Friday is my day: Ira Grant

Today we will fly to Switzerland and meet Ira from Iragrant She makes really pretty bags and clutches and now she also has an eco bag shop Iragranteco, beautiful eco friendly bags made of organic fabrics or recycled fabrics from her other shop. Please enjoy your Switzerland tour and visit Ira's shops!

Mignon Bag - Organic Buttercup Colour Canvas
by iragranteco


Hello, I’m Ira and I lives in Neuchatel, Switzerland with hubby and our little one. Because its holiday time, this time I will show you my Saturday routine instead of other day, because from Monday and Friday its just busy how to entertain the little one :)

Usually on Saturday, I woke up around 8.00AM, of course Nuriana already woke up but still play in her bed with her plushie.

08.15 – 09.00

Hubby already woke up earlier and help himself with the breakfast, so Nuri and me help ourselves with this breakfast. Yup, I got the coffee and tomatoes, Nuriana had her turkey and cheese sandwich. Meanwhile the dishes from last night are waiting too….


09.00 – 10.00

When Nuriana play and watch TV with her dad, I’m rushing to check Etsy, oh well what else :) and pack the orders. It’s Saturday, the PO closed at midday and I have to go to the main PO in town for it.


11.00 – 12.00

Nuriana and her dad try to adjust her car seat in the garage before we leaving to town to do some posting first and here we go on the way to Neuchatel Old Town from our apartment.



12.15 – 13.30

It’s Saturday, just so many thing that we need to do, usually try to do as fast as possible before everything shut down by 5PM! So here we go hubby and Nuri were walking in town, he need to fix his glasses, I want to get my big envelopes in papetier and draw some money in the bank also.



13.30 -16.00

There is one thing that we always do in the weekend, that’s a lunch out and we love to try difference restaurant, this time we went to a very old restaurant, look at the place for your umbrella beside the chairs, the meals was oke :). Then we went for our food shopping, not too many this time because we will going for our holiday next week.

after 17.00

usually everyone just gone to bed right away, no big dinner tonight except some quick salad and bread for hubby, five minutes noodle for Nuri and me. When those two settle again in front of the telly, I tried to do little bit work, checking Etsy and Twitter again then off to bed by midnight, which is earlier than my normal sleeping time :)

Bon weekend for everyone :)

Look what the postman brought me!

Remember my necklace felting? http://helisengezer.blogspot.com/search/label/ArtMind

Well, because Mitsy from artmind.etsy.com is the sweetest Mitsy I`ve ever known she sent me a package full of wool rowing for felting. And because she is the world`s sweetest Mitsy she sent some extra too.

You should have seen my face when I opened the package!

There popped up so many lovely things packed so nicely...
Here is my first "It`s not perfect, but ok"-felted necklace I made using Mitsy`s Felted necklace tutorial

Look what she gave me too! This is so pretty!

And i just couldn`t stop smiling when I found these Feeling cards! luuv these :)

...and the sweetest thing of all; I think this have been a chocolate "button" but because of the terrible heat we have here it had melted totally. But i think i can secretly drink it when noone is around ;)


Thank you dear Mitsy!

Friday is my day: Petit Plat

Hello dear Friday friends! Back from holidays with fresh new blog for Fridays. Remember to add "My day is Friday" to your friend list and we will follow you.

So, are you ready to travel again through the world and visit amazing artists and handcrafters? I am! And today we will have super yummy trip to France. We will meet Stéphanie from PetitPlat.etsy.com She makes the best and the most beautiful cakes and cookies in town in miniature size. Amazing work!

Bon appetite!

Green Love Tart - 1/12 m i n i a t u r e
by PetitPlat

Ok so you’ll have a peek at a regular PetitPlat day.

I usually get up at 8:00 am. I don’t like to stay long in the bed because I’m the most efficient in the morning! My boyfriend usually stays in bed until 8:30. – 9:00

I go down to take my breakfast, you’ll see that food (real one) is a important part of my life.
First, the ‘kids’, Boudu and Kheops get some food and fresh water.


My breakfast is always composed of:
A multi-fruit juice + a bowl of hot chocolate + bread (preferably whole wheat and cereals) and jam.



I then take a shower, get dressed and around 8:45 – 9:00 I’ll start my PC, to check emails, answer convos, look at new comments and prepare some packaging.




Today is rather a good ‘light’ day so I’m going to make some photos for my shop. Besides I’m not in a clay mood right now and have plenty stuff at home which I need to photograph in order to sell!
You can see that my ‘photo studio’ is rather messy, miniatures, dollhouse furniture and paper lying everywhere…


12:00 I’m getting hungry, so it’s time to cook! Yay! I love cooking!
Today I try something new, potato and trout ‘boulette’ with some salad. Easy and good.




Today is a bit special, I’m doing some cookies after lunch, with my boyfriend’s help. I don’t eat cookies everyday, but we’re in holidays, parents are not at home, so we’re eating more and better :D



I get back to work, which means mooore photos! Here a result of today’s photosession.





4:00 pm goûter!! Or ‘a-cute-name-for-a-sweet-break-because-it’s-just-too-long-to-eat-nothing-between-12-and-8pm’
I usually take a bowl of cereals, sometimes brioche, sometimes bread. No cookies, don’t know why, but I prefer them as dessert :)



Back to work and some more photos and editing.

8:00 pm, dinner!! (oh how I love food :D)
This evening spaghetti frutti di mare yum yum!



After doing the washing up (we don’t have any dish washer), cleaning the kitchen and feeding the animals I usually just surf on the web.

Around 0:00 time for sleeping and reading a bit

New blog for Fridays

Hello people. I decided to create and dedicate own blog for Friday is my day-posts and other interesting finds. All old Friday posts are moved from http://helisengezer.blogspot.com
Please be our friend and follow "Friday is my day" :)

New Friday post on next Friday.

Friday is my day:Kraplap

Today we will fly to "a tiny village of 20 homes in the most northern part of Germany" as like Petronella aka Kraplap announces in her kraplap etsy shop. She is a real button queen, she designs the most incredible button jewelry and she makes bags and clothing too. I would love to see her button treasury one day :)

Please visit her etsy shop!

(click any photo to enter to the shop)

Non-Dissonant Feather Necklace
by kraplap

OK, here we go. I am warning you because it will be very unexciting…..
People who know me from earlier days do not understand that I can live here in the country without any entertainment. I used to be a university teacher and researcher, and I worked from 8 in the morning to 10 in the evening; giving courses, doing research, student consultancy etc. My office was always full of students, and my social life was centered around the studentship till deep into the night. I always said the students are my kids, and the research is what I am living for. Well, things change ….

I wake up somewhere between 9 and 11 in the morning; it depends when Peggy thinks it’s enough. She is making so much fuss, noises, licking, nosing that I have to get out of bed and let her out to do her thing.
It’s a pretty slow process to wake up, and important is my coffee. I have my own superfast mini coffee machine. Then I eat some plain yoghurt, shower, do my back gymnastics, and the day can begin.
Most of the time I am working for 1 or 2 hours on some project (i.e. computing and algebraic modelling) for a US based animal institute, and then later in the day or very late in the evening another 2 hours. This means sitting behind my PC and analyzing data, and performing some algebra on it, and then writing reports of it. A small remainder of my earlier university life. And I check Etsy of course ….

After lunch (which is only a few crackers and some cheese; not very showable because I am not making any fuss of it, not exciting to watch….) I am working a bit in the garden. Mostly weeding, but today also sowing. It’s time for the beans. I am glad hubby made such a nice high bed for my vegetables, because I must keep my back straight because of my back injury. I have some different salads in there, rhubarb, red radish and horseradish. Furthermore, lots of different squashes and carrots.

I am pretty proud of my herb garden with all kinds of mint, thyme, oregano, sage, tarragon, fennel, chives, rosemary etc. Hubby is the cook in the house, but I deliver the most delicious fresh vegetables and herbs ! I will give it a bit more water today, because we had such warm dry days (very exceptional for northern Germany in this season).

And I have a quick look if the offspring is already there; no, it’s pretty quiet. No little birdies yet.

Then I am going for a long walk along the fjord (i.e. the Schlei) with Peggy; but before that she needs to have her anti-tick treatment for this month. She is so sweet, standing very still when I am treating her (probably because she knows she get some sweets when done).

I go down to the fjord on a very dangerous, but very romantic path. It’s so beautiful down there, so quiet. And I always find great stones and shells etc. Peggy loves it there too, she even tries to catch the ducks. She jumps into the water and the poor beasts have to fly away.

And when the weather is fine I am going for a row. I love rowing, Peggy doesn’t, so she stays on the shore and enjoys herself with all the unseen but excitingly smelling animals.

Back home I am sewing a bag and making some new button-brooches today. There’s not much to do in my little shop because the holiday season must start here yet.
I could not take a picture of myself sewing, because I could not find out how to do that and hubby was not at home. So, here a pic of my sewing place in my little shop (the former garage rebuilt into my workspace).

When hubby comes home he makes a delicious vegetable and fish puff-pastry pie, and the weather is gorgeous so we eat outside. I love everything hubby cooks, that’s why I am an XL type… ahum hubby eats twice as much as me, is 30cm taller and about 20 kg lighter. What about that ???

After dinner he is working on the balcony that had to be replaced. It’s an ongoing building site here, first the garage, then the garden shed, now the balcony etc…

After playing with Peggy, who is always happy to have hubby back home again, I am sewing a bit more and work a bit more on my algebra project. Hubby and Peggy go to bed and I am looking a bit late TV, checking Etsy for the last time, and finally go to bed too. That’s it.

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P.S "Friday is my day" will leave on summer vacation now and will be back in about 1 month or so.

Wishing you all happy and warm summer :)

See you soon!

heli

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Friday is my day: Sigmosaics

Yey! Today we will ride to sunny Portugal and meet sweet Kerrin from Sigmosaics.etsy.com and her cute 3 little "musketeers". She makes, as you can guess, beautiful mosaic works from Portuguese ceramic tiles and found pieces of ceramic, stones, gems, mirror, glass...

Please visit her Etsy shop!

(click any photo to enter the shop)

Square mother of pearl mosaic hanging ball
by Sigmosaics

Well hello there .. I'm Kerrin. I'm a kiwi girl who has lived in Portugal for the past 7 years .. I'm 'mummy' to 3 wonderful children and well, here's my friday ..

Arrrrrgh, it's 7am and the sweet dulcet tones of my inbuilt etsy alarm clock goes off in my head (don't you have the same one? .. you know, it's been 7 or 8 hours since the last etsy fix and all)

I sneak downstairs (REALLY I do) and look forward to my half hour of 'etsy' time alone .. just me and the laptop .. oh and my BIG mug of coffee. So while the coffee perks in the machine I jump into Etsy feet first! Swing by the EST thread (gotta say hi to the team), check and see if any miracles have occured overnight .. sigh .. nothing today, then read wonderful convo's from gorgeous people all over the world (LOVE that part) .. have a quick check of my emails ..

Pitter patter .. pitter patter .. here comes a sleepy 3 year old girl .. BIG good morning cuddles and kisses, followed soon after by her 5 year old brother and then as per usual I have to go and wake his twin sister!!!!

'Mummy we are hungry!!!' 8.15am ('ish) we make the breakfast, we're a toast family .. I usually have my 2nd cup of coffee right about now (I have breakfast once I get back from dropping the kids at the kindy) .. oh and that's MY coffee alongside their toast (I usually grab the huge and enormous Noddy cup .. )

8.45am 'Are you dressed yet?' .. 'where are your shoes?' .. ' Get your pants on!' .. 'NO, put your undies on first!!!' .. all of this screamed out whilst showering.
9.00am ('ish) we are buckled up in our car seats and ready to go.

Everybody say 'bye house' .. 'BYE HOUSE' !!!

Kindy is a 5 minute drive up the road .. yay! This is us driving up the road .. good thing there are no police around this morning cause i'm driving like a mad crazy thing trying to take photo's at the same time!

Bye bye my dears .. now it's time to get the bread! Every single morning I go to our local cafe to buy the yummy freshly baked bread .. no i don't own a bread maker, that's just wishful thinking.

On the way back down the hill I notice an elderly woman doing her laundry at one of the public 'laundry' areas (yes, they do exist here and yes, there are people that use them) .. I notice she's got her bottle of wine lined up next to her washing powder (go figure) .. I've slowed to a stop to take this photo and she doesn't see me.

Home again .. usual time consuming and mundane chores to be done before I can get to do my work! No, i don't have a cleaner .. again wishful thinking!

Finally I have my time .. I am looking at the pile of new dishes and bowls that are just screaming to be mosaic'd and rub my hands together in glee ...

12.15pm and my tummy begins to rumble. Today my 5 year old daughter prepared me lunch because she knew I would be taking a photo of my lunch today .. she made me a pot of french fries AND a fried chicken leg .. ooh, it looks so much yummier than my cheese and tomato sandwich! I've sneaked a few treats from the kids lolly basket .. ha ha!

I have a bit of time to continue to chip away at a very long 'work in progress' project .. (and yep, another coffee .. with Noddy .. )

Today there's no time to grout any new pieces it's already kindy pick up time! (for the month of June they finish at 1.30pm) so i'm grabbing the keys and racing out the door to shoot up the road to get the kids.

Play time .. YAY! Anyone for a game of hide and seek?

OOoooooooh, family portrait time ..everybody say cheese ...

Would you like to meet my friend? His name is Henry and he's my octopus .. I made him around 3 years ago to adorn the wall beside the BBQ ..

Jeepers, it's crept up to 5.30 pm and that means inside time and dinner preparation time (and of course a quick Etsy check in time) .. ha ha .. go on admit it, you are as addicted as I am!

6.30pm .. I'm a HUGE fan of one pot (or in this case tonight, one pan) cooking .. so we are having a Fritatta with salad .. sooooooo easy and yummy!

7.15pm .. quick quick quick .. get those rascals upstair for a soak in the bath, scrubbed, out .. into Pj's .. read stories and now .. te he he .. they can have 1/2 an hour of watching 'Winx' while I have a quick chat with the gals (and occasional boys) on the thread ..

Time to brush your teeth kiddies!!! 'bathroom now!'

And now my 3 darlings have a little message they would like to share with you ...

8.30pm-9pm kids are sleeping .. yay!
9pm to midnight ('ish) it's my time to work, to catch up on emails, convo's, news, read the online New Zealand newspaper, chat with friends etc .. try to chip away at another mosaic project
Around midnight .. bedtime. Always without fail (I guess only because I don't have a man in my life at the moment ha ha!!) I read upon going to bed .. 2 minutes or 2 hours, it doesn't matter, reading my books is my way of unwinding from the day!!