A La Twiggy...

Et voila: the finished dress!

There is a nice diamond pattern detail on the buttons in white, but you can't see it in these pictures.
Did you notice the ric-rac on the sleeves?

I will show you a picture of me with it on soon, but first the weather needs to improve just a teeny tiny bit...

Onward to a new project. Don't know what yet, but I bought two vintage looking (but new)  fabrics last weekend so I'm sure something fun will happen with them...

Celebrity Sightings!

Apparently Johnny Depp was in my teeny tiny town yesterday!!! 

He was filming scenes for his next movie 'Lucky Them' which should be coming out next year. Of course I didn't find out until late last night so missed the whole thing, but I did manage to find these picks online. What fun!  {smile}

(Just to be clear: I didn't take these pictures and I don't know these very lucky people either...)

--  **  --  **  --

And then look what I found on Facebook today:

My friend Tif will be on the front cover of the Dutch Magazine Flow next week! How cool is that?

Sneaky Cheeky!

Look at this little fella: so rude!   <wink>

It has taken them quite a few weeks to figure it out, but now the squirrels are on this pole all the time. I think we will have to come up with some new anti-squirrel measures...

In other news: I'm sewing again after at least a 6 weeks week hiatus! Here is a sneak peek:

And here is the envelope for the pattern. (Simplicity 3559) I am making the model on the right, but then with the slightly longer length. No idea how it will wear when I have it on, but a fun project for now...

Zoo...

Last week Thursday, while Master C. and myself were busily volunteering at Little Bit (they are moving to a new facility, finally!), Mr. G. and Miss M. ventured out to Seattle to visit the Woodland Park Zoo.

I let Miss M. borrow my fancy camera and she came back with almost 500 pictures!!! Here a very select few...

Click! to enlarge...

In my own latest news: I'm sewing again!  {smile}

Smile...

Found at the thrift store yesterday...

Not quite of Pip Studio caliber & proportions, but pretty darn close. It made me smile...

--  **  --  **  --

I have removed the 'awaiting moderation' in the comments section, but have blocked the 'anonymous' commenters. For now at least. These spammers are driving me crazy... 

Road Trippin'....

Since we are in the middle of a school break, we thought we'd better do something that actually resembles a vacation activity: road trippin'!!!  {smile}

We packed some drinks and snacks, picked up a friend and off we went to see Whidbey Island. We started in the North (Deception Pass) and ended up taken the ferry off at the southern tip of the island back to Mukilteo.

The weather wasn't great when we set off and it got gradually worse during the day... So not the best circumstances to put it mildly, but we had a great time anyway.

Between Miss M. and myself we took 150 pictures (we both love anything to do with open water!) and here is a small collection of our impressions. What you can't see on these pictures was the howling wind and very cold temperatures so just keep that in the back of your mind while looking at them...

PS I've been receiving a lot of spam reactions lately so I've activated the 'comment moderation', just to keep you informed. Don't worry, no word verification is necessary...

At The Feeder...

So cute!   {smile}

Experimenting Part Deux...

Wow, it was supposed to be a fairly simple project but all in all it almost took me two days to come to this background. Every time I pushed the 'view blog' button it looked different on my screen: how frustrating!

But anywho, I quite like it the way it looks at the moment so this will have to be it for now. I tend to go over the top a bit with my designs, because I want to add so many elements and then things just look too busy. I think it all looks fairly easy to the eye now...

Here are the other two I had on previously. First the black one and then the other one...

Well, the sun is shining again after several days of dreariness so that is nice. Somebody in the household is having a small procedure done today that involves drinking lots of laxatives so we are busy with that. It will be my turn in a few years and so not looking forward to that...

Here is a larger picture of the beautiful yellow finch that you can see in the right margin. I completely forgot I had made that picture!   <wink>

Experimenting...

As you can see I'm experimenting with something new: the actual blog background. I'm not 100% satisfied yet, but it's a start. It feels strange that only the text scrolls and not the background, plus there is that lighter horizontal line in there that I couldn't see while I was in the Template Designer page.

I wasn't quite ready to create a whole new blog header (again) so I wanted to create a background that went with the header. Soon I will be ready for more color, but for now I quite like this one...

PS: I have an extra wide screen. Please let me know if things don't line up quite right for your screen...

--  **  --  **  --

Here is a picture of myself, almost 30 years ago (!!!) that my sister just dug up and posted to Facebook.   (I modeled for her in a school's fashion show)  Good times!    {smile}

Some photo editing on the right...

PS Again: It is now several hours later and I have changed the whole background set-up again! A much lighter and colorful version this time. All the stripes on the right are a little bit crazy, but this will have to do for now...

Final PS: And again several hours later and now I don't like the design at all! Sometimes this creative mind drives me batty...

Winter After All?

Wow, just look at this:

Thunder & Lightning and an enormous amount of hail all of sudden on this Saturday afternoon. Maybe we'll get some winter after all?

What a difference a day makes...

Poor Olive, she was absolutely terrified of all that thunder. Look at where I found her: in Miss M.'s room hiding between all the stuffed toys!

The Gift Of Sunshine!

Yesterday was a most extraordinary day: the sun shone the whole day and it was warm!

First I ran 4 miles (!), then I went to Little Bit where I had to remove several layers of clothing because of the warm temperatures and then I spent over an hour at a local park (with petting zoo!) to enjoy my lunch from PCC (an organic grocery store with scrumptious and super healthy foods) in the sunshine... Heaven!

Everybody I saw was smiling and everything felt so light. Just what we needed to start the winter break. Have a good one everybody!

Underneath...

As Olive was playing with her birthday present, I noticed what a fun angle it was here 'underneath the coffee table'...   <wink>

The sun is shining! (wahoo!) First I'm going out for a run and then off I go to Little Bit for some more outdoor-sy-ness. And then..... the vacation will have started!  {smile}

Have a great weekend everyone!

'V' is for Lurvvvvvvv...

The Weekend That Was...

We are quite the boring family, I must admit. By the time the weekend comes around we're just happy to be home, most of the time. But this weekend was very different...

It started out with the fabulous Soundgarden concert on Friday night. Master C. and his friend followed along while Miss M. and her Varsity Basketball Team apparently played the game of their life!  She then spent two nights at a friend's house while master C. spent the next day on the ski slopes, leaving us (the parents) once again with a Saturday to ourselves. 

Some of those hours we spent at IKEA. We were looking to buy some 'Semlor' (a Swedish pastry that you can only buy this time of year) but 'ack and alas', no semlor were to be found. I did find a nice tiny 'Princess Torte' (a little creamy cake with pink marzipan over the top) so that did the trick. Somehow we spent $80 at IKEA on I don't know what.... (oh yes, several teal colored items such as candles, a yard waste bin for on the counter and a semi-circle doormat) It is so nice to finally live fairly close to an IKEA store so that we can just go when we feel like it and don't have to drive four hours to get there!

Anyway, I was so exhausted still from the concert the night before that I spent the rest of the afternoon in bed , slumbering and watching more episodes of James Herriot: pure relaxation!  {smile}

But, the weekend wasn't over yet. yesterday we had tickets to go see another show of the most fabulous Cirque du Soleil: "Amaluna!" So worth the money, I can't tell you enough. 

All pictures found on the web since no photography was allowed inside the tent...

So, all in all a weekend to cherish! 

Now we have this week to get through and then we'll have a week off for our Winter Break. Not too many plans as of now and that is just fine with me. Hope you guys had  a great weekend as well? I see that Holland has received snow again! We still haven't received any and it doesn't look like it will come in the near future either. Looking forward to seeing more signs of spring soon...

Cheerio!

PS: Oh, and there was some creativity also, don't you worry. Several pillow cases were made out of the softest flannel ever... (for in the TV room)

I added some ribbons to the front and the back has a simple envelope opening.
Easy Peasy!

Soundgarden...

... was absolutely incredible!

And also incredibly loud, my ears are still ringing and that is after I used the ear plugs!  Master C. came along and he brought a friend. We received special stickers for the after party as well so that was great fun. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long since our parking garage closed at midnight but we still got to meet Kim and some other famous people from the scene.

For those of you who don't know about our connection with the band: Mister G. and Kim (the guitarist)  both got a mayor  in Philosophy from UW in the mid 80's and have been friends ever since. We've seen the band in all the cities we lived in while they were touring in Europe and now that we're back in Seattle we have them here at home!

Anyway, here some (grainy) impressions of the concert. I managed to get a seat in the back since I didn't want to stand in the pit for three hours straight...

Click! to enlarge the picture...

PS: You can find way better pictures of the band both on Chris Cornell's Facebook page and on the page for Soundgarden itself...

In Concert...

Tonight you will find us here and we're on the guest list once again!  Now where did I stash the ear plugs??? <wink>

Textures...

These pretty textures (above) were all found in the yard except for the next one: detail of our coffee table from Sri Lanka...

Sometimes it is good to notice the finer details in life...

Birthday!

Today our Chocolate Labrador Olive celebrates her 12th birthday: Hieperdepiep Hoera!!!!  {biggest smile}

We are so happy to still have her with us, grey hairs, lumps & bumps and all!

This is what she looked like when she was a 'young one'...

In our eyes she will always look this way!  <wink>

Georgetown...

With both kids away for the day, this is where Mr. G. and myself spent the day last Saturday. A cold, but fun, adventure...

5805 Airport Way South Seattle WA

Here is a short excerpt I found on line about the neighborhood. 

Georgetown and SoDo are two distinct neighborhoods just south of Seattle that are being transformed from industrial areas into thriving, trendy enclaves.

Georgetown is about five miles from the heart of the city and is considered Seattle’s oldest residential neighborhood. In fact, Georgetown was its own city in the early part of the 20th century, before it was consolidated with Seattle in 1910.

Since the 1990s, Georgetown has developed into a more residential neighborhood with its own unique identity — one that’s been referred to as “industrial bohemian chic.” Gritty commercial buildings and rail yards have slowly turned into apartments, bars with live music, coffeehouses, art and restaurants serving a diverse, hipster-leaning set that can be seen whizzing around on scooters.

Click on this link to read more if you are interested. We had a great time exploring the 'Machine House Brewery'  beer tasting venue inside the old brick brewery building and all the other small shops in the area. Definitely worth another visit... (when it is a little bit warmer!)

Friday At Last...