Publication

A while ago Els asked me if I could make a stamp for her. She needed a stamp for the cover of her book 'gewoon aan de borst' (book about breastfeeding). Recently the book fell in my mailbox and look how it turned out!

For our little princess

Another weddingskirt for another child. It turned out a bit too sweet to my taste, but she likes it. And what better time to wear sweet than a wedding?

We-time

Still little crafting. But lots of eating. Today the girls went to the zoo with their uncle and aunt. We used the opportunity to have an extended lunch at Ivy's in Rotterdam. And when I say extended, I mean extended: 5 amuses and 7 courses! Molecular cooking, a real experience. What do you think of olive- or piccalilly-icecream? Or a nitrococktail made with tomatojuice and rose-syrup? I would say: if you have the opportunity, go there!

Kids & art

Yesterday the girls and I went to the local art-museum. I felt a bit uneasy because the ladies had been behaving badly the days before. But that appeared to be unnecessary. We spent almost an hour in the museum, without any yelling or running. Inspiring!: afterwards our 5-year-old made this drawing-to-be-proud-of of us in the museum. The 3-year-old started cutting strips and didn't stop till there were enough strips to make a 4 meter long garland.

Singing in the car

We take the strangest things home as souvenirs. From France we usually bring various kinds of tea, sea-salted butter, syrups, kids clothes from DPAM and coloured and perfumed toiletpaper to last for months. For the kids we bought this book with cd: Chanter en voiture. I can recommend it! It is a nice way to get your kids acqainted with the french language. And yourself if necessary. And the book has beautiful drawings in it.

Gezellig

A friend of mine and her family came to visit us yesterday. She and I used to live in the same house when we were students. We have the same taste and often buy the same things. Yesterday we were watching our kids play and saw our elder daughters (just one week apart in age), same height, same hair and both dressed in army-green shirt and skirt, walking on the same type of sandals, having fun together as if they were best friends (they only see eachother once or twice a year). It is a pity we live quite far apart. These little baskets with violets I made for their kids.

Thanks again

Fellow-stamp-maker Jo from Japan is my swap-partner. Once in a while she sends an issue of the magazine Cotton Time. And I send her a magazine or fabric in return. I always get very excited when she e-mails that there's a magazine coming my way again. This time she included an owl-brooch. On her weblog you can find a tutorial for this cute little birdy. Jo, your package should be arriving soon!

Try!

Very tasty and very easy to make, this tomato-soup. Or should I say juice? Because next to salt and pepper, there is nothing added. Make sure you choose very ripe tomatoes. Just peel the tomatoes (half a minute in cooking water makes the skins come loose), cut in pieces, cook for 20 minutes and put in the blender. Pour in a cup and add salt and pepper to taste. Decorate with basil.

Too warm to go outside

My cousin Frank is going to marry his Oxana in two weeks. We will take the girls to the church to attend a real wedding for the first time. For the occasion I made this skirt for one of them. Modest but full of little glitters.

Rosendals Tradgard

I saw this post on Mikodesign. That brought back memories. In 1995 I was living in Stockholm for a while as an exchange-student. And I loved to visit Rosendals. Back then I bought their cooking-book. Today I picked out a recipe for blue(poppy seed) and yellow lemoncake. Easy to make and very good taste. But I ruined it, by turning it too soon. Scroll down this blog and you will find the recipe.

Crafting again

On the way back from the beach, we stopped at my favorite felt-store. There I bought, among other things, a bag of felt scraps. For my cousin, who invited us over for a barbecue tonight, I put together this necklace from those pieces.

Extended holidays

Yesterday was a perfect day to go to the beach. Not too hot (so, not very busy), not too cold and just a little wind. I think the girls liked this day more, than the whole trip to France.

La douce France

Two weeks ago we arrived in this wonderful little (former railroad-) house somewhere in the middle of France.

The little ladies felt at home right away. Enjoying the beautiful wheather and waving to the passing trains, which answered by sounding their horn.

We saw lots of castles, went to a zoo, did some shopping and were amazed by the beauty we met. Like this field of sunflowers and the big scary spider.

And we spent time doing nothing and a bit of reading. Donald Ducks, french magazines and I picked up my all time favorite novel again.

Now we're back in the real world. Time for new plans, projects and looking out for a new job.