Howling at the Moon

  This week I made and sent the Christmas cards. Not very complicated to make, because that will take too much time. I just made some simple drawings in thick blanco paper cards, punched holes in the paper with a needle and used yarn in different colors to connect the holes. I glued another card on the backside of the cards, to hide the knots and ends of the yarn. Simple, but I'm happy with the result.  ~*~ My Christmas Wreath was featured by Is This Mutton?

  I'm a bit obsessed lately with dark blue for my home and Delft Blue in particular. Last year we bought a house, a real fixer upper, and it's beginning to look like a real house more and more (instead of a construction side). Along the way we picked up ideas for what we want for the interior of our house. The living room is finally almost entirely done now. It took a while, because there were a lot of things that were more important than finishing the living room, like isolate walls and floor, like install underfloor heating, like creating a place to work from home for my husband because of covid-19. Since my husband renovates the house entirely on his own and because it isn't his usual work, it takes some time to finish things. But now the end is near, at least for the living room. So I can almost start decorating. I already made some cushions, but when I saw this cross stitch pattern I wanted to make just one more. Now the collection is complete. Just one w...

Since a couple of weeks I have another blog , where I make a list of things to do each week and check off all chores I actually did. You can read more about it here. This embroidered shirt was one of the things on the list. I bought a shirt and embroidery thread, printed out the template, but couldn't think of a way to transfer the pattern to the shirt with things that I had around the house, so I drew the dragon fly by hand on the shirt and then embroidered the lines. You can find the template here (or you can choose the elephant, fire truck, giraffe or tractor). Oh, and don't forget to bring carbon or transfer paper or something like it when you go out for embroidery thread.  

My husband has cleaned up his shed with tools and machines and found two boxes of mine. They were filled with craft supplies and unfinished projects. Most of it was useless, broken or incomplete, but one of the things in the boxes was an unfinished cross stitch netting to make a pillow with. It had a picture of two cats on a roof, looking at the moon, on it. I didn't even knew I still had that netting but when I saw it, I did remember when and why I bought it.  Some years ago I had two cats, one totally black, the other one totally white, exactly as on the netting. I still have the white one, Ronnie, who is fifteen years old now. The black one, Sjakie, died more than six years ago.  I don't like cross stitch pillows at all, but bought it just because of the cats. And when I saw it again, I just wanted to finish the cross stitching. But..., what can I do with it, except for making a pillow? Suggestions, anyone?   www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ My P...

Summer holidays are approaching really fast now. Before we take off for a vacation, I always put together a nice bag full of suprises for my daughters, to keep them busy, the hours we aren't making trips to the swimming pool, beach, park, zoo or whatever we will be going to visit while away from home. One of the things I always put in the bag is a book, either a book they can read themselves, or a book I can read to them. Last week I cleaned out a cabinet in which I keep a bag full of things I got from my grandmother after she died. One of the things in the bag, is something I made for her some years ago, while I was still a teenager: Benjamin Bunny, one of the characters in the book of Peter Rabbit.    www.betweennapsontheporch.net Actually I like it more now than I did back than. I remember the cross stitching asked all the patience I had in me, as the stitches were only 1mm and I wanted it to be perfect, because I made it for my grandmother. It was one of the f...

My oldest loves flamingos and saw this on the internet, so I made her one.   www.betweennapsontheporch.net And some other animals. I found this idea here . ~*~ My Postcards with Wired Letters were featured by Creative Jewish Mom , Homework and by House of Hipsters this week! Thank you, Sara, Carolyn and Kyla!

Made a little baby present this week.   www.betweennapsontheporch.net

Around Easter I made a bunny out of an old white blanket, but I had lots of blanket left. More than enough to make two Moon Pillows for the bedrooms of my daughters.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net

And here's the last Easter project of this year (although it's certainly not the last bunny themed project of this year)! Simple and cute.   www.betweennapsontheporch.net And just in time I found a free download today for an egg garland!   Not that we didn't have enough decoration, because my daughters made this today with a styrofoam egg and Modpodge at an Easter market. Love these!   ~*~  My Origami Easter Bunnies were featured by 4 You With Love and Creative Jewish Mom . Thank you, Marilyn and Sara!  

Since I still like the embroidery loops, I made another one. Love this quote. www.betweennapsontheporch.net

Whenever my husband or I have a reason to give something to each other, we always give a book. There may be other presents, too, but there's always a book also. I think it isn't very difficult to find something for me, because there aren't a lot of topics I'm not interested in.  To find something for my husband is a lot more difficult. What sort of book do you buy for someone who reads a book called 'Calculus' before he goes to bed? And yes, 'Calculus' is just what you think it is when you hear its name: a book about math, a book full of formulas (my husband is a scientist, as you may have guessed). So most of the time I give him books about places where we've planned to go, because anything with formulas in it is beyond me. This month we go to Antwerp, Belgium. It isn't really for Valentine's Day, but because we go without the girls, it's sort of a romantic weekend, so I bought a Lonely Planet about Belgium and packed it as a Valenti...

One of my favorite artists is Hank Williams Sr (although I'm a big fan of his grandson, Hank III, also), so for Valentine's Day quote I used a line from one of his songs.  'Baby, we're really in love' isn't my favorite, as that is 'Howling at the Moon' of course, but nevertheless a great song, too. www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ This week my Birthday Dress for my five year old was featured by Busy Fingers, Busy Life! Thank you, Barbara!

I sort of discovered the Embroidery Hoop. For X-mas I made a couple, but I like the decorativeness of them, so I made another one without the X-mas theme. I think I'm gonna hang this one in my daughter's room. www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ The Party Invitations I made for the Birthday Party of my daughter were featured this week by Bowdabra!!   Thanks!!

Since I bought three embroidery hoops the other day, here's another one. I like the reindeer theme and wanted to make this one from hama beads, but decided to read the hama pattern as an cross stitch pattern and made this: www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ My X-mas Stocking was featured by The Craft Dictator and by Creating my Way to Success !   Thank you, Cara & Rhonda and Jill!

Bought more embroidery hoops and made this with some left over embroidery thread and some felt. Another not too much time consuming item to decorate for X-mas! www.betweennapsontheporch.net

For a while now I see embroidery hoops appear all around the internet and I think they look quite nice. Just didn't know what to embroider. But now that X-mas is all around us, I got some inspiration.    www.betweennapsontheporch.net

My first Halloween project of the year! www.betweennapsontheporch.net I found the pattern at Pinterest , where it was said that it was designed by Words Free Me/Michael Perez. Originally it was made for hama beads, but I used it for cross stitches.

On the cover of a Dutch Home Decoration Magazine I saw this cute idea to crochet frames for your pictures and such. Small project with great result! I made this frame for a cross stitch pattern from last year. It had a wooden frame with glass, but after a fall from the wall the glass broke. The crochet frame is a great alternative! And no glass included, so can't break! www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~   My Paper Flower Bouquet was featured this week by Laurie from Laura's Crafty Life , by Andrea from The Cottage Market and by Sara from Creative Jewish Mom !! Thanks, Laura and Andrea!

A while ago I saw this beautiful knitted 1940's scarf on Chronically Vintage , the blog of Jessica. It was on my to do-list for quite some time, but I had a lot of other projects to finish. After seeing it worn by her, looking so beautiful on her, I wanted one, too. And soon. So instead of waiting for the yarn store to open, I looked what I had left in my own yarns. Wool, no. Cotton, yes. But I don't like to knit with cotton, so I decided to make the same scarf with a crochet hook. That's the reason my scarf doesn't look entirely the same as Jessica's does, although I used the same pattern and altered it to crochet. You can find the knitting pattern at Skiff Vintage Knitting Patterns . www.betweennapsontheporch.net After finishing the scarf I looked for a rose pattern on the internet and cross stitched it on one side of the scarf, just for embellishment. May I say, without bragging of course, I love my crochet version of this pattern?

Found this one at Subversive Cross Stitc h. www.betweennapsontheporch.net Don't you think one of the better things of growing older is that you care less and less about what other people think?  You can find more funny cross stitch kits and PDF patterns at Subversive Cross Stitch. I'm thinking about purchasing the Daddy Bird Tattoo , the Curse and Show Me Your Teeth , too! ~*~ My Grapefruit Upside Down Cake was featured by Lamberts Lately and Busy Fingers, Busy Life ! Thanks, Leslie and Barbara!   Busy Fingers, Busy Life also featured my new Pillow!