bodner010

Both girls had a friend over for a sleep over (sisters too!). They had a lot of fun together, and though I know that at this age they can play together really well without 'help' of a grown up, I did foresee a couple of activities to do together. One of them was baking. M. had a pizza atelier a little while ago with her friends for her birthday and there they made ' viennoises au chocolate ' with left over dough. A great idea, if you ask me. This reminded me of a recipe I read somewhere (I can't remember where, unfortunately) for cinnamon bread sticks made from pizza dough. Instead of bread sticks, we decided to make cinnamon rolls and to give the chocolate viennoise a try as well. We had no idea how both of these would turn out but it was worth a try, we figured. We split up in two teams and made two delicious snacks in no time! Keep on reading if you want to give this a try. As you'll notice it's all very intuitive - you can't go wrong really. For the...

... is the last day of school here. The last weeks just flew by and so many things happened (and other things did not happen...) M.'s surgery went well last week - her hearing improved dramatically, which made her really happy and us too. All the 'spectacles', recitals, presentations, ... are behind us and so are most of the birthday parties. As of Wednesday we can pick up a slower pace - at least for a while. And this will be much appreciated by us all... The bracelets in the pictures are some of the teacher appreciation gifts we made tonight - the girls picked the beads with care at our favorite beading shop (right before closing time - I'm such a good planner) and I tied the knots. They're easy to make - all you need to know is how to tie a sliding knot. The pictures of the finished bracelets aren't great - I've been having some white balance and exposure issues lately (probably one of the settings on my camera got messed up) but haven't had the time ...

When I asked M. what she'd liked to do for the afternoon yesterday while little sis was gone to a birthday party, she said "I want you to teach me how to use the camera". She was referring to my old camera, my Nikon D40, the first DSLR I ever bought. I use a D90 now, but held on to the the much lighter D40 for special purposes and to teach my kids one day. Well it seems like that day has come. M. new exactly what she wanted to do - walk around the neighborhood and take pictures. So, off we went, both equipped with a camera. The afternoon flew by. It was fun and interesting at the same time, in the sense that even though you walk on the same street, you see different things or the same things differently. I really liked our little photographic experiment and I hope there will be more to follow. As for now, I'm really proud to show you a couple of the shots my eleven year old made. She's got talent and a good eye, if you ask me... Wishing you a happy Monday, P.

We had a pasta salad the other night - nothing fancy but it makes a fast and easy dinner and everyone likes it here. I boiled a couple of eggs for the occasion and had one left. I put it in the fridge and as I did I remembered something I read a long time ago, in my jewelry making days: you can oxidize sterling silver using a hard-boiled egg. I love silver with an antiqued look, however, scared of all the chemicals used to get the result, I never came around doing it myself. And eggs were a big no as little H. still suffered from a severe egg allergy back then. But not anymore! So off I went to find some jewelry that could use a little boost. Turns out the technique works like a charm! It's easy, fast, cheap and more importantly absolutely safe (unless you're allergic to eggs that is). Here's how I did it goes: 1. Take a hard boiled egg and put it in a Ziploc bag. Close the bag. 2. Smash it (this is fun! - no need to peel the egg). 3. Open the bag and add your jewelry (ye...

Only two more weeks left and the school year's over. And so many things remain to be done. Our summer vacation is taking shape as we finally sat down to make plans -  the plans look great, and I'm so much looking forward to our summer break. But right now we're running around like crazy to birthday parties, end-of-year parties, and spectacles . Somewhere in between big girl M. will have surgery which will finally take care of the resisting ear infection and accompanying hearing loss she has suffered from these last couple of months. The picture above is from two weekends ago when M. had her friend over for a sleep-over. The sleep-over was lots of fun but unfortunately eventful too - as they were playing M. fell and chipped both her front teeth - oh, horror! - it's been taken care off now - on her birthday, of all days - more doctor visits, more running around... Anyway, it was the last time I had the sewing machine out. Looking for a 'quiet' activity we made a...

I most definitely did not need another purse. As a matter of fact, this week while carrying around a way too heavy purse I made the remark I would so much like to be "free" - I want to live a purse-free life. Why is it that men can leave the house with just a wallet and a set of keys and we carry around entire survival kits? Do I really need all this stuff? Let's face it: right now, I have in my purse - a wallet - another purse with change - keys - car keys - sunglasses - small pencilcase - handsanitizer - paper tissues - several packs of chewing gum - paper wrappers - loose change - organizer (although small, really heavy!) - MOO cards (that's right! I didn't mention them yet but I ordered some MOO Mini Cards a little while ago - so cute!) - pass Navigo (Metro travel pass) - cell phone - which I usually can't find when it rings, because obstructed by all of the above - a small umbrella - card holder for store fidelity cards, membership cards ... - a notebook...

Today!   Really!?  When did that happen?  Overnight, it feels like... She's growing up fast, our sweet baby M. ... Wishing you a splendid birthday, my dearest big girl M. ...    xo, Mommy

Not too long ago, I was contacted by Stephanie at N.E.E.T. magazine. If I would be interested in doing a tutorial for the June issue - preferably a recycling project, something for summer. Did I need to think about that? No, of course not! So, here it is, the latest issue of N.E.E.T. magazine - with my recycled plastic bag pompom flip-flops among tons of other great stuff. Really, I feel so proud to have my project featured in a stunning and inspiring online magazine like N.E.E.T.! N.E.E.T. has great photography, styling, DIY projects, ... Go check it out! And make sure to go take a look at page 148 through 151 for some really cool DIY flip-flops! There's even a downloadable PDF... Not to be missed!