I am sure you have heard about "clog(s)". If the name doesn't mean anything to you, maybe just a visual idea about those hard wooden shoes, that are so popular in Netherlands and neighbor countries, will make you to remember them.

I am quite skeptic of the comfortableness of some shoes (are they going to fit me, are they going to resist, aren't they too high, etc.) and these type were on top of my list of shoes that with a very little probability, I would ever wear. Just the idea of having some shoes with a wooden sole made me feel uncomfortable.

But. And always exists a but! When I saw these beautiful handmade creations (for me, they are just art pieces) I have changed my mind instantly. Look at them! The name behind this amazing work is Yvanka Linders, a lady from Netherlands, who brings some magic to her shoes, by adding colorful beads, buttons, sequins, pearls and swarovski crystal beads.






And those jars full of crafty beads, like some precious fruity jams. Mmmmm...

I already imagine myself in a pair of these beauties, along with some jeans tucked up a little bit over the ankles, with a cotton white tunic, walking in the sunny morning of an April day.

(screenshot images from www.yvankalinders.nl via Living & More magazine)

A passage from "Novel Notes" by Jerome K. Jerome that goes perfectly with the photo-collage below (I just couldn't resist not taking pictures of those little fluffy balls last summer at my parents home). The book itself is full of funny, happy, satiric, absurd, horror, philosophical stories that four friends shared with themselves in desire to write a novel. I have just read its last pages after almost a year since I have it (it was a gift from a good friend). I am quite bad at reading books. Sometimes I don't even finish them (in a honorable time) and often I can start several books at the same time, but I end up in mixing their stories and this is not good :). So this is what I want to share with you:

"- Cats, remarked Jephson to me, one afternoon, as we sat in the punt discussing the plot of our novel, cats are animals for whom I entertain a very great respect. Cats and Nonconformists seem to me the only things in this world possessed of a practicable working conscience. Watch a cat doing something mean and wrong - if ever one gives you the chance; notice how anxious she is that nobody should see her doing it; and how prompt, if detected, to pretend that she was not doing it - that she was not even thinking of doing it - that, as a matter of fact, she was just about to do something else, quite different. You might almost think they had a soul."


Chapter VI is all about cats and their funny stories. You can read or download the entire book here. Enjoy!

Happy reading weekend!

And an encouraging hint for myself (and for you, but once in a while jump in my bubble too :)).

(a wooden bookmark by beaconbookmarks found on Etsy)

Winter holidays are left behind, the Christmas decorations are being packed again, Santa is making the statistics with his successful deliveries, we are thinking of a better new year, making plans in our minds or on paper. One thing that we shouldn't forget is to make our best to preserve the nature, our environment, to be kind with both of them and to ourselves. This shouldn't be seen as an effort from our sides, contrariwise, it should be included in our lives as other daily habits. I want to believe that none of us wants to be surrounded by mountains of plastics and non-degradable garbage, to breathe a polluted air, to eat unhealthy food full of preservatives and chemicals, to decorate our homes with artificial plants and flowers, to step on cement alleys instead of green grass. This way we should say YES to Ecology and Nature!

For this Christmas I have decided to take the ecology spirit in one hand and my passion for creation and sewing in the other hand, to combine them and to make some useful gifts for my family and friends. This is how I have spent the last two days, before flying back home, working hard to finish all 12 fabric grocery bags. Before cutting the fabrics, I have redone the calculations several times until I have managed to obtain the pieces for 3 bags from each 1 x 1.5 m of fabric, without losing any centimeter of material.


Starting January 1st, 2009, in Romania a tax for a plastic shopping bag was introduced, which I consider a right, wise step in the process of eco-education of the population. While waiting in line in a shop in Bucharest, I was very happy to see how simple people were already using their own bags. Another good initiative was made by the shops, by introducing the raffia/paper bio-degradable bags. I hope my bags will be also successfully used in the same way :).

If Santa missed to put you on his 'good kids' list this time and you would like to have this kind of bag, I would love to make more (in the spirit that this way we help a little bit to spread the Eco initiative). So, do you want to register for the next dozen of bags? Just let me know and we will manage somehow the shipping.

The next image represents an additional detail of my project: labeling the bags. Keeping the same ecology spirit in my mind, I re-used an old packing cardboard, cut 12 labels, hand-wrote with ink the name of my blog, added a little bit of color on them and finally attached the labels with a paper cord on the bag's handles.


I hope you enjoyed my post today and don't forget to take with you a grocery bag each time you leave your home, so the next time you are in a shop, you will skip the plastic-bag-packing part. Maybe this way you will consume less also, by just filling your own shopping bag!

A small note: I have added two banners on the right sidebar of my blog from two Romanian websites who promote the ecology action: MaiMultVerde and Nu Fi Pungaş!

(images by victoria molovata)

Happy New Year! Enjoy everything beautiful, everything happy, everything playful, everything lovely, look deeply into all simple moments in your life, live them and hopefully this will bring the joy and happiness that we need so much, so many times.

I was 'disconnected' from the Internet for about two weeks, while in vacation back home. Two weeks full of happy moments: spending the holidays with family and old friends, wrapping and unwrapping presents, enjoying the quietness of the winter holidays.
But I still have a promise for you, about which I have told you, my last sewing projects, so this post and the next one will be about them.

The last bag I made was a Christmas gift for a good friend. I have discovered that I made a lot of progress in sewing bags; if I look back, the first one was very simple, the second a little more complicated, and so on. Now, at no. 5 I can declare that I really did a good job (oh, how modest I am...). Just take a look:


I was asked to make a bag, which has to have some space inside, a normal, smaller size and to have an adjustable handle. I have designed myself the pattern on the paper, then I took the scissors and started to cut into fabrics. As you see, I used the same two fabrics which I have used for another bag. I think the combination goes well. I made a pocket on the back of the bag (not shown in the image) and another one inside. The main details that I was very enthusiastic about were the adjustable handle and the front flower. For the handle, I have used the metal clips from an old belt, found at a second-hand shop. As for the flower, it is exclusively manually made. Before attaching the flower, the bag looked too plain, too unfinished, but after, it gives a drop of chic, a special great-looking.

(images by victoria molovata)