What is going on???

I think someone is trying to tear down our building. With a single hammer or chisel, and a drill.

I was woken up at the ungodly hour of 8:55 this morning (aah, such is the life of an unemployed woman) by a pounding sound. At first I thought it was the wench woman who lives above us, whose sole purpose in life is to annoy me. Upon further inspection, I realized it wasn’t her but someone else apparently doing some remodeling. With a hammer and chisel (I could hear the clinking when I was near the open kitchen window, but not when I was in the bedroom), and then a drill!  Drilling. In cement block walls.

Oh joy of joys.

My life is now complete.

In other news, the Frangiflutti with the birthday yarn is done! Wheeee!!!

kinda blurry scarf

For those of you who might want it, the pattern is on Ravelry (Frangiflutti), and for those of you who might want to know the yarn it’s Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Magico II, color number 3503.


xxx


edited to add: Found out later that the neighbor 3 doors down is getting some work done in his apartment. Don't know what he's having done though. Drilling through to the next apartment, perhaps? I'm guessing replacing tiles in the bathroom or kitchen, but don't quote me on that.

The potato salad was a success.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend! It was Memorial Day weekend in the USA, and here it was Pinksteren (Pentecost), so Monday was a day off. Yippee! I can’t remember that happening before. Both holidays on the same weekend. We took advantage of it and had a little cookout at Ludi’s parents. We brought the hamburgers and potato salad, and they supplied the grill.

The grill with the yummy burgers

Another thing I can’t remember is if I've made potato salad since living here. It seems like I have, but it must have been a long time ago. At any rate, I made the salad this weekend. According to all sources, it was good. I made it a little differently this time. I was lazy and didn’t want to chop up a whole bunch of different vegetables to put in (onion, bell pepper, carrots, etc) so I got some pre-cut soup vegetables and used those. There were some things in the bag of veggies that I wouldn’t normally have used, but other things that we always have. I think I liked it! I KNOW I liked how easy it was. Opening a bag and dumping instead of chopping. What’s not to love about that?

The salad and the rest of the spread

The weather was great for the Memorial Day/Pinksteren Cookout. Maybe a little warm and sunny, but it was breezy so that made up for it. And no rain. There’s nothing that can ruin a cookout faster than rain. We even walked to their house, so Ludi could enjoy some of his favorite beer, Palm. (No drinking and driving here, folks!)

All in all, it was a good holiday weekend. How was yours?


xxx

Summer is almost here!

The weather has definitely been summery here this week. It was in the low 80s yesterday (that’s high 20s for my Celsius friends), and will be again today I think. I had the windows open yesterday and had that first whiff of summer. You know the one. The warm fresh air smell? Not freshly mowed grass, or flowers, just sun-warmed fresh air. It was lovely. It made me think that summer might not be so bad after all.

Then I had to cook dinner. And the kitchen go overly hot. And I re-thought my previous notion about summer being not so bad.

Anyways, summer is coming, whether I like it or not. Maybe I’ll try to enjoy it this year.

In other news, my friend took me shopping for my birthday (Hi Friend! You know who you are!!!) and gifted me yarn! YAY!!! Yippee!!! I loves me some yarn!

I got this to probably make some socks.

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tweed ( color #141)

I haven’t found a pattern yet. I have a lot of other projects on my plate right at the moment (which is also fantabulous. Loving the knitty busy. Busy knitty. Ha, there’s a fun new word. Busiknitty.). I’m sure I’ll find something!

She also got me the yarn to make a single-skein scarf.

Lana Grossa Magico II Meilenweit (color #3503)

I’m making Frangiflutti (pattern on Ravelry). The owner of the yarn shop had made one up in this same yarn, and it was really neat. I love how the rows lengthen on one side, and I liked the ribble effect. Fun scarf!

In still more news...my mom and three of her friends came to visit at the beginning of the month. Wow, what a fun week that was! I’ll try and make a separate post about that. In the near future. I hope.

You know how these things go.


xxx

Another year gone by

Yep. Another one.

Sometimes I feel like I'm sleeping through it. Like I must have missed something, how else can the years be flying by so quickly?

Guess that's a sign of old age, huh? *gulp*

Happy Birthday to us! Pam and me, that is.

We're not older, we're wiser.

Yeah, that's it. Wiser.


I made some cookies to celebrate the day.

snickerdoodles

Come on over and enjoy a few with some coffee or tea! Please. So I don't eat them all! (oh my, they're so good.)

Trees are budding, flowers are blooming - there's color all over the place!

Kwanzan Cherry blossoms

 

The photo is a few years old, but they're still just as gorgeous this year. I love that they're in bloom on my birthday.

don't you love the hot pink centers?

Are those apple blossoms (above)? I have no idea. I saw the trees a few weeks ago while walking around the neighborhood, and I just had to have a picture.

my favorite flowers

And of course, what Spring/Easter season would be complete without tulips? These were such a dark ruby red. LOVEd them.

I hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying your spring as much as we are here.


xxx

a spring shawl

It's done!

The one I started a few weeks ago. This one?

the beginnings

Now it's done! My fancy schmancy lacy shawl is done! Wanna see it?

oooh....aaaaaahhhh....

Isn't it pretty all pinned, and stretched tight so that the points actually come to a point? Wanna see those closer?

purrrdy, ain't she?

Here's the pattern link again, if you're interested (it's the Ashton Shawlette on Ravelry). I made it a little larger than the pattern called for (it gives instructions how to do that). It ended up being almost 200cm x 100cm. Sounds huge, doesn't it? I could have blocked it even larger, I think, but I didn't push it.

I like how it turned out. I wish I were more of a shawl wearing kind of gal, but I'm going to try to wear it at some point anyways. I put too much work into it not to. It didn't hold the points when I unpinned it though. It's 90% acrylic yarn, and acrylic yarn doesn't block very well. I would have had to add starch to it or something. That would have taken away the lovely squishy softness though. So I'll live with it not being all pointy at the bottom.

It really is a shame that I'm not much of a shawl wearing kind of gal. Cuz I'd really like to make another one. A different pattern, but more shawls.

Are any of you shawl wearing kind of gals?

Would you like a shawl?

Can I knit you one?


please?


I so love knitting.

xxx

Five Years Ago

What were you doing five years ago?

Five years ago I moved to The Netherlands. Five years! It’s hard to believe that it’s been 5 years already. It feels like a lot less. It’s been a little bit of a bumpy ride so far, but it’s getting better. I expected the bumps though. I knew that it was going to be quite a transition and guessed it would take five years to get into my Dutch groove. I called it a Five Year Plan. I thought surely in that time I could learn the language, get a decent job and make a good life here. Last year (or maybe even sooner?) somewhere along the line I revised that Five Year Plan into a 10 Year Plan. I made some great headway into The Plan in the first five years, but still need a couple more to make it to the finish line.

While living in another country has presented more challenges than I expected, it’s also allowed me to do things that I would probably never had the chance to do if I still lived in the States. If I hadn’t moved here, I might not have

-become semi-bilingual! I took French in school for 5 years, but studying a language in a classroom is a whole different ballgame from learning it while living there.

-seen upclose the horrors of the haulocaust. Visiting the site of a concentration camp in Germany was very eye opening.

-traveled to Prague, Czech Republic. Very special! Not only because of it being near to where Dad’s family is from, but because it’s such an awesome old city. If you ever get the chance to go there, I’d take it!

-taken up knitting. If I hadn’t moved here and had so much free time on my hands, I might not have started crocheting. If I hadn’t started crocheting, would I have learned to knit? That would be a shame, since I love knitting.

-learned that I love brussels sprouts. It’s all been worth it to find the love of my vegetable life.

-started a blog! I am pretty sure that if I didn’t live thousands of miles from family and friends and want to come up with a way to show them a slice of my Dutch life, I would never have started this blog.

As difficult as the transition might have felt sometimes, it’s still brought about many good things (many more than I’ve written here, I’m sure). I wonder what the next five years will bring?


xxx

Street Market

This past Sunday there was a street market in our neighborhood. They do it every year at the end of March. This was the first time I've been to it. I didn't really know what to expect, but I figured it would be a few booths selling things. I don't know what kinds of things I was thinking they'd be selling. I guess I didn't think about it.

I didn't expect it to be like the market that we have down town every Wednesday and Friday. Smaller, but with the same kind of booths. Food (warm stroopwafels...mmmm, those smelled so heavenly), plants, fruits, clothes, shoes, cleaning supplies, pet stuff. Everything under the sun! And it was crowded too.

booths all the way to the end of the building in the back

You can't really tell how crowded it was from this photo. I have another one that shows more people, but they are a little too easy to recognize, so I'm not going to post it. (I should have waited until everyone had their backs turned.)

The market took up the whole block, a main street through the neighborhood. It was fun to shop in the middle of the street! I kept thinking "Hey look! I'm right in the middle of the street! Cars drive RIGHT. HERE. " I'm a dork. What can I say.

The shops were open too. I took advantage of that by going into the local yarn shop and bought some cotton thread/yarn for my next project. I had a little conversation with the owner, and she paid me a compliment, saying that I speak very good Dutch (for being here for just 5 years).

I'm definitely going back there again.


Flattery will get you repeat customers.


xxx