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Crochet Dishcloths

Tuesday, 31 January 2012 by Leave a Comment

At long last I have a new crochet project for you.

You can find all the old ones here at the same place where you can buy the yarn I use for all of my crochet projects.

Use Annell Cotton 8 with a 3.5 mm needle to make it extra tight.

Start: ch 40 + 3 for the first dc.

Start row one with double crochets working into the chain.

Work single crochets in row two, repeat this until you have a total
of 29 rows (so 15 dc rows and 14 sc rows), cast off with a sl st.

hdc all the way round in a different colour, cast of with a sl st

That’s all!

I used colours 32 and 79. You can machine wash the dishcloths on low and high heat as the yarn is 100% cotton

Stitches I used (and in Dutch):

ch=chain (NL lossen of ketting)
dc=double crochet (NL stokje)
sc=single crochet (NL halve vaste)
sl st=slip stitch (NL vasten)
hdc=half double crochet (NL half stokje)

Filed Under: Crafts, Crochet

Johnny Flynn

Monday, 30 January 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s not all flowery white with pink rooms and daisies all day in my life. I do have other hobbies and interest. I’ve read all Alain de Botton’s books with great interest, I watch a massive amount of films (hence my late nights), I like art, architecture and I’m a big lover of folk music.

My favourite artists are Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn and Karine Polwart, Karine actually so much that I now master the Scottish language fluently.

I also like to spend time at concerts and plays. Last summer I booked tickets to see Johnny Flynn play in November 2011 but the date got pushed to January 2012. So there I sat front row in St Mary’s Church in Ashford Kent a week ago Saturday listing to Johnny Flynn.

He just stood there on his own with his guitar being absolutely amazing. I’m so glad that I’ve experienced this very intimate concert with him. The acoustics were amazing especially when he had us all sing along to Tickle me Pink, it was just so special.

Thank you Johnny.

Remember the good old days when we bloggers had music swaps? Is anyone out there up for one of those again? I’d love to arrange a swap.

Night, night see you in the morning x

Filed Under: Life & Style, Out & About, Yvesworld

Tala Vegetable Rack

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 by Leave a Comment

This is the vegetable rack I’ve bought in Whitstable last weekend.

I couldn’t resist consulting Google to find other Tala vegetable racks. I only found one other, in green on eBay, for too much money in a rather poor condition. So I feel lucky that I had this one for just £14 in fire engine red, fire engine red people!!

I actually does store fruit and veg now and hangs just of the left side of the archway in the new part of the kitchen what used to be the sunroom, are you still with me?

Did you see the photo of this wall in yesterdays post, with the bare white walls? It needed a repeat of wallpaper just like I have on the other side of the kitchen (featured here on lovely Will’s blog). So when I got home late last night Bo surprised me and wallpapered the wall. Never let a man go who surprises you with something like that, never!

The doors are painted as well. I was going to not paint them, I was going to paint them blue and now they are white and I’m still not convinced if they will stay white. We need to complete the rest of this part of the kitchen. Boy, do I need a good name for this room as “This Part of The Kitchen” doesn’t flow so nice does it?

Filed Under: Decorating, Kitchen, My Home

A Lovely Day in Whitstable

Tuesday, 24 January 2012 by Leave a Comment

We were in the UK the past few days.

I had tickets to see Johnny Flynn perform in Ashford last November but as Johnny was in a play the concert got rescheduled to the 21st. Quite good as I also had tickets for the Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibit in The National Gallery in London on the 22nd. So we combined the two and it turned out to be a great weekend.

We had a good old day to explore Whitstable for the very first time and we loved it. There’s such a crafty scene going on there with many arts & crafts shops on Oxford Street and High Street but also lots of brocante all along Oxford Street.

We visited the ‘Seaside Brocante Fair’ in St Mary’s Hall. It’s on every Saturday and vendors sell pretty brocante. It’s not that big, as I hoped it would be, but lovely nonetheless. I bought a brilliant vegetable rack and an enamel bucket.

Park on Shaftesbury Road and walk through a small alley straight to St Mary’s and Oxford street.

I’m going to tell you more about that wall and the vegetable rack tomorrow as it will transform overnight.

I’ve fallen in love with Whitstable with her beautiful concept shops like Frank, the seaside huts, Whitstable Castle where I had a lovely spot of hot chocolate and all the beautiful brocante shops on every corner. I can highly recommend to drive there in a car with a big boot.

Filed Under: Holidays, Out & About

Sew What Your Love Giveaway Winners

Thursday, 19 January 2012 by Leave a Comment

As promised today is the day that I announce the winners of the Sew What Your Love Giveaway.

The winner of the book is jen@thecottagenest

The winner of the downloadable patterns is Stefania

Congratulations and thank to all of you for participating and talking about the book. It means the world to us.

Tanya is hosting another great giveaway on her blog.

***

Also a thank you for all your sweet comments on yesterdays post. I feel fine!! I can’t hardly believe it but I don’t have any pain. We buried Annabelle in the garden and the other two still look happy and healthy.

I’ll be away for the weekend so you’ll see me back Tuesday.

Thank you for reading xox

Filed Under: Books & Magazines, Giveaways, Press

Plus 3 Minus 1

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 by Leave a Comment

Today was a bad day.

When I woke up in the morning and looked out of the kitchen doors to check on the chicken, Annabelle (one of the chicken) was laying down in
the middle of the coop with her head down and her bum up. It looked quite odd so I went outside to check on her, she was having it rough.

Yesterday I was driving and eating liquorice and all of a sudden I had part of my tooth in my liquorice. I phoned my dentist and she could see me today. So I left the chicken at 12:00 hoping Annabelle would be fine by the time I got back.

When my dentist looked at my tooth she was rather in a state of shock and told me she had to get it out completely as there was an infection in my root canal, she could do that next week. I told her to do it straight away – you can better get over and done with these things. So after quite a lot of injections she started to yank and it didn’t work, so she yanked some more and more and more and it felt like she was yanking out my entire skull. After 15 minutes the tooth was out and part of my skull with it. Now I have to walk around with a tooth out for 6
whole weeks and look like a pirate, aye …

When I drove back home, my mouth stiff and blood dripping, I got home to find Annabelle dead, stone dead. With the stiff blood dripping mouth I had to get Annabelle out of the coop and the coop cleaned so that her two sisters could remain happy.

I do feel better now and my mouth and tooth are not aching so I’ll be fine, the chicken will be fine.

It’s such a shame she died just 3 days after we’ve revamped their coop because the chicken will be photo models next week.

Even Boo did a coop quality inspection while the ladies were on the move.

There was nothing wrong they all looked beautiful, big, fluffy, good colour and sheen.

RIP Annabelle we sort of loved you.

Filed Under: Garden, Pets

Paint Guide Part 2

Tuesday, 17 January 2012 by 3 Comments

I thought there would be a higher response to my previous post but apparently there are just a few of you who care about paint instead of the hundreds I thought. So I’ll keep this post, and subject, short.

The Pinks

Wall
Colour number: S 1010-Y90R Natural Colour System 2nd Edition
Paint used: Histor wall paint Satin

Chest of drawers
Colour number: S 1030-R10B Violier Histor Collection 2
Paint used: Sigma Coatings S2U Nova Satin

The Outdoors

All walls and woodwork

Colour number: FB approx 2004 / PPG: FB approx (Farrow & Ball Slipper Satin 2004)
Paint used: Sigma Coatings Torno Semi-Gloss

The Whites

For all interior woodwork (windows, closets etc.)
Colour number: FB approx 2005 / PPG: FB approx (Farrow & Ball All White 2005)
Paint used: Sigma Coatings S2U Nova Satin

For all interior walls (that are white)
Colour number: RAL 9010 Pure White
Paint used: Histor wall paint Satin

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY