Getting Organized

hello there! now that we have picked up the final bits and pieces from our former home, it is time to get organized in the new home. the best part of moving if you ask me. 

I shipped some card sets from the shop last week, actually the Tea Time set is sold out at the moment. but the Birthday and Flower sets are available for you. perfect cards to share the Spring feeling with family and friends!

in the middle square a little more of a peek into our new home, I need some bright flowers on our dining table as you can see. also, we took Floyd for a first coffee date and although he was a little too excited in the beginning, he settled soon after that and we enjoyed a latte or two. I definitely see more of those fun dates for the 3 of us in the future. last but not least, I picked up the large knitted baby boy blanket. and it indeed is coming closer and closer to being finished...

a very happy new week to you

Temporary Work Space

from where I blog and work these days, for as long as the studio in the basement is not finished: our kitchen table in the dining room. we love the light white walls. they are plain now, we will add pictures and artwork after we lived here for a while. the light here on a sunny afternoon like today is just lovely. as you can see we haven't had the time yet to hang a lamp above the table, so we eat by a modern version of candle light, haha. 

also on the table when I work: a latte, glass of water, accidental piece of chocolate, inspiring ribbons from my family in Europe,  and iPhone. I hate to say it, but where would I be in this digital world without that little machine?

in the making: a gender-neutral design for the Miami Beach blanket, since I get a decent amount of requests for it. more about that in a few weeks I guess.

hope you enjoyed this little peek into my temporary work space!

Pretties

blue and a hint of pink. Spring coming closer, although it seems very far away when I am outside in -17 and snow. my sweet mom who sends me ribbons from Sweden for my birthday, which she personally selected with my brother and his girlfriend. my darling husband who brings me magazines from his business trip. mixing and matching pretties, enjoying the little things.

Yarn Challenge : The Reveal

well, as said yesterday, I did it. out of all your wonderful, great, new, refreshing, surprising and overall lovely ideas I picked not one but two ladies who will crochet along with me to test the new Catania Grande.

the first one is Marie-Thérèse from the blog MaSaJa 

who will be making a baby poncho for her 2,5 month old daughter

the second one is Alessandra from the blog homemade@myplace

who will be making an oval table runner with scallop edging

congratulations girls, I will be in touch with you to inform you about the details and to get your addresses for shipping. once the yarn has arrived we will start sharing pictures and stories here on my blog. it can take a little while, since the yarn goes to Indonesia and The Netherlands for these projects. so exciting!

thank you all for participating and sharing your ideas, you are one clever and creative group of lovely people!

hugs

Distracted

last week I got majorly distracted by our move. the inevitable distraction I guess. it was Valentines week, but we were mainly working and packing. painting as well. I painted the kitchen, dining, living, and two bedrooms. all white. bye bye Spiderman room as you can see in the before and after pictures above.

we moved over the weekend, and as usual we are quite tired now that it is all over. but it feels very good to be here in our new place, that we will make our home over the next months. I love to let a house grow on me, add pieces of furniture bit by bit. in a next phase hang things on the walls. let it grow.

but, I challenged you last week in this post and a little later than planned, I picked not one but two ladies who suggested a test project to make with the Catania Grande yarn. I will reveal the names tomorrow... I am so excited to get started with two of you and this new yarn!

a very happy new week to you

Exciting

thank you so much for all your creative ideas for the yarn challenge! you are such a wonderful group of people, I highly appreciate all your ideas and already feel bad I can't give you all a sample kit. more about this challenge later in the week.

last Friday we had a snow day. I had never heard of a snow day before, but it basically means that we got so much snow in such a short time that we had to stay home. snowed in. we had a lot of fun, 50 cm of snow is by far the most we have ever seen from our own house. the husband worked from home, Floyd loved it and we had a great and cozy day. I also shipped lots of yarn for beautiful projects last week, celebrated my birthday a little on Sunday and painted the walls of our new home white. yes, we are indeed moving again. very close though this time. it came all very sudden, but it totally feels like the right place for us at this moment in our lives. we are moving and painting, working and watching Floyd all at the same time. busy but good times. a more decent celebration of my birthday will probably happen in a few weeks, when we have moved and settled in.

New Yarn and a Challenge for You

now look at this you yarn lovers! the new Catania Grande yarn came in... and isn't it gorgeous?

it has the same shine as the regular Catania, but is much thicker. crocheted or knitted on size 4-5 mm it is really chunky compared to the regular version. But it is lovely at first sight.

I am very much looking forward to designing and making projects with this pretty yarn. However... before I will sell patterns and kits with this new yarn, I want to try it out with a blanket and these coasters. Quality before anything; it has to be washable and durable just like the regular Catania yarn, otherwise I won't sell it. and for that testing I could use a little help. 

and that's where you come in

are you up for a challenge? 

* if you have and idea for a crochet or knit project with this yarn, 

* that you can finish before the end of March, 

* and will use and wash regularly after that, 

* I would love to hear your idea for a project! 

* if your idea is chosen I will send you the yarn free of charge

* and you get to keep the item you've created. 

how is that?

at this point I have six colors available as you can see in  the pictures. you can choose up to 5 balls of yarn for your project, and you are allowed to include more balls of 1 color. nevertheless your idea has to include at least 3 different colors, so we can test how they endure usage and machine washing. 

during the process of making your item, I would love to get some pictures to post them here on the blog. that way we can all enjoy the progress with you. if you have a blog yourself, you are of course very welcome to post them there too. I will be working on a blanket at the same time, and both projects will be part of a weekly Wednesday feature here on the blog

to submit your idea, you can leave a comment to this post with your project idea until Monday February 11th 

can't wait to read what you will come up with!

Blanket Progress

oh boy, this blanket is getting BIG. I don't know if I can call it a baby blanket anymore, haha. part 4 of 5 has started, and there are of course a few ends to sew in. but it is going quite fast. I am determined to knit a few rows every day here on the couch. after breakfast and after dinner. and clearly it works. both for the progress of the blanket, and for clearing my mind. I even have a notebook by my side when I am knitting!

Some Pictures

hi my dear blog readers. I wish you could see me type this blog post right now. I am sitting on the floor, in front of the warm fire place. actually a little too close, so my t-shirt is too warm to touch. you know what I mean? cross over my legs is Floyd, asleep. and beside me is the laptop. this position I can do for hours, it is so cozy ~ and perfect for a Monday evening to start off the week.

I wonder what your position is while you read this?

in the pictures you see bits and pieces of last week. I made some good progress with the baby boy blanket I am working on, I shot quite a few pictures for Gatherings magazine over the course of three days. on the bottom right you can see the mess I make when shooting, and also see the bigger picture of how I take about 70% of the pictures that are on this blog. weather wise it is really Winter, we haven't had temperatures above zero degrees for weeks, snow loads keep coming and going. therefore I had to take a picture of the blue sky that came by this weekend. it makes the world so much brighter...

I will show a little report on the progress I made with the baby boy blanket tomorrow.

hugs, straight from the fireplace to you ~ now where is my tea?