DIY Honey Apple Iced Tea | Healthy

It’s time for a first DIY food related post.. And I’m so excited for this one because it just tastes amazing and doesn’t require much work at all.

Round2Hello everybody ☀️,

A few days ago I bought my first mason jar after seeing so many people blog and post videos about mason jar smoothies and iced teas and other delicious and Instagrammable juices and foods. And I looked over to the fruit basket and wondered if I could brew something with tea and pieces of over-ripe apple. And after making it – it just looked and tasted amazing. If you are interested – read on! *Or: watch the video I made with it:*

You will need, for one person: Continue reading

New Music Cover 🎸

Hello everyone!!

Today is a very exciting day, for today I have released my first cover over on Youtube. I’ve been working on a few songs lately, and this one was the first to be finished. The song is called Everybody Hurts, known from the band R.E.M. I first heard the song from the band The Corrs on their Unplugged CD. I absolutely loved and still love it. Because it carries so many memories, I just couldn’t NOT cover this one. I really hope you like it, and if you do – give it some love over on the Youtubes. Cheers!

This Month’s favs: Grantchester & Kaleo

A different post today! Or not? 😉

I’ve been loving a few new things this month..

One of those things is the beautiful band Kaleo:

And yes I call them beautiful because I have no other word to describe all their talent in one word. Their taste in music, genre diversity, instruments, depth of their songs, depth of their lyrics – and … they are ICELANDIC. A new land obsession? 😉 And by the way, JJ’s voice is só diverse. He can sing high – higher than me ;p – super low, soft and / or rough. I LOVE IT. Play this video definitely until the guitar solo hits.

Another thing is the TV Show Granchester. I loved Continue reading

The Musketeers – An Introduction

From Game of Thrones, to Outlander.. and now I’m delving into another super-interesting era and world. The world of the Musketeers! And not just the BBC Musketeers or the book or the movies, but the real Musketeers. Ok, ok: and of course the BBC series ;). Who are we kidding.

I’ve got a problem making this new project. Do you want to see a full-on Musketeer tutorial? Than perhaps you can help me. Scroll down to the end of this article or click here. Thank you

Be aware of some BBC Musketeer spoilers!

Costumes

What do the BBC Musketeers look like again..? Watch this:

Continue reading

Podcast #1

Hello everybody!!

I’ve uploaded the first Ava Session to my Youtube channel Ava Baytree – and I’m so excited to be adding this new dimensional layer to this ever growing universe.

Even though it has mistakes, tongue twists, and highly irritating voice clicks sometimes, it is very much a portrait of human kind and moreover of the autodidact. And because of that I am very proud to present an almost true rendition of a live talk; what the session is, in its core, about.

It has talking, a little anekdote, philosophy and singing and guitar playing! Start listening wherever, whenever you want and in as many parts as you prefer. Enjoy:

 

A Happy One Year Anniversary

Our Baytree universe has grown! It has reached its one year anniversary, of which the rapidness is truly surprising.. Time has flown!

To sum up this amazing – insightful – creative – inspiring and heartwarming year:

  • Finished 5 costume pieces
  • Posted 22 posts, keeping a minimum of 1 post per month
  • 7,932 total views from 3,543 visitors from more than 54 different countries (I am mesmerised every day by seeing countries visiting my blog from places all over the world and from some small countries I didn’t even know existed)
  • October 28th was the most booming stat day with 253 views, a day which I still very much remember 🙂
  • I have received 68 likes overall on this blog from awesome people and 9 – all memorable and heartwarming – comments, where there are even more over on Pinterest

Continue reading

Make fur | Tutorial: Make Jon Snow’s costume fur under €25

I am literally so excited to share this tutorial with you – since this is a struggle so “easily” solved! I loved the process a lot, it doesn’t take a lot of time, doesn’t hurt any animals, doesn’t cost too much money and the result is just amazing.

Let’s celebrate easter with a new tutorial!
Make your own Jon Snow fur, viking fur, a rug or even a fashionable shawl within one day.

Jon Snow’s imposing coat and characteristic fur hide – Courtesy of HBO

On the internet, a few things became very clear about Jon Snow costumes and cosplays. Most of the time, the costumes are absolutely amazing and beautifully tailored, – You can hear it coming – But.. A lot of people tend to get stuck on the fur-part. Mostly because real fur is too expensive or because the fake fur is not realistic and big, fluffy and imposing enough. I made my Jon Snow costume alongside my Ygritte costume which tutorial you can find here, which is some time ago now. As you can see from the title, this is not going to be a full Jon Snow tutorial – yet. Ygritte’s costume was a big project, but oh boy, Jon Snow’s was even bigger! It is a very “mathematical” and precise project, and even though my work is half done, it is still not near as close as I want it to be. Alongside that is the fact that season 6 is already on the doorstep (april!) and from photos, we can see that Jon’s costumes will dramatically change next season. I’ll have to see whether the hype around Jon’s older costume is going to change, because if it does, I might not finish the costume..

Collage Wool

But – why the tutorial on the fur? You can’t possibly make your own “real fur” now can you? …Can you? Continue reading

Wearing the Great Kilt – A Retrospective

It has been a while since I posted my “How to make an Outlander costume – Part 1” article. It covered all the basics of Great Kilt folding and Arisaid folding, and it was just so much fun to make, to fold and to write.

But here’s the catch: I never really finished the section of Kilt Types! The slightly irritating “will soon be updated” marred the decor that the Great Kilts flair had created. Soon became months quite quickly.. But hey – yes yes – it has been updated at last! Quickly visit the article and find out what new Kilt and Arisaid types have arrived in Baytree land.

Fun

Don’t mind me…

Since every photoshoot process takes about six to more than ten hours to do, to process and to touch up, it is always a shame when great photos are not good enough to be shown in the main article. And because some are just to precious or to cool to leave behind, I thought I would make a little behind the scenes article to give you an impression of the entire process behind a photoshoot like that. And just as this garments is awesome to alter and to re-create, it is also as much fun behind the scenes to wear and to mess around with, which sometimes results in quirky and funny photos. Continue reading

2015 in review

Perhaps a little late – but I found this jewel in my mailbox and I really wanted to share with you – and relive – the excitement of 2015.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for my blog.. It amazes me that people actually read what I write and find joy in my projects. It makes my day, everyday!

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,200 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Cheers!

Merry Christmas

Hello everyone,

Have a lovely, lovely christmas! If you are with friends, family, just the two of you and even if you are alone: make it cosy and a day to never forget. Do whatever you want!!

To give you a little impression of my first Christmas day (yes we have two in the Netherlands, lucky us 😉 ), I thought I’d show you what my perfect Christmas looks like:

Our first Baytree Christmas! How exciting!

Merry Christmas to all my fellow WordPressers, sewers and crafters as well as everyone else reading this little post and watching the video.

Love you and thank you for reading! ❤

Ps. Little peek behind the post: this 30 second video took more than an hour to render, aahh