Friday is my day: Belichek

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Prague to meet Anastasia from "Belichek"!
Enjoy the ride! :)

Hawaiian flower wedding pin

Hi all!
My name is Anastasia Meliskin from "Belichek". I live in Prague with my beloved daughter and husband. I am a wedding photographer and I of course sew beautiful things out of felt.
My sweet  heart let us sleep up to 8-9 in the morning and today we woke up at 9:30. I usually and check my e-mail quickly and eat a pear or an apple and make massage for Mia.

Every day I see these felt garlands and they give me a good mood.

I usually sew at night when the baby sleeps. Yesterday I sewed a hat for Mia and I also created the pattern from scratch, so I am looking forward to test it on my daughter.

Now we need to run to the old center. A last look at the house and we off we go.

Here we are. Mia does not like to be in a wheelchair and I use a sling, so she can look around and not to get bored.

 
I love walking in the old town. There are many beautiful buildings, interesting museums and just beautiful things.

On the way we pass from the needlework supplies store to buy some yarn.

We quickly go home using the subway, because Mia is tired and I prepare a light lunch. When a child begins to cry we do everything three times faster so salad is sliced in 5 seconds.

Then I feed my daughter, she is a bit naughty and plays :)

It's time to go Mia to the doctor. After visiting we have a great mood. The doctor said that Mia is almost healthy!

Now I cook for us a delicious dinner, and my daughter is looking forward to it.

Lightning like food eating and Mia is laying to sleep. The day is passing furiously and fast like a train.

Now it's MY time. I drink coffee, dreaming, and sew-sew-sew ...

Thank you for your company this beautiful Friday :)


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Thank you Anastasia! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

Friday is my day: Oxhillcrafts

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Portugal to meet Gisela from “Oxhillcrafts”!
Enjoy the ride! :)

Mixed Media necklace

Hi! My name is Gisela and I live in Portugal. I have an Etsy shop called Oxhillcrafts and I am so happy to be here sharing my day with you!

6:30 am - My alarm clock wakes me up and five minutes later my two cats, Oscar and Felix, start pawing me in the face to get me out of the bed. How thoughtful of them... Today Felix decides to get back to bed to sleep a little longer.
 

7:00 am - It’s time to take a quick shower and to feed the cats who start meowing for food from the moment they leave the bed. I manage to have breakfast too! I always have oatmeal and drink black tea with milk.
 

7:30 am - I get ready to work and in the meantime I pick some roses from the backyard. They will cheer me up later in the evening.
 

8:00 am - Everything is tidy, the cats are getting ready to sleep again (can’t help feeling envious at this point) and I head off to the office.
 

8:30 am - I arrive at Silves, a lovely town in the south of Portugal where I work as an insurance broker.
 

13:00 pm - (meanwhile many non crafty things happened) I have time for a quick lunch and to squeeze in a trip to the post office to ship an order (all my packages are handmade because I want people to get the feeling of opening a present when they receive their orders). The camera goes with me every time I leave the office at lunchtime. Finding inspiring little things is always a possibility in this town. 
14:00 pm - Back to the office to work a little longer.
 

19:30 pm - Somehow I manage to run away from the paperwork and go back to my little village.
 

20:00 pm - It feels so good to be home again. Going to my parents house to have dinner is my normal routine but today I’m going to stay at home and “dinner” is going to be very simple:  black tea (I’m addicted) and toasts while I let the cats go out to the backyard to play and scratch some trees.
 

20:30 pm - Night is falling and it has been raining. The village looks beautiful in this light. It’s time to craft. Around the house I have small collections of colored threads, buttons, trims and other little thinks that inspire me. I’m making a necklace to add to my Etsy shop in the weekend, a crochet blanket made by my mother is also waiting to be listed. I don’t have to wake up early tomorrow, so it will be a long night!



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Thank you Gisela! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

Friday is my day: Olive and Vince

Hello all! Today we are traveling to United Kingdom to meet Nat and Naomi from “Olive and Vince handmade toddler clothing” ! Enjoy the ride 

Hi, I’m Nat and I make up one half of “Olive and Vince handmade toddler clothing” alongside my good friend, Naomi. We also each own Olive (mine) and Vince (Naomi’s). Today you are joining us on one of our typical Friday adventures, because Friday is our day:

7.06am Today is unusual because I have been able to wake unassisted without Olive telling me it’s breakfast time. It would appear she is having a lie in, and so am I J I rise in my own time, shower and make extra efforts to make myself look pretty in the knowledge that there will be a camera joining us in the workshop today!

8.00am Olive eventually joins me. She does her usual trick of hiding behind a chair in her room to avoid removal of her bed clothes. I note we have run out of nappies, I will have to tell the nursery we have succeeded in potty training.

8.25am I am at the breakfast table alone today, because Olive has insisted Daddy bring her bike in from the garden so she can enjoy breakfast “Al Biko”. We are running seriously late, so I let it be. Whilst running around the house prepping Olive’s nursery bag I return to discover Olive has finished her breakfast and attempted to help herself to another portion! Instead of crying and returning to bed, I swiftly grab the camera and capture the moment before packing Olive into the car and delivering her to nursery.

9.40am I return home, breathe, sigh and reflect how much I needed this morning’s lie in. I switch the radio on (the radio is a big part of our Friday workshops!), check our Etsy store for overnight activity and then set to work on tidying up and prepping the workshop for Naomi’s arrival. As I tidy I keep an eye out for Naomi’s car: I plan to hide behind the door with the camera and catch her unawares, I succeed!

10.30am We only have a couple of Etsy orders to work on today so we have decided to commit some time to having a little spring clean / stock check of our fabrics. It’s a therapeutic task and a relief that there are two of us lugging piles of material about the place. We come across some real gems at the bottom of the pile we’d forgotten all about!

1:00pm After this mission, we stop for lunch and today I am enviously watching Naomi feast on the sushi her husband frequently packs for her! Whilst lunching we shortlist our entries for this month’s free give away to which we like to treat our Facebook followers. We agree and announce our winner. Next we turn our hands to the machines. It’s an extra special day today because we are welcoming “Dorothy” to our team. We hope the addition of our new overlocker machine will make us double efficient (hear that Dorothy!?). With our little coterie of machines, we are indeed nicely productive and manage to fulfil our outstanding orders in good time. Naomi also fits in some pattern work, making the finishing touches to our next new release.

5.00pm It is quite usual for us to squeeze every last minute out of our day before whizzing off back to the world of Mummy! I pack up the car with today’s parcels and secure Olive’s favourite teddy, Umna bear, in the car seat - today Umna is riding up front with me and Olive will be delighted to see he’s been safely transported to fetch her.  I go via the Post Office to send our sold items out into the wide world.

6.00pm Once home, Olive hangs out with Umna bear whilst I make dinner. Since launching our toddler clothing brand life has been so busy I invested a moment to devise a 3 weekly menu cycle. It hangs on my fridge and tells me what I need to do each day without me even having to think. On Fridays I like to keep it really simple, it’s always pasta something. And tonight, because it’s been a long old day and it’s sunny outside, we toast dinner with an ale shandy / apple juice for those under 3 years!

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Thank you Nat & Naomi! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)

Friday is my day: 2SmartCats

Hello all! Today we are traveling to Belgium to meet Stephanie from '2SmartCats'! Enjoy the ride :)

Hello, my name is Stephanie.  I am from Australia, but have been living and working in Belgium for the past few years. I am a web developer by day, and I do my crafts in the evenings, the weekends, or whenever I have time really. My day begins when the alarm goes off at 6.30.  I usually stay in bed for another 10 minutes before getting out of bed together with my two darling fur babies. I am definitely not a morning person.

I spend the next hour getting ready for the day, but most importantly getting my cats set up for the day as well, which includes feeding them, cleaning after them and play with them for a little while as they will be alone in the house while I am at work. At this stage, I do not have enough time to have a proper cup of tea, so I just have a glass of warm water.  I’ve read somewhere that a glass of warm water in the morning is very healthy.  It helps to detox your body. Then at 7.30, I take a short walk to the local train station to catch the train to work in Brussels. 


9 AM
I usually get to the office just before 9 o’clock. I begin to go through my emails and reply to any urgent or important business. Then I would make myself a cup of strong black tea with honey and maybe a fruit yogurt. Sometimes I cannot wait this long to get my tea, so I get myself a cup as soon as I get in to the office; especially during the awful and cold winter days.

1-2 PM
I usually go for a walk in the neighbourhood with another colleague to get our lunches. It is a very enjoyable walk when the sun is out. Unfortunately, this is not very often in Belgium. I try to eat healthily as often as I can.  I am a tea junky, and drink many cups of tea each day. I switch from black tea in the mornings to different types of green teas or Pu’er tea in the afternoons.

Hmm, macarons…my favourite.  I bought a packet for desert this evening. Office work finishes at 6PM, and I start my journey home on the metro and another train ride. Very often it is on the train home that I drum up ideas in my head, sketch and note a little.

After arriving home in the evenings, if I feel there is still some energy left, I will continue to work on my designs after dinner. But I do not do this on a Friday evening, as my partner and I usually go out to dinner on Friday evenings. These are some of the items I have made throughout the odd hours.  So far, I have enjoyed every minute of learning and crafting.  The encouragement from friends and family and the support from customers have been just wonderful. I plan to dedicate more time crafting.

I might watch a film before heading off to bed.
Thank you for reading.  I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing my day.



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Thank you Stephanie! As for all of you lovely readers stay tunned for our next week's guest!
Until then, have a great weekend and be creative :)