friday morning

Friday morning.

Together at the kitchen table, Henk working from home and i'm having a day off.

We are already quite used to it, although for me it is less drastic because I still go to work at Villa Augustus 3 days a week.

The desk in the living room we hardly ever use.
I always like to sit at the kitchen table, which now is Henk's office during the day.

Especially in the morning when the sun is shining it's a lovely space, and Henk allows me to sit at his desk haha...

This morning i was working on assembling the new loopy patchwork pillow i've made this week.

We drink coffee together and both do our own thing. We're glad we have adult children and no home schooling at the kitchen table.

marvelous marrakech workshop preparations

Final preparations for the Marvelous Marrakech workshop are in full swing. Have been working on the last details for the workshop program this afternoon. Next to a bunch of sunflowers from the Villa Augustus garden and enjoying the late summer sunshine in my studio.

I can't wait to return to Marrakech and I'm super excited to meet everyone!

In exactly two weeks from now we will kick off with the traditional welcome dinner on the roof terrace at Chambres d'Amis!

studio tour

All the walls in my studio are white now.

I've been painting the only colored wall in my atelier white too last week and it looks so much brighter. Moreover, the sun is shining for days now!

I love white walls! It's the perfect base for all the colorful items in the room.
The wool cabinet, moroccan carpets, framed photos, 'green table' with plants and my handmade pillows in the workspace are making the interior pretty bright and colorful.

It is wonderful to be here and so cool I do not always have to clean up all my stuff...

atelier

Atelier. I love the sound of the elegant french word for ‘workspace’.

In the past months I've moved my workspace items, the entire wool collection, a desk, a sofa and a lot of vintage furniture to the spare room in our house. It's completely decorated with items we already stored in barn and attic. In the meantime it is slowly taking shape and it's an inspiring place and wonderful room to work. Moreover it's a great space to relax on the sofa.

It's great to have a special spot to call your 'own'.

summer project

The harlequin herringbone pattern.

My two favorite patterns meet each other in this handmade rug, also to be used as a blanket.

You can find the harlequin herringbone pattern with a lot of detailed photo's, so you can make your own harlequin herringbone rug or -blanket. It's a very nice project to work on, because you can make a harlequin a day and finally all the small daily projects, will end up as a rug or blanket.

You can download the P A T T E R N in my Etsy shop.

crochet-climb a palm tree

Love my job!

I'm working on some brandnew crochet projects for the COOL CROCHET WORKSHOP in May.
Since some of the participants already joined us during the previous workshops and I love to work on new crochet projects anyway.
Inspired by the PINEAPPLE PATTERN I've designed some years ago, I would love to blend in the green theme into the Cool Crochet workshop.
I'm using my endless spools of cotton and wool from Marrakech.
It's not easy to work with 3 different colours in a row, but I like a challenge.

Because we work on a different project every workshop day, it had to be a small project.
So I've worked out a cute palmtree. I might sew on the back of my denim jacket or it will be a mini wall hanging?

Yesterday I started to draw the pattern on paper and made a start with the tree trunk and now I slowly 'crochet-climb' up to the palm leaves!

s t u d i o

S T U D I O

My workspace is featured in the new S T U D I O book by author Sally Coulthard, published by Jacqui Small.

It's a very inspiring book about creative workspaces for creative people. I'm very happy and proud to be one of the creative people in this book.
You can find lots of bright ideas from the real-life studios of artists, crafters, designers, writers and painters.

A workplace is a place that feeds your imagination. Creating a perfect studio won't happen overnight, it's a growing process and that's how it should be.

Thank you Sally for including my workspace inside this fantastic S T U D I O book.
Studio will be released on March 16, 2017. You can pre order the book now.

unforgettable moments of 2016

2016 has been a great year.

12 photos, 1 for each month. Randomly chosen.

Those golden sneakers travelled a lot this year.
Londen in February, with my son Minne.
Marrakech in April, for another Cool Crochet workshop.
Paris in June, with my love Henk, son Minne and my friend Rosa.
In July we often went for a day to our favorite beach in Zeeland.
Berlin in August, just the two of us, to celebrate my birthday.
Portugal in September for an amazing roadtrip from Porto to Lisbon.
Marrakech once more, for the 6th Cool Crochet workshop.
The last months of 2016 I've been at home a lot, to work on new projects and enjoy my family and just being at home together.

Two thousand and sixteen was a wonderful year with many happy memories!
I am grateful for that and I'm looking forward to the new adventures in 2017!

Thanks for following my blog and Happy New Year to you all! Xx

oficina de mi casa

Office update.

A few new items in my workplace.
The steel vintage hospital table serves as my desk and I have turned it sideways so I can look into the living room.
The banana plant on my desk is slowly becoming a banana tree.
The blue A we bought last Friday in Amsterdam (see previous post)
...and the new harlequin herringbone rug fits in nicely anywhere.
I put it on the floor for the occasion, but we use it as a blanket on the sofa, now it's becoming colder.

flowered vintage paper

New stuff on my desk. I found an old paper roll cutter & dispenser, including a lovely roll of vintage wrapping paper.

beside the banana tree

I love spring changes in the house. Brighten up the space!

The old grey sorting cabinet on my desk moved to the attic for the time being.
It's a piece of furniture you can easily stuff with everything, you don't know where to put. So this happened all the time, everyone in the house is putting things in those 'sorting boxes'; keys, sunglasses, postcards, receipts, half a dozen chargers, scissors, but most of all 'things that absolutely must not get lost'

It was about time to tidy up my desk and get rid of the 'unnecessary' and I obviously moved a lot of stuff to other cabinets and drawers, but at least my desk is not a stockroom any longer.

The banana plant, that has awakened from its hibernation in the attic, has taken place on my desk.

It feels good, working beside a banana tree!