Oliebollen and fireworks...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May you have a wonderful year full of love, friendship, warmth, sunshine and general merry making!
All my best wishes to everyone!

Enjoy and be safe!

Random musings...

I suppose I am not being highly original as I tell you that this is the time of year that you start reminiscing, but also try to figure out what certain relationships mean in your life and how you fit into the environs you have created over the years.
I will not bore you with too many details, but in our Queen's speech this year the main theme was that people are getting lonelier and more and more inconsiderate, I suppose more selfish, because of the digital age. People do not communicate face to face anymore because of all the instant messaging, texting, twittering and blogging that is going on. They lose sight of what binds them together and get more and more individualistic.
And sometimes that feels true, but for me, I sense a turning point this year. I really, truly think that at the same time people are getting more aware of the need of others and are getting more community spirit. ( something that never has been very prevalent in this country). When I look around me, indeed when I look at the last two weeks in my neighbourhood, I see things that never happened before. We had a massive snowball fight in which almost everyone in our street took part, we had a Christmas singalong in which a lot of people took part and tomorrow we will have a street party for New Year's Eve. We will all gather around 23.30 hours, count in the New Year and let off fireworks together and if the Christmas do was something to go by it will be tremendous fun! Anyhow, these are all things that did not happen before, so I think that there is hope for humanity yet.
Hope I did not bore you too much with all this, it was just playing on my mind today. Tomorrow I will bake/fry loads of oliebollen (traditional Dutch New Year's Eve fodder) for the party, and the house will probably smell much the same as the stall I started this post off with.
I started the other day on my to-read pile, which is about 4 times my height now, so really something needs to be done about that, as by no means that stops me from buying new books. I bought this one last summer, and was actually really looking forward to reading it, but somehow did not get round to it before...I am sure it is not meant to be read from cover to cover, but I am really enjoying it that way. It makes me realise that I can create a very cozy, safe atmosphere around me by doing the things I enjoy and by making time to be creative or do things together with other people. I love it, and there is lots of inspirations to be got from it, if only it was to wear Cashmere (this one made me giggle).
If ever you feel you want to read something heart-warming (for want of a better word), I can not recommend anything better than this, it is truly lovely.

Keep safe with the fireworks!

May all your days be merry and bright...

Wishing all my marvelous blogging friends a warm and cozy Christmas.
Have fun with friends and family, enjoy each others company, and make this a time to remember!

Hope you will all have a glorious time!!!

Hurray for the Hobbits...

I know he really was not the best dancer this series, but I just love these two dancing together, they just ooze fun... together they are just so watchable...


Not sure whether that was my favourite dance or whether this one is...


Either way, I totally agree with Len Goodman, this turned into the best final ever, just so completely entertaining.

What is the weather like at your end. I really do not think that ever in this country I have seen it snow like this before...
It is just so much fun. Yesterday afternoon suddenly everyone in our street was either having a snowball fight, children and grown-ups (?), not sure who had the most fun, or building a snowman, they have built giants, there is that much snow. It has been too dark to take pictures, but if they are still here at the end of this week, I will certainly post some.
Christmas has really arrived now, it could be the snow ( although in truth I have never known a white Christmas in real life) or because we had a gathering in our neighbourhood last night. It was truly magical because of the weather, there were fire pots and gluhwein and hot chocolate and everyone ended up singing carols together. It was truly lovely.

Now Christmas can start!

Coasters and cookies...

Do not you love the coasters I got through the post yesterday from Heidi. My blurry picture does not exactly do them justice, but you can at least see the lovely colours. The card she sent with them has the same sort of colours on it, which I thought very clever, I like that kind of detail.
I als received the new Christmas cookbook from Delia Smith today. Maybe a bit late in the day, but it has some great recipes in it, and most of them you do not particularly have to make for Christmas. Any other day in winter will do just as well. If you like cookbooks (personally I am obsessed by them), this one is well worth a look.

Ooh and I promised you cookies last time. These are truly delish, if you only bake one kind of biccies this Christmas, make it these, they are quite special!

Pfeffernussen
Makes 3 dozen

1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (125gr)
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160/350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the confectioner's sugar in a brown paper bag.
In a medium bowl combine flour, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, and baking soda, set aside.
Place butter, brown sugar and molasses in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture, beat until just combined. Pinch off dough in tablespoon amounts; roll into 1 1/4 inch balls. Arrange balls 1 1/2 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake until cookies are golden and firm to the touch with a slight cracking, about 15 minutes. Transfer sheets to a wire rack to cool slightly. Working in batches, place cookies in paper bag, shake until well coated. Let cool completely on the wire rack.

Have fun with your last minute preparations, keep breathing and do not forget to enjoy the festive season!

Winter wonderland...

Look at what we woke up to... OK, admittedly that was yesterday, but with all the baking and dusting to do ( I am getting to the cleaning now) I did not get round to post a few piccies yesterday.
Snow always make me feel like a child, it makes everything sooooo pretty! And yes, I know it causes a lot of havoc too, but I blissfully ignore that.
Off to take some fab cookies out of the oven now, if they are any good, I will post the recipe tomorrow.

The chickens felt a bit frozen...
It looks like this picture has been taken in the middle of the night, a good argument for a new camera if ever I needed one...
Another early morning delight...
Is not our street gorgeous like this...

Enjoy the snow!

Christmas Express...

First of all I would like to thank you all for your kind comments on my last slightly panicked post. I feel much better now, I have decided just to go with the flow, and enjoy what gets done and forget what does not get done. I managed to do a lot of baking and cooking in advance, the cards are all written, and the frost can set in as far as I am concerned. There are still a few nigly little things in the back of my mind, but I will not bother you with them.
A special thanks too to the lovely Heidi from All my scattering moments. If you have never seen her blog, just hop over, as it is really lovely, as is her other one, the Cranberry chronicle. Anyway, because I commented on one of her posts I won a couple of Christmas coasters she made, and they look really lovely. It turns out that she lives in my hometown, so maybe one day next year we will meet up.
Every year there is a small Christmas Fair in the hall of the train station in our town. My mother and I go and have a look every year, there never is a lot of crafty things unfortunately, but it has a nice atmosphere and for us it is one of our Christmas rituals.
Besides, I love the Christmas lights in our station, there is something magical about it, it makes you even forget that this is one of the filthiest trainstations you have ever seen (truly)...
Afterward we went to the florist near us, as she always has a nice selection of wreaths and boughs. I love the fact that everything starts to look really festive now...

Wishing you all a peaceful week before Christmas...

Who is counting...

Are you all beset by an ever so slight panic now? Please do not tell me I am the only one...
I swear it was only Christmas last week! I thought I was organised this year, I even started making lists of what to bake, what to do with the turkey, who to make presents for, what to organise...
And really, all of a sudden it December,6. I did do some baking and crafting, but am nowhere near as far with it as I would have liked. Am really nowhere near as far as this...

I have been reading some of your blogs and am just in awe, can you send me some organisation skills? That is really all I want for Christmas this year. In my defense, I have really suffered with my back the past week, could not walk, could not cough, and worse of all, could not laugh, am a lot better now... So, watch out Santa, here I come...

Have a lovely, relaxed week! I am sorry for my little whinge by the way...

Paris, je t' aime...

Earlyish next morning, we went out in search of a proper French breakfast, none of that usual continental stuff for us. We ended up in this little cafe, both because there were quite a few people in there already and because I fancied the guy behind the counter. Both of those are perfectly valid reasons to enter any establishement in my book. If in addition, food is being served, what more can one want. We had a lovely Tartine, orange juice and the best hot chocolate ever, made with real chocolate, none of the powdery stuff. If I marry him, will he make me one every morning?
Suitably fortified we walked down to Rue Mouffetard...
For a bit of this...
And really, where else do you find displays like this...
I guess by now you have rumbled me, I keep telling you I am quite arty and bookish, but my main priority seems to be food... I am just greedy!
We again walked round there for hours, and in one of the streets running of the Rue Mouffetard found my first fountain of the day, I liked this one...
Coming across little surprises like this is the real joy of just walking around with no apparent aim. We had a good map with us, so even if we did get lost, we were always able to find our way back somehow.
After we had our fill ( see what I did there?) we went up to the Place de la Justice, because I really wanted to see Saint Chapelle. I just love stained glass windows, and even on quite a grey day they immensely cheer me up.
Really, where do you see more impressive gates...
I took this picture because of the man conducting a phonecall in a quite precarious place, but to me these kind of houses just seem so quintessentially French...
From Saint Chappelle we walked to the Notre Dame, where on the square we ate our brioches and drank our tea. It just felt so amazing to be there and it was almost unreal to be able to quite comfortably have a little picnic outside at the end of November.
Inspite of my good intentions, we did not actually go into the Notre Dame, as there was a long queue and by then I had spotted this...
It would have been sacrilege not to enter here. I have read so much about this place over the years, and it did not disappoint. It is ridiculously stocked, overly full, and completely gorgeously welcoming at the same time. I loved it more than I had expected to.
I still had not viewed any bouquinistes though, probably because of the time of year. But when we walked up to the Institut du monde Arabe, there were a few in situ as it were, and I actually found a few lovely little books.
Now, how is this for sun blinds...
This is the most amazing sight, both from the outside and the inside. As it is a real workplace for a lot of people, I was amazed that as a tourist you can enter it as well and go up to the roof. I would find it really astonishing if at work I would enter a lift full of tourist. Nobody here seemed to think that was worth batting an eye lid about though.
And now for my real treat of the day... You all know how much I had been looking forward to seeing the Strawinsky fountain! My friend first took me the Centre Pompidou, which I am not sure about by the way, and then finally what I saw was this...
Trust it to spring a leak when I come to pay hommage to it! Now I know for sure I will have to return, maybe it is a sign.
Even though I did not like the Centre Pompidou much, I do like the area around there, and we ended up browsing quite a few shops. From there we wandered to Les Halles, where in the neighbourhood we went into a gorgeous yarn, beads etc store, La Droguerie, and probably one of the most amazing cooking ware shop, Dehellirin, I have ever seen.
After all that we were exhausted, so we went back to the hotel, put our feet up for an hour and then had a lovely meal in a place near the hotel.
After that, it was straight to bed, this is hard work, all this sight seeing malarkey...

And still there is more to come...

Bonjour Paris...

After a bit of a disaster getting out of my hometown on Sunday morning ( there was no conductor on the train) which basically meant that we could not make the train to Paris, we eventually arrived there about an hour and 20 minutes later than we had planned. Which really was not too bad, considering we had to change trains in Brussels as well because the train we were on had broken down.
We quickly put that all behind us though, we were met at the Gare du Nord by my friend Marion who had been in Paris for a couple of days because of Paris Photo.
It had seemed a brilliant plan to meet up for lunch and in the end it was, but there is always this sticky moment when you mix two sets of friends, particularly when you know they are completely different in their ways and tastes. I ended up having to tell both Karin and Marion to behave, as we would only be all together for a couple of hours, this was my first time ever in Paris and hey, who's party was it anyway?
After that it all went swimmingly. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel, not one I would recommend for anything other than its location, and went our merry way.
We had decided to go and have a late lunch at Le Fumoir, and were met by these little boyscouts in front of the Louvre...
After a lovely meal, a gorgeous mousse au chocolat and pleasant surroundings, we strolled down Rue Rivoli...
This is where I realised I really need to get myself a better camera for next time.
Next morning we headed out to the Marche aux Puces St Ouen, only to find that even though it says it opens at 9, it very defenitely does not. This was actually a lot of fun, because we kept wandering around for hours, every time discovering new stalls that had just opened.
After having had our fill of bric a brac, we went up to Montmartre and a lovely cup of coffee within view of the Sacre Coeur...
What is it with French trees, even they are a lot prettier than Dutch ones...
After having enjoyed the views and braved the winds...
We walked down into Montmartre, past the painters...
Up to the restaurant where we had lunch...
This really was the tiniest place ever. We arrived at what I deduced later must have been 5 to two, and were seated. After that, nobody was allowed in anymore. The place was full, and you basically had to eat what they were giving you, but the food was great. Plus I do not think I have ever seen anyone serve a full house as efficiently as the owner did. It really was a joy.
Fortified we started just to walk around, which is fun, as that way you really see such a lot of things that otherwise you would not have seen. However, after a few hours my little legs decided they had enough and we took the Metro to Lafayette, as I really wanted to see the dome.
I could not get a good picture as it was already dark by the time we got in there and my camera did not really like that, but I think you get the idea of how pretty it is...
We walked around there for a bit, they have a great bookstore (trust me to find that one), and we treated ourselves to a gorgeous cup of tea there. Even though the French are not really tea drinkers themselves, they serve remarkably good tea everywhere you go.
By then it was time to find our way back to the Place de la Republique, have a glass of wine in the local cafe and prepare ourselves for the day ahead.
Are not you curious about what we did next? You will have to wait till tomorrow though.

Have a wondreous week!

A-MA-ZING...

Very reluctantly I returned from Paris last night. I already feel homesick! It was completely gorgeous, even I, so defenitely not a city person, adored it.
I felt so at home there, autumn really suits it as well. Feel that I have not even seen the beginning of everything there is to see and do there. Yet, we walked and walked and walked all day for 4 days.
I will organise my photos soon and will post them in a later post. For now I leave you with the first bar/restaurant I entered soon after arriving( and probably one of my favourites) and the gorgeous Christmas lights on the Champs Elysees.

Sigh... how quickly can I return without it looking indecent?

Still four more nights...

I am almost exploding now with excitement!!! It has been soooo many years that I have been planning to go to Paris, and it just never happened. This time round it will, I can not breathe, I can not sleep, basically I am a hyperactive child on speed.
This is a picture of one of the things I really want to see in the flesh as it were, I just adore Niki de St Phalle and Jean Tinguely, that was just one brilliant partnership!

I was in Waterstone's this afternoon (really, when am I not there) because I felt that it was time for me to start reading Terry Pratchett. I know, it is almost sacrilegious, but I have never ever read anything he has written, for the simple fact that I do not like fantasy much. Even of the Lord of the Rings I have only read The Hobbit (feeling very brave tonight, I am).
There are two reasons I want to start reading him now, one is the programme he did on the BBC on his onset of Alzheimers, which I found impressive and very courageous. Also someone recommended Little Gods to me.
However, they were stocking two different editions of the Disc world series, but of neither edition that one was in stock. And then I chickened out and got this instead...

Well, in my defence, it says Terry Pratchett on the front... It is brilliant, really funny. If you love cats, and possibly even if you hate them, get it. It really is a hoot. I love the Gray Joliffe cartoons as well.
I did pick up a copy of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights when I was there as well, another one of those books I have been meaning to read and just never get round to actually buy... again I left it in favour of something else. Guess I am not quite ready for fantasy yet.

Have a turbulent Thursday!

Randomly...

Just a couple of things I absolutely love at the moment...


Is not this a truly evocative painting. Even though weirdly I do not like the colour orange that much, I find this one of the most lovely paintings I know at the moment. I love that period in time and this really sums it up for me.

I am always one of the last people to actually buy a best seller, and this again is a case in point. I had been looking at it for a while, but never actually picked it up. I was in Waterstone's the other day and was paying for two books I bought, when the girl behind the counter pointed out to me that I had actually bought two of the 3 for 2 books, and why did not I pick up a third one ( neat trick that). So I quickly scanned the other ones available, and thought, oh, why not! I am glad I did, as I am immensely enjoying it. It truly evokes the spirit of that time. This must me the most beautiful thing I have ever made ( and definitely the most expensive one!). I only have a couple of more row to knit on the collar and then it is done. I adore this... the colours, the yarn, I will feel sooooo special in this.

My secret addiction has been Strictly come dancing for a few years now. I started watching series 3 I think, and have watched them all since. I love it, I find I have to watch it takes two every day as well, as I just adore Claudia Winkleman. She is just mad.
This is my favourite couple this year, though I do not think we will see them again, poor Jade!



And last but not least... this time next week I will be in Paris!!! I am getting so excited about it, I can hardly sleep. I have never been there, so it will be magical I guess. I will take my camera, so hopefully I will be able to show you loads of pictures. Cannot wait!

Have a gorgeous week and do not get too stressed about Christmas yet ( less than 6 weeks to go, Yikes!)