Raindeers, Santa and Baby Jesus

Even though baby Jesus leaves Christmas presents here I wouldn't mind if Santa just dropped by for the fun of it, and left behind one of these Raindeer coatracks from NOtoys :)

Love each-other and laugh a lot!..and not just for Christmas!

loves Petra

Pre-Christmas ramblings

I've been pretty down the whole week.
Again, Christmas is on my doorstep and I've not done half of the things I was planning to.
Again I managed to be late (or never) with numerous things I actually started on time.
Again I was put of by the crazy traffic jams and shopping sprees around the city telling myself I don't get what is going on in this world. Why do kids need to get 8 presents from their parents alone? I have a feeling my kid doesn't even get what getting a present means..They get everything anyway...on a normal day too... My son actually turned his back to Santa when he told him he is not supposed to be rough with his little brother. He just turned and left...didn't even want his package. What is up with that?

Every Christmas there is a Charity event in Hungary that I love. It is called  a Shoebox (Cipősdoboz). What you do is take a shoebox, fill it with goodies you think a child of a certain age would like, wrap it up nicely, possibly add a personal note, note if it is a boy or a girl box and the age and drop it off at a venue. I felt at three and a half it is time to start actively including P in this act of giving. And I must tell you, it started off pretty nicely, he actually chose one of his good toys and he didn't even change his mind later. The meltdown happened when he realized I filled the box with his sweets. He explained very sincerely that if I give these to 'that boy' he will be very, very sad, and also...he doesn't care about that boy because he is not his friend anyway.

We did manage to drop the box of...not a simple shoebox, a BOOT BOX and I really hope we make a little boy somewhere out there smile while roaming through it.

My letter to Santa...

Dear Santa,

here is my list, no need to be creative in my case!

You can still pick up first five in Projekt Showroom today. After that fly over to Printa and get me ANYTHING (or everything) from the new Piktopest collection. Do plan to have coffee there, it is perfect!

BeCake

Cukorka - Sweetfabric

Inhalo

Arany-Ló

Yours truly,

Petra T.

P.S. I also need a serger, a rotary cutter, a tablet and a Silhouette in case you feel I deserve something on top of the above.

Birthday Boy

My baby I is not a baby anymore. He turned ONE.
I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted our birthday photos of this day to be, all the way to the feeling they will give me when I look at them twenty something years from now, when the only thing I can look forward to is going down the memory lane with the help of my photo-albums, and the fact that I have only about two years left of my mortgage...

Khm...I'll start again...

Ilija is ONE!
He will not remember today, but when I show him these photos he will know that it was perfect:)

Happy birthday little boy!

Photos: FotoMillok
            (facebook)

Christmas Pop-Up Store

I went to Projekt Showroom

and all I got was this 'lousy' washi tape:)...

For now...

I am going back for more though! They are open till Dec 20. Among many beautiful things, some of which you can see in my facebook album they are selling the Red Dot Award winning INHALO. Seriously cool!

Sexy Plexy Christmas in your home

 Designer duo Sara Jurlin and Iva Kreković from Croatia create quirky plexiglas jewelery under the brand name Sexy Plexy. They just came out with their Xmas collection of jewelery and home decor. Non traditional yet very Christmassy!!

Find them on facebook,

Contact e-mail: sexy (dot) plexy (at) rocketmail (dot) com

Projekt Showroom #2: Christmas Pop-Up store

And again, we only need to sleep twice more, and on Thursday morning second  Projekt Showroom will open its doors, this time with the Christmas Pop-Up store. Andi and Kriszta collected for you all that is Xmas this time, you can choose from over a 100 Hungarian and foreign brands and get gifts for you kiddo, co-worker or grandpa all in one place. Need some Christmas decoration? They have that too. Important: no mass products! If you are looking for a unique, tasteful  quality products that is where you should be at least once between Dec 13th and 20th.

What I LOVE most about shopping at Projekt Showroom is that is is not just shopping, it is a happening! Ok, I know, I am a mom, I don't get out much, but trust me when I say it, the two ladies feel very passionately about each and every product they selected and if you have no idea what you are looking for, they will help you find out.

Golden 1 year old girl

 

for Franka:)

Happy birthday baby girl!

Check out how I made the pants here!

Wrapping-paper-making evening

Oh paper tree...

P chose paper patterns, I drafted a tree shape and cut one out of each pattern, he glued them together and decorated with buttons. They tell me in his kindergarten he is not into crafting...hm?!

WIN A LORALIE DESIGNS FABRIC

It is Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway Day and I decided to join in this time. With Xmas approaching I am in a giving mood. I am also trying to reduce my stash because it is becoming too much to handle. So here it is, win a fabric of your choice:

Just follow the steps in Rafflecopter below (open internationally)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

• giveaway will be open until December 7 at 5 p.m. PST
• winner will be announced and emailed by December 9
• item will be shipped by December 14.

 Good luck! 

Baby puzzle by Caracolbaby

It is December, traffic jams in town...people shopping like crazy. I hate shopping! I know, I write about stuff all the time...but there is stuff...and there is stuff...if you know what I mean. When I buy/make presents for people, I really try to make it personal and meaningful, but I understand that is very hard. There is so much of everything around us. Cheap, more or less acceptable toys in supermarkets, stuff you can buy all in one place and just get it over with, because you don't have time nor energy to spend hours figuring out what would be that one special thing that person will cherish forever.

This year I am trying to focus on the local AND handmade. Support small businesses, buy stuff not every other person will have...like say this baby puzzle by Caracolbaby. Hand sewn to the last stitch, made of textile-leather...chewable and so wonderfully unique.

Lovey, puzzle, chewing toy and a design object all in one...exactly the sort of stuff I am looking for this year:)

How about you? What is on your gift list?

Follow my Xmas Pinterest board.

Flannel Xmas decoration

Closer we are to the year end, faster the time flies. I have no time for anything..I am nowhere with the presents and I have millions of ideas rushing through my head...and most probably big majority of them will stay only that - idea.

Today I just want to quickly share cute decoration by boGár Krea (a.k.a. Brigitta Gábor) made out of Riley  Blake designs flannel.

Available from Meska
Join on facebook here

Chester and Bell

Hi Chester and Bell, you are too cute...Especially Chester!

By Acne JR ...

Cardboard Xmas tree

As a big fan of cardboard I was really happy to see JULMYS Christmas tree by Ikea. It is not the most beautiful design in my opinion, and choice of color is also not my cup of tea, but I loved the idea. We never spend the holidays at home, so we rarely do any holiday decoration. In fact, last year was the first for one for us. With baby I being only a week old at Christmas, we were unable to travel, so we had Christmas brought to us by granny and grandpa.

This year we are back to our normal selves, packing up our bags, presents and saying bye, bye to Budapest for a while. But, with kids in the house, it is a little bit weird not to do any Christmas preparations, because lets face it...this Christmas craze starts earlier and earlier every year. That said, there will be some light decorating on my part. And we will have a Christmas tree, and it will be cardboard!

Cardboard Christmas tree is exactly what we need!

It is only two 70 x 62 cm corrugated cardboard pieces and a circular stand. Simple design, INCLUDING decoration you can really use in various ways. For me cardboard is the best in its natural color, so I will probably let P only scribble on decoration, but possibilities are endless. I also already bought a super cheap STRÅLA light chain with 10 bulbs which is battery operated and LED, so we can use that too.

Isn't this tree just perfect?

Tree stump tools - our Happy Toys

I came across a Happy Boat made out of tree stump on Pinterest and remembered I never showed you the tools we made this summer.

So here they are:

Owl Calendar for Owl Lovers

 3rd year in a row, here is the Owl Lover 2013 by My Owl Barn.

Owl Lover 2013 is a collaborative project between My Owl Barn and over 40 artists  (Jo James, Wee Gallery, Donna McKenzie, Juliette Crane and Nathan Jurevicius to name a few) from all over the globe who make this project unique on the net and has created a community of like minded people who admire art.

The calendar is completely customizable, you can pick an artwork of your choice separately for each month. If you are having trouble deciding there is also a pre-made version.

Here are some of my favorites:

 Enjoy!