Teaching...

When I was a little girl (around 8) I always played 'School' with my little neighbour. She was five at that time. I taught her a lot of things and my parents were smiling at the door: 'She should be a teacher.' (Luckily they told me this story just after my decision to be a teacher.)


So year came after year and then I became a teacher. It is not an easy job and sometimes very tiring, but every week there is at least 3 minutes when you feel this is the best thing on Earth. I really enjoy being with kids, they are funny and honest, creative and sometimes they say strange things.... Or maybe we see them strange only because we are adults...



After college I went to school again to be a teacher... In the first year I had to learn a lot and I had some difficulties, but at the end we were the happiest class in the school, I think. Unfortunately my kids were 'too big' so I couldn't work with them during the next year. But some little ones came from the nursery to be my class. I worked on classroom decoration half of the summer. I drew lots of animals for Maths teaching. Then I decided to make something for the 'class book' (It is for administration, all the marks and lessons are administrated there, also the timetable, the list of the names and teachers etc...)




I sewed the blue one for the book. I painted the same animals on fabric what were on the walls. My class was 1.a, that is why it is written on it.












In the second year we needed a new cover. (We were not 1.a anymore.) I asked them what they liked. They wanted bees, as they called themselves 'bee class' (They got labels with their names on the first day they came to school, and they had the shape of bees.) They loved this cover so much they didn't want a new one in the next three years.





When they became 'too old' again they got a new teacher, but I was lucky enough to stay with them as the 'second teacher' of the class. Their teacher asked me for a cover. She bought the fabric (the same as the tablecloth in the classroom) and I made this 'teenager design'. I was a bit nervous, you know, teenagers are always criticising, but luckily the were satisfied. :D

The most beautiful tulip

Today I got the most beautiful tulip ever! Here in Hungary we celebrate 'namedays'. It is something like birthdays. The names are listed in the calendar and each has a day (or more) which family and friends or colleagues can celebrate. Mine was yesterday, so today I got this tulip from a sweet colleague, Moni.

I have never seen an orange tulip. My really favourite colour is orange what everyone knows who has ever met me. I wear orange things, my bags (mostly) are orange, my notebook, some pens and even my mobile. People around me are nice enough to give me orange things. If they see a pen somewhere they bring one to me (that happened last Friday...). Or a mum of a student sent me a little orange calendar into my handbag. Isn't it sweet?

So this orange tulip was a double surprise for me. It is beautiful. I put it in a bottle (which is a remain. It is from Orval, France where I spent some days with monks - and my friends...) and it is on my kitchen table now (maybe you can recognize the curtain :D) And have you seen the matching orange ribbon?

Witch hat for Sári

We don't celebrate Halloween, but we have carnival instead. This s the 'magical season' when we have balls and children can wear costumes. We have this party every year in school. The little ones have a competition of the costumes.

My colleague has a sweet little daughter, Sári who is 8 now. She wants to be a witch, so I decided to make her a hat for that.
Years ago my class dressed up as Harry Potter and they wanted me to be McGonagall. So I became a witch with my students (that was a beautiful moment for me when the chose this role for me, I had tears in my eyes. It was a big thing, I think she is the best teacher in the novel, so maybe you understand why I felt like that.) I made myself a witch hat then, so I had some experience which helped this time.

I used aluminium wire as a base of the hat. (This was the wire I used for my hat and I needed to make small changes only.) We bought half a metre of black fabric which I sew on the wire. Unfortunately Sári slept when I finished (actually I could start when she went to bed) so I don't have a picture about her in the hat, but she was very satisfied next morning when she tried on her hat. I hope she will be beautiful in that in February when we'll have carnival.

The only hand made pressies

This is the last Christmas post... I didn't have time to find all the pics, so I put them here later than I wanted. As these were present I didn't want to put them on before Christmas, then the holidays kept me very busy, so this is the time. I hope you won't be bored because of them.

Then at the weekend I have to start this year's projects. I have a lot in mind (as usual) but we have an extremely busy time at work (end of term) so I have to do a lot of paperwork instead of sewing :( That is not fair, but .... I still have photos, to share, so I am not sad (yet).

So this year I decided to make lots of pressies, but I didn't have time (I did a lot in wrapping and shopping with friends - which means talking, getting the Christmas feeling having friends around - etc.) to do all, so I made only these.

This was made for my patchwork friend. This is also a piece of the Handmade magazine I got from Juliet (the puds are from that as well). I machine stitched it. This was my first try to stitch drawn pictures.... Not perfect, but I was brave enough to give it to my friend.

And there is a picture of the back.

And this is just a little something. It was stitched by hand (started last Christmas... Did I mention that I was a really very slow person?)

and then quilted by machine (some holly and a 'Merry Christmas' wish in Hungarian). This became a present for a Lady in my patchwork group.

And this is the jam I made. This is my second jam ever. I got it through a forum (it is a doll making forum but before Christmas this was the favourite thing to make). I learnt a lot of nice things about it, so i decided to give it a try. I made some for my B, my stepfather and my best friend. It is made of apple and there is some orange and cinnamon in it. Everyone liked it! :D

WINNER!

The winner of the wrapping game is

CHRISTINE!!!!

Congrats!!!

Here is the key for the game:
1 - f
2 - k
3 - h
4 - d
5 - b
6 - i
7 - e
8 - m
9 - l
10 - c
11 - o
12 - g
13 - p
14 - n
15 - a
16 - j

Christine, I would like to send you your prize (somehow)!
Congratulations and thanks for playing!

Christmas puddings - a late post

As the holidays ended I could finish some things :D I have started them at the end of November but I didn't want to make a picture while all the little puds were ready. I have loved these little ones since the first time I saw them in a magazine.






I know I am a very late person, but I always try to be on time... So finally I have finished the Christmas puds from the Handmade magazine Juliet sent me....
I haven't knitted to much in the last days so I couldn't find right size needles for it. That's why I looked for my old 'marocco' game (when you have different coloured sticks, mine are made of wood, but they can be plastic as well and you have to pick them up without touching the other sticks, one by one... I think you know this game) and chose some sticks of it.


And I could start knitting... I didn't have red beads for the berries on top, so I painted some wooden balls and used them. I got plastic berries from my friend so I put some on tops. We don't agree which ones are better....

They became decoration in the kitchen window or they are going to be decoration on our next Christmas tree. Who knows?

I wanted to have something more. I have to tell you I do not like to copy things from magazines on books. Of course I like pattern but I usually use them as basics and then I make things from my head. maybe that's why making puds was not enough for me.... (and in this case I couldn't change colours or pattern, it is perfect like this)

So I have made a pudding cap for me as well... I used the design as a basic but of course I had to change lots of things.





I am still waiting for you guesses in my 'Wrapping game' in the 2nd Jan post! :D (till 15th Jan)

:(

I am so sad about the wrapping game... I have put a 'game post' on 2nd Jan and nobody made a guess...no comments there.. When I come home I am so excited and run to my laptop to check it and nothing there... a whole week ago... sigh....

I thought it was a good idea, but maybe it disappeared somehow among the posts.....

My favourite part of the flat

My favourite part in the flat is the kitchen window. I started to make seasonal decoration there 2 years ago. I bought two cheap place mats made of bamboo. I used plastic thread to hang them in the window and started to put on things like flowers, little dolls and other things. My flat is a very crowded thing, not much place for decoration but the exception is this window.


During the year we have curtains with embroidered lemons on them (lemon is the favourite fruit of my B). Last year I decided to make my own curtain of the polar bear fabric I got from Australia from my mother-in-law. I matched it with a blue fabric and they made a good winter atmosphere. I love to see them during winter time.

Last year I bought some little accessories (they are made of clay but they look like gingerbread or its Hungarian version 'mézeskalács'.) and we also had cinnamon and anise balls.

I forgot to write this post in Advent but it is still winter time so they are still actual.

During cold winter nights I sit in the kitchen with a candle and feel warm inside - I know I am a very lucky person.

Thank you, Lou!

Another beautiful surprise reached me this weekend:
An envelope from Australia. Lou - another very kind online friend - sent me 4 magazines, a beautiful calendar and a postcard.

Thank you so much, Lou!

Last minute rush

It is a beautiful story for me so I'd like to share it with you.

Some days before Christmas I found a piece of paper in my post box from the postman. I had to go to the local post office to get my something. I became totally excited as getting a package/parcel/letter means 'magic' to me since my childhood. I always had penfriends and was very happy to get letters from them. I usually don't get parcel but with those lovely Australian and British ladies I got to know through the net it changed a bit and I got 4 envelopes during December which was one of the best parts of the year for me.

So I went to the post office and got a tiny little box. A really small and cute one. I am sorry I don't have a picture as I tore the paper immediately to see what was inside. I got an angel made of pasta, a little patchwork decoration and a patchwork 'candy'. (here we have a special sweetie which we eat at Christmas, we buy them in different tastes...and they are covered with chocolate and put in colourful paper.... we put them on our Christmas trees). The little box was sent by an internet friend who is a real friend now. She lives in another town. Later we wrote e-mails and now I know the whole story of the candy.
My friend, Borcsi decided to make some Christmas decoration for herself after giving away all the ones she made before. She decided to use orange fabric. (And because she knows me she remembered how much I loved orange). From the rest of the fabric she could sew two candies. When she finished them, she decided to send me on of those. How sweet she was. And I am proud to have the pair of her treasure on my Christmas tree.

I sat in my best friend's car when opened the little box. He became totally excited about my candy and he said he would have been to have some next Christmas (next year). I was quite surprised he liked the idea so much (he is not a patchwork fan).

I knew they (he and his partner) would have a tree with blues decoration so I decided to make a box of candies for them. It was a big rush and Christmas was very busy so I finished the last one 2 minutes before they arrived (and I have some half-finished ones... maybe i can finish them next year).

They were absolutely happy with them and I have heard they gave two to the girl's mum and two to her sister. That is a big complement for me.

Wrapping Game

During Advent everyone buys and makes presents and put them into nice wrappings just to make friends and family happy. Here are the presents of my family this year:


After the season of presents and wrappings I would like to invite you for a game I found out in Advent. I helped to my best friend with wrapping. We wrapped the things in her shop at night (you know, no customers at night). This is how the shop looked like a night before Christmas:

We made lots of colourful presents to our families. I took photos about some of them. There are some twin wrappings - if two people got the same present I made twin wrappings for them. (I didn't want to make the same design for the same person but when you have more than a hundred presents to wrap you want to make your job a bit easier and help yourself with using a similar design. And Pungi's family has a game at Christmas: they try to find out what is inside the wrapping before opening it. If two people get the same present they get the wrappings at the same time and they can think together.)
If you want to play, just match the wrapping and the goodies inside. And the prize? I am not sure yet, so it is a secret (for me as well :D).

Here is the list of the goodies:
1. a jar of honey
2. a T-shirt
3. a packet of ashtray stones
4. a vase
5. a bunch of snow flowers (plastic)
6. a soft toy reindeer
7. a book shaped box
8. a DVD writer
9. a packet of tissues
10. vitamin powder
11. a pair of socks
12. a pair of scissors
13. a mug
14. thread
15.a mobile decoration (a cute polar bear)
16. a wall calendar

And here are the pictures of the wrappings:












OK, have a nice time with the game and leave a comment with the key. I think the end of the game will be the 15th Jan, then I post the key. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

First of all

I WANT TO WISH YOU, DEAR READER A VERY HAPPY, LUCKY AND CHEERFUL NEW YEAR!

I have made some pictures about our little 'party' (we were only four with our best friends so I am not sure I can cal it a party).

This blog will seem like a food blog with this post, but hey, I am not only needle and fabric.
I am not a big chef (my B does it for me), but I can bake nice cakes and cookies. Yesterday we all made something... My B was the luckiest (OK, he was ill, so we didn't want him to cook all day), he only made coffee for us! We three made the other part of the food. I think my best friend made too much food again (this is usual she buys food for a whole army when we are only four... OK, we have food for the whole week, hihihihi).

So here are the pictures of the food part of our New Year:

This is paste made of eggs, onion, and some spices and maybe butter... Hmmm, I am not sure but it was made by my friend, Am.

These are the tramezzini sandwiches my friend, Pungi made. She made 40 sandwiches! Can you believe that?

She put lots of nice things like paste and salad on this special bread called tramezzini. (She made 12 kinds of sandwiches yesterday!)

Then she puts the top bread.

She makes a hill. It is important to stick the edges of the bread so the filling doesn't come outside.

Then she cuts the bread into triangles.

She puts the sandwich in foil and I added a sticker with the name of the sandwich. We made funny names for all different types!

And this is the grapefruit I made. This is the very favourite of my B. This is the biggest amount I made. I used five kilos (!) of grapefruit for this! I hope it will be enough for my B! (And I think this will heal him.)

And today when I woke up (it was around noon as we went to bed at 6 o'clock in the morning) I saw this beautiful snow! I think it was snowing during the night and luckily it didn't stop till the evening. I hope it will snow tomorrow, too.
(This first pic was made yesterday, we had small snow that day, too.)

I loved the walk in the snow. We visited my mum to wish her and her husband a happy new year. I helped her with the snow (I had to clean the pavement ans stairs in front of the house and in front of the garages) which I like! So it was a really good day. Here we say: You will do the things every day of the year you do on the first day! I hope I will be so happy every day of 2008! And hope this for you too!