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Saturday 16 August 2014

Back home

Where has the summer gone?

It is our first weekend home again and it starts with raining. The sky is full of clouds and it hasn't stopped raining since I opened my eyes this morning. It would have been so nice taking the first cup of tea to the garden, sitting outside, feeling the sun in the face... But everything is wet, wet, wet.

So what to do? I went to the kitchen, checked my supplies and decided to bake plum muffins and an apple cake. Now the house is filled with the delicious smell of baked goods. All of a sudden the day feels much better.






While I write this post I will have a cup of tea with a warm and fluffy muffin. Who cares if it's raining?
The cup I just use is a souvenIr from Concarneau. I just love, love, love it.. It has the ideal size for my morning tea and sets a smile on my face every time I look at it.

For the queen of mothers!



First I wanted to write a little bit about all my crochet projects I started, finished or continued during my holidays but now I decided to write this post about mandalas.

Who can escape the mandala hype? It seems that everybody is in love with mandalas this summer and I have to confess that I have fallen in love with them, as well. Everywhere you go you come across the most gorgeous mandalas and meanwhile I have stored more patterns that I will ever be able to try. Yesterday evening when I was reading some blogs I like, I saw so many beautiful mandalas that I was itching to start a new mandala by myself. But I decided to finish one other project first.

The fist time I came across them was when I found the wonderful blog of Alice from Crochet with Raymond. Her mandalas are just fabulous, her combination of colours and her neat fine work just grabbed me. I had to try her pattern immediately and this is what I did first. A rainbow mandala that is still in use on our small cabinet. One day I will make a second one but in a different colour scheme.






And of course I just could not stick to one single mandala, instead I went a little overboard. I started using Lucy's pattern (Attic24) for small mandalas and experimented with them. I told myself that I was doing a real useful job producing all of these little addictive mandalas because I discovered how helpful they are as coasters. Every time I drink a cup of tea I use one of these little mandalas and even my kids love them. They lie on our kitchen table and are in daily use.









I'll stop now. My family wants to try the muffins and the cake, as well. And the cream of the crop is that my husband just came back from shopping and bought me some flowers. Actually the day's not that bad...



Hope your day will show some rays of sunshine, as well.
Viola

17 comments:

  1. Hello Viola,

    I'm coming to visit your blog! It is really lovely and deserves some comments here! I love what you have done with the banner at the top, I'm guessing that you made all the lovely things yourself? Very pretty and colourful! :)

    I also had a look at your shawl, lovely colours, is that a sock yarn you used? It looks big enough already, have you tried it on? Well, as for the border, it is really personal taste, I guess. I could imagine it with a nice dark green border, but then again, due to the mixed colours it might be 'complete' as it is! I'm using mine lots of times, it lives on the back of my chair, ready to cover my back whenever it feels a bit cool! I don't know how I managed without a shawl before, hahaha!

    Your mandalas are lovely, very cheerful!

    I got one tiny suggestion to make: perhaps you could add more tags/labels (in this case mandala and possibly France). Especially as your blog grows, it will help readers to find specific subjects faster, say to distinguish making shawls from making mandalas (but then both also fit under crochet). I often search for the term 'free pattern' on other people's sites.

    I'm really loving the photos and how you styled them! :)

    Ingrid xx

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    1. Hello Ingrid, yes, the crocheted miniatures of my banner are all made by myself. I think that I will write a post about them some day. And concerning my shawl, I will finish it this evening and write a post about it tomorrow. And finally your suggestions - yes, yes, you are right, maybe I should add more labels to help the readers to find what they are looking for. I 'm really grateful for suggestions and comments like this. It helps me a lot to develop this little blog of mine. Best wishes, Viola

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  2. Hello Viola
    Many thanks for following my blog. Blogland and blogging is wonderful. I never really thought I would get so attached to it and now I can't be with out it. There are also lot of great people out there.
    I totally agree with you mandalas are special! One can go mad on colour in an exciting way!
    keep well
    Amanda :-)

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    1. I would like to follow your blog as well but I can't find the Google friend widget anywhere on your blog !

      A :-)

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    2. Hello Amanda, I just added it to my blog, I'm a bit slow in these kind of things... Viola

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  3. Dear Viola, thanks so much for your lovely comment on my blog. And I'm glad you started following, because that means I've been able to find yours. I've just been enjoying a look around your lovely blog and will be back for more! If you end up going to the Efteling, let me know so I can advise you on what not to miss :-)
    Bye for now x

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  4. Your mandalas are beautiful, I too started my mandala journey with Alice's mandala. Thanks for your visit and kind words and for following me. I would like to follow you too. Have a happy week. Oh you have a lovely blog too.

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  5. Lovely baking - I can't wait to start using our plums and apples to bake with. I have managed to resist the mandala hype. So far anyway. Yours look lovely.

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  6. Flowers and tea on a rainy day - with the smells of baking in the house. What could be nicer? That apple cake looks amazing. :)

    Your mandalas are beautiful.

    Your blog is lovely, and how brave of you to write in a language that is not your own! I think you're doing a great job. :)

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  7. Thanks a lot for your lovely comment. I really try hard not making too many mistakes. Have a nice evening, Viola

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  8. Hi Viola, Welcome to Blogland. Looks as if your off to a good start. The apple cake looks very yummy. It's one of my favorites. My grandmother made a fantastic apple cake that I could never get enough of. By the way her name was Rachael Viola. :) Your mandalas are pretty and I love your colors. I especially like the blue ones. Hope your having a wonderful day. penny x

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    1. Hi Penny, thank you for your nice comment, I will have a look at your pinterest account later the evening when the kids are in bed. Have a nice evening, Viola

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  9. Hello Viola Welcome to blogland and thank you for visiting me, it is great to find your blog. Your baking looks delicious, I love muffins and apple cake! Your crochet is beautiful, such lovely colours.
    Happy weekend.
    Helen xox

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  10. Hallo Helen, thank you for visiting my little blog, as well. I do love your crochet work very much and I hope that I will find my own `creative style`one day, as well. Best wishes, Viola

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  11. Such a lovely colourful post Viola ! And the muffins look delicious.
    Kate x

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  12. I've just been thinking about making coasters, hot pads and heat mitts (I have a big order of cotton arriving today hopefully) - what a wonderful idea to use to mandalas for that! Thank you for the inspiration! Your work is so beautiful and neat, hopefully one day mine will look like that :)

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  13. Oh my I love all your pretty mandala's they are all so different and so colourful. I also love Raymond's mandalas and you have just reminded me that I really need to make one as part of the monthly mandalong. Thank you so much for linking in and apologies for only getting around to looking at it now. I am not spending as much time as I would like blogging at the moment, but hopefully that will change again soon. Sending you much love xoxo

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