Dinner tonight: broccoli soup

This is a recipe for a great soup, non fat! After eating this, you're completely satisfied!





Ingredients Broccoli soup

2 pieces of broccoli
1 onion
450 ml beef- or vegetable stock
450 ml milk
salt and pepper

Cook the broccoli, onion and stock for 15 minutes. Then add milk, salt and pepper and put everything in the blender.

Bon appetit!

I'm back again!

After such a long absence I am glad to tell you that I'm am back! From now on, I will post regurlary, post pictures that I have made or that are from the internet that inspires me.



The last couple of months I have been working at my new job, being on a diet, going to the gym and losing almost 25 pounds! S. has also asked me to marry him! we're getting married in May 2012 and I already found the dress! We have had a few pre-wedding dinners and ate a lot of cake so it is time for the diet to start again. I have a few great recipes for yu that will share very soon!

It's great to be back and talk to you soon!

Favorite blog

For a few years I am reading several blogs made by interesting womem. It would be a great idea, I think, to show you some of my favorite blogs, starting with Yvestown.

For a number of years, I have a subscription on a Dutch interior magazine called Ariadne at Home. This magazine is for people, mostly women, who like the 'brocante' look in a home, so a French/ English kind of feel and sometimes a little bit of comtemporary snugged in there. A few years ago Ariadne at Home featured the home of Yvonne Eijkenduijn, a Dutch woman who lived in the south part of the Netherlands. She has a website called Yvestown. I was so inspired by her home and interior that I started following her blog. Now a few years later, she has moved from the Netherlands to Belgium and we as readers get the change to follow her as she is renovating and decorating her home. I think it's wonderful. She uses colors that make me jealous just because S. would never go for it!

Here are some inspiring photo's:





As you can see, I am a big fan of her kitchen, it looks so lovely! And don't you justy love the quality of her photo's? I am not going to deny it, I am her huge fan of her and her website!

I think it is fun to show other people's work and I think I should do a blog feature every month. I already know which blog it is going to be but is will remain a secret till then ;-)

Have a great day everyone!

Oxford & High Wycombe

We just returned from a short holiday in the UK. We flew to London Luton and then took the bus to Oxford where we stayed for one night. We stayed at a bed and breakfast which was ok but not great. The sun was shining and we walked all over town and took one of those awful touristic bus trips. The good thing is that you can see everything and get to know about the history of Oxford but still... You could better all wear hats that says: "I am a tourist" because I think it looks horrible. I would like to think that I could blend in with the rest of the people that live there, ha ha. Unfortunately I left my camera at the B&B so no pictures were taken, except the one of this nice house, which I took on the last day of our stay there.



The remaining days we stayed with family in High Wycombe which was great. We try to see each other once a year in The Hague and once a year in High Wycombe. We went to a great outlet shopping centre in Bicester, called Bicester Village . You can buy clothes from all kinds of brands, like G-Star, Diesel, Jimmy Choo, Uggs, etc. S. bought a pair of jeans from G-star and a great shirt from Diesel. I couldn't something unfortunately.

We also went to a park nearby High Wycombe, can't remember the name but took some great photo's!





There was also a playground nearby where I found back my inner child, ha ha!


So to sum it up, a great get away and I can't wait to go back there again! What about you, do you have any plans for a (short) holiday? I would love to hear from you!

Dreamhouse

After walking along the shore, I went back home and saw this house. It is just behind the dunes in a quiet area. I am told that these houses were build after the second world war for the people from Indonesia who arrived in the Netherlands. Then they were very cheap but know these houses are worth a lot of money!



I would love to live in a house like that although they are not that big. There was one for sale but I don't know what the asking price is. There is another house for sale in that area but not as beautiful as this one and it had an asking price of EUR 850.000,00!

Well, there's nothing wrong with dreaming, is there. Meanwhile I am just as happy in our home!

Have a great weekend!

Autumn at the beach

What's so great about living in the Netherlands is that you get to experience every season. I personally love autumn because the trees and the leaves get a beautiful colour, it is getting dark earlier and you want to crawl under a blanket and watch a movie.

Today I went out to walk around and went to the beach. Walking distance, the beach is about 20 minutes from our house. It was a beautiful day and the sun really tried to shine but there were a lot of clouds trying to prevent it!







In the first picture you can see a sign of a lion. That's is a lion designed by Dick Bruna who is the creator of Miffy. These signs are along the shore so that on busy beachdays, the parents choose a spot nearby a cartoonsign so that the children don't get lost because they can recongize the sign. Cleverly done, right?

Now I am ready for a cup of tea, to crawl under a blanket and watch a movie. For today I have chosen Remember Me.

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!

Magazines!

I love magazines! Maybe I haven't mentioned it much before on my blog, but it is true... I have a subscription on two dutch interior magazines, Ariadne at Home and VT wonen and then I buy the British interior magazine Living Etc every month. Sometimes I also buy 101 woonideeen but not that much. And ususally they arrive in the same week so that on the weekends I can flip through then and read the articles en look at the nice pictures!



This time, the VT wonen magazine was a week late and, no joke, I panicked! Fortunately it arrived today and I couldn't be more happy. So it is an easy day with a cup of tea, a bit of chocolate, the new album by Phil Collins (another love but let's talk about that another time...) and my magazines. Ah what a bliss...

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...

Hi Everybody,

S. and I just got back from holiday. We went to Alicante, Spain for a week and did nothing more that relaxing in the sun and eating great food!

So now we have to get back to life as usual and I made a promise to myself... I promised to blog regurlary, at least once a week. It is better for me to have a goal, even in doing something I like doing. Maybe you can relate: a fulltime job, lot's of friends and family and the weekly shows you need to watch on tv, ha ha. I am not joking, from next week, the show Glee will be on the Dutch tv and I can't wait. I have read good reviews about it. I will let you know what I thought of it.

Well, enjoy the weekend and expect more about me and on this blog. And thanks for understanding the absence every once and a while...