Last two weeks I have been sailing on the clipper ‘Stad Amsterdam’. Together with my dad and sister we embarked in Lisbon, sailed to Tenerife and from there to La Palma, la Gomera and back to Tenerife again. It was great! When you are at sea, you are disconnected from everything at home, also literally: no phone, no e-mail no nothing. The weather was warm and sunny and we met a lot of funny, nice and interesting people. (And yes that’s me working on the sails, and yes that’s a beautiful sunrise)

I took some time to crochet too, I finished two christmas star garlands, and an owl badge for which I found the pattern on the blog of Haakmuts. An english translation of the pattern can be found here.

Picture from ‘Haakmuts’ blog

A few times we went to the city to explore the old Medina, which was super! All those colors and smells, I couldn’t resist buying some beautiful handwork.

No inspiring blogs on Sunday this week, as I’m traveling trough Andalusia at the moment. Last week we visited the Alhambra in Granada, the pictures above are a few snapshots I have taken there. There is so much to see there, beautiful gardens, amazing mosaics and the blue sky with the Sierra Nevada with snow on the top in the background….. wow

Serendipity is the last, but certainly not the least, Paris shop I feature on my blog. This one was one of the first that appeared on my ‘must visit’ list. Clare, from the Lulu Carter blog, insisted I had to go there, but I was already convinced by the pictures of this shop she had put on her own blog.

As a funny coincidence the shop just opened their doors on our second day in Paris, at a new location, 81-83 Rue du Cherche-midi, that was just a five minutes walk from our hotel :-)

I was stunned by the carpet patchwork they made in their entrance, don’t you just love the idea?

Antoine & Lili was on the recommendation list of Clare, from the Lulu Carter blog. And she was so right, I was so overwhelmed by the shops, I couldn’t buy anything (lucky for my wallet ;-)) On their website I found out that they have several shops around Paris. I have visited the ‘flag’ store  (Le Village) on sunday, which is next to the St Martin canal.

Actually there are three shops there, a pink, green and yellow one. One with women cloths, one with children cloths and toys and one with lovely goodies for your home.

And off course the most professional photo above is taken by M.

Last weekend I visited Paris for the first time, and I was overwhelmed… the big squares, oversized buildings, beautiful parks and off course all the lovely shops.
We spend 5 days strolling around, eating, drinking and relaxing. I also wanted to visit one or two museums, but the weather was so good, and the city itself was enough museum for me this first time. Now I have a reason to come and visit again.

I show you here some pictures M has taken. If you want to see more of his own selection, please visit www.soulpixels.nl. He is a very talented photographer ( so I think ) and you can see more of his portfolio there.

In the next post, I will reveal the pictures of the oh so yummy shops I have visited.

All photographs by Maarten Boerma – www.soulpixels.nl

Vacation is the perfect time for me for ’slow’ crafting, like cross stitching and crocheting. Those babushka dolls are from the ‘Made in France’ cross stitch and embroidery book. In the book they used white embroidery fabric, but I wanted to try unbleached linen for a more ‘rough’ look.

Those granny squares are a new row for my blanket waiting to be joined as I go with the lovely candy pink yarn. It will be the 7th row so far, after that 3 or 5 more rows to go before the blanket is finished. I hope I can use it this winter on the couch while reading or doing some ’slow’ crafting.