Halina's paintings

Thanks to blogging, I have met people all over Europe.  Sometimes I can't read the words or understand anything if it's like in Portugese or Polish, but then I just admire the pictures of beautiful jewelry, bags, knitted scarves, crochet accessoires...etc.

One of the people I ad:mire is Halina.  She's a multi-talented woman, living in Denmark.  When she presents a new doll it always comes with a story. Her imagination is limitless. You can find a link to her blog here .

Some time ago she showed paintings she made of cats.  As I am a big fan of cats I took a close look, and immediately fell in love with them.  And when you love something, you want it near you.  So I asked if she could sell me one of the paintings. 

She was prepared to do so, and I could chose one of the images.  A difficult task, as they were all so funny and so delicately made.  I went for this one :

Here we are, in the trees.  Now come and recue us !

The colours are perfect in this corner of my living space !

And she added a surprise in the box : 3 mini-paintings of the awesome trio !  That's what I call them : 3 little darlings who perform magic everytime you look at them.  They trigger my imagination, and I feel the story behing their expression.  I catch myself smiling, when I look at them.  Halina has captured the peronality of the cats in her work, and  their expression of happiness is rubbing off on the person looking at them.

Oh, is this your bed ?  It is very comfortabel...  Purrrrrrrr

 I didn't break that vase....  I rescued the flowers !

fasten your seatbelts, Lady, I'm driving like a mad cat...

And to finish : here's one of my cats.  Spirou is the king of this castle, His main activity is sleeping, enjoying his cat dinner, laying about in the sun, a daily check if the castle is still standing, and once in a while a bit of human attention.  What a life...

knitting a bag

With spring in the country, I thougth about getting a new bag.  But why buy something you can make yourself ?  So I spend some time on the internet, and look what I found : a free pattern for a little knitted bag in cotton.

I used some stash and got around knitting on circular needles this time. 

When I decide do try something new, I never hesitate - the type who jumps in with eyes closed. 
I therefore choose the fair isle pattern where you use 2 colours, one on each finger.  and you know what ?  I kinda liked it.....  Perhaps another circular needle project is a possibility....

more fimo inspiration

My sister has the same addiction.  It must be something genetic ....  She also made a few new fimo necklaces, inspired by the beautiful Zahia beads.  They are so well made, she's an artist !  You cannot see the difference between the expensive Zahia glass cones and her version in fimo....  (she even fooled the sales girl at Zahia who thought it was one of theirs...)  Take a look :

great colours, all fimo !

it's all fimo !

here's a combination of beads and fimo

again a combination.

cowboy inspiration

easter holidays and I am busy as a bee, catching up on all those projects I wanted to make, but couldn't find the time for....  
So there will be quite a few blogposts coming up in the next few days.


One of the things that I find very relaxing is playing with fimo clay.  It sort of catapults me back to kintergarten, the soft clay rolling under your hands to form 'sausages'...   I must have liked it allready at a very early age.
So now, a little bit older (and you should think wiser, but that can be discussed) I am still fiddling with fimo.
And this is the result :

I added old jeans buttons for the cowboy style look

a little cowboy hat  made in brown fimo

this necklace is  based on a model in the veritas catalogue

but as usual, I added my own ideas...

Tapisplage : nieuw event in Oostende !

Het inspiratie event voor de (mode) bewuste vrouw !

Een hippe beurs voor bewuste madams !

Je bent een bewuste madam ? Je wil voor jezelf & je gezin wel iets anders dan wat je in alle ketens & baanwinkels vindt ?

Tapisplage biedt het je aan op een dienblaadje .We selecteerden een hele hoop hippe (web)winkels, ontwerpers, ... die op zondag 8 mei al hun unieke spullen zullen uitstallen op onze Tapisplage in Oostende.

Tapisplage wordt een unieke markt met een uitgebreid assortiment.Je moet er gewoon bij zijn voor een uniek aanbod op het gebied van:

* hobby
* kleding & accessoires voor jezelf en je gezin
* vervoer
* huis
* food & drinks
* feest
* ecologisch bewustzijn
* ...

De inkom is gratis en iedereen is welkom van 10h tot 18h.De eerste 200 bezoekers worden verrast met de unieke Tapisplage-Goodie Bag!

De breiclub zal er bij zijn : we zitten met z'n allen aan een lange tafel lekker te kletsen en te breien.  Zin om mee te doen ?  Zet je erbij, we leggen alles netjes uit of frissen je kennis van breien en haken wat op.

crochet jewelry

After the workshop given by Veerle Maes, I was very eager to try a crochet necklace on my own. 

This time, I had a mission.  I have bought fabric to make a summerdress.  It's in soft grey, with flowers in turquoise and khakigreen.  I figured I could crochet a necklace in those colours, so I would have a matching set !
I finished the piece this morning ( I got up at 6, so obsessed with it....)
I crocheted around a couple of plain wooden beads, in different sizes.  I switched colours in the middle of a bead.  The crochet hook I used was size 1.00  and the tread is actually embroidery thread...  All tiny little stiches, very bad for the eyes, but I am definately proud of the result.

What do you think ?

I used 5 little wooden beads

the lenght is approx. 45 cm

the colours are a bit lighter than on this picture

It is very light to wear, just perfect for me !

EZ - the opinionated knitter

I have received many reactions from my blogster-friends !  thank you very much. 
Now, somebody called Katelijne is going to the USA for a week, and has volunteerd to check out the bookstores and maybe.... she will buy the book for me and bring it along in her luggage.  (That saves me the postage costs).  I will keep my fingers crossed....  
Thanks again for all your reactions !