Furry Friends and woolly bits ;-)

Oh oh I have been a lazy blogger - maybe someone missed me out there? Yes? That´s nice! This time I want to show you pictures of my furry friends - our gorgeous cats and dogs (the horses come later!) For us they are dear members of the family and they enjoy quite a lot of privileges - like drinking out of the vases with flowers and squashing them... which sometimes leads to nice pictures though!

Here you see Kveiting, our 10 year old white Norwegian - he adopted us when we lived in Norway and what a great cat he is! Always gentle and calm but still incredibly confident.


And here we have Frasse, 13 years old and a lovely little stripy tiger. He moved with us from Germany - we are a truly international family with me, Frasse and our dog Snuff being German, my Partner Bjarne, Kveiting and Forest Cat Frida being Norwegian and last not least our Dane, Border Collie Mix Gustav.


No, this is NOT an enormous beaver with very small ears but our 6 year old Norwegian Forest Cat Frida. We got her from the animal rescue centre in Kristiansand, Norway and she is quite special (read: she´s lost the plot a bit), but a real beauty and obviously the picture doesn´t do her justice - I am going to post another one later, I just think it is so funny I had to share it with you! So sorry, Frida ;-)


Well, how many dogs have their own bed, boudoir style with tons of cushions... Ours do! They love it - and we have the big corner sofa for ourselves, at least sometimes! The daybed from the 20s is a fleemarket find and the cushions are of course my own design! The lazy furry creature to the left is Snuff, our gorgeous Collie/Shepard/Retriever/Elkhound/Husky Mix. He is such a great dog, self confident, patient and always friendly. He is 12 years old but still going strong! The other doggy is Gustav, our 6 year old Border Collie Mix. Do you know the New Zealand comic strip Footrot Flats? Dog, the protagonist - that´s him! He loves herding the cats, and we even caught him herding snails in the summer, it´s true!! He is quite demanding, but his love and devotion are immeasurable and I´m so happy he is part of our family, he makes me laugh all the time with his crazy ideas and naive enthusiasm for the world around him.


So far the furry friends, let´s come to the woolly bits! I want to show you some of my crochet pieces, first two lamps I made a while ago. The red one you see in the picture to the left is quite quirky and a little bit over the top, but I love it! I stripped an old lampshade and crocheted a new cover in a lovely raspberry red. The foot is vintage and a carboot-sale find and the pink, blue and green flowers add to the kitsch appeal of the lamp.

The other lamp I want to show you is kind of oriental inspired. I actually started with the beautiful beaded trim in eau de nile and purple colours, chose a matching cotton yarn and combined the shade with a vintage metal foot. This lamp is more elegant and gives a very nice light.

What I especially like with crocheted lampshades is their great texture and the pattern that emerges when you switch on the lamp. Everyone should at least have one crocheted lamp!!

It´s quite late now so the rest of the wooly bits follow soon!!