Happy New Year

Wishing you all a wonderful, safe and happy New Year. See you all back in 2008 !

Happy Holidays

We are making the last preparations for the family christmas lunch and diner, so I want to wish you all a wonderful christmas.

Four Season doll quilt swap - Winter

Since I am sich at home with a sinus infection, I thought I can spent the ´awake´ time to start making my doll quilt for the Four Seasons Doll quilt swap. My partner didn´t wan´t a holiday quilt but liked snow, so I made a snowman quilt.

Will have to go to the shop to get some binding, but Iam bound to the house because of me being sick, so when I can, I will get some binding and finish the quilt so I can send it early.

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas was in town, he visited my DH´work, so we paid him a visit with the kids. As you can see, our youngest was not really enthousiastic. Nic however listened very well to what Sinterklaas had to tell him, because he knows that otherwise he won´t get a present. And spoiled they were, Nic got a playmobil knight set and Peter a box with duplo lego. So thank you very much Sinterklaas.

Christmas ornament swap

This is what I made for the cross stritch christmas ornament swap my friend Elaine organised. It is sent to my swap partner. No, I am not telling who it is, she will find out whenit arrives at her mailbox. I hope she likes it. the ornament combines two things I like, baking and cross stitching.

Tilda

These are my first two results from the two Tilda books I bought. The first is a sort of doily for Christmas. I made that one for a friend who celebrated her birthday last saturday.

And the mask I made for a friend that is going to hospital tomorrow for a spinal operation, so I made her a nice sleeping mask for her recovery.

Gorgeous books

I am really spoiled this last week. I saw this book (ISBN 978-82-02-27482-5) in our local craft store. It is really expensive so I didn´t buy it, but when DH herad of it, he told me to get it, so I did. It is a gorgeous book with christmas decorations. I just love it, will have to try some soon.
I made some pics to give you a glimps of what is inside.

Then yesterday this book arrived with the mail. It is from the same designer (ISBN 978-908-574-391-0) turned out. Ardiane At Home is a dutch magazine, and they said they would bring out a book, but it turns out it is a translated version of the norwegian book. But nevertheless, I love it, so I also will give you a glimps into this book.

Dora Live

This morning we went to the matinee of Dora´s Pirate adventure. We, that is Nic and I, because Peter is still too small to get the theatre.
Nic had a great time especially since I bought him and Peter a Dora flash light... The show was really good and focused on kids and we had tickets for the 5th row, so we had great seats.
Great show!

Happy Halloween

Wishing you all a Happy Halloween!

Ready for Halloween

As you can see: we are ready for Halloween. Nic carved a nice pumpkin with my parents, which we placed at our front door. Halloween isn´t a big thing in Belgium, but it is starting to get bigger. I guess shops need a new 'thing' between the starting of teh new schoolyear and Sinterklaas. So Halloween was a good 'new' holiday.

Well, we also went for it, although the pumpkin is the only Halloween decoration we have. And I must admit, I think it looks spooky when we light it and it stands near our front door in the dark.

Williams-Sonoma

A co-worker brought two cake bunds for me back from the States. They are Williams-Sonoma cake bunds and they are wonderful. The detail of the cakes and they are so easy to use. I am so happy with them!
She brought the bee hive and the inspects cakes pan with her and look at the result:
I will make some insect cakes for my co-workers on Monday, for now, we will enjoy these smart looking cakes.

Autumn has arrived!

This is the sight I saw when I entered our backyard this afternoon to get some wood for the stove. One big collection of toadstools. I think they are gorgeous, aren´t they. Too bad that they are poissonous. So I will gather them and put them in our green container to get collected.

Jules stayed with us

This is Jules. Jules is a doll that lives in Nic´s classroom and has a sleep over every night with a different child.
This weekend it was Nic´s turn to watch over Jules. He brought his own rucksack with his PJ´s.
But when it was time to go to bed, Nic mentioned that Jules didn´t have a bear, so mum (yes, that is me) made a little teddy for Jules at night. I also made him his own sleeping bag.

Jules went with us to Holland, where we visited family and went on a playdate with Nic, when we visted Sam. And on Sunday he went with us to a Midevil tournament, where we saw knight combatting with each other. At the end all the children got a fack soft sword and were allowed to fight with the knights as well. Nic had a great time.

Back from a weekend in Germany

We visited Koblenz (Germany) for our annual family weekend. This picture was taken by me to see if it would show the two rainbows we saw, and it did. Koblenz is a very nice city, great food, very nice terrasses where you can tast the Mosel wine.

We try to make a picture of the kids cuddle toy when we are on vacation, so here they are, Peter´s beertje at a fountain in Cochem, which is a town about 30 km from Koblenz. Cochem has a very nice historic city center which a beatiful castle as you can see.

We took a picture of Nic´s schaapje in a vineyard where we stopped to have a very nice ice tea. No, no wine for us, as we had to drive back home.

Insulating the heating tubes at home

Yes, we avoided it for a long time, but it couldn´t wait any longer. We started the works in our cellar, this cellar is just high enough to move around in on you knees, so very good for the back and knees.
We have to insulate the heating tubes underneath our home, since they were last insulated 30 years ago or so and the insulation was in very bad shape. So DH and I took a week off and in we went. We had some help from my dad, so everything went pretty well.

We encountered some living creatures, like frogs, etc.. We took them out since we don´t know if they will find enough food down there now that we have cleaned the whole cellar.

4 Season Doll Quilt Swap

This is the gorgeous quilt I received from Rose Marie (http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com).
Rose Marie has chosen this design because she knew I love blues and because she lives in Canada, teh maple leaf tree was a given. I really love the quilt and will give it a nice place in my home. Thank you very much Rose Marie.

The next quilt is the one that I have made for the swap and I will be send off tomorrow. After it has arrived at my swap partner I will show you also the label. The picture doesn´ t do the colours justice. Hopefully the weather is better at my swap partner so she can make a better picture.

Lazy sunday

We had a lazy sunday. This morning we went to Planckendael, a big zoo near the city of Mechelen.

In the lion monkey enclosure the monkeys are free to roam through a part of the forest, so it was really spectacular to see a monkey just a half meter away from the kids.

I have been busy quilting on my fall quilt for the 4 season doll quilt swap. But I don´t want to show a picture because it will ruin the surprise for my swap partner. So once it is arrived, I will show a picture.

It´s a Man´s bag

After the succes of the two handbags I made for the Birthday girls. One of my friends asked if I could make her son a bag as well, so here is my attempt on a ´Man´s bag´. It is not yet finished, but I can´t spoil teh surpise for here. So I will post a finsihed picture after Sil´s birthday, which is next weekend.

At the moment there is not much going on overhere, sine I have a strained neck and can´t turn to the right. I went to the doctor this morning, and it will heal in time, so I got Dafalgan for the pain and rest. Will however work tomorrow from home, because driving is not possible, since I can´t look to the right.

Wee Butterfly

I finished the Wee Butterfly from Wee Wonderfuls. He is really the cutest, why a HE? I don´t know, he feels like a he and not like a she, I don´t know why. But my eldest boy thought he looked great.

My turtle is also shown on the website of Hillary Lang´s Wee Wonderfuls. Thanks Hillary.

Girlie handbags

I made these two handbags as birthday presents for daugthers of friends of ours. We will leave tomorrow morning and stay with friends of ours whose daugther turns 3. On sunday we have another birthday of Merel who is turning 6.

Happy Birthday girls!

Sail Vlissingen

Sail this year was in Vlissingen, so we went there (Zeeland, The Netherlands) to see the tallships from my PIL´s sailboat. And yes, on board I am a pirate mum.

We went for a tour through the harbours and passed this teaching tallship from Poland.

In the city centre there were all sorts of activities, also a kids cart, and Nic showed some other kids that he knows what he is doing, we were surprised how good he can steer.

In the afternoon there was the passing of the tallships, they sail along the boulevard with their sails up. It really looked very impressive. It was a wonderful day, the kids enjoyed themselves, as did we.

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Brewing Beer

Yesterday, my husband´s company had a day were you could learn how to make beer. So we joined 40 other collegueas of my DH and off we went for a brewing course.

First we had a presentation how to make beer. After that we went and started with the long process of making beer.

After having crushed the grains, we had to warm the grain-water mixture. After a couple of hours we had to filter the liquid from the grain mass, which you can see on the picture , was done very professionally.

After 2.5 hours filtering, we boiled the filtered liquid with the ´hop´ which will give the beer its aroma.

And after we were finished we had a great BBQ.

The beer wwas then lagered and will be served on the 60th anniversary of the company. I will keep you informed on the taste.
PV, well done, it was a great day.

Wee turtle

As my patterncards from Wee Wonderfuls arrived in the mail yesterday, I couldn´t resist. Is this turtle not the cutest? He is made from antique pink fabrics and of course brown and green felt. I tried to get a picture of him and our garden real turtle, but I couldn´t find him, must be hidding in the pond.

Hillary Lang makes the cutest stuffed creatures. I just love this new pattern set.

Trip to the zoo

This morning we made a trip to the Antwerp Zoo. It is located in the middle of Antwerp, next to the Central Station. The Zoo is 160 years old and at the moment there are big renovations ongoing to make it a more comfortable zoo for the animals. Less animals on more space.

The kids wanted to see the baby pinguin that was born a couple of weeks ago, but it was still securely under dad or mum´s feet.

The pictures are taken in a big tortoise shell that is displayed in the gardens of the Zoo.

Ther are some other babay animals, like the new sea lion and a baby hippo, a tapir and lost more. So it was a nice morning in the Zoo.

Jeans bag

I made this bag from The new Cotton & Paint I got. Above you can see the pattern and explaination and even though I don´t speak Japanese, the drawn directions were very good so I was able to make the bag without any trouble. It is Nic´s old jeans, and instead of throwing it away, I now have a nice new bag.
OK, I broke a machine needle while making it, but that is a detail. I really like the bright pink colors and I think I will use this bag for my WIP´s.