finished my summershawl

I brought it along with me lots of times, when the girls went playing in the park, and that helped, my summer shawl is finally done!! It was a KnitALong at the dutchwooldiva group at ravelry.

I bought this bamboo blend at  the dutch wool diva just before the tour de fleece last year. If i remember correctly it's called silver blood ball.
And i spun it during the TdF into a thin 3 ply, navajo style to keep the gradient colors together.
It was about 650 meters!

And it became this shawl!!

Just a plain stockinette shawl with a small lace border. I wanted the gradient to really show! It's actually quite a large shawl. Funny enough these are so not my favorite colors, i decided to choose something out of my comfortzone, but i do like this gradient a lot!!! The bamboo gives the yarn a really nice shine.


Oh and i wanted to show you these little notebooks i bought. On a very small flea market aren't these cute!!

today we had a little trip, it was a very spontaneous one ! I was telling my husband about new colors of stylecraft and about lucy from attic24. And somehow we ended up cycling to the trainstation on our way to Alphen a/d Rijn. To a shop called echtstudio. They have quite a spacious shop, filled with colorfull yarns, room for workshops. Offcourse with two little girls and a husband, one has to choose quite quickly. But i already knew what i wanted... stylecraft!!
I got two of the new colors, i didn't like the pale lavender grey one, but i really like the new sage and storm blue!
I also got denim, violet, cloud blue, meadow, lime, grape and parchment. Seeing all the colors makes choosing so much easier!!

actually this is a present from my husband for mothersday :)

After that we walked around Alphen, we haven't been there before. Josanne got an childrens atlas she's very happy with it!


This morning the girls had fun with my other stylecraft colors!

and now it's time for some crochet!!!

Busy like a bee... sometimes i feel like that. To much fun things to do... but not enough time to do it all next to household chores. And we've been away quite a lot, doing loads of fun things like familyday (a few years back we decided to stop visiting all the birthdays of nieces and nephews, and pick one day each year we organise something fun with my brothers sister parents and all the kids) with a BBQ and a BIG swimmingpool for the kids) and we stayed a few days at my parents.



But i did finish some crochet projects and started a new one ;)

my owly cushion cover, and a zig zag one. The brighten up our sofa :) also made a rainbow one, but that still needs to be finished..

And then i read something about the tour de france, and that made me think about the tour de fleece, an anual event on ravelry. It's a challenge to spin every day during the tour de france. There are all kind of groups one can join. I've been teamcaptain for the team malloit orange a few years. But now i'm just a participant.

But thinking about the tour de fleece, got the spinning bug active i guess, so i got some beautifull roving i bought at the breidagen (a wool/fiber/knitting kind of festival) it's from adrianart. It's a 50/50 blend merino tussah silk. I love those muted colors.

So i started spinning, aiming for a thin 3 ply navajo plied to keep the colors together. But suddenly i realised, i have a very boring spinning wheel. It's a Louet Julia, bought second hand. A wonderfull spinner, but i'm not that fond of the louet look i'm afraid.

But hey i can change that.... so i got some paint and brushes.. and i really like owls... soooo...

I'm soo happy how it turned out! Much more fun and happy. And it matches my owl cushion!! Now if i could only find the perfect big project bag with owls...

And i did finish my roving! 100 grams and 580 meters of 3 ply, nice and soft...

owls and other finds

I was browsing ravelry the other day and found a great design of an owl granny square!! And as it happens i love owls!! The design was with american definition fo the stitches, and i only know the english version. And yes i was to lazy to look up so i just tried to copy it. They are quite easy and soooo much fun to make :) I do have to make some more and then i will have enough for a cushion cover!

I also made some small turtles for my girls, easy and quick project.

We had a lovely time at the river bank enjoying a picknick, watching boats passing by, waving at them, and my oldest even made a drawing of a boat, offcoarse with her name on it! It was beautifull sunny weather, it almost felt like we were on a holiday, and that only 15 minutes by bike from our home!

Oh and i wanted to show you this find at our thrift store.. only 80 cents, a handpainted glass bowl with mushrooms on it. Isn't it cute :)

love lemons and polymer clay

Oooh we had such a lovely weekend, saturday the girls and i met my parents at the trainstation, and went to the zoo in Rotterdam! It was such a lovely day, we all enjoyed each others company and had loads of fun!!

But that wasn't what i wanted to blog about...


Last week it was warm and sunny weather, really lovely. And the perfect time to make lemon lemonade :) But not with sugar, this time i used stevia powder, you know the plant from wich the make sweetner? First i grated the zest of 5 or 6 lemons, then juiced them. Put the zest and the lemonjuice in a pot and added a cup of water and boiled for a few minutes. After cooling down i added 2 small teaspoons of steviapowder. And shaked it very well. Then put the lemonjuice in the refrigerator.

Personally i like it most with sparkling water, i use 1part lemonjuice 2 parts of sparkling water... soooo refreshing!!

And now for the polymer clay part. When i started crocheting, i bought some cheap hooks, but i found my hands didn't like these very thin hooks. I did see, thicker needles but why buy more if you already got them?? So i deciced to try and make them thicker myself withpolymer clay. Fitst task was to locate the clay, i hadn't used it in ages. But finally found a few little pieces. It was HARD to get it smooth and workable again. But i got the clay a bit warm...

Then i just mad a flat rectangle moulded it around my hook, added some decoration, made from canes from wich they slice very thin layers used to decorate nails. I'm not a nails decoration person, but i do like those canes for all kinds of things ! And finally baked my hooks for half an hour in the oven. And now no more cramp in my hand!!

And i made a start with my ripple blanket !!

Have a nice day!!

Need some happiness! This last week wasn't a very happy one. So i was really in need for some relaxing crochet... and even more, happy colors to lift the spirit. So i made a cover for our quite boring lamp... from a plain white lamp, to this rainbow flower lamp. Very easy to make, and for the cheerfullness added all kinds and colorfull flowers.

The girls love it a lot, my husband only said it was colorfull, that could be interpreted positive?! It's very eye catching indeed.


Today it was lovely weather, full of sunshine and quite warm to. so in the morning we went to the market in the city, where i bought this beautifull flowering plant. It was cheap, and pink, so my oldest daughter said it was perfect!

We also decided to buy some roses, delicate pink, with a hint of green, they are not fully in bloom yet... so i will make pictures later this week. They smell divine!! And that for only €2,50! Most roses you buy, don't have a delicious rose smell, and these do, so i have gave them a place next to my chair, so i will be sniffing a lot the next couple of days. I remember my grandparents had a lovely pink rose bush next to their front door. It too smelled sooo good, to bad we always used the backdoor.


We endend up at Doppio we sat outside sipping coffee, or in my case a Chai tea latte, and my husband ordered a lovely cheesecake and a chocolate truffel cake!! So we had a little party in the sun! With some imagnition we were back in Paris (we spent there our last holiday before the girls were born there). That vacation we drank lots of coffee and just enjoyed watching all the people walking by and our surroundings


In the afternoon the girls had a lovely time in the garden, cathing bugs, playing with sand and water (best toys ever!!)so i joined them with some crocheting. I made this happy little string of little triangles! Designed by Lucy from attic24

Oh and our seaglass arrived!!! But i will tell you more about that in another blog!

Need a rainbow! Yay i finished the cover for the milkingstool my dad made for me!! It looked like this

And with my new yarn (stylecraft special DK) i made this rainbow cover. I just made a flat circle with HTR's, and it gives such a great look on the stool... i'm doubting about giving our lamp the same cover... it's now quite boring plain white...

And now my little happy stool looks like this!

I promised to make some pictures of my new melamine salad bowl and the first plates of hopefully a big collection of colorfull plates and bowls and cups and... oh well... first i have to find a moneytree in the garden :)
I do have a coffee set from RICE, but i forgot to make a picture of it... coming soon i promise!
The bowl and green plates are from green gate, the blue ones are brandless. And don't you agree a sandwich does taste nicer from a plate like this!

Have a nice day!!!!

Am feeling yarn-ish, wich isn't a real word, but i'm very happy with the arrival of a large package of yarn! Stylecraft Special double knit actually, it feels amazing, not acryllic at all, and the shades are beautifull, i'm so happy with it!! I just picked 13 colors i really liked... look aren't they the most lovely happy fresh colors!!

I finished my little happy balls for our happy tree! The design is from Lucy from attic24. Just little fun projects to make with leftover yarn, or in my case with these cute little balls of cotton, 5 for €1,29.

I definitely have to buy more buttons, i looked trough my box of buttons, but there aren't much smaller colorfull ones left. I did manage to find some. Hopefully the action will have them in stock again soon!

I got my mothersday gift from my husband a bit early, he wanted to buy me very expensive (and i admit very very delicious) chocolates, but i didn't want him to spend so much money! So we decided to get very delicious pasta at our favorite shop. We also got olives and onions in balsamic vinegar and dates filled with creamcheese. And we just had an amazing dinner!! We did save the dates for tonight. I did buy happy flowers on the market, gerbera's, 10 of them, but both my girls got their own flower from the lady in the flower stall, so now we have 12 and all those colors make me feel happy even though it's been a very wet day!

And now i'm going to get my new yarn and a needle and atart on the cover for my milkingstool and watch/listen to the european songfestival!