Pattern Wedding Basket

some of you who have been reading my blog for a while now

may remember that it is only a year ago, that I was in full swing preparing our wedding

if you missed it, click the 'wedding' label on the bottom of this page and you'll see details of our beautiful day

~

exactly one year later, I am definitely daydreaming a lot

thinking what a wonderful time we had a year ago

creating the beautiful wedding day ~ exactly how we loved it

with our dearest family and friends around us

I crocheted a little thank you heart for each of our guests

a heart blanket for us to treasure

and a wedding ring basket for our sweetest little niece who gave the rings to us during the ceremony

the pattern for the little hearts was already available here

and today I present to you with love :

the pattern for the basket here, in the creJJtion Etsy shop

I guess I am in a basket kind of mood this week

~

now if you'll excuse me, I am off, back to my daydream ...

~ official wedding pictures by Yasmijn Tan ~

Wedding Gifts

on our wedding

we got so many many lovely presents

among them some home-made cuteness

this heart filled with lavender from Rinske

and this pretty chain of bright colored crochethearts from Margriet



Irmgard gave us one of her wonderful paintings

thank you Margriet, Rinske and Irmgard for these handmade lovelies!

but I must admit all of these gorgeous gifts are already packed for our move to Toronto

so more pictures of these hearts and the painting in a few months from now

wishing you a great new week ~ may be on holiday?

~ l o v e ~

the houses and the bikes are just matching colorcombinations

pictures taken downtown Amsterdam on a rainy Sunday afternoon ~ yesterday

Wedding DIY part two

mostly crochet

in this second and last Wedding DIY

the thank you gifts we designed and assembled together

and the blanket I made to accompany them

the gifts were made out of almond-sugar-sweets, hand stamped cards,

divine twine to bind the package together,

crochet hearts and the fabric to put the sweets in

for the hearts, see tutorial here

the sweets are VanParys the most delicious of their kind if you ask me

the cards I stamped myself:

our own designed logo and the date on one side

a Dutch thank you ~bedankt~ on the other

I made the hearts first

and afterwards I used the left over yarn to crochet this little heart-blanket

some of you already requested the pattern

it is very crappy though

so I promised myself to design a new one

and write out that pattern here for you

in a few months, after our move to Toronto

and this is what the whole bunch of thank you gifts looked like, lying down on the heartblanket

thank you for staying with me along these post-wedding-notes!

we will get the professional wedding pictures from our photographer soon

so I am not yet done with this topic

~ smile ~

have a lovely day my friend

Wedding DIY

part one

of some wedding DIY

which I hope will be an inspiration for you

but first let me thank Maureen from Daydream Living

for the beautiful and sweet heart she sent us

Maureen, you are a true sweetheart!

the bunting I made to decorate our home a little

to welcome the family for a little lunch right before the wedding

it will probably not surprise you when I tell you the white and light blue fabric are the husband's former shirts

~ smile ~

the white fabric with grey leaf pattern is actually a curtain from IKEA, I found it in their sale-corner



and this little crochet ringbasket

made of Catania cotton, my absolute favorite when it comes to little items like toys, blankets and ringbaskets

more wedding crochet in a next post

sending you wedding DIY love

it gives such a personal touch to (one of) the most important day(s) in your life

Happy Tuesday!

Wedding details

yesterday we got some more pictures of our wedding

from Renske, a family member of my husband

she has her own website on photography and had a lot of fun with her camera on our wedding

well Renske, we have a lot of fun with your beautiful pictures: thank you lots!

our entrance to the location where we ate the cake and welcomed our guests right after the ceremony

bridesmaids fully concentrated

I love the way the wind is blowing my dress



and some pretty flowery details

again Thank You Renske

~ have a sweet and sunny week ahead my friends ~

1st of July 2011

finally some pictures...

...welcome to our wedding!

last preperations

me and my dad ready for the ceremony

the bride and her bridesmaids downtown Amsterdam

meet the husband and his newly-wed wife!

ready for a celebration

more official pictures to come in a few weeks

if you are ready for a little wedding-show

~ smile ~

it was the most amazing day!

Little details

with our wedding coming up this Friday

and our move to Canada in a few weeks

those are the main topics for us now

many thanks to all of you who gave a lovely comment on our move

we are so excited

and yes, I will keep on blogging from there for sure

in these pictures

little details on our wedding thank-you-gifts

and a glimpse of the stamps we ordered custom-made: our initials in a maple leaf...

now I am off for some last wedding-preperations

~ love ~

The week before...

... our wedding

we picked up the weddingrings today

how much I would love to tell you everything already

about my dress, fiance's suit, the bridesmaids dresses, all decoration and details we prepared

but I have to wait unpatiently for one more week

allright, but let me give you  just one sneak peek

the little basket I made for our sweet little niece, to carry the rings next week

isn't it cute?

~ wishing you the most lovely weekend ~

~

thank you for all your sweet comments and advice on how to proceed with the blue shades blanket

sure there is a third option: mixing single-colored squares with the multi-colored ones, great idea!

more about that in a few weeks I suppose

~

I will reveil the Huge and Exciting Project we are working on very soon...!

~

Invitations

this week we send out the wedding invitations



dark blue print on an off-white old Dutch card

finished off with divine twine oyster grey

a quick count tells you

the wedding is exactly four weeks from today...

~ happy sunny weekend ~

Divine Twine

look what came by mail

a bunch of these brown things

do you wonder what is inside?

take a peek

ok let's unwrap them all...

... and look what colorsplash comes out!

my new love

my new toys

aren't they the sweetest?

like pencils in a box?

like candy on a stick?

The Sweet Dozen

by Divine Twine

ordered from Lisa The Country Chicken at her great Etsy shop

and yes, one or may be two of them, will play a role in the wedding...

~ wishing you a divine, colorful Thursday ~

Wedding update

hello sweeties

how is your Sunday so far?

I have to be honest

I never planned to really do the wedding-stuff here at creJJtion

but since so many of you would love to know how everything is going...

a little wedding update

first of all

yes, he did go and picked that gorgeous engagementring all by himself

and we went back to Tiffany together, and found matching weddingbands

the wedding is planned in about one and a half month from now

it will be a city wedding here in Amsterdam

all loactions are set, reservations made

yes, we did have a lot of fun sorting it all out and yes, it is a lot of work

there will be about 70 guests, therefore we hope it will be a small and intimate wedding

I will be wearing something like a dress, but not exactly, in quite a traditional color

as of this weekend, both moms have their outfits too

the bridesmaids are next

and the groom will go and find himself and outfit with his parents this week

on  the decorational level

you guessed it right

the little hearts will play a role

the invitations, thank-you gifts and table place cards are all in the same style

and I love to coordinate that stuff

but hey, that should not surprise you, right?

I know some of the wedding guests are sweet frequent readers of creJJtion

so this is it for now, I might leave no surprise if I tell you more...

~ have a lovely Sunday ~

Busy

times are busy here

one of the main themes: preparing for our wedding

in busy times you have to watch yourself

spend time with wonderful friends

eat good and delicious food

~ celebrate life ~

writing the wedding invitations

and finishing off some ends to clear my mind

~  weekend love ~

wishing you a quiet Sunday, may be with some good friends ~ smile ~

Thank you again

thank you's again

from me to you

who give me advice on how to plan a wedding

how to stay calm and enjoy

and how to save your marriage before it even existed

in Holland we say: go camping with your lover

in a tent

without navigation system in the car

and find out how you will manage together

if your relationship survives that holiday, it will probably survive more

now I can say

~ with a big smile on my face ~

try to organize a wedding in 3 months

if you manage together...

~ laugh out loud ~

oh, and for those of you who cannot wait any longer: hexagon crochet pattern is on it's way

just a few more days...

Crochet heart tutorial

thank you so much readers

for all your sweet, lovely, enthusiastic comments on our engagement!

we could not have wished for any more than that, Huge Thank You's

he, former boyfriend, now fiance, proposed on April 1st

and yes, we are busy planning the wedding, since The Big Day is this summer

without further detail, everything is going great and we are both loving it, although it is a lot of work

last Friday the fiance and I were celebrating our 12 year anniversary

and I went wedding-dress-shopping with both mothers ~ we had the most perfect day

that scale you see in the pictures is the one we found on our engagement-day

well let's get back to blogging business

~ smile ~

you all requested for the pattern of the cute little hearts my friend Wija made in this post

the pattern is from Little Birdie Secrets and you can find it here

but, as I am all in the hearts-and-love-mood now

I designed a little heart myself too

and there it is: my very first photo-tutorial

How To Crochet a Heart

note: I am left-handed. You, right-handed, might make the turn of the heart the other way around

 1. start a loop
2. round 1: chain 4
3. close loop by pulling yarn through the first chain
4. round 2: all worked in chain-circle. first stitch: yarn over- pull yarn though loop - 3 loops on hook now - pull yarn through all 3 loops in once

 5. it will look like this now
6. double crochet: yarn over before you insert hook in the chain - pull though- yarn over - pull through 2 loops on hook - yarn over - pull through 2 (all) loops left on hook
7. triple crochet: yarn over 2 times- pull hook through loop- yarn over- pull yarn through 2 loops - yarn over - pull yarn through 2 loops - yarn over- pull yarn through 2 (all) loops left on hook
8. it should look like this now

 9. double crochet
10. two times single crochet
11. double crochet
12. triple crochet (like in number 7) round 2 is now half-way

 13. now repeat number 4 to 12 in reverse: double crochet - 2 times single crochet - double crochet - triple crochet - double crochet - stitch as in number 4
14. insert hook in middle of the heart
15. yarn over and pull loop through
note: if this little heart is the perfect size for you, finish it off with 7 chain stitches, as done in step 24
16. round 3. this round consists of single crochet worked into the stitches of the first round. start with instering hook in first stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through

 17. in the first stitch, one single crochet. in the following 3 stitches, 2 times single crochet, to be able to make that circle of the heart stay round
18. it should look like this now
19. in the following stitches, until the treble crochet, use one single crochet in every stitch
20. before going back on the other side of the heart, in the triple crochet below, make two chainstitches, followed by one single crochet, to make the angle stand out

 21. it should look like this now
22. again use single crochet in the following 3 stitches
23. make 2 single crochet in the following 3 stitches to create a smooth bow, single crochet in the last stitch
24. to finish off nicely, insert hook in middle of the heart, yarn over, pull through loop on hook, chain 7

25. Tadaa! your crochet heart

now this is my very first tutorial ever

I hope some of you would like to give it a try

and tell me if anything is unclear or wrong, or if you see options for improvement...

~ happy heartful day to you ~




if you appreciate this tutorial and like to see more in the future, you are welcome to