Books & Fiber

Moving

2009-12-26T17:06:00.002+01:00

You can find "Books and Fiber" on this new adres.
"Books and Fiber" is verhuisd naar een nieuw adres.

Books and Fiber!

2009-12-17T22:28:00.004+01:00

Finally..

News from the Books & Fiber front. I've been so busy with work, rearranging my furniture in my house, my BF and also fighting off a heavy cold. I'm still not completely well, but I will... eventually.

Anyways. News! Remember me telling you about putting my name in the hat for the Book Blogger Holiday Swap? Well I received my gift from my Secret Santa.

Look wat Cheryl sent me:

I love Terry Pratchett and these 2 are not in my collection yet. I'm very happy with these. You can find Cheryl's blog here.

I read that the package I sent all the way to Tokio, Japan has arrived too. Have a look on Nat's blog here.

Meanwhile am I knitting frantically on my Jacobean socks and I'm already over the heel part:

On my swift I have True love by Wollmeise:

I'm going to knit the Sleekitt Mitts from this yarn.

I've cut the picture from the pattern and paste it below:

Well thats about it. Tomorrow (Fiday) I have one more day at work and then two whole weeks off. We had a small X-mass gathering / -drink at work today and we all got our presents. A book about the history of the "Oudejaarsconferentie" or Old Years Conference. A dutch tradition on television on witch a well known cabaret performer is talking about the past year, usually this show takes untill a few minutes before midnight. The second gift was vouchers to buy pesents for ourselfs; value €50,-- I am thinking about getting me some DVD's

Dan_e (thats the BF yes) will come over tomorrow after work and we will spent those 2 weeks in my house.

I'll try to keep you posted more often :)

I know...

2009-12-15T13:33:00.002+01:00

...its been to long. But I will post a new blogpost soon. As of next Friday I have holidays: 2 weeks no work, just fun.

For now:
Blessed be!

The Martini Tower

2009-11-17T22:31:00.008+01:00

Here are some of the pictures I made from our climb to ~~the top~~ halfway all the way up of the Martini Tower:

Yes, thats the one....

The bats have left the bell tower.. Bela Lucosi is dead.. :)

See the market in the little window?

Yes, thats the one

Lets play the carillion shall we?

This is one of the "smaller" bells actually...

What goes up 251 steps, must go down 251 steps.

This was as high as we were allowed to go. 56 meters till the space behind the clock faces on the tower. It was a hell of a climb with an awsome view and well worth the calves abuse :)

(no) Sunday Salon november 15th 2009

2009-11-16T15:22:00.003+01:00

I'm so sorry but I did not make it to the Sunday Salon yesterday. The trip home from Groningen was very tiring, I had absolutely no energy to blog.

I did not finish my book on my trip either. On my way to Groningen I was knitting joyously on my Jacobean socks and on my way back I was way too tired and I had to switch trains a lot and even a bus was involved so I only read about one chapter.

My weekend was however awsome and makes me wonder: when do you start call someone your partner? All I can say right now is that The Twitterguy is my Boyfriend now. We take it very slowly but for the first time in 5 years I can say I'm happy, in stead of I'm a happy single :)

I'll blog about the trip up the Martini Tower in another post. I made pictures :)

Jacobean socks

2009-11-13T15:21:00.005+01:00

I'm going to visit my Twitterguy this weekend and I needed a new knitting travel project. The Jacobean is waiting for me for a very, very long time and yesterday evening I casted on the cuff-down version. I'll be spending 2,5 hours in the train tonight, and about 3 hours in train and bus when I come back, so there will be enough time to knit and read.

I also updated my Ravelry page. You do have to be a member to watch that page though. It has been ages since I was there. But now that I'm knitting again, I might update more often.

I'll be back on Sunday, so I'll be visiting the Sunday Salon a bit late but I do think I can tell about Rincewind and Twoflower. I'm planning of finishing the first book of the Discworld series.

Have a good weekend!

Sunday Salon novenber 8th, 2009

2009-11-08T15:10:00.005+01:00

I so totally forgot the Sunday Salon last week. And I did not have time to read at all this day, but Gnoe asked me on Twitter how my Sunday Salon was going and I said it was going to be on somewhere today.

I read on her blog about the Book Blogger Holiday Swap and decided to drop my name in that hat too. If you want to drop your name in that hat too, hurry. Do so before the deadline: November 12, 2009

Now, on my reading list. My Twitterguy is spoiling me to the bones with BBC4 radio plays from books by Terry Pratchett and that made me wanting to re-read the first 6 books I own. I started with The Coulour of magic and it is still as hilarious as I remember.

The back says: On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet...

So far I've read about Rincewind (the avaricious but inept wizard) and Twoflower (the naive tourist who has four eyes) who have escaped the burning city of Ankh-Morpok. Oh and Luggage is trotting behind them as well, on its hundreds of little feet. Outside the city they meet Bravd the Barbarian and his partner in crime Weasel. Rincewind (too tired to be really afraid of the Barbarian with a Reputation) is telling the story of how he met Twoflower and the Luggage and how the fire started, in exchange for some food and wine.

Meanwhile the Creators, or disc Gods are staring at a gaming board, shaped like the disc world filled with little play figures, shaped like our heroes...

I think its time for me to cuddle up on my couch and plunge myself in the Disc World once again.

Sunday Salon october 25th 2009

2009-10-25T14:14:00.003+01:00

Today I finished the Dutch translation of Sappho's Leap - Sappho's sprong - by Erica Jong. I had about 70 pages left to read and it took me about an hour. I started reading the book about 3 months ago, on and of, mostly in the tram on my way to work. I live in Amterdam, a very liberated city, but still people looked a bit awkward when they saw the cover of my book:

I must say i love this cover, its very pretty. According to the information inside the book its by Charles-August Mengin called Sappho and painted in 1877. Manchester Art Gallery, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library

I really enjoyed reading this book. I did not know much about Sappho before I started reading this, and I realize I still don't. Simply because there is not much known about this wonderful artist, singer and poet.

Wikipedia has some information on her, which starts with:

"Sappho [...] was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired throughout antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments. The adjectives deriving from her name and place of birth (Sapphic and Lesbian) came to be associated with female homosexuality."

Based on the few fragments of her poetry that survided time and her immense reputation, Erica Jong manages to write a story about this woman which totally sucked me up. I dissapeared in this book, it was awsome. Usually I read with dizzying speed through books, reading about a 100 pages per hour in Dutch (and still be able to tell the story) but this one made me read slower, indulge the words, the sentences.

Sappho's life, loves (both with males and females0, travels, ups and downs.. its all written in a way you travel with her. I totally reccommend you read the book for your self, because its a journey I wished I could have made, have I lived in that time. If you like the ancient Greek period and want to read about a female perspective, read teh book. No bloody arena's, no male dictators. Ok there is one Pittacus, who bannes Sappho from Lesbos. But thats not bad, because of her being banned, she starts her journey.

The blurb on the back of the book says: "If odysseus was a woman, this would be the journey he had traveled." quoted by Susan Cheever And you know? I could not have said it any better.

I have this book on my reading pile for years, i bought it on febryary 2nd, 2004. Finally i made a start with reading the books on this pile, wel actually, on there seperate shelf in my 'library.' The Sunday Salon is a good way of making me read at least one day a week. I have a new job, which only takes me about 5 minutes to get there on my bycicle. Too short for even 1 chapter to listen to a book. So now, on Sundays, I make myself sit on the couch and read a book, at least for an hour.

I still have about 2 meters of books "to be read' but I think I'm going to re-read book one of The Discworld Novels, by Terry Pratchett: The colour of magic first, before I go to back to that shelf. A friend of mine is going to bring the DVD on our next meeting - witch is also our first, but thats a totally different story - so I'm going to read the book first, to refresh my memory.

Pie

2009-10-23T07:03:00.005+02:00

Yesterday Cornette or @Zjannette on Twitter, posted a new recepe on her blog Cornette's Culinaire Weblog: zuurkooltaart or a pie filled with sauer white cabbage.

I decided to try it out. Her recepe's are simple, with wine suggestions, awfully simple and I like them very much. It is in Dutch though. So after work I went to the supermarket, got my groceries and started cooking. Well I started right after a phonecall from @dan_e, also a twitterfriend. He is coming to visit me soon, but thats another story.

This is what my pie looked like befour it went in the 180 C oven:

And 30 minutes I had this:

The picture is a bit blurry, I was excited and it was taken with my iPhone which has no real camera options yet. *lol* But, it was awsome, I ate half of this 22 cm pie :) Thats a lot for me.

Today its back to work, and at 16:00 hours my weekend starts. Tomorrow we have a class at Artis from Maarten Frankenhuis, one of the previous directors of the zoo. I'm very much looking forward to it.

I'm still alive!

2009-10-16T08:15:00.006+02:00

Its been a month, no longer, since I posted here.
And this is also a short post, because I'm here:

This is my desk at TIN: the Theater Instituut Nederland (the Dutch theatre institute). And see that green cup? thats filled with café creme: delecious coffee :)

I'm just here to say I'm alive and doing very well indeed. Much better that a few months ago. I was at the zoo last Wednesday, giving a guided tour and doing 2 kids birthday-parties. Next Saterday I'm also giving a guided tour, so all is going well there als wel.

Time to get to work.
Bye for now.

PS that picture is made with my new and awsome iPhone, emailed to my webmail and uploaded to my blog from that same desk you see in the picture :) How geeky is that? *lol*

Spinnen

2009-09-07T17:37:00.004+02:00

Todays Blogtitle is in Dutch because of these pictures:

'Spinnen' means spinning, the craft you do with the spinning wheel. It also means purring, the sound Ayla was making when the sun was shining on her while she was on her favorite pillow.

And it means spiders; and Ayla finally got one before I caught it with my glass to put it outside. It was the smaller one she was ogling at for days now, and she played a little before eating it. Leaving me one of the spiders leggs to clean up after "Your Highness."

Friends

2009-08-28T16:34:00.003+02:00

I've lost some, those last few weeks. And today I've lost another one.
It made me deside to never let anyone come close again.. You only get hurt when you do.

I saw one of my ex-boyfriends the other day in the tram. He did not recocnise me. He looked awfull and I was wondering what it was I ever saw in him. He was skinny, had a beard - I hate facial hair- and he had big bags under his eyes. I know, he looked awsome when I met him: tall, blond curly hair, eyes with twinkles in it and a smile to die for. But the other day? Nah.. I almost felt sorry for him, but then I remembered how he left me for a girl with bigger boobs (he told me he had a new girlfriend with bigger tits then me, I never met his new Bimbo) and the sorry went away.

My ex-friends want the stuff back that has been in my house for some reason, and hey want to bring my stuff back too. Money owed, which was never a problem when to pay back, becomes an issue and needs to be payed back as soon as possible.

I want it to get over with too, as fast as possible, because a clean cut heals faster. And I am cutting too: deep and clean. So I can move on with my life. With enough friends to go out with, have fun with and be social with. But I will never ever let anyone come close again. I'm done getting hurt.

another blog

2009-08-20T11:43:00.002+02:00

I've just made another blog. It will be in Dutch and it's about me and the WWW. Web 2.0, lifehacking, work at the Theater Institute and all things geeky.

Why? Well first of all, because I am a Geek.. Duh! *lol* but seriously. I found out Blogspot has less and less ways to add widgets I like and after being a tester for a new one yesterday, when I found out I could not insert that one here, I decided to get a new blog on Wordpress.com. I was flirting with the idea for a while now and so I made up my mind this morning.

I will be posting fiber and personal related items here, in English. But my geeky, web 2.0 and work related posts will move to here.

Dé-Ja-Spider

2009-08-14T00:37:00.003+02:00

Today I saw another spider sitting on my left. Luckely this one was a bit smaller and I did catch him/her (?) inmediatly. Please tell me these spiders are native Dutch ones and not some exotic species that came with my 2 banana's....

The spider.

2009-08-10T00:37:00.005+02:00

When I was about to turn off my PC, some fast movement on my left cought my eye and when I looked I saw this on the edge of my noticeboard:

Big, and fast! I've never seen a spider run that fast. I'm not afraid of spiders, but the speed of this one did make my heart beat as fast as this critter could run. So, after I took the picture I went to the kitchen to get a glass and when I got back, luckely it was still sitting there. But when I tried to catch it, it run and fell on the floor, and run off to some dark corner behind my printer.

Then Ayla came into action:

She almost went all the way onder the central heater, to get it. But the smart spider run the other way and then I saw it coming on my right. I got my glass and..

Gotcha! I still have some listening books on CD in an envelop lying around (I really need to get me some proper cd-covers) and used one to put under the glass and keep the spider in it. Then it was through the kitchen to my balcony, remove the CD, a quick shake and bye bye spider...

Ayla stayed on patrol for another 15 minutes: she still lays haunting the dark corner the spider dissappeared to:

Well I'm off to bed. Sweet dreams and untill I blog again :)

The Geek Atlas

2009-08-08T08:34:00.003+02:00

If you're not one for sitting on the beach and have a penchant for technology then you'll love the new book The Geek Atlas.

If you want to get the geek in your life out from behind the computer, get them this! More info on: The Book Depository I put it on my wishlist :)

What cought my eye:

2009-08-07T12:01:00.009+02:00

My friend Nicole sends out a weekly e-mail with beautiful pictures and she calls it "Things that cought my eye this week"

This picture made me think of her e-mails and I'm wondering if this has cought her eye as well :)

I saw the left picture on this website: http://tinyurl.com/kre5gr, Nicole sent me the right version

UPDATE:

Nicole was telling me she was looking at the same picture when I sent her mine in an e-mail. She did tell me it was not an accurate version, CocaCola did change its logo. She sent me the more accurate picture, see above.

Another month...

2009-07-31T14:40:00.004+02:00

... has gone by and I did not blog.. Well not here I didn't, My Second Life person was rather active on her blog. :) I did post updates on Twitter though. If you consider following me there, my Twitter-name is tattoocats.

Anyway, a lot has happened this past month, but the best thing that happened is that I got myself a new job. Yes, I'm leaving the OBA. It turned out not to be the job I'm willing to take until my pension, so I was looking around. And my first attempt for finding a new employer turned out to be a 'bulls eye' :)

My new job will be that of information specialist at the Dutch Theater Institute. Here are the Dutch and English links. I am so happy, I'm dancing in my house all day, wearing a enourmous grin on my face.

So thats the update for now. I'll try to blog a bit more, meanwhile consider following me on twitter :)

Simones RR

2009-06-28T22:18:00.004+02:00

I finished my part of Simone's Round Robin today and will sent it to her tomorrow.

This is what I stitched:

and this is her final RR:

I've decided to never ever do that again. Cross stitching with deadlines is not my cup of tea.

It wasn't me

2009-06-27T10:26:00.002+02:00

You must have knocked it over when you went by it.. I did not do anything. I did not jump on it and it did not fell....

But it does make a nice tent huh? :)

Artis Dreamnight 2009

2009-06-06T12:27:00.003+02:00

If you recognise yourself in one of these pictures and don't want it to be published here, please let me know and I'll remove the picture.

Als je jezelf op één van de foto's herkent en niet wil dat deze hier te zien is, laat het me weten en ik haal de foto weg.

email: rondarchief@gmail.com

Birthday

2009-06-04T23:08:00.005+02:00

It was my birthday yesterday and I decided to not celebrate it. Not because I turned an awkward age - I mean 44 isn't THAT bad - but I just did not feel like it.

I was sooo wrong. First my best friend Katja invited herself very subtly over for tea and yummies. And flowers and presents. Then, when I decided to have fun in my second life in my trainers and with my glasses on my nose, kees arrived at my doorstep, and a few minutes later danny too. I was to get dressed to face the outside world. They 'kidnapped' me and took me to De Waaghals. A very good vegetarian restaurant in my neighborhood.

When I got home I found an embroidered birthday card made by my mother in my mailbox, with birthday money in it.

Finally, my collegues decided to do something they never did before. They decorated a chair today, just for me. The paper says: Dear Marion, happy birthday, dear Marion dear Marion.

Front

Back

Thank you Hannie for taking the pictures for me. I did not bring my camera and she made these for me with her phone.

So all and all, for not celebrating my birthday, I sure know I had it. Thank you my dearest friends for making this day a happy one :)

OMG!

2009-05-29T20:41:00.004+02:00

Has it really been that long?? I'm afraid it has.
But I'm still very much alive, in Real Life and in Second Life.

I'm cross stitching my fingers into numbness to finish the Round Robin we started about a year ago with some women from the cross stich yahoo group "Het borduurhoekje" My own piece has returned safely, but between my first and second life occupations, Simone's RR is only half finished.

Between work, Artis, the RR and my second life, I'm also reading and trying out everything I can about Web 2.0 and the (new) Librarian 2.0. So you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, Bibliotheek 2.0, Netvibes oh and Hyves. :)

So.. that's it for now. CU on the web.

Animal pleasures / Reading pleasures

2009-04-11T12:24:00.007+02:00

I spend 2,5 hours on Guppywood yesterday. Evacuating all the guppy's (unfortunately, one female jumped to her death during that event, but all the others made it savely to their teporarely location) removing 30 liters of water. and then the little rocks on the bottem to find this:

There is no soil in Guppywood. This is all kinds of yukkiness coming from the guppys processing their food. But like I said after 2,5 hours, al the guppys (but the one who jumped) could savely return to their fresh and clean Guppywood.

I will put some more plants in it, as soon as I can find the time to visit the pet shop.

This morning it was time for sun, cross stich and Nina Simone. Ayla loves to bask in the sun and she always find herself a sunny spot, anywhere.

I just had my lunch and now its time to dwell in the world of Carpathians, vampires and sultry seduction, along with some paranormal suspence and violent battles, created by Christine Feehan in her "Dark" Series. I am re-reading the entirely serie, after re-reeading the "Ghostwalker" series. I am a great fan of her books. :)

My new bedroom/studio is ready

2009-04-03T15:44:00.004+02:00

The last few days I've been busy moving furniture and tossing away old stuff from my bedroom/studio. I love how it turned out and I have much more space now. Haver a look for yourself:

Doing the unthinkable

2009-03-18T16:00:00.003+01:00

Remember this?

In the Summer of 2008, I got my magic Ball. A skein of yarn filled with goodies. On November 11th last year I casted on the Hedera form Cookie A. I frogged it and started it again 3 times. Then it dissappeared in my knittingbasket again.

Today I found it again. And then guilt kicked in. Someone made this ball with care and attention and it still hasn't been knit and unraveled. So I decided to do the unthinkable: I unraveled it and opened all the presents.

And now I feel even more guiltier. So many great presents, and I don't know who made this for me. I can only hope she reads my blog. Because I shout my big THANK YOU!! from here into the world. I left the group where it all began, so I can't shout it there anymore.

So, my magical ball maker: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, and also a loud purred thank you from Ayla, she likes the ball and the candy very much :)

SP 13 final box & Rogue Hoody update

2009-03-18T08:42:00.008+01:00

My postman always rings twice, and boy did he bring me a nice package :)

A box filled with goodies from my - no longer- Secret Pall Asuka from Italy. And OMGs did she spoil me:

Thank you soo much Asuka, i realy, realy loved the goodies. And next time I'm on the scales at my dietists, and it still shows no decrease in my weight, I blame your chocolate :)

I'm also still making slow progress on my Hoody:

The knitting in the round is done, the back is done and i have started on the front. I can actually wear it, and more amazing: it fits :))

So, that's it for today.. I'm off.. fondeling my new yarn.

Colombian Stuff

2009-02-20T22:42:00.004+01:00

Nantko, a friend of Danny and me went to Colombia and brought us back some Colombian ~~stuff~~ yarn. When Danny visited me last night for some spinning, stitchin, bitching and Hackers along with some Chinese food she brought me my part of the Colombian ~~stuff~~ yarn.

Tonight when I went to my studio/bedroom to get something out of it, Ayla followed me in. Soon she started to sniff in the air like a real sniffer dog (it was an embarrasing sight, trust me) and then she discovered the Colombian ~~stuff~~ yarn.

Look for your self what happened next:

I think I have a little Colombian ~~stuff~~ yarn junkie in my home now. X)

knit knit. frog frog.. knit knit again

2009-02-12T00:09:00.003+01:00

But it's growing bit by bit, stitch by stitch.
My Rogue Hoody and I got re-acquainted again and I fell in love all over again.

Is it 2009 already?

2009-01-09T15:25:00.004+01:00

OMG! and I havent told you about our trip to Hamburg on december 21st, 2008. Or the New years party @ Mulligans.

Well lucky for me I have friends who are more faithfull bloggers then I am.
Look at kees' and Renates blog for details about our trip to Hamburg. I made pictures too, but most of them are a big blur.

I do have some pictures from the train model museum Danny and I went to and I uploaded them on MyFlickr. This is one of the pictures I took there:

As far as pictures from the N/Y-party at Mullies, again kees did a good job :)

Find your colors

2008-12-18T01:34:00.002+01:00

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet.

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate beauty and craftsmanship. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

SP13

2008-12-15T14:35:00.003+01:00

This morning my neighbour was at the door with a package. It was delivered a few days ago she said, but she was too busy to give it to me. It was a package from Italy, from my secret pal.

Oh my goddess what a great package it is..

A beautiful neckwarmer, Lana Grossa with silk and cashmere, chocolate to eat and to drink! Thank you soo much, I really like it!

Oh and uhm.. Italy huh? did you know I'm a coffee and pasta addict? *lol*

20 years.. I know her.. 20 years!!!

2008-12-02T14:59:00.006+01:00

so we decided to celebrate :D

And what is the best way to celebtrate 20 years of friendship with your best friend? Correct, with chocolate! We went to a chocolate workshop...

You can see more pictures @ MyPictures.

Knitting!

2008-11-12T15:22:00.001+01:00

It seems I've been bitten by the knitting-bug again. After months off cross stitching I finaly started knitting again.

On of the first things to do is finish a pair of socks for a friend (I'm halfway some very large men's socks), get on with my Hoody and start to unravel my magic ball. Yesterday I casted on the Hedera by Cookie A.

Yay! I'm back in the knitting-business :D

SP13 answers to the questions..

2008-11-12T14:35:00.002+01:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
Soft, luxery, silky yarns. No thick, itchy yarn. I don't like angora and mohair, the fluffy ones, either. I’m in love with Wollmeise, Opal and Koigu, I do not like acrylics or synthetics.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have one needle case given by my best friend. It containes no knitting needles though. My needles are stored in plastic ice coupe glasses and a lemonade can with a knitted cosy around it. I still havn't found a good way to store my circ's. Except my Denise interchangeble Knitting needles.. but they came in their own case.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I'm a intermediate beginner. I started knitting in december 2006. I did do some knitting in the nineteen-seventees, but not much.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes I have an Amazon wishlist: http://tinyurl.com/yvpqhz

5. What's your favorite scent?
Lavender, sage, mint, lemon and cinnamon. I'm addicted to sage. I burn dried sage leaves on a piece of charcoal in a small couldron I burn also my incense in. The smoke that comes free is the best scent ever. Except for lavender, lavender is my absolute favorite.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
No, I don't like sweets except for one thing: very, very, very dark chocalate. No any other chocolate, just the very, very, very dark one. 71% and higher. Preferably with nuts.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I love cross stitching, embroidery, sewing, needlebinding (an ancient Viking fiber craft) and I’m learning to spin on both the drop spindle and the wheel. I like dying yarn and on my wishlist is learning how to weave, do card weave and sprang. I have a flickr album with pictures of my crafts and my craftroom.: http://flickr.com/photos/marretje/ I’m also a Viking re-enacter.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
My computer and my stereo play MP3s and I have an iPod.I am a huge metal/rock/punk fan. But I also like irish/keltic music. Enya, Clannad, Lorreena McKennet, The John o’Gods, Danny Guinan, Mark Gilligan. I also love the spiritual/pagan/wiccan sounds from Omnia and the Mediaval baebes. Some gothic, I found Seduced by Suicide on MySpace and love it. I still like the sounds of the 70's and 80's, am still a big Abba fan, love James Marsters. No opera, jazz, dutch or french singers please...

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Lavender, all kinds of purples in combination with whites, off white, creamy whites. Greens, Blues, silvery grey. I absolutely cannot stand orange, and "baby pink"or "babyblue". I realy like the 'cold' colors. Although Autumn is my favorite season, I love those colors in nautre very much.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I am a happy single, no kids and I'm a well trained employee/servant for my female cat Ayla.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes!, yes!, yes!, uhm.. no, no poncho's

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Socks! I’m addicted to socks. I have started the Rogue hoody, and I have Cat Bordhís book A second treasury of magical knitting and I'm still looking for time to start to knit something from that book. Her other books are on my wishlist ;-)

13. What are you knitting right now?
I’m knitting socks: Firestarters for me, 2 socks on 1 circ toe up for me, I've started the Hedera from Cookie A for me and I'm knitting a pair for my best friends husband. European size 46... Oh and lets not forget the Rogue hoody...

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes, very much

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I love my bamboo dpn’s 2.5 mm can’t have enough of those. I knit socks on 5 dpns by the way.
No metal, i get cold hands very fast and I loose grip on those needles

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a swift and I’m still looking for a second hand pretty priced yarn winder.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
I don't have a knitting UFO. I am a slow knitter, so it does take some tiome to finish my projects, especially in a time off startitis.. But..lets not talk about my cross stitch UFO's, ok? :)

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I don't have a special holiday in mind. I've been to Egypt twice, will go there once again, but I don't know when. I like to stay at home, discover new nice places in my own town or country and finally have the time to cross stitch or knit all day long. Read the books I've wanted to read for so long or just visit some friends and enjoy their company. I think my favourite place would be my livingroom in winter with candles, incense and the curtaines closed or my balcony filled with herbs and plants in spring/summer. Add a glass of red whine or Iirish whisky to it, some nice cheese (not the blue ones or the brie's) a book, or my cross stich or knitting work and I'm perfectly happy. On the other hand, I also like to spend my evenings in my stamcafé, the Irish pub Mulligan's with friends, live music and good whisky :D But I also like spending time behind my computer, living my Second Life.
As for the celebrating the years-around holidays. I'm a pagan, so I do not celebtrate the Christian holidays.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Besides WIP's, cross stitch patterns, knitting patterns and all the things I love to make once, some day, when I find the time? No, I don't think so. Books maybe. I love books.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I have a lot of books on my wish list, the Cat Bordhí books are hard to get here, so if I order them from Amazon, the shipping costst will make the books rather expensive. That's why they are highest on my wishlist. I subscribed to a dutch magazine Handwerken zonder Grenzen. I have a subscribtion on SpinnOf. I love magazines. They are small presents that fill my letterbox every month. I'm considering a subscripton to a knitting magazine, but don't know which one yet.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I love to start on the moebius-techniques needed for Cat Bordhí’s projects, never done that before, so I’m excited to try. I also recently bought the book ‘ Viking patterns for knitting’ and that has lots and lots of cablework in it, love to try that too.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yes, an addicted one, I have European size 36/37

23. When is your birthday?
June 3rd

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what is your ID?
Yes, I'm marretje on Ravelry

Please vote for Carin!

2008-11-11T09:50:00.006+01:00

Its a dutch competition and we (her friends of the Dutch cross stitch list Borduurhoekje) want her to win ;-)

Please go to this page and click this picture:

Thanks!

I did it again...

2008-11-03T15:48:00.002+01:00

I joined Secret Pal 13

I'm soo excited. I will post more info soon, and I need to update my questionaire.. But for now I just wanted to let you know :D

Knitted wannabe vikings

2008-11-01T09:53:00.004+01:00

Danny and me in Mulligans last night at the Halloweenparty.
I ~~stole~~ borrowed this picture from kees' flickr. He has more pictures, so have a look. :D

Die Wikinger kommen!

2008-09-22T20:35:00.006+02:00

This weekend we - kees, Danny, Janneke and me - went to the open-air museum in Oerlinghausen, Germany.

We had Viking Stitch and Bitch...

There was a party with food...

and drinks.

And we had the morning after..

More pictures on my flickr

That time of the year again...

2008-09-08T13:13:00.003+02:00

Work...

and play.

Hair

2008-09-04T08:34:00.005+02:00

With Donna gone to the Summerland, creating a 50% deduction on my cat population, one might think that also applies to the shredded hairs in my house.

One is so very wrong. kees brought me a reindeer skin that was shredding hair on his carpet. I have a wooden floor, so its easier to remove the hairs from that. It's a very nice skin, and Danny and me sure could use it in our vikingtent-to-be.

When I unpacked it and laid it on the floor I called Ayla to investigate. You can see she approves of the skin, so it wil stay on the livingroom floor. I'll just have the same amount of hairs as if Donna was still with me.. and Pepijn, Loesje, Banjer and Isis too..

Miss Ayla

posing for the camera.

Together again...

2008-08-21T11:10:00.010+02:00

Donna & Pepijn

together again, in the Summerland..

Bella Donna June 3rd 2002 - August 20th 2008

Bye Donna, be good!

Thank you Aragog, for the lovely poem.

I am..

2008-08-17T21:28:00.002+02:00

Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a bit too brutally honest. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately

Take the Quiz here!

Ok.. forget about the singing and playing pianoforte, but I can live with the rest :D

About being lazy...

2008-08-04T18:05:00.002+02:00

exchanges received

2008-08-04T11:19:00.006+02:00

Last week I received 2 of my exchanges.

First the HoE-Summer-Quaker-Exchange from Irmeli from Finland. She stitched me a beautiful notepad holder and sent a little pattern thats also a post card, some hand dyed thread and a piece of lovely linen to stitch on:

Here is a closer look at the notepad holder:

Bianca sent me a summer needleroll. A Dutch exchange from the "Borduurhoekje Yahoo group" (Borduurhoekje is best to be translated as a little stitching corner). Look what she made me:

Isn't this georgious??? The thread is over dyed cotton and soo pretty.

Thanks a lot girls, it made my day last week, when I had to go back to work again after almost 4 weeks of holidays :D

Blijdorp Zoo

2008-07-28T20:08:00.018+02:00

I'm still a bit lazy on the blogging-department. Kees, Danny and me went to Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam last Wednesday. Kees blogt about it and here are some of the pictures I took:

Do not spit.

Weaving

Lazy

Tania

Grey

Royalty

Ieeeuww..

Yellow

Yarn...

Red

Baby 1

Baby 2

Baby 3

Handsome

Cosey

8!!

2008-07-21T15:42:00.003+02:00

Today Donna's blood suger was 8.4.
And yes thats very good, because she needed to get below 10.

If she's still below 10 next week, the next check up after that can be later than after a week, maybe even after 2 weeks. At the end, when she keeps on going like this, she only needs to get her blood checked every 2 months.
(and uhmm sorry for the crappy picture, she does not like it, having her picture taken, so she keeps on walking and not stand still. This is the best I could make, after taken at least 8 blurry pictures.)

More 8 today, Fair and Square #8. Thank you so much for the LHN squares Chantal! I love them.

Tapis de Bayeux in Leiden

2008-07-18T21:54:00.029+02:00

Danny and I went to Leiden last Wednesday, to visit the Tapis de Bayeux. Well actually a darn-good copy of it. Marloes Keereweer makes replica's of the famous tapestry.

The exhibit was at the Museum het Leids Wevershuis (the weavers house). I took some pictures:

Weaving:

Natural dying ingredients:

and here are the replica's:

look at the back how it's done:

And here is some more Tapis de bayeux:

We did more that day.., we fondled yarn, shopped till we dropped and had a nice lunch at Bagels and Beans and at the end of the afternoon some tasty Australian ice cream..

Fondle...

Noro sockyarn

Shops:

New shoes:

New Troll bead:

Irish festival in Deventer

2008-07-14T10:17:00.003+02:00

I'm going to be very, very lazy about this.
Go see kees' blog... he made pictures and he wrote the story about our 'day in the country'.

It was a great day! :D

Magic Yarn Swap

2008-07-09T10:53:00.003+02:00

I am participating in a "Magic ball swap" in The Netherlands. You hand-make (at least) 1 knitting related gift, get some more small presents, with a total value between 15 and 20 euro's, get a ball or skein of yarn and wrap all those presents into one a big ball of yarn.

You sent it to your recipient, anonymously, and she (or he) will find all the gifts while she (or he) starts knitting with the yarn.

Yesterday I received mine:

I can hardly wait to start knitting, but first I need to start some cross stitching swaps.

Anyway: Thank you very much, secret Magic ball partner.. I already like the smell that's coming out of the package and the colour of the yarn is very pretty, dark green. I love it.

There's a hole in my....

2008-07-07T10:41:00.002+02:00

Goodies!

2008-07-06T09:22:00.005+02:00

Simone found this in a recycle-shop and thought of me. So she bought it and sent it to me. What a nice surprise! Thnx Simone, it is great and I will try it out.

I also got my order from "De Handwerk Boetiek" with my 'Sara Tobias book' and the LHN "The Bookshelf"

I'll be working today, but after that: 4 whole weeks of holidays.
I can't wait :D

10 more!

2008-07-05T10:08:00.007+02:00

My collegue Remco has guppies too. He likes them, but his guppies serve just one purpose: food. Remco has big fish, Oscar Fish or Astronotus ocellatus and these monsters eat guppies.

So when he heard I bought some guppies from the petshop for 2 euro's a fish, he told me he could bring me some from his tank. And yesterday he brought them to work. 10 lovely guppies, from very small to large, guppie-large that is.

I have some crappy pictures here:

Guppy-jar

Guppy-blur

Now I really have a nice filled Guppywood :D

Fair and square round #7

2008-07-04T11:59:00.005+02:00

My first round from the Fair and Square swapping blog. My partner was Michele from the USA and she stitched me 2 beautiful squares:

And a close up:

Thank you very much Michele I realy like them!

Donna

2008-06-30T16:24:00.007+02:00

Donna went to see the vet today the test her blood and sugar.
Last Monday it was 24.1 Today it was 17. Going strong, but she needs to get below 10.

She did not gain any weight, but the vet told me I can give her 10 more grams of food per day. And she's going from 0.5 IE insuline to 1.0 IE insuline. For me a bit easier to notice if I realy do inject any insuline at all. I did, because her level went down, but it was hard to see. For Donna its a small step faster in getting regulated.

Next week: next check-up. We keep you all informed.

Baby-guppies!

2008-06-30T16:18:00.005+02:00

I was cleaning out my fishtank, take out 10 liters of dirty water and refill it with 10 fresh liters and when I was done I noticed them:

They are swimming between the food I put in the tank, so hopefully the big guppys will eat that and not the babys. The babys are bout 2 mm small and already swimming like pro's. :D

Secret LHN-exchange from Joan S.

2008-06-25T17:11:00.007+02:00

Time for some nice news now. I received my secret LHN-exchange yesterday. Thank you soooooooooooooooooo very much Joan. You did spoil me very much.

Look what she sent me:

LHN stands for Little House of Needleworks, one of my favourite cross stitch designers.

This is what Joan has stitched for me:

Here's a detail of the French knots she stitched the sheep with:

Isn't this the best thing ever???
I truly like it a lot.

The verdict

2008-06-25T15:57:00.006+02:00

Twice a day a shot insuline, start with 0.5 IE per shot

Twice a day 20 grams of M/D dry food

That's it...
She's going to need a lot of TLC to survive this

Not very good...

2008-06-23T10:58:00.006+02:00

Donna looks not so well today. She looses weight and is down.
I'm taking her to the vet in a few minutes.
Keep your fingers crossed she won't be as bad as she seems to be.

I have a knot in my stomach and visions of Pepijn's last visit at the vet.
Keep your fingers crossed for Donna. I keep you posted.

UPDATE: the vet called earlier this evening. She wanted to know if it's ok to do some more tests, because it could be diabetes, but to be sure, some more tests need to be done. I will hear the results tomorrow.

Guppywood

2008-06-23T09:35:00.003+02:00

Danny told me she had a present for my guppies. They could use some decoration, because the AquaWorld was still a bit "nekkid".

I had anxiety visons. I was scared to death she bought my guppies some 'cute' aquarium decoration like a castle, a sunken ship or some treasure chest. I should have know better, Danny would never do that to me. To my guppies, yes, but not to me. :)

She got my guppies a piece of heavy wood, called Mopani wood. I's heavy like a rock so it stays at the bottom of my fishtank.

I think I will rename my Aquaworld into Guppywood.

@ the Zoo

2008-06-22T15:41:00.005+02:00

The boyzzzz :

In the front Niek, standing in the back Adam.

Mama Carolien was proudly presenting baby Noa:

Noa is just a week old, so she's not strong enough to swim yet. She needs lots of fat milk to grow twice as big as when she was born. If all goes wel she learns to swim next week.

Guppies!

2008-06-19T19:57:00.003+02:00

This is why I've been so absent the last 10 days. My new obsession:

Guppies!

I so love them, they are great to watch.
But it's so hard to take a decent picture.

I'll try to blog more often, but for now I just love to look at my guppies :)

Old & new.. again

2008-06-09T20:24:00.008+02:00

This is how it was:

This is how it is:

And today I got myself a fishtank

I will get some fish later this week, first the water needs to "settle down"

Ikea!

2008-06-05T21:07:00.004+02:00

When Ikea tells you, it takes 2 men to assemble the Klippan...

you know for sure one woman can do the job by herself.

So I did, and Donna approves:

I have more pictures of the major livingroom makeover, but I need some time to resize them. So I will be blogging about it somewhere this weekend.

so..
to speak with the words.. uhm letters of Tiggre:
TTFN!

... and then we where six...

2008-06-03T08:12:00.002+02:00

It's my birthday today, and I quit smoking, today 4 years ago. but lets not forget the most important celebration of today.

Here's another birthdaygirl:

Today it's Donna's 6th birthday.

Happy Birthday Donna :D

The bead is on...

2008-06-02T16:29:00.002+02:00

Young(er)!

2008-06-01T19:57:00.012+02:00

Yesterday evening Nantko and I celebrated our birthday at Mulligans. Nantko's is today: happy birthday!), mine is next Tuesday. Kees took pictures.

I've got presents.. ;-)

Nantko gave me the Earth DVD:

Here are the giraffes on the birthdaycard Babs (my collegue) gave me up close. They also had 10 euro's with them for me.

Danny gave me something I fell in love with long time ago. It's a trollbead and yes these are giraffes. The other side has another giraffe.

I don't have a bracelet fot the bead yet, but tomorrow is my day off. Guess where I'll be in the afternoon? :D Miriam gave me a Mulligans T-shirt as you can see in kees' pictures.

When I left Mulligans around 2:00 A.M. I think, maybe later it was raining cats and dogs. I cycled as fast as I could to get home, but I was drenched anyway.

This morning I was up bright and... uhm ok not so bright but very early. I gave a guided tour at the zoo.

After the tour I called one of the zookeepers to ask if he had some camelhair for me, and he had. He would sent another zookeeper to me and I had to wait for about 15 minutes. So I was walking in the neighbourhood of the camel stables and saw some very nice young animals.

Thers's another baby stork in the nest, but it's lying flat so you can only see it when it pops up his/her head.

The Japanese Macaque have young...

and even younger macuaques:

When I got home around 3:00 P.M. I went to bed for a little nap. Tonight I'm living my Second Life.

Bye for now!

old and new

2008-05-27T11:56:00.002+02:00

Next week is my birthday, but I gave myself already a B-day present.

This is how it was in my little pc-corner in my living room:

Not bad eey?.

But this system is alreay 4 years old, prehistoric in computer time.
So I gave myself a new pc. But first I needed to take the old one away, and that looks like this:

And now this is how I will be blogging, surfing, emailing and live my Second Life from now on:

I'm a happy girl right now ;-)

Lot's to tell

2008-05-14T12:23:00.011+02:00

Last week I woke up way too early ( around 8 a.m. on a non-working day) because of a tremendous amount of noise in my street. Jackhammers, drills and loud music. My neighbours from across the streeet had a big surprise coming: Their stairs to the ground floor were gone:

I asked her what was going on and it seems that the whole front of the building is going to be "pimped." They are closing it up, so dogs (and humans!) won't pee or poo in front of the doors anymore, no more kids smoking pot on the stairs, but just a nice, safe entrance to their homes. I liked it. It was going to take a month or two she said. They had to leave their house via the back with some emergency stairs.

This morning (an other non-working day for me) I had a deja-vu: again, loud noices, an engine from a big truck running below my bedroom window, and yet again loud music. But it looks like my neighbour is getting some nice new stairs:

I wonder what's next. One thing is for sure: there will be loud music. People working outside, building or breaking streets, houses, buildings and so on seem to need loud music in order to perform...

Last sunday, I went with Danny and her BF to Swalmen in Limburg to visit a ceramics market. I have some more picture on MyFlickr, but I wanted to show you the most curious dog I've ever seen:

It's a rasta-dog, with dreadlocks! Honestly, and he/she feels very greasy, like a sheep skin. To bad you can't spin these dreads, because he/she looked beautiful.

I also spotted 2 ravens which reminded me of Huginn & Muninn, Odins birds.

In the afternoon we went to the vikingmarket in Eindhoven and look what I spotted there:

Huginn & Muninn. These 2 families attend a lot of viking events together, but yet stay apart. I thought is was very nice, and the banners are beautifully made.

I also met a viking who was dying yarn with madder (Rubia tinctorum L). You can see the plant behing the dying pot.

He told me a lot about dying and gave me some viking lemonade to taste afterward. He made it from apple vinager, honey and water. Something to try at home ;-)

Earlier this year I spotted my anual visiters, visiting my littler feedinghouse on my balcony:

These little mice come every year to eat and we've come to some kind of understanding: they stay outside and when the feedinghouse is empty, I clean up and they stay away. My cats have a blast when they come. Donna even bumps her nose on the window, eager to try to catch one of these nice little animals. I do love them.

But, the food is meant for little birds: tits, sparrows, robins and sometimes a wren. And I realy would like to have a little birds nest on my balcony, so when I spotted this on the ceramics market, I bought it:

And this morning I drilled a hole in the wall, put in a screw and my little tit pot hangs. Lets hope I have little babybirds next spring.

I did buy more on both markets, but I need to resize those pictures first. Now I really need to get ready to go outside and go to the postoffice. I promised Zaturn I'll post her Ribe-yarn today, and I have many more tasks on my Things-To-Do-Today list...

C-yah!

Yarn - and other goodies - from Ribe

2008-05-09T11:07:00.015+02:00

Lets have a look at my new collection items.
I bought this yarn in Ribe's Broderi & Garn shop, in Ribe.

First:

Sandnes Garn Fritidsgarn. A Bulky 12 ply yarn. colors go from dark green, to lighter green to light brownish.

Then ik have this:

Løve Garn Highland. A worsted 10 ply yarn in a blue-purple colorway.

The spectaculare new item is - if I may say so myself - these lovely balls:

Look inside:

Kauni Effektgarn 8/2. Fingering 4 ply in the colorway EF (purple, red purple, blue, moss green)
YUMMI!

On the vikingmarket I bought some viking singles, hand dyed with wild madder (Rubia tinctorum L):

I've started needlebinding a new pair of socks in a new stitch Danny taught me.
The white fluffy stuf beneath it is a batt of sheepwool, ready to be spun. It's from an ancient sheep breed, but I forgot the name. I'm sure Kees or Danny knows.

And I've got 3 more cones of Lingarn. A linen thread for embroidery or tablet- or cardweaving.

The other goodies are these:

10 leather tablets for tabletwaeving/cardweaving, a wet stone so I can sharpen my knife and 12 authentic pins.

I'm am very happy with this:

A bag made out of birch. I love it. Nou I can carry around some stuff without hanging it all on my belt. Viking age or no Viking age. I'd like to know the time every now and then, and I need my 21st century money to get my 10th century goodies. And my camera, so I can show you what I've been doing.

Well I'm of to knit a few hours before I go to work this afternoon. I need to finish my Hoody before I can start knitting the Kauni ;-)

Seeya!

Back from Ribe

2008-05-06T12:00:00.007+02:00

So, all of a sudden it's Tuesday and I have to go to work in a few hours.

Ribe was great, I took a lot of pictures, some of them are already on MyFlickr, but here is Kees wearing his new clothes, made by me:

Kees has uploaded his pictures too, so go see HisFlickr.

And here is Danny. I'm sure we'll see the picture she's taking of her new yarn on her blog soon.

I do have ~~some~~ a lot of new yarn too, pictures will come soon. Now I have to get ready for work, come back to the 21st century and earn some money because I spent a lot last weekend. :D

I almost forgot...

2008-05-01T22:09:00.003+02:00

Happy Beltane!

I found this picture here.

One day left..

2008-05-01T09:13:00.006+02:00

... before we drive to Denmark tomorrow. We is Danny, Kees and Janneke.

We'll be here:

and back on Monday may 5th.

Kees' tunic is almost finished and my headcover can be done in the car on our 8-10 hour drive.
Today is for packing, shop for the last minute things you absolutely need and preparing Ayla's medicine box so all my friend and excellent cat-caretaker Katja has to do is take the pills out of it's container, crush them, mix with some salmon paté and Ayla will eat it.

So. I'm back on monday, with lots of pictures. :D

Cat nap continued...

2008-04-22T00:41:00.002+02:00

putting the cat nip into a bigger planter also results in a cat nap..
maybe it needs more shadow in stead of full sun.

Anyway.. Ayla does like the sun, and some planter with warm, dry soil in it.. Maybe she's a country girl after all. :D

Almost done

2008-04-21T14:52:00.003+02:00

On the left the old, on the right the new

All I need to do now is sew the hems and finsh of the seams to prevent them from fraying.
I'l do that by hand, to give it some kind of authentic touch. *grin*
I'm afraid the 'almost' is a bit of an understatement. I don't sew that fast :D

nip or nap? & Fiber

2008-04-21T13:18:00.010+02:00

I'm growing a new herb on my balcony, it's called Cat nip:

But is has the tendency to get into a Cat nap:

So.. I'm stil pondering on how to get it right :D

Meanwhile things happen on the fiber front.
Danny came by last night and we had a nice evening of Spinning and Bitching. Not to be confused with Stitching and Bitching, thats toninght. :)

Anyway, see Danny spin:

The flying bobbin:

The result: on the left the Artis camel, on the right the unknuwn black sheep.

This was my spinning. I have some light blue roving and as long as I was spinning, it went ok, but as soon as the thread broke, I had a hell of a time trying to get spinning again. But for a first real attempt, it doesn't look too bad. This is my practice bobbin:

Well.. I'm looking forward to see this lady shed her hairs again:

Just a few more weeks, and I'll be looking for the zoo keepers to ask if they will save the fiber for me.

Water fun

2008-04-20T08:59:00.004+02:00

This blog entry is especially for Sjouwke who misses reading about my cats :D

Here's Donna, who loves to play with the drops that fall out the water-tap

This picture is a bit fuzzy, because she just went for the killer-snap when I took it.

Donna hangs almost upside down under the tap and snaps her teeth on every drop she can catch, holding her balance with one paw (nails out) on the tap. Thanks to my beloved cat's favorite game, I have several nail marks on my tap ;D

HoE Pinkeep received.

2008-04-18T10:19:00.004+02:00

Thank you sooooo much Jennifer!

I really , really like the words you stitched for me, they are so funny and so my kind of wicked sense of humor. Thank you so much, for everything. I can see you did visit my blog and read it thoroughly.

She also added some lavender couloured 1/2in Martha Stewart crafts ribbon (I love Martha!) ; Cresent Coulours Hand dyed Floss Purple Aster; another skein of silk floss in a pruple/pink colour and a bag of Lavender & Mint bath tea..

Jennifer wrote to me that she saw some punk themed books in my library. "... that reminded me of a phrase I had seen on a cross stitch piece on Flickr, one that I had been wanting to do for some time."

"I picked out the motif and border from a Better Homes & Gardens book and I used Cresent Colour Belle Soie silk in Sweet Lavender."

Thanks again Jennifer, You did read my blog and therefor my mind. I love it very much.

Make a wish..

2008-04-13T10:49:00.006+02:00

and it may come true.
We had a sort of RAK at my dutch xxx-stitch yahoogroup Borduurhoekje. You stated something you wanted, and anybody could make your wish come true.

I wished for some Anchor floss for Nova and Simone got me those.

I wished me a lavender or lime biscornu.
And Jeanine granted my wish, look:

I love it!

I sent some felt, ribbons and lace to Willeke.

The 'make a wish fair' is closed for now, but I'm sure we will open it again some day. It's great fun to get little presents and not knowing who sent them, at first. We told later. But sending anonymous gifts is alsoa lot of fun.

For kees

2008-04-12T10:45:00.004+02:00

Kees, this is for you if you need a new shaving experience. Although I do think some 'cuts' are a bit difficult for you to grow and trim :D

I found this here.

Spring on the North Pole

2008-04-10T19:12:00.006+02:00

Yesterday was a very beautiful day, for me the first real day of Spring. It reminded me of a brilliant hoax - I just love a good hoax - that is going on lately.

It all started with this picture:

The first time someone got this in his mail was in 2005, with these words:

"This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. And you also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo and not easily duplicated. You may want to save this and pass it on to others."

On Hoax-slayer - a very, very useful site - is the whole story with some more links. Here you can read: "The image is in fact a work by artist Inga Nielsen. The image, called "Hideaway" can be viewed on the artist's website.

This is the complete picture btw:

On the bottem right is her name. (if you click on the 'viewed-link' you can see it better.)

She makes beautiful scenes with the softwareprogramme Terragen. Terragen™ is a scenery generator for Windows and the Mac OS. It's used in films, games, books and magazines. If you're into fantasy you can use it to create beautiful desktop images, or you could go to Inga's gallery and download one yourself.

There are lots of sites where you can find information about this picture being false and to be honest: anybody can see this is a fake, right? Nobody in his/her right state of mind would believe that this is really possible.

So isn't it just hilarious that there are still people who claim this to be a real picture, sent by a dear friend. And isn't is just very funny that those people are in total denial when told this is a hoax. How stupid of them, because everybody knows this picture is fake, why keep insisting it's real?

Well.. If you're feeling down and out and just want to have a great laugh, Google 'spring' and 'North Pole' in the images section.. and you'll get lots of sites with this image. Have fun!

Birdhouse exchange

2008-04-09T20:05:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I received a package from Pascale for the birdhouse exchange organized by the Dutch xxx-stitch group Borduurhoekje.

Look what she sent me:

Am I spoiled or what?
Thanx Pascale, I like it very much.

Artis

2008-04-09T17:48:00.007+02:00

I was at the zoo today.

This is Demi:

And here is Pimky.

Why walk on wood if you can walk on the rope:

to go to your girlfriend:

I have more pictures from today's visit in my Flickr album.

Bags and yarn

2008-04-08T10:56:00.011+02:00

Yesterday I went to the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje Museum of Bags and Purses with Katja. I was not allowed to take pictures from the collection, but I did buy some nice postcards. So Have a look:

A beaded bag 'Remember the poor 1630'

Eveningbag with silver frame. 1929

Working bag in silk. Circa 1800

Embroidered silk letter case. France circa 1800.

A leather bag with metal frame, 16th century

These are just a few of the many beautiful bags we saw. It was very, very nice and I will visit this beatiful museum again some day.

Katja and I had a very nice cup of tea and coffee at the Museum Café, with a great view on the garden:

When we got home I had another nice surprise. My package of the Dutch sock yarn club came.

Just look at this yummie yarn:

Gerda also put in a nice project bag

and a lavender couloured candle and a green silk covered lipstick holder.

I fixed it.. :D

2008-04-04T23:43:00.003+02:00

This evening when I got home from work I gave my cats their diner and then I started wondering about by computer. What could have happened?!?

So I opened it up, wiggled and pushed a little on the cables and other loose ends inside, put the powercable back in, pushed the on/off button and it works!!!

My PC is not dead, nor is it sick.. it just needed some gentle touch :)

btw: I found the cartoon here.

fingers x-ed...

2008-04-04T19:04:00.005+02:00

This morning my computer went 'puf' and switched off.. I tried the on/off button but it did not turn my computer back on. :(

I'm taking my pc to the shop tomorrow morning to see if they can fix my little Asus.... Keep your fingers x-ed please. :)

I'm at work now, so I'll keep this short, but I will try to keep you posted.

Cats!

2008-04-03T21:36:00.005+02:00

You have met my cats Ayla & Donna, Ayla is 9 years old and Donna will be 6 in june.

I have another cat. She's my step-cat and she lives with Katja
I'd like you to meet Ronja:

We are not sure how old she is, but we think around 12 years.
She's mine whenever Katja and her husband are away on a vacation. In May, after I return from Ribe, Ronja is mine for a week and a half :) We are going to have so much fun :)

Yarn!

2008-04-02T23:35:00.001+02:00

or not.... :)

It has frames!

2008-04-02T17:25:00.003+02:00

I just visited Kees' blog. We both got a new camera, but it's stil his fault :D

And look at this feature.. Frames!!!

FUNNY!!!

Old & New

2008-04-02T17:17:00.004+02:00

Old:

New

I went shopping with Kees today, so it's his fault. :)

Dressing a Viking

2008-04-01T11:33:00.008+02:00

So.. I'm going to be very busy the next couple of weeks. I'm going to Ribe in 4 weeks. So I need to really get working on Kees tunic.

Yes, it's the dark brown fabric down there, that's going to be his new tunic.

Yesterday evening at my Stitch and Bitch meeting, I was not knitting, I was knotting. Needlebinding my socks. Danny helped me with the heel part. I've got a heelstrap now, need to work the yellow yarn till the end, which will be the ankle part and next week, she helps me with the heel, which will be green again. There are some faults in it, but they are my first and I love these socks ;-)

Also on my to-stitch-list is a head cover. My hair is short and dyed in a non-vikingcolour (it's a eggplant kind of a purple)

I'm sewing the hems by hand and I want to embroider some nice edge decoration on it. (Isn't Donna the cutest, all curled up and pretending to be sleeping? :D)

And, last but not least, I have this basket full of linen and wool fabric. I'm planning on making myself a new underdress and a overdress, a brown fish-bone wollen coat with a dark grey woolen lining, and a gugle, a hood with shoulder parts.

So.. I've got lots to do, the next 4 weeks :)

No, I'm not a computer nerd...

2008-03-30T17:30:00.000+02:00

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Social Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Drama Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Musician
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

I wish.. I wish...

2008-03-27T23:07:00.005+01:00

A Pat Green Drumcarder..

I really love this on, but I don't think they will ship to the Netherlands..

So I'm looking a bit closer to home and found these:

A Louet drum carder:

Or this one from Van der Have Holland:

I think I like the Van der Have the best. If I cannot have my Pat Green..

Oh wel, I have until May to decide. Then my money savings acount is going to pay off after 20 years of saving a little amount of money each month.

I was thinking of getting myself 2 new tattoos, but I think now it will be a drum carder oh and this lovely lady is also on my wishlist:

Her name is Victoria and she's from Louët

I love new toys..

So what do you think? The Louët or the Van Der Have drum carder???

Both websites are also in English.

I'm going to dream on it for now. And maybe dream of it.

Good night to you all and dream happy dreams... I know I will :)

Present from New Zealand

2008-03-21T09:53:00.006+01:00

I've received my Hooked on Exchanging Biscornu from Margaret!

And she also sent me some extra goodies!

Thank you very much Margaret!

Mirror mirror on my feet!

2008-03-20T23:00:00.001+01:00

I'm weaving!

2008-03-17T22:49:00.006+01:00

Sort of.. I love this, it's fun!

Let's go!

2008-03-17T08:24:00.003+01:00

Ayla doesn't mind going to the vet. She has to visit today for her anual check up.
When I put the travel-basket on the livingroom floor, she's eager to get in and now she's waiting until I get dressed, so we can go.

And no, when we walk to the vet's office, she does not give a sound, when we have to wait, she sits quietly in her big basket and when we meet the vet, she is very co-operative. No problems what so ever. I told you she was the sweetest cat in the whole world :D

Goodies and a new toy.

2008-03-15T17:34:00.006+01:00

Today I went with Danny to the Textiel Plus dag. Textiel Plus ("Textile +" is a Dutch magazine) organised a day filled with inspiration, a market, lectures (which we did not attent) and lots and lots of felt (which we did not like)

What we did like was this:

That is, when it became this:

:D So I bought one and Danny has one in back order.
Isn't it a cutey? :)))

I have to wait at least 4 hours now for the glue to dry, so I won't be waeving untill tomorrow.

But I have some other goodies too:

Belfast 32 count linen, white 32 count evenwave fabric and some Lingarn. It's less red in real as it looks like in the picture.

It was a very nice day, and tomorrow I will play with my new toy :)

My name is Marion...

2008-03-14T23:00:00.004+01:00

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated.

You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want.

You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way!

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.

You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.

You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.

You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.

You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.

At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

dye experiment

2008-03-14T12:49:00.005+01:00

So I was trying to dye some cross stitch fabric with natural sources this morning.

tea, dried marigold leaves, onion shells and walnut

the results are promising:

Although the marigold had very little effect. Next time I'll try boiling it on the stove, see if that works better.