Wasting Time

Hema is a mini department store here in Holland.  Check this out.  And make sure your sound is turned up.

Beautiful Skies

Last night waiting for Andrew in the Nieuwmarkt...

Donkeys and Carrots

These little pretties are my latest incentive to do uni work.  

I do a lecture, I get to do a little work on a flower.  I've never found such a great carrot to entice me to keep going on with lectures.  And you only need the teensiest piece of fabric.  One of mine is already sewn onto a hair elastic and I've been proudly swishing my head about hoping for compliments.  The other two are waiting for me to make a trip to Zeeman for some more hair elastics.  Mmm, the life of a donkey!

Busy Fun Weekend and Weekdays

Wonderful weekends go by so quickly! It seemed that it was only yesterday that the beautiful promise of a relaxing weekend spent with family and friends was happening - yet the weekend has come and gone and now I can blog and have my very first attempt at inserting pictures!!!!
Our weekend starts with burger night on Friday night. Mum and Dad join us every Friday night and we attempt to connect with Calli and Andrew in joining with their tradition that they started. Hopefully when they are back in Oz we can all join in together. No photo's of this Friday night burgers because they were dodgy fish ones that were totally gross!
MuM and Dad stayed over on Friday night and we made our way on Saturday morning to our old and Dear friends The Smiths. Mrs Smith was very happy to see us, but old age has made her a little forgetful. It was a happy and sad time, because I remember when she remembered everything and now she had trouble remembering our names. We didn't get to see Mr Smith - again old age has him in a nursing home. We arrived home exhausted, but happy we had made the effort.
Sunday morning, instead of going for a walk in the park as that wonderful old song says, we went for a walk around our local farmers markets. This is the first time we have been and it was more of an exploration than a shopping expedition. There was some great stuff - yummy fruit and vegetables, home made pasta, organic coffee and more. Connor and Kenzi wanted to know where all the animals were - it was a farmers market after all! They were very chuffed when they got to have a pony ride.

After church Mum and Dad had lunch and then we were going to go and see if we could find the naked bike ride. Kenzi wanted to participate, Connor wasn't sure! Anyway we never did find it! Secret location!
Connor had a ten pin bowling party to go to that night!
BIG WEEKEND!
Monday is school and preschool day and I got to sew. One gift for our Goddaughter Trinity who turns 5 this week.

Another bag for Kenzi's room - all her toys are being sorted into different bags and she is allowed one bag at a time. You may call me a tyrannical mother if you like, but i have to do the tidy up with her when everything is out and it is not pretty.

I also finished a pair of tights that I made out of a size 24 T-shirt.

I was asked to cover the prayer book for bible study. This is what I came up with.

Oh also on the weekend we found some facepaint and I painted both Connor and Kenzi's face. Kenzi wanted to paint mine, but we ran out of time - oh dear.

This afternoon was beach afternoon and it was wonderful. Even I ventured in to the water - at 22 degrees I figured it was safe. We took some cool shadow pictures.


Have other things to write but am very excited about the pictures. So until next time - Happy Sailing and Goodnight!

Food, Photos and Farewells

I'm just about to head off and make apple gebak with Martin, a guy from church.  I've lost the recipe that I used at Christmas time so I'm hoping this one from The Baker and The Curry Maker stands up to Martin's inspection.

It's been a great and full weekend with Andrew home.  We spent time chilling out at the library with coffee, hot chocolate and house magazines.  I only look at the pictures in the house magazines as they are in Dutch, it means I get through a lot of magazines and get lots of inspiration.  The rugby was on in the afternoon so we invited an English friend over.  Andrew was happy because Wales won, and I was happy because Scotland won.  We transferred our regular Friday night burgers to Saturday as this was the last time Sam would be able to make it for our world-famous burgers.  Sam left and Andrew mentioned something about long hellos and short goodbyes.  It's always sad to be saying goodbye to good friends.

Andrew brought me home lots of goodies from Turkey and this was one of them:

I love Andrew's photos.  This was taken from the shuttle bus that took him from the hotel to work everyday.

Sunday was busy, but the afternoon was spent eating.  And boy do I mean eating.  We joined Romy, Ben, Rebecca and Nafta for a hotpot at Romy's.  I've never eaten so much!  And what a great, social way to eat together.

It was a beautiful but busy weekend.  And we've hit the ground running.  It's soup tonight, and some serious chilling out.

I Hear Thunder

Last night there was the most spectacular storm. Brenton and I both jumped up because we thought Connor was playing some wicked trick with a torch - but it was the most incredible lightening display!
We opened our front blinds and were able to watch the light show from our bed. There is something amazing about God made fireworks.
Family up.

Sleep Sweet Sleep

There is something quite wonderful about a night of uninterrupted sleep. I have woken up ready to face the world after a night where I didn't have to get up for sick children, strange noises or night terrors.
I am ready for anything.
Connor has been sick for the last two days. His high temperatures have had my heart pounding a few times. His little body doesn't cope well with them and although he no longer has convulsions, he does do a good bit of hallucinating. But we got through it and he is on the tail end of the bug.
Kenzi is going through a cooking phase. We must cook every day and she insists that mud pies aren't cooking, although I have encouraged her on countless occasions to head to the back yard and cook!! Hopefully some good will come of all the cooking we are doing - not just adding padding onto my thighs!
Mum and Dad are down tonight for a sleepover and then we are heading for our annual trip to see the Smith's. Old friends are wonderful!
And so starts my day.

Birthday Goodness

In answer to my dilemma, this is what I came up with.  The first is a heat/cold pack for a friend.  She had a baby a few months ago, and that combined with spending a lot of time in front of the computer has given her neck and shoulder aches.  So here's something to soothe.  And it has a washable cover, good for someone who has a baby about the place.

And the second is for a friend who has just started a new job, and she gets business cards!  This is a little purse to keep them in.  I got the pattern from Martha Stewart and used some great fabric I bought a few weeks ago from IKEA (I love that place!).

Only two sleeps until Andrew is back from Turkey- wooohoooty doo!  During the day it doesn't really make much of a difference that he's away, he's usually at work anyway.  But it's the evenings that drag.  I watch McLeod's Daughters to fill me up with a little bit of home and then read/browse the internet/wash up a small mountain of dirty dishes (housework goes out the window when A's away!).  But tonight I'm off to some friend's place for dinner.  And then it's only one more evening which will probably be spent getting this place back into looking like it did before A left.  And then a delicious weekend spent with my husband.  Perfect.

The Left and the Right Hemispheres of the Brain

Studying fuzzies the edges of my brain if I spend too long at it, so over the last few days I've found some fun things to do to use the other side of my brain (I can't remember which side does what, but I'm exercising both!).  It's Andrew's sister's birthday next week, so I've made a little card to send along to her.  Last time she visited we sent her home with lots of fun little packages to open which make up a breakfast for two including maple syrup that we bought in Canada, pannenkoeken (pancake) mix, dried cranberries to go in the pancakes, hot chocolate sachets with the cutest little mugs, and a pannenkoeken pan (a really thin frying pan just for pancakes).  I love presents that make memories.  I made the card by sewing two different samples of wallpaper together, I love that stuff.  And I wrote on a bunch of Post-Its inside, just for fun.  Sorry about the pics (again), I can't get the computer to save the images when I flip them, so you'll need to squint and tilt your head and try really hard to imagine them the right way around.  

I also made this little card holder.  It was meant for a birthday present for a friend but it didn't scream her name at me so I'm investigating other gift options.  So now it's mine, all mine!  It's actually a light blue colour, but again, the computer camera isn't the hottest at picking those things up.  The little flower in the vase is one that Andrew picked for me on our cycle home from church on Sunday.  There's little flowers popping up everywhere in the grass, they make this cold weather so much more bearable because I'm sure they're trying to usher Spring in and banish the cold, sad weather with their cheery little faces.

The kitchen hasn't been neglected in my scurryings either.  I made a huge fancy mac 'n' cheese for friends last night.  Of course I wasn't able to stick to the recipe and added garlic (mmm, we LOVE garlic in this house) and different cheeses and crumbled cheese crackers on the top for extra crunch.  This went along with a big green salad with dressing made with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons of white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon of seeded mustard and 1 clove of roasted garlic.  I shook it all up in a jar and was left with this amazing yellowy-green dressing.  Yum.  I also made some chocolate apricot balls from a cookbook my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas to take to our church small group last night.  They thought they were bought, I'm taking that as a compliment!

I have a few other projects up my sleeve for today.  Some fun (the above mentioned present) and some obligatory (mending Andrew's jeans).  Along with a pile of uni work to do, looks like I'll be busy, but gosh my brain is going to be looking fine with all this working out!

To Bed, To Bed...

I love that nursery rhyme:

To bed, To bed, said Sleepy Head

Tarry awhile said Slow

Put on the pan, said Greedy Ann

We'll sup before we go!

And that's where this sleepy head is heading. To bed, To bed.  It's been a full day, and there's lots to share but all I'm leaving you with is a picture of the snow that swirled about my part of the world today.  I was jumping and screaming in front of the windows as the BIG fat flakes whirled crazily about.  I've never seen so much snow falling, and so big.  But I'm from sunny Australia, so that's not saying a lot.  But it was beautiful, and slightly magical.  There seems to be a lot of magical moments for the Four Sisters.  I think it's in our blood.

PS Sorry about the picture quality.  Andrew is in Turkey with the camera so I was leaning out the window with our laptop trying to capture the whirling dervishes!

Sand+Water=Magic

There is something very magical about a sunny afternoon at the beach, when the sun is beginning to go down and there is a hint of that cool night air coming in. You look into every rock pool expecting to see a tiny mermaid flitting in and out amongst the seaweed, gathering shells to decorate her cottage garden under the sea. Then KERSPLASH - 2 big merpeople who have given up their tails, soak you to the skin and run away before you can splash them back - an entirely different kind of magic!!!!
Connor and Kenzi love the beach and so it has become a Tuesday afternoon tradition to do the school pick up and then head to the Baths, swim or paddle for a bit and then head on to the rock pools and explore. While the weather holds out we can do this with ease. In winter I think we will just explore the rock pools.
Kenzi's shell collection is becoming extensive and we need to put another room on just to house them. However she does have a good eye for colour and shape, always amazed by the intricate design and thought that has gone into these little houses.
Connor is honing his rock skipping skills so that he can have a playoff with his Da and Uncle at Christmas time. He is blissfully unaware of any others on the beach and so must be watched carefully. I couldn't deal with any irate surfers sporting a flat rock in their forehead! No amount of charm would get me out of that one!
Now, is another magical time of night when we have finished reading our bedtime book (The Wishing Chair Again) and it is time for bed.
Sweet dreams and Goodnight!

Bright, Shiny, Happy Weekends

It's Sunday night and Andrew is serenading me on the guitar, singing a song about a yak herder from Nepal.  It's been one of those great weekends filled with bike rides in the rain, mornings spent catching up with family around the world and beautiful coloured juices in the sunshine during lunch with friends.

Last night Andrew and I went for a walk with one aim in mind: to find funky square photos on our block.  I think Andrew's won.  It was a tile in the pavement that said 'In the gutter' in Dutch. I think the picture is a lady in stockings tiptoeing along wearing the top half of a mascot.  I think the mascot is a cross between a hunchbacked dog and a rat.  Or maybe not.  Anyway, I love the quirky Dutchness around here that you can find everywhere, including underfoot.

And breakfast this morning, mmmmm.  We've started a Sunday morning breakfast tradition.  We take turns each Sunday morning to prepare breakfast while the other stays in bed a little longer.  It was my turn this morning, I think the inspirational stroll through the farmer's market yesterday afternoon yielded pretty scrummy results.  Fresh date scones, greek yogurt + strawberry puree + muesli layers, and home made plum jam, orange and lime marmalade (thanks to Andrew's mum) and blackberry jam Andrew made last summer after picking the berries from brambles on Branno, an island off the coast of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Andrew's off to Turkey for work in the morning.  It's been awhile since he's had to travel without me, so I've made a loooong list of things to keep me occupied while he's away.  I should be pretty busy, and the list doesn't even include the masses of uni work I need to do!  Hopefully the week will scream by.