Twelve

Twelve! So fast. Last week we signed her up for the secondary school of her choice. It means 25 km op cycling every day, but she wants this. Strong-willed as ever. Luckily we have some time left to get used to the idea. For now we celebrate her birthday. Have a lovely day, sweet J.

From the pan

Tomorrow J will turn 12. Yesterday we've already celebrated her 'big people party' for the family. For the occasion we made snacks with, again, a scandinavian touch. Polar bread with smoked trout, smoked salmon, egg salad, tuna salad etc. This polar bread, slightly sweet, was a big succes among the kids.

Twelve

Not a creative, but a sportive birthday-party for both the girls this year. J has chosen to go wall-climbing. She drew a climbing girl and from that drawing we tinkered an invite. When you pull the cords aside, the girl climbs upward. Tutorial here.

Cross fingers

Bad tidings for a mother of one of the girls' friends. A lump in her breast has to be removed soon and the outcome is still uncertain. Pfff, I can't imagine what stress this must bring to her and her family. We delivered a package at their place. In it this pouch, filled with comforting products. Tea, tissues, lip balm, mints and chocolate. We hope for the best.

Elephants ears

There wasn't a crumb left of this pull-apart bread within half an hour after it left the oven. I used a regular white bread mix and the grapefruit filling of this recipe (and no glaze). Delicious! I thought it would probably be too tangy for kids, but they all liked it. N already knows that she wants to take these elephants ears to the next schools' christmas dinner, instead of the usual, very popular, monkey bread.

Looking forward

Next week I will start in my new job: coordinator at the 'Grafisch atelier' in 's-Hertogenbosch. It's a graphic (screen printing, etching, lithography etc) workspace for artists and other creative people. Last friday, after 20 years, my predecessor said goodbye to the job to make room for her true profession of being an artist. As a present I sewed her a pouch with the screen-printed fabric I made the first time I visited this great place, that now will be my workspace soon.

Guilty pleasure

You can wake me up for onion rings. Unfortunately they're not widely available in our country though. At Burger King, I know, but don't like to go there. We gave it a try at home. Pretty easy, but it needs some work. Completely worth the effort though. The rings were delicious!

Instead of throwing away 2

The girls got these tins when we visited the oranjezaal in the royal palace last autumn. But the mints are long gone and I wanted to throw away the empty tins. Then our eldest said she needed storage for her felt tips and pens. So we took pages from an old illustrated book about nature and used double sided tape to stick the paper to the tins. 5 minutes of work and looking good on her desk.

Instead of throwing away

Had some dates that needed to be used and a box not-so-crunchy-anymore mixed nuts. Googling for a recipe that contained both, I found this walnut date bread. The girls and their playdates loved the 'cake', as I called it. Also the one that doesn't like dates, but didn't know they were in the batter.  Gonna make some more loafs for in the freezer, for busy days.

For party people

Our eldest calls this her disco wallet. Small, just big enough for a pass and a little bit of money. Fits in every pocket or petite handbag. She takes it when she goes out to the teenage dance in our village. The first wallet was a present in a swap. Copying was not difficult. One fabric scrap of 12x18 cm, 10 cm of velcro and a small piece of ribbon. You could make 20 in an hour.