Saturday, November 2, 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween




We don't really celebrate it here in the Netherlands, but I love eating pumpkin, and my man loves carving :)
 I hope your Halloween is amazing, if you do celebrate!





To the bunny show!

 Always ready to corrupt others with my love for bunnies, I took my friend One Badass Mother to the bunny show last weekend :) Technically it was a small animal show, they had pidgeons and geese and turkeys as well, but cute as they are, I was there for the bunnies. My friend didn't think she liked rabbits, because of a bad experience when she was a child. She never really understood my love for these little critters, and that was something that had to be changed. We had a good time, and were even thought to be "the press", with our superduper professional looking camera bags ;) Small town living.

Unfortunately they had no angora's, but the other bunnies were all adorable, and I loved how all the breeds had different personalities. The little dotted Mini Rex's were our favourite, very active little boys and girls, very curious and not at all nervous. And a lovely coat too. Maybe, one day..







Mission accomplished, she now wants ten rabbits!







Thursday, October 24, 2013

A windy autumn walk with Sofie





 
 Oh, hurry up!


I take a long walk alone with Sofie a few times a week, usually on these roads. It's beautiful there, I've shown pictures before I think. Right now, autumn time, it's the best. I love how everything looks different every day, new colours, less greens and more reds and yellow, it's gorgeous. And these berries, aren't they lovely? My mom always took some home from the park, but these were growing in a private garden, unfortunately.

 Sometimes I even get to see wild life, birds of course, and squirrels, sometimes even deer, though I have to get up early for those. Today I got very close to a pheasant, I guess he wasn't really paying attention as I could get within less than a meter before he realised Sofie and I were there. 




Monday, October 7, 2013

Finished Friday



It’s a pretty awesome idea if I wouldn’t have issues editing pictures and writing blog posts during work time or when some one is around. I need some me-time for blogging and I’m not having a lot of those me-time moments currently. It’s okay though, work is busy and the company is good :) 

Here’s my finished project of the week. My lovely little African Flower pony. Isn’t he adorable?




He was meant as a team pony for my Roller Derby league, to be auctioned out, but I didn’t think the colours were quite right once I finished him. We raised a lot of money without him though, and I got to keep him with me a little longer. But it’s time for new adventures for this little pony, and he is looking for a new home, you can find him in my Etsy store.

 Like my previous African Flower project, this pony too is a design by Heidi Bears, she is also on Etsy if you're not a Ravelry member (is that even possible?). If you like animals and you like crochet, you should definitely check out her patterns. Don’t worry if you’re new to crochet, Heidi writes out her patterns so well and has so many pictures, every one can follow them. And if there is something you can’t figure out, she has a group on Ravelry crowded with helpful people and I’m sure she’s more than willing to answer questions by mail.

Really. Go look. 

Kitty O' Lantern


It's pumkin time

 I think it's quite clear now that I love autumn. And this is an other reason: Pumpkins!




So very delicious to eat and oh so pretty as decoration. I'd place them all over my house if my partner wouldn't stop me.. There's a little farm store close to where we live that sells all sorts of thingss throughout the year. Always the lovliest freshest fruits and vegetables, honey, marmelade, sometimes soap or other goodies they get from locals. They have a "pick your own flowers" garden and sell the prettiest sunflowers I've ever seen. Fresh out of the field, so they stay pretty for a long time at home.

I always love visiting them, they are the nicest people too.







This day we got pumpkins. Two smaller ones, that I haven't used yet, and one big one that gave me over 4kg of pumkin flesh. I made a whole lot of soup and even though I'm usually not really a big fan of soup, pumpkin soup is the best. We ate it with my dearest GG's freshly baked bread and some soft goats cheese.

Omnomnomnom!







 GG carved up the rest of the pumpkin into a super awesome cute little kitty Jack O' Lantern. Isn't it adorable? It is!
And when I start cooking, I can't stop. These apples came from the same farm we got the pumpkins from, I made a lovely apple sauce out of it, with extra cinnamon. Used honey as sweetener, as I'm trying to cut all refined sugar out of my diet, trying to live a more healthy life. I think it tastes even better than sugar.  

Use about 100 - 150 grams of honey for 1kg apples.



 Some almost-healthy banana muffins to finish my kitchen time. Ran out of ingredients to make more stuff ;)  
The recipe is from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson.

Now to think of all the lovely things I can do with my other pumpkins. And the new pumpkins I'm totally going to buy over the next few weeks. It's only pumpkin time once a year, after all. Eat ALL the pumpkins!

What's you're favourite pumpkin recipe?