Birthday

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 :)

Colombian Stuff

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)

Knitted wannabe vikings

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!

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...

Work...


and play.

Blijdorp Zoo

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

Tapis de Bayeux in Leiden

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

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

Guppywood

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.

Lot's to tell

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!

Back from Ribe

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

One day left..

... 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

nip or nap? & Fiber

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.