Kukele....

Today, my sister over at Pike Street posted a most fabulous picture of a duck. So when I came across this most glorious rooster today (and later also several ducks) I couldn't resist making a picture of him....

'Kukelekuuuu!' they say in Holland

I call these 'golf-club' ducks, so funny with those long necks...

It is 4:30 in the afternoon now and the sun is finally peeking out (after days and days of rain), so I'd better go out and take some pictures for my Signs of Spring challenge before it disappears again...

Have a great continuation of your weekend!  {smile}

For A Far-Away Friend...

This is to show support for Annie, a far-away blog friend, mother of five, who had her left breast removed yesterday. Two weeks after she found the first sign. She left for the hospital with her toenails painted in rainbow colors as a form of protest...

I'm hearing way to many of these kind of stories lately. When is your next mammogram? I have had mine annually for the past 11 years...

Gingham Blouse...

Yes, the Gingham Blouse is finally finished!

While hugging the space heater the other day (when our furnace was still out) I decided to get out my trusty (and oh so disliked) seam-ripper and I took out three layers of stitching to remove the failed collar.  I found the pattern of another collar I had used last year, adjusted it to this pattern  et voila: a pretty collar that sits like it should!  {smile} I added some lace for some extra frillyness... (if that is a word)

Most of this blouse's pattern is from the Lisette #2246 dress that I made in a flowery blue last month (with the piping) with some adjustments obviously. It might need a couple more tweakings here in there if I want to use it again for another time, but all in all I am quite pleased!  {smile again}

Ramblings...

I'm starting of this Ramblings Post with what I had for lunch yesterday: Belgian Endives or 'Witlof' as we call it in Holland. This vegetable is very common in The Netherlands but extremely expensive here in The States. I love it so much that the rest of the family is not even allowed to have any... <wink>

Here I served it with a pinch of nutmeg, some hard boiled eggs and a piece of French (triple cream!) cheese: Yum!

Yesterday turned out to be a much nicer day than forecast. The sun came out in the afternoon and it almost felt warmer outside than inside!  

Talking of temperatures: my brilliant Mr. G. managed to fix the furnace (by buying a part and installing it himself) and now the house is nice and toasty again after two days of fairly chilly temps...

I had a cup of tea with my lovely Scottish neighbor in the afternoon who I hadn't seen in way too long and afterwards I shot some colorful pictures in my backyard... (I will show you more next week for my Signs of Spring)

I made her this little card as a 'Thank You':

Good thing I took so many pictures yesterday because today is all cloudy and rainy again and it looks like it will stay that way for the coming up week.
Oh well, Spring was nice while it lasted!

Signs of Spring, Week 4...

As you can see, quite a lot has happened this week weather wise. Several days we woke up with snow on the ground, but more and more blue skies were seen. 

Most importantly of all: Spring Has Sprung!  {smile}

Yesterday was awfully cloudy, a sign of rainy things to come once again. On top of that, our furnace went out overnight into Sunday and the house is now freezing. We're now waiting for a part to arrive in the mail, and hopefully Mr. G. can fix it himself...

A Lovely Friday Afternoon...

Spring has Sprung in the Northwest: Finally!!!!  {smile}

First I had a lovely session at Little Bit and then I went off to buy some colorful annuals. After I picked up Master C. from school we raced home and I started digging in the yard. In between things I had a beer and a sit in the SUN! (so happy)

Freshly planted Ranunculas in the foreground...

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS: It has come to my attention that once again there is a problem with Blogger and you might find it hard (if not impossible) to leave a comment. Again, nothing I have done, but please do use my email button in the sidebar if you are inclined to leave a message. Thank you so much!

Noise!

So much noise in my ears last night, thank goodness for ear plugs! 

I don't know what I'm doing up already (we got home at 1 o'clock this morning) but I am so I might as well make the most of it. First thing I did was upload the few pictures I had taken at the concert so that I could show you. Here we go:

On our way to the venue in Ballard/ Seattle

The first band was called 'Feedtime' and they came all the way from Australia. The closest I could compare them to was a mix of the Sex Pistols (Johnny Lydon/ Rotten screams etc) and the low and intense baselines of Joy Division. It all sounded much like a garage band where the members are around 18, when in fact they were closer to 60! The quality of playing was plain bad but they had a great time themselves which makes it more fun for us to observe of course!  <wink>

I thought these guys were the (old) roadies.
Turns out they were the actual band...

During the intermission we met up with a colleague and his friend and we were wondering where Kim (from Soundgarden) was. Turns out he had been so busy with his own band, he totally forgot! So typical... {smile} 

Here are some pictures of our surroundings to give you a better taste of the venue..

Anywho, Mudhoney came on and they sounded very tight. Mark Arm (the lead singer) had just turned 50 (yes, we are in that age group now) and he sounded great! Unfortunately this is really not my kind of music and it was really loud  (I mean Really Loud), but lo and behold, there were lots of people pogo-ing and crowd surfing!!! I hadn't seen that in years and I felt all 'young' again. No worries, I had no inclinations whatsoever to join them, even though I was wearing my tall Doc Martens!  <wink>

Since I dragged Mr. G. to that (totally awesome) 'Erasure' concert last Fall, the least I could do was to accompany him to one of his kind of concerts...

The ear plugs (that we bought at the bar) totally saved us and my ears are just fine now. We drove home through the pouring rain and jumped straight in to bed. When we woke up (the alarm went at 5:45!) we saw this:

Can you believe it? Snow again! But, it is all melting now and the sun has actually come out so it is rather pretty. I might even go for a walk later on... First some breakfast I think...

PS But then I read Annie's post and lost all my appetite...

Picnic Time...

No, you might think (from the title of this post) that the sun has come out, but unfortunately that is not the case. We did however find the most extraordinarily fun lemonade container! Just look at this beauty:

Mr. G. found it while I was looking at this maternity dress. (I was looking at the buttons remember, not thinking of having more babies etc, in case you were wondering...)  <wink>

The dress does actually fit me nicely and it is sooo comfy having all that fabric flowing around me, but I think I will use the fabric for accent pieces in other projects.

Below you can also see some other fabric I found while thrifting last week. It has a polyester type of feel to it and Tif immediately thought of curtains. I was more thinking of a blouse with a nice drape or something like that. We'll see.... 

I also bought the plaid shirt (which is a bit snug I must admit) and the last picture shows the progress I'm making on the gingham blouse. One sleeve in, the second one will be next. I haven't tried it on yet and I fear it might also be a bit snug, but I still have hope that it becomes something wearable... (one can always hope right?)

--  **  --  **  --

That's about all for now. I'm mentally trying to get ready for tonight: we have tickets to go and see 'Mudhoney', a very loud grunge band from Seattle from the olden days. Mr. G. knows the lead singer and Kim (from 'Soundgarden') should be there also so that will be fun!

The concert doesn't start until 9:30pm though and that is only the warm up band! (I usually go to bed around 8:30pm or so...)

I'll let you know all about it, but maybe not until Friday, since I will need Thursday as a day of rest...  <wink>

Hope...

What a difference a small amount of sunlight makes...

The first two pictures are basically straight out of the camera, the lower one I've fiddled a bit with...

Signs of Spring, Week 3...

Well, we are still at least 10 degrees (Fahrenheit) below average and at waking up this morning it was 32F/ 0C so not much Spring going on over here. We've had occasional snow at least four times last week, can you believe it?

But, there are still some Signs of Spring to be found. Just look at this... (pictures taken in between all the torrential downpours)

In the back yard...

Day Lilies...

Color!

Just before the storm...

Thunder & Lightning and an enormous amount of Hail on its way...

The ten-day forecast isn't looking too promising but we'll get there in the end. We always do...

PS You can find more 'partners in crime' at Viveka's blog 'Humlebacken'.

Sunday Lunchtime...

The snow and the rain have stopped and it is starting to lighten up some. 

After dropping of Miss M. at school for a fun trip to Snoqualmie Pass where she and her classmates will be playing some SnowUltimate (= Ultimate Frisbee in the snow) early this morning, we stopped by Value Village for some thrifting. I bought a light pink polka-dotted maternity dress with beautiful rose buttons (I bought the dress for those buttons to be honest) and Mr. G. found a most awesome Coleman's thermos flask container thingie but it is round! (I will take pictures later)

We did some light grocery shopping and came home with a baguette and some lovely goat blue cheese. I will now be parking myself on the couch with that, a cup of peppermint tea and my latest book addiction: "The Hunger Games'! I finished the first part last night and have just started the second part. Can't wait, what an exciting read!

I'll leave you with another lovely tulip pic and will see you again tomorrow!  {smile}

Sunday Morning...

Really???

Sewing Failure or Success?

The jury isn't out on this one yet folks!

It was all going so well, until this happened:

Yes, the 'Flying Nun' collar... (old tv series for those of you who are not familiar with this title) In the mean time I've sewed the collar down a bit more so it is looking a tad bit better but I am not convinced yet.

And talking about how 'to fly like an eagle': look at what I encountered at the Target parking lot yesterday:

I only had my little point & shoot camera handy but still, not a bad picture! And then last night I spotted this little creature on the outside of our kitchen window:

Well, it is Saturday once again. We (Mr. G., Master C. and myself) are off to the Department of Motor Licensing to first: change the address on my licence (it is 4 years old) and second: have Master C's. eyes checked so that he can sign up for his final driving exam in April. How exciting! (and so scary)

And in other news: wet snow is coming down once again....  Just think of us when you're enjoying your Spring-like temperatures!  {smile}

Ramblings...

Well, it has been a few days since I last posted and to be honest, I just don't have too much to say at the moment. (I know, a rare occurrence)  <wink>

Last Monday I met with  Tif and Jennette at the Goodwill store in Monroe, about half an hour north of here. Somehow I had never been there before so it was fun to explore a new region. We also stopped at a local antique market where we spent a couple of hours. I bought some fabric (more fabric Marjan, Really???) and a fun ceramic vase/ pitcher. Here it is:

I also bought this mint green postcard holder which was a lot of fun I thought...

Sorry, bad light and
thus a bad picture...

We had lunch together and chatted and chatted and chatted.  {smile}

--  **  --  **  --

The next day I had to do three lessons (instead of two) at Little Bit and this what I encountered on the way:

Yes indeed, that is snow and that was not the first time this week either! Since then  it has been raining non stop for many, many days now. Truly awful, especially since the rest of the country is experiencing way above normal temperatures! Oh well, our time will come... It will, right?

I did take a couple of nice pictures at the barn... (it was so cold, I had my ski-pants on with my long underwear underneath!)

--  **  --  **  --

I've finally started a new sewing project and I'm combining several different patterns together, very scary. If it turns out, I will show it to you...

Otherwise not much going on over here. That's just fine with me, life doesn't have to be crazy busy all the time. Talk to ya later!  {smile}