Real Love
Yesterday we celebrated my parent's 40th wedding anniversary. Very early in the morning, we surprised them with a breakfast in bed. We brought them champagne, lots of delicious food, served on china that all their grandchildren painted and decorated and in the evening we went to dinner with the whole family. It was a wonderful celebration.
Today it was gray and wet outside. It was raining and the wind was howling around our house. But that didn't matter; We had nowhere to go. In our pajamas we played and crafted. Chris build with lego with the little ones, giving me the chance to finally learn to interpret some puzzling instructions in Burda that I used to skip, doing things my own way. In our pajamas we enjoyed the smell of the many spring flowers in bloom that were a present on my birthday, from people that know me so well. In our pajamas all five of us danced to Gilbert O'Sullivan.
I hope your weekend was as filled with real love as ours was.
It's My Birthday!
And to celebrate that I would have loved to share this wonderful lemon pie with all of you. But, since I think our computer wouldn't have liked it if I tried to stuff this pie through the cables, I'll instead share the recipe so you can make it yourself:
Lemon Pie
Ingredients:
Dough:
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185 gr. flour
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80 gr. ground almonds
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1 tablespoon fine caster sugar
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1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
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160 gr. butter, in cubes
Lemon filling:
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3 eggs
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150 gr. fine caster sugar
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juice and lemon peel from 1 large, or 2 small lemons (too much lemon will make this pie very, very sourish, so be careful if you don't like that).
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150 gr. melted butter
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icing sugar, to sprinkle on top
Let's bake:
Mix the flour, ground almonds, sugar and lemon peel for the dough. Add the butter and keep mixing until you see the dough crumbling. Then add one or two tablespoons ice water and keep kneading until you can form a dough ball. Wrap the dough in kitchen foil and put it into the fridge for about an hour.
Then you roll out the dough and push it into a flan form. Put it back into the fridge for another hour.
Preheat the oven to 190° Celcius. Put some baking paper and some blind baking filling (for example some dry beans, or rice) onto the dough and bake the pastry for 15 minutes. Then remove the paper and blind baking filling and continue baking the pastry for about 10 minutes, until it's golden and dry. Let it cool off and lower the oven temperature to 170° Celcius.
In the meantime, for the lemon filling, beat the eggs with the sugar, the lemon peel and half of the juice. Then add the melted butter and the rest of the juice and stir together.
Pour the lemon filling into the pastry and bake the pie for 40 minutes, until the filling is firm. Let it cool off and sprinkle with icing sugar just before serving.
I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did today. Bon appetit!
Go Jamie
Jamie, a couple of years ago I devoured your books and loved your television shows. Then, somehow, you dissapeared to the back of my bookshelves, But today I saw this. And I can only say: Amen Jamie. You rock.
I Need A Kick In The Butt
I have this new Ottobre for women that is flirting with me. I have tons of older (and newer) pattern magazines with even more patterns that I still would love to tackle. (The pile you see there in the photograph is just a small part of my collection. Really.) But I said to myself that before I start something new, I want to have finished my coat. The coat that was intended to be a fall coat. Then it became a Christmas coat. And now it's destined to be a spring coat. And I really, really don't want to have to rename it to a summer coat. If only because of all the other patterns that are waiting for me, ogling me, begging me to start with them.
I could say that the problem is a lack of time. With three little ones, a pile of laundry that could scare Martha Stewart away and that seems to multiply every time I think I took care of it, and a baby that still wants breastfeeding a lot, it could even sound like a good excuse. But really, it isn't.
I have time to read blogs and comment here and there, to read a bit and even take some much needed naps in the afternoon now and then. I have the best husband in the world who is willing to help me out where he can so I can have time for the things I need time for and even if I didn't have all of that, I always say, to people who complain about lack of time, that 'it's a matter of prioritizing'. And I really believe it is.
So the truth is I just really need a kick in the butt to motivate me and get my priorities straight. Any volunteers out there?
Here Comes The Sun
Yesterday Lucas suddenly realized out loud:"Hey, we are having dinner and it's still light outside. That's proof that spring is coming!"
This morning we saw more proof. We didn't have to get dressed and have breakfast with the lights on; The sun was already shining. So after breakfast, we went hunting. Hunting for every spot of sunlight in our house. Because this proof of the coming spring, we decided, definitely had to be documented.
Where do you find sunlight in your house?
Pillows Of Love
How did you spend your valentine's day? Did you send a card to someone you secretly admire? Did you give or receive a present? Did you spend the day with someone you love? Or do you think valentine's day is just a day of commercial nonsense in which you don't want to partake?
Valentine's day isn't really a big holiday here. I remember sending some cards as a teenager, and ofcourse there is this Merci commercial that is aired every year again around this date, but other than that you could easily forget the 'day of love' completely. But this year I started blogging and visiting blogs and I couldn't help but admiring all the lovely gifts people all around the world made for their loved ones. I guess it infected me too....
So I made these pillows. One for each of my family members. I appliqued some hearts and added a little pocket on each of them. In those pockets I put a personal letter. In the morning I quietly placed them outside their bedroom doors, so they would find them when they woke up.
They were very happy with their surprise. The little ones inmediately started to cuddle with the pillows and put them on their beds and Lucas sighed: "it smells like you, mama". Ah yes, that was one extra touch I added.
Ofcourse we should tell our loved ones how much they mean to us every day again. But I happily take every special occasion to make them feel even more loved and cherished any day!
Trip Down Memory Lane
Normally I am not really into awards, tagging games etc, but when G, from Lin3aRossa's Blog, asked me to go to my photographs and pick the tenth picture from the tenth folder, I got curious to see which photograph would show up.
It turned out to be this picture, of Chris and Sarah. I took it on November 2nd, 2009, when we celebrated the birthday of my mother in law. Sarah en Lucas had been playing with a puzzle all afternoon and here Chris was helping them, while Sarah dozed off, tired of all the festivities. She is wearing the dress I made for a wedding that summer and kept saying all day how pretty she was. And she was. She always is :-)
My Creative Space - But.. But.. Buttons
You know by now that I love to sew. And I love it more with every garment I finish. Maybe it has something to do with the skills I develop, so that the sewing itself goes easier and faster and my attention can be focussed on the creative processes and the finishing touches. Ah, but those finishing touches...
I have no problem sewing a skirt, a dress, a shirt, pyjamas. Trousers and coats? No problem. (Well, that coat could take a half year as it turns out, but still, it will be sewn. Some day...) But somehow I have great difficulties when it comes to buttons.
I have no idea why it is. I love buttons. Funny buttons, cute buttons, classic buttons. I like them on my garments and I prefer them over a zipper any day. But somehow, where those zippers behave nicely they way I expect them too, buttons seem to have some stubborn minds in this house. Becaue they jump off the clothes.
Really. Don't you believe me? Ask Sarah. She keeps bringing me her buttons every now and then. And I really thought I sewed them on correctly, I really didn't think there was anything difficult about sewing on buttons. Whatever could go wrong there? But I guess I was too arrogant and took the button sewing too lightly. I stand corrected.
So today my creative space is the dining table and this old seventies needlework book that I once received from my mother in law. I am going to study it until I know this chapter by heart. And then I will make those buttons stay where they belong. On the coats and blouses, instead of in Sarah's pockets.
For more creative spaces, look here.
So Now He Understands...
His other shoe went missing this morning. We searched everywhere. In his room. In the bathroom. Under his desk. Under my desk. Under de couch. In the hallway. It was gone, or so it seemed. The only option we had was to let him wear his old shoes. Lucas didn't like that one bit.
Ofcourse I found it when he was long gone to school. The poor shoe turned out to be hijacked by the laundry. The dirty laundry, ofcourse. I really should keep it under my control more.
Chris brought the reunited shoes to school, so he could wear well fitting shoes for the rest of the day. And Lucas? I guess he now finally understands why it's really not that silly to have as many shoes as his mama has.
(Almost Feels Like Spring) Cleaning
After weeks of thinking about celebrating, planning celebrations, getting ready for celebrating and actually celebrating itself (all the boys in our house, including Chris, are having their birthday within 3 weeks from eachother. And I can tell you: I never met anyone more birthday-ish than our now five year old. I think he celebrated his birthday for about a week and a half or so), we are finally getting back in our normal rhythm. And this weekend we started to clean and sort everything in and around the house. It was great. And rewarding.
You could hear the voices of the children, running and riding their bikes on the street. The sun was shining, you could see sparkles in the few raindrops that were lingering on the garden decorations. Chris swept en brushed. The hydrangea showed her bravery with some beautiful buds. For a short time there, it really almost felt like spring.
And then Sarah and Lucas came running to the house. Telling us about how they were freezing, even with their gloves on. So we went inside. Where it was warm. Where there was hot chocolate and games and lego. I long for spring, I really do. But with days like this one, winter isn't that bad either.
Chef Hats
In my last post I asked if anyone knew a tutorial for a chef's hat. Gina and Sally gave me links to two wonderful tutorials. I decided to go for Curlypops version. The only thing I did different than Cam's method was that I didn't use binding. Instead I just folded the edges of the cut in the upper fabric to the inside and made a small stitch to hold it in place neatly.
At first I thought I'd whip up those hats in one sunday, but it turned out to be a little bit more work than I expected. Ahum. I just finished the last one today...
But look at them. Aren't they a cute colourful little bunch? Ten little chef hats, ready to be found in a treasure chest by the little chefs to be. We'll see what kind of recipes those chefs will come up with tomorrow!
My name is Karin. I sew, cook and
take pictures. I tell stories. I dream. I love books, fashion, hot
baths, conversations that make me re-think my ideas and opinions. I
fantasize and realize. And above and beyond all, I am mama to
Lucas, Sarah and Olivier.
