The one with the things I liked this week (72)

Hot and gooey cheese from the BBQ

Full moon AND friday the 13th

Spending saturday in Leeuwarden

Where we came across this piece of art

And spending sunday in Utrecht

Where carrot cake was on the menu

Getting ready for wednesday's World Cup match

My granny invited us to have a high tea tomorrow to celebrate her 91st birthday. Sunday I'll have dinner with a friend, and other than that I want to get some reading done. Do you have any special plans for the weekend? Hope you'll have a good one, see you next week!

The one with the kitchen goodies

My kitchen is in need of a little lovin'. It has been calling my name for some time now. I'm not proud of it, but even though it's voice has been heard, I have been ignoring it. My kitchen is still pretty much the same since I got the key to my apartment 3 years ago. I promised myself to give it a makeover ever since. It did get a little bit of attention when I moved in. I don't know what the previous owners had been thinking, but one of the walls was a strange shade of bright orange. With orange not being my favourite colour at all, it was painted over in a bleu-ish grey. It's not really a space with personality (which reminds me of Karl Lagerfeld's quote: better a split personality, than no personality at all). Trying to get into the make-over mood and looking for inspiration, I searched Etsy for some items to cheer up a kitchen. Without further ado I present: the one with the kitchen goodies.

Vintage step stool

Enamel container

 Screen printed tea towel

Tarte plate

Antique wooden rack

 Poster

 

Concrete lamp

Do you like to give a new home a make over right away when you move in? Or are your intentions good like mine, meaning everything stays as it is? What kind of style are you digging? I like things to be simple and clean, with some colourful accessories. Maybe one of the walls might end up with a pop of colour. Have there been any home renovations or make overs at your place lately? I'd love to hear about your plans or experiences.

The one with bubbles and Monday Blog Tour

Last weekend I visited my friend R who lives in Leeuwarden, in the north of the Netherlands. Before dinner we took a walk around town, after a two and a half hour train ride it was nice to get a bit of exercise. I've taken lots and lots of photo's of this charming looking city, that might get a post of their own. At the start of our walk, we came across a man making bubbles. At first there weren't a lot of people, but after a while, more people gathered to enjoy these creations. Isn't it amazing how much joy a bunch of bubbles can bring?

 

 

Monday Blog Tour

Last week Duni invited me to participate in the Monday Blog Tour. She asked me to answer four questions. Thanks for the invitation Duni! Here are the questions and their answers:

What am I working on?

One of my new year's resolutions was posting more recipes and DIY's on this blog. So far, I haven't done those as much as I'd like to do! I did make some homemade cards recently that are almost ready to post here on the blog. Recipe wise, I have been experimenting lately with some summer salads, they need some adjusting (a little more of this, a little less of that), and after that I'm ready to do some rocking and rolling in the kitchen!

How does my work differ from others in it's genre?

No idea really! 

Why do I write what I do?

I started out blogging, not knowing it would be this much fun! I'm fairly new at blogging, and there still are lots to learn and things to discover. The main reason for starting this adventure, was to practice my English and writing skills. I love how it gives a chance to connect with people. Reading other people's blog gives me a chance to learn new things, they inspire, and show me lots of places in the world I might never see in real life.

How does my writing process work?

I start out with taking lots of photo's, trying not to throw them ALL at you. Sometimes it's really hard to make a selection. From there I start writing, editing, reading, re-writing, getting a night of sleep and re-reading the day after. I mostly find lots of silly mistakes then, I correct those and then the post's ready to go online!

I would like to continue this tour by tagging my 'real life' friend and blog buddy Mandy, from All Lovely Things, to answer the four questions by next monday, 23th. Check out Duni's post over here.

The one with the things I liked this week (71)

How has your week been so far? Mine was pretty good! I've taken a nice stroll around town after a day of work. The first photo is of one of the outside walls of the church I can see from my kitchen window. I love the architecture of it, with all it's gorgeous details. The second picture was taken on the same walk. For some reason, there are a couple of spots in town that makes me think I am on a holiday, somewhere in a small sunny French village. 

I wasn't really sure if I should've included this picture. I dropped a big bag full of styrofoam balls. And when I say big bag, I mean a huge bag. Fortunately for me, it's wasn't totally empty after dropping it. Because having to collect the tiny buggers after they've dropped: not so fun! Styrofoam balls don't like to be collected once they've made their escape, but do like to stick wherever they've made their escapes to. I can imagine the whole thing might have looked hilarious. 

A nice stack of books. I've finished the first one (it's english title is Bob the streetcat, if you like cats, you might like this one as much as I did) last weekend. I immediately started with the next one. I've heard many good things about the 'hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared' and so far I understand why! Next on my list is 'to kill a mockingbird'. I've made a reservation months ago at the library, and finally it's mine! Well, for the next couple of weeks. Are you a bookworm? Reading anything good at the moment? 

Other than that, last saturday we BBQed for the first time this year. This couscous salad was one of the side dishes (couscous, cucumber, red pepper, tomatoes, feta cheese, pinenuts, green olives and arugula). Tonight will be the second one. My job was to take care of the bread part, so I got some wonderfully smelling fresh bread at the bakery before work. It's like it has been calling my name, so I might have a little taste of it for lunch. I can not think of many things I like more than freshly baked bread. Dessert tonight will be the first match of the Dutch team at the World Cup. Are you a World Cup aficionado? Or is soccer not your cup of tea? Anyway, whatever it is you'll be doing this weekend, hope you'll be having loads of fun!

The one with links I like

source

Kim and Kanye's honeymoon, in a campervan

Mean tweets #7

SJP and 73 questions

This embroidered Joss Whedon quote

It's no secret I love cheese, not sure if I like it this much

Art projects, that aren't in a museum

Mia's tea cake

The one with the things I liked this week (70)

At the market

A new month, a new illustration

I can not believe how cute this house is

Newly discovered streetart

A happy mailbox

The one with the dino and polkadot jewelry dish

Some time ago (actually months ago.....) I started this DIY. Somewhere in winter, I found a photo of an Anthropologie trinket dish. Silly me forgot to pin it, but in my mind it was white, had polkadots, and involved an animal figurine. I DO remember a very scary price tag. I don't like scary price tags, but I do like recreating things I like, low budget style! I got a dinosaur figurine at the toy store back in january, started painting away and for some reason the pink dino ended up in a closet and stayed there. I guess the dinosaur wasn't a big fan of winter (just like me) and decided to go into hibernation mode..... It resurfaced again a week ago.

What you'll need:

• an animal figurine
• paint (or spray paint)
• glue
• a plate
• a paint brush
• a nail

Cover your workspace with an old newspaper and start painting away. This dino apparantly wasn't a big fan of the colour pink, and needed multiple layers to go from green to pink. Maybe spray painting would have been the better option, but I got this paint a long time ago and it needed to be used! 

After the painting, and when the dino is all nice and dried up, glue it's feet to your plate. Give it some time to dry.

Try out some different sized nails on a scrap piece of paper, to see which size of polka dots you like most. And surround the little dude (or dudette) with dots.

Let it dry, et voila!

 

Have you been doing DIY's lately? I'd love to see your tutorial or result in the comments below! If you're in need of more DIY ideas, you can find some projects over here.

The one with a visit to the Van Abbemuseum

Two sundays ago, mom and me took a trainride to the city of Eindhoven. It's a 45 minute trainride and our destination was the van Abbemuseum. The museum is named after it's founder Henri van Abbe, a collector of modern and contemporary art, with works of artists like Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall and Karel Appel. We took the audio tour, which was awesome! Theatre actor Lucas de Man was the voice of the soundwalk, and took us everywhere around the museum, telling all sorts of tidbits about the building and collection, and interviewing museum staff. The art was amazing, and just the building is worth a visit too. I loved the musical elevator it has, starting with a low voice in the basement, getting more soprano-like the higher it gets. 

The 'knitted' snakes in the restaurant (where I had the most mouthwatering asparagus soup) aren't just for decoration, they also make the space less noisy. Thumbs up for art that isn't just there for it's good looks, but has a function as well.

You might have seen the hi-ha-ha wall on my instagram, I also made a little video. When I grow up, and have a grown-up-people's house, I want this in my living room! 

And as a bonus, we saw this on out way back to the train station. Have you been to a museum lately? Or taken any other trips out of town?