Howling at the Moon

This week is the last week of school for my daughters. I thought about what to make for the teacher of my oldest daughter, who had a busy year with a class of 34 children. I thought she deserved something nice, so I made this shawl for her. Well, at least I hope she thinks it's nice. Found the pattern for this Fan Ripple Shaw l at Ravelry. ~*~ The flowers in my garden never bloomed so beautiful as they do this year since I live in this house. Some random pictures:

While my oldest daughter was camping with her friend and her parents last weekend, I made Blueberry Muffins with my youngest.   www.betweennapsontheporch.net This is what we used: 200 grams of self-rising flour 100 grams of sugar 100 cc sunflower oil 100 cc milk 1 egg bit of salt 150 grams of blueberries This is what we did: Preheat the oven on 200 degrees Celsius. Mix all the ingredients. Fill up twelve muffin liners with the mix. Bake for about 25 minutes. That's all! Bon appetit!!

...my new Circle Skirt ! Black Cherry Sandals - Demonia Shoes (couple of years ago) Blue Circle Skirt - Made by Me (this year) Johnny Cash at Saint Quentin Girl's Shirt - Zion Roots Wear (years ago, still one of my favorites) Red Wicker Bag - Pinup Clothing (this year) Roses - Supermarket (this year)

Last year I made a circle skirt from Gertie's book and looking back I can say it turned out to be my most worn piece of cloth. So what do you do in such case ? You make another one!   www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ Skirt Matching Flowers in the kitchen   ~*~   This week my Crochet Fly Curtain was featured by Busy Fingers, Busy Life , A Round Tuit and by Creative Jewish Mom !   My Crochet Picture Frame was featured by The Cottage Market ! And last but not least my Bird Cage was featured by Creative Jewish Mom ! Thanks, Barbara, Jill, Sara and Andrea!    

Alice T-shirt by Collectif WAN TED Want it in red, too!

Bought some new tea towels and embellished them! www.betweennapsontheporch.net Found this cute idea at the blog Haken bij Saar en Mien .

Found an old bird cage and some left over hama beads and made this combination:   In the back: my beloved men's bike (so I could place a wooden child's saddle on the stand for my daughters to sit on) I found the Bird Pattern here . ~*~ This week my Glaceed Orange was featured by The Cottage Market and Creative Jewish Mom ! Thanks, Andrea and Sara! * My Spanish Shawl was featured by Busy Fingers, Busy Life ! Thank you, too, Barbara! *  And my Knitted Blanket and Ladder were featured by Creative Jewish Mom ! Thanks, Sara!

WAN TED Cat Jewelry!

Last week I saw this nice book, called Haken & Kleur (meaning Crochet & Color in Dutch; here's the blog of one of the authors with a link to where you can buy the book), full of crochet patterns. I bought it and after just a little bit of paging my choice fell on the Fly Curtain. I só need a fly curtain. When I do not close my door my house is invaded by flies, mosquitoes, bees and wasps.  I started to crochet, but when the weather got better and better the amount of bugs in my house increased faster and faster, so I had to speed up my crocheting. But here's my bug remedy, just in time for summer.     www.betweennapsontheporch.net Fortuitous coincidence: I got rid off all my yarn surplus!

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!

Navy Deckhand Short by Hell Bunny WANTED Just need this one

As you know we went to Belgium again a couple of weeks ago and ate lots of great food again. Each morning we went to the pastry shop, where they also served fresh bread and Jambon des Ardennes (Ardenner Ham) for breakfast.  In the display were not only delicious bread rolls, croissants and custard buns of all sorts, but also bonbons and beautiful cakes. My eye fell on the glaceed oranges with chocolate and I resolved to make them when we were back home. I am back home for quite some time now, so the time has come. What you need: -  2 cups water - 1 cup sugar - 2 oranges - 200 grams of chocolate (I used milk chocolate) What you do: Put sugar and water in a pan and cook until boiling. Cut the oranges in slices and cut the slices in half, so they look like half moons. Add them to the boiling water and let simmer for about one hour and a half. Take the orange slices out of the pan and let them dry for about five hours on a wire rack with a baking sheet underneath.

Just to do something else than crochet, I knitted this blanket: www.betweennapsontheporch.net Fits nicely in with my other blankets (one of them still isn't finished, as the observant reader of this blog already saw, of course).  The Ladder is made (by me) from elderberry branches, especially for the blankets, so I can hang them up as a sort of decoration during summer. In the winter they lay around on the couch, to creep under when it's cold. 

...my self made Spanish Shawl! Black Swing Dress - Miss Candyfloss (this year) Red Wedges - Blink (last year) Red Rose - Supermarket (last year) Red Bag - Pinup Couture (this year) Spanish Shawl - Made by Me (this year) Bracelet - Made by Me (this year)

I wanted to crochet a Spanish Shawl (manton, in Spanish) for ages and today the day finally arrived: I can say I made one!   www.betweennapsontheporch.net I found the pattern for the stitches in black here . The colored edges and the fringes I made up myself.

WANTED Lovely Apple Dress!

It's saturday again, my favorite day of the week! Bought peonies (smell so good!) for the kitchen table... Baked some cookies...  Saw this movie with my daughters... And made this beautiful Paper Flower Bouquet... Want to make your own Flower Bouquet? You can find instructions here . www.betweennapsontheporch.net