Hopfaldera

Plans for travel

We are off to China in a couple of days! It is the first time I've had to prepare like a tourist because the previous times we went, we only went to visit our family in Shanghai. But not this time: This time we are also going to Beijing and to Xian. We can, because we think Damaris and Emil are big enough now to enjoy some sight-seeing, but of course we have made sure that at least one of the hotels has a pool.

These are the plans:
In Shanghai we'll have to find out how high the new tallest building has become since our last visit, and of course how tall our cousins Constantine and Amanda have become.
In Beijing we want to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
In Xian we want to see the Terracotta Army, and it'll be very exciting because we will be without our family there, so we will have no help with the language...

Not too many specific plans because one of the important things is to try to soak up some of everyday life in the places we visit. In Shanghai we will try to take Constantine to school (this year our May vacation is longer than his) and see what his school is like. And we'll take Amanda to the playground and try to teach her some new Dutch words. When you live so far from your family it's really nice to experience some of what they do everyday. Have dinner with them, take their daily trips with them, play together. So that is still a big part of our plans, even if we are going to be tourists this time!

A Dutch song

This is for my kids. It is an acoustic version of Nick en Simon's Rosanne, and it is quite bearable. No whining! And it even has a very sympathetic mistake. Nick and Simon are very popular singers. The version of this song that we know from the radio has all kinds of things added that make it "not so nice". I think they should have kept the song like this. Damaris can play this on her guitar as well!

Nuts, raisins and ceramics

The last couple of times at my Ceramics class, my class mates have started to bring cake and cookies to go with our coffee break. A good development! This Friday, I felt it was my turn to bring something sweet.
I turned to an old favorite recipe, Nut-raisin-tea bread.

It is a recipe I first used more than 15 years ago, when I organized a big afternoon tea birthday party together with my friend Monique. Back then we spent 2 days of constant baking and I enjoy every minute of it. I remember proclaiming that my life's ambition was to become a 'baking mother' (I think I succeeded in my ambition, although it took me a long time to realize that; just like realizing that all this art work is what I should be doing, but never mind...).
Back to the recipe (it is from Libelle magazine originally):
First brew
* 200 ml of strong Forest Fruit tea (I used Cranberry as you can see)
Then, in a large bowl, combine
* 150 grams of wholemeal flour (volkorenmeel)
* 150 grams of self raising flour (I used plain flour and used two tablespoons of the next ingredient)
* 1 tablespoon of baking powder
* 150 grams of light brown sugar (I used cane sugar, which apparently is more healthy)
* 250 grams of walnuts (broken in pieces with your fingers or roughly chopped)
* 100 grams of raisins
* a pinch of salt

Mix with the tea and
* 1 egg
using a wooden spoon. No dry bits should remain in the bowl.
Spoon the mixture in a greased and lightly floured loaf cake tin and bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 70 minutes.

I believe my ceramics buddies enjoyed the bread, even though it somehow inspired us to have a conversation about worms in places you'd rather not think about.
This is what was left of the bread after we were done with our break (photographed at home with some of my ceramics, more in this Flickr set). Frederik was grateful!

Etsy love

I just put this sheep, Pansy, in my Etsy shop!
She is the second version of a little softie I created. Polly was the first one.

There are so many nice, lovely, great things for sale on Etsy! Look at my list of favorites to get an idea (also if you're ever stuck for a gift idea for me... heehee).

update: I have entered Polly and Pansy in the Cutest Face category of the 2nd Annual Softie Awards. Keep your fingers crossed for them!

Fabric printing

Last week I received the new book by Lotta Jansdotter, Lotta prints.
It's a nice book and we were inspired to do some fabric printing. It turned out I actually have a large collection of paint and materials for this craft. Printing is an old love, that's one of the reasons why I was drawn to the book. Also because Lotta's Simple sewing book was the first craft book I found through the craft blogging world.


Emil needed a new schoolbag so he decorated a blank one that I had lying around. Damaris decorated a piece of linen she will use for some still mysterious fashion project.

This time it was mainly Emil and Damaris that did the printing. And it was me that did the setting up and the cleaning up. I hope I can do some more printing for myself next time. Because it is a lot of fun!

I love this work

I'm back! The flu is as good as gone and I've already been up to some new work this week. Here it is:

This sheep and her blue-toned (and yet to be sewn together) friend will be in my Etsy shop somewhere next week.
And it's Friday, so I also worked on my ceramics:

I even had some finished and almost finished objects from the kiln this week:

Looking at these photos I realized: I loved making all those things. It is hard to express how happy it makes me feel that I am able to do what I truly love to do. It may not all seem very useful, or even part of one body of work, but it is to me. I learn something everyday: sometimes it is a skill, sometimes it has to do with inspiration, or work ethic (just to get on with it), or acceptance, or true expression of myself.  I try to value all those learning experiences. And I enjoy myself tremendously!