And again the host of my blog let me down. Without any warning in time my blog dissapeared from one day to another. Sharkserve.com has let me down really bad. Without Google I would have lost all my posts from november 2011 unill now. We have recovered my posts thnx to Google cache and although I have not had the time to re-post them yet, I will. Soon you can find all the lost posts again.

After I found my blog down and realized that all our backups on the server where gone too, I did not wanted to continue with my blog. My husband found my posts back else I would just have give up on it all together and maybe try something else. I have a new project coming up anyway that will take some off my time so I would simply have put more energy into that. I have started a volunteer job in a social center in my neighborhood. I am going to help out/run the creative club where everyone can go to with their crafts and needle works. As creative as I am, I believe that fits me quite well. I hope I can put all my creativity and organisation talent into that. I don’t know exactly what is expected from me so I will first just check it out and then make a plan. I am really looking forward to it :).

Since I started sewing on the table tenth and had cut out all the parts for it, I found out pretty soon that I had way too much fabric. Well I sorta figured I would have some left over because I did bought a little more then needed, and with the beautiful weather here last week I decided to make a little sundress for my baby girl. I let myself get inspired by one of her other dresses, my imagination, the fabrics and the old timer summerdress with smock that about any little girl must have had, and not only little girls, they still sell them for girls of all ages .

Anyhow, So I made her a new dress. What was supposed to be a quick dress turned into a three day project. Not because I got interrupted and could not continue my work, but because I made it difficult for myself because of course I worked without a pattern or a good working plan. I just started. I kinda traced a well fitting dress to keep a little bit track of the size, however that didnt went as planned. The skirt ended up much wider and I had to add pleads to shrink it for fit or add elastic in the waist. I didnt liked the idea of elastic and put flat pleads in it all arround. The dress that I got inspiration from was a quilted one. And since I had 4 different fabrics to work with, I used them all. Cutting out all the little pieces securing the edges and sewing them together after laying them out turned out to be way more time consuming as I thought, especially since I ended up with a much wider skirt too. Then the body, this was a long process of trial and error and took me a day work almost. I wanted a smocked top and I read a lot of tutorials and hints and tips and saw a video on how to do it but somehow my work didnt ended up as nice as it was in the tutorials. So eventually I succeeded and I could finally continue. Sewing the skirt to the body was quickly done. The bottom edge of the skirt needed to have a cute little girly ruffle so I cut the fabric and started making pleads theres a Load of pleads in that ruffle and im sure it can be done easier but I am also sure it wouldnt have turned out as cute as mine. So the extra work there I think paid off. Then last but not least the strings on her shoulder. I didnt wanted to use a bow or a biasband but rate my own from the same fabric the whole dress was made off. And when her table tent is finished too then she will a matching dress to go with it!

And here we are. The result of my hard work. Seeing my little princess wear it made it all worthwhile . Doesnt she look fabulous in it?

This week I am going to start to work on a table tent for my little girl, but last week I had another little adventure in my own kitchen.

Pimp a pie or the usual name cake decorating, had my attention for a long time already. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a pastry-cook. Nothing came true of those kids dreams, mainly because I saw that more as fun then as work and to get up at 4 o’clock to bake my goods, just for fun was not what I had in mind LOL. But pastry always kept looking very attractive to me as something I would like to try my hands on. Cake decorating is a part of that and one of the main things I like about pastry-cooks job.

Cake decorating has come up more popular in the last ten years, especially the last few years it has come more and more within reach of people like me. With my kitchen now being the way I like with enough storage space, a new oven, a large table etc etc, my pastry-cook feelings started itching again. I kinda wanted to try it on my own but didn’t really had the guts to since I don’t have experience with it and having to buy all the tools and things can get a little expensive too. Now it happens that my Aunt, gives courses in cake decorating. She doesn’t even live that far away from me so I signed up for a cake decorating day course. I was really looking forward to that day but unfortunately the day It took place I felt sick as a dog. I woke up with a migraine and had to cancel the course. She gives a course twice a month so it would be simple to sign up for another day. But of course every time something comes in between. My trip to Scotland for example.

In Scotland at Tesco I found some of the materials I would need for the cakes for a reasonable low pricing, so I bought cake filling, fondant and color paste. Back in Holland I started looking to buy the tools I would need and at how to’s at cake decorating sites. I bought some things on Ebay, web shops, supermarket, and a local cooking shop nearby. I bought a small pack of fondant extra so I could try modeling little roses. It was not that easy and it took me a few tries but after not too long trying my first rose was made. Of course it was not the most pretty rose and I still needed to improve a lot but I got it going. Overcome my fear and just did it.

Now last week for mothers day I wanted to try baking the cake biscuits to try cut it and put fondant around it. I have a very small round cake tin I used for that so I could try a few times. The first one kinda failed but it tasted good. So I tried another. that one came out pretty good but was very small I thought so I bake another and change he settings on my oven a little bit. That one didn’t came out so well either so I tried another one. And that one came out okay just like the second one I made so I decided to work with those two. I let them cool down and let them rest for a day. Then last saturday evening me and my daughter where going to decorate them. Just so I could get the hang of it. Well it was a success. I had put Vanilla butter cream and red fruit jelly as filling . I think my first attempt of cake decorating was a success. The taste was good and the cakes looked cute. So my next project is goign to be a bigger cake! . Oh yeah of course I have pictures of our two little decorated cakes! Here they are. This one my daughter made. She had a hard time getting an idea of what she wanted to make and could not really get any idea so she just made this. I think it looks just great. Very nice colors and flower shapes with a pattern.

I embossed the flowers a little bit and made cutout flowers too. I wish you could not see the powder sugar I have used so the fondant would not get sticky. But those little tricks I probably will learn along the path of my cake decorating adventures. So after this great finish its back to the bus of adventures and the next stop will be the table tent for Anarosa.

I have been participating in graphical contests for about 5 – 6 years now. These contests varied from photography, logodesign, photomanipulations, and much more. Those who are familiar with graphic contests are probably well known with sites like worth1000.com and perhaps  pxleyes (formerly known as photoshoptalent.com). Ofcourse lets not foget about Deviantart.com about anyone whos active with digital graphics must have heard of DA. Ofcourse there are many more sites that are less known, at least to me they where. So I decided to create a blogpost about these sites that offer graphical competitions.  At some sites you can actual win real money even! Some sites are just for fun. Many of these sites offer next to these contest also a lot more other things. Tutorials for example and stockphotos. Some sites just lists contests they find at other places and some sites create there own contests.  I will just list them and its up to you to have a look to see what they are about. Because I could say a lot about a site but  some things work  great for one person and somethings work better for another person.

Worth1000.com
Pxleyes.com
Deviantart.com
Photoshopcontest.com
GraphicCompetitions.com
Designcrowd
designcontest.com

Allright and with this short list I think I have given you a penty of places where  to go to for graphical contests. If you run a site that hosts contests and you are not listed, let me know. Ill check the site out msyelf and post a link, ofcourse if its fitting to this subject.
Hugs ela

For those of you who have no clue what is “Sinterklaas“, just click on the words “Sinterklaas” in this text and it will take you to several other sites that explains what is “Sinterklaas” in English, with pictures and more just so you dont confuse it with Christmas because they are two complete different holidays, altho I am sure there are some connections to be found, the story is quite different. Ofcourse if you look for images on Google you can find a lot more pictures about it in many places and situations. After you have learned what is “Sinterklaas” you should continu to read on here.

Last year we basically skipped Sinterklaas because my youngest daughter was merely a few months old and my oldest was already 11. So instead we had a nice Christmas celebration. This year I wanted to do a little bit about it, not to much because shes barely 1 and a half and what does a child that young know about this stuff anyway. I doubt she understand anything of it. But the tradition that we did picked up here this year was putting the shoe with a carrot for the horse and singing songs just before bedtime. Then in the morning ofcourse there where little gifts to be found in the shoes. Nothing really big, just some candy, because like i said it doesnt really have a meaning to her yet I just wanted to introduce this holiday a little bit to her allready in a manner that its fun and maybe recognisable for her in the next years when we celebrate it. On the last morning she found in her shoe the traditional chocolate letter. I was late with shopping for them because there was only one letter A to be found anymore in the store. So for Antonio I bought the letter P for Papa and then ofcourse for me the M for Mama and the M for Merel, my oldest daughter. I am in doubt wheter she actualy understood what was going on all with the carrots in the shoes n the singing n why there was a package in the shoes, but she did understood what was a chocolate letter when she saw it and she also knew right what to do with it! I took some great pictures of this. And no worries we didnt let her finish that letter, after taking the pictures I took it away from her n cut of a little piece that she could have.

Now on to the next holiday, wonder how Anarosa is going to experience all that and how stressfull for us that is going to be. Last year she wasnt walking or even crawling arround in the house, she wasnt able to reach for the Christmas balls in the tree and prolly didnt even noticed any of the other decorations. Not sure yet how she can be part in the decorating but I’m sure I find a way. I just hope she stays out of the tree LMAO. For now, enjoy the pictures of Anarosa and her Chocolate Letter.