Vintage Pillow

So it's finished. I love the way it turned out. And the cotton is very soft too. I have no pictures of the back yet, since the light just wasn't right. Show you sometime later. (I tried, but when I saw them on my screen it didn't work...)

I'm not totally sure where to put it yet. The colors are quite different from what I'm used to. What to do, what to do??

This is my very dear Piny Pon collection. I can never resist buying them because they're so pretty and colorful and happy. I finally found the right type case (is that the right word??) and painted it Vintage Blue... Don't they just lift up your spirit?

And for what I doing now... I've been wanting to use my scraps for ages. They just lay there in a nice basket, doing nothing, so I finally came with a plan. The scraps will be perfect for my square potholder idea. What do you think??

I love tuesday, 'cause it's MY day. No kids until dinner (which I don't have to cook, but my love does... Talk about luxury) and the whole house to myself. I've been sitting in my craft room all day. No cleaning, nog folding laundry, no fuzz at all. 

So I will proceed doing that. Hope you have a lovely dat as well!

Weekend Quicky

I really felt like a quick and satisfying weekend project. And I happen to love my Vintage Potholder Pattern very much. The color combination possibilities, the going in rounds, the repetition (I prefer to make 2 at a time).

Now just look at it... In my own kitchen in the sun. Oh how I love my shelves with all kinds of retro orange goodies...

I'm still thinking about opening my own Etsy shop. I'm certain I would want to sell these. Am designing some square potholder patterns as well. Not ready yet.

And then I still need to finish my pillowcase from last week... Gonna start now, I guess.

Happy monday!

Something New

So I directly started designing new patterns to use the same lovely colors as in my Vintage Flower Blanket. This is one of the ideas I came up with. I aded the mustard and removed the light green. I like it. It's going to make a nice pillow for my new craft room.

The craft room will be finished soon, hopefully. I first have to make some pillows to make it complete. O and hang some pictures on the wall.  

Well, Tell me what you think (since it's possible again...)

Vintage Flower Blanket

There it is, the new Flower Square Blanket with a vintage feel to it. Yummie!!

I had s much fun making this blanket! And the edging too. I saw it once, somewhere (probably pinterest) and wanted to try it. I just never had the right blanket for this edging. Now I have! I'm absolutely in love with the vintage pastel colors. 

In my new craft room I have this nice basket filled with my latest color addiction. Doesn't it look warm and sunny?? I will show some pictures of my room when the weather is a little bit sunnier and when I've painted the table... Might take some time.

And finally I just HAD to show you this beautiful Dahlia, I picked from my own front yard. It's filled with dahlia's but this one is particularly pretty, don't you think? And it's huge!!

Next post will be the tutorial for this square. Hope to see you soon!

Have a lovely (rainy) day.

Sunshiny Days

I've been quite crafty the last couple of weeks. Even though the weather tempts us to go outside a lot, I still get some creating done. One of my projects was our camper van oldtimer...

My love did the outside (repaint and striping) and I did the inside. It was such a fun project, 'cause the thing looked terrible! Now check out the inside...

We bought new foam rubber and I made new cases with IKEA fabric. We made a new table and I really love the yellow flower tablecloth I stapled on it. A few picture frames here and there, my first crochet garland and a few curtains, and now it's our own cozy holiday home. We are leaving for Germany on thursday. Can't wait...

This guy visited me last saturday and it was funny, since he posed for me for about 15 minutes. Sometimes he would fly of and then instantly return. It felt like he was watching me as well. Doesn't he look extraordinary?? I love dragonflies...

My dahlia's started to bloom finally! It took about 4 months after I'd put them in the ground, but I must say, it was worth the wait. They look so beautiful and very colorful in our front yard. The vegetables in the back yard are producing nicely and I never thought I would enjoy gardening as much as i do. I'm slowly turning into my mother...

Before I leave again, some colorful craft and homy pic's. I love our pink laundry in the yard... So lucky I have girls! And I'm happy to say I started to enjoy crochet again. Have some projects on the go.

Enjoy the sunny holidays! See you later...

Color Bomb Stool Part Deux

Finally! That's a word I use often... The stool is done after 6 months of postponing. I do very much love the result.

Seeing these pictures makes me even happier!! Such bright happy colors. Should use these for more stuff. A pillow maybe?? Must think about that...

This is what our hallway looks like now, and yes, we do still have a house phone. And use it also! I've always loved the Orla Kiely pattern and just put some pictures from books and magazines in Ikea frames. The stool matches perfectly is you ask me... Now we can have long telephone calls in style!

Enjoy the sun today!!

Spring Is In The Air

Don't you love the feeling that spring is nearing? I do. The light is different, birds start singing early in the morning. The light comes through the curtains before nine... I love the spring. When we were living in Thailand last year, that was the thing I missed most, Spring. You can just smell it when you're outside. And it doesn't matter to me that it still freezes. So I've started to work on some spring colored crochet and crafting.

I showed you the two sides of this pillow before it was finished. I really love the colors and that I can just flip it around for a complete different style, or color actually. It looks very retro to me, this pattern. It's very sunny.

This is what our temporary couch looks like and the poof in front, I got at the local thrift store and covered it with some new fabric I bought for this pupose. For the new couch I will make some matching cushions, I think.

I love how colorful and sunny my living room looks now. And I'm very curious what it's going to look like once the new couch finally arrives... Only 5 weeks to go...

Of course I had to start a new crochet project as well. I think it's going to e a table runner, but not sure yet. I really like these awfully sweet colors.

Well, enjoy the upcoming spring!

Tutorial Vintage Flower Potholder

Well, here it is: The Flower Potholder tutorial!! It took me so much time, but I'm so proud to share it with you!

I used regular cotton and a size 3 hook. Be sure to crochet this potholder tight, than it will function better. Choose your colors carefully. Put them together and make a sketch if you can. You don't want to be halfway discovering you don't like the look of it.

Well, there we go...

Chain 4, join with a slip stitch.

Round 1: Chain 3, then add 14 double crochets into the circle. (total 15 dc) Join with a slip stitch.

Round 2: (Change color if you like) chain 3, *2 dc into next stitch, repeat * 13 times, than 1 dc into the same stitch as the first ch 3, join with a sl st (total 30 dc). 

Round 3: (Change color if you like) Ch 3, *1 dc in next stitch, 2 dc in next st, *repeat 13 times, 1 dc in next st, 1 dc in same stitch as first ch 3. (total 45 dc)

BE SURE TO COUNT YOUR STITCHES!!!  It's very annoying when your finished and the flower has only 14 petals... (believe me, I know)

Round 4: Join with the color you want to use for the edging, Ch 1, 1 single crochet in every stitch, join with a sl st. (Or use the method shown on these pictures for a prettier result when joining). This round is optional. You could leave it out if you want to. I like it better with, but you might not.

Round 5/6: Change color and begin in any stitch you want. Ch 3, 1dc, ch1, 2 dc, * skip 2 stitches, 2 dc, ch1, 2 dc, repeat* 13 times, join with a sl st in the third ch from the first ch 3. (For round 6, start in one of the ch 1 spaces)
Round 7/8: Change color, start in one of the ch 1 spaces, ch 3, 2dc, ch1, 3 dc, *3dc, ch 1, 3 dc, *repeat 13 times, join with a  sl st in the third ch from the first ch 3.
Round 9: Change color, start in one of the ch 1 spaces, ch3, 2dc, ch 2, 3 dc, * 3 dc, ch2, 3 dc, repeat*13 times.

If you don't want to change color, like I did in the back of the potholder, this is a nice method to start each upcoming round: join the first round with a sl st, sl st in next dc, sl st n the chain 1 space, then start  the new round as written above.

Round 10: Change color, start in the ch 2 space, Ch 4, 4 trebbles, *sl st, 10 trebbles, repeat* 13 times, 5 tr, join with a sl st.

Congratulations! You have finished your front now. Time for the back. Again, choose your colors carefully. After finishing both, finish of the loose ends before you start joining them. The joining part is a bit tricky at first. Be careful with your hook. You don't want to pull along all sorts of loops...

For joining: Place the 2 sides back to back,( make sure you have the front pointing towards you) start in the middle of a pettal (both sides), ch1, 2 sc in next stitch (this goes for all the trebbles!) When you come to the middle of 2 pettals, make sure your yarn is right from the hook (first pic), the hook goes in, the first space between rounds 9 (back and front), from the back, yarn over, pull it through so you get 2 loops on the hook (this is tricky at first, you have to make a little turn and it's easy to take other loops with you...), yarn over and pull it through both loops. (It's just a sc around each round), ch 1 and repeat this until your flower is done. Look at the pictures closely. It's sc than ch 1.

When you're at the middle of the flower start by working your hook through the back, and the second one from the front. That's where you turn around.

This will take some practice, but you will get better at it every time.

That's it! Wow, I'm going to get me a cup of tea...

Hope it's clear to all of you. Please let me know if you miss anything, or I made mistakes. And I would love to see the results of course!!

And there they are. Perfect to use! They always cheer me up!

Have a very happy weekend!

Look what I got!

Took a little time off by going to the forest with my littlest girl for a week in a little bungalow. We spent time watching the squirrels and birds outside our window and playing in the big indoor playground together. The weather wasn't much, but we had a great time. In the weekend my love and oldest girl joined us and we always love our family getaway during the 'pre-winter'.

My wrist is still causing problems, but it couldn't stop me from going to the local yarn shop and get some... I started on a pillow front. The yarn is nice. It's 50% cotton and 50% acrylic.

Since I still cannot crochet on full speed I need some distraction. I went thrift and christmas shopping today. Got some great treasures to share with you. I was incredibly successful.

I'm a big lover of all that's retro and vintage. Orange is my number one color in accessories, although anything will do, really. I was extremely lucky on this vase (the left) which cost me a fifth of what it's worth. I love vases from W. Germany. I have one already, a beauty (the green one), and used to have a bigger one, which was murdered by my parakeet some years ago. I never totally got over it, since I discovered it was worth 20 times what I payed for it then and it was soo beautiful.

Anywho, I was lucky enough to find these little wooden owl magnets. How cute are they? Couldn't resist them.

I also collect vintage tin containers with the beautiful vintage flower patterns. These are some of them and the big pink patterned one I bought yesterday for 1,40. Lucky day!

These are the shelves in my kitchen. My collection keeps on growing and it always cheers me up!

The christmas shopping was a success as well, but I'll show you once I'm finished decorating. Will take some time probably, 'cause I don't even have a tree yet...

Have a lovely creative day!