love on the bicycle path

While riding my bicycle the other morning over some of the many many wonderful bike paths Holland has to offer, I encountered something that put the biggest grin on my face. Not just my face, it made my heart smile! (did that just give you a disturbing visual? Because it did for me.) I took pictures, have a looksee:

 

  

  

  

Someone sneaked around the night before I imagine and wrote these song lyrics (I recognized all of them!) on the bike path with sidewalk chalk for a special someone they knew would cycle down that path the next day. I say we give this romantic a round of applause for creativity and excellent taste in music!! Perhaps an idea for husbands who who have trouble thinking of spontaneous romantic things to do for their spouses? (not mine though, he's GREAT with stuff like this, love ya honey) Or an excellent way to propose!

I have several crochet project going at the moment. One is a folksy granny square afghan, another is a pillow case and yet another is a hoodie for my sister's about-to-be-born baby girl. I finished Max' first homemade scarf for this fall/winter today using this here tutorial. Should I add tassels or would that be too girlie? How about sewing a few colorful assorted buttons along the bottom ends for fun? Leave as is?? HELP me make up my mind please!

FYI: I folded it in half to be able to get the whole thing in the shot... just in case any of you were thinking 'she sure uses odd dimensions for a baby scarf....'.

the ikea diaries

Ah Ikea.Things happen there! I had labor start there once... yes it's a very happening place. Let me tell you about the last time I was at Ikea.... Obviously I wasn't alone (I'm never really alone). There was Lara, Julia, Max and my cousin Jiska in the backseat (of our aptly named Nissan Micra), and Sander and I in the front. We went through our usually Ikea routine: first meatballs, then dump girls in play area then browse both ginormous floors of STUFF, then the 'koopjeshoek' (sale items that they really really want to get rid of), pay for way more junk than you had anticipated and try to leave before the kids remember about the ice cream stand at the end. It was no different this time. Our spicific goal was to decide on a new bed and a new dining table. 

We were very happy to find one of each to both our likings and were going to leave with a good sense of accomplishment (we would come back and actually buy them another time) UNTILL. Untill we went into the infamous 'koopjeshoek' which can change absolutely everything. And it did just that this time! We found the exact bed we had just fallen in love with, standing there, a little bit dirty-ish from having been in the showroom, and marked down a 100 euros!!! The wheels in our brains started turning faster than you can say 'ekeskog' (gotta love the ikea names) and we decided we couldn't pass up this bargain. That's where the real trouble began: getting it home. No way was that bed going to fit in that car with us all in it as well. You're not allowed to reserve items in the 'koopjeshoek', nor are you allowed to put them on Ikea Transport to have them delivered. It was then 8pm, Ikea closes at 9pm.... and it takes at LEAST 30 minutes to get home once we were all in the car and going... let alone the 20 minutes it would take to go through the register and collect the girls and buy everyone ice creams (we succumbed!). And then come back and pick up the bed? Wasn't gonna happen folks. There was only one thing left to do: Buy the bed, take it out to the curb, and make my lovely husband sit on it while I drove everyone home, put the girls to bed, and drove back. I

left Sander looking strangely pleased with himself at about 8.40 and tried to do everything as quickly as possible but still didn't get back to him until 10.20! Funnily enough still looking quite smug.... hmm. Then began the task of getting THIS (this is a link mom, click on it) bed (in white) into THIS car. You would be surprised at how many people are still outside Ikea at 10.30pm with nothing to do but watch you struggle to squeeze Sander and that bed into a car. We actually got a round of applause and some cheers when we got it done!

We were so happy to be on our way home again cause it was getting late by this time, we were tired, and we still had to look forward to dragging that bed up 2 flights of stairs... but as we were driving happily along (I was driving because Sander couldn't fit into the driver's seat anymore due to some, erm, modifications?) suddenly the brakes started acting weird. As in, not working so properly.

A light had also come on that we didn't know the meaning of so we checked it out in the manual: it was the brake fluid. That was all! No biggie! Just need to stop at the first gas station we come by and fillerup! So we did. Or so we though... turns out we were a bit hasty and put fresh brake fluid into the reservoir for the powersteering fluid! Was the car now going to explode upon turning the key in the ignition?? The gas station attendant assured us that it wouldnt. So we put the rest of the brake fluid in the correct reservoir and drove safely home... whew! We were finally in bed (not yet our new one unfortunately!) at 1am. Sander put the bed together the next day and we're SO happy with it! The old bed was so incredibly noise, we couldn't turn around at night without waking each other up. Oh and I treated and washed all that white fabric that lines the frame and headboard and it cleaned up completely, looks brand new. Ikea SUCCESS!

And a green one..

Second chair finished! 

They're going to look great all finished and around the dinner table, can't wait to be able to show that shot. There's also a yellow one all done and painted but for that one I'm still figuring out what to do with the cushioning cause it's a completely different chair. You know what? Here's a pic of how it is now and you can tell me if you have any ideas? Plenty of that cute fabric left to work with....

Whaddaya think?

Oh my Jackie!

 I just got a major crush on Jackie Wilson... he's just so, so dreeeeaaaaamy! Look at those moves. Listen to that voice. Siiiiiiigh!

pink chair!!

OK are you ready? Here is the before shot:

 

Dull, brown, old-fashioned... in short: everything I'm not. But lo and behold with a little bit of love and a whole lot of 'DON'T TOUCH THAT CHAIR, IT'S WEEEET'..... I give you: 

The Pink Chair!! *HAPPY* Doesn't it just look good enough to eat? It was a bit of an ordeal to get it to look this way (tip: don't buy oil based primer and water based paint) but I really love the result. I reupholstered the seat using loverly Ikea fabric that just so happened to feature all of the colours I wanted to use for the chairs. One down, three to go. I've already finished painting two others actually (green and yellow) but need to finish the seats, so expect more yummy pics soon. Oh an here is what I look like when painting:

On to a different subject: I do not like selfish people. Not one bit! Alas I have to deal with them every single day. I have therefore decided to start countering their nastiness with a benign radiance that I'm sure will just knock their annoying selfish socks off. I will give you a practical example. Yesterday my family and I were doing our weekly grocery shopping. It was Saturday and this particular shopping center has very little parking available. As we drove over we all had silent prayers in our hearts pleading for a spot, any spot, it didn't even have to be near the store... really! Well, our prayers were answered, but we didn't feel too smug about it. Some very selfish person had that decided his or her car deserved extra space so we had to squeeze into
this spot:

So you can imagine what I did! YES! I put on my happy face and decided to express my feelings in a kind, and uplifting manner to our parking-neighbour by leaving a jolly little note. 

I will translate for all ye who do not speak Dutch. 

It says: "Thank you for your wonderful  s p a c i o u s parking!"

Ah, between this act of kindness and my pink chair, the world feels like a better place.

Introducing Max

Meet the newest addition to our family. Granted, he's not *that* new anymore to us, now 15 months old... but he's new to this blog (as many other things in our life are after almost 3 years of no updates!). First to Sander: SORRY about posting the pic with the bow in his hair.. I didn't do it, no really I didn't, but i giggled at it and think this is the cutest recent shot we have of him.

We don't feed Max.. Max feeds himself. He is constantly rummaging through trash, and crawling over (no he doesn't walk yet) to whoever is closest to us at the park/beach/playground/anywhere and looking cute and starving and he always hits jackpot. A piece of stale bread under the sofa? YUM. A cracker from nice lady at Ikea? YUM. That raw stringbean mom dropped on the kitchen floor while cooking? YUMMMM! I don't think you ever see this kid not eating something.

In other news: we are expecting a major addition to our house later this year, which means a lot of things.

One of those things is that we can start using our current bedroom as what it was intended to be: an en suite dining room to our living room! I have major plans for it! For instance this and this... but also a huge table surrounded by different chairs in vibrant colours. I've started painting some of our chairs today (I'm covered in primer!) and will upload pics of the before and after next time!

New Layout

I have decided to spice up the ol' Blog. Fonts, colors and link options have changed, so check it all out. I'm practising for a huge new blog idea that I have, that will involve a lot less personal stuff and a lot more craft/design/inspiration stuff.