I just wanted to share that until Sunday, Christy is giving away a digital collage sheet to anyone who mails or comments on her latest blog post Day 15/29 Days of giving. There are some amazing sheets available, go check it out !

As I wasn't committed in a lot of swaps this December, I decided to take on the role of one of Santa's elves and send some happiness around the world in the shape of wishes from the swapbot Wishlist Group.

Most of the packages consisted of hot chocolate (must be inspired by the cold winter season), Season's Greetings cards and the odd tea or souvenir. I hope the recipients will receive them before the end of the year, although I have to say I have been amazed at the speed of postal deliveries these last week : a greeting card sent on Friday arrived Monday in the US ... can't get any quicker, can it?


Maybe the postal services got a helping hand from Santa's little helper (picture below)?

From Nov. 28 till Dec. 28 2008, Brussels is one of Wintry Lights and Entertainment. Have a look at the official website to learn what's cooking in Europe's capital during the Holiday Season.

As I went shopping near Grand Place for Choc-o-lait chocolate sticks to send out for the wishlist group on Sunday (see other post), I was awestruck by the beauty of the light show on the Grand Place. My pictures came out a bit blurry though and don't really do it justice. But if you happen to be near Brussels, it's worth dropping by (finding a parking space is a nerve wrecking experience though, better come by public transport :o) )

Through a giveaway contest on the Swap-bot Blog, I discovered what seemed to be a great website to get to know new etsy stores. Unfortunately I didn't win the giveaway but I did pay Geteurofied a visit and ordered the holiday sampler which arrived yesterday (contents on the left).

Besides samples, a lot of stores added discount codes too ... a great idea in these times of financial crisis! The list of the participants lets you click through to the individual etsy stores. And now I'm off to scout for new favourites :o)

I should start working on the ATCs for the Open Theme swap but as always I am a bit at a loss when it's an open theme. While I wait for the muse to find me, these are the ATCs I made for the Pin Up Girl ATC swap on swapbot. I hope my partners will find them to their liking. I always find those vintage drawings sexier and sassier than modern day pictures ... maybe I was born in the wrong era?

I wanted a brown necklace to go with my beige shirt and now that I have discovered the joy of making me own, I didn't feel like buying one ready made. So after browsing through the bead shop on Friday (amazing how one looses track of time in that shop ... must be the twilight zone !), I came home with a bag of brownish beads and this is the result.

The Holiday Season is nearing and everyone receives wishes ... even my kitties :o) Lynn and Lotje received their very first Christmas card yesterday, in an envie adressed to them and accompanied by a little note written by the humble servant of Pal, Harvey and Brady, three magnificent Main Coone blokes from the US.

As part of the same swap, I will be sending out Christmas cards from Dyadis, an organisation that trains and places dogs to help physically disabled persons regain more autonomy and freedom of movement. That way I'm contributed to this important project and as the card features (obviously) dogs in a Xmas setting, I tried making a Season's Greetings card with my two little monsters on it to send along. Everything will be send out tomorrow, L&L still have to paw the cards :o)

Thanks to a picture posted on Moni's Flickr I learned that the Go Make Something website (a great source for creative inspiration by the way) was holding an Open Theme ATC swap, so I decided to take a chance and see if I could make it on her list. I hope I will because I love making ATCs :o)

On browsing though the website at the same occasion, I discovered that Lisa Vollrath was also holding The Original Printables Holiday Countdown on her website: every day of the Advent a printable sheet of images is up for grabs. Check it out!

This weekend was cold and rainy, like the last ones and probably the next ones too. I finally managed to go to the carwash because the car was black from the salt and the slate we had. Every time I wanted to go over the past weeks, it was pouring or snowing and I like to enjoy the 10 EUR wash for at least a few hourse :o) This time I did make it back to the garage before it started drizzling again and my car was at least clean until Sunday.

This grey weather has one positive consequence though : as there is nothing appealing outside, I have all the time I need to get some creative juices flowing :o)


This is the first full length necklace I made in my favourite colour ... purple ! I wore it to work today and if I may say so myself, it looks absolutely fab on a white shirt.


I also made some earrings (again) and I am considering opening an etsy shop to sell some of them. I just have to read through all the rules and regulations to see how to make it work. Serious thinking and reading ahead.

Another Zentangle swap on swap-bot and I cannot resist the temptation to sign up ... These are the results of a few evenings of doodling. I like them but at the same time, I have the feeling that I am being repetitive. I know that's what zentangles are all about "repetitive patterns" but still ...

These six ATCs are on their way to ATC Artists in the US (Crochetjunkie & Pjay). I hope they will like them.



I already received three ATCs from flyraeven. You can see her work just to the left.

I have never been excellent at journal keeping so it's no surprise that I have been a bit lazy when it comes to blogging too ... but then again, there's always a valid reason for not updating : too busy preparing my vacation, then being on vacation and afterwards too busy catching up with everything once home again. And it's like letter writing, the longer you postpone it, the harder it is to get back into it.

As the end of the year is nearing, I'm starting to draw up my annual "good intentions" list and keeping this blog up to date is one of the entries. Nevertheless, I didn't deemed it necessary to wait until January to get going again, so here I am :o)

Anway, I have been making earrings this last week, since I found those polaris beads in the bead shop last weekend. Oh, I just love them ! Must be that frosted aspect, and the shiny swarovski crystals no doubts . I haven't decided yet what I will wear for New Year's Eve, but I'd love to have a matching set of earrings/necklace/bracelet so I should start thinking about it. Maybe something in the line of the burgundy earrings ... we'll see.

Like most women, I like things that are pretty and sparkly, so it comes to no surprise that I love jewelry. Moreover as I am not allergic to any "cheap" material (just allergic to gold, go figure :o) ), I can easily wear colourful fantasy earrings, necklaces and the like.

I had been looking at beads and crystals before but I didn't know how to start. So, I bought myself a book, the basic materials and set to work.

For the last two nights, I have been assembling basic necklaces, earrings and brooches (see the pictobrowser below) and I am quite pleased with the final results. I gave the small blue necklace away to a colleague because I miscalculated the lenth of the cable and it ended up being a real choker for me :o). The people I showed my makings to seemed to like what I made, but maybe they were just being polite.

Anyway, I also bought a few new books yesterday to make some jewelry using swarovski delicas and there are amazing pieces explained in it. I'd like to start marking those, but I think I'd better work my way up gradually : you cannot drive a F1 car, if you cannot properly ride a bike, right?

Surfing on the website of mirkwood designs , I had already seen the template to make fans but somehow I didn't dare to jump in at the deep end. Trying something new always requires some pondering for me ...

I got the little push I needed when I saw a fan swap on swap-bot. I contacted the host to get some information and as this would be my very first fan ever, she offered to set up a private swap, so I could get the hang of it.

The theme was free so (as usual) it ended up quite asian looking (I wanted to say "oriental", but after reading the comments section of this swap here I opted for the safer sounding "asian", after all I wouldn't want to offend anyone).

So this is it, my very first fan. I used washi paper I bought in the Tagawa store, gold embossing powder on stamped images of sakura and Japanese text, a golden coloured bird and goldlined red ribbon. In retrospect I think I should have used more blades but this one will do for now I guess. I just hope my partner will appreciate this one. From what I understand she uses all the fans she has to decorate a wall : I hope she likes red and gold :o)

I became really hooked with this zentangle thing, don't let anyone tell you they're not addictive :o)

I joined a swap on swapbot for handdrawn black and white ATCs (send by date is end of August but I decided to start early) and since zentangles are allowed, I made these 4 ATCs yesterday.

These were fun to make so I'm sure that my zentangle ATC series will go on for quite some time (just like the Japanophilia series).

Today I will be working on a decorated fan that I have to send for a private swapbot swap. I guess that the result of this crafting will be the subject of my next post.

I have a week off from work this week as our office is closed for annual holidays, so I'll have plenty of time to do some crafting and catch up with my long overdue penpal letters. I also bought a book about beading this weekend, and I am eager to go to the beads shop and get some supplies to try some of the models I found in this book.

I'm also expecting my order from skybluepink to arrive this week with the charms, the bottlecaps and all the other trinkets I ordered. I received a lovely bottlecap pin but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I definetely want to try this too. Oh, so many ideas spinning around in my head.

After having read all about zentangles, I decided to give this a try. While looking at them on the net, they seemed very complex but in the end they are quite easy to do (although they are time consuming). And I can confirm that these little doodling things can become very addictive. Proof : I started yesterday and I already made four of them :o)

The zentangle site sells a kit for $50 (special diecut vellum cotton paper, sakura pens and some other gadgets), but these ones are made on normal heavy weight drawing paper using staedler drawing pens (0,1 an 0,05).

Although zentangles aren't supposed to represent anything according to the "theory", everyone I showed the zentangles to kept asking "What is this supposed to represent?".

So to please my relatives, I tried a different approach : no abstract organic lines and curves, but an animal (at least what was the purpose). With some imagination you might see one of Dumbo's cousins in the top left corner of the mosaic :o)

Apparently my years of doodling while on the phone have had some results. My next move will be a zentangle composition I guess : lines flowing though several zentangles to create a harmonious whole.

I just discovered this great website with lots of gadgets for your blog : Blogthings.com. It contains a lot of useless but fun quizzes.

Here are the result of some of the tests I took :

1. Are you an attention whore?

You Are An Attention Seeker

You're only human, so you can't help but want a little attention every now and then. You love the spotlight, but only when it's well deserved. You'd hate to be known for the wrong thing. And you also don't mind sharing the spotlight. You can easily give someone else credit or a complement. You know there's enough attention to go around, and it makes you happy when your friends shine. You come across as: Friendly and interesting People may wrongly think you're: A little more modest than you actually are!

2. What Famous Work of Art Are You?

You Are Best Described By...

Meditative Rose By Salvadore Dali

3. What Flavor Shake Are You?

You Are a Vanilla Shake

Vanilla, yes, but definitely not boring. You are subtly complex and deeply sophisticated. You're the type of person who has always been ahead of their time. You don't fall for gimmicks or tricks. You are drawn to what's true.

4. What Gemstone Are You?

Your Gemstone is Topaz

Comforting, considerate, and stable. You are down to earth and grounded.

Try it and have fun :o)

I returned to the bead shop yesterday and seeing me there 3 times in as many days, convinced the shop keeper to give me a fidelity card :o) 7 more purchases and I'll receive a discount of 5% on the amount spent.

As the thongs I made this weekend already left my hands (sent out in swaps or grabbed by a relative), I made four new ones yesterday which appear in the picture browser of the previous post. Two of them have already found new owners too (both blue ones) and I guess the other ones won't stay too long in my company neither.

I have been very busy this last month, hence the lack of posting.

Meanwhile, summer has returned to the country and with the long days and the sunshine, my eager to try out new things has also emerged from its wintersleep. This weekend I tried out something new : book thongs ! Below an overview of the 4 I made.




Three of them are meant to be sent out in swaps (to the UK, US and Oz) and I intended to keep the red one for myself. Intended because when I showed off my "creations" to my mom she "confiscated" it. I should see this as a compliment, she wouldn't have grabbed this thong if she didn't like it ... but now I have to make myself another one. At the same time, several friends who had a look at them asked for a personal thong too. I know what I'll be doing next weekend :o) If I start going to this new bead store I discovered on a regular basis, maybe I can ask for a discount card (which would be most welcome considering the price of these little beads).

As I was speaking of my Japan-mania, this is another example of it : bento's.

The first time I saw a bento for real, I was shocked by the tinyness of it. I read before that they were an ideal means to do some portion control and I knew that Japanese have really tiny meals (even Mc Donald's burgers are way smaller than in Europe I have been told), but still ... these are really small :o)

I ordered my first bento on e-bay direct import from Japan and yesterday, I had my second bento delivered right into my mailbox, directly from New Orleans by care of nolagirl. I was really spoiled by her on this swap as you can see on the picture : 2 bentos, eggmolds, a matching bag, chopsticks, cuttlery and mini sauce bottles. And to top it all, in one of my favourite colours, yellow.


I just have to try to make real bento food now. I already bought myself a book on the subject, just have to jump in at the deep end now :o)

When I discovered the whole world of manga last year, I also got reacquainted with the whole "kawaii" hype. Although I hadn't seen any Japanese brand (besides Sanrio's Hello Kitty) in the stores around where I live, I immediately reconnected with all those wide-eyed anime characters. It reminded me of all the anime, I saw on TV as a kid on Sunday morning's in the "Chocolat Show" on FR3 or in "Club Dorothée" on TF1 : Capitaine Flam, Candy Candy, Albator, Bouba...



Strange how most people of my generation are still able to sing along with the songs of those anime shows. That's why the Gloubi-boulga nights, where a whole audience of 30-somethings are looking at 80's anime is so successful. I think the Japanese comics really marked the 80's.

Hmm, when thinking of it, maybe that's the reason why I am so fond of Japan and all things coming from the Land of the Rising Sun. I was spoonfed with Nihon culture :o)

Anyway, all this to say that I just received the order I placed on e-bay for a mixed bunch of kawaii stickers and memosheets. I will be using these for myself (obviously) but also to swap with other kawaii fanatics.


What would be world be without e-bay, I wonder? Hard to imagine that I only had my first internet access at home in 1997 and that shopping was pretty much restrained to the surroundings of Brussels at that time. Nowadays the planet is my shopping mall : I get my bento's and candies in Japan, my kawaii items in Taiwan, games in the UK, make-up in the US, ...

Need to say that I am addicted to the net? :o)

I just received my first angeled swap since joining Swapbot in January. My original partner flaked on me and the host contacted Mhairi (doublesided) to angel this swap. And what a gorgeous ATCs she made! I even got an extra one :o)



Now I just have to find a method to store all those ATCs. I haven't found any ready made albums, so I guess I'll have to make my own. When that moment comes, a pic of the album will surely appear here. :o)

I recently discovered the world of ATCs and while looking for supplies to make those, I naturally ended up in scrapbooking stores to find all the necessary embellishments, stamps and others.

Seeing all those pretty papers, ribbons, etc made my fingers itch with anticipation and I was considering jumping into the deep end and start a real scrap page. Neverthless, I felt a bit hesitant to start cutting paper and pictures, for scissors don't come with an undo button (unfortunately).

Looking for inspiration I started googling "scrapbooking" and one thing leading to another, I stumbled upon digiscrapping websites. Wow ... a new world of endless possibilities laid before me : I could try and start over as many times as I liked without wasting supplies! I do wonder how this managed to remain unnoticed by me for so long. I was probably in some kind of crafting hibernation :o).

All this to say, that I started playing around with Photoshop to put some pages together and I was waiting for the perfect occasion to put my newly acquired skills to the test. One of my partners on Swap-bot just had a baby and I thought it would be a nice personalised "gift" to make something for baby Kai.

So here it is, my first real digiscrapping page :

I am what you could call a compulsive buyer, especially as far as chocolates are concerned. As soon as something comes to the market I have to try it. Try everything at least once in your life, is a motto which fits me to a T (on a food level at least).

My latest chocolate addiction is the Newtree brand. So, when during my weekly grocery shopping yesterday, I saw these new flavours, I just had to buy them ... I'm sure everybody heard them wailing "buy me, try me, ..", but somehow I seemed to be the only one hearing their begging :o)

Anyway I haven't tried them yet (I have to watch my curves a bit before becoming over-curvy and I still have other already opened packages), but I wanted to give these some publicity.

Funny how I am enjoying more and more dark chocolate. In my opinion milk chocolate is OK for a quick chocolate fix, enough to have a sweet taste and get your sugar level up. Dark chocolate has to be savoured and it is something that has to grow on you. Like red wine or black olives, it's like an upgrading process ... I don't know what the next level is though, growing my own cocoa tree and making my own chocolate? ;o)

As so many before me (and many more who will surely follow), I decided to claim my own space on the internet. A place to talk about my attempts at crafting and the many wonderful packages I receive from swap partners through swap-bot; the accounts of my travels and many more things ...