Spool-knitted scarf no. 2

My parents and I always celebrate Christmas together on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. And last Tuesday I was suddenly struck with the notion that that was only a few days away! And I still had to make my mother's scarf! AAAH! (erm, yes, you could say I panicked slightly...)

Good thing this knitting nancy I got works miracles. I did take some short cuts compared to last time, and knitted one long string of which I cut off pieces. Saved me the trouble of starting over every time, with yarn breaking etc etc...

Anyways, it took me a few hours (and a sore wrist...), but tadááá, here it is:

My mom was very pleased with it too, fortunately! Phew...

BTW: Merry Christmas everybody!

Christmas card

For the 2nd year in a row, I decided to have my own Christmas cards printed.

Can I just say that I absolutely love Photoshop actions??? They make me look really good with just a few mouse clicks! ☺

Here's the SOOC*:

And here is the end result:

Some actions that I turn to time and again for photo-editing are those of the Pioneer Woman.

And the best part? Not only are they completely awesome, they are free too! Woohoo!

You can get both sets here.

* SOOC = straight out of camera

Busy Bee

Christmas is upon us and so I've been busy with lots of stuff - just haven't been able to post!

- I made my own photo Christmas cards this year.
- decorated the tree - of course.
- started my Zpagetti crocheted throw.
- started on crocheted fingerless gloves.
- worked on my December Daily (bit behind on posting that as well).
- worked on Project Life.
- did some baking for work and get-togethers.
- and every once in a while I also need to go to WORK, go grocery and/or Christmas shopping, visit family & friends, keep up with laundry & other chores etc etc...

In short: updates to come soon!

December Daily - Day 11

I went to the theater to see 'the Nutcracker' - it was beautiful!

December Daily - Day 10

This weekend, I visited some friends that I hadn't seen in over 2 years. We kept in touch over the phone but due to personal circumstances it was difficult to meet in person all this time, so our visit was my topic for today's page.

December Daily - Day 9

Since I made the suggestion a few months ago to go to the States next year, my mom has been in planning mode. I managed to rein her in for a while, arguing that I wanted to focus on this year's vacation first. However, when next year's holiday brochures became available this week, there was no escaping my mom's enthusiasm anymore. We spent from approx. 7.30 p.m. until 12.30 a.m. (!) Friday night making plans and looking up info online...

December Daily - Day 8

Not much happened today, so I made a page about my traineeship at work (that takes up 1 day per week).

December Daily - Day 7

My cousin and I went to the theater last night and saw a well-known Dutch comedian, so of course I had to document it... The page on the left is a flyer from the show.

December Daily - Day 6

I brought all the treats I made this weekend to work, and especially the cheesecake and yoghurt cake were a big hit!
My mom called me in the afternoon, asking whether my colleagues had enjoyed the cakes and pie. She let it slip that my dad had been sorely disappointed the night before when he came home to a delicious smelling house, but found nothing to satisfy his sweet tooth. He settled for a couple of fried eggs instead ;-)
There was some banana cake left over, so I brought it over after work. That got me back in his good graces, hahaha!

December Daily - Day 5

While most people in Holland were celebrating St Nicholas's birthday yesterday, my mom was determined to set up her traditional Christmas village...
While she was busy doing that, I made 2 more treats for work: cheesecake (a new recipe - I wonder how it turned out!) and one of my favourites, rhubarb pie.

{BTW, both recipes can be found on my recipe blog!)

December Daily - Day 4

I spent the greater part of the weekend baking birthday treats for work. Naturally that had to be a topic for my DD album.

The best part of baking? Eating the left-over batter from the bowl afterwards ;-)

{BTW, the recipes for both the banana loaf and the lemon yoghurt cake are posted on my recipe blog}

December Daily - Day 3

Since we didn't go out to eat on my birthday (I wasn't feeling up to it after walking around the Zoo all afternoon), we postponed it a day.

I just noticed that I haven't used a lot of my gathered supplies so far ;-)
That always seems to happen - I select a bunch of embellishments and still end up keeping it 'clean & simple'. Oh well...

December Daily - Day 2

My birthday!

A strange day, since it's the first without my grandfather, who I share my birthday with (he died last April and would have been 86 today).

After visiting the cemetary, my parents and decided to do something fun for the rest of the afternoon and went to the Zoo.

Project Life 2011 - November update

Another month's gone by and here's my PL update for November:

What happened in November:
- my dad turned 60
- annual maintenance for my heater
- breakthrough in local missing person's case
- 2 of my pets died
- Breaking Dawn Part I in theaters {WOOT!}
- wedding announcement of my cousin
- visit to (another) Craft Fair
- parking licence woes
And I started Everyday Creative of course!

December Daily - Day 1

First day of December Daily!

Since it is World AIDS Day, I decided to document an annual tradition of mine: the purchase of the Stop AIDS Now Art Bag.
For the past few years, 3 well-known designers each design a special Art Bag. The proceeds of the sales go to AIDS charity. I think I've bought an Art Bag every year since it first started.

Here's today's spread:

December Daily - page foundation

Only a few more days until December Daily starts!
I'm working on some last minute preparations: printing the page foundations so I'll only have to print out my photos and write my journaling on the day itself.

I'm using Ali Edwards' digital products from Designer Digitals  that she designed specifically for this year's December Daily (they had their quarterly sale recently, so that was the perfect moment to get them).

overlays                                           templates

Since the photo quality of my old printer wasn't what it used to be, I even treated myself to a brand-new Canon printer!  This project will be perfect for breaking it in ;-)

crocheted hat

After I finished my bedroom slippers, I had some yarn left over and I decided to use it to make a scarf. Then I ran short and had to buy some more yarn. When I finished the scarf I had leftover yarn again, so I thought I'd crochet a hat. You guessed it, somewhere halfway through I ran out and had to buy some more yarn...
Of course Murphy's Law was in full effect and my local store had sold out. So I went to another branch today and finally managed to get some more yarn and finish the hat...

I planned ahead this time and bought some additional yarn to make mittens - they will be posted once I've finished them ;-)

Anyways, I did not use a pattern for this hat. I crocheted a circle and when I thought it was wide enough to fit my head, I just crocheted until I could pull the sides over my ears - LOL.

{photo to follow}

December Daily - daily topics

Sometimes I have so many things going through my mind, that I need to write them down or I'll forget half of them. For December Daily, I plan to focus on 1 topic per day, and in order to clear my head I decided to make an overview of events that are already planned for this month:

Seeing it written down makes me realize I'm actually pretty busy this month!

Beijing a.e.

The 3rd LO that I started this weekend is finished: a collection of pictures of Beijing and environs.

Dancing in the Dark - um, PARK

Here's the 2nd finished LO that I started last Saturday, about a visit to one on the major public parks in Beijing.
While people would probably consider you crazy in many Western countries if you'd started to dance or belt out a song in public (flash mob notwithstanding...), it is very common to see people work out or play in Chinese public parks. However, it's mostly the elderly that spend their free time this way, and this phenomenon is in serious danger of disappearing as the younger generation don't have the time (or inclination) to socialize in the cities' parks.

Visiting the Tian Tan Gong Yuan (park surrounding the Temple of Heaven) was one of the highlights of the trip, in my opinion.

Highlights of China

Yesterday I visited one of my scrapbooking friends for a crop and started 3 pages with my China photos. I only brought limited supplies with me, so I wasn't able to finish them.
I spent some time today putting the finishing touches on one of them, and here it is:

Project Layout A Week 2012 (a.k.a. PLOAW)

When I started Project Life a few months ago, I also joined a PL Yahoo-group initiated by M., a fellow scrapbooker. Most of the participants are doing weekly PL spreads (whereas I decided to do monthly spreads) and since that proved to be quite labour-intensive, many found that they hardly did any 'regular' scrapbooking this past year.

M. came up with the idea to do a layout a week in 2012, instead of another Project Life album. I suggested that we could maybe incorporate a weekly challenge to stretch our creative muscles, so to speak. The idea was well-received and I was asked to be in charge of the challenges.

So the past 2 days I've spent collecting challenge ideas for PLOAW: Project Layout A Week. Starting in January, you'll see the results...

Knitted collar scarf

Turns out knitting is a lot like riding a bicycle: once you know how, you never unlearn ;-)
It's been a good 10 years since I last knitted something, but I had no problem picking it up again!

I was inspired by fellow China traveller N. to knit a collar scarf in the same wool I used for my bedroom slippers. She said hers took only 50 mins to complete (crocheting), but all in all I spent 3 nights on it.  (note to self: crafting is NOT a race!)

I didn't have a pattern, I just eyeballed it. I set up 60 stitches on no. 8 needles and knitted approx. 25cm K2P2 ribbing. I crocheted the seam closed and tadaah, another scarf done!


{photo to follow}

December Daily 2011 - album

These past few days I've been working on my December Daily album. I initially thought about making my own wire album using cardboard scraps, but then I remembered the cute little We R Memory Keepers 6"x8" mini album I recently used during a workshop, and decided to buy another one and alter it.

I figured the most efficient way to go about this was to spray paint the in- and outside of the album. So I bought a can of all-purpose white spray paint and went to town.

(spraypainting in progress)

Unfortunately the spray paint didn't work very well: for some reason the paint didn't take well on the canvas cover (contrary to the insides of the cardboard box...) It also took forever for the paint to dry. 

Time for plan B...

I decided to go ahead paint the album with off-white acrylic paint using a small roller. This worked pretty well, but both the inside and the outside needed several coats and still remained somewhat blotchy.

(spraypainted cover before rolling on the acrylic paint)

Time for plan C: glimmer mist! I checked my stash and decided to go with silver glimmer mist instead of pearl. I sprayed both sides of the cover with 2 layers of glimmer mist.

(you can barely make out the glimmer mist)

And here it is, both the before and after. I still need to add some embellishments, but the base is done.

Crocheted bedroom slippers

I found a pattern online to crochet really cute slippers.
However, since I used a thicker yarn and needle, I had to adjust the pattern somewhat and the end result is a bit more, um, robust, shall we say? ;-)
All in all, not a bad result for only a 2nd crocheting project, if I do say so myself!

the materials: 2 balls of yarn and a no. 6 crochet needle (US: J / UK: 4).

After 1 night.

After 2 nights.

After 3 nights. Tadaaah! All done!

ETA: to make the top a bit more snug so the slippers wouldn't slip off my feet, I wove some elastic yarn along the opening.

December Daily - gathering materials

December Daily is a project by scrapbooking guru Ali Edwards. For the past few years, she's made an album counting down the month of December until Christmas, documenting all the everyday things that make the holiday season special.

This year I'm thinking of doing a similar album, for the entire month of December (so up until New Year's Eve).

Today I spent some time on one of the most fun parts of scrapbooking in general: gathering stuff. Like any true scrapbooker, I have tons of supplies... The best part? I came across things that I've had forever, and seem perfect for this project! (Note to my mom: See? Hoarding is NOT necessarily a bad thing!)

Here's what I pulled out of my stash:

paper and vellum

other odds and ends: stickers, bling, ribbon, rub-ons etc.

Will I use everything on this project? Not likely.

Will I end up using additional supplies? Probably.

But that's OK, 'cause getting all these things together has already set the creative wheels in motion ;-)

Bag accessory

A while ago I bought this turquoise Nepalese bag (in Paris, France of all places...). Although I loved the bag, it had a hideous wooden key-chain-type hanger adorning it, and I've wanted to change it for the longest time.

At last weekend's craft fair, I came across little crocheting kits to make a bag accessory. And guess what? They had them in turquoise too!

So that's what I've been upto yesterday evening and this afternoon. It's - literally! - been decades since I last crocheted ANYTHING, so it took a bit longer than it would have taken a seasoned crocheter to make the layered flower. I had to check my newly purchased crochet guide several times to reacquaint myself with the different stitches... A great little project to refresh my memory, though!

 The kit's content.

Progress after day 1: the crocheting part is done.

The final result.

Project Life 2011 - October update

Project Life is a scrapbooking method that was developed a few years ago by well-known scrapbooker Becky Higgins. The initial idea was to take at least one photo each day and create a weekly overview in an album using divided pageprotectors.
Since its launch afew years ago, Project Life has changed into a versatile scrapbooking method that is not only used for creating weekly spreads anymore. Some people use it to document their children's school careers. Some use it to document the stages of pregnancy, or their baby's first year. Some people, like myself, use it to make monthly overviews instead of weekly overviews (my life is too uneventful to fill a 2-page spread each week - LOL)

I did not start my own Project Life (PL) until halfway into the year - which meant a lot of back log. I'm pretty much caught up with photos and memorabelia, but journaling is always a big obstacle for me.

Today I focussed on updating my PL for October.

What happened in October:

- trip to China

- visiting a Crafts Fair

- autumn walk with my mom

- dentist visit

- back to working regular hours

Spool-knitted scarf

And... we're off! My first project is finished and it took me 2 nights to complete.

Everybody remembers those mushroom-shaped knitting spools from when they were in school, right?
Well, apparently there are also hand-cranked spool-knitting implements (a.k.a. 'knitting nancys') that make spool knitting a breeze!
I had never seen one before, but last weekend I visited a craft fair and at one of the booths they were demonstrating a 4-needle knitting nancy. One of the projects that were shown was a scarf made of knitted strings. I thought it was very original and bought the knitting nancy and 2 balls of yarn on the spot!

So here's what I've been up to these past 2 nights:

The materials: a knitting nancy and yarn. Also used: scissors and a needle.

Progress after 1 night.

Finished scarf after 2 nights.

And this is what it looks like when worn!


You can find brief general instructions here. It appears a pattern of a spool-knitted scarf was featured in a Phildar knitting magazine sometime last year. You basically spool-knit 27 2-meter strings (as I only had limited yarn, I made fewer strings) of which you attach the ends together to make a circle. With a 28th piece of knitted string, you attach the other strings together, covering the sewn-together ends. Et voila!