A Vintage Easter

 

Unfortunately no photo's of my garden yet. I really hoped I would be busy planting, cleaning my greenhouse and outdoor kitchen, but alas. It's still cold in Rotterdam. A thin layer of ice is covering the car windows and plumes of white smoke rise up from the chimneys. The ground in the garden will probably be frozen. Violets, lupins and forget-me-nots are still waiting on our balcony, to be taken to the garden. I hope it won't be for much longer. Warmer temperatures must be on the way !

In today's post some photo's of my favourite teacups and vintage finds. I am very much into colourful necklaces at the moment and found some pretty ones from the 1970s. I can still remember my mother wearing similar ones. The memory makes me smile :-) In the background you can see some floral playing cards from an old quartets game. They are different from the ones I showed you last week.

We will stay at home for Easter. Celebrating with friends and family. I still don't know what to cook, but I hope I will get some last minute inspiration. What I know for sure is that our table will have a Vintage look, with handmade tablecloths and off course my floral china :-)

Will you be doing anything special?

A Happy Easter to you all! Have fun!

Love,

Madelief x

  

Real friendship knows no distance

This should have been a garden post, showing you the first spring flowers, but it's Arctic in Rotterdam and I did not feel like going to the garden at all. With strong north easterly winds and low temperatures, it is much more comfortable inside.  Hopefully, it will be better next week, because I find it difficult to wait!! I want to start digging and planting......:-)

Guess what? I found a desk for my craft room in the thrift store last week, together with two old packs of cards. I could not believe my luck! The table was less expensive than a pretty bunch of flowers and just what I have been looking for. It was part of a set, with two matching chairs, but a kind man in the store let me have the table only. I think I will give it a layer of chalk paint, but I am not sure of the colour yet. Suggestions are welcome!

A big hug to Koralee from Bluebird Notes and her friend Anne. They took the trouble to visit Rotterdam during their tour of Holland, to meet up with Dutch blogfriends.

Saskia, Jolanda, Frances, Lia and I had a lovely afternoon in House of Seasons, drinking tea and catching up!

I read a quote yesterday: 'Real friendship knows no distance'. It's so true!

Have a lovely week!

Love,

Madelief x

A dream come true?

Imagine winning 18 million Euro in the lottery. What would you do with the money?! Give part of it to your children, other relatives or charity, buy a house in some beautiful far away place or perhaps purchase that Hermes bag you have been wanting to call yours for ages?

That's what Jocelyn, a 46 year old housewife and blogger from Arras, with two grown up children, a difficult husband and a small haberdashery store, had to think about.  It has always been a fantasy of hers to be fashionably slim and become a stylist in Paris, where she would meet her knight in shining armour. Will she change her life in pursuit of her dreams, make a list of her desires?

If you would like to know how the story goes from here, I can recommend the latest book by the French author Grégoire Delacourt, called 'De lijst van al mijn wensen' in Dutch or 'The list of my desires' in English. I was pleasantly surprised!

I had to get used to Delacourt's style of writing. It's quite 'floral', as we used to say in Holland. Almost like poetry. It made me realise how difficult it must have been to translate it from French into Dutch. The translator did a good job.

The book is charming and absorbing. Jocelyn an amiable character, who you wish all the happiness she deserves.

A great compliment to Grégoire Delacourt, for describing Jocelyn's thoughts and feelings perfectly. Quite remarkable for a man ;-)!

If you like, you can read more about the book on the following blogs. They are worth having a look at.

ma 11-3: http://www.leescluborlando.nl/site/category/blog
wo 13-3: http://blog.alltheluckintheworld.nl
do 14-3: http://scrapenstitch.blogspot.nl
vr 15-3: http://guusjes-appeltaart.blogspot.nl
za 16-3: http://madeliefje-madelief.blogspot.nl
zo 17-3: http://elisanna.blogspot.nl
ma 18-3: http://jookieshandwerken.blogspot.nl
di 19-3: http://ing-things.blogspot.nl 
wo 20-3:http://leesdame.blogspot.nl


The photo's that accompany this post were made in my craft room. I found the teacups and plates on a flea market recently. The vintage Easter cloth was given to me by a dear friend. A big kiss to you Ilse!

Happy weekend!

Love,

Madelief x

Spring flowers

We had a glorious week in Holland. It was one of those March weeks, when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it's summer in the light and winter in the shade.

Unfortunately, the last sentence is not by me, but by Charles Dickens :-). Don't you think his description of a March day, captures it perfectly?! I thought it was appropriate for the fine weather we have been enjoying in Holland last week. I spent a few hours in the garden and even managed to sit in the sun for a little while. Sheer joy!!!

My granny square blanket is growing steadily. I still enjoy crocheting the squares, but now and then I like to make something else for a change. Last week  I crocheted some Spring flowers, which I used for a necklace and to pin on a bag.

The patterns came from a book I recently found, called 200 crochet flowers, embellishments & trims, which is really good. However, there are lots of tutorials to be found on the internet as well.

Tomorrow my brother will help me lay a new floor in our spare bedroom/craft room.  I found some old curtains in the loft from years ago, which I am shortening. I haven't found an old desk yet, nor a bedside table, but there are still a few changes I can show you. I will give you an update next week!

Happy weekend!

LOVE,

Madelief x