Hello everyone, I'm still here. Calming down after our little company had a really sad, hard and emotional week. But we'll survive and we've learned a great deal about people, businesses and the law. Hopefully everything will be back to normal by the end of the week so I can focus on my home and blog again.

In the meantime you have to head over to Mollie Makes to read a lovely article they did on me, my crochet and my shop. Oh my shop ... you guys have been so good to me, you've bought so much over the past few weeks. So many big fat pink bags traveled all over the world. As a treat I'll have another week of 5% discounts. Use voucher code "mollie makes" upon checkout.

I'll be signing off for the Easter weekend as it will be a busy one. I have to boil 18 eggs and feed 18 people over a period of two days. Later today I'll be going out for dinner with Anki, Iris and Caroline so I'll have some relax time before the Easter madness begins.

I've made these for my sister, to add a splash of colour, you can find the pattern here.

Happy a lovely Easter, See you after the weekend xox

For Dutch interior magazine, 101 woonideeën, I've designed crochet egg cosies for the Easter special booklet that's included with this month's issue. There are such fun Easter craft projects in this booklet and the layout is just too cute.

You can find the English instructions here and a interview with me over at the 101 woonideeën blog here.

The Giveaway

I was given quite a lot of these booklets so I'm giving them away to 20 of you, yes TWENTY!!

You only have to leave a comment and I'll pick 20 winners on Tuesday the 3rd. The booklets are in Dutch but a total feast to the eye so this giveaway is open to readers worldwide.

Have a lovely weekend xox

This giveaway is now closed.

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."

Charles Dickens

It was such a lovely sunny day today. I went out with just a warm sweater and my new cowl, as it kept me warm in the shade.

I've added the instructions to my shop as it made so many people happy on instagram.

Thank you and enjoy the last bit of sun for today xox

Yesterday I found the time to sit down and do some crafting after two months of non-stop working on projects that actually pay the bills. I have to say that these projects are far from being boring and that I'm one lucky piggy to have the opportunity to make people pay me because they like my work so much. Bless them and bless you for reading my blog.

It feels time to pay back and make something pretty for you to download. I've made some birdhouses for Easter decorations.

First download the template and print out on 250 grams A4 sized paper. Cut out the template and fold where needs folding (instructions can be found on the template). Glue the fabric on to the house and roof (no need for fabric on the back). Glue the house parts together and with a pin, on the inside, attached a twig. Glue the roof on top of the house and you're done. If you like to you can put a bird on the twig.

I used various Cath Kidston fabrics for the houses. The plates are also old CK plates, but the blue one is by Burleigh and the top plate is a hand painted Will and Kate wedding plate by The House that Lars Build. The famous green pendant is also from an old CK collection and no longer for sale.

I'm not religious and haven't been brought up religious, so I'm one of those people who don't exactly know why we celebrate Easter. I know it's the end of lent but I also don't know what lent stands for. I do however like to decorate and I love holidays where everyone is off and we get together and eat. For the same reason I like Christmas. I couldn't give a care in the world that Jesus was born on Christmas day as other religions say he wasn't and for all we know he didn't even exist. But it's nice as we get to decorate and spend time together, I don't see nothing wrong in that.

And you know what? There will be more decorations from me to you in the next few weeks.

Two years ago I bought a lot of old, damaged paintings at a flea market. I thought they would be perfect to frame new paintings in as the frames were still in good condition. The frames also work well as chalkboard or pin board frames so I've made one for the kitchen.

This is what it looked like before. I took the oil painting out of the frame and replaced it with 2 cm thick MDF plate that I first gave a coat of primer and next painted with black chalkboard paint. The cool thing about chalkboard paint is that you can get it mixed in whatever colour. I've used black as chalkboards, in my head, are either black or green.

After painting the frame in my favourite pink, I distressed it a bit by sanding it roughly around the edges.

The "welcome" decal is by Shanna Murray. Shanna is spring cleaning so hurry up and get a 10% discount on all of her wonderful goodies.

The one good thing of having this cold is that Bo is at home, since a very long time, as I've infected him. It's good to have Bo at home without his normal energy level as he'll potter. Bo doesn't have the time or the patience to potter as pottering soon turns out to something that is planned and coordinated. There will be potter rules and restrictions, we'll have to wear security helmets and in the end there will be lots of "can you give me a timeframe please?".

He helped me with photographing all the yarn for the shop. It's something I wanted to do for ages as the previous colours were so off.

If you go to the shop's pages you might have to refresh or reload as I've just uploaded all the new images and pages. Just renew and reload anyway as you'll be 100% sure you get the new images and pages.

You'll also find crochet projects & patterns in the shop and you can instantly buy the yarn I used for the project.

Have fun!

Each year for Valentine I send something special to my friends.

This year I even made an animated instruction movie. It's no Wes Anderson ; )

Music: The Lovers - La Le

Have a lovely evening xox

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)