Celebrating the Olympics with a Discount

just a quick note before the weekend

as you all know the Olympic Games start today in London

and as a way of celebrating

I am offering both the Olympics baby blanket pattern and kit for 15% off for the duration of the Games

July 27 until August 12, 2012

go to the shop here to find the pattern and here to find the kit

if you are watching; enjoy the games!

and have a lovely weekend

Charity - part II

last week I asked you to put forward a charity organisation to donate my two creJJtion blankets

thank you dearly to all of you who suggested projects and organizations!

Celeste from the blog Prettee Craftee put forward the baby Watoto project

thank you Celeste, I contacted them and they are very happy to receive blankets

one of the blankets will go to Uganda with their volunteer team!

~

Anne-Marie from the blog Little Red Home turned out to be very close to the Noble House project

so I am in touch with her now too, to see how a creJJtion blanket can be part of her blanket delivery this Fall

by e-mail I was approached by Debra, who is part of a crochet group that makes blankets for Project Linus

'we provide new, handmade, washable blankets to be given as gifts 
to seriously ill and traumatized children, ages 0-18'

Debra requested a pattern to make the Candy striped blanket with her group, I am writing it down for her

~

for those of you who like to donate a blanket themselves, like Inez from Lelo creatieve creaties

 I would like to suggest the following organizations:

world ~ baby Watoto

UK ~ CLIC Sargent

USA ~ Project Linus

Nederland ~ Noble House, voor meer informatie zie de post van Anne-Marie op haar blog Little Red Home

more ideas are welcome

I will soon create a charity page on my blog, to share the ideas and causes with you

it feels good to start this!

Last Week

late Monday night, but still Monday

to share with you some bits and pieces of last week

be aware : I made quite a lot of collages today

parking lot in Toronto, dropped a box of mini cupcakes that were nevertheless delicious

the backorder of yarn that came in to complete my Catania collection

a beautiful tile floor on Toronto, edited with the symmetry app

yarn set for sale in the creJJtion shop to create the Miami Beach blanket

blue skies on the way, 'asphalt is the new water'

and I successfully baked cupcakes with the kids that I teach Dutch over the summer

my favorite Jasmine pearl tea and my favorite view on Lake Ontario that I know

dreaming of a beautiful home and found some plastic spoons on super sale in Anthropologie

more views on the lake and in Anthropologie

below left a fifties secretary desk the husband found on the street, painted in Farrow&Ball Hague Blue

clearly this paint looks about 5 tones lighter when wet ~ can you imagine my 'eeek' when I opened the can?!

it turns out beautiful though when dry, more about that later

of course I spent quite some time again working on the pretty crochet blanket ~ it is such joy to work with

I found a hard copy of the Uppercase Magazine, Canadian made and oh so beautiful

lovely articles on crafty people, new refreshing ideas, and shops

 I shared a homemade latte and our last Dutch stroopwafels with a dear Danish friend who lives in Canada

besides painting the desk, I am also trying to create a studio in the basement of our house

it is about 50 square meters, is nice and cool in the summer and warm in the winter

there are two 'but's

one, there is only one window

second, the basement is unfinished ~ floors and walls are bare concrete, ceilings are open

to overcome both, I asked and got permission from the homeowner to paint the floor white

amazing what a roller and two gallons of white epoxy paint can do...

more about the basement studio later

I definitely have a few exciting projects on the go if you ask me, I will share more soon

~

wishing you a lovely new week!

New : Miami Beach Crochet Kit

announcements on my Facebook and Instagram account gave a sneak peek

and yes, here it is

the Miami Beach crochet kit !

pattern and the exact yarn to make this colorful blanket in one set

follow this link or click on the picture below to go to the item in the creJJtion Etsy shop

also, thank you for the replies to my announcement for a charity blanket give away

you have until Monday to put forward a new-mom and or baby charity project, to send a blanket to!

for details, see this post

~

happy weekend to you

Charity

last week in my creJJtion inbox, there was a theme

~ charity ~

two dear ladies approached me with a request for a special cause

courtesy of lake view picture: my dear friend R who visited a few weeks ago

thank you Karen and Agnes for inquiring me regarding this special purpose of creJJtion blankets 

I highly appreciate it

and, I am very honored you picked creJJtion blankets for your beautiful charity projects!

~

Agnes approached me with her request to use the Blue Sky blanket pattern for a special project in Nepal

she came across the Noble House project, 

which currently consists of two shelter homes for kids, and one baby and birth clinic

~

Karen approached me with her request to use the Miami City blanket pattern for a special project in the UK

CLIC Sargent, among other things, provides temporary housing for families of children with cancer

I am truly touched and honored to be approached for creJJtion's contribution to these beautiful projects

to me it means a lot that my designs get the chance to contribute to a project and organization

that mean to help babies and families in need across the world

~

I could not let go of this idea and decided to do a little more

there are two blankets that I made and would love to donate in order to help a baby or child that could use it

candy blanket and sailor blanket

consider this a variation to the give away concept that you, my blog friends, are all familiar with

if you know of a wonderful charity project for new babies and moms, that can use one of these two blankets

please let me know by leaving a comment to this post before Monday

a local or far away project or organization close to your heart, that would benefit from these blankets

~

let's contribute in our own and humble way to help make this beautiful world a better one for everyone

I would love to hear from you

Happy Colors

delicious red summer fruits

we eat them daily

as a snack, 

for breakfast or lunch with yogurt, fresh mint, sugar and lime, 

and in a delicious and simple Swedish pie

and I have started the fifth row of the new squares blanket !

this beauty will be 11x10 squares in total... still a few more rows to go

Last Week

Good afternoon to a new week!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend

here is last week's collage from my Instagram feed

definitely last week's theme was food

I love food, both to cook and to eat haha

but I find myself not the best photographer of finished meals

instead, when I take pictures of food, they are mostly raw ingredients

last week was a week of trying to get better at taking pictures of ready-to-eat-food

memorable picture from our camping trip above left

my love for industrial raw materials shows in the above selection

a new coffee place, mini drawers in a hardware shop just some blue painted wood close to our grocery store

and the HomeDepot hardware section at 9.15 am Saturday morning... just a bunch of squares to me, haha

we still enjoy warm, sometimes unreal hot, summer weather and beautiful sunsets 

on Friday we bumped into this little residential looking seafood restaurant,

and enjoyed a delicious dinner on their patio outside

~

wishing you a joyful new week!

Composing Colors

the idea for a new color combination

can be found all around you

for example today : thrift store finds, in combination with a bunch of strawberries

as soon as I placed the plate with berries on our gray chair

I saw it happening

gray-white-red

a beautiful, fresh color combination!

I grabbed some random items from our kitchen

and there it is, looking perfect to my eyes

I even found the trio in the new blanket I am working on

and it makes for the perfect picture to wish you a very happy weekend

~ love ~

Calming Summer

it's a busy week

it's getting warmer every day

and I feel like sharing some calm pictures

are you a cloud watcher?

dream away

feel the wind in your hair

or have a seat in the shade and take a nap...

geniet

Granny Squares

last Friday morning during breakfast, I checked my e-mail

and found a kind request by a lovely lady, for the possibilities to make her a beautiful blanket

a baby blanket, with granny squares like the one in my header

of course in all my excitement, I left my breakfast and we started sending pictures and ideas back and forth

I absolutely  l o v e  the design process

and how great to be back at the granny squares for a while?!

this blanket will be about twice as large the other baby blankets

I am so honored this lady likes her girl to grow up with my blanket!

it is supposed to match baby's room with light gray and whites, combined with beautiful colorful curtains

colorwise : lots of orange tones, and she loves the contrast of orange and blue~teal tones

this future mom did such an amazing job in selecting colors, all 16 of them

I am in love with this new blanket already

and can't help it but add quite some squares to it each day

nothing more pleasing than seeing beauty grow...

thank you again E for your wonderful order!

Last Week

last week on Instagram

was a bright week !

as you know I like to play around with pictures and arrangements

so I'd like to share with you two collages, composed of exactly the same pictures, but arranged differently

what do you think?

to me, the granny squares look better above, whereas the magazines look better below

because of the granny squares, I decided to post the one above on my Instagram Feed

any other thoughts? 

and some color pop from last week

I happily wrapped the first crochet kit to a lovely future grandma in the USA

enjoyed loads of delicious summer fruits

and got a new order in for a special blanket in bright colors ~ slightly different from the ones in the picture

after a week of extreme humidity and heat alerts we were happy to have thunderstorms on Saturday

and a lovely blue Sunday morning sky afterwards

I regularly weigh my crochet blankets, to determine amount of yarn needed for a similar one

do you weigh your work?

sadly enough, some copy cat decided to steal the bowl of fruit picture bottom left and use it as her own

I guess I was naive to think it would never happen to me

so from now on, I am using a watermark in my pictures on Instagram

and hope that will stop copy cats from stealing my pictures

have a lovely day my friends

I wish I could share a delicious mint tea and have a lovely chat with you today!