Special Feature Friday: Exclusively Pearls

Edition 9

This week in special feature friday Exclusively Pearls. Why you ask? well...don't we all love some pretty pearls?

This shop has a lovely collection of pearls, braclets mostly but also earrings.
The items are very classy indeed!

                    I love these pink pearls, they are classy yet the color makes them a bit more playful!

These are items for all occasions, fancy dinners, funerals, weddings. They would certainly do very well as a birthday or Christmas gift. (Really, we have to start thinking about Christmas because it is coming FAST)

                 Also these peacock pearls are gorgeous! I just love the glace of all the different colors over it. 

There are also items for girls in the shop, it must be great for any young girl to have her very own bracelet of pearls!

As usual for Etsy these items are handmade, witch always gives me the feeling of luxury.

This is a fairly new shop, but there feedback is all positive, and I do think these items are everlasting when it comes to style.

Christmas inventory

The end of September is nearing, and the list of things to do before Christmas is getting longer.

Along with gifts for family I am also making a lot of items for the shop this year.

I can hardly wait to see everything in the winter theme in the shop, but before that time arrives there is a lot to do. I have started with 3 patchwork pillowcases, using bits of fabrics I had left. 

Here is a little preview for one of the patchwork pillows, far from being finished though as I am planning on quilting the front.

I would love to tell more about the gifts I am making, but I cannot risk it, family might just read along ;)

All I can say is that it involves some knitting.

I might have mentioned before that I wanted to start crochet. This week I finished my first crochet ball, it took about 3 tries before it worked out well, that is with all the stitches on the right place and of course in the right amount. Especially ending with the right amount of stitches was difficult at first, but I get the idea now.

Cosmetically there is still a lot that I have to improve, but I am sure this will all come together eventually!

I have found some really nice patterns of a little owl, and I would love to make those!

However, with the busy season coming up I am not sure if I have time to work on the crochet any time soon.

Better be off to bed early, to be up and about on time tomorrow! 

Special Feature Friday: At Home Bistro

Edition 8

Did you know that Etsy is also a wonderful place for finding recipes?
And because it is such a wonderful international community there are many wonderful new foods to try out.
European, American, Asian, Indian, Mexican, Vegan, and so on.

I never before thought of purchasing recipes via Etsy, but I adore cooking books, and I have quite a few of them. But sometimes I like to try something out of witch I do not have a recipe. Of course there are many websites where one can find recipes for free, but these are not always accurate.
Therefore, Etsy is a great option for getting recipes, that are accurate, and not made up to accommodate the tastes of the country you live in, but actually taste as they should. For example, the average Chinese restaurant in The Netherlands does not make actual Chinese food, but rather a less tasteful version of the real thing, to make sure most of the Dutch people would like it. This makes sense for commercial shops because after all Chinese is very different from the Dutch cuisine, and when Chinese food first arrived in the Netherlands it was more important to sell then to be authentic. I am glad to say that more genuine Chinese restaurants are popping up throughout the Netherlands now.

At Home Bistro is the shop I ran into this week, this shop has quite a selection of wonderful foods, and the recipes are very easy to download after payment. The great thing about this is that you are able to work with them right away!

  Don't these cheese cake clouds look delicious?

  I would nearly lick my screen to get a taste of them!

This shop has a great varieties of recipes, desserts, cakes, soups, main courses and some traditional American dishes like meatloaf, cheesecake and marshmallow fluff cream.
Really, I dare you to go and have a look without wanting to eat something afterwards!
Another positive thing about buying your recipes like this is that you will only have to buy the ones you want to make, and you don't have to spend a fortune on a whole new cooking book.

 Could you resist this chocolate cake?
 I know I can't....

So, that is my message for this week, remember Etsy when you are searching for recipes, you will be surprised!

*edit*

After the shop owner of At Home Bistro heard of this blog she decided to give the readers of this blog a 15% discount! Use the code AISHA15 to get the discount when you want to purchase a recipe!

Special Feature Friday: SnapdragonToyCo

Edition 7

Next week is my dear nephews first birthday. Before he came along I never took notice of anything baby's might need, as cute as they are, it was never something I had to think about.
But, nowadays I have to check the baby clothes department of every store, and have a quick look in the window of the toy shop to see if there are any nice toys he might like.

I also started to pay more attention to baby toys on Etsy. My nephew seems to be very attracted by animals, if they move he has to look at them, and pet them in his own clumsy and still very uncoordinated way.

This week I found SnapdragonToyCo at Etsy, they make knitted animals, dolls and wooden children toys. Especially the wood animals caught my attention as they are so simple yet extremely cute.
Like this hedgehog for example;

I know it is wood, but it looks like it is worth it to give it a cuddle anyway!
The wood used is often solid maple wood, I find this a very pretty type of wood. The woods are finished with a bees wax. they make perfect save toys for children to play with, even when they want to stick it in their mouth. And, as it is wood, it will last forever and maybe one day even the child's own child or grand children might enjoy it just as much as their parents once did.
In my eyes there is no material more perfect for this as wood. With this shop it is also possible to request a custom made animal, just in case your favorite animal is not in the shop.

Vacation shopping

A better-late-then-never update about all the items I bought on my holiday!

As I said before, this year we went to the Netherlands and England on our holiday. Mostly to see family but there was plenty of time to do other things, for example, shop for my shop. In the Netherlands we went to this little quilt shop in Schagen, Aljona's stoffen. There I found some fabric in a peachy orange color, there where 3 types in one series, one had a tree and different kind of animals, it spelled "les amis de la forét" in the same series there was a fabric with foxes and one with branches and birds. The fabric came in a color I usually do not feel attracted to but this print was so cute, so I decided to get a fat quarter of each. However once I came home I felt like I should have bought more. I also bought 2 fabrics with a flower pattern.

We also went to Amsterdam where I got to go to 2 quilt shops, the first one, birdblocks, I have been there many times and often found a lot to buy, but unfortunately this time I only bought 2 Christmas fabrics. The other shop is called Dutchquilts, this shop is really quite special because they sell antique prints, Dutch but also others. It is really a nice shop to find some different kind of fabrics. Both shops are right next to each other, so if you visit Amsterdam it is really easy to visit them both!

The last quilting shop I visited was in England in Canterbury. I have been in Canterbury a few times before, and walked by the shop, The sewing shop , but I never went in. Well this time I did, and the shop is really cute. I was thrilled to find the fabric "Les amis de la forét" because at that time I really regretted that I did not buy more, so I took another fat quarter. I was especially happy with this shops selecion of Christmas fabric's, they already had a great selection, something I missed in the shops in the Netherlands.

As I would like to build a nice inventory with Christmas items this year, I need the fabric's early to get it done in time. So I was very happy to find a great selecion of winter fabric's in this shop. As well as some floral fabrics and a fabric called paint by numbers, this reminded me a lot of my childhood so I just had to take some. (but again, I should have bought more because it is a great print to work with!)

And then at last I found a shop in Weymouth where they sell wonderful beads, mostly semi precious stone.

I had a hard time finding semi precious stones in the shops, and it was great to find some here, I only took a little selection though because at this point there was not a single free spot left in the suitcase.

So, the holiday was a success, I am extremely happy with everything I bought. It was great to visit all these shops and I hope to be able to return to them again!

Vallon des Trésors

Special Feature Friday: MinkuLUL

Edition 6

We came back from holiday last week, we had a lovely time! Unfortunately I got ill so I did not get to do as much as I wanted this week.
From next week on I only have class in the morning though, so that leaves every afternoon to work!

For this weeks Special Feature Friday I choose a shop that sells the most beautiful hand painted silk scarves.
MinkuLUL has a great selection of scarves, painted in the most beautiful colors and designs.
The fabric used is silk, one of my favorite fabrics because it is so light and soft.

I can imagine it must be a lot of work to paint these scarves. They are so detailed I can imagine that a lot of love goes into making them.

I admire the craftsmanship that went into making these scarves! This is a great shop to remember for birthday and holiday gifts, I am quite sure everyone would be impressed with a silk scarf from this shop as a present. And of course, these scarves can be worn on many many occasions.