what's bakin?

We had a plan last Saturday! We were going to sleep in while the kids watched morning cartoons, then we would do some grocery shopping... then we would come home and while Max took his nap I would bake cookies with the girls, and after that we would maybe go for a nice walk in the park and find some pretty leaves and pinecones and whatever looked like Fall. Here's how our Saturday actually went: We woke up, got the kids settled in front of the tv, went back to bed (ok honestly, Sander did that bit, the sweetheart) and I said 'hey I'm a few days late'. From then on everything is a bit hazy but we ended up in the bathroom staring at each other in blank disbelief trying to understand the reality of what we had just found out. Two lines on the test... another baby.... uh oh. UH OH. In our life plan we had left room for maybe a fourth child, but we were thinking in 5 years or so. I mean, I'm only 28! How could this have happened? We vaguely remembered one little accidental incident, a failing on the contraceptive front (I'm planning on writing a letter of complaint!!) and realised that must have been it. Just once. Once was enough. I am the earth mother, as fertile as can be. Well, we forgot about the grocery shopping, went back to bed for a bit in silence, sporadically uttering things like 'At least we haven't gotten rid of the crib yet' or 'We are going to need a bigger car'. Our plan for the day had been thrown out the window by a force greater than ourselves and we were being forced to tumble along in the wind like one of those pretty Fall leaves, no say in the matter. We decided we had to do at least something fun with the girls so we did bake cookies.

 

Red, green and yellow hearts, stars, moons and birds. Beautiful little hands kneading beautiful Fall colours and suddenly our fears of what was ahead of us melted away. We looked at our children and couldn't think of a more wonderful thing than being blessed with another.

new life

Welcome to the world little Ella Jane. I'm so happy to be your aunt! May you always find joy in the seemingly little things in life, but which we all know to be true wonders. Ella was born to my sister and her husband only about an hour ago and she's their second child with the wonderful Benson being the first. If they give me permission I'll post pics of all four of them ASAP!

I love vintage pictures like this one. My mother used to have a birthday calendar full of exactly these prints hanging in the bathroom (the dutch just love to remember about upcoming birthdays when getting down to 'business') and I would flip through it over and over again, never being able to decide which one was my favourite. Here is another on I really really love from that era.

I try to draw sometimes.... but somehow it never turns out even remotely as lovely and delicate as these. I was drawing earlier tonight in fact. I'll show you what I managed to create.

Oh yes. Feathered and watching you.

shroom

I went and got into the the Fall spirit and crocheted me a fungus! This is my first attempt at crocheting without a pattern, just went with it and I think it worked out rather well! I stuffed it with untreated wool (i swear there are still bits of grass in there) and sewed on some white dots and tah-daaaah!

 

That was the happy news, alas I must also bring you sad news....   The Beast broke down today and I had to leave it sitting all alone by the side of the road chained to a pole where it remains to this minute, and will for 1-3 more weeks depending on how fast the Beast-repair dude comes over. For those of you who are scratching their heads and wondering what in the name of Uncle Sam's underpants I'm talking about... I give you.... The Beast (in its glory days)

I rely on this baby to get me and 3 kids from A to B, or sometimes from G to R, every once in a while even from X to Y. This is the second time it's broken down on me though, so I'm not real happy with the quality of The Beast and might have to return it to its original owner if this silliness persists! Oh but check out the cute seat cover I bought to set my Beast apart from all the other Beasts roaming the Den Haag streets:

unfortunately karina....

I did it. I googled 'Unfortunately Karina' and here's what's being said about me that's unfortunate.

1. Unfortunately, Karina didn't manage to maintain her form and went on to lose 5-2 in the Final.
2. Unfortunately Karina recently found that she has multiple allergies to some of the central ingredients in her culinary experiments, including Cow's milk.
3. Unfortunately Karina needs a special permit nowadays, to wear this outfit in the streets.
4. Unfortunately, Karina was sick yesterday and missed out on seeing the magical creation.
5. Unfortunately, Karina also has secrets, one of which will throw Conde for a loop and leave him alone once again.
6. Unfortunately Karina had "one of those days", lost the match 6-1 6-2, and failed to impress me (I was looking to be impressed).
7. Unfortunately, Karina was killed in an attack from the Vidiians.
8. Unfortunately Karina still can't feel anything.

Poor Karina.

proud momma moment

Lara at 1 year old

Julia at one year old

Max at one year old

Dance, Dance, Dance

Houston we have a problem. I just watched 2 episodes of the dutch 'So You Think You Can Dance?' and I am so inspired. I think I might have to become a professional dancer. Pro: I will become flexible and strong enough to finally climb up the front of the house (I live on the third floor) when i forget to bring my keys with me again. Con: I will work out so much that I will lose these love handles located in various places on my body and probably just not feel like myself anymore.For now I suppose I'll just stick with our fun family exercise of jumping and twisting around like a bunch of chickens on speed to 40s and 50s Rock n Roll... good fun, but easy on the love handles! If you wanna know what our current favorite dance music is check out Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. If you don't absolutely love them I will eat my crochet hook.

Crochet news (notice the seamless topic transition?!): I'm working on a vintage pattern for a newborn dress but using funky colours and am loving it so far. Here's what it looks like as of now.

Also I finished these booties for my niece who has yet to be born.

 I also attempted a puff-stitch raspberry beret (you know why!) but it came out a bit, erm, odd. Will redo that and post pics when I feel happier with the result. In the meantime here is a picture of me sticking my tongue out:

garry squares

Yes I do mean Granny Squares of course... and I've been making them. I was so inspired when I came across a few pictures of them online and they were absolutely amazing! I was completely excited when I started and had the plan to make a bed spread for our bed room... I did a little calculating though and figured it would take me 2 months of non stop crocheting to get a spread the size needed to decently cover our bed. So I'm making a pillow case instead! I finished sewing them together this morning and of course had to share them now they're starting to look the way I intended them to.

 

Now to find a simple white pillow case to sew them onto and give it a prominent place in the living room!

 Yesterday was a beautiful Indian Summer day and we just had to go to the beach one more time. Lots of Seagulls there for the kids to play with this time... did you know that Seagulls love cereal? I fear it might have been our last chance to get some real quality sun and swimming and sand in our butt cracks. Sigh! Goodbye beautiful Summer, hello Fall!

 

sign, sign, sign!

Please help the Dutch be able to have better access to affordable organic food! Sign this petition and the government will be forced to take into consideration to take all taxes off organic produce for 2 years to boost the organic market (if it's cheaper, more people will buy it, more stores will be selling it, there will be competition and better income for those who produce and sell the organic products and prices will go down even more after which the government would be able to put taxes back on). I think it's hilarious that it would be easier for me to provide my kids with marijuana than with organic lettuce. No actually I think it's really frightening. Ah to be Dutch! And to finish this post off: Here is a picture of my husband using a 6 foot Elven inscribed sword for a skewer.

crochet madness

 

Three things I would like to share with you about this picture. The first is rather obvious: Max is the cutest baby ever to fall asleep on his tummy. Then the next thing is that there is a perfectly good reason he is sleeping on a towel instead of a regular mattress cover, I just don't remember the reason very well. The most likely one is that I couldn't find one that was clean.... Third and most in reference to this post title is the crochet hoodie he is wearing, the very first article of clothing I had ever crocheted! Remember that tv show 'Perfect Strangers'? Remember the Dance of Joy that Balki and Larry did whenever something really exciting happened? Max and I did that very dance the second I tucked in the last loose end on that hoodie. Man was I happy it was over, and man was I proud of what I had accomplished. Last week I finished another baby jacket and I am even prouder! It turned out so well and it looks and feels put together a lot better than the one above, and it's for a girl and things for girls often tend to be just that tiny bit more adorable. You will have to be a bit more patient to see that one though, since it's a present for my incredibly pregnant, beautiful and younger sister and I want her to be the first one to see it. Since she lives an entire ocean away, that may take a little while! In the meantime I'll share with you some more of my little projects. 

This is a sweater that was given to Lara as a present a while back. It's so nice and bright and the fabric feels really soft, Lara loved wearing it... but suddenly I felt like I wanted to spice it up a little. So I added that yellow border along the front and it suddenly looks like so much better!

 

This beautiful colour rich and soft  yarn was just handed to me for free at a thrift shop by the owner who wanted me to just have it and make something nice out of it. Well OK! I was at it the next day, scouring the internet for patterns and I came across one for a mobile phone cosy. I'll never really understand phone cosies, they seem really impractical to me even though I'm sure they look cute on your phone, so I decided to change it a little, add the same border and a fun button and voilà! A little purse! It measures at about 10 cm long and 5 cm tall and even though I'm not quite sure what to use it for (maybe my phone after all? sigh) I can't wait to make another. Everyone.. expect little purses for your birthday. Ooooooh maybe I'll line them with some pretty fabric! Ok can't stay any longer must go make more purses now bye!

and a blue one...

... and they're all made out of ticky tacky lalalala

Finished another one yesterday! Only one more to go.. can you guess which color it will be? All the other moms and dads at school think my kids have such a punk mother, pink fringe one day, green one the next, week after that a blue one. I really need to start tying my hair back better while painting!

This weekend we hosted a barbecue at the park to celebrate the wonderful summer we have had in Holland and the fact that my dear husband is turning 30 this year (not till October, but feel free to start teasing him about hitting the big three-oh now). The weather forecast had been looking horrid all week but we kept the faith and had a great sunny time, and didn't even manage to set the park on fire, which seemed strangely disappointing to some...

just cause

 

Here's a flower for you :)