To all my blogfriends...

Another Christmas card

Another Christmas card I made...this one I have sent to my youngest sister:

I got the inspiration for this one from Inge's blog.

Hasta luego!

Christmas cards....finally!

I finally got to making Christmas cards....and ooh how I love to make scrapcards! I really should do it more often.... For my dear Granny I made this card:

Of course I couldn't help myself...and crocheted a little star for it from Michelle's Grandma Twinkle Tutorial.
For my mum, who obviously loves purple, I made this card:

I used my new Eline's Winterhuis Christmas Stamps; I bought them at by Petra...my new favourite webshop!
The crocheted tree is from Michelle's Grandma Tree Tutorial. I used it as well for my eldest sisters card:

I  made the paper with the words to "Jingle Bells" myself. Just choose a nice Christmassy font, write the words for a Christmas song, mark a few words in colour and print. I'm off to make some more cards.....

Hasta luego!

Home made presents and a 'heavenly' little corner...

I love making presents for someone, especially for people of whom I know they really appreciate it. Then I don't mind putting in some extra effort. So first I made this candle jar from the pretty trim tutorial by Lucy. If you use Lucy's tutorial, please be kind and make a donation....I did and it is so worth it! Then secondly I made a very colourful garland, using the same colours and the Granny figurines tutorials by Michelle:

Although I love colours, in my sunny (and tiny!) house, white, with of course a little red, work really well for some christmas spirit:

And what better place to get inspired for that then Elly's blog...
Hasta luego!

It's beginning to look, a bit, like christmas...

In the area I live in, I haven't really found a good thrift store. However...there is another, much more exiting way to find treasures: here, people just put everything they don't want anymore in or next to the large garbage bins you find on the side of the roads. On our way to town we pass at least 5 of these places and we always keep our eyes wide open! This is our latest treasury and I think one of the best we ever found, a wooden cabinet with drawers and doors. It now serves as a 'welcome to our house' on our patio. With some subtle decorations in a christmassy style:

Do you see the cute granny stocking? I made it from a pattern by the wonderful and talented Michelle. I bought it in her Etsy store. Michelle's had pompoms on the back, but my pompommaker hadn't arrived at that time, so instead I made the snowflake from 'Eline's Winterhuis' book:
Because it is such an easy to make pattern, I also made this one, which I adorned with a colourful trim I found at Lucy's blog:
And as a gift to my pregnant friend Debby, I made a cute babypink one as well:
Hasta luego!

Cushion and owl

I made this cushion as a special custom order. Normally I make a crochet back as well, but this cushion didn't need that because it goes on a chair. I was struggling with attaching the fabric to the crochet side with a needle...and then came up with this idea, I punched wholes in the fabric, made a crochet edging and then crocheted both parts together. And now I'm very happy with the result. I loved the colourscheme for this cushion and before I knew it....an owl in the same colours came flying by:

Hasta luego!

Scrapbooking again...

I told you there was more scrapbooking on it's way....and here it is:

I made these examples for a childrens scrapbook workshop I did today and I enjoyed it so much! I love working with children, they are so infinitely creative. I come up with some things to show them what they could do and none of them copy me, they all end up with their own unique creations. So proud of them....such a shame I forgot to photograph their work at the end...

Hasta luego!

And a card too

I almost forgot, I made a baby card too:

It's a simple card, but I love the little flags.....Ingrid inspired me to make them. And making this card inspired me to do some more scrapbooking. It's too dark to make photographs of my other work, so...to be continued....

Hasta luego!

Baby cuteness

My dear friend Astrid gave birth to a little baby boy and I wanted to make him some cute gifts. So I made him a Dachshund (pattern in Dutch), a washcloth and a tiny basket (both my own design):

I also made a starsgarland (I already gave Astrid a hearts garland in the same colours during her pregnancy). The stars I made from a tutorial by Michelle. The cute felt Dachshund in pink and blue were made by Erica, a.k.a. the wonderful Mrs. Felt from Crochet meets Felt. So I think we can say......the Crochet meets Felt range of baby products is born! More to come, because we're exploding with ideas. That's what creative minds do, don't they, you're working on something and the next idea is already filling your head!

Hasta luego!

Feria

Every village and city in the South of Spain (Andalucia) celebrates it's own Feria, a yearly returning celebration of Southern Spanish culture. In the village where we live, the Feria is in may and it is a BIG fiesta! In the streets and squares people are dancing, mostly Sevillanas, a form of Flamenco dancing originating in Seville. Women are dressed in traditional Flamenco dresses and the streets look very colorful. In the evening (and for Spanish people this means starting at about 22.00 o'clock!) there is a huge fair at the 'recinto ferial' a large area just outside the centre, that every village has. The fair is full of roller coasters, merry go rounds etc., stalls with food and drinks and very loud music. And there are 'casetas', large tents where there are performances of local dancing schools and musicians. And more drinks...

I have been taking Sevillanas classes for a year and a half now, so I dared to try a few Sevillanas in the church square with my fellow students. I dressed up in black and red, put a large flower and red comb in my hair and wore the bag I especially crocheted for this occasion:

The use of your hands is very important when dancing Sevillanas, so I had to have them free... I used Sara's pattern for this bag, made it slightly bigger and added a cord to put it around my shoulder. When you put the cord inside, it's an evening bag.

Hasta luego!

A BIG thank you!

One of the most wonderful things about blogging, I think, is that you get to meet new people without actually meeting them. Because you share the same hobby or admire each others work a bond starts to grow and with each blogpost and comment you post on each others blog you get to know one another a little bit better. And it is wonderful to see how much love goes around in blogland!

But when I commented on Maartje post about her crocheted rosettes and she wrote me she would send me one....this was not at all what I expected:

Isn't she sweet? She made me a special Dutch rosette, which already has a special place in my kitchen, which is full of Dutch/Delft Blue stuff and a sweet rosette in pastels. And in stead of a pattern (she designed the rosette herself) she made me a step-by-step tutorial! What a gift! Thank you so much Maartje! I'm working on a little Spanish gift for you.....

Hasta luego!

Queensday and an award

Holland is famous for it's national colour: orange. The biggest yearly celebration that turns ALL of Holland orange must be 'Koninginnedag', Queensday, on the 30st of april. So what do Dutch people living outside of Holland do on this day? They come together, all dressed in something orange, decorate a square and a Dutch bar and celebrate! Funny people....the Dutch...

A big part of celebrating Queensday are always the (flea)markets and I had a stand on the one in San Pedro de Alcantara, Marbella. Especially for this day I made some orange jewelry. Buddha's and orange belong together too and I'm trying to find out more about buddhism, so I made this jewelry that can also be worn after Queensday:

This shows part of my stall, all available colours were there actually...
...but when you look a little closer, there was indeed a lot of orange:
Marije gave me this lovely award, thank you Marije, I love your blog too!
I love so many blogs...it's hard to pick just a few to give this award to...because I feel like selling lots of people short when I don't choose them. So let me start by saying that I'm really inspired by all the blogs I follow! Having said that, these ladies are really one of a kind:

Maartje, a Dutch lady who comes up with complete crocheted outfits for her girls for carnival and makes so many other wonderful things. And it is so nice getting to know her through blogland!

Ilse and Loes, two Dutch friends blogging together. Their blog is always so much fun to read (sorry for you non-Dutch, but it is written in Dutch...) and they make such beautiful cards and other scrappy things.

Michelle, who in my opinion is one of the most talented crochet designers of this moment. And the way she photographs her crochet....makes me want to move into her home and garden! Above all that she is such a kind person, leaving sweet comments on my humble work.

Sara, who has an amazing talent for finding the most wonderful crafty projects on the internet and sharing them with all of us. And in between, she surprises us from time to time with a project of her own, including a tutorial (to be honest...she drives me crazy....I want to make EVERYTHING she posts......).

Hasta luego!

Footstools

Making footstool covers has been on my wishlist for a while now. But first I had no footstools, then I found one to my liking on the Ikea site, but it wasn't in stock. And of course I have like a million other crochet projects already on my hook or on one of my looooong lists..... But then one day, the Ikea site showed that they were back in stock and I couldn't help myself. So I rushed to the store, painted the footstools with whitewash and while they were drying in the sun, I crocheted like a maniac, so now I have two:

Arent't these the best projects, the ones that really give you a big, happy, satisfied smile on your face? Sorry about my lack of modesty, but I love my new footstoolcovers!

I even used them in a 'photoshoot' I did of one of the Veladores in our garden. We rent them out en styled them with Maroccian details. My footstools fit in quite nicely, don't they?
Hasta luego!

Inspiration from Holland

My trip to Holland has inspired my crafts hugely! First there was this beautiful towel from Pip Studio that I couldn't resist treating myself to. The colourscheme is so fresh and lovely that it inspired me to make another cushion from Michelle's Grandma's Garden pattern:

Even before I left for Holland, I already had one thing on my wish list: Eline's House book by Eline Pellinkhof. It is even more inspirational than I expected. Eline talks about her granny's buttons, so when I visited my sweet granny I asked her if I could browse through her buttons and she gave me a jar full of old pearly buttons. When at home, I crocheted a cream flower to decorate the jar. I also decorated wooden clothespins from an example in the book. And look at the lovely vintage ribbon my granny gave me...

I also made two more 'modern' looking clothespins and 2 more cards with the scraps from the cardkit I used for the cards in my last post.
Hasta luego!

Cards and award

Although I had a big shortage of time....I 'had' to scrap....lucky me. My dear friend Astrid had her birthday last week (I hope the card has already arrived, otherwhise she sees it here first...) and I wanted to thank my mum for a wonderful week in Holland:

I haven't had time yet, to get my bloggin' up to date, so I just found out about the award that Maartje gave me, thank you Maartje!
The award involves telling 7 thing about yourself that your readers don't know yet.....uuuuuuh, I haven't got a clue what you know or don't know about me. Some blogfriends have been following me for a long time now and some of you are new blogfriends. So I'll just tell things that pop into my mind and I do appologize if they are 'old news'!

1. I have been living in the south of Spain for almost 4 years now, but was born in Amsterdam, the greatest city in the world! (but Malaga takes a good 2nd place...)

2. After doing a secretarial/management job for years (I actually studied for that) I started my own creative company in 2000. First I had a webshop in baby accesories en decorations. I was sewing 'till looooong after midnight because in daytime I had 2 little girls to look after. Since I started teaching jewelry making workshops in 2003 I never touched my sewing machine again....

3. I'm the eldest of 4, I have a brother and 2 sisters...none of them are creative! I inherrited that (a bit) from my mum, but mainly from her mum, my super sweet 91 year old granny.

4. Although I love many crafts, I always have periods in which 1 takes up most of my time. I went from embossed card making to sewing, to jewelry making to scrapbooking and now it's mainly crochet....but cross stitching is peeking around the corner and sometimes even my dusty sewing machine seems to call me again!

5. I can be totally obsessed with a project I'm working on: can't stop 'till way past my bedtime, dream about it, pop's right back in my head when I awake...and that process sometimes starts while I'm still working on another project!

6. I get really cranky when a day passes in which I could not do anything crafty. I'm always bursting with ideas, so I guess that when I can't realize any of them the pressure just gets too high.

7. I try to be very loyal to my blogfriends and feel really guilty if I haven't responded to their blogposts for a while. But a very busy life and poor internet sometimes just make it impossible. I seem to be the one that has the biggest problem accepting that fact though........you are all so sweet and patient!

Thanks for all the lovely comments and for following me! I have already reached 106 followers, so that calls for a give away don't you think? I will come up with one soon, promise!

Hasta luego!

See you soon!

I won't be around much in blogland this coming week. I'm going to hug my family in Holland. When you live far away from them, that's really what you need, every now and again. My sweet Granny is turning 91 this coming week, and as long as I'm blessed still having her around, I want to visit her on her birthday. She really is the best and sweetest granny in the world. I made her a tissue box cover in Granny style:

I also made some gifts for other loved ones and of course I'm taking some fresh picked oranges from our trees, they are so sweet at the moment, mmmmm!

Hasta luego!

'Photoshoot'

Lately I've been sooo inspired by the way some people photograph their projects! I've been wanting to change my way in that for a long time. So yesterday, when the sun came out, I took all sorts of things outside. Here's what I came up with:

Unfortunately by the time I had everything where I wanted it so be, the sun hid behind thick clouds...

But it came back again when I had made a compilation of some of my more romantic projects:

Hasta luego!

What's on my hook?

Yesterday I told you I was making a Japanese flowerscarf...and with every flower I love it more...

It is going to be a decorative scarf (not one that is supposed to keep me warm that is), so I think just some 6 flowers to go and it will be finished! The greatest thing about making this scarf, I think, is that you attach the flowers as you go, so when the last flower will be crocheted to the second last....it's done, no loose treads to tuck away, just drape it around my neck...

This afternoon I also made cupcakes with my youngest daughter:
We only made the yummy eatible ones now, the crocheted ones I made a while ago, we've just put them in to fill up the holes. Some of the cupcakes just never made it from the oven to the stand....

Hasta luego!

Flower brooch

I bought myself a new jeansjacket and wanted to 'sweeten' it a bit. So I came up with this flower brooch in the sweetest colours I could find in my cotton stash (which is huge also....):

And when I finished it and was totally in love with the colourcombination, I decided to make a matching japanese flower scarf.....halfway now, so you have to wait a bit more for the result...it's turning out soooo cute, love it already!

Hasta luego!

Grafic 45 folder

A very common habit among scrappers is...they're collectors! So when I was going through my stash for this project I came across this fabulous Grafic 45 paper that I'd been saving for 'something special' because I found it so awsome....silly me, it has been in a box for years now! So I decided that this was the time to do something with it, it became the cover of a 7 gypsies folder (which was nothing more really than 2 pieces of greyboard, a ribbon and a piece of black gaffer tape....so I added a bit myself):

Although I don't scrap very often anymore, I found out that I still love doing it, so I will try to pick it up more often....my stash is big enough......

Hasta luego!

Give away over at 2 Scrapping Ladies From the North

Would you like a chance to win this great Tilda give away?

Hop over to the 2scrappingladiesfromthenorth blog, leave a comment and post their candy on your blog....isn't it gorgeous?!

Will be back soon with a scrapping project, but it's way too late now to make decent pictures.

Hasta luego!

French 'vintage' and an award

In a former life (living in Holland in a freshly build house) I had a country style interior. All naturals and white. Solid furniture with a romantic touch. Oooh how I loved that house and that style.......

Now we actually live in the country (mountainviews, olive trees, goats and sheep passing by) in an old country house and our style is like an outburst of colours! Not strange at all come to think about it, Andalucia has major Moorisch/Maroccian influences. And I love this house and style too!

But when I found a French cross stitch magazine in the store, full of lovely French vintage country style projects....(picture red hearts on natural coloured linen...) I couldn't help myself, but buy it. I haven't done a single cross stitch for quite some years now, but I think I will pick up a needle very soon. In the meanwhile it did inspire me to crochet some things in that style:

A soapbag (filled with Marseille soap, mmmm that smell!) and a washcloth , both my own dessigns. There is definately more to follow in this style...

And I was honered with an award by both Maartje and Marjo, THANK YOU big time ladies! Sorry I didn't post it sooner, but sometimes I'm just not connected to the rest of the world, because of a lack of internet connection (comes with actual country living in Spain....).

I'm supposted to give the award to new bloggers or bloggers that haven't got much followers yet so I would like to introduce Erica's and Astrid's blogs to you. Both really creative
(and sweet!) friends of mine, but not yet well known in blogland, which is really a shame because they both make such wonderful creations.

Enjoy your day....I know I will....the sun is out (it's almost too warm to actually sit in the sun) and the birds are making so much 'noise' in the garden, shouting out that spring is here!

Hasta luego!

Happy Valentinesday!

Well....I wasn't quite done making hearts and other romantic stuff....I just can't help myself...

So I made a card for the most wonderful husband in the world:

First time even I used glimmer mist, though it probably doesn't show in the picture...

I'm not really in a scrappin' vibe lately, but I was very inspired by the romantic hearts I saw on Dora's and Elly's blog. Mine turned out like this:
Of course I couldn't leave my crochet hook unattended for too long, so I made this little lady frog:
Got the pattern here. It is so easy to follow. I made several now, a plain green one, a hairy one, a christmas frog....looks like there's more of these to follow!

And last but not least, my valentine's jewelry collection...gotta be in style for every occasion...
The brooch was inspired by my sweet friend Paula, who unfortunately doesn't have a blog to show all of her wonderful creations to all of you.
I hope you all have a great day filled with love! Thanks for stopping by and leaving sweet comments, it's very much appreciated...

Hasta luego!

Love is in the air...

If I see all the Valentine's 'rubbish' in the stores I hastily walk by....but I love making my own Valentine's decoration though! And there is so much inspiration going around in blogland.

The inspriration for this heart shaped wreath I found on Bunny Mummy's blog:

It is so easy and fun to make, I used her tutorial but shaped my base into a heart.

The two crocheted bags, I designed myself, the bunny is from a pattern by Irene Strange (under the free patterns section). She didn't come out as perfect as the original, but I think that makes her even cuter...:
I didn't want everything to be pink, so I made some decorations in jeanscolours, the tutorial for the little heart I found on Tara's blog:
But I'm gonna leave you with an explosion of sweet colours again.....the hearts garland I made before using the granny hearts tutorial by Michelle, cookies pattern I found here (altered them a bit though) and the jar cosies I designed myself although the hearts are from the same tutorial I used for the garland (just used a smaller hook):
I'm afraid I'm not done with valentine's decorations yet, I just can't help myself. Next up is some scrapping...please come back soon!

Hasta luego!

p.s Because I seem to be honered more and more by visits from international blog readers, I changed the language of my blog posts to english...since I find the translations by google more of a laugh than they make a blog more sense to me...hope I'm not dissapointing my dutch readers now... X

Inspiratie

Hoe kom je aan inspiratie? Bij mij kan dat van alles zijn, een blog waarop ik iets leuks zie, materiaal dat 'toevallig' bij elkaar ligt, een mandjes sinaasappels uit eigen tuin, een mooie kleurencombinatie op een reclameposter......of kadootjes die ik van m'n dochters gekregen heb en die zo vrolijk van kleur zijn dat ik het niet kan laten....

Het patroon voor de tissuedoosovertrek kwam ik hier tegen, maar het daar getoonde eindproduct vond ik in eerste instantie te truttig voor woorden... Zo zie je maar wat de juiste kleurencombinatie kan doen!

Hasta luego!

Scrapcards!

Eindelijk is het er dan weer eens van gekomen: ik heb kaarten gescrapt! En meteen maar in een voor mij nieuwe stijl: vintage. Had inmiddels zoveel materiaal daarvoor liggen, maar nog nooit gebruikt. Voor m'n schoonzusje had ik een hartjesslinger gemaakt in naturelkleuren en daar wilde ik een bijpassende kaart bij maken: En als je dan toch lekker bezig bent...

...en nog een...

...en als laatste weer wat meer back to basic, maar een kanten strikje kon ik niet laten...

Hasta luego!