Le Creuset and all mine

Yesterday I finally bought a Le Creuset pan. After years of looking at it, it was time... And it's so beautiful!

I'll probably won't make any fancy recipes with it but, hey, it's great for making pasta sauce, checken curry and home made meatballs. I couldn't be happier!

View from my balcony

Just before the rain will start to fall, let me show you the view from my balcony.

Because this area is build in the 1930's, you'll see a lot of green around here, even in the fall.

Sunday morning @ home

Sunday morning, rain is falling and we're having breakfast & reading magazines.

Reminds me of the Maroon 5 song I love...

Saturday afternoon

This saturday features a lot of doing nothing. During the week I'm too busy to enjoy my house. So more reason to enjoy  it today...

Early breakfast

Time for a early breakfast during a work week... 

A few more minutes and then I have to go...

Mealprepping

Busy on a Sunday with mealprepping, making several meals ( Hachee, Dutch stew) for the coming week.

Home Sweet Home

There's no place like home...

I love me some oatmeal

Most of you know by now that I love oatmeal! A while ago I read the blog of Kath Eats Real Food and she wrote a piece about her tribute to oatmeal. Kath talks to great about oatmeal that I tried it as breakfast and it got me hooked on the stuff! I was looking for a breakfast that would fill me and would get me through a few hours without craving something bad. and oatmeal does that for me.
So in no time I assembled an oatmeal shelve and this is hoe it looks like!


I also bought a sign from Wood & Wood Stool which says Havermaud. This is a little joke and difficult to explain in english. The easiest way to explain is that the Dutch word for oatmeal is Havermout. And because my name is Maud, and II used to get teased (and people still do!) because my name sounds just like the word Havermout. So now I just created the word Havermaud to express my love for oatmeal and get a laugh out of it all! Ok, it mays sound a bit silly but my friends and family laughed when they saw the sign and immediatly understood the reason why! I have also created another blog Havermaud where I write in Dutch about my love for healthy food and try to give suggestions how to life healthy.

I have to say that this shelve & sign has brought a personal touch in our kitchen and made it more us. I bought another sign at Wood & Wool stool but that one will be revealed after the wedding!

Busy times but now I'm home

How was your week? Did you have some time off and enjoyed every minute of it or have you been working? I have been busy working and it has been a busy week, both professionally and private. In two weeks time, I'll be married and off on our honeymoon but before that happens, We/ I have a lot to do! There's no time sitting still for this girl, ha ha!

S. bought a new, smaller, camera to bring with us on holiday. He bought a Samsung camera and this one is smaller than the one we have. This camera fits easily in your pocket so it's perfect for when we're in New York. I played with it and made a photo of our front- and back room. The quality is very good, don't you think?

Tonight I have no further plans than to sit on the sofa and read blogs and going to bed early. We have an early appointment tomorrow with a woman who will marry us to talk about the ceremony. i'm looking forward to it. Two more weeks and then I'll be mrs. S.!! Love it!

Have a great evening everybody!

Weekend baking

To start the weekend well, I baked the whole evening yesterday! This is a way for me to relax and let the world fall off my shoulders. Now I especially love to bake different kind of cookies and cakes but because I'm living a healthy lifestyle, so that doesn't really go anymore.

The whole week I was thinking of what to make and looked all over the internet. S. and I went to Marqt and saw a slice of currant bread and realised that I could also make this! Currant bread is a typically Dutch recipe; it's bread with raisins in them. Normally you use white flour but I used whole what one, it's a bit heavier but that just means that it takes longer for the bread to finish.

I tries it yesterday for the first time and this is the result!

The ingredients are:

500 gram of whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
a half teaspoon of salt
a cup of milk (I used almond milk)
500 grams of raisins
1 bag of yeast
a tablespoon of cinnamon
3 tablespoons of olive oil
about a cup of water

You heat the oven to 50 degrees Celsius. You put the raisins in a bowl with warm water, not hot! you stir the flour, yeast, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. In the middle you make a little hole and sprankle the salt along the side of the hole. You put the milk and the olive oil in it and stir until it becomes dry. Add bit by bit the water until the dough because sticky. You add the raisins and stir again. Put everything in a cake form and let it rise in the over for 60 minutes. After that bake it for 45 minutes on 2000 degrees Celsius. (http://www.mijnreceptenboek.nl/recept/broodgerechten/krentenbrood-2348.html

This morning I had two slices, one with plain butter and the other one with butter and light strawberry jam, delicious!

Ofcourse served with a cup of Rooisbos tea!

Last night, I also made a batch of oatmeal cookies. I also used whole wheat flour in this recipe. The cookies were nice but i like them more doughier and these are a bit hard. I've tried several recipes but can't seem to have found the perfect one. Oh well, just keep on trying! I also have a great banana cake recipe that I dying to try but let's do that next week before I'm groing back to my old size!

Speaking of which, I'm hitting the gym this afternoon but first study and try to do as much as possible.

Enjoy your morning!

Another colour on the wall

During our holiday in the beginning of October, I painted an old church bench and the back wall. I posted about it and said that I wasn't completely happy with the result of the wall.


Iris gave me some great advise that I partially listened to and painted the wall again but now in a dark blue. It's better but hasn't got the 'Wow factor'. If it was up to me, I would love to paint it in a bright pink/ fuchsia colour but S. would go mad, ha ha!

So what to do... Are there any colours between blue and pink which will be a perfect compromise? Please help me because I don't know...

Old chair make over!

A while ago, I bought this great piece of fabric with cupcakes on it. It posted something about the fabric earlier. There was still some fabric left and decided to do something with it and upholster a chair or something. Now the coincidence was that we sold all of our dining rooms chairs because we bought the church bench. I used one of the dining room chairs in my study so now I really did need a new chair!

So I started to look on the internet and try to find the perfect chair to upholster. But unfortunately, for me there's no such thing as the perfect chair but I did find something that was good for me to practise on.


So I bought an old chair for EUR 1,50, bought paint that was inspired by Yvonne on the Yvestown blog and used the cupcake fabric. The end result is this:


Now, I love it offcourse and it stands proudly in my study! S. said that it will never go in our diningroom and that's just fine. This it a chair, specially for me. Although it would look great in a children's room too. But for now, I'm going to keep it for myself and enjoy it every time that I'm there, studying!


It's really a shame that S. doesn't like pink, otherwise there would be so much more in my favourite colour! Oh well...

The joy of a gift

So sorry you guys for not posting something on my blog. It has been a hectic week because a dear family member is in hospital and I'm trying to be at her side every free minute I have. So it is going to be a bit more quiet overhere but I'll try to make as much time to write something nice because life isn't only about the bad stuff...

So here's something nice! About two weeks ago I won the fantastic give away from Iris on the Enigheid blog .


Now I never win anything but now I did! Iris made a fantastic pillow herself and I'm just in love with it! I also love the wallpaper where she wrapped the pillow in!


There was a very nice card from her as well which I saved and is standing on my fire place mantle.




Thank you very much Iris! it is nice to know that there are also good things in life!

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Church bench & photo's and colour...

About two weeks ago, I bought an old church bench through Marktplaats, which you can compare to Ebay but it's only used in the Netherlands.

We bought it from people that got it from an old cathedral but decided that they couldn't use it in their home. And because S. and I were looking for a bench for the dining table, this was perfect. Friday, I started to sand and paint it. S. and I agreed over the colour that the bench was going to be and I went to the hardware store to buy paint. At the last minute I decided that is had to be another colour and choose a soft grey colour. And this is the result!

The before...


And the after!


The cusions are essential if you want to sit there because the bench itself isn't very comfortable. These are random cushions that we have at home but I want to buy or make ones that will fit the sitting area.



And while I was painting the bench, we talked about doing something with the back wall and the photos because it looked a bit empty and dull. At the moment, I am going through a purple and grey phase and bought purple paint, so it was supposed to be...

But when I painted the wall, it wasn't the colour that I had in mind. I did continue with the paintwork and S. hang the photos up and we will leave it for about a week. If we still don't like the colour, I repaint it with another colour.



The only problem is which colour? I like a bright fuchsia but S. wants a blue colour. So we need help in choosing a colour. And that's where we need you! Please help us by giving tips that we can do with the wall and the photos. You can do this by leaving a message on my blog! Please help us from making another bad colour decision!

Do I love Paris of New York?

Yesterday I watched the film Paris, je t'aime and a few days before that, New York I love you. Just sitting relax with a cup of tea, lighting the candles while the sun is slowly disappearing earlier everyday, fall is actually happening...


After seeing both films, I have to say that I prefer Paris je t'aime more. Maybe it has something to do with that I know the city better. A few years ago I worked as an intern in a hotel in Paris and got to know the city very well. My favourite spot is just outside of the Louvre museum and sitting there, watching a the people pass you by. New York I haven't seen yet but S. and I are planning a three week honeymoon to the east coast of the USA and we'll start in New York. We're so excited about it but more about that another time!

While I was watching the film, I saw the sun disappearing and made a few photo's of the front room, also looking into the backroom. It lookes to homy, a great start for the weekend!



What are your plans for this weekend? S. and I are going to shop a little, I need some yarn and a new dress and S. needs some clothes too. Tomorrow, I will be spending most of my time behind the pc and working to finalizing my school assignment.

I wish you all a nice weekend and talk to you soon!

bouquet of flowers

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner and it was a great evening. the food and the wine were wonderful! One of my friends surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I put it in the living room by the painting and it lookes very colourful.

The sun was shining today and I am afraid it might be one of the last days to enjoy the sun because once the autumn starts, it will be the end of blue skies and sun. So if you don't mind, I'm going outside to enjoy it while I still can!

Our home in VT wonen

You will not believe what happened to me! It was like a dream come true!!! In July I send some photo's of our home to the editors from the Dutch magazine VT wonen. VT wonen is the number one interior magazine in the Netherlands and I always wanted to be in that magazine.


They were looking for people that would like to send in photo's of their home and they would place it on the website. After hearing nothing for two months, they send a email last week to tell me that they would like to publish photo's of our home!!! Ofcourse I did and since last monday, I am proud to tell you that our home is on the VT wonen website!!! You can check it out here.
It is all written in the Dutch language so here is the translation:

Who lives there:
Maud (30) and Sybren (35)

Where
A 1930's double upperhouse in the fruit area of The Hague

Lifestyle
A mix of styles. But most of all inspiring.

Satisfied
Not yet but we are getting there. The bathroom, toilet and kitchen are done. Now what's left are the so called tedious jobs: new windows with double glazing, the ceilings on the first floor needs to be plastered, painting the staircase and tidiying the attic.

Future
We bought the house a year ago with the future in mind. After searching for a year and viewing over 30 houses, we are sure that this is a suitable house for us in which we will live for years to come.

Favorite shops
Loods 5, Ikea, Riviera Maison, Combitex, Hema and Sissy Boy Homeland.

I can't tell you how proud I am! I know it sounds strange but I always feld like I was on the wright way with decorating. But now a interior magazine want to publish photo's of our house on their website, it feels right. So my next ambition is to be in a actual magazine! Ohh if only that would happen, I would be in heaven...

The frozen fountain frame

Remembered I bought an frame at the Frozen Fountain, you can read the post here. Well, I finally found a great spot for it and not where I initially intended to hang it...



It now hangs with a other frame made of old wood I already had. Now they hang together next to the kithchen and it looks great, don't you think?

The new/old cabinet

Well, the cabinet is finished and I think it looks great! It's only painted with a primer to give it a plaster look. Maybe it doesn't show on the photo but when you look at it, you can defenitely see it!



We use it in the walk in room, not a closet, ha ha. We switched the bedroom and the room with the clothes a few weeks ago because we could hear our nextdoor neighbour at night and it is better not to know certain things about your neighbour, if you know what I mean... So now the room with the clothes is huge and it needed a cabinet. We use it for storage and toiletries.



The next project is an cabinet that used to belong to my grandmother and is supposed to stand in the hallway. I will let you know when the end result is ready!

De Bonte Kamer

Yesterday, I went to a store called de Bonte Kamer. This is a store that I found on the internet. They sell furniture from Eastern Europe for a reasonable price. I wasn't quite sure where it was because it said in the city centre of the Hague. So went I was there I was pleasantly surprised. It is located in a warehouse in a great neghbourhood in the city. The guy who works there helped me find the cabinet that I saw online. When I paid he helped me get it into the car and when I got home, I knew it was a great purchase.



It is suppose to go under the tv but I have to sell that first so now it is next to the tv. I actually think that it looks great now too!

Last week I also bought this cabinet online and picked it up last week. I want to paint it in a grey colour and put new knobs on it and then it's brand new again.



I'll show you the after when I'm finished. And check out the website of de Bonte Kamer, they also ship internationally!