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30.7.12

One lucky find

crochet, pastel, doily, potholder, wallpaper with flowers, little sidetable mid century modern, vintage, retro, ByHaafnerpink pelargonium, pastel, wallpaper with flowers, cracked flowerpot, ByHaafner

I never was one for pastel colours,
but recently, I started to appreciate them.

I found the little triangular table some time back
- in Amsterdam -
while walking in the morning from the station to my office.
Somebody had thrown it away,
between a pile of garbage bags.
Lucky find indeed! (Apart from the garbage part of the story.)

The workmen restoring a house there,
thought it was really funny to see me crawling over the rubbish,
(Okay, I'm exaggerating here, I didn't actually have to crawl.)
 - but I thought it to be a perfect start of my day.

crochet, ByHaafner, doily, potholder, pastel,

25.7.12

Neon Pink Deadlines

While hectic deadlines for my work are looming,
I took a short break from it all,
to dabble with neon pink, littles vases and instagram instead.
Not so wise. Not so useful.
But fun nevertheless.

ByHaafner, vase, thrifted, blue wallpaper with flowers, doily, neon pink, granny square, crochet
ByHaafner, vase, thrifted, blue wallpaper with flowers, doily, neon pink, pompom, crochet, instagram

















ByHaafner, vase, thrifted, blue wallpaper with flowers, doily, neon pink, pink flowers, crochet, instagram

ByHaafner, vase, thrifted, blue wallpaper with flowers, doily, neon pink, pink washi tape, crochet, instagram















ByHaafner, vase, thrifted, blue wallpaper with flowers, doily, neon pink, yarn, crochet, instagram





















PS. Sure, the vases were all thrifted.

22.7.12

Vegan pie to die for

After a small hint from my side
(Pleaeaease bake me a pie - please?)
Mr. H. decided it was a good day to try a recipe from
Vegan Pie in the Sky
Another fabulous cookbook from Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero.

vegan pie, vintage, blue wallpaper with flowers, granny chic, teatime, organic and fairtrade ingredients, Haafner
He decided to try his hand on the Lagusta's Chocolate Raspberry Tart.
Kudos to him for that choice.

vegan pie, vintage, blue wallpaper with flowers, granny chic, teatime, organic and fairtrade ingredients, Haafner




















I tell you it's really hard to catch this pie's gooeyness on a photo,
but I gave it a try.
Although it meant having to deal with small hints of Mr. H.
(Can we pleaeaease eat it now - please?)

vegan pie, vintage, blue wallpaper with flowers, granny chic, teatime, organic and fairtrade ingredients, Haafner, Chinese teamugs, crochet doily


If you're vegan or not: the pies in this book really are to die for.
To make it (just a little bit) more complicated:
The recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Pie was borrowed from Lagusta's Luscious,
definitely a site (and vegan chocolate shop) to add to your favourites!

Vegan Pie in the Sky
is well written and funny.
If you click here you'll find some sample recipes:
Like Pear Frangipane Tart and Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Pie.

Highly addictive stuff...

21.7.12

Potholder Poetry

Mmm - if this title might seem a bit preposterous,
it's probably because it is.

crochet, potholder, Haafner, granny chic, handmade, pastel wallpaper with flowers





















Anyway, the sheer number of vegan ovendishes

we eat in this house,
make a good excuse to crochet a new potholder.
Every now & then.

crochet, potholder, Haafner, granny chic, handmade, pastel wallpaper with flowers





















Although Mr. H. arguably would rather see me
reading a good book instead.

crochet, potholder, Haafner, granny chic, handmade, pastel wallpaper with flowers




















crochet, potholder, Haafner, granny chic, handmade, pastel wallpaper with flowers





















Which, for the record, I do too.




20.7.12

Container gardens #4

If the first signs (and the weather forecast) aren't fooling me,
there are a couple of sunny days on their way to The Netherlands.
Good - that means that I can finally make new photos of container gardens,
while they're at their best, with flowers blooming.

For the time being, I hope you enjoy these.
I made them a few weeks ago.
In between days of rain showers.

container garden, bench, flowers, Haafner, Haarlem, urban garden








container garden, flowers, Haafner, Haarlem, urban garden











container garden, flowers, Haafner, Haarlem, urban gardens













container garden, flowers, Haafner, Haarlem, pansies





container garden, red roses, Haafner, Haarlem, urban garden















container garden, flowers, Haafner, Haarlem, urban garden

















19.7.12

Thrifted #5

Yes! Finally some sun while taking a photo.
Some would argue: a bit too much. And with reason - but I like it.

thrifted, crochet, stool, white floor, Haafner, handmade





















Anyway, this little cutie was in poor shape when I found it in a thrift store.

I didn't buy it at once. (How many stools does one need ?)
However, the third time around it was still standing there,
so I felt it was my moral duty to give it a new home.
Some paint and a crochet cover was all it took to let it rise above itself again.

But I'm thinking now it could do with a more cheerful cover...


18.7.12

Teatime!

Whether it's at home...






















With a homebaked vegan muffin...

Or outside on my terrace - on those very rare sunny days...






















I do enjoy teatime.

17.7.12

Haberdashery

It's such a nice word: haberdashery. 
It sounds pleasantly cosy, old-fashioned.
fabric, flowers, stacks, Haafner, instagram




















In Dutch we use the word f
ournituren.
Which is borrowed from the French: Fournitures.

Recently I found these secondhand buttons. Cute!


pastel doily, crochet, handmade, Haafner, instagram, buttons, vintage





















Ah - ribbons... This one is a souvenir from travelling.























Improvised pincushion (stuffed old sock)

Let's say I like to recycle...

wallpaper flowers, needles, pin cushion, crochet, Haafner




16.7.12

I would... Pack my suitcases

It's tempting to pack my suitcases and just leave
to more exciting places.






















I would take some good books with me to read or reread.

















I would definitely try as much dishes as possible.
Oh! The joy of all that great vegan food to discover abroad!
One of the many delicious meals I had in South East Asia:


















I would be learning the necessary phrases
to make sure 
my vegan meal isn't drenched in fish sauce.




































I would go to the local markets. 
And buy even more food...































*snap*
Back to reality.
No travelling for months to come.
But one can dream...

15.7.12

Thrifted #4

The chair was thrifted.
crochet, handmade, vintage, granny chic, granny square, blue, Haafner, chair





















I made the cushions. If making them now, I would use a different method for joining the rounds. To achieve a more seamless join than this one.
Hey, one is never too old for new insights - even if it's just about crochet, right?


14.7.12

Crochet lessons & A Thank You

Last year I decided to learn to crochet.
This in itself is nothing special of course, but for me,
who never did any crafting, it was something.

crochet, granny squares, neon pink, colours, Haafner, throw, plaid, vintage style
















I turned to YouTube - where a lot of nice people

invest their precious time, teaching their crafting skills
to complete strangers, like me.





















So I crocheted my first granny square and another one,
and another one.
And I decided I might as well make my first throw of these fairly big squares.
As you can see the result is a bit wonky...^
The throw quickly became my dear cat's favourite hiding place,
so better not zoom in: 
*cat hair alert*. ^

crochet, small granny squares, black, colourful, bag, Haafner





















A big Thank You to:
– Mirte from Handwerkles (in Dutch, but very recommendable)
– Donna from Naztazia. (I've watched this video so often!)
for teaching me to crochet.



13.7.12

Container gardens #3

These pictures, made last week,
remind me that it is in fact possible that there is sun 

in this part of the world.

Since then it seems it hasn't stopped raining...

Anyway, here's another selection of container gardens
in town that caught my eye. Enjoy!
container garden, pink roses, Haafner
Pink roses... They make a lovely entrance to this house.


























container garden, shadow, Haafner
Nice shadow.

















container garden, pink hydrangea, Haafner
A classic farm garden transported to center of town. Love it













pink hollyhocks, pavement, Haafner
Hollyhocks!
















container garden, white bench, pink, flowers, Haafner
Really like those plum & white pelargoniums.
And that pink is so bright!

12.7.12

Bringing Travel Home

Travelling is wonderful.
It's refreshing to leave 'certainties' and routines behind,

and immerse oneself in another culture.
(Other people have said this definitely more eloquently than I did...)





















It's lovely to be surrounded with tangible memories of these travels.
(Okay, so I'm a bloody consumer while travelling - yes.)

Anyway.
In a mountain town in India I purchased these wooden boxes.
For a while they just stood somewhere without any specific purpose,
other then being beautiful.

Then shortly after I got the crochet virus, et voilĂ .




11.7.12

In my cuppa


thrifted, cup and saucer, Mosa, vintage, flower, pink, Haafner, tea, fairtrade




















I live on tea.
Well...
But seriously, I drink lots of it.

But onlyFairtrade & Organic.
scarborough fair chocolate and tea advert
Source: Scarborough Fair






















I will not have it any other way.

Especially not after visiting quite a few tea plantations over the past years
in India, Sri Lanka, Laos...

Breathtaking landscapes / Stunning architecture
– like this former tea factory in Sri Lanka.
(Now turned into a hotel where, BTW, I stayed a couple of years ago.
Yes - it was nice.)
















Others are still in use as tea factories.
The conditions under which most teapickers still have to work
are beyond words. It is often modern slavery.
They don't have a choice.

We do.
Paying a few cents extra for our tea can make a huge difference for them.
So yes, only Fairtrade & Organic
In my cuppa.

10.7.12

Crochet Flowers and Eat Plants

Broadly speaking, I'm trying to reconcile Vintage&Crochet
with Vegan&Fairtrade.
crochet, handmade, vegan yarn, cotton, little motifs, bright colours, washi tape, masking tape





















So if you're more interested in the second -
I do hope I won't bore you to death with this post...
Vegan&Fairtrade posts are in the making, so stay around. ;-)

Back to crochet...
I felt like trying some new motifs. So I whipped up these.
From 150 Knit and Crochet Motifs by Heather Lodinsky. 
My favourites are the small squares: they measure about 3x3 cm.
crochet, handmade, vegan yarn, cotton, little motifs, bright colours