A muddy affair

My youngest daughter Annebelle and I worked in the communal gardens at the allotment complex yesterday. There are all sort of jobs you can volunteer for: knotting willows, pruning roses, getting rid of weeds or emptying the dustbins. I must admit that I am never that keen, but working alongside Annebelle was fun!

We had to plant about twenty-five small conifers into a muddy patch near a stream. It proved virtually impossible. Because of the rainfall the clay was soaking wet and really heavy to dig. We got stuck several times and had to be careful not to fall face down into the mud.

We had a swirling Escher pattern in mind for the conifers, but when we showed it to one of our fellow gardeners afterwards, we were laughed at. We couldn't help laughing with him. Our design looked absolutely horrible and did not resemble any pattern at all! When finished we warmed up in our garden house with a cup of tea and had a good laugh about our muddy affair.

Most of the photo's in this post were taken yesterday, but the ones with the fine weather were taken last Wednesday, when I worked in the garden most of the day.

Have a wonderful week! Lets hope for some more sunshine.

Love,

Madelief x

* I took the photo of the snowdrops in my neighbours garden. Every time I walk past it I have snowdrop envy ;-) I have about four in my garden :-( They simply won't grow!

My new kitchen

Hello,

A long time ago, I promised to post a few photo's of my new kitchen. Here they are! I am really happy and very proud to show them to you The plinths still need adjusting, the tiles grounding and a bookshelf still has to be attached to the wall, but furthermore the kitchen is ready for use.

I had to make a few sacrifices along the way, due to the lack of space in my tiny kitchen and the high costs, but it all turned out fine in the end. It's such a joy to have an oven that works properly  and kitchen cupboard doors that no longer hang off their hinges.

The girls and I had to get used to the black marble worktop and the handmade Spanish tiles, but I think it looks lovely in combination with the blue linoleum flooring and my collection of blue and white porcelain and earthenware.

How does your kitchen look like? Is it design, vintage or something else completely?

Wishing you a happy new week!

Love,

Madelief x

*Oh, I see I forgot to do the washing up. So sorry!!! :-)

Crochet flower patch pillow

 

Hurray! It's finished, my crochet flower patch pillow. Can't tell you how pleased I am to show you. Ready on time for the gardening season to start and to make a beginning with new and different projects.

I love the way the pillow looks, it's bright, sunny, colourful and useful. Many of my crochet projects end up somewhere in the back of a cupboard, but not this one. It will be lovely in my garden house and even on my modern couch in the sitting room.

The pillow is easy to make. Simply because there is no pattern. You can just crochet the flowers that you like and sew them on the pillow cover. I chose eight colours to work with. A project like this is perfect for left over cotton yarn.

I made daisies, simple flowers, daffodils, roses, rosebuds, narcissus and flowers that did not look like flowers at first, but turned out fine in the end :-) . I can tell you, it's a  joy to work on. Do sew them on the cover randomly and tumbling over each other, to create a bit of depth. Have fun!

Wishing you a creative new week and a Happy Valentines day!

Love,

Madelief x