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Sadly my wrist and hand are showing some signals of overcharge by the crochet hook. I have tot take a crochet break which isn't easy for me at all and I'm not sure if I'm going to succeed... But lucky for me, I have other hobby's like sewing, decorating, cooking, collage making, so there's no reason to get bored.

I took this chance to tidy up my craft room and absolutely love the result. My desk is almost empty, after weeks off not being able to see the beautiful formica desktop. I even removed the Billy (IKEA) to my love's room and have much more space in my micro work place.

I love the light coming in to the big window and am happy with my expanding wall collage of pictures and illustrations. I am collecting masking tape although I'm not really using it yet. That's a common issue with us crafters, I think, so many ideas (and so greedy) but always too little time. My hands just don't seem to be able to keep up with my head. 

I love this little burst of creativity. Am in LOVE with the little Blythe dolls and particularly this little cowgirl. The Cherry Coco Diary I bought in Thailand and love it too much too write in it yet, hence the  display. Found the box years ago at a thrift store and that's a beautiful illustration of why it's sometimes okay to be greedy. It might always come in handy. Oh, and to be honest, love Littlest Petshop and own about 11 Piny Pons. Have to keep feeding that little girl inside me sometimes. It's my luck I have 2 girls, so I can buy them Hello Kitty t-shirts and toys and stuff. Familiar??



My first Mollie Makes. This happens to be the first Dutch version, so I was lucky. Although I don't really like the patterns this month I do like some pictures and since I'm also big into collage I had to have it!

The shelves expanded with a yellow and pink one and I like the result. Color always makes me happy.

I wanted to tell you guys I had a crafty night with four friends last monday. But sadly I totally forgot to take pictures. Too bad. It was great fun and everybody was inspired. We are going to make a monthly thing out of it and next month I'm going to teach them to crochet. So exciting! Next month I'll take pics, I promise...

That's it for now, it's a bit depressing seeing my unfinished blanket laying around like this. But hey, it's a good opportunity to broaden my horizon and get some other stuff done! 

Have a great day.

Yarn Greed

Yes, I'm unsatisfiable. I bought new yarn again. I found it when I was searching the Rio yarn I showed last week. It's called Creative Cotton and it's very cheap and colorful. I love cotton yarn and usually use a glossy kind, like Phildar 3, Catania of Rio. But I wanted to find a little less glossy and a little thicker cotton, and now I did! I'm very excited to try it. I love the colors!! I bought it here.

Now I have to think of a pattern I want to use. I think it's going to be a classic granny, but not sure yet...

On thursday we had a little bit of a crafty afternoon, the girls and I. I saw a pompom garland in Homespun Style and wanted to make something similar with the eldest. I like it. I brought some beads from Thailand and was happy to finally use them. Now we have to figure out where to put the garland. Maybe the christmas tree...

On top of everything I started a new project. I saw many versions of this design and I'm going to figure out the source of this one. I'll let you know soon. But it's so ridiculously fun to make this blanket. It's going to be my first big blanket. You can use all your scraps and results show fast. My girls love it too!

Anywho, that's going on with me. We are busy celebrating the arrival of Sinterklaas, a Dutch holiday. He arrived today and we are going to put some presents in our kids shoes (and ours...) tonight. I love this time of year!

Have a nice weekend!

Color Bomb!!!

Today I finally finished my color bomb pillow. Yeah! I love the way it turned out. I used my new yarn and my new fabric. It makes me so happy to work with such vibrant bright colors. I think this is my first finished pillow that's 3d. The flowers curl up a little bit more than I intended, but that doesn't matter much. 

I did something different with the edging this time. Just some improvising while I was doing it. It works well, especially with the white around it. It did cost me some frustration though! The corners are quite complicated sometimes...

I am proud of the back as well. The little squares work perfectly and I solved the problem of not having a zipper quite elegant.

I'm planning on making a tutorial of the flower granny. That's exciting 'cause it will be my first. Maybe somewhere next week.

I also did some Sinterklaas shopping today, that's a Dutch holiday, kinda like christmas. I bought all kinds of fun and educational games and toys. I also bought some craft materials for tomorrow. We are going to make a garland with pompoms.

And for both the girls I bought a placemat from HEMA. I love this design!

So tomorrow after school there's going to be some serious crafting going on here!

Wish you a very nice day!

Inspiration

This saturday I had the whole day to myself and I got something wonderful in the mail: The book Homespun Style from Selina Lake. It's such a treat!!! Can't get enough of it. It's so inspirational. Here are some pics to convince you.

And I have another inspirational book to show you. It's from Edition Paumes and it's Japanese. The weird thing is, all the books are filled with pictures from all over Europe. I got one as a present from my  love for our anniversary two weeks ago. I want to have them all!!! Luckily my birthday is in January, so I don't have to wait long for some more (I hope)...

It is a little bit hard to read the info, but who cares?! The pictures are enough! I love all the retro aspects in both books. It's totally my style.

The sneak peek I showed you last post is almost done. I have to make a back for the pillow and then I'll show you. I did want to show you a little cuddly toy I made last week. I forgot all about it then, but here it is now.

Just something fun to do between all the bigger projects. I was a bit grumpy when I started making it, but felt all better once it was done. I really like the granny sweater.

Well, tell me what you think! Hope to show you something more soon!

Sneak Peek

No finished projects this time. Busy with to many of them, actually. I made a deal with myself, not to start anything new, until at least 2 are done. That's always difficult for me. I like to just go when an idea pops up in my head, but no more! Luckily we have Pinterest now, where we can store our ideas... Check out my boards in order to see how many things I still have to do.

I can offer you a sneak peak into what I'm doing though. Hope to finish somewhere next week...

 This is nice and colorful. I'm using my new Rio cotton for this and it's so much fun to make. I hope to make a tutorial. It's gonna be my first...

And with this one I've been busy for over a month. I have to finish of a lot of the loose ends. I really don't like to do it, but I love the result.

This is the most beautiful yarn I've ever used. It's 100% pima cotton. It's soooo soft and elastic. I can't wait to feel the result!

And then there are potholders. I love this pattern. It's a great gift and doesn't take more then a day to make, but once I've made the first, I don't look forward to make the second. I want to do something new. So now I have 2 lonely potholders... I still have to make a matching friend, but I keep on stalling. Do you recognize this??

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So I'm kinda busy this weekend. My family is out for today, so I have the whole day to myself. Think I'll watch a movie and finish of some loose ends.

Have a lovely weekend! 

Inspiration Time!

Last week the yearly KreaDoe beurs, a big crafty fair in Utrecht, took place. Although I'm having some trouble with my health (CFS) I couldn't resist to get inspired and have a look. It was a wonderful day, starting with a nice train ride (I really miss them sometimes). It ended with me and a few bags full of crafty stuff I just couldn't resist. I must say, I held myself back quite bravely and only bought materials I will really use. That's hard sometimes don't you think? Not getting greedy...

Want to see some of my treasures??

Of course some new yarn couldn't be missing from my shopping results. I recently found just the right color of orange cotton (I've been looking for it for about 2 years!) from a brand I didn't yet know. I hoped to find some more at this fair, because on the internet you just can't feel the yarn and it's not possible to be sure about the colors. And the first stand I visited actually had this brand of yarn, called Rio. In real life the colors were just as bright and wonderful as on the net! Don't you love it when you find new colors?

These iron-on-applications, from Dotties Design, will look so pretty on my girls' t-shirts. Now I only have to make time to actually iron them on. I will show you the result when I'm done...

I never bought quilt fabric before, 'cause I'm used to buying fabric per meter. But when I saw the beautiful quality and patterns of the Tilda fabric I couldn't resist. And to be honest, buying fabric like that per meter is a bit too expensive... So I bought some fat quarters for the first time and figured I could use it as a back for my crochet pillows. Don't you just love the patterns of this fabric?

And at the last minute I bought this, well, I don't know what it's called in English. In Dutch this is called a 'letterbak'. I can't resist them and because it is shaped like a little house and it was cheap I had to take it with me. Another project I have to find the time for...

Overall it's just so much fun to go to a fair like this. Everybody feels the same way and you see lots of inspiring things. There were some things that were tempting to buy, like hundreds of different stamps, scrap punches, paper, books. It wasn't easy to resist, but knowing how I love crochet and how time consuming it is, made me realistic enough to let them pass by. There nothing as depressing as all that stuff that never gets used. Anyway,  had a wonderful day trip.

Hope you are inspired and that you have a lovely creative day!