Beachbag Ta-dah!

Summer is here!! We've spent a much needed long-weekend at our summerhouse, and the weather has been amazing! We're surrounded by clouds of Yellow Broom. The sight and scent are so wonderful ❤️

 I love this place!

A few woderful  days off work, and time to dig out the old sewing machine and start a new project...

I'm welcoming JUNE, the first wonderful summer-month by making myself a HUGE beachbag ❤️

A quite bold project for someone like me, actually...I'm just a wanna-be sewer, and the little I know about sewing is 100% selftaught and has more of a winging-it-as -I-go-along approach, than actually knowing what I'm doing...

My old sewing machine sounds like it is going to take-off and fly away when I step on the pedal, and it keeps stopping all the time, making all kinds of strange and unpleasant noises.......So frustrating! The needle breaks at least 3 times during a session (yes, I'm probably using the wrong size/type of needle, but what do I know?), the threads keep getting all tangled up on the backside, and the stiches are uneven and messy....

All in all, sewing is really a test to my patience, but I so want to be able to do it! There are so many beautiful things I could make if I just mastered this craft!

So, I take the Pippi Longstocking approach: " I have not tried this before, so I'm sure I can do it" ❤️

A great approach to all new challenges in life, I think.

We are going to California this summer (we're leaving in a little more than 2 weeks...eeek!), and for that purpose I think I really need a BIG beachbag, right?

So that is what I bravely and optimisticly set out to make....

I found a great bag in one of my wonderful Tilda books, which did not seem too difficult to make for a newbie

All in all a good plan, and I optimisticly started the quilting. It was so fun and satisfying to quilt these nice Tilda fabrics together. I love the feeling of quilted cotton fabric ❤️

It has such a "summery" feel to it, I think. It reminds me of carefree childhood summers with picnics and book-reading on big, lovely quilts....❤️

Loving the way the quilting turned out. And the seams are all neat and even!!! So far so good !!

Instead of a zipper, I found these great little turqoise hooks in my stash, and I also added these wonderful pom-poms to the edging. They have been waiting patiently in my stash (for years!) to be put into good use, and I think they gave the bag that little extra touch of playfulness that it needed. These were stiched on by hand with invisible stiches. 

It's all in the details, so I added some nice buttons to the handles, just for decorative purposes..

Just a little touch of pinkish red and a little bling...I love bling ❤️

Adding all these decorations were all fun an easy work. The problems occured when I was going to sew the whole thing together...The pattern in the book made no sense to me, and I finally had to give that up,  and figure it out by myself. I had to cut the fabric differently, leaving me with a lot of extra work and some bad language.....

The result is nothing like the one in the book: it is much bigger, no zipper, different bottom and different shape, but you know what: I LOVE  IT ❤️And I'm so proud of the fact that I actually made this on my own - and that I also ended up "designing" it....

Want to see how the bag ended up looking? 

Ta-dah!!! 

Vamos a la playa!!  I'm soooo ready for the sunny Californian  beaches!!

I' m now completely hooked on sewing, so I'm already planning on making many more in different colours and sizes. One can never have too many bags, right?? Or shawls, or shoes, or cups or.......well you know how it goes...❤️

I guess I have to wish for a new sewing machine for my birthday....

                                               ❤️Live - Laugh - Love❤️

From September to December in a flash...!

Wow! Time really flies! It's been ages since last visited this place, and I'm probably the laziest blogger ever...As suspected, I haven't had much time to blog about my "happy times" the last couple of months, but I have made sure that I've found at least a few minutes (or more!) every day to do something that makes me happy - and for that I'm actually quite proud :-)

The fact that we're now at full speed towards Christmas is quite stressful, actually, which is why I decided that I needed to finish with October and November here on my blog first,  before I dive into the Crazy Christmas Frenzy which is on the verge of breaking out....(don't get me wrong: I absolutely LOVE Christmas, but I always have too high expectations and too many plans, and you really can't squeese everything in during those 24 magical days we call Advent...I have learned that, I really have, but I'm still going to try this year as well....:-))
There will be blogposts about Christmas, that I can promise you!

Anyway,  I'm jumping from September to December here, and even though I myself have not visited my blog in a few months, I can see from my stats that my mere 10 posts have been read by quite a lot of people from all over the world! It's quite amazing, really, that you woderful people find my little corner in that huge cyperspace out there. I have only "advertised" my blog on Instagram, and played around a bit on Pinterest, other than that, the Ekte Lykke blog has been living her own life here in Blogland, and obviously made a lot of new friends :-)

Those of you who follow me on Instagram have already had a few glimpses of my baking and making since last time. It is so much easier and quicker to just post a photo and a short status on Instagram. (I suspect quite a few blogs can be quite jealous of Instagram these days - feeling a bit abandoned, actually....:-))


OK! Here are a few of my happy crafting moments this Autumn:

Making progress on my Christmasgranny and the Happy Colours blanket:

I have actually finished joining all the  patches of the Happy Colours Blanket, but can't get around to start with the edging....I will probably post some more details on this later. 

A new addition to my "Christmas Collection" has been made. I found a really beautiful round cushion on Pinterest, and since there was no pattern with this I tried to make my own...I'm quite pleased with it, but the pattern needs some adjustments so I better start making another one before I forget what I did, and have to figure it all out again once more...( If anyone knows a pattern similar to this, please let me know:-)) The roses are May Roses from Attic 24.

I've made a little heart for a very dear friend who is going through some tough times ❤️❤️

(Another creation inspired from the talented Lucy at Attic 24)

...and last weekend I went to visit her at her beautiful applefarm. It was a magical weekend with tears and laughter, sewing, crocheting and drinking of the most wonderful Cava 🌟🌟 (...followed by quite a few cups of very good and very much needed coffee the next day...)

I can live a long time on happy weekends like that❤️

In between the drinking and the talking, I actually managed to blow the dust off my old sewing machine and started to work on a beadspread for Little Missy. 

Here it is at a very early stage...

... followed by a crinkled and crooked assembly of joined patches....

I'm far more comfortable with a crochethook or knitting needles than behind the sewing matchine, but it was quite fun and I'm now eager to learn more...

The beadspread is indeed finished, and as soon as the light is good enough for a decent photo I will show you the final result. 

Since my last post we've also celebrated our boys' 12 th Birthday, and this time I will only show you one cake....: Merengue top and bottom, with filling of vanilla custard and fresh berries. Very yummy🌟

...and to end this speed-journey through October and November, and prepare the ground and set the note for the wonderful December:

...and this makes my Mummy-heart smile:

Till next time: Do what makes your heart smile ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️




❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️     LIVE - LAUGH - LOVE      ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️