KissKus

Big Day #1

Yesterday we celebrated the first party of our busy week.
It included my father, a decoration and the queen (not physically present unfortunately).
He was given this decoration for all the years of voluntary work he has done for several sports clubs.

The whole day was full of festivities which started off in the early morning when he and my Mum were picked by a special bus. When they arrived at the town hall we were there waiting. The waiting was no problem, since it was gorgeous weather again.

After the ceremony we had something to eat and drink and in the evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner. The children stayed up until after 10, but behaved (almost) perfectly throughout the day!

This morning I decided to take it easy, so at 11.30 a.m. I was still in my pyjama's when the doorbell rang. It was my neighbour who wanted to explain how his alarm system worked. Luckily I wasn't wearing my ugliest/most worn pyjama's, but still pretty embarrassing, right?!

Quiet before the storm

Trying to take a moment to relax before a week of big events begins.
All good, happy things... I will have lots to write about, I'm sure!

Do you see Amber's concentration and determination in the photo above? She's doing so well with her swimming lessons; she's at level 3 now. We're so very proud of her!

And Simon? Apart from being the sweetest, dearest, funniest boy, he still takes daily naps of at least two hours... I'm the luckiest Mum in the world with these two beautiful children!

Praise for the man who got me reading again

As promised a little something on the lecture by Ian McEwan Michel and I went to last week (seven days ago already... where did they all go?!).
It was a bit of a hassle to actually get us there (embarrassingly late of course), but we were both so glad that we went.

Since the state of my brains is a bit of a theme for me right now, it felt so good to be in a grown-up, intellectual, English-spoken environment again... it was almost as if I was back at university.

Ian McEwan turned out to be a very witty, intelligent and well-spoken man. Listening to him speak was a pure joy... I have a soft spot for anyone who knows how to speak, not just talk.

He read from his latest novel On Chesil Beach and then discussed it with the interviewer and told a bit more about his writing in general. Michel -as an aspiring writer- had his ears sharpened and came away with lots of handy ideas for his own writing.

I discovered McEwan's work while I was studying. For me he immediately fell into the same category as Graham Swift, the writer I admired most at the time and on whose novels I wrote my dissertation. It was one of the rare occasions that I decided that I wanted to read everything that this writer had written. And although I made a good start, I never accomplished this task. But now, after having seen and heard him in person, I'm super motivated to get reading again and tackle his oeuvre.

Here is my little list of writers that I truly love and want to read all of:

• Graham Swift
• Ian McEwan
• Philip Roth
• Toby Litt

I'm very curious whether you have a similar list?!

Now I just need to get in the reading-rhythm again... probably that's what I should be doing when I enjoy the wonderful weather outside instead of sneaking back in to sew :)

And finally, just look where my sister will be teaching next year... congratulations!!

Variation on the same theme

You know that when it's warm and beautiful outside  you almost feel guilty for spending time inside behind the sewing machine? You really should be outside basking in the sun, but your one-armed girlfriend is desperate for some quality time? What else can you do at such a time than make tissueholders?!

Today I made them of oilcloth! They feel lovely and sturdy and so... functional :))

I've been thinking of selling my tissueholders at Queensday, which might be a good way to get rid of some. On Queensday (april 30th) the whole country turns into a fleamarket... so much fun. Here you can see some photos of last year. This year we will attempt to sell the tons of stuff that we keep in the attic... I might as well bring my tissueholders along, right?!

What do you craft when the weather is too good to stay inside?!
~~~~~~
Thanks so much for your comments on my last post! It's good to know that I'm not the only one that suffers from diminished brain activity ;))

Food for thought

Six years ago I graduated from university.
When deciding what I wanted to study one thing was very clear to me: I had to pick something that I would really enjoy, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stay focused and motivated for four more than four years.
I chose to study English language & culture and later narrowed it down to contemporary English literature. Thankfully it was the right choice. I enjoyed it immensely and was lucky enough to find myself at the best English faculty in the country (at least at that time).
I certainly wasn't a great student, but for the amount of time I put in, I wasn't bad either. All went well until I had to write my dissertation. Alone at the computer without structure... it wasn't a good situation for me. Of course, it didn't help that we got married, moved house and had a baby all in the same year that I was supposed to write my dissertation. At my graduation my tutor in his speech said that it had been a double labour for me and it truly was. I handed in the final version of my dissertation on the 6th of June 2001, early next morning my waters broke and a couple of hours later I was a mother. From student life to parenthood in 24 hours... it was a crazy time. When I came to pick up my diploma my 3-weeks old daughter came along (and behaved perfectly).

Anyway, as I said I'm so glad I chose to study English literature. I learned SO much then and I know it's a basic knowledge that I'll always carry around with me and will be useful in whatever I do. I've never had a career in mind when I was studying and I definitely don't think it's a "shame" that I don't use my education in the kind of work I do now as so many people have told me over the years. Our decision to have children young is more important than any kind of respect or money we could have earned with another kind of job. Besides, I believe that having fun at what you do and being valued for who you are, is what matters most in a job.

I wanted to tell you about the lecture I went to on Friday, but instead I wrote all this. I also wanted to ask you whether you too have the feeling sometimes that you're getting less intelligent as you're getting older/since you've had children. Any ideas on that are very welcome, but I'm just too tired to think anymore right now ;)) This will be continued, though...

The photos are from today. We've enjoyed the warmest and loveliest April Sunday possible!

Flashback

We had a pretty full schedule in England.
Breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, sleeping, shopping and bus rides took up most of our time.
We did manage to squeeze in a few other activities as well.

On Thursday we hung out in St. James' Park and hit the shops in the Piccadilly District.

On Friday I met up with Monica which was lovely. We hadn't sent photos beforehand, but I managed to find her by recognizing her brooch... hurray for handmade crafts! We swapped gifts and she gave me some gorgeous fabric and also one of her beautiful brooches, which is the first one in her post.
Unfortunately, neither of us has any photographic evidence of our meeting, but we had a great time shopping and having lunch.

The rest of that day was spent in the centre of Oxford and we cycled a bit on our rented bikes. We also went to the Pitts River's Museum, where you can find the most unusual things displayed. If you're ever in Oxford it's a real must-see.

We had dinner at my sister's boyfriend's College. As of this summer my sister will move in with him, so it was nice to see where she is going to live.

On Saturday we went to London again, where Michel and I spend some time alone in Harrod's and The Victoria & Albert Museum.

The museum is huge and packed with interesting things. Since our time was limited, I thought it would be a smart idea to just concentrate on the Textiles, but when we finally arrived there that section was closed :((
It did give us some more time at the keys and tins sections.

We then rushed to Hammersmith to experience the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. It was all great fun and very exciting. The atmosphere reminded us of our Dutch Queensday. Unfortunately, Oxford lost the race, which we were told by text messages from The Netherlands.

After a pancake feast and a delicious Easter/English breakfast it was time to go home.
Where the Easter partying continued. First at the one set of grandparents....

...and then at the others.

Simon discovered the best hiding place for the chocolate eggs he found: inside the seat of his car.

Well, so far the flashback. Now I'm all up to date and ready to look into the future again :) And Michel and I have something very exciting to look forward to in our very near future (a couple of hours); we'll be going to a lecture in Amsterdam. No irony there, because it will be held by Ian McEwan, a writer I very much admire.

Have a good weekend all!

In our element

As I was looking through the photos I made in England, I noticed how we all really seemed to be in our element.

Three sisters sniffing up some culture outside The Royal Academy of Arts:

Shopping:

Having COFFEE!!

Or hot chocolate:

Cheering on the Oxford rowers (whilst catching up with some essential reading... yes Laura, that is NOW that you are reading!!):

Cycling:

Soaking up the sun in St. James' Park:

And the happy reunion at the airport:

Back at the nest

Enjoying the small things of home...

An explosion of life in the garden

A moorkop and tea in my new favourite mug (it's my birthday today :))

Spending time with the children...

...having lunch (doesn't it look REAL?!)

All in all, it's good to be home!
We did have a fantastic time in England though, which I'll tell you more about soon. However, first I need to have more cake...lots more cake!!

Some of you asked what on earth that is for lunch... well, peanutbutter poo of course!! Michel made it for lunch (don't ask me how!) and the children loved it. No actual yukkiness was used making this (I hope!).

Almost ready to go

Tomorrow we'll be off to my parents to get the children settled at their temporary home and then early Wednesday morning we'll be on our way to lovely England!

We're *almost* ready to go...

That is except for the packing (for four people).

And cleaning (the neighbours will pick up our mail, so I can't leave the house a mess!) 

And finishing birthday presents that should have been finished 2,5 months ago.

And you know, shopping, washing, ironing, last-minute paperwork etc, etc.

Meanwhile we're enjoying the children just a little extra since we won't be seeing them the rest of the week.

And we're soaking up as much sun as possible. We 've had dinner outside two nights in a row! This was yesterday's lasagna:

I'm really looking forward to go. We've got a packed schedule full of fun things. On Friday I'm going to meet Monica :))

And I'll be confiscating kindly asking permission to use my sister's laptop, so I'll still be able to blog :)

Girly twirly skirts

Welcome everyone!

I've decided to make the switch from Blogger to Typepad and I have a feeling that it's the right choice for me. I hope you'll like it here as well :))

This weekend I finished two skirts for Amber.
This is the first one.

I bought this fabric last year (or was it the year before?) with a skirt or dress for Amber in mind. I'm happy to say that it turned out exactly the way I wanted, even the zipper looks acceptable. The only thing is that it falls from her hips, although I've already made it tighter... the girl is so skinny! I guess I'm just going to have to make two more pleads in the waistline.

The second skirt I made, I'm even more proud of actually.

I didn't use a pattern for it, but based it on an old -now too small- skirt.  I made this one just as a trial out of a thrifted sheet, but I think it turned out nice enough to be actually worn.
For Amber the best thing about it is that it's a super twirly skirt... very important for a 5-year-old girl!!
As you can see it's a complete circle:

I'm definitely going to make another one, this time with two different fabrics. And after that I want to make one using six different fabrics... plenty of ideas!!

Here my model got a little tired, but she knows our agreement: I sew the clothes and she shows them!