My Little Crochet Princess

It is hat and scarf weather here in New Zealand! The other night Holland helped her Daddy pull a carrot out of the garden...a rather large carrot! :)
Holland now has her very own "Sydnee Rose Hat" from my crochet princess collection. My husband loved how well she looked in it and insisted I make one for her too. (The original hat was designed for a friend's daughter.)
I found some lovely rose-coloured yarn to make Holland's in. I am planning to design a coordinating sweater set ("jersey" as Kiwi's say) to go with this hat.
Opa & Oma from the Netherlands will be here to visit us in a couple days. Holland will have to take good care of Oma, as we hear she has twisted her ankle. Poor Oma!

Slipper Swap

I was recently invited to join a slipper swap group on Ravelry. I suppose it's because I have quite a few slipper patterns and they think I like to make slippers! :)
It's quite a neat idea really...I'll be given the name, address, shoe size, favorite color, etc. of a random person from the group to make a pair of crocheted slippers for. My name will be given to another random member of the group...so I'll never know who will be making slippers for me, or when they might arrive on my door step!
I may come up with a new slipper design for this and name them..."The Slipper Swap Slippers" or something. :)
Today I finally made the adult version of my flower petal mary janes. It's gotten a little chilly in NZ and these will keep my toes nice and warm!

Little Mischief

I'm very happy to report that my lost crochet hook has finally been found by my husband--now I need to think of a reward for him. :) Holland has learned recently how to put things in the garbage and although the hook didn't quite make it into the garbage (thankfully!), it was found very close by! It must be a phase. She is having fun taking clothes out of drawers and trying to put them back in. This morning, as I was working on the soles for some custom daisy baby flip flops, she almost put one in my morning coffee cup! Fortunately, I caught it in time before it fell in! Her daddy calls her "Little Mischief!" and the name fits!
Soon her Opa and Oma from the Netherlands will be here to visit us. They haven't seen Holland in 7 months, so we are looking forward to the reunion. I've been requested to make some slippers for Oma before she comes...luckily I have that favorite crochet hook of mine now to make them!

Lost: Favorite Crochet Hook! Reward!

I lost my favorite crochet hook last night. It is a blue "Boye" F hook with most of the paint worn off. It was given to me by my sister, Laurie, when I was about 10 years old and I've been using it ever since. I let Holland play with it last night for a few minutes, along with some leftover yarn and now I cannot find it! It is no doubt around the house somewhere, but I haven't discovered its hiding place yet!

Today I began making some of my knit-look fingerless gloves in black for my friend, Ann. I wanted to use my missing F hook for this...but had to use a substitute hook which is unmarked...maybe an F or G hook...and it too has a story behind it! It was given to me by my grandfather! He died when I was 8 years old and I didn't know him very well, but I do have this particular memory. One day when we were visiting, he took a double-ended hook that my grandma had and cut it in half so both my sister and I could have a hook to crochet with. Aren't Grandpas just the best! :)

Mother's Day

Holland took me out to dinner last night for Mother's day. We went to a local American wild west themed restaurant called Stampede. www.stampede.co.nz We had a lovely time and finished our evening by sharing a chocolate mud cake called the "Western Sweatheart." It's always nice to end the day with chocolate! :)
A friend of mine (you know who you are...Janis!) recently told me I'm old because my ravelry profile says I've been crocheting for 27 years! Nevermind that I was practically born with a crochet hook in my hand! :)
Holland will be doing some modeling for me later today...will post pics and new pattern on Etsy soon thereafter...

Here it is...the Sarah Elizabeth Scarf. One review so far, according to Sarah's mom: "WOW WOW WOW that is stunning, I love it!!!!"

Possum

This is our neighbour kitty, Possum. He just loves Holland. In this photo he was begging to come in (or for Holland to come outside and play with him.)

We are teaching our daughter both English and Dutch, and "cat" in both languages sounds very similar...but at the moment, all she knows is this is a "possum."

In these pics, Holland is modeling the "Sarah Elizabeth Hat" which is part of my Crochet Princess Collection. The coordinating "Sarah Elizabeth Scarf" will soon follow...

Rose Garden Mary Janes

I've been very busy lately crocheting a number of my kimono flower baby shoes for a customer from New York...but made time today to design some new baby shoes. I just love how these turned out! I plan to make a pair for Holland with fabric soles added so she can wear them outside.

Maybe next time I do a give-away on Etsy (to celebrate my 1,500th sale perhaps!?), it may just be a pair or two of these shoes... :)

Update...here's Holland in her new shoes. She's reading a Dutch book given to her by Opa & Oma van Klaveren.

The South Island

Here are a few photos from our recent tour of New Zealand's south island. We met many other tourists along the way, most from overseas...the Netherlands, Germany and England, mainly.
The photos don't do justice to the beauty of seeing it with your own eyes. You feel like you're walking/driving through the pages of the most beautiful scenic calendar ever!
We visited Mt. Cook, the highest point in New Zealand, which is just starting to be covered with snow this time of year.

Pictures of Picton

We've just returned home from a beautiful week-long tour of New Zealand's south island. We had gorgeous autumn weather and used the word "stunning" way too much! It was so nice to get away for a week!
Holland made new friends everywhere she went. This photo is of her and a friendly little girl she met after we arrived in Picton. We took the ferry from Wellington across the Cook Strait to the south island. You can see the ferry in the back ground on the photo of me and Holland.
We took many more photos and I will post the best of them here once I get them edited. :)

Away on Holiday

Holland Designs is about to go into vacation mode again...
We are leaving in the morning for a week-long trip to tour the south island of New Zealand. I've never been there before and all the "north island kiwis" have told me it is the most beautiful and amazing place. One lady told me she will never go there because she's seen pictures and knows if she went that she'd never come back to the north island! So, I'm expecting to be impressed. :)
I've been to the Austrian Alps and remember being quite impressed by them, so it'll be interesting to see how this compares. :) I'll post some photos and details of our trip when we get back...around April 19th.