Waiting patiently

A year and a half a started this playpen mat for the firstborn of my best friend. It was one of those projects... I just wasn't satisfied, no matter what I changed about it. Who in the world wants a round playpen? I love curves, believe me, but I just couldn't come up with a nice design for this plaid. She bought a round playpen mat and I made a lot of presents to compensate the guilt. Now her second baby is due any minute. I  finished the mat after all and it turned out quite well, actually. Since I originally started it for her first baby, I embroidered his name on it too. Now I'm waiting patiently for the little newborn. I also made a little sheet in the same theme. I'm pretty sure my friend has other things to care about, so I give you a little peek.

This week I saw/ DWZI...

...........onze oudste zoon afscheid nemen van de basisschool. Nog een laatste keer op z'n kinderfiets naar school, zwaait nog even, en het volgende moment zit het erop. Door een haag van kinderen worden ze -letterlijk- van het plein geveegd. Na een week van festiviteiten met een musical en een afscheidsbuffet, zit het er dan, na veel lieve woorden bij het afscheid en nog een laatste picnick, toch echt op. Dire adieu c'est mourir un peu. Maar het nieuwe begin lonkt ook. Straks op de onvermijdelijke omafiets naar 'de middelbare' in de stad.

We namen nog even behoorlijk afscheid van de juffen, waarvan hij de een twee jaar heeft gehad en de ander drie jaar. Mijn mama naait kussens, schreef hij eens in een gedichtje voor moederdag. Nou, tegenwoordig naait mama ook bijna aan de lopende band tassen.

....our eldest son saying goodbye to his primary school. He waves as he leaves for the last times on his boy's bike to school. They had a terrific last week at school, with a musical, a buffet and lots of dear words as goodbye, and now all the children of the school escort the eldest group out of the schoolyard, and then, after a picnick, it's really over. Dire adieu c'est mourir un peu. Altough new horizons are are to be seen soon. In September he will be off on his granny bike, to 'secondary' in the city. I made a bag for both his teachers. The best way of saying thank you.

Sailor's knot

It's all over Pinterest, this sailor's knot tutorial, or to be more precise, the Turkish Head bracelet. I bought some rope to braid bag straps and gave it a try.  If I knew making this bracelets was so easy I would have given it a try way before! And I'm not the only one liking them, I've made one for the children too.

Signature dish

Do you have a signature dish? Something everyone wants you to bring to a barbeque, or  wants to eat when they come over for dinner? I have, it's the watermelon-feta salad, or as Nigella Lawson puts it, Tel Aviv on a plate. Be a little mysterious about the recipe and your fame as a domestic godess (which is off course the only thing you'll be aiming for in life) is set.

1. Slice a red onion in very thin rings or half rings and put them in a large bowl
2. Pour the juice of three limes over the onion rings toghether with some sea salt (It even more tasty if you let it rest for half an hour before you finish the next steps. It makes the onion less sharp).
3. Slice a quarter of big watermelon, or 1500 gr if you want to be precise,  in pieces. Small enough to put in your mouth, big enough to still look pretty
4. Cut the mint and parsley, use quite a lot, and sprinkle over it
5. Add some olive oil, don't be sparse
6. Cut your Dodoni feta in pieces and carefully mix them trough the salad. Don't even think of using some inferior feta. 
7. If you like you can add some black olives. It looks very good in this salad.

Bon appetit! 

DWZI/ This week I saw....

....blueberry muffins. De bosbessen keken me zo vriendelijk aan op de markt, maar ik vond er eigenlijk niet veel aan. Daarbij kwam dat de kinderen vrij waren (studiedag, vakantie duurt nog twee volle weken....). Bakken dus. In New York aten we van de grote, uit hun voegen geknalde blueberry muffins met cinnamon sprinkle. Dit is mijn poging, bijna net zo lekker.

.......blueberry muffins. They gazed at me at our local market, but to be true, I didn't like them very much. Besides that the children were free from school today. Not for the holiday, we've to wait another fortnight, but just today. So we baked. I liked those New York big blueberry muffins with cinnamon sprinkle. This is my attempt, almost just as good.

Beach bag for a birthday

"Big z'n rug is harig, zeven juli ben ik jarig..." Dat stond ooit in mijn poeziealbum. Toen ik een paar jaar later mijn 'beste vriendin' leerde kennen, die op zeven juli jarig is, vertelde ik haar dit flauwe rijmpje. Al bijna dertig jaar vieren we nu dat big zijn rug harig is. Dit jaar maakte ik voor het verjaardagsvarkentje een strandtas van Echinostof, met een lekkere grote hamman-handdoek erin. De stof kocht ik bij MondaysMilk en de handvaten maakte ik van touw van de bouwmarkt. 

"Piglet's back is hairy, July 7th is my birthday..." A lame little poem, which in Dutch actually rhymes, was in my poetry album years ago. When I met my  best friend, who happens to have her birthday on July 7th, I told her about it. For thirty years since we celebrate piglet's hairy back. I made her a beach bag from Echino fabric and bought a nice big hamman-towel in it. The straps are made of braided rope.  

This week I saw/DWZI.......

....de avondvierdaagse. En wat is het allerbelangrijkste bij de avondvierdaagse? Het citroen-pepermunt likding! Ieder jaar vaste prik, tot groot genoegen van de kinderen en voor de meeste ouders een gruwel. Vanavond moeten we nog de laatste respectievelijk vijf en tien kilometer lopen, om dan achter de drumband aan weer te eindigen op het schoolplein en traditionele bloemen (duizendschoon!) in ontvangst te nemen.

...the 'Avondvierdaagse'; four nights we walk for five or ten kilometers in the environment of our town. At the end the children get a medal and basically that's it. One of the big assets of this 'avondvierdaagse' is de lemon-mint hankie-popsical. A strange pleasure, children love it and parents don't, but it isn't 'avondvierdaagse' without it. Tonight we walk the last five and ten kilometers and than a brassband will lead us to the schoolyard were we will collect a medal and the traditional bouquet of sweet william..

Indoor fireworks

This was a project Casper started a couple of weeks ago. It seemed  so easy to start with, just twelve easy peasy units to fold. But to get the whole thing together was a real pain-in-the-ass kind of project. We both ended up with a bad mood. I couldn't get it out of my mind though. Et voila!  Once it's finished your can twirl and fold in your hands and it looks a bit like firework. Don't try this at home, unless you're in for loosing your temper. But I know some of you will want to try anyway, so here's the link.

Midsummer's night dream

Last weekend Lauren had a ballet performance. "A tissue moment", according to another mom, and she was right. I was so very proud of her and impressed by the balletstudio who organised such a professional and entertaining evening. She had to bring a little gift for every girl from her ballet class as a way of saying "break a leg" (toitoitoi in Dutch). Together we folded sixteen origami cranes. This made me focus on origami again. I've made a midsummer's night scenery. Why not try one yourself, it's really not that difficult. I found a diagram for the big one here and a video for the smaller one  here via How about Orange.

This is how it ended up at my season's table. I've made some dragonflies to go with it. These are basically cranes with their flies cut a little bit. On the pictures below you can see how the petals are held together by a little string. I took a little extra to make it look like stamen. Good luck on your attempt!

This week I saw/DWZI

... Barcelona met Casper, onze oudste zoon. Een geweldig cadeau, voor ons allebei. Hij vloog voor het eerst en zag een "wereld van watten". We hebben veel gepraat, veel gegeten, veel gelachen en ons de blaren op de voeten gelopen. Gaudi was  in het bijzonder het doel van onze reis en hij stelde ons niet teleur! We genoten van La Pedrera (Casa Mila) en Casa Battlo, dwaalden in Park Guell en waren het er roerend over eens dat de Sagrada Familia adembenemend mooi was. Zestien jaar geleden was ik er ook, maar toen reden de vrachtwagens nog door de kerk. Ik had niet kunnen vermoeden dat het zo mooi zou worden. Casper heeft een poging gedaan het in een foto te vangen, maar dat valt nog niet mee.

Barcelona with our eldest son Casper for his twelfth birthday. What a gift it was for the both of us. He was enjoying his first flight. A bit nervous on the beginning... A world of cotton wool, he called it, which in Dutch nicely alliterates ('een wereld van watten'). We talked a lot, ate a lot and most of all, laughed a lot. Gaudi was our special goal and the architect didn't disappoint us! We enjoyed La Pedrera (aka Casa Mila) and Casa Battlo, wandered around in Park Guell and agreed on the fact that the Sagrada Familia was breathtakingly beautiful. Sixteen years ago  I've been there too, but by then the interior of the church was still a work in progress, I could not have imagined that  it would turn out so beautiful. 

En dit zijn de mensen aan wie we al dat moois mede te danken hebben. Kun je je zo'n werkplek voorstellen. Nooit meer zeuren over ergonomische bureaustoelen....

And these are the people who make it so beautiful. Can you imagine a workplace like this. Don't ever complain about your office chair not being ergonomic...

Barcelona!

Today it's Casper's birthday. Twelve! Keen on traditions as we are -OK, maybe just I am- we came up with a new one. For their twelfth birthday, one of us takes the birthday kid to a European city of choice. What a joy it was this morning to see his face lighten up as he opened the little booklet I made for him. "This is a flight ticket, right?" He didn't get to choose the destination, but we were sure he would have chosen Barcelona. Ever since he found a book about Gaudi on our bookshelf, he's dying to see it for real. And guess who's the lucky parent...

Bag tutorial

Isn't my new bicycle a beauty? It's a birthday present from my husband. I love the big trunk on the front. I can throw in just about everything. I'm showing off a little here, but it's also the perfect opportunity to show my new summer fling bag. This bag is everybody's darling. I get so many compliments and questions about it, so I figured a tutorial would be convenient. Just click on the picture below, to get the full tutorial.

DWZI/This week I saw...

Deze week kreeg ik eindelijk weer eens een opdracht voor de winkel. Iemand wilde een iPhone hoesje laten maken dat past bij een tas die gemaakt is van een Zwitserse legerdeken. Ik heb al een hoop van deze hoesjes gemaakt, meestal met een logo of een naam erop. Wil je ook een zelfgemaakt cadeau, neem dan gerust contact op. In de winkel staan vooral voorbeelden van wat ik eerder heb gemaakt. Iets nieuws doen is tenslotte veel leuker! Zo'n tas zou ik trouwens ook niet gek vinden!

This week I finally got a new assignment for the shop. Somebody wanted an iPhone cover to accompany a bag made of a Swiss Army blanket. I love making handmade gifts, so don't hesitate to contact me, if you want to have or to give a handmade present.

Saar seven

One of Lauren's best friends is having her birthday today. She had a request. A pillow for her room. When I asked her what color it should be, she answered: "Blue, that's the one color that's missing..." Blue it is, well, rainbow it is actually, because I figured that's what her room should be in her eyes. Happy birthday, dear Saar!

Summer fling

It has been summer up here for two whole months and now, when I want to show you my latest project, it's raining. Anyway, summer inspired me. My favorite season. The sun, the beach, the garden parties, every cliche you can think of! Love the heat too, although in Holland we don't get that very often.

I was never much into yellow, but last weeks, yellow keeps popping up. It is the most summery color after all. These colors inspired me to this bag.

The facing I used was too heavy, it's more like a freezerbag now. Well, that might come in handy to bring bottles of cold whatever to the beach. I came up with, what I thougth to be really fancy, pockets on the inside of the flaps that hold the wooden handle. Bad idea.

Besides that, I don't feel at ease with this loud colors in the end. Summer can also be like this, don't you think?

And I think this bag goes great with it. I adjusted the pattern a little bit, for the better.  I tried to take a picture of myself in the mirror, because a liked the way my shoes matched the bag.... There was no daylight whatsoever and the mirror was full of greasy little fingers. I like the twirling colors, though.