I’m so proud that I actually finished a crochet cushion cover. The cushion cover top left, I made with the help of the instructions by Yvonne of Yvestown. The cushion cover is a present for my mom, but I have to make one for myself too, because I miss him already…

The cover for the floor cushion, an 75 x 75 cm IKEA cushion, I made for my best friends birthday. Two years ago I made an other version with pompoms on the side, but now I wanted to try an crocheted edging. And I love it

Yesterday I finished row 11 of my crochet blanket, today I start with row 12, and then I might need to add an extra row to side… but then…. the edging!! I haven’t made a decision on the edging yet. Anyone seen nice edging on internet, or made some herself? Till now I only can come up with the simple shell edging I also used for the cushion cover.

I have a passion for craft books, maybe even an addiction. When I’m traveling or visiting a city, I can’t rest before I have bought at least one craft book from the local bookstore. This book, ‘Japon au point de croix’ I bought in Paris last October. My eye caught it because of the style of pictures, the subject is Japan and because I love French cross stitch and embroidery books in general.  (Please reference my other blog posts, here, here and here)

I haven’t started a project yet, I only take the time to stitch when I have a long vacation. For me stitching is a ’slow’ craft, so only do-able when I’m relaxed and have a lot of time available. Other times I’m more opting for the little-time-great-result projects, like sewing and crocheting flowers.

I can show show you my favorites from the book though, I think this summer I will sure start one of those. Like the carp or maybe a lucky charm cat.

There’s also a Japanese stitching technique, sashiko. In may 2008 I traveled trough Japan with M. In the open air museum near Takayama, this lady was patiently working on her sashiko stitching. She reminded me of my grandmother, she looked like her, and my grandmother loved the domestic arts as well.

(Picture by Maarten Boerma, please see his blog for more Japan photo’s)

These weeks I’m participating in the Blogging Your Way class of Holly Becker (from the Decor8 blog). During 7 weeks you will learn about yourself and your passions, your goals with your blog, and what you could do to better achieve your blogging goals.

For this weeks homework we had to create an inspiration board that best defines the style and things I want to cover/do cover on my blog. Or just showing what I personally love and I’d like to share more on my blog.

It became a bit of both for me, I hope you can see that I want my blog to be fun and cheerful.

… and yes, a bit of chaos in my head too. So much to do, but nothing on a todo list or what-so-ever. I have no idea where my allergy for planning and structure comes from. I know I need it, I know it feels well when I have it, but it just seems to be too difficult to just do it, duh…

Today I was working from home, and during my lunch break walk I took these pictures. I love it when my neighborhood looks like this. It also keeps me in a kind of enjoying and relaxing mode, that might be a reason for not making my new years deadline with the shop…..

That’s not quite true, we worked hard for it. Yes we, because M is helping me a lot with the technical/programming part of the shop. It’s just sooooo much work…. But hey, what do those famous UK posters say, ‘Keep calm and carry on’… I just have to keep that in mind.

I love to browse trough inspiration mosaics others have made. This way I often land on flickr pages I didn’t yet know of and loved to find. I tried a few inspiration mosaics before, the one I made today I found worth sharing with you all. Maybe you find some new flickr pages now.

Please be welcome in my beloved studio. This is the room where I welcome people for my workshops. I’m so proud of this place because it’s all made by me and my loved ones. Slowly new pieces been added to the place.

At the moment me and my dad are working on the metamorphosis of the next two chairs, the ones that are still brown in the picture. Yesterday I bought the fabric for the seating, and when they are finished they will be fresh and new and will sit much more comfortable.

I’m planning to start the new year with the launch of my new website, new workshops will be planned and the webshop will be up and running then….. I hope by saying it out loud like this, I will be extra motivated to achieve this deadline

Today I made our christmas cards, I want to keep them a surprise for the receivers, but didn’t want to withhold this idea for you. So you only get a sneak peak at the end result.

I hand stitched the decoration to the linnen and then scanned the fabric with a white paper behind it. The most left picture was my first try, but I didn’t like the result enough, so then the second version came to live.

This one I submitted to the ‘Verhuiskaarten service’ of the TNT, this is an online service to order your own postcards. Normaly used to order cards to let people know your new address, but hey why not use it for all kind of other purposes If everything is going ok, I will receive the postcards coming tuesday, perfect on time to send the cards before christmas. I have never been this organised before with christmas cards

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?