On our way to the sun

We are off to warmer climes. Yey!

Tulips from 'my' Australians

I got a beautiful bouquet from my students as they were leaving to go back home... it's been a wonderful experience to have them here for three weeks.

From cold to warm

We are about to go from very cold to very warm... I can't wait!



♥ one big kiss to Teresa

Redcurrant-ginger-orange

Lucky us

I am so happy and so touched by the beautiful present we received from my parents... they are the best!

Green

Perth, Australia, January 2010
New York, USA, June 2009
London, Great Britain, December 2009
Amsterdam, Netherlands, January 2011

Sun, beautiful sun

I had a day off today.
I spent it sleeping in, finishing our new wardrobe (and folding tons of clothes, to then arrange them neatly in there), watching a bit of Desperate Housewives and enjoying the beautifully sunny light our apartment was bathed in all day long. It's so good to see some sun again after months of grey skies...! And as you can see above, the sun today was majestic all the way to the last little bit... so nice!

Atomium

The Atomium (Brussels, Belgium) on 15 January 2011.
Went all the way to the top to see the view, and had a sandwich in the middle sphere.

:-)

Bruges Sunday

Have been super busy with my students.
We were in Brussels and Bruges on the weekend.
It was lovely.

And my friend Chantal visited us for two days, which was delightful too!




The flooding in Queensland is not so much on the news anymore, but definitely still on our minds... check out my friend Claire's special sale - such a sweet gesture.

Busy!

Here are two shots of our walk on Sunday. I'm super-duper busy, and it won't stop until we're on the plane for Australia in a bit less than three weeks. No days off until then but some fun times with the group of students I'm currently in charge of. Yey!

11-1-11

This little cutie's Nan flew up to heaven today... it's so sad to think that we would have seen her in just a few weeks, but relieving to know she is now in peace and with her husband.

High Maas

The Maas usually doesn't even reach the measuring signs here in Maastricht (just like in the first photo)... but in the past few days it's been going up like crazy because of all the rain and the melting snow (see the second photo).
It's really impressive and a little bit scary, but it doesn't compare at all with all the floods they have in Australia at the moment. I just saw a video taken in Toowoomba, where I lived for a few months ten years ago... it's terrifying.

Sunday afternoon at the museum

Every so often we give Maastricht's art museum another go, hoping to be blown away... we are yet to be totally enamored with anything we see there, but today's visit was ok. I especially liked the colourful room by Francis Alys.

Blackberry-Orange-Ginger

Don't worry, I'm not going to start posting juices every day! But that being said, we have been drinking home made juice daily since we came back and we love them. I am making up recipes as we go, and some have turned out 'really-good' and some 'medium-good'. This one tasted great for example, but the frozen blackberries (at least this batch) had fairly big and hard seeds which were not very pleasant when you got to the bottom of your drink. Will remember to use a sieve when pouring it into glasses next time.

We went to visit little Marten today - what a cutie!

Raspberry-Apple

Frozen raspberries and apples from my parents' garden. And a bit of orange juice.

Rainbow for Debora

Mart made this garland for Debora, for Christmas. I helped him a bit for the gluing, but he put all the colours together.
We had to find a way of bringing it to Switzerland without it getting all entangled. :-)

Snow turns to ice

I took these photos on my way to work before the holidays, when snow was still falling from the sky. These days there isn't any fresh snow anymore, but just big blocks and bumpy mounds of ice everywhere. It makes walking to the grocery store, or cycling to work, quite an adventure!

Orange-mandarine-kiwi

We got a really cool juicer / smoothie maker for Xmas, and I'm looking forward to try different recipes. So... get ready for lots of juices updates!


Today's 'jus du jour' was orange-mandarine-kiwi.

Back in NL

It somehow feels like the holiday season totally sprung on me this year. It was summer, then September, I started my new job, and then *boom* it was snowing and it was Christmas in a second! This means I didn't have much time to make pretty cards. But I made a few. Which I sent to very few people. So, for those of you who didn't get one (sorry!), here is what they looked like.

:-)


We are back in the Netherlands after two lovely weeks in Switzerland at my parent's. Feels good to be back in our little nest but the old leaky windows our owner had promised to change over the holidays are still in place... I really hope they will come this week. I've had it with running with buckets and wipes each and every time it rains!

Baby cubes

Our friends had a little boy during the holidays. A cute little Marten, which we cannot wait to meet very soon.

As I had:

• plenty of free time,
• access to my mum's incredible collection of fabrics,
• and her great collection of ribbons,
• and all her sewing tools and diverse material,

I decided to make him a little set of fabric cubes to play with. They are all quite small and just adorable.

Happy New Year!

Here is the little creation that resulted of last night's celebrations and lilla a's challenge.

I wish you all a delightful 2011, and (just like last year) will suggest the following soundtrack to put a smile on your face (I personally play it extra loud and it makes me giggle... I love it!).