Slow blogging: analog photography

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language" Henry James

This is one of the last pictures I took with my digital camera. Last weekend, it fell into the paddling pool while I was playing with my daughter... :-) So now, I'm going retro with my husbands analog mirror reflex camera from 1985 (and keep it away from the pool!). It's really going to be an interesting experience in slow blogging: there's "such" a time delay between taking an analog picture and being able to post it here :-)

Crocheted throw, work in progress

My crocheted throw is slowly getting bigger :-), but it's still not big enough... At first, I wanted it it to be the size of an Ikea baby bed, but then I decided I'd better make one for a children's bed, so my daughter can sleep under it longer. So, more crocheting for me to do :-)

One of the best/worst things of reading blogs, is that I always see something beautiful/supercool that inspires me so much I feel I want to start crafting right away. I had this feeling this morning when I saw this crocheted throw by Alicia Paulson. You can also buy the tutorial here. If I ever have another baby, I know which blanket to crochet:-). I also love the way she styled the photo. It reminds me that I've still got a long way to go...

Celebrating summer

Nothing better than to celebrate the beginning of summer with a bowl of cherries! Especially when both the cherries and the bowl happen to be in my favorite colors :-)

The bowl was a lucky thrift store find, and a great addition to my collection of vintage enamelware. I love collecting, but I use three rules when it comes to buying enamelware:

1) it must have a golden band
2) it must be in good condition, with a nice color
3) I will not pay more than 5 euros :-)

These rules really save me from buying too much :-)

Smocked dress 1974

I'm experimenting with 14th century smocking/pleadwork (blogged at medieval silkwork here). While looking for honeycomb stitch tutorials, I found this gorgeous smocked dress from 1974 (and I love this color too.. :-) Smocking can be a bit frumpy, old fashioned, but here it's used in a totally modern way. The image is from a Dutch translation of the Time Life Needlecraft series from 1974 (I can't find the original English title in the book.)

Poppy field

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Archive

I've been working on some 14th century embroidery, so I haven't posted for some time here.. In the mean time, I'm still browsing the New York Public Library Digital Archive, and I really really liked the image above :-)