Evening Inspiration

Vi går till Sverige!

We (C. and I) just booked a ticket to Stockholm for the beginning of february! Do you know how much good stuff comes from there? So excited! It's only going to be a flying visit, so we have to spend our time wisely. Any suggestions??

How time flies

Time flies, when you're having fun. So it did last week!

Next to our place was a little village shop with this really pretty cash desk from the fifties. The shop owner, a little elderly lady, is still using it. We loved looking around in the shop. Next to the food supplies the shop contains a mixture of household goods, never sold or replaced. So we filled our baskets with new old (sixties, seventies) stuff. Unfortunately she will close down the shop anytime soon and this beauty will be sold to a museum.

Like the cash desk my counter is on zero again. That's the power of taking time off. Ready for a new year.

(ps Thank you all for your sweet wishes!)

I'm off!

The snow is melting away and so is this year. I'm off to celebrate christmas with my family in a holiday house in Germany which has become a family tradition. The week will (hopefully) be filled with classic movies, books, nature, presents and a little bit of shopping. See you soon! Hope you will have a wonderfull time!

(and good luck to those who don't like christmas at all, I know you are out there :))

Snowbound

Snow never loses it's magic. That was the first thought that came into my mind when I opened my curtain. In an almost lyrical state we, C. (left photo) stayed over last night, went to the Park. Now that same magical snow is keeping C. from going home. So she is staying another night. We have enough ugly christmas songs to survive. Tommorrow is another day..

Corner View: Books

Just a quick intuitively chosen selection:

1. Daily Inspiration
2. Just finished this one, a little out of the box and anti, love it. (Erlend Loe)
3. My all time favourite (Chaim Potok)
4. Discovery of the past few years: I love biographies!
5. This book with crafts and games really kept me from sleeping at night when I was a child. (I am afraid nothing changed :))
6. A girls book written around 1920 which can make me, almost hundred years later, laughing with tears. (Cissy van Marxveldt)
7. A charity shop find, with great old technical drawings of inventions like the zeppelin
8. I started reading this book I think like seven years ago and still didn’t finish it, but I like it every time I read a piece. (Jostein Gaarder)

It's not just the trees that drop their leaves

I did too today.

Melancholic Monday Morning

After a busy weekend, I spend my monday morning off going to a charity shop with my mom. When we came back at my parents place we celebrated our treasures by listening to christmas LP's of the old days. Memories came back and memories were made.

Dropping temperatures (~ 7°C/44.6 F)

One year without

Last night I watched the documentary 'One Year Without Oil', about a family that goes on an oil diet for one year. I find people documentaries often so inspiring that I watch them with my notebook on my lap. I would really recommend this one. Not that I am so tremendously envrironmentally conscious, but because its so well made. It's the psychology of changing habits, it's the amazing wisdom of young children, it's the setting (Finland) and going back to the basics (which they are forced to do, like making their own toothpaste and hair gel), it's about ideals and the price we are willing to pay for them and oh ... its about the environment too of course.

Two inspiring quotes from the documentary:

'Rationalising is just a way to get what you want'

'People tend to favor the known, even if it's a bad choice'

Corner View: Evening

'I often think that the night is more alive and more richly coloured than the day'

Vincent van Gogh

When I look out of my windows this evening, I couldn't agree more..

(curious about other 'evenings' at other places of the world? Look at the side bar 'corner view')

Someone put a huge smile on my face!

Thank you daan, ! You spoilled me big time, Love it al !!!

(die Pipi kaart was wel een heel letterlijke swap he :))

Heartbeat

'Follow your heart'. Easier said than done. Often that's a more uncertain way, sometimes it's a lonely way. But still worth it, I think...

Celebration Weekend

(pipi is waiting to go to Daan :))

Inspiration and a party in print

Yesterday I had something I almost never have: no inspiration! Of course that's often caused by a combination of different things. Today I realized one of the things was that I missed my weekly (daily, hourly :)) phone call with my best friend C. She has a heart for Rumenian people and unlike most people, she follows her heart. So she is in Rumenia now, I'm really proud of her! (And glad that she will return soon:)) Glad to say that today today totally made up for yesterday!

By the way, I love this new magazine. If you read on page one 'a magazine is like a party in print' you know it must be good! (http://www.elephantmag.com/)

Corners of my house

Take a seat and have a look around! Coffee?

(For mor corners, check sidebar 'corner view' or jane )

Library Love

When I was little I could spend hours at the library. All those worlds in one place.. . I haven't been a member for a long time, but recently that changed. What an inspiration! The first two are from the American photographer Paul Strand. The lovely snow pattern from a book for babies (!) .

A key to happiness

Sometimes I tend to have a hard time letting things go, wait and see, it's gonna be okay and if not 'shit happens'. Fortunately I have enough (self)relativation to compensate, but still. Wouldn't it be great to just be able to let things go, to just shrug and think 'we'll see'? Practice makes perfect, right?

yellow fellow

came to cheer up his aunt :)

(I'm sure this song was going through his head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXs8OS6EdAE )

Thankful for where I am at, excited about where I am going

Unfortunately Thanksgiving isn't amongst the many the influences America has in Western Europe. But I guess that's only a matter of time. It doesn't stop me from being extra thankful today. For the people around me, for all the opportunities, for simple things that aren't as normal as they sometimes seem and for all that is yet to come!

(ps don't you love the colour of Dutch trains :)?)

Menu del dia

jane suggested to tell about a typical local dish. I know 'girls of Arnhem' doesn't sound like something you can eat (Arnhem= the of name my city), but you can. Roald Dahl discovered them when he was signing books here in the eighties and called it: the best cookies in the world.

Its probally too far away from you to buy one at the shop (my favourite) above, so you'll have to make them yourself :190 gram flour* 1 dl milk* 4 drops lemon juice* 5 grams fresh yeast* 105 grams unsalted butter (divided into five blocks)* Pinch of salt* Handful of granulated sugarMix flour, milk, lemon juice and yeast. Beat with an electric mixer the butter pieces into the mixture. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let stand overnight in the refrigerator.Preheat oven to 140 degrees (position 1). Cover the baking tray with greaseproof paper. Sprinkle work surface with granulated sugar, roll the dough with a rolling pin to thin out. A (oval) shape cutter cookies sticking, put cookies on the baking sheet, sprinkle some sugar over it. Approximately 35 minutes baking.Recipe from: Roald Dahl: The Cookbook

serious play

First pages of my new dummie.

I love dummies. Just playing, having fun with colours and shapes. Is there anything as serious as play?

Sisters

They both follow their heart. One goes to America for half years again (man, I will miss her), the other one is planning to go to the conservatory. It so cool to see how they develop themselves.

Always on the move

I love the nowhereland between leaving and arriving

(especially while listening to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBEAaKcnNRg )