The Yvestown Blog

My Inner Child

2010-08-27T08:59:27Z

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?

Kent

2010-08-06T14:12:38Z

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.

Pretty Little Free Pillow

2010-07-27T20:05:51Z

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

Crochet For Sale

2010-07-26T17:48:02Z

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.

Hollyhocks

2010-07-24T15:20:57Z

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.

Bloody Scones

2010-07-16T17:21:59Z

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 Orange Post

2010-07-11T10:04:29Z

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 Pink Post

2010-07-06T10:56:50Z

"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.

A Lion's Vest

2010-06-30T09:41:46Z

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.

Jeu de Exit

2010-06-22T13:30:49Z

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!!!

There

2010-06-06T11:51:01Z

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.

The Right Side of The Kitchen

2010-06-01T14:12:07Z

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.

Finding Home

2010-05-30T12:50:44Z

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.

It's Sale Time Again

2010-05-27T13:31:15Z

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

An Excellent Book Year

2010-05-15T12:09:02Z

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.