Welcome to Holland

That is the title of a poem about Down syndrome, that often is given to parents who are expecting
 a baby with Down syndrome, or that just found out that their newborn has Down syndrome.

It compares becoming the parent of a child with Down syndrome with a journey.
The traveler in the poem is expecting to go to Italy, and somehow ends up in Holland and has to stay there.
 Holland is completely different than Italy, but after the initial shock,
the traveler is able to see and appreciate the beauty of Holland.

Windmill and tulip fields

If you want to read the poem, click on the following link:

Welcome to Holland

After getting the diagnosis for our little girl, the genetic counselor handed us the poem.
I had already heard about it, so I wasn't too surprised.

I thought it was pretty ironic, since I happen to be from Holland, although I am living in the USA.
Nothing wrong with Holland to me :)

But I do see what the writer of the poem means,
although I would've preferred if she had reversed the roles of the two countries in her poem ;)

Windmills at Kinderdijk

My parents' backyard in bloom

Down syndrome - my story

October is Down syndrome awareness month.
And that gave me the little push I needed to write about it.

I have been thinking for a while if this is a subject I want to write about on a craft blog. But since it's such an important part of my life, I feel like I just want to share this. During the past year I have learned so much, and if this little blog could even help only one person, it would be worth writing about it. I have quite a few new visitors on here every day, so this is a great way to 'reach' a lot of people.

I don't write much about personal stuff, but some of you who have been following this blog for a while, might know that we had our third baby girl last May. One thing I haven't shared here before, is the fact that this beautiful little girl has Down syndrome.

It wasn't a surprise at birth. During a routine ultrasound early in my pregnancy, we learned that there was the possibility that our little baby would have Down syndrome, or possibly another chromosomal abnormality. Since we didn't want to wait more than a half year to find out what was going on, we decided to have an amnio. We learned that we were having our third girl, and that she came with a little extra: an extra copy of the 21st chromosome, also called Trisomy 21 or Down syndrome.

We were pretty nervous at first. You simply want the best for your child and looking at all the possible health issues and other 'limitations' that our baby might have, was pretty overwhelming, to be honest. And looking around the web randomly didn't help a lot, I should say. Reading that about 90% of people in our situation would decide to terminate the pregnancy, added to my anxiety. If all these people didn't think they could handle it, how would we do it?

But there were a lot of things that DID help us during that time.
In the first place, faith that God won't give us anything we can't handle.
We also had a lot of support from family and friends.
We found out about resources in our community, and met with families who had children with Down syndrome, and they showed us that they were basically just like any other family.

During the months that followed, I found some helpful blogs and websites.
Of parents who gave us a peek into their lives with a little one with Down syndrome.

And slowly, the sadness went away, and got replaced by something else:
we actually started to look forward again to meeting our little girl.

Writing this, I feel bad to say that at first I was all worried and sad about our baby, who is just amazing and perfect!  She has some health issues, and she has physical therapy, at this point about every 2 weeks, but in the big picture these things are not that important. We're just so happy to have her in our lives!

As I am taking part in the 31 for 21 challenge, this month you can expect to read more about Down syndrome and a lot of things we learned. Hope you'll come along for the ride!

Grab This Button

(And this is the link to the blog that all started it,

I would really appreciate it if you'd put a button on your blog to get the word out!!)

Ruffle Shoe Tutorial: a Refashion

I really like shoes with something extra, like ruffles or flowers, but usually not the price tag on them...

In my closet I had these boring shoes, still in perfectly good shape, just plain though.

So I thought of a way I could change them. 

And LOVED how they turned out!

So here is another refashion tutorial...

It took me less than a half hour to make these, and hardly any supplies!

Gather your supplies:

* Shoes 

* 7/8" Wide Grosgrain ribbon (color that matches your shoes)

* Matching thread

*E-6000 glue

Begin by measuring your ribbon. I took ribbon about twice as long as the edge I wanted to put the ruffle on. You could use a little less, but don't use too little, you can always trim it if it's too long.

Stitch one edge of the ribbon with a straight stitch, at the longest length your sewing machine will allow. (For mine that is 4.)

Gather the ribbon by pulling one of the threads.

Put it on the shoe to see how it looks, and adjust if needed.

Trim the excessive ends. Make sure the ribbon can still fold to the inside of your shoe like shown in the picture below. Make sure the part on the inside of the shoe isn't ruffled.

Then, with stitch length 1, sew the edge of the ribbon once again, to make sure the ruffle will stay put! 

Now, grab the sports section of the paper, your glue, and if the weather allows it, go outside!

(Otherwise make sure you're working in a well ventilated area!)

Sorry for this blurry picture, but at this point I was holding the glue and camera, and wanting to work as quickly as possible, so didn't take too many pictures....

Put some glue on the center of the shoe as pictured.

Wait a little, following the directions on the glue.

Put the center of the ribbon in place, make sure it is a little higher up than the edge of the shoe, so that the edge won't show anymore.

Work your way around the shoe, finishing of the last part like shown in the picture below, and fold to the inside.

Let them dry and enjoy!

You could also add ribbon flowers, or an extra layer of ruffles, beads, etc.

I liked it just like this, and was worried to mess it up by overdoing it, so I kept them like this.

Would also be fun for plain flats...

Oh, and for people who always manage to glue the lid of the glue stuck to the tube: (Of cooooooooooourse not me, not at all.) I learned by reading the directions in small print (who does that anyway?) that it helps to put a little petroleum jelly on the inside of the lid. Tried it last time and it works like a charm :)

I linked up to Brassy Apple, I heart organizing, CraftOManiac Monday, Blue Cricket Design, Tea Rose Home and Sugarbee Crafts

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Looks like watercolors! - Fun quick kids' craft

The other day I was watering plants, and I accidentally dripped some water on one of my daughter's artworks. Since their creations need to be treated with respect, or so they think, I put it on the kitchen counter to dry. And then I convinced her that I liked it almost even better this way:

It had sort of a water color look. My girls were really excited about it and thought it looked like they painted it!

So we felt like we 'invented' a new craft by accident!

We took some coloring books, just those made with that ugly grey-ish paper.

They picked a favorite picture, and colored it with markers.

Then we sprayed it with a water bottle.

And let it dry...

(We put it outside in the sun.)

Just a fun, quick little craft, and it looks like they painted, without the mess.

Flower T-shirt Tutorial - a Refashion

I made this flower t-shirt using a plain black t-shirt and a black and a white top that I was going to get rid off anyway. It was such a quick and easy project, and I am really pleased with the results. I took some pictures while I was making it, and decided to share..

Supplies needed:

A basic t-shirt (I used black)

Knit fabric in 2 colors (I used 2 old tops, black & white)

Lace

Matching thread

Begin by cutting flowers in 3 sizes using the knit fabric and the lace. I used my Bigshot, but you could also freehand them. Since you will layer them, and put lace on top of the lighter color, their shape won't matter as much. Also, once the t-shirt is washed the edges will curl up slightly, therefore the shape is not too important.

Then, lay out the flowers on your shirt. I used 2 of the big knit flowers, and one each of the smaller ones. Then I made sure that a piece of lace was on top of the white knit, so that the lace was more visible. 

Once you have found an arrangement that you like, pin the flowers down, and start sewing. 

This was really pretty easy. I used a straight stitch, starting in the center of the flower, and went back and forth in a straight line on each petal twice. In order to move on to the next petal, just make sure the needle is down, lift the presser foot, turn the fabric so that you're good to go for the next petal, put the presser foot back down, and repeat.

 Here are some close ups to show the flowers.

And that's all!

Hope you enjoy this mini tutorial, let me know if you have any questions!

I linked up to Brassy Apple, Blue Cricket Design, Tatertots and jello , Under the table and dreaming, CraftOManiac Monday, Young and Crafty, Sumo's Sweet Stuff and Sugar Bee Crafts. 

Why I love spray paint...

The past couple months I have had fun using spray paint. Both for things to use inside the house, as well as stuff for the yard. 

What I think is so great is that you can make anything boring suddenly look interesting again by changing its original color. And the best thing is that it's easy and quick!

I just have to be careful not to go overboard and paint everything I come across. 

Just a couple pictures of some things that I painted, unfortunately I don't have any 'before' pictures since I am pretty impulsive once I have a can of spray paint in my hands...

An old tin bucket that I use to keep my garden tools handy got a fresh layer of paint.

I love old window frames, picked this one up at a garage sale over a year ago, and it has been sitting in our garage ever since. I stayed away from the paint during my pregnancy, but not too long afterwards I just HAD to paint it. Now, what do I do with it?

I was thinking it would be neat to let some vines, like ivy, grow through it.

Another awesome idea I found on Craftberry Bush, but not sure if I have the patience to get the materials and do all the work. But doesn't this look pretty?

Picture from Craftberry Bush.

For now it has just been sitting on an old broken bench in our yard, just waiting till I make up my mind...

Another item I found at a garage sale is this flower cart. It was unfinished, and lived in our garage for 2 years! So finally I managed to get it painted. I want to put some flowers in it.

This birdhouse was just an unfinished wooden bird feeder. 

I love how it adds some color to our yard, think it will be especially nice once our yard has lost all its color during the winter months.

Party food

We have 2 birthdays in July. I have been wanting to post these pictures, but they're a little late. My husband's and daughter's birthday are only one day apart, and that usually results in us celebrating their birthdays together.

Although my hubby isn't picky, I tried to stay away from the typical pink girly party decorations and find something that would be cute for a little girl and a big guy :)

This color theme seemed to work for both of them.

I found some free printables that I really liked.

I used the printable Lots-o-dots to make the cupcake toppers. On the same site, there is also a printable mini banner. Both printables are so cute. I used the dots to make the round cupcake toppers, I printed them on textured cardstock, punched them out and attached them to short skewers. I used the banner printable to make the little flags.

After I was done making the flags, I had some extra pieces, so I also made a little banner and used that to decorate our ice cream cake.

(Recipe can be found here.)

Since a couple of my girls' cousins couldn't be at the party, we had another little party. 

This time it was a tea party, and I enjoyed making small treats: chocolate covered strawberries, mini chocolate cookies, mini cupcakes, heart shaped cheese & crackers, and I added some chips and watermelon. Just some small kid-friendly treats, that could also be enjoyed by the moms.

Since it was really hot, we had ice tea instead of hot tea, and strawberry lemonade.