Old pictures

When I started to sort through my dad's belongings

 after he passed away, I found an envelope with

 old pictures from the time when my parents were dating.

 I am really happy these didn't get lost because

 my parents got divorced just after I left the house,

 which is more than 30 years ago. 

These pictures are +/- 60 years old.

(my dad studied at the Royal Military Academy in the Netherlands)

Yarn Along {May 2019}

I am knitting Gryer by Isabell Kraemer. 

Gryer is a beautiful shawl I have knit before, 

but the yarn I used was not the best for this pattern.

 This time I am using Woolfolk TOV

 (I found the yarn at 50% off)

 and love it so much more. 

The colourways I'm working with are Natural, 

Sand and Fig (although to me this is more

 like a "chocolate brown").

  

The book I'm reading (another 50 pages to go) 

is the same as last time:

The thirteenth tale by Diane Setterfield. 

It isn't as much about books as I hoped it

 would be and after I read 1/3, I forced myself

 to start all over again because

 I had the impression I missed parts of the story

 (which might be because I mostly read

 this book at bedtime 😊).

Linking up with Small Things today.

Who was Nico Ammerlaan?

When my dad's partner passed away and the

 apartment was cleaned out, 

my sister took a box full of family pictures.

Last weekend I started sorting things

 out and found a beautiful picture of a young man.

My paternal grandmother wrote on it: 

"My oldest brother Nico, 28 years old, 1924. 

Died at the age of 30, 1926".

(why oh why didn't my grandmother write on the backside of the picture?)

This is really bizarre, because I have never heard

of him before. I cannot remember my dad

mentioning his name once. I am so curious

now who he was and why he died so young.

Yarn Along {March}

We bought this work of art when we were

 in South Africa in 2015. It found its place

 in our guest room and I loved the colours so

 much that I started a granny square blanket

 in the same colourway.

Because I really wanted the blanket to be

 ready before summer, I did a lot of crochet

 these past weeks. So, today is the day that I can share my joy in having finally finished my

 African granny square blanket 😉. 

And I started reading "The Thirteenth Tale" 

last weekend. 

Books about books ❤❤❤.

(Linking up with Small Things today!)

Christmas 2018

All the kids are in the house and we are ready to celebrate.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Yarn Along {December}

I'm linking up with Ginny for Yarn Along today.

I am currently working on a shawl. 

It's quite a challenging project because I'm 

not a very experienced knitter and I keep

 making mistakes. 

I have ripped out so many rows already

 because I won't wear the shawl

 when I know I dropped a stitch in row 25 ;).

I didn't read a lot this month because of 

my knitting, but I am planning on starting "The eight mountains" by Paolo Cognetti" this weekend!

Sergei Polunin, "Take Me to Church"

The kids and I have watched this video

 at least a hundred times. 

He is so, so good.

Christmas knitting

I knitted these hot water bottle covers 

without a pattern, because they are really fun

 and easy to make. 

After uploading the photos I realized that I used

 red skeins from a different dye-bath, 

but I can live with that!

Dancing

Last summer in July my daughter performed with her dance school in the "Theatre de la ville de Luxembourg" and we received the photos this week. 

Some of them are really cool.  

^ She loves hiphop and these two photos are her favorites.

She also dances jazz and ballet, but she likes hiphop more.

Dancing means the world to her and her mama is so thankful for this passion in her life.

Yarn Along {November}

Today I'm linking up with Ginny from Small Things. 

Now that autumn is finally here (love it!),

 I picked up my needles again. 

I'm making a couple of hot water bottle

 covers for Christmas. 

I used an easy 4 row repeat knitting pattern,

 which is perfect because

 1) it looks really nice and

 2) I can easily see my mistakes. 

I am currently reading The Baltimore boys

 (I read in German most of the time)

 by the Swiss author Joël Dicker. 

Although I loved 

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair

a little bit more, this is still a very good

 book and I am really enjoying it.