Last week 'Dotje' returned to us as we accidentally left him in one of the beds of our cottage in Kent. Dotje is my nephew's cuddly toy, he received him as a gift when he was born 12 years ago. Now this was of course quite a drama I so understand as I have a great affection to toys myself.

I've sucked my thumb for 21 years and I used a blanket for that. The blanket in question was a birth gift and was really soft and pink and about 1 x 1 meter. By the age of 10 this blanket was white and only 15 x 10 centimeters. By the age of 12 I replaced the blanket for a crocheted pillow sham my mother made as a decoration piece for our home. By the age of 21, when this pillow sham had hardly any crochet left on it's fabric backing and didn't see a washing machine for at least 3 years, the ex-boyfriend of a college friend (NATHAN WAS HIS NAME) threw away this pillow sham as I left it ACCIDENTALLY in his dorm room. Straight after that I quit sucking my thumb so in a way NATHAN helped me, but don't tell him that because I hated him for a very long time.

Now at 35 I still have quite a lot of toys, old an new.

The vintage world globes I bought on eBay. The Cath Kidston mug I bought a couple of years ago and the Nijntje (Miffy) pencil was a baby shower gift. The animal picture cubes I found in my mother's junk and actually belong to me. The hare was a gift from Ingrid. If you wind the hare it will do a salto, it cracks me up.

I don't know the background of this Tonka truck, it's just been with us forever. We don't know if it belongs to Boris or to me. But it's a cool toy!

The cute hare with the knitted bathing suit was a gift from Holly. The lucky hare you can buy here and here - Oh my I have a thing for hares, how odd. And the Pippi Longstocking card travels with me wherever I go as she is my childhood hero, she is just the coolest kid ever. Even her full (Swedish) name rocks 'Pippilotta Victualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump'.

And last but not least my Barbie Fashion Model collection. I've stopped collecting these Barbies as I've finally lost interest after 35 years. But still when I'm in a toy store I have to pay a visit to the Barbie isle. I'm always in awe and think to myself that I can have the sickest Barbie house ever now that I can spend my own money on it and not my parents money - although my father quite spoiled us rotten. I could even have a toy room and we could have a Barbie house, Lego city and a F1 racing track. But somehow I always think that it would be mental and that we never find time to play in our play room.

How boring we get when we get older, I even considered buying Nordic walking sticks the other day. I honestly think that is one of the most saddest moments in my life, forget the dangerous blood disease I had. Nordic walking sticks ... sigh.

Do you still play?

I must have traveled through and over Kent thousands of times but I've never took a turn on the M20 before. Until last Tuesday when we took our niece and nephew across the pond through the channel tunnel. It was all quite exciting as it was our first time traveling with kids and it was their first time traveling with people who don't have kids. We had a lovely time the four of us, a really lovely time.

We stayed in the Stable Flat at Knowlton Court for just 2 nights. We literally slept above the horses and 10 German Sheppard puppies who I wanted to squeeze in my bag and take home, all 10 of them. I can highly recommend Knowlton Court as a holiday home but I'm not recommending the Stable Flat as we were woken up each morning at 6:30 by the horses and the farmer. Next time we'll take a cottage or a house on the estate.

Kent is stunning, beautiful and underrated and absolutely worth spending your holiday. It's just all in a 35 minutes distance of Dover or Folkestone so you can start exploring when you hop off the ferry or tunnel.

Of all the castles we've seen Walmer Castle is my favourite as I love the inside and the kitchen gardens. Dover Castle and especially the WOII tunnels were pretty impressive as well, the Bo was even involved in a little medieval play.

I always dislike getting on with life after visiting The UK. I love The UK, I want to move back and stay there forever ... maybe in a few years.

Just want to let you know that my pillow design for the Pretty Little Pillows book is now available for free over at Lark. You can also win a free copy of Pretty Little Pillows if you leave a comment on their website. Have fun xox Y

I'm now taking commissions. I've made these two for Sarah, a 40 x 40 granny square and a 50 x 50 starburst as seen in this post.

update 12-08-2010
If you want to commission a pillow please send me an e-mail instead.

While I was in hospital last March I instructed my mother to plant the hollyhocks seeds I bought in February and she did. Now the odd thing about these hollyhocks is that they shouldn't grow flowers this year. In the first year they should grow leaves, the second year they have flowers and than they die. But I have these fantastic flowers already. It must have something to do with welcoming me home or, I like to tell myself, that they bloom just for me :o)

And for the bees of course.

Today is exactly 4 months ago that I was diagnosed with TTP and that the catheter went in my chest. I can officially announce that I'm catheter free for 2 weeks and that my blood is back to normal standards, there's no attacking of the red blood cells going on anymore.

I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate your kindness, thoughtfulness, moral and even spiritual support. I'm thankful for all your e-mail, cards, notes and prayers. Although I'm not religious it still means a lot to know that someone who doesn't know me prays for me. Thank you.

I'm not a person who likes to wallow or one of those types that uses a misfortune as an excuse to everything. That's something I've learned from my parents; "bad luck and now chin up and get on with it". So that's what I'm doing ... the anxiety is (almost) gone, I've found my home and husband again, I now know who my real friends are and who are not and I'm stronger.

I still love my food too much though ...

I've made 6 scones today and ate 4 of them. Boy I wish they could've put something in all of that plasma I've got that would stop me eating large amounts of food. Apparently I have the inside of a sportswoman, definitely not the outside.

I used this recipe.

The Dutch soccer team plays the world cup soccer final today. I have a very twitchy husband so living with a twitchy husband during the week to the soccer world cup final is like having a 6 year old during the month of December. All he talks about is soccer, soccer here, soccer there and I think I've covered the word 'soccer' almost enough in this post to fill in the gap now that he's working. Last week, after a lot of hesitation, he started to decorate the house ... HE STARTED TO DECORATE THE HOUSE!! Now this really shows some love from my side in this marriage. He hung a massive orange 'Holland' flag on the outside of our home for the world to see.

Sigh.

And ... I even helped him. Hup Holland Hup!!

"The very pink of perfection" - Oliver Goldsmith

A while ago I promised a study tour and today is that day. Be prepared for a lot of pink and if pink makes you nauseous I'd definitely click away.

Let me start to tell you about the pink as finding the perfect pink isn't easy. My first pink was purple so I went to browse the internet and found the perfect pink in this and this image. The color number is S1010-Y90R. The rest of the room is white and you can find color numbers in this post.

The bookcase is build out of 7 IKEA Billy bookcases with a MDF work top painted in white. To make the work top a bit wider we pulled the bookcases a little to the front and fixed a beam to the wall so the MDF can rest on it. It's a super solid construction and it saved us so much time. The ceiling in the room is original to the house and restored by our plaster chap. The ceiling lamp is the Norm 69 by Normann Copenhagen. The pink chair is an Air-Chair by Jasper Morisson for Magis. I also decided later that I didn't wanted a desk as this room would be a room for the computer only. So Bo build me that amazing table out of used scaffold wood and I use that small French table for my Mac instead of a desk. It works great as Bo can come and join me and have his laptop on the table. We also often have lunch in this room while I'm working. And it's perfect for interior book browsing.

I've made the mood board of of soft board and linen fabric. I'm working with green and pink for this house and there's still room left to add a lot of things.

To imagine that this room looked like this when we bought the house and this when we were working on it. Pink just made it all better.

Someone who's really important to me is going to get a new puppy in the next few days so I've made a 'happy new puppy' hamper to welcome puppers.

I always have a soft spot for a dog with it's own teddy bear. As the puppy is a Leonberger I couldn't resist picking up this lion. But what's a teddy without it's own vest? So I crocheted a quick wee vest for him and now he's all dapper. I don't know if the vest is going to survive but for now it's just super cute.

I used Debbie Stoller's Stitch Nation 'Full o' Sheep' yarn as I'm using it to work on a project (we can all benefit from) assigned to me by Debbie and her yarn folk.

For this vest I used:

sc = single crochet
sl st = slip stitch
dc = double crochet

Something like this:

chain 15 (depends on the width of the teddy's belly) and work your first row with sc's. Change color and work your second and third row with sc's. Change color and work your fourth row with sc's. For your fifth row sl st 4 (for a width of 15 chains) chain 3 (this is your first dc) and work 2 dc's in the shame chain. Now sl st 7 and chain 3 and work 2 dc's in the shame chain and finnish with 4 sl st. Do this twice and stitch back and front together.

Have fun dressing you teddies.

My shop is now officially closed and I will, this time, not re-open it as I had enough of the whole Paumes business. Don't get me wrong I love the Paumes books, they are a sort of religious books to me but I'm not very charmed about how they do their business. I'm not going to much into detail but I find it very, if not extremely, offensive to first use people to promote their books and eventually selling them directly from their website for wholesale prices. That's slow but very mean marketing.

I did however receive that lovely bag today with my new, personal, book order. I could've been in that book but I refused. I've been refusing a lot of book deals, photo shoots etc. I'm quite done with giving away so much for nothing. I have a better plan and I'm working on that and you'll be the first to know.

I do want to thank all of you who have bought Paumes books in my shop. It's been such an easy ride.

In spite of all the unfairness I do recommend shopping directly with Paumes as they are the &#@**#^% cheapest and have a great service!! Enough said.

I also bought Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights - at last. I love it, I really do like Sophie as I do like the whole family Dahl and their whimsicalness. Get it!!!

I've finally made new slipcovers for my vintage Danish chair. It just took me five years ...

You can read about the pillow here. And when I'm up to it I'll get that video I've promised out there but I first need to get 100% better, so far I'm 85% better so almost there.

I didn't really feel my kitchen ever since we've build it. We had to build it from scratch as the previous kitchen was really gross.

We mixed IKEA cupboards and Smeg appliances with our own designs and last weekend we added some old cupboards to the kitchen and now I feel it, I so feel it.

I will soon post about the left side of the kitchen.

home | hõm |
noun

1 the place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of a family or household.

I've learned from spending so much time in hospital that when one is suffering from a disease that needs daily monitoring that the hospital becomes one's home. The nurses become family and the doctor becomes my surrogate comfort person.

I'm getting better after suffering from Idiopathic TTP (Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura) I didn't feel comfortable to name the disease I've been suffering from on my blog before as I was afraid of horror stories or that it would jinx me getting better. But I'm getting better, thank my positive thinking for getting better.

Physically that is, mentally I'm still quite a mess.

When my doctor told me last Friday that I should come back next friday for my last Mabthera treatment, I panicked ... a week not going to the hospital, A WHOLE WEEK ... are you mad?

I have to let go.

Now this is the hard part as I don't see my own home as home right now. The hospital is my home and if I have to think of anyone holding my hand when they'll remove my catheter, it will be my doctor. Home provides safety and the place where I feel safe is the hospital right now. I bet there are a lot of people who understand this.

So that's my next task; finding home again.

I've made a little collage of what resembles home to me by putting some items together.

The painting of the mother and child used to hang in my parents bedroom. When I was little I'd stare at it for hours. I felt so related to that child, as my mother is black and my father is white. It's comforting and safe. The rusty Y was a gift from Marné and for some reason, I can't explain, I feel very attached to this letter. Books are important to me, lots of books. I sometimes joke and say that our house will be burned down in no time as it carries so many books. And the pink hare was a gift from a friend and resembles friendship in general. Friendship has been so important to me while I was in hospital. In times like this I've learned that the people who undergo a 2 hour drive to sit with you, tell you that you should shave your legs and laugh at you because you can't speak properly anymore are the best people in the world - and sod the rest!!

I'll be fine.

I'm doing some cleaning up before I get the newer titles in stock. Please spread the word.

For some reason things always come in in two. For example when the washing machine is broken the hoover will die too. Don't know why this is. For the same reason I'm in two books in almost the same month.

I contributed some words of advice, or as I like to tell me self, some words of wisdom to 'The Handmade Marketplace' by Kari Chapin. A very useful book for when you want to start your own online shop. People like Holly Becker and Amy Butler are in this book too.

The second book is 'Pretty Little Pillows' by Lark Books and there's a pillow design I've made in it. I'm really proud of this one!

Health wise; I'm doing really great but the disease is still in my blood. We've moved on to some kick ass medicine and this should be the cure. It's going to take another two months for the treatment is done and before we can conclude I'm cured (or not) One thing I know for sure, when I'm cured I'm going to throw a big party and I'm going to drink a lot of Pina Coladas and dance all night because this girl deserves some good old fun.

I just woke up from a long nap. I think I finally found some time to get a rest after a very busy weekend, and what a weekend it was.

Ingrid and her daughter, Pippa, arrived at casa Yvestown Saturday afternoon with a car full of clothing, toys and other bits and pieces. Around 18:00 our living/dinning room, in the works, were packed with stuff. After a lovely pancake dinner (on a boat that made the Bo and Pip seasick) and a good nights rest we got up at 7:00 on SUNDAY MORNING to put all our stuff in the front garden. What you see in the pictures was put together in an hour.

This is the layout from the bathroom window. We made a few spots so people could walk around it easily; a dinner table, a bedroom and a clothing corner.

We had so much fun and how nice it was that a few of you came to say hello. Ilaria and her man even rented a car and came to visit us, all the way from Italy we joked all day.

We're going to do it again next year and we'll be doing it two days instead. And we'll be serving drinks as people asked us a few times when we're going to be serving and Ingrid would definitely drink a beer. Are you going to be there?

Last Tuesday I was at Ingrid from wood & wood stool to pick up furniture for our joint garage sale Sunday the 25th of April. I sat (as I'm not allowed to do much) and watched Ingrid potter around in her garden. Ingrid always makes me happy, it's like I'm 10 when I'm with her and we're on a play date.

You're more than welcome to buy our junk next week. There are loads more vendors in the city where I live as it's a city thing. You can find more info here. We are located on the Bergeijk/Luyksgestel side of Lommel not on the Valkenswaard side. Even tough your navigator will advice you to drive via Valkenswaard, don't trust it as it's a machine and stupid.

My blog has it's own page in this months Dutch interior magazine Ariadne at Home.

Welcome to those who are new and for those who are old, as in old visitors that is, here a scan to the page. Cute eh? And FYI I wrote the piece, it's not an interview and yes I'll have a translation soon ;o)

Thanks so much for all your great comments and for your well wishes. In a way I don't feel so alone now and I hope that you don't feel alone either. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

So I promised to write more about me and what keeps me busy. Last Sunday we went to our friends Roel and Ruud (Roel is also my studio buddy) to celebrate their new kitchen with a brunch. Something, amongst the million things, we have in common is the love for white and food. When I took a picture of the dinner table I was almost convinced you wouldn't believe is wasn't my brunch table, so I left that picture out ;o)

These were the gifts I bought; Donna Hay's no time to cook, Danish dish cloths and a box of Food Loops.

I can't imagine my life without Roel and Ruud anymore. They were also the first people who sat next to my hospital bed when I was in a really, really bad state and made me laugh. They absolutely rock my world.

More about their home soon, you'll love it!

I've been thinking about what my next subject should be, how I have to get on with my life and try to find a way to combine my frequent hospital visits with all the other things I want and need to do.

I know that I want to get this annoying blood thing out of the way, how I have a love hate relationship with my catheter and that for the love of milkshakes I want to have a proper bath or shower. I get ecstatic by the thought of letting shampoo run all over my body and how I'd love to dip all the way under the water and be covered in bubble bath ... ah bubble bath. Do not think that I not bathe myself but I have to keep this catheter dry so it's quite complicated. I already had wild plans of inventing a special catheter shower bra but what are men going to wear? On the other hand the catheter is quite fantastic as they can hook up everything to the thing. If they need to draw blood they don't have to mutilate me with scary needles as they can draw it right out of it. You know it's there to make me better. I must try to embrace it.

I've decided to cover more of my life, instead of just writing about my rooms, my food and my projects. You see life is quite fragile, one minute you're happily walking around the next minute you have to deal with a catheter in your chest. I never thought I would have one of these in my chest, I thought I would be healthy until my 95th birthday and than die in my sleep.

If pigs could fly, right?

Hello again!

I'm home, so good to be home but I do miss the hustle and bustle of the hospital. I kind of have to find my way back to a daily routine. I'll have to go back twice next week for my blood flushing so it's not all over yet.

The last week in hospital was quite stressful as they put me on the oncology ward. It was a Piccadilly Circus of ill women coming in and out of my room and as I'm not such a super star in sharing rooms with people (Bo and I don't even share a room all of the time) it took quite a lot of me. I cried twice, I didn't use the bathroom in my own room as I have this thing about doing nr 2 in the company of strange people and I had one very athletic afternoon as a woman with cancer was just loosing it completely. I now know that I will never ever become a nurse and that I have the utmost respect for them. Also my Belgian tongue is much better now ;o)

After all, that was some scary shit. Thanks so much for your empathy. I received quite a few cards and letters from all over the world and they touched me so deeply. I didn't know I had fans. How cool is it that when you're not a pop or movie star and people still end their letters to you with; "with love from your biggest fan"? You're all so kind and lovely, I bet you smell nice too.

I'll pick up work again on Thursday so all open book orders will be send on Thursday the 8th. There will be some extra goodies and vouchers enclosed to make up for the super long delay. I'll also start to answer all your e-mail as from Tuesday. Please bare with me as this will be a slow progress.

For now I wish you a happy Easter. I've made the eggs in the picture with some mayonnaise, curry powder, salt and pepper. It's so damn good to be back!!

PS: the plate is a gift from Ingrid. Thank you for being such a good friend xox

For those of you who thought I've died, I almost did.

A week ago Sunday Boris drove me to our local hospital because I was suffering from these horrible migraines for almost a week, or as I thought they were migraines. On that Sunday I lost my speech and the ability to reason and the headaches were just the most awful headaches ever. By the time we arrived at the hospital I had given up on almost everything.

To cut a very long story short, I survived from a really nasty blood disease, which I'll tell you the name of when I'm ready for it. If we went a day later to a hospital I would've been death.

I now have a catheter in my chest so they can draw blood quickly and connect me to the plasmapheresis machine. They flush my blood with clean plasma almost daily to get this disease out of my blood. I need to be flushed for as long as it takes and after that they'll get the catheter out of my chest and I will be completely healthy again.

I'm so, so, so incredibly lucky to not have suffered any brain damage and I'm one lucky woman to have such a responsible husband who's also very cute. I hope you understand that I can't answer your e-mail, mail your books, leave you comments and do all the other things you are used from me. I think I can pick up my life again in a couple of weeks.

I also want to thank everyone who donates blood and plasma. I can't thank you enough. Each one of you who donates blood in Belgium indirectly saved my life. THANK YOU!! And for everyone in the rest of the world, you're saving lives too and making families and partners happy. You rock!

After I published my last Christmas photo I was asked where I bought the pom pom garland. I made it myself and here's how to.

You need:

1. scissors
2. thick fishing wire
3. long needle

and lots of pom poms. You can get them at most arts & crafts shops. I got mine from the arts & crafts department of the HEMA - and I left the really big pom poms out.

Cut a length of fishing wire to your desire (mine is about 1.50 m) and tie a knot with a loop on one side and place the needle on the other side of the wire. Now all you need to do is thread the pom poms through the needle. You have to make sure not to thread all the same colors in a row or all the same sizes, just mix and match. When you're done you tie a knot with a loop.

My homes are funny things, I sit in them and look around in them and than all of a sudden they tell me what I need to do. This new home told me to use black. So I've started to use black. What do you think?

Ingrid even sneaked in some black yesterday and I just didn't want to give it back to her.

I've bought the botanical rose poster from The Evolution Store, the chestnut seller closed her Etsy account and the tree chalkboard is from here. The rusty Y was a gift from Marné many moons ago.

I'm not a Valentine day celebrator. Maybe because it's not a very acknowledged holiday in this part of the world. But any excuse to make something or to decorate with hearst gets me off.

These are the stitches:

dc = double crochet
ch(s) = chain(s)
sl st = slip stitch
tr = treble (triple) crochet
sc = single crochet

Here's the pattern for the hearts:

First round

ch 4, sl st in first ch to make a round - work next stitches in round, ch 3, 2 tr, 3 dc, ch 1, 1 tr, ch 1, 3 dc, 3 tr, ch 2, sl st.

Second round

ch 3, sc 1 in tr, sc 1 in tr, sc 2 in tr ... before the middle tr, sc 2 in dc, ch 1, sc 2 in dc ... and repeat to end, ch 2, sl st.

Enjoy and love xox

The TV room so far. The walls are a bit empty and it quite echoes in the room, which freaks the BooBoo out, but I'm pleased with it so far. A room always needs to grow on me and over time I'll add, remove and replace stuff.

This is what the room looked like when we bought the house. We took all the old plaster off and the wood ceiling, replaced all electricity, made a new ceiling, re-plastered, took the carpet out and painted the wood boards, made a new windowsill, new radiator and that's about it. The ceilings are 3,40mtr high which makes me look like a gnome with my 1,64mtr.

I used Loom by Histor (S 1002-Y50R) for the walls and All White Estate Eggshell by Farrow & Ball for the all the woodwork. For the floor I used Sigma S2u primer and Sigma S2u Satin for the top coat. I didn't use the recommended S2u Gloss for the floor as you'll end up with a mirror compared to the F&B Estate Eggshell with only a 20% sheen level. If you're in Germany, Belgium or The Netherlands and you find F&B paint too expensive, try the new Histor One as it's fabulous.

You can find more info on the stool and cupboard in my previous TV room post.

I love to crochet while I watch TV so I've made myself a little corner. The bunny and bird vase are by Joanna Mendicino.

I'll shoot some more pictures as the light outside is getting a bit better, this is the darkest room of the house. I'm really ready for spring as this winter is taking quite long.

I've finally updated my blog's publishing software. I'm now on Movable Type 5 just like Zachary Quinto - as I would give a rats ass. I do dislike this about big commercial companies. Like if it really matters that I'm on the same platform as Zachary Quinto and Britney Spears.

I also have this cool new feature that's replacing my comments - I'm so so sorry but I couldn't save all my comments. Echo is a mini forum and now I can interact with you. If you have a question about my blog post we can discuss it in Echo. Click on the 'Let's Discuss' icon under a post and it will take you to the entry page where we can discuss matters. I love it!

Tomorrow I'll have heating in my TV room, so watch out for some TV room updates :o)

Just a quick post to let you know that The Yvestown Shop is open again. After receiving so many e-mail and so many orders asking me to come back, I just couldn't resist. I also really missed it. To celebrate, 5% off on all your orders :o) Thanks so much for your support.

I'll be upgrading my blog publishers software tomorrow so maybe there might be some difficulties viewing my blog for a little while. Just that you know.

It was September 2009 when Nina and I met Ingrid for the first time and on that same day Nina gifted me this plate, known in my home as 'The Nina Plate'. I've been meaning to photograph it and send it to Nina, to show off, for ever and never got around to do it as 1. I've been living in my car for the past few months and 2. because of bad lightning.

Today I got my hopes up as the sun is out and she makes my kitchen so bright and shiny. That's why I devote a blog post to 'The Nina Plate' and show off my new kitchen cupboard doors I'm dead happy with. Later today they'll have glass too as I can now just grab everything inside without actually opening the doors, but you can't see that.

I'm off to play around in the kitchen a little more. And also in my study as we found some amazing old tiles for my fireplace ... oh and ... crap the sun is out, I must go outside.

Will be back more often, I promise and try to keep away from the car ;o)

Happy 2010!!

This is what I did over the holidays.

I'll be writing, telling about color numbers, places to buy and showing more during the week as I'm still unpacking and painting. But damn I love my study so far.