One lucky find

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.

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.

PS. Sure, the vases were all thrifted.

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.

He decided to try his hand on the Lagusta's Chocolate Raspberry Tart.
Kudos to him for that choice.

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?)

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...

Potholder Poetry

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

Anyway, the sheer number of vegan ovendishes
we eat in this house,
make a good excuse to crochet a new potholder.
Every now & then.

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

Which, for the record, I do too.

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.

Thrifted #5

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

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...

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.

Haberdashery

It's such a nice word: haberdashery. 
It sounds pleasantly cosy, old-fashioned.

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

Recently I found these secondhand buttons. Cute!

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

Improvised pincushion (stuffed old sock)
Let's say I like to recycle...

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...

Thrifted #4

The chair was thrifted.

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?

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.

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*. ^

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.

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!

Pink roses... They make a lovely entrance to this house.

Nice shadow.

A classic farm garden transported to center of town. Love it

Hollyhocks!

Really like those plum & white pelargoniums.
And that pink is so bright!

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 voilà.

In my cuppa

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

But only: Fairtrade & Organic.

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.

Crochet Flowers and Eat Plants

Broadly speaking, I'm trying to reconcile Vintage&Crochet
with Vegan&Fairtrade.

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.