she's góód !

Today daughter and kids

went to the "Castlefest" Keukenhof, Lisse.

(this Sunday was the last of the four days

of performances, costumes, music, eating and FUN)

She has been working these last few weeks to make

fun outfits ...

You've seen it growing.

But when you go there you need to bring "stuff"

and you don't want to "spoil" your costume !

So together with the fierce Dragon rider Hiccup,

there was Toothless, his dragon :

trolley "Toothless"

Is she good or is she good !

(or am I prejudiced ...)

*

Yesterday we had our very special

Alpaca knitting club LUNCH !

This time we went to 

"De Buytenhof"

(if you live near Rotterdam I can gladly recommend

that you go there someday !!!
They have a lovely restaurant with good food, a shop,
you can pick flowers, strawberries or apples
depending what time of the year it is, of course )

Outside, in the shade of a screen

(it still promised to be another HOT day)

Some things finished, some things still in progress ...

And later :

a delicious lunch !

*

Last week my sweet "Queen of the night" bloomed again.

(Epiphyllum oxypetalum)

(number 8 and 9 !)

*

Slowly (my back is getting a bit better)

there comes a new necklace

Black, white, GRAY

I'm trying my luck with black beans too ...

???

what a pleasure !

Daughter and I went to a workshop at HAWAR

together with a dear UK friend (who lives in Holland)

As soon as I saw the announcement 

in the HAWAR news letter in spring that 

Judit Pócs

(from Hungary)

would be giving some workshops there

we started to make arrangements  to go !

Judit was one of the felting teachers

we definately wanted to go to

and now the opportunity came on our path !

We chose the 2-day jewelry workshop in the weekend

So early last Saturday morning we drove north to Oldeberkoop

(since we were early enough we could do a little shopping

in Meinie's wonderfully stuffed shop)

After coffee/thee and introductions we could start !

It was dicided we all would start with something small : a ring.

Judit explained the first steps 

and then everyone could start and try all the various little steps on their own.

(with lots of help from Judit if we weren't sure how to proceed)

Ahhhh ..... these wonderful strong and able hands !

All too soon 

it was time for the wonderful HAWAR lunch 

on the terras outside, because we had lovely sunny weather.

Lunch at HAWAR 

(this time prepared by Spanish Paco)

is always such a treat !

After lunch some continued the ring,

others started on a pendant or bracelet.

The three of us had a delicious dinner at Hotel Lunia 

after we brought our bags to the B&B.

Our homework was to make a design for what

we wanted to make the next day.

Some inspiration Judit brought with her

Our designs for pocket necklace/belt.

From the previous day we knew we had to work very hard

to be able to make a good start on our project.

There were so many little things you had to do 

before you could go on with the rest of the piece ...

felting is always thinking and planning ahead !!!!!!!

Well, it wasn't a big problem 

if the piece wasn't finished when we would be going home,

because we have been felting for quite some time now,

so know how to proceed ...

(in fact only one of us ladies had a really finished piece in the end)

Friend Jane worked really really hard,

daughter did finish the ring and little pocket here today,

my ring still needs some work, 

the little bag is nowhere near finished,

and the pendant (that I finished today) waits for 

embroidery and a cord with closure.

(it will be a "fire" necklace)

Lots still to do, but oh my,

what a load of new things we learned.

It was such a pleasure to have Judit for a teacher !!!!!

She's a great artist !

THANKS  JUDIT  !

I bought Judit's lovely book, so I can enjoy looking at her work

and probably get even more inspiration

 to maybe incorporate in my own work.

;-)

what a weekend !

Yes

I very much enjoyed this weekend workshop

with Sara Lechner !

It was so góód in many ways.

Hawar is housed in an old school building.

Downstairs there is an exhibition area

and a shop with LOTS of goodies,

while the studio, two old classrooms, is on the first floor.

The lovely couple Meinie and Harm "run the show"

There were 14 of us

(and a lot of "embellishers")

Sara works a lot with this machine,

and you can do amazing things with it, rather easily

(but just be careful not to break any needles)

For me it was the first time,

I don't even have a machine,
others brought their own,

but Hawar had many machines we could use together.

On the first day we tried many different things

just to get the feeling of the technique,

to mix colours,

and to make little pieces into a bigger one

(but thát's really easy : a short overlap ... and punching !)

The Art Route "Open Stal", that's held in Oldeberkoop this month,

gave Sara inspiration for a new piece

It was finished during this class

and later joined the other beautiful art pieces Sara had brought along from home.

At first we worked in colour

and later mostly in white.

Right in the middle we were treated to a delicious Hawar-lunch

outside !

After this first inspiring day I could join a lovely bunch of ladies

(who know each other from another (felting) class)

and we dined on the terrace of a hotel

in the late evening sun.

Later, in my B & B room, I started with a bit of stitching.

On day two I was a really slow starter, I don't know why,

but eventually we worked on some new technique : making bowls

and we did some embroidery ...

while Sara started on her second piece, made of the test pieces in white,

and demonstrated her way of stitching

it was amazing to see it grow !

The last thing we did before saying goodbye

and having a last meal with newly made friends,

was visit Meinie at the shop.

Mmmmmmmmmm

(better than the internet, because you can féél it

and see the colours right !)

These goodies will bring a lot of fun !!!

(o boy, what a present !)