A Bauble Wreath for Christmas

During my Intratuin tree shopping spree I also managed to add some pretty pastel baubles to my basket to make a bauble wreath.

What you need:

1. Ribbon
2. Small baubles in 2 colours matte and gloss
3. Glue gun
4. Foam wreath (EPS)

You can find the exact same baubles at the Intratuin Christmas market in the section 'Romantic'.

Start at the lower outer circle by glueing baubles to the wreath. After you've completed the first row you'll have to start building up by glueing rows of baubles on top of the other row of baubles.

Repeat this until you're satisfied with the result.

The Winner of The Riess Giveaway is ...

Thank you all so much for participating. This was my best visited giveaway so far. I'm happy to know that I've made the right choice for a collaboration for my upcoming book as you all seem to love these pans, I sure do.

Congratulations to Frances!! Lovely you left an URL and email address, makes things so much easier.

Mum’s Cabinet of Curiosities

My mother is a hoarder, something I definitely didn't inherited from her. I do like collecting things, mostly things that can be put away in cupboards or cabinets as I don't like picking up lots of stuff when I'm cleaning. I'm drifting ...

A couple of years ago my mother decided to move back to her native country, Suriname, to look after my grandmother. She sold her house, packed and shipped lots of her stuff (lots of it) but wanted to get rid of all her beach walk hoarding loot. So I took care of that, well it's something I can put in pots, cupboards and cabinets eh?

I also took this cabinet where my mother kept her glassware. This is what the cabinet looked like before. Although I really like how all the white stuff pops out, I don't really like dark wood so I had to give it a make-over.

I used one of the new Histor One colours, Strong Ice, as I wanted to go with blue to reflect the sea. I wasn't sure what I was going to cover the back of the cabinet with so I was pleasantly surprised when I found a vintage wallpaper in the basement, I bought a year ago, to exactly match the paint's colour.

I now have a part of my mother at home that's still very me and that doesn't stand out. One might think I collected shells, flower fossils and an empty turtle shell ... only if they knew me ;)

I'll announce the winner of the Riess Giveaway tomorrow as I want to check and read all the comments and those were quite a lot. Thanks guys, have a good weekend x

Yvestown in The Kitchen Book Cover

Today I'm super excited to reveal the cover of my upcoming book 'Yvestown in de Keuken' - Yvestown in The Kitchen. Without spoiling the content, it's a cookbook+ packed with 50 easy everyday recipes and 13 beautiful kitchens of my food loving friends and family spread over 272 pages.

TA-DA one with and one without the promotional sleeve.

I've been wanting to make a book for quite a while but my ideas don't really match the current "stuffy" book industry. The idea of combining food with interiors may sound simple but it isn't for bookshops as there's no category "Food & Interiors". In the end I teamed up with Uitgeverij Snor, an edgy Dutch publishing house, with "out of the box ideas". I love the line Queen Latifah quotes in the film 'The Secret Life of Bees' when her autistic sons says; "but mom I don't fit in any box", "well son then they have to build a bigger box". Snor is building bigger boxes people.

As for the design my friend, Roel, and I wanted to create something old fashioned yet timeless. I definitely didn't want an image cover as I always love books with a graphic cover. The inside is even better ....

The book will be in shops in The Netherlands and Belgium in March 2014. Hopefully soon after it's official release it will be available in more languages and in more countries. I'll keep you posted here and over at books.yvestown.com

But for now I'm dead chuffed, tired, satisfied and ready to go back on a diet. Did you know that making a cookbook puts on 8 kilo?

I would love to hear your feedback.

Dyed Bottle Brush Trees

Last Thursday I had the pleasure to go shopping at the Intratuin Christmas market in Zevenhuizen The Netherlands. I had so much fun together with fellow bloggers Vogesparis, April & May and Interiorator. Have I told you that Intratuin does the best Christmas markets in The Netherlands? So I was in for a treat.

I picked up a whole bunch of Intratuin bottle brush trees as I got so many questions about my kitchen mantle village of 2012. I thought it would be a great idea to tell you about my Christmas tree dyeing experiences.

How to go from green trees to many coloured trees?

What do you need:

• hot water
• bleach
• salt
• powdered fabric paint (I used Dylon)
• rubber gloves

Those are the main ingredients to dye a forest of trees as pictured above.

You'll first have to fill a bucket with hot water and bleach. Let the trees soak in the water/bleach bucket until they have lost all their colour. Next you'll have to create another bucket with the fabric paint in it. For dark colours let the trees soak in the colour bath and for light colours dip the trees in the colour bath.

That's all! You really need to experiment with this project.

Here are a few technique examples:

1. Dylon Powder Pink - dipped
2. gold sprayed with pearly beads
3. 100% natural bleached
4. Dylon Powder Pink - soaked

Have fun ... I'm off again to add some more pearls to my trees as they were waiting to dry. I'll leave you with a fun video shot at the Intratuin Christmas Market - wheee!

Riess Enamelware Giveaway

Happy Friday!

I'm so excited to host this giveaway today as Riess is one of my favourite brands to work with. I love their enamel pans and saucepans because they are so easy to use. They don't stain, the colours are everlasting and come in PASTEL, you can use them on any hob and even pop them in the oven. Most of all enamel is made of steal, quartz, clay, borax and soda which means that enamel is recyclable.

For my upcoming cookbook, Yvestown in the Kitchen, I'm collaborating with Riess. The pans are featured quite a lot in the book as they are super photogenic.

The Giveaway

From bottom to top as seen in the above image:

• 1 4L pan in lavender blue
• 1 2L pan in yellow
• 1 0,75L saucepan in white
• 1 1L saucepan in dusty pink
• 1 0,5L mug/jug in lavender blue

You can get all this by just leaving a comment before Friday the 29th 12:00 CET. I'll draw a random winner and Riess will mail the pans to you.

And good news!! This giveaway is open to readers WORLDWIDE!

I'll leave you with a hearty Saturday afternoon soup. Served in the 0,5 L mug/jug.

The Recipe

• 1 large cauliflower
• 3 medium sized turnips
• a handful of fresh parsley
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 500 ml water
• ground salt and peper (to taste)

Instructions

Chop de cauliflower and turnips and toss them in a pan with the ground salt and olive oil. Put the lid on and let it shimmer on low heat until the cauliflower and turnips are soft. Add the parsley and garlic. Turn of the heath. Mash the ingredients with a hand mixer. Turn on the heath and add the water.

Serve with a large dollop op seeded mustard.

This giveaway is closed. The winner will be announced Saturday 30-11-2013

Striped Crochet Christmas Stocking

The sun is out today so I got up and photographed, as many as possible, projects I've been working on. It has been so dark outside and for the past few days it's been foggy all day.

First off ... I've got some very simple crochet Christmas stockings for you. The pattern is for the stripy ones I've made but you can skip all that and make them very basic or add more colour. Do whatever you like, this is just a basic pattern.

The Stitches

• sl st=slip stitch
• dc=double crochet
• sc=single crochet
• ch=chain

The Foot

Start with a magic ring

Colour 1/Round 1: dc 8 in the magic ring, pull tight, sl st

Colour 1/Round 2: ch 2 (counts as 1 dc) 1 dc in the same dc (now you have 2 dc in the dc of the previous round. Repeat in remaining dc's, so 2 dc in each dc of the previous round. sl st.

Colour 1/Round 3: ch 2 (counts as 1 dc) 1 dc in the same dc (now you have 2 dc in the dc of the previous round. 1 dc in the next dc of the previous round. Repeat in remaining dc's, so 2 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc ... in the dc's of the previous round. sl st.

Colour 1/Round 4: ch 2 (counts as 1 dc) 1 dc in the same dc (now you have 2 dc in the dc of the previous round. 1 dc in the next two dc of the previous round. Repeat in remaining dc's, so 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc ... in the dc's of the previous round. sl st.

Colour 1/Round 5: ch 2 (counts as 1 dc) 1 dc in the same dc (now you have 2 dc in the dc of the previous round. 1 dc in the next three dc of the previous round. Repeat in remaining dc's, so 2 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 1 dc, 2 dc ... in the dc's of the previous round. sl st.

Colour 2/Round 6: ch 1 (counts as 1 sc) sc all around. sl st.

Colour 1/Round 7-8-9: ch 2 (counts as 1 dc) dc all around. sl st

Colour 3/Round 10: ch 1 (counts as 1 sc) sc all around. sl st.

Colour 1/Round 11-12-13: ch 2 (counts as 1 dc) dc all around. sl st

Colour 4/Round 14: ch 1 (counts as 1 sc) sc all around. sl st.

The Heel

Crochet 15 dc's wide and 4 dc's up to form a heel as seen in the image above.

Fasten off and start to dc all around all the stitches as seen in the image above.

Repeat to dc/sc until you have reached a satisfied length of the sock.

I've used Annell Rapido yarn 3260 (off white), 3233 (baby pink), 3224 (indigo) and Scheepjes wol Roma 1411 (bright pink), 1413 (sand) and 1400 (light green)

The rabbit is from Maileg - The postcard from 1Canoe2 - The blue wrapping paper is from Loods5 and the pink on from IKEA and I don't have a clue where I got the candle holder from, but it's perfect.

Would love to read your comments and links to your stockings.