Ladybird

Plak&Pimp 2

2012-01-18T17:56:00.004+01:00

My newest hobby, Plak&Pimp (Paste&Pimp)

So much fun to do, look at the result!

More to come....

Stu's birthday

2012-01-11T13:39:00.003+01:00

Chocolate cakes, pretending to be a cup of coffee...

Victoria sponge cake

Popcakes, or also known now as ... 'Cakieballs'

Christmas @ home

2011-12-11T19:20:00.002+01:00

I love this time of year!! The christmas tree is up!

And our little village is set up by Stu.

And of course a christian touch. A nice nativity...

Oh I love Christmas!! Warm chocolate, cream, candles, games, friends&family!

Plak&Pimp

2011-11-30T15:39:00.002+01:00

This is what you can do with an old toddlerchair!

Stained glass

2011-11-27T17:22:00.002+01:00

I'm soooo proud of myself

*smile*

My self made stained glass window!

Simone's amazing world of TEA part three

2011-10-16T20:20:00.004+02:00

I like the different kind of wrapping...

Korean Tea!!!

A friend brought it home for a special moment. He wanted to try it.

Since I'm such a tea-fan, he let me try it. Strangely enough, I liked it... Can't describe the taste though. It was just odd... hahaha....

Lego Creationary

2011-09-19T09:47:00.002+02:00

I'm soooo proud!!!

Look at this:

We are introduced to a new way of playing games.

Lego Creationary.

It's fun... it's creative and something new. No oldfashion Risk,

Ticket to ride, cardgames..

No, with this everybody can join in and play.

We were visiting our friends a couple of weeks a go and were introduced to

LEGO Creationary.

When we're at their place we usualy end up playing games, this time was no exception. This time their daughter of 8 introduced us to this game.

It was a laugh! The fun thing is that everybody can join in.

I'm so proud of my creations... they knew instantly what it was!!

HIHI.. How much fun you can have with lego!?

Simone's amazing world of TEA part two

2011-09-12T18:46:00.002+02:00

You know I love Tea,

Well this is something I like about Tea as well...

The way they wrap it!!

Olaf's first birthday!

2011-08-17T19:06:00.003+02:00

My little nephew turns 1 on friday.

Which means his auntie has to start baking...

Happy birthday Olaf!

Chocolate lollypops!

Help us sell our place!!house

2011-07-21T16:36:00.002+02:00

Dear friends, family, readers in The Netherlands... can you help us out here?

The link bellow is a website we made about our house. If you read this and you know someone who wants to live in Rotterdam... please tell them about our website! Link us on your facebook, twitter etc. If you make this happen and someone you told about this will buy our house, you win a cake!!!

http://www.invader-stu.com/our_place_for_sale/

Thank you all so much!!

Popcakes second Attempt!!

2011-07-08T18:09:00.003+02:00

Made possible by Marianne&Dienke!!

Schiermonnikoog

2011-07-06T12:14:00.002+02:00

If you would like to see a part of The Netherlands that you have never seen before, I would like to give you an idea. In the north of The Netherlands you will find some islands. They're called "De Waddeneilanden" There are Dutch ones and German ones.

Big ones, small ones. Some of them are famous for their sheep & cranberries, others for there natural enviroments. Some are very touristy-like, others are more for people that look for peace & quiet.

A few weeks ago I went to Schiermonnikoog with my English husband, his mum and dad and my mum and dad. It's one of the smaller islands. When the water is very low, you could even walk from the island to the mainland and vica versa. The village on the island is tiny and has old houses. (from 1700/1800) It's like walking through an open air museum. The little shops are adorable and there is even an old fashion candyshop! The boattrip is also an event itself. If you ae lucky (and we were on the way back) you will spot some seelions. A great day out, even when it rains!!!

One of the other islands that I can recomment as well is Ameland. It's a bit bigger and has on either side a little village. If you want to go more touristy-like you can visit Terschelling or Texel.

Have fun exploring a different part of The Netherlands.

Low water? You can walk to the mainland. It's going to take you hours and you will get wet! Don't do the walk without a guide. When the water comes in again you're in big trouble!!

Candystore!

Debbie&Mike's Weddingcake

2011-06-12T18:24:00.001+02:00

A great weekend in the countryside of Holland

2011-05-24T19:23:00.007+02:00

My husband has a new hobby...

He discovered our camera and what you can do with it.

I'm afraid I will not see that camera again!

We were invited to the lovely home of Vally&Koos in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. We spent a great weekend with them. It was a relaxing, entertaining and fun musical weekend. We walked & talked, sailed, played music and took loads of photos

Vally&Koos thanks for a great weekend!

Here you can see some of the 350 photos we took :D

This is me... or at least my ear...

As i said, my husband has a new hobby...

Since I lost the camera to my husband,

Koos was so kind to let me use one of his camera's

We sailed on the Hennie H and had a real Hennie H experience...

Vally showed me how to play a mandoline, it was fun!

I played around with B&W photos and worked on grey scales..

Simone's amazing world of TEA part one

2011-05-08T10:08:00.002+02:00

Tea in Berlin....
Tea on the train to Berlin...Tea makes me tick!!

Parade of the Easter eggs!!

2011-05-04T21:50:00.004+02:00

This is how they decorate shoppingcenters in Berlin for Easter.Isn't it beautiful?

Popcakes!

2011-04-11T20:25:00.002+02:00

First attempt!

Wall-E

2011-04-08T12:02:00.001+02:00

Sunday boat trip

2011-04-06T17:57:00.004+02:00

Rotterdam has a lot to offer.

We already knew that, but we do experience it more and more...

Two weeks ago it was a great spring day. It was sunday and we had some time to relax. We decided to end our special relax day on the "Berenboot"

If you live in Rotterdam or somewhere near, you must know the

"Beren restaurants".

You can find them everywhere in Rotterdam and some places close to Rotterdam. It's gezellig, the food is reasonably prised and nice. Good when you dont feel like cooking :D

When you have some soft teddy bears that need a new home you can bring them to the Beer Restaurants, they are happy to take them in. All the restaurants are packed with Soft toys (bears) And every beer restaurant has it's own Bear name, like; Betty Beer, Brutus Beer etc. There's even a Bezorgbeer that dellivers the Beer food on your doorstep. The guy that will knock on your door, has a Bearheadhelmet on, seriously :D

Since it was great weather and we already wanted to do this for a long time, we went to the Berenboot. Normaly you'll have to make a reservation, but we we're lucky... there was one table left on the boat. The boat leaves at 5pm 0r 8 pm and it takes you through the harbour of Rotterdam in about 2 1/2 hours. During this nice boatride a buffet is served and you can eat as much as you want. After the buffet there's also a nice dessert. It was a fun trip on a sunny sunday evening. We can really recommend it!

Make a reservation on this website, and try it... it's fun!

(and not that expensive :D)

www.berenboot.nl

I shouldn't spoil the surprise, but it's too great not to share this with you....

There's this sort of 'dancefloor' when you get on to the boat.

When dinner starts, the floor starts moving and a real buffet appears in the middle of the boat. Brilliant!

I hope you will try this... it's so much fun!

If you are more into pancakes... next to this boat in de Parhaven in Rotterdam is the pannenkoekboot docked. Have fun!

Bathing Fairy

2011-03-30T17:48:00.000+02:00

Old car&New car

2011-03-27T22:16:00.006+02:00

This is my 'old' car... I bought it 9 years ago. I loved it, it took me everywhere I wanted to go. And although it looks small on the outside... it's huge on the inside! Once you put the seats down you have enough space to go camping in Denmark and take all the stuff you need with you in the car. Or go camping in Luxembourg, this car took me places...

You want to move houses, not a problem.. this baby takes loads of boxes and a fridge on top. In short, I loved this car and it never let me down!

But the sweet 'old' lady was getting old and the older you get, the more money you cost every year. So with pain in my heart I had to say goodbye to this sweet little lady. Luckely my uncle has a garage and he took her in. I know he will take good care of her and let her have a few nice years somehwere in friesland where the grass is still greener then here ;P

And this is the newest lady in our midst. The bigger sister of my 'old' car. She is one year younger, more powerful and bigger.

It now has to travel around with two people in it, and my husband will be driving this one as well.So it's not only my car anymore but now it's: 'ours'.

So goodbye 'old' blue, welcome new blue!

Ladies and gents, our new car:

We have her for two weeks now and we got to know each other a little... haha.. She likes to drive faster then the old one and she is definitely bigger and more powerful. She's also very stuborn, she doesn't like it when we leave the radio on. When we do that, she drains out the battery and refuses to start!

Ah well, when we know each other well enough she will quit that nonsense as well!

And otherwise we'll call the ANWB again!!

Cake workshop

2011-03-18T20:17:00.007+01:00

Of course, when the cake-decorating-bug bites you...

you want to do it again!

So here it is...

Cakeworkshop with colleagues, part 2 !

See, talented eh?

They did an amazing job and it was a lot of fun!

This one I didn't make during a workshop, but I wanted to post it anyway:

A cake for Marike's birthday!

The marzipane looks this bubbly because there is chocloate-crunch underneath it...

mmmm mmmmm

Weird things

2011-03-16T10:15:00.002+01:00

People do weird things...

Can you spot it?? Do you know what I mean??

For weeks I just walk past this house thinking...

WHY???

Wall-E

2011-02-20T21:51:00.003+01:00

Wall-E what are you doing??

There it is..

2011-02-12T11:35:00.004+01:00

I promised you something...

But it's hard to keep a promise when the object you're going to take a photo of is not working!

I was finaly at the other platform, walking towards the 'thing' to make it work. What happened is hilarious... all these weeks of hoping, gone in a second.. it wasn't working. Which one was working? The one on the other platform!! It's starting to become a tradition I suppose! With only 2 minutes on the clock before my train arrived, I didn't have time enough to run to the other platform. This is as far as I got:

The weirdest things...

2011-02-02T11:54:00.005+01:00

When you travel to work every day by train you come across the weirdest things. Also traveling by train is a big adventure in this country. But that's another story.... it's a story about how a trainjourney of normally an hour can turn into 3 hours when it's snowing. And then in the end it took you at least 6 hours to go to work and back home again in the evening.

Anyway... there's been said enough about trains and snow in Holland, let's hope it snows when I don't have to work...because I love snow!

Where was I...? Oh yeah, you come across the weirdest things on your travels to work, this is what I spotted the other day:

You might already have seen it, but it took me by surprise a little...

Any idea what it is?

I wasn't the only one wondering, I must say it was hilarious to see people walking past it en see them trying to figure it out. The thing that made this really funny was, that this one was actually not working. The one on the platform opposite was....

It made me laugh, because people at my platform were determinant to get it working. It must have something to do with jealousy i suppose...

Circling around it, pushing the button. It was a show, a nice show for me in the early mornings.

While the people at the other platform were happy and warm, the people at my platform started to get even more jealous and frustrated. Since i had to wait a while before my train was due to arrive I saw new people arriving and wondering what this weird object was.

Me...? I was sitting on a bench drinking my tea and enjoying the show !

So... any idea what this is??

Sweet sixteen part 2

2011-01-19T19:44:00.003+01:00

Sweet sixteen@Josefien & her friend...

Girls helped decorating themselves, which means lots and lots of glitters!!!

It was fun, it's a shame I forgot my proper camera,

the photos don't do them justice.

Happy the girls helped out... 60 cupcakes is a lot!!

Cup cakes sweet sixteen part 1

2011-01-16T21:01:00.000+01:00

Christmas @ home

2011-01-09T23:00:00.001+01:00

Het grote boek van Sinterklaas

2010-12-01T23:04:00.003+01:00

Sweet sixteen

2010-11-27T22:15:00.004+01:00

Sweet sixteen cake for Josefien

Inspired by PiP-studio

Weddingcakes

2010-11-24T17:21:00.002+01:00

"Weddingcake" for the kids at work.

They love glitter... so here we go!!!

Weddingcakes

2010-11-24T17:13:00.003+01:00

The official weddingcake

The cake, the flowers, the hands, the ring!

2010-11-17T14:05:00.002+01:00

Eaten by fish...

2010-10-31T14:11:00.003+01:00

Yes, these are the feet of my soon to be husband!

I tried to stop him, but he really wanted his feet to be eaten by fish...

Simone and fish, not a good combination!

Stuart and fish are a good combination apparently,

he still has got his feet!

So much to tell, so little time to post...

2010-10-27T21:37:00.004+02:00

So much to tell, so little time to post...

In less then two weeks we will be married! So much to tell you, so little time...

Most things are arranged. But still no time for other stuff. My mind is not in the right place at the moment. Strange how that works!

Last weekend we both had our stag/hen do's. It was great, our friends picked us up at the same time and took us out for the day. It's great to have such amazing friends to share this all with. We both had a brilliant day. Now the final countdown really started... On the 9th of november I will have to start using a new last name. Secretly I allready wonder how that will sound on the phone. Or how it will look on an envelope. We'll be Mr and Mrs then. I will be a Mrs and no longer a Ms. Cool!

We can't wait till it's the 9th and celebrate our love with our closest friends and family. We are really looking forward to w-day.

Just to keep you occupied, and myself... here some photo's I took from Rotterdam-Central station. They are really busy turning it into a new station. It's facinating to see how they do that step by step. On the pictures is shown what's inbetween platforms 3 and 7... Yes ladies and gentlemen...this used to be platforms 4,5 and 6!!

Do you see the little stair in the middle of the sandpit? It's on top of a big pile of sand. That's where all the people are walking underneath towards the trains. It's the passengerstunnel. Amazing right?

Next blogpost I hope to tell you more about our weddingday, maybe a picture of the weddingcake I'm going to make?

Happy Birthday Tante Ied & Guido

2010-10-17T16:55:00.004+02:00

Birthday cake for Guido and his aunt Ied.

Tante Ied turned 70, Guido 13 ... that's a bit of a challenge!

Guido wanted purple & green.

Well here you go!

Happy birthday to you two!

Cupcakes for the party as well.

Magic of the sea ...

Glitter away!

A bit difficult to spot, but the sparkles and pearls are there ;P

Workshop cakes

2010-10-06T13:34:00.004+02:00

My colleagues heard about my hobby, baking cakes & decorating....

so they wanted a workshop!

No problem!

So they all made a cake..

Pure art!!

This is the result:

A nice day out!

2010-09-20T21:25:00.005+02:00

You just need two people, a sunday, and a walk... and you will get a great day out in your own city!!

Since I had to work this saturday, I only had one day weekend this weekend. You may think I want you to feel sorry for me, but that's not the case. Because of this I even appreciated my sunday off even more.

There was an 'end of summer' market near my work and we where there to do some activities with the kids.

What do kids like the most?? That's an easy one to answer... eat cakes and decorate them.

So on friday I baked 60 cupcakes and we decorated them on saturday with the kids. They loved it!

All said and done about the saturday, let's go to the sunday....

Since I had to get up on saturday even earlier then on a normal workday 'me myself and my soon to be husband' decided to stay in bed at least for the whole morning to make sure we slept enough for the rest of the week. Unfortunately our neighbours didn't agree. They decided to start drilling into the ceiling of our balcony at 9 o'clock in the morning. I love my neighbours and we also had several DIY jobs going over the years, so I couldn't be mad at them. So we decided to get up, have breakfast and loads of tea and watch some episodes of our most cherished serie we watch at the moment: "Castle". After having seen the last episodes of season 2 we decided it was time to pretend to do something. That didn't go so well, so we ended up watching a movie of Sherlock Holmes from 1988. After seeing this movie it was time to do something active and get some fresh air while we where at it. So we went for a walk.

Normaly that could be a walk through hour neighbourhood, or a walk at the beach. This time we decided to have a walk alongside the great river that runs through our city. So we climbed the bridge, looked at one of my favorite harbours in Rotterdam (Veerhaven) where great sailingships are docked. And then we went onto the park near the Euromast. When we came closer to the Euromast we saw that people were about to abseil from the Euromast. We also heard people laughing and having fun. This could only mean one thing.... minituregolf!!! We decided to have a go. The first half of the game I was beating my 'soon to be husbands' ass... unfortunately he did mine, the second part of the game. Makes you wonder who won?

Well, it wasn't me!

Definitely have to go back one day to kick his ass!

After the minituregolf we took a watertaxi back to Hotel New York. Sooooooo coooolll!!! I once have been on a rescueboat taking the waves with enormous speed, well this was almost just as cool! The trip was way to short. Ah well, means we'll have to do it again one day !

A great day of fun!

New beginnings

2010-09-04T19:59:00.004+02:00

Yes... I know it's been a while... And again with good reason!

We're so busy at the moment with stuff, that I didn't have time to write on my blog.

But... with a new design (thank you lovely boyfriend) and great big news, it's time for new beginnings!!

May I tell you the best great news ever.... Ladies & Gentleman....

Here it is:

We are getting married, and pretty soon! We are very busy with the preperations for it. And we can't wait till the day is finaly here. We are getting married on the 9th of november 2010!

Summer in Amsterdam

2010-08-15T18:03:00.005+02:00

I know... it's been a couple of weeks, but with good reason.

We spend last couple of weeks in Amsterdam house-sitting for friends.

No time for blogging unfortunately.

So... a quick one now and hopefully a decent one soon!!

While we were in Amsterdam, we had to work as well.

But since work is in Amsterdam & Haarlem it was closer by and we had a lot of time to enjoy summer in Amsterdam.

Summer in Amsterdam is great!

Walks in the moonlight alongside the canals... a silly boattour trough the canals.

Visiting Tuschinsky and walk home after the movie.

Biking around and have lunch with your boyfriend!

Having dinner with friends and bike home instead of going home by train.

It was great...

Now back to normal life and normal blogging I supose!

Kiki wraps & Tuschinski theatre...

Family Reunion

2010-07-24T20:13:00.003+02:00

My uncle's and aunts were bragging about my cakes, so my aunt organising the family reunion asked me to bake the cakes. Ofcourse this was something I wanted to do...

Oh yes, I was really happy that my cousins of 9 and 12 helped out and decorated the cupcakes, don't they look cute?

Beach Volleybal

2010-07-04T21:54:00.003+02:00

Today I did something I swore I would never do....

I always told people that I was willing to do a lot, but there was one thing I would never do...

Go to the BEACH in the summer time!

Not that I dislike swimming in the sea, or relaxing and reading and doing absolutely nothing....

I would never say no to that! No unfortenately it's my really sensitive skin... and my head. I can't stand being in the heat for that long. I get a terrible headache.

But today was a historical moment... Simone went to the beach!

My brother and one of my best friends were playing Beach Volleybal in Hoek van Holland.

I love volleybal, I love them... so my boyfriend and I went to see them today.

So I've been putting on jeans, a t-shirt and a lot of sunblock hoping all of that would help me not to get sunburned. And luckily it did help. And even my head was ok at the end of the day.

We cheered we laughed, we had a lot of fun and the breeze was very welcome after a couple of hot days in Rotterdam. My boyfriend (being English) turned temporarily into a German... He started building a mountain of Doom around him until you could only guess where his legs were... kids!!

It was a great day. Coming home was not so great though... when my brother decided to go to the toilet, he forgot there was still a lot of sand inside his swimmingshorts!

So after they all left we could hoover the whole house again...

Oh yes, that was what I didn't like about the beach as well, SAND SAND SAND SAND everywhere!!!!

Sailing!!

2010-06-26T21:28:00.003+02:00

Finaly!! We went sailing again.

We were planning it for ages, taking weekends off especially for sailing. But everytime there was something why we couldn't go. Boat needed repairing, or the weather was teribble!

But today was perfect! It was nice and warm, nice breeze, so the best place to be is on the water. Nice sun, great breeze...water...Simone Happy!

We took the boat out around 3.30pm. Which turned out to be a perfect moment, because the sailraces on the lake just ended. We sailed around a bit on the motor untill the lake was not as busy anymore, and then we pulled the sails up! Always a great moment. No motor, perfect silence... the only thing you'll hear is the sound of the wind playing with the sails. It's a magical moment...... it really is......

My boyfriend has started to enjoy sailing since he knows me and liking it more and more everytime he get's the chance to be on the boat. He is a great captain. He likes to steer the boat. He always liked it better when the motor was on, but since last year he starts liking sailing as well. Now he's figured out how it works with wind and sails and stuff, he actually likes it a lot. Since this was the first time this year, he had to get the feeling back a bit. After playing with the wind and watching the sails, I think he got it back again. Must be, because he had a wide grin on his face. These moments it's always difficult to persuade him to let some one else have a go as well. He loves it!

Hope there will be more great moments this summer, so we can take the boat out. Hopefully we can take loads of friends with us again as well. The traditional girls-day-out-on-the-boat is already planned!!!

I'm shocked!

2010-05-31T22:30:00.005+02:00

I'm shocked!

We had an amazing weekend, but still... I'm shocked!

Who can come up with this?

It all started great! Me and my lovely boyfriend went to see my cousin and her husband and two lovely girls. They normaly are in beautiful Friesland, this time we could find them in Groningen. Not the city Groningen, but the Groningen area. To be more precise... Jipsingboertange. You must have heard of this place. It has at least 3 houses, hihi... !!

Groningen is a lovely part of The Netherlands, and the last couple of years I have started to apreciate it even more. My cousin has the cutest cottage there on a campingsite. She invited me and my boyfriend to stay with them for a weekend, so we decided to Invade Jipsingboertange.

The first day we had a great day, walking through the woods. The kids loved it as well, so did my boyfriend. We enjoyed the lovely weather and were surprised that we were so lucky with it. Weatherforcast wasn't so great for this weekend. After playing in the "speeltuin" with the two lovely girls, great dinner, amazing 80ties movie, briliant romantic walk on a dark campingsite with my boyfriend, it was time to sleep.

This part was the part I wasn't looking forward to. My cousin had told me that the mice loved this place as well. Mice are ok, but not running around me when I'm sleeping on the floor! My lovely Stuart Little had promised me that he would protect me from any mouse invasion that would take place during the night, but once his head touched his pillow he was snorring like a happy kid. As far as I know, no mouse invaded... but it wasn't my best night of sleeping either! The next morning we had an early breakfast, because of course a 2 and 3 year old are not going to let you sleep till oh let's say... at least 8?

But the day started really nice. A gezellig breakfast, two very awake girls... 4 sleepy adults, great start of the day! The only thing was that it was raining cats and dogs. So we spend most of the morning in the little cottage, watching the snorkels and smurfs, sesamestreet. It was great! But we also wanted to go out and enjoy the area of Groningen. When it stopped raining we made our way to our cars and drove off to Ter Apel, to have a look at the amazing old monestry and have a walk in the old forrest.

When we arrived at the monestry we had a walk around it. It looked amazing. I made some pictures and we were enjoying the view. Until..............

And this is really true!

We saw a woman with her trousers down, sitting on the grass outside the monestry, where everybody could see her, pee-ing!!! I was shocked, we were all shocked! WHAT THE ???

I have to say, I'm all for pee-ing in nature. When you really have to go and there are no toilets... please, I insist... water the plants... But go at least somewhere private! Behind the bushes, a tree? But this! She was sitting in the middle of the field, no trees, bushes... nothing.... Her kid was standing next to her and her husband was 10 steps away with another kid. Great example!

After this we had a short walk in the forrest next to the monestry. Unfortunately we couldn't go for a long walk because there was a lot of rain waiting for us to surprise us. We ran back to the car and spend the rest of the afternoon in our lovely little cottage!

Books...

2010-05-19T12:22:00.006+02:00

As you all must know by now, I love to read!

My mum and dad had a bookshop when I grew up.

There was a constant supply of books at hand.

So I spend a lot of holidays in my 'camping chair', reading.

Reading in bed the whole night under the duvet with a flashlight was also one of the things I loved doing, especially during holidays.

Of course it made my mum and dad wondering sometimes why I was so tired the next day!

Since I have to travel a lot lately, because of work, my reading has gone up again.

My friends and family know my love for books, so they gave me a few for my birthday last April. You're probably wondering why this is so special to write a blog about it.

Well... with those books was a book about Africa. That probably doesn't sound very exciting, because of course... there are loads of books about Africa.

Well this book is so special, because it's a story about an English woman travelling with her young children and husband to Africa with absolutely no idea where they will end up.

Even this could be nothing special, as I said earlier... loads of books about Africa!

But what was it then that made the book already special without reading it?

Well, that's very simple!

The author herself gave me this book as a present for my birthday!

Of course I let her put a signature in the book, you never know...she probably will be really successful in writing and publishing her books!

This was a great gift!

I had to finish another book I was reading before I could start with the Africa book.

I must say I really really enjoyed it. And I read it in a few days.

I was looking forward to my train journey's.

It's a lovely story about life in Africa.

Stories about daily life in Africa.

The stories are told in such a way it makes you feel like you're there as well.

It made it easier for me to imagine that probably because I have the privilege of knowing the author. So I saw her walking around in her own stories and going through adventures and the normal daily things. It is a bit odd of course, because I know her now and she went to Africa in the eighties, much younger!! I once met one of her daughters, she and her sister were a baby and toddler back then. But even if you don't know the characters in the book personally,

it's a lovely story.

One of my friends has been to Africa and became very curious about the book, so she borrowed it so she can read it herself.

I asked Vallerie Poore (the author) if I could write something about her book on my blog. Because I'd like you all to know about this lovely story.

She said yes, so here it is !

African Ways by Vallerie Poore

If you are interested, you can mail Vally, or find it at bol.com.

She also wrote a book about her first year(s) on a barge in Rotterdam.

That book I will get next time we will see Vally. I can't wait to read it!

This is Vally's blog: http://vereeniging.blogspot.com/

New shoes... but who's going to wear them?

2010-05-13T14:08:00.004+02:00

I'm a Woman... I love new shoes...

These are my new ones....

Aren't they adorable?

But on who's feet do they look more gorgeous,

mine or Stu's?

Great dinner

2010-05-09T19:55:00.005+02:00

We just had an amazing meal!!

Since we don't get the chance of eating together all the time,

or eating properly because of work times,

we try to spend some more time in the kitchen when we can.

Most of the time that's during our weekends.

We pick a recipe we haven't tried before with a lot of vegetables

(We seem to miss out on those now and then.)

So we already ate a lot of nice stuff, like filled paprika, filled chicken...

This time we ate Mexican. It was really good !!!!

A mexican tortilla-cake and a nachos salad.

Definitely going to eat that more often....

Has anyone got more great recipes for us to try some time?

Baking...

2010-05-07T21:58:00.005+02:00

I have a lovely prince...

His name is Stuart and he is my boyfriend.

He designs his own cartoons,

and when he's busy doing that...

I bake my cakes.

He must have sneaked into the kitchen

and saw me baking...

Because this is the result !

A tree, in my house!!

2010-04-24T19:43:00.003+02:00

There's a tree growing in my house ...

It started really innocent ...

Just a few branches ...

After 4 weeks a whole tree ! ! !

I think it's lovely ...

I might keep it for a while !

Taking down decorations...

2010-04-21T16:00:00.008+02:00

I'm having trouble taking my decorations down...

After a few weeks of birthdays in my family and a lot of baking, it feels weird to take it down. It's the same thing with Christmas decorations.

When I take it down, I'll have to wait a whole year again!

Springtime is a busy time in my family with birthday celebrations. So is December.

The rest of the year it's less busy.

Luckily my sister will make sure that will change if her baby will stick to plan and be there somewhere in September.

In December it's my fathers, Sinterklaas, brother and boyfriends birthday.

In March my sister and boyfriends dad celebrate their birthday.

In April it's my turn, my brother in law, boyfriends mum and my own mum. And I haven't even counted in all the uncle's, aunts, cousins, friends, colleagues....

Busy time a year it is! Especially since everybody discovered my cakes.

I don't mind baking, I love it! But I have to say it was a bit busy lately. My aunts and uncles all of a sudden invite me to their birthdays as well. Is it because of me or my cakes?

But what will I do with my spare time? I just cleaned the whole house, so... what am I going to do?

It sounds like I have a lot of spare time now... haha... that is not completely true.

As you probably know I started my new job 2 months ago. I used to be a trained teacher (still am of course) but after nine years working as a teacher I wanted something else. Since we want to move and life somewhere else, this was a good opportunity to switch careers. Of course I wanted to keep on working with kids, so nowadays I work with kids after school. We take care of the kids until their parents come to pick them up. Kids in the age of 4-12.

I really like my new job. The kids are really sweet and I have two great new colleagues. They made me feel 'at home' immediately. Last Monday I had an evaluation of my first two months. And they are really happy with me. So happy, that they want me to work with the youngest kids as well. They need someone for one day, so probably that will be me. I'm really looking forward to work with the youngest kids a.k.a. babies & toddlers. We'll see if I still like it after changing another diaper.

I'm also doing a course at the moment. I didn't end my trial months yet, and already taking part in a course !! It's about difficult kids. Not difficult because they where spoiled, or have a bad home situation, but kids who are difficult because it's something from within they can't help. It's mainly about kids with an autistic handicap. Very interesting.

So yes, I am keeping myself busy.

And next month I am going to work more as well! With babies!

These kind of things make me think I have enough to celebrate life for at the moment;

I have an amazing boyfriend, nice job, it's springtime, best friends pop by for tea & chat...

I think enough reasons to keep the decoration going for a while! It looks way to 'gezellig'!

So I decided; I'm not going to take it down yet!!

Choices

2010-04-14T21:46:00.004+02:00

What to read now??

A while back I wrote a post about the "His dark materials" series.

Three books, great story... the first book filmed.

Maybe you remember me being really enthusiastic about the books?

Well I still am.

The first book was the strongest one, the second one got me thrilled as well...

until the end. It started to become a bit of a drag.

That was still going on in book three...

Still a great story, but difficult to stay focused.

The end was really strong though.

All the story lines come together beautifully. So I have no regrets reading it.

But what shall I read now?

Since it was my birthday last week,

I've more books for my already existing pile of books.

A pile of books always makes me happy, but It's also hard to choose from.

The question is... what kind of book would I like to read now?

I like a lot of different categories.

By choosing one of those first, I'll narrow it down and the choice will be much easier...

So now I'm left with a question, will I choose...

a) Thriller

b) Fantasy

C) Chick flick

d) Novel

e) Literature

I just finished a fantasy series, so b will have to go.

I still have that great thriller my boyfriend gave me for Christmas...

but I don't think I feel for a thriller at the moment. It will be easier to take with me on my journeys to work, because it's not so big and heavy,

but that can't be a reason for me to read it right now.

So I'm left with either a Chick Flick, Novel or Literature...

Mhmmm.... if I read a Chick Flick, I'll finish it probably in a week and then I don't have to decide on the other categories right now....

and maybe I'll feel for a thriller then? Appealing thought, I have to say!

The title of the book also sounds funny enough to give me a legitimated reason for choosing it.

Friends, lovers and other indiscretions by Fiona Neill

I think we got ourselves a winner here!

Oh yes, and the weather is also suitable for these kind of books :P

Pfffhhhiew, that was a difficult thing to decide!

And I did a great job of coming up with arguments to read a Chick Flick *ahum*

Lets see how great it actually is!

Mums birthday cake

2010-04-14T21:42:00.002+02:00

Cake for mums birthday!

Birthday 2010, High tea 2

2010-04-12T11:18:00.003+02:00

My birthday! Oh dear, Im turning into an old lady... 31!!!!
Birthday cupcakes for the kids at work

High tea for my birthday

One more cake to bake this week for my mums birthday. After that a little break please! Haha....

2010-04-08T11:02:00.004+02:00

After a couple of days of hard work....

hoping the paint would be dry before it starts raining again...

help from mum and dad...

this is the result!!

We can sail again!! Yesterday it was great weather, me and my brother were tempted to give it a go... but there was no wind... and first we had to get the boat ready.

Mast up, sail... After that, the day was gone in a flash.

But! We can sail now, woehie!!! Hope we'll keep this great weather for a while!

There she goes... our lady... back to the water where she belongs!!

High Tea party 1

2010-04-04T20:23:00.005+02:00

My sister called a few weeks ago...

"Rick and I want to celebrate our birthday with a high tea for friends & family."

"Nice, are we invited too?" I asked.

"Yes", she said, "but I don't know how to set up a high tea...can you help me?"

"Oh well... if I really have to? Of course I will!!!"

Here are the pictures!

Baking & house....

2010-03-24T22:24:00.005+01:00

Yay!! Finally our house is for sale!

That's the good news of today.

I'm really pleased with it.

Now we would like someone, that likes our house,

and then we can move closer to work.

The other good news of today is that i finally made a cake

that goes with the lovely elephants I made two weeks ago.

And this is the result:

Books....

2010-03-17T08:46:00.009+01:00

Me being a daughter of two 'book lovers', hasn't stop me from becoming one too. This might not sound strange to you, but an overdose of something can also make a person decide against it. But with THIS 'love' Im rather happy!

My mum and dad decided when I was 6 years old, to start a bookshop. A great place to be, and I certainly have great memories of the place. Unfortunately they had to close the shop down 10 years ago.

The evidence of being 'book lovers' is easily to be found, if you enter the homes of my family.

My mum & dad have books everywhere around the house, and it's a big selection.

My sister is a manager of a bookshop, so imagine how her house will look like....

And my brother is in the book business as well.

Did I mention my house?

The good thing about all of this for me is, that when I need some advice about what I need to read next, I have plenty of people to ask. The fun thing about visiting family members is also that a lot of times we leave each others houses with a pile of books we want to borrow.

A lot of times it can even go like this:

"If you read it, then give it to your brother...ohh and after that your dad wants to read it too, and after that it will probably find it's way back again to me..."

Our family almost looks like a library sometimes!

Then... if my family members don't come up with good ideas... I can always ask my friends!

Many discussions took place in front of our bookshelves, recommending books, talk about books & be philosophical !

So you can probably guess now as well... I started up my own library exchange with friends (that we also do that with dvds...is another story)

At new years some friends stayed over and of course we ended up in front of the bookshelves again... they left with some books... (you must have seen this one coming), and i got some great advice.

We had the "If you liked this book, then you must read that one..." conversation, and she wrote down the books and writer for me. Ten minutes later she calls me and says... "You already have part three on your shelves!!" Well, things like this can happen in this household. I have so many books that I can't always recall what I already have. The strange thing however was, that the subscription she gave to me about the book wasn't familiar. Did I really have this book?? Didn't I read it yet??

This mystery will be solved very quickly...

When my boyfriend moved in, so did his books... So the mysterious book she was talking about belonged to my dear boyfriend.

When we looked closer to it, we found out that I already knew about the first part of the book. Because I have seen the film. I wasn't so keen on the movie, it was OK... but not extraordinary. But my friend still advised me to read it. Me, always in for new book ideas, decided to try this one. My boyfriend being my boyfriend...got the books for me as a surprise. (We love going to the Waterstones!) So i started reading it.

The first book already turned out to be SO much better then the film. And the second part totally got me sucked in... I'm so curious about the third book!

You all probably know about the first book.... the film they made about it in 2007 is "The golden compass" with Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Dakota Blue Richards & Ian McKellen as an amazing bear.

The first book is originally called "The northern light" and is the first book of the "His dark materials" series by Phillip Pullman.

The second book is called "The subtle knife"

And the last book is called "The amber spyglass"

I'm intrigued and almost at the end of part two... can't wait to start reading part three...but I'm also already sad about the fact that I'll finish the books... because that will feel like saying goodbye to a good friend!!

2010-03-16T10:11:00.006+01:00

2 years ago today, I met the love of my life!

There was a train you could travel, by reading a book

there was a station

there where little houses and boats

a walk on the beach

nice food and music

....and a man!

And it turned out to be the love of my life!

Isn't life great???

More of a miracle

2010-03-14T12:16:00.004+01:00

For the love of my life... we met 2 years ago...and it was worth waiting...

Deep in the dark,

the beat of your heart

Breaks through the silence like thunder

Soft on my skin,

you breathe out and in

We turn into one and I wonder how

Did I ever have the faith

To know you were waiting?

Think of the stars,

diamonds stuck in the sky

And the long lonely light years lying between them

Think of how hard real love was to find

In a world so wide we're even more of a miracle

More than a kiss, the warmth of your lips

Like some ancient fire still burning

More like a dream, there's nothing between

How I feel now and eternity
You're a treasure in my hands
And it defies understanding

Think of the stars, diamonds stuck in the sky

And the long lonely light years lying between them

Think of how hard real love was to find

In a world so wide we're even more of a miracle

Countless waves on endless oceans

Times the earth has turned

Think of the stars, diamonds stuck in the sky

And the long lonely light years lying between them

Think of how hard real love was to find

In a world so wide we're even more of a miracle

Even more even more even more of a miracle

Much more even more even more of a miracle...

(Mark Lennon-Venice)

Baking & working

2010-03-04T10:49:00.006+01:00

On Monday I started my new job. I'm working now as an after school 'teacher'. So I take care of the kids till their parents come to pick them up. It's a fun job. My colleagues are really great, nice parents and the kids are really sweet. The kids here are so different from the kids at my old school. It's a bit of a culture shock haha...Not that the kids at my old job weren't sweet, they were... but really different. So yes I had fun last couple of days. On Monday my boyfriend and I decided we had at least 15 reasons for celebrating, so we went out for dinner. *smile* *smile* isn't life great? *smile* *smile*

On Wednesdays I have the day off, and this is what me and one of my friends did:

My friends clown & my love (birds) elephants

As you probably read, some weeks ago I made a marzipan cupid in a workshop for modeling. You can see the photo of this cupid in a post of mine. (scroll down)
It was so much fun, that I asked a friend of mine to join me last night in trying to make something else nice for a cake. Because that's the whole idea...this will be put on a cake later on. Of course I'll show you those pictures later!
It's fun to do... it does take up a lot of time... But with the music playing...loads of tea and fun & 'gezelligheid'... time flies!

2010-02-26T19:50:00.005+01:00

Bread & Stroopwafelcake

Yay!! I baked my first bread! Since i've got the automatic mixer from my old job, i'm baking like crazy! So i've baked myself a bread, and a lovely "Stroopwafelcake" and it turned out really nice :D I'm happy with the result.

Earlier this week I also baked a carrotcake... that one was brilliant!! Thanks mum-in-law for the book with the recipe. My mum liked it as well. My boyfriend... he loved it!

So let's see what he thinks of my bread and cake when he comes home....

Carrot cake

It's been a while...

2010-02-19T11:54:00.007+01:00

Hello everybody.... It's been a while!!!

I'm so sorry, but i've been busy with all sorts of things.

Baking, traveling, job interviews, real estate agents... But here's an update!

While I was busy talking to real estate agents for selling our apartment... the police discovered that one of the neighbors in our apartment building decided to grow weed. Normally you would think... 'a well happens everywhere!' But it's not convenient when you want to sell your place around the same time. The thing is... they put a big sign up, saying: "Weedbust!!"

As long as that sign is up there it's going to be pointless for us to put our house on sale.

So now we have to wait, and wait...and....wait. Because after phoning up the city council, I found out that the only person that can enter that house is the owner. Sounds ok to me...although unfortunately the guy that owns the place is also the guy that grew the plants! He has to go to the council, pick up the new keys to his apartment and get the sign off himself. Not likely to happen soon.... So selling our house is not an option at the moment :s

We'll have to wait and see what happens and maybe change our plans a bit...

In the meantime there's also happy news! I got myself a new job...yay!!! I'll start on the 1st of March. The job is where we would like to move to...so that's great news. I will have to travel a lot to get there at the moment. But I don't mind. I'll have to see how that will go. It's a commute of 1 1/2h. So let's say 3 hours a day... But hopefully not for long. The good thing about it is that I can pick up my reading again. Reading books on the train... because I still have a big pile of books I didn't have the chance yet to read. I'm going to work at a care center for kids of 4-12 after school. They really wanted to have me....and i'm curious to see if I will like this work :D It's a tiny bit different to teaching, and I'll earn a lot less... but we'll see!

We've just been to England for a few days for a family visit. Unfortunately my boyfriends Nan died recently, so we had to go there for her funeral. Not the nicest reason to visit my boyfriends home country, but good to be there. After the funeral we went to a pub to have a drink with the family. It was Nan's favorite pub and she would have wanted us to go there for a drink in her honor. After that, we stayed in a hotel for the night, and the next day we traveled back to Holland. The nice thing about this visit was to see that my boyfriends parents where doing fine. We had our worries, since my boyfriends mum was in the hospital for a while not feeling so well. But they were both feeling OK and that was a big relief! In a few weeks time they will come over to Holland to visit the Keukenhof and then we can have dinner with them one evening. That would be great!

As you already found out probably... I love baking!!

So after looking forward to this for months the day of the workshop "modeling marzipan figures" arrived!! I had waited for this so long, because the lady that gives these workshops is booked all the time. She makes such great thing that she could easily be called one of the Guru's in cake baking in Holland. So finally the day of the workshop arrived. Unfortunately that day it started snowing again really badly. The roads weren't brilliant, but I had to go. i've been looking forward to this for months!!! So I made my way there carefully... I left 2 hours before the workshop started. So I was there 45 minutes to early. Waiting in the car.... walking around a bit... but it was way to cold! After a cup of tea, and of course a piece of cake... we started the workshop. And this is the result!!!

I'm so happy with the result!!! It was so much fun to do and I learned some new things as well. It was a great evening. If you would like to see what else she does check her website:

http://www.4theloveofcake.nl/ Her name is Wendy and I love what she does!!!

2010-01-29T12:20:00.006+01:00

"Bokkepootjes-cupcakes"!!!

Mhhhmmmm- they are delicious!! On Monday I had my farewell party from work. And they made my 'baking-life' so much better! They gave me one of those automatic mixers :D I can die now.... IT IS AMAZING!! Ofcourse I had to see how it works, so i came up with the evil idea of baking something.

One of my best friends told me that a friend of her used 'bokkepootjes' (cookies-see picture) as a filling for a cake. So I decided to have a go at them as well, but not as a filling for a cake.... but as cupcakes! And I must say... that was a good idea! They're great :D

Eet smakelijk!

2010-01-26T17:30:00.006+01:00

Well....this is me!

And I'm very happy today :D

I already told you that I'm a trained teacher and that I'm looking for something else in life right now. That's still what's happening at the moment. And while I look everywhere, in every corner, for what's new in life... my boyfriend does the hard work and goes out of bed every morning, early, to go to work. Someone has to make sure there will be bread on the table right?? My boyfriend loves his work and he loves me even more... that's why he travels for hours every day to go to work. Simply because he loves me. Just because he wants to be with me. Isn't that great? Isn't that amazing?

Ah where was I?? Oh yes... well... me being at home at the moment, me not working, has a lot to do with my boyfriends daily commute. Since I love him, since I simply want to be with him... I decided to quit my job. That must sound a bit odd, maybe even a bit stalker-ish. No, the reason why I quit my job is, because we want to move. We want to move closer to where my boyfriends work is.

So now im busy trying to sell our house, in the meantime apply for jobs close to where we want to live... looking for a new house.... doing laundry, cleaning, hovering... Actually, Im surprised how busy you can be when you have no job at all! I must say... I absolutely do not dislike it :D

So now I have some job interviews lining up... I had a word with the real estate agent, I did some baking... and best of all... I said goodbye to my old colleagues.

And now im coming back to where I started...

Im happy today!

Because last night was a great night. I had my "Goodbye party" at work and we had FUN! Especially for me they hired two guys from "Pluk de dag" (a theatre group that gives workshops in improv). It was really funny. In the end we had to battle. It was great fun.

After some sweet words from my former colleagues I had to go... And it was good... it was the right thing to do...

Im so ready to do something else and take the next step. Being a teacher in the big city for 9 years was great... now it's time for something else!!

So now Im looking for a job... and baking...and cleaning...and relaxing...and selling a house...

WOW Im busy!!!!!!

2010-01-21T18:12:00.003+01:00

Breathe, just breathe....

2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season"
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You're all here for the very same reason

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

May he turned 21 on the base at Fort Bliss
"Just a day" he said down to the flask in his fist,
"Ain't been sober, since maybe October of last year."
Here in town you can tell he's been down for a while,
But, my God, it's so beautiful when the boy smiles,
Wanna hold him. Maybe I'll just sing about it.

Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table.
No one can find the rewind button, boys,
So cradle your head in your hands,
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

There's a light at each end of this tunnel,
You shout 'cause you're just as far in as you'll ever be out
And these mistakes you've made, you'll just make them again
If you only try turning around.

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

But you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable,
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand.
and breathe, just breathe
woah breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe.

Anna Nalick

Ladybird, cake baking...

2010-01-18T08:20:00.009+01:00

Can we make a cake? My friends asked me...

Well this is the result. A ladybird, of course...

Since a year or so I have a new hobby. I love to bake cakes, but it has become worse! Now I also like to decorate them.

So the question my friends came up with, wasn't a weird one. They have been the victims of my cake baking and forced to eat it and gain on weight for the last year or so. So it was only fair to them that they could have a chance them selfs of decorating one.

Last Thursday was cake-day! The girls were giggling and full of expectation and they looked like they were seven again. Ah well I know that feeling! So after filling the cake with the most delicious things in the world we moved on to coloring the marzipan. They underestimated that! That's hard work! hihi... Then the scary bit... putting the marzipan over the cake...if that goes wrong, goodbye cake! But it went well and after that the fun part came. Decorating!!!!!!

Since I can't eat all the cakes I bake, I decided to bake one for friends we were planning to visit on Saturday. Since they have kids, it had to be a ladybird... (and a little butterfly...)

The cakes the girls decorated!

2010-01-13T12:42:00.000+01:00

Just so we can start this 'blog thing' the right way...some more pics of lovely flowers.....

Apeldoorn-The Netherlands

Scotland-Fort William

2010-01-13T12:17:00.000+01:00

Friesland-The Netherlands

I'll start with a picture.... because this is me.... I love flowers, i love colours, like taking pictures and i like a lot more... But that is what you'll find out if you'll read my blog