KissKus

Wonderland

A few weeks back Michel, Linus and I, plus Michel's sister and her boyfriend went to a wonderful exhibition in Amersfoort. It was called Wonderland, Through The Looking Glass and showed a very diverse selection of imaginative art.

These paper figures seemed so carelessly put together and yet they were so life-like.

The two most impressive pieces were two incredible realistic creatures by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini.

I couldn't keep my eyes off them. It reminded me so much of when I first saw Ron Mueck's work a few years ago.

There were many more surprising and wonderful things to see there. I'd really recommend a visit if you live anywhere near. You can see some more photos here.

Michel's sister and her boyfriend fiancee went back home to Australia today. It's always sad to see them go, because we quite literally live worlds apart. However, even though it may take us a while, we have made definite plans to go and visit them in Australia!

Queensday 2008 & 2009

Left: Linus at Queensday 2008
Right: Linus at Queensday 2009

What a difference a year makes!
And although we don't use it very often nowadays, we are still very happy with our BabyCuddle!

You can read about previous Queensday celebrations here, here and here.

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!

Eye candy

I created a little eye candy to enjoy on this rather cloudy Sunday.

I took these photos last year when I visited the Kaffe Fassett exhibition in Belgium... it was simply fabulous seeing all these creations in real life!

I made a skirt today, which I'll show tomorrow... enjoy the rest of the weekend!

A magical place?

Well, we're back from Disneyland and let me tell you that the weather was simply magical! So sunny and warm... absolutely wonderful!!

And the rest of Disneyland? Well, I wouldn't exactly call that magical.
It wasn't so much of a disillusion, since I didn't expect much beforehand, but I did find the commercial tackiness a little overwhelming. After entering the park we spent the first 40 minutes or so looking for an attraction... all we could see were shops crammed with ridiculously overpriced souvenirs!

The first attraction we decided to queue for (it was SO busy) was A Small World. It was as if I suddenly stepped into a nightmare: the scary pink and gold sweetness and all those annoying children's voices singing the same song over and over and over again... wow, that was impressive in its own special way!

The hotel we stayed in was fine. It was built as a small town in Western style. The room wasn't big, but comfortable enough and it had a bath, which the children enjoyed very much (I took a bath as well... never did I feel more like a whale). It was lovely to spend a night so close together.

On Sunday morning we got up early. Because we were hotel guests we were allowed to enter the park at 8.00 a.m. (it normally opens at 10.00 a.m.). When we got there around 9 it was already incredibly crowded. Michel went into Space Mountain, which was quite a spectacle according to him. After that we went queue-hopping for a couple of hours.

We took a lunch break and watched the masses stand in line to be photographed with several Disney characters. Now that was entertainment! Thankfully, both Amber and Simon wanted to have nothing to do with these characters with their huge scary plastic heads. Simon started whimpering as soon as any one of them came near us and we had to take a few detours to avoid them when they all came tumbling out of the train after the Parade.

The attraction we all enjoyed most was a lovely old river boat (it was real!)... it was so wonderful and relaxing to stand on deck in the sun.

While Michel and Amber decided to check out the Haunted House, Simon and I sat down on a bench where he happily played with the two sticks we found (he's a collector!). Those were his souvenirs of the weekend and I couldn't have been more proud of him, because he truly didn't desire anything else!

For Amber it was more difficult to resist the temptation of all the kitsch goodies that were shoved into her face every step of the way. I couldn't blame her at all, but we bought nothing.

All in all, we had a great weekend together as a family. It was a very welcome break from all the stress and work at home and we enjoyed every minute of that.  I don't think we'll ever go back to Disneyland again, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Home again

We're back from a wonderful three day break.
We're all relaxed, but definitely not rested... there wasn't a lot of time to sleep in between all the fun we had!
To prepare myself for "normal" life again I think I'm going to have a nice cup of tea and an early night!

New oilcloth

I was in need of some new oilcloth.
I was slowly running out of stock and that was simply unacceptable.

There are a few shops that I know of that sell pretty oilcloth, but they were too far away. So I tried the nearby town of Hilversum and found a very cute little shop with quite a variety of oilcloth... hurray! I'm developing quite a nose for finding these shops!
I bought these three:

I really like the yellow check, I've never seen this kind of pattern on oilcloth before.
The lady of the shop was very nice and we got talking about all sorts of things. When I told her what kind of things I make with the oilcloth, she said I should show her some stuff if I wanted and that she might sell it for me there. I don't know if I dare... I'm really such a coward!

We then went to my "normal" fabric shop where we looked for fabric for the dress I'm going to make Amber. She picked out this fabric herself (the photo is bad):

A very good choice I think. A chique black baby corduroy that will make a very nice party dress for her. Hopefully, if I don't mess it up.

I also found this very cute fabric printed with old Dutch images... I love it!

About the oilcloth... I've had quite a few questions on how to purchase these fabrics. It seems that in most parts of the world it's impossible to buy some nice oilcloth... poor people! I've looked around and I've found two online shops that might be some good. This one (it's all in Dutch, but perhaps you could contact them) and this one ( although I'm not sure whether they're selling online). If I could help out with translating or anything, let me know!

Camping is fun/not so fun

Last week after we dropped the children off at the oma's, Michel and I had five days to ourselves. No work, no children... what were we going to do?!
On Monday we decided to go camping in Limburg, which is in the south of Holland (a looooooong way down, an almost two-hour drive!). We brought a little tent and a couple of books and not much else.

The campsite was lovely and almost deserted. We set up our tent... it was perfect!
On Tuesday we spent the whole day reading in the sun and we both finished our book (this was mine, very enjoyable).

Unfortunately, it started raining in the late afternoon, but we decided to take advantage of it and had a wonderful meal in a cosy restaurant.

However when we arrived back to the tent our bedding was damp, the mattress had already proved to be uncomfortable the night before. There was nothing to it than try to get some sleep. All through the night it continued to rain and our bed and duvet went from damp to downright wet. When it was finally time to get up and we looked under under the mattress it turned out that we had been lying in a large pool of rainwater... nice! Apparently, the bottom of the tent wasn't water-resistant.

There was no way we were going to stay another night in an even wetter tent (it was still raining), so we packed everything up and went to the most southern city of our country: Maastricht.

It was an 8o km drive, but because of the rain, accidents and roadworks it took us three hours to get there! When we finally arrived we comforted ourselves with a piece of traditional Limburger cake.

However, Maastricht was lovely and we enjoyed ourselves there and when we came home that evening we still had a good feeling about our little break.

And the best thing was that our own bed never slept so nice!! We have once again proven that there's no place like home!

When men go wild...

The other day we went to a woodcutter's festival in a village near us.

First there was a Jack Russel-race which was great fun since both the kids are terrified of dogs (Michel and I aren't fans either).

Then we watched the chainsaw woodcarving contest. Simon thought the sound of the saws was too loud.

What he did enjoy were the tractors that were parked everywhere.
This was definitely the largest, awesomest tractor we've ever seen:

We also enjoyed watching a demonstration of the fire brigade.

When we cycled back home, we were all pleased with a day well spent.

And it managed to stay dry....

... until we sat down outside to eat our homemade pizza.

That's summer in Holland for you all!