Summer in Europe gallery

The coasters look awesome. Great idea for summer (might steal the idea :thinking: )

Love the orange pouch fabric. So many details on it :heart_eyes:

Wow :open_mouth: This looks amazing!

The felt flowers and hearts are so lovely. :heart_eyes:

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It’s so simple, I just crocheted a basic circle and the details are embroidered and crocheted on. I want to make a set for myself as well.

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Tonight at dinner my daughter claimed the lemon coaster set as hers.

Even though we were eating inside the glass cover had to be used all night.

And she told me that it’s so cool, that I’m in this ā€œclub with the craft swapsā€ :rofl:

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A few additions to my summer journal….

The hearts were received in Happy Mail at some point, I keep finding them ā€œun-filedā€ around my place so these ones at least, have a home

This is next to the ā€˜draw a bird’s nest’ page. It looks warped because it is :rofl: I used some watercolour pencils for the background. We don’t need perfect, we need creativity.

The inchies are leftovers from previous projects that haven’t made it anywhere to date

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I am glad that my package arrived safe, I was worried about the big sign, I tried to pack it as secure as possible, but wasn’t sure if it will make it.
A small note on this pack, as my husband was in Netherlands too last week, and he was just laughing that I choosed the tulips for the heart design… he said: don’t you think they have enough tulip there ?! … so I guess, now you have :smiley:
And on the embroidery part - I know it’s a treasure, but in my family, I am the only real crafter (and I have a big family), so my family members and frends aer sometimes pipping up with these kind of stuff, they know I like them, and will hoard them forever… I have a few more, don’t even remeber to all of them. When I saw that on @Immaculata 's Pinterest board, I knew that I have to find the pillowcases for her :slight_smile:
(I loooove the bookcase anyway… but I think you don’t have enough books… next time, I’ll send you some, I have piles… :smiley:

Well.. too much words; here are the cool stuff. My package from @Immaculata is amaaaazing too! Just look at it.

Let’s start with the sweets - it was very hard to hide these from my kids… I think I never wanna eat this cool chocolate:



I don’t even figured out what the hell is this, but I am sure that I’ll be very fat after eating the whole pack… looks so cool!

A beautiful postcard, this bridge is close to her house, so it’s extra special for me.

I’ve got a tiny pouch from a very cool fabric, I love it so much! (it was with me to Austria already this weekend); and some coll patches and a can cozy. So cute things.


A mug rug - these are my absolute favorite colors together, so it will be used all year, and no one will touch it for sure!

If you think, that was it, here are more: An amazing totebag (just the perfect size <3 ), with beautiful fabric! I love it!


And amazing bowl cozies - my mom tried to steal them already haha!

I don’t know if I won the lottery or what, these are so many awesome stuff, I am so happy and thankful for your package Suzanne! I love everything, you choosed the perfect colors for me. Huge thank you again!

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You made two absolutely amazing swap packages @Immaculata!

I love everything I got and the bowl cozies are my favorite from @grabacoffee’s package

Thank you for offering to take two partners in this swap.

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I’m glad you like everything @grabacoffee !! I saw the bowl cozies in your Pinterest and I had never made them before. It was fun to figure out how. They have a double layer of Insul-brite and everything is cotton so they are microwave-safe and should keep the heat away. I didn’t want to use a fabric that was too light in colour because stains would be so visible, and this fabric has some texture to it that I really liked. I don’t remember 100% but I’m pretty sure there’s insulbrite in the mug rug / potholder as well so it can be used for hot things too. I made one for @Silky_Bee as an extra so to make it equal I had to make one for you too! They’re very versatile, I use them for all sorts of things.

The salmiak riksen are a type of liquorice with a salmiak salt flavour. They’re shaped like coins we had before the Euro. Eierkoeken are a regional type of sweet snack, the name means egg cookies but they’re actually a bit like sponge cake, but there is no fat in them (still a lot of sugar, so not really healthy). There’s not really anything to compare it with. One thing I learned from this swap is that Hungary’s national flower is also the tulip! And don’t worry, I have way more books :wink: this is just my personal collection of college / work-related books, craft books and my childhood books. There are more books in our living room bookcase.

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Dang! You European sisters really rocked this gallery!

I loved all the projects but I really want to make those crochet drink covers and coasters!

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They are amazing and my daughter digs them out as soon as she sets the table

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They were really fun to make and you can use up all sorts of scraps. I had always wanted to make a set for myself, so I had the supplies already. Of course, I still haven’t made a second set for myself.

My country’s thing included orange fever. We are playing our first game tonight! And orange fever is already so bad here. Supermarkets are selling all sorts of orange food, everyone has decorated. Yesterday, I stopped at the local bakery to buy a pain aux raisins for myself, and the bakery has added orange food colouring to all icing and white chocolate. I can tell you, a layer of orange doesn’t really look appealing on a pain aux raisins. This time of year must be hard for people allergic to orange food colouring.

Because we are such enthousiastic decorators here, migrant communities also tend to this for their own origin country. When you enter my part of the neighbourhood, there’s a large line in the air stretching over the entire street, with the flags of Turkey, Morocco and the NL in the middle. There’s orange bunting across the street tied to homes, trees and even street lights. Then as you exit the neigbhourhoods there’s a line with Dutch and Turkish flags again. In other parts of the neigbhourhood, they are supporting CuraƧao and everything is decorated in blue. CuraƧao is a tiny island in the Carribean, a former colony of the NL, now an independent country within the Kingdom. This is the first time they even qualified for the tournament and everyone is so excited about it. Especially because they’re playing against our favourite football enemy Germany tonight.

The first game for NL is also tonight, against Japan, and the Emperor of Japan is on a state visit to the Netherlands right now. There are no formal plans for tonight because they announced the King and the Emperor are watching the game together on the TV!

I’ve got a fun picture in my head of two middle-aged men drinking beer on the sofa together, sharing snacks, but I guess they’re in a palace, I don’t know if they even have sofas, and I doubt they’ll eat orange supermarket snacks. There’s a personal friendship between the Japanese royal family and the Dutch royal family, and the Empress of Japan spent time here recovering from illness. Her parents lived in the Netherlands for a long time. So I guess they’re watching the game with friends almost like ordinary people.

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My son is already out with friends to watch the Germany CuraƧao match. I need to make dinner for the rest of us and then I may be watching as well.

I would be one of the people staying away from orange colored food. I’m allergic to certain food colorings and artificial red is one of it and there’s a big chance that you find it in orange food.

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We are watching as well, but I bet you are having more fun than we are

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We love all the visitors here for the World Cup. It has given me so much more appreciation for the simple things that I know a lot of us have taken for granted. The guy named Freddy from Germany has helped reunite us a bit because he just loves everything!

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It must be so fun to see things that are very normal for you through the eyes of a foreigner who is stunned by them!

This is orange fever: MSN 15.000 crazy Dutchies walking to the stadium in the middle of the day. The embassy warned them because of hot weather and dangerous neighbourhoods but clearly no one listened.

Football is sometimes associated with hooliganism and violence, but that’s almost exclusively a club problem. International games are usually very friendly. You can see some Japanese fans in the parade too. The Japanese are known as the friendliest and most respectful fans in football. You can see them wave around bin bags during the game. Afterwards, they always clean up the entire stadium!!

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I love that group dance the Dutch do moving right and left as a huge group! I saw the Japanese cleaning the stadium. The Brits are getting most of the attention, even though some Texans have said they can’t understand them even though they speak English. So many fun and happy moments. I love it!

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