KissKus

Summer party

Busy times here with the end of the schoolyear near. Lots of events happening and parties to attend. Yesterday we held our own party for Amber.

The day was a success.
Some highlights were:

Unwrapping presents

Off for an adventure

A water fight (it was warm!)

Birthday treats for the children to take home

And grandma made another party dress.

Another reason to celebrate is that this is my 400th post! I would love to do a give-away, but I just wouldn't manage it right now. Perhaps a bit later on when life isn't so hectic.
Still I would like to thank everyone who has been reading some or many of those 400 posts. Blogging has definitely enriched my life and I still enjoy it very much!

Happy weekend everyone!

Fantasy Sunday

Last week we attended the Elf Fantasy Fair. It was my first time there and it was quite a happening.

As you can see the setting was spectacular and the weather was too.

Most people were dressed up; we just didn't look where to look first. The best thing was that you could stare as hard as you wanted :)

Michel and I were traveling with three darling creatures: a princess, a knight and a gnome.

I whipped up Amber's outfit at the last minute. A very simple skirt and a t-shirt with a royal application.

It got her approval, thankfully.

Linus, ofcourse, wasn't wearing his hat.

It was a fun day!

The Christmas market

The Christmas market that I participated in yesterday was a great success!
Lovely atmosphere, no rain and good sales!

My friend and I were there to promote our websites (mine is still under construction!) and to just see how we would do at a market. We learnt quite a few things, but really we were very pleased with the whole day.

These tissue-boxes were a last minute addition to my goods... I like how they turned out.

Look at this cute display that Michel made for my tissueholders!

All in all, it was a wonderful experience... something that we will certainly do again soon!

Built by pixies

Do you have your Kapla (pixie planks) yet? No? Well, you're missing out on something!

You see, it's fun for small and big people.

And you can easily build to most fantastic buildings.

We're all in love with these simple wooden planks in our house. Read more about this toy here.

I'm certain our little man will participate in the building very soon as well, for now he enjoys the demolishing very much (man, he is so cute in his denim overalls!).

Happy weekend everyone!

Score at the thriftstore

I promised to show you the goodies I scored at the thriftstore yesterday, so here goes...

I fell instantly in love with these mugs; I simply had to have them. I never did tell about our mug-love, did I? Perhaps a topic for another post. Let me just say that the mugs are spilling from our cupboard, but after buying these we got rid of three others. So good of us.

Then these shirts... aren't they totally fug fantastic?! Michel is going to spend a weekend with his best friend soon and he says they will wear these shirts. At least I don't have to worry that they'll be chased by any girls then ;)

Rattle socks for Linus. I'm thinking of putting the rattles into a fabric ball that I want make for him. Or should I leave them as they are? They're cute!

Lovely books for everyone. Click the photo to see who they are for. Of course, the bottom one is for me.

It only cost a couple of cents and there are some great softies in there as you can see: I love that Adam and Eve!

And then finally I found four nifty baskets. I have a feeling that they're from Ikea; at least that would explain their tight fit into our Billy bookcase!

As you can tell, Michel and I were mighty pleased with our finds. When we go to the thriftstore we always come away with something... do you ever leave empty handed?!

Hurray!

I'm feeling very happy right now. This was such a good day!
Hurray for:

• The second undisturbed night in a row... yay, Linus!!
• A great thrifting/coffee drinking morning with my lovely hubby and gorgeous baby
• Cute, inexpensive things bought today
• A husband that took the car to the garage, did the shopping, cooked a yummy meal and went shoe-shopping with Simon
• Sewing during nap-time (yes, you read that right... I sewed!!! And Linus napped!!!

We bought the prints above in the sale today... what a find, I really love them! They're designed by Atelier LZC; a design studio I'd never heard of before, but I think they make wonderful things. I just don't know where to hang them yet. I would love to hang them in the living room where I can look at them all day, but the colours don't really match our furniture. What to do?! Paint the furniture, I suppose :)

Next post I'll show you what I dragged home with me from the thriftstore!

Play

Last week my Sheet Square Swap package arrived. And what a fun package it was!
I swear that I looked at each and every piece of fabric that was in there... all 200 of them!
After that Amber and I spent a lovely afternoon sorting the fabric by colour and making patchwork patterns with them on the garden table.

It was very comforting to be playing with fabric in these harsh times of sewing drought. It almost felt as if I was really working on something... bliss!

Anyway, I do definitely think that our sofa needs a new patchwork snuggle blanket this winter. It must be possible to sew one before March 21st 2009, right?!

Also last week I received this lovely package with pretty goodies. I'd won a give-away on Lisette's blog. All items are already being used and loved.

Thank you Katie and Lisette for brightening up my day with your great packages!

We party with cake

Oh yes, we do!
I decided that this year for Simon's birthday we needed to have a homemade cake.
It was a simple plan: chocolate cake, layers of whipped cream and on top a coating of marzipan. Oh, with the John Deere logo!
All credits go to Michel who -with blood, sweat and tears- created this:

Wow! We were all impressed and I've decided to make this a family tradition :)

 

We celebrated Simon's birthday for family and friends yesterday. He received lots of nice presents and he enjoyed his special day.

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On his actual birthday on Wednesday we went to a lovely, small theme park called Sprookjeswonderland. We had heard good things about it and it definitely didn't disappoint us! It was a very friendly place where we enjoyed a very fun afternoon in the sun.

There were fairytale creatures, cute rides, a pet zoo and playgrounds.

Certainly a day to put in the Happy Memory Box :)

Sand & water

Thank you all so much for thinking along with me about what might be going on with Linus! We have an appointment at the doctor's on Friday.

We went to the beach today.
The weather wasn't very beachy, but when you live in Holland you'll get nowhere if you have to wait for the right kind of weather... So we embraced the elements and had fun nonetheless.

Amber and Simon had a wonderful time chasing the (HUGE) seagulls and digging holes. Linus was happily being rocked in his pram by the strong winds. I collected shells and enjoyed the feeling of sand between my toes. Michel was the odd one out (he's more of a forest person) until the children persuaded him to build sandcastles with them.

Did you ever look closely at sand?! It's made up of all kinds of colours... beautiful! And shells? Aren't they amazing? One square meter of beach is enough to keep me entertained all day :)

Simon's sun bleached hair against the sand. Mmmm, sweet boy, kiss on that lovely head of yours!

I would really love to go to the beach more often. I always feel that it's a long drive, but really it's less than an hour. When we were in France we had to drive 30 minutes to the supermarket, so what are we talking about?! We should just do it! Yeah!

Vive la France & vive our own home!

Hello, we're back from (mostly) sunny France!

We had a great holiday, but we're all enjoying our own home very much again too. Don't you love coming home again after a holiday too? Everything looks so fresh and comfy... it's the best way to appreciate your home I think!

Now what did we do in France?

We read...

We played...

We ate...

... and we enjoyed the kiddies very much!

All the ingredients for a good holiday :)

Do you know something else I enjoy? Washing about 20 loads of dirty holiday clothes. Seriously... I do!