portugal

[photo was taken in the summer of 2016 in Portugal]

Bom dia!
The two of us are on a roadtrip in Portugal.

For the third time in a row we will spend our summer holidays in Portugal.
We will start our journey in the beautiful nature of the Rio Formosa area and travel to Lagos & Lisbon.

You can follow me on Instagram @woodwoolstool
Adeus!

slow summer evening

Summer is not over yet...
We are enjoying one of the last August summer evenings.

The turtle pillow was a project I already started in May and it truly turned out to be a S L O W project!

Between the pile of unfinished projects, the turtle emerged and I finally took the time to finish the slow turtle pillow last week.

Isn't he cute, chilling on the daybed?

new stuff on the sofa

New stuff on the sofa.

A couple of pillows I made recently, two harlequin and a brand-new herringbone design.

Some will soon be for sale in my Etsy shop.

Because of satisfactory enthusiasm, I had to post this colorful pillows-on-the-sofa picture...

small-shoulder-souk bag

Two new small-shoulder-souk bags.

Especially for the upcoming Cool Crochet Workshop in Marrakech in October, I designed a small crochet project for the first day.
A cross-body bag in two different versions, made with Moroccan cotton and wool from the Medina. Small, but not too small, with a shoulder strap and fringes.

For each workshop, I try to design at least one new item and a new crochet technique.
It's always the trick to create a day project that can be done in a few hours.
Furthermore I like it when everyone has the possibility to add something personal to the design, besides the use of color.
These two shoulder bags I've made recently and I use them almost daily.

cigale wall vase

A new cigale wall vase.

This French vintage vase we found at Magasin Horaz in The Hague yesterday.

With the Echinecea from the garden, in Dutch we call it sun hat (zonnehoed), it looks gorgeous on the wall at my desk.

cotton circle crochet

New in the shop.

Round multicolored handmade P I L L O W.

Two different sides, eight different bright summer colors.

spicy colors on the carpet

Spicy colors on the carpet.

Love this colorful wool, I've collected during my trips to Marrakech in the last years.

At the moment I'm working on a new harlequin project for the upcoming #coolcrochetworkshop in Marrakech in October...

lloyd's library

Browsing through an art book of Henri Matisse in the library at the Lloyd hotel in Amsterdam.

a m s t e r d a m

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It's always a challenge to avoid the touristic places in Amsterdam.
This time we discovered some cool places in Amsterdam East.

We visited a friend who just moved in to her new house. What an amazing place.
The funny thing is I took a photo of her house the day before (I loved it so much and said I could live there!), without knowing it's her house.
Together we had coffee & cake at All The Luck In The World, owned by another friend of mine, Jane.

In the afternoon we went to De Hallen and had lunch at the Kanarie Club.
And at the end of the day we had a rest on the roof terrace of ZOKU for a drink with a view.

After walking 'the half marathon of Amsterdam', we went back to our divine attic room in the Lloyd Hotel to rest for a while and we decided not to walk anymore and had diner on the sunny terrace, located on the south side of the Lloyd building.

amsterdam oost

Three days in Amsterdam.

The beautiful hotel room with a swing (and bath) in the middle of the high attic room, was the biggest birthday surprise I could wish for...

We stayed for the 4th time at the Lloyd Hotel, but this definitely was the nicest room ever!
Great historical building and perfect location in East to avoid the busy tourist parts of Amsterdam.

We had lunch at Bar Botanique and walked around the neighborhood, visited my friend Jane in her shop All The Luck In The World, climbed to the roof of the Nemo building and discovered many new special places in the always surprising capital.