cats and dogs

No, no pets in todays blog entry, just a deep sigh about the weather...
It has been dreadful around here this whole week, so I felt I needed some chocolaty comfort:



They are very easy to make, you can find the original recipe here. I had to improvise, though. I have no idea how many oreo biscuits are in an American package, so I played around with the amounts until they were about right. Maybe mine are a little less smooth, and I covered them in white chocolate, but I assure you, they are lovely nonetheless! I used 7 biscuits, 45g of cream cheese and ordinary white chocolate.

I've also finished a little something to give away, although K kind of fell in love with it and it won't be easy to get her to hand it over:



I saw the pattern for these little crochet birds here and loved them straight away.
I just added a little flower I made up. Well, probably I'm not the only one who came up with it in crochet history, since it's such an easy pattern... ;)
And here it is:
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beginning cluster:
chain 2, yarn over, insert hook in the same stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull yarn through 2 loops, yarn over, insert hook in stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through 2 loops, yarn over, pull through last 3 loops

cluster:
(yarn over, insert hook in stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through 2 loops) 3 times, yarn over, pull through remaining 4 loops

with colour #1
chain 3, make a beginning cluster in the first chain,
ch3
(cluster, ch3) 5 times
join to the top of beginning cluster with a slip stitch
(you should have 6 clusters now, separated by 6 ch3 spaces)
fasten off

join new colour to any ch3 space
(dc, htr, tr, htr, dc) in same space
*(dc, htr, tr, htr, dc) in next ch3 space*
repeat * all around and join with a slip stitch
fasten off

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This is my first attempt at writing a pattern that not only I have to be able to read, so please forgive me if I made some mistakes here and there. If you come across one, please let me know so I can straighten it out.

Well, enough for today. It's way past my bedtime, and I'll surely regret having stayed up so late when my little living alarm clock (i.e. K) starts screaming for attention in the morning. At least we won't have to hurry through the cold rain before even really being awake, since there's no school tomorrow. Ah, the simple pleasures... ; )

Oh my, it's been a while...
Not that nothing did happen.
Not that I didn't do anything worth showing or mentioning.
I just had too much to do and one of those "who's-gonna-read-this-anyway"-moments, so I didn't bother.
But here I am, back with some fresh optimism I found around the house.

One thing I (well rather we, K and I) did was enjoy St. Martin's Day. I had been looking forward to taking pictures of lovely self made lanterns in the procession and the huge bonfire at the end...
but...
I FORGOT THE bleepING CAMERA!!!
Can you believe it??? I had been planning for this for months, too!
Ah well, maybe next year ; )

One other thing I did was finally finish K's crochet cardigan. And I must say, considering I have never made anything like this before it turned out really nice:

The pink colour isn't quite as screaming in real life ,and luckily so! ;)

I also worked on some crocheted purses/small bags that just need some lining added to them. So hopefully I can show them to you soon!

maybe it's the weather...

...that made me buy all this:

Lovely vivid colours to fight the grey out there! I couldn't resist. I had been circling the printed-fabrics-table for many times now, always leaving the shop without having bought anything (which, really, should be a good thing). I don't really know what to use it for, and just buying it because I love some of the patterns and colours so much...
But then again, I've been planning to make K a quilt style blanket for years now, and a project like that requires scraps. And to get scraps you have to buy fabric, right? It does sound a little bit like that's the wrong way around, though... ;)
I should mention that I've never quilted in my life! But there is always a first time as they say, and I just need something colourful and warm to think about and look forward to during this dark and cold season.

happy halloween!

We've had a little bit of Halloween fun here in the magpie's nest yesterday. It's not really a holiday in Holland, but still.
We did carve a pumpkin:

and we made some Halloween shortbread:



and of course we decorated the house. K really loved it all but was kind of disappointed that that was really it. She sees all the American and British kids shows on tv, the trick-or-treating and the costumes, and wants to do all that as well... It's not always easy to explain the clash of local customs and the global media to a six year old ;)

When I went out for a stroll later that night I found out we weren't the only ones in the village with a lit pumpkin after all. I came across one more, just down the road from where we live. So maybe K, just maybe, there's hope for a real Halloween next year!