Creepy

What gives me the creeps? The usual things like spiders, being alone in the dark, ghost stories...
The first time in my life I was really, really afraid, was when seeing this scene from "Fantasia". My parents had to leave the cinema with me, because I was crying so hard... Guess I was about five years old at the time.

On my nightstand is this book, and it's a real pageturner, it gave me a few bad dreams already.
To stay a bit in the Halloween mood, I did this little knitting project: a pumpkin tea cosy.
It turned out to be quite easy, and I did it in two afternoons. Ready just in time for tonight!


The trees in our garden are giving us quite an autumn spectacle now.


How I love the change of seasons!

Link of the week #2

Last weekend,my husband was sorting trough old boxes and trunks in our garage, and we found lots and lots of old magazines.
So here's just a glance in one of these magazines:
And if you can't get enough of vintage fashion and things related, go here.

Sparrow's nest

A nice little knitting project (while watching a very good danish serie on TV: "The Killing"), that was made in three evenings. You can find the pattern here.

This is my first selfmade pincushion! Although I made it in the wrong season... laying eggs is more something for spring.

A walk in the woods

Is it because of all the rain and damp weather the last two months, but there are mushrooms everywhere in our garden.
I really don't dare to pick and eat them, I heard on the news that there were more cases of poisoning this year then normal (here in Belgium, don't know about the rest of Europe). My grandmother knew enough about mushrooms to use them in the kitchen, and it's a shame that I don't have that knowledge...

Link of the week

What a great idea, wish I had come up with this:
A Collection a Day, 2010
I did my collection of today: the content of my handbag, before I cleaned it up:

And the same content, after I sorted out everything, ready to be put in another handbag.

So sorry for the poor quality of my pictures, there has almost been no daylight the past week. I guess this was the gloomiest summer ever...

August/September update

Slooowly....very slowly, I will get there and make this cross-stitched cat into a little cushion!

Green rabbit

I couldn't resist: I bought another stuffed toy from Pussman.
This time a green rabbit, made of mohair. Danielles stuffed animals always have a lot of detail and are made with a lot of love. As I have so much work till the end of September, I decided to do a one evening project, and I crocheted a pair of trousers for this cutie.


A detail of the back:

Now I want to make a little smocked dress (never did smock in my life, but one can always try...), a knitted sweater, a little embroidered blanket maybe... Maybe in October?

This little rabbit has no name yet, I decided it to be a girl (because of the dresses I want to make).
Any suggestions?

Back to business

After a short break at the seaside, it's back to the old desk, I'm afraid... Normally, my batteries are loaded after the summer, but we had such dreadful, cold weather...
But what frustrates me the most, are all the fun projects that are waiting to get finished! And work has to go first now, I even had to take some of it on my holiday.
If only a day could be longer...

Holiday pictures

I've been home for a week now, but didn't have time to post about our holiday. Yet again, we went to Burgundy, France.
We rented an old mill with private lake (yes indeed!)



At the back of our house, we had a wonderful view over the hills, and the local cows came to say hello at least once a day.


Besides reading and being lazy, we visited Beaune and its famous Hôtel-Dieu. This hospital was founded in 1452, and is best known for the tiled roof.

Sometimes there were up to 4 people in one hospital bed!

Admiring the tiles...

While visiting a cute village (Issy l'Eveque), we saw a gathering of oldtimers.

And we also visited the chateau of Digoine, with English landscape garden.

Blue mouse give-away

Go and check this out: Susan Pilotto is giving away a very, very cute little blue mouse. Go to her blog and leave a comment. Oh, I hope I will win this give-away.

My summer reading list

We are almost leaving for our holiday of 2 weeks in France.
I can't wait to sit in the garden with a good book, not having to work, nor answering the telephone,...
These books are on my list:
Wolf Hall-Hilary Mantel
Krakatoa-Simon Winchester
In Europe-Geert Mak
The Historian-Elisabeth Kostova

My daughter is reading The grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, I read it twenty years ago, and really loved it. Maybe I'll read it again, after I finished the books on my list. Steinbeck is such a wonderful writer, but his books are a bit forgotten here in Belgium.

And if I look at these books (covers created by Coralie Bickford Smith, edited by Penguin), I definitely want to reread my classics!

And what about your summer reading lists, did you make any? Please tell me!

Needlebook

I made this little house in only two evenings, and it was a lot of fun. First time I've used my pinking scissors.
The little flowers were a great way to practice French knots, look here.
The pattern is published here, there are a lot of nice embroidery patterns to be discovered on this website, also free patterns.