Plates plates plates

Wow, I never got so many plates in one week! Everyone seems to know that I'm assembling an eclectic set of tableware consisting of mismatching plates, bowls, etc. (I simply see too many nice sets while I need only one... by buying one piece of each set I can collect them anyway). The plated week started on Wednesday when I got a beautiful Iitala plate for my birthday (a Taika one) of Anita and Ellen, which I had been drooling about fo ages). On Thursday I had my farewell drink, and all of my colleagues bought me a plate as well! Loveley, my collection is almost complete at once! To top it off, I got four nice chocolaty plates from Martine yesterday, also for my birthday. So nice when people know you well! Thanks you all!

Another picture, especially for my colleagues: it does help to put your tea mug in the dish washer every once in a while...

Painting white Easter weekend

So, this picture more or less summarizes my Easter weekend! I planned to paint both of our stairs (they are new and need three layers of paint), but that turned out to be way too ambitious for three days. I always seem to forget that preparing a painting job is actually much more work than painting itself! So, during the weekend I shifted the focus of painting two stairs towards painting one of them, and I didn't even make that... But seriously, why do people want to become a painter? I really don't understand. Painting sucks! It takes ages before you can start to paint, you keep sanding, degreasing, filling holes, etc., your back starts hurting after only two steps, and I could go like this on for a while... But, on the bright side, the stairs leading ("nowhere just for fun", quoting Tevje in Anatevka) to the attick now have two layers and look quite stunning already. A final layer should do the trick. Unfortunately, I'm a bit low on available time the coming few weeks.

Another picture worth posting, although not too original I'm affraid, is one of our view into the back yard when we woke up this morning. It was predicted, this snowy morning surprise, but it is still nice to open the curtains and see the world in white. The weather for Sunday was very poorly predicted, by the way. Bad weather with lots of rain and 'wintery showers' was announced, but in stead, we ended up having a clear blue sky the whole day! Decided to have a good long walk through the woods with the dog, which was appreciated all too well.

Sleepless by coffee

Yesterday evening we had a coffee workshop at Kaldi, a little coffee store in Maastricht. The idea was to learn a little bit about coffee, to taste coffee and to learn making a good cuppa and (most importantly!) a good cappuccino foam.The workshop itself was really nice, very good value for money and really fun. Had a bit too much coffee though, not being used to drinking five espressos after dinner... But anyway.The best part of the evening was the fact that they had exactly the same espresso machine as we have at home (see picture), so we could practice making coffee and foam as we should do it at home too. Pictures below showing Anita (with a very fancy and even more expensive coffee machine) and Pascal learning to make the perfect cappuccino. And now we have to
practice to keep our barista skills up! So I actually have an excuse for making cappuccino every morning, it's all a matter of personal competencies! For the true fans, I've added a movie of how to make latte art (Dutch Championships coming up soon!), which is less easy than they make it seem, I'm affraid...

Home makeover

For all of you who haven't been in our house recently, or ever for that matter, here some pictures of what we've been doing lately. The first two are of our 'study' (like the intellectual sound of that). In the yellow part of this room, the floor has been replaced (and I'm not talking about
the floor covering only, heavy wooden beams have actually been replaced - which was quite a stunning view, when entering the house you could see the roof of the house two floors up -), walls have been replaced and plastered and lots of painting has been done. In the "booked" part, we have covered lots of pink painting. The other picture is of our hunting style attick slash guest room (there is a sofa bed out of the picture focus). In short: we're getting there, but enough remains to be done!

Surprise!

Look at this, what a little com- plaining about a lack of surprises on your birthday can do... Am enjoying a delicious blueberry muffin WITH a creatively improvised candle on it. Obviously, only women can think of this..., Diana & Sophie, thanks!

Hairy clothes

For all of you who have been wondering why my clothes contain so many white hairs (the black ones don't seem to stand out so much), here's why! Our laundry simply isn't safe for Babet, even when we put the laundry basket on the kitchen table. Sorry for the high level of Animal Farm-ness on my blog the past few posts.

Not so many highlights this weekend, I'm affraid. Except for a new load of chocolate easter eggs (including the infamous "eiwijzer"), dragging down the first Christmas tree of the former owners of our house, which they pitiably put in the back yard 16 years ago (normally, Christmas trees have the decency to die pretty quick after being planted, not this one...), and the day on which sooo many people have their birthdays! In alphabetical order, Bas, Laurent, Martine and Timo, congratulations!

Stormy weather

We've been to The Hague this weekend (in my new voiture!). Stormy weather on the highway already, but on the beach is was even difficult to stay on our feet! Lotte, our dog, was quite flabbergasted that we took another dog (Lola, the greyhound of our friends Bas and Nadja) that could run faster than she could (lots faster, I'm affraid)). The birth of a little self esteem problem... And a sprained leg, because she tried to keep up with Lola anyway. Strange things also drift ashore with heavy winds, as it seems! We spotted a nice door this time.