Look what i got

I recieved this gorgeous handspun wool from my aunt and uncle
when they returned from a vacation they spent on the isle of Texel.
I can already see a pair of socks in the future !

The wool comes from special sheep called Texel (Texeler).
The Texel is a heavily muscled sheep. The wool is around
32 micrometres and is mostly used for hosiery yarns and
knitting wools. The Texel is now one of the most common
breeds in the Netherlands, making up seventy percent of
the national flock.


We too once spent a short vacation on Texel and made a
long walk through an area called Slufter. A beautiful and
rough part of Texel where you can enjoy nature at its best.

A white heart softie

I was invited by my aunt and uncle
to have dinner at their place. As a
small token of my appreciation, i
made this white heart for them.
As most of their interior is white,
i thought this would fit in best.

Craftstudio cards : Four Day Marches

A hearty order

My sister ordered three hearts for their housesitter. She had seen the
hearts i had made for my sister's birthday and really liked them. So
as part of their thank-you to her, my sister wanted to give her a few of
my hearts and asked me to make three. A good housesitter is something
that is hard to come by so they have to keep her happy :)

She is recycle-crafty !

My friend Jenifer made this gorgeous container for me,
filled with typical dutch coffee candies called Hopjes.

She made this lovely gift from an empty pringles container
and decorated the outside with recycled gift wrap, a used
stamp and added some decorative items. How sweet !

A graduation heart

I made this heart for my niece
who graduated. I attached it to
a basket i filled with pink flowers.
Pink is her favourite colour so
she was delighted with them.

Two Craftstudio cards : cupcakes and birds

Another Craftstudio card : Four Day Marches

I [heart] my Martha Stewart app

I have always been one that likes "real" crafting better than
digi crafting and i still feel that way. But there are times when
you are not able to craft for real, for example when all of
your craft supplies are boxed up or when you are not at
home, but you do have access to your iPad. When i
downloaded Martha Stewart's Craftstudio i was sceptical
to say the least. But this app is just so much fun that i have
been playing with it a lot. It comes with four free themes
and after a while and an update, there were five more
themes that you can buy. They are worth buying, i can tell
you that. And there are more themes coming in the future.

Here is a card i made with a Four Day Marches theme :

Two heartfelt presents for two colleagues

A pincushion [slash] button jar and a heart softie for one colleague,

and a set of red gnomes and a heart softie for another.

Jorunn made these for me

Look what prestty presents Jorunn made for me :

A big woolly ram,

a tiny woolly ram, a one of a kind (!),

and a small jute bag with a felted butterfly brooch on it :)

Day of Cuijk : Nijmegen Four Day marches, day four

Today was a wonderful day for us walkers. The weather was
fantastic with 23 degrees celcius, no wind and sun. It was great
to have such a nice day after yesterday. Everyone did okay,
apart from (quite a few !) blisters. We are now the proud
owners of medalnumber 7 !

Today we were walking in our blooddonor shirt for this year
which says : real heroes donate blood. The bloodbank asks
all their donors each year to wear this shirt during the marches
to promote their work and to recieve more donors.

Also, my sister and i have been on national tv (at least) twice
this year ! Our first appearance was on tuesday in the
tv programme "Het gevoel van de Vierdaagse" (The feeling
of the Four Day Marches). We are wearing the turqoise shirts.



Our second appearance was on wednesday and we are visible
to the left of masseuse in the pink shirts.


To give you an impression of how Nijmegen is affected by the
Four Day Marches i want to show you a split photograph of the
Via Gladiola during the marches and on a normal day :

Day of Groesbeek : Nijmegen Four Day Marches, day three

Today was a difficult day for us walkers, we were
treated to two cloudbursts (one of them just did
not want to stop) and that made the circumstances
for walking quite hard. On the positive side : we got
to stop for a break in Groesbeek, with Rini and
Maarten, who spoiled us rotten with butter cake
(a dutch speciality), meatballs, cheese, coffee and
lots of other drinks that we reallly appreciated.
Thank you so much, again !

Today we were wearing our blooddonor shirt from
last year, with the following riddle on it :
"it is red and it saves lives".

Day of Wijchen : Nijmegen Four Day Marches, day two

With 23 degrees celcius, sun, some clouds and a bit of wind it
was a fantastic day for walking ! It was also the tenth edition
of Pink Wednesday, the day of the Four Day Marches where
diversity is celebrated in the Gay Quarter of Nijmegen.

To give you an impression of a typical day during the
Four Day Marches, here is an oversight :
03:50 - the alarm goes, it is time to get up !
04:40 - we leave the house to drive to Nijmegen.
05:30 - we arrive in Nijmegen and walk in about
15 minutes to the starting / finishing area.
Depending on how late we are allowed to start walking,
we start between 06:00 and 06:30.
We arrive back at the starting / finishing area between
14:30 and 15:30.

We drive back home which takes about an hour.
Back at home we shower, get out backpacks ready
for the next day and eat dinner.
At 19:25 there is a program on tv called "Het gevoel van"
(The feeling of) which is finished at 19:50 and which means
that it is time for bed !

Day of Elst : Nijmegen Four Day Marches, day one

Variation is the keyword for today. We got rain, wind, clouds, sunshine,
blue skies, warmth and cold. So noone can say that today's walk was
a boring one. We had a lot of fun with some of the other walkers and
people that were sitting by the side of the road.

We all finished and did so without major problems. There are some
blisters to be taken care of, but that is the biggest of our problems, so
we can not complain. Of course we are all tired and will be turning in
at around 20:00 tonight for a well-deserved rest. And tomorrow we
will be joining the other walkers for a day of walking, and hopefully
lots of fun again :)

Another year, another four marches

Tomorrow starts the first of four days of tiredness, pain and especially,
fun ! We are again taking part in the largest walking event of the world,
the Nijmegen Four Day Marches. Every year, the trainings begin in
febuary and end about two weeks before the Four Day Marches begin.
It means that we have spent about 100 hours of active training in that
period. That does not include the breaks we took during the walks
and the hours we spent buying equipment or other necessities. But,
it really is worth the time and the blisters and the other inconveniences
of the past months. We are looking forward to beginning tomorrow.
The alarm goes off at 04:00 o'clock and we wil start walking about
two hours later (it takes us about five quarters of an hour to get to the
starting point).

My sister bought a book earlier today when we were in Nijmegen
to recieve our wristbands. (We get scanned at the start, at the finish
and at some two or three chekcpoints per day). The book is really nice
with lots of nice photographs and interesting facts. I can recommend
it to all marchers and anyone else that is interested in the history of
the Four Day Marches.

Esther made these for me

Esther knitted these lovely felted tøfler for me.
They are really soft and warm :)

Another present for a colleague

A jar recycled into a pincushion / button container
for a creative colleague.

A heart for Maureen

I made this heart for Maureen as a small
hostess gift as she invited us to join her
for a "lazy, rainy, sunday afternoon".
I was very cozy :)