KissKus

Going round in circles...

... so I may as well crochet some.

A funk

These past days I found myself at a bit of a standstill, I'm indecisive about a lot of things and I can't seem to get motivated to get going with just about anything. I don't know whether it's just the end of winter that's bringing me down, I do know that the start of spring -with hopefully lots of sun- will be very wellcome.

Creatively, I'm stuck as well. There are plenty of vague ideas going through my mind, but it's hard to find the energy to really dig into a project. And some of the things that I have tried lately didn't work out the way I wanted.

The only thing that just keeps going is my baking. It's a new obsession, as I've had so many before this. But a good one, that brings me pleasure and comfort and that feeds me and my family well.

A few of the things that came out of the oven last week:

Muesli bread. Excellent in one go. Already made another.

Cheese & onion rolls. Very good with homemade soup, great hit with the kids.

Amber's delicious chocolate cake which we devoured this weekend. Seems the baking bug is contagious!

Drifting ice

The children and I took a nice little trip to see the spectacular drifting ice. It was only a 45 mins drive, but it seemed we had landed upon the North Pole. The children loved it, Simon especially. It was great to see them have such simple fun. What a trio I have... I'm one lucky mother <3

Sewing with knits

Now that I have my very own serger, a whole new world of sewing possibilities has opened up. I must say that that is a little frightening as well as very exciting :)

One of the first things that I wanted to try was to make some underwear for the boys. Well, today I managed to sew something that looks remarkably like a boxer short. Not bad for a first try I think. Of course there are many things that can be improved, but it's wearable and Linus was happy to try it on.

I did some research on the interwebs and then I cut up on old pair of boxer's and used that as a template for a pattern.

The fabric I used is a pyjama shirt of mine and that worked fine. Elastic came from the stash, so nothing spent on this project.

Another thing I finished were a pair of pyjama/jogging pants for Simon. These came together so quickly, a very satisfying job indeed.

Lastly, I finished three of these shopping bags, made from old t-shirts. Simple, cute and practical. I'll look for a link and will post that soon.

Approaching

My sister had these splashes of Spring flowers on her desk in her lovely new apartment. Seriously delicious.

Pretty view.

Another pretty view.

PS My baby sister turned 28... WHAT?!?!

Weekend cookies

Plenty of baking done today. These walnut cookies are good!
And now it's time to enjoy the weekend. We have a trip to the museum and my sister's birthday party scheduled. Looking forward to it!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Still improving

Happy to report that I'm still improving my bread making skills. However, I think they now are about as good as they get (which is good ;)). I've started adding nuts and seeds to them. But not for the kids, since they do not always appreciate the finer things of food (silly kids!).

I'm baking 6 loaves per week now in two batches. It's barely enough for a week, so sometimes I have to bake extra. I don't ever buy supermarket bread anymore. Home baking gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction. My own bread is healthier, cheaper and tastes better :)

Winter scene

Villeroy & Boch Heinrich West Germany "Winter"

Winter in Holland

It's been winter here in Holland for a few weeks now. It has snowed, there is ice and it's COLD.

Of course, the children love it. Me not so much, although I do enjoy the clear, bright skies.

Today we went to the windmill in Weesp to buy wholemeal in bulk. Yes, I'm serious about my bread making! And how cool to get my ingredients from the mill.

While we were there the children wanted to have some fun on the ice. I don't believe I've ever seen that river completely frozen over. It really was quite special.

Back home to warm up with tea and Michel's freshly baked sticky walnut tart, yum!

Granny blanket

I finished my granny square blanket. Or: almost finished, since there are still about a thousand threads to weave in.

It was a very nice project to work on, perfect for winter evenings on the sofa.

I like the trimming that I came up with, as usual it was improvised. In fact, I wanted a picot edge, but I was too comfortable on above mentioned sofa to get up and check how to do that exactly. So, this is what I came up with and I'm pretty pleased with it.

The question is: do I now finish one of my many WIPs or do I start a new project?

PS. Yes, there is one mistake in the pattern... can you spot it?