Wishlists. They feel greedy and wrong and I hate making them.
But since a few people asked me to make one decided to try real hard to find a few thing that I would really like to have and that for some reason I won't buy myself.
Either because they are too expensive, stupid and boring to buy or because I just keep forgetting them.
I guess those are not really great reasons to put stuff on a wishlist since I don't want people to feel obligated to buy me expensive and/or boring stuff! Truly, I don't want people to feel obligated to buy me anything at all but if people really want to buy something it is nice for them to have at least a bit of a clua about what I like.
So here we go!
Storchenwiege Ulli 4.6 meter. It is "just" a storch but I can't keep myself from drooling over it. It would look so good on me and the girls and breaking in a new storchenwiege is one of the most rewaring thing to do.
natural, undyed Bluefaced Leicester wool, Aran weight. Mmmmm.... Scrumptious!
Nigella Lawson: how to be a domestic goddess. I can't stand her fake fridgegrazing. No woman looks that sexy while plundering the fridge or cupboard for food. No way. But her cooking is lovely and I like reading recipes.
addi click set . Yup, I'm a knittinggeek. And a knittingsnob as well, 'cause Addi is the only brand of needles that I like (and who doesn't, really).
lusherdelushlush. Anything that doesn't involve a bathtub will do
aga cooker (Told you so, expensive! But hey, just in case one of you happens to stumble upon a biiiiiig pile of money I better put it on the list ;D I really miss the aga we had when I was a kid. It got sold when my parents divorced, blugh.)
Senseo-thingy to use two pads at the same time. Yeah, yeah.... I drink the dreaded senseocoffee. And even worse: I like it :P I do however dislike the tiny portions. I want big mugs full of coffee and using two pads at the same time will make it possible to have something that comes close to a buig mug full ;)
load and reload van metallica. Major trip down memorylane!
Robin Hobb: Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's fate. Paperbacks please :) I'm rereading the whole Fitz and lifeshipscycle and since I borrowed the books the first time and they moved with my sister to Denmark.... I guess this is one of those boring gifts!
Enough for now, I feel bad allready although it was quite fun to actually try to think of stuff!
Friday, 27 February 2009
Happy birthday to me!
I know I said that I would stay away from the personal stuff on this blog but since this is an easy way to reach the people I want to reach I hereby make an exception to invite anyone who wants to come to my birthday sunday march the 8th.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Showtime
Daughter 1 shows her new toy (and my new obsession, I've knitted quite a few loopers and I guess more will follow, they are addictive):
And daughter 2 shows our new Manduca:
See how comfortable she's napping there? We are still fiddling a bit with the different straps so her ideally her knees should be a bit higher and a back a bit more rounded. but still, it is extremely comfy and very easy to put on.
I always prefer the versatility of wraps but if you want to wear your baby without the need for meters of cloth, please consider a soft structured carrier like this one (or an ergo, yamo or any of the dozens of other brands available) instead of those horrible babybjorns. Please, spare your and your baby's back!
If you want to read more on how to wear your baby anatomically correct, there is a nice article on the Didymos website.
Yesterday this:
Became this:
The flash doesn't do it justice but it is almost as bright in real life as it is in the picture. 3-ply light fingering yarn, perfect for a shawl or wrap. I hope a certain someone is going to be happy with it!
And last but not least, happy late valentinesday! (oooh that horrible flashlight again!)
And daughter 2 shows our new Manduca:
See how comfortable she's napping there? We are still fiddling a bit with the different straps so her ideally her knees should be a bit higher and a back a bit more rounded. but still, it is extremely comfy and very easy to put on.
I always prefer the versatility of wraps but if you want to wear your baby without the need for meters of cloth, please consider a soft structured carrier like this one (or an ergo, yamo or any of the dozens of other brands available) instead of those horrible babybjorns. Please, spare your and your baby's back!
If you want to read more on how to wear your baby anatomically correct, there is a nice article on the Didymos website.
Yesterday this:
Became this:The flash doesn't do it justice but it is almost as bright in real life as it is in the picture. 3-ply light fingering yarn, perfect for a shawl or wrap. I hope a certain someone is going to be happy with it!
And last but not least, happy late valentinesday! (oooh that horrible flashlight again!)
Monday, 16 February 2009
Coraline
http://www.coraline.com
I wonder how long it will take before we will be able to see the movie here in Holland!
Friday, 13 February 2009
Tapas
Tomorrow 4701 and I will go to a small luchparty. The theme of the luch will be tapas and everyone will bring something. Funny how in english that is called a dutch party while here in Holland it is referred to as an american party!
Anyway, I love every opportunity to cook something more exciting than familydinner so today I went al Nigella and prepared four different dishes.
The secret to cooking in a kitchen as tiny as ours is to keep the dishwasher open on one side and a bag for garbage on the other side of the kitchen. You can also keep the garbagecan open if you like but I prefer not to smell diapers or yesterdays dinner while cooking!
So, a fresh plastic bag and an open dishwasher. That way you can clean stuff up right after using it thus keeping a tiy workspace.
I actually had to giggle while writing "tidy workspace" since at the moment the kitchencounter is probably the only tidy place in this household....*sigh*
The first thing I made were small tartelettes with red onion, chilli, pinenuts and pesto. The spicy chilli give quite a nice contrast in flavour and colour to the sweet purple onions.
Oniontartelettes:
8 sheets of thawed puff pastry
200g red onions, chopped up
1 red chillipepper, chopped into fine rings, I like to keep the seeds in to add tiny bits of hotness in the sweet onions but you can ofcourse remove the seeds
2 tablespoons red pesto
25g pinenuts
preheat the oven to 220 celcius
Gently simmer the onions and the pepper until they are soft but not brown. Add some salt.
cut the sheets of puffpastry in four, creating 32 small squares of pastry.
Using a cookiecutter or a glass, cut circles out of half of the squares. Discard the cut out circles (or use them to make lovely crackers with a bit of salt, cheese or herbs on them) and put the pieces with a hole in them on top of the other squaresm creating 16 small pastry cups.
Fill with a bitt of pesto, a spoonfull of the onions and a sprinkle of pinenuts.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
The second dish also involves puffpastry.
Chorizopuffs
preheat the oven to 220 celcius
12 sheets of thawed puff pastry
250g chorizo
250g pistachio nuts
2 eggs
finely chop up and mix the chorizo and the nuts.
Whisk the eggs and keep a small bit seperate. Mix the eggs into the chorizomixture.
Lay out the sheets of pastry and put small rolls of the chorizomixture in the middle of the sheets. Brush the edges with the egg, fold in half and brush some egg on top as well.
You can use some left over pastry to decorate, I used a cookiecutter (or actually a fondantcutter) to put tiny ivyleaves on top of the puffs.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
The third dish is such a fast, small but delicious dish... I cannot make this without tasting way too much right after baking.
Baconwrapped dates filled with cream cheese
1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half
1 pound pitted dates
4 ounces cream cheese
Fill the dates with cream cheese, I used a pipingbag.
Wrap them in the bacon and bake in a pan until the bacon is crisp.
I bet blue cheese would be nice as well!
The last thing I'm bringing to the party tomorrow is a batch of Chocolate Chili Bites. I got the recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini but I added quite a bit more chilli. I love the little hot kick that comes after the bittersweet chocolate.
Anyway, I love every opportunity to cook something more exciting than familydinner so today I went al Nigella and prepared four different dishes.
The secret to cooking in a kitchen as tiny as ours is to keep the dishwasher open on one side and a bag for garbage on the other side of the kitchen. You can also keep the garbagecan open if you like but I prefer not to smell diapers or yesterdays dinner while cooking!
So, a fresh plastic bag and an open dishwasher. That way you can clean stuff up right after using it thus keeping a tiy workspace.
I actually had to giggle while writing "tidy workspace" since at the moment the kitchencounter is probably the only tidy place in this household....*sigh*
The first thing I made were small tartelettes with red onion, chilli, pinenuts and pesto. The spicy chilli give quite a nice contrast in flavour and colour to the sweet purple onions.
Oniontartelettes:8 sheets of thawed puff pastry
200g red onions, chopped up
1 red chillipepper, chopped into fine rings, I like to keep the seeds in to add tiny bits of hotness in the sweet onions but you can ofcourse remove the seeds
2 tablespoons red pesto
25g pinenuts
preheat the oven to 220 celcius
Gently simmer the onions and the pepper until they are soft but not brown. Add some salt.
cut the sheets of puffpastry in four, creating 32 small squares of pastry.
Using a cookiecutter or a glass, cut circles out of half of the squares. Discard the cut out circles (or use them to make lovely crackers with a bit of salt, cheese or herbs on them) and put the pieces with a hole in them on top of the other squaresm creating 16 small pastry cups.
Fill with a bitt of pesto, a spoonfull of the onions and a sprinkle of pinenuts.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is golden.
The second dish also involves puffpastry.
Chorizopuffs
preheat the oven to 220 celcius
12 sheets of thawed puff pastry
250g chorizo
250g pistachio nuts
2 eggs
finely chop up and mix the chorizo and the nuts.
Whisk the eggs and keep a small bit seperate. Mix the eggs into the chorizomixture.
Lay out the sheets of pastry and put small rolls of the chorizomixture in the middle of the sheets. Brush the edges with the egg, fold in half and brush some egg on top as well.
You can use some left over pastry to decorate, I used a cookiecutter (or actually a fondantcutter) to put tiny ivyleaves on top of the puffs.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
The third dish is such a fast, small but delicious dish... I cannot make this without tasting way too much right after baking.
Baconwrapped dates filled with cream cheese
1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half
1 pound pitted dates
4 ounces cream cheese
Fill the dates with cream cheese, I used a pipingbag.
Wrap them in the bacon and bake in a pan until the bacon is crisp.
I bet blue cheese would be nice as well!
The last thing I'm bringing to the party tomorrow is a batch of Chocolate Chili Bites. I got the recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini but I added quite a bit more chilli. I love the little hot kick that comes after the bittersweet chocolate.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
3, 2, 1, GO!
So... A fresh start... My old blog was fun but I've decided to keep my personal life a bit more personal and my not-so-personal life a bit less personal.
For the first part that means blogging only about my crafts, cooking, babywrapping and everything else that interests me without the diaryfunction that my old blog had.
For the second part it means that I will be using english instead of dutch and that I have switched from web-log.nl to the much more userfriendly blogspot.com
Don't you just LOVE how everything google-related magically works together?
Uhm...no. I don't. It freaks me out to be honest although for there is probably nothing dangerous or scary about it.
As far as the knitting goes: I've rediscovered the cuteness that's called mochimochi. Right now I'n working on Looper. Such a fun little project! A great way to get rid of some of the nasty synthetic yarn that somehow managed to work its way into my stash.
And I'm kinda obsessed with the way you can shape knitwork by using increases, decreases and shortrows. It makes my fingers itch and my head spin with all the designs that come up. If only I would have the patience to work them out... Oh well, someday I will!
I'm going back to looper now, perhaps I can finish him tonight so I can start with the stackable cats that are going to be someones birthdaypresent.
Oh, and I just HAVE to mention that I've the best valentinesdaygift ready for 4701. I'm not going to tell you what it is since he is probably smart enough to read this but I will post pics when he has opened it the 14th.
In the meantime you can read all about his World of Warcraft rehabprocess here.
For the first part that means blogging only about my crafts, cooking, babywrapping and everything else that interests me without the diaryfunction that my old blog had.
For the second part it means that I will be using english instead of dutch and that I have switched from web-log.nl to the much more userfriendly blogspot.com
Don't you just LOVE how everything google-related magically works together?
Uhm...no. I don't. It freaks me out to be honest although for there is probably nothing dangerous or scary about it.
As far as the knitting goes: I've rediscovered the cuteness that's called mochimochi. Right now I'n working on Looper. Such a fun little project! A great way to get rid of some of the nasty synthetic yarn that somehow managed to work its way into my stash.
And I'm kinda obsessed with the way you can shape knitwork by using increases, decreases and shortrows. It makes my fingers itch and my head spin with all the designs that come up. If only I would have the patience to work them out... Oh well, someday I will!
I'm going back to looper now, perhaps I can finish him tonight so I can start with the stackable cats that are going to be someones birthdaypresent.
Oh, and I just HAVE to mention that I've the best valentinesdaygift ready for 4701. I'm not going to tell you what it is since he is probably smart enough to read this but I will post pics when he has opened it the 14th.
In the meantime you can read all about his World of Warcraft rehabprocess here.
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