a line around the edge of the cloud about 1 cm in, again leaving the 5 cm gap.  I stuffed it as evenly as I could then sewed the gap shut.

Le Marche – Casa San Ruffino

Photo above from the Casa San Ruffino website (photography by Charlie Pinder)

We were so lucky to find this wonderful place to stay – Casa San Ruffino – a small boutique hotel/bed and breakfast (only four rooms) in rural Le Marche.  I didn't have a chance to snap a photo of the room before our stuff was all over the place so above is a photograph from their website.   It's a 19th century farmhouse, renovated by the owners, Ray and Claire Gorman.  It was done so beautifully, with rough stone floors, exposed wooden beams and simply beautiful bathrooms. 

The view here was so amazing, rolling hills full of sunflower fields, tractors moving up and down the other fields harvesting, birds dipping in and out of the pool, little villages dotted around the hilltops.  
 

We hired a car and in the evenings we would drive to neighbouring villages where we had some amazing food and ice cream of course!

This was in a small village we went to on our last evening where we had the most delicious food!...which of course I can't remember the name of right now!  But if you stay at Casa San Ruffino they provide you with a list of recommended local restaurants - this was a favourite of theirs and I know why - it was fantastic!

I did come to an interesting realization while I was there though…I no longer have dreams of moving to the Italian countryside and renovating a farmhouse.  Shocking I know!   It was beautiful for a few days, but for a long time or a life time I realized it’s not for me.  Phew, one less that things to plan for!...that doesn't mean I don't want to go back for a holiday though!  We loved it!  It also doesn't mean I don't want to renovate a beautiful old house...I totally do!


Do you have dreams of renovating an old house somewhere, moving to the sea, moving to another country?

Making Mondays: Limonata after Sunset

It's getting very hot and very humid around here.  The forecast for the rest of the week is 35 degrees celsius (95F) during the day, and only going down to 24 (75F) at night.  So after making this Limonata tonight I thought I should post about it straight away!  Perfect for when the sun goes down  - or when the sun is up  :)
  

I looove Limonata and was excited when I found the recipe here from the fantastic blog - Portakal Agaci (Orange Tree).  The recipe is in Turkish, but here is a slightly different version in English.  I will have to ask Hatice from Portakal Agaci soon if she minds me translating her Limonata recipe in to English for you and posting it here - it turned out exactly how I like it!  Make sure you serve it with plenty of ice and mint is yummy as well.  I also put the glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes beforehand too!

I have some more making coming up this week and also the last post about our trip to Italy. And I might even have some new prints to show you...let's see how much I can get done!