Milestone

When you are 4 years old, it is time to go to school. A big milestone in a little life. The twins of a good friend of mine turned 4 in June and will go to school in about two weeks. Of course, they needed a cool bag, to take their sandwiches and drinks to school with.
I made these two bags for them, same but different (because the boys are that too).
Good luck, boys!

For a little French girl

My parents have a holiday home in France in the Creuse region. It is situated close to a railroad (it used to be a railroad house) and close to a little village.
A baby girl was born in the village and my mother asked me to make a little Dutch present for her. So here it is, a bib (actually on it's way to France at the moment).

Colourful birds

I made these birds with a tutorial that I found at Spool Sewing (see under Free Patterns).
These are so cool! Also a great way to use your fabric leftovers for.

The people from Spool made a lovely bird mobile with the birds. Some more great ideas and tutorials on the Spool weblog by the way. Check it out!

Little doll

I could not resist buying this little ceramic doll. I admit that it is a bit kitschy, but it is cute though. And she looks a bit like the ladies that are on the Geisha ladies fabric that I like so much.

Hip Hip Hurray!

Karel is two! We had a little party last Sunday to celebrate his birthday.
First, opening the presents (oh look, cars...!).

Then helping to make the birthday cake.

Blowing out the candles (with a little help from grandma).

And of course..... Eating the cake!

Today, he has a small afterparty at the child day care centre. I made felt keychain-softies and cards attached to little boxes of raisins to give to his friends.

Poem

When my kids are at home, we like to cycle through the city a bit.
Looking around, do some shopping, watching the cars, boats and works (excavators, cranes), going to the playground...
Throughout the city, some houses have a poem painted on them.
This poem is my favorite, it makes me smile:

In English, it goes something like this:
The influence of soft wind on clothes.
Are you going to the beach?
When you return, can I have the sand that comes out of your shoes for the floor of my aquarium?

Almost two

Coming Sunday our youngest son Karel turns two.
Last year I made a pennant with pictures of him, to celebrate his first birthday. I remember that it was a lot of work to get the pictures in the colours that I wanted, printed on tranfer paper and ironed on fabric. Result was quite allright according to myself and especially nice to see pictures of him from baby to little boy. And now he is almost two! Still a little boy, but talking a bit, having his own mind (saying NO!), playing with puzzles and LEGO..... Time flies....

Strawberries (and new fabrics)

I received some new fabrics for my shop, I think they are very cute. They are from Japan, but they remind me a bit of some Scandinavian designs, especially the little red riding hood fabric. Together with the fabric, I received some little fabric strawberries. Always nice to get a small present! Later Today, the fabrics will be in my shop.

Typical Dutch (2)

A bit more about Dutch food Today.....
For lunch see breakfast, maybe a bit more odd combinations on the sandwiches like peanut butter with hagelslag, cheese with apple syrup, cheese with marmelade, ham with tomato ketchup and of course with the glass of milk I mentioned before.
The rest of the day we like to eat liquorice, mmmm, my favorite!

In the evenings, 6 o'clock straight, it is dinner time. Typical Dutch foods (in the winter) are hutspot and stamppot, served with rookworst. Those "pots" are mashed potatoes mixed with carrots and onion (hutspot) or a whole variety of cabbages (stamppot). Rookworst is a smoked sausage (a bit fatty and salty).


My kids like to eat poffertjes (small pancakes) for dinner (and I guess that all Dutch kids like them). These are served with butter and sugar.

So much more to tell about the Dutch food, but I end with these two "delicacies", the kroket and frikadel. Both are consumed as a snack (or together with fries for lunch/dinner).
A kroket is filled with ragout, is deep fried and has a crusty outside.

The frikadel is a kind of sausage, also deep fried and is often filled (after frying) with a combination of raw onions, mayonaise and ketchup.


Now I'll tag Puk from Ballee, Naomi from Odd&Wooly and Lisette from Little-Z.
I hope that you do not mind ladies? Something nice to do when it rains.....

New friends

We have some new friends! Dogs and owls. Soon to be in my shop.

Typical Dutch (1)

I've been tagged by Kristel from Vlijtig.
This means that you should write a meme with a Dutch twist. As I am a food technologist, I thought it would be nice to write about typical Dutch foods.
I'll cut this post in two and write a bit more later this week.
Let's start in the moring, where lots of Dutchies begin their day with a glass of milk and a wholemeal sandwich with Dutch cheese (sliced with a very thin slicing thing called "kaasschaaf").
Looks something like this:

Another favorite item to put on our sandwiches is called "Hagelslag", which are tiny pieces of chocolate to sprinkle on a buttered sandwich (in other countries they use it to decorate cakes with).

When it is time for a coffee break in the morning, a cookie is served to accompany the coffee (in bars and restaurants it is often individually wrapped).

The cookie can be a delicious "stroopwafel",

or in case of a birthday or something else to celebrate, a HEMA tompouce,

and when you live in 's-Hertogenbosch like I do, a "Bossche bol" (filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate).

Enough for now, I'll write more later this week and then I'll tag some other people as well.

From Spain and France

My parents were on holidays for two (!) months. They went to visit France and Spain with their camper van. I am very happy that they are back now, so are my kids! Yesterday, the boys went to my parents again to play and have fun.
Not only am I happy to see them again, they also brought me some presents.... Magazines, fabrics, cords, ribbons and some cute flowery buttons.