And the winner is...

Hello lovelies!

It's time to announce the winner of the giveaway! But first a little update haha.

All is well here and everybody is enjoying a deserved holiday. Both Puck and Mr. L. love the stripy blanket that never got finished. It still needs some extra inches but when I want to continue working on it both hubby and dog snuggle under it and make it impossible. Who can blame them right?

I made some heartfelted rings by Tiny Owl Knits! It's a free pattern with a video tutorial to go with it. It was a knit a long and it was so fun to get all the supplies not knowing what the project would be. They are very easy to make and wear, this is how mine turned out: 

The picture was taken in the little sun we got here in Rotterdam. I look very tanned, I can assure you, this is an illusion ;-). You can see both the ring and my "tan" up close in the next picture:

Ok I won't tease you any longer, time to announce the winner! I enjoyed reading all of you comments about the small things you enjoyed. I drew a random number and that number represents a comment. I still don't know how to get this random number thingy on my blog so I made a printscreen:

ttttttttttttttttttttttrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................

And that is........The Craft Giraffe! Congratulations! So get a cup of tea and some needles cause you won yourself the woodland hoodlet pattern! 

I wish you and your families all a very merry Christmas and I'll see you all soon. 

Liebster blog award

What a nice surprise! This morning I checked in on my blog account and I found the sweetest thing, I've been nominated for a Liebster blog award! Isn't that something? 

Liebster is a German word meaning 'dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome'.


The sweetheart that nominated me is Shelley from the all4meggymoo blog. I know her through the One a day group and we check each others blog for progress we are making with our projects but also for support and to show each other some looooove. Thank you Shelley, I feel so lucky to get this award!


The idea of the Liebster blog is to give upcoming smaller blogs that you love and follow some credit. Isn't blogland a beautiful place? The blogs nominated cannot have more than 200 followers. 

The rules for the Liebster Award are:

1. Give a big virtual thank you hug to the person who nominated you. 

2.Share the love by revealing your top 5 picks and let them know!

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog post.

So, my top 5 in random order:

1. Diemie over haar toeren: a Dutch blog by Diemie. She is a very kind and loving person and also my first follower. She has been around this blog from the beginning and she has become a very good friend. It has been a bit quite at her blog, but I am sure that when see has some more time she will put up some great posts again. Thanks for your support Diemie!
2. Hilly town blue: Another member of the One a day group. She is a loving mum with two little ones which appear in her blog next to a lot of beautiful pictures and projects! She blogs very frequent and it is very relaxing to read her posts. 
3. Crafts from the Cwtch: Look at her new layout! Her blog just got even more pretty! Her blog is on fire, she posts a lot! I envy her for all those posts full of inspiration. She also makes her own patterns and shares it for free. She definitely deserves an award. She is also a very caring and kind person that shows a lot of support and is always around for a nice comment. 
4. Nicole and the Bee: Her blog is a very warm and lovely place to be around. She is a very talented person. She can knit, she can crochet, she can blog. Her posts often have a nice pinch of cynicism which always make me laugh! 
5. Haak-en-Stekie: I found this blog (again) through the One a day group. It is written by a wonderful lady named Stel. She makes very pretty projects and I love that she shares a bit of her world. She lives in South-Africa which so intriguing. I also love that she writes in her own language (which is similar to Dutch!) and in English. Always around to say hi. 

Take a little peek in there worlds and I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do. 

xxx Suzanne

16 hexipuffs and 50 followers

I think many of you feel the same way, having a blog changes how you look at things in live. For some reason you start to notice the small things that seemed insignificant before.

Treating yourself with some homemade cake and coffee, capturing the dog dreaming about running wild on the beach, the joys that come with the seasons like flowers and chestnuts.

This is one of the things that make my blog a special place where I can look back at a lot of special moments and gives me the chance to see special moments of others! But what makes it a really special place, are the other residents that are part of this little town in blogland. They show love, support, interest and more love.

 I appreciate it so very much! We’re nearing the end of 2011 and I never would have imagined that my blog would become an important part of my life. So I want to celebrate that 50 lovely people are following my blog at the moment. I also want to say a BIG thanks to you all!

So I am organizing a giveway, hurray! Since I am obsessed lately by all the pretty patterns of Tiny Owl Knits and enchanted by the magic of hexipuffs, the prize of this giveway will be a pattern of your choice from Tiny Owl Knits! I emailed the creator of these wonderful patterns and she was thrilled about the idea so this giveaway is a gift from Miss Stephanie herself! She is just the sweetest person in the world….ok maybe the second sweetest person (my mom’s the sweetest ;-)). 

Look for example at these ones. Just a tiny selection of all the wonderful patterns she made, look here for all the patterns she offers. 

So, what do you have to do if you want to win a free pattern? 

Leave a comment stating which small thing you recently enjoyed. 

State which pattern you would like to receive. 

I'll be drawing a winner randomly from the comments, but it has to be a comment from a follower. This is a 50 followers celebration after all. No worries, new followers can also participate!

You can participate until Friday the 23rd of December. I will announce the winner the next day.  

I'll leave you with a photo of a sweet little hexipuf, I have 16 right now! It was stolen by my dog, look at his face! He just knows it's mine, hand it over now naughty dog!

Hop over to Gingerbread girl blog for more crafty talents! 

Writer's block

A writer's block, that’s what they call it. 

I’ve been suffering from it lately and I’m fed up with it. I haven’t blogged for almost two weeks! Normally ideas for crochet projects pop into my head all the time, with no time to finish them all. Normally I have to fight my enthusiasm for all the things I want to craft, but right now I’m only fighting my laundry and dishes haha.

It might be due to the fact that all is grey and rainy here in Rotterdam:

I need some sunshine and warmth. Someone buy me a tropical island please! I look like an Eskimo when I walk the dog fighting harsh cold wind and even hail. It does give me an excuse to make some more knitted softness though,…..

….

Nope, even that doesn’t inspire me enough, *sigh*. But, there is one thing that offers some light to the end of this tunnel:

Hexipuff mania!

They are my salvation. No thinking how and what, just puffing away. Each one a small little project with its own colors, squishiness and flaws (look at the huge pink one, it needs to go on a diet haha). They are all unique and I love them. I take them with me all the time. I still have to make the perfect hexipuff bag, for now they are in a little felted pouch that I made.

I wanted to do dome felting after I saw this post on the Crochet with Raymond blog. I will defenitely make another felted bag for my needles! This one isn't perfect but it’s nice and soft, it's like the puffs are sitting in a cloud. 

When you are working on you puff you can turn the hem and the bag will turn in to a basket! 

I even took my hexi-kit with me to dinner with my little brother, eating my favorite dish: sushi! You should have seen the faces of the people sitting next to our table: “why is she making a picture of a little wooly…thingy?” Hilarious!

I have 14 hexipuffs right now, and they just continue growing in numbers. I wanted to make a pillow with them, but now I really want to make a quilt. I really keep it up it will be a reall big ol’quilt by the end of 2012. I’ll keep you posted on the hexi-mania.

Speaking of which, tune in again for my next post. My blog has 50 (!!) followers, my oh my, and that needs some celebration. I'll be organizing a giveaway and the price will be very special and it has something to do with the kindness of Miss Tiny Owl Knits.

See you soon and let’s hope this writer's block will disappear as well as the rain.