Hopfaldera

Blackberries

Last week when they took the boat out after dinner, Frederik and Emil found a blackberry bush. The bush can only be reached by boat so it was still full of berries!! Frederik and Emil ate a large dessert of them, but the next day they went back with containers and brought home more than a kilo of super sweet dark blackberries.

This is what we did with them:

eat them just like that

make dark purple ice cream

make two pots of jam (the only thing I photographed)

make syrup for lemonade (we googled for recipes, found only vague ones, then made something up ourselves)

bake blackberry muffins (using a blueberry muffin recipe by Nigella Lawson)

We had the greatest time!!

Texel

This time about not about textile, but about Texel (there will still be some textile, don't worry).

Texel is an island in the north of the Netherlands. We went there last weekend.

We saw sheep and seals.

 

 

I saw two quilt shops (two more than in Leiden) and visited one: De Witte Engel. And bought some fabric, of course.

We cycled. We stayed in a nice hotel. We played games. We saw our favorite tv shows. We read our books and magazines. The weather was great. We had a great time!!!

And we even won a prize: a sausage! Dutch people will probably remember this: Heb je ook wel eens een leverworst gewonnen? (Have you ever won a liver wurst?); a quote from the tune to a children's tv show from when I was a teenager, Theo en Thea. Here's the song... (it's pretty weird!)

It's spring!

Look...

All kinds of fresh things...

 New plants in our little yard

A fresh new book (I started to read in it already even though I haven't finished my Wallander #10 yet and Frederik was hoping I would read Stieg Larsson #2 next)

 
 
And some fresh rucola in our weekly organic vegetable box to make pasta with rucola pesto with

2010

What are my plans for 2010?

I'm continuing my classes in ceramics, yoga, and fabric design

 
 

I will be participating in Bee Europa all year long

We will go to China in May, and are planning to visit the US in the summer

I will continue to get most of my books from the library instead of buying them

I want to make a quilt for Damaris and a quilt for Emil

First I want to finish the Friendship Star quilt (with an Ohio Star here and there) that I started

I should finish the knitting projects that I had planned: a sleeveless sweater for Frederik and a cardigan for Damaris (my note book on Ravelry)

I'll try to give even more handmade presents this year (I did a good job around Christmas)

 

I will keep on crafting, blogging, keeping shop on Etsy, having fun on Flickr

P.s. Did you see, the passport wallet I made last summer was in Sew Hip Magazine 13, in the Readers Gallery? I can't figure out why they didn't use the photo of the much nicer outside of the wallet???

 

Post 100 Give-Away

This is the 100th post on my blog! It took me more than one and a half year but I got there. And that means it is time to celebrate! With music and with me giving away something to one of you.

First some music (from the days when shaving your arm pits was not necessary before a tv appearance), this is Nena, my teenage idol (with a great skirt on!) (Sorry, the video is quite blurry):

And now for the Give-Away!

This is what you can win: A Friendship Bag (an extra I made for the swap) filled with goodies. The goodies include fabric and Stroopwafels (Dutch cookies; the song was German but I am actually from the Netherlands), and some surprises.

This is what you need to do to enter the Give-Away: Leave a comment on this post. The Give-Away is open to anyone, from all countries. I will leave comments open for a week. Then, on Monday 31st of August in the morning, I will draw the winner from all commenters.

Good luck everyone!!

I should add that I made the bags following this tutorial!

**commenting is now closed; the winner will be announced soon**

Appeltaart Apron

A couple of months ago, Amy Karol (Angry Chicken) announced the Pie-Making Apron challenge on her apron blog Tie one on. I really liked that theme and thought it was the perfect inspiration!

I made an Appeltaart (Apple Pie) Apron for Damaris. She is a star at making these pies. And I set out to make an apron for her that was cool, girly but not pink, slightly apple-themed, and fun to make.

Here is a link to our photo in the Tie one on gallery (it features Damaris' Appeltaart recipe!!) and here you can see the whole gallery of Pie-Making Aprons.

 

Here is the next challenge... I wonder what I'll come up with?!

Peaches

We had some lovely "forest peaches" the other day!



They smelled delicious and had a very nice taste too.



I didn't have to go to a forest for them. I got them a our "groenteman" (vegetable shop) around the corner!

Breakfast

Look at what I had for breakfast...


Wednesday


Thursday


Friday


Saturday


Sunday


Monday

I wonder what I'll have tomorrow...

A little advance notice: Wednesday will be Give-Away Day in the crafty webworld (organized by Sew Mama Sew). I will also have a Give-Away! I will be giving away something handmade and a bit of craft supply. Be sure to come back for that!

Look at my tomatoes!

Some colorful tomato happiness!

We received these so called wild tomatoes today in our weekly organic vegetable and fruit bag from Kievit. They made a great salad with some balsamic vinegar dressing, yum yum.

New beginning

A new beginning, that's what it always feels like after I emerge from being ill with a infection of my leg. I have to start again to arrange my priorities and rethink all the activities I was involved in.
So, this time, I dropped working on the bazaar at school and I will probably not help in school activities for a long time (I believe helping with a felting project was the direct cause of the infection this time).
What I did not drop: Ceramics class, cooking at home (I made Melanzane Parmiggiana yesterday), my own creative endeavors, having fun with my family.




Right now this fun consists of sudokus with Emil, reading Harry Potter to Damaris and Emil; we'll start book 7 as soon as someone makes it to the book store.



The ultimate goal is to be able to go to Pinkpop with Damaris on June 1. I bought tickets for the two of us two days before I got sick. So I'm saving my energy now to see Amy MacDonald, Mando Diao, Franz Ferdinand, Anouk, Katy Perry and more with my hip girl!