bazaar bizarre

It goes against all that is right to spend a Saturday at school, but we make an exception for the annual school bazaar. I read there would be pancakes, unicycles, face painting, live music, a vintage market and a gnome forrest. Really, they had me at 'pancakes'.

In Lara's classroom some of the parents donated handmade items to be sold to financially aid the school. Naturally I donated some of my knitting/crocheting. Not exactly sure how much of it was sold because we had to leave a bit early, but I just found out we made nearly 120 Euro's. I know that's not a lot in the scheme of things, but I'm still a little bit proud. I donated the two little purses on the bottom, the two grey knit baby hats, and the white shawl.

That was the bazaar part of this post. Things started getting bizarre when we got in the car to go home and heard a news anchor on the radio talk about a shooting at a mall in Alphen a/d Rijn. A 25-year-old man with an automatic weapon killed 6 people, wounded many, many more, and then shot himself. Alphen a/d Rijn is a mere 10km away from here, and I remember staying in one of the appartments that overlooks that mall. This man had permits for all of the weapons he owned. I just don't know what to say. My heart aches for everyone who has suffered loss because of this useless act of violence. As I am typing this I hear an ambulance driving past somewhere closeby. The sound of the siren fades and Sander tells me that a Dutch person has tweeted that he is going to one-up today's shooter's number of kills. 

I won't be watching the news for a while, I fear the bizarre.

i knew i wasn't the only one

Remember how in my last post I talked about needing to see different realities in order to be inspired so we can do and create?

Meet Yokoo.

I found this little clip about her today and absolutely love it. Her words tie in with that last post perfectly, and she's a crocheter to boost!

<3

kicking the habit?

For those of you who are becoming worried about my seemingly neglected crocheting habit, I have here a picture of comfort. I'm still at it! Just have to take some time to take some semi-decent shots of the projects I have been working on. They're coming though, you may now exhale.

You see, my priorities have shifted somewhat over the past weeks, to this:

... and this:

... and many more fun things in the category of home improvement. Lara loved keeping me company while ironing her new curtains, which probably has something to do with the fact that I let her climb the ladder to get an even better view of the snowy surroundings outside.

This has got to be the whitest winter we've had in a few decades here in Holland. We've been loving it but yesterday, for the first time, I heard Julia say that she was done with the snow now and would like it to get warmer. Lara then continued musing on how come even though it was so cold, she never saw any icicles anywhere. She quickly decided to her contentment that icicles only grow in Friesland. (Fries (vries) = freeze)

the new crocheting year has begun....

.....and it has begun with this little headband I made for the girls:

Ridiculously cute, and the headband turned out sweet as well ;)

Another thing that turned out sweet? The extremely scrumptious brownies I made this morning. Between that and the Pasta Alfredo from last night (that turned out amazing!) we're all bound to have gained a kilo or two overnight. It was SO worth it.

as promised

Remember I mentioned crocheting a present for Marissa's new baby girl? She finally received the package and that means that the pictures can come out of hiding and be revealed! So without further ado... here they are:

 

 

I added tassles to the shawl before sending it over, and there was also a little hat that I made with leftover yarn from the jacket, that I seem to have no picture of. Next step: getting pics of Ella wearing it!

Then I have some more Julia news. She is still not feeling very well, but yesterday she was apparently feeling good enough to steal a pair of scissors and go at her HAIR with them! A huge pile of blonde locks were left on the floor as a sad reminder of what her hair used to be like. She had a little obsession with cutting her own hair, because this is not the first time she's done this! Her hair used to be like this

Then the first scissor incident occurred and that was the last I ever saw of her curls.. this is what she was left with after I did some damage control on it:

Then it grew back out to this

Which I could just get into that braid I made a few days ago... I was so happy she was getting the length back. Sigh. But now! Now my little Julia looks just as lovely as ever with her new and quite fashionable bob:

boo!

 

 

 

 

The Halloween box came out of hiding today! We have ghouls, pumpkins, bats and witches hiding in every corner waiting to jump out and say BOO!

shroom

I went and got into the the Fall spirit and crocheted me a fungus! This is my first attempt at crocheting without a pattern, just went with it and I think it worked out rather well! I stuffed it with untreated wool (i swear there are still bits of grass in there) and sewed on some white dots and tah-daaaah!

 

That was the happy news, alas I must also bring you sad news....   The Beast broke down today and I had to leave it sitting all alone by the side of the road chained to a pole where it remains to this minute, and will for 1-3 more weeks depending on how fast the Beast-repair dude comes over. For those of you who are scratching their heads and wondering what in the name of Uncle Sam's underpants I'm talking about... I give you.... The Beast (in its glory days)

I rely on this baby to get me and 3 kids from A to B, or sometimes from G to R, every once in a while even from X to Y. This is the second time it's broken down on me though, so I'm not real happy with the quality of The Beast and might have to return it to its original owner if this silliness persists! Oh but check out the cute seat cover I bought to set my Beast apart from all the other Beasts roaming the Den Haag streets:

Dance, Dance, Dance

Houston we have a problem. I just watched 2 episodes of the dutch 'So You Think You Can Dance?' and I am so inspired. I think I might have to become a professional dancer. Pro: I will become flexible and strong enough to finally climb up the front of the house (I live on the third floor) when i forget to bring my keys with me again. Con: I will work out so much that I will lose these love handles located in various places on my body and probably just not feel like myself anymore.For now I suppose I'll just stick with our fun family exercise of jumping and twisting around like a bunch of chickens on speed to 40s and 50s Rock n Roll... good fun, but easy on the love handles! If you wanna know what our current favorite dance music is check out Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. If you don't absolutely love them I will eat my crochet hook.

Crochet news (notice the seamless topic transition?!): I'm working on a vintage pattern for a newborn dress but using funky colours and am loving it so far. Here's what it looks like as of now.

Also I finished these booties for my niece who has yet to be born.

 I also attempted a puff-stitch raspberry beret (you know why!) but it came out a bit, erm, odd. Will redo that and post pics when I feel happier with the result. In the meantime here is a picture of me sticking my tongue out:

garry squares

Yes I do mean Granny Squares of course... and I've been making them. I was so inspired when I came across a few pictures of them online and they were absolutely amazing! I was completely excited when I started and had the plan to make a bed spread for our bed room... I did a little calculating though and figured it would take me 2 months of non stop crocheting to get a spread the size needed to decently cover our bed. So I'm making a pillow case instead! I finished sewing them together this morning and of course had to share them now they're starting to look the way I intended them to.

 

Now to find a simple white pillow case to sew them onto and give it a prominent place in the living room!

 Yesterday was a beautiful Indian Summer day and we just had to go to the beach one more time. Lots of Seagulls there for the kids to play with this time... did you know that Seagulls love cereal? I fear it might have been our last chance to get some real quality sun and swimming and sand in our butt cracks. Sigh! Goodbye beautiful Summer, hello Fall!

 

crochet madness

 

Three things I would like to share with you about this picture. The first is rather obvious: Max is the cutest baby ever to fall asleep on his tummy. Then the next thing is that there is a perfectly good reason he is sleeping on a towel instead of a regular mattress cover, I just don't remember the reason very well. The most likely one is that I couldn't find one that was clean.... Third and most in reference to this post title is the crochet hoodie he is wearing, the very first article of clothing I had ever crocheted! Remember that tv show 'Perfect Strangers'? Remember the Dance of Joy that Balki and Larry did whenever something really exciting happened? Max and I did that very dance the second I tucked in the last loose end on that hoodie. Man was I happy it was over, and man was I proud of what I had accomplished. Last week I finished another baby jacket and I am even prouder! It turned out so well and it looks and feels put together a lot better than the one above, and it's for a girl and things for girls often tend to be just that tiny bit more adorable. You will have to be a bit more patient to see that one though, since it's a present for my incredibly pregnant, beautiful and younger sister and I want her to be the first one to see it. Since she lives an entire ocean away, that may take a little while! In the meantime I'll share with you some more of my little projects. 

This is a sweater that was given to Lara as a present a while back. It's so nice and bright and the fabric feels really soft, Lara loved wearing it... but suddenly I felt like I wanted to spice it up a little. So I added that yellow border along the front and it suddenly looks like so much better!

 

This beautiful colour rich and soft  yarn was just handed to me for free at a thrift shop by the owner who wanted me to just have it and make something nice out of it. Well OK! I was at it the next day, scouring the internet for patterns and I came across one for a mobile phone cosy. I'll never really understand phone cosies, they seem really impractical to me even though I'm sure they look cute on your phone, so I decided to change it a little, add the same border and a fun button and voilà! A little purse! It measures at about 10 cm long and 5 cm tall and even though I'm not quite sure what to use it for (maybe my phone after all? sigh) I can't wait to make another. Everyone.. expect little purses for your birthday. Ooooooh maybe I'll line them with some pretty fabric! Ok can't stay any longer must go make more purses now bye!

just cause

 

Here's a flower for you :)

love on the bicycle path

While riding my bicycle the other morning over some of the many many wonderful bike paths Holland has to offer, I encountered something that put the biggest grin on my face. Not just my face, it made my heart smile! (did that just give you a disturbing visual? Because it did for me.) I took pictures, have a looksee:

 

  

  

  

Someone sneaked around the night before I imagine and wrote these song lyrics (I recognized all of them!) on the bike path with sidewalk chalk for a special someone they knew would cycle down that path the next day. I say we give this romantic a round of applause for creativity and excellent taste in music!! Perhaps an idea for husbands who who have trouble thinking of spontaneous romantic things to do for their spouses? (not mine though, he's GREAT with stuff like this, love ya honey) Or an excellent way to propose!

I have several crochet project going at the moment. One is a folksy granny square afghan, another is a pillow case and yet another is a hoodie for my sister's about-to-be-born baby girl. I finished Max' first homemade scarf for this fall/winter today using this here tutorial. Should I add tassels or would that be too girlie? How about sewing a few colorful assorted buttons along the bottom ends for fun? Leave as is?? HELP me make up my mind please!

FYI: I folded it in half to be able to get the whole thing in the shot... just in case any of you were thinking 'she sure uses odd dimensions for a baby scarf....'.