I Won!!!

So, back from a lovely weekend in Brabant, I'm excited to finally tell you I won my first Give Away. And not just any Give Away, I won this one, the Mollie Makes Crochet Book! I was so surprised when I found out I was picked on the lovely blog Rosehip. Beata Basik is known for her pretty crochet trimmed pillow cases and also for this beautiful pattern. I still need to give it a try, but the pictures of this pillow never bore me. The colors are just wonderful! I've loved this blog for ages and was particularly happy with Beata's nice comments on my blog. It's great getting a compliment from someone you admire, right? On thursday night the book arrived, just in time for me to have a little peek before I went on our anniversary weekend.

I really love the book. It's so colorful and happy (just the way I like it) and the pictures and patterns are great! I got started right away on the place mats, designed by Ilaria from IDA Interior Lifestyle, even though I have a thousand projects on the go... Maybe I should finnish something first.
Beata herself also contributed to the book, with some lovely edging patterns.

But then it was time to pack my bags and go of to Brabant, where a lovely forest chalet was waiting for our arrival. Never have I had such a relaxing and peaceful weekend (at least not since the kids). We had this cosy shack for 3 nights! It had a huge bubble bath too!

We went out to diner for 2 nights and did some shopping on saturday (pic's will follow later this week) in Den Bosch, which was great fun. On sunday we stayed in, all day, reading, crocheting, coloring, playing games and mostly just relaxing ourselves silly. This was the best day if you ask me. Wow, how I didn't feel like going home on monday morning...

Took my basket of scraps with me and designed a new flower granny. (Don't know yet when the tutorial will be ready, still need to make a few other tut's). 

And then, coming home... Lovely to see the kids again. How you miss them and feel a bit amputated without them for so long. We went to pick them up from school yesterday (still totally relaxed) and got big hugs and lots of kisses. Now, 24 hours later, I forgot everything about my relaxed state and am up and running again, with a sick little girl to take care of, piles of laundry to do and lots of errands to run.

Well, that's family life, right?! Am already looking forward to our next getaway... What did you guys do this weekend??

Well, have a pink tuesday! (I know, it's probably just grey...)

Little Break

My last post got me thinking... Maybe it's time for a little break. Need to get some stuff organized (in my house as well as my head). It's a holiday week here, and I'm running around, needing to do so much stuff and wanting to do so much other stuff... I need to slow down for a few days. Otherwise I will go away this weekend all stressed out.

Did want to show you some pic's though. This one is wonderful isn't it? It's so cheap and easy that it's funny. Most of all it remembers me of Thailand, where English grammar isn't an issue at all! Keep calm to shopping', and 'Keep calm go to travel', hilarious. In Chaing Mai there was a carwash with the pay off: 'The best hand job in town!' And there is a band called 'Suck Seed', stuff like that. Everywhere over the city you can eat 'hambergers'. O, how I miss Thailand sometimes...

Got me some reading material for the next few days. Flow, my favorite Dutch magazine, nowadays also available here in English. And the English Mollie Makes. It's featuring (not sure if this is correct) a pattern from Revlie from REVolution. It's a very cute Medusa haired crochet doll. She wrote a post about it here. (BTW how do you like my chestnut spiderweb?? Always make these with the kids and my mother used to make them with us when I was young, love them! Then I know autumn has started...)

And well, got me some rainbow candles. I mean, nothing makes me happier than rainbow colors, so...

So, I will be gone for a week and fuel up! Have an autumny week! (It's 22 Celsius here, crazy! CRAZY!!!)

Pretty Messy

So, I must say, I do hate to clean and tidy up the house, most of the time. I have my moments where I go like a crazy person and clean and tidy up everything, but those moments are very scarce nowadays. I much rather crochet or blog or read or do anything really...

And on top of that I really hate mess. That's kind of ironic, I know. So not only do I hate to clean, I also hate dirt and mess. But this weekend I realized something. I have a lot of colorful stuff, and my kids do too, and my man is as creative as I am, so he has cool stuff too. I looked around and discovered, our house can still be pretty when messy.

But, to be honest, most people would say our house is quite organized, really. I just make a bigger deal of it, than most. I used to have everything organized before the kids came in the picture. Everything had it's own place. Now it always feels messy to me. These pictures don't show the ugly messy spaces, you know. Like the big piles of laundry, the packed kitchen dresser (google translate), the unmade beds or the dusty shelves. I'm not showing you those... 

When looking at the pictures above, you must think I'm crazy. That doesn't look messy at all! When shooting them, it felt so messy to me... Maybe it was everything around it...

Well, never mind. You might understand what I'm trying to tell you. Just do the stuff you like and ignore the mess as much as you can. I mean, you can clean up all the time, but tomorrow (or maybe even in half an hour) it's going to be a Big Pretty Mess all over again.

Have a messy tuesday!

Thrifty Finds

So, how lucky was I?! Yesterday (yes, on a sunday) there was a flee market in my town. I love LOVE them. And this particular time I was lucky to find some great thirfty treasures...

I love tins, as I believe I told you before... I found 4! The flowery treasure is mine now.

And yes, I also love little Playmobil children... Don't they look funny, with their little plastic wigs and outfits?? And isn't it even funnier if you meet someone with a Playmobil hairdo in real life??

Now look at these beauties. I think they're very pretty! They have old illustrations on them. Albert Heijn is a very old Dutch supermarket chain (I don't know if I explained that correctly).

Look how colorful they are... Still need to find a purpose for them though. And this is my favorite! Duh, it's the most colorful one.

But that's not all. I found 2 very romantic and pretty doilies as well! Oh, they look lovely don't they? I am planning on using the pattern and making something pretty, too. I've been wanting to do some open crochet, (or is it filet??) for quite some time now. Just needed to find the right pattern.

Did you guys have fun this weekend? Did something exciting happen? I had a great weekend! And next weekend me an my man are going out to the woods! We have our 5 year anniversary and rented a nice little wooden cabin. Am sooo looking forward to it!

Have a yellow monday!

PS: Totally forgot about the vintage alarm clock. Oh how I love the sound (and the font of the numbers). And the numbers have little dots that light up in the dark!

Circle In Square Tutorial I

As promised... It's time for the Circle in Square Tutorial from one of my latest posts. So pull out your (scraps of) yarn and get to work!

I use US terms for my tutorials.

First choose your colors carefully. This always takes a lot of time with me. I make several samples before I choose my final colors. (That's why I have so much scraps...).

I also wanted to give you the tip of using washi tape around your finger, (I've said this before) to keep your skin from burning and the yarn from leaving a painful notch (not sure about this word, is slit better??) on your finger. It seems silly, and wasteful, but it's much smoother than bandaid and the yarn slides better, to my experience.

So to start your circle chain 4, join with a slip stitch.

Round 1: Ch 3, 15 double crochets (16 stitches in total), join with sl st.

Round 2: Add new color, ch 2, half double crochet in same stitch, than 2 hdc in each next stitch (32 stitches in total). Join with sl st.

Round 3: Add new color (I suggest to use a contrasting color). Ch 1, and single crochet in each next stitch. Instead of joining with a sl st I like tot use the method you see on the pic's. Most people use a darning needle, I do it with my crochet hook.  I only use this method on single crochets.

Round 4: Start anywhere you like, using a new color. ch 3, 3 dc. Than into the next stitch *2 trebbles, ch2, 2 tr (all into the same stitch), 1 dc into the next 7 stitches*, repeat * 2 times, until you have 4 corners,  1 dc into the next 3 stitches. Join with sl st.

Round 5: Add new color. Dc in every dc from the previous round and the first ch when at the corner. In the ch 2 spaces from the previous round, 1 dc, ch 3, 1 dc. It will be 14 dc's per side. Look closely to the pictures to see how to do the corners.

And that's that! Now you can join your squares in the way you prefer. These ones I've sewn together. Nowadays I would join them with single crochet, but since this was an 'oldie', I did it with a darning needle.

Hope it's clear. If you have any questions, let me know. Some of you already did, but I want to point out that questions are sometimes easier answered if you email me. Feel free to do so.

There will be more circle in square tutorials (since I love them very much).

Have an exciting weekend!

PS. I'm on Bloglovin' now too! You can check it out here, or click the picture in the sidebar.

No TV For Me (Or My Family)

Source

So some of you already know, but my man and I decided to get rid of the TV for a year, just as an experiment. Since the effect is so great I wanted to share our experience with you guys.

In only 11 days we got so much closer together, listening to music or playing games at night. Having real conversations about the stuff we are interested in or experienced that day. We totally reconnected, without ever noticing we were quite disconnected. Just by looking at a screen almost every night.

Source

But that's not all. We both have LOTS of TIME now for the stuff we're interested in. My man is learning to use a new camera (Rolleiflex, some oldie), I'm crocheting with all my attention. We both feel activated and are eager to learn new things. I am planning to finally learn how to use Photoshop and we're both reading more.

Source

And then the kids... They get along better, are better rested, do much more creative things and play outside. (And they only watched for about half an hour to an hour a day). We play more games and have more quality time.

Source

But most of all I feel much more rested and relaxed now. I never even noticed how much influence the TV had on me, and how it made me kind of stressed.

If you're still reading, you  might think I'm a total whiner (which is not my style at all!!), but I still wanted you guys to know. You might wanna give it a try!

Have a relaxing day!

Very True

Came across this post at Print&Pattern. The illustrator is Damien Barlow, and how this picture makes me HAPPY!!! And it's so very very true! I love to party together!

Have a festive day, together!

Something Old

Came across this piece last week while organizing my stuff. I thought it would be a waste not finishing it, so I dug into my basket of scraps and found the right colors (such luck!!). I had to make 9 more squares, 'cause it was a bit to small to my taste, and it took me an afternoon, but it's finished. Well, the front I mean. I still need to make an actual cover.

As you can tell I like the circle-in-square motif, and I'm thinking of making a few tutorials on different patterns I've made. Would some of you be interested in that?

Actually, I already made the pictures for this pattern, but the they weren't good enough, so I have to make new pic's. It's funny how the choice of colors change though time. I made this just over a year ago, but I would use much different colors now. Even tough, I still like this combination.

How do you like the fabric I chose for the back? I love it. It's so sweet. I've had it for years. It's always nice to finally find a purpose old pieces of fabric.

And one of my first scalloped edgings. It's sweet, but a bit boring too...

Pink, Love At First Sight

So, my man was in Denmark for a few days, which left me with no computer (he had to take the laptop). I must say, it was kind of relaxing having no pressure on the matter. Although, I'm kind of addicted to the convenience of having it by hand, too. And I also missed my blog and the possibility of checking out my pic's after shooting them...

On top of all this we decided to get rid of the tv last sunday. We didn't just throw it away, it's in the addic, where we can't use it. We will do an experiment; no tv for a year. It took a little time to get used to, but I must say, it gives me so much peace, knowing that I don't have to watch television. Sounds weird, but I have the whole evening to so stuff now! It gives me so much extra time! I only miss it while finishing of the loose ends of crochet (recognize that??).

Since my man was away, I had some time to finish my picture frame 'collage' in the craft room. I love the sweet pink and am not even bothered by the higgledy piggledy (found this on Google Translate, love the expression, but did I use it right in this sentence??) look of it all. 

By the way, I'm sorry for the inconsistency in the layout, but I'm having a lot of problems with Blogger at the moment. It doesn't work the way it's supposed to (do you have this problem too??). 

Wish you all a lovely weekend, with autumny weather, hot chocolate and some fun craft projects on the go.

Progress...

Sorry for my absence, but it's been (and still is) a crazy busy week. Had no time to make pics or tell stories. Did have some time to crochet...

Annoyingly enough I have to get more yarn for the pastel Color Bomb baby blanket. Hopefully I will be able to get some today, so I can proceed. I'm still very much in love with it!

Anywho, I hope to have more time next week, since everyone will be in school/work again... I'm gonna go upstairs to my room right now and get CRAFTY!! I need a fix or I'll die.







Have a fun weekend!!