jan-ul

building a house

2012-03-08T12:28:00.004-08:00

I had this idea in my head for a longer time: to make a doll house from a cardboard box. We have plenty of these at home, so the only problem would be the construction. Making the base was simple, it´s just a box. I had more throuble with the roof, it takes a bit more thought to make it firm (in the end I couldn´t make it as firm as I wanted...). The house is probably not finished yet, but I´m so pleased with it that I decided to post some photos anyway. I love making the interior - much more fun than the outer construction! I would like to add something yellow... kitchen cabinets or something. Of course, all of this is very simply and quickly made - I didn´t want it to be perfect. Also, it would help to have thicker wrapping paper, which I didn´t. I will probably work on it some more, but if I don´t... I like it anyway the way it is now :).

an award for me

2012-03-06T12:02:00.004-08:00

I got an award! From the fine girls Lavender and Hana. Thank you ladies, I was very happy to hear this :). I´m not going to nominate anyone, because I don´t really read a lot of blogs. These days I find very little time to sit by the computer, and then I look at three or four blogs I like and know for a long time and that´s it. I don´t feel like I could find anything new for someone out there...

In other news, I´m cleaning up a room for Marie and I´m happy she likes to be in the room a lot. I just don´t know if she´s willing to sleep there. So far, she sleeps downstairs and the spare room is upstairs... It´s a bit of a hassle to walk upstairs for both me and her in the evening. I can´t decide when to put her bed upstairs. Before the baby is born would be probably a better time...
Aaand the baby! My belly is so huge; people keep telling me, wow, you belly is so huge, I had no idea this can get that big! :) Yeah, and for me, it´s pretty difficult. I can´t wait for the baby to be out (but at the same time I need some time before it´s born to organize few things...). My clothes are all almost too small, I have almost nothing to wear now. Well, something over a month to go.

I saw these wooden dolls somewhere on Pinterest recently, and remembered seeing them in a shop in Prague many years ago. I love them! They are 40cm high and there are two kinds: armless and naked, and in wooden dresses with arms. Unfortunately, they are very expensive, I could never afford one. I would buy the naked one and make her a fabric dress...

At the cinema

2012-02-27T00:04:00.003-08:00

Or, the titel could also be, "I can´t remember".

outfit decorations

2012-02-24T10:33:00.002-08:00

I´ve already posted a part of these, but now they are complete! I wanted to make a set of five outfits and finally they are finished: four dresses and a coat.

blue foxes everywhere

2012-02-22T07:46:00.004-08:00

So, as you may know, I´ve been a bit obsessed by the vision of blue fox since summer last year. It´s because I had a dream then: in that dream I saw two blue foxes looking at me... outside, in a white landscape. (A bit later I found out I became pregnant some day around that time..) It was such a strong experience, I couldn´t stop thinking about that dream. I promised to paint it and I did. But that was not enough, blue foxes stayed in my brain and I was thinking about other ways to bring them to life. So I made small fox ornaments on Christmas, and for a long time planned to make a bigger, toy fox. It took a lot of planning, drawing and one unsuccesful pattern test fox. But now it´s finished. This is the first one, I´m certainly making more and I´m so proud :). This one is made from dark blue corduroy I found in my stash and the removable skirt is from organza.

girl brooch

2012-02-18T12:07:00.004-08:00

I made my second brooch, this time from fabric, a girly one. Another one is sewn up already, just needs to be embroidered. I enjoy making these small ornaments lately, handsewing a lot. More to come soon... I also made simple knit sweatpants for Marie, and I love them. It´s pretty satisfying to make something so practical. I just need to take a photo some time...

pants

2012-02-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

I finished making my summer pants. They still need hemming, but I can´t do that unless I put them on... I´m not going to post them on Burda style yet, because I can´t try them on. I have to wait until my huge belly is gone and my hips hopefully shring back to normal. I love turquoise! We all are more or less ill, getting better and then worse again, and that will probably last till the spring. It´s freezing cold here. Luckily it´s february already!

blue silk dress

2012-01-15T07:26:00.000-08:00

This is the dress I made. It´s made of silk (synthetic, maybe...?) and working with it was awful! But the color is so nice that I made my best to finish it :). I´m so big now, chubby everywhere with a huge chest, I feel quite strange in my own body. And it will only get worse... I can´t imagine how will I look like in april :D. You probably won´t be able to see me behind my belly then. Other than this, I feel ok. The big belly is getting in my way for sure, and there are only few clothes I can wear now. Today I tried to trace a pattern to make my pants, and because I do this on the floor, I almost wasn´t able to bend down my round body. Oh well, I look like a fat little bear now :). 27weeks pregnant.

living room

2012-01-15T03:20:00.000-08:00

Look, we painted our living room!!! Finally, the awful yellow is gone from the remaining two walls (the ones on the photo). It was exhausting both psychically and physically, but I´m so glad it´s done. I love the gray. Well, maybe it´s not really done completely, because I plan to paint a flowery pattern on one of the walls. I just feel so exhausted to do it right now and I don´t really know how to do that (I borrowed certain equipment to paint the pattern, but I´m not sure if I can do it). Anyway, this is a huge relief :). Now I just have to reupholster the armchairs and the living room will be done.
I also made a dress which I wore to a ball, but I don´t have any pictures of myself wearing it yet - hopefully soon I´ll be able to post it. I´m also working on a leather bag: I´m excited at this, but it´s also quite nerve wrecking, as sewing leather can be quite challenging and my sewing machine is making all sorts of strange sounds while sewing :). And I´m about to dive into a really big project (at least for the unexperienced myself) - sewing throusers. These are (hopefully!) going to be linen, shorter summer style of thousers, without the fly (side opening instead, to make things easier). I would like them to be long, but I didn´t buy enough fabric. Lesson learned! Wish me luck.
And I´m also working on another painting, quite a big one, and I love it. I hope to finish it soon, because often it takes me so long to finish a painting, which is so tiring. It would be lovely to make something a bit "easier" :).

At the cottage

2012-01-12T03:30:00.000-08:00

small brooch

2012-01-12T01:17:00.000-08:00

I made this small brooch recently. It´s made of leather and I made it entirely with the sewing machine, no hand sewing. Hand sewing leather can be quite difficult... It´s a pastor with black glasses, aka mafioso pastor (long story :). It´s stuffed and at the back there is a pin. I guess this is the first brooch I ever made.

naive (folk) art in Biskupice

2012-01-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

We visited my husband´s parents during Christmas, and while we stayed at their place, we made several trips to interesting places. One of them was this spectacular house in a village called Biskupice, with garden filled with statues. They are made of concrete and painted, and they were created by a lady who lived in the house (and died few years ago). She was a village woman, not a real artist, but I think what she did is so great. Much better than what many "real" professional artists do :). There are many statues of people and animals, but also the whole house and its surroundings are painted, almost every bit of wall. There are also big statues of animals on the roof. I was in awe of this, such a joy of life and creating things. I love things like this.

shopping for the baby

2012-01-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

I´m looking forward to the baby very much, but I´m also quite nervous. I just feel so unorganized and unprepared. I can´t decide where to put the crib, where Marie is going to sleep, how is it all going to happen when the small one is born. The baby clothes are a mess, hidden somewhere in the attic, and I have no idea what I´ll need for the baby, what kind of nappies I´ll use etc. So I decided to just buy something beautiful to comfort myself :). I bought this beautiful baby swathe, which I´ve admired for a very long time, and a small woolen blanket. I love these. I´m actually kind of afraid to use the blanket, I just want to look at it as if it were a nice painting :). The materials are beautiful and it´s all handmade. I´m really big already, with huge belly, and it´s seriously starting to be quite uncomfortable. I´m looking forward to the end, when I´m back to my old self! There are three months to go...

Christmas, in no particular order

2011-12-30T14:08:00.000-08:00

another christmas baking

2011-12-17T14:12:00.001-08:00

We´re doing well. I´m tidying up the house, baking and looking forward to christmas :).

making

2011-12-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

I´ve finished some of the christmas ornaments - I loved making these. I gave the owl to my friend today, but made another one already (it will also be a gift). My hand warmers are finished too. I´m not 100% satisfied with how they came out, but I don´t really know how to do things differently, so for now, these will have to do. And my new scarf: I love all things light pink these days, I guess it´s caused by hormones, but this colour appeales to me so much.

waiting for christmas

2011-12-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

I´ve been a little desperate lately, because as every winter, Marie is ill over a month and can´t get better. She always gets cold, which isn´t horrible, but the cough is bad and lasts for so long... maybe all winter. That means little sleep, no outside walks, no other activities than being home. Me and Petr are also ill, not feeling well and exhausted by all that. I know Marie´s cough is so bad because of her pharyngeal tonsils being too big, but a friend told me recently that they might devolop like that because I haven´t (couldn´t) breastfeed her. I´m quite shocked and sad by this - I have to ask a doctor if that´s thrue.
Anyway, I´ve made a christmas candle holder and I´m surprised that it works :). It´s made from fimo, so nothing very natural, but that´s just what I had at home. The little white ornamenst are made from salt dough. I took a picture of the candle holder with our medicaments, because I thought it shows our situation well.
And the salt dough! It was my first time making and working with salt dough, and it´s a great thing, lovely to make ornaments and small objects with and generally pleasing activity for small children. It´s quite fragile, so some of the ornaments broke, but most are ok. We painted some of them with watercolors today and it looks nice. My favourite is the coat (I can´t sew one, so instead I made one from dough...). To make this, you simply mix 2 cups of flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water, make whatever you want, and let the objects air dry. You can also keep the dough in a plastic bag to use it later.

baking

2011-11-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

And we made some gingerbread christmas cookies today. I don´t plan to bake a lot of cookies, but making these felt good.

gingerbread house: never more

2011-11-25T06:23:00.000-08:00

So, I made a gingerbread house. Don´t ask me anything. This is definitely a defeat (lol). Let´s pretend this is some kind of modern progressive architecture gingerbread house.

what I´ve been making

2011-11-22T06:02:00.000-08:00

I finished my pink winter cap and I love it! It looks a bit 30s, exactly how I wanted it to look.
Also I started to make some small christmas ornaments - tiny outfits, and I really like them so far :). And look what I´m also making right now: at last, hand warmers (or how should I call them). I´m very happy with what I have so far, and I hope they´ll turn out nice.

in the mirror

2011-11-18T11:41:00.001-08:00

coats

2011-11-15T23:49:00.000-08:00

I´ve been thinking a lot about coats lately. I hate the cold that comes with winter, but the upside of it are the coats! There are so many possibilities, so many beautiful colours and patterns. (Of course, last winter I bought a black coat - nothing too interesting and original). I´d love to make my own coat, but for one thing I don´t really know how to do it - one needs special interfacing (which I´m not sure is possible to buy in our country), interlining for warmth, lining... There are a lot of things involved. Also, it´s very pricey, and takes a lot of time. It would take me a year probably, with all the other things I do. But it´s the option to choose a colour: pink, blue, mustard, that keeps me thinking about making a coat. When it comes to the shapes, I´ve always loved the classic dufflecoat. It reminds me of English countryside and it´s so casual while great looking. On the other side I´m drawn towards more elegant styles, the coats with classic lapels and belts. But that one would be much more difficult to make :).
Sorry, I don´t know most of the sources of these pictures... n.3 Burdastyle Talea coat, n.6 Burberry Prorsum, n.7 Burdastyle coat, n.8 the Sartorialist

I need some colour

2011-11-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

I started making a new cap for myself! I´m quite excited, as the material is lovely, 60% acryl and 40% wool - feels very nice and isn´t too expensive. In this dread winter I suddenly wanted some colour: pink, cobalt blue. Actually I´ve been thinking about sewing a winter coat (I´ve seen some really nicely coloured wool coating fabrics on the net), and I loved the pinks and blues. I´d love a light dusty pink coat and also a dark cobalt blue (I hope it´s what it´s called in English) coat. I can´t decide which colour I´d choose! Blue is more practical, but pink seems so feminine and cute. Anyway: I´m too big now to wear a nicely shaped coat, also I don´t have any time to make it. So, what I do, is dream about the coat I would make if I could :). With a hood, long enough (to the knees), more fitted at the top and looser in the lower area. Something like this coat from Burda style (but with a hood). I have to wear a really funny coat now, because my nice coats don´t fit me anymore, and I hope that this nice vivid pink and orange cap will brighten it up nicely. I hope this time I´m successful, because I had to undo one of the cotton caps I was making (the dark blue and cream cap in an earlier post) - it was too big. Starting again...
Other than this, I´m very happy that I bought almost all of my christmas presents - and I really like what I got so far. A beautiful book for Marie (I may show you some pictures later), as well as handmade doll for her, a special wine drink for my father, really nice shopping bags for my mother and mother in law, so far a shirt and a book for my husband.
And I have some big plans for the near future: finishing some paintings and starting a new one, sewing some cute maternity clothes (probably a skirt - I´m inspired by these patterns), making a doll from fimo (and maybe some other smaller things), making something from felt... this list is never ending :). I just hope to find the energy to make at least something.

moments

2011-11-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

Who needs toys when you have some cardboard and buttons? Marie helped me pack something today and was playing along the way. There was a huge yard sale at our church, here are some of my finds :). Also, I finally repaired a drake (?) that my mother bought me when I was about 8. I remember clearly how it happened: I cried and cried hysterically that I don´t want any other (cheaper) toy than this one :). Its arm was tearen off because I probably started to hate the toy once we got home :). Oh, children... sweet angels!

crocheting

2011-10-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

I´ve been crocheting a lot lately. I love that you can do this while talking to guests and that you don´t need too much equipment. The grey acrylic cap is for Marie and is very warm (I hope!). The cotton one will be for me and I want to make it bright, colourful and playful :). I also bought some more yarn for more caps!

cold and dark

2011-10-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

Oh, how bad I feel in the weather we have here now. Outside it´s cold and dark, and inside... well, we don ´t get much warmth either :). At least not in the whole apartment. The weather is also changing quite a lot, which probably causes me several health problems with my blood pressure and headache. But, it seems like it´s the perfect time to watch some old Aki Kaurismäki movies! We saw Ariel, Hold your scarf, Tatiana and Drifting clouds, and I loved all of them. Funny and depressing at the same time. I borrowed some books (again) and started to attempt crocheting (again), and the results so far are not very good. I find myself unraveling all the time... But I really want to make a winter hat for Marie, so I keep trying. I made two new dolls, but I´m showing only one of them, because the other one didn´t turn out as I wished... Hmm, maybe next time I´ll do better. I´m looking forward to Christmas a lot, but I´m also nervous concerning the presents. What are you buying or making to your dear ones? For Marie it´s pretty easy, of course, but presents for men are the toughtest! Share your ideas, if you know already :).
Sorry to those I didn´t respond to in the comments... Thanks to all your comments and kind words! I´m just lately not really able to respond to everyone, as I still don´t feel very well and sometimes try to stay off the computer :).

in love with...

2011-09-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

a hotel. Is it weird? I´m obsessed with this building, "hotel Hrušov". It´s an old hotel, built in 1930s, and probably very luxurious and "posh" in those days, now abandoned and almost a ruin. I´ve seen it about two years ago for the first time, and I loved it. Such majestic building, with beautiful details, many windows. I couldn´t stop fantasizing about the interior, and imagining the noble history, guests that visited it. It was all just so decadent and romantic. I took a photo of it and decided I need to paint it. And I did :). This summer, we walked by again, and we were told they are going to tear it down, because it´s in a very bad shape. I took some photos again, and made a second painting of it.
Yesterday, we had a friend over who loves architecture, and we went to see some buildings in the town where the hotel is, and also looked at the hotel. The windows were gone, glass everywhere, also the beautiful balconies were knocked down. It made me almost teary eyed. We went inside (there was no one around), and walked through the rooms, kitchen, bathrooms. It was very dangerous, because there were pieces of wood, walls, glass etc. everywhere on the floor and stairs, so I couldn´t go to the upper floors (also, I was afraid the floor could break up or something). I´m glad I got inside, but I´m sorry I didn´t do that before they started with the renovations - or at least I hope they are going to do some renovations. As our friend said, if they wanted to tear the building down, they would just demolish it right away. We´ll see. At least I have the photos. Maybe I´m weird with this strange affection for this building, but I can´t help myself :).

Oh, and sorry for the lack of posts. The thing is, I´ve been quite busy recently, getting ready for some exhibitions and occasions. And also, I got pregnant :). So that´s to explain my sickness I wrote about. I don´t feel completely well yet, but in the evenings I´m able to do something again. At the moment I´m pretty frightened about the whole thing, but hoping.

Dresden

2011-09-03T12:19:00.000-07:00

I´ve been away for a while, and that´s because I´ve been a bit sick for some time. I´m still not entirely back to my painting, sewing and making, but we went for a great trip with our friends to Dresden yesterday! I´ve been there about 13years ago and visited the gallery of "old masters" in Zwinger, and this time we went to Albertinum to see the newer works. I loved the exhibition and the whole building, its architecture and design is stunning! What I loved most was the statue of young ballerina by Edgar Degas (of course...:). I always loved this statue and was glad to find it there. I stared at it for a long time (and I´m inspired to make some dolls...). The skirt is amazing, it´s made of many layers of gathered tulle, and I love the shade it has now. (Did the colour change during all those years? Probably... maybe not too much). I also loved the Frauenkirche, a church that was attacked during the 2.w.w., was destroyed and recently built again according to old plans. When I was last time in Dresden, the church was still missing and if I remember well, they were working on its renovation.
link

clothes for Marie

2011-08-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

So, instead of buying, I made few clothes for little Marie :). Making child garments is usually quick and easy (as the fit isn´t so important), so it´s really enjoyable. I use simple patterns with cheap fabrics which make the process really fuss free. All the patterns are from 1992 Burda mag my grandma gave me - she used to make clothes for me and my brother with it when we were kids :). With this single Burda I already made two pairs of throusers for Marie (and now the coat and the leggings). I´m also making a winter coat with the same pattern now, minus the ruffles in the front and minus the hood, unfortunatelly, because I don´t have enough fabric. Instead of the hood I´m making a collar, which I like too! And I plan to make her some nice cord pants, too. I love making these small pieces.
And look at this beauty! I accidentally picked a zucchini with a bud and took it home, and then it bloomed like this in our kitchen :).

children´s clothes

2011-08-09T11:37:00.001-07:00

Oh my! A friend told me about this wonderful store Veselá nohavice (something like "Cheerful pant") with kids chlothes and I´m totally amazed. I´m especially attracted to their fall and winter designs (not surprisingly, as the fall inevitably approaches). I´m afraid I want to buy something :). My favourites above.

inspired and obsessed

2011-08-09T02:10:00.000-07:00

I´ve came across the (czech) designer Hana Zárubová few times recently. I read about her in an old Burda magazine, and loved her work. Some of it is of course too eccentric for me (or for most people) to wear, but I´ve been really thrilled by few designs. She uses mostly basic black, white and grey for colours. The materials are often soft looking knits, and I became obsessed by the idea to make a knit dress inspired by these. Especially I love the grey short sleeved dress from the Chmo collection. My second favourite is the black jacket from the No collection - very wearable and interesting shape. I´m also showing her white Chmo dress, and that´s mainly because some time ago I bought some light beige knit which would be perfect for something like this. Soft, ruched, full dress...

in the garden II.

2011-08-09T01:43:00.000-07:00

Another painting inspired by Adam and Eve. This one was so hard to make - I was working on it for many months, constantly starting over and over again. I was frequently thinking about throwing it away during the process. But I knew, that if I hold on with this painting to the end and finish it properly, it will be very rewarding :).

finished cap

2011-07-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

I finished the crocheted cap for my husband. It´s made of very nice yarns - one is light grayish green cotton and the second one is cream cotton/linen blend. I loved the green, but again, I only bought one skein and when I realized I want more it was too late (or maybe they only had this one piece when I was at the shop, I can´t remember). Unfortunately it´s too hot for the cap now, but I hope he likes it. The photo shows more of the cactus than the cap... of course :).
And I found this photo of my grandma Z during the day of her wedding in 1959. Don´t you love the car behind her? I think cars were so much more beautiful in the past than they are today :). I like that the photo is so casual, no make up or posing. I´ve seen profesional portrait photo of her and my grandpa as newlyweds, and she looked totally different than here. Also, I like her dress, and I like that it looks sor of casual too. I think it´s quite a new thing to get married in a "princess" dress like we are used to these days. Women not so long ago wore pretty ordinary dresses to their wedding, just white (light coloured) and a bit more luxurious. I like that, and I actually wore a very simple and relatively cheap dress to my own wedding too:).

feeling inspired

2011-07-24T04:01:00.000-07:00

So, I´ve came across this really cool blog about children clothes and toys filled with beautiful photos. And I thought, wait, I have a cute child too, why not try to take some photos of this cute child of mine, to create similar blog posts? Well, this is what I ended up with:
Even if you have a good camera, taking photos of your child in new pants isn´t as easy as it seems :).

summer wedding

2011-07-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

We went to a wedding of my childhood friend - it took place on a beautiful castle. We had to travel quite a lot to get there, but it was nice: we dropped the kid at my parents´and had a little rendez vous :). I wore my black dress I made recently, and I felt great in it. I made a small adjustment on the gaping neckline (ruched it a bit) and it fits better I think. Exactly the dress I needed. I also wore the pearl necklace I blogged about a while ago, and earrings I got from my friend. I have a new camera! It´s pretty difficult for me to use it, my husband wants me to understand the process of taking photos and it´s just too much information for my brain now :). But I hope I´ll learn everything, slowly.

living room changes

2011-07-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Embrace and love the imperfection! We made some changes to our living room/bedroom/my office. We wanted to have some kind of wardrobe in there for our clothes (we sleep on the couch, so it´s also our bedroom). To fit the new (old) piece of furniture in there, we had to move almost everything in the room, which was great, because now the couch is at the wall, and everything is finally at right angles again! I´m not showing the before (and before before...) photos, but this is the best we could come up with NOW. I know it looks like some shabby antique shop bookstore, but I don´t care :). Of course, these photos are also taken in the middle of moving, so it´s a mess. I plan to paint the two yellowish walls gray (as are the other two), and hopefully have the two arm chairs upholstered... some time. I love the corner with the yellow wardrobe and black piano. With my old lamp and vintage (oh yes, I probably can´t help to use this word, too :) doll, it looks like the perfect dirty thrift store and kind of granny chic! If granny chic means "I don´t really care what it looks like, I just need to fit all my old furniture into this room". This room has many doors and a window, so it´s hard to put any furniture in there, but that´s ok. I can live with the unpolished look. I love my yellow lamp (from my grandma), our perfect coffee table, our couch with the crazy slip cover I made. I really like this room! (It looks much bigger in the photos than it really is, due to wide angle lenses...)

mini pietro

2011-07-13T13:19:00.000-07:00

How awesome are these kid clothes from the collection "Aňa for minipietro with love"? I love them all and I would wear them myself, if they came in my size :). So lovely (also, pricy...). I am more and more fond of the czech brand pietro filipi, and now that I´ve learnt more about czech designer Hana Zárubová who works for them (more about her later :), I like it even more. The collection designed by actress Aňa Geislerová was lovely too, with its rosy pastel tones...

hair flower

2011-07-11T13:13:00.000-07:00

I made this flower to wear on the pony tail/bun. I always like similar flowers in shops, but then realize they only sell them as hair pins or brooches... which I don´t use at all. I want to make more of these, and maybe make them look more "ordinary" :).

bag for a friend

2011-07-07T14:21:00.001-07:00

I made this bag for my friend... I just hope she won´t read my blog until I have a chance to give it to her! :) It´s very simple but functional, and I hope she´ll like the design. My favourite is the pocket with the buildings and the little bird peeking out at the bottom. Just a simple tote bag suitable for shopping or carrying various things (I use bags like this all the time and I stuff them with stuff (!) that can´t fit into my purse :).

collage

2011-07-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

I made this with my girl today. I just started to cut out characters from newspapers, and than I thought about making a collage. So I did, and I love it. If you look closer you´ll see interesting uninteded and unexpected details like the two wreaths in low right corner, or how the person with spear is extending his hand to the kneeling man...

chocolate cake!

2011-07-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I´m usually not a fan of reading recipes on the net or making the food I read about. I like to look at the pictures sometimes, but mostly I turn to my own recipe books or google something I need at the moment. But the reason I´m posting this is because this is the perfect cake I´ve ever eaten. Making it was a big fun too - I felt like some Harry Potter mixing potions :). It was just magical. This cake is full of chocolate. I LOVE chocolate. Maybe, love isn´t the right word, I lurve it, I guess (Woody Allen, anyone? :). But, I have some issues with chocolate. Sometimes I get this feeling that I shouldn´t eat so much of it. That it´s just sugar and fat, and that you simply can´t eat a bar a day. Not too long ago, I tried my best to stop eating chocolate. For four long days, I really didn´t. Than I realized that life is too short for stupid experiments like this :).
To make this, you need to make the batter and the filling. Both are delicious, but the filling - oh my! So good. I could make only the filling without the actual cake and eat a whole bowl with my spoon :). I´ll guide czech readers here, for the rest I´ll try to write the simplified instructions here.

for the batter you´ll need:
260g butter of some kind
260g chocolate (I used cheap "cooking" chocolate)
40ml strong coffee
280g suggar
4 eggs
260g flour
a bit of baking powder and soda (I told you it´s simplified!)
230g sour cream (the kind you put into sauces)

In a bowl on the stove, over a bowl with hot water (I guess this technique has a name in English...) mix the butter with chocolate until combined. Add coffee. In another bowl, whip suggar with eggs. Mix everything together. In another bowl, mix flour with the baking powder and soda. Add the flour to the rest and than the sour cream. Put it in the oven as you are used to when making cakes! (Ha!)

for the filling you´ll need:
90ml cream (the kind you make whipped cream with)
180g butter
200g "powder" suggar
120g chocolate

Again, in a bowl over a bowl etc, heat the butter with cream and add the suggar and stir for a while. Than add the chocolate and mix it until it´s combined. It´s "watery"when hot, but as it cools down it gets thicker. Let it cool down completely (you can put it in the fridge in the end).
When the cake from the oven is baked, let it cool down, than cut it up twice and fill it like you are used to. I used only half of the amount of everything and made a small cake, which was ok. However, I´m dying to make it again, haha :). When you look at the instructions you can see that it´s just a fat and sugar, plus some chocolate, but don´t let it discourage you! It´s really good.

African art

2011-07-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Few days ago we went to an arboretum (or some kind of dendrologic garden) in Prague and were surprised to find that there is an outdoor exhibition going on. It was an exhibition of African statues from Zimbabwe, and was very interesting! These pieces were made by African artists in village called Tengenenge near the city of Harare. They are made of the stone serpentinit (I hope it´s an international name :). In czech it´s called "hadec" which means something like a snake. The stone is mostly black, sometimes brown or green, and the statues are made by hand only, the artists are very poor, so no mechanical devices are used. The surface is waxed, is beautifully shiny and can stand up to any weather all year long, the material is extremely durable. We were amazed by this art, and the fact that it came all the long way from Africa. Our favourite was the statue of a woman carrying a baby, but I loved pretty much everything. I chose only few favourite photos from many others, because there was so much of it.

about moving

2011-06-30T11:53:00.001-07:00

With my husband, we moved a LOT while studying. At least 10 times in four or five years. It was mostly moving around Prague, from one end of the city to another. For me, this was very stressful: it was hard to find an affordable place, and the moving itself was pretty difficult too. We dragged along all the crazy stuff we had: flowers, heaps of books, clothes, sleeping bags, computers (and a printer, scanner...). It was insane to see how much possesions we had, and that we had to move from one place to another. At first we didn´t have any furniture, so it was a bit easier, as we could carry our belongings in our bags. Traveling with heavy bags on our shoulders, emptying them and then going again. I always thought about divorce, because 90% of the stuff was my husband´s :). But no such luck for me, and there we were, moving and moving again. Sometimes we stayed half a year, sometimes two months. Our longest stay was one year, before we moved where we live now. We lived in strange places: one time we stayed for the holidays in a house that belonged to organisation caring about youngsters. We stayed in one room, the rest was also used by punk bands to do their rehearsals. Once we found a stranger in the shower, which was covered in mud, or we came home to find a running tap while no one was around, sometimes our food was missing... We lived in a tiny room in student dermitory where we shared three toilets and a shower with many many students living on the same floor. There was a hole in the bathroom´s wall, and one night, I sneaked in there with my tempera colors and painted a picture of two divers exploring the hole :). I have so many experiences living in all those places, and I could talk about our "adventures" for hours. There were certainly good and bad times, but the memories are mostly nice. It was nice to live in different places and to explore the neighborhood during long walks. There was always some park nearby and interesting things to see. But I was terribly longing for a real home. To have a kitchen or bathroom only for ourselves is still a huge luxury for me :).
I painted this blue house with windows to our Prague homes. It feels very nostalgic to me, I loved to live in Prague. I plan to make another painting with our previous homes, with the rooms maybe more detailed (we usually only had one room where we slept and worked). I think it´s nice to remember and somehow organise my memories.

blank canvas

2011-06-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

Such a great thing to look at a new, white, blank canvas. I bought four in various sizes and can´t wait to paint. Painting on a canvas is such a different experience after years painting on paper. It feels luxurious. I have a lot of plans, but it all comes together slowly. Sewing for myself seems to be quite far on my "to do" list now. I´m working on a summer dress, which I hope to fihish soon, but there are always other things to do as well. Also, I realized I just don´t need too much clothes, haha :).

another cap for Marie

2011-06-24T00:10:00.001-07:00

I finished my second crocheted cap. Unfortunatelly, I ran out of the yarn I worked with, and couldn´t find the exact colour anywhere (it´s generally quite bad with the color selection in shops here...). I finished the cap with another shade of dark blue. I´m quite pleased with the cap, but I´m still not sure how to make some things. There is i.e. visible line on the side of the cap where I finished each row... I think the cap should be smooth all over when done right. Also, I don´t know how to finish the whole thing off properly. I tie it somehow, but don´t think I do it the right way. Anyway, I like it, and I like the flower (although I think I didn´t follow the instructions very well :).

more doll photos

2011-06-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

So, I decided that the middle one is MINE. :) She´s sitting on the piano and looking gorgeous. The red haired one is standing on the wardrobe in Marie´s room and the blond one (who is broken) was given to Marie to play with, for now. I plan to repair her and replace the leg with a fabric stuffed leg, I think.

new old doll!

2011-06-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

Look what I got! A friend gave me three old porcelain dolls and this is one of them. I love it so much, I have never owned anything so special, interesting, old (or at least old-looking, I don´t know how old it really is), romantic, cute and creepy! :) The other two are not so special, they are nice too, but they are more ordinary looking, I may take a photo of the them some day. One of the dolls is broken; I would like to repair it, but I don´t know how yet (I have to replace a leg). But this one is so gorgeous, under the dress there is some kind of blouse I think, but I haven´t examined it properly yet. Her hair is a mess, someone tried to dye it and it´s ruined and falling apart. It´s darkish green now and looking awful, let´s see if I can do something about it. I suspect the doll is really quite old, as it´s made much better than the newer ones - the body construction and all.

to stress or not to stress

2011-06-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

That is the question! Since my child was born, I´ve found myself in a strange kind of stress - a nice stress, I would say. Millions of ideas and plans were pouring into my head. It was pretty crazy. Long long time ago there were times when I e. g. didn´t know what to paint. Could you believe that? I was just sitting there and thinking, what the heck should I be painting? Not anymore. I could be working on ten paintings at a time with no problem (and almost I am, in fact :). Of course, when Marie was born, I was not feeling very well, both physically and psychically, plus I was writing my thesis and had the state exams ahead of me... Now that´s all of that gone, I enjoy doing what I want, but often I feel like my head will explode from all the things I would like to do. And sometimes it results in myself sitting, staring in the wall doing nothing, and feeling badly about wasting my time. I wasted so much time in my life already that I don´t want to anymore. But I´m a naturally lazy person, so I guess I can´t be as productive as I would like to be :). I´m sad that things take me very long time to finish. But is it really that bad? Does it really matter if I manage to complete one or five or ten paintings in one year? Or how many clothes or other things I can make? Probably not, as everything has it´s own time, and it´s important to enjoy every day without feeling like I have to accomplish something.
Anyway, yesterday I really wanted to make something very quick and instant. I made a leather bug for Marie, and it was completed in about two hours. Very rewarding :).
Also, I saw a beautiful beautiful blue house in Prague today. I should take a photo, but I´m not used to carrying a camera with me... I should change that :).
We´re attending a wedding in July (my childhood best friend is getting married), and I´m thinking about the right gift! She suggested that I could make them something, which is awesome, but I don´t know what could that be yet. (I could give them a painting! Ha! :)
Have you seen any good films lately? We´ve been to the cinema to see Melancholia (new film by Lars von Trier) and I really liked it. I was amazed by the intro, so artistic.
That´s all from me for now :).

update: I found a picture of the house online! here it is:
(a house in Nekázanka, Prague)

black dress

2011-06-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

I finished making this black dress - it took me quite a lot of time to make it. More time than I would like, actually. I guess it´s not a good thing that I want everything to be completed as soon as possible... most things need a lot of time to be finished. It´s similar with painting: I have to learn to make things slowly, be patient, pay attention to details. Sometimes I wonder if there is some point in the things I do and make. Am I doing it right? What´s the use of it all? What if I´m wasting my time on something? With sewing it´s a bit easier, of course, because I like that it´s practical and the result is useful usually. Mostly you also save money when sewing. But, isn´t sewing these dresses such a vain? After all, I don´t have many occasions to wear them... With painting and many other things I do, I´m sometimes quite unsure whether it´s good for something. I hope it is, at least for myself and my friends who like to look at the paintings.
So, here´s my new dress. The fabric is lovely cotton and linen blend. I made this dress while watching the fabulous Love and death by Woody Allen - his funniest film I think. I could quote it all day long. I love everything about this film. "I never want to marry. I just want to divorce." Hahaha! Great film, highly recommended :).

free time

2011-06-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

My daughter is at my parents´and I find myself with a LOT of free time. So I´m catching up on painting, sewing, and thinking about some other things to do.
A new painting from my "Adam and Eve" series...

Erika Bornová in Benešov

2011-06-07T03:23:00.000-07:00

As soon as I found out there is an exhibiton by Erika Bornová in our town, I was desperate to see it. I went to the exhibiton today with my daughter, and I loved it. I was just a bit sorry that there were only a few objects - I wish there was more to look at. Erika Bornová makes typical polystyren figural oversized statues, it´s something pretty unusual and refreshing. I liked the smaller one on the green background the most, unfortunatelly there was only this one from her collection. My second most favourite are those four heads - busts.

summer dress for Marie

2011-06-03T04:22:00.000-07:00

I know I´m changing my plans all the time. I´ve said I want to make a faux Crepe dress, than I said something about my black summer dress, and also that I don´t have any time for sewing, because I have to paint... And then I start sewing something completely different :). My daughter has a pretty big collection of shabby sweatpants, but almost nothing nice and cute. So I decided to make her some clothes for the spring/summer 2011 :). I love the fabric for this dress. The pattern is from Burda 3/2009, which I lenghtened into a dress. The smocking was a bit of a nightmare (despite Burda´s promises how easy it is :), but I think next time I will be more confident. I love the way it turned out, so I think all the work paid off. I´m making her a hat too, but despite the label "very easy pattern", it´s giving me a hard time sewing it :).
I´m also crocheting a second cap, and I´m curious about the outcome.
There are so many plans, ideas, and projects that are on my mind and on my hands.

little scarf

2011-05-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

I made this little scarf for my daughter today. It´s awesome that I made it in a few minutes during the day - with Marie around. Very simple, but of course some ripping was involved :). It´s a pattern from Burda magazine 2008/7, but you don´t really need a pattern - there are just two rectangles, the smaller one sewn in a tube with elastic inside. I kind of want to make a similar one for myself, I like to wear something on my head for summer.
Other than this, I had lovely day which turned out pretty badly in the afternoon. In the morning I met with some people I´ve known in the past (10years ago). It was great to see them. In the afternoon we went for a bike ride, and I fell off the bike. Pretty badly, actually. My left arm hurts a lot, I can´t move it much and will probably have to see the doctor tomorrow. Oh well, I´m so clumsy.

baby goat

2011-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

I bought this little baby goat today at a cute little shop in our town... The woman who owns it makes such beautiful toys! There are also bears, (big) goats, dolls... Perfect. I´m not sure what to do with this small goat I got. I gave it to Marie, but then I saw she doesen´t appreciate it enough, so I took it from her and I´m thinking about giving it to somebody else :).

textile art

2011-05-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

I took these photos last friday when we were in Prague. There´s a great shop owned by Kateřina Soukupová, Textile art - they sell fabrics, crocheted and fabric toys, plaids (blankets), clothes and many other textile goods. I love this shop! So far, I bought some fabric and colourful hand knitted socks there, but many other things are certainly tempting. I love the woolen blankets - they look so well made and of great quality. The shop´s windows are always so nice to look at: I took the photos mostly because of the fabric creatures/aliens and embryos they had on display (two on the first picture on the left side of the photo, and two on far right on the second picture). I don´t know who makes them (there are several people who sell their creations there), but I always recognize the style when I pass by.
A close up of one of the woolen blankets - they have many beautiful colours.

red pants

2011-05-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

I finished red pants for Marie, and I´m very happy with them. I used the same pattern as these clown pants I made earlier, but made several changes: I put the elastic only in the back in two rows, which is more comfortable and looks great too. I made two small pleats in the front and sewed on two nice buttons, because I like the look of two buttons on pants on other RTW pair we have. They are long enought, because I had a lot of fabric... that is actually a funny story. Some time ago, I asked my husband if he wanted rock´n roll red pants from me. He said "Yes, of course I want red pants, that would be great, please make them for me!". Then I bought 2meters of (cheap cotton) red fabric to make the pants, and he said "Oh no, I don´t want these pants, I hate red pants." So there you have it :). Anyway, the fabric was great for easy summer pants for my girl - the inspiration is the same:
Mick Jagger in his tight red pants! :)

Michal Pěchouček - Lessons in art

2011-05-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

I went to see an exhibition by Michal Pěchouček, Hodiny v umění (Lessons in art) yesterday. I went there with my todler Marie, which was maybe not a great idea, but I always go to exhibitions with her, there´s no other way to go there. I gave her a cake to be calm and quiet, and one of the ladies there got angry at us, and told us to put in in the bag... I understand that, but the way she told it was quite unpleasant and annoying. Everywhere we went, there was someone to follow our steps, and I felt watched and uncomfortable. Maybe it´s my fault and I´m too easygoing, but I think these institutions should get used to children and visitors with children. I don´t know.
Anyway, I kind of liked the exhibiton. One part of it was just small black and white photographs, which was not very interesting for us, but the second part was sewn paintings - portraits. These "paintings" were huge canvases with figures dressed (and undressed) in pajamas and night gowns. Real clothes and towels were sometimes sewn right onto the painting, than the rest of the body was embroidered/sewn onto the canvas (I´m not really familiar with the teqnique he used). It was called "Time for bed", and pictured people getting ready to go to bed, and also making love later in the bed, with clothes and bedsheets laying next to them. It´s quite erotic, but also lyrical and imaginary.
pictures: artalkweb, artmagazin, lidovky

Three sisters (finally!)

2011-05-18T03:11:00.000-07:00

I´m so glad I´m finished with my Three sisters dolls, inspired by A. P. Chekhov´s play Three sisters. They are: Olga, Masha and Irina. I didn´t know much about the play when I started making them, but then I became more interested and decided to read the play - so I´m reading it right now :). Maybe to listen to it would be better...? Anyway, I really like to be inspired by literature or films to create my dolls... I have already few ideas for other ones. I like how these three turned out, and I tried to be a little bit more precise: the skirts have french seams and the tops are carefully handsewn in place.
I´m also very inspired to sew clothes for Marie. I´m making red pants for her now, and I have several other pieces planned. I´m looking forward to sewing these small clothes: they can be made with small amount of fabric, are finished quickly and I´m not afraid to ruin it or to make a bad desicion like with my own clothes :).

baby blanket

2011-05-14T04:39:00.000-07:00

I saw this brown and earthy blanket on purl bee and I love it. It´s such a classic and calm design. There are so many kitchy baby products out there it´s not nice. And what do you think, I have a lot of them at my own home too :). I´m not a fan of "cute" baby colors (and already think the new cap I´ve made is a little too sweet for my taste...but I´ll keep it), but they always find some way in.
So when I see something as beautiful as this blanket/plaid, I have the urge to throw away some of the ugly (baby) stuff we have here and get some classic beauty instead :). The off-white basket is lovely too... And suddenly I´m thinking about learning to knit! It can´t be so hard to make a rectangle, right? ;)

it´s a cap!

2011-05-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

So, after much ripping, improvising and further crocheting, I made a cap for my little Marie! It´s certainly far from perfect, but that´s ok... I´m going to make more caps in near future :). I really like crocheting and would like to buy some nice book to learn more and to have some guidance.

green

2011-05-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

The top of my white cabinet (a place where I store everything; my whole life is in there! :) is all green now. My blue - green linen is waiting to be sewn into something and I made a progress on one of the paintings I am working on. It´s acrylic on canvas, a technique I´ve never tried before, and I love it. The colours react differently than tempera colors, but I like the look. They also dry very quicky, which is ok on the canvas, but not so fine on the pallette... I know it´s possible to buy some liquid that can delay the process, so maybe I´ll give it a try.
And look, I crocheted! It´s a small ring so far, but I would really really like to make a cap from it. Do you think there is some hope? :)
I´ve been pretty productive lately, and it´s all because of the beautiful sunny weather.

granny chic

2011-05-08T04:28:00.000-07:00

I don´t know what´s happening to me, but I´m really into old time-y furnishings, clothes and things lately. I´m not a huge fan of vintage clothes or patterns (or the word "vintage" ;), I´m ok wearing contemporary clothing, but somehow this style (or, just something from it) is very appealing to me. Few days ago I saw a retro gramophone in the shop and I liked it so much! Oh man, let´s imagine red velvet couches, lace, crocheted throws, brass beds, romantic lamps, florals... :)
pictures: 1. thegloss.com 2. wehearit.com 3. thishomesweethome.blogspot.com 4. fabsugar.com 5. freakingnew.com 6. modcloth.com

p.s. next time I´ll try to come up with something more modern ;)

old times inspiration

2011-05-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

How cool are these two outfits I found in Philadelphia museum of art? I think every woman would instantly look prettier in a cap like this :). The first one reminds me of the costumes in the beautiful film Piano.
p.s. How does one search through the collections properly? I can´t seem to find a good system...

obsessed

2011-05-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

Remember the last photo from my Italy vacation? There was the beautiful baby pram. I loved it so much, I began to search for a similar baby carriage on the internet. Similar foreign historic ones are probably very very pricey, even to rent them is pretty expensive as I´ve found out... But czech ones from the 70s are looking already pretty historic too! :) And are super afordable. But then I realized: 1. I don´t have a baby 2. I wouldn´t be able to put this old fashioned pram in the car :). So, I haven´t puchased anything (yet). But one can dream, right? Or maybe I could buy a small version for my little girl. Look at these (more expensive ones and prams from museums) beauties! Much better than the modern ones, right? :)
photos from: http://historickekocarky.717.cz/
http://www.historickekocarky.unas.cz/fotogalerie.htm

working on...

2011-05-01T05:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I´m pretty busy these days, working on new dolls for my shop. I´m making these sister dolls right now and I´m excited how will they turn out!
A friend also gave me a big box with some leather scraps, and I´m thinking about what to do with them.

back from trip to Italy

2011-04-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

We went to Italy with our two friends for the last week and returned home yesterday night. We had such a great time! At first we went to Pisa, and saw the famous leaning tower, beautiful "Il duomo" and baptistery. There is also a great jewish cemetery. Pisa is lovely, but there are crowds of tourists and ugly tourist stuff. I loved smaller town Lucca (which is near Pisa) much more. There is a roman amphitheathre rebuild into enclosed circus with houses - from the outside, you can still see the ancient foundations and arches. It´s really impressive. There is also a beautiful church, with very detailed front portal. We went to the sea too, although the west coast in this part of Italy is not very suitable for sea-bathing and swimming (at least not in aplril :). And at last we went to Florence - the colored marble cathedral is really huge and breathtaking. I enjoyed looking at the elegant shops as well. I didn´t buy any clothes - but I loved that pink linen dress in the photo above. I kind of regret not bying it :). At least I asked my husband to take a photo with me and the dress... In Florence there is also an interesting bridge "Ponte Vecchio" - there are houses built into the bridge, filled with jewellery shops. I´m very inspired by the architecture and vegetation we saw. I´m looking forward to painting and making things. Also, I want to eat pasta all the time :). The only thing I wasn´t very fond of was the nights - we slept in a tent, and it was pretty cold.
images: 1.Pisa, 2., 3. Florence cathedral, 4. Florence Ponte Vecchio, 5. Lucca Piazza del amfiteatro, 6. Lucca, 7.-9. dresses I liked and a lovely shop in Florence

an award for me!

2011-04-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

I´ve been awarded by the great lizajane at the Stylish blogger award. I´m pretty happy about that! I´ll be away for a week, so I thought it would be good to find the time and write something "fun" about myself now! So, instead of cooking, here goes...

1. In 2008, when pregnant with my first child, I´ve been diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia, which was a horrible, life threatening experience. It caused me problems with my health that continue to this time and I´m also having hard time planning my second baby (and deciding if it´s a good idea to have a second baby...).

2. My husband works as a preacher, and we basically have a church in our garden! It looks great and you can run around it, too... (I run around our church frequently, while my daughter plays in the sand :).

3. I´m a terrible wife and mother: I´m very untidy person. Our place is such a mess, all the time. At other places I visit, I often wonder: how do they do that? What am I doing wrong? :)

4. I´m really bad at sports. I suffered a lot during school years, because I was the one who was always the last one at everything, the slowest and butter-fingered person and the one nobody wanted in their team :).

5. I can look in the distance with my right eye and read with the second one! Hahaha, amblyopia can be handy sometimes!

6. Since I was little, I´ve loved painting. Especially portraits and houses/architecture. I love this much more than sewing (sorry, machine!).

7. I love going to cemeteries, they just seem tranquil and romantic to me. I like to walk in big cemeteries, they are always so calm. I like to read about all the people and look at their photos. Unfortunately, my husband hates this. Cemeteries remind him of death too much... And he just wants to go on with his crazy life, you know? :) Once we got locked in a large cemetery in Prague with two swedish turists, because we were there past the opening hours. The turists were really scared, but of course, after some time we found someone from the staff to let us go :).

I should maybe nominate someone too? I can find only one: Laurwyn from Quirky pretty cute. I really enjoy her blog and her attitude! She´s also very fun to read.

and this is why I want to learn to crochet!

2011-04-14T02:23:00.000-07:00

Simply because of these two things that I admire so much :). Sandra Juto´s wristworms and Camilla Engman´s softies. I thought about buying these from Sandra, but she stopped making the styles I liked most... And the little animals Camilla Engman makes... oh my! I love them badly. I know I can´t make anything as pretty as this, and I know it takes a lot of time to be able to do something similar. But I want to try! So far, I´ve made two poor rectangles and something that looks like a little cap :). Also, does anyone know how is the face (and maybe the rest of the body too, minus the head) in the photo made? The stitches look so tiny! It´s maybe because she used small hook and thin yarn...? (Excuse the lack of proper crochet terms, please :).
I have an exhibition planned for autumn (maybe two of them...), so my biggest task now is to paint, paint, paint. It takes quite a lot of time, so there is not much sewing ahead of me. I wanted to finish my black dress before we leave for Italy, but I wasn´t able to accomplish that. So that´s the only thing I want to get done soon.

crocheting... again

2011-04-09T11:37:00.001-07:00

I borrowed few books from my friend and I try my hand at crocheting for the second time (after unsuccesful attempt a while ago). I would really really like to learn to crochet... However, it´s still a little intuitive thing for me, as the yarn fibres seem just so many and sometimes it gets a bit chaotic :). I would like to be able to make hats, soft toys/animals, maybe a scarf or a blanket... but so far I´ve only made this little rectangle. It´s made with the most simple crochet technique (I think... unfortunatelly I couldn´t find how it´s called in English...) and I wonder why there is the pattern - it turned out structured, while I thought it will be flat with no lines. I´m going to read my books, but it always looks easier in the book than it is in real life :). One of the books I have is pretty funny. It´s called something like "Crocheting: questions and answers" (it could be also called "Everything you wanted to know about crocheting, but were afraid to ask ;), and it addresses crocheting as it was some kind of difficult philosophy. There is a long list of "special thanks to..." in the beginning of the book, and it´s divided in countless chapters with names like "Loops". Maybe I´m weird, but I think this is pretty hilarious :).

Guim Tió

2011-04-09T03:21:00.000-07:00

I came across this artist on flickr yesterday. He paints portaits over magazine photographs and leaves some sections unpainted to reveal the photo underneath (mouth, hair, few letters). I think it´s pretty impressive!

Esther Pearl Watson

2011-04-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

I just love Esther Pearl Watson´s paintings. They are a bit naive and childlike, which I love in art, because it makes such a strong impression. But one can see that they are very well made. There is a lot of mystery - these paintings tell us stories, and we can wonder if it´s something that really happened. The scenes are usually quite busy, with people, animals, houses, objects. Oh, the objects! Esther often paints (it seems, from what I´ve read), some kind of flying "saucers", UFOs, that her father used to construct. Weird, isn´t it? Maybe it´s just a mystification? I hope not. Her use of colour is very vivid and bright. There is a LOT of colour and the paintings seem so alive.

sewing outside

2011-04-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Today was such a lovely day, sunny and warm. I had an idea to take my sewing machine outside and work on some projects in our yard. It was such a great idea: I could be outside with my kid (she hates to be inside the house when the weather is so nice), and doing what I want at the same time! I repaired my husband´s coat´s pocket (not exactly what I enjoy to do, but it had to be done...) and started making my black summer dress. I´m a bit worried about how it will turn out, as I´m sewing without a pattern, but I hope it will be ok. The only downside of the "outside sewing" was the wind, which was getting stronger and stronger during the day (and in the end was so strong that it ruined few things in our garden and our gate...). But I´m definitelly doing this again, maybe with embroidery or something.

time flies...

2011-03-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

I´ve been inspired by Nette to write a post about my childhood photos. I was afraid it won´t be very easy for me to do this, as my photos are at my parents´house and in my brother´s flat (the flat where we lived as a family and where I´ve grown up). Also, I´m not very familiar with scanner and I would probably have to make my husband scan these photos for me (also, it´s in his office and connected to his computer). So I thought, it´s going to be months before I have something to show you. But! Then I remembered I have few photos that I snatched at the flat while we all still lived there. I know it´s not very nice of me... but there were so many of these black and white photos there, that hardly anyone can notice. There were two big drawers full of these little photos that my father made himself on his enlarger in dark room long time ago. My parents made a small attempt to actually organize them, but didn´t finish doing that and many of the photos remained in those drawers.
I feel really nostalgic and kind of sad to look at these photos. The time passes by so quicky! I remember pretty well a lot from my childhood and now I have a small daughter too! That´s pretty incredible to me... To see how much we all changed and what happend during those years is making me teary eyed a bit.
This is my grandma Z, photographed some time around 1959 (I think she was about 20). I love this photo. Grandma Z is very lively, talks a lot, and from what I remember, she was always pretty big. She is just a pretty huge and loud woman :).
This is her too, at work, later in life. On the back of the photo there is written: "for Christmass, 1983". So maybe this photo was a present from a co-worker...? Anyway, 1983 was the year when I was born :).
My father! Cute, right? That was before I was born, and I believe he sent this photo to my mother when he was at the military service.
Another two photos of my father. The second one is from 1981, he was 21. He looked so much like my brother looks now!
My mother, before we were born I think (but I´m not sure). Unfortunatelly, she used to cut her hair quite short most of the time when she was older. I don´t remember her with hair like this, but my father loved her long hair and always complained she doesen´t wear it long and loose :).
My mother with me and my baby brother, who is one and a half year younger than me.
A trip with my other grandma, J. I think I was 4 and my brother about 3.
My brother and father.
This is me (in the middle) with some friends.
Little Janul again, with my parents´friend.
Me and my brother (in the middle) at my aunt´s wedding.
My grandma Z, grandpa, my mother, brother and me at some fair (or what´s the right word for these places with carousels, swings etc., help me :).
That´s all for now! I have ton of my baby pictures and another better quality ones, but they are far away at my parents´:).

handmade toys - vintage book

2011-03-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

I got a pile of 80s magazines for embroidery, knitting and crocheting from my mother in law. Among them was this cute little book about handmade toys. I love it! The photos are really nice: children and little animals, clowns. Most of them should be made from knit remnants, which sounds pretty easy to make, but I´m afraid it´s a bit more difficult than it looks... What I love the most are those mice - of course, they are the ones most difficult to make :). The mice are crocheted with sewn clothes. I can´t knit, so I like a lot that these toys can be made from old sweaters. At least I hope so! Anyway, this book is a great inspiration, and great just to look at :).

in the garden...

2011-03-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

The first painting of 2011 is finished... It´s already the end of march, what a shame! I´m going to attempt to make a series of paintings with this "Adam and Eve" theme, but let´s see how that goes. Maybe some burda style fans will guess my inspiration for the guy? :)

Camilla Engman

2011-03-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I saw Camilla Engman´s new paintings today... Perfect. I feel so inspired! I love her style. And I´m finishing a painting too! In a few days I´ll show it to you :).

Vogue inspirations

2011-03-17T04:15:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine gave me a Vogue magazine! Wow! It inspires me a lot to make some sewing. I love these dresses by Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu.
I was thinking about helping to raise the money for the Japan disaster, and it seems the most reasonable way for me is to donate via Adra organization.

Miss Button

2011-03-06T13:18:00.001-08:00

I love buttons! They come in so many colours and shapes. It´s great for kids to play with and often I just like to think about the many ways I could use them, and how would they look with various fabrics. I made this doll recently and used some buttons for her body. The eyes are buttons, obviously (Coraline, anyone? :), but the mouth is a button too! I love that one. I wanted to make her hair out of yarn, but it was very time consuming that in the end I changed my mind and used felt instead. So quick and nice!

sunny inspirations

2011-03-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

I really love the weather now. It´s so sunny and light here! It actually makes my eyes smart and hurt... Oh yes, the spring is near - and so is allergy! :) I started to drive again, after three years... it´s quite difficult for me. But I hope to get better with time.
Yesterday my lovely friend Anna arived and we had a great day together. She also brought us many nice gifts. Including some nice clothes that I´m looking forward to wear. I should maybe make a portrait of her! Hmm, there are many painting inspirations too.
And what inspires me these days?

1. pale pink gown by Elie Sabb, 2. Paul Smith "Annie Hall" look, 3. dress by Pietro Filipi, 4. this dress on Nicole Kidman, 5. Balaeniceps rex :), 6. this photo from the sartorialist

Crepe crazy

2011-02-27T11:05:00.000-08:00

So, the Colette Crepe dresses are just everywhere now. I love dresses, I love wrap dresses, and I love this dress too. But, I didn´t pay too much attention to this particular pattern, until I saw Laurwyn´s version! I´m so amazed by her variation, and the way she looks in her Crepe dress! I really really want to make myself one of these. The truth is, the pattern itself is pretty expensive for me (and it gets worse with the shipping price). So, I thought that I would try to make a similar dress with different pattern - probably the same one as I made the Josephine dress with, as the bodice is quite similar to the Crepe bodice (I think). I´m certainly not very good at sewing, but I hope I could accomplish this. I´m going to look at Gertie´s sew along for some tips and help. I don´t really know how to make the skirt yet - it seems like an A - line with a seam in the middle...? The top of the skirt is probably curved then... Hmm, to make things worse I plan to make this dress out of my husband´s old caftan-y shirt; very long and big (funny story will follow! stay tuned :).
If you have some ideas or knowledge that could help me, please share! I´m grateful for any kind of information :).

oh, birthday...

2011-02-24T05:15:00.000-08:00

It´s my birthday today! I turned 28. Wow! Nobody´s getting younger, right? :) I´m fine, I think. I enjoy doing what I want - in the evenings (during the day I have to care about my daughter, but she´s a great kid so I´m ok ;). I want to try so many new things: I started to make my first quilt yesterday, and I want to try embroidery (I did that when I was a child and loved it), but the store didn´t have what I needed, so I´m waiting (it´s not very easy for me to just go to another store or town. or just go to a shop, really). I´ve seen many great films recently, few older biographic films about painters, but some new ones, too. Which gets me to... painting! I´m very inspired to paint, but realizing it is somehow difficult. I´m a bit frustrated, it´s almost the end of february and I haven´t finished anything... I have to make some progress real SOON.

Josephine dress

2011-02-23T01:52:00.000-08:00

I made this dress recently, it was such a quick project. I wanted to make a sweet pinkish flowery dress for a while, so this is the result (I love pink lately). I bought the fabric mainly because of the name :). A collection of fabric called Josephine? I had to have one of those. I loved this pattern in recent Burda (101/2/2011), but I´m a bit dissapointed by it. But maybe it´s because of the fabric choice... I´m afraid the fabric is not quite right for the dress, but I´m not sure. The biggest issue is, that it´s quite roomy around the neckline and kind of "stands out". I didn´t follow the instructions and simply made facings everywhere, so maybe it´s my fault? Anyway, I think by all means the neckline is very low... and wide. I´m probably going to wear some kind of nice camisole under the dress, otherwise I feel odd. I´m not used to this kind of dress: the neckline and waistline are low; the other dressed I made had neckline higher and different waistline (more like an empire waist). But, I would probably like it on someone else, so maybe I´ll get used to it. The sleeves are too short for my taste, too. If I make this pattern again, I´m going to make them bigger.
I altered the dress so that it is a bit looser in the bodice, because I didn´t want to add the zipper. I like that I can simply put it on over my head and actually like the looser shape better (I think!). This is my first spring dress. It´s snowing outside and really cold, so into the wardrobe it goes. I´m looking forward to wear it with my brown military sweater for nice contrast.

Frida

2011-02-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

I´ve seated my Frida on the piano! It´s the perfect place for her :).
photo by my husband.

project living room

2011-02-12T03:14:00.001-08:00

As you know, I was very unhappy with our bookcase. I started to hate the dark colour and planned to paint it, but... then I got another idea! I simply turned the painted side so that it faces the wall, ha! :) Now only the bare wood is visible, and it looks much better. I emptied the whole bookcase (so many books! exhausting!), vacuumed every single book, cleaned the bookcase, took some of the LP records to the attic (we don´t have record player anyway) and put the books back.
I love our yellow lamp - I found the shade in my grandmother´s garage. She never got a stand for it, therefore she never used it (for 20 years!) and gave it to me. I bought the lamp stand in Ikea and this lamp is what I love most in our place (I mean, in the furniture and decorating area ;).
night view

my first leather bag!

2011-02-12T00:51:00.000-08:00

I finished my leather bag! Wohoo, I´m so happy. I really wanted to make a leather bag myself. Very practical one, with zipper and adjustable strap. I was very inspired by rennes and reMade USA - couldn´t decide between two designs, so I took ideas from both :). I wanted to make a recycled bag, and as I´ve written earlier, my friend gave me old leather pants (quite narrow ones) to do that. I didn´t love the colour at first (I´m more into darker colours), but than it grew on me (and, isn´t it a kind of a fashion "rule", that "older" women should wear more light colours? ;). I struggled with the shape and construction for a while. Than, I just decided to let the material do what it wants! I cut it all apart again and made it differently, and simplified the design. It´s a very simple shape, but, believe me, it was a lot of work... However, working with leather is easier in some ways - no need to finish the edges! That´s great, just the straight stitch all the time :). I´m so proud I made the adjustable strap with the same material - the first I´ve ever made, and the zipper (zippers are difficult for me). The short handles are mainly decorative, but they can be useful sometimes I guess. Another great thing is that I used almost every bit of the leather. That´s satisfying. I had some problems with the lining, I can use some tips how to attach it. In the end I sewed it in by hand. That round badge I got for free from one seller at fler.cz with another puchase. It´s not my style (and maybe not right for the bag), but again, I started to like it with the time. Also, lately I´m very much into girlier things and clothes.
Next, I plan to make a bigger black leather bag out of a jacket I already have! I hope with thicker needle and thread I will be able to sew it with my poor machine...

Frida doll finished!

2011-02-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

I finished my Frida Kahlo doll! I´m so happy :). I´m a little bit obsessed by Frida and wanted to have one of my own :). This was so far my most difficult doll to make. The face took me a lot of time to paint. She´s quite tall (taller than my previous dolls), has high heels and red nails. And a tear... I bought the small female deer toy few days ago (I love deers), and then realized it´s perfect for Frida (she had a baby deer as a pet). The clothes are quite shabby... I tried to recreate the traditional mexican style dress, but the bodice was hard to sew.
I´ve been at a big Frida Kahlo exhibition in Wien last October, and it was so great. There were her dresses and jewellery on display, too, and I loved to see them! I´m a big fan of Kahlo´s paintings (and they inspire me at my own painting, too).
To make this doll I was mostly inspired by the wonderful Duh buh duh dolls, as well as some other artists all around the blogs. I´m not sure where to put her... the doll can be hanged, but I have to figure out the right place. I´m planning my next doll, but the sewing part is so discouraging. There is a lot of handsewing included, and it just doesen´t look right, when the dress is more complicated. But I´m very happy with the hair! There is a braid too, but can´t be seen very well.

Play

2011-01-26T13:02:00.001-08:00

We went to a great interactive art exhibition "Play" by Petr Nikl (and co.). It´s an exhibition where anyone can touch anything, play with things, move them, make sounds... it´s made so that you can use all your senses; touch, see, hear etc. I loved it! It was HUGE, there were so many objects and little "playgrounds", where you could sit and play with various materials, you could place things on the walls and write there, there was a huge round mirror, that could be moved around... incredible! So many playful things, so much creative energy in one place. Sadly we didn´t have that much time while I was there with Marie, and she was tired soon. There was one particuarly lovely "object" called "The snow queen"; few small white "hills" that you could lit by turning them (see last picture). I would want to go there again, as it was really too much for one visit (and there were so many people and children... maybe afternoons are less crowded).
And we went to our friend´s art exhibiton´s opening - Michal Novotný aka MICL; this time he painted a set of nature themed paintings - river, cows, fields, flowers... My favourite painting is this one. Peaceful! (The photo turned out somehow yellowy.)

Sandra´s new flat

2011-01-20T03:48:00.000-08:00

Have you seen Sandra Juto´s new Berlin flat? It´s so amazing! I just love all that dirt, shabby walls and floors, old doors, the colours, and most of all, the whole energy of the place. It´s like it´s waiting eagerly to be cleaned, tidied up, painted, decorated... I enjoy looking at these "before" photos as much as I´m looking forward to seeing how will Sandra and Johan renovate it. Who doesen´t want an old, romantic Berlin flat? I certainly do! :) These pictures are so inspiring to me. Some time ago, I´ve painted our living room walls a nice gray, but only a half of the room (the rest is filled with bookshelves and a piano whis makes it super difficult to move and paint). I have to get it done some time! Also, two of the bookshelves are painted in not so nice dark gray, almost black... I liked it at first, but now I would really like it to be painted in some nicer, brighter colour. And the last thing I want to do, is to have upholstred our two chairs. They look awful because of the fabrics, but otherwise are so nice. It´s a shame we haven´t done that yet. So, these are my plans... I´m not one of those people who like to renovate all the time... or get new things often... but I like to change paints and fabrics, when they feel sad and ugly to me.
It will be a while till I get to this, but wish me luck! :)

few bad photos

2011-01-20T03:00:00.000-08:00

My dirty palette... I like to let the colours from previous painting on the palette for some time and enjoy that the work is finished. Right before I paint a new one, I clean the palette and it feels great :). Sneak peak of my bag... beige and navy zipper. I hated the beige at first, as I´m more into darker colours, but I like it now. We borrowed this cute horse from our friends! Marie loves it. And I like to look at it, it´s just the perfect accesory to the room :).

sewing...

2011-01-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick hello from me. I have nothing new to show you, but I´m busy working on my leather bag and a new doll. Everything is coming together so slowwwlyyyy, and I´m afraid the results won´t be as I imagined... but I´m trying and enjoying it. Besides that, I make illustrations for two small magazines, once a month per magazine. It´s not much work, but still takes up quite a lot of my limited free time, so it takes me so much time to finish my own projects...

diy necklace with a bow

2011-01-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine bought beautiful necklace (beads) with gorgeous bow. I like bows, they´re so feminine. Her beads were tied in lace, and with the bow, it looked very romantic. Unfortunatelly, I couldn´t find anything similar in shops... so I decided to make it myself. I bought simple pearl necklace and I got a beige ribbon in haberdashery (is that even a word?) and made this necklace. I sewed the bow in place so that it won´t untie. We are going to a ball tomorrow and I plan to wear this.

skirt and paintings

2011-01-10T04:56:00.002-08:00

I finished my skirt! Hurray! I love it, the fabric is so beautiful. It´s perfect with my red tights. I can´t wait for warmer weather to wear it... It took me a while to make it, because I´ve been doing so many other things. I have to say, I hate zippers, and changing the machine´s feet. More about this skirt in my burdastyle studio :).
I´ve been to two great art exhibitions recently: czech artists Pavel Brázda and Václav Boštík, both pretty famous. I loved both, they were completely different. Vivid, neon colours, figures and relationships by Brázda; lyric, abstract, light geometric paintings by Boštík. They both inspire me so much. Pavel Brázda is still alive, 84years old, and yet he makes so youthful paintings, he´s hardworking, uses computers and digital technique... impressive.
(pictures: first two Boštík, other two Brázda, my skirt :)

snail

2011-01-09T03:25:00.001-08:00

I got this beautiful shell from my husband. I call it "snail". I love it :).
I´m on a hunt for a perfect leather bag... I got an old pair of leather throusers from a friend, cut those apart and I´m trying to sew this leather purse/bag from it. But it´s difficult and there is not enough material. Also, a friend bought me a leather jacket (I just told somewhere I want a leather jacket, this man went to Hamburg and bought one second-hand jacket for me there! Incredible :), but so far I don´t want to cut into it (as the first one is still in process). The jacket leather is quite thick too and I don´t know if I´m able to sew it with my sewing machine.
I´ve seen a great bag on etsy recently, but it´s a lot of money... And it would be kind of a failure for me to buy the bag, when my first goal is to make it :/. I´m inspired by rennes bags, too, but I want mine to have an adjustable strap (it´s more practical in winter and thick coats...).
The pictures: rennes bag, bag from etsy I love, reMade USA bag (great bags made from old leather jackets)

František Skála

2011-01-05T04:53:00.000-08:00

Ok, I can´t say how much I love this guy. There´s so much to love about him that it almost can´t be thrue. I would send him an email to say I love him, if it was possible. Apparently, this man doesen´t have an email adress (good for him! this way I can´t spam it! :), nor a website of his own (you can find his work online, but that´s not the same...). Also, if it´s still thrue, he refuses to own a car, a cellphone, and a computer, I guess :). These facts amaze me. How can one live like that these days? However, he´s successful and famous in spite of this strange lifestyle, and even says he couldn´t make the kind of art he makes if he lived differently (the way most people live). In his opinion, if you manage to not "use" all those cars, computers and internets, you will be more creative and sensitive to art and its ways. Years ago, he WALKED to Venice biennale (an international art exhibition), all the way from Czech Republic to Italy. This journey took him many many days; he slept mostly outside and carried just his backpack. During the way, he wrote and illustrated a diary, which he then showed at the exhibition... and they loved it there, of course. I only found one decent picture from this diary, I wish there were more online! It´s not only the art, but a whole way of life, philosophy, everything he does and makes is connected. Besides sculpting, painting, illustrating, F. Skála is also a musician; he sings, playes a guitar, dances, is actor in a theater, and looks great! :) (He also participates in few groups and clubs...) Concerning his sculptures or objects, he mainly creates them from found old things and materials, and also sculpts them from natural materials like sea weed or palm leaves. There are many combinations of unexpected things, times, materials and ideas with nostalgic and playful spirit. But there´s certainly more than that (and it´s not possible for me to write about it in a proper way), this art reminds us that this life (or world) won´t last forever and it´s so fragile. It´s just full of kindness and love for life.

Also, he has two very talented children, František Antonín and Alžběta - I envy them badly :). I wish I could study art, too, and paint, illustrate, create for living. Well, at least I can paint, draw and create, just for myself and my friends...

colours

2011-01-02T11:52:00.001-08:00

New colours in our kitchen: green, orange, red. I like it (when it´s tidy...).
I´m amazed by this doll Nettie made, so lovely and I love all the details.
Crocheting is on my mind, I really really want to learn to crochet. I tried it few times already, but always ended up lost quite soon. Maybe I should get some book to help me...

in the country

2010-12-29T13:04:00.000-08:00

I´m back from a great trip to my husband´s parents´ place. We visited our friends, who are artists - I got a great paper native scene our friend made, but I have to cut it out and stick together first. We went for a long walk in the freezy and snowy fields and forest, it was perfect. I saw a great czech movie, Happy end. I have never seen anything like it. The way this film is made is exceptional - the whole movie runs backwards (from the end of the film to the beginning), but there is also a narration, which makes it a completelely different logical story at the same time. It starts when the main character is killed (but he actually just starts to live...), because he murdered his wife, then you see him bringing the dead wife to life etc., back to the time when they first met at he end of the film. It´s very funny, perfectly made with attention to every detail (i.e. the dialogues in the film are spoken "backwards", of course, but they make sense "both ways" and are funny. I think I was laughing all the time while watching this - there are great jokes with food - you see people eat backwards - they pull the food out of their mouths, spit out backwards... just simple things, but so witty. When a baby is "born", they say thay lost the baby forever... and it´s thrue! I loved it. Very original movie.

presents presents!

2010-12-26T02:55:00.000-08:00

I got so many presents this year! My husband (who is, as we all know, quite insane...) was really trying to make fun and wrapped all my presents into various packaging from computer devices - I was a bit freaked out that he gave me a hard-disc or a cell phone... I really didn´t want to get these :). But it always turned out to be something nice like crayons or chocolates. Aaaand...! I got an easel! I´ve wanted one for a long time - I´ve been painting on the table and although I´m used to that and don´t mind much, after standing all day on my feet, it was quite tiring to stand above the table again in the evening, while painting. I see some paintings in my near future! I just have to get used to paint on the easel, I guess it´s a bit different and maybe more difficult in some ways than on the flat surface. But, I´m really looking forward to that. I want to paint some men... I´ve seen a photo of a naked man in a magazine (it was an Yves Saint Laurent advertisement) and I´m quite obssesed by that picture - don´t know why! The photo just seemed strangely beautiful to me... But, it´s more difficult to paint men than women - at least to me. I have plenty of ideas, let´s see if it´s possible to follow through them! Also, there are few unfinished sewing projects - my (hopefully) fabulous skirt and a leather bag...

happy holidays!

2010-12-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

This is probably my last painting in 2010. I hope others will follow soon in 2011!
Happy Christmass to everyone and enjoy the new year!

snowwoman

2010-12-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

I made three snowmen today - this is one of them. Pregnant, nude snow - woman :). I like the flowers on her head. The other two are an alien and a cat.
Also, I´ve read an article about one of the most famous czech photographers, Miroslav Tichý. It´s kind of embarassing, if you read something about him or his "mottos": "If you want to be famous, you must do something more badly than anybody in the entire world." I saw a small video, where he says he "hates life, people, women and marriage" (!). Well, that pretty much sums it up, right? That made me laugh a lot and also feel quite sad at the same time. I´m not amazed by his photos, and I don´t really understand why is he so famous. Maybe people just want scandals and bad guys in art...

the tree

2010-12-20T11:10:00.001-08:00

We went for a short walk in the evening and I took a picture of our village christmas tree. Can´t wait for our own tree at home!