Leuke winactie van de Postfabriek!

Al een tijdje zit ik met de gedachte te spelen om mijn blog weer te gaan gebruiken. Nu heeft www.postfabriek.nl een leuke winactie, waarbij één van de onderdelen een blogje schrijven betreft. Dus een mooie aanleiding om weer iets op mijn blog te posten en dit te blijven doen! Ik heb besloten om in het vervolg gewoon in het Nederlands te schrijven, want dat gebeurt niet vaak genoeg.
Nu zul je denken, wat is dat voor fantastische winactie, laat zien, laat ziiieen!!!

Nou dit dus, een pretpakket van PostpapierEnzo (www.postpapierenzo.nl)

Kijk op www.postfabriek.nl hoe je mee kan doen! (meedoen kan alléén vanavond nog).

Tot snel!

It's been a while

I'm back! Not only here on the net, but also at my former study archaeology. It's good to be back and see the people I know again. I'm working on a very exciting project! One of my friends is working on an exposition for a museum in Firdgum (Friesland). Outside the museum they're building a sod house. That's a house build entirely from sods (except from the wooden beams that are supporting te roof). It's a common type of building for this area in early medieval times. My task is to make reconstructions and impressions from the sod house and the landscape. This is something I actually wanted to do for a long, long time, so you can understand I'm pretty excited! You can find more information here: http://zodenhuis.nl/ (it's in Dutch unfortunately, but you can watch the images).
I'm planning to become an archaeological illustrator, so this is a big step in the right direction :)
I'll keep you up-to-date about the project and show you some pictures if I have finished them.

WIP: 18th century cats - Baroness Burberry

I'm still working on my 18th ccentury cats project. But I've finished another one. Now I only have one to go and I allready have an idea about the character for that one. This is our only lady cat and she really acts like one. That why we always call her a baroness. I hope you like it! You can find my other cat portraits here.

WIP: Marlee

I'm working on my first pattern! It's a tunic called Marlee!
After several attempts to knit "heart lace top" by Betty, I frogged it all and decided to make something up. Iwas knitting with grey cotton, so I wanted to make a summer top. But all the patterns I could find on ravelry didn't seem good enough. That's when I started to knit... I began with a broad collar, made some decreases and started to work on an open back. The first part was knitted on circular needles, but at the beginning of the opening at the back I divided the piece in a front part and a back part. The back is almost done, I'm now working on the cap sleeves. I don't know exactly what to do with the front. But I made a rough sketch, so we will see how this thing will turn out. Maybe I just make something up, while knitting.

This is the back. It looks a bit funny, because the edges tend to curl. Also the opening isn't going to be as round as it appears to be.

 

This is the piece seen from the front. As you can see, the first part is knitted on circulars.

You probably wonder why it's called Marle, or maybe not, but either way I'm going to tell you. I watched all six episodes of Case Histories while I was working on this piece. I can tell you, it's pretty addictive! Marlee is the daughter of Jackson Brodie - the private detective- where the show is about.

Hm, talking about addictive! These are too:

 I baked these yesterday. My best friend, niece, ucnle and aunt were visiting my grandparents. Since I am staying at my grandparents lately I decided to make a little treat. I found these on Saving Room For Dessert A blog full of delicious recipes (and pictures!) I can't wait to try out some of those pies. I mean...Baileys Irish Cream Mousse Pie, Chocolat Peanut Butter Pie, Lemon Ice Box Pie and Marshmallow-Almond Key Lime Pie, how can you resist them! (and almost all the other pies)
I didn't expect the visitors would like my date bars, because dates are a bit exotic. But they loved them! And I must say, they are delicious! Full of sweet moist date filling and crunchy oats on top!

Husqvarna, dude!

I bought a sewing machine :D!!!

I’d seen this baby  in the window display before and then the other day it was in a market stall for just 50 euros! But I didn’t buy it and kept thinking about it. So I went back and they didn’t sold it and the actual price wasn’t 50 euros, that was just a market day offer. But in the end I got it for only 50 euros :) It is a very solid an therefore very heavy sewing machine, a Husqvarna 4710! It is a very groovy machine with it’s brown and orange colourdetails and it runs like a train ;) Now I only have to find something to sew on it. I’ve allready set my mind o a tunic with my lovely brown and orangy fabric I bought a while a go (it matches  my sewing machine :P) Maybe some of you remember it from my earlier post .

This is the fabric I’m talking about. I borrowed a book from the library, called ‘Tuniques’ in French (mine was in Dutch obviously!). There are some very nice and easy enough patterns in there. So you’ll see the product of it very soon on my blog I hope. Now I’m working on a knitted tunic, so that has to be done first. I don’t have my camera and my knitting in the same place, so pictures will follow later on. I’m making the whole pattern up, so I hope it works out! You’ll get an update on that subject soon.

Here’s my new sewing machine in it’s full glory ;)

The abandoned garden

 

Since we are not much at home lately, our garden and plants got a bit neglected. Some plants were drowned by the rain, others dried out. But the damage isn't that big and we tried to water them every day.
In my last blog post I allready talked about the reason for us not being at home that much. Luckily I have some goodish news. My grandma is back home again, after she'd lain in hospital for four weeks. After some scans the docters saw 'something' in the coxa, that didn't belong there. They didn't know immediately what 'it' was, but it was sure that thing pressed on one of her sinews, which gave her terrible painattacs. After more examinations they've found out it is some kind of a tumor, in the lymph gland in her coxa (somewhere around the tailbone). Luckily this can be very well treated with chemotherapy. After one or two treatments the tumor will get smaller and the pressure on the sinew will decrease. We are glad they found the source of the painattacs and that it can be treated that well. My grandma will start her chemotheraphy at Tuesday. So I'll still won't be at home that much. I want to thank all the people who thought about my grandma, wished her the best and asked about her :) It was so sweet to see you all so concerned.
Let me show you my plants now, they deserve a little more attention.

Basil

Chives

Last year I had a big basil plant. It even got flowers! When the flowers died, I harvested the seeds, which I have sown this year. The chives and East-Indian cherry seeds are bought at the supermarket. But I also collected the pumpkin seeds myself. Last year I baked a pumpkin pie and I've dried the seeds to sow them. And now look what they've become :)! I cheated a bit with the tomato plant, because I bought that allready being a little plant. But still, it has grown pretty good! I snatched all the leaves, so the plant can put all its energy in growing the fruits.

Organic pumpkin

Basil & East-Indian cherry

Tomato

Thomas Dybdahl

It's been a while since you guys have seen me here. That's because my grandma is in hospital at the moment, so me and my mom have to look a bit after my grandfather. We cook diner for him and take care of the houskeeping that has to be done. We don't know exactly what my grandma is suffering from. She has a lot of pain coming from her back/hip, going all the wat through her leg. They made pictures and scans of it and there is something pushing against a nerve which gives her these pains. Last week they did a puncture, so hopefully we get to hear the results this week.

Now you all know what took me so long to post anything new. Because I still have to blog about this amazing Thomas Dybdahl concert I've been too.

He was giving a show at Vera, Groningen on the second of May. Since I am a big fan of him I had to go there. I only saw him once with his band 'The National Bank.' Now I finally had the opportunity to see a gig where he sings his own songs.
The show wasn't sold out, at all, so I didn't need the reservation I made for my ticket. But there was enough public for a great evening. They were so enthousiastic, just like me!
Before Dybdahl started playing there was a support act from the Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør. I already listened to a couple of songs from her on YouTube, but live she was even better!
Then finally the moment arrived that Thomas Dybdahl got on stage.
He played a couple of songs from his new album 'Waiting for that one great moment' which isn't actually his newest CD. He just brought out a new album, featuring no new songs, because he now has a new label at Strange Cargo/Universal, with a worldwide deal. So we are bound to here more of this great musician in the future! But luckily he also played many 'old' songs, not that I don't like the new ones :)
By the way, not all the credits go to Thomas ofcourse, because he also had an amazing band with him!