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To be honest it’s time, here in my home, to do some big cleaning, rearranging, refurbishing and restoring. You know, lots and lots of plain cleaning and then paint the walls again, replace some carpet, paint the table in a new colour etc.

Don’t see any time at the moment but when I get to this point, I’ll definitely will make a wall with drawers/crates. The two pictures above inspire me the most. Love the different wallpapers that are used and the way the crates are arranged.
The two pictures below are more like an inspiration. An inspiration to use drawers, and to work from the floor up. Don’t you just love this ideas? Simple, cheap and all about recycling and restyling. Love, love, love..

picture sources here

I love fingerless mittens. Only when it’s freezing, I’ll wear gloves but otherwise fingerless mittens. And because I’m very skinny and I always have cold hand and feet, I’ll wear them in my house too. But I lost my pair, I made last year. Grrr… Searched the whole house but I can’t find them anymore, so it’s time to make a new pair and maybe an extra pair.

Don’t know yet if I’m going to knit or crochet. But time enough to think about! I can’t start this week. Way to busy! This afternoon I’m going to attend a friends promotion on the University. Never have been at a promotion, so I’m very excited. My dress is already chosen! Then I need to finish a custom order and in the weekend I’m doing a interior project at a customers home. I’ll have to paint a wall tree. Nice job!

So nice things to look forward too, nice work and in the meantime I can think about how to make some new fingerless mittens. Love the knitted ones above. Simple but nice (and a gorgeous picture!!). The one with the rainbow fingers is lovely!!! This ravelry pattern will be provided with a pattern..
The one below is smashing because of the stripes. I love the stripes here! And the green crocheted ones are funky! Not for in the house.. way too thick. But a good colour inspiration and how great is the ‘love’ word on them…
Hmmmm…. time to have a good thought about it!

(all pictures and links to the original resources can be found on my pinterest)

I’m following Krochet Kids for a few years now. These fabulous young guys from the US did a volunteer program in an orphanage home in Northern Uganda, a few years ago. They noticed that all the people are depending on aid, on help from others. As surf dudes they always crocheted their own hats and so they thought; give the ladies a hook, train them, give them a job and mentor them to independence.
In 2007 they started in Northern Uganda with ten ladies. Now they give jobs to over 120 woman! In 2008 there were 2000 hats made, in 2011 over a hundred thousand. 92% of their profits goes into Krochet Kids. Over 431 children can go to school because of the crochet jobs Krochet Kids provides.
A year ago, with a KickStarter project, they managed to set up a new project in Peru and new hats are knitted and hand loomed by twenty four women.

Krochet Kids works with a very simple plan. Quoted: “We provide a job so that women can meet the present needs of their families. We educate them so that they develop beyond the need for outside aid. We provide mentorship to help each lady plan a unique and sustainable career path for the future.”

I’m so much in love with the way they work. I so believe in the way they work. It’s a kind of development aid but a constructive one. Something that works in the long run, not the short one. It’s like with that saying: either give the man a fish, or learn him how to fish? Give people/woman a job, educate them, pay them fair, give them a voice, the feeling of being independent instead of  reliant on aid and mentor them to get their lives back.
Hope, hope, hope to set up a project alike, ones. Not so big!! But just a small project to give something back, make a change for a few woman…

Please check out these, one of a kind videos, Krochet Kids made.
Meet the guys, the women, hear her story and see the change.
Pure, transparent, touching, sweet and happy.

who is krochet kids
I’m made better by it
the story of Akello Welsy Olara
the power of thank you

all pictures belong to Krochet Kids; Buy a hat, Change a life

source/link

I just got the message that everything is okay with mom and her newborn son.
I’m so happy for my friends, who got a healthy son, last night.
I truly believe that a handmade present for a newborn is the best gift to give. It’s from the heart, so personal and (as the baby) made with love. I love these sweet little yellow moccasins, or this little knitted jacket with hood, make a name with fabric letters or a sweet knitted toadstool rattle.

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I didn’t made any of these but crocheted a bunting. That was the pre-work, now I need to finish the bunting with the little guy’s name by making a felt letter on each flag. But in order to do that, it’s handy to know the little guy’s name.. Have to have some patience..

(clicking on source/link will get you to my pinterest,
click on the picture there to go to the original source!)

I have no idea how it works with summer and winter time in other countries but here we set our clock back and forth two times a year. One hour back for wintertime and one hour further for summertime. Going back one hour for the winter means shorter days because of way more darkness in the evening and early morning.
This weekend we set the clock back, so our days are shorter.. I always have to adjust myself a little bit around this time. Not because of the clock, but because of winter, of more darkness and cold, and shorter days. I need light!

Going into winter means more use of lamps and lightning. You don’t have to buy. Or buy expensive. All the lamps here are handmade and I love them all. A bundle of vintage lamps together, lamps on a branch, a origami lightning.. find more lovely and cool ideas on my Pinterest (also for resources and tutorials) at the ‘recycle, restyle, reuse’ board.

These are so pretty.
I love this idea from Evie from MiloMade!!
As SOIL, MiloMade is all about reduce, reuse, recycle.
Evie makes beautiful items..
Love her work!
Find this idea on her blog and find a wide range
of perfect products in her shop.

picture belongs to milomade.co.uk

fall felt leaves by dana made it

Fall is making her entrance. The wind is blowing harder, colours are changing, more rain, a fall sun and a earlier darker evenings. Lots of leaves, in the most beautiful colours, are falling of the trees. The forest is full of toadstools, pinecones and chestnuts. Lots of materials to work with. Here some very nice fall craft inspiration. Enjoy!

fall craft inspirations with leaves by kokokoKIDS

painted sticks heart by makesomething365

apartment therapy: egg shell roses, jewellery display, art board, stylish maps

family fun: paper flowers, tin robots, carton & paper dollhouse, jug heads

Sometimes someone tells you something or gives you feedback without knowing the power of those words. I guess you know what I mean, don’t you? Today I got such a powerful message that hit me in my heart and will make me smile for the rest of the week.
I got an email from Stephanie, an volunteer librarian in the Seattle area. She wanted to thank me for creating the diy and craft page with lots and lots links to good craft sites. And off course SOIL tries to find lots of recycle craft links. It helped her teaching her class on the importance of recycling.
That gives me such a good feeling. My goal with SOIL isn’t just to sell handmade products, items that are sustainable or made with recycled materials. I want to inspire too, tell the world to think about the things you buy, think about how it’s made, where it’s from, how much we waste, how fun reusing and recycling is, how beautiful it is.. So if someone on the other side of the world finds my site, gets inspired and finds help in learning kids about recycling, I feel very happy!

One of Stephanie’s students, Mary, found a new great resource on recycling. Here’s the link “Recycling and Paper Arts and Crafts for Kids” Mary found. All the recycle crafts in this post are links that come from this site. It’s a very good resource page with lots of information on recycling and ideas for recycling crafts. Thanks so much Mary for finding this page!! And thanks Stephanie for making time to email me and letting me know.

apartment therapy: kids craft with toilet rolls; napkin rings, changing faces dolls, bird feeder, car

it’s not greener at your neighbours..

When I started doing textile crafts, I started to learn myself knitting. That wasn’t easy. Very soon I found my way to the hook and crochet is my true passion!! But I wanted to knit too, so after a while I tried again and found the rhythm. So I can knit but after a few years I’m still on level beginner to intermediate. Straight knitting with basic stitches, a little cable, knitting in the round for hats, take on stitches or leave them, I can do it all but fair isle knitting, ajour knits, working on complete clothing patterns is not for me.

But if I see this vest above from Milena Silvano, I think: I can do a vest!! I love this one and as you can see, it’s just about squares (and a lot of imagination). Really love this vest and love the inspiration. (picture is from my pinterest)