Howling at the Moon

 A while ago a colleague of mine asked me to crochet a blanket that she wanted to give as a present to another colleague, who's expecting a little girl. I showed her two blankets that I made a couple of months ago (see here and here ). She wasn't really sure which one she liked most, so I made both blankets again. The blanket below is the one she chose.   Pattern: Half Double Crochet Herringbone Stitch (YouTube instructions) by Daisy Farm Crafts    You can make the blanket as wide and long as you want, just by adding more stitches and rows Yarn: Royal by Zeeman Pompoms: PomPon Mix by Pipoos

 A couple of weeks ago I went for a workshop Delft Blue Painting with two colleagues. I have painted a little chair in Delft Blue style a while ago, but somehow the colors didn't look like Delft Blue at all, but after the introduction prior to the actual painting, I understood why. I used different colors of blue, but Delft Blue is done all in one color of blue; the darkness of the blue is determined by the amount of water you mix it with. The blue that's used for Delft Blue painting is cobalt. We got a tile to practice on, brushes and a little piece of compact cobalt, that looked totally black. After outlining a flower with a pencil (a design we had to practice with), we had to wet the cobalt and could paint, starting with the lightest color of blue, which looked grey on the tile. To get a darker blue we had to add more cobalt and we ended with the darkest blue. To get the blue color the tile has to be baked off at 1200 degrees Celsius.  After the practicing round, things got

Stash Buster 13   YAY! The new book by Erinna Lee was dropped in my mailbox this week! From her book Amigurumi Treasures I crocheted a lot of projects and now finally Amigurumi Treasures II is out. Lots of great patterns again.  The first one I made is Mackenzie the Seahorse, for another colleague who can deliver any minute now. Working at the operation theaters of a large hospital gives you lots of female coworkers, so there's always at least one that's pregnant.   Pattern : Amigurumi Treasures II by Erinna Lee Yarn : Various Colors of Capri by Katia ~*~ The Summer Top that I made for my daughter was featured by Annemaries Haakblog and Oombawka Design !  

 This spring I started a little vegetable garden. In the grocery store where I do my shopping people got seeds for vegetables and flowers with every ten or so euro they had spend. The flowers did great, but to be honest not all vegetables blossomed under my hands (and sometimes they did while it wasn't intended, because I waited too long to harvest). But I learned and now know what vegetables I want to grow next year and what not.  One of the vegetables that did very well was chard. I don't think I have ever eaten chard. Actually, before I started my little garden I didn't even hear about chard, so I had no recipes at hand either. But I tried something myself and because it didn't taste bad at all, I share the recipe here.   What you need puff pastry 2 shallots 1 grated garlic garlic clove handful of chard, stems and leaves separated   handful grated cheese handful pecans 4 eggs 200cc creme fraiche salt and pepper to taste What to do Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius