3.10

March has not been my friend! And I won't play with him no more (just three more days, I keep telling myself...)
I won't start telling you what went wrong for two reasons:
1) it would take a lot less webspace to tell you what went well
2) this is not what this blog was supposed to be about
(not that I'm known for suffering in silence...)
But because almost nothing went according to plan (and quite a few things weren't "planned" to happen in the first place) I'm just going to post some pictures I had promised a long time ago and be off again to wait for April. Maybe she'll be nicer to me  ; )

So, here's a picture of my woodcarving WIP (although I've been working on it since I took the picture, and it looks a bit different by now):

And here's a picture of something green (as promised in my last post, still not finished though):

And do you remember I said I'd keep you posted on the paper-maché head? Well, it did dry eventually, but had changed it's shape so much, it looked like it had suffered a severe case of smallpox. I guess I didn't cut the paper small enough to smoothen it out more... I need more practice, that's for sure!

That's got to be enough for today. I'll crawl back into my cozy nest and sit the rest of this month out (there's not much else I can do). See you in April!

2.10

As you can see our calendar project is still running, although this one really pushed K's patience. Halfway through the stitches around the heart she felt like giving up. I told her she didn't have to do them in the first place, but like all 6 year olds she wanted to do it like mum. And again I have to say I like hers (on the right) better than mine (but that's just motherly pride speaking I guess  ; ) )!

I've finally finished my latest crochet project, which is a little short summer dress for K:

(summer garden granny square by courtesy of, but without her knowledge, the wonderful Lucy )

 

Look at her flapping her wings...  ; )  All magpie chicks need practice (she doesn't like being photographed, though...)

I hope she still likes the dress once summer arrives... right now it's hard to believe spring will ever come! Now that the snow has melted away it's getting colder again. I'm dreading "carnaval" at minus 7ºC, stepping on my own toes so they won't freeze off, and K in a way too thin princess dress... with no hat on 'cause "with my hat on I can't wear my crown!!!" Where's global warming when you need it?  ; )

Now I'll have to leave to pick K up from school. But I'll post again soon, I promise! I still have to tell you about my new woodcarving project, and a new crochet project as well (something green for a change)!

So hopefully I see you around soon!

December already???

It's been very busy in this magpie's nest lately. Not only has "Sinterklaas" (Saint Nicolas, it was his "birthday" last Saturday, and so he came all the way from Spain on his steamboat to bring presents to all Dutch children, well, the good ones that is...) come and gone this past weekend, dropping a huge bag of goodies for K at the front door, I've also started to work on our smallest bedroom to transform it into a workspace. That means I won't have to carry the heavy sewing machine down the stairs anymore every time I need it, 'cause now I have a little desk there. And finally I managed to hang a pinboard on the wall where I can keep my smaller crochet WIPs, so I can look at them and maybe every now and then take a picture to check whether there is any progress at all  ; )
Right now it has some hairclips and a keyring on it:

I hope that there will be lots more of these in the near future. I love making them, and they make great gifts!

One other thing I'm currently (still) working on is the woodcarving project I mentioned earlier. I'm almost done, just a little something left to do and I can "proudly " present it here, hopefully sometime this week!

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:
---

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

---
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!

it's getting colder...

About two weeks ago I made these wristwarmers for a friends birthday. Now that it starts getting chilly out there I thought I should have a pair, too:

They are sooooooo easy to make! And what I like about them even more is that to make a pair takes me one evening in front of the tv from the first chain to "wearable".