On crocheting a border...

After getting back from our travelings in June the first thing to try out was creating a crochet border onto fabric... something I thought of trying for a while...  Two dear friends have their birthdays in Jun/July and while both like something vintage, I got right to it...
First was a visit to one of my favourite local fabric and wool shops, Thimbles to choose from their huge selection of fabric... I decided to attempt a vintage tray cloth... and then I designed a simple border pattern... I started of with blanket stitch all the way around - making the spikes onto the material as short as possible...

My husband and I love being creative over a cup of coffee and on a trip to a coffee shop his sketch book and my crochet work usually finds it way there also... and so my border progessed...

Eventually I was quite impressed with the end result...

The finale of Barcelona - Montserrat

You have to be on the first train to Montserrat every one told us - and there we miss the first train by 4min! So we had to wait a full hour for the next train at 9h30... The train ride being the best part of an hour still to get to Montserrat station, from where you can take a funicular or a cable car to the actually monastry high up in the mountains.
The Basilica was beautiful! ... and adding to a unique experience was the boys choir singing at 13h and a priest giving a few sentence message to the congregation, before closing down the ceremony with the 'Our Father' prayer - every one encouraged to pray it in their own language... what an experience!

We also took a 5 min funicular to the start of a kind of  'Holy Way'... situated on the edge of the high mountain... the walk way leads you from one statue installation to the other, depicting the Holy Way... until it ends at a cave that has been built out to form a little church... The views along the way were breath taking!

In the end with all the excitement and very dry air I lost my voice for a day or 2 and ended up with a throat infection! ... but not even that could make a dent in the most wonderful experiences me and the love of my life had during these two weeks!

Barcelona part 2

...directly after we arrived in Barcelona, we hit the streets... and the 'La Rambla' was high up on our list! We were warned against pick pockets and all their ways of getting you attention... So we were highly alert!  Luckily nothing weird happened.  We were highly impressed with Barcelona's underground train system! Very easy to find your way! And I had such a good time looking at amazingly beautiful shoes!  Everyone, although mostly dressed quite ordinary, had the most extraordinary shoes!

The Palau de la Musica Catalana was one of our absolute highlights!! It brought tears to our eyes to listen to music in the only concert hall in Europe lit by natural light, through a glorious stained glass 'reverse' dome!!

By day 2 we discovered where to have good tapas... and it was a nice walking distance to 'our' little tapas restaurant, close to the Sagrada Familia... still having full sunlight after nine in the evening!

Oh, and it was such fun to go on a quest to find "All we knit is love", a wool shop close to the Picasso museum... The first time it was siesta and they were closed - their pull down 'garage door' covered in beautiful graffiti.  The second time they were open and I had a 'ball' ;) of a time!!

Barcelona and Gaudi...

After our visit to Amsterdam was over, we flew to Barcelona... greatly excited to see Gaudi's art in real life!

The most amazing of all Gaudi's work must surely be the Sagrada Familia...

Then there are also the famous La Pedrera and the Casa Batllo...

Gaudi's architecture is something you can keep on looking at for a very long time!  So not what is usually done!

His Park Guell is another beauty! Especially his work in using mosaics...

His Serpentine bench being a total celebration of his mosaics!

The Netherlands - musings on our mid 2013 travel there...

I pledged to finish my musings on our overseas travels this mid-year.... before the end of 2013! So here I am... ready to let my thoughts ponder on our travel experiences yet again...

Amsterdam had the most amazing art...

It was wonderful to see my favourite Dutch magazine, 'Flow' in the shop around the corner of where we stayed!

...and we had loads of yummy foods... like these apple tart with proper Dutch cream ('slagroom') and coffee with milk ('koffie-verkeerd')...

 Strolling along the water streets of Amsterdam made us feel that this is real!  We explored the 9-streets ('9 straatjies') area where lots of arts are being sold :)

Oh, and all the bookshops were amazing! Especially the 10th most beautiful bookshop in the world, 'The American bookshop' on Het Spui!  Its claim to fame being a tree growing through its different levels.

...and then a visit to Amsterdam is not complete without cycling from Volendam to Marken and then catching the ferry back to Volendam... SO much fun!!

Then there were the art shops that I follow on facebook... that I had the chance of looking up in person!

Penelope Craft with the amazingly beautiful collection of wools was a certain highlight!!

What made our stay in Amsterdam especially memorable was the friends that we met up with...  Anne, I saw again - for the first time in 10 years! This pic was taken on Dam Square with the then recent coronation of the new king still very visible in pic's everywhere...

We will always have the most amazing memories of this experience in a country with its language very close to our own - which added so much to make our experience more interesting!

My heart's still dreaming

A friend of mine inspired me to came and have fun in blog world again :)
Go and say hi to Anneke who lives in Paternoster - a small sea side village. She loves to crochet and makes beautiful stuff!

I'm pledging to finish my musings on our travels in the mid year of 2013 and start posting my creative hearts dreaming again :)




These crocheted hearts swinging in the wind makes me think of Anneke .
These were made by Dianne for a crochet get together of a facebook group that celebrates crocheting in Cape Town ("Hekel innie Kaap").

Our days in Amsterdam1

Our time in Amsterdam ended up to be the fondest memories :)

The Rjiksmuseum impressed on me the amazingness of detail in paintings...






The Van Gogh museum got to me on so many levels... the amount of well known Van Gogh paintings to be seen... the colours he used... the interior enhancement with colour and music and detailed explanations of all...












The 'Stedelijk' brought modern art to our experience...

Day 1 in Amsterdam

To figure out the tram routes in Amsterdam was quite an ongoing challenge... but eventually on day 1 we made our way from Schipol to Central Station and then via tram to Overtoom... followed by a short walk and then we were at the studio apartment - our 'home' in Amsterdam for the next 8 days...






We did a quick visit to the Albert Hein store around the corner - to fill up on food supplies and then made our way to museum square.
We lingered outside the Rijksmuseum for a while - admiring the architecture...






.... and then made our way inside to buy 'the museumcard' - which gives you free access to lots of museums in NL for a year!



Then we were on our way to meet the lovely, Yvonne from muddleonthrough.blogspot.com
She stays in the cutest little town just outside of Amsterdam...



... and what a wonderful experience to meet up in person with one of the 'Creative Courage' e-course members!!
In her words... we chatted away as if we did it frequently :)

On returning home that first day after these first 'unreal' experiences that we've been planning for so long ... we passed out feeling so blessed!

Long overdue

O it has been much to long!! But here I am... :)
It has been almost 2 months since my husband and I returned from an amazing visit to Amsterdam and Barcelona!
All of what we experienced were so overwelming... that the words to try and describe it were totally lost... Yet with time I am getting some distance on all the experiences and I am going to try and share some of it...