The Mad Tea Party!!

Hooray!! It's Party time!!

It's June 28th, it's Miss Vanessa Valencia's Mad Tea Party of the costume variety, of the Carnivalesque kind so to say....so send in the party clothes, the make up, the tea, the cakes and everything!

I'm a Libra, so of course I was in doubt whether to join the party or not (that's always a time issue, not that I didn't want to). My second doubt concerned whether to come incognito or not;

You see I'm just the average women, but coming to the party with the mask, gives me that 'je ne sais quoi', yes it adds a tad of mystery to this otherwise so common girl.

So it will be mystery and beauty for a change!

I even have an incognito leg. Yessss you are right, it's the one on the right, not the fake croc footed one, I said beauty remember??? Now where is that funny striped stocking, oooh I should have started much earlier....

But look who is here at the Mad Tea Party???

It's Alice!!!

Hi Eva-Alice, thanks for helping me out, taking pictures and stuff. Yeah I like your hair, no you cannot dye it this color...
What do you say?
I just have to wave with my wand and wish for the beautiful gown and shoes??
Where is that &*@*%*$ wand when you need it?
Gee, I only use it when I am supposed to use the vacuum cleaner. Oh well, let's just speak the magic words and don't waste time wand searching....
'Bibbedee babbedee boob'

Oh no Alice! What on earth happened to you???

No, no you haven't become small or large...(well a little larger :-) but you are eh much older...yes I am allowed to say that, as you look exactly my age....What???? Everything here has turned older....
We cannot eat that cake anymore...it's well over it's expiration date, as some say of yours truly, but she pretends not to hear/understand....
And look what has happened to the tea service:

It was already this small, but it was brand new. Now it's has aged into an antique children's service with fairies and butterflies, I have to tell you I like that!

And these were plastic red, blue and yellow children's services just a moment ago...

Would you believe that this was actually Playmobil?

And this was Fisher Price!

And who is this??

Here is the Mad Hatter!! Or should I say Mad Hatress?

Haha, no Mad Tea Party without the Mad Hatter!
Well she is mad because she has an akward date on her hat! It's today's date written down as the Dutch do, which I personally think is more logic than the way the rest of the world does it. It is the 28th day of the sixth month isn't it?? We Dutch say 28 June (28 juni, why use a capital?) too, not the other way around. What would you say?
Are you in for some rhetorics? Though the March Hare has just left the building, but we always have:

Nabaztag! the white rabbit!
He says stuff like:
mmmm, ahummm, yemmmm, (pauzes) maybe ahhm I'm sorry, I wasn't listening, can you say that again?
Nabaztag is definitely masculin!


Look, there is that mad Hatter again, magically she has changed hats and she has gone incognito again...

And another hat, other glasses, but no cakes and no music, as the Mad Hattress prefers to listen to her own music she has disenabled the party music....
But listen...
There is something going on:


Look! It's Nabaztag again!
He tells us the time, all the time. Like:

It's the same time as it was yesterday at the same time! Cute!
or
And now the fantastic and fabulous singing clock; taditadaaa papapapaa!!
or the best:
No, I'm definitely not going to tell you that it's eleven o'clock!
Though I'm not sure whether you can hear him or not, as we apparently are in a different time dimension, you can tell it's late, because I had to take this blurry picture of Nabaztag with flashlight.
Yes it's too late already! Too bad party girlies, the party at LiLi's is over now.
Hope you enjoyed my little Mad Hatters' Tea Party!

Don't forget to attend all Mad Tea Parties, there is a list at Miss Vanessa Valencia's fantabulous blog 'A fanciful Twist'.
Thanks a million for hosting Miss Vanessa, you are the best!
Thank you tea sippers for your visit over here
and remember:
It is the 28th day
of the sixth month.


And now an attempt to make a dutch translation:
Pfjoee en nu nog een vertaling.
Op Miss Vanessa Valencia's blog kun je een lijst vinden met bloggers die aan de Mad Tea Party meedoen. Ik twijfelde eerst of ik hier wel tijd voor zou hebben en vervolgens of ik incognito zou gaan of niet. Mmm dat masker verandert me toch wel van een zeer hollandse meid in een mysterieus iemand. Ik heb ook een incognito been!
Daar zou dan zo'n mooie kous over heen kunnen, maar ja die kan ik dus weer niet vinden. Te laat begonnen...Gelukkig is Alice hier om me op weg te helpen. Zij geeft me de tip om mijn toverstafje te gebruiken. Dat toverstafje gebruik ik eigenlijk alleen maar als ik zou moeten stofzuigen en waar is dan &&%*$#@ ding nou weer?? Nou ja, dan maar alleen de toverspreuk;
hocus pocus...
Whaah wat gebeurt er? Nee Alice, je bent niet verkleind of vergroot (nou ja, oké een klein beetje vergroot dan ;-). Je bent verouderd...en jij niet alleen, alles hier. De taartjes zijn nu ver over de houdbaarheidsdatum hahaha, sommigen zouden zeggen: net als Alice nu! Maar we doen natuurlijk net alsof we dat niet gehoord hebben!
Ook alle speelgoed serviesjes die al klaar stonden zijn plotseling verouderd. Je zou toch niet geloven dat het eigenlijk plastic serviesjes waren? Van Playmobil en Fisher Price enzo?
En wie komt er nu weer bij? Het is de mad Hatter! (als je op de hoogte bent van Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland dan leest dit stukje net iets gemakkelijker, het is namelijk een personage uit dat boek. Hij geeft acte de présence op zijn eigen thee feestje, dat dan ook de Mad hatters Tea party heet). In het hoofdstuk komt ook wat rhetoriek voor. Waarom zouden we niet allemaal zeggen dat het vandaag de 28ste van de zesde maand is (de Amerikanen doen dat in ieder geval niet!) Verdere pseudo rhetorica laat ik in bovenstaand stukje opknappen door Nabaztag, ons witte konijn. Hij zegt altijd allerlei grappige dingen zoals de tijd; het is net zo laat als gisteren om deze tijd. Je hebt dus nog steeds een horloge nodig, maar de positieve kant is dat hij niet poept, geen schoon hok nodig heeft en geen kabels of draden doorknaagt. Volgens Nabaztag is het alweer veel te laat. Het is de hoogste tijd jongens, om verder te gaan bij iemand anders op de lijst op Miss Vanessa Valencia's blog: 'a fanciful twist'.
Bedankt voor je bezoek, LiLi M.

Look what I have found...

Hello all of you!
Last week my cousin celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary. Gulp...married for 25 years??? That should have been an achievement of my parents. Where and when did we loose control of time? But that's not the topic today. Of course I have bought some presents, but no celebration in my surroundings without a home made gift...This time I made some pictures I could have found in the attic...

I have photocopied some old pictures (thanks to Lori and Carol too). And printed some pictures of my cousin, her husband and their four kids. Finding useful pictures of kids older than 12 can be difficult, because they never look into the camera without their sunglasses on. You can print in sepia or gray tones and you can reduce the pictures to any size. You can even let somebody watch in reverse direction, as I let my cousin's eldest do in the naked lying baby picture, using the reverse function of printing (in my case you can choose what kind of paper you are using; choosing transfer paper means printing in reverse automatically ).

First I glued the photo copies on cardboard, which I cut with scissors, this gives the most authentic feeling. Then I glued the faces of my relatives onto these pictures. A final touch; dabbing yellow ink or touch up the edge with walnut distress ink.

Not visible on this picture of the happy couple, but visible in the top picture; I have put a copper push pin on this cardboard and a short piece of rope, as if this picture was hanging in my closet or in my kitchen for years, before I removed it to show it to them.

This 11 year old could laugh about this picture, his 9 year old brother didn't think it was that funny.

Today we had lovely weather and I decided to listen to the call of the flea market Siren:

I was very happy with my finds!
I think the best is a girls verses album (bottom left) dated 1925-26 filled with scraps!! The Famos Drukkerij is a children's printer game. Of course I have bought wooden spools. A little old clock to use in a project. Two piles of handwritten (with ink) letters. One is a pile of love letters the other pile are mostly birth and engagements announcements and calling cards. Those little flowers are vintage and were used to spice up a ladies' gift.







Last but not least I bought a stock of these old pink playing cards. I just couldn't resist the doggies. I don't know anything about dogs. In my life so far that was no omission at all, but while blogging one would like to tell which species you can see here. Sorry, you have to think yourself!
Have an inspiring day! Hugs LiLi M.

Iedere keer weer vergeet ik er een Nederlandse vertaling bij te zetten, het zit gewoon nog niet in mijn systeem...Vooruit dan; Voor mijn nichtje die 25 jaar getrouwd was heb ik 'oude' foto's in elkaar gezet van het zilveren paar en hun 4 kids. Ik heb fotokopieën gemaakt van oude foto's en hun foto's verkleind, in sepia of grijstinten en soms ook in spiegelbeeld geprint. Eerst heb ik de fotokopieën op stevig karton geplakt, de randen geknipt met een (kartel) schaar en daarna ingesmeerd met distress inkt (walnoot). Vervolgens de hoofdjes van mijn familieleden ingeplakt. Bij de foto van het zilveren paar heb ik ook nog een punaise in de bovenkant geprikt, alsof ik die foto net van de muur getrokken had. Het was een groot succes, niet alleen bij het bruidspaar!

Vanwege het mooie weer heb ik mezelf vandaag maar eens een vrije dag gegeven en ben ik naar de rommelmarkt geweest. Leuke vondsten gedaan, vond ik zelf. Het leukst is een poeziealbum propvol versjes en poezieplaatjes! Ik betaalde 10 euro voor het album, de Famos drukkerij, de brieven en de kaarten van de hondjes, waarvan ik helaas niet weet wat voor soort het is. Maar jullie misschien wel. Tot nog toe was het totaal ontbreken van kennis over honden geen omissie, maar sinds ik op het internet aktief ben breekt het me af en toe zuur op!
Ik wens julllie allemaal een hele fijne dag/dagen, groetjes van LiLi M.

Antiquating for dummies...

Hi!!!

Eventually I couldn't resist her: at a price of 17,50 euro's (usd 26), this taylor dummy that has been altered by a lot of bloggers. Some used the coffee or tea stain method as described in Heather Bullards blog. Elizabeth has altered her Mme Claudette very clever with pieces of linen. I wanted to do something that would change the look of the dummy as if she wasn't made yesterday in the far east, but at least 60 years ago here in Western Europe.

I bought linen at the market (2,50 a meter) and cut it diagonally so I could stretch it and I pinned it on the doll. This isn't easy, it takes a lot of strength actually. Then I have sewn the linen on the doll. First the back, that went really well and afterwards the front;


And as you see I have made the white wooden parts very dark gray.



When I was done, I wanted to stamp something in the neck of the mannequin, but I was afraid that a stamp would ruin it all (not the stamp, but me stamping too hard, too soft etc.) So I took a stick-on alphabet and made these characters black (they were pink) and sticked them up Mademoiselle LiLi's lovely neck.
I wasn't totally happy, because no matter how hard I tried the front stayed a little wrinkly:

Which isn't that bad as I'm going to use her as an inspiration pinboard!
Here she is in my almost reorganized craft room. The dead line has been postponed to July 10th, so you have to be patient a little longer.

I'll end with a garden picture; the blooming Astrantia.
In Dutch 'Zeeuws knoopje' which means 'button from Zealand' in English.
And I happen to have such a button:


I have to say that the flower is maintenance free, the silver button should be polished once in a while...So I'm off...cleaning and polishing, as always hehehe!
Hugs LiLi M. (the living one!)

The best things in life are free!

There is nothing better than finding a parcel in your mailbox, when you don't expect it. And this is what I found last week: Wil has sent me this beautiful parcel with the lovely envelope with a sweet note in it.

Says she wanted to thank me for the price she won in my giveaway in February. At that time Wil didn't have a blog, but now she has. You should visit her at Casa Nostra and say 'Hi' from me. Wil is an expert in buying old trash and making treasures of them, buying treasures as well and: (papapapapapaaaaaa:sound of trumpet):

Wil is also great in making cards! Look what she has sent me: A photo album filled with 7 of her artistic creations. The eighth is stuck to the album but

I have removed the others from the album and they are hanging proudly in my almost finished reorganized craftroom, so I can enjoy them every day! Thank you Wil! I feel so lucky with these works of art. They truly inspire me!

Don't forget to click on the picture to see them better. I will use these images in my blog in due time, if I have your permision Wil, of course I will mention that the image is yours.

Living in the northern hemisphere I just want to tell you that in my part of the world the Lime tree is blooming. If there are blooming Lime trees in your neighbourhood, don't forget to go and smell. To me (and I know that scent is a very subjective and personal thing) there is almost nothing that smells better than the blossoming Lime tree. Reminding me of fresh laundry, new born babies and my mother. My mother died almost 12 years ago, but she taught me to enjoy the smell of the trees, the twittering and nesting of all little birds, all small things that you never should take for granted, but enjoy them with all your senses. To me it's seems to be easy; looking out of the window there is a row of Lime trees in our street.

Looking down I can see about 20 working men who are making a new drain, hahaha I bet they don't enjoy the smell of the Lime tree! Which is merely impossible at day time, hidden behind the smell of all their machines. But I'm smart: I have taken a little twig inside;



Always enjoy the smell of Lime trees while you can!
I'm curious to know what's your favorite smell...


Enjoy each and every day!
Thanks again Wil!

Nog even een korte vertaling:
Van Wil kreeg ik een prachtig album toegestuurd vol met zelfgemaakte kaarten, die heb ik eruit gehaald en in mijn bijna gereorganiseerde knutselkamer opgehangen. Wil heeft ook een blog 'Casa Nostra' die kun je boven of in de sidebar aanklikken om haar even een bezoekje te brengen en vergeet haar niet de groeten van mij te doen!
Heel erg bedankt Wil!!

Op dit moment bloeit de Lindeboom. Ik ben dol op de geur van lindebloesem, die doet me denken aan de geur van net gewassen linnengoed, pasgeboren babies en mijn moeder. Mijn moeder is al bijna 12 jaar dood, maar zij heeft me geleerd van deze geur te houden. En ook van het gekwetter van de vogeltjes, van de manier waarop de meesjes hun nestjes maken en uitvliegen, kortom van alle dingen in het leven die je nooit voor lief moet nemen, maar waar je bewust van moet genieten, het liefst met al je zintuigen.
Ik lijk het gemakkelijk te hebben met een straat vol Lindebomen maarrrr juist op dit moment zijn ze een nieuw riool aan het aanleggen. Mmm, daarom heb ik maar een takje bloesem mee naar binnen genomen.
Wat is eigenlijk jouw favoriete geur?

Geniet van het leven!
xoxo LiLi M.

Peeping through the keyhole...

Hi guys!

Look what I found in my mailbox today!
The birds and bonnets vintage workshop swap screen has arrived.
It is so, well what can I say? It's just too good for words.
All panels all gorgeous; see and judge yourself:

You just have to click the pictures to see the amazing details...Look at the 'bonnet' page and the 'bird' page used as backgrounds, the tags, the veil, the lovely buttons etcetera, etcetera.

From the right to the left the panels were made by:

Kathy Laury (Country Chintz)
Brenda Schenck (Dragonlady)
Heidi Nutzman (Liquorish)
Rachael (the Rose Room)

And here the artist the other way around:
Rachael (the Rose Room)
Heidi Nutzman (Liquorish)
Brenda Schenck (Dragonlady)

Kathy Laury (Country Chintz)

I am so pleased with this screen; thank you ladies! Chapeau! (it's French for hat, or better: I take my hat off to you, in other words I make a deep bow)! Or should I say: Bonnet!? LOL
This swap has been so much fun! To see what over a 100 swappers did with more or less the same material, it's just amazing. Don't forget to check the Flickr group to see more panels. Thanks Beth and Karla for hosting!
Those two lovely ladies are not only very very creative and talented, they are generous too. We have been swapping around and look what they have send me:


This yummy parcel was send by Beth.


This tag was given by Karla. Thanks a million girls!!
All this stuff is getting a good spot in my little craftroom which is under construction as a result of a challenge hosted by Michelle right now. But you girls have my permission to look through the keyhole:

Especially for all dutch girls who love some details...
June 21st my craftroom has to be tidyied up, reorganized and supplies should be better manageable. It has been a long way baby, but I think I'm going to make this challenge.
Michelle already has posted some 'before' pictures and a questionaire that everybody has filled in. So I have been busy, there was no time to complete the red challenge with some pictures outside. To make it up to you I'll show you one: it's my red hydrangea or better known up here as hortensia. It's flowers are made of the leather kind of foliage, so this one will be beautiful until it starts freezing... I hope to see you sooner though.
Take care girls love and hugs,
LiLi M.

I saw red again

Hi!!

I think this "I saw red' challenge is a success, don't forget to look at other participants' blogs, that is what these challenges make so special. Thanks Sandra-Sadie Olive's journal for hosting this event.

So let's see where I have seen red in our house.

I think it's interesting, I was tending to say that there was hardly any red in our house. Looking around I noticed that red obvious is one persons favorite color:

This was my present for Mother's day, made by my son. He has thought about it. Putting a yellow chocobo feather (one of his favorite game creatures) on top of this teabox and a lot of glitters, yep the tarnishing kind!

And another person favors red too:


My husband's dream is to own a red Ford Mustang cabriolet 1964-66 one day...
(the large one of course).

And there is more red; I remember I wanted this couch shape in blue, but we couldn't find it anywhere so now
we have a red couch in the right shape:

And coordinating curtains:



Curtains in the bedroom:


This is how I keep my cleaner in the bathroom:



(It's an old bottle with an old German scrap filled with a cleaner; do you know Andy?)



It seems that every girl likes shoes. I like Jan Jansen shoes so much I even like to read about them.



I bought this for someone special today. I'm hoping to get invited on that polka dot party!
(Does anyone out there know how to polka? I will be desperately in need of a polka tutorial, once I get invited of course...)



About two weeks ago my daughter received this rose to celebrate that every one in her class has made it this year. She does a secondary school, which includes education in the fields of singing, dancing and acting; in short an education in theater skills. All kids in her class had public auditions two weeks ago and at the end all classmates received this rose and the message that everybody is going to the 3rd grade. Do you believe this? Still about 6 weeks to go and they still have a lot of rehearsals....Why should those children work hard? They already know that they will pass their tests!
Next time I'm going to find some reds outside!

Nog even verder met rood;
ik dacht eigenlijk dat ik nauwelijks rood in huis had, maar ik vind het wel interessant dat je nu ineens bewust op zoek gaat naar rood en ook ziet dat anderen die kleur niet voor niets gebruiken. Mijn zoon vindt rood blijkbaar mooi. Ik kreeg van hem voor moederdag deze mooie rode theedoos. Hij is het enige kind dat ik ken dat zijn ouders echt vader en moeder noemt, reuze handig als je bijvoorbeeld in een pretpark bent. Bij "maammaaaaa" kijkt iedereen op. Als er 'Moeder' geroepen wordt is het toch echt mijn beurt!
Ook mijn man heeft een rode droom: Nog eens een rode Mustang Cabrio 1964-66 te bezitten en dan een grote!
Wij hebben een rode bank. Ik wilde graag zo'n soort vorm, maar dan in het blauw, maar die kon ik toen nergens vinden. Nu dus rood en dan ook bijpassende gordijnen.
Ook in de slaapkamer zit er rood in de gordijnen en niet te vergeten de embrasses.
In de badkamer is het schoonmaakmiddel rood.
En vandaag kocht ik dit rode kinderserviesje voor een speciaal iemand. Nu nog wachten op een uitnodiging voor het rood met witte stippen feest!
Een rode roos mag natuurlijk niet ontbreken en laten we die nu net in huis hebben.
Onze 14 jarige dochter kreeg hem cadeau aan het eind van een optreden. Zij doet een theateropleiding aan een middelbare school. Iedereen uit haar klas moest een publieke auditie doen, het was echt geweldig. Onze dochter deed een monoloog. Aan het eind van de avond kregen alle kids van hun mentrix zo'n roos met de mededeling dat ze allemaal over waren naar het derde jaar. Goed om te weten als je nog 8 weken school te gaan hebt en de proefwerkweken nog moeten beginnen...gelukkig dat die kids de hele dag zitten te msn-en enzo, dus ik geloof dat ik de enige ben die die link gelegd heeft.

(Zal ik dan die oranje challenge gaan organiseren? Vanaf zaterdag uiteraard....)

Hugs L.